huh? what?

I had some deep thoughts and stuff I wanted to unload here. Now that I am sitting here typing and listening to Man of the Year in the background (I had to go look up what movie it was in the Netflix queue because I couldn't remember the silly DVD label from 10 minutes ago) my brain is mush. Be back later when I can put together a few cohesive thoughts.

puppy for sale?

There's nothing better right now than groovin' to some tunes while I write about what's on my mind. Coop and TJ are snoozin'- J is at school and Dave is working at my parents. A little quiet time to myself is a welcome break. My bird won't shut up. He has this high-pitched, repetitive call that he does when he is excited or wants attention and he's in full voice right now. just singing along with the music. The best is when he starts running through his imitations of the phone, the squeaky cabinet door in the kitchen, Jessie's Giga-pet kitty meeeeooowing, and Toby's 'ribbit.' Who knew such a small bird brain could be so entertaining sometimes. there's a picture of the feather brain below.

J has been asking lately if and WHEN we can get a puppy. Considering the fact that they are basically a new baby in the house and I am still open to the idea of popping out one more of my own (please don't disown me babe!) I told her it won't be for awhile. At this point we need two important things first- a job for my sweet hubby and a home of our own.......and those are big things! That hasn't stopped me from researching the vast number of breeds out there. The last couple days I have been surfing through sites and my current pick is an Italian Greyhound.
Our friend Kristy who is a vet tech says they are kinda fragile, but I 'think' it would be a good fit for our family. We need a dog with hair and little shedding to cut down on allergies and of those choices this is my favorite. Plus, I'm a typical girl who loves accessories and these dogs NEED them. I can already see our little pooch on a walk with me one cool fall morning sporting a cute striped sweater. Heck, I could brush up on my limited crocheting skills and make them myself. We'll see......by the time we're ready to own a dog this will probably all change.

snapshot saturday

I felt like watching behind the camera today. Here's the day so far in order:

Hate this scale!! Not only does it take up too much room in our tiny bathroom but it is NOT telling me what I want to hear this week. I am so motivated to drop some weight and I have been good this week, meaning minimal sweets, exercise at least 4 times during the week, and absolutely no food past 8 PM- which is hard considering I am an incurable night-owl. Stinkin' evil scale is going away. I'm not going to stress over the numbers any more..............at least until May. That wasn't a great way to start the day.

Our usual Saturday morning routine consists of Mom and Dad trying to sleep in a little while the kids play, breakfast and weekly chores. Kids and Dad take out the trash and recycling, I flit from dishes to laundry to cleaning whatever gets in the way, and Dad helps kids clean their room and pick up toys from the morning.













A huge shout out THANKS to Ken and Cassie (and gift chart from Mom) for turning us on to the Accountable Kids program. It has worked wonders in our house and we ALL love it. TJ and J love their chore charts and are working towards a movie/rock-climbing with Dad and trip to the Jungle/crafty time with Mom.

Jessie is really good about remembering to do all her chores which
are good for a ticket each in the morning, afternoon and evening. She had quite a stack of tickets to "spend." Dad made her a deal that he would go buy her a scooter to replace the one she left out that got stolen in trade for all her tickets. Here she is on her new blue scooter and Coops scooter roller blade style.

Coop scored too. He tries with all his might to ride the big kids scooter so Daddy got him one with 2 wheels on the back. He helped me put it together on the porch and promptly took his new scooter for a walk?! Apparently, a shiny Spiderman scooter is too nice to ride.










Lots of little misc. projects today like recaulking the bathtub. A little tag team action between hubby and I got it done with little hassle. He scraped off the old I put down the new. done.









Silly Maxy bird. He has settled down a lot lately- not so nippy and high-strung. He LOVES people who come to visit. Last Saturday night we had Marci/Donovan and Denise/Arnold over to watch the Prestige. That movie is the best I've seen lately by the way. So many cool twists and turns and the ending is crazy cool! Anyway, Max kept flying off his cage to the living room floor to see Marci and Donovan. He sat on Marci's shoulder and sidled up to Donovan's face while he was playing video games on the couch. Donovan would make a sound and Max would imitate him. It was nice to see Max so relaxed with strangers. I wish I had a picture of Max preening Donovan's goatee. Maybe he got some leftovers. ;)

Good deed Wednesday

My morning routine since Dave is home in the mornings (no job yet) is as follows:

roll out of bed
make J's lunch
get dressed and walk J to school
go on my own walk around the neighborhood, including a choice hill that really wakes me up

This morning as I was walking back home I saw a huge possum walking around the condo's where Jen and Tom live. I slowed down to see if he was going to go down in a burrow, but he just walked around sniffing the air. I kept on my way home when out of nowhere I spotted a baby possum <----(looked just like this) in the grass right next to me. Ah-Ha! Big scary boy possum was really fat Mommy possum looking for her baby. I kept walking home to bring the boys up to see him and get the camera, of course.

That tiny, shivering body seemed too helpless though. I turned around, picked him up with a nearby paper bag, and walked back up the sidewalk to find his Mom. Little Fuzz is not the smartest marsupial on the block. Every time I put him inside the iron fence to walk toward Mom he turned around and shivered his way out to the sidewalk again. Plan B was to hop the fence, carry Fuzz as close as I could get to Mom without risking a rabies shot, and hopefully saving him and reuniting Mom with her little guy. It worked! I even got a loud hiss and bared teeth as a thank you. Some other critter must have disturbed that possum family because as I walked home for good I saw another little baby in the parking lot who didn't make it. We're talking guts on the outside and everything. sad.

and I learned that opossums rarely have rabies so I could have walked right up to Mom and handed her little Fuzz. ;)

weather and window shopping

I'm not sure we even had winter here in California. It usually rains a whole lot more from December to now. We've had cold spells but not much rain and I must say I feel a little gypped. As far as the kids go, it's hard being rained in during the day, but I love the excuse to lay low and do projects around the house.

So this morning as I walked for an hour in 60 DEGREE weather at 9 AM I hope that Old Man Winter will indeed finish what he started and bring us some more rain. I'm not ready for shorts weather. ....................then again, I'm never ready for shorts weather.

Speaking of shorts- I've decided I'm going to wear a lot of skirts this summer. I've found an unfortunately recurring hobby I call web window shopping. I found so many cute skirts one day. This one and this one and this one and this one are so cute. I'm into toadstools lately- in a creative way. Not sure why because I hate eating mushrooms, all kinds. And then there's this site that I would buy one of each if I had the funds to do so. So cute!

This is for you babe. My neck-crackin' husband would love this. Maybe a pillow case is in his future.