Gerbils and Toddlers

****No Gerbils were hurt in the making of this short story!****



I leave Callie and Doug alone together for ONE day and what do they do?
They go pick out another pet!
Not just *A PET* but a little, frail Gerbil.
My daughter? SHE'S TWO.
The LAST thing she needs is ANYTHING smaller than a Great Dane, to play with.

Needless to say, conveniently he leaves for work with this Gerbil that my daughter is dying to play with...And me. Not a huge Gerbil fan here. Or anything small...with teeth.

Gerbils are finicky. Don't really care fore sudden movement. Don't really care for a toddler Grabbing it by it's tail and trying to kiss it. They don't really like a toddler to have her head half in the cage and *squeal in excitement*. (Did I say squeal...I meant a blood curdling, ear deafening shriek.)

She wants it in "The Ball". Anyone with a Gerbil knows "The Ball". You know...little plastic clear balls with air holes. They run around the house running themselves into random objects.

So here I am...With A toddler, A Gerbil cage (with Gerbil of course) and "The Ball". So I'm thinking to myself..How does one get a gerbil into "The Ball" without touching the Gerbil? After numerous attempts...nothing. Finally after a good amount of time I grab the little guy by the tail and toss him into "The Ball". Put the lid on and sat the thing on the floor.

Cute, He walks around and every once in a while a Toddler shoves the ball across the room. NOT good. She also likes to pick the ball up and kiss it, she isn't "gentle", to say the least. I even saw her try to kick the ball once. Needless to say, she was in "time out" a bit tonight. And sobbed at bed time because I wouldn't put the cage in her BED.

In all actuality though...The Gerbil is good to her so far. Callie herself needs to work on how she handles him. :) But hopefully in time, she'll figure it out. Hopefully Mommy will figure it out too, because that little thing freaks me out.

I won't deny the fact that he's cute. Hope his little teeth don't grow much.


BTW....Did I mention Callie named him Buddy? Yep, she picked this exact Gerbil and named him. Her first pet, somewhat of a milestone if you ask me. Now if we can keep it alive.....I'll be happy.

In Callie's words...

"I love Buddy the Mouse Mommy. Don't you touch him. He's my Buddy!"

The one an only.....Drum roll please......


BUDDY THE MOUSE (who is actually a Gerbil)

And Him.

I'll always love her.

Your fingertips across my skin
The palm trees swaying in the wind
Images
You sang me Spanish lullabies
The sweetest sadness in your eyes
Clever trick

Well, I never want to see you unhappy
I thought you'd want the same for me

[Chorus]
Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

We walked along a crowded street
You took my hand and danced with me
Images
And when you left, you kissed my lips
You told me you would never, never forget
These images

No

Well, I'd never want to see you unhappy
I thought you'd want the same for me

[Chorus]
Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

I cannot go to the ocean
I cannot drive the streets at night
I cannot wake up in the morning
Without you on my mind
So you're gone and I'm haunted
And I bet you are just fine

Did I make it that
Easy to walk right in and out
Of my life?

[Chorus]
Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should have known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

My name is Rachel, I have a problem!

So as I'm walking through the house today, I saw a few things that made me giggle. So here I am...sharing my problem with the world.


On top of a table in my Dinning room.


The "stuff" in my purse.


My Jewels...HA


Bathroom, Nail polish


A box I keep jewlery in..


My fridge...





I can't help but smile when I see these things. No wonder people think I'm nuts. Nothing like reaching in your purse for change and pulling out Ammo! HA.

Shame on you America:
the only country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment-yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations. Raising over 57 million already. 99% of the people won't have the guts to copy and repost this.


Can't take care of anyone else, if you can't take care of yourself. And obviously...WE CAN'T.

Kids, Kool Aid and Food Coloring

Isn't it funny how one can tell how their whole day is going to turn out, all before 11 am?

Callie woke me up today at 7 am (Too early, even for her) due to our "PACK of dogs" freaking out over some kind of stupid animal outside. I dealt with it, woke up with a smile and tried like mad to keep that smile.

I had housework to do, and since my daughter is such a good little girl, I didn't worry too much. She had 4 rooms in which she could access while I was doing my work. Living Room, Dining room, Bathroom and Kitchen. I was in the kitchen.

During her night time baths I have been putting 3 drops of different colored food coloring in her water for fun...so there were 2 bottles of coloring on the second from top shelf on the shower wall. She also had a full cup of Kool Aid on the coffee table.

At one point she comes in to the kitchen (as I'm doing dishes) and says "Mommy, I think I made a mess!". Anyone who has a toddler knows that they make messes, usually with their toys (but other things tend to happen as well). I asked her if it was her toys and she nodded. I told her to go pick it up. At this point, I hear her in the living room putting things away singing the "clean up" song. Thinking to myself, "What a good little girl I have!"

Silence struck a few minutes after. Thinking she was watching TV I finished up my dishes. I was in the Kitchen a total of 20 minutes (maybe less).

As I'm walking out to the living room I see the bathroom light is on and the door is closed. THIS CAN'T BE GOOD. Immediately, I open the bathroom door to find my "Good little girl" sitting in the bathtub with no water, and a bottle of red food coloring and a bottle of blue food coloring...EVERYWHERE, I must add. Red and blue mixed together makes purple. So there she is, covered in purple dye. Hand prints on the tub, toilet, sink and door frame (But not one drop on her clothes). At this point, I can't strip her down because the dye would get everywhere (that it wasn't already) so I rolled up her sleeves turned the tub water on and got it off her hands and toes. Her hands were still tinted a light purple/pink color. I'll deal.

I hurry to clean the mess in hopes that it wouldn't stain anything too bad. And for the most part it came out BUT...I have these itty bitty pink hand prints up and down my WHITE door frame (as high up as she could reach). I'm upset but know that it's nothing a little paint won't fix.

I sit her on the toilet and have a nice long talk with her then tell her to go to time out. She goes willingly and seems to be excited about going to time out with pink hands. ugh. As I'm walking her to time out...I look into the living room...

OH HELL...

A whole glass of red Kool Aid is dumped all over my carpet. My Carpet isn't a dark color FYI nor is it the best carpet...BUT the last thing I want is a HUGE pink circle in the middle of my floor. (Another UGH). So as she is sitting in time out I grab the laptop and try to find a good way to get red dye (kool Aid) out of white-ish carpet. For the most part, it's up. I'm exhausted, I'm pissy and I need a freaking vacation. ALONE. No husbands, no child.....100% ALONE.

Moral of my story?

1. No matter if you think your house is Child-Safe...it probably isn't. Kids can and WILL find a way to the top shelf IF they want what is up there.

2. Silence is NEVER good when we are talking about toddlers.

3. When your child has pink hands, Time out is a lot less effective.

4. Kool Aid...SUCKS. Yes, it's cheap. Yes, Kids love it.....But simply put, IT'S THE DEVIL.

5. Food coloring is also THE DEVIL.

6. Kool aid can in fact come out of carpet. Use dawn dish soap, Water, An Iron and a towel. It ain't easy (but then again, what is?)

7. DO NOT TRUST YOUR LITTLE SNOT NOSED KID. Believe me on this one.


Now.....Now my day is pretty much toast. I've spent the last hour and a half trying to clean up red, pink, and blue dye all over my house. My daughters hands are still pink/purple and I NEED A FUCKING VACATION.

E.M.G.

Thinking about you tonight.

Always remembered.

Did you know.....

YOU CAN FOLLOW YOURSELF?


I always wanted to "Watch myself walk away!"


SUWEEEEEEET.

Holy EYES, Batman!

I had to dissect a lambs eye in school once. From that point on, I promised myself I would NEVER touch another Eyeball, including my own.

Well, I went back on my word today and picked up my first pair of Contact Lenses. I've always had this issue with "eyes". They freak me out. They are slimy, and just plain gross. Yet there I stood, in the line at the DR's office waiting for him to hand me these tiny little things I was supposed to jam into my eyesballs.

The receptionist handed them to me and set up a follow appt. I had to look like a genius standing there. I looked at my package of contacts, looked up at the receptionist and then at my contacts again. "So, their pretty self explanatory then? I just pop 'em in my eyes?" I could tell she wanted to laugh. But hell, how am I supposed to know?

She said "Follow Me!" and took me back into this little room covered floor to ceiling in mirrors (which is never a good idea when lady isn't expecting to see a 360 degree view of herself). I wanted SO bad to turn around and run the hell out of that room.

She told me to sit...I did. She opened them, took my glasses and said "Get that one out of there!". I pick up the little package, hold it up to the light desperately searching for "it". Nothing... I saw nothing.
"Do you see it?". What the hell do you think Lady, you have my glasses, you're lucky I see YOU. (No, I didn't say it like that, but it took everything I had not to.) I just kept plunging my little finger into this package hoping that something would appear. And it did!

"Put it on your pointer finger, use your middle finger to pull your bottom lid down and your other hand to pull your top lid...up". Sounded easy enough. So I get to it...Yanking on both "lids". I go to put in this nifty little lens but before it hit my eye, my fingernail did. Scratched the ever living &^%*$ out of my eyeball.

See...this is why I didn't want contacts! What was "eye" thinking! (see what I did there. lol)

Needless to say, I got them in. She told me to practice taking them out. SCREW that. I wanted out of that room...BAD. I said I'd practice at home and proceeded to leave.

I get to the front door and let me tell you something...Snow is BRIGHT. I seriously felt like I was looking directly at the sun. I can't stop blinking and it feels like I have a razor blade in my eyes.
Not sure if I'm going to be able to hang out with the Contact crowd. This is really just...annoying.

I was told I will build a callus-like something or other on my eyeball and won't be able to tell they are even in. Which leads me to the question...

Do I really want a Callus on my EYEBALL. I mean, seriously. I don't think I do.

I'm giving them a shot though...
ONLY because now I get to go buy myself a cute pair of Shooting Glasses for the Range.

Shopping...oh they joys!

Some of my Toys.

It started in March of last year. I was looking for a way to Protect myself, my family. I ran across a certain website, asked questions and got answers.
I was offered a trip to the range by a member there. I hesitated but went for it. Best decision of my life.
At first, I was overwhelmed. I was nervous. I didn't know anything about firearms. Hell, I was the last person on earth you would suspect to be into guns. But the guy I was with, taught me a lot. We took the first bit of time going over "safety" and from there we went on to the basics. Before you know it, I was shooting his 9mm and thinking "I've GOT to get into this!". I believe it was a pleasant experience because of the gentlemen that took me. He taught me to respect firearms.


Now, 10 months later...I have 5 different guns. The list is constantly growing.

My Bersa Thunder .380.My newest addition to the family. I'm accurate with this firearm and it is easy to conceal and slim enough to carry comfortably. So far, I really like it.



My Springfield Armory 1911-A1. This is the firearm I trained with until I purchased the Bersa. I am accurate with this gun as well, but because of the size (5 inch barrel) I can not carry it on my small frame, without feeling as though I have some sort of Rocket attached to my hip. My 1911 is still my favorite. I love this gun.




My SKS. It's my one and only rifle. Shoots 7.62 x 39. At first I didn't care for this rifle. But since I've gotten it out and learned some things about it, I LOVE IT. This is another one I will not be getting rid of anytime soon.

Family Picture, Before the Bersa. You will also see my 9x18 Makarov. My first firearm. Got a great deal on it, and it did me well until I could find more great deals. I still have this gun. Also my break-top S&W .32. Needs a new trigger pin, but I am planning on getting it fixed soon.

So...There they are. I could name 100 more I want! What an awesome hobby and GREAT way to protect yourself. Now that I know what I do...I will NEVER be w/o some sort of firearm.

I'm sure a lot of my blogging will have to deal with Guns in one way, shape or form.

The start of a new "Blog".

I was told today that I should start "Blogging".

So here I am fellow bloggers, willing to share with you, my thoughts on Life, Kick ass hobbies and the people I love.


A little about Me...

*First and Foremost, I'm a Mother. My daughter is my reason, for everything.

*I'm married to a man I love, dearly. We met in 2001 and haven't left each others side since.

*I'm a "Believer". I am not your every day Christian. I talk to God, Pray to God and Worship God in "my" house. I'm a good person and have no doubt where I will go when my time comes.

*Firearms. Man, Do I LOVE Firearms. I started getting interested in them March 2009. I'm far from knowledgeable but am learning a lot...fast. I've been training with my guns and my collection is ever growing. It seems as though there is always *something* I just can't live without.

*If you are easily offended, I would hit the BIG red "X" in the top right hand corner of your screen. My flaws are bound to show in my Blogs. *wink*

*I'm a bit OCD. Things being "centered" is important. Try explaining that to your "Shooter Friends" when you are hanging up targets. Clocks, I don't like clocks or anything that "ticks". It just drives me nuts. My husband will hang a clock and I will be right behind him to take out the batteries. Crumbs...they also get me going.

*I Play hard, Laugh hard and Love...Harder.

*My goals in life are not to have a fancy house, fancy cars. My goal is to live it...Happy. Smile as often as I can. Laugh as often as I can. Love as Hard as I can. And stash away as many Memories as I can. Memories never fade.