The Native Inhabitants of our Home

!!!!WARNING!!!!

The following content may be too scary for some viewers...in other words Tom, don't let Emily see this.

When Forrest Hoyt stopped by to visit on Sunday, he shared all kinds of great new tricks with the kids. Previously, the kids were just happy spotting all the lizards that congregate on the south wall of our house each night soaking up what's left of the warmth from the sun. Sometimes the kids would be fast enough and clever enough to catch one. Forrest inspired the kids to master lizard catching...and...he showed them what to do next.When you first catch a lizard, they have some spunk in them. If you brush their mouths across your ear lobe, they'll get a little angry and bite and not let go.

Not all the kids were excited about having lizard earrings. Poor Amanda, the lizard was sitting on her shoulder for quite awhile before she noticed it. Can you see the lizard in the bottom corner.? While the kids were trying to catch one lizard, it jumped off the wall and landed on Lucky's back. He was almost as freaked out about it as Amanda. Forrest kept trying to get a lizard to stay on Dad's ear, but it wouldn't bite.Fortunately, this wasn't too much excitement for the night before school started. Everyone managed to fall asleep. And everyone managed to wake-up in the morning. The trouble is, now the kids have an even bigger fascination with the lizards.

Brandon caught one tonight and brought it in to show us. This one was still pretty feisty and kept nipping at his finger. We tried the dangle test by letting the lizard bite onto Brandon's finger and just hang there. Brandon was as calm as a caterpillar. At least until the lizard dropped from his finger to his leg. Then he jumped back and the lizard ran for it-straight under the coffee table.

The kids tried to fish him out, but couldn't find him. Mark lifted up the table and the kids searched the bottom of it. Then he pulled out all the drawers and everyone looked over every nook and cranny of those drawers. Finally we concluded it had found shelter somewhere else in the house. Everyone was OK with that. Who cares if there's a lizard in the house. Little creatures like that don't hurt anything. Then Talyor had to announce that he'd seen a scorpion just last week in the boys' bathroom. GREAT! Now Emily will never come to our house.