Swinging With Papa

Easter Sunday, swinging on the front porch with Papa.

 and a video, too!

Swinging with Papa from A Happy Song on Vimeo.

Joining in on Wordless Wednesday!

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Don't You Dare Put a Goldfish in a Goldfish Bowl!

I'll start with the conclusion to a very long story.  After an ordeal (story below), we are now the owners of a red, veil tailed Betta named Cole.  Buddy insisted on that name. I wanted to name him Bernie. He's a frisky little fellow and regularly engages in raucous games of "attack the reflection."  The kids are in love. I just hope we can keep him alive for a little while. I hadn't planned on getting a Betta, but that's what we ended up with.

I woke up one morning and decided that I wanted to buy the kids a goldfish.  You know, get them their first pet.  I have fond memories of a fish tank that I had as a child.  I also enjoyed caring for a couple of Zebra Danios (Charlie and Vinny) that I kept in a small glass bowl. The pair lived happily for three years. I didn't think it would be too big of a deal.  Buy a small goldfish, put it in a goldfish bowl and let the kids feed it fish flakes. Easy, right?

We arrived at the store all starry eyed and full of hope and happiness.  We looked at the small rodents, enjoyed the ferret, perused the reptiles and birds and then wandered over to the fish center.  I found a small goldfish bowl and a few other essentials and then we went over to get a fish.  I was met by a tall, doughy faced woman. I explained to her that I wanted to purchase a goldfish, indicating one of the hundreds of goldfish in the feeder fish tank.  She asked how big my tank was.  I held up the goldfish bowl. "Oh," she said, "you can't put a goldfish in that bowl."  "Are you sure?" I asked, "Then why is it called a goldfish bowl and why does it have a picture of this happy goldfish swimming in it on the label?" "That's just the 'style' of bowl." she replied. "You have to buy a tank with a filter."  "Then what is this bowl good for?" I asked.  "A Betta." she said.

What are you looking at?

I found myself irritated by this, mostly because of her tone and because, frankly, I didn't believe her, but I went back to the fish tanks to look for another tank anyway. We found a small filtered tank for $7 more on sale. I took it back to the woman.  "I want to get a goldfish now." I said.  "Oh, those are feeder fish, you can't buy those." she relied. "We have some fancy goldfish over here.  Oh, but they can't be in that small of a tank."  "What?!" I exclaimed, "This tank is filtered and depicts another happy goldfish swimming in it."  "Goldfish can't live in that. You can't buy one of these." she stated.  "Seriously? You won't even let me buy a fifteen cent feeder fish?" I asked. "Nope." she replied. "Why is that?" I asked.  "Because it will be suffering!" She stated this with as much self righteousness as she could muster, "And at this pet store, we put the animals first!"  (now, I'll clarify,  I don't want a fish to suffer, if a goldfish really won't be happy in the goldfish bowl, then fine. But the dour expression on her face and the tone in her voice suggested that I regularly participate in animal cruelty.)  "Okay, assuming that is true, what kind of fish can I put in this filtered tank?" I asked. "A Betta." She replied.

Can I read you a story, Cole?

At that point, I turned to the kids, "Well, I don't think we can buy a fish today."  I wasn't a real fan of Bettas.   There's something about their loner and aggressive nature that has not endeared them to me...that and the fact that they prefer gross, live food like worms and brine shrimp.  In addition to that, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend my money in that store. Tears and whining from the kids, I had, after all, promised them a goldfish.
"Okay, fine." My palm smacked my forehead and I sighed deeply,  "We'll buy the darn Betta." We selected the cheapest Betta we could find.  Then I discovered a second aisle of fish bowls.  All were Betta bowls and all were cheaper than what I had been looking at before.  I'm still trying to figure out why they even bother stocking the goldfish style bowls, or why they don't just put them on the aisle with all of the Betta bowls.

Are you going to listen or what?

I'm still a little hot under the collar about the whole experience. First of all, I felt like I was being chastised by this woman. A customer should never feel chastised! Second, it should have been obvious, from my first interaction with the salesperson, what type of pet experience I was going for.  One look at a frazzled mother, with two toddlers, holding up a goldfish bowl and asking to buy a common goldfish should have indicated that I did not want to spend much on a large, filtered, heated tank and that I wanted something, you know, cheap and easy to deal with. If she had handled it in a more gracious manner (i.e. not implying that I was out to make a fish suffer and that her job was to protect the animals from the customers) then I wouldn't be as irritated. If, after the first interaction, she had talked about all the great things about Bettas in comparison to goldfish, I wouldn't have been as irritated. Plus, I'm still not sure I totally understand how she determines goldfish suffering.  How is it less cruel to buy them and feed them to your other fish?  Also, why could I have walked in and purchased one of their mice to feed to a pet snake, but they would not allow me to purchase a common goldfish and keep it in a well maintained goldfish bowl? I'll also note that the pet store may have gotten my $20, but I'll never shop there again after this experience.

Alright, where was I?

So, now we have Cole, The Betta. I'm discovering that he is a rather interesting fish. He appears curious about the environment outside his bowl, he's not terribly skittish and he almost always comes right up to look at you when you are anywhere near the bowl. It's possible that he's plotting a way to get out of the bowl and eat me, but I prefer to think of it as curiosity. I find myself obsessing over his health.  Did he eat too much? Is he looking bloated? Are his scales looking healthy? What kind of food is best?  I've been researching a lot for this little guy. I hope he appreciates it. I'll have to do a break down of my research in a later post. The kids enjoy feeding him in the morning and spend a lot of time asking him questions about his day.  My favorite from Buddy, "are you still alive today, Cole?" When this fish dies, it won't be due to lack of love.

After that mega post, I hope you have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Easter 2012

We had a fabulous Easter weekend!  We kicked it off with an Easter egg hunt.  The kids enjoyed searching for the eggs. I purchased them a couple of wheelbarrows and let them use those for egg collection.

The Hunt:

Once Buddy spotted the Spiderman eggs, he only had eyes for those. 

Jellybean was less particular and ended up with more eggs than Buddy. Every time she spotted one, she exclaimed, "More!"

Surveying the Spoils:

Say, "Ahh."

Easter Sunday Photoshoot:
On Sunday, we had a quick photo session after church.  (That seems to be a good time for photo taking.)  Jellybean picked out her own Easter dress. She insisted on the pink ruffled dress. How did I end up with such a girlie girl? The Easter clip she is wearing was made by me.
She is such a sweetheart and so full of personality.

He is a total ham and refuses to do a normal smile for the camera. I had to promise a treat to get these photos.

 

This photo melts my heart.  They really love each other.

I hope your Easter weekend was full of fun as well!

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Trip to the Zoo

 Some of our friends invited us to the zoo yesterday. It was chilly out and fortunately I was prepared with hats and jackets. Thank goodness for that. It looked so beautiful outside, I nearly left without them. It's Spring Break here so the zoo was, well a "zoo." Not only were the hats warm, but they helped me keep track of my little ones in the crowds.
 
Here they are. Each of them refusing to look at the camera.

studying the map

My children would not pose for photos, but some sweet baby animals did.  We got to see the baby elephant

baby and mama

and we got to see the baby giraffe as well. 

I love that you can see how tall this little one is from the numbers on the wall.

There is something so sweet about those ginormous babies.

Buddy and Jellybean had a great time running around and making me push an empty stroller.

They completely wore themselves out. I had to tickle Jellybean all the way home to keep her awake in the car. To keep Buddy awake, we sang Old McDonald's Spooky Farm (i.e. and on that farm he had a ghost...) and The Wheels on the Haunted Bus (i.e. the zombies on the bus say "Brains"). We don't do sleeping in the car right before nap time. So, I'll do whatever it takes.

I love these trips out.  Hopefully, this will be a fun memory for them in the coming years.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Strike a Pose

I laughed so hard when I discovered these shots on my computer.  My three and a half year old actually posing, on his own, for some Photo Booth shots:

Hey, it takes pictures!

Must pose with a favorite book.

Come join the Wordless Wednesday fun. (or almost wordless as the case may be)

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Confession: I love Korean Dramedies

It started innocently enough. We were scraping the bottom of what Netflix had to offer and I had some free time during naps. As embarrassed as I am to admit it, that innocent journey into the world of Korean dramedy has led to an almost 20 hour a week obsession. Apparently, it's my new part-time job. Just imagine what I could be getting done with that time...

I've watched enough series now to have figured out that they all pretty much follow the same formula. A formula which is also Awesome. The following are the basic requirements for making Korean dramedy magic:

-A good looking, elite business man will meet an average looking, quirky, lower class girl.  
-He is bored and dissatisfied with his life. Also, he's snobbish and kind of a jerk.
-She is usually sweet and spunky with many friends and yet is constantly being overlooked professionally and can't get ahead OR she just isn't that smart. Also, she is almost always the daughter of a single parent.

-The two of them become connected in some random, improbable way and then are thrown together continually. This leads to him thinking about her a lot. 
-She will never know who he is at first, though it seems that everyone else in the city does.
-They'll hate each other. 
-He's never met anyone like her, but he can't quite justify his obsession because of her lower class status.
-One of them eventually becomes lost in the woods, gets very ill or injured and the other has to rescue and/or nurse them back to health. This is when they realize how deeply they have come to care for each other. 
-Cheesy, overly dramatic theme music will swell at every possible opportunity. Theme music is often a mix of both English and Korean and the English part will get hopelessly stuck in your head. 

-There will be randomly and usually awkwardly inserted English into everyday conversation. Especially if the character is supposed to be cool. 
-He will risk losing his inheritance and/or position due to his being in love with the poor girl.
-Just at the moment when he has decided to risk it all and she has figured out that she loves him too a misunderstanding with occur that will throw everything for a loop. That, or the dude will get hit by a car, sink into a coma and then have amnesia.  

But my absolute favorite characteristic of the Korean dramedy is the lack of physical intimacy.  The climax of the series may be a single kiss.  You might see some dramatic hugging and hand holding or *gasp* a piggy back ride.  Anything more intimate is reserved for after marriage and is not shown. What is interesting about this is that I find the lack of intimacy just as satisfying or even more so than the over sexualized American dramedy.  This combined with the awesomeness above is what makes each series, however cheesy, highly enjoyable.

If you are scraping the bottom of the Netflix barrel, enjoy romantic drama/comedy and don't mind subtitles, definitely check one out.  Here are my favorites: Lie To Me, Playful Kiss, Tamra The Island, Boys Over Flowers, My Princess, Secret Garden and Winter Sonata. I'm currently watching Protect the Boss. Don't be surprised if you become obsessed, too.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ