Our Latest Addition

Those that know me, or that have been following my blog for awhile now, know that I’m something of an animal fanatic. We have a few, or as my husband might tell you, a few too many. I can’t help it, I seem to have an irresistible urge to take in cute things. I might actually need professional help. But anyway, yesterday, as I was out back with the dogs, I noticed something in the pool. We’ve had frogs, lizards, birds, even snakes in there before (they all come in through the dog door – a delightful side effect of having the world’s largest dogs is that you need the world’s largest dog door) but this was different. This was a TURTLE!

I should note that I adore turtles. I think they are just the cutest things ever. We have two red eared sliders already, that we’ve had for about 10 years. They’re huge now, but when we got them, they were about the size of this little guy:

who was happily floating around on the hose of the pool vacuum. Isn’t he adorable? Anyway, I decided I *had* to leave him there, at least until the kids got home from school so they could see how cute he was. In the meantime, I googled him and found out he was a Florida Softshell Turtle. Native to Florida, not endangered, but that most little hatchlings like this don’t survive because they’re just so tiny and they have SO many predators that would love to have them for a tasty treat (aside from my dogs, who I am sure would have loved to snatch him up, too, if they weren’t too afraid of the pool to get in there and gobble him).

So, naturally, I decided we needed to keep him. At least for now. For his own safety. So off I went to the pet store to get him a tank and other assorted hatchling necessities. My daughter has claimed him, and he’ll live in her room. She also named him, Spot. I know, it’s odd, but the other turtles are Sock and Shoe (named by my son when he was like 18 months old) so she decided it was HER turn to name something. Better to let her name a turtle than a dog or cat next time we take one of them in, I guess.

So, an undisclosed amount of money later (undisclosed, of course, just in case my husband happens to read this later), we have yet another pet. If y’all see me on that Animal Hoarders show on Animal Planet some day, don’t be too surprised.

The Evolution of a Moose

Our sweet, not-so-little puppy Moose is 8 months old today! Commemorated in pictures…

At three days old

At three weeks old

At two months old

At three months old

At four months old

At five months old

At six months old

At seven months old

Today, eight months old

Alright, let's get this party started

I am, apparently, the only person on the planet not blogging. I've tried to blog. I have. Way back before everyone was doing it, but inevitably I get distracted by life and forget about it, and then don't post for months and months. So I just abandon that blog and go without for a year or more until I get the blogging bug again and sign up somewhere new. So here we are. It would seem that blogger is the place to be, so we'll give this one a shot and (fingers crossed) maybe I'll get past the first few posts and not give up. :)

About me - I'm 33, married, mom to two, and live in Tampa, FL. My son Owen is almost seven, and is into sports. He's insanely smart and I'm sure that will somehow spell trouble for me down the road. My daughter Nicole is five and into cheerleading and gymnastics. Right now we're in football/cheerleading season so life is even more hectic than usual between all their practices and games. Busy but fun, and they both are loving it. My husband Perry will be 41 next week, and is working on getting his private pilot license (lessons were a gift from me for his last birthday). You can reach his main blog here, if you're interested.

I work full time as a user interface designer for a healthcare company, Gentiva, but my main passion is my side business, Once Upon a Family. You've likely not heard of us yet, but we sell traditions products, products to help teach family values (think responsibility, respect, courage, etc.) and heirloom quality memories products. I describe the products as "stuff that makes you want to be a better mom". lol. I've also recently launched a local chapter of a nationwide women's networking group, The Heart Link Network.

What else you should know about me - I'm an avid scrapbooker, though I don't have a lot of time for scrapbooking lately, with all of the other stuff above. I'm a huge animal person - I have two dogs, two cats, two turtles, and assorted fish. The dogs are Rico, a 1 year old Great Dane mix, and Jasper, an 11 year old German Shepherd/Chow mix. The cats are Sherbert and Lily. All four animals are rescues and I love them to bits.

Alright, so that's pretty much the basics on me. I guess I'll go figure out how to post this and I'll be back (soon?) with another post...