Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Goodbyes

Well, yesterday we said adios to our beloved car of the last seven plus years. Despite the fact that our girls were enamored with the thought of a new vehicle when I was pregnant with Genna, they were bothered to drive off in a new one last night. And I admit that I was a bit sad to say goodbye, as well. We got our Impala when Shanan was 10 months old, and she will be eight in another month! Lots of memories! As we cleaned out our car last night, you would've thought we'd been living in it for the last while...treasures everywhere! Shanan lamented the fact that it's difficult to say goodbye to a car; they're difficult to hug & kiss. ;) Nonetheless, they both kissed their seats, Steve took a final picture, and we transferred the junk to the new family car, a Chevy Traverse. Many new memories lurk on the horizon, and I'm pretty sure we won't outgrow this vehicle! As I told Alyssa, we can have six kids & still fit, lol, although I'm pretty sure that won't be happening unless there's triplets in our future!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Blogging Again...

Okay, I know that some of you still look to see if there's anything new, and you have been wondering if I'm ever going to update, or if we're still alive. And I've been wondering, too! ;) Summing up the last two months is a bit tricky, and I'm not sure that's it's possible. However, today Alyssa is sick with a stomach bug, and I'm taking it easy. In my experience, stomach bugs usually hit us all, one-by-one, so I might as well just stay low for today, and take a few minutes to update the blog. See below for what's new in our corner of the world.

"A Tiny Virgin"

Okay, this post is way later than it should be...but still, I just had to share it. During the holiday season, I was driving home from the grocery store with all my girls, and I admit that I wasn't paying super close attention to what was going on in the backseat, but this is what I heard, "Blah, blah, blah, a tiny virgin, blah, blah, blah."
I thought to myself, "Is that really what I heard??? Should I say something, should I not??" I decide to say something, so I ask, "Did someone just say 'a tiny virgin'?
Alyssa was prompt to respond that she was the one to say it.
Soooo...what next, I wonder? I ask, "Who is a tiny virgin?"
Alyssa answers, "Ohhhh, this little plastic skeleton is a tiny virgin of my skeleton!!"
Needless to say, I got a really good laugh out of this one, and it took quite a bit of coaching to help her understand the difference between how to say virgin and version,, and to help her understand why it would be a good thing to learn to say the right word at the right time!

The Newest Cook in Town

Shanan is growing like crazy, still, and has added another culinary accomplishment to her list. She has now made biscuits from scratch, pretty much all by herself! I was completely amazed, and she was so proud of herself, as she should be. She is such an asset in the kitchen, able & willing to help out with so much!

Pet Saga

Our beloved family cat, Simon, went missing two weeks before Thanksgiving. We'd had him for over 10 years, since our first year of marriage. Anyway, a neighbor told us he was convinced he'd seen his body at the bottom of a creek where the neighborhood drains drain into. We were sad (still are...I still think of him every time I open a can of tuna, cut up a cantaloupe, make corn on the cob or green peas, or leave a glass of water out on the table...but he doesn't come running anymore!)

While missing Simon, we saw some new baby chicks at a Homestead Craft & Children's Fair on the weekend after Thanksgiving, and they seemed a pleasant diversion. I admit that I was the one that wanted them (in addition to the kids), and Steve was a good sport & let me indulge. We got four Barred Rock chicks, hoping to end up with all hens, thus maximizing egg production. However, we are pretty well convinced that two of them are roosters, which I'm thinking aren't going to work so well in suburbia! Steve is trying to convince me to kill them, so we can eat them. (Note that he's trying to convince me to do the killing part; he's too big of a wuss to do it himself!) I have no idea what we'll end up doing with them, honestly. We'll have to find someone who lives in the country who can take them, or we can eat them, I guess, but we don't have to make that decision quite yet!

And, we have yet another bird...a cockatiel named Lucy. Somehow we went from a one-cat, one-pet family, to an all-fowl family! Lucy is almost two months old, according to her previous owner, an owner of two cockatiels that keep on having babies. We are working with Lucy now to teach her to come to us & be a generally pleasant bird. Just yesterday I heard her "singing" for the first time, and I heard it again today. Unfortunately, she seems to "yell" everytime the phone rings, so if you call, don't be surprised if you hear her carrying on in the background. All in all, I think she's settling in, and if we are faithful to train her and give her the attention she needs, she'll be a good pet for our family!

What's New With Genna

Things have been busy, to put it mildly. I don't always have much to show for it, but it seems my days are busy. Three children, a husband, homeschooling, chickens (four of them), a new cockatiel, and no more Simon. My biggest drain of my time at the moment, however, is a certain 7-month-old. Genna is now crawling all over the place, pulling up to stand on absolutely anything she possibly can (and started to do so before she turned 7 months!). She is also putting everything in her mouth! I've dug out any number of items over the last week, including the little round, red mouse button from the computer keyboard. She has opened CD players & removed CDs, pinched her fingers in the same player when she closed her hand in it, pulled CDs off the CD tower, and located every cord in the house. And, she's cut two teeth since the week of Christmas, and that was painful for all of us! Add a wicked case of separation anxiety to the mix, and I've got my hands full! Last night I put the older girls to bed & left Genna downstairs with her daddy, and by the time I made it back downstairs she had crawled from the sofas in the family room, through the kitchen, and had turned and was making her way through the entryway to get to me, all while sobbing at the top of her lungs. This has made sleeping a challenge...she's sleeping lighter than ever & is difficult to get down. Never a dull moment at the Zavocki house, I say!