Originally posted by Emily on Facebook:

My mom and I: *look at newly posted ACT scores*
Mom: *Starts ecstatic happy dance*
Me: “What does that mean?”
Mom: *adds whooping to happy dance*
Me: “Ok… guessing that’s good, but what does it mean?!”

I brought my composite ACT score up from 25 to 30, with the biggest difference between this year and last year being in my math score, which I brought up from 19 to 26! Seven whole glorious points!

As her third “real” sewing project (after an “intro project” smock, and some shorts and a dance outfit for Emily), Shannon made a Regency dress. Yes, she jumped from a smock and shorts to an entire dress! It was done at this time because she wanted to wear it to a themed going-away party for some friends of ours. Never mind that the theme was “Medieval” and not “Regency” 🙂 … Shan wanted to make a Regency dress and everyone thought the dress looked great.

Rather than try to dress John up in Regency style as well, Shannon on made him a tie from the same material as the dress.

Here’s how it all came out:

[salbumphotos=2,160,3]

We just put the girls back to bed after a quick streamer toss, a toast with sparkling (or, as Amanda calls it “shiny”) apple cider, and a round of kisses for the family. Now it’s off to bed for me– John is going to stay up to see what the first woot is for 2006, at midnight Central time. Happy New Year, everyone!

Ah, we’re having a lovely homeschool moment today. As I’m at the computer printing off multiplication practice pages, I hear Emily confide to Amanda that she saves doing her handwriting practice until I start reading Amanda’s read-aloud books to her, “because the stories are just soooo good and I love to hear them again!” (Emily gets sent to the dining room to do her seat-work (math, handwriting, etc) while I do school with Amanda in the livingroom).

I suggested to Emily that maybe I should let her read to Amanda instead of merely eavesdropping from the other room. She responded enthusiastically. I warned her that she would have to get through with her school work first before she would be allowed to read Amanda’s schoolbooks to her. She thought a moment and said, “Maybe I can read to her before school starts?” Sure, as long as they both finish their breakfasts (usually a long drawn out affair) and sort their laundry first.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen them eat or sort so quickly. 🙂

The girls are cuddled up together on the couch. Emily is reading with great enthusiasm and inflection to Amanda, who appears to be following along over her shoulder. I love Sonlight Curriculum!

Well. Today was interesting. Let me tell you all about it…

…starting with last night. 🙂

We’d had a nest of yellowjackets living in the siding outside our front door for a couple weeks and it hadn’t been a big deal: we rarely use that door (opting for the garage door instead) and they hadn’t been causing any real problems. Last weekend, the small group Bible study that meets in our home started back up again after summer break. This meant that we would begin using that door again, and we did. The study started in the early evening, when the activity in the nest seemed to be waning, and they hadn’t caused any trouble. That is, until last night.

Last night, two of the little devils made it into the house as people were leaving the Bible study and stung both Shannon and I. Nobody else was injured and Shannon and I were fine, but this act stirred in me the long overdue desire to do something about them. I had already tried spraying the entrance to the nest with little effect — the spray wasn’t about to soak into the house like it would an exposed hive and not enough went into the entrance to do much of anything. Last night, after everyone had gone, I tried rigging a straw up to the entrance to the nest with duct tape and shot the spray through the straw. It was a little more effective, but only a little. I left the duct tape in place and sealed the straw, vowing to do something about it in the morning.

In the morning, I vowed to do something about it that evening. 🙂 I would not have the luxury of waiting that long however…

After I had left for work, a well-meaning friend who was aware of our plight (and bites*) came over armed with some spray-foam insulation. Meaning to suffocate the nest, he pulled off my duct tape cover and shot some foam into the entrance to the nest. He had actually mentioned this option earlier, but I expressed concern that they would find another exit, potentially into the house. I figured that my duct tape cover, in the worst-case scenario, could be quickly pulled off, allowing the pests to escape via their usual means. That option was no longer an option.

And they did find another exit.

And it was into the house.

(Cue the horror movie trailer music) The insects were everywhere! Crowds of people were screaming, trying to escape the apian onslaught! (Cut the music)

Okay… they weren’t everywhere. They were mainly by the front door, trying to escape via the sidelights. And there were only five of them at the time. And the only person screaming and trying to escape was Shannon (but what she lacked in head-count she made up for with panic and volume. 🙂 )

Okay… she wasn’t screaming and trying to escape. Shannon actually handled it pretty well, considering that she was aware that there was a sealed yellowjacket nest feeding into the house. She immediately called me at work, telling me that there were yellowjackets in the house (by her count, five) and that she was taking herself and the girls to her parents’ house just down the road. I told her I was on my way and she said “Good, because there’s now ten yellowjackets in the house.” Oh, for joy.

I got to the house and looked around. There were now far more than ten of the little beasts in the house. Shannon had come back over to lend some moral support and pick up the girls schoolbooks. After discussing my game plan (which included *lots* of prayer by the whole family), she went back to her parents house and I got to work.

First, I found their entrance point (a small gap in the floorboards in the entryway) and slapped… you guessed it… more duct tape over it. Actually, it wasn’t so much a slap as it was a surgical operation, performed with a 10″ strip of tape, a straightened-out coat hanger, and a long piece of furring strip. That done, I set up “Grandpa Kipp’s Sure-Fire Yellow Jacket Trap!” — something I had read about when researching this problem earlier — to try to clear the insects in the house. After setting up my contraption within a couple feet of the front door (and 90% of the yellowjackets), I went to get suited up.

My amateur beekeeping outfit consisted of my usual undergarments, plus:

• a t-shirt
• long-johns, over the socks
• blue-jeans (no holes!)
• thick hiking socks, over the jeans
• running shoes (if anything went awry, I certainly didn’t mean to hike, sneak, slip, or galosh…)
• a hooded sweatshirt, tucked into the jeans, hood pulled to hide much of my face
• a bigger sweatshirt over the hoodie
• my winter gloves, under the sleeves of the bigger sweatshirt, and (wait for it) duct taped to the sleeve
• leather work gloves over the winter gloves
• my wife’s sun hat
• (yes, I really said “my wife’s sun hat”)
• and a mesh equipment bag over the hat and cinched around my neck

Anyway, once dressed, I went outside. I went into the crawlspace to make sure that I wasn’t dealing with some mammoth nest that weighed 200 pounds and was hiding under my house. I wasn’t. Not a sign of anything out of the ordinary under the house; it was all in the siding. Back out front, I approached the house, prybar in hand. I shoved the prybar under the siding near the nest entrance, pulled up slightly, and watched 6 to 8 yellowjackets quickly pour form the new openning. I then turned and ran like a little girl. I went back after a few seconds, pulled up again, and watched a few more come out. This time, I simply took a few manly steps backwards… none of that shrieking or anything. Then I thought, “This would be a perfect time to back inside to check the trap! Yeah, that’s it… to check the trap.”

The trap was a bust. The little buggers were far too interested in trying to escape to the light outside to notice a big (wasted) hunk of mahi-mahi. (It was all we had.) Looking at my garb, however, I realized that I didn’t need no stinkin’ trap. I simply walked up to a bug covered sidelight, extended my double-gloved index finger, and started squishing. 68 yellowjackets later, the house was cleared of bugs and I had a newfound confidence with which to face the bugs outside.

With the help of that confidence, a panel saw, the prybar, a few long sticks, and three different kinds of flying pest killer, I put a big hole in the house and removed the six “floors” of a nest from a void in the wall of the house. And all without a single sting! (I did, however, get to watch one particularly irritated specimen slam his rear end into my sweatshirt several times before I flicked him to oblivion. A very interesting sight, but not one I hope to see again soon.)

Final score? John, 68 plus everyone else outside; Yellowjackets, zilch. A complete shutout. Plus, in the 90° heat of a September afternoon with two sweatshirts, long-johns, and my wife’s sun hat, I think I lost a few pounds! 🙂 Praise our Merciful Lord that he answered our prayers with a hearty “Yes!”

Anyway, I’ve since patched the hole with a folded-up garbage bag and (everyone together now) duct tape. I’m hoping that fixing that will not be another tale-worthy episode, but with my luck…

– John

*(Shannon just pointed out to me that they were “stings”, not “bites”. But “stings” doesn’t rhyme, so… :P)

(Note: Shannon also made me a cake celebrating my exterminator’s prowess along with my 50-mile round-trip drive to Raleigh earlier that afternoon to fetch her accidentally forgotten purse.)

Spring has been very very very (did I say very?) busy for us. We have successfully completed another fabulous birthday tea party, meaning of course, that Amanda is now 5! We have also survived my painting of the “blue rooms”– kitchen, nook and den “great room”. It was truly amazing how much stuff fit in our dining room while it was all moved out of harm’s way during the painting project. Throw in a tupperware party, rearranging furniture in 2 rooms, 3 separate out of town guests and a couple of other little projects for church. Stir vigorously while homeschooling and keeping up with the laundry. Anybody else tired? 🙂

Our most recent treat was a visit from my sister-in-law, Suzanne, and my 10 month old niece, Haley. Babies aren’t usually very impressed with me, but my niece just loves her auntie! Yay! Up next will be our annual trip to PA to visit Grandma and Grandpa and then on to the church retreat. Yes! A vacation sounds good right about now!

Well, I know I’ve needed to update the news on the website for a while, but there’s nothing quite like a minor family emergency to inspire such an update. This afternoon, Emily decided to lean over just a little to far while sitting on top of part of her playset (about seven feet off the ground.) The resulting tumble got mud in her mouth and nose and broke both of her arms. Yes, that’s right… both of her arms. The “radius” in both arms, to be precise. Ironically, we have 15 square yards of mulch being delivered this Saturday, much of which was going to go under the playset to refresh the fall-cushioning layer of mulch that is already there (but mostly worn away). If only she’d waited (grin)…

Anyway, she’s in “half-casts” right now, which basically amount to wrapped splints from her wrists to half-way up her upper arms. These will be on until Monday, when she’ll receive a forearm cast on each arm, at least allowing her to bend her elbows and feed/dress/etc. herself. She’s in good spirits, as can be evidenced by her quote and pictures from earlier tonight. We’ll see how she (and her Mama and Daddy and sister) hold up until Monday…