Good-bye Darkness

Please Mommy?

(Why do so many things start out that way?)

Please?

Can we release Darkness today?

It's pretty and sunny and warm!

Um...wait a minute. Twist my arm.

Are you sure you're not trying to get out of the big responsibility of pet ownership, Seth?

No Mommy!

Tell me why you want to let him go, Seth.

Darkness has been a good pet. Remember? I saved him from the rabbit cage and I've loved him and taken care of him all this time, but I think he'd be happier in the outdoors.

Don't you, Mommy?

Yeah.


He'll probably be bird food soon, but we won't mention that. Who am I to argue? I can't believe the beetle lasted this long...he was supposed to be turtle food when he was just a meal worm. He never even should have lived to become a beetle. When I told Seth on January 11th, that he could keep that bug, I never dreamed it would live two weeks, let alone 3 months!

OK Seth. Let's do it! Go for it, kid!




Here Beetle, beetle, beetle.......

Come here Darkness!

There's a good boy!


I think he'll be happy in the compost pile, don't you mom?

He can snuggle down in the leaves and get nice and warm, and there are all these food scraps for him to eat if he gets hungry.


Good-bye Darkness!



Mom? Why are you doing that funny dance?

6 Weird Things About Me Meme

Beth at Around the Funny Farm has tagged me for a meme.... She's pretty hillarious by the way. You'll have to go check her out. Ok, Beth. Here we go...

Wait...first I need to tag someone. At Home Mama? How about you?

Hmmm.....

OK. Here we go.

6 weird things about me. Is there anything weird about me? Nahhh...... But here are a few things that are, shall we say different?

1. Prince Charming is 19 years older than I am, and there is 30 years difference between A1 and Seth.

2. A2 is married to one of my best friends from high school. (A2 is one of my step-daughters). So, my step-son-in-law is two years older than me, and dated my sister in high school. I have to admit, that's kind of weird.

Here's their picture.

In high school, step-son-in-law had beautiful long blond hair that all the girls ohhed and awwwed over. Shortly after high school he began to lose it, and eventually he gave up. His daughter inherited his hair.

Isn't she beautiful?


(If you are one of my health-conscious friends, please close your eyes and skip to number 4. I"ll put lots of space here, so you can be sure and not peek.





3. I drink way too much diet coke. Shhh!!!! Don't tell D or J.






4. Two of my children have more than one middle name (the birth recorder was standing there tapping her foot because we couldn't decide between two names. She suggested we give our daughter both names and start a new trend. We did. Our youngest also has two middle names).

5. We have a pet cemetary in our back yard. (Have to with all those critters). Last year we convinced Sophie to let us start a "compost garden" on the back half and plant zenias on the front half. The cemetary is sort of maxed out and when Prince Charming buried the 4 foot iguana last year, he ran into Tippy, the collie who died when I was three. (If you do the math, that's over 40 years)....

Oh, by the way, this makes more sense if you know that we live in the house I grew up in....

Apparently for some reason my dad had wrapped her in a plastic bag, and there she was. Not decomposed in the least -- that's when we decided we needed a new spot for future pet funerals. Although if we had been a little more brave and unwrapped Tippy, it might have made for a nice forensics lesson...or NOT.


6. My kids and I are closet Harry Potter fans. Most of our friends are not. But, we love the foreshadowing, the symbolism, the conversation starters that abound within the books. We have taken a lot of flack over the years for our love of Harry, but I challenge anyone to read all 7 books and then argue that they are not good literature. They are SCIENCE FICTION! FANTASY! Like Star Wars. A Christmas Carol. Lord of the Rings. Snoopy (Linus and the Great Pumpkin). If you open the book knowing that you are walking into a fantasy world, you know to have your guard up and to use the book as an opportunity to open discussions and to enjoy for the entertainment it was meant to be.

Darkness

If you know us, sit down....


We have a new pet.

Well....correction...the youngest genetically-defective male in our home has a new pet.

It's a rescue (you could have guessed that, right?). It all started with the turtle.

Meet Dribble.




Dribble himself was, of course, rescued. He was brought to us by a neighbor who almost ran over him with a lawnmower (ouch!). We said we would care for him/her/it (how do you tell with a turtle, anyway?) and make sure it was OK, then return it to the wild. But before we had a chance to do so, winter set in so freedom for Dribble will have to wait for warmer weather.

Meanwhile, do you know what you feed turtles?

Mealworms.

Know what happens when you accidentally drop a mealworm into a rabbit's cage? If you guessed that the rabbit would eat it, you're wrong. It actually lands in some nice soft bedding where it hides. While it is hidden it changes into a pupa, and then it changes into a beetle. The whole process takes about 2 weeks. (Something tells me Prince Charming has not been emptying out ALL of the bedding when he and the offspring have performed their weekly ritual of changing the rabbit's bedding - SO BUSTED!).



Meet "Darkness"



My youngest son discovered the beetle in the rabbit cage. Because he carries his father's mutated gene, he had no choice but to rescue the beetle from the rabbit, bond with it, establish a habitat for it, and claim it as his very own pet. With the help of his oldest brother and a copy of the book "Pet Bugs", he rescued the beetle and set it up it it's own home complete with a little potato and some sawdust and oatmeal as instructed by the book.



Isn't he cute?