The Wonder Pets

I don't like pets. Not really. I don't mind dogs - as long as they aren't mine. I don't have a problem with cats - as long as they don't rub their backs on my legs. And they're hairless. Which makes them considerably less desirable. (I have allergies). Goldfish seem kind of pointless, what with having to clean the fish bowl to prevent death. Just one more thing on my "to do" list. No thanks. I have no stomach for gerbils, hamsters and guiena pigs. Too close to a rat in my book. And the whole "they eat their babies" thing. I don't want to have to deal with that.

So anyway, back to the point. My children will probably never have a living, breathing pet. Sometimes I get sad for them. They love animals. But then I get over it! But here's the thing. I did it. I found them a great pet. We actually inherited it but still.



Here it is. It came from my insect, bug, nature loving neighbor. It's a cocoon. Soon to be a pet:)




See, really, I have to do nothing with it. Just watch it for a little while and dream of the day that it emerges from its cocoon and flies away! (I never said it would be a pet for long! That would require buying a home for it. And food. And possibly cleaning a cage? I don't really know. But I don't have to find out!)


Anyways, did I say we were waiting for it to hatch? Well, surprise! It did hatch and here it is!




It's actually not a butterfly. It's a moth. I don't know the official name of it but it's pretty cool looking.




Check out that body. Pretty amazing. And BIG!




And here is Abby taming her new pet! Brooklyn was a little scared of it. I really didn't think it would ever hatch. (This one hatched at my neighbors house. The one in the other pictures is the one that we took care of.) We have two more cocoons and I know for sure one is gone. We're still waiting on the other one but we're losing hope. So the girls were thrilled to wake up and check on their cocoons and find a moth sitting in the box.


And then we put it in a nice safe corner of the yard and the next time we checked on the moth, it had left to find a new home! See how easy was that. A pet for a day! The girls weren't even heartbroken. They were just happy they had been able to play with the moth for a little while!

Long Live the Mohawk.....

It's completely natural by the way. I wonder if the way it's growing has anything to do with the "hair rubbing off incident" I've mentioned before. You know, the one where my little baby Jace had all his hair rubbed off on his first outing to church by a certain someone (who shall remain nameless - unless you want details and then you can just email me:).

Anyway, Darren wants to shave it off. I don't know what to do with it. I've never had a little boy before. What do you think? Leave it to grow into a really long punk rocker mohawk (is that called a frohawk?). Possibly a mohawk comb over? Or shave it down into an awful buzz cut? I don't know. Maybe I just need to play it up and get him into a black leather outfit.....

You are my Sunshine

I have an obsession with my skin. The other day I was reading one of my "mom magazines" and I stumbled across an interesting little tid-bit. I was reading about using sunscreen and how most people don't use the proper amount. This was interesting to me because in my attempt to thwart nature and have my skin looking "youthful and beautiful" for many years to come I slather sunblock on my face every morning. And yes, that was sunblock, not sunscreen or moisturizer with SPF - straight sunblock. Most of this obsession boils down to the fact that my skin does not look flawless, nor has it ever, and I believe sunblock will help. (Just go with me on this one.)

Anyhoo, back to my article. Apparently, I am not using enough sunblock and it does me little good to even put it on considering the vast difference in the amount I am supposed to be using. So I decided to put to use my newfound knowledge and the after getting out of the shower the other day I squirted the alotted tablespoon of sunblock into my hands.


As I stared at the puddle of sunblock in my hand, all I could think of was, "Hmmmmm, that does look like a lot of sunblock." (Especially considering I generally use about, oh I don't know, 1/4 a teaspoon. And for those of you who don't know there are 3 teapsoons to every tablespoon which would put me at needing about 12 times more sunblock). Courageously, I began rubbing my sunblock in.


Soon I realized my skin was no longer absorbing the sunblock. And I still had a fistful left. Well, I didn't want to wear sunblock if it wasn't going to protect my skin. So instead of "fingering" my face, I just plunged in and started "palming" my face with both hands. Now it didn't matter if I started second guessing this "tested" amount of sunblock. I was too far into it. Eventually I opened my eyes to a face streaked with white. I started to focus in on just the obvious white and gave it a good rubbing. Unfortunately, those white streaks were by now semi-dry and I stared in horror at the chunks of sunblock that began appearing. After I flicked those off I decided to just let my saturated face dry and attempt at smoothing it over with makeup. Hopefully my face wasn't ruined for the day.


And that's exactly what I did. And then I went out into the sun with my caked on mask knowing that I was protected from all rays of sunshine. I also know that I will not be doing that again!


So in an attempt to further pass on the education I received, this same article informed me that I was supposed to be using about 1 cup of sunblock for my entire body. And this was is supposed to be repeated every few hours.......


Meaning my big bottle of sunblock that lasts all year and possibly longer should last approximately 2-3 days.


So open your wallets this summer. Sunblock doesn't come cheap!!