We now share our home with someone from the animal kingdom

For those of you who know me you know we don't have pets and had not really planned on ever having pets. I know we are depriving our children of great childhood memories but neither Max nor I are "animal lovers" and frankly while there are some adorable puppies and kittens out there the practical side of me cannot imagine the work of cleaning, playing with, feeding, and in general taking care of a pet. My experience with pets has been that they often poop on, pee on, throw up on, or just plain ruin your stuff. Sounds kind of like a kid, huh?

Don't get me wrong we are not "animal haters". We just like other people's pets. The best part of other people's pets is that the other people have to take care of them. Actually when it was just me and B we did have a great cat named Oreo but he ran away. When we got Oreo it was because our neighbors had gotten evicted and left their cat, my son wanted him, and I felt bad for the poor cat. Now when my kids ask when they can have a cat, dog, etc. I tell them when they have a house of their own (I know I am such a nice mommy).

So today, mommy became a sucker! Isn't giving in one of the things mommies do best?

Don't get too excited we only got a goldfish, actually two.

B got to take home one from his science teacher since they couldn't stay at school over Christmas break. There were 5 fish to give away and they had to have a note from their parents. I gave in said yes, assuming B would not win. Lucky for me only 5 kids got permission so they all got fish, lucky day!

Of course B was convinced that his goldfish was lonely and had to have a friend so we promptly headed to my favorite store, WalMart, where we were greeted with excellent customer service. Who I am I kidding, I much prefer Target but they don't have goldfish and I remembered seeing a cheap tank there so we headed there instead of PetsMart or PetCo. We waited almost 20 minutes, I had to tromp around the store, asking two people for help unsuccesfully before I finally went to the front and got a manager. Fish #2, it sure was a lot of work to get you to come live with us. I was tempted to head home without a companion for fish #1, happy to have a home and some food for him, but B looked so sad and even brought his own money to buy everything. So super mommy persisted. B even said I sounded "frusturated" to the manager, which I was. At least he didn't say I sounded "bitchy" because sometimes that happens at WalMart too. Their high level of customer service never ceases to amaze me but if I was getting paid $8 per hour to scoop fish, maybe I would be a little less chipper.

So now I have this lovely aquarium with two even more lovely fish in it but if you can't tell my son is very, very happy.

He set up the tank, got the water ready, fed them, and even turned off their light so they could "sleep". He also told me when he wakes up if they are not moving it is ok because they are probably just sleeping. I hate to break it to you darling but if they are not moving they are dead. So far, so good, we have two live goldfish, and one really happy kid. I think I did OK today.

I am not sure if it was my husband or my son's brillant idea to set up the fish tank near the stove but I am happy to say it is now moved to the counter area with the barstools, away from where I prepare food, how nice.

That is our jump into sharing our home with someone from the animal kingdom. I will keep you posted on how fish #1 and fish #2 do. If my childhood is any indication, they won't make it long but we can only hope B has better luck.

P.S. If anyone knows why my camera is doing that line in the middle like in the last shot, please email me! I love my camera but it is almost 3 years old and I have taken thousands of photos on it so I hope it is not breaking. The line thing started a couple weeks ago and it does it about 50% of the time now.