Creepy!

Living in the 'country' it's not unusual for us to adopt odd things. My kids love to keep frogs, and weird bugs. They will occasionally scream at the (and don't get all grossed out) giant cockroaches, (thank goodness i have cats!), until we let them know that he is a 'guard roach' and keeps bad guys out. I guess it never occurred to them that the bad guy will just step on it and keep coming in. (I hope bad guys are scared of roaches!!!) Then, once in a blue moon you have the creepy, odd thing that adopts you. No, I'm not talking about the weirdo down the street..even though he is VERY CREEPY! I just about peed myself when I saw this. No, I haven't killed it. That's Shawn's job. I'm kinda hoping to see a beautiful web of some kind out of it. Check this out!

This new 'pet' is living close to the back porch right next to the AC until. Guess it will never get too hot right there! Think the kids will believe it's a guard spider?? He's almost as big as they are! I think it's a banana spider, not sure though.

Ok so after I posted this my too-smart-for-his-own-good husband e-mailed me this: "One of our largest, brightest, and most frequently noticed spiders, the Black-and-Yellow Argiope They are also known as the garden spider (since they're very common in gardens) or writing spider (for the patterns in their webs). They catch large insects in their sturdy webs, including grasshoppers and butterflies. They are harmless to humans" Ain't he smart??!!

Makes you glad your not an insect, right?The web is amazing and growing every hour!

Then there is that animal that is soo creepy that we keep it locked up. It shakes the cage and makes alot of noise and then.....

It smiles and you release it for a quick bottle break!

I promise she really did do this on her own. I had nothing to do with it! Should I add the disclaimer that no children were harmed during the making of this blog???!!!

For Aunt Keela

As many of you know Aunt Keela and Uncle Scott work for a company which, following the storm needed employees working ungodly hours seven days a week. We offered to help them by picking up their "kids" and taking them to the 'hotel'. Let me tell you about the hotel..OMG!!!! I want to stay there! The staff is wonderful, amenities are the bomb, and for a few extra bucks they get extra play time with a human. I want to stay there!! Anyway we get them to the hotel and after school every few days the kids and i go for a visit and extra special play time! I think my kids like it more than the puppies, and I'm sure the puppies are exhausted after we leave!! But, today's post is to show Aunt Keela her kids and the love that they are getting. She thinks she maybe able to finally go to regular schedule soon! I hope so! Keela these are for you!

Gidget was were Gidget is usually forced to be when Alyssa is near! I don't think Gidget was allowed to walk much on our visits! I still haven't figure out if Gidget likes it or not!

Pearl found a spot with Austin. I kinda think she was forced into that too but she didn't complain!
Then they all found a safe comfortable spot. No Keela, they are not traitors, they know a child free zone when they see it!!
Ashlyn is still trying to decide how she feels about them. When they are not barking she loves them. She was clicking at them and giving kisses the whole time.
I promise I didn't do this to her. I was cleaning and found her inside the kennel with the door closed. I hid for a while and she was going in and out. Unfortunately, i think she knows it's for animals and she ended up stuffing the kittens in there! She released them and they run past the kennel and Ashlyn now.

She was pretty proud of herself for figuring that out! Plus she noticed the camera flash and had to put on that smile, so I couldn't resist another picture! She's too funny! Hope you are able to come home soon Aunt Keela and Uncle Scott! Thank you for suffering and working so hard for us! We appreciate it, and so do everyone else that is sitting in AC reading their internet right now! LOVE YOU! Oh by the way, we will be dropping the kids off on Friday at 6:30 and pick them up on Sunday late! haha!!! Just kidding!

After math of Ike

This is the calm before the storm. Of course there really is no calm when you have to pack everything you love and Cherish in the back of an SUV and hope everything else is still there when you get back. See if you can get this mental picture (I'm sure that won't be hard!) I'm packing stuff, kids are taking it out to porch, Shawn loading truck. Next I'm informed by the kids that Dad said I was packing too much. What should we leave?? Clothes? Pictures? Insurance papers? Food? One of the kids?? Some how he made it all fit, i think his complaining helped! So we get all loaded and head over to a friends house. Kids had a grand time, and I think the adults did, too.

Here is the party before the storm. Everyone is happy and full of energy. Note the monkey's! 1 monkey you can't even see! that would be Alyssa showing she can do it better than the boys! The boys you may not know is the friends we stayed with Brian and his son Everett. Brian's girlfriend Brittany is taking the picture. We had great host's!

The kids fell asleep before we lost power. Well, not Austin! He's a video game junkie! He played half the night!

Gee, Mom! what were you so worried about??!! This hurricane thing is kinda fun!


This was the worst we had. If you look in the distance you can see neighbors trampoline which blew across the road.

Our Trampoline never moved!

Shawn had to cut trees to get us in the driveway and we had alot of water in the yard. Not surprising that we call it Acker Swamp! See Austin?? Can you hear it?? "Dad if you cut this branch.." "Dad, your doing it wrong!". Austin is the supervisor in training.

All things considered we fared really well! We were without power until the following Wednesday. I enjoyed it! Bed time came EARLY! No fighting over what we are watching on tv. Maybe I should tell Shawn to quit paying the power bill so I can relive it....well, maybe we should wait until winter for that! Everything we own and love is in one piece and where we left it and the family, extended and all are alive and well, and a few are grumpy about the power situation. It's all good!

More to come soon!

Meet the Clan

The Acker Clan

Well, at least part of them, except mom and dad, but you didn't come here for them!! I'm creating this blog to keep everyone up to date on what's going on in Acker-ville. If you came here, hopefully you know us and understand the chaos of Acker life, if you don't, hit the back button quickly and pretend you never saw this blog! HAHA! I'm hoping to update this every few days and let you know what is going on in the everyday lives of... us! Some maybe funny, some may not, so read on at your own risk!!

First let me update you on the kids:

Austin: He is 9 and growing fast. He is a helper and has a sweet heart when he's not telling you a better way to create the wheel! He was in baseball last year and we are proud to say his team finished in second place which was a pretty big deal. Right now he is in karate (or what ever that hong kong phooey thing is called) and is loving it. I use karate as a bribe and it works. He is wanting to get into weapons training but...if you know Austin..you know that is a hospital visit waiting to happen! He is also in boy scouts. This is his third year and he is a wolf . He enjoys that alot too.

Alyssa is...Alyssa. She's a diva and thinks she can do no wrong (reminder: THINKS). She is a excellent student and teacher's pet. Her progress report from monday was all A's and 1 B, but an 89 is soo right there! She is in too all things girlie and beating up her brother. She was in tumbling last year and is currently razzing me about starting cheer leading this year. ( The girl needs a job!) She is also in her 3rd year of scouts and is a brownie. She is loving that and works hard at getting money out of people for cookie sales! (she is selling something now, not cookies but nuts or something so if your interested you have my #!!!) (Don't make me have her call you!)

She is a sweetie aside from all that and my big helper with her little sister. They are joined at the hip!
Ashlyn, rotten Ashlyn! Ashlyn is now 17 months and growing. No, she doesn't walk, she runs! She is independent and fun. Always happy. And into alot. Not everything but alot. She needs no entertaining, very little food and a bottle strategically placed. She is the easiest of the 3. I promise to share more about her later.

For now I'm fighting with her for the computer so I will update more later. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to join us on this crazy ride. Obviously your life is boring if your coming here daily, but i won't complain! I'm just kidding, but I wish mine was boring, and I'm not kidding about that!