Living on a Funny Farm

Well, we've done it again.  We took in another stray.  This time a rabbit.

As you can see it's really cute.  And the story of how we got it is rather sad (after all, we're suckers for a sad story).

We had an old fridge we were selling on Craig's List and someone came for it.  Apparently they'd been kicked out of their former home and had a new place lined up but there were NO appliances.  Thus they were looking for the cheapest running fridge they could find (which happened to be ours). 

So how did we end up with the rabbit?  Side note, I was not home at all during this time.  As they were getting ready to leave, they asked if we were interested in their rabbit or dog (We are not big dog people so that was out of the question).  I guess they either couldn't have pets or they didn't feel they could afford them.  Whatever, the case hubby said yes to the rabbit.  So, back to the side note... I get home and AS I'm getting out of the car the kids come running out of the house and say, "Mommy guess what?  Daddy got us a rabbit!"  My first thought - they MUST be kidding.  He wouldn't do that with all the animals we already have.  I was wrong.

We now have a rabbit, 10 cats (only one of which we consider ours), and 6 fish.  And we're thinking of getting some chickens soon.  Yep, we're crazy.

I will say this though... I have never seen my son more willing and interested in reading and looking up things than since we started getting all these pets.  We've come home with library books on fish.  He's done online research about them too.  And the rabbit research has pretty extensive as well. 

All Things Great and Small

Life in my house has been busy to say the least.  I will try to update on some of those details soon, but right now I just wanted to share some things that have gone on lately.

Things seen around my yard in the last week:

Baby Mud Turtle (My daughters hand for perspective)

Baby Ring-neck snake (No hand for perspective. Duh!  Trust me it's the size of a worm).

Now we are waiting for this great thing (her poor belly) to deliver some small things.

So many opportunities lately to see some really cool stuff.

Delayed Birthday Gift

Yesterday, I was finally able to take my kids to Sea World.  This was a trip that we had promised my daughter for her birthday back in May.  Needless to say, the weather in May was a bit too hot.  Technically, I would have liked to have waited another month or so, but a cold front came through recently so the temperatures were a little bit cooler and I had a free night in a hotel that was about to expire so I figured now was a good time.

So how did it go?  I think this tells it all.

If only the glass wasn't in the way.

OK.  So I will tell you a bit more.  The kids and I spent about 8 hours there.  We saw 3 different shows, various animals and even rode a couple of the rides.  To say my daughter had a good day is an understatement.  She enjoyed the whale show

but she enjoyed the dolphin show the most.

After seeing this

She's "surfing" with her feet of the back of 2 dolphins.

my daughter told me that she wants to work at Sea World when she gets older so she can ride on dolphins too.  She has been interested in animals for as long as I can remember (she plays with stuffed animals and not dolls).  We saw Winter the dolphin earlier this year and that ignited a passion for dolphins that hasn't gone away.  She's mentioned in the past that she wants to work with sea animals, but after Sea World she seems to have narrowed it down to one animal.

I think the next trip might have to involve a hands-on experience for my daughter... ok, and me too.

What Were We Thinking?

Yep, we've gone and done it.  We are fostering 5 kittens that are about 13 weeks old.  We have been thinking about doing this for a couple years but knew we couldn't do it till we were no longer renting.  I had contacted someone letting them know we would be interested as soon as we got the renovations done on our house but we received an urgent email looking for someone willing to foster 2 kittens.  When I called the contact, I was asked if we'd be willing to watch 5 instead.  We were reluctant to take 5 at first but we might as well;  they needed a place to stay and we have the space.

The skittish one

The playful one

The reluctant one

The friendly one

The loving one

As any regular reader knows, my daughter loves all animals.  She has talked about how she wants to be a vet or work at an aquarium.  We figure that fostering will give our daughter an idea of what it's like to care for an animal (physically and emotionally) and then have to give it to it's (new) owner.

Hubby and I agree that we need to do everything we can to help our children focus their learning on  the thing God has called them to do which we'd like to this is also something they enjoy doing.  That means we first need to help make sure they REALLY know what they want to do.

Hubby has been teaching our son computer programming with programming robots as the ultimate goal.  So far our son is still very excited and gun-ho about robots as his future vocation.  This allows us to make sure that everything he does is focused on making sure he is moving toward that ultimate goal.  Why send him to horse camp if he'd be better served by $200 in cash to spend on parts to build a robot (or robot camp in a year or two when he's old enough)?

So how can we help our daughter determine if she really wants to care for animals?  That's simple, let her care for animals.  If she enjoys caring for kittens and can part with them once they are adopted, then maybe we can move on to something else like talking to someone who works at the local aquarium or talking to a vet, or someone at a zoo (or all three).  The woman from the rescue said that if these work out well, she would even consider letting us take younger ones to let my daughter get a more full experience of the kitten experience.

All I know is that these kittens are SO cute and sweet, I might have trouble parting with them too.

Oh, and we found a bonus too.  We had a couple days notice before the kittens were dropped off so we convinced the kids to do a REALLY good job of cleaning up their toys so we didn't have any kitten hazards out when they showed up.  I must say, the house ended up pretty clean.  :-)

Growing Up

This weekend is a special occasion.  One of my dearest friends has a daughter who is turning 6 years old.   It seems like just yesterday I visited her in the hospital with my almost 3 week old daughter.  Time sure does fly!  Happy birthday E!

That means that almost 3 weeks ago (during my hiatus from my blog and Facebook) my daughter turned 6.  I can't believe how fast time is going by!  It seems like just yesterday my daughter came home from the hospital.

For my daughter's birthday this year we decided to get a pass to Busch Gardens for the rest of the year for the entire family (and Sea World for the kids and I).  So a couple days before her birthday we went to Busch Gardens for the day.  Daughter and I were all about seeing the animals and Hubby and Son were all about the rides.  We all had a great day that was topped off by a visit to my Uncle's house for dinner and some catching up.  Needless to say the day was a success!

The last few years, it has become very apparent that my daughter LOVES animals.  Just about any animal in fact.  She can see a snake and say, "Awwww, it's so cute."  (That is SO not how Mommy & Daddy feel about snakes!)  The animals she's most fascinated with right now however are parrots and dolphins.  That's why it was really cool, when she got this sign for her birthday from Grandpa and Grandma.

Daughter's name has been removed from pic for safety reasons

This love of sea live is also the reason we added the Sea World pass.  It's also instigated something else lately.  My son does everything in his power to not write (a boy thing I've been told), but my daughter has a new-found love of writing, in particular about animals (and movies about animals such as Winter).  Sometimes she will copy from a book and sometimes she will draw pictures of her own and then ask an adult how to write the words she wants to go with the pictures.  She's even phonetically sounded out some words on her own as a surprise gift to me (it's so cute when it's technically spelled wrong but I know she spelled it correct phonetically).

I love seeing my daughter grow up and become a "big girl."  I pray I will be able to see her as a young woman and as a mother some day.  I just kinda wish it wouldn't happen this fast.

I bet E's mom would agree.

An Outlet for an Obsession with Animals

My daughter loves animals.  I mean L.O.V.E.S. animals.  If we would allow her, we would have a small (large) farm full of animals.  When she was recently asked what she wants to do when she grows up she said, "Take care of ocean animals in the morning and take care of other animals around lunch."

She has never been interested in dolls.  She is however obsessed with stuffed animals; and we must have 2 of each animal (a mother and it's baby of course).  When my husband came home from town the other day he told me he saw a place called "Dr. Karen's Pet Hospital" and he thought that one day we will probably see our daughter's name on a sign like that. 

My daughter and I were recently introduced to something called lapbooks at the Lego class she's been taking.  Since then, she has been begging me to help her make lapbooks about different animals.  I've been reluctant to do so because I just didn't feel like I knew enough about how to do it.  I finally decided to take the plunge, but not till after making a trip to the library to get books about the animal specified.  

In the last week we have done a lapbook on manatees.

And a lapbook on parrots.

We've even left room to add more information and pictures we've taken at zoos.

Next on the list.... rodents.

Now to get to the store to find a way to store all of these beautiful creations.  Who knows... she may need some of the information we've gathered when she's in veterinary school in a few years  :-)