Mr. Rockefeller & Abe Lincoln

My girls have never been "girly". Yes, Baylee has always loved gold, sparklythings, but she loved getting inthe dirt just as much. Caylee thinks any slimy creature is the most adorable thing ever. They both refer to "their special place" as the very far corner of my mom and dad's three acres in Oklahoma. They crawl under a barbwire fence to get to the tree lined creek. They splash in the water, find turtles, and run back to the house covered in dirt. That makes them happy. They feel safe there. (I'm totally going to have to give their special place it's own blog post!)

We don't have the luxury of three acres on the outskirts of town here in South Carolina, so the girls have to make due. There is a pond in our subdivision and in these parts of the country ponds mean alligators. That thrills their souls! Our backyard is also drastically smaller than what we had in Arkansas. This has led the girls to get creative in their outdoor adventures.

Enter Mr. Rockefeller & Abe Lincoln.

While playing outside a few weeks ago Caylee managed to capture two tiny lizards. I'm not sure how she did it, but she did it. She was ecstatic. From time to time Brandon's dad will catch a lizard for them and they ooh and ahh over it and let it go. From the moment Caylee caught Mr. Rockefeller she was in love.

Caylee immediately began begging to keep her new pets. I could see the pure joy in her face so I obliged. She got a plastic bin from some Halloween pretzels we purchased at Sam's and made it their home. She found some pine needles, leaves, tree bark, and grass and did the best she could to recreate a natural habitat. We even bought reptile food for the little things once they decided to stick around for awhile.

I always knew in the back of my mind the lizards stay at our house would end tragically. And it did. Caylee was good to keep them in the garage if it was going to be cold over night. (Yes, even in SC we have had 30 degree weather!) She said they needed to stay warm because if they were outside they could burrow in the dirt to find warmth. They could do that in their plastic cage.

And so, last Saturday morning Caylee went out to check on Mr. Rockefeller and Abe Lincoln. (I'm still not sure where she came up with those names. And it's funny because Abe was the tiny one and Mr. Rockefeller was a lot longer. Ha!) She took them outside and was going to reach in and grab Mr. Rockefeller when she discovered he was no longer alive. She was heartbroken. Tears started streaming down her face. She started blaming herself for not taking better care of them. It. Was. Sad. And then she looked for Abe Lincoln and he was gone too. I'm telling you, this girl has a heart for all animals. She was beside herself.

So what did we do? We gave them a proper burial and funeral, of course! Brandon started digging, I grabbed my camera, gave Baylee the video camera, and the four of us stood in our backyard and said goodbye to our reptile friends. I cried along with Caylee. It was sad. She would come home from school, scoop up Mr. Rockefeller and tell him all about her day. They were quickly becoming best friends. Sadly, Caylee had to say goodbye before she was ready.

We may have only had them for a short time, but the memories will last forever. Rest in peace Mr. Rockefeller and Abe Lincoln.

Let's try this again...

Hey there!

I have these grandiose ideas that I will be this magnificent blogger and become the next Pioneer Woman. You know, sit down one day and start a blog and the next thing I know I'm crazy famous, have my own show on Food Network, have a traveling book tour, yada yada yada... But let's face it. I don't have the best reputation when it comes to blogging. There were the xanga days, followed by my first dip into blogger, but for some reason I was always so hit and miss. Don't get me wrong, I always think "I should blog about this" but then I don't. In my head I think if I put it on Facebook and "document" it, that kind of counts as blogging. But it doesn't. It's totally not the same. I can't fully capture a moment in a status update or a picture upload from my iPhone like I can if I take the time to sit down and tell a story.

I love to read blogs. I read into the lives of people I know personally & grew up with. I follow people who I've never met, yet through blogging we are now even Facebook friends. And, like any good blogger does, I creep on strangers on a daily basis. I look at their food, their craftiness, their decorating... Sometimes I think we're friends. But we're not. And I have issues. But that's a completely different problem...

It's my goal with this blog to one day look back and see what our lives were like at the end of 2011. We just moved to the beautiful Charleston, SC a month ago, Brandon is in love with his job, I am fortunate to be a stay at home mom, and the girls are 10 years old -- still my little girls, but on the cusp of turning into young ladies.

Like it says in the book of James "How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog--it's here for a little while, then it's gone" (James 4:14 NLT). Not to be a Debbie Downer about death, but life is so short and time flies by. With each passing year it seems to be moving faster and faster. I can't go back, but I can take the time to slow down long enough to capture all of the fun and silly, serious and hard moments of our lives.

We're the Beaver's. And we have many tales to tell.