On Saturday, our church held its first Family Fishing Rodeo. I have to be honest – this was not exactly high on my list of things I wanted to accomplish before the end of the year. I am not much of a fisherman – the whole be still and quiet thing goes against my nature. But, oddly enough, Gracie loves fishing and she’s actually very good at it – every time she’s been, she’s caught at least one fish. One of our friends called and asked if we wanted to join them fishing off of their neighborhood pier.
I don’t know what’s been up with me the last few weeks. I’m feeling anti-social, anti-adventure, pretty much anti-everything. Maybe it’s the fact I’ve been pretty bogged down at work, writing some pretty tedious code that never seems to perform exactly like I want it to work. Maybe it’s Abigail’s incessant whininess – she’s still adjusting to an all-day school schedule and my usually sunny little girl is melting down at least once a day. Maybe it’s Gracie’s homework which is still getting the better of her. She does have a lot of work, but it’s not excessive – it just seems to be taking her forever to finish it. We’re working with her on better time management skills (and as I’m typing this, I realize the lunacy of me teaching her better time management…talk about the pot calling the kettle black). I’m trying really hard to do a better job organizing our schedules, our budget, and our house. Isn’t that a never-ending theme around here? Whatever it is, I just don’t feel as carpe diemish as I usually do. So, when Saturday morning rolled around, what I really wanted to do was get caught up on laundry and dishes and maybe just hang out on the couch. WHAT? Who have I become? Gracie, though, wasn’t having any of that. She pleaded that we go and fish. So, we did. I planned on staying for about an hour, heading home to do some stuff, going back up to church for the fish weigh in and basket dinner, and then being back home for good by 3:30 p.m. We “fished” for three hours, went straight to church and stayed there for another two hours. I’m so glad we did! The laundry and the dishes stayed incomplete, but my girls went to bed slightly sunburned, exhausted, and happy.
The girls had fun jumping off the pier with their friend, Claire.
Abigail even jumped in off the very end (Gracie thought it was too deep!)
They played in the sand with hermit crabs
and the girls each caught a catfish! I was really thankful that we went to our friends’ house instead of striking out on our own, because, I am not sure I would have been able to get the catfish off of the hooks without help!
At church, the girls weighed their fish. Gracie’s weighed 1 ounce and Abigail’s weighed 1 pound and a couple of ounces. They played on the playground for a while and then listed to a really interesting demonstration from someone from the Roy Hyatt Environmental Center. They learned about TEDs (Turtle Excluder Devices) which allow sea turtles to escape safely from fishermen’s (particularly shrimpers’) nets. Here’s Gracie getting ready to crawl through one:
They even got to pet a snake. Here’s Regis:
Steve met us at church for dinner after he got off of work. He made it in time to put Regis around his neck.
I put Regis around my neck, too. There aren’t any pictures. Mainly because I got mad at Steve because he was trying to cajole me into doing it and when I refused he said, “come on, you never do anything.” Have I mentioned that I’m grumpy lately. So, instead of sticking my tongue out him and proving him wrong like I would normally do, I got upset and sulked off. Then, I got mad and put the snake out of spite, but by that time, Steve had wandered off so there was no one to document my insanity. I really hope I get out of this fog soon!
So, for a day that was supposed to be spent quietly at home, it sure didn’t turn out that way. The girls were certainly happy about that!