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Mar. 12th, 2006
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Mar. 12th, 2006 08:26 pmWow, it's been a busy weekend.
Friday our pet mouse died. I was strangely very affected by it, maybe because of Star (who's doing well and tremendously spoiled at her new home) no longer living here. Mice, according to the website I read, only live 1-2 years in captivity; Mousey was a few months away from being with us for two years. And we had recently put her in pine bedding, which is supposed to be bad for them, though my fear is that it was improper handling from Ellie that, well, killed her--and I should have been watching more closely. So I blame myself really.
Anyway, Saturday was my stepgrandfather's 80th birthday and I had promised to write something for it. So Friday night and Saturday morning were spent doing that, then getting everyone ready to drive to Melbourne for the party. The party was at a park, lasted forever, and my kids went through three changes of clothes wading in the lake and playing in the sand and just generally being wild. They had a blast--Ellie crashed her first party, running full tilt toward one of those inflatable castle things and getting inside before I could get to her. "Oh, let her stay and play," a lady told me, so I did, feeling distinctly uncomfortable around a bunch of strangers. Ellie didn't, cheerfully making friends with any and everyone there before I finally dragged her back to our party under protest. So, yes, lots of chasing Ellie over the course of the afternoon. But my grandfather did love the poem I wrote for him, and so did everyone else. That part made me feel good.
Dave and I had a big talk and talked with Daniel. Dave really didn't want a mouse or rat. However, Daniel really wanted another pet and I had okayed it before checking with Dave (probably not a great idea--I thought we'd just get another mouse or a rat or hamster) so we had to figure out what to do. We ended up getting a guinea pig and deciding to create our own habitat (from info we found on a website) to save money. The guinea is adorably cute and the habitat worked out really well, but the guinea is also pretty skittish and scared. I worry that guinea pigs are more, not less, fragile than mice. So now I'm wondering if this was a bad decision. Time will tell, I guess.
Tomorrow is Spring Break continued (Friday Daniel had the day off) and I hope to survive the entire week and the weekend. I hate it that my kids fight. I just wish they'd leave each other alone...but it's like they can't stay away from each other and nor can they play peacefully for more than 5 minutes at a time. It's difficult.
The good news is that Dave is home w/no more business trips for a while. The next ones to take a trip should be me and Ellie--although Ellie's been acting like a total hellion lately so I'm a bit nervous about going anywhere with her. *sigh* It's like Daniel's improved a lot over the past few weeks but Ellie's gotten worse. And I feel discouraged about that.
Meh. This entry's too whiny. Hopefully I can come up with some things to do over spring break that will be fun and inexpensive and...I don't know. Right now I just want to be alone for a while, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon.
Friday our pet mouse died. I was strangely very affected by it, maybe because of Star (who's doing well and tremendously spoiled at her new home) no longer living here. Mice, according to the website I read, only live 1-2 years in captivity; Mousey was a few months away from being with us for two years. And we had recently put her in pine bedding, which is supposed to be bad for them, though my fear is that it was improper handling from Ellie that, well, killed her--and I should have been watching more closely. So I blame myself really.
Anyway, Saturday was my stepgrandfather's 80th birthday and I had promised to write something for it. So Friday night and Saturday morning were spent doing that, then getting everyone ready to drive to Melbourne for the party. The party was at a park, lasted forever, and my kids went through three changes of clothes wading in the lake and playing in the sand and just generally being wild. They had a blast--Ellie crashed her first party, running full tilt toward one of those inflatable castle things and getting inside before I could get to her. "Oh, let her stay and play," a lady told me, so I did, feeling distinctly uncomfortable around a bunch of strangers. Ellie didn't, cheerfully making friends with any and everyone there before I finally dragged her back to our party under protest. So, yes, lots of chasing Ellie over the course of the afternoon. But my grandfather did love the poem I wrote for him, and so did everyone else. That part made me feel good.
Dave and I had a big talk and talked with Daniel. Dave really didn't want a mouse or rat. However, Daniel really wanted another pet and I had okayed it before checking with Dave (probably not a great idea--I thought we'd just get another mouse or a rat or hamster) so we had to figure out what to do. We ended up getting a guinea pig and deciding to create our own habitat (from info we found on a website) to save money. The guinea is adorably cute and the habitat worked out really well, but the guinea is also pretty skittish and scared. I worry that guinea pigs are more, not less, fragile than mice. So now I'm wondering if this was a bad decision. Time will tell, I guess.
Tomorrow is Spring Break continued (Friday Daniel had the day off) and I hope to survive the entire week and the weekend. I hate it that my kids fight. I just wish they'd leave each other alone...but it's like they can't stay away from each other and nor can they play peacefully for more than 5 minutes at a time. It's difficult.
The good news is that Dave is home w/no more business trips for a while. The next ones to take a trip should be me and Ellie--although Ellie's been acting like a total hellion lately so I'm a bit nervous about going anywhere with her. *sigh* It's like Daniel's improved a lot over the past few weeks but Ellie's gotten worse. And I feel discouraged about that.
Meh. This entry's too whiny. Hopefully I can come up with some things to do over spring break that will be fun and inexpensive and...I don't know. Right now I just want to be alone for a while, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon.