Cow Birth

I was driving by the cows at Cal Poly on Friday when I saw a baby that had just been born so I stopped to take a look.

Funny how things work out sometimes

It's funny how things work out sometimes.

I've been a little bit worried about money lately - we've got a baby on the way with expensive child care, I might teach next year which means a potentially huge pay cut, and our Florida house hasn't had tenants in months since the last people abandoned the property (a whole other story).

So Jake and I have started saving as much as we possibly can to get ready for a TIGHT year coming up. Of course, we can pay the bills, but I like to have a buffer when I know that money is going to be scarce.

Anyway, last Friday we got a call from our management company in Florida saying that someone wanted to move in on Tuesday, so we actually have tenants now (as of two days ago) on a one year contract. I really hope nothing goes wrong since it seems like the house is cursed.

Then another interesting thing happened. A couple of days ago we got our security deposit refund from our previous apartment complex. I looked at the check and realized they had paid us too much - $550 too much!

And then I'm ashamed to say that I started to rationalize why I should just keep the money. Here are some of the things I said to myself... 1) They made the mistake, 2) It's not like they're a person, it's just a company, 3) We didn't like it there, 4) They towed Jake's car which cost us $220. So what if it was parked illegally? 5) They charged us too much when we moved out. They took $381 out of our deposit for painting and cleaning.

Then I was mad at them for making me think about doing a dishonest thing. So today I called them and told them I thought our check was made out for too much, she checked on it and verified that the refund was for the wrong amount. And then she said something I was thrilled about - it's too much trouble to change now, and the books are balanced, so go ahead and keep it.

So to make a long story short, we get to keep $550 that really isn't ours and I can feel like a decent person because I did the right thing, even though I'm probably not because I thought about keeping the money dishonestly. Dang them for tempting me anyway!

Emilio's for Easter

Yesterday we spent Easter evening with Emilio's family. We had fabulous carne asada and then got to hide easter eggs for the kids. Alex took some pictures for me. :)

This is the bad dog (growls at me sometime).


This is the sweet one. :)


Emilio is the handsome one.

And Then There Were None...

Jake was coming out of the garage yesterday and scared the last hummingbird into flying away. She was thinking about it all day, standing up in her nest and I guess we gave her an extra little push. She wasn't that good at flying yet, so she couldn't leave right away. She buzzed around in the tree a little bit and finally settled on another branch to rest. We left at about 5pm and when we came home later that night she was gone.

I wonder if the mom is sad or happy to begin looking out for only herself again. :)

Cat Gate

Jake and I decided that we would let Seven into the kitchen area sometimes so I bought a baby gate from someone on Craigslist for $25. It even has the extensions so that it can stretch to fit the doorway. The only problem we ran into was that the length of the doorway was the exact wrong width to fit the door with or without the extension so Jake had to use the hacksaw to make it work. He's really handy. :)

Anyway, Seven seems to really enjoy being allowed in. Of course, if we see any evidence of fleas or destruction, she'll be banished to the outdoors again.

And then there was one.

On Friday morning there were two hummingbirds in our nest and they looked about as big as the mother was. On Friday evening there was only one left. Either the bigger one flew away or it was eaten by Seven. I'm thinking that he flew away - I didn't see any evidence of a bird slaughter. My babies are leaving me. :)

7 1/2 Months

Melissa was nice enough to take a picture of me so that I could post something. It's been too long...

I'm just about 7 1/2 months right now.


And this is me and Kiya. She was very good today, just a little bit hungry. :)

Dancing Walrus

The Dancing Walrus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDg7kWgs5e0

Seven and the hummingbirds

We were trying to figure out what to do about Seven at the new place. We want her to be able to go outside the back patio to the front, but she doesn't climb fences. We're keeping her bed and food inside the garage because we don't want her stuff to get rained on. So in order to make it possible for her to get to everything, Jake dug a hole under the fence so she can go back and forth. So far it's working really well, with one exception. She likes to use the restroom in the dirt right out side our kitchen door instead of going in the front yard. I have no idea why she does this, but it can get stinky sometimes. Jake gets very irritated when she does this.

Jake went to Petco and bought a $15 bottle of stuff that was supposed to cure her of the problem if you just spray where she wants to go. Jake used the stuff that night and she had used the restroom on that very spot by the next day. Jake tried again and practically emptied the bottle on the area. Within 15 minutes she'd used the restroom in the same spot. So much for that manufactures empty promises! If we'd had the receipt readily available we'd have probably brought it back to the store.

At this point, Jake started talking about closing the hole under the fence for a few days to force her to use the front yard area. I think he mentioned leaving the garage door open so she could still go in there, but I didn't really like that idea. Then I remembered someone saying that cats don't like foil, so I laid a few pieces down over the spot that she was using and voila, one day later she hadn't used that spot as her litter box. When Jake realized that this could work, he went a bit crazy foiling the patio. The pictures below show his handiwork. We'll probably keep it for about a week and then take off foil from a part of the patio to see if she's broken the habit. Anyway, I thought the pictures were kind of funny. Notice that he left the foil off where Seven goes under the fence.


I also got a couple of pictures of the hummingbirds. They are getting big!

Regina's Classroom Observation

Today I did a teacher observation in Regina's class. How cool is it that I know two people that are junior high school science teachers? Last month I was also able to do my two teacher interviews with Regina and Wendy. It's very nice actually knowing the teachers that I'm working with.

I had a good time today and definitely feel like I learned a lot. Regina's was so awesome to spend the time with me today answering questions on her prep and lunch periods. I'm very grateful!

Not sure, but something isn't quite right...

I've caught up a little bit on my class for school, have a moment to breathe a little bit, and am noticing something that sucks. I actually feel a little bit lonely. There's been so much excitement in my life with moving, studying for tests, taking classes, and getting ready for the baby that I think two things have happened. Number 1, I'm so used to being busy that when I'm not I don't know what to do with my time. I supposed I could start a book (it's been awhile since I read), but that seems like such a waste of time. I feel like I should do more with my spare time. Number 2, it seems like our friends are gone or not available. Jake and I really need to make more of an effort to see friends sometimes. I was so desperate to feel like I had a social life that last Friday night I found out that Emilio was going to a comedy show with his sister and I invited myself to go along. It was fun, but it still feels like something is missing in life. I'm not sure what it is, but I don't like this feeling. Maybe it's that there's so much expectation for the baby in a few months that I don't feel excited enough about the "now". I don't know. I suppose I'm not really sure what it is, but I don't feel completely satisfied. I'll have to think some more about this.

Lay Offs in Teaching?

I'm starting to feel a bit worried about becoming a teacher next year. There's been a lot of talk about layoffs to make up for the 10% budget cut that our governor has proposed. All this work and I might not even be able to get a job next year. I really hope that doesn't happen. :(

Settling In and the Hummingbird

This last week has been horribly busy. We're still getting a last few things settled into the new place, but everything is looking really good. The crib and glider arrived and have been put together thanks to Jake's handiwork. We also bought a dresser and a kitchen table from Ikea last weekend. The table is almost put together and the dresser is still in the box. We've been so busy that we haven't been able to get everything completed. Part of the problem is that Jake and I are both trying to get studying done along with getting the house set. I'm taking classes that are very time demanding and Jake is studying to take his Professional Engineering exam. So we worked on the house on Saturday and studied on Sunday, which worked out pretty well for us.

An update on the hummingbird... I was feeling very worried on Saturday because I didn't see the hummingbird sitting on her nest all of Friday evening or Saturday. Jake told me it was probably fine, but it was VERY weird for her not to be around. We had been out of the house for most of the day, but it was still strange not to ever see her on the nest. Finally, at dusk that evening Jake agreed that it seemed like something was wrong and we should probably look on the internet to see what to do with hummingbird eggs if they have been abandoned. As we were going into the house Jake gently pulled down the leaf the nest sits on to look at the eggs and we got a surprise. There were no eggs, only live babies. We actually didn't look long enough to see if there were one or two babies, but that did tell us why the mother hadn't been on her nest. We had seen her buzzing around a bit, but hadn't been sure it was her. I looked on the internet and they explained that the mom will now come give her baby regurgitated food that she gets by eating insects and stuffing it down the babies throats. We started to notice her around the nest more that evening and constantly while we were home on Sunday. Sure enough, it looked like she was stuffing food down their throats. We were quite relieved.