Meet the Newest Member of Our Family

So by now you have read the title of this post, and 98% of you have a niave, preconcieved idea of what you "think" the title means. You are thinking, "Wow, what a public way to announce such a thing", or "Wholly cow, can it really be true", or "There is no way"....etc. Well, in usual fashion Josh and I love to dissapoint! So NO we are not expecting, NO I am not pregnant, and we are not even thinking about it right now. Sorry to all of you reading who just got this rush of adrenaline and then the let down of your day, but we do what we can. So the title is to introduce Charlie. Charlie is the resident preying mantis that has been hanging around our back deck now for several weeks. He is there when we wake up and there when we turn in for the evening. Josh and I have recently named him Charlie and added him to our list of "family" members. We have concluded that there must be some massive food source for him on or around our back deck because he is there everyday. A few days ago he went missing and I was sure it had gotten to cold for him or he became someone else's lunch or dinner. But alas........today on my way in from changing the oil on my truck, there he was! Green this time as apposed to his usual brown on the recycle bin or deck wood, but there none the less. So today I decided to introduce him with a picture. I also will attach a new picutre of Carson. He is loving the window weather! I'm not sure he would love the idea of another family member, but we are keeping mum about Charlie with him. As I write this post, I realize how ashamed I am that the newest post we have in two weeks is about a silly preying mantis in our back yard, but I suppose that is better than a bunch of babbling or no post at all! Josh was home in Cincinnati this past weekend because his Aunt Peggy is in hospice care and not doing well. She is currently getting morphine around the clock for pain management. At the same time, his grandmother was admitted to the hospital for low hemoglobin (low blood count) and needed four units of blood. For you non-medical folks, that is just about 1.5 liters of blood, or A WHOLE LOT They diagnosed her with diverticulitis and she will follow up with her GI specialist next week. We hope the symptoms will remain under control for her so that she can get through the grieving process of her oldest daughter dying. I am helping some of my great friends throw Mary Jane's baby shower this Sunday and have been helping get the finishing touches ready on that. I have four short shifts left before I head home for the wedding, and Josh and I are getting very excited about it. This weekend we plan on carving our pumpkins and posting pictures for the offical vote. We hope this post finds everyone

well, and look for an update sometime soon with carved pumpkins!

Here he is. This is Charlie. He is scoping out the roof of the back deck.

Here is our beautiful boy Carson. Just a lazy afternoon looking out into the backyard. He could have been dreaming about being a jungle cat?