We have a new pet

We did, in fact, get the chinchilla. They are pretty amazing little animals. (I'll keep saying positive things about them in case I need to offload her at some point. I'll hold a contest for all two of you reading this. Your odds of winning her may be very good.)  So far she has been way better than we even thought she'd be.  Here are a few pluses:

Chinchillas have absolutely no odor.  (There's not even a quantifier for that one)

They are smart and can be trained to a certain degree.  (I doubt we'll be able to put in that amount of time, but still--smart is better than dumb as an oyster)

They are very, very soft.

They don't eat much at all.

They take the most entertaining dust baths as they don't do water *at all*.  Our canaries drank more water than this little girl does! 

We've learned a lot and they are really interesting.  This is a wonderful place to learn some fun things about them.  

If we kill her, I will no longer say she is interesting. 

 In other news, we finally sent off all our flats yesterday. I'm going to miss them, but it feels good to have them back on their way. My biggest fear has been people thinking we lost them instead of realizing we just couldn't find a stopping spot.  And now we need to stop procrastinating and get our flats sent off. We meant to do that at the original exchange, but well, here we are, still working on it. 

And we need to get the garden done. The tomatoes are doing well but I need to plant the rest of the things--chard (plain and in rainbow colors), bush beans, zucchini and yellow crook neck squash, spinach (oops, too late), beets? I can't remember. Whatever, they need to go in the ground because studies have proven that they grow bigger and better in the ground than left as seeds in the package. 

Read more...

Current Happenings

Baseball for the three boys has been going remarkably well.  Jason got a great hit on the first pitch yesterday and he also fielded for the first time and made a great throw. All three boys did well in the bat-a-thon a couple of weeks ago so they got tickets to the A's game for June 22nd. HoneyHusband will go with them and they'll have a Guys Day Out.  Jaime and I will do something fun together while they are gone.  Maybe go for pedicures or something. Ideas anyone?

Tristan put up a sign advertising his weedeating business and has been inundated with jobs. I'm so proud of him!  He does such a great job and people have been calling him back and recommending him to others.  It's great work for a 15 year old--builds muscles, tires him out and adds to his bank account. He's been wanting an mp3 player for ages so he used some of his money for it this week so he's happy, too.

Oh, the Flats. I feel so pressed to get them in the mail and last Friday I was determined to do it. I had to wait for 11 days for the pictures from Wal-Mart and it turned out they had filed us under the wrong last initial so I guess the pictures were there all along, but nobody called us like they said they would, and going there nobody could find them until we got creative and asked them to check under other letters.  Sheesh.  So last Friday I was putting the finishing touches in the envelopes when my e-mail program went out and I was on the phone to Apple for over an hour, then other calls to find out what happened. We got a reprieve from Wild Blue to use our mail until the end of the day (less than one hour, thanks anyway) and I *had* to mess with that before it went out forever so I missed the post office.  It was mostly a miserable day. I've got to send them out tomorrow for sure. I've really loved doing the Flat Traveler projects, but getting them sent out has been a struggle. Plus I keep wanting to add one more place to go or one more set of pictures. I can see how keeping them for one week makes sense. It's just a quick snapshot of a place and that's all. I want to send a complete year's visit to each and every person! 

Kimberly (precious daughter 2) came over last night with her honeyhusband and friends just to say goodbye because one of the friends was leaving early in the morning back to Illinois. They ended up playing catch out on the lawn until dark when I brought them out bowls of popcorn. They finally came inside and talked and visited longer. It was so nice to have a bunch of people over, just talking and playing. I wish it happened every day. 

Andrea (precious daughter 1) is planning a road trip with a friend. I'm so happy for her. There is nothing like a road trip!  I hope they have a blast, and I think they will. I wish I could meet her at her destination and do some exploring with her, but we'll have to do that another time. I have such fond memories of the place, but it's been so long since I've been there, besides a restaurant and a mall, there probably wouldn't be anything to show her anyway. 

I guess that kind of catches me up with everything. Now I need to go make more news...

Read more...

The Lack of Intelligent Life

Our e-mail was suddenly gone a couple of days ago, while I was in the middle of negotiations for obtaining a chinchilla as our new pet. Some might consider that God's blessing. Nevertheless, not having any mail program is an abrupt something or other, wouldn't you have to agree?  Then HoneyHusband tried to fix it and deleted my entire mail--inbox, drafts (where I save anything remotely interesting) and anything else I may have forgotten to dramatize. Everything. Including my right arm and the vacuum cleaner.  Maybe not the vacuum cleaner.  

This leaves me with a naked realization of exactly how technologically stupid I truly am.  Notice the doubles of the mountain lion in two separate posts? I knew I had double posted. Can I delete one? Evidently I am unable to. I can edit things, I can't delete the picture.  Maybe nobody will notice. But how can I live without an email program?  Someone, even if it is just me, is bound to notice. Case in point--I noticed!  I can't hide this one.   Things that seem absolutely impossible are run of the mill, and then things that seem like they should be easy as falling off a log aren't.  I used to think I had taken an exit off the superhighway of the world wide web quite a while back, but now I see it was never the superhighway I was on, it was only the onramp and I left that ages ago heading further into the backwoods. I recognize where I am now and it's Ma and Pa Kettle's.  Welcome home!  Sigh.

Read more...

Scary Wildlife

We've done some really fun things lately and I never think to put them down here. Last Saturday we had a baseball game for the bigger boys in Point Arena and the beaches on the way down were so incredible.  Here is one. It's hard to get perspective, but it's a *long* way down, and people on the beach would look very tiny.

 And then of course, you have your scary side of nature. I've printed out this picture for each of our flats we are hosting, but the bottom that says "don't crouch down; the lion has seen you long before you saw it" is cut off.  I think it makes it that much edgier with it. 

Read more...

Car Schooling

We have had the busiest schedule in years. Mostly it is very rewarding and we've gotten all kinds of wonderful things out of it. My children are definitely becoming more confident and proficient in different areas and each area of confidence helps with the next thing. But lawsie! I'm about ready to commit some terrible crime whereby the only punishment would include lots of time in solitary confinement. Quiet. Meals served to me. No driving back and forth.  No quibbling in the car. There's not many worse things than hurling down a freeway at a high rate of speed in a tin box with young people fighting and quarreling. 

Hmm. Maybe I should start a prison reform program. The prisoners would be begging for a new start on a crime free life by the end of the week. 

Read more...

More. Because I'm Chatty Like That

The pigs were fascinated by the Joyce Family
Cowboy Tyler and Flat Squirrel
 The emu is around 5' 9" and tried to eat the Flat.  I'm just glad there is a fence.
Lots of beehives and the bees were thick in the air. 

Here are our current flats all over a mossy tree at the coast.

Okay, that's it. It's bedtime and I need to go pick up Tristan from his all day church activities. 

Read more...

A New Month, A New Post

Our Flat from Missouri visiting with the Buffalo

Tiny baby starfish!
Three of my lovelies with all the current Flats, MacKerricher State Park

Here are the Very Friendly Llamas. Only their Very Friendly Owner came out, took my flat and wouldn't give it back and I was almost late for an appointment. Makes me a bit wary of going back there for more pictures. 
      Baseball is going well for all three boys. Here is Jason at yesterday's game. He made a solid hit and did great.  The big boys were at a double header at the coast so I couldn't get their picture this time.                    

Baseball is going well for all three boys.  Things will be a little better after this Tuesday when Awana is officially over because right now there have been scheduling conflicts. 

 It's been a fantastic year in Awana and they all finished their books and did a great job.  Now we can start planning for VBS in July. Last year was so much fun I am definitely getting involved this year. 

Riding lessons continue and we've been enjoying that. Kay is so nice to work with!

The children and I have been having fun with our Flat Stanley project. Right now we are hosting flats from Missouri, Tennessee and Alabama, two from Australia and two from England. We need to send ours out--I'm *way* behind on that.  We've taken the flats to the coast and saw all kinds of neat things in the tidepools, we've gone to the buffalo, Lake Mendocino, tried and failed (twice) to get the emus and llama pictures, and tomorrow we'll do the cowboy stuff and the emu (hopefully. I've stopped counting on success here) and we need to get pictures of the ridge, the table at schooltime, our town sign and the drive through redwoods, which entails an hour trip north. I've gotten postcards and some things to put in with the flats to send home, but I need more buffalo fur and the pressed flowers need more drying time.  It is taking much longer than I had planned.  And here I am saying, I am going to send out all our flats tomorrow on our way back from riding lessons. There. Done. 

Read more...