Chick-y!

It's Chicky update time! One of the 6 we got (from the Tractor place of all odd places) met an untimely demise. We *think* it may have been loved to death in combination with being too cold. We don't know for sure, because I'm not doing an autopsy on a chick, but the girl played with it for AT LEAST 3 hours the day before and THEN she told me she thought it was getting "tired". Humm yeah.. Less than ideal. But by golly that one day it was LOVED. A lot. More than any other little chicky any where else.

Poor Lucy. (Yes, she even named it and wore an all purple outfit for it - because surely the chick MUST love all purple sparkly outfits.) So, we insisted a new rule of just a few minutes at a time and no loving them to death. Literally.

We also got 2 wee little ducks. Mostly because she was sad and crying and well ducks make everything better. And I wanted 2.

They have been named Black Foot and Goldie. Yeah. I know. I didn't do that either. It's better than Daffy and Daisy though. C is a little displeased about the ducks, I figure it makes up for the chicks we have in over abundance and my grand displeasure in those.

The kids are giddy about both. They like any kind of animal in pretty much any shape or form.

The boy is even holding Black Foot without dropping it and screaming.

I must admit I was originally a little concerned about the cats attempting to eat the birdies. And while this would please me a *smidge* it would probably cause mass amounts of trauma. So far the only kitty trying to get at them is Squirtle. He's only really go at it half heartedly even..

We've got a chicken wire lid over them all while we aren't in direct attendance and the cat - so far - has completely avoided it..

Still, best science experienment ever. Something doesn't work, we just have to try again - which with today's technology isn't always how it works. Especially when the time frame is weeks and months not hours and minutes to accomplish a task. To hand hatch, raise, and everything chicks is one of the better long term project ideas I've ever thought of!

Randomness!

Holy Randomness Batman! There are a billion things that keep happening delaying posts. So, for a quick rundown instead of more delays:

1. Our chicky's have not hatched anything as of yet. If I'm guessing correctly *IF* anything were to hatch it *should* hatch by Friday. We've started another batch of eggs incubating on Sunday, that should have better luck since we have better over all temperature and humidity control and let them sit properly after receiving them in the mail.We're probably going to go ahead and get a couple of chick, chicks from the Tractor place for the kids to play with because they have been SOOO patient with this whole experiment in hatching..

2. Rupert, the puppy, now outweighs both kids. Not combined but is at 55 pounds. He's 5 months old. He's gonna be a big boy.

3. An asteroid is coming and the kids are sooo excited. It's not going to hit the Earth or anything, but you can almost never see those things.

4. The boy had the flu for the last full week and was miserably sick. He lost over 5 pounds and is now under 50 pounds. A year ago he was about 60. That boy is looking emaciated for how tall he is.

5. It's SNOWING!! Hoping there will be enough for the kids to FINALLY get to go sledding tomorrow morning. They are finally old enough and we have a decent hill at our new house! Neither puppy has seen the snow either and are having the best time ever tonight.

6. Our other house is STILL NOT DONE and ready to be on the market. Guesstimates are putting it at up to another 2 weeks, but hopefully less. It's always one thing or another. I just want this crap done with. At least enough to put it UP for sale, we've already had a couple of people interested in it, but can't show it to them with it not being DONE.

7. I need to get my camera out and take more picture of the kids and growing Rupert. I have been HORRIBLE about it so far this year and the guilt is setting in. I want to aim for taking it out once a day for a while and just catch them doing something for a while.. I did that last year and ended up with some really great pictures by the end of the year.

8. I have decided that we need to rename our Bunnies. We have the 2 boys. And we should name them Hoss and Phepher. And we're going to get a girl before too long and we should name that one Anne. Hoss,Anne,Phepher. Yes, yes I did.

I'm going to Attempt to elaborate on these.. But well. Clearly not doing so well lately.

The Ultimate Science Experiment

As part of a new, ultimate science experiment we are hatching some chicken eggs. Well, attempting to hatch anyhow. We've built our own incubator, the kids are watching the temperature and humidity levels, we're rotating the little eggs. Honestly, this round I don't expect a high survival rate - if for no other reason than we have NO idea what we're doing - hence the experiment part. We have 2 different kinds of eggs: 18 Bantams and 12 Silkies. I figured we would start super small with my expected non survival rate.

We are currently on day 2, so somewhere around Valentines Day or a little after or before we *may* have some hatching.. It's sort of primitive looking, but it'll work for after they hatch too - assuming we get any hatched. The kids are excited to look into the eggs each day with a bright flashlight and see if any changes can be noticed so far we've compared the dark blob inside these with the lack of one inside regular eating chicken eggs. These, even though they are smaller, appear to be heavier - we don't have a scale that small - and the kids have read about 3 books each about chickens and how to take care of them and what to do next.

Hopefully, they will continue to be as interested as they are now, but what better way to learn how cells divide, and grow, and all those things!

Happy New Year

This year we are bringing the New Year in with a boy with a broken nose, a girl with a hair cut (finally after 8 years) and a scheduled day and time for closing on the house we're trying to buy. 2 out of 3 positives is about as good as we get nowadays.


The boy *technically* broke his nose yesterday, but I took him to the doctor for it today. I was NOT going to take him to the ER during peak flu season for them to tell me something I already knew and to not DO anything. So I took him to the pediatrician and have to recount the story of how C and I went to lunch and were gone 45 minutes only to come back to bloody Armageddon. The Boy was launching himself at Gigi's belly and smashed his knee into his face. Now, originally I was told he was launching himself at the sofa, but then the kids corrected me and told on themselves and admitted they had been SUPER naughty and that he was launching his head at HER. Yeah. He broke his own nose on his knee. It's really hard to not repeatedly smack him upside the head and call him a dumbass. But I figure the broken nose is enough.

The Girl FINALLY let me cut her hair. The bottom of her hair was super whispy and gross since she'd only let it get trimmed a TINY, tiny bit once before. I convinced her that the hair was left over baby hair and gross and needed to be cut off so her other hair can grow. Yes, a little bit of a lie, but that bottom part was getting nasty. It was forever dangling in her food, glue, bowl, toothpaste, and tangled beyond repair.  She was freaking out until I told my wee little fib, then she was very content and happy with it. She did refuse to go to the haircut place though, so *I* had to do it. Good thing I can cut fairly straight.. :P

And the ever loving house saga. The closing got postponed  last week because of a lien on the title issue with a neighbor. Something about the neighbor 2 houses down holds the tax lien on the neighbor just to the other side of the house but the legal description was written incorrectly and encroached on like 4 feet of the property we are trying to buy? So.. I appears that the sellers went over and had a chat with the reluctant neighbor 2 houses down and got them to sign whatever paper it is we needed them to sign to get this moving again. Hopefully, this means we can finally close on this stupid this. It's already 3 weeks later than originally planned. *sigh*  The amount of lying BS that has been going on is just obscene.

Ahh a new year will hopefully bring this all to an end.

Our Tree

So, in between all the soap opera drama of the house buying, mother moving and surgery, puppy parvo having fun, we DID put up our Christmas Tree. It was a fairly low key event and we let the kids do most of it while *I* tried to not say anything. It's a tree with no rhyme or reason and they LOVE it. The bottom third has hardly no decorations with the logic from the 6 year old that the cat would play with them. The top third is also bare because they are still too short. But that middle section. WOW. It is festive.

We're going to do our traditional gingerbread house this week or weekend sometime - which is good since Christmas is less than a week away!


We also too the kids to Bass Pro because they offer free pictures with Santa. I have yet to get a GOOD picture of the kids with Santa. Never ever has this happen. The Boy has been particularly reluctant the last few years and before that This Girl was animatedly resistant. This is the picture (after 4 tries in 5 minutes at that) they managed to get of them this year. Yes, this is the *good* one.

The world may be falling apart around them, but it's still Christmas Time for them and we have to play along despite the want to roll around and ignore it. They don't know about the rest of the dramatic sagas and they shouldn't have a craptastic Christmas because the Hag of Hecktosville can't figure out how to file paperwork or the accountant's assistant is a nimrod. So.

Enjoy the kids joy of the simple things like decorating a 1/3 of a tree and putting icing on dried out crusty gingerbread and licking it.  There are many who won't this year.

Aggravation

You know what I hate? Stupid Snits. People who send you an email or voice mail or txt or something that indicates communications and just flat out demand something. Aggravation is really all it causes me. It doesn't cause me the desire to help you out. It makes me want to go all Hulk Smash and beat you.

 So we're doing the whole house buying thing. The paper work may kill us all still. (NEVER use Arvest for your mortgage BTW.) Our loan lady has sent us saying we have to have this CDIB card because everything is on hold until we have it. Well, I'm getting ready to head to Talequah today to GET it when C calls me because there's an issue with underwriting. We don't qualify for the Indian Loan thing because we haven't sold the current house we own yet. Now the awesome thing? The loan girl KNEW THIS when she said it would work. She wasted 2 weeks of our time with this and has been complaining everyday about this stupid card, which we now don't need, on something we can't even use! Pissed I am. Now, it gets better. She then sends a list of things she wants within 24 hours if we want to close on the contracted time. WTF?? Ok you screw around for 2 weeks chasing donkeys and now try to blame it on us?? Part of the things she wants - she's demanding be prepared by a CPA. Our CPA is off on professional development and is super pissed because he has to change his entire schedule now. Yeah. Clusterville. All because this chick is stupid.


Then, we have the text at 2:30 while I'm trying to convince the kids that they DO want to move by showing them that Sand Springs has most of the stores and stuff they like. The text is my mother saying "So, my doctor said he wants me to go to the ER.." Really? (Sorry, mom.. It's true..)

Or perhaps the 4 1/2 hours IN the ER with no doctor, no nurse.. Nothing. No one came in to check on her, to see if she was alive, to see if she was even there. Even when I disconnected her leads and oxygen and heart monitors so she could go to the bathroom.. Nothing. It's screwed up.

Then there's just stupidity.

 Let's take the lady at The Girl's OT. The receptionist calls and says she can't possibly ever make an appt for a re-eval before the end of this year. She has been told to not do it under any circumstance. (Yeah, like I believe that.) I tell her fine, make one for next year. Whatever. How about January 3rd. Really? Can't do this year but January 3rd? Ok. Sure whatever. Then get a voice mail the next day saying she has an appointment scheduled for December 21st. Huh? What? I call to see what's going on. "Oh, well. I talked with the therapist and she cleared it up, she meant any NEW patients." Right. Sure. It only got more special from there.

House, Holiday, and a Puppy!

It's been very busy here for the last month since I've posted last. Since Timmy found his perfect new home we accidentally stumbled into a new puppy.

We hadn't been planning on a new puppy right now. But. Joking around it was said - repeatedly - wouldn't it be great if we found a puppy just like Bear because he's such an ideal dog for us right now? Well, I was on Craiglist and saw this guy and got information about him and stopped by where he was. We were going to think about it for a while UNTIL the guy said he was going to take him to Henryetta the next day to euthanize him. WHAT? Yep. They couldn't find anyone to take him, so they were just going to put him down and he wasn't even 3 months old. He's got a great temperament, he's fairly calm most of the time, he's easy to train, but they were just done with him. Awesome rescue shelter. So we took him home.

Well. We get him home and settle and he's doing really well with the house training and all. 4 or 5 days into him being here, he stops eating and gets very lethargic. I get worried and take him into our vet, thinking he's got a virus or needs a different food or something benign. Nope. He's got Parvo. The vet is fantastic and spends 45 minutes with us explaining our options from as simple as sending us home with antibiotics and hoping for the best and bringing him back if he gets super bad and we can't stand it. Putting him down because we don't want to spend the money on him. And letting them keep him in vet hospital with an IV and medications and seeing if they can keep him alive. They gave him about a 50% chance of living with the in hospital option since he is a Rottweiler/Great Pyrenees mix (Rottweilers apparently get parvo worse than some other breeds?).

We went ahead and opted to leave him in vet care. After several days, the vet called and said he was looking MUCH better and we could come get him! Since then, the little guy has only gotten bigger. He still hasn't regained all his weight from when he originally got sick, but we're working on plumping him back up. The little guy has more energy than before - but since he has Parvo when we got him, that only makes since.

Rupert, the Parvo Puppy

To go along with the theme of "Unplanned Events", we are in the process of buying a new house too! It's taking longer than we had hopped, but the house is exactly what we had been looking for. It's just a little bit outside of town, but not so far you can't easily get to stores, coffee, gas, emergency care, etc. It's got 2 acres and is unplatted so we can have whatever we want on it - goats, dogs, chickens (*shudder*), buildings - whatever without anyone complaining. The plan is to have my mom move out there with us too. The house is plenty big enough and with the land we're going to build her a little building of her own.  The nice thing with the building is that once she no longer needs it, it will be available for an extra office space for C, an apartment type thing should one of the kids need it later like a step before they are ready to *move out* to learn how to be on their own, we could always rent it too. Options are always nice. Unfortunately, the paper work is dragggggging out.

We had hoped to be moved before Christmas, but since it's the 10th of December it's not looking like that will happen. Also, the Realtor came by to get something initialed because the Sellers are stingy fools and had the tenacity to ask if the Sellers could "rent" the house for a week or 2 after closing to move. Umm. NO. That would move this show past New Years and. No. C opened his mouth before his brain caught up and agreed way too eagerly, but the Sellers have made NO concessions whatsoever to us and I am simply NOT that generous. He did correctly that in a very appropriate and kind way, but cheap hookers not making a single concession to us then dare ask that?

Anyhow, Christmas is coming soon and in the car after swim lessons #2 was chatting about how we had gone to Bass Pro yesterday and we saw Santa. He HATES Santa and I asked him why. He explained that Santa wasn't real. I asked him to explain why he thought that Santa wasn't real. He backtracked and tried to explain that the Bass Pro Santa wasn't real. I *think* the Boy knows that Santa isn't actually real, but was smart enough to keep him big trap shut for his sister. Plus, we've had the chat about how if you don't believe you don't receive. This applies to Fairies, Santa, Easter Bunny.. Any and all mystical creatures. It could also be that I gave him the master of all stink eyes when he started to say that he didn't think Santa was real. The Girl thinks Santa is very much real. Though The Girl believes whatever I tell her and is denser than a fruitcake. But if she believes in Santa Clause at 8 still, *I* am not spoiling it for her and I will not let her 6 year old brother either. He may be a little more cautious about things than she is.

Best Santa Picture EVER

We did take a picture with Santa. It took them 4 tries and 5 minutes to get this *Good* picture. Yes. This IS the good one. I don't have a single picture of The Boy sitting with Santa or near him really. He's always several feet away. Ahhh well.