Busted

Me and my big mouth!

During a chat last night, I let it slip that I blog. Oh OHHH! No-one knows I blog really, only family, my few OS mates and my two followers (tee hee). Kind of embarrrassing to admit that you blog. Who blogs? I mean really, who READS other people's blogs, apart from me that is?

I love reading other people's blogs. I do get attached to some people, but really the only one that REALLY moves me is NieNie. I sooo look forward to her posts.

So anyway, I will send the link to my dear friend (you know who you are) and hope that she doesn't tease me when she looks at my blog. Blogging is just one tiny part of me. There are so many other parts too. The crafty part, the mother part, the beastly tantruming part, the wife part, the animal lover part... too many parts really... no wonder my head is always scrambled.

And, so to finish with a visual, here is a picture of The Little Man's hands proudly displaying the mandarin peel that he removed IN ONE PIECE! Wahoo! Clever dude!

Distracted

You know you are distracted when you go make a call on your mobile and it is the garage remote. Duh!

Besties

This morning The Little Man whispered in my ear as he walked past.

"You... are... my... best... F.R.E.N.D!" Big smile on his face.

"Shhh... you have to whisper so that The Big Man and The Middle Man don't get upset that I didn't pick them."

My heart burst with happiness.

Mother Guinea

Mother Guinea is going to pop soon. Any day now there will be a new family photo on here and her little darlings will be running around the cage... so exciting. We have been putting old milk bottles filled with hot water in at night for them. They all huddle around and keep warm together... But they keep on eating their bedding. I keep telling them to stop it, don't they realise they are eating their blankets... how much variety do they need in their diet... grains, carrots, celery, capsicum, fresh grass, hay, shredded paper, salt licks... I am missing some vital piece of information.

Tunnels

Have you ever felt like you are in a tunnel? A long tunnel? A dark tunnel? A never ending tunnel of stuff? And at the end of the tunnel there is sunlight and laughter and happiness, but it just doesn't matter how hard you try, you just can't make that final step that will actually propel you out of the darkness and into the light...

Some days my tunnel is long, but some days it is short and other days there are no tunnels at all...

Life is good thought whatever size the tunnel...

Mortified

Middle Man is mortified... MORTIFIED!

We have a dear friend who cuts all of our hair and because of our kids' extra activities it took a while to organise the time together to actually make it happen. It just happened that the day The Middle Man's class got yet another nit note home, is the day that we cut all his hair off... it was bad enough that he had short hair, and it felt funny, and I don't like it, it's too short etc etc etc, but to then realise the next morning as he is getting ready for school...

"OMG! Everyone will think I was the one with the nits because I've had all my hair cut off! OMG! Can I stay home today? DO I have to go to school today? OMG. OMG. OMG! Muuuummm!"

That's right. Because it was all my fault. Yep. I calculated the whole thing. I planted the nits in the other childs' hair, I wrote the note, I probably held a stick sharpened earlier on a stone to the Deputy's head to make her sign the note, I even organised the fated hair cut.

It's official. I don't mean to be a nitpicker, but when you look at all the clues logically, it was me, it had to be, didn't it?

And so...

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. [Hebrews 13:2]

And that is a good lesson for my boys to have seen. Mummy spoke to a 'bikie dude'... gasp!! shock!! horror!!

But guess what? He is a lovely bikie dude. He is kind and sincere, he loves his snakes, he is humane to the rats, he loves gardening, he loves a chat...

And so it showed my boys that we can never read a book by it's cover, that good people are everywhere, dressed in anything at any time... that we just have to look hard enough and make a bit of an effort ourselves to find the treasures that are out there in this world.

We are all so full of the dangers of life for our kids these days (and rightly so) but in the right circumstances, in safe places, and with responsibility, respect and genuine interest we can find angels among us.

Introducing... Juliette

Hatched in February, Juliette is the latest addition to our family.

Measuring in a tiny 46cm, she is the most beautiful creature we have so far. She resides in the master bedroom in a lovely timber box, glass fronted of course. Sporting a paler colouring, she was chosen from a box of many snapping little brothers and sisters.

Spending her day curled up on her log, or sliding gracefully over her stones and marbles, she is a quite, amazing girl.

Juliette is a Coastal Carpet Snake. She will grow and grow and grow and when she is big enough, she will go outside into a purpose built aviary type thing specially for her. She comes out of her box twice a day to wrap her tail around my fingers, or the fingers of The Big, Middle or Little Man.

I love Juliette. As The Middle Man would say "She rocks my world."

Introducing... RITA

How could a rat not be named Rita? Such a perfect name for a perfect little house guest. Along with her adoptive sister Chanel, Rita (at a young one month old) has joined the household quietly and easily with a minimum of fuss.

Enjoying carrots, pumpkin and rockmelon, Rita seems to be a lover of all things orange. She even graces us with little (no... large) orange nuggets. Rita is a pleasure to have around. With her sister, she tends to spend half an hour eating, and then 4 hours sleeping, day and night. She can often be found nestled in her tea bag box full of alpaca fur, and promptly yawns on being woken up.

Not shy at all, Rita (and Chanel) walk calmly onto the author's hand when the door is opened. Friendly, dear little creatures...

Welcome to our house.

Introducing... CHANEL

So named because of her distinctive outfit of black and white. In a soft fabric that hugs the curves of her juvenile body, this stylish number is a must this winter. Sporting a black mask, hat and shoulder wrap, Chanel's spinal stripe makes her a number one contender for Fashion Week awards this year. Working well in a small cage environment, she is a leader in all things fashion.

So much to tell...

So much has happened since I last blogged.

It's amazing how fast things happen. I felt a bit saddened by all the events that I just didn't have the heart to blog about it all.

We are over (semi) the death of the baby GP. We have moved on from the sea snake and we have accepted the 'circle of life'. Everyone is OK with it, except The Big Man who got very angry and distressed when I accidentally and completely unknowingly let a litter of mice be tormented by the Girls (dogs). Not knowing they were there in the box, I was cleaning out the cage and thought they were just sniffing at the scent of mice, when in reality, they were pawing at them, trying to get them out... My beautiful weak-bellied neice found two on the ground, passed away and the remaining four in the box, all eyes shut and helpless. It was an awful moment.

I could have dissolved into sorrow and self loathing, but I just got on with it... re-uniting Mama Mouse and babies, removing the bodies of all deceased... I am an example of what to do and how to behave... I cannot collapse every time something bad goes happens. Of course, on the inside I felt sick to the stomach. Once again, little lives lost at my hand, which just concreted the decision I had made prior...

The boys and I had been at the pet shop looking for a treadmill for the GP's. We have decided to keep them... well... most of them. I had bought a new double decker 'Swiss Chalet' and set it up in the pool area (DOG SAFE) just outside the kitchen window so I can see them as I work. In the mornings, they play tiggy and tear up and down the ramp, squealing at each other... at least I THINK they are playing, maybe they are harrassing each other? hadn't thought of that... hmmmm... Mama GP is getting fatter every day and slower I guess, although she does join in on the games.

So... because they are no longer on grass, I thought it would be a good idea to get them a treadmill... and as we were looking, I struck up a conversation with a man who was quite close to us checking out the mouse food... Now being a typical looking 'bikie dude' I couldn't myself and ask him if he had a pet mouse "You don't actually look like you would be the type to have a pet mouse?"

I turned out that he breeds rats to feed to his snakes which he also breeds. The conversation go bigger and longer and oh so interesting and before long, we had swapped numbers and we were going over to see his snakes and to swap our 17 mice for 2 (yes... just TWO) baby rats. Apparently rats are not smelly, very clean and good little pets. The boys agreed to all of this knowing that the mice were going to end up in the belly of a snake but I kept checking and they both said "It's the circle of life mum".