Squish

It's actually warm enough for this ^^^ today. Crazy! Figured I might as well let the kids make a disaster of the "yard" while they can, contractors scheduled to come out and start our new yard project next week!!! SO excited!!

Moose & the Mouse

Kael and one of his BFF's

Tater Maker

While Matt and Kael were busy putting together the ceiling fans and at the store hunting down new light bulbs, Raegan and I made dinner... Mashed potatoes! She has SUCH fun helping me in the kitchen, something she really never gets to do. When Kael is around, it's just not possible, he is just too much kid in the kitchen. This was a great one on one girls only fun activity, I had a really great time with her. Thinking we're going to have more Boys/Girls nights now!

Ooch, It's A Wee Ditty Dandy

Weird light fixture upstairs.

Lack of circulation.

Midget ceiling fan.

Perfection.

Ladies Man

Kael has two best friends in school. Inseparable, if you find them doing something you'll find him close behind. He talks about them all the time, wishes he could trade Raegan in for them as his constant threat, and asks to buy them things in the store each time we shop. It's the cutest dang thing I've ever seen. His friends are the tiniest little twin girls in his class... and methinks I may be raising a bit of a player, lol!

Rae the Photographer

Hand the kid the camera, come back with a memory card stuffed fill with pics like these. She's getting good at her framing!

Quarantine Tank

I was stuck in a pickle trying to figure out how to rig a quick quarantine tank for my sick little miss. There are so many things that need to be kept constant: temperature, ammonia, PH, Nitrate, Nitrite, salinity... I mean really, you need a whole new tank. So I did my Mama proud and totally jerry-rigged a quarantine spot: Ziploc bag clipped into the corner of the tank with a bubble hose dropped in. The tank heater will keep her at the correct temperature, it's a small enough amount of water that I can use tank water to fill the bag and do daily water changes with the tank water to keep her in the safe zone.. and the bonus being that in my frantic Googling I learned that one method of treating this illness is basically a saline shock.. namely, we dip her in fresh water for a few minutes at a time each day for a few days, then return her to her quarantine water that has a lower then average salinity. Apparently, when this doesn't kill the fish, it is rather effective in killing off any ich that the fish may have caught, as marine ich absolutely requires salt to survive. So we'll see.

oh no oh no oh no oh no

I have a sick fish. Either weird Ich or Clownfish disease.

Little Man: Not so little any more.

The Nemos and the BlueFish

Protein skimmer installed, salt integrated, pump filter repaired then repaired again then kicked a few times then replaced and cycled for a week. Live holy-crap-expensive rock in place, fish, snails, crabs purchased... Our saltwater tank has begun!!!!! SQUEEEE!!!! If all is well in a week to ten days, and nothing dies, ( including the cat which seems to spend a gross amount of time trying to get inside the tank) we will get to go pick out our starter ANEMONES!!!!!! The tank looks sadly nekkid right now, but we're just starting out... don't want to load it up too quickly for fear of my ineptitude killing everything and we end up flushing, literally, hundreds of dollars down the toilet.
But for just starting out it looks dang fancy! AND! Today is day two.... and nothing has died yet!! The kids are thrilled with it. I was hoping to name those clown fish something fancy like Ozzy and Harriet, but it looks like we may just be calling them "the Nemos" ( Fast and Big)because that is what the kids squeal at them all. day. Who am I to mess with that kind of intensity? The blue fish, who were ALL the children's' idea, have been ignored. They aren't fancy looking and they have zero personality. I agreed because hey, if they die I won't feel very bad. They have no names at all, just "the blue fish". I have tiny hopes that they become something fun to look at some day. In the mean time, they provide us with something to complain about now that the pump, which I was seconds from backing over in the driveway, has been replaced. Free advice: Never buy Fluval. The end.