Old Fashion

Way back before there was technology there was a barter system.  You know, I'll give you a goat from my farm for 20 ears of corn.  Oh that's a good idea.  I'll take 5 of those ears of corn and trade them for a new pair of shoes.  I like that plan.  So I am willing to give 50 pound bags of sugar and speech therapy to anyone willing to fix B.J.'s car or treat my dogs UTI.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Right we need to just cross our fingers and hope we hit the lottery.  If we don't it will just be a couple more months and we will get back in a good place.  On a nice positive side is that my pants are all fitting better. 

And how in the world does a dog get a UTI? 

Mother's Day

Sorry it is a couple of days late but being a mother leaves you little time to get other things done.  But once you become a motehr it's like joining another another world...an animal world.  Hence one of the reasons we decided to go to the zoo.  The other reason, I love the zoo.  We had beautiful weather, we saw ALL the animals (except the elephants that were on vacation), and we even got in a nap for the baby.

We saw all the good animals during feeding times which was the best time to look at them all.  It was also warm enough for the animals to be out, but cool enough for most of the animals to be enjoying it.  The hippo was even out standing next to his swiming pool.  As we were walking up to the enclosure I thought he was a statue and became very confused about why they would put a statue inside the encousre.  Weird.    Then I got smarter. 

Elijah got to see his gerraffs and we even brought giraff with us to t he zoo to see his old family.  (My real thinking is if every thime we bring a buddy from home we won't have to buy one). 

IT'S BAAACK

Do you remember the dead animal at work?  (If not read this)  All winter I have been watching the lake, actually the spot where I knew the animal was laying, frozen, below the surface.  I don't know if it was out of utter curiosity but I kept looking to see if it would surface.  After the first of December it stayed really cold and the pond/lake thing never thawed out.  There was one day sometime in January that I thought we would get close to seeing it again but I never did.  Then there was the blizzard and I knew I wouldn't see it for a while.  Last week, temperatures reached the low 60's (which is VERY warm for the mid west) and all the blizzard snow started to melt.  It did such a good job melting the first 2-3 feet of shore line melted too.  I am now super curious and drawn to the window at every open moment and it finally resurfaced.  THE DEAD THING.  However, now it doesn't look like it did in early December, now it looks more like an opossum, which we also have determined are the most ugly animals on earth alive, just imagine what it looks like.

He remembers!!!

Being 60 ish degrees today there were several things that happend that have not happend in a while.  One of which looks like the grass is back out.  Looks a bit brown but non-the-less it is back.  I was able to see water on the retention pond (on top of the ice) as well as seagulls looking for fish (sorry they are still stuck below the ice.

Elijah was able to see GEESE again.  It has been quite awhile since he has seen the geese but when we saw one this morning he was very excited and kept looking for more.  When we got home we stood in our garage for almost 20 minutes calling to the geese and watching them fly over our house.  When it got too dark and too cold to stay out there any longer we went in.  I was very happy our child remembered what the things were after 5 months of no geese or even talk about geese. 

Wild Out Doors

I left work early today because there was a small electrical problem and once the sun went down we could not see (literally) our kiddos any more.  When I walked into the house and went to let Rescue out, there was a surprise on our back patio.  An opossum was sitting there looking back at me like, "What? What do you want?"  He then headed over and hid under the A/C unit.  Not sure why he was hiding there, but I then needed to walk my rodent searching dog in the freezing cold.  Not happy about that.  I was so cold! 

Can I just tell you how gross and ugly opossums are.  They are a cross between a rat, ugly dog, mole, and a bit of mouse.  EWWWWW.  What do opossums do anyway?  What is there functional purpose?  Do they eat bugs?  I just don't know.  And personally I just don't care.  The best part about the whole thing was my neighbor came over to scare him away.  He went running around the poop filled back yard banging a shovel and yelling.  I wish I could have had that on tape.  HA-LAR-I-OUS!!!  The Opossum moved down  2-3 A/C units, which is fine for me because then I don't have to worry about Rescue getting bit by the rodent. 

Here is something cute though, Elijah reading Tigger a book, and Daddy and Elijah chilling before bed.  I love my boys.  They are certainly cute!

I think it's dead

Today it was the first snow.  The snow wasn't deep or thick but it was none the less snow.  I try at least 3 times a winter to enjoy the beauty of it.  So there I was watching the snow fall on the pond behind my work.  I was sipping my hot tea and getting ready mentally for the day.  As I watched the snow and the waves I started looking at the trash in the pond.  Then I saw it.  At fist I thought someone hat thrown a turkey in the lake, then I thought it looked like a cat on his back.  At that point I had to go find someone.  The office consensus was that it was a muskrat or something but it stayed and floated in front of my window ALL DAY long. 

A mouse in my house!

Friday I am sitting in the house by myself because BJ worked a double shift.  I had just gotten Elijah to sleep by holding him in my arms and I was hungry.  So being lame I decided to make mac and cheese, but since we had it the night before I had to wash the pan and strainer.  After I put the water on the stove to boil, I started looking at a catalog that showed up in the mail out of the corner of my eye I saw something dart across the floor, hit the corner of the dishwasher then a long tail disappeared under the dishwasher.  I proceeded to freak out call BJ (like he could really help me) and climbed on top of the couch.  His suggestion was to call the neighbor to set the traps.  Go figure they were far away.  So I was on a mission and called the rest of the neighbors to find someone to set the traps for me.  I then had him stay so I could make my dinner.  I then spent the rest of my evening scared to move off of the couch, which really was a bummer because I had planned to clean the kitchen while BJ was out and about. 

BOO to mice!!!

P.S. it was dead in the morning.

Tomorrow is the Zoo

I would just post on it tomorrow but something even more exciting than the zoo is tomorrow. It is Elijah's First Birthday. (Wow, I have a lot that I need to get done tonight.)

But back to the Zoo thing.

I love the zoo. I really, really love the polar bears. I have two very large photos of the polar bears from the Brookfield zoo in my bathroom. I have the polar bears from the Detroit zoo on a blanket that I use year round. I have a polar bear from the build-a-bear zoo in my closet that I received when BJ and I got engaged. And now The Brookfield zoo has a new bear enclosure that I am thrilled to see. I also can't wait to show Elijah the size of a real live giraffe and an elephant. Oh I'm soo excited. I'm going to the ZOO and more important, Elijah will be one. And it wont be a day to worry or think about the work stuff right now. I hope this is something that we can do yearly on his birthday.

And as far as my list for birthday things goes...Brett's birthday gift is still not here, my mom's birthday gift arrived today, still haven't washed any of Elijah's gifts, made a small list of food for the party, still have not bought any of the food, and the house is semi clean. One thing I needed to add to the list. Pray like mad that the weather is nice this weekend. Because I really don't have enough room in my house for everyone to come in. If it rains we will all be packed in our garage, our neighbors garage and playing in the rain.

Question of the day

You may know that we have a dog. Not a very smart dog, but we have a dog. During the summer we are semi good at cleaning up the back yard once a week or so. However, in the winter, not so much. There are several reasons behind this

1. It is cold out there, I don't want to go out there to do it.

2. It is cold out there, I don't want to be out there anyway so why does it matter if there is poop all over.

3. It snows and it covers up the poop.

4. It is cold out there, and the poop freezes to the ground

Anyway, I went out to pick up the yard because even the dog was giving me looks like, "Um, this is gross I have no where to walk." So out I go with a shopping bag and a garden shovel. I'm out there and I make a realization and one of my wonderful questions pops into my head. The realization: Rabbits poop A LOT!!!! Question: If rabbits eat so much then why couldn't they poop like dogs? They need bigger poops instead of the little things they create. I also found in the back yard:

Lots of dog poop

2 pieces of rabbit poop for every piece of dog poop

A dead pigeon

snow

And the dog. Who knew she was out there.

Another thing I realized today, My mom reads about 50 different blogs. Never knew.

Tis the Season!!

I enjoy this time of year, however, with Christmas cards comes Christmas letters. It is hard for me to just send out picture cards to all. I feel that with the warm thoughts and well wishes I should also send you a brief review of our last year. However, I always have difficulty remembering what all happened in the past year. This next year I think will be a little bit easier if I keep up with the blog. I mean, all I would have to do is review the blog for the highlights of the past year and summarise. Or better yet, just refer people back to the blog and they can review it themselves.

On a side note. Right now we are watching Discovery Channel and they are looking at Kimono Dragons and are walking around the wild ones. The wild ones are actually trying to eat them slowly. Nope not for me. I'm scared just sitting here on the couch millions and millions of miles away form them.

Silly Animals

This morning I was at my Dad's house and the dog and I were sleeping in. I think Jasmin secretly knew that I was the only one not getting out of bed before 7 so she came into my room to stay out of the way of traffic. Well when my alarm finally went off Jasmine gave me a look as if to say, "Just five more minutes." So since she wanted to sleep more I reset the alarm for 30 more minutes and fell back asleep. However, when the alarm went off the second time Jasmin stood up, walked to the top of the bed and laid across the pillows placing her head on my shoulder. Every time I tried to look at her she covered my face in dog slobber. And she laid there on top of me for about 15 min before I finally figured out a way to sit up without injuring her. She just made me laugh because I have never seen here do something like that before. We should have named her Goofy instead of Jasmin.

Scissors and Polar Bears

So last night I was talking about scissors and realized that scissors is a pluralized word, but I don't really understand why. I mean it is weird to be like that pen, that paper, those scissors. Jen and Tania both think it is because there are two blades and that is what makes scissors plural. But they are stuck together so that should make them one thing right? Stupid English.

As most people know, I love polar bears. So we were looking into trips where you spend days upon days in the cold looking for polar bears in there natural environment. Brr, but really cool and kind of expensive. To freeze for a week it costs like $4,000. So, so much for that fun idea. I will have to save money for the next 10 years just to get their, but never fear, I will see the polar bears (and maybe take a little one home).

Oh and Happy Birthday to Katie!

Dumb Birds

Okay I know this has happened to everyone, Its two hours before you need to wake up, your comfortable in bed sound asleep. Then it happens. Your awaken by some annoying noise that just won't stop. For me it is birds that drive me crazy. Normally I can sleep through just about everything but those birds. And for all of you who know how much I like sleep I get very angry when I have to cut my sleep time short due to some unwanted chirping. So tell me what drives everyone else crazy in the morning? As for myself I just might try to take a nap and get that last few hours of sleep I missed.

Long time no post!

Sorry everyone. This week has been way high emotional week. I just want to say all those people in the south are in my heart and I hope things start getting better before they get any worse. In addition to the hurricane damage we here have been morning the loss of our friend which is tiering in itself. I was going to post a beautiful picture BJ made in memory of his friend but sometimes I don't think our computers are on the same wavelength and I can't open his pictures.

Well today we went shopping for our kids (teddy bears) to get them new outfits. BJ's bear needed an outfit because take your teddy bear to work day is coming up and BJ's did not have any clothes she could wear to work. (She only has her wedding dress) so we bought scrubs for Ocean (she wants to be a doctor when she grows up). My bear needed cloths because he is a polar bear and he is white so if he runs around naked then he gets dirty, and we need him white for the wedding so we bought him a cute little outfit too. The best part about Glaciers outfit is that 97 is the year BJ and I started dating and it resembles clothes BJ would wear. Our kids our cute and I'm the proud mom so here are their pictures. (Sorry one is blury it was taken from BJ's phone.

Bat Dog and My Foot

Well for the next few weeks it looks like I will be posting in the morning or the afternoon because I seem to get busy at night or I'm just plan to tired to deal with the computer.

Yesterday we went to the Kane County Cougars game (a farm team for baseball). BJ and I had a ton of fun and it was Jake the bat dog day. He was really cute. Every so often he would run out on the field and collect the bat left behind by the latest hitter. He also brought a basket of water out to the umpire's during every inning so they wouldn't die from the heat. All in all it was a fun day until it came time to leave.

As BJ and I were heading out I wasn't paying attention and neither was this other guy and we ran into each other at full speed. At first I felt bad because the impact made him drop his newly acquired beer but then I noticed that he broke all my toe nails on my right foot along with braking my pinky toe. Now the only reason I know what a broken toe feels like is because my little bother several years ago chased me into a wall breaking my little toe on my left foot. So now I have a pretty purple toe wrapped in tape for the next six weeks or until I can walk normally again. Wearing heals the next few weeks should certainly be interesting especially with this wedding coming up on Saturday.