Meet Fru-Fru... errr Dark Blood

I'm thinking Jamie used to beat small children in a former life or something. It's the only thing that explains why this child has the worst luck. So, Cassie got a rat that is pretty active and social and well, doesn't bite.

Jamie got... well... he got Fru-Fru. Fru-Fru was a black hamster that looked nice enough in the pet store.

Then we brought it home.

Jamie stuck his hand in there to put it into it's house mansion and it bit him. Yeah, now it's name is Dark Blood. Nice.

We are, of course, hoping it was just upset and confused and scared. Me? IT IS A RAT. IN MY HOUSE. I NOW HAVE A LIZARD AND RATS LIVING IN MY HOUSE! DO YOU HEAR ME? THIS IS A PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!

*breathe breathe breathe*

My point? It won't bite me because I'm NOT touching it and if it gets out, I'm getting a cat. Or borrowing one. Or something. Whatever.

So, here's Dark Blood and his house mansion. I also got a shot of him through the bars eating. Yes, I could have opened the door, but he was too close for comfort and... yeah, that's not happening.







He even looks like a menacing little shit, doesn't he?

.

Meet Fuzzy Wuzzy

The kids kept up with their chores and made sure Julie was fed and stuff (for the most part) so now us parents had to keep up with our end of the deal (TOM!) and they got their own pets.

Cassie got a gerbil that she named Fuzzy Wuzzy. He's pretty docile, likes to chew - A LOT. And likes to run in his wheel at night (thankfully she seems to sleep through it).

Me? It's a freaking rat. In my house. If it gets out, I'm totally setting one of those snap traps for it. I don't care. You call it a pet. It's a RAT. Don't make me buy a cat. I don't care that the two males in the house are allergic. If that rat gets lose, it's hungry kitty food.

So here you go... this is Fuzzy Wuzzy and a shot of her house mansion





We will meet Jamie's new pet tomorrow...

*evil laugh*

When the kids won't let me take their picture...

I basically have to resort to hounding poor little Julie when the kids decide to be anti-camera.

At least she's cute (even if not fully potty trained *TOM*).

A good picture of Julie...

I took this late last week... I thought it turned out really good...

Nighty Night -- the spoiled dog...

Cassie LOVES Julie. Julie worships Cassie. Seriously, this little dog puts up with so much from these kids. I honestly have no idea where she gets the patience. Julie likes to play with Jamie - mainly lick his ears - yeah, we think it's weird too. But Cassie is her BFF. They are inseparable. I'll walk into the living room or Cassie's room and there they will be, Julie usually has finagled herself into getting a belly rub.

Sometimes we let Julie stay out for the night instead of putting her in the kennel. She almost always end up in bed with Cassie.

I'm not sure how she got covered up and snuggled in like this, but it was just too cute not to take a picture of:


Sigh... maybe I won't give her away because she STILL isn't 100% potty trained. Seriously, if it's raining or cold the dog will NOT go outside. We've tried locking her out there and she just sits on the stoop shivering looking pathetic. Then comes in and promptly craps on the rug.

Freaking dog.

Dakota gets a new BFF

Our friend, J, had the class pet (this stuffed lizard - I dunno, it's weird, but whatever). So I took a picture of him with his new BFF, Dakota, our lizard.

J's mom made me, I'm not THAT corny.

Errr... okay.

Some misc photos of the kiddos....

I was playing with my camera and these are my faves...

Cassie and her BFF...


A face only a mother could love...


Friend J gets the big hello from Julie...


Jamie looking super cute...

A family of entertainers...

It's a good thing I have a marketable skill or we'd all be in the poor house...

I think Julie's WTF look kind of says it all:


Cassie's "Rock Show"




Jamie's "Dog Show":




... and Tom thinks he is a Guitar Hero (ca-thunk is NOT a note):

Dakota Goes Hunting

See that little morsel...



Gonna eat it...



Yummmm...



The kids think it's HILARIOUS to watch the icky lizard eat...

.

Jamie and Basketball

Indoor photography without flash SUCKS. Just sayin'

So, I took Jamie to practice and got some photos. They turned out okay. I took like 100 and 25 were good, I kept like 4. Not a great return on my time, but whatever, I had fun playing. So here he is in action :)







I also bribed Cassie into doing a few things for me, for the specific purpose of getting these photos :) I think they turned out pretty well for someone that doesn't know what they are doing.





And here's another one of the freaking lizard. It's still here. It was ticked with me for bugging it during it's bedtime.


(that one was pretty fun to take, dirty glass, glaring at me reptile with no flash)

Ewwww... there's a reptile in my house...

The crabs are small and bury themselves... this thing... it's a freaking lizard. In my house. It has to stay in Tom's room. It's his birthday present. It better not touch me.

Welcome, Dakota... I refuse to so much as buy you a cricket. The kids are all excited and Tom's trying to figure out how to get the tank into the house while this thing sits on his desk staring at me.

I'll let Tom give the full scoop, but Dakota is a bearded dragon, about a foot or so long.



It's a freaking lizard.

IN MY HOUSE.

Surely this grounds for divorce, right? Sigh, but Tom has wanted one for forever and some friends were looking for a new home... and holy crap, they just brought in this things tank... do you KNOW how big 75 gallons is?

I must go murder my husband immediately.

I got it! I got it! I got it!

I hinted about it in a post below, but yesterday late afternoon, my Canon Rebel XTi got here! WOOHOO! I've been lusting after this camera for about a year now. I also signed up for an online photography class. I know, probably silly, but I do so few things just for me that are for me and me only that I'm going to take the class and enjoy the camera.

By the time the battery charged, it was night, so I warily took some indoor shots (my old camera takes really bad bad bad bad indoor shots) and lookit! This is even using the flash, so much sharper. That last shot... well, Jamie was tired of me stalking him. *laugh* So, these are just those first "test shots" - not too shabby for indoor and not knowing what I was doing!

Soccer & Halloween

Yeah, no pictures from Trick Or Treating. I gave Tom the camera. I *know* better than that. If they weren't blurry, they were solid black (there's this thing called the flash...)

Anyway, I took some of Julie in her playgirl jacket, the kids with a friend at a "fruit picnic party" (ummm... okay, it's better than the "candy party" I guess) and there's a pic of Cassie playing soccer... and... enjoy!






In other news, I was really naughty
(it gets here today!!!)

Julie hangin' out

She likes to hang out in my office so much we moved her bed in here

Random Pictures

Just some random pictures today. Been busy catching up with work and trying to fit all the fun stuff we didn't do over the Summer in *laugh* Hey, I'm gonna partially blame all that crazy rain we had earlier!

Jamie is looking forward to getting back to school. His teacher, who retired last year, is apparently helping out on the 2nd day back, so he'll get to see her again - she mailed him a card. You'd have thought Spongebob himself was coming.


We aren't sure yet what we are going to do with Cassie this year. She REALLY does NOT want to go to school (actually she does - she wants to go to Jamie's school), but she has one year before she's 5. We've talked about a mom's day out type of thing to easer her into it. I dunno. The other problem is Tom has been too busy to really work with her on her ABCs and stuff - not that she'll listen to either of us.


Julie is loving having them both home. Here she is being, as I call her, a Belly-Ho... that dog loves to have her belly rubbed. She runs up to me and basically flops over my foot until I rub her tummy. Her hair is almost all grown back in where they shaved her for the spay surgery!


This is Tom... at his computer. Duh.

Encore! Encore!

The rock band had an encore on Monday night... some pics and video are below, but first, this is Julie - her hair is puffing out more and more... what a cutie pie!


.... and the band...
... and the performances...


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... and the many faces of an anguished rock star...

New Friends

Julie found a new friend...

Cassie Playing With The Dog...

There's nothing like playing inside on a hot Summer day with your dog and your My Little Ponies (and of course, irritating your older brother). She looks like she is simply up to no good, doesn't she?

Julie's 6 months old...

Well, a little more maybe... she was born in mid-January, so whatever... The update on her is that she's insane. No, really, she flips out when the door bell rings or if she THINKS the door bell has rung. Yeah, I know chihuahua's are hyper, she's a cutie. And honestly, she is SO good with the kids and is overall a sweet dog. She had her stitches out a few days ago from her spay surgery and we decided to try on her shirt she got from the Easter bunny... it fits! (Yes, I know - I said I never would - leave me alone). She let me get a few shots of her today too.





She weighs in at 3.5 pounds and they figure she'll be around 4 full grown at this point. She's a small little thing, but so cute!

... if only she'd stop pooping and peeing all over my house...

Julie update

Julie had her spay surgery yesterday. She does NOT like the head cone AT ALL... But gotta keep her from biting at her stitches.

Psycho Dog

When Jamie comes home from school, Julie is ALL over him. I think she smells the other kids. She also is obsessed with his ears, he is the only one she goes crazy like that for... enjoy!


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MishMash of Soccer, Dog Stuff and The Strike!

What a crazy time of the year for me... excuse the rushed post, but wanted to catch up everyone!

Jamie had his first soccer game over the weekend. It was funny to watch all the 5-6 year olds out there. The field was a little wet, they don't keep score so who cares who won... they had a GREAT time! GO SHARKS!
The "On Strike" below was the kids... I was on a phone call and Tom needed to distract them so he told them if they were good he would bake cookies, Jamie piped up it could be a surprise for Mommy. It was then decided to keep me out of the kitchen to surprise me... thus, the signs...
Poor Julie. She can't catch a break. She was GREAT for a few days... then Cassie tripped and stepped on her back leg. Cassie felt TERRIBLE, but it really was an accident. Yeah, do you know how much x-rays cost at the vet's office? I'm seriously paying for this lady's kids to go to college. It wasn't broken, but over-extended or something. She got an anti-inflammatory shot and a week's worth of painkillers. She kind of hung out in her bed for 24 hours and then was back to being a puppy. Her hair is growing out and she's getting bigger - she's constantly wanting her belly rubbed. If you walk by her, she immediately flops to her back looking at you, just waiting! AND she's eating on her own for the most part. She's still finicky, but whatever. I caught her last night asleep in Jamie's room - how weird that she sleeps on her back... and she was NOT happy about me and the flash:
That's it for now... crazy time of the year and it's going to get crazier... Calgon is very much needed!

The Dog Saga Continues

(This is Julie just as she was starting to feel better)

Leave it to us to get the one that's gonna be a pain in the butt. A week ago (a week after we got her) Julie basically stopped eating and kept going hypoglycemic. Long story short, we took her to the doctor and she had worms and some over abundance of some sort of bacteria in her system. Bottom line? She had a tummy ache, so she wasn't eating, so she was getting hypoglycemic. For those that have never seen a small dog that is hypo, it's SCARY. They cannot move. She couldn't stand up or anything. Anyway, we gave her something called nutra-cal and it brought her out of it, but she's been into and out of it pretty bad the past week. We had resorted to force feeding her by syringe. She's eating a little on her own, but we still have to monitor her to see that she IS eating and make her eat if she's not eating enough. Joy!

Welllll... the worm medicine gave her diarrhea. Seriously, this dog was going every 30 minutes. It was soooo nasty. Nay, nasty isn't good enough - it was completely and utterly disgusting. For those that don't know, I have a sensitive tummy, I can barely change a kid's diaper (even my own) much less mess with dog poop. Vomit is completely out of the question - if Tom isn't home then I'm so screwed. I honestly did not know that such a small dog could poop so much and still live. I was very worried about her Wednesday and part of Thursday. I thought there was a good chance we were going to lose her, she was just so sick.

She started looking better on Thursday and ate a little on her own. Yesterday (Friday) she ate mostly on her own, but we have to sit right there and encourage and prod her. She has a follow up appointment on Monday, so we an address the eating issues then. For now, we are going to keep doing exactly what we were doing and hope she eats. (She had her first solid poop in 6 days this morning - yes, I'm actually sharing this because my life has revolved around my dog's shit for the past week, you get to share my joy). She hasn't been hypo in over 24 hours.

She weighed 1lb 3oz when we brought her home, she was down to 1lb on Monday at the vet. If she is at least 1lb on Monday, I'll be happy, she's so tiny!

Here's a pic from before she got sick -- we forgot to put her in her indoor run and caught her snuggled up with Cassie (who was sleeping on the floor in Jamie's room). Little sneaks!

You have new Picture Mail!

Bath time for Julie

It's My Birthday And All My Friends Have Gone NUTS.

Today is my birthday. I spent most of today thinking that everyone around me had lost their freaking minds. Oh, where do I start?

Tom is pissing me off all day. We have a LOT of work to do. I have been sick for 2 weeks, everything is backed up, he's been slacking off and he decides randomly to clean the whole freaking house. Um, what? And randomly he's making pigs in a blanket for some school picnic that I didn't know anything about. Okay, that's not that weird, I have no clue half of the time what's going on with Jamie's school, it's ALWAYS SOMETHING. The house cleaning thing just ticked me off because that's Tom, he doesn't plan very well - we are working on that *laugh*

My friend and colleague, Lana, asked me about a month ago if she could take me out for my birthday for a pedicure and a glass of wine afterwards. I offered to take her to dinner after that because her birthday is right after mine. She said no that she had to go to a play with her husband. Okay, no problem.

Last year, I invited my mom friends out to meet me for dinner at Pappasito's, more of a Mom's Night Out than birthday thing, but I thought, hey, that's something nice to do and I could use to get out, I've been sick for so long. No one could go. No one. Not even those that ALWAYS go. I was a little miffed but figured it was so last minute...

In the middle of this, I remember Lana and decide to check on her play time and see it starts pretty early so I figure great, that gives me time to meet my friends for dinner (who apparently aren't coming). Dude, she's wanting to fit a lot into a little bit of time so I tell her I'll meet her there and figure I can escape to a book store for a couple of hours alone for some peace and quiet. She gets all weird and says no, she'll pick me up. Whatever, right? I'm like 30 minutes out of her way, it's not logical, but hey...

My "friend" Dy shows up for a playdate here, not a huge deal, she does it a lot, we work while the kids play and it works out pretty well. She couldn't go out to dinner with me because, well, I dunno why. To top it off, instead of working in my office she opts to sit in the living room so she can listen to her earphones (which she never puts on) and basically doesn't talk to me. Okay. Whatever.

So, I leave. Did I mention I'm not feeling 100% yet? I'm still on the back end of this flu thing, not contagious, but coughing and just feeling generally icky. I REALLY do NOT want to do this whole pedicure thing, but I figure I'll have fun (and I did, I started to feel better just getting out). So, we do the pedicure thing and we have like 30 minutes left. It's Friday night. She INSISTS on going to Chili's to get a drink and an appetizer or something. At this point I just want to go home, climb into bed and sleep for a few days, but I'm trying to be nice and outgoing and not let on how bad I'm feeling again. Poor Lana, her heart's in the right place, but I'm just not really into it, I'm doped up so I can even be there and not cough my head off. So, off we go - where she rushes through - I seriously have never seen anyone down a frozen margarita so fast in my life.

Most of you know where this is going I'm sure, but remember, I'm an accounting person, 1+1 can equal 3 for me, people. I'm not very logical sometimes so I'm lost as to what the hell is going on with my friends and Tom.

So, we pull up to the house. Dy's car is in my driveway. I was really pissed off at her. *laugh* Dude. WHAT? But, whatever. I crack the door open and turn around to say something to Lana and notice she and her daughter are grinning like insane people. Then I notice I hear people behind me....

Yeah, so all my friends were AT MY HOUSE. I think I said "bitches" at that point. I'm so daft. Apparently everyone thought I was either not speaking to them (close) or I knew (I had NO FREAKING CLUE). Tom knows I really don't go for the whole surprise party thing so I never thought he'd even try it.

Yummy food, a relaxing time (thank goodness!), and great fun was had by all. And I got a bunch of new books to read :) :) :) :) :)

Oh, and pretty feet again!



Oh, and Carlie... there was BACON wrapped jalapenos!

Afterwards, I was taunting Julie and got her cute little bark:


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Julie's First Videos

My kids are in love... she's quite a little spunky thing for being so little.


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Errrr.... maybe not...

Did I mention that I've been sick for over a week? I'm finally on the other side it, but the flu nearly killed me this year. So I was looking forward to getting a lot of work done today. Ha!

This morning I worked for a while, then after lunch Tom and I take Cassie to PetsMart to get everything we are going to need for the new dog. Quite a bit of dough later, we come home with enough crap to make any mutt happy. We have a little tag made with our phone number and the name "CoCo" on it and Cassie will not talk about anything else. Seriously.

I come home, work for about an hour, start to feel bad, go lay down (I can work or go somewhere for about 30 minutes to an hour and then I get to feeling kind of yucky again). I get up after 10 minutes because I forgot something.

Hey, I have an email from the lady we are getting CoCo from...

Yeah... you see where this is going, don't you?

Apparently she wasn't as sure as she seemed (seriously, we thought this was a done deal, we had a date to meet her to get the dog, she seemed happy, we were happy, I have NO idea what happened). She said that her son got all upset when they told her they were giving the dog to another home. The reason she was giving away the dog is because she has to go back to work and didn't want to leave the dog alone all day. Fair enough. Anyway, so her kid had a melt down and they decided to keep the dog.

Um.

Yeah.

Let me introduce myself again. My name is Candy - this dumbarse fella over here is Tom. We are the stupidest parents on the face of the planet. Seriously, if there was a license to be parents, we would be childless. Telling our kids we were getting the dog before we actually got the dog is probably right up there. Especially seeing as it was someone that contacted me through Craigslist (which I usually have the BEST luck with).

Crap. What do we do now, right? If I tell my kids, they are going to be CRUSHED. Cassie is mooning over this dog. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.

I posted again on Craigslist, but after talking to Tom we decided to call around. Ha! If you want to adopt a dog from a shelter or rescue program, you basically have to submit a blood sample, have a background check, and wait 2 weeks.

Crap.

So... I get on the internet. Hey, there's a breeder in Lampasas, that's just an hour from here. Call 'em up. Yup, they have puppies available. A few hours later, we are home with this:

Meet Julie (I don't know why her name is Julie, that's what the kids say and it's their dog so they get to name it). She's a long-haired Chihuahua, I think she's only 8 weeks old. We paid a lot of freaking money for this AKC registered full bred dog. She's staying. I bought her. No one can take her away from my kids (who think I'm the coolest mom EVER). She's TINY - like really really tiny. She'll grow up to be a regular sized Chihuahua, she is already is very playful with the kids (and managed to chew on the leg of the hockey table). At the moment, she's in there having a complete fit because we put her in the kennel to sleep (I can't let her run around and no way is she sleeping with anyone).

Oh, how the hell do you house train a dog? We bought piddle pads, won't it just like go there eventually? *laugh* I'm kidding - Oh, that's SO Tom's problem, I don't do dog poop/pee.

Seriously though, we have like the ideal situation for a dog in an adoption program (we both work at home, etc etc) and if this goes well we might decide to take in another dog one day and we'll totally look that route. I doubt it, but who knows.

In the meantime, if anyone is in the market for a Chihuahua, call Cher... their website is http://www.cherskennels.com/ -- they were AWESOME!

Lookit what we are getting...

Yeah, hello, my name is is Candy and I'm the world biggest sucker mommy on the planet. Apparently my kids are not really believing that the hermit crabs are the same as having a dog. They've been bothering us about it for almost a year now, since we moved into the house. It's not that I don't like dogs because I do, I just don't like the shedding, but since this house is mostly tile, it won't be as big of a deal, plus this dog probably won't shed a whole lot. Meet CoCo Chanel - we pick her up Thursday. She's a Chihuahua, 12 weeks old.

I figure it's fate we found her. I posted an "in search of" post on Craigslist thinking I'd at least collect a list of breeders and this lady contacted me. For various reasons, she cannot keep her and we actually have a lot in common with her family. Definitely fate. So, we are getting a small dog. Tom wanted a golden retriever. Ummm... no, remember, low shedding here people!

Crab Tank Cleaning Time!

I think we wigged them out this time or something so I didn't want to use the flash (ie, the pics are crappy), but we got rid of the noisy mist thing we had in there and replaced it with a waterfall that has a small hole for a water mist/diffuser thing (this one we got over halloween, it was in our witch's pot and it changes colors)... anyway, so the pampered crabs now have a clean house, fresh strawberries and are climbing all over the new waterfall.

Crabby Bath Time

We have Hermit Crabs. Yes, I know we are weird. We had six, but we lost one since our major tank clean in April (it appears it was a bad molt). So we have 5 now... we gave them all a dip in water to clean 'em up and let them dry off while Tom put the tank back together. The kids LOVE it when we do this... I took some pics... these guys are getting big! 2 of these we got when they were little micro-crabs. The big one was small when we got him, he's now HUGE. The one I didn't get a close up is named Skitzo because he's insane. When you pick him up he leans so far out of his shell you think he's either going to pinch you or fall out. I pick him up only when absolutely necessary. I don't really like messing with them, to be honest, but they are the perfect pet for us... don't need a lot of attention, don't make a mess... and the kids think they are cool. Right after we put them back into the tank, the kids were watching them move around and came running into the room I was in... Shy Guy finally changed his shell (this is an exciting thing in the crab world, second only to a sucessful molt!)

Freshly bathed and climbing around.

This is Giganto - he's always been the biggest one, he's getting huge

This is Shy Guy. I'm so excited I got him to come out for a picture. This one is hilarious. I like to do it to tortue him - when you walk by the tank, he immediately pulls into his shell, it doesn't matter if he's climbing on something or not, he will fall rather than you see him. LOL.

This is Baby Crab - this one was a very small micro when we got it.

This is Momma Crab... so named because she/he/it protected Baby Crab from Skitzo (who killed a crab late last year over a shell fight, and then got put into isolation for 2 months).