I love packing...

We are getting ready to head up to Ft Worth this week. We'll only be gone for one night, but we're renting an RV and trying not to spend much money on food while we're there.
The University of Houston Cougars are playing the Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl on New Year's Eve. We're going up on Tuesday and will be heading back after the game.
I'll probably have pictures to share when we return.
Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve!!

Family Pictures

Saturday was piano recital day. Notice the well dressed children.
Also notice the silly faces.
They were allowed to have a silly face picture if they'd stand nicely through other pictures.

Hubby and I wanted one of just the two of us.
Thanks to my sister for taking it.

The nice one I got of all 5 of us.
Note that the older boys are getting to be as tall as I am *sigh*

The nice shot of the boys.
The oldest turned 13 on Sunday, he's in the green shirt
The youngest, in the snowman sweater, is 7
and the middle child is 11.
Middle child picked out his tie all on his own, even wanted a suit coat to wear, lol.

Doin' a happy dance

Hubby's off from work this week!!! We'll probably just spend that time hangin' out around the house and decorating, but it's SOOOO nice to have him home. He's already taken one load of stuff to storage, just to get it out of the house.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great weekend spending time with family and friends.

Thankful

I am thankful for my children, even when they drive me crazy.
I am thankful for my husband because he's always there to support me.
I am thankful for my friends, near and far.
I am thankful for my house, it's not much, but it keeps us warm and the oven works.
I am thankful for my family, we're not demonstrative, but we all know we love each other.


I don't really know what to post this week, but wanted to list a few things I am thankful for.
This list is certainly not complete, but it covers the most important things.


Happy Thanksgiving
from the House of Redheads.

Christmas Shopping

It's that time of year again. Christmas shopping time.
Since we home school, it's hard to get out and shop for the kids without them. Our answer this year is to do most of our shopping online. With the help of Ebates.com, I get rebates on my online purchases with their participating stores. Stores such as Sears, Target, NFL Shop, and JCPenney.

I have shopped with Ebates since 2003 and have gotten back more than $300. I don't get emails from anyone but Ebates and those are about my rebates being credited to my account and special offers that I might want to take advantage of.

I'm so sad

Mac the Elephant dies of viral illness.

I haven't told Hubby or the kids yet. I just found out. Poor baby elephant.

I was tagged

Ok, The Crazy Lady tagged me... Now I have to figure out who I'm supposed to tag *sigh*

The RULES (LOL):

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.

5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Hmmm 6 random things about me....

1. I drive a minivan and LOVE it.

2. While I love to cook, I'm a horrible housekeeper.

3. It's way past time for me to go visit my hairdresser, and I don't know that I really have time to do it.

4. The computer is the only "modern convenience" that I missed when the power was out.

5. I just took an email survey that compared me to Charlie Brown.

6. I forgot to put my wedding ring back on after making meatloaf last night.

I'll be tagging Meredith, Rach, LeighAnne, Laura, Becca and maybe Dakota...

Random Pictures

Sign fail...
you'd think someone would have caught this before it got put up 10 times around the zoo.

Water Lily and Minute Maid Park (aka, Juice Box)
I just thought it was cool to get the flower and the ballpark in the same shot.

They weren't happy that I wouldn't let them put bunny ears on each other...
I'm very tired of bunny ears in all my pics

How do you make it through the zoo with 5 children?
By lining them up and threatening not to take them to the park, lol.

Mac's Birthday

I took 5 boys to the zoo yesterday. They all had a ton of fun, and because of Mac's birthday party, they got free cookies!!

This is Mac. He's a 2 year old, Asian elephant. He also LOVES people and knew that everyone was at the zoo yesterday to visit him for his birthday party.
See the steel cables surrounding his enclosure? Those are to keep the silly elephant from escaping to visit with the people. They used to be a heavy rope and he would sneak through them to get the attention of his keepers. Unfortunately, all my pics of Mac as a little (he was never VERY little) elephant are on a broken computer.

Halloween Party

Cold? Did I say it was cold on Wednesday? blah... it's up to 80 degrees in the afternoons now...
Halloween was a blast. We had my friend and her family over and the little girl across the street.
My friend made a macaroni and cheese and I made a lasagna. We also had salad, Rice Krispie treats and mummy dogs (mini sausages wrapped in strips of crescent roll dough, then baked).

The youngest child first wanted to be a mummy, but decided that the wrapping was uncomfortable. We dug into the Halloween tub and found an old Harry Potter costume, painted a scar on his forehead and were good to go. The middle child wore a white dress shirt, a black necktie and a lab coat. He was supposed to be a mad scientist, but we didn't quite get the "mad" part of it down. The oldest was a football fanatic (not much of a stretch for that one, lol) in his Texans jersey and face paint.
My friend's boys were Mario and Luigi from Super Mario Brothers.

FALL!!!

It's nice and cold here in south east Texas. Long sleeves before Halloween? It's a bit of a shocker.

Busy around the house this week with Halloween fast approaching. Costumes to finish up, house to get ready for guests and decorate for trick or treaters.

I'll post pics, hopefully on Saturday, of my monsters, dressed as, well, monsters, lol.

50 Odd Things

Shamelessly stolen from Ali... and the Crazy Lady... but that's somewhat redundant, isn't it.

1. Do you like blue cheese? Hmm, not really

2. Have you ever smoked heroin? No.

3. Do you own a gun? Hubby does, does that count?

4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? Umm, I only get Lemon Berry Slushes, does that count?

5. Do you get nervous before doctor's appointments? Lately? yeah

6. What do you think of hot dogs? They're ok, as long as they are cooked over a flame.

7. Favorite Christmas Song. Stille Nacht

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Hot tea

9. Can you do push ups? Yeah, but do I have to?

10. Do you believe in God, Jesus and the holy spirit? Yes

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry you wear? Wedding rings.

12. Favorite hobby? Reading, I guess.

13. Do you work with people who idolize you? Hmm, I don't have any idea.

14. Do you have A.D.D.? Who me? ooo a shiny!

15. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? procrastination

16. Middle name? Darlene

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment. Why aren't the kids in bed? Where did TCL get this? Did the oldest child start that load of laundry?

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday. Orange Juice, Cranberry Juice, ground beef

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Tea, water, lemonade

20. Current worry right now? Did the oldest child start that load of laundry?

21. Current hate right now? insurance companies

22. Favorite place to be? Hmm, the zoo, I guess

23. How did you bring in the New Year? Oh crap, you want me to remember back that far? I think we were at home, avoiding our obnoxious neighbors

24. Where would you like to go? Hawaii

25. Name three people who will complete this. I'm hoping Laura, since she needs to update her blog, lol. Maybe Rach, if she's bored enough. Possibly LeighAnne, again, if she's bored enough.

26. Whose answer do you want to read the most? Not sure that I have an answer for this one

27. What color shirt are you wearing? Red

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I've never done it, love my satin jammies though.

29. Can you whistle? Yes

30. Favorite color(s)? Blue, light green, purple

31. Would you be a pirate? only for Halloween, I'm not so good at hand to hand combat.

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever is stuck in my head, which is whatever the kids are practicing on the piano for the week

33. Favorite girl's name? Michaela

34. Favorite boy's name? Ian

35. What's in your pocket right now? my phone

36. Last thing that made you laugh? Ali's answers

37. Best bed sheets as a child? Strawberry Shortcake

38. Worst injury you've ever had? Hmm, the cut on my leg or the cut on my head, probably the head injury

39. Do you love where you live? Yup

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 5, but only 3 are hooked up

41. Who is your loudest friend? Hmm, I'm not sure, I'm usually the loudest in the group.

42. How many dogs do you have? None

43. Does someone have a crush on you? Does my hubby count?

44. What is your favorite food? Asparagus

45. What is your favorite snack food? fruit

46. What is your favorite candy? Hershey Kisses

47. What is your favorite sports team? Houston Cougars

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? I haven't ever thought of it.

49. What were you doing 12 AM last night? watching some movie about Beethoven on TV

50. What was the first thing you thought when you woke up? "Does he have to leave sports news on when he goes to take his shower?"

Texas Adopt a Beach

For the past 2 years, the company Hubby works for has "adopted" a stretch of beach. Now, this is a technicality, considering it was Hubby's idea and we're the ones doing all the work. The company (I'm not going to put the name up because we kinda need the paycheck) doesn't put out any money for this. It's a free sponsoring project, you just have to go out 3 times a year to clean up the assigned piece of beach (or waterway). We get no support from the company and for the past 2 years, our family has been the only ones putting out any effort.

Yesterday, Hubby talked to the people from the state (I want to say the Land Commission, but could be wrong) about it being transferred to a family company, or to our family in general. So, we'll get to keep "our" stretch of beach, whether it goes to my father's company, or is a family thing.
WOOHOO!

~
The oldest klutzy redhead... who is off to ice her tailbone

Cider time again!!

It's getting to be that time of year where hot cider runs freely in our house.
I don't know when Dad started making it the way we do, but it's been part of our fall and winter traditions for as long as I can remember.

One thing I discovered this summer, after finding a lost (unopened) jug of cider while we were moving, is that it helps clear up congestion. I had a horrible case of summer allergies (or maybe musty house, I don't know) and after drinking the hot, spiced cider, I could breathe again!!!

So, I use a coffee urn for mine... This one, to be exact. And whatever cider I can find at the grocery store. Refrigerated stuff is yummy, but the stuff from the juice aisle is good too, in fact, apple juice works also. I usually use about a gallon of cider at a time. I pour that into the urn and then add a cinnamon stick (or two), about a teaspoon of whole cloves and a tablespoon of cinnamon candies (Red Hots) to the basket. Then perk as usual.

I bought cider today at the store and already have all the other ingredients.
I am SOOOO making some tomorrow.

Hash Brown Quiche

I got the recipe from Taste Of Home, but adapted it a bit for my family. It was much enjoyed by all family members (a shocker) and Hubby really enjoyed it with salsa on top.

Hash Brown Quiche

4 cups Frozen shredded hash browns
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 Tbs butter, divided
4 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (I used yellow)
2 tsp flour
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheese

*In a large skillet, saute the hash browns, salt and pepper in 2 tbs of butter until golden brown. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9 inch round pie pan.

*Saute green onion and bell pepper in remaining butter. Remove from heat and sprinkle with flour. Stir in eggs and milk. Pour into hash brown crust.

*Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and back another 5 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Getting back to normal

After having to dump all the food from all 3 of our refrigerators, and nearly emptying the bank account while trying to eat without said food, we now have power and hopefully life will get back to normal. The good thing about being without power for so long is that our electric bill this month will not be as high as it has been.
I hope that business will pick back up now that people are getting power back.
Stupid storm is seriously effecting my sales.

Hurricane Ike

Saturday morning, Hurricane Ike came through the Conroe area. At about 1:30am, we lost power. At about 3:30am a large tree from the property next door fell across our front yard and into the neighbor's yard, completely blocking our driveway. When Hubby got up to check on everything, after the sun came up, he found another tree down behind the house, on top of the power lines.
We have gas, we have water. We can cook and we can take hot showers, lol.
We heard from Entergy (via the radio station) that we might not have power until September 29th.
There is an American Bull dog that has taken up residence in our yard. He is very sweet and seems to like the name Buddy. He has been trained and can sit, lay, stay and "go lay down" even with the boys telling him to do it.
A friend came and removed the tree from the driveway and some wonderful gentlemen from North Carolina came and removed the tree from the power lines. The trucks from North Carolina have been all over our neighborhood clearing trees and working on the power lines.
In my opinion, FEMA has done a wonderful job getting down here and getting stuff out to people. I've been very lucky and thank the Lord for all that we do have.

For those worried about my health, I'm doing fine. We've had a couple of days where I've over done it, but some Tylenol 3 and some rest and I'm feeling better. The weather is cooler, which is a blessing since Houston in September can be miserable.

I'm hoping to do something about Internet access soon, so that I can get back to my emails and my business.

Surgery

Yesterday was my surgery. I never heard how many gall stones I had, but do know that my gall bladder was severely inflamed. The doc was wonderful, told me he'd been worried about me all weekend expecting a call from the ER that I'd been admitted again. Interestingly enough, his daughter's name is spelled the same as mine, but pronounced differently.

Everything is well, so far. I hurt, but that's to be expected. I won't have all the kids home until I think I can handle them, which I doubt will be tonight. We are getting at least one home today, the middle one. He'll quietly watch TV and play computer games, so I'm not too worried about it.

I paid $3.08/gallon of gas tonight!!!

I needed gas tonight on my way home from a show. I also had to stop by the grocery store to buy dinner. I decided to try out the gas prices at the grocery store's pumps (Safeway affiliate). It seems with my "Remarkable Card" I got a discount of 30 cents a gallon!! I only paid $3.08/gallon!!! (I know, some people would have been happy with the original $3.38 a gallon, lol)
The shopper before me didn't get all of their receipt and I just looked at it enough to see what their discount was.... only 3 cents.

If your local grocery store has a gas discount for its discount cards, USE IT!!!!

Update

We got home on Monday and Monday night I got sick and had to go to the hospital. It seems my gall bladder is blocked and needs to be removed. I'll be going back to the hospital this coming Monday to have that done.
Please keep my family in your prayers as no one is used to me getting sick like this.
~Redheaded Mama

Goin' to the lake

We're headed up to the lake for the weekend. A friend asked if we wanted to join them at her in-law's lake house for the long weekend and we pretty much jumped on it. It will just be the two families, which makes 4 adults and 5 children, for the most part. However, it's been rumored that her younger brother and his girl friend might join us at some point.
We will be there for 2 nights and each family is responsible for the meal for one night. We are making brisket, pasta salad, cole slaw and beans. I figure the cole slaw and beans will also be used at lunch times to go with sandwiches.
We'll go out on the boat, hang out and play games at the house, and who knows what else.
I'm excited, we haven't hung out with them as much as we really should have.... the hubbies have yet to spend a whole bunch of time together since I met Tall, Dark and Geeky.

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend, I'll post pics if I remember to buy some batteries.

Today's Horoscope

Hmm, are they sure this isn't TOMORROW'S horoscope?


Dear Alana,
Here is your horoscope
for Friday, August 29:

Today's activities are pretty low-key and shouldn't be taken too seriously, though at least one close friend may need some help to see that. You may need to distract them with other stuff.

So freaking graceful

And you know darn well I'm talking about myself. I managed to fall 3 times within a week. Monday night was the last time and I fell with full weight on my left wrist. I knew I'd only sprained it, so I iced it, elevated it and took some Advil.

Tuesday morning, after hubby had gone off to work, I was getting dressed for the day. The older boys had piano lessons and I had to take some time afterward to close out their teacher's candle show.

I ended up curled up on the bed in tears. I started calling Tall Dark and Geeky only to get his voice mail. Cell and desk phones both! The oldest child came in and tried calling while I spent some time remembering my Lamaze techniques.

Finally, he sends a text asking what was going on........ "pain, lots of pain" was my answer. He left work to come home and take me to the ER. We went to the closest hospital, just to get an x-ray to make sure I hadn't managed to break one of the many itty bitty bones in my hand.

The x-ray showed what I suspected already, it wasn't broken. They wrapped my hand and we left. Of course, it took us almost 5 hours to achieve that.

I'm fine, but really really annoyed at myself.

Olymipic Opening Ceremonies

I'm sitting here watching the most wonderful show. While I don't always agree with the way things are done in China, they do have an amazing history. The history and culture displayed in the opening games is absolutely awe inspiring.

I'm not very good with words. I can talk and babble all day, but I'm not a writer and I don't pretend to be. I cannot describe this to anyone who didn't watch it.

The word that has come to mind the most while watching has been WOW.

This was rambling, I'm sorry for that, but oh well, it's my blog, I can write how I want to :D

Dish Network- a vent

So, when we moved to the new house we cancelled our account with Dish Network. We couldn't get DSL at the new house, so if we had to get cable internet, we might as well go with cable television.
We had to cancel a contract, which is fine, we'll pay those fees willingly.

First, they were rude about us cancelling the contract. Told us it was going to cost us twice the actual cost to get out of the contract. We got that taken care of by talking to that person's manager.

They were going to send boxes to us to return their equipment. We said ok, we'll keep an eye out, please send those to the new address. They sent them 2 weeks after we moved to the OLD address. Since then, we have requested the boxes no less than 4 times. They have consistently sent the boxes either to the wrong town or the wrong street number (one that doesn't exist). We have also requested their address so that we could just pay for the shipping ourselves and get the equipment back to them, THEY REFUSED!!!!

Now, they have charged us $500, taking it directly out of the account. We have been charged for their incompetence.

At this moment, my husband is on the phone with these people AND at the same time, at the BBB website making a complaint.

Smart Car

So, I had the pleasure (*snort*) of getting a close up of a Smart yesterday.
Is it just me or are they just like an overgrown Cozy Coup?
I'm really questioning the practicality of the car. Ok, yeah, energy efficient, blah blah blah, but if it got into an accident, what's to stop the person driving it to get smushed to smitherines?
I'm not even sure you could fit groceries in it.
Of course, I'm a mom of 3 boys, so really all these itty bitty cars that everyone is proclaiming that everyone else should drive are not very practical for me. THEN, you have the hybrids that are too expensive for the average family of 5 to buy and it takes 5 years before the gas savings catch up to the price you spent on the thing.
I drive a minivan because SUVs are too expensive and have such horrible gas mileage. I love my minivan, the three cars I owned before this one were minivans. Even when I had only 2 kids, I drove a minivan.
I will add that my first car was a station wagon, so I might be predisposed to family cars.
I will also add that I've already told my hubby that once we are free of kids (*snort, yeah right*) I want one of THESE! It's my dream car. I do know it will never happen, I'm a reasonable person and I know that in 11 years, when I don't have to drive the kids around as much, we will NEVER be able to afford a 55 Corvette.... It's on the list of things to buy when we win the lotto (we'd have to PLAY the lotto to win the lotto, lol)

Moving

I'm a bad blogger.
We've been moving our stuff from one house to another for the last month and this week we moved the furniture. I feel very sorry for the movers who had to lug my solid wood furniture out of one house and into another. Every bedroom set we own is solid wood, and every bedroom in the new house is upstairs, very steep stairs at that.
We decided when packing up on Monday morning that the TV from the gameroom (upstairs) in the old house would be switched with the TV from the master bedroom (downstairs) in the old house. The TV that was in our bedroom is about 150 pounds and with the large, heavy furniture already going up, I thought it cruel to have the big TV go up also. Also, with the smaller TV in my armoire, I can actually SHUT the doors! (ridiculous of me, I know)
All of our furniture is now moved, but we still have some smaller things to move.

On top of this, I'm working on a new business opportunity and unpacking all the crap we own.

Rick Riordan

The middle child's birthday was 10 days ago.
(Yes, I'm late with this post, so shoot me)
We found out on the day before that Rick Riordan would be in town, signing books.
Said child has been reading the Percy Jackson series and was very excited to hear that he could get his books signed. We rescheduled the day so that Hubby could take the boy.
It was a surprise, he didn't know that he was getting to go to the signing until they got to the book store.
I have heard that middle child was chatty and smiley (very odd for this child). He made jokes and asked questions, discussing the books in length.
I did have to plead with him to take his camera into the book store and actually let hubby take pics (specifically for blogging, lol).

Something is wrong with my TV

I'm not sure what, exactly, but something is seriously wrong with it.... I think though, that it is the DVR, not the actual TV.

We were watching just fine and suddenly my darling changed the channel (good thing, what we were watching was STOOOPID). First, we didn't have a picture at all. Then we turned it to watch something recorded. That came in somewhat ok. So, then my dearest changes it to Encore Drama channel and does something I didn't quite catch. Now, we're watching TV with a shot from Dirty Dancing with the noises from whatever channel we have on.

Not a good scene from Dirty Dancing, either. It was the touching sister moment near the end of the movie. Couldn't be something good like Patrick Swayze with his shirt off, NOOOOOOOOOO.

Let me tell you, it's very funny to see this scene with the sounds of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Ok, hubby's calling DishNetwork now to find out what's going on.

My Mother's Day Present

Tall, Dark and Goofy bought me something I'd been wanting for awhile, a fire bowl.
We spent Sunday morning at church, then went to lunch with my family at The Melting Pot.
We stopped by the book store to update the boys' schoolbooks (and get a few for me) and then to the grocery store to buy hot dogs, marshmallows, graham crackers, wood, etc.
The kids have had a blast the couple of nights we have been able to use it.
Tuesday night was spent house hunting and last night, we had a storm.

I also got this wonderful cookie bouquet made by the oldest and youngest boys.
They went to a kids' night at the Young Chefs Academy on Friday and had a blast decorating cookies.
Sorry that pic is so blurry, don't know what happened there....

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Mother's Day,
mine was the best I'd had in a very long time, possibly ever.

Update on the house hunt

We had an application in last week and heard back a big ol' fat no. We have good credit, and our rental history is good.... but no, no house. Grr, that one was cool and practically perfect in every way.
So, last night we went and looked at 3 more houses.
First house: Water damage, current renter said that it had been there for awhile and the management company STILL hadn't fixed it. She also said she was surprised they were showing it with the ceiling practically caving in (ok, she said in that condition, but the ceiling is practically caving in!).
Second house: Huge yard, but no room for a school room. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice house, but didn't even really have a place to set up the computer desk.
Third house: Advertised as a 4-5 bedroom house. Umm, NOPE! It has 3 bedrooms, a loft gameroom and then another random space that is open to the downstairs and you have to go through one of the secondary bedrooms to get into. Really cool house, but would NOT work for us.

So, Tall, Dark and Goofy is looking into a loan and we're talking about buying. With all the foreclosures on the market, it's a good time to buy. The problem being, we don't know how long we need to be in Houston, what if he gets a great job offer in Austin? Or San Antonio?
Maybe another rental to look at tonight, from the pics on the HAR site, I like it, we'll see what it looks like in person.

Click and Read Phonics

Now, the youngest monster doesn't really need the phonics lessons, he knows how to read. He does need some more confidence with his reading though.

I like the program, and if you give my email address (lala52877@hotmail.com) as a referral, you get a $10 and I get $10 back. It is a lifetime membership, and can be transferred to anyone you chose once you are finished using it. The only drawback I've seen would be for people with more than one child who could use it at the same time. You'd have to pay extra for the additional children.

Very good program, comes recommended from Homeschool.com.

http://www.clicknkids.com

Happy teaching!!!

Yet again

We found a house we really really liked. This time we even filled out the application. By the time our realtor had dropped off the applications to the listing agent, they had rented it out. It seems that last night when she called him to ask a question about the application fee, he neglected to tell her that the owner already had other applications he was considering.

I'm so tired of house hunting I could scream.

No hedgehogs??

So, we were ready to put in an application on a house. Quirky house, great back yard...... owner doesn't want hedgehogs living there. Stupid, obviously doesn't know what a hedgehog is.
It seems that she's nitpicked every application. Hubby and I decided that she just doesn't want kids in the house, and will find legal reasons to keep them out since she can't come out and say it that way. Oh well, her loss.
3 houses to look at tonight.
I hate house hunting.

House hunting, grrrrr

So, we spent the weekend driving by houses that we have found online. Some really nice ones, in fact, we could have been done at the first house. However, when we called the agent, we found that the house had rented the day before :(
We found that at every house we really liked. There was one other that we called the agent standing in the front yard and the agent never returned our call. I have also sent said agent an email asking for an appt to go look at the house. It's huge, with built ins and a pool!!
We looked at a few more today and one of those we really like. I've emailed that agent also.
I'm tired now, and somewhat discouraged, I HATE house hunting.
Maybe I can get out at some point this week and go look at those two houses.
Have I mentioned how much I hate house hunting?

The Shrimpy Bandit

The Shrimpy Bandit is my youngest redhead. Isn't he adorable? He was playing around last night after eating all the Cajun shrimp that Hubby and I had peeled for him. Normal 7 year olds don't really eat shrimp from what I've been told, but my kids are far from "normal" and the younger two will eat just about anything. If you have shrimp on your plate and Monster #3 does not, then beware, especially if he's within arm reach of your plate. He also steals calamari and most fruits and vegetables.

Another New Family Member

So, we told the oldest monster that if he saved up the money, he could buy a hamster. He saved up for the cage, the hamster, the food and a few accessories. We already had bedding from the hedgehog that we weren't using anymore.
Her name is Smokey and she is a gray Djungarian hamster, which from what I've read means she's a Russian winter white hamster. She's very light in color, like a wisp of smoke (hence the name).
She is slowly getting used to the monsters who are getting used to having such a small mammal in the house. Previous to this, the only very small animals we've had are toads and frogs.


On a side note, while at the pet store, Hubby and I looked at some new frogs since our dart frog recently passed. We're looking at the glass frogs, also known as clown tree frogs. They are very colorful and like to climb the sides of the tank. However, Hubby is also liking these very small mice called hoppers. Usually, hopper mice are used for feeder mice, but Hubby says they look like mini kangaroos, which intrigues him, lol.

ARGHHH!

3 days now with the same headache!! It goes away for a bit (with a little help from my friend Advil, and his brother Advil PM) but always comes back just as strong once the pills wear off.
My main question is............. Why is it when my head is throbbing the worst that my children are the loudest??

More Facebook Fun!

Click to visit my Haikoo^SM Zoo pet, Prickles, on Facebook!

Ok, so I have no life, I have more apps that I keep up with on Facebook than any one person should. However, I take solace in the face that I turn down quite a few requests from people to add new apps, just about every day, lol. That and I know people with far more apps than I have, lol.

The Wonders of Facebook!

So, playin' around on Facebook tonight and saw this thing that was "People You May Know" and so I clicked on it. Starts out with people who my friends are friends with, some I know, some I don't. Then, it goes into people that I may know due to my profile information. OMG!!! people I went to high school with and haven't thought about since graduation!! I'm sitting here cracking up and Tall, Dark and Goofy is sitting here looking at me like I'm NUTS. Ok, I'm nuts but this is hilarious!
Some of the people, I know of, but I wasn't even a blip on their radar, then there are people who I was very close friends with. I've sent out a couple friends requests, to women I was pretty darn close with at some point or another. Mostly those friendships drifted because of circumstance. I was married right after graduation and Monster #1 came along right after that, didn't leave much room for traveling to Austin or some such to visit a friend at college, ya know?
If you're not on Facebook, get there, it's a total blast!

Briar

We decided on a name for the baby. Her name is Briar, which I think is too cute. The boys aren't fond of it, but she is MY hedgehog after all, lol.
She has her first vet appointment next Tuesday for them to look and see if she has mites. Her quills are falling out and it looks somewhat infected. However, we don't have the money to take her this week and with the boys new classes, Tuesday afternoon is the soonest I can take her after payday. We will be taking both hedgehogs in, Briar and Mozart.
The picture above is of the two little darlings meeting.

Hedgie Face!!

Ok, so she's blurry, but she's a fast little bugger!
I still don't have a name, but since all of 2 people read my blog (and that includes me) I can't really ask for suggestions (how sad).
I had thought about running a contest, but since one of my readers is me, that's kinda hard, lol. We might just stick with Prickly Butt, though, I dunno, it lacks something. Maybe I'll search Prickle in the thesaurus........ arrow, bristle, dart, prickle, prong, quill, shaft, spike, spur, thistle, thorn...................... Thistle is the name of the hedgie at the zoo, otherwise, really cute.......... Spike was the name of Hubby's first hedgie..... Prongs is a bit too Harry Potter for me......... Quill is a bit.... yeah, stupid. Hmmmm, Prickles might be the winner of that selection........

New family member!

We adopted a new hedgehog over the weekend. We haven't named her yet. She's 6 weeks old and what they call a paint. That basically means instead of one color all over or a steady mix of colors) she's got spots! Big ol' patches on white mingled with patches of salt and pepper.
She's enjoying her new cage (actually an older cage, but she doesn't need to know that!) and we bought a chinchilla bath house for her to sleep in. We put in some bedding and she's loving burrowing down in that.
We have yet to introduce her to the other hedgehog in the house. We'll probably do that by the end of the week. Certainly something to do with 2 adults in the house, lol.
Ok, off to clean a turtle tank!

BUST-ERRRR!!!!

So, the puppy has escaped. He dug out of the back yard yesterday while I was out running errands. The boys are sad, the hubby is sad and I'm kinda sad myself. We did look into getting a new dog, a REAL puppy this time. You know, a little bitty 2 month old that I can carry around like a baby for awhile. Not some 8 month old monster that weighs more than the youngest child.
Hubby is determined it will be a large breed. Ok, I can handle that, but I'm looking into dogs that are low shedding or seasonal shedding. Buster was a constant shedder, which means I have dog hair all over everything in my house. We really like the border collie, which are medium shed. We also like Irish setters which I believe are low shed. The other one that calls to me is a basset hound or a beagle. I know hubby will agree to a basset if I find one, but I'm not so sure about the beagle. They have the cutest faces though!
We have to ask the management company if we can have a dog for real. I'm assuming there will be a pet deposit and all that crap. We didn't have to make a pet deposit on the animals we had when we moved in, since they're caged animals and can't make much mess. As it is, the fullest tank we have is the turtle tank and it's probably got about 7 gallons of water in it.
Ok, I'm babbling again, deal with it, lol

Doggy adventures

Ok, so it seems Friday a dog was found wandering around our street. The neighbors took him in that night, but were moving the next day. Well, being the animal loving people we are (ok, suckers, we're big ol' suckers) we took the dog in Saturday night. I searched recipes for dog food (since I didn't have any kibble and the poor pup had to eat something) and made up a doggy hamburger helper. I've since made a chicken dish for him too.
Well, it's Tuesday now and this animal has wormed its way into the hearts of my children. I have to take him tomorrow to check for microchips. He's not a puppy puppy, but not full grown either. He's an American bulldog, possibly a mix.
I've purchased bowls, a leash and collar, toys, kibble, shampoo, and treats. He's taken over some inexpensive blankets we had around the house and hubby thinks that maybe he moved one of them himself last night.
Buster is a sweet dog, but man, takes him awhile to calm down when transitioning from outside to inside.
Now, I have to go clean the mess in my bathroom.

Mary had a little lamb

On this past Tuesday, the middle monster (10) started piano lessons. He had fun at his first lesson and is taking the whole thing very seriously. He's been at the piano every spare minute he has.
Today, I've heard "Mary had a little lamb" possibly 15 times. Before that it was "Old MacDonald."
It's a good thing I like children's music, or I'd probably go insane.
On the other hand, the oldest monster, who has been taking lessons for 7 years now, hasn't touched said piano since Monday. He practices only when it's convenient for him, which is about as often as he does his chores, lol.
The youngest monster will probably start lessons as soon as he's reading independently. This is the one requirement of our piano teacher. This will happen before too long, he's very close.

Payback

For some holiday many years ago, my ex husband bought a truck for my friend's son. The child loved the truck, but it made very loud, obnoxious music. Mind you, this was probably the LAST time I let my ex pick out presents for any of the children.

This year, for Christmas, my two older children received room alarms from this friend. She SWEARS that her children picked them out. UH HUH, I believe it, really I do............. This has been payback, more than payback, for that obnoxious truck. When activated, if a door opens, said room alarm will make this high pitched (and not a note, it's sharp or flat or something, just not ON a note) beeping noise until the child responsible for the room it's in goes and turns the blasted thing off.

Young blog, haven't mentioned that I have perfect pitch............. omg, I'm going to take it away and possibly take my trusty rubber mallet to the darn things!!! The youngest child has taken great joys in setting off the stupid things, all freaking afternoon long.

shoot me.................. please???

Stuff you find in a piano after 13 years

We recently moved the piano from my parents' house to our house. My oldest monster is the one using it, makes more sense for US to have it. WELL, we decided it had been about 13 years since it was last tuned, not to mention the need to tune it after it's been moved.
Yesterday, after the piano playing monster came home from his piano lesson, he handed me a card for a tuner, from his piano teacher. Seems she's tired of his excuses about not being able to practice on the really out of tune piano. I called the gentleman and he said he could be here this morning. Well, I decided that the dining room could use a cleaning if there was going to be a stranger in it (there was a NASTY spot on the floor that required the carpet cleaner). I also raised the lid on the piano and pulled the front part off. HMMM, seems it wasn't playing well because there was a ton of STUFF in there.

one dime,
three pennies,
2 FAKE pennies,
3 pence (yes, pence),
several pictures of short people (including one of me with VERY scary hair, it was the 80s, what are ya gonna do?)
a few 10 mg Ritalin
one Winnie the Pooh vitamin
one colored pencil (in purple, in case you were wondering)
a pen, with no cap
a pen cap, not even to the pen we found
and a cooking magazine.

The cooking magazine explains why it wasn't playing well for so long, it was restricting all the bass line keys. As for the coins, you could hear them clinking when you played, kind of annoying.

The moral of the story you ask?? don't let toddlers and preschoolers play around your piano, also don't use it as a dumping ground if you're going to expect someone to play it.
The wonderful piano tuner is here as I type this, we've taken the mini-vac to the piano and it's fairly dust free now. It's also on it's way to being in tune, now, to make the 12 year old practice!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Hello!

Hi all! Welcome to my madhouse. A little about me...............
I'm a redheaded mama to 3 redheaded boys (my husband is NOT a redhead, but we love him anyway). We are a homeschool family in the Houston area. We love museums, zoos, biking, and animals. We have a mini zoo of 2 red-eared sliders, 3 fire belly toads, 2 blue dart frogs and 1 hedgehog.
I love to cook and will probably be posting recipes every once in awhile of things I try and feel the need to share with anyone who happens to stop by the site.
Not sure what else to say, I'm not comfortable writing about myself. I will probably spend most of my time talking about the short people, but that's the nature of a mother, to talk about her children.