F is For Fallen Fish and Field Trips

Today Madeline's fish Nemo died. Nemo was her first fish that she got for her birthday when she was 2. She was quite crestfallen. Remember learning that word as a kid and going, "What?, Seriously? You want me to use that word in a sentence- no way!" Well, Madeline has been beside herself for the last few days. She is my sensitive child and has poured out many tears over her loss. Noella just keeps asking her, " Madeline, I think Nemo is gone for gone. Are you gonna cry?" We finally convinced her that if she flushed him, they could both get two new fish. So, yes, Mom took them to Petsmart and we now have 4 new fish and get to start the process all over again.

Now I have the letter "F" in my mind and all these things that start with F are pouring into my head right now. Phone is not one of them, but tonight I had a long conversation with my dear friend Vikki in Florida. She recently had her second girl so we had lots to talk about. We didn't get to the fish story--I didn't want to freak her out. Bringing home a new baby is hard enough with out telling her, "By the way, guess what? It will get so much worse. Oh, yeah they adore each other but today they sat in separate corners of the room 5 times for a grand total of 45 minutes because they both have a serious condition of Fighter-Quarrelitis (which is one of the childhood conditions we read about in Mrs. Piggle Wiggle).

It has been difficult to keep up with everybody because our phone doesn't work. Weekly conversations with my dad are twice as difficult because his phone is not working either. So basically I spent an hour and a half with tech support last week trouble shooting and switching phone lines and friends still cannot hear us. This week in Keepers, Lori talked about yielding rights. This is always a very hard topic to hear because I know it is true that whenever I get that icky angry feeling- you know, the one where you go, "Are you kidding me??"... that I am holding onto a right. This time it is my right to have things work properly. I really struggle with this one. As most of you know our truck was not working properly for most of the summer and right now the timer on our dryer does not work. What happens is that in my old age, I go to sleep with it running-I recently learned this is a no no fire hazard- and wake up to it still going. Then I am super mad because I know I wasted money and committed a no no.

So, I am glad that Josh got off early from work today and that I got to talk with my sweet friend. The time difference makes it really hard to call all of our friends n the East Coast because by the time I get the girls to sleep, it is 11:00pm out there.

You all know that I am not particularly gifted in organizing large group events (or my house for that matter). That is why I volunteered to organize a large group field trip for Keepers of the Home. Why do I do this to myself?!!! Well, I want to challenge myself to improve in this area. I love it when I do something that involves organization--haven't for awhile-- that's where the field trip comes in, though, right:) We had 50 sign-up for the first session and 40 for the second. In the first group, only 22 showed-up so I hope that it was not due to getting lost. There were a few that called and said they were sick- not that I want anyone to be sick, but as a person who is not too great at organizing AND more so not so great at directions, I sincerely hope that everyone got the right directions!! We went to the Birds of Prey- which was only 5 minutes or so from my house-SWEET!!! I did not realize that it was so close. This was great because we signed-up for the early time and we were actually the first to arrive. Did I mention hat I have also been working on timeliness? We have been wanting to go to BOP since we moved to Boise. We had so much fun. They did a nice job of making it interesting and keeping the attention of preschoolers on up. Even Noella at 3 was able to pay attention to all of the different talks. I liked how we moved from room to room and were both outdoors and indoors. The kids really liked the red-tailed hawk on the glove and all of the live birds in their quarters. They had a beautiful Bald Eagle and a large Eurasian Eagle Owl among other birds. We did not get to see the California Condors but they have around 64 of the 364 that are left in existence. They release them into the Grand Canyon area and are working on a new exhibit that should open this summer. Tomorrow we have another field trip to Linder Farms to pick out pumpkins. Right now my family is sleeping and I am wide awake. My five year old is in our bed and I can't move. I should probably go move her back to her own bed. She doesn't usually come into our room this early.

My question for you is what did you do today that starts with the letter "F"?

Good night all!!