Day 322

We're doggy sitting my parents dog for the weekend. He's not allowed on the couch at his house, but our dogs are allowed on our house here because we have a blanket for them. So he was looking longingly at the couch so I patted the cushion and said "Come on up Barkey!" He rolled around like crazy, he loved it so much LOL

Day 304

I took a peek in at Alex tonight and found him sleeping like this. It made me laugh. I wonder if I look like this when I sleep.

Day 293

Limpy got out this afternoon, no thanks to Alex holding the door open. If you try to catch her, she just runs away in this prancy little hopping run like "Nah nah, you can't get me. " So I gave up. Eventually she ended up on the deck watching birds. She couldn't catch one so I guess she tried to make the birds come to her. Some how this reminds me of an old Sylvester cartoon where he has his mouth wide open waiting for a bird or mouse to come into it. Nice try Limpy! I was able to get her out of her and bring her back inside.

I also had some extra cream cheese and bananas in the freezer, so I decided to make some mini banana loafs. Mmmm! They were so yummy!

Day 288

Yesterday I found one of our balloon mollies stuck to our filter intake. She was breathing hard and it didn't look like she was gonna make it. I unstuck her from it and placed her in another part of the tank so she could rest on a plant and either recover, or die in peace.

I checked back on her about 10 minutes later and she was still in the same spot but this time upside down. I saw on her poop opening a little black bubble and I knew she was giving birth and they were stuck. Giving birth is the #1 cause of death in mollies.

So I scooped her into a bowl of water and gently gave her belly a squeeze and 8 babies popped right out. Nothing else seemed to be in there and it looked like a bit of her intestines were coming so I stopped. I put the babies in a floating nursery and put momma back in the tank to rest.

Another 10 minutes passed, and when I went to check on her again, she was dead I scooped her back into the bowl and gave her tummy another squeeze to make sure all the babies were out, after a bit more of her intestines came out, suddenly a whole whack of babies squirted out.

They totally looked dead and not breathing or moving. I thought for sure I had got them out too late, and was just going to dump them into the tank to be eaten by the other fish, but at the last minute I decided to put them in the floating nursery with the others so DH could see them when he got home.

Good thing I did, because when I went back to check on them later, almost all of them had come to life! I don't know how it works for baby fish, but I'm guessing their yolk sacs kept them alive.

Here is the first batch with momma fish

and this is how many we ended up with. I counted them all on this picture and came up with 61. Some are definitely dead, but I think at least 50 survived.

Day 286

These poor ignored stuffies are being given to a friend who is bringing them to sick kids at the hospital. Nobody is really attached to them, they are all in brand new shape, and all they have been doing is collecting dust. At least now someone else will love them.

Day 284

I was trying to take a picture of our cat Julien sleeping in my sweater (He's been doing this since he was a kitten) and Alex popped up and said "Chheeessee!"

Day 265

Found this tiny guy while pulling some dead flowers out of the garden. Isn't he adorable?

Day 228

Today I got to meet my friends new baby cow, Miss Moo. She is so adorable!

Then later in the evening, I looked into the fish tank and saw a little baby fish! I took a look around and saw our female balloon molly pooping out babies all over the tank. Ryan got to see it too and he thought it was so cool. Unfortunately, while some of the babies were hiding in the gravel, some of the other fish came along and ate a few. I have no idea how many we had or how many are left.

Day 222

Mmmm...banana bars. I tried out this recipe last night and it's so yummy. The icing is awesome. I may, or may not have eaten 7 of them since last night.

Alex fell asleep in the cutest pose, I had to sneak in with my camera and take a picture. That's his bear Coco, which he got as a gift from a store Santa last year. He slept with him that night and hasn't missed a night without him. Thankfully he doesn't drag him everywhere like Ryan does with his bear, he just likes to cuddle with him when he falls asleep.

Day 208

Today we went to pick up our new guinea pig, Willow. When we got home, I put her in a neutral cage with Juniper and some fresh dandelion leaves while I cleaned out the big enclosure. They got along without a hitch. Juniper is happy to have a buddy again and it's nice to hear them talking to eachother.

Bonding over dandelion leaves

Sharing some veggies

She's so cute and fuzzy!

Day 202

Our Guinea pig Juniper is getting lonely so I have been on the look-out for another female pig to keep her company as they are social animals and need a buddy. We used to have another 2 male in a cage beside her that she could see and talk to, but they moved up into Ryan's room, and ever since, she has been a bit mopey and sad.

I spotted an add at the grocery store of free baby guinea pigs and called up. We went to see them and there was only one female in the bunch. I really was not too picky about what she would look like, I just want Juniper to be happy again. She turned out to be a cutie anyways. She is all grey and her hair is a cross between spikey and curly. Since Juniper is named after a tree, this one is also getting a tree name. She will be called Willow because she looks like a little pussy willow.

After dinner Ryan was playing with one of his loose teeth and he suddenly yelled out "My tooth fell out!" I don't know how he did that because it wasn't even that loose yet! The last tooth he lost hung on by a thread for like a week, so I'm surprised at how quick this one popped out.

Day 195

Cats are weird. Bobby Blue Eyes catches a few Z's

Tonight's dinner was orange sesame pork with steamed baby spinach, and mashed potatoes. I haven't cooked for so long, it's just been too hot.

Day 192

I feel bad for all the farmers out there who have to be out in this heat to do the hay.

This evening the kids'sitter messaged me on MSN and said she had hopefully caught the raccoon that was killing her chickens and asked if I wanted to come and get it. Cindy's wildlife relocation services to the rescue! LOL He's extremely cute, but he was scared and growled. He almost sounded like a mad barking dog. I brought him to the woods behind my house and let him go. I had my camera ready to take a picture of him wobbling off, but the second he saw the door open, he was a blur of fur. I never even saw him, the only clue was the rattling of the bushes. I never knew raccoons were so fast!

Day 178

How cute are these guys? If we ever get the room and the money, I totally want a llama!

I have also been practising making roses out of the kids Play-Doh. I figure maybe one day it will come in handy if I ever make a cake with flowers :)

Day 175

The kid falls asleep anywhere. I left him playing a Thomas the Train video game while I went to make supper, 20 minutes later when it was done, I came in to find him like this.

Day 164

Ryan has been asking me to make his hair into a mohawk every time it's wet, usually I just brush it up after his bath and eventually it falls down on his own. This time I got out all my hair goop, the blow dryer, and froze his hair into place.

The boys were playing upstairs with Wally while he puttered around tidying up, when he decided to shed some papers. He came downstairs for a few minutes to put things away leaving the boys alone with the shredder (it was unplugged) Can you see where this is going? He went back up and all I heard was "Oh my God! What are you guys doing?" This is what they were doing:

Day 162

I was running around getting ready to meet my parents in the next town over and go garage sailing, and didn't notice that Alex had gotten into my make-up bag. When I went to get him to get him dressed, this is what I found. Of course, for future bribery purposes, I ran to grab my camera.

Little imp!

Applying his mascara

You look fabulous dah-ling!

This bull posed for a picture on our way home from garage sailing

For dessert I made a strawberry and blueberry galette. It was divine with some ice cream.

Day 159

Terror on the tracks! An unknown giant tunnel monster had been seen terrorizing the passengers of the local express train...

Oh wait...it's just Julian :P

For supper today...

An asparagus, mushroom, and bacon galette

And Salisbury steak, with garlic chive mashed potatoes, and roasted brown butter beans

Day 145

Ya, I know, it's another kitten picture...but it was either this or a picture of a dead deer on the side of the road. I think I chose wisely.

Day 144

"Hey Alex, I hate to tell you this, but, the Habs lost last night..."

Tonights supper was chicken alfredo with roasted veggies.