Sometimes you just gotta laugh to keep from crying

Today Jessica has been throwing up. Poor thing, but other than that she is doing ok. No fever or anything else. So after multiple baths and lots of laundry I decided that we would go for a walk. She loves riding in the stroller and I needed to get out too.

We get down to the end of the street and it starts to downpour out of nowhere. My street has never seemed so long as when you are running with an baby in an umbrella stroller (which work NOTHING like an umbrella) in the pouring rain. Then when we finally make it to our driveway I push the stroller up over the curb on the drive and all of the sudden the stupid stroller lives up to its name and collapses like an umbrella with my child still buckled into it. AAAARGH! So now I have a crying, wet, sick baby and am dragging the stroller behind me through the yard into the house.
As soon as we get inside, the rain completely stops and the sun comes out, Of Course!

That is when I toss my hands up into the air and shake my head and laugh. A little bit of crazy keeps us all able to relate to one another a little better ;) We all have silly frustrating days that remind us of how human we are. (Some people unfortunately more than others) On those days we must remind ourselves of of how blessed we truly are despite the crazy moments of life.

Oh No! Did I really just hear what I think I did?.......Off to clean up more puke ;)

The Joys of Fall Break

The Fall is a beautiful time of year. The colors and changing temperatures are a sign of the changes in life and how things appear to be gloriously preparing for a restful winter. It is a time to oooh and aaaah at the trees and crunch in the leaves and complete the harvest.
Ristow had Fall break this past week and I took advantage of it by taking the kids on a road trip. We visited families, loved on new babies, shared times of refreshing with friends allowing our children to play and to know one another. It was a great week. The kids traveled well and slept even better. I was able to share with Ristow some of my favorite childhood fall experiences and memories.
Here are a few pictures of our trip. We wished we would have had another week as there were many other dear ones we would have loved to see.

A Place of Refuge (for Hermit Crabs that is)

Yesterday I get a call from my friend Melanie. She had been on a trip to the beach this past weekend to be with family and said that they had collected shells on Saturday. Now, one of those shells was crawling around her car! Yes, a hermit crab. She asked if she could bring it over (because I am such an expert now on hermit crabs hehe)

Mel and the crab arrived and I had a salt water soak all set up for him, after all, he had been in a ziploc bag in her car since Saturday. He came out after a few minutes and was very cool looking. He has striped legs and is bigger than any of my land crabs.
Mel leaves only to return a few minutes later with the ziploc bag of shells. One of the other shells is grabbing the bag! Another Crab!

I prepare another bowl for the second crab. Luckily I had a spare cage from my past Hermit Crab fiascoes. So now I have my three in their regular cage and two more in another. Well the striped crabs from the ocean really need special care, online it said you have to create a subtropical environment for them, yeah right. I call Mel and then she calls the Aquatic store down the street, who (thank goodness) is going to take the ocean crabs and care for them.

So last night was the first night we had to turn on the heat. The poor crabs need the warm temperature and I didn't have a heat lamp for them. So I put them in the bathroom by our bedroom where it is warmer by the vents. All night I heard those crazy crabs!
The crabs are leaving today, so I will have a vacant cage again. And seeing as how I am such the expert now, I am happy to accommodate any future displaced crabs. ;)

I tried to take a picture of the Striped Crabs but it seems they are a bit camera shy. Here is a pic I found online of what they look like.