Charles' Toad

For anyone who is interested, Mrs. Street discovered that Charles' toad was in a horrible state of dehydration. Charles had put the toad in about 1 inch of water, and I had ordered him to put him the toad in a dry bucket, which he did after some argument with me. Well, it would appear that toads cannot drink water- they absorb it through their skin. Oops! Fortunately, Mrs. Street is very talented when it comes to toad rehabilitation and the toad is now very happy and rehydrated.

Just a plain old update

My plans for the afternoon fell through. I spent about an hour in the morning attempting to orchestrate going to Bowen Homes, checking on Gloria and taking her clothing and a boatload of food. I decided that I was going to need some help in providing these things, as I've become a poor prolife activist. After several calls around town- calls I had been making last week as well- and checking on the possibility of an escort down to Bowen, I made a dreadful discovery. Gloria's phone number has changed! I decided to scrap the outing until Thursday, wrote Gloria a hasty note saying "Please call me!" and decided to be a plain, ordinary mother this afternoon.

I went to Trader Joe's and bought some basics, along with some three layer hummus. If you like hummus, you'll adore this stuff. It is this fabulous creamy texture with a burst of fragrant herbiness- not sure that is a word. I got some mini or baby hot house cucumbers...mmmmm. I've decided this is my new indulgence, but it's low fat and low calorie! Which means I eat about 3x as much. I'll go jump on the trampoline a little more tomorrow.

I took the kids to buy pumpkins. They decided it would be better for each kid to pick his own pie pumpkin(the small ones) rather than buy one ginormous (new word) pumpkin. After a few moments I noticed that Gabriel would select a little pumpkin, give it a careful look over, and then toss it to the ground. Fortunately, they weren't tossed far, but I did nip that behavior in the bud. After pumpkins were selected, we headed for the car, where we quickly realized, as the toxic fumes filled up the cab that Gabriel had loaded his pants while pumpkin hunting. The car was full of bookbags, lunch boxes, abortion signs, a case of fetal babies, stroller, and backpack carrier, and I did not relish the thought of clearing out the back to change his diaper- especially in light of the fact that the parking lot at this church was small, hilly and hugely annoying. So into his carseat he went. I was totally grossed out, but Gabriel didn't even seem to notice.

When we got home, I ordered Jonathan and Caroline to clean out the car- which was trashed in the fullest sense of the word. It's too bad GM doesn't make the Suburban with a front window that lifts open- I could open the back and the front, and then use a blower to get everything out of the car.

Jonathan has been making dreadful grades in Science: C's! It's ridiculous. My mother never helped me with so much as a spelling list in all my years of school, so I was annoyed that Jonathan was not learning the material on his own. This past week I decided to "bite the bullet" and sat down with him, read through the entire chapter, and went over all the questions. I've been through 7th grade science once, and I would prefer not to go through it again, though I know that I'll be doing it 6 more times. Ugh. He made a 100% on his test today. I'm a bit rueful about that. I made a 100% on his test today. I'll be happier when I have nothing to do with the whole process- except looking over his homework and signing the assignment pad. Oh, in case you're wondering, I don't teach Jonathan science. He attends the Great Oak Academy for that class. Clearly if I were teaching it, I wouldn't expect him to get it on his own.

Vivian is currently in constant pajamas. I gave away all of Caroline's clothes after Oliver was born, believing that we were finished having offspring. So there are no hand me downs in the attic for this child. She has three sleeper PJ's, one that fits, and two that I'm squeezing her into. I decided to go to Goodwill to buy her a winter wardrobe, but Jon didn't want me to do that. He feels that Goodwill should be reserved for really poor people. I feel that Goodwill should be reserved for really frugal people. Jon would prefer that I go to Macy's and get her winter clothes. So I'll do that, just as soon as my fabulous $25 off $100 purchase coupon is in date. I have a couple of those coupons, so that should be good. And it will be nice having Vivvie look adorable, since she is our dolly. I'm tempted to stop by Goodwill on my way to Macy's just to see what I'm missing out on.
The boys need some pants. All the pants have been in constant use since Jonathan first donned them as a young chap, and they're worn out. Holes in the knees, missing snap parts, and a general grunge look. I think that I will check out Goodwill for pants for the three middle ruffians. I just flipped through the latest Landsend catalog and I'm guessing it would cost about $2,000 to buy my offspring a winter wardrobe from that catalog. A single set of PJ's for $30!!!! That is insane. The clothes are adorable and well made, but $30 for one set of PJ's? I still can't get over it. Add the robe and slippers, and you're looking at $100 a kid- provided they only have one set of jammies. I have decided that Target is not an option for buying clothes for my children. Their stuff does not last more than 2 weeks. The pants get holes in the knees faster than my dry cleaned suit gets chocolate or blood on the pants compliments of Gabriel or Vivvie.

That's it for this update except that I'm having a very nice glass of Merlot from Aldi's. For Aldi's $4 a bottle wine, it is rather good.