Totally Random

April has come and gone!  Wow!!  The last few weeks have seemed to be just crammed with stuff to do.  There have been meetings and observations at Rachel's school to prepare for Rachel's IEP this month.  There was an open house for Leah to go to see her new school she will be attending in August because of redistricting.  The nice thing about it is that it is the school Rachel has been going to this past year, so I am already comfortable with it and have been able to tell Leah some things about it myself.  Allison will be allowed to stay at the school she has been in since first grade, because she will be going into the sixth grade and the school board lets the upcoming sixth graders stay for the last year, thank goodness.  I don't think I could make it through two school changes in two years with Allison!  There have been weekends spent with the second grade mascot, King Cuddle Fluff, and music programs to attend.   

There have been birthday parties to attend, field trips to go on and trips to Orlando for speech.  When I went to Orlando at the first of April for Rachel's speech, I stopped at the Apple store and bought an iPad.  We have a communication application that works on the iPad and wanted to try it with Rachel.  She finds it somewhat interesting, but Mike installed all kinds of stuff for himself on the iPad and Rachel has become a whiz at navigating the thing to get to movies and music videos!  She is loving the iPad, but not really using the communication app yet.  

 

There have been trips to the vet with Cookie to get him treated for worms and rechecked for heart worms, the heart worm test was negative, the intestinal worm test was not.  He had to take some meds for two weeks to treat the intestinal worms.  Just common "stuff" to have to do with former shelter dogs.  He does have frequent vomiting and coughing episodes, so I think I need to get him back in there soon to check that out.  There was the afternoon spent shaving the cat.  In the spring he starts shedding that winter coat and starts to get mats.  But, despite our lack of skill in the cat shaving department, we do it anyway. 

Speaking of pets, we have had a fruit basket turnover in that in that department.  Allison's hamster Humphrey died a couple of weeks ago.  She was so sad that we........... immediately had to start the new search for a replacement.  No period of mourning here.  So now we are the proud owners of two guinea pigs.  Why two?  Well, I found a new home for Leah's tortoise, so she needed a replacement pet too.  The tortoise left us this past Sunday for his new home in Orlando.  He had doubled in size since we got him and was getting to big for the tank we had him in.  We could have gotten a wading pool and kept him in that, but I figured since we would not be able to keep him when he out grew that, we should find him a home while we still could transport him easily.  Once he was 40 pounds, he wouldn't be as easy to move around, and when he reached full size at over 100 pounds, we would have been in trouble.  I feel like an idiot for getting the guy without knowing what I was doing.  Just a word to the wise......DO NOT believe everything they tell you at the pet stores!  Remember they just want you to buy the animal.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that one of the guinea pigs that we have had for less than two weeks is scheduled for surgery in the morning.  He has an infected lymph gland that needs to be removed.  The joys of being a pet owner!   "RIP", Humphrey;  "Good luck in your new home, Ogwai."  and 'Welcome to the family, Nip and Bugsey."     

           

There have been home projects to do.  We repainted our pool deck.  I don't know what we were thinking when we thought we could do it in one weekend.  After three weekends, we moved the furniture back onto the porch, but I still have the finishing around the edges to do.  It has gotten really warm here this week, so I am not looking forward to getting out there and finishing it.

   

This past weekend we had a visit from the cousins.  My sister had to work and needed someone to watch the kids, and they always LOVE getting together.  They spent most of the time outside around the pool.  It is still a little cool, so they were in and out and in and out.  I was a total "loser mom" and forgot to put sunblock on them, so the four oldest got a little red.  Sunday I took Rachel on a bike ride and got her a little burnt.....just to make things equal, or to prove that I am an idiot....not sure which.

 

Look how much they are growing up!