Buddy the Squirrel

In my last post, I mentioned my mom's tendency to take in pets.  This made me think I could share some of the stories about these animals.  We have had many pets in my life, but perhaps the most memorable is Buddy the Squirrel.  Yup, we had a pet squirrel.  This is how it happened.

One day, my mom found a small brown lump in the grass outside the house.  When she went to investigate, she saw that it was a baby squirrel.  It had fallen out of the tree.  She went inside and did some research, finding that the poor little squirrel would not be welcome back into the tree and would most likely not survive on its own.  So she decided to take it in.  She got a ferret cage, filled it with newspaper and named the squirrel Buddy.

Buddy grew to be a full sized, happy, healthy squirrel...and a house pet.  We would sing a little song to him and he would get excited and run in circles and jump up and down.  He would sit on people's shoulders and run up and down their arms.  Not mine though, it kinda gave me the heebie jeebies to feel his little rodent does on my skin.

Eventually we found an animal rescue that agreed to take him in.  My mom cried, but the family was moving out of state and couldn't take him.

So if you're ever in Maryland and see a dancing squirrel, you know you have met Buddy.

I wanna blog too...

I have a new roomie.  Yup, trying the sharing the home thing again.  I'm like my mom, except she takes in stray animals (like squirrels) and I take in stray people.  At least mine can clean up their own poo, mostly.  Anyways, she is a blogger.  A real one with running themes and followers and google hits.  About 4 years ago she convinced me to create a blog which I did and subsequently wrote religiously at least twice a year for 3 years.  I am nothing if not committed and timely in all that I do.  Tonight my new roomie wrote a new post on her blog tonight and it inspired me.  So to my 3 loyal blog followers, the wait is finally over!!!

Ok, stop and breathe.  I know the excitement is too much to endure but try to control yourselves.  Geez!

I had to share this picture.  My kid is hilarious.  This is how I found him sleeping tonight.

BTW-doesn't he have to coolest bed ever?  It literally has a slide with which to get out of bed each morning.

So that's it.  My first blog of 2012.

Twitter

I finally joined Twitter--mainly because I quite enjoy the ones that Daniel Tosh puts on Tosh.O. I'm confused though because there's another secret language that I don't know. So now I'm wondering if this is going to be like my mom friending me on facebook, or 45 year old men driving convertibles--am I too old to tweet???? Have I crossed that line????

Nook

I forgot to mention that the book I'm currently reading came to me via my new Nook Color. I had some trepidation in getting the nook as I do love "real" books; however the nook is amazing! I find myself reading it all the time. I can also instantly look up word definitions, highlight text, search for certain words within the book, and facebook or twitter passages as I'm reading. I can also get new books in minutes--without leaving my house. This can also be bad as it's turning out to be very easy to spend more money than I should. P.S. Guess what my first purchase was. Yup, The Complete Works of Jane Austen.

MLK Jr Day

Chase's teacher told me how they had been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. in class, so trying to be the good parent that I tell everyone I am, I started a conversation with him over dinner. Here's how it went... Me: So Chase, tell me what you've learned about Martin Luther King Jr. Chase: He got shot. Me: Ok...anything else? Chase: He had a friend that got kicked off the bus. Me: Do you know why she got kicked off the bus? Chase: No. Me: Because her skin was dark. Back then, a lot of people thought that people who had dark skin were bad and they weren't allowed to do things like sit in certain spots on the bus or eat in restaurants. Chase: (Blank Stare. Blink. Blink.) Well, that's stupid. Me: Yes Chase, it was. The moral of this story? My 6 year old son who knew only that Martin Luther King Jr was a man who got shot and had a friend kicked off the bus, already knows more about what Dr. King stood for than the majority of educated adults I've encountered in this world. Maybe we should start listening to the 6 year olds of the world more often.

I can do that

So I'm reading this book called, It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita. It's a memoir of an ex-mormon woman living in Utah and having a baby. It's an extremely honest, cynic, and hilarious story--one which I can totally relate to. Apparently, it is from the author's blog (which I am totally going to start following once I figure it out). Anyways, in reading this book, I kept saying things to myself such as, "I went through that," or "That's totally what I said." Which brings me to my point--I should start blogging. Not the once every six month bitchfest that I have been doing up until now, but really sharing the stories of my life to the millions (ok, one) of readers out there who could relate to me. I mean, my kid was born 2 months after hers. If I had written all this stuff down, maybe I would have a book published by now. Stop laughing, it could happen.

This year for Christmas I tried saving money so instead of getting professional pictures done, I figured out how to use the delay on my camera and lined the whole family up on the couch. This includes a cranky husband, a six year old, and two unimpressed dogs. Neo kept curling into a ball on Chase's lap and Toby was chasing imaginary squirrels, until we got the idea to put a treat in front of the camera at the very last second. Eventually they succumbed. I have to say though, I have mad respect for pet photographers. I thought kids were hard. Tyler actually did come through and made it all work even though I think he thought it was a dumb idea. He really is good to me. Anyways, after approximately 20 takes (10 of which were promised to be the last) I think we finally got one to add to a Christmas card.