tim and lisa cocking

It’s been a long time since we’ve posted about bugs or alligators or other wildlife. So here’s a new one for you.

Pigs.

Yes, pigs. Wild pigs. It was my turn to drive the preschool carpool yesterday, and right at the corner of the school/church driveway and the road there was a group (herd? bevy? sty?) of 3 wild pigs grazing calmly. They looked a lot like this. I can’t remember now if it was two brown ones and one black, or the other way around.

These were no hogzillas. They were about the size of a spaniel, I’d say. Quite furry, and almost cute. When I pointed them out to the kids, Madeline shouted, “But pigs are SUPPOSED to be PINK!”

It is a beautiful, gorgeous morning. The sun is shining, there is a cool breeze coming in the open windows, we’re on our way to a high of 78. Ahh.

But.

The girls are sick. At least two out of three are. Ellie was fighting a cold for most of last week and finally lost the battle yesterday. She was pretty miserable yesterday afternoon, and woke up with a sore throat and cough this morning. Bethany also woke up with a sore throat, cough and fever today, so she’s home from school (Micah and Ellie don’t have school on Mondays). Micah is fine… so far. Oh, and Tim came home yesterday from his trip to Austin with a cold, too. We are counting our blessings, though. We have many friends who are or have been sick. There are some nasty, nasty bugs going around here right now, some that have taken whole families down for a week or more.

To put a little fun in an otherwise boring day locked up at home, I decreed a pajama day for the girls. And, I let them paint.

So we won’t be able to be out enjoying the beautiful day. At least I know there are more to come. Spring in Orlando is a wonderful thing. Beautiful weather, plus the smell of orange blossoms in the air. You just can’t beat it.

I realized that we’ve been neglecting the blog for a while, and thought I’d better write something. Except I don’t have a lot to say. Let’s see, what’s been going on since our last post?

In mid-January, I totaled our minivan. Which was not altogether a bad thing. I had a moment of distraction and rear-ended the car in front of me. It was so my fault that I even got a ticket and had to do an online driving school to avoid getting points on my license. Now that was thrilling. Not.

But, our minivan had been showing signs of needing some serious repairs. Fortunately we hadn’t done them yet. Our insurance company handled things quickly and we were able to get a new used minivan that we’re much happier with. We were without a minivan for only about a week and a half, I think.

Let’s see, what else… oh, we had a really cool lunar eclipse a few weeks ago. I set up our little camera on a tripod and took about a bazillion pictures. A couple turned out pretty cool. I think this one is my favorite (click to see full-size):

This was taken with my little auto-focus digital camera, with its itty-bitty zoom lens. I like the way some of the stars are various shades of red and pink.

Anything else… Bethany is “Eagle of the Month” in her class at school. Honestly, I’m not sure exactly what that means. The school’s mascot is the Eagle. Each month, each teacher picks a student from her class who shows that month’s character trait from their character development curriculum, or something like that. Bethany was picked for fairness. Practically speaking, I think it means her picture is on the bulletin board in their class, and she got a free cookie at lunch last week. A side note: there are no male teachers or administrators at Bethany’s school. I think the only men in the building are one custodian and one tech support guy. This is a school of over 800 students, with 48 teachers (I just counted on the school’s website).

Well, that’s all the news I can think of right now. Let me know if there’s something you want to hear about!