I met Francis in Arkansas

I spent the weekend in BFE, Arkansas. Yes, it was pretty - not beautiful - just pretty. I despise driving anywhere now that I have kids. It's a permanent pain in my ass. At least we have the mini van which makes things as convenient as they could possibly be. We have a DVD player and the kids can watch whatever they want, but six freakin' hours in the car is a bit much for all of us, and George is the most vocal about his dislike of the car. Nonetheless, it is still always nice to see family, right?

Some highlights from my trip include these vista shots from my jog on Saturday morning.



Quite beautiful, although I swear I felt like Snow White because little bits of wildlife kept startling me as they hopped out from bushes on my left and right. Some of the rustling was from unknown creatures, but my favorite creature, the one I can't get enough of and continue to look back at was the frog affectionately named (by me) Francis the Frog aka Frank the Tank. I was at the end of my jog down the rural roads where Chuck's parents live when I caught a glimpse of something crawling along through the ditch. At first, I thought it was a rat and I stepped back, but when I got a better look, it turns out it was a frog. A GIANT ASS FROG!


You're thinking, "Geez, Theresa. It doesn't look that big."
And I would respond, "No! It's totally GINORMOUS!!!! The photo doesn't do it justice!"

I still can't get over it and I'm sure I can't possibly explain how freaking HUGE this thing was. I spent fifteen minutes crouched on the side of the road talking to this thing! I tried to find a piece of litter nearby that I could get in the picture so you could get a frame of reference, but there was nothing available except a vacuum cleaner attachment. I'm not sure why, because I had seen Bush Beer cans or empty packs of Pall Mall strewn along the side of the road every fifty feet until I discovered Francis and then there was nothing. Click here to see the video footage I took of Francis. Un-freakin-believable!

Francis's body would just barely fit on a standard sheet of 8 1/2" by 11" paper.

There is nothing like a trip to Arkansas. Two of the highlights of our drive include stopping on a rural road to honk at some dogs that were socializing in the middle of the road. Chuck honked his horn to get them to move, but they just looked at us like we had intruded onto private property and we ended up driving around them! My second favorite was when we had to stop while some people loaded a mattress onto their truck because it had apparently fallen out in transit. In case you couldn't tell, I'm a city girl, and this stuff boggles my mind!

But on a more serious note, it was a nice trip with plenty of cool sunshine, perky wildflowers, and loving mother's day hugs from my little ones.