Our first living pet joined our household last month. This is huge, breaking news, as Meg and I very publicly loathe the idea of sheltering animals inside our living space (raising chickens in a coop outside? maybe some day). One perk of having kids who are mildly allergic to pet dander is that we have a legitimate excuse for rejecting the kids occasional plea for adopting a pet. Somehow this one slipped through the cracks. May I introduce Shelly, a 15-year old western box turtle. She lived with another family in Westmoreland who, ironically, became too busy with their young children to take care of her anymore. Meg found a listing for Shelly on craigslist while looking for someone who might have lost a cat, as one had recently showed up on our porch and refused to leave. I figured it was a stray, as it had no identification, but Meg insisted it belonged to someone. Meg doesn't like it when I tell this story, but just before bringing Shelly home, Edward picked up the mystery cat, disappeared, and returned maybe 15 minutes later. And that's the last we saw of that cat (that's how I wish the story ended, but it did come back a few weeks later, but our second shooing-away apparently worked)--it felt like a scene from a Haruki Murakami novel (where cats, especially disappearing ones, are frequently major plot elements).
Shelly seems to be pretty resilient to the kids' not-so-gentle and generally irresponsible habits and is still alive a month later. She lives in a large, plastic storage box in Aaron's room. The boys are supposed to take her outside every day, where she loves to crawl around and hide in the bushes throughout our garden. I haven't figured out what exactly she likes to eat, but I do know she loves earthworms and will eat sow bugs. Western box turtles can supposedly live about 50 years in captivity, so Shelly might out-stay even Edward (who has in the past claimed he's never moving out--he has lately softened this assessment though).
Aging is a gradual process, so why should I worry when the clock officially tacks on another number to my age? Perhaps I should have realized that, as my peers began turning 40, and I would post half-serious questions about their experience, that I had my own issues brewing steadily in the background. I don't think I've had a birthday party since I was six, but Meg insisted on having one for me--something about 40 being a milestone or something, despite my arguments that I had done nothing significant to warrant anything--I had simply aged another year. But I conceded the point. I offered up the idea of a roller skating party--which is probably what my last party was; see, I haven't changed a bit--but I think she laughed that one out of the rink pretty quickly. I get daily emails from Groupon and LivingSocial, and they had something for a karaoke box rental. My half-Japanese side recognized something that could be fun and probably aligned with my personality. I told Meg...
Ed eating #4 of 5 treats for the evening Last year I told the boys they could choose between camping out with their peers at the school or their peers from church, even though the two events were on separate weekends. They chose the way of the church . This year Meg suggested we attend the school campout and offered to pay our way, regardless of whether we wanted to go on the church campout or not. Of course she wasn't planning on camping with us, so she was just looking for an excuse to get us out of the house so she could spend a night out socializing with her girlfriends. Other than the potluck dinner, there weren't any activities organized, so the boys roamed the school grounds with their chums while I followed them around taking photographs. Lights out was at 10:00 p.m., except for the crowds of socializing adults just outside our tent talking the night away.
Aaron ran in the Awesome 3000 this morning. While the defending champion didn't repeat his stellar placing of last year , he had fun and ran hard through the finish line. Last year they had at least three different heats; this year they made everyone run in one huge heat, which caused a pile-up that never really dissipated . So the kids who were at the front of the line basically finished first. The race ended comically (at least for me), when Aaron plowed over a kid who was unwisely loitering right on top of the finish line. The best part was that Aaron didn't have an asthma attack like the last time he raced. Edward is gearing up for his debut next year. Last Wednesday night I needed to do some work in the clerk's office at church, so Edward I decided to go together (he woke up at about 6:00 p.m. from a nap, so he wasn't quite ready for bed). I had pulled out the jogger and was about to put him in it when he blasted out of the garage in direction of the chu...
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