Baptized by Fire, Well Fire Ants

I don't know if you can tell from the picture or not but Grantham was attacked by fire ants. For those of you who are not familiar with fire ants (or people like John who are non-believers in the scene in the new Indiana Jones movie). Here is what happened: Grantham was digging in a mulch pile near our garden when he stepped in an ant's nest. We have tried to teach him to stay out of their path but it was hard to see in the dark dirt (usually ant's nest look like a small pile of sand that has been dumped on top of the grass). He started running and fell saying ANTS! ANTS! John ran over to see what the commotion was about and started knocking the ants off of Grantham. All of this happened in just a few minutes, but if you can make out the picture, Grantham has at least thirty bites. Grantham was such a trooper (I have only had two bites but they burn for a few days, then form into puss pockets and finally scab over). Even after two weeks there are still signs of the "attack." Every time Grantham notices the small bumps on his feet, he ask John or me "Why did the ants do that?" When we try to explain that the ants were scared because he stepped on their house he says "I didn't mean to," or "they (the ants)shouldn't do that." John took the bites as an all out war against all the ants in our yard. I just pray that Grantham never has to go through this again!
On a lighter note, we are settling into the area and rain has brought with it cooler weather. The people here continue to be overly gracious and friendly. Hopefully we will be on more of a schedule soon.

When HOT weather strikes

What is a child to do when the weather never goes below 75 degrees and the highs are hitting 99 and 100 everyday? Grantham and his mommy started going a little crazy until we talked Papa into getting us a few items we will call the Mississippi Summer Survival Kit. I know you are dying to know what we have in our "kit." Well they say pictures can say a thousand words so here we go:

Number 1:

The all important swimming pool - since our neighborhood does not have a pool we decided to improvise with a little 10' x 10' x 2' pool in our own backyard. We don't get the fun of socializing with our neighbors but we can endure the heat outside for an hour or so.

Number 2:

Yes that is an inflatable bouncy toy in our livingroom! Hey you make exceptions when energy levels are at an all time high and you can't be outside too long.