The finished tank

Here is the tank completed and filled with water to the top like it should be. Yes, Peter has moved since the last picture but he seems to like this spot so we see him here a lot. If you look above him and to the left a little you will see 'Sharkbait" the other fish she has.

Bill make the top this weekend to replace the lovely screen we had over it before. We still need to get a knob for the lift up door (right now it has a little peice of wire) but that won't change it much. It is also much quieter now that the water isn't falling 3 inches from the filter to the top of the tank. We had about an inch of evaporation this week while we waited for Bill to come up this weekend and build the new top.

So, her little friends are happy and seemingly healthy. :)

Fish continued....

Here are the pics of Aubri's new aquarium:



The back of the tank is mirrored and if you look closely you can see that everything seems to be doubled. That big black blob in the center is Peter the catfish.



This is Peter her giant catfish! His reflection in the back of the tank is even big!



Her white bookshelves now.

And then there were fish…

Austen used to be my animal person.  And he still is to a degree – he loves small cuddly furry creatures and has adopted every stray cat that has come into the house (that would be my mom’s cat and Tom’s cat).  But now he has competition for the animal person in our house.  Aubri has also adopted my mom’s cat Sneaker and has promptly renamed him Boo or BooBoo when she fancies it.  Anyway, she also has a put bunny – Oreo or BunBun as the rest of us call him.  Now she has acquired fish.

She has been after me to get her a small fish tank for quite some time.  My thoughts were that fish don’t really take that much time and you can pretty much leave them to their own devices as long as you feed them and have algae eating fish to tend to the tank.  They offer wonderful meditative properties (I have been known to sit and stare at a fish tank for hours) and the constant dripping of the filter is very soothing – like a fountain.  So while I was not apposed to her getting fish, she needed to clean a place in her room (well, the entire room for that matter) to put them.

So, boxes were procured and plans were made to move her current shelves from her room into the computer room right outside her door.  Of course the required ME to do some work!  As fate would have it, a friend of ours moved to a new house and while we were helping her with the move mentioned that I had this big desk that I wanted to get rid of.  Yep, Bill and I moved it to her place that weekend!  So now I had no excuse but to start packing up the stuff that had been in the desk and make room for Aubri’s shelves. 

A few weeks ago, I managed to get a space cleared out in the computer room (which is now called the library) to move Aubri’s shelves into.  After they were moved, I had to bring all my books from the basement shelves up to the new library….oomph!  I had three book shelves full to overflowing down in the basement that all my books were on and I carried every last one of them upstairs by myself!  I wonder how many activity points that was?

After getting all my books upstairs and organized, I left it to Aubri to pack her stuff that she had just dumped on the floor from her shelves into boxes so that we could move the three bookshelves from downstairs up to her room.  (You see, the ones in the basement were white and her bedroom furniture is all white except for the old shelves she had in there which were wood toned.  And the white shelves take up less space than her four old shelves did – that’s why we moved things around.)

I had to procure more boxes which stood outside her room for several days before she finally got around to using them this past weekend.  I came home on Sunday and she was all excited!  Her brother had helped her move her room around and carry the shelves upstairs to her room.  She was now all organized and ready for fish.

As fate would have it again, she has a friend at school who wanted to get rid of a fish tank and fish… free tank, free fish – sounds good to me!  So we head over there Monday evening after dinner to pick up her tank and fish.  Now I’m expecting a small tank – something that will fit on top of her dresser.  Imagine my surprise first when they bring down and a zip loc bag with a plecostomus catfish that was (I kid you not) 6 or 7 inches long!  He barely fit across the bottom of the gallon zip loc that they put him in!  OMG, if the catfish is that big – how big is the tank?

Turns out the tank is somewhere between 25 and 35 gallons we think.  It’s 36 inches across and 13 inches deep and 24 inches tall – it came with a stand!  Wow!  Good thing she cleaned her room or she would never have had a place to put it.  We need to replace the top or have Bill build us a new one as this is a flat back hex tank and we can’t find anyone anywhere that carries that kind any longer so we can’t find a hood.  I searched online and found what I think will work but I can’t get anyone to measure the darn thing to see if the dimensions are correct – plus it’s $41.99 plus shipping – I think Bill can build something less expensive!

A hood is very important because not only does it keep the water from evaporating as quickly, it keeps the fish in the tank and not jumping out and it keeps the cats out of the tank and not jumping in! 

I wish I had thought to take a picture of the tank now that it is set up and the fish are acclimating to it just fine.  Once we get a lid and not the screen that I found to put over it temporarily I will be taking a picture.

So, I walked into her bedroom last night and there she sat on her bed with her cat, her bunny and the fish tank bubbling in the corner…. I wonder how you wrap a fish for Christmas?

I have such cool kids!

Aubri has a coffee date this afternoon at Star Bucks with a junior (17 year old that drives - *sigh*) so he just came by to pick her up and I had told Austen that he should take off his shirt and go out to meet the guy when he arrived. So when the date got here, Austen stripped off his shirt (he has several tattoos and piercings and that flaming red hair!)



and he followed her to the door. He was acting quite crazy doing his best ‘Sand People’ imitation. The guy saw him and started doing it back! LOL Poor Aubri is so embarrassed.

Breakfast of Champions!

I just received a text from my daughter with this picture:




This is Fall Break at school so she is home all week and sleeping in (noon – yeah, that’s definitely sleeping in!) This is a picture of her ‘Breakfast of Champions’ bagels with Cream Cheese, Apple Butter, Peanut Butter and Nutella – yummy!

I think I agree with her – it does look like a pretty good breakfast.

Homecoming Weekend

This past weekend was Homecoming at Francis Howell Central High School. Aubri went with her friends since she and her boyfriend ‘broke up’ a few weeks ago. Erik came home from college to take his girlfriend, who is a senior, to Homecoming. Here are some pics:



That's Aubri on the left.


All the girls that went together to Homecoming.


At the dance - she's on the right.


Erik and Meghan


Corsage time

They all looked so nice.

And here are some pictures of Erik and Meghan from a couple of weeks ago at a Cardinal game:



Go Cards!

Erik has Edmonds on the back of his shirt and Meghan has Molina on the back of hers – now I see why he likes her. ;)

In other news, my brakes went out over the weekend. Bill came up and checked them out.

The bad news – it’s the ABS sensor on the axle and you can’t replace just the sensor it is part of the entire axle assembly.

The good news, he used some JB weld and so far, so good, it’s holding. I’m hoping it can hold out at least till the end of the month when he would have time to replace it if it goes out again.

Upcoming weekend news: Bill’s family reunion is this weekend in Arkansas. I look forward to this every year so I’m excited that it’s this weekend. We will be leaving on Friday and back on Sunday then next weekend is Samhain at Brittony Woods! October is going by so fast!

What’s happening?

It’s been a lovely long Labor Day weekend and so much went on and so much is yet to come this week that I decided I would bunch it all into one post.  So, here goes:

I worked from home on Friday so I was there when Erik got home from College for the weekend.  I had made one of his favorite meals – Beef stroganoff.  He ate and we caught up on all that was going on at school and here at home then his girlfriend got off work and came over.  We sat and talked and pulled out old photo albums since she wanted to see him with blond hair (yes, he was almost completely white headed when we lived in Arizona!)

I got up the next morning and headed down to the property.  Bill had been busy putting the rest of the floor down in the shop and I wanted to see it. 

He worked on putting in more electrical wiring and putting up walls most of the rest of the weekend.

We had folks renting out the campground this weekend so we spend evenings down there with them around the camp fire.  I just love hanging out in the woods!  We put an air mattress up in the shop on Sunday night and slept there – our first night in the new place!  J  Bill also had dug the water line from the well.  We just need to get the well checked and run the pipe from it to the house.

As you can see in the picture – my car is fixed.  Bill’s neighbor John did the work.  He is very good – you can’t tell it was ever wrecked!

Saturday afternoon I was sitting in the window of the shop while Bill was working and I looked out and saw a bobcat loping through the front yard!  I didn’t want to spook it so I was trying to get Bill’s attention.  He looked out the window closest to him and could see it as well.  Unfortunately, it moved on before I could get a picture.  It’s pretty cool to think we have such a beautiful creature living on our land.  J

I came home yesterday afternoon to spend some time with Erik before he went back to school.  We went to get pizza at the place where all the kids work.  Then he had to pack and leave when we got home.  *Sigh* I do miss him.

Tom called that evening.  He was telling me all about what he is learning at AIT (well, not everything but the general coolness of it according to him.)  He really likes this and can’t wait to get to Eglin AFB to start the second part of his training.  He will have a lot more freedom on base there and will probably be taking his car and motorcycle with him to Florida. 

Aubri came in to my room last night to have me rub her back.  She has had a back ache for a few days now.  We had thought maybe she had just slept wrong but it’s getting worse and when I was rubbing her back she has a really tender spot.  We have a doctor’s appt this afternoon to find out what is going on with that.

JAVA class is kicking my butt!  I used to be really good at math but that was 30 years ago!  I did all my homework then checked my answers with the back of the book – I don’t get the same things.  I rechecked my math and I just don’t get it.  This may be a really long semester!

This Thursday is Aubri’s 16^th birthday but since I have class we will be taking her and her friends to Sky Zone on Friday for her party.  Erik is coming home for the weekend and will be going too.  I’m hoping that Bill will be able to come up for the weekend and maybe we can go up to my mom’s house and finish getting my sister’s stuff moved out so we can sell it.  We really need the money and we really need to get rid of the house.

I’m taking another week off from cooking.  I have so many leftovers I need to eat up.  Aubri bought some things to put in the freezer last week and we have to move some to the outside freezer as I had so many leftovers in the way.  J

Ok, enough rambles – on with the week.

Drama

A couple of nights ago Aubri wanted to go to the mall to get yoga pants.  I had just gotten home from the weekend and all I wanted to do was shower and relax so I told her later in the week.  Last night I asked her if there was somewhere she wanted to go and she said ‘yes, the mall to get yoga pants.’  So off to the mall we went.

I was under the impression that these pants were $20 - $25 and when we got there I found a sign that said 2 for $26 – great!  I pointed it out to her and she started looking for pants.  I was on the phone at the time so maybe I was distracted but when we got to the checkout line the pants rung up $38 apiece!  Yowza – I asked about the sign and was told that those were specific pants.  I looked at Aubri and told her I was not paying this much for yoga pants. 

She, of course, got mad and told me that I went back on my word… what?  I told her she could buy them with her own money but apparently she didn’t want to spend her own money on them and we left. 

The way I look at it – if she wasn’t willing to spend her own money on them then they weren’t worth it but she's still mad anyway. 

I’m waiting for her to turn 30 so that I get smarter and wiser in these things.  ;)

*SIGH*

Why is it that 15/16 year old girls can’t make up their mind about anything?  Last week Aubri was playing softball for the high school, this week she’s not.  Of course this week is when practice started.  I am jumping to a conclusion when I say that this turn of events started after her ‘boyfriend’ came over on Saturday.  If he told her not to play I will tell him to take a long walk off a short pier!  NO BOY TELLS MY DAUGHTER WHAT TO DO!!!

Now, I may be all wet but still – she is wasting a lot of talent.  Last year she was the only freshman on the Varsity team at school.  There weren’t even any sophomores!  You have to be good to get that kind of attention.  I was hoping for scholarships.  Her brothers are upset with her for quitting too.  They all wanted to play varsity in high school and they were cut.  She’s just throwing it away!

*Sigh*

Text Conversation with my daughter

Aubri:  “I started making that fondue stuff & it made the whole house smell like feet, just an fyi”

Me:  LOL!

Aubri: “You laugh now, just wait til you smell it!”

She's always posting funny things I say on Facebook - so guess where this one went!  ;)