Gecko Adventures

Last night a friend of mine, Donna, spent the night with me. Mark has been out of the country on a mission trip for about 7 days now and Donna had wanted to come spend some time with me and the girls since we were missing Mark and needed something to get our minds off of his absence.

After a fun afternoon of playing, we finally put the girls down for the night.  Then, Donna and I talked for a good bit and enjoyed catching up on each other’s lives.  We were both getting tired and decided to get ready for bed.  Donna was lying in the bed watching TV and I decided to check my emails and Facebook.  I went into the office and sat down in the office chair.  I turned on the computer and something caught my eye.  I happened to look up and to the right.  In the top corner of the wall I saw what looked to be a huge light-colored lizard.  I freaked out!  I ran out of the office screaming and told Donna to come look at the critter that was just starring down at me in the office.  She told me it looked like a gecko (the one pictured to the left is NOT the one we found in my house, but I wanted you to see a gecko of similiar size and color).  I had never seen such a creature inside a house in all my life!  I had goose bumps all over and was trying to figure out how in the world we were going to get that sucker out of the house so I could sleep in peace! 

My next-door neighbor, Bob, had just told me the day before if I needed anything at all to give them a call.  Bob and his wife knew Mark was out of the country and wanted me to feel free to call them, even if it was in the middle of the night.  Donna was trying to be brave and thought she would try to get the gecko herself.  I immediately told her, “No way!  I’m calling Bob!”  I had already gotten two brooms from the utility closet and was ready to fend for my life if that yucky thing came a’runnin for me!  I had steaked my place on top of the “fainting couch” (an antique) in our bedroom and  Donna was laughing at what a coward I was being!

I called  Bob and he was happy to come over and help.  Through the course of me screaming several times and  Bob having to chase the gecko around the office a little, he finally managed to capture the reptile.  He took him outside with him and I hope he released him FAR away from my house! 

What a terrifying experience!  That thing was so nasty!  There was no way I could sleep with that little dude being free to roam in my home!  I just kept having horrible thoughts about him crawling on my face or in the girl’s beds while we were all sleeping!  He just HAD TO GO and thankfully, Bob, came to our rescue!  I slept much better last night knowing that the house was free of our unwelcome guest!

August 13, 2009
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Bee My Guest

You are cordially invited to visit Bee My Guest at http://pairofbartletts.typepad.com/a-pair-of-bartletts/2009/08/bee-aware.html on THIS Tuesday!! I will be the guest writer on my friend’s (Jennifer Bartlett) blog and you don’t want to miss it! I will be sharing my experience of having a baby with Down syndrome and how this has changed my life in so many ways. Bring your tissues with you and let your heart be warmed by the powerful testimony that you will read and hear!

IMPORTANT: After you read my blog on Bee My Guest, leave a comment and you will be registered to win some wonderful prizes! How exciting! So, don’t forget to visit and read THIS Tuesday’s edition of Bee My Guest!

PS – For those of you wondering, Bait survived his terrible garbage disposal experience! I have been told I should change his name from Bait to Lazarus! I’m contemplating it!
August 9, 2009
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The Misfortune Of A Fish

Today was an unfortunate day for Elyssa’s birthday fish, Bait. He had a bit of an adventure that was my fault.

Bait’s bowl needed cleaning. The water had gotten quite cloudy and it was time to fix him all up with clean water and rocks. I had put it off because I really get disgusted at the smell of his nasty water when I’m cleaning it all up. Plus, I see little bits of stuff floating in his water that I can only assume are excrements and that totally grosses me out!

This was Elyssa’s birthday present from a good friend (I won’t name names!), but somehow I have inherited the job of feeding Bait and keeping the bowl clean. By the way, don’t you just love the fish’s name? Mark planted the suggestion of “Bait” and the girls picked it up. I would’ve rather the fish had a normal name like Norm or Roger, but I lost out to “Bait.” The poor fish already sounds like a goner with a name like that!

I was trying to take the easy way of cleaning Bait’s bowl this morning. Instead of taking him out of the bowl, I left him in and would put the bowl under the kitchen sink faucet allowing water to fill up the bowl. I’d pour some water out making sure that Bait didn’t fall out of the bowl. I continued doing this over and over and noticed that the water was getting cleaner. All was going well with this process until Bait got a little too close to the edge of the bowl. It was like it all happened in slow motion. Bait poured out of the bowl with the rest of the water and filth and landed directly in the garbage disposal! I screamed out loud! The girls watched the whole thing happen and they were in a panic, too. My next thoughts were, “What do I do now? How do I get Bait out of there? If I cannot get him out or if he dies am I supposed to just grind him up in the garbage disposal?? I couldn’t bare the thought of having to do that! So, with a quick reaction, I grabbed some tongs out of my utensil drawer and began to try to “fish” Bait out of the garbage disposal. The poor guy kept flopping around and it was difficult to grab hold of him. Finally, I was able to get him out and plopped him into a glass of water I had poured for him to rest in until his bowl was clean. I breathed a sigh of relief, but noticed that Bait didn’t seem quite the same. At this point, I’m not sure that anything happened to Bait. I didn’t see him bleeding (I don’t know what fish blood looks like!), but he seems traumatized for sure! I wonder why?? I’m not sure if he’ll make it or not, but at least he now has a nice clean bowl to either live or die in.

Hopefully, Bait will pull through this terrible experience! I know one thing … I’ll always take him out of his bowl FIRST when cleaning it in the future!!
August 7, 2009
  3 COMMENTS

The Love Of My Life

August 6, 2009
  0 COMMENTS

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