A Pet Sitting Warning

I've been trying to simplify our lives, by reducing the number of pets we have. I sold our sugar gliders, and gave away our fish (although I'm still looking for a lucky recipient of a free fish tank and accessories). After all of my hard work, I've taken a step in the wrong direction, by adding an additional pet to our family-a chicken named Daisy.

It all started with my agreeing to watch our neighbor's pets while they were gone to Disneyland. We were in charge of their two dogs, a newly hatched group of quail, and a chicken named Winnie. They were gone for only three days, when tragedy hit...during the day while everyone was gone; Winnie was killed by a couple of mangy, half-starved dogs (otherwise known as Butter and Marge). The boys came home from school and went to feed Winnie, only to find her remains. When I arrived home, I found two panicked, teary-eyed boys.

That began a frantic search for a replacement for Winnie, needing to match the breed and approximate age of Winnie proved very challenging. Luckily for us, the day before our neighbor's arrival home, we succeeded in locating a match only twenty miles away! We picked out a new Winnie and a companion for her (after the kids begged, pleaded, and made outrageous promises for getting a new pet). Amazingly, they have been very good so far at keeping those outrageous promises. It has been very fun to watch how excited they are to collect eggs, and turn them into omelets; or let the chickens out for daily exercise and bug hunting (that is the best perk, of not having as many bugs/snails in my yard).

Luckily we have very kind, forgiving neighbors. They took the transition of Winnie I to Winnie II very well, and were good not to berate us for the death of all their quail chicks (that is another long story). They were, however, quite relieved to still have both dogs alive upon their return home.

A quote from Ashlyn

I overheard Ashlyn talking to her friend the other day. I'm not sure what prompted her to be on this topic, but quite clearly I heard her say, "If you are my mother's daughter, you must love chocolate!" Yep, she's absolutely right, I eat so much chocolate when I am pregnant (and when I'm not), that it is mixed into their bloodstream when they are born. I'm afraid they are addicted at birth to chocolate...what kind of a mother am I?

Wax Museum

Last week Lauren's fifth grade class participated in their annual Wax Museum. At the Wax Museum each student picks a famous person, and then they dress up as that person, along with a backdrop and a blurb-explaining the most interesting facts of that person's life. Lauren decided to be Julie Andrews, and we chose the backdrop and the costume to represent one of her most famous roles as Maria from the Sound of Music. (Not pictured is the carpet bag with a cd player hidden inside, playing all the songs Julie Andrew sang on the Sound of Music soundtrack.)

It was a great surprise to see Grandma and Grandpa at the Wax Museum, and we were glad they came all that way to support Lauren!

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Last month we sold all our sugar gliders, along with their cages. Then, we moved the office downtstairs and began work on changing the glider room/office into Ashlyn's new bedroom. Lauren and Ashlyn kept a close eye on the painting, making sure we were doing it correctly. (Ashlyn chose a light green paint with a creamy white accent.)

Trek and Treating

Ashlyn, our little angel (most of the time)

Lauren as a wood nymph

Caleb our "red-neck" hillbilly

Nate as an old-fashioned golfer

For Halloween, we went to a local walking path, where neighbors set up spots and the kids walked around the path "trek-or-treating." Besides a lot of candy, we also had hot dogs and hot chocolate. The weather was perfect...warm and dry. After the trek-or-treating, the girls, Steve and I went out for some traditional trick-or-treating, to make sure the kids don't forget how us old fogies did it way back in the day. Although the boys were willing to go out to the trek-or-treating, they decided they were too old for the "kiddie" trick-or-treating. I figure they received enough candy and weren't willing to work for more.

Carving Up Some Fun

We continued our annual tradition this year of carving pumpkins for Halloween. Everyone picked their own pumpkin and pattern for carving. While I was at the stake center, officiating volleyball, Steve got the gang started on scooping out the gooey stuff from the pumpkin.

This year was the easiest year yet, because everyone except Ashlyn could manage most of the carving on their own.

It was a fun evening, and another successful pumpkin carving event. The pumpkin seeds with the garlic salt were a hit as well. The end result was well worth the clean-up afterwards!