It works! I think...

So, I have new news...
My email subscribe test worked! (This is mostly for Blaine. He told us to deliver it to him directly, and he'd read it, so...)
If anybody was wanting to subscribe to our blog and have it emailed directly to your inbox, click the link at the bottom of the side bar to the right! (Does that make sense?)
Yay! :) I did it!

By the way, how does the ferret background look on all your computers? Can you actually see ferrets? Our monitors are bigger than "normal", so I wasn't quite sure how it would look... Let me know what you think! Thanks!

Heat...

I'm done working at the nursery watering plants now. I'm waiting my next assignment! (I'm working as a temp for Manpower.)

Texas is so much hotter than I was expecting! In a greenhouse especially!
I was working in a greenhouse watering plants. I'd walk around all day turning on hoses, watering flowers, turning off hoses, rearranging the plants on their display tables, re-stocking plants as needed. On a typical day, it'd be about 90 degrees outside by 10 AM... and 100 degrees in the greenhouse. IT WOULD JUST KEEP GETTING HOTTER!!! The hottest I ever checked it at was about 109 degrees. And the humidity is like 70-90%, and there's absolutely no breeze... I don't recommend working inside a greenhouse in the summer in Texas... Unless you don't "feel the heat" like some of the other workers said. "It doesn't bother me I don't feel the heat." What? How can you not feel that?!

I decided that I couldn't really handle the heat, and I told them so. When they told me Thursday that Friday would be my last day. I was ecstatic!

Friday was a good day... mostly. It was killer hot, I'd been drinking water all day (I was on my 2nd gallon by 4:00)... Are you sensing a story here?

We were told at about 4 that we could go inside the air conditioned building (yeah, they had to give us permission for that) and sit down for about 10 minutes. Well, I got off at 4:20, so they told me finish up what we're doing out here, and then you can take off a little bit early, instead of taking a break. So, I was working hard moving plants around, feeling hot and sweaty and yucky... I was just moving the last pots to the table...

And then it was like my body went nuts! My hands started shaking, I really started pouring sweat, I got really lightheaded and dizzy, and nauseated. I stumbled inside and collapsed on a chair. And my supervisor said "you don't look so good." I'm like "Really? I don't feel so good, either." So, once I'd cooled off a little, they sent me home. Where I took a cold shower and got muscle cramps-- horrible ones-- in my legs.

I think I got heat exhaustion at the very end of my last day working in horrible heat for 3 weeks. Where's the fairness?!

New truck!

Hi all!
We got a new truck! Well, new to us anyways... We've been really frustrated since buying our house because we can't ever haul anything!
We bought a water heater, and Hal got one of the nice guys he works with to help us haul it home.
We borrowed a truck to go buy and bring our couch home.
We luckily crammed our new lawnmower in the back seat. And some wood... and a window... But it's always a tricky guess if things will fit in the car or not.

So, we decided now we own a house, we need a truck.
Since getting it, we've hauled home: a chair from Blaine (Thanks Blaine! We love it! It's so comfy!), and a dining room table, chairs, & cabinet set (2 trips). It's great! Nothing's too big for us... Well, sorta... I'm sure some things would be too big, but nothing we've tried yet!

Anyways, about our truck.
It's a Toyota T100 (Tacoma).
Isn't it pretty?! It's in great shape, too! It's got a bench seat thingy in back, the bed is in wonderful shape (it doesn't look like anything had ever been hauled in it!), automatic transmition, doors, and windows, 141,000 miles, and it's cute and comfy! I love it! And Hal loves it, too! What more can we ask for?

And now...
Funny story... I have been having some problems with the alarm... The remote has one button that locks/unlocks/sets of the alarm. To unlock, you push the button...
I'd push the remote button to unlock it and it would go nuts!!! The doors would start unlocking, and locking, and unlocking, and locking, and the alarm would go off, and then it would stop, and go off and stop... It was super embarrassing! It happened in front of the house a couple of times, once at work, and once in the Wal-mart parking lot... well... How embarrassing! I would just stand there mashing in the button and the alarm would turn off. And then it would turn on again... GRRRR!!! I'd just stand there feeling completely helpless while my car went nuts! I finally decided that my new truck hated me...

I told Hal about it, and he's like "It does what? Are you sure?" 'Cause he doesn't have problems with it. (Of course he doesn't! He's smarter than the stupid remote!!! Unlike me...)

Well, I finally figured out the problem. When I was pushing the button on the remote, I was pushing it in at an angle and one of the sides was getting stuck in (tucked under the plastic). That's the problem. User error! Once I figured that out: piece of cake! Works like a charm!

Tee hee... sometimes I feel like an idiot... But hey! If we can't crack ourselves up, what is there to laugh at?!
Smile!!!

some sad news and some happy news!!!

I have terribly sad news... I had to let Izzy the caterpillar go. She just wasn't eating in captivity. How sad...

But Froggie is doing great! We just bought him some more crickets and it's hilarious watching him eat them! I wish I were a frog!

And I almost caught another frog at work a couple days ago. But he got away. Frogs are sure fast sometimes!


And I'm going to be an Aunt again!!! Yay!


And for all you who live in Idaho, I'm coming to visit in July for a friend's wedding. (Yay Sheena!) I'll be there about a week. I'm super excited! I love flying! And I'm more homesick than I ever guessed I would be...

New "family members"...

Hi all!
So I don't want to blow your mind, but I caught a new pet!!! (Well, several, but I let some go.)

Here's the story (stories): I was at work (I have a job!) at the nursery (where I work temporarily - up to 4 weeks) watering plants, and we have toads! Big ol' ugly brown warty toads.

I was kind of bored one morning, so I decided to try my luck at catching a toad! (I'd never caught a frog before, but Hal said the worst they can do is pee on you, so... why not?!) I caught one! I snuck up all sneaky like, and just caught him! But he was ugly so I let him go.

Later, I was telling one of the other girls that I work with that I'd really like to see a green frog, not just these ugly old brown toads...

Then the next day we were watering plants and she walked over to me and said "come see what I found" very calm like. So I put down my hose and followed her to... a frog! A bright lime green frog! I caught him! And one of the owners of the nursery helped me find a container to put him in to take him home... and here he is! He's kind of changed colors since I brought him home. He's not quite as bright. I think I might have something to do with the fact that my house isn't as humid or hot as the greenhouse was...
Can you see his goosebumps? (I know it's just his skin, but it looks like he's cold, doesn't it?)

Later the same day, I was watering some other flowers and came across some caterpillars on some of the plants. Now, I figured we probably don't want to sell bug eaten flowers... call me crazy... so I picked off the caterpillars and put them in a container. One of the managers saw me and told me to just squish them, but I couldn't! They were too cute and green! I caught 4 caterpillars -- one of them was like 3 1/2 or 4 inches long and hugely fat!

So, I brought home my frog and my caterpillars. I turned all but one of the smaller (it's like 1 1/2 inches long) caterpillars loose on my neighbor's tree that's growing over my fence. (I hope they eat the whole thing!!!) And made homes for Froggie (I couldn't pick a good frog name, so that's it for now...) and Izzy the Caterpillar.
Izzy doesn't seem to be eating well in captivity, so I may have to release her... I hope not! I've always liked caterpillars!Have you ever looked under a caterpillar? They've got the coolest little suction feet and neat teeth, too!

Aren't they cute?! No offense taken if you don't think so...
I do think they are cuter than Penny was, though...
What can I say? We collect weird animals.

I'm hoping to catch another frog while I'm at the nursery. Anybody have name suggestions?

... and I have no idea why I decided the caterpillar's a girl and the frog's a boy... they just are!

News!

Shocking news from Wichita Falls!
Thursday morning (May 1st), a T-38C Talon crashed on the Sheppard Air Force Base (that's right by us, we can get to the entrance to the base in like 5 minutes) killing 2 airmen. Neither of us know the men who died, but a lot of people in our ward know one or both of them. (One of them was the scoutmaster in a nearby ward & had 3 little kids.) It's pretty sad.

While Hal was watching the news Friday night, they were doing a report on the plane crash, after the report they said "the Altus Airshow will continue as scheduled." Airshow?

We immediately looked it up! There was an Airshow! On Saturday! Gates open at 10 am! We decided we had to go, of course! (For those who don't know, Hal lived in Altus, OK when he was a kid. And Altus is 1 1/2 hours from us.)

So, I went to my very first Airshow! And went on an military base for the first time! (Both were not so new and amazing to Hal.) I don't know the numbers (or are they called names?) of the planes, and even if Hal told me, I wouldn't remember! I could maybe be able to figure out what they could do: transport, refuel & transport, fighter, spy...anyways...

It was neat! Some of those planes are HUGE!!!
This one below was one of my favorites. I love the nose that lifts up over the cockpit!We were there for a few hours and saw many things including:
a cannon pulled by horses & we got to watch them fire it, too! They are dressed in historical clothing and the horses were picked and trained based on a training book from like 1920;
a Parachute jumper
who had a perfect landing, even though it was super windy! The national anthem was sung during his descent;
a Bi-Plane demonstration, this is the plane that flew around spewing smoke, I loved it!;
T-28 Trojan Phlyers Demonstration (they did all sorts of cool "Top Gun" tricks, with the song playing over the speakers for us to hear);
Some top secret plane! There's signs all around it saying Do not enter! "Use of deadly force authorized" and men carrying machine guns walking around it!

There's something INCREDIBLY intimidating about seeing soldiers everywhere carrying huge guns.

Not pictured are things like a "fight" between two planes: the pilots knew each other during the cold war -- one was Russian, one was American; lots of planes driving by on the runway, including one huge one that did a "tactical take-off" for us, meaning it took off like straight up (it looked awesome!); several formation fly-bys; a spy plane; and lots other planes!

I just have to say, for my first airshow, it was pretty neat! I loved almost every minute of it! I can't wait to go to another one! I want to see some awesome tricks!!!

We forgot to put on sunscreen before we went out on the airstrip, though and are both very sorry afterwards!

They had the roads around the base restricted, so we couldn't drive around and see where Hal went to school or where he used to play. We did see the corner where Hal used to live, but the house was torn down! And we got to drive by a ditch where he used to catch frogs.

On the way home, we were talking about how it'd been a good day and we'd had fun. And then it got even better!!!
We were like 8 miles from Wichita Falls, on a road we usually don't drive out, 'cause there's nothing out there... When we saw camels! A whole field of camels! We stopped at the rest stop to go potty (I was dying!!!), and turned around to go back and find the camels. It took us a while, but we figured out how to get to the access road beside the highway to so we could stop and visit (and take lots of pictures).
I counted at 17 camels in this part of the field. There were at least five in the next field over. I wonder how many camels this guy has?! I want a camel! They seem to thrive in the desert of Texas.

There were even baby camels! Aren't they adorable?!

It was better than the zoo!!! Which is saying something! I love zoos! I got to feed them and pet them!!! YAY!Their noses feel kind of like a horse's! And boy do those long lips have excellent control!


You can hear the freeway roaring by in the background, and if you really listen you can hear them chewing!


Doesn't it look like she's going to spit at us? She certainly looks annoyed! But she didn't, for good or bad... I would have liked to be able to say I got spit on by a camel! Alas, I can only say I fed them and felt their noses.

It was a good day! We had a lot of fun at the Airshow, in Altus, and seeing camels! Too cool!

Yay for parents!

Hal's parents came and visited us for the weekend on the 12, 13, & 14th. It was so nice to see them and talk to them! We showed them the building where Hal works (visitors aren't ususally allowed inside, unless they're important people to the company...), and wanted to show them the Wichita Falls falls, but they were turned off! And, sadly, Mom Bradbury spent most of Saturday night feeling sick, and then she was really not feeling well Sunday! We felt bad! They flew all the way to Texas to visit us (and Hal's brother Blaine, who lives by/in Dallas), and Mom didn't feel good. Hopefully she's totally and completely healed! It was wonderful to see them though! Love you both!

OK, so the Wichita Falls falls were turned off... huh?
Here's your history lesson, courtesy of Wikipedia:
"A flood in 1886 destroyed the original falls on the Wichita River for which the city was named. After nearly 100 years of visitors wanting to visit the non-existent falls, the city built an artificial waterfall beside the river in Lucy Park. The recreated falls are 54 feet high and recirculates at 3,500 gallons per minute."

They made the falls in 1986, and apparently forgot to think about the logistics of pumping water out of the Wichita River. This cracks me up! I just love it! The lady at the Texas travel info center told me that every spring, (and almost any other time it rains) it rains enough that the red clay washes into the river and turns it "red with grit" and they have to turn off the falls. OK. So every spring, apparently, the falls turns off because the pump can't handle the amount of silt in the water.
I just think it's funny that the people here in Wichita Falls didn't think about this problem before they designed the falls. Surely it wasn't a surprise that the river gets all silty EVERY YEAR. And yet, apparently, it was a surprise to many the first year when they had to turn off the falls because the water wasn't pumping through the pump...
What's needed here? A better pump? A better filtering system?

The river is gorgeous though! It's all red and bloody looking... kinda neat! They turned the falls on for a couple hours one day last week, luckily I was driving by to see it, and it seriously looked like blood was cascading down! It was cool!


On a different note, on Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat. This really isn't all that strange to me... I get sore throats a lot. I just take decongestant and drag a little for a couple days. So, I drugged up and went and mowed the lawn.
By Tuesday afternoon, I felt AWFUL! My muscles were all achy (whether from illness or mowing, I wasn't sure), I had a fever, I was sick to my stomach, and it hurt to talk (TRAGIC!!! I live to talk!). Wednesday, I woke up feeling even worse. Today, I must be feeling a little better, cause I'm restless. But I still feel like I've been hit by a truck. Or a train. Whatever awful cold thing I've got, I hope it passes soon! I'm getting sick of being sick!!! :)

Anyways, I hope ya'll have a good week!

Lacey had this on her blog and she said I had to do it too. So here goes...

44 ODD Things about you! Learn 44 things about your friends!Let them learn 44 things about you!

1. Do you like blue cheese? EWWW!!! It's very disgusting!
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? Never
3. Do you own a gun? Nope
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic'? Lime
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Always! But I usually only go the the doctor if something's wrong, so its OK!
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I like them. Usually. For some reason, I like cheap ones better than the more expensive ones. (Like Bar-S vs Ballpark)
7. Favorite Christmas song? Um... Rudolph is the one that goes thru my head all season... but I love Silent Night.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Water
9. Can you do push ups? Some... not as many as I used to be able to!
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? I like earrings.
11. Favorite hobby? Gaming
12. Do you have A.D.D.? Probably, but nobody ever told me I did!
13. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? I'm very rude and have a smart mouth...
14. Middle name? Marie
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.
What am I going to have for lunch?
I want to sleep.
My head hurts, and my gut, and my knees... this sucks!
16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water, milk, Mountain Dew
17. Current worry right now? I need to get a job. But I don't wanna!
18. Current hate right now? Everything. Bad day.
19. Favorite place to be? At home.
20. How did you bring in the New Year? I got a killer headache, that lasted 10 days.
21. How old are you? 22
22. Name three people who will complete this? ?, ?, ?.
23. Do you own slippers? 3 pairs. Yellow ones, paw print ones, and star ones.
24. What color shirt are you wearing? I'm in my underwear, so white.
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Yes! Well, until my blankets slide off onto the floor. I have to be covered by something!
26. Can you whistle? Sort of.
27. Favorite color? Bright green.
28. Would you be a pirate? Only if I can be a VeggieTales pirate.
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Silly Songs with Larry... The monkey song, Pirates who don't do anything, Love My Lips, Barbara Manatee...
30. Favorite girl's name? Elizabeth & Annabell
31. Favorite boy's name? Michael & William
32. What's in your pocket right now? Nothing. I just put on clean pants and haven't re-loaded yet.
32. Last thing that made you laugh? Rocket and Garret.
33. Best bed sheets as a child? I had these flannel ones, that combined with my flannel nightgown made the best lightning!!!
34. Worst injury you've ever had? Do migraines count as an injury? If not then getting my chin split open.
35. Do you love where you live? It's OK.
36. How many TVs do you have in your house? one
37. Who is your loudest friend? Me!
38. What is your favorite game to play? Right now I'm addicted to Sims...
39. Does someone have a crush on you? Hopefully.
40. What is your favorite book? I love you, Stinky Face!
41. What is your favorite candy? Skittles, unless I want chocolate, and then it changes...
42. Favorite Sports Team? I don't watch sports.
43. What were you doing 12 AM last night? sleeping.
44. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? When is it (time wise)?

Thanks Lacey! That was kinda fun! :)

Cocoa's first bath!

Thursday night, we gave our baby girl a bath. Cocoa (that's what we call her) handled it beautifully! Which is great! And a nice change from Rocket and Garret. (Well, mostly Rocket. I come away from Rocket's baths with a clean ferret and scratch marks all up my arms!) We also cut her nails. She didn't hardly even wiggle! It's fabulous! She's so good!
Well, except for the biting. She has yet to really get that DANI AND HAL ARE NOT FERRETS! Ferrets have tough skin. They don't mind if you chomp down on them with your razor sharp teeth. Humans DO MIND!!! She is getting better though, which is all I can ask for, right?


Anyways, I have this thing with humiliating bath photos... 'cause they're cute! So I wanted to share some bath photos... of our ferrets of course! Rocket and Garret's pictures are a few months old, but they're still cute!
Cocoa really is too cute for a humiliating photo!

Not like Rocket... who looks like an embarrassed drowned rat! (I know this looks like a painful grip, but if I support his rear end he starts spazing out and trying to get away! The only way to get him to even resemble holding still for his bath is to grab his chest and dangle the rest of him... Oh well!)

Check me out!!!! For some reason, he likes to look at himself in the mirror when he's wet. He doesn't care to look when he's dry, though... Weird!

Garret likes to sit in the warm water. Alone! No touching!

Drowned rat... Isn't he adorable!?


And I wanted to share a video of them playing together:


If you listen closely, you can her what sounds kind of like a squeaking/clucking noise. That's Cocoa! She's very vocal. It's called "dooking" and it's super cute! They do it when they're happy and having fun. Rocket does it sometimes, but not very often.

They seem to be becoming friends. Hopefully soon they'll be friends enough that they can all sleep together!

Sick!

First things first: We named our little girl Cocoa. We were trying to come up with a name that ended with a "T" like Garret and Rocket, but all we could come up with was Cricket (She does kind of look like a little black cricket when she's hopping around the room...). We decided we like Cocoa way better than Cricket, so Cocoa it is!

AND:
So I went to let the ferrets out to play on Wednesday morning and find Rocket not interested in getting out. At all. Which is very abnormal for him! He always wants to play! He wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, was super hot but couldn't stop shivering (fever?), had glazed eyes, and just wanted to sleep. And there's this green slimy stuff in their litter box. I was so scared! My ferret could be dying!!! So, I did what I always do when something goes wrong: I cried. And then I started researching. And found out about ECE.

So, ferrets get this disease called "epizootic catarrhal enteritis" (ECE for short), also called "the greenies" sometimes. It's characterized by green slimy stinky diarrhea. Apparently, most are exposed to it when they are kits (babies) and don't really exhibit many symptoms. But later in life, if they get stressed (like meet a new baby ferret maybe?) they can re-develop it. Or if they weren't ever exposed to it as kits, they can get it from other contaminated ferrets later.
When they get this disease, they seem to lose all interest in eating or drinking. They have no energy, get cold or hot, and sleep a lot. If left untreated, ferrets can die of dehydration in about 24-48 hours. Once the green diarrhea passes, they start having "birdseedy" poop (golden poop with birdseed looking things in it), which seems to mean that their food is not digesting and they are using their stored fat. Eeewww.... There is somewhere between 1-2 % and 5% fatality, depending on where you find your info. It can linger for like 2 weeks! Once they have it they can be carriers for an unknown amount of time, possibly up to 12 months!
Treatment involves pumping fluids, like water and pedialite, into the ferret, either through an IV or force-feeding; forcing them to eat soft food, like baby food or something called "duck soup"; and possibly antibiotics to combat the other diseases that might possibly be coming (ECE seems to lower their immune systems and make them more susceptible to other diseases like the flu or a cold).

So, I put Rocket in his own cage, so Garret would stop sniffing him and nudging him to get up (which really is kind of cute...), and he could rest easier. I went and bought some pedialite, an eye dropper, and some chicken flavored baby food.
I proceeded to force Rocket to drink water, with the eye dropper. He would NOT have anything to do with the pedialite. I could even dripple it into his mouth, like the water, and he'd spew it everywhere! I tried everything! He would eat a little of the baby food, but not much, and by bedtime Wednesday night he was even more dehydrated than he was earlier that day, despite my best efforts! And he still wouldn't eat anything. I could even smear the baby food in his mouth -- the way everything says to do, and he just gags it back out! He won't swallow! Grrr!!! So I cried again and went to bed, praying he'd be alive in the morning.
I woke up in the night and decided to check on him. He was worse still, so I seriously started forcing him to eat. He was weak enough that he'd swallow whatever I got into his mouth. (Finally! My little Snake-face will eat and drink!) Thursday morning, his fever seemed to have broken and he was ready to fight the food again. By Thursday afternoon, he had progressed from "green slime" to "birdseed poop"... I guess that's good? Right? I hope...
Last night he played for like 1 hour! Yay! (Which really is pitiful, because he can usually play for like 6 hours without getting tired...) And he was eating and drinking on his own! YAY!!!! I'm still going to force feed him until his poop gets completely back to normal and he regains some of the weight he lost, but he seems to be on the mend! He's lost about 1/2 of his total like 2 1/2 pounds... But I don't have a scale that will measure that little, so I don't know for sure...

Ok, so my week so far has went like this: We got our new ferret on Monday night. I introduced the ferrets to each other Tuesday morning and let them play a little. Wednesday morning Rocket was sick. Wednesday night he seemed to be worse. Thursday morning he was a little better. Thursday night he seems to be on the mend. Friday it looks like Garret might be getting sick now...great...wonderful...NO!...Yuck!

Cocoa on the other hand, seems to feel fine!

And just so I'm prepared in case they get sick again later, I'm going to teach them to like baby food (none of them will even touch it!) and pedialite (Cocoa likes it! She seems to think it's yummy!). When we got Rocket and Garret I read that it's important to teach them to eat the baby food when they feel good, so it's easier to get them to eat it sick, but I didn't have the heart to force feed them something gross when they felt good! I will now!!! Lesson learned!


Whew what a week!