Maximus is 3

I have let many blog-worthy moments this year pass, but I could not let the year end without giving a Maximus update.  His birthday was in October for goodness sake!

Maximus turned three in October and it is just crazy to me.  Our little Guam baby is now 3.  This little mamas boy truly completes our family and I am so blessed to be his mother.  He's grown so much this year.  The baby fat had faded into little boy arms and legs.  His little pot belly is often sticking out as he chases Theo and Woodrow.  Max may be the little brother, but he is not one to be left behind. 

Max is super chatty and likes to be right in on the conversations.  He talks as much as Theo and can give an attitude just like Woodrow.  I am surely in for it with this one.  He likes to be very close by to me during the day, but loves his time with Mason. 

This year Max took gymnastics lessons in Illinois, and started swimming lessons when we moved to Nebraska.  He is really good at listening during his classes and can back float on his own.  He's really comfortable in the water, but we want to increase his swimming skills so he is safe.  We also did a small in-home music class this Fall and he'll be starting a tumbling class in the new year.  (Mama needs this boy to be in an active activity). 

Max keeps up with our hiking and activities pretty well.  He's definitely motivated if treats are around.  His favorite food is "west sticks" (French Toast sticks).  He is our breakfast eater and early riser of the bunch...and likes you to be up and at em with him.

With Theo and Woodrow in school full time this year, Max is my companion during the day.  We like to go on outings to the zoo, the library, and playgroups.  Max enjoys playing with the puzzles at the library and always has to find the two snails in the fishtank before we leave.  We spend lots of time at the zoo, especially looking at the elephants and giraffes.

Max likes to read books, snuggle, watch shows, play kitchen, do puzzles, and paint with water.  He helps me cook/bake and is likely to dig into a cake or pan of brownies if left unattended.

Our little guy is a whippersnapper, but we just adore him!

 

Theodore is 8

(I started this back in October hoping to post before Max's birthday...I'm ridiculous...thanks for loving me anyways).
 

At the end of September my sweet, sweet Theodore turned eight years old. I can hardly believe that my first child is already eight. My parents came in for the weekend to celebrate and we had a wonderful time. Birthdays are pretty special in our house and the birthday person gets to choose the food and activities for the day. We had a slow morning at home, as it was pouring rain. Theo picked pizza for lunch and then we took him to Sky Zone to jump jump jump. The boys always ask to go to trampoline parks, so we figured this was a good time to say yes. He was fortunate that there was a Chicago Bears game on in the afternoon, so we curled up to watch, while opening presents during commercial breaks.

This years presents were themed around: sports, bison, art, and presidents. After the game ended (with a WIN), we headed to his restaurant of choice for dinner- Buffalo Wild Wings.  Theo's favorite food is a good cheeseburger, so no matter where we go that's almost always his pick.  We finished off the evening with singing and cake and tucked our big kid into bed.

It is so fun to watch Theo grow.  He's all boy these days.   I see him stretching to be this big kid, but have reminders that he's still a little tender soul too.  He sleeps with his special teddy bear Robert, he often has SEVERAL stuffed animals in his bed, his Bison blanket, and many other covers.  Theo is our resident hoarder and everything is super special to him...so his room tends to be a hot mess, with all surfaces covered.

He has gotten into collecting Teeny Mates (small figures of NFL and MLB players), he started collecting baseball cards, has cards from friends, and little legos that are frequently scattered across the floor, and there are always piles of books in his bed.  I fear that I never give Theo the 1:1  time that he needs.  I think he'd work on his detailed art more or play games more if there weren't some little brothers always running around.

It's a joy to watch him grow and express himself.  He's a huge helper around the house most of the time and is a great big brother.  He's kind and encouraging to Max (most of the time) and has enjoyed Woodrow as a sports playing companion (most of the time).  Theo's idea of relaxing, which is rare, is reading.  I often catch him with the light on after bedtime.

He's a Bear in Cub Scouts this year, which means he gets to work on some cool awards.  At summer camp he got to shoot a BB gun and do archery, he earned a really special Nova and Supernova STEM award at the end of last year, and he recently earned his whittling chip which allows him to carry a pocket knife with him to Scout events.  He's also been logging all the hikes we take him on and he got a hiking stick with some emblems to add.

In the Fall he was more into baseball and eventually became a football fan, so he didn't play any sports this Fall.  We're thinking he may give baseball a try in the Spring.  He did swimming lessons all last year and we started up with Goldfish Swim School here and really like their program.  He's eager to "graduate", but I'd like to see him stick with it a bit longer.

I'm really proud of Theodore and what an amazing kid he is.  I'm so blessed to be his mom.  

Omaha Moms Blog Posts

It's embarrassing how behind I am on updating the family blog.  I think about it frequently, and find myself diving into books or TV in my quieter time.  I am really enjoying writing my articles for the Omaha Moms Blog.  Each month a calendar is put out by our editor with suggested topics.  We write for two months in advance, so this December we are writing our February articles.  I like that there are different options provided, and we're also allowed to suggest our own topics.  I usually try to do a mixture. 

In November I wrote an article for National Sesame Street Day on November 10th. 

I also did a quick guide to restaurants that were open on Thanksgiving this year. 

For December I wrote a guide for givings experiences instead of physical presents.  I think it was a bit of a popular topic this year from different articles that popped up this year, but mine was somewhat Omaha specific. 

I was pretty happy to write my January post because I did a guide to Breakfast spots in Omaha.  We can't show favoritism to businesses unless they are a sponsor, which is why I have ended up doing several "guides".  The family enjoyed doing the research for that article.  It's not out yet, but we enjoyed some tasty food!  I'm always up for an excuse to eat French Toast.  Yum! 

I've also had a few chances to do an Instagram Takeover on their page, which I enjoy doing.  The first one was more of a "Day in the Life" with some mom hacks thrown in, and my second one focused on Air Force life.  I'll be doing one later this month the week of Hanukkah/Christmas to discuss the holidays and some family traditions. 

Omaha Moms Blog October Post

My visions for this post didn't quite come to fruition based on my waiting until the last minute to get it written, but the books were good. 

Check it Out: 

Cozy up to a Good Book This Fall: Reviews from Various Readers

 

 

Tired

Here’s the scene: 

I’m sitting on the floor of the three year olds room. It’s 5:50pm.  He’s talking himself to sleep as I sit by the door with tears falling down my face.  I need the little people to go to sleep. I need brain space.  

We were out all day, for a nice day. Then the crash.  I spent 45 minutes battling the six year old who’s beyond tired. He was doing his homework, then stabbed the three year old with his pencil for interrupting him, and was sent to his room after refusing to move to the library to do his homework.  After finally getting him  upstairs, I take a minute to set up a movie for the eight year old. 

He had just come down from a bath. He was sent there early because he kept flipping the stool over in the kitchen.  Accidentally, but when I asked him to put it away, he got all grouchy.  So...more pouts.  The six year old is screaming because he can’t take his flipping sweatshirt off. Another 20 minutes trying to calm him down.  

Finally, everyone seems calmish.  I feed them dinner.  My FIL who is visiting grabs his dinner and is probably wondering WTF am I witnessing.  Things seem calm enough so I make school lunches for tomorrow and grab the laundry to fold. The baskets of laundry.  

I got A towel folded before screams start. The three year old is crushing his crackers on the floor (which aid already cleaned) and was stuffing food down the kitchen vent.  He gets scooped up and here we are.  He may never fall asleep.  I may never get to leave the bedroom floor.  

Where’s my husband? At the gym. Because he’s always at the gym when these moments occur.  He witnesses them too, but it’s not like freaking candyland just because he leaves he house. And it pisses me off that for 90 minutes every day he gets to do what HE wants. 

This is NOT an uncommon scene.  This is life.  There are lots of good moments in our days, and there are lots of days/weeks where I  simply am seen as the maid.  The laundry gets done, the house gets clean, groceries appear, I occasionally keep my side of the bed warm like an old teddy bear.  I get noticed when a clothing item isn’t folded in the drawer, or a grocery item runs out.  I get noticed when meals need to be served, or it’s time to chauffeur little people to activities.  

Some days I think I’m not cut out to be a wife or mom, because a quiet room of my own sounds lovely.  One day I’ll have quiet rooms and I’m sure it will feel lonely, today I feel lonely in the chaos. Unnoticed. Unseen.  Unwanted.   

It's hard to say no

Generally I find myself as a people pleaser, or at least I don’t like conflict, to the point where I will just avoid conversations. However the conversations in my head or the conversations that get played out in front of Mason are quite hyped up...not that they go anywhere.

Recently my supervisor for my online teaching job asked me if I would be interested in possibly working some more hours and increasing my position. So after a few conversations I said sure, I'd be interested in more information. It turned out she wanted me to apply for a full-time, high school, social studies position for a private school under the same companies umbrella. I went back-and-forth about it but ultimately decided to apply and see where the process would take me.

When I did the phone interview this week I learned more about the program and what the job would entail. Essentially 20 hours a week I would be a grader for 450 to 500 students, the other 20 hours a week would be divided into five, 4 hour shifts where I would need to be available by phone to answer student questions about assignments or topics related to their courses.

I deliberated quite a bit and talk things out with Mason and a few friends I ultimately decided that right now this would not be the best commitment for me, and for our family. A few of the deciding factors were that it was for social studies and while I am qualified in that area it is not my stronger subject area.  Having to be available 20 hours a week, in specific time slots, to answer the phones would be a little bit challenging with Max at home and I was not willing to put him in childcare.  Mason will potentially be traveling a lot in the next year and a full time position would be challenging for me while juggling him being gone, plus we hope to travel with him at least once or twice which would also create some obstacles. 

I am really grateful that Mason's job allows me to be home with the kids.  While some days are really exhausting and tiring I enjoy the flexibility that I currently have with my current positon and the ability to be home. Perhaps in the future that type of position would work out when Max is in preschool or full-time school or perhaps a full-time position in the current section I’m already working in would be possible, but I decided to decline the position.  This was really hard for me because I wanted to say yes.  I wanted to make it work.  I wanted to be a financial contributor to my family.  But, Mason and I both know this would mean long evening hours for me, time away from Max, and things would slack in other areas.  Right now, those aren't areas I want to slack in.  We've worked really hard to get where we are and we're in a great spot with our kiddos and marriage, and this isn't a time when I want to strain that, but it was hard to say no thanks. 

Woodrow is 6!

Woodrow.  I can not believe this guy turned 6 on August 5th.  I keep telling people I have a five year old.  Woodrow is such a great guy.  I just can't even wait to see where life will take him.  He could be a face model-for sure-with all the expressions he shoots at us.  His little freckly face and ocean blue eyes can make you melt.  He is so funny, yet can be so serious.

Just a few days before his birthday he lost his first baby tooth.  So exciting! Woodrow is strong.  He completed a Spartan Race this past year where he was racing thru mud and he learned to ride his two-wheel bicycle this past summer.  He's really taken off and has done several  mile bike rides with his new Cub Scout Troop here in Nebraska.  Woodrow's becoming a more confident swimmer, and does well in his swimming lessons.  He took a short baseball camp this summer, and thinks he may try a team in the Spring.

Kindergarten was an awesome year for Woodrow.  He excels at math and is reading really well, although he's rather listen to a story than read one.  He really came out of his shy shell too.  We moved this summer and he's adjusted to a new place and people without any tantrums or push-back.  He's starting 1st grade, all day...it's definitely an adjustment for our night owl, but he's been doing great.

Woodrow is still into Star Wars, especially the lego minifigures.  He keeps quite a collection in his room of minifigures, and likes to stay up late playing with them.  We frequently hear him playing alone "pew pewing" the guns and ships.  It's adorable.  Woodrow got his own room in our new house and it's been nice for him to have some special space, and be able to stay awake/sleep later than his brothers.

While Woodrow's tantrums are MUCH LESS than they used to be, he still likes to push back often.  He has gotten better at managing his anger and verbalizing what's bothering him, but with the exhausting back-to-school schedule there have been some ROUGH evenings/afternoons.

Woodrow is an outstanding brother.  He likes playing big kid games with Theo (baseball, "meetings", legos), but he's also sweet to Max too.  He likes to cook in the kitchen with me, and hit the gym with Mason.  His favorite foods (re stubborn eater) are pizza, hot dogs, pesto, McDonalds, Subway, and PB sandwiches.   

We're so proud of Woodrow.  He wears.us.down. But man, this kid is going places.  Six. It's so big.  I can not believe it.  We love him so super much. 

Omaha City Mom's Blog 2

Check out my August article with the Omaha City Mom's Blog.  This month I was writing about ways to get your kiddos moving before and after school as part of or back to school month themed posts.

Shake Your Groove Thang: Getting in Movement Before and After School

Omaha Moms Blog

I am super excited for a new opportunity that I have here in Omaha, and that will be writing as a contributor for the Omaha City Moms Blog.  I'll likely have around one post a month and I'm happy to have a fun activity for me and a way to meet other local mamas. 

Check out my Intro post here:  https://omaha.citymomsblog.com/contributor/omaha-moms-blog-introducing-ellen/

Last night I got the opportunity to meet some of the other team members for a volunteer event.  We met at The Life House in Omaha, which is a program put together by two sister churches and they offer a food bank and diaper pick-up for qualifying people in their community.  We got to meet one of the staff members, hear about the mission, take a tour of the small building, and then we packaged diapers.

In one hour we packaged 4350 diapers, which looked like a lot, and then we realized that according to her recent statistics, that wouldn't even be enough for one day that they were open.  They are open 3-4 times a month, and families can come once a month.  If they have a WIC or Medicaid card for their child, they are eligible for 60-70 diapers for up to two children under the age of 4.  Last year they gave out over 55,000 diapers and they are on track to double that number this year. 

It was a great opportunity and I enjoyed meeting more moms and hopefully new friends! 

Goodbye June

Taking a break on the back deck

The last week of June was crazy.  I continued to fight off nausea/dizziness spells while trying to do lots of things.  The truck arrived Monday with the majority of our boxes...cue the crazy.  Essentially one adult has a clipboard with an inventory list of numbers and they check off the numbers as the movers unload things from the truck.  The other adult directs where things should go, and both try to keep the kids out of the way.  The truck was at our door by 7:40am (crazy!) and they were ready to work by 8am.  There were 5 guys and they hustled.  The entire truck was unloaded and things assembled by 12:15.  I felt like we were a little rushed in the end by the driver who wanted to get to a next job or his next city and I would have liked a minute to breathe and take things in.  We also discovered that the truck had a small shipment on it of things that weren't ours, which meant, if they had shown up in Illinois with an empty truck all of our things would have fit on one truck.  It made me feel better about our amount of things, but also mad that we now had to track down this separate small shipment.

Borrowing the movers ladder to reach something Max had thrown into the chandelier

The boxes were here and that meant an afternoon of unboxing.  Our hands were cracked and bleeding by the end of the day.  It's exhausting.  Plus, despite my trying to organize and separate things prior to the move, it felt like lots of things got put in the wrong spot in the house and we had to relocate a lot of heavy boxes.  By the end of the day I was feeling pretty horrible and was in tears that I was never moving again. 

Finally finishing staining the deck and fence

I lost track of days, but I think this was also the same time we discovered water in one of the rooms in the basement.  It was a storage room and the water appeared to be coming up through cracks in the cement flooring...great.  

Tuesday morning, Mason had to get to work so the kitchen was my goal for the majority of the morning.  We spent the day before trying to get the boy's rooms all set-up so that they wouldn't be fiddling with boxes and things in their rooms.  Woodrow and Max's room were pretty well set, but Theo was missing a few pieces for his bed and a cabinet.  This day we spent lots of time unpacking boxes, I felt like I was coordinating all day with people to come pick up the boxes we offered for free, and then we had two different people come check out the floor.  Tuesday night, I was toast and melting down even more. 

New-to-him big boy bed (we split the bunk beds)

The rest of the week was met with more unpacking and organizing, heat, water in a different part of the basement, an ant problem in the garage, and lots of tears!  The kids were bouncing off the walls because they were bored and just kids being mischievous. 

It was a ROUGH week. 

Oh give me a home, where the Buffalo Roam...

Theo has been hooked on Bison as his favorite animal since a trip we took last October.  I thought that maybe it was dying out, but he still seems pretty excited about them.  Naturally I was looking to see where we could spot Bison close to Chicago or near our new home, and less than 30 minutes from our house is a Wildlife Safari Park.  I knew coming here this was going to be an add-on pass to our membership that we'd be getting, and I was eager to check it out with the kids.

Mason got some work done at home and worked out while I took the kids on what turned out to be a longer day than expected.  We had lots of fun, but I was tired.  Ha!  When I showed up I didn't realize that I needed a separate pass to enter.  The gentleman took my word that we'd bought the membership the day prior and let me enter without showing a receipt or the pass (which we've now received in the mail).  I was thankful, although did offer to pay since I messed up. 

The entrance area had a few cages with animals to check out, Bison statues, a prairie dog village, and an overlook to the Elk fields.  The boys, Maximus especially liked the prairie dog village.  They didn't really remember all the dakrats we use to encountered in Minot.  At first I was disappointed that we weren't seeing any Elk as we drove through their area, but I had a feeling they'd be clustered together, and we'd see all the other cars stopping once they were spotted.  Sure enough, that was exactly the case.  The boys were really excited.  Woodrow exclaimed, "he'd never seen an elk before"
and liked the really big antlers.

We passed through various areas with deer, pelicans, wetland birds, and more.  We stopped midway through the safari to park and get out and walk to some different animal enclosures.  The boys were "starving" at this point so I bought them each a bag of chips to tie them over since I wanted to walk some of the trails.  They got to see cranes, eagles, a wolf, black bear, and we saw a turtle at frog leg.  They also got to see chickens up close and pet some goats. Max was definitely a fan of the goats and was certainly fearless.

 After walking around and getting a bit warm, we headed back to the car to check out the grande finale...the bison!  Sure enough it was a decent herd gathered together.  We looped around two times.  There were more people at the park than I'd expected, but it was a Saturday, and like the zoo, I expect the number of locals and tourists are similar in number.  There was even one baby bison, so that was a big hit among the three wise men.

I'm glad that we got some exploring in before the movers came.  It was a nice break over the weekend to get out and feel like we weren't in the middle of the move.  I hadn't been feeling well, so I decided detour to an urgent care on the way home.  They didn't find anything suspicious, but gave me a steroid and some anti-nausea medicine.  I've been feeling mostly better, but some days are rougher with feelings of lightheadedness and a fuzz in my head.  The stress, lack of sleep, eating out, and high temperatures haven't been helping, but I'm hoping that this straightens out soon.   

We're going to the Zoo, zoo, zoo...how about you, you, you?

Mason didn’t have to go to work on Friday so we decided to venture out to the Henry Doorley Zoo. It is supposed to be one of the top zoos in the country. I wanted to make sure Mason had a chance to venture out with us so we could get our military pass and also since we’re losing him back into the work world he won’t be as flexible for exploring.

The zoo is huge! I imagine because of its reputation is draws equal tourists and people living in area. We spent our whole first hour just in the jungle building. The facilities were impressive and there were lots of different animals. It seemed like there were a lot of people at the zoo, but it didn’t feel crowded. It was nicer earlier in the day because there was a cloud cover, but it eventually lifted and gave way to sun and heat.  After a cooler spring and then bam into summer heat my body doesn't know what to do with itself. 

My favorites were the giraffes and elephants, all who were in their inside spaces. The spaces felt spacious and clean. The outdoor elephant enclosure seemed to take up half of the zoo. I think it will be really fun to see them outside one day. There were also a lot of giraffes, including a baby!

We wandered through the newly opened Asian Highlands area, but once Max saw the train rolling through the park, the animals became a secondary interest. He was all about finding the train. We’ve heard it wasn’t worth the expense, but I foresee us taking a ride one day. Two is very fun at times right now. We’re fully into trucks, trains, and fire engines.

We spent about four hours at the zoo and there is certainly much more we didn't even see.  I'm glad that we have our pass and can explore anytime and it will be a nice option for Maximus and I during the school year.

We bought a house!

When we were looking to move to Nebraska we initially decided that we would most likely rent an off base house instead of living on the base. There were some base houses with four bedrooms which was appealing to us but we figured this would be a good chance for us to try living off base for the three years that we would be stationed at Offutt.  The market here is crazy! We looked at renting houses but they were flying off the pages so quickly.  We had some friends that told us basically the best idea was to find a friend who is already living in a house that would be moving to attempt to take over their lease.  

We knew a few people moving out of their rentals this summer, but after not hearing back too much information and not wanting to be to pesky we decided to consider buying a house. We have been married for 12 years and just this past year, living in Illinois, it was our first time renting a house.  During our previous assignments  we have lived on base so buying a house it was a  pretty foreign concept for us.   We had a lot to learn.  A friend of ours who is stationed here connected us to a realtor who we couldn’t have been more happy with.  She was very patient with all of our clueless questions and was very helpful in setting up different houses for us to look at it from a far.  

Even the houses for sale moved quickly.  We’d see a house we liked and by the time we’d request a virtual showing, there would already have been several contracts put in.  There were two that we ended up liking a lot and we ended up doing a one hour virtual walkthrough with both.  The realtor basically FaceTimed us and showed us the homes.  We felt like her assessments of the house were honest.  She pointed out things she’d probably change or “gotchas”. We felt like she cared about getting us our home rather than just making a sale.  

The house we made an offer on was a little higher than our original price point, but the location can’t be beat.  We’re just about 10 minutes from the base, and right between the towns of Bellevue and Papillion.  Our neighborhood is a little newer and pretty popular with military families.  The school is around the corner, which is amazing! We got used to that in Illinois and it’s going to be an awesome blessing again, especially since Theo and Woodrow will be on the same schedule now and getting older so they can walk to school without me.  (Maybe).  Our inspection went well and the sellers agreed to all our requests. 

My mom watched the boys for us, so that we could come in early April and close on the house.  Mason and I drove to Omaha in a Tuesday, saw the house that night, closed Wednesday morning and then met with contractors that afternoon/evening to set-up some projects before moving in. Then we drove home Thursday.  Whew!!!  Housing costs add up quickly.  Some projects we had worked on before moving in (which worked out well) were: Sanding and sealing the wood kitchen floor, rekeying, installing new kitchen appliances, redoing the kitchen countertops and backsplash, painting the first floor, sanding and staining the deck and closing off one side of the yard with a fence. We had the flooring replaced in two bathrooms, windows washed, and carpets cleaned.  It was super nice having things compelled before moving in.  Now we’re watching the kids like hawks and will be on top of the movers making sure they don’t scratch anything.  

When we got into town Wednesday night after the drive it was nice to be able to move right into our house and have space to spread out.  The kids liked seeing school, our next door neighbors have a little boy who’s 8, and they’ve been excited to check the mail which is in a “shared” box across the street.

The next part of the journey will be getting all our belongings (due Monday) and unpacking! 

New Surroundings

Wednesday night the kids did really well sleeping in a completely foreign place.  Theo and Woodrow’s rooms are across from one another so they both kept their doors open with their heads halfway out into the hallway. Max woke up once during the night, but stayed in his room otherwise.  

Thursday morning Mason was off bright and early to get his visitor pass for his new office,  checked-in,  and attend some briefing.  Some of the other coworkers were out of town so his real work will begin this upcoming week.  The kids and I had a real slow morning and were thankful that my dear friend Christyn had dropped off muffins the day before so we already had breakfast in the house. Since we wanted to get out a little bit and Mason was heading towards the gym after his meetings we decided to hit our favorite first stop at any new place… the library! Even before getting groceries we had play time at the library, checked out new books, had library cards in hand, and signed up for the summer reading program.  Living in Illinois I got some at accustomed to using the Walmart grocery pick up and I use that again here for our first shopping trip which had random items that I wasn’t driving tired kids throughout the store we rendezvoused back at the house about the same time Mason had gone home.  Checking and receiving their first Nebraska mail was also lots of fun.  Let us know if you'd like our new address.    

In the afternoon and the kids were getting a little squirrley and Mason had some things he wanted to get done, so I decided to take the boys to the park I had seen previews for that wasn’t too far away in Council Bluffs, Iowa at Lake Manawa State Park.  There were several people at the lake fishing but the temperatures are really heated up for the day and there were not as many walking trails as I had originally anticipated. There were mountain bike trails but they were closed off to vehicles I’m thinking because of recent flooding.  The park was super awesome. It was a gated area with a park for 0 to 2-year-olds,  2 to 5-year-olds, and then five and up.  Of course all three boys explored all three parks.  The only downfall was that it was really hot and there is no shade. Fortunately I brought water bottles, but we didn’t last as long as we probably would have if it was cloudy and we hadn’t been tired from the previous day’s drive.  I imagine that the Park gets very crowded with the visitors because there’s a little beach right nextdoor so several kids were playing in their swimsuits.

We ended off the evening taking the kids out to a restaurant. They were excited and even Woodrow, or trickiest eater decided to try wings and decided they’re his favorite now.  We also took a walk around the neighborhood where the boys ended up losing their baseball to the street drains, and Maximus found "Santa Trees" (evergreens).  I'm a personal fan of all the bunnies we seen in the hood.