Introducing Whisper!!

Ah....  What a lovely Sunday!  We decided to travel to Elko today.  It was a beautiful day for a drive!  We got up around eight this morning and were on the road by nine-thirty.  The drive was uneventful, even boring.  Except that the kids got car sick.  They always get car sick.  I used to always keep chewable Dramamine in the car, but didn't have any today.  Poor Preston was so green that he could have hidden in a pine tree undetected.

When we got there, we met a really nice couple with a newborn baby.  They also had several other 9 week old babies.  I held them and loved on them and decided to take one home.  I named her Whisper!!

 She fits into the palm of my hand and weighs 1.8 pounds right now.  We went to lunch at a sports bar and grill called Mattie's in Elko after we picked her up.  The food was good and the service was great!  I even got to watch part of the Redskins game!!  The staff fawned over Whisper and Tyler, both.

Then we went to Wal-Mart.  Can I just say that I HATE that store?  It's awful!  And braving Wal-Mart on a Sunday in a town you're not familiar with, with five children is just an anxiety attack waiting to happen.  It did.

So, we pick up puppy food, a collar, some chew toys and some de-wormer.  And then Erick decides he wants a fish tank.  Oh, really.  A fish tank.

It's not enough that we have five children, a seven year old boxer and a nine week old puppy.  We also need a fish tank to maintain.  But, hey, I just got a puppy... You think I'm going to tell him no right now?  So, I start by telling him that we can't afford an expensive tank.  He knows.  And he's found a small three gallon aquarium package.  So, we migrate to the fish tanks and there are something like a dozen kids hanging around the tanks.  Then, add my five.  Chaos and then some.  Plus, the kids are asking for this and that, everyone has an opinion about what we should buy, everyone wants to hold Whisper, and then Erick wants me too.  I only felt like I was being pulled in a hundred directions.  My nerves were on fire.  Real tears flowed effortlessly down my cheeks.  And Erick knew that I was having an anxiety attack.  So he kept the kids, picked the fish, and let me go my own way.

I picked up a few small things and nine new pillows.  I buy new pillows for everyone at least once per year.  I find that keeping them any longer contributes to worsening allergies, illnesses, stiff necks, etc.  Even when I wash the pillows one or two times each month, I find that they need to be replaced after about a year. 

When we got home, I removed all of the old pillows from the beds and replaced them with the new pillows.  But first, I labeled them with the kiddos' names.  I find that labeling them helps to minimize fighting over whose pillow is whose when someone misplaces theirs!

I'll be hanging on to the old pillows this time, though.  Lily already has a nice bed, but I'm going to upcycle these and make them into a bigger and softer bed for her and I'll also make a cute little bed for Whisper.

So, Erick set up the tank.  He treated the water.  He is so in love with fish.  I don't necessarily share his passion.  His fascination mirrors that of a young boy poking a snake with a stick.  It's funny to watch. 

He bought a couple of puffer fish, the plecostumus, a couple of terras, 5 shrimp and 3 crabs.  The crabs have already eaten two of the shrimp.  I told him they would, but he was too excited to hear me. 

As he set up the tank, I picked up the house.  I put Whisper in Tyler's room with food and water and put the baby gate up so that she could eat in peace.  The big kids love her.  Lily is interested and she's just so small.  And Tyler will NOT leave her alone.  Even when he's dirty dirty and when she wants to lick the food off of his face!

I went in to get her just before the kids went to bed and found her under one of Ty's toys.  She fit so perfectly.

Unfortunately, when I was moving the toy to get her, I found this.

Spider!!!  Uh oh.... Oh, and it gets worse.  Not only is this an icky, yucky awful looking spider - it's a BLACK WIDOW!!!!  Yes.  She is a widow.  She's an immature one who has not mated yet.  Turns out that they look like this until the first time they mate... And then they turn black and their hour glass becomes red.  Who knew??

See the hourglass on the bottom side of her abdomen?  It's what let me know that she was a widow.  I figured maybe she was a he because I'd never identified a male widow before... But when I Googled it, I found this.  Those venom sacks are what concern me the most!!  That thing died a million deaths when I was done photographing her!  She was in Tyler's room!!  Ugh.  So far, the scorpions have not bothered me, the potato bugs have not bothered me, the barn spiders have not bothered me... But this one bothered me!!  Not in my house...