Don't Buy Stuff you Can't Afford!

I just found this link on a friend's blog and it made me laugh - while making a great point that seems to have been missed by way too many people in this country!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff

How did so many people somehow miss the boat on the basic concept that you should earn the money FIRST and THEN buy the stuff. How can the attitudes towards earning, spending and saving be adjusted in this country?

I guess when our government is spending money it doesn't have to do things that may not be very necessary or effective (the Iraq war, many overblown and undereffective government agencies), the practice gets copied. And after the tragedy of 9/11 when the message went out that we could show we "believed in America" by shopping up a storm and flaunting the materialistic qualities that our enemies accused us of, that was a shot in the foot in many ways.

I'd love to see a government that could tighten up every aspect of its operation and set an example of careful and efficient spending. While I think it would be ideal for people to just decide to embrace conservativism with their personal finances, it might take government help to get people going down this road. I'd love to see a government that offered greater perks for saving and greater penalties for spending on "luxury" items so that people would have greater incentive to save and become more self-reliant. I'd love to see more education in schools about saving and spending. I'd love to see more warnings and information on debt - just like cigarette packages have a warning from the surgeon general, credit card applications should offer a warning about escalating interest rates and reminds people to spend only the money they have.

Go Obama!

Does the title of this post shock anyone? After researching both candidates and especially looking into the scary negative stuff about Obama that seemed to be passed around quite a bit in Mormon communities (and finding out that most of it was trumped up or untrue), I had to vote for Obama. And come on, when you heard his speech and saw him up there with his family, you had to feel some excitement. Change has definitely come. We'll have an African American man in the highest office in this country. We'll have someone younger and more visionary than we've had in a long long time. We really needed some clear and obvious change.

This election presented me with a very interesting choice. Should I vote for a career politician without great popularity as a senator, questionable family values, nothing stellar on his resume, a face that would present the world with the idea that America is stagnated and seeped in the same old stuff, some political views I agree with and some I don't? Or should I vote for a very bright man with great energy and vision, strong personal morals, a relatively short political career so far, a seeming ability to bring people together for new solutions, a face that would offer international acceptance and excitement, and some political views I agree with and some I don't? I chose the later.

I'd rather see someone with strong personal morals and vision and some lack of experience in the White House than a guy who didn't offer enough positives to outweigh his negatives. The excitement Obama brings is so important to our country right now. I believe that that excitement will do a lot for our economy and for our important international relationships. And with the checks and balances built into our government and good people in many offices on the Hill, I don't see an Obama presidency leading us into socialism or heralding a solid advance for gay marriage or abortion rights. The president's personal political beliefs don't directly correlate to what policy gets written into law. But the president's personal values and persona has a huge impact on our nation and the world as a whole. And Obama beats McCain hands down in this regard.

So go Obama! May the prayers and hopes of people in both parties help you make good decisions as you surround yourself with smart, experienced people who can offer good ideas and advice. May you inspire us all to be better and do more and be generous and reach out to others rather than pumping up programs that offer hand-outs rather than hand-ups. May you help Americans embrace both charity and self-reliance. May you encourage tolerance and appreciation of differences without allowing the courts to overturn the will of the people (as in Prop 8). May the vision and excitement you bring be something that is lasting and that will lead to real change.

And may we all do what we can do to make our own communities and homes a better place because as Barbara Bush once said - "What really matters is not what happens in the White House but what happens in YOUR house (or community)."

Recent Kid Details

On Halloween, as we rushed around to get out the door to trick-or-treat, I came back into the house to grab something and Ollie was right behind the door and I whacked the door handle right into him. I said "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry - are you OK?" Ollie was silent a second and then stoically said, "I'm OK. Spidermans don't get hurt!" Then later when we were running from house to house, Silas tripped and spilled his pumpkin bucket of candy all over the place. Oliver ran up to him and said, "Oh, Silas, this is terrible!" and helped him pick it all up.

After months of worrying endlessly about whether or not she wanted to have her training wheels taken off her bike, Eliza announced on Saturday that it was time. She's had them off before and learned to ride, but then fell and freaked out about it so she has really worried about trying again and we just let it lie for a long time. On Saturday, as soon as Jared helped her get going one time, she had it and was so delighted to ride all over the place with her little friend Olivia (who's been doing the two-wheeler thing for months). She still looks a bit wobbly - but she's really excited about it and pretty darn good at it. She rushed right in after school today and asked to go out and practice some more on her bike. As she headed out the door, she stopped to explain "Now that I can ride my bike like a big kid there's just two more things I need to do so I can totally be a big kid - read really good and stop being shy." Oh, I love this little girl of mine!

On the way to school a while back, I was telling Ashton he'd need to ask Daddy about something technical that he'd just asked me since I didn't know the answer. Isaac pipes up from the back of the van with "Mommy, you know, you're like the medium sharpest knife in the drawer in our family, huh? Daddy's like the sharpest knife and you'd be the medium one - like that kind you use you spread the butter." What in the heck! A butter knife! I've got to hand it to Isaac for noticing how very smart his daddy is - and remembering a phrase we learned when we read "The Tale of Despereaux" quite a while ago. But I had to point out that there might be a few areas where I could be the sharpest knife in the drawer - and the kids were kind enough to throw out a few things - "you're the best at making dinner" "you're the sharpest at reading us stories"...OK, I guess I've got some smartness in their eyes!

Ashton has a girlfriend. Her name is Keisha and she emails him about 10 times a day and calls him pretty often. I heard from Katie (who drives the carpool home) that Ashton's always off talking to some girl when she does the pick up and asked Ashton about it. He tried to act all nonchalant about it, but couldn't help smiling when I asked if he was hanging out quite a bit with a certain girl. He said he just likes talking to Keisha and that she's really nice to him but that you can't really have a girlfriend when you're eight - "like what would you do? It's not like you can drive anywhere together or anything?" But they do eat lunch together daily and Keisha asked him to try to wear something that would coordinate with the dress she was planning to wear to the symphony field trip last Thursday since she'd signed them up to be "bus buddies" (he didn't think this was such a cool idea so he ignored it). I went along on the field trip to help the teacher and it was pretty interesting to see Ashton and Keisha interacting. Glimpse into the future?

As I was getting ready for the ward Halloween party, wearing all black so I could be a witch along with all the Mia Maids (we were in charge of a booth for all the kids), Silas walked into the bathroom, looked up at me and said, "Wow, Mommy, you look budiful!" Maybe I should dress as a witch more often! Then yesterday, Si came up to me and said "Mommy, I weawy wike your ball hair" (I had my hair in a bun - like almost every day - but I guess it somehow looked extra good or interesting to him at the time). I like this trend of compliments from my little Si!

Oh, I love these kids of mine! They say and do so many interesting and cute (and challenging) things every day. I wish I could capture it all. I know the day will come when this will all feel like a dream.

Halloween!

What a Halloween. The kids are all old enough this year to be really excited and we had a party or two for some member of our family every day for over a week! It seems like every year, Halloween becomes a bigger deal with the kids growing up and with Halloween becoming a bigger and bigger deal in general. I mean, they put the Halloween decorations and candy out in stores right alongside the back-to-school supplies these days!

We started our celebrations by hosting a really fun adults-only Halloween party last Friday night - I haven't laughed so hard in a long, long time. Then Jared's parents were here for a few days and they spoiled the kids with all sorts of fun treats and lots of great reading time. The twins like nothing better than sitting by their Grandma and having her read them book after book. Silas was particularly heartbroken when Grandma and Grandpa left. While they were here, we enjoyed the beauty of Snow Canyon Park, went to a concert celebrating the history of this area and had a great time carving pumpkins together.

The kids made it pretty easy with costumes this year - Ashton and Isaac wanted to be a ninja and a pirate again (Isaac upgrading from a basic pirate to a pirate captain this year) and Liza, surprise, surprise, wanted to be a princess and was thrilled to wear the Cinderella dress she got last year for her birthday. The twins were totally set on being Spiderman and Superman and were so cute about it! So despite my problem with finding a decent Spiderman costume (see last post), costumes easier than ever this year.

We had so much fun trick-or-treating as a family. We did 3 different neighborhoods where ward members live and got some pretty darn good loot while having an excellent time running from house to house in gorgeous warm weather. Can't beat St George on Halloween! As soon as we got home, the doorbell rang and we had our first (and only) trick-or-treaters who turned out to be Eli and Julie! The kids were so excited to show off their costumes and their candy and to hang out with two of their very favorite people. After finally tucking some very tired kids in bed, we finished off Halloween night with a nice time down at the pool and hot tub, soaking in the great weather and catching up with Eli, Julie, Jonah and Aja.

School Halloween Parade

Spiderman Spiritual Experience

So Oliver and Silas have had their little hearts set on being Spiderman and Superman for Halloween. I found costumes for them and they were SO excited. But then the first time Oliver put on his Spiderman costume, we found a couple holes in it plus it was a little too small so I took it back. Then, at this late date, surprise, surprise, I couldn't find another Spiderman costume and Oliver was pretty stressed out about it - in his persistent but very sweet way, he kept asking when we were going to find "my Spiderman." I knew I needed a costume by Thursday for the preschool Halloween party so I had a couple days. But when I woke up yesterday, I remembered about the Joy School Halloween party that day and felt pretty bad that I didn't have a costume for him yet. We said our morning prayers and asked Heavenly Father to help us find Oliver a Spiderman costume.

I dropped the carpool off at school and took the twins to a couple stores nearby in hopes that somehow I'd find a costume that Oliver would feel OK about in the 1/2 hour we had before Joy School started. As soon as I got inside the door of the first store, I ran into my friend Michelle and shared my plight with her when she asked what I was up to. She said she had a Spiderman costume that would probably fit Oliver and we headed over to her house to pick it up - easy as pie. Oliver was SO excited about it! When I got in the car with the costume, I said, "Oliver, remember when you were so worried about finding a costume and we said that prayer this morning to get some help finding it? Well, I think our prayer worked!" In his earnest little way, Oliver immediately said, "We better tell Heavenly Father thank you!" And we did.

What a great little testimony builder for my little three-year-olds - and for me! God is in the details. He cares about everything - even about a little boy who desperately wants to be Spiderman for Halloween!

Camping for UEA Weekend

We haven't camped in ages and the kids have been begging to go for quite some time. The twins are finally old enough to make the idea of camping with them fairly pleasant. So it was time.

We had a couple days off school for UEA last week and teamed up with another family for a fun little campout. We found this great little campground nearby - and despite the rather cold and somewhat sleepless night you pretty much need to count on with camping, we really had fun. All the kids are old enough to wander and explore a bit on their own and they LOVED climbing all over the sandstone rocks and hills right by our campsite. We hiked the gorgeous slot canyon there (it's the "dragon hike" we've been on before), hiked up to some Anasazi ruins, enjoyed a hot dog and marshmallow roast and a delicious breakfast and courtesy of our friends - and everyone got thoroughly dirty while having a wonderful time.

The boys in the light of the campfire -

our camp was right at the base of these great climbing rocks.

All the kids on the "dragon" -

weird and wonderful gnarled tree at the entrance to a gorgeous slot canyon

Here are a few of my highlights:

• seeing the kids totally entertained with nothing but rocks and sticks - watching them come up with all sorts of imaginative ideas as they explored the many little caves honeycombing the sandstone, checked out the Anasazi ruins, played in the trees and climbed up on top of a mountain of huge sandstone rocks
  
• everyone's faces in the soft light of the campfire light
• crisp cold morning air
• the looks of delight on the twins' faces as they got into the tent for the first time
• watching the kids have so much fun with their friends and while Jared and I enjoyed time with their parents
• seeing the huge yellowy moon come up over the mountain
• enjoying the vast blue sky against some spectacular red-rock scenery

Discussing strategy as they pretended to be Anasazi Indians -

this is an Anasazi grain silo built in around 600 AD.

OK, how beautiful is this place? I love that I live in the midst of this.

The gorgeous slot canyon where we went for a hike

We've got all our camping stuff organized now - so we'll have to go again soon. It's a lot of work to put things together and deal with all the dirt and discomfort involved, but I have to say the priceless memories are sure worth it!

Second Honeymoon in Playa del Carmen

What a trip we had! I spent way too much time researching and planning (Jared was in charge of the anniversary itself and I was in charge of this trip - and after he did such a great job with our anniversary I really wanted to do my part to make this trip great! And with all the great information available on the internet, it's hard to know when to say when) but everything turned out really wonderfully - all my research and hopes led to experiences better than I even imagined and we had lots of great serendipity and bonus discoveries along the way. We enjoyed beautiful scenery, ate really amazing and authentic but way cheap food, explored exciting new places, and had some great adventures. I'll let pictures do most of the talking here, but some favorite parts were:

• BEING TOGETHER: enjoying just hanging out together and experiencing new things together with no worries about kids or work or schedules - it was just so fun to try so many new things and discover fun stuff together and just relax with each other. Jared is one fabulous traveling companion - always up for everything, always excited about everything, always interested and observant, always helpful and accommodating. Wow, I married me a great guy!
• FOOD: ordering random stuff off menus we totally didn't understand in places stuffed with Mexicans and just us two "gringos" - turned out to be some of the best food ever - amazing tacos, perfectly spiced beef, wonderful salsas, amazing fresh fish prepared perfectly...mmmm...my mouth's watering remembering it all.
• MUSIC: hearing music everywhere we went - great live music on the streets, mariachi bands playing in every restaurant we passed, fun, upbeat, happy music pouring out of every home and shop and car.
• GOING CHEAP AND NATIVE: riding on a "collectivo" van out of Playa and heading for what we hoped was Akumel Bay where we'd heard there's great snorkeling (hard to tell if the driver really understood us at all...) - so fun to bump along the road in this van with a bunch of Mexicans headed to the different little towns on the highway, mariachi music blaring, wondering where we might actually end up. We did end up exactly where we wanted to be and it worked out perfectly.
• SNORKELING: spending a whole afternoon snorkeling in Akumel where we found gorgeous reef fish, so many beautiful sea turtles and a sting ray. Wow - God must have had fun creating so many wild and wonderful sea creatures and sea plants! We chased down a few turtles and Jared tried grabbing onto one for a ride but that turtle gave Jared a backwards glance that told him on no uncertain terms to back off. It was seriously like swimming in an aquarium full of tropical fish - we were right in there with them, watching them dart around in and out of the coral, floating over the reefs and getting that "Superman" feeling of soaring above it all. We really had a remarkable afternoon and were out there snorkeling for 3 hours. It poured with rain for a little while and that seemed to make all the fish congregate in the hollows of the reefs and we could see them all the better. It was so beautiful and interesting and just plain fun!

• OCEAN: Hearing the ocean, seeing the ocean, walking in that perfect white talcum powder sand, swimming in the ocean and feeling that rocking of the waves, seeing the many colors of the beautiful Caribbean.

Look at that white super-soft talcum-powder sand and beautiful water!

• JUNGLE AND RUINS: spending a day exploring the ancient jungle of the Mayans - visiting a Mayan home complete with monkeys and pigs all about, seeing crocodiles, walking through a monkey reserve and seeing amazing butterflys and monkeys and beautiful lush moss and ferns and plants and feeling the coolness in the dark of the jungle floor on a hot hot day, taking a fun zip line ride through the jungle and over a lake, rappeling down into a mysterious and beauifully cool and clear underground pond (a cenote) after exeperiencing a Mayan cenote ceremony, exploring the still-jungle-covered ruins of Coba and climbing to the top of one of the tallest Mayan pyramids in the world.

Here we are getting ready to do a zip line through the jungle and over a lagoon -
those sticks in our hands were the "brakes" they gave us -
you hold the stick against the cable and it slows you right down.

We got to rappel down into a cenote
(beautiful, mysterious, crystal clear underground lake) - what a fun adventure!

This is the tallest pyramid at Coba (and one of the tallest in the world) and
we got to climb to the top. Coba's so beautiful and really sparks the imagination
with so many ruins still partially covered with jungle -
makes you feel like you're in an Indiana Jones movie or something like that.

View over the jungle from the top of the Coba pyramid -
mounds of covered ruins all around and a few other pyramid tops sticking up.
Coba was the government center for the Mayans and it covers about 35 square miles.

We visited a Mayan home and met a cute family and their pet monkey -
so interesting to see people living in much the same way as they did 1000 years ago.
Inside a Mayan home with our new monkey friend in the rafters - see the blackened ceiling? They were cooking tortillas over an open fire in this little one-roomed house.

• GREAT HOTELS: We stayed at a great, cheap little place smack dab in the center of Playa del Carmen for the first three nights - Hotel Cielo. The guys who run it gave us wonderful recommendations of excellent and cheap places to eat and things to do. The bed wasn't exactly comfortable and the air conditioner was pretty darn loud - but the great people and location and ambiance made it totally worthwhile.

In our room at Hotel Cielo - loved the terra cotta tiles, beautiful wood work,

nice veranda, lovely handcarved one-of-a-kind furnishings.

View from the veranda at Hotel Cielo - fun to see all the vendors set up and tear down each day, great to hear the mariachi bands, fun to be right in the heart of it all.

View from the beautiful roof terrace of Hotel Cielo.
Sat up there on Sunday evening and listened to converence - such a perfect evening.

We stayed at the Magic Blue Hotel for our last night - decided to upgrade a bit for our last night and enjoyed a beautiful room with canopy bed and cool combination of thatched roof and very modern furnishings. The management sent up free tropical drinks and chocolate covered strawberries when they heard we were celebrating our anniversary - very nice!

Outside our room at the Magic Blue - beautiful pool, great balconies for every room -
and wow, just look at that handsome guy!

All in all, it was a wonderful wonderful trip. We had our overly hot and sweaty times, a little more rain than we'd hoped for, some sleep-deprivation, our share of confusion over directions and communication in Spanish - but everything worked out remarkably well and what great adventures we had! I'm more in love with my husband than ever and so grateful for this amazingly diverse and beautiful world we live in.

The Good Stuff

I find that my typical day as a mother is chock full of stuff that's just not that fun - cleaning up the same mess yet again or hearing the twins fighting in the next room yet again or getting the big kids to do their homework in the midst of whining and complaining or trying to figure out what in the world to make for dinner with the 10 minutes I have left before we have to run off to the next thing. But when I look for them, I find that my life is also chock full of really beautiful little moments. Sometimes I really have to search out the good stuff and find in wedged in somewhat precariously between a lot of stuff that's not so good - the sweet hug from Isaac while I'm frantically trying to get everyone in the car, the funny comment from one of the twins in the midst of a wild family dinner, the cute drawing from Eliza on my pillow as I head to bed after a long day. Sometimes the good stuff doesn't get fully appreciated or noticed in the midst of the hard things that keep getting thrown my way. But other times, like this morning, the good stuff comes out in abundance with no bad stuff mixed in and it's like a big shot in the arm to see me through the hard stuff that's bound to show up before long.

This morning I woke up to the sound of some quiet chinking of dishes in the kitchen, wondered what that might be briefly, saw that the red hills were all lit up beautifully, smiled and fell back asleep, curled up next to my wonderful husband who for once hadn't gotten up before me. I do love waking up next to him when it works out! Then a bit later, just as we both started waking up and realized it was past time to get up, the door to our room was flung open and there were three beaming kids holding a tray full of food for us. They'd decided to make us breakfast in bed - just because they love us. What beautiful, thoughtful kids we've got! They proudly presented us with a tray with two bowls of oatmeal (somewhat plain, dry and cold, but full of love), two pieces of toast laid out nicely with two knives and a fancy little bowl of jam and some butter as well as two glasses of milk - they thought of everything! Jared and I sat back and enjoyed some breakfast together (something we never get to do - it's usually just us getting food down the kids and maybe grabbing something for ourselves as we head out the door) while the big kids fed the twins and got ready for school. We've arrived! This is the life!

And now I'm sitting here typing in total peace after vacuuming and cleaning up the breakfast mess in total peace. The twins are at preschool and the big kids are in school and I was supposed to go visiting teaching but that fell through and I find I have this "gift" of a couple hours to get things done and be on my own and I'm savoring it and feeling so blessed.

Later on today, when the craze of homework and dinner is upon me, I'm going to remember this morning and find this happy peaceful place inside me that I'm experiencing right now and it's going to be a good day and stay a good day. I'm going to find and cherish the good little moments in the midst of the hard stuff more often and carve out time to really enjoy them and celebrate them. And I'm not going to let the hard stuff get to me so much. The hard stuff is usually just a little minute and in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter much or stack up to being that important. But the good stuff - it may be short and sweet, it may be few and far between sometimes - but it matters. It matters big time.

Our Tenth Anniversary

10 years. Wow.

It was Jared's turn to plan our anniversary this year. Lucky him that he got the big one! I offered some none-too-suble hints that I'd sure love something really romantic and creative and sentimental (three things that are not his strong suits) if he could possibly manage it and wow, he sure delivered!

I really didn't know what to expect - Jared kept it all a surprise. We went up to SLC so my sweet parents could watch the kids and also because, as it turned out, SLC figured pretty heavily into Jared's plans.

The night before our actual anniversary (Sept 8th), I made Eliza's wish come true and put on my wedding dress for her and the rest of the kids. She has this bridesmaid's dress I found for her at at thrift shop and after seeing pictures of my wedding as we led up to the anniversary, she begged for us to both put on our "wedding dresses" together. So why not? It was so much fun to dress up with my little girl and she was so very excited about my big fancy dress. I couldn't exactly breathe in my dress - but thanks to the "corset" style top of the dress and Jared's help getting the laces done up the back, everything got squished in somehow and it actually sort of fit!
As Eliza and I came down the stairs in our dresses it was fun to have all the boys perk up and get into the whole thing as well. We decided to take some photos and Jared turned on some great old music like the kind we danced to at our reception so we could have a little family dance. It was so fun to share a little piece of our wedding with the kids in a more interactive way than just looking at pictures.

The next morning, our actual anniversary, we started off with a hike. Jared did a bunch of research (thanks to Google Earth) and found the exact spot where he proposed over 10 years ago. We were in such a quandry over where to go with our relationship and had just pulled off the road up Emigration Canyon near my parent's house and started hiking up a random trail. Then, after kneeling to get some help from the Lord, Jared looked up at me and shocked us both by saying, "I want to marry you!" - and quite suddenly, we were engaged! Neither of us could remember where we'd been since our minds really weren't on our location at the time. But Jared found the spot and it really is a beautiful spot and was so fun to be there again together. We knelt and offered up a prayer to thank the Lord for 10 great years and pray for guidance and support as we move forward. To top it all off, Jared somehow still had the t-shirt he was wearing the day we got engaged and he put that on for the hike. Talk about sentimental. Then we went to lunch up at the top of the Joseph Smith Building - where we had our wedding luncheon back on our wedding day. We wandered around the temple grounds and remembered all the spots where we'd taken pictures and how new and exciting everything was that day. Next, Jared helped me put on my wedding dress again for a horse-drawn carriage ride around SLC. It was so fun! Jared knew I always wished we'd left our reception in a carriage so he made it happen 10 years later! We had lots of people honking and waving and clapping and calling out "congratulations!" and I loved sitting there by my sweetheart, feeling like a bride all over again but loving the "groom" so much more deeply that I did 10 years ago.
We checked into the gorgeous Grand America Hotel and had a wonderful dinner together and Jared presented me with a really beautiful new setting for my diamond - he did such a great job picking out something I so thoroughly liked. Then we capped everything off the next morning by doing some sealings at the Salt Lake Temple and "renewing our vows" while helping those who've gone before become sealed to each other. That was one of my very favorite parts.
Here I am in our suite at Grand America. Hint: if you want a great free upgrade at a hotel, check in in your wedding dress!

What a wonderful anniversary! Jared outdid himself and I'm on cloud nine. Who would have guessed this guy could be such a romantic? I knew he had it in him - somewhere deep inside!

What a beautiful, challenging, exciting, stressful, wondeful, stretching, and enriching ten years we've shared. Wow, there have been hard times. And wow, there have been great times. And wow, there have been a lot of times where we just had to put our heads down and plow on through. Together we've made 5 children, 4 homes, several businesses, many friends and countless wonderful memories. I'm so grateful to be married to such a selfless, smart, kind, adventurous, supportive, worthy, patient, generous man. I'm so excited for all that we'll do together and become together in the years ahead!

New Pets!

OK, it's been a while and I'm anxious to do a post on the wonderful anniversary we had last week. But since the kids are dying to share information and photos of their beloved new pets, I thought I'd better start with this. A couple weeks ago now, Isaac spotted a large snake (turned out to be a gopher snake we think) in the street and Jared, Ashton and Isaac caught the thing (it wasn't easy - that snake wrapped itself around the trunk of a bush and held on really tight!). So now we've got a beautiful 4 ft long snake named Firehead who's become a beloved member of the family. He's (or she?) is very entertaining and calm and interesting and loves to ride around like a scarf on anyone who's willing to let him. So far Firehead has entertained us by shedding his skin and eating a live mouse. And last week he thoroughly delighted the kids in Ashton's class during show and tell (other than the one girl who had to go in the other room because she's mortified of snakes).
Then the next week, we went on a hike in Zion and found another new pet - a horny toad named Spike. Everyone's quite attached to him too and I have to say he's pretty cute in his funny-looking spikey way.
Reptiles are great. They are clean and almost never need their cage cleaned out. They only eat once a week or so. They make no noise. They're very interesting. They don't bite. They don't smell. If you feel you've had enough of them, you can set them free to "go back to their families who surely miss them." And so far they don't escape - keeping my fingers crossed on that one!