Pictures

Jay's additions to the cage. I rest my case. He needs stop building. There won't be any room to eat our dinner! :)

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tara looking glum because the boys wouldn't let her pass.

A neighbor's party today.

Some on Saturday

• The girls have been enjoying summer break. They have been taking swimming lessons and are learning to get their face wet, which I'm told might be necessary with swimming. :)
• I had a very long week at school. Senioritis is in full swing.
• The lightning storm we had a few days ago knocked out our TV and computer for two, count them, two days. We were beside ourselves. The kids were like, "Let me get this horrifying news straight- no TV and no computer?" Their equally horrified parents stared back at them and nodded solemnly. Yes, we are addicted to our techy things. I'd like to say that we all learned something profound about doing without our electronic stuff and all bonded around a bonfire singing happy songs. Rather it was a happy, happy morning today when Jay somehow fixed the connections.:)

I live with these people...

Jay ----- Today we went to the pet store to get yet more housing for the hamsters. There are four babies and two adults. I told him there should be a support group for people who can't stop adding on to hamster cages.

Tara----- I asked Tara if she'd be coming to my grad school graduation in December. This was her ever so loving response. "I don't know, will there be food there?"

Emily----- We were smelling candles today at the store. Emily came up to me and said, "Hey Mom, smell this candle. It smells like bad breath." As nasty as it sounded, I couldn't resist and smelled it. She was right.

Jaytalking III - Happy Father's Day

Hi everyone, Jay here. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! And before you give me any kind of credit for making the crosstitch above, DON'T. It's just clip art.

HOWEVER, I did make SOMETHING today...

A MEATFEST!!

Hee. Okay, I know, I know. We live in precarious times, and meat is taking away all of the earth's natural resources. We need to be reducing our carbon footprint on the planet, and meat is so terribly, terribly terribly....

tasty.

Wait, I can redeem myself. Let me add a can of 100% vegetable juice to make this a balanced meal:

There, now everything is in perfect balance.

Anyhoo, hope all of you are having a nice day. I realize Father's Day may actually contain an element of sadness, bitterness or difficult memories for some of you, as none of us gets through this life unscathed. If you happen to be in that situation, I hope you can find some degree of comfort in that I am having a TERRIFIC day today. It is children-filled, creative and carnivorous. I think Father's Day is my new favorite day of the year. I have been reminding everyone around me that dads must be served today, and working it to my fullest advantage. GO ME!

Homer's bowling ball

Today we went to the store to get a Father's Day present for Jay. Emily used her chore allowance to buy him flowers. "Are these for you or your dad?", the male clerk asked Emily. Emily said they are for him. The only thing is that the flowers are kept in her bedroom and Jay has never really been a flower loving kind of guy. Yep, it's a Homer gift.

Happy Father's Day!

The Weather Police

Turn off your lights, tv, computer!

Emily and her sidekick Tara turn into the weather police when there is even a sniff of a thunderstorm.

Get in the basement! Save the pets!

Sheesh. Oh, Emily is telling me to get off the computer now.

Back to school. Sigh.

Praxis this Saturday. Sigh.

It looks like a bomb went off in the girls' playroom. Sigh.

No calls for interviews. Sigh.

When looking at it with a different attitude, I'm thankful I'm almost done with school, the Praxis will be over soon, the girls are having fun with their toys and lastly, it's still early in the summer. I could still get a job.

It isn't so bad. :)

Recent Pictures

Debi's lilac tree. I want one. It smells so wonderful.

Tara at the salt store. Hey, you find fun where you can.

Em and Tara earned close to 15 badges the last night of this year's Brownies. Emily is holding a webkinz - of course. :)

update

The other hamster, Sandy, had her babies overnight. She began eating them for real in the morning. Jay and Tara witnessed it. So the other hamster swooped in and "adopted" the rest. She now has 12 hamsters she's trying to feed. What a saga.

I was thinking about letting the hamsters stay and get weaned from Goldie for a couple weeks and then giving them back to the pet store. That dang store better take them back. Otherwise this house will be full of hamsters. If the critters are weened, then maybe the store will try to sell them and not kill them.

Do you think it'll work?

uh oh

Debi babysat for us so we could go to a wedding. Thanks Debi. Right after she arrived, Tara exclaimed that her hamster had babies. Yep, the very same hamster that the pet store attendant assured us was not in the family way. And guess what? It gets better. The other one is almost certainly about to have her own babies. Seven little critters came into the world today. Jay, Debi and I tried to help Goldie when she dropped one. We know not to touch them. But we tried to rearrange the cage. BIG MISTAKE. Goldie started freaking out and appeared to eat her babies. This was right at the time that we had to take Em to her sleep over and go to the wedding. Poor Debi was stuck here with the mess. The good news is that she was just stuffing the babies in her mouth. She spit them out and is apparently a very good mother.

Ugh. The pet store lady said we could bring the babies back to the store if on the very unlikely case the hamsters were pregnant. I asked about that when we bought them. But my dad said the babies won't survive without the mother. The pet store would just kill them.

Ideas? I was told the brothers and sisters will breed very soon. Eww. and oh no.

What Tara does every day after school.

The hamster whisperer

It is a true assertion that Tara's hamster's feet have not touched the ground of its cage today. Tara has held it all day. She carries it around with a truly astounding amount of confidence and ease. Every once in awhile she tries to hand Goldie off to me so she can wash her hands or something. I count the seconds as I awkwardly hold this critter for Tara. I keep warning Tara that Goldie might nip at her. Apparently it's just the opposite; this hamster worships the lap it sits on. Tara's lap was the location of several naps today.

We also have very spoiled hamsters that have even more piping added to their home and a new exercise wheel in the form of a carriage. Jay and the girls got this new addition while I was visiting Debi yesterday.

Now I have to make Tara give her hamster rest breaks. Before long, she sneaks back to the cage and gets her out. I'm going to have to frisk Tara tomorrow to make sure she doesn't try and take her hamster to school.