"Wershies"

The other day Greg took the boys to the pet store (just to look of course, not to get any pets!) Anyway, somebody walked in with a couple of humongous great danes. Mason saw them and got all excited, pointed at the dogs and said "WERSHIES!!!" (Translation: "horsies") They were so big that he was sure they must be horses!

Back To School Already???

Tomorrow our vacation is officially over. Since the kids are on year-round school, they have been off since Dec. 5. It's been a nice LONG break, and although most people would be antsy to send their kids back off to school, I've been enjoying having my kids around and just hanging out. We have accomplished absolutely nothing over the long break (except updating my blog, of course), so I guess mostly I'm just not quite ready to go back to not being lazy anymore. Part of me likes being on a schedule, but a bigger part of me loves not having to be anywhere at a particular time, staying in my pjs as long as I want, not even leaving the house once if I don't want to, not worrying about homework, reading minutes, spelling tests, making lunches, and all that. I think you get the picture. But tomorrow it's back to real life again. UGH!! Ethan is the only one that's anxious for school to start again. (But how can you not love Kindergarten when you have the coolest guy teacher ever, who has a ponytail and a CTR ring!) At least we get a break in March.

New Pets

Here's our new pet plankton. They're much quieter than the cat was.

Animal Control

(This "shpecial" dog picture courtesy of Maricopa County Animal Control. I figure you've already seen enough pictures of the cat, and I didn't get my camera out fast enough to get a picture of the Animal Control vehicle.) Mareena the Kitty (girl cat) is off to greener pastures. Thanks to Animal Control, we no longer have a cat haunting our ducts. So last Monday morning we heard Mareena meowing in my craft room closet, so I called Animal Control right away. Of course everyone was "out in the field" so I had to just leave a message. In the meantime, I kept going in my craft room to make sure the cat was still there, and it was. It hadn't even moved. Finally about 11am, Animal Control called back. They asked if I could see the cat right then, and I said yes, it was in the duct and had probably been there all night and wasn't going anywhere. They asked if I could somehow close off the duct so the cat couldn't get away before they came. I told them there wasn't really a way to block it off, and again reassured them that the cat wasn't going anywhere. They said they'd be there soon, and we hung up. Before I could even put the phone away, Zack said that the cat wasn't in my craft room anymore, and that it was sitting at the front door. Sure enough, there was our loyal new self-appointed pet, meowing away at the front door. I finally mustered the courage to pick the cat up (with a towel of course) and put it in the garage (so it couldn't run away), where it waited for 2 hours until Animal Control actually showed up. (Zack was in the freezing cold garage playing with Mareena for about an hour of that time.) Zack, Ethan and Mason were very sad to see Mareena go, but for Greg and I it was more a feeling of relief and freedom. Now we are pet-free once again, other than the plankton the boys got for Christmas. So far I'm not allergic to them though.