Room Service

Sunday morning was the one morning we had this week to luxuriate and sleep in. When I finally roused myself to get dressed, I heard a rap, rap tapping at my door, "Just a minute. I'm getting dressed." I called to the door while pulling a shirt over my shoulders that were still sore from Saturday's yard work.

"Okay, but it's kind of heavy" Amira replied from the hall. Now when someone makes that statement, I have no idea what I'm going to see when I open the door. I grimaced and swung the door open to find Amira holding a tray with a couple of tea pots and a cup for Michael. "Hey! You made tea for Daddy! How thoughtful. I thought I smelled coffee this morning too. Do you know how to make my coffee?"







"Mommy, NOBODY knows how to make your coffee." Fair enough. I am a pick control freak when it comes to my coffee.







Madelyn's mom was driving the girls to the sheep barn for lambing at 4-H this day. I didn't have to be there until 3PM to pick them up so I thought I'd do some work in the garden of neglect and start some more seeds.

At about 1:30PM Carol, Valerie's 4-H leader, called me and sounded very serious and needed to talk. At first I was a little concerned that something had happened to Valerie. But any worries were quickly dismissed when I realized the true nature of her call.

She had a little ewe lamb that was wasting away because her mother had mastitis and her brother was drinking all the milk out of her good teat. Then she had a different momma who was trying to kill her little ram lamb. Now, she knew that Valerie was planning to get a couple of sheep in June after they were weaned ... But how would she like to take these two today? Go talk to your husband. I didn't say anything to Valerie yet. And if the answer is no, I won't.

I was so excited about taking the lambs but had to check it out with Michael first. He was out in the drizzle hooking up water to all the plants I'd put in the day before. "Honey, Carol called. Can we talk for a minute?" His response was like, "OMG! Is Valerie okay??!" I'm not the only one who worried.

His response was like, sure, she can take the lambs and bottle feed them every three hours and clean up after them, if it's okay with you, because I'm leaving for a job for ten days, coming home for a few and then leaving again.

True. This would not be an immediate imposition ... For him. Actually he didn't take any coaxing at all. That was too easy!

By 3PM I had a car full of girls and lambs.
































After I dropped Madelyn off at home I still needed to take one more person home. This would have left Valerie to hold two sheep. So I swing by the house. Amira and Rex were inside. I said, "











When we got home, Michael came out to see them and Rex was as surprised as we all were. But look at this grin on Michael's face as he holds a 2 day old lamb. Her name was Feather but Valerie changed it to Bambi. She cited my rule about no more ironic pet names (Fat died from obesity, Lucky was eaten by a hawk). Since Feather was tiny, weighing only 4lbs because she was starving ... She also cited the fact that she told a friend that she would name a ewe Bambi.











Michael has been getting up for 2:30am feedings with Valerie and wiping their little faces as well as bottle feeding while I'm at Zumba and kids are at school. I married Superman!












This little guy is named Forbes.








Anyhow, Michael is off working. Valerie is taking the night shift. I'm trying to squeeze in feedings all day along with everything else I do.

I will never get this posted if I don't do it today. So, see cute baby lamb pix & videos below.






Now, this is ROOM SERVICE! (Living room service)


Valerie is a good mom. Here's an instructional on how to feed a baby lamb:

Susan dropped by just after they arrived at our house. She had no idea she'd get to hold baby lambs.






Lastly, if your living room didn't look like this on Monday morning, I'm sorry.

Tooth Fairy Rex

Rex: After this, Valerie, you're going to have bragging rights.


Valerie: Wait. I'm going to get a sweater.


Amira: For your tooth, Valerie?


Valerie, at the age of 12, has had a loose tooth for days. It's her lower right canine. Although she could have pulled it herself or waited for the dentist appointment on Monday, she and Rex headed out the back door with a bow, arrow and dental floss.

Valerie: it wouldn't come out. The first time it broke the line. The second time it slipped off my tooth.

Rex was in hot pursuit to the house,

Rex; Valerie! Let's get fishing line!!!

Valerie: Daddy, this time we're going to do it again! And this time nothing can stop us!!

Well, when that didn't work, Valerie informed me she was done for the evening. When I expressed my incredulousness she said, "you just want to finish your blog!"

Snap!

I'm out. The tooth is still in.

February Friends, Dances, Birthdays & Pigeons

In latest bunny news, Napoleon and Spot are buds! They LOVE each other. Of course this is great news. And we now spend far too much time gawking at bunnies making sounds like, "Awwwe!!!"




Valerie attended another successful middle school dance. I was present as chaperone but tried to keep busy and not gawk. I only had to officially address one wardrobe malfunction ... Nobody we knew.

Here are Madelyn, Ruthie, Dillon and Valerie in the ever popular photo booth.


And Madelyn and Valerie.


The morning after the dance we drove through gobs of much needed rain to SF to crash Michael's hotel and wish him a happy birthday. He'd just flown in from another job in snowy and icy Chicago. The kids brought him a string of balloons left over from the dance to make his room more festive.


He got a few cards and gifts. Happy Birthday!!!


Here the country mice gawk out the big city windows.


Rex was so stoked to have his own bed and access to television. Michael had a good deal of fun controlling the television in the kids' room remotely from our room. There were many giggles and statements like, "what channel should I punch up next? The Chinese station?" It was a hoot. And then our phone rang. Rex figured out that his dad, Mr. Gadget, was having some fun at his expense. We let it go for a bit and then Michael had some fun with the television volume and called their room pretending to be security responding to a noise complaint. So much fun!


We decided to brave the rain and head over to Yerba Buena to check out bowling and/or ice skating. On the way there we cruised through Union Square and Nieman Marcus. We tried on fragrances, ate chocolate dipped orange slices and rode the escalators. Country mice!!


Sadly, the tiny bowling ally was completely jammed (as one might expect on a rainy day). The kids poo-pooed the idea of ice skating. But they ran out into the rain at the near by playground and tried to catch pigeons. This has been Rex's favorite city sport since he could walk. One time he actually caught a pigeon on this very park.

Today someone had left pigeon bait on the ground (popcorn) and I watched Rex stalk the birds like a cat. He suddenly swooped in for the grab and bagged a bird. I absolutely shrieked. I went to get the camera as the pigeon freaked out and flew away leaving behind all of its tail feathers in Rex's hands. I shrieked again. No picture of Rex or the tailless wonder. I only have a photo of the aftermath of the scene.


We continued our rainy walk to the top of the Marriott for drinks (and hand washing!) Happy Birthday, Michael!


The night ended with a fantastic sushi meal at Sanraku on Sutter. Mmmm! Michael had to get up the next morning and go back to work. The kids and I grabbed some breakfast at a. Nearby diner and then braved the rain back home. I was hoping the kids would want to stay and go to the Academy of Sciences and make a day of it. But we were all kind of tired from Saturday and had to get home to get ready for school tomorrow. Another day ... I love the trips back to the city. But I love coming back home to the farm!

Action Packed January

January is flying by us!! A big trip to San Francisco this month for Valerie's 7th grade field trip to sleep at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. It was worth the Saturday night traffic coming over the bridge.


I do miss San Francisco. I'm glad that the kids get to grow up in Chico. But I relish my nostalgic trips back to the city.

This night we gazed at nebulas in Orion's scabbard, saw Jupiter and moons through a telescope on the living roof of the building and slept in the aquarium. Yes, we also experienced the earthquake exhibit, saw planetarium, an albino alligator in the swamp and spiraled up through a rainforest bubble. Below is Valerie and some classmates getting ready to sleep on the floor of the aquarium. Jellies!!!


I, for once, had an easy car of students. So before heading back to Chico, Valerie, Maya, Elizabeth and I headed out for a gorgeous morning at Ocean Beach,


There were loads if jelly fish that had washed up on the beach.


The girls wrote their names in the sand.


We arrived home just in time for the girls to make it to their 4-H sewing meeting.


The following weekend Michael and I celebrated 16 years of marriage. Michael sweetly sent this bouquet from California Organic flowers.


We had a lovely dinner at Leon Bistro.





Then we went bowling!


Spot continues to win our hearts. When he is not found jumping into Amira's trash can, he's up on her bed.





Tonight he frolicked in Valerie's room a bit and then cuddled with Amira on the couch.


Not pictured here is Rex. He's often busy studying, scouting, working out at the gym or paint balling. We'll have to use our imaginations instead of relying on photos. He's a neat kid but illusive!!

4-H Rabbit Show

"Mom, we should bring the pet carrier with us to the rabbit show!"

"No way. We are just going to look and take pictures and maybe just get some phone numbers for some day when we are in the market."

I'm pretty sure that I repeated the mantra, "We are not getting a rabbit today!" over and over to the kids and myself for weeks in advance of this event. We are not even in the rabbit group for 4-H.

So we got up and out of the house by 9:00AM to make it down to Gridley by 10:00AM so the girls would have plenty of time to oogle the rabbits and get 4-H credit for attending a county event.

One of the first things that happened was that I found a bunch of Flemish Giants and asked Amira to hold my coffee while I got a closer look.

This ginormous fellow is 10 weeks old.



This one is just 3 months old. They are HUGE! I love them.


Anyhow, while I was drooling over these guys, I heard a kerfluffle. Someone told me that Amira spilled my coffee. I went to the aisle to have a look. Sure enough, she was covered in coffee. We went outside to rinse her jacket off (there was coffee on the hood and down the BACK). How did she get coffee down the back? Later I learned that the coffee was also splattered across some show rabbits. Huge bummer. Can you imagine getting your rabbit ready to be judged in a show and have that happen?? Turns out the incident was not actually Amira's fault. But, the good news is that nobody and no bunny was burned.

So, we continued to gawk at amazing breeds that I didn't even know existed.










I do love the huge ones. Now, the ones shown above are fine if you don't have a job ... Or life ... That requires you to do anything other than brush your bunny ALL DAY, EVERY DAY.

This bunny on a harness was adorable.




By now the girls were getting frustrated that all we could do was LOOK. Valerie and Madelyn were keen to get on to the sheep shearing at the farm. I got waylaid petting a gray Rex rabbit for some time. Rex fur is soft and velvety and thick like the coat of a seal. In addition to the Flemish Giant I've also been enamored with the Rex rabbits for their amazingly pettability as well as their darling personalities.

After some time I decided it was time to go. I was just rounding up the girls when I happened upon pens of young Mini Rex rabbits in assorted colors. I was very much drawn to what they call the "broken" Rex. They've got spots like a Dalmatian. There was a little guy with brown spots with his brothers in a pen on the floor. Just 8 weeks old.

Valerie's friend Lauren bought a black broken Rex doe.






Well, I don't know what came over me. But the next thing you know, an elated Amira has an early birthday present named Spot. (Short for Sir Spotsalot). Since we didn't have a pet carrier, (couldn't someone have suggested we bring one?) she wrapped it in a scarf and he sat in her lap on the way home.










Rex turned him into a pocket pet.








He is officially Amira's bunny. He lives in her room. She's in charge of feeding, watering and cleaning.




Napoleon still has the living room. We tried a brief introduction in the bath tub. I think it will take some time. Napoleon seems like a fuzzy teddy bear in comparison to Spot. Sadly, Napoleon does not like to be held. But he does appreciate a good head scratching, is litter box trained and usually comes when called. We're hoping Spot will be all that plus like to be held.


Welcome to the family, Spot!