Guatemala - Part II

Wow!  No sooner did I post the first message about this adventure than things start to change already.

My passport arrived today!  Makes things a bit more real.  Just reminds me of all the different things I still need to do before leaving.

The trip will be here before I know it...Excuse me while I take a moment to panic a little bit.

Guatemala Part I

For those who don't know, I will be visiting Guatemala this summer.  It will only be for a week, but I am still in shock that it will be happening at all!  I am going with friends who are going to visit relatives.  While there I will get to meet my sponsored child.  So here's the first post about this new adventure!

The airfare was booked last month thanks to help from a travel agent friend.

After a comedy (I'll laugh someday) of errors, I received an email today that my passport has been processed and mailed, and is expected to arrive next Monday!

A week or two ago I heard from the agency that I was approved to meet my sponsored child.  Over the weekend I received an email from their Guatemala office with an update on the kiddo and asking what day(s) I would like to meet him and his family.  Oh my!  The whole family!  How exciting!

So sometime soon I need to talk with my friends about hotel arrangements.  I need to let the agency know what the schedule is so we can arrange time to meet people.  Soon I will have my very first passport.

It's hard to believe!  I would pinch myself, but I'm pretty sore from the yard work I did yesterday.

Dog Mom

Yes, I'm one of those - a "dog mom."  (Don't believe me?  Read the bumper of my car.)  I confess to missing my pup terribly this last time he was at the farm while I was travelling for work.  I think he missed me too.

Kisses!

No!  It's my mommy.  If anyone is going to trample her awake, it will be me!

Samson takes a selfie with his mom.

Enmity Part III

Then, the very next day there was a third snake!  That one was still twitching when I found it.

Caught by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin...if snakes had hairy chins.

That third snake put up a heck of a fight and I couldn't work up the nerve to put it out of my misery, so I later came out and found it has managed to free itself.  Yesterday I saw it in another part of the yard.  I don't care if it's supposedly "harmless."  That thing is not a small snake!

Zoom in along the wall to find his striped royal pain in the rear.  One of the largest garter snakes I've ever seen!

The cheeky little bugger...I swear he was sticking his tongue out at me for the purpose of taunting me and had nothing to do with tasting the air.

Cheeky little twitchy-tongued *bleep*

I need to call Orkin again.  This sneaky little cuss might require more than one normal glue trap.

Enmity Part II

So, the snake saga continues.  Only a day or two after catching the first snake, there was a second...

"I will put enmity between you and the woman..."

And the Orkin man will put a glue trap between you and the yard!

(It kind of blends into the background, but there's a snake stuck to that glue trap.  Now does the Genesis reference make sense?)

Just Because...

Please, Mom, may I have some more...pizza crust?

The Year of the Ants

This was creepy!  First the kitchen twice (first during Easter), and now the mailbox at random?!

Nothing like opening your mailbox and almost putting your hand in a bunch of ants!  I have never had so many issues with ants as I have this spring.  It is nuts!  So I tapped the box and "chased" the ants into the back so I could pick up my mail without getting the infestation all over my hands.

Luckily the Orkin man was coming tonight and I sicced him on the mailbox before he even set foot in the house.  He was as shocked as I was when I opened the mailbox and the inside was practically swarming with ants.  Who knows what they thought they needed to be doing in there, but he "baited the heck out of" the mailbox.  Supposedly within the next couple days there should be no ants in or near the mailbox.  We'll see.

Civic Duty

I am a nerd.  I admit it.  I have come to realize recently that I have become more interested in politics and that sort of thing than I ever was...ever.  Today, Lincoln was voting for a new mayor and a city council member (and a couple transit authority or something like that...I don't know about that one).  But, I found myself walking to the polling place after the Orkin man left.  Since when did I care enough about these things to walk about five blocks to vote on a day when no "major" office is up for grabs?  Apparently, I do now.  The walk was nice...and I got a sticker out of the deal.

I'm proud that I voted.  I think not enough people pay attention to what's going on in the world around them and that's how society has become the way it is now.  If more people gave a damn and walked the five blocks to their polling locations, maybe we wouldn't have so many idiots in charge of things they never should have been allowed to touch.  Anyway, if you didn't vote, you have no room to complain.  And, hey, you could have gotten a sticker!

Sweetest Pup Ever

My pup is so sweet.  I had a test/procedure on Friday.  Samson knew what his mommy needed was rest and he was an excellent helper.  He curled up on the sofa with me and stayed there almost all day (except when his g'ma was letting him in or out).  It's awesome how dogs seem to know what our emotional and physical needs are.

I'll be right here, Mom, helping you rest.