Riley and Avery

So, the adventures at the Apple Store continue. I got my computer back with all the information "transferred" to it. They tried to charge me $150 for it, but I told them that the guy who initially looked at the iBook (and noted its "broken" status) said it would be free. So, they did it for free. So to speak. They transferred 400-some photos. They didn't look in iPhoto. Now, they said that they "got everything" and didn't mention that any was unrecoverable. And, really, when you look for photos, doesn't it make sense to look in iPhoto for said pictures? I mean, I know common sense is not a trait that computer nerds (I mean, geniuses) generally possess, but really? Grrr...now I have to wait until the Apple Store opens. I seriously would like to actually have the new computer rather than having it perpetually in the Apple Store. Ah, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

The rabbits are not happy with their new enclosure. Not at all. I don't know what they want from me (well, I know they want to tear up the carpet, but that's not an option). This is their enclosure:



...except that I've made the walls about 50% higher and I made the enclosure significantly bigger since those photos. They don't have access to their coveted corners, nor to any carpet edges. They hate me. They run into their enclosure, look for a way to escape, then retreat back to their cage where they lay down and pout. Keep in mind, these are the same rabbits that would previously run free in the house for hours and hours and hours and never re-visit their cage (yay for pee and poop behind the toilet!) I did give them a cardboard box (tons of those after Christmas!) and they love digging in it.

So Twinkles escaped from the enclosure this morning. I don't know how she did it. She's the smaller rabbit of the two, so I didn't expect her to be the escapee. I'm supposing that she climbed on top of the guinea pig cage, which she had done before, and circumvented the high walls. Grr.

Even though Twinkles is the more pet-able rabbit, I am finding myself particular to Sprinkles. She is so nosy. She crawls into my lap and puts her front paws on my arm as I'm cleaning out their cage. She always has to know what I'm doing. But she still doesn't like to be petted. That's okay, I dig her personality.

I have to call our vet and see about getting them spayed. I know it has to be done (something like 80% of unspayed rabbits get uterine cancer) but I need to save for it. I also need to ask if I should get them both spayed at once or one at a time.

Okay, Riley just witnessed Twinkles escaping the enclosure. She jumped over the fence! I've been foiled again. I can make the fence higher (which means Riley couldn't get over it either) without an additional investment in materials. Just a huge pain in my butt and a lot of my time. Oh, I will win...

I have a couple of things already, namely a book about space and a building set. I need a couple more things. I think I'm going to get her a high-quality computer game from the Apple Store (as opposed to the ones she has for her computer that look like they were made in the 80s). She says that she wants gymnastic lessons or swimming lessons for her birthday, but flip-flops on which one she really wants. Swimming lessons would be more practical (and yes, they're offered in the winter!) and definitely more affordable. I'm not sure that 5yos really do what they think they'll do in gymnastics class. I'd certainly feel more secure going to the beach or local lakes and streams if she knew even just how to hold her breath and keep her head above water. But let's be honest, homegirl is built like a gymnast and is creepy-flexible. Oh, wait, let me find that picture...Here it is:


Yeah, like I said, creepy. (Okay, I can put my legs behind my head too, still, but it's insanely easy for her)

Any opinions? Thank goodness she had dropped the karate thing. That stuff is a lifestyle and insanely time-consuming and expensive.

So, a friend suggested Furoshiki to reduce on wrapping paper waste and to make simply beautiful gift presentations. I didn't have the time or money to do it this year, but thought I'd hit up Joanns today and get some Winter-themed wrapping paper on sale (so it can be used for Avery's birthday, Christmas, and Riley's Birthday) and get it all set for next year. We seriously used way too much wrapping paper this year! Especially since I bought horrible super-thin paper and had to double roll everything to as not to tear it. Urgh...

Learn about Furoshiki here!

Just a quick one. I got Riley a ruler in her stocking. No big investment. But when I was teaching her how to use it, we measured an eraser and I said that it was "almost 1 1/2 inches long." Well, "almost" was not good enough for her and she wanted to know exactly. I looked at the ruler and realized that the inches were divided into tenths. TENTHS, people! Who doesn't know that inches are divided into halves, fourths, eighths, and sixteenths? Seriously, TENTHS?? Apparently Wal-Mart's contacts in China don't know this very basic fact. Okay, I'm done...

The pictures are a little out of order, but I'm sure you can figure it out!




The girls made out quite well. They are actually playing nicely and co-operating. The place is a veritable mine field of toys, though. I wanted to play with Avery's train set when she was finished with it, to make a functional track (instead of the straight track that Avery makes). Avery said "You can't play! You're a Mom! You pick things up!" So I guess I get to have no fun on Christmas morning. Poo.



Rudi is napping now and I hope to get a turn when he's up. But there's not telling when that'll be! I stayed up way too late last night, until 2am, cleaning and getting ready for Christmas morning and playing on the new computer (I confess!). So a nap is definitely in order.



And, wow, I am sure loving the new computer! In addition to how rockin the actual computer is, I didn't realize how cool iLife '08 is. I had been using iLife 05, so I got three years of upgrades at once. iPhoto is a heck of a lot more user-friendly now. Sweet.



Rudi and I have decided to take the dive into better internet. I think that we can work it so that it will not cost us any more per month. He wants to switch from satellite to cable again, so we can probably get a bundle that would save us some money. We switched to satellite because our local cable company was acquired by Comcast and there were some serious growing pains and we'd had enough. Now, two years later, we think it's safe to go back to cable. He misses the free movies.

((Riley wearing the necklace she already made with her beading kit.))


Ugh, and I have to buy books for next semester in a couple of weeks. It's such a hassle. I wonder how people actually manage to buy their books from the college bookstore. I mean, who has that kind of money? It would be one thing if they ever had sufficient used books available, but they sell out of used books so quickly. Their parents must be paying. It's such a huge process to search the web for the books I need. But I sure save a heck of a lot of money, that's for sure. It's just soooooooooo time consuming! I'd better get started...

So it happened. My iBook is no more. It just won't start up at all. I will try to get it fixed, at least basically, especially because I need to trasfer files to a new computer (whenever that will happen) and I don't think that's possible from a completely dead computer. I will have to squeeze the repairs into next month's budget, and then get a new computer with our tax refund. Rudi agreed that we need a new computer. If I can get the iBook fixed as well, that would be cool too. I am hoping to file our tax returns on 1/2/09 and get our refund within a week, like last year, so I don't really have all that long to wait. Oh, the waiting...

Good thing we have an actual Apple Store here in town now. That's nice.

Riley had her holiday program at school on Thursday. They had punch and cookies set out for the socializing afterwards. Each family brough cookies. They are supposed to be peanut-free because the school is peanut-free, so I assumed they were peanut-free. Big mistake. Avery put a bunch of cookies on her plate and proceeded to take a bit or two from each one. I grabbed a couple of cookies that she had also taken, namely the ones with the Hersheys kiss in the middle. Yeah, those, the peanut ones. I thought to myself, these taste like peanuts. Then I saw that Avery had already eaten a bite of hers. She gets up and says she's done. She starts coughing. I ask if she's okay, and just think it's a cough. But then she vommits. She gets all red around the mouth. A mother who has a peanut-allergic child gives her a double-dose of Benadryl. She clears up and all is good. She eats lunch just a bit later and shows no signs of an upset stomach, therefore not stomach bug. It had to be the peanuts.

So now I'm a little worried, and will definitely get an epi-pen. This is her second reaction, and by all accounts the reactions just get worse and worse. I just read a study in which 62 peanut-allergic people were given refined peanut oil and none had a reaction to it. Avery has had a reaction to it at Chic-Fil-A. So, yes, will be calling her allergist and getting an epi-pen. Yippee.

I'm on the library computer and I'm running out of time. Gotta run...

...except that I'm not trying to KILL our rabbits (and by "rabbits" I mean Sprinkles) but I am constantly trying to outwit them. Usually, I am the one being outwitted (and really, it's appropriate because Elmer Fudd doesn't have much wits about him).

We have a problem area in our house. It's the area in the corner beside the couch. I took the legs off the couch so it sits right on the floor (which makes the couch lower, which mean the rabbits can now get on the couch, which is a whole 'nuther pile of turds, but I digress). But the arms of the couch extend beyond the base of the couch, so no matter how close I push it to the wall, there's always a rabbit-width wide path to the carpet along the side and in the corner. Sprinkles already ripped the corner down to the wood beneath. So I put 4 8x8 glass bricks in the corner and along the side. But alas, I had no more bricks and I thought, we'll there's only a few inches of carpet exposed, no biggie.

Needless to say, Sprinkles is not happy about the new developments (the glass bricks and the elimination of the under-the-couch area) and is so royally peeved that she is in the habit of leaving turds on top of the glass bricks and she even sprayed in that corner. Great. In fact, at the very moment her frustration reached spraying-pitch, the girls decided to play the closed toilet like a drum (which is directly on the other side of the wall from the rabbit corner). Sprinkles ran like an acrobatic furry bullet from the corner, spraying as she went. It was almost poetic. The droplets of urine spraying into the air, catching the light from the rising sun through our living room window, all in slow motion, falling on my face. Yes, my face. (It must be the couch. In the past few weeks I've been peed in the face, and vomited on in the face while on this couch). So yeah, now I have a shoebox on the side of the couch to supplement the glass bricks.

And wow, that rabbit can tear a carpet down to the wood in no time flat. There is no "process," tear some carpet and come back later to complete the deed. As soon as I hear the scratching, I run to where she is (it takes a few seconds, tops, since I am not deaf and can easily find my way around my own house in a dead run) and I can already see wood upon my arrival at the scene.

I think that rabbit is making me think more than I have since becoming a stay-at-home mom. I actually am enjoying the challenge, but will decidedly not enjoy the walk-through at the end of our lease. No, that will not be fun.

No, no pictures this time, since the camera is not within arms reach of where I am sitting contentedly on my duff.

The rabbits were out of their cage for a full 9 hours today. Man, are they lucky. Actually, I think it's because they've figured us out. They know that if they both go into the cage at the same time to get a snack, they'll be shut in. So now they take turns. I have to think of a way to foil them...

Just a quick one. I'm supposed to be working on my final exams. Not posting three posts a day...

Avery had a marvelous birthday. It's so hard to believe that my baby is already three! We made the cake that morning and they couldn't wait to decorate it. So we decorated it and they couldn't wait to eat it. So we had Avery's party a little early. Around 1 or 2. She wore the birthday girl jewelry that Auntie Mina sent and had a blast with it. Rudi was all sorts of freaking out over how many presents she got. Maybe I'm strange, but I don't think that $50 is a lot to spend on a child on her birthday. Actually, I thought I got off a little light. Plus, we made her cake, and that saved money too. I swear, Rudi can be such a scrooge. I did spring for a table cloth, napkins, and plates, which added another $8 to the bill, but still not shabby. It's like every dollar spent could be money spent on a book, in Rudi's eyes. Grrr.

Riley and Avery shared the Playmobil set that Auntie Mina, Uncle Button, and James and William sent. They cooperated pretty well. She played with the My Little Pony playset that I got her too. Then she settled in to watch the Max and Ruby DVD that Grandma and Grandpa sent. Twice. Finally, a few hours later, she wanted me to read the two books I got her. Wearing her new outfit, of course. Then she had cake. Yes, too excited over the presents to actually eat the cake. You know you've had a good birthday then.

I think I finally found a rabbit cage set-up that I like. At first we had the store=bought one that was woefully small. Then I made one with a linoleum tray in it, but the rabbits kept eating the linoleum. Like, a lot of it. So then I put just a flat piece of linoleum under the cage, and they still managed to chew through the linoleum straight through to the carpet. So I got a piece of corrugated plastic and taped it so the sides come out at about a 45 degree angle (so they can't reach through the bars and chew it, and also to catch the turds that they kick out of the cage, as well as to prevent the hay from falling all over the carpet) with the cage set inside. It is working well so far, and I hope it continues to. Sprinkles uses the litter box, but Twinkles does not. I wonder if they're like cats and do not like to share litter boxes. Twinkles does, however, push her turds out of the cage, which are caught in the rim of the cage and therefore not onto the carpet, so all I have to do is put a few in the litter box (to make a statement) and vacuum up the rest. Not too bad.

They (mainly Sprinkles) have done a number on the carpet in the corner behind the couch. Like, BAD. Down to the wood underneath. Thanks to Amy's suggestion, I put something down to deter them. I didn't have spare pieces of carpet, but I did have 8X8 glass bricks left over from making the shelves in Rudi's man-cave, and put several of those down. Sprinkles was clearly not happy with that at all. Luckily we don't have that many exposed corners in our house. I did put another brick down by the under-the-stairs closet. That was the only other open corner without something already in it.

The rabbits have been out of their cage for 4 1/2 hours so far...and counting. Sprinkles has been sleeping under the easel for a while now. Something about that spot, it was Little Sweetheart's favorite spot too. Yes, the rabbits leave turds, but rabbit turds aren't so gross. They vacuum up easily and aren't smooshy or stinky. Hey, it makes me vacuum, and I've always been a lazy vacuumer, so that's a good incentive.

Speaking of Little Sweetheart, I'm a sucker for punishment and keep checking back on the Humane Society's website to see if she's still "available." So, she went there on 12/1, showed up on the website 12/3, and when I checked on 12/8, she was gone. I start thinking, do they only keep cats for a week? How long to they keep them before putting them to sleep. But then I spotted several other cats who have been in the shelter since mid-November. So I hope that she was adopted. She was adopted, right? RIGHT?

Wow, two posts today! I must be feeling productive!

We went again to Pike National Forest to cut our Christmas tree. We went further into the forest this time. Funny thing is, we brought our snowshoes in preparation, but never used them. Rudi went to scout a little while I got the kids bundled up, and we kept thinking, we'll go just a little further and see if we can see any promising trees in the valley, then we'll go back to get our snowshoes. Just a little further, a little more, etc. We never went back for the snowshoes. I had Avery in a back-carry and fell on the ice once with her in it. Her response was "Hey, that messed up my hat!" We did find a nice tree, not too much different from last year's tree. Perhaps a touch better. But hey, it's a real forest tree. Riley was a real trooper, going up and down hills and through deep snow. Avery was not happy. She said, "I'm not lucky. I'm outside. I'm not lucky because I'm outside!" It was cute. She's not an outdooor kid at all.

Rudi was having a bout with his stomach, and I wound up dragging the tree out with Avery on my back most of the way. That was hard work, and I was sore for days. Didn't help that I was thrown off by my winter jacket and Avery's winter jacket and didn't get a good carry in the carrier. That put a huge strain on my back. That and dragging the tree uphill nearly killed me.

We did set up the tree the next day, totally violating my rule against putting the tree up before Avery's birthday. But Rudi set the tree in the stand that night, and try telling kids it's not time to decorate the tree when it's standing right there. Avery didn't mind, and it's her birthday afterall, so if she says decorate the tree, we will.

We stopped at Starbucks after ward and had a much-needed hot beverage. That was nice. Nothing like hot chocolate after hiking through the winter forestu

This was the perfect year to do this. We got it all done in two sittings. Last year, Avery was too young to care or participate and Riley was too antsy. This year, they both had a blast.

Just now I asked Riley to pick up a few of her things so that we can let the rabbits out of their cage for the morning. She sat on the floor and said "I'm loading." Yes, the girl must play too many computer games (with dial-up internet)!

Oh, and Riley is an eye-crosser. I think that's worse than an eye roller. It's actually can get pretty creepy watching her roll her eyes around independent of each other. But that wouldn't be the first time Riley's been creepy :)

Sprinkles on a free run.

Twinkles exploring her cage.

Twinkles and Sprinkles (yes, I lost the battle of the names!)

Twinkles with Avery.

Twinkles and Riley.

So, introducing our new rabbits! And man are they HUGE!! They are already eating us out of house and home. They're cage is WAY too small, and it was the biggest they sold in the pet stores. So I'm in the process of building them a cage like the guinea pig's cage. I connected the wire shelving for the outside of the cage and am not just waiting to get to the sign shop for a sheet of corrugated plastic for the bottom. They definitely need more room. So, we'll have a cage to put on craigslist to see if we can recoup some of the cost of making the new one (the bigger cage is actually less expensive to make than the store-bought one).

Twinkles and Sprinkles both get out of their cage for several hours a day. They are still acclimating, so I'm not entirely sure what their personalities will be. Twinkles is content being held but prefers being petted while she's on the floor rather than in a lap. Sprinkles likes to go behind the couch and try to dig up the carpet. Naughty rabbit. She will come up to me and sit on my foot, or explore me, but is still a bit skittish if you try to reach out for her. She likes when we reach in the cage and pet her. Sprinkles is bigger, and is the submissive one of the pair, so that may be why she's more hesitant.

We are trying to litter box train them. I'd say that starting on day one, 95% of their pee and poop has wound up in the litter box. I'm thinking, though, that that has to do with how small their cage is. The litter box is in one corner, and their hay holder is in the other, so they sit on the litter box while eating. I think that's why the poop gets in there. We'll see how it is when they get their bigger cage. It was funny, the morning after we got them, I came downstairs and noticed that all their veggie were gone, all their pellets were gone, all the hay was gone, and the litter box was FILLED with poop. Man, those rabbits eat a lot! So far they are not nibblers when they are out of their cage, which is nice. But we still are keeping an eye out so they don't chew cords. And Sprinkles loooooooves grapes. I've heard that rabbits have a sweet tooth, so we only give them as treats.

We are supposed to be going today to get our tree. We're chopping one down again, but this year we're bringing our snowshoes so we can go further into the woods and get it. Perhaps that way we'll get a tree that not everyone will make fun of :)

Riley and Avery are eating the gingerbread train that we made yesterday. Don't worry Mom, I got picture before the feast began, and I'll post them next! Anyway, Riley is trying to dictate to Avery what she can and cannot eat. Finally Avery just said "I've had enough of 'dis!" and climbed down from the table. It was funny.

Riley is really starting to write even more. She knows how to write Abby (Abe), Vera (she spelled correctly on her own, but the "a" was backwards), Christmas (crismis), deer (der), Dad, Mom, crab, Max (macs), frog, cart (crt), cow (cao), bed (bid), dog, and bat. She kept asking me for more and more words to write, and finally she ran out of room on her paper.

...is gone. To the shelter. I tried all I could to re-home her, and nothing. She turned for the worse (if that's possible) in regards to attacking the kids. She used to do it behind my back, stalk them, attack, and run off. If we were able to catch her while stalking, we could clap our hands or otherwise disrupt the prey drive and all would be safe. Over the past couple of days, she started stalking in the open, refusing to be deterred, and would attack the kids while I watched. So not cool. So Rudi took her to the shelter today. I don't know what else I could have done. It sucks, though. Totally. On the up side, Rudi said that a 6mo black cat was being adopted while they were there and the shelter lady said that 6mo is a popular age and that black cats are really popular right now too. She felt confident that Little Sweetheart would be adopted and would make sure it was to a child-free home. Now, that may just be something they say to everyone surrendering a pet, and could just be a bunch of hooey, but it makes me feel better.

And...drumroll, please...we pick up our rabbits tomorrow. Ah, normal pets! We are adopting them from a rescue here and from what I hear they are sweet bunnies who love to explore and be held. This rescue fosters their animals, so they live in a normal home environment until adoption, not cages in a warehouse. The girls are beyond excited. So cool after the terror of Little Sweetheart. Avery is going to call hers Annabelle and Riley has decided on Twinkles for hers, although if I can convince her to reconsider, I will. No more freaky weird names, please! I'm dropping Riley off at school tomorrow morning and then going to pick up the rabbits. That'll give the rabbits time to acclimate in a quieter household without Riley there. Oh, I cannot forget to ask the foster lady if the rabbits are spayed. I'm sure I'll forget.

So, if all goes well, we'll have pictures of bunnies to post tomorrow...