Monday, April 21, 2008
Comments!!!!!
Just an FYI. I would love to have comments from any and all who read my blog. I have it set so that you should not have to join Blogspot in order to comment. But do leave your name so that I know you were here. I have it set in such a way that I must ok each comment and it took me a while to figure out how to do that. Today I discovered that I actually had a number of comments that I didn't know were here! Thank you to all who left them!! Now that I know how to find them, I will make sure and check daily so that they get posted. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy reading.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
General Happening's In The Chaos Household
It has been over a week since my last update. Things have just been crazy around here. We are all finally over our coughs and colds (Thank You Lord!) and My Honey is finally back in town. Well, actually he was back in town but had to leave again due to a family emergency. But we did have him home for about a week and that was nice. He had been away for over 2 weeks. We always miss him when he is gone.
The boys are both doing GREAT in baseball. Little Man is really starting to shine! I recently bought him a new glove and that made a huge difference in his catching ability. Apparently the teeball glove that he has had for three years was cutting the circulation off in his hand!! :0 I swear I didn't know! He never told me!! One of his coaches approached me and told me that his glove was way too small for him. It was only after this that Little Man mentioned the "tingles" he got when he wore it at games. What a BAD Mommy I am!! We made a beeline for Big 5 and I had one of their more knowledgeable associates help us pick out the correct size glove. What a difference it made!! At the next game he caught every ball that came his way and managed to get a number of players out! Yippee! Muffin Man is doing pretty well too. His team, overall, is a Joke! We have 14 four and five year old's on the team! Talk about CHAOS! Most of them are catching ladybugs for the entire game. I will admit that Muffin Man has done his fair share of bug catching, but he finally seems to be catching on to the game. In the last few games he has managed to get hold of a number of balls and tag a runner or base a few times. He gets SO proud of himself when he does it. It is just too cute!
Ok, I have a story to tell...........Last week Muffin Man announced to me that he wanted his daily vitamin. I told him I was busy and that I would get it for him in a few minutes. At that he announced that he would just go get it himself. I told him to go ahead and try. Knowing that it has a child proof cap I was not all that concerned. I could hear him in the kitchen trying to get the bottle open and complaining that there was something wrong with the lid. At this, Little Man proceeded into the kitchen to give him a hand. Little Man has never opened a child proof cap either and for a moment was stumped. At that point I walked into the kitchen and saw that Little Man was reading the cap. He started to speak and I interrupted him and told him that he did not need to read what it said out loud and that neither he nor Muffin Man needed to know how to open the bottle. Muffin Man grabbed the bottle back and started looking at the top. He carefully sounded out "Push down and turn" and then promptly did just that. As the top came off the bottle he looked over at me and exclaimed "Watch the Master at work!" The good news is he is learning to read quite well. The bad news is he may be a bit too smart for his own good! Smarty Pants!
Another story...............The other evening the boys and My Honey were preparing to go to the park and then on to a game. I had a prior commitment and was unable to accompany them. I was giving the usual goodbye hugs and kisses when Muffin Man told me he needed 100 kisses! I slathered him with kisses and then kissed his palm, folded over his fingers, and told him to put the kiss into his pocket for later. (This is from a really cute book titled The Kissing Hand) I then kissed and hugged Little Man goodbye and they headed out into the garage to get into the car. A few seconds later, Little Man slipped back inside alone and said "Can I have a kiss for my pocket too?" Talk about melting my heart! When you think they are getting too old for all that mooshy stuff, just think again. I have to remind myself daily that although he seems to be growing up into a "Little Man" right before my eyes, he is really still just my little boy. I am So thankful for the gift God gave me when He gave me my sons.
Onto the critter updates..........
We are now down to about 7 mantis'. They continue to eat each other even though I keep their cage well stocked with crickets and fruit flies. The largest is now about an inch and a half long. They are growing like weeds. They molt often and it is really awesome to watch. Below is a picture of one that was in the process of molting and we pulled it out of the cage so we could watch the action up close. If you look closely, you can see the old skin near the top of the photo. I was actually holding on to some of the skin it had already shed. They hang upside down while they molt and the other mantis' have no shame and will attack and eat them while they are vulnerable. Here is the gruesome part.......Do not read if you are squeamish...........I warned you! Whenever I notice two of the Mantis' facing off I will tap on the mesh and get them apart in order to keep them from eating each other. Obviously, as shown by the numbers, I am not catching them often enough! The other day I noticed that one was clutching another and they appeared to be fighting. I flicked at the mesh and tried to get them separated and then noticed that the one that was caught no longer had it's head. But is was still MOVING and FIGHTING! Little Man came in and started trying to get them apart as well. I told him it was too late and that it no longer was "alive" but he wouldn't believe me. He kept saying "But it is still moving!" I explained that this can sometimes happen but that since it's head was gone there really was nothing we could do to save it. The sickest part of this whole experience was that the thing KEPT FIGHTING until the very end!! Even when it was down to the last 1/6 of the body and only two little legs, it was STILL KICKING! GROSS!!!!! So the moral of the story is this..........Although this has been an awesome science experiment, it is not for the faint of heart or those with children who may be traumatized by constant death.
This first photo is of our tadpoles. I actually do not think I have posted any pictures of them until now. When we got them they were newly hatched from eggs and were the size of the tip of pencil lead. All of them fit in a medicine dose cup with room to spare. In fact, that is what I brought them home in. Since then they have been growing by leaps and bounds. As you can see in this picture some of them are sporting froggy back legs. A few days after this photo was taken, they began to pop out front legs. The back legs grow over a period of a few weeks but the front legs literally pop out of holes in their sides fully formed. It seems that over the last few weeks, there has been a new leg or two every time I look! Just today, two more went from two legs to four. Once they have four legs, it is only a matter of a few days till their tails are absorbed and they climb out of the water. The second photo shows a few of the frogs after they have completed their transformation. One still has a bit of tail left, but not for long. They are too cute but they are escape artists!! One got out last night and it was by sheer luck that I found it before the cats did. YUCK!
This last picture is of one of our resident lizards. There are a number of them that have lived in the lower part of our yard since we moved here. This is actually one of the smaller ones. Two of them are really big! We don't see much of them through the winter months but as soon as the weather warms up they start coming up the hill to eat the grass and drink from the sprinklers daily. Anyway, just thought I'd share.
The boys are both doing GREAT in baseball. Little Man is really starting to shine! I recently bought him a new glove and that made a huge difference in his catching ability. Apparently the teeball glove that he has had for three years was cutting the circulation off in his hand!! :0 I swear I didn't know! He never told me!! One of his coaches approached me and told me that his glove was way too small for him. It was only after this that Little Man mentioned the "tingles" he got when he wore it at games. What a BAD Mommy I am!! We made a beeline for Big 5 and I had one of their more knowledgeable associates help us pick out the correct size glove. What a difference it made!! At the next game he caught every ball that came his way and managed to get a number of players out! Yippee! Muffin Man is doing pretty well too. His team, overall, is a Joke! We have 14 four and five year old's on the team! Talk about CHAOS! Most of them are catching ladybugs for the entire game. I will admit that Muffin Man has done his fair share of bug catching, but he finally seems to be catching on to the game. In the last few games he has managed to get hold of a number of balls and tag a runner or base a few times. He gets SO proud of himself when he does it. It is just too cute!
Ok, I have a story to tell...........Last week Muffin Man announced to me that he wanted his daily vitamin. I told him I was busy and that I would get it for him in a few minutes. At that he announced that he would just go get it himself. I told him to go ahead and try. Knowing that it has a child proof cap I was not all that concerned. I could hear him in the kitchen trying to get the bottle open and complaining that there was something wrong with the lid. At this, Little Man proceeded into the kitchen to give him a hand. Little Man has never opened a child proof cap either and for a moment was stumped. At that point I walked into the kitchen and saw that Little Man was reading the cap. He started to speak and I interrupted him and told him that he did not need to read what it said out loud and that neither he nor Muffin Man needed to know how to open the bottle. Muffin Man grabbed the bottle back and started looking at the top. He carefully sounded out "Push down and turn" and then promptly did just that. As the top came off the bottle he looked over at me and exclaimed "Watch the Master at work!" The good news is he is learning to read quite well. The bad news is he may be a bit too smart for his own good! Smarty Pants!
Another story...............The other evening the boys and My Honey were preparing to go to the park and then on to a game. I had a prior commitment and was unable to accompany them. I was giving the usual goodbye hugs and kisses when Muffin Man told me he needed 100 kisses! I slathered him with kisses and then kissed his palm, folded over his fingers, and told him to put the kiss into his pocket for later. (This is from a really cute book titled The Kissing Hand) I then kissed and hugged Little Man goodbye and they headed out into the garage to get into the car. A few seconds later, Little Man slipped back inside alone and said "Can I have a kiss for my pocket too?" Talk about melting my heart! When you think they are getting too old for all that mooshy stuff, just think again. I have to remind myself daily that although he seems to be growing up into a "Little Man" right before my eyes, he is really still just my little boy. I am So thankful for the gift God gave me when He gave me my sons.
Onto the critter updates..........
We are now down to about 7 mantis'. They continue to eat each other even though I keep their cage well stocked with crickets and fruit flies. The largest is now about an inch and a half long. They are growing like weeds. They molt often and it is really awesome to watch. Below is a picture of one that was in the process of molting and we pulled it out of the cage so we could watch the action up close. If you look closely, you can see the old skin near the top of the photo. I was actually holding on to some of the skin it had already shed. They hang upside down while they molt and the other mantis' have no shame and will attack and eat them while they are vulnerable. Here is the gruesome part.......Do not read if you are squeamish...........I warned you! Whenever I notice two of the Mantis' facing off I will tap on the mesh and get them apart in order to keep them from eating each other. Obviously, as shown by the numbers, I am not catching them often enough! The other day I noticed that one was clutching another and they appeared to be fighting. I flicked at the mesh and tried to get them separated and then noticed that the one that was caught no longer had it's head. But is was still MOVING and FIGHTING! Little Man came in and started trying to get them apart as well. I told him it was too late and that it no longer was "alive" but he wouldn't believe me. He kept saying "But it is still moving!" I explained that this can sometimes happen but that since it's head was gone there really was nothing we could do to save it. The sickest part of this whole experience was that the thing KEPT FIGHTING until the very end!! Even when it was down to the last 1/6 of the body and only two little legs, it was STILL KICKING! GROSS!!!!! So the moral of the story is this..........Although this has been an awesome science experiment, it is not for the faint of heart or those with children who may be traumatized by constant death.
This first photo is of our tadpoles. I actually do not think I have posted any pictures of them until now. When we got them they were newly hatched from eggs and were the size of the tip of pencil lead. All of them fit in a medicine dose cup with room to spare. In fact, that is what I brought them home in. Since then they have been growing by leaps and bounds. As you can see in this picture some of them are sporting froggy back legs. A few days after this photo was taken, they began to pop out front legs. The back legs grow over a period of a few weeks but the front legs literally pop out of holes in their sides fully formed. It seems that over the last few weeks, there has been a new leg or two every time I look! Just today, two more went from two legs to four. Once they have four legs, it is only a matter of a few days till their tails are absorbed and they climb out of the water. The second photo shows a few of the frogs after they have completed their transformation. One still has a bit of tail left, but not for long. They are too cute but they are escape artists!! One got out last night and it was by sheer luck that I found it before the cats did. YUCK!
This last picture is of one of our resident lizards. There are a number of them that have lived in the lower part of our yard since we moved here. This is actually one of the smaller ones. Two of them are really big! We don't see much of them through the winter months but as soon as the weather warms up they start coming up the hill to eat the grass and drink from the sprinklers daily. Anyway, just thought I'd share.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
The Desert In Bloom
I remember when my parents first moved to the desert. We would come out to visit 3-4 times per year and I always thought it was so UGLY! Dry and desolate. Dead plants littering the vast nothingness. I found little in the natural scenery that was attractive. It was not until we moved here and a few years had passed that I began to appreciate some of the beauty in the native plant life. Occatillo became one of my favorite plants. Although it looks dead and dry for much of the year, when it greens up and blooms it is just beautiful! I now have two in my front yard. And even the native paddle cactus that just appears to grow out of nowhere has the most beautiful blooms. Although I still miss the green grass and wide variety of plants that grew everywhere in Southern CA., I have really come to love the desert. The sunsets are to die for, the mountains are majestic, and the plants are beautiful in their own special way.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Renovations
This past week has been hectic in many ways, not the least of which was having renovations underway in our home. We have a three bedroom home, but one of the bedrooms opened into the livingroom via french doors. This made it pretty much useless as a bedroom. We have always used it as a playroom/office space. I have always wanted to close off that doorway and put a regular door to the room in the hallway across from the other bedroom door. We are getting ready to put all new carpet in the house and we figured now would be the time to get the walls and doors changed. So, on Tuesday the 1st, our handy builder man, Bill, arrived and began his work. What a mess! The dust was amazing. Although we still need to prime and paint, I already love the difference it makes in the look of the livingroom. Here are a few pictures of the work in progress. I will post pictures over the next few months of the painting, carpeting, etc.
The doors are off and the furniture and toys are covered. We are ready for Bill to arrive.
Bill is well on his way.
The kids called this "The Jail"
The wall is in!
The doors are off and the furniture and toys are covered. We are ready for Bill to arrive.
Bill is well on his way.
The kids called this "The Jail"
The wall is in!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The Praying Mantis Emerge
Some time back I blogged about our praying mantis egg case. I promised to update when they hatched. Well, I am keeping my promise, albeit a few weeks after the fact. They made their debut on Easter morning. While others were enjoying baby bunnies and chicks, we were watching a gaggle of mantis nymphs! When we woke Easter morning the case looked the same as usual. No change. I made breakfast and we had our egg hunt. Then the kids spent some time looking through their Easter basket goodies. Around 10 am I walked into the kitchen and noticed that the mantis had begun to emerge. I called the boys in and we spent the next 30 minutes in awe, watching them. They made their way out of the case in small bunches and then each one droped down on a silken thread and hung for a bit while it's exoskeleton dries. It is unbelievable how many came out of that egg case! I would estimate that there was around 150 nymphs. Within a few hours they were hunting the small fruit flies that we had provided. Have you ever watched a cat just as it prepares to pounce? They wiggle their hind quarters back and forth and then spring! Well, the mantis nymphs do the exact same thing! TOO Cute! Within a few days they had pretty much exhausted my supply of fruit flies and since I had been unable to find pinhead size crickets at any of the local pet stores, they turned to eating each other. Blech! All the information we had about mantis' said that this is in fact normal and that about 12 out of every 100 nymphs will actually make it to adulthood, most having been eaten by their siblings. I am happy to report that I have since obtained pinhead crickets and the 30 or so nymphs that are left are enjoying cricket snacks all day long. If My Honey knew how much money I was spending on crickets to feed the mantis he would just about kill me. I must admit that it is unbelievable and a bit hard to swallow that I am now shelling out more money per month to buy crickets than I pay my pest control company per month to kill them. :0 But it's all good! This has been so fascinating, and it is worth it for the boys to experience the many amazing creatures God gave us. What an imagination He must have!
I have included a few pics for you to check out. Enjoy.
This first picture is of the mantis cage during the emergence. You can see how many are already around the walls of the cage. The two vials on the floor of the cage are the fruit fly larva and food. There is also a jar lid with some brown banana to feed the fruit flies. You can also see the egg case still hanging from the branch
This second one is just another view of the little nymphs as they begin to wander about the cage. They are fast little buggers. Everytime I open the cage to put in water or food or anything, 4-5 escape. Little Man has become adept at rounding them back up for me and helping me get them all safe back inside.
This last photo is a close up of one nymph on my finger. It gives you a pretty good idea of how small they were. They have since grown to twice their birth size. Although they were really tiny, they seemed huge when compared to how small the egg case was and how many came out of it.
A few days after all the nymphs emerged, we removed the egg case and cut it open. The inside is structured like a honeycomb, with many, many, many, little compartments. There was not a single nymph still inside. I still do not know HOW they all fit. It really was amazing.
I have included a few pics for you to check out. Enjoy.
This first picture is of the mantis cage during the emergence. You can see how many are already around the walls of the cage. The two vials on the floor of the cage are the fruit fly larva and food. There is also a jar lid with some brown banana to feed the fruit flies. You can also see the egg case still hanging from the branch
This second one is just another view of the little nymphs as they begin to wander about the cage. They are fast little buggers. Everytime I open the cage to put in water or food or anything, 4-5 escape. Little Man has become adept at rounding them back up for me and helping me get them all safe back inside.
This last photo is a close up of one nymph on my finger. It gives you a pretty good idea of how small they were. They have since grown to twice their birth size. Although they were really tiny, they seemed huge when compared to how small the egg case was and how many came out of it.
A few days after all the nymphs emerged, we removed the egg case and cut it open. The inside is structured like a honeycomb, with many, many, many, little compartments. There was not a single nymph still inside. I still do not know HOW they all fit. It really was amazing.
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