Almost Caught Up, Crafts and Chocolate, Tapi and Geese

I had to show off a Julie cupcake. She's a cupcake artist at our church. Her cupcakes are scrumptious.

This one is spumoni, and I enjoyed it with Bear Claw ice cream. 

i love the tail mark on the right side of this photo. haha.

on the roof

This wonderful little device is called a Tapi, from DreamFarm. It was only $5.95 plus shipping, and it turns any faucet into a drinking fountain! You can buy it here!

One of the cool crafts we did last month was painting with condensed milk! It sounded so weird, but I just had to try it. You just put in a drop of food coloring into a bit of condensed milk! Simple. It paints smoothly, and dries shiny!

We were at the claw machine at some random store, and Daddy tried to win some pac man for Gabey. He had it, and then the claw just let go. Cheat! I consoled the boys by offering them to make some pac man softies myself. I have so many Tshirts to work with. It was pretty painless to make the pac man shapes. They loved them.

Balcony View

cool sheets of ice to play with

love my wind chime

our apartment pets, the canadian geese

my Giddy boy

i love you, boy

the geese enjoying our playground

Deer and Sky Watch

common sight now at my apartment, i LOVE it

nasty looking sky, thankful to be snug in our apartment

love the view from our balcony window, i get to see some great sunsets

Something cool for my Fishies

I love my fish tank... it's Gabey's, in theory, but I take care of it, and all that. I felt like doing something cool for them the other day, so i cleaned out a cold coffee bottle, and made a little cave for them. I have rocks laying on it at the entrance, but there's a part that's not covered, so I can see the fish inside.

They LOVE it! the little goldfish I got recently, and the little glofish are always in there. I love watching them wander in and out. :)

Rascal Dog Litter Box

I recently ordered a Rascal Dog Litter Box for Smokey. I was very excited when I found it online at http://www.rascaldoglitterbox.com/ I knew when I first saw it, that it made perfect sense for an inside dog. Smokey is so attached to me that he won't go outside on his own. Plus, he can get out from under the fence, and he goes off trying to find me, unless I stand outside with him. With him being such a smart dog, I had a feeling if I got this litter box, he'd get the hang of it.

It's taken a few weeks, I haven't really done any major training, but he's going in the box! I'm so thankful. He was already fairly paper trained, so it has worked so nicely. I don't have to keep changing the paper all the time, and it doesn't smell. He's still making accidents, but I think that's partly because he's not neutered yet. He still won't poop in it, but he keeps it all in his room, and it's easy to just toss it in the toilet. We'll keep working on it. :)

a little catchup

HAHA, here is Smokey in his Christmas Outfit. :):)

My butterflies survived for such a long time. I still have one left, his new name is Methuselah.

We just had a mini tree this year. I was looking for minimal stress.

Here's Giddy putting the stockings on his arms.

Gabey on his favorite rock at school.

Has anyone seen the movie Parenthood? (i wouldn't recommend it now, but there was a little boy in it who put a pail on his head and was banging it into the wall.) that's my giddy.

Gabey and Daddy setting up Gabey's new DSI that he got as a Christmas present from the Cleveland Clinic.

all prepped and ready for his quarterly LP and MTX treatment in the OR.

Christmas craft

Giddy did great with the crafts. We gave them as presents from them.

Giddy in his Christmas sleeper!

This is the present Gabey gave me, he's such a sweetie.

Smokey is a cool dog.

i am amazed at how obedient Smokey is. i haven't really trained him, and he's only 7 months old. i'm so wonderfully surprised at how obedient he is. what a smart dog. i can't wait for my hubbie and i to go to a training class with him. if food falls on the floor, he'll go to it, but if i say no, he just comes back to me, and if the gate to the kitchen is open, and he wants to go through, i just say no, and he'll walk right back. he's so attentive! i'm still having issues with potty... i just have newspaper right now, and he's really good, but i think some of his accidents are him marking, because i haven't had him neutered yet (that's this next month). he won't poop on the

paper, but usually keeps it in his own room, which is better than nothing. (he has been a stinker 2 times, and pooped and peed on my son's bed. ugh. my son still wets his bed though, so i'm thinking he may have smelled that.) he patiently sits by the gate when i go downstairs, and by the bedroom, or bathroom, when i go in those rooms too. i've never been a dog person, truly, and i didn't think i'd like him as much as i do, lol. my hubbie and son have always wanted a dog, but it turns out this little guy is all mine. ha ha. he chose me. he's just the kind of watchdog i wanted too. he's not a yapper at all, hardly ever barks. when he's really excited, or when someone comes to the door, he barks, and lets everyone know he's there. but once he knows they're ok, he settles right down, and is back on my chair. i love it. he's quite a stress reliever.

Glofish!! SOOO COOL!!!

http://www.glofish.com/

I bought 3 glofish last night, and I may just have to get a whole new tank just for myself and these beautiful fish!!

They're a specially bred thype of Danio.. and essentially are just danios... BUT...

They've been genetically altered to have DNA from jellyfish that make them flourescent! the first fish in the breed is altered, and then just bred... the color is just passed on. :)

This is a picture of a regular zebra danio... We have 3 of them in our tank already. I wonder if they'll all learn to get along and school for us. :)

Taffy checking out her new stuff

My sister gave us her cute little parakeet, Taffy. We've been enjoying her immensely. Today, I got her a new food dish and water dish. I opened the cage to install them, and she flew out. Giddy was so excited. He kept trying to touch her. She would fly around, and land on the floor, and he would get right next to her and crouch down, to touch her. She wouldn't let him though. She ended up flying into the kitchen, and I rescued her with a towel, and put her safely back in the cage. I'd love to someday be able to train her, but ah, for now, she's just a lil' wild one.

She's spent all afternoon, checking the new items out. She has to make sure they're not "enemies" LOL. So far, she feels great about the water dish, and is on to discovering her food dish. She keeps making her way over to look at it, and just a second ago, she was brave enough to bite at the top of the silo with her beak. That was good enough for the moment, and she flew to the other side to be with her mirror friend, "Taffay" (Gabey named her mirror friend.)

Taffy loves her mirror friend, and sleeps next to him and talks to it, and nuzzles it. Her bell toy, is her rival. It's so funny to see her "fight" it. She'll bite it and flap her wings at it.

Still No Sign

There's still no sign of the kittens, I do think the mom brought them home with her. I'm glad.

Found a Shelter

There is a no kill shelter by my sister's that takes kittens and stuff for free.
I just want them to have a chance. :):)

Because they're wild though, I'm not sure how I would trap them. It would be really hard to get them while they're hiding in the garage, because there's so much stuff in it. So I'm kind of waiting a little.

The mom seems really healthy like she has a home. She comes from the same direction every morning. I'm hoping she'll parade her babies back home with her. I haven't seen them since yesterday morning. Who knows.

I think they've been a mixed blessing. I'm sure they've taken care of our moles. ROTFL.

Turmoil

I don't know what the right thing to do is. The warden came, but couldn't find them, (our garage is pretty packed, i'm sure he didn't want to climb over stuff to look) and I was thankful to see him leave. I know they're there. Some people have said if the warden does take them, they'll just be put to sleep right away. That breaks my heart.

I looked it up at the APL, and they would charge 60.00 for us to bring them in. (which would also mean, us figuring out how to catch them.)
I can't have cats. We have a child who can't be around sickness or infections! We haven't been able to go in our backyard. I don't want to surrender them over to be killed by the warden.

He also was pointing out all these things in the yard that are building code violations, and that attract rats and things. I have enough to worry about. He was very nice, and wasn't trying to be mean. He was telling me these things for our safety. It's just been a long evening. Pray for the best, please.

Daddy Cat

The daddy cat showed up today. I didn't think that we'd ever see him. What a pickle.

Family in our Garage

I took some video of a cat family that ended up in our garage. We had to call animal control to come get them. I'm not sure when they'll come. I want to make sure they take the mom and babies all together.

I'm enjoying looking at them while I can. :):) The mom is black, and the babies are one black, two smokey grey, and one with grey and brown. The mom must have just wandered in and had them, and we never noticed, LOL.