Snow Day

It's finally snowing! The weather report has been predicting a horrible winter storm all week. It has been windy but otherwise nice until today. Of course as it has been so unseasonably warm everything had started blooming, but at least the trees hadn't fully leafed out. Just little green buds on the ends of the branches. Tiny Dog is much happier now that I put his hoodie on. He's still cold but not shivering. Morgan is, of course, thrilled, though she will be disappointed if she has to take her spelling test tomorrow. And as I had time and nothing to do but laundry I made another video.

Enjoy all! =) And remember... you have to come to the site to see the video!

http://eighthparakeet.blogspot.com (Just in case you forgot.)

Movie madness

OK all. A little tutorial on blog videos. To see the movies I included in the last blog you probably need to come to the actual site rather than just looking at the email update. Click here: http://www.eighthparakeet.blogspot.com/. I have just gotten notification from You Tube that my videos are in violation of copyright and so I need to figure out what the heck I did/need to do to resolve the situation. *sigh* Morgan's spelling doesn't look so good this week. All the words have silent letters :knee, knife, gnaw, thumb, debt, etc. Shes having a bit of trouble. I got notification in the mail today that I have to take Parasitology again this next quarter. Not such a big deal except they signed me up for classes until 6pm on Friday evenings. Not going to work is NOT an option when only working three days a week. This could get interesting. I'll update when I have finally tracked down the lady that is in charge of schedules. She only works two days a week and wasn't there on Monday this week. Nice. Cody's out of town also which means I am sleeping a little better (no snoring) but I am grumpy (no Cody). Morgan is suffering through having me help her with homework but I can hardly wait for Cody to get back as I really am not good at this. I have no patience for the "I don't understand" thing. Basically I hate my own homework. She should be able to do her own homework. I am trying but I am sure Morgan will attest that I am not much fun to do homework with. *sigh* Later folks.

Fambily

I got a complaint the other day about the blog. Apparently I am Blogging too much about me and not enough about the small child. My answer to this is I haven't seen much of the small child, or Cody for that matter, as I have been either at school, or work as of late. All that is over now for a few weeks as my final final was on Thursday.

You all are in luck though as the other night I just happened to be home when Morgy and Cody were building a new bird cage in the garage. I got some photos and they are posted throughout.

Morgan and Cody have bonded completely and I have to say that I think she prefers him to me most of the time. As you will see in the photos Cody is much better at including her in things. She helps him build stuff all the time. She is allowed to play with power tools, and he is as bad about eating junk food as she is so that pretty well places me second in the adored adult category. She likes Marie also, but it is more of the strawberry smoothies she makes than Marie herself.

Morgan got 100% on her spelling test this week (again Cody is better at this stuff than I am. They have studying down to a science.) but is still having some trouble with Math. I think it has more to do with her lack of interest than an actual difficulty with the subject. She just hates to bother with thinking about math. She loves science, and reading has become more fun now that she has figured out you can learn about stuff from books but she has yet to find a use for math. I would help her with that but find myself at a loss and saying "because I said so" and "you have to because everyone has to" a lot. Hmmm. I suppose my sweatshirt that says "I was told there would be no math involved" doesn't help either.

Cody is going to be going to New York to install a wine cellar next week so I am sure I will have Morgy stories to tell. She is getting very frustrated that I work on Friday nights and keep missing "Junk Food and Movie Night". Although Cody bakes cookies and they make pudding, and he lets her stay up later, and they eat almost no "real" food, it is still nice to be missed, even if only for my use of their air.

She is excited about little Toby coming to live in Denver next month. She wants to start learning to drive him and I am looking forward to being able to get her out to the stables with me. She wants to ride Annie also and I think that she might be able to poke around on her and learn to steer with little problem. Annie is so darn lazy and rather spook-proof so she could ride her in the round pen or front arena pretty easily. I can lead her around too. I am still trying to convince her that she can not drive Toby downtown though. Somehow she doesn't understand the concept that even if she can physically drive him that the rules don't allow anyone without a driver's license to drive a carriage commercially, and that even then the insurance won't cover anyone under 21. Her answer to this is "Well, you can sit next to me." Marie finds this too cute.
For news in other areas, I am training Marie's Clydesdale gelding "Bailey" to ride. I would give more details but given recent comments I think I should leave this blog entry "family focused". I will include the videos I have made of him this week, and a video of Morgy in the garage partyin' to Cody's iPod. Enjoy all!!

March Madness

Today's title epitomizes the Colorado Spring this year. We cancelled work on Friday because of snow. Today, a mere three days later, it was 71 degrees F. An all the "Coloradans" keep forecasting gloom and doom: "It's just gearing up for a blizzard." "March is our snowiest month." "April showers bring May blizzards." I say: "Bring it on!" =) Silly Coloradans don't know how good they have it, even when it does blizzard!



The photos included today are mostly of Cody and Brigs. Cody has managed to master the brushing of a resistant Tiny Dog. It was before his haircut. The posed Brigs photo is immediately afterward. Brigs is protesting in his own way to get back at us though. He now dons one of his "hoodie" jackets almost around the clock, even when it is 70 degrees, because he shivers. Obnoxious, spoiled dog! Even worse is his crying and carrying on if we leave him at home. We have to crate him because he proceeds to go "fishing" in the cat box and then leaves wet or solid "presents" in inconspicuous places around the house. I won't even begin to mention how he usually sleeps in our bed, under the covers, usually snuggled into Cody's arms. I have to forcibly remove him and lock him in his kennel if I decide that both Cody and the dog snoring is just too much for an evening.

The small child and the Tiny Dog rule this house. I am gone too much to be much influence and Cody is too happy with the situation to pay any attention to my rantings. Marie agrees with me that Cody is quite the keeper. At least everyone is pretty darn happy! ;) Life is good.


I am finding my mood lightening lately. The end of the "Quarter From Hell" will soon be here. We are working on our last week of normal classes and then we have finals. After that I am FREE for two and a half weeks! I am so ecstatic! I don't know if Parasitology is going to be a passing grade and I just don't care any more. I just want this to be done with for a little while. This week is particularly nasty as I have "Animal Care" for my Lab Animal class. This means that I am at school at 6 am sharp every morning this week to clean and care for all the "Lab Animals" and thus I was borderline conscious for my 8 hours at school today. Luckilly I didn't work very late yesterday (we started early and ended early) but still couldn't fall asleep until 12:30 or 1. Then Straton jumped on me at about 2 am and I had to kick him off the bed. At 5:30 the alarm went off and I was off to school. I looked like I was drunk most of the day, letting the walls hold me up. At least I got three of the five minimum hours required done just in this morning, and my group started with the rabbits. They are the messiest of the lab animals and are notoriously difficult to clean and handle. Myself, I am not looking forward to the ferrets. The two we have are still quite young and are not very good about using their litter box yet. Adorable, but stinky! Terrible cuddly little fuzz bombs. Make me miss my Fezzik and Martin. *sigh*


In the other news, I am training Bailey (Marie's 17 +hh Clyde Gelding)to ride. (Can't remember if I had mentioned that before.) I haven't climbed on yet but will the next time I go out. I was going to work on him on Friday, but as I mentioned earlier, it snowed. I will try to remember to get some videos and photos of him in action. Boy am I looking forward to riding him! He is going to be an amazing ride! HUGE mover and so pretty!


Lastly, a shout out to JoAnn. She called a week or two ago and I haven't had a chance to call her back. (Sorry Girlee!) Also to let WEB Ranch know that I am looking for bids to get little Toby out here. I will keep you all updated. I miss everyone and want you all to come join us out here in beautiful Colorado! Soon I will have pictures of the blooms. The Irises and other bulbs are already sending up their early shoots and Cody is sneezing up a storm. Soon it will be beautiful!