House update:  The seller agreed to drop the price of the house a little bit (half of what we were over), which is amazing since it's a bank foreclosure and they usually don't make any concessions.  They are paying for closing costs, too.  (Sorta.)  The contract was redone to push out all the dates and now we have the whole month of March for our lender to work out the financing.  New closing date is mid-April.  Then a month of work on the house and we'd move in May.  The general contractor is ready to go, but we are having trouble getting the plumber and electrician moving on filling out their contracts.  (It's all needed for the financing since the mortgage will include a renovation loan.)

And that is that.

As I told my mom tonight, to me the most exciting part of the house is the fact that I can keep chickens above the garage and we will have enough room to get a guinea pig.  (Okay, I want 2.)

That's a little sad, isn't it?

In other news, we've had a bunch of fish move in, many die, and many go back to the store.  Mary bought a female betta as a companion for her other female betta.  That didn't go well, despite the fact that females usually get along just fine.  So she bought a new aquarium for the second fish.  She didn't like it and was certain the filter injured the fish.  So she took the fish back, inquired of the staff and bought 2 neon tetras.  Sadly, both were dead within 30 mins of entering the new tank.  (We had the water tested before putting them in.  It was fine.)  So she flushed the fish, cleaned up the aquarium, the castle, and the plants and returned the whole thing.  She says she feels better now, and should have been happy with just her original fish, Violet.

Lil'Nathan's story is more complex.  He had 3 guppies who were doing well in his 10 gal tank, until one met an untimely death in the gravel vacuum.  Since you must have at least 3 guppies or they go after each other, we bought 2 more guppies and 2 small catfish.  One guppy died 4 days later, and he then added a betta fish.  A week or so later he added one more guppy and 2 zebra fish.  The guppy died.  Then his previous replacement guppy died.  He bought 2 more guppies and another zebra fish, and one guppy died on the way home, so we returned to the store and he exchanged it for another.  The next morning one guppy was dead and many of the other fish had torn fins.  (Water is always testing fine between additions, by the way.  And the fish were purchased at three different stores.)  Fed up with the bully in his tank (someone was tearing the fins, he suspected one of the zebras) and his wave of dead fish, he packed up all three zebra fish and the two remaining guppies and returned them all.  He bought a new bottle of water conditioner and a thermometer (b/c he must buy something if he has cash in hand).  Now he has two catfish and a betta.  And he's finally happy with his tank... though he wants a new, better bubbler.

Between Lil'Nathan's fish adventures and Mary's fish adventures, we made 8 trips to PetSmart in the past month, 4 in the past week!  I'm a little sick of PetSmart.

In other news....

Joseph is 5 now and therefore wants to do "real school."  So, everyday he does math problems, or we read from Life of Fred: Apples.  He loves that.  He also likes to do geography, handwriting, and history worksheets.  All on his own initiative.

Charlie will be 2 at the end of the month and seems to be getting a bit of a jump-start on those dreaded "terrible two's."  He must do everything himself, or he dictates who is to help him.  I made the mistake of trying to help him with his socks on Fri... he wanted Lil'Nathan.  Yikes!  And his appetite has been cut in half.  He spends most of the dinner meal moving his plate and cup around the table between Mommy and Daddy--whomever he is next to, he wants the other, and then he visits Lil'Nathan.  Joseph is his morning buddy, they come down to the kitchen and eat cheese sticks.  :)