~Today I had to go to the doctor.
~I did not want GB to come with me.
~GB really didn’t want to come, either.
~Jabem was home from school, sick. So, I couldn’t rely on him to entertain GB.
~What to do?
I decided that I would go to the doc, leave Jabem in charge (just in case), and give GB a whole week’s worth of assignments in Math. I thought, “That’ll keep him busy for an hour and a half.”
HA!
He called me at the doc’s office, TWICE……….. But………….
He got EVERY assignment done. He took a quiz (got a B+). And when I came home he was as cheerful and proud as could be.
Maybe I should leave him to his assignments more often. 
Pyro seemed squished. So we dug the old aquarium out of the attic and cleaned it up (man, things get dirty when they are packed away for a while ~ like 14 years… LOL). Then we moved some of Pyro’s plants and his big rock into the new home. We went to the pet store for more crickets and got him a new swimming pool and some froggie mulch. We also got a nice wire lid so he and crickets cannot escape.
All in all, I think he was quite happy with the upgraded “pad”… LOL
“Le’me out! Le’me out!”… “Le’me in! Le’me in!”
GB and I had a great Valentine’s Day.
After we finished our History curriculum (We are learning about manufacturing companies), we went to the Hershey web site and did the virtual tour of their factory. MMMM! It was fascinating and inspirational… we had to raid the candy cabinet and eat a piece of chocolate in homage.
Then we spent time making some cards for Daddy and Jabem. We are still waiting to hear how Aquagirl liked her care package. We sent it Monday, it arrived on Tuesday morning, but Harrisonburg had a terrible ice storm, so I don’t think she made it down to her box yet. I’m on pins and needles because I painted her a picture of Venice and I’m dying for her reaction. I liked it better than the one I did of London. She bought a painting of Paris when we went to Virginia Beach last year, and it was all done in black and white paint. It was really a gorgeous painting. So, I tried to copy the technique with a London painting. It was pretty good, she liked it. But I think I did much better with the canals of Venice. I’ll have to wait for her verdict. Of course, since she has a major sweet tooth, we also included candy and some chocolate covered pretzels and some love lottery tickets (they were pretty cute ), oh yeah.. and some chocolate, cherry, almond cookies I had baked for her.
When my DH came home from work (with flowers ) we went out for a nice dinner, just the two of us. Jabem was nice enough to babysit GB ~ he hates babysitting, but it WAS Valentine’s Day. I think they were happy enough, they got pizza in the middle of the week… how great is that?
When we got home, we went our separate ways for a while. He, to one tv to watch the Boston Celtics FINALLY break their losing streak, and me, to another tv to watch American Idol. We got back together to watch LOST. I am really getting confused as to where this show is going. But it’s kind of like rubber-necking on a bad wreck, I feel compelled each week to tune in and get some answers, only to get MORE freakin’ questions. I love the show, though, don’t get me wrong…. really love it…. but man, the writers may be just a wee bit too creative…. Can’t wait for next week
This morning we did our bird count for the Great Backyard Bird Count being held all across the country from February 16 - 19.
When I woke up this morning I heard tons of birds in our backyard, and my first thought was that they had found all our feeders. We got our gear (binoculars, camera, pad of paper, pen, and bird field guide) together, bundled up, and went out to count… even before breakfast. We were that excited to start.
It was supposed to last only 15 minutes, but it was so relaxing and interesting, so we stayed out an hour, only coming in when our fingers felt half frozen.
While we were out there we saw: 6 Tufted Titmouse, 2 Bluejay, 3 House Sparrows, 9 Mourning Dove, 2 Cardinals, 7 American Crow, a Red-headed Woodpecker, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker. We saw lots of others but couldn’t definitively identify them. We, later in the afternoon, saw a HUGE hawk-like bird on the way to my sister’s house, but again, couldn’t identify it while it was in flight.
This is the Red-headed Woodpecker
It’s hard to see within all these branches, but this is one of the Cardinals.
I don’t know what this one was, but I liked the ominous look of the photo.
