insatiable desire for pets!

Johari and I went to the zoo today. Our membership had expired and we were ready to get a new membership and get back to visiting the zoo. Our zoo is awesome in summer, fall, winter, and spring! Rain or shine there are places to be at the zoo.

In any case, she got to pet a Madagascar Hissing Roach. (Luckily she is not desiring one of these yet.) Then she pet an albino corn snake and then another corn snake. And observed a large stick bug I think it was.

On her way home from the zoo, she decided that she was going to look for a snake in our old garden when she got home. And could I get her a cage for the snake she would find. Well, we looked. And we did not find. She is very adamant that she does indeed want a snake right now. She is willing to set her snails free in hopes of getting one (because of the number of pets that we have right now).

I am suggesting that we have to learn more about caring for snakes and so on. We have put the word out to the only friend that I know has had a snake to call us with more info about it. Johari is leaving messages on Jake's facebook page asking all of her questions about getting and having a snake. We are going to ride this one out for a bit. See where it takes her.

It seems that Johari needs to live on a farm or have her own zoo.

The other day she also decided she wanted to send letter through the mail to the Easter Bunny and if that failed to Santa Claus about the cat she wants. She drew a picture of a fluffy red cat and had me write Easter Bunny on it.

going to the big top!

We went to see Cirque du Soleil!! It was great fun. We saw amazingly flexible and bendy women. Men in human "hamster" wheels! People flipping with stilts on. Tightrope acrobats. Hoola hoop woman, spinning at least 10 hoola hoops in different places on her body at one time. . A man stacking up chairs and balancing on top. His body strength and control was inspiring. A unicycle act. Clowns. Magic tricks. Good music and dancing. It was awesome.

I like to imagine what life in the circus might be like!

bring on summer...ice skating

Getting her skates on

Johari went ice skating for the first time about a week ago. We went with our friends, Twitney, Emma, Joey, and Julia. It was a great time to try it out because the place was not crowded or busy at all.

At first when got on the ice, Johari wasn't doing much balancing and I was basically holding her up as her feet were shooting out in front of her. Then she used the wall a bit claiming a bit of independence. Then a skater told me about the 5 gallon buckets that they had for the kiddos to hold onto. Even more independence. They could push the buckets around and skate some. By the end, Johari wanted to try to go the 4 feet from her bucket to the exit on her own without any help. She was very proud when she accomplished that on her own!

Julia and Johari pushing their buckets along

Twitney and Juju doing bucket time.

Takin' a break on her bucket!

Two Quotes of the Day

"Mommy, Frogs like bugs. I like you."

"Mom, Did you know what? My world is perfect." With her arms open wide toward the sky.

Rainbow girl exploring a yard

The beautiful rainbow girl playing in the yard of a house where we babysit sometimes.

a flock of nine

Our one Silkie, Macaroni Girl, in a bunch of Buff Orpingtons

the set up for our chicks while they are growing

Takin the chicks out for sunshine

We got our chicks a few days ago. They are staying warm in the downstairs bathroom until they have their adult feathers. They have a nice set up. A full bath tub and 80 degrees for now. We have 8 Buff Orpingtons and 1 Silkie. We are hoping for all girls because we just want layers but we don't know yet. Undoubtedly, we will have to trade some roosters out for hens. The woman, Josie, that we got them from is happy to do this.

Johari was so excited to drive home with the chicks. She has decided to name them after "food groups". It is hard to tell the Orpingtons apart at this point. The Silkie seems to be called Silk sometimes or may have been named Macaroni Girl. (Let's hope she is really a girl.) Others have been called Squash, Green Bean, Noodle, Broccoli, and Cauliflower.

We brought them outside one day to play in the sun. One caught a bumblebee. It is fun to watch the whole crew when one catches something or even thinks that they have caught something. The one who got something scurries off and the others chase it around trying to steal the treat away.

Our coop out back is not constructed yet. Hopefully that will be in the works soon.

We had this book from the library a few months ago called, Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County. Johari is now the Chicken Chasing Queen!

Picture...less....

Well, bummer deal is that I lost all of my photos since August 2009, yesterday when my hard drive died. It is a lesson in backing up data that is important to me. I really value pictures. I love taking them and I love looking at them. So it is also a lesson in letting go. The temptation is be upset and to say all of the "I shoulda"s to myself. I shoulda blogged more at least. Oh, well. Let it go. Let it go.

On a different note,

Last night, Johari said, after we kissed good night, "Kissing is....beautiful."

Introducing Mrs. Biggleworth

Holding Mrs. Bigglesworth

The ride home with Mrs. Bigglesworth

Johari got a hamster!!!! She is so excited. She was asking for one and really wanting one. I understand that desire. I used to be the hamster queen myself when I was a kiddo. This time, I kind of wanted a ferret though, but the hamster is probably just right for us. I started looking around at cages and hamsters at the pet store. Yesterday, I looked at Craig's List....and there was Mrs. Bigglesworth. She sounded perfect. She came with a cage and bedding. Her teenage boy caretaker was just getting too busy to play with her because he was involved in sports. We met them in the Walmart parking lot and picked up Mrs. Biggleworth from their RV.

Mrs. Biggleworth was then renamed "I Love You" Joy Noodle. "I Love You" being her first name. And Joy and Noodle being her two last names. Somehow Mrs. Bigglesworth is sticking as well. In any case, Mrs. Bigglesworth is the perfect hamster. She is super sweet and not afraid. Extremely good with being handled...ALOT!

Yesterday Mrs. Biggleworth could hardly catch some shut eye. Johari just wants to play and play with her. And Jordan came over as well so they were really enjoying hamster time.

I thought I could sleep with Mrs. Biggleworth in the room. She has a quiet wheel. But I had to move her out of the bedroom in the middle of the night.

This morning Johari was talking about loving Mrs. Biggleworth and Mrs. Biggleworth loving us. She said, "she is really attached to my heart."