Super Safe

You should know that anyone who comes to visit us is Super Safe because Spidey & SuperStar have become Super Hero's. This has all come about because of the movie 'Zoom' that we watched last weekend. These kids with super powers are trained to save the world. This stream of fantasy is something S&S are very interested in and will play out for weeks after. They have now designated themselves with names - MegaBoy (who can make himself expand really puffy) & Princess or Wonder (she switches back and forth, but either name she can move things with her mind). Babers has been named Super DahDah (they didn't say his super power, but I hope it does not include his diaper) and I have been given the distinction of being the Commander who tells everyone what they do (I also get a super power - which is that I can blow air really hard). BigGuy was SuperDad, but the kids were discussing a better one (he is super strong). Jake the wonder pup has been named Citrus (I didn't ask).

Regardless - know that you must keep their secret identities to yourselves and that when you visit you will be Super Safe.

Monday - has no number

I was originally thinking that I would do another one of those list things - Tuesday Twelve or something - only there are no numbers that start with "M" (well except a Million and do any of you really want to read a list of a Million things? I thought not). So I will still list a few things, but the number won't rhyme with an "M" and I don't really even know what they are yet -

Let's see - how 'bout things we did this weekend? It was another full weekend where it was just us.
1) BigGuy put in a great closet organizer in our bathroom - should have taken before and after photos of all our closets, but here are some afters

2) We went to a Hummingbird/Butterfly Festival held at a nature reserve a few miles out. No pictures, but it was fun. We took Jake and I might suggest that taking a baby and a puppy to any event - let alone one held outside near other people you do not know - is not a fabulous idea. However, the kiddo's begged and Jake did look really pathetic already sitting in the van. Everyone seemed to have a pretty good time.
3) The kids finished the summer reading program and earned coupons for personal pizzas at a local chain pizza parlor. We have been there before, but we will never be taking any of you when you come to visit - not worth it, but explain that to two kiddo's with FREE coupons. Something interesting I am noticing - almost everywhere we go we are bumping into mixed families - either through adoption or marriage, there seem to be many (because it isn't the same people over and over - and yes, I would notice). That is nice and it is probably why we seem to get less attention - although when we walked into the pizza place both BigGuy and I noticed that everyone in the place seemed to turn around and look at us - it was like a Cheers episode (remember that) when someone would walk in and everyone would turn around and greet them because everybody knew their name. None of these people knew our name though - so they were just staring. Dang we must be great looking - or really loud.
4) Due to the kids free stuff we found a local donut shop. Same style donuts as World's Fair in our old 'hood. They have specialty donuts too - orange juice, banana, pumpkin, etc. So now we never need to look at Krispy Kreme - although most of our family does like KK, my personal opinion is they are over priced and under creative. We would take you all there - to the donut shop, not KK.
5) BigGuy took some pictures. Now...........many of you know this story, but on our honeymoon (10 years ago) it was brought to my attention that in the future I would rarely be in a photo. We spent most of our honeymoon doing things and there are lots of shots of BigGuy - but none of me and I would have given him the camera anytime he wanted it. After awhile I even asked him to take my picture (in a sweet yet crabby "just married" kinda of way) - which he did whenever I reminded him again. So this has been an ongoing type thing. I have become the picture person (apparently I take many because even friends have mentioned this) and he occasionally takes a few. The reason I mention this is that this weekend there were quite a few skunks lying dead around our area. Must have been a really bad week for them because within a two miles stretch near our house there were 3. How is this related? Well......one of these poor skunks perished on the road behind our house. Surprisingly it didn't smell terribly (figure it must have happened at night). The connection is that they attracted big birds. One day we saw a hawk sitting on a post considering the skunk. SuperStar went out to look at it and it flew away. Then, yesterday as we drove home we noticed that vultures had descended. They probably didn't take time to consider anything and cars driving by hardly bothered them - and as soon as we got out of our car and into the house BigGuy wanted to know where the camera was - went outside and sat on the porch waiting to get a good shot of the vultures eating the skunk - eeeehhhhhhwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!! All those years his photography skills have laid dormant and vultures and skunks waken it? I mentioned this to him last night - that while he never takes pics of the kids or I, he was tripping over himself to take pics of vultures - his response was that when said that way it sounded kinda bad, but he giggled too - we will see if he takes more pics now. Now we know what motivates him to take a picture though. If only the kids and I could attract more vultures in our pictures.

6) Finally, and this is stretching it in "exciting weekend stuff" - We had our first movie night. It was a Tim Allen film that the kids are watching over and over still (no Santa), but it was nice to be finally settling in and starting our old traditions (movie night) here in our new home. We like it here much more then we anticipated - road shows and all.

Sometimes I amaze Myself

So.....the plan was to have the Six Flags slide show hopefully done by Friday - yet, it is finished today!! Wednesday!! And all the laundry is done - the kids are happy - the house is clean - the groceries are purchased - a whole chapter in 'Little House in the Big Woods' (remember that book?) was read - the dog is even brushed!! How can this be? Well, the kids started Summer Camp - "aahhhhhh" you say - that is how she is getting it done. Yeah, it is amazing what three hours of camp and the Babers napping at the same time will do for your productiveness. Yea!!

So Here is our Tribute to Friendship.....

4 days to a Weekend

Our Iowa in Illinois day actually occured on Day 3 of our weekend visit (yes, we had 4 days to our weekend - inflation you know). Before we kicked back with out of town family we ran around visiting all our other family and a few of our friends (sorry to those we didn't get to see). We knew it was "not so bright" to try and see everyone - yet we did it anyway (we laugh in the face of caution) - and we were fairly successful in at least following the plan we mapped out. Still we are now in serious recovery, but it was worth every minute. We saw Nona & Popo, Papa & GrandmaJ, our Original 5, AuntB & UncleR, Grandpa O, the Iowa Clan, a christening and party & made it to Six Flags (photos to follow another day). By the visit to Grandpa O's we were exhausted (with 2 days left to go) - yet the kids were able to swim at my sisters house until 11pm (energizer bunnies). I guess the anticipation of going to Six Flags is enough to keep anyone going high speed for days (well, not me or BigGuy - but anyone else maybe). There are more pics then these - they can be viewed on the Kodak Gallery site.

Iowa in Illinois

This weekend we had sooooooo many things to do that I can't list them all in one post. Instead I am going to break up all the events into separate posts - kinda spread the wealth and entertainment since we are so incredibly tired that we can't function today and probably won't do many notable things all week (please don't let our kids do anything crazy now that I have said that - where is the wood to knock on?). I did, however, get the pics to Kodak (so anyone who wants to purchase any pic I took is welcome) and have added a Kodak link to the side (think they will pay me any dividends for that blatant advertisement and encouragement to make purchases? Hmmm..). Anyway - one of the family things we did this weekend was gather with BigGuys Iowa relatives - only at his Cuzn's home in Illinois (just outside of St. Louis). They have a lovely home and a beautiful pool. Cuzn Rick did wonders at the grill and CuznD amazed us all with how many great dishes she offered us - plus her moms fab. chocolate dessert (thank you AuntJ!). Swimming was the big kid event and a fabulous diving display was seen. Overall though - it was nice to be with everyone - even if only for the afternoon (although some went to the races the day before). Thank you again R&D for providing us with the space.

Reverse Visit

We are headed to St. Louis this weekend. If we haven't scheduled a visit with you - then most likely you will only see us as a blurr rushing by. Already we have learned that to visit everyone in one trip is impossible (although we appear to be attempting it anyway). Friday will be Nona & Popo for lunch, Papa & Granma for Dinner, AuntB for the overnight - Sat. will be professional pics with friends followed by lunch & maybe the ZOO with another friend & the evening with Grandpa - Sun. is a christening & party for a sweet new baby and an Iowa family gathering in IL - Monday will be Six Flags with friends & CuznG, Babers visits Granma & AuntG and then the long ride home (which I am sure we will sleep during - except not BigGuy & probably not me because I would feel too guilty about being able to sleep and worried that BigGuy might fall asleep). If I don't lose my sanity I will post some of the pics when we are back.

So...what are you doing this weekend?

Thursday Thirteen - it is Thursday right?

Honestly I have no idea what this means - Thursday Thirteen - but I see it on other blogs and figured that the idea is to list thirteen things of some particular topic. BigGuy and I have been discussing "differences" between here and city living and I thought that could be the topic -
Thirteen Things that are Different
13) Starbucks appears to be more popular then religion here - or Starbucks is the religion here (as I am sure my friend CC would admire). For 160,000 people we have 7 Starbucks and countless other coffee shops (many near the 2 full and 2 half colleges).
12) Organic is everywhere. It is also everywhere in the city - but primarily in WholeFoods, TraderJoe's and that other one. Here is seems to be just what is for breakfast. We see the crop dusters - what are they dropping if everything is organic?
11) People like to wave to you from their garage. I believe this is a safe haven for people here. Some will wander down the drive way to say "Hi" in person, but most of our neighbors wave from the driveway and we would not be able to pick them out at any of the Starbucks if we bumped into them. In the city you could hear your neighbors breathing while they were in their own house you were so close - so you waved and said "Hi" personally. That was nice.
10) We can see everyone weather. It is so flat here (yes it is a rolling flat - but flat none the less) that we can see the weather everywhere. Freaks Spidey out because anything that looks like rain makes him whimper. Although he appears to be getting over that as he and his sis were jumping on the trampoline, in their swimsuits in the rain a bit ago.
9) We wash more bedsheets here. Due to the large amount of visitors we have. You all never stayed overnight at our old house and we could go weeks - don't tell Oprah.
8) We wash our car here - ourselves - in the drive way - on a Sunday. At our old house we would never have done that for fear of being hit by someone driving quickly down the road - we had no driveway - and Sunday was always booked with a million things to do.
7) No one is ever in the stores after dinner. Really. It is eerie. You walk around and there are so few people there that the helper people are actually dying to help you. My friend, SS and I had to beg a guy at HomeDepot to stop helping us he was so helpful. In St. Louis people shopped all hours and you had to bribe the helpers to help you.
6) The movie Children of the Corn is real here - there is so much corn that the kids can't get away from it. The most often seen crop in our old area was.....hmmmmm....
5) Speaking of which - The Children's Museum is full of combine things, grain counting games, fake corn, fake cows with milking machines you can operate and other agriculture related "teachings". Yes, there are other things and yes the kids do love the place anyway - but in St. Louis the Children's Museum had tons of things that related to tons of different areas.
4) There are a lot more deceased things on the side of the road. In the city it was common to see a squirrel, sometimes a cat, a every once in awhile a dog - but out here we see those less often then skunks, raccoon's, deer (we even saw a deer hit a car), and a deceased baby piglet. Give me the squirrel's any day.
3) The Road Rage here is amazing!! Isn't a country setting supposed to be relaxing?? As mentioned - there are a lot of coffee shops and we think the residents here are drinking far too much caffeine because they can not handle the slightest driving challenges. We have personally been flipped off about 5 times (cumulative) and although a few were for trying to drive the wrong way early on - some have been just for being on the road driving. They are nuts here. In St. Louis people cut you off, but they don't honk and then flip you off.****I have to amend this - in St. Louis this weekend we saw one person throw something at another persons car - breaking the window and then leaving the scene of the crime - maybe I would rather be flipped off****
2) The festivals are not as colorful. I have yet to see a Pagan picnic or Gay Pride parade announced. County Fair - yes - Blues Festival - yes. International festival - nope.
1) We spend more time with our family and friends. So far at least - seriously - you all come visit and you are forced to spend more then 24 hrs at a time with us. In St. Louis you were able to escape after 2 or 3 hours. Many of you have spent 3 days even - that is something that is great because we have more quality time with you.

And that would be our Thursday Thirteen.

I can't Believe they Ate that............

Now, I will admit to being the temptress who purchased and handed my children these things.......but still.........

So, you know how when you find something that really smells or tastes really bad you often times announce it to whoever is with you and then hand it to them and tell them, "Here this is awful, smell this." or "This is gross, does this taste right to you?" That is kinda like this. I saw these marshmallow hamburgers at the store - I knew the kids would get a huge kick out of them (and that I could horrify any adults who looked at them before the kids found them) - so I bought them. A few weeks after buying them, when we were bored, I took them out. The kids eyes lit up - when they realized that the things were 100% marshmallow their eyes popped out!!! Then I told them that they would most likely be totally gross and they really shouldn't eat them (see, I did the good parent thing and warned them against the evil of this disgusting treat). Still, their mouths were watering like Jake when you dangle a piece of turkey. I made them pose for pictures - they took a bite - swore that they loved them and they were the greatest treats ever - I left because it was totally gross - and when I came back two minutes later the marshmallow burgers were sitting on the counter - maybe two bites out of each - and they were done. I threw them out. A bit later Spidey came in and asked if he could have a real marshmallow since the burger couldn't have been real. I obliged. Real marshmallows seemed healthier somehow.

Woes of email

We wanted to let people who might be sending us email know that for the moment we can RECEIVE email, but we will not be able to RESPOND through email. I have no idea what the deal is, but it is not our computer (thank goodness) it has something to do with an ongoing problem with Insight, our provider. So.............keep that in mind and give us a jingle until you get an email from us.

This has been fixed - well, I mean we are using yahoo for email now - soooooo if you haven't received the new email address (which you should have) then give us a call and we will give it to you.

The Pilgrimage(s)

We have been shown by family and friends just how much we mean to them. Since moving to our new home the first week of June - we have NOT been without visitors for more then 5 days in a row. This is a definite sign that we are loved - by many. When another member of the St. Louis Group (that is what I call all of us who moved with BigGuys company - there were about 21 employees and 18 families - some were couples working for the same company) mentioned that we are constantly having visitors I joked that it is this summer's "pilgrimage" to see our new home. Of course I did meet a woman who lives in our neighborhood and she told us that this was their summer home. When I asked why they would want a summer home here she seemed confused. I suppose that my confusion was just as great. I mean it is beautiful, but they have little kids like our and there aren't any real "hot spots" here - plus the pool they are going to is tiny (not like the one BigGuy's company has). So I just don't get it - must be that 4th of July parade. With all the visitors we have now been to our favorite dairy farms so many times that the owner has called me their own Chamber of Commerce. She is very sweet. I guess that is a sign that we probably need to find other things to show people - but it is cool there.

Anyway, this weekend it was my mom, sister and kiddo's. We had lots of fun. It was wonderful to have them here and sad to see them leave. At this point they are the last pilgrimage officially planned for the summer. Next week we head to St. Louis to attend some stuff and we will have to work on some more people to come visit us. Of course, we are meeting friends here - perhaps we should begin building a "normal" routine (if there is such a thing).

We thought Jake litter trained himself

So...........we have a few adjustments to make in our new home. Where the cat food goes - where the water bowl goes - where to put the litter boxes so that Jake & Babers stay out. What we didn't expect was that Jake would train himself to use the litter box. Early on we had a few "he didn't get out fast enough" accidents. There were also a few times that the cats used the floor upstairs - we thought it was to show us they could because the litter was being kept clean. The bright side was that Jake used the basement. While we have the kids play area, extra tv (for the kids) and my craft space down there, still much better to use the concrete floor then the nice wood floor or the new rugs we purchased. So we thought, "could be worse" and tried to be better about getting him outside on time. Then we noticed that the litter box was very very full. We didn't figure two tiny cats could make so much dampness, but the only other thought was Jake - and while Jake is a squatter, still the aim would have to be right on. BigGuy was changing the litter (thank you BigGuy) and came upstairs to say that Jake HAD to be using the cat box because the litter in it was practically floating around. SuperStar was there and she said, "You mean in the basement? Oh, that is SpideyBoy." We just kinda looked at her and she added, "Well, he made me promise not to tell you." (Like that kind of a promise has ever worked for him with her in the past).

BigGuy talked with Spidey and sure enough - he was the one using the litter box. Apparently the eight steps to the bathroom at the top of the stairs were too much and he just walked around the wall I created to use the cat box. This explains why the cats were choosing Not to use the cat box on occassion. The whole thing was much cooler when it was Jake and he had litter trained himself. Spidey is now in recovery.

Dinner ala M.O.

I would like to thank my friend, M.O., for our dinner this evening. She didn't make it, although she has done that for us since we moved (thank you again for that treat), but rather I stole the recipe from her when we were at her house the other night. As I played with BabyO and Babers I watched what she was doing and she made the easiest - yet tastiest - homemade version of burrito's. SpideyBoy gobbled it up without complaint (a miracle) and had a blast "making" the burrito himself. This evening BigGuy, Spidey & SuperStar raved about liking it - even Babers ate the rice and had a second helping (he has been on a food strike lately & you have to sneak food in). So - hopefully she won't mind - here is the recipe (as I saw it out of the corner of my eye - meaning M.O. might do things a bit diff).

Easy Burrito
3-4 servings of prepared Rice (we did brown rice)
1 can Chicken (or light meat of baked Chicken from the store all torn up)
Salsa
1 can Black Beans (optional)
Tortillas
Cheese
Chopped up Tomatoes & Lettuce
Sour Cream

* Cook the rice
* Prep the chopped veggies while rice is cooking
* Once rice is done add Chicken, Salsa (to taste), Black Beans, & Cheese (your choice) into the rice - stir until combined.
* Serve - one tortilla & then top it with rice mixture, chopped tomato, lettuce, sour cream & cheese.

SuperStar said it was, "the best homemade burrito she has even eaten"

Without Visitors

Without visitors this weekend we were forced to find things to do here in our new city. Since we have a huge laundry list of things to still organize this was not difficult to figure out. BigGuy put in some beautiful closet organizers - two down and four to go. They truly are a thing of beauty. We picked up some new furniture, donated well loved furniture, hit the hardware store a few times, went to a park, attended the company pool party, milked some cows (really, there is an organic dairy farm we like and they let the kids milk some cows), attended the St. Louis family picnic with people who relocated, started some future friendships and stayed up way too late each night. What did you all do?

In the closet

BigGuy says I have a problem if this is what I am using my time to do. I say that rainbows are beautiful and you can never have things too orgnanized. You see the couple that lived here before us left all their hangers. I think they literally took all their clothes off the hangers and packed them up leaving their hangers "hangin". With all the options I sorted them out by color and then realized that we had enough white hangers to hang all of our clothes, but that all the other color categories were a bit too small to hang everything on. So I placed the extra's in our bath closet and used the largest group to hang our clothes. Very proud of myself I showed BigGuy and SuperStar (the two family members I thought would most appreciate it - I mean, SuperStar loves rainbows). They didn't really. In fact, my daughter basically told me to stay away from her closet and she would do things her own way. She said it nicely, but still....... BigGuy says she is just like me. I don't see it - well, maybe I do.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July - one day late. If you were to go to the links for other sites I have posted here you would get the history of the 4th of July or you would have the opportunity to reflect on what the holiday is meant to celebrate. I don't have the energy to be so creative. To celebrate we invited three families of our friends - I realized that with our family that made four - get it 4 - so that was the perfect number to celebrate the 4th of July. We spent the day just hanging around, snacking, playing, touring, giggling and enjoying one another. Since there were no "obligations" we spent the day realizing our Freedom to do what we choose. Hopefully that is enough of a tribute to the people who helped us earn our independence so many years ago. We had fun and enjoyed one another.

Someone mentioned Stepford

When they were visiting recently someone mentioned that the neighborhood we lived in is a bit like the Stepford movie. They are right in a sense - the houses are all nice, the lawns are all very well manicured, everyone we have met seems very family centered and every evening you can find the neighbors walking around with their dogs and stopping to chat with one another. It is how we have met many neighbors - either by doing the walking with Jake or just being in our yard and having a neighbor on their walk stop to introduce themselves. Now, there don't seem to be perfect people with perfect lives in perfect clothes, delivering perfect baked goods (although one neighbor did bring by some delicious "from scratch" brownies - yum yum), but there do seem to be many who love living here and appear dedicated to making it a very family first section of life. Needless to say though, the "Stepford" joke was in our head when we attended the neighborhood 4th of July parade. We were informed (through new friends & the neighborhood bulletin) that we could enter the parade by walking, biking, driving our golf cart (which we do not have) or just sitting on the side rooting the parade participants on. We divided up - Spidey, SuperStar and I rode bikes, Babster and BigGuy watched. We had to register the kids for the judging - yes there were awards - and then we waited in front of the grandstand - yes there was a stage with a giant crane that held a giant flag over the stage - where the band played while a few of the neighbors showed their talent through singing patriotic songs and one hired singer sang a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, a group of kids said the Pledge of Alligience and we were off and going. First we were announced one at a time in front of the judges and then we were off around the neighborhood where we were waved at and clapped for. At our own house we stopped to watch the rest and the kids collected candy from the cars and fire engines. It was fun - there were ponies, popsicles and someone said an air show (although we didn't see it and I think they were joking). However, from the eyes of an outsider it might have seemed a bit Stepford. Maybe we should watch that movie again - it was all pretty fun.

If You Build It....

There didn't seem to be many kiddo's in our neighborhood. Prior to moving we were told by the neighbor I was emailing with that they were all over. Our section of the subdivision we live in has about 40 houses. Most of those houses have playsets in the backyard so we figured that there would be many kids all over. However, we weren't seeing them at first. Thinking if we didn't meet any this summer it wasn't a big deal (because there are so many people visiting) then when school started friendships would click - we let our minds move onto other things. On a drive one day I mentioned how creepy it would be to live right next to the corn. Some of the houses here back up directly to the field. Then you think about the movie "Children of the Corn" or "Signs" - yuck yuck yuck. BigGuy, however, pointed out that living near a field of corn could turn out to be our "Field of Dreams" - I did agree that was a positive take on living near corn although I am still quite happy that we live near the cows and not the corn. A few days later he built our new trampoline. Most of the way done with the building of it we had a knock at the door. Two of the neighborhood boys had come by to introduce themselves. They said that they saw the kids in the backyard and the trampoline and they thought it would be the neighborly thing to come and introduce themselves. It was very sweet. After that we joked that even if the corn was just a smidge around the corn our trampoline would be the field of dreams - since we built it they have come. We now have four kids in the neighborhood becoming friends.

If You Build It.......

Our Move Movie

Where are the Kids?

We had great movers and in the four days we spent with them they kinda became those family members that you never really see and it takes awhile to get comfortable, but once you are everything is good. They showed up on Monday - packed our entire house - then on Tuesday they were starting to pack all our things into the truck (it was everywhere, house, porch, sidewalk, truck, yard) and they did most of it this day - then on Wednesday they returned and packed the rest of the truck. Our house took an ENTIRE, very long, semi truck. That is a lesson in learning to better use the Yard Sale events - oh, and that when we move back you all had better plan to help. If we don't have professional movers I am not sure we could do it. We are still taking things to the Goodwill and Salvation Army. Anyway, on Thursday when we were unloading the truck in our brand new neighborhood you hear the trucks horn blowing - and it is really loud. The driver allowed the kiddo's to get into the truck, look around the inside (as a fan of CMT's Trick My Truck I totally understand the interest) and honk the horn. It was kinda like a signal to the entire neighborhood -
"The really noisy neighbors are here!!! Everybody look - they have arrived!!"
Really though - the kids loved doing it and I think the driver was enjoying it just as much. No harm, the neighbors are still being friendly.

So........everything is unloaded, we fed the moving guys and they were headed back to Columbia. We are sitting in the kitchen with my mom and we all kinda look around. It is pretty quiet since the moving noise was stopped - but there wasn't even the sound of the kids. So we start talking about where the kids are. Look out the window - nope, not in the nicely safe and fenced in yard - listen to the ceiling - nope, no one upstairs bouncing around - listen for the basement echo - nope, no one downstairs - then it dawns on us, they are in the front yard playing. We all kinda look at each other and realize that in our old neighborhood we never would have let the kids play in the front yard. Too much traffic, the cars were moving way too fast and there really wasn't any space. Here there are hardly any cars - tons of space before they even hit the road (not that the baby doesn't keep testing this thought) and even when there is a car it is going slowly. Very nice. Of course, we have learned that when it rains we get water in the ravine between the street and our yard. Spidey Boy has figured this out too and can be found after every rain playing in it. Spidey's friend enjoyed this too. They were soaked, but happy.

Why the Title?

Here it is the Blog you have all been waiting for..................Ohhh Yeah....No Mo-Skee-Toes!! I actually created the blog about two weeks ago - only we have had so many visitors that there hasn't been any time to really share any of our stories. Today I am taking a moment to at least do the intro and hopefully send it to those that I have email addresses for. Then, later I will add some stories about things we have done. I have them all written down. So here we go.......

Do you wonder why we are calling our blog "Ohhh Yeah....No Mo-Skee-Toes!!"? We figure that this blog is going to be about keeping people up to speed on what is happening with our family here in our new state, town, community & home. The kids are ALWAYS good for a funny story and we adults can create a few ourselves, but I know I won't remember to share them all when I speak to you - so I can share them here. Plus, we thought it might be fun to share any differences we see between living here in a rural setting and at our other home in a big city. One big diff - the amount of road kill. Anyway, the name - we were brainstorming names, it wasn't going so well as the Big Guy wasn't being very serious, when he did think to ask what we like about living here. One big thing for the kids is the playset - then the amount of stars we have since we are minus all the lights - and the lack of mosquitos came up - then the kids started to sing, "Oooooohhhhh yeaaaaahhhh.......no mo-skee-toes" over and over and over and over - until we told them to stop or we would go insane - and once they were quiet my brain began to function again and their song seemed to be a good title - and I also figured that there wouldn't be much competition for it. I was right and it stuck. So there is the name. Oh, and we really do not have any mosquitos. Plenty of other bugs, but we can sit outside any time of day and never use a smidge of bug spray. It is very nice.