Zoo

I find myself thinking, "My next blog post will probably be from my new computer" a lot these days. For the last few days, it's been sitting in Kentucky...in customs. As Jen so eloquently put it, "Customs? In Kentucky? I didn't know they had declared themselves an independent country!" I hadn't been notified either, Jen. However, it seems the laptop shipped directly from China to Kentucky. While that seems like a very odd flight to me (and since Hubby's shipped from China to Alaska a few months ago), I have never tried to understand postal routes so I'll just leave it to the experts to figure out. But this morning, I see that it's "out for delivery", which sounds very promising. I'll be sure to take pictures. :) I feel like a 5yr old on Christmas morning.

The weatherman lied. He gave us that beautiful forecast for Memorial Day weekend and it didn't turn out nearly that nice. As usual, Memorial Day was hot and sticky. Very sticky. But it wasn't as bad as it has been in years past so that's something. However, just to show that Spring wasn't over yet, she decided to give us really fierce thunderstorms all night long and give us a high of around 60 the next day. It was very unexpected but, in my opinion, nice. ;) So we got our BBQ and roasted marshmallows and we even got to complain about the heat...a bit. And I even got to see Indy whip the bad guys into shape.

I blogged a while back about geocaching and my new GPS (my birthday gift from Hubby). Very long story short, the Magellan GPS just wasn't up to snuff. There were issues with the order, the price and the 'items included', as well as the item itself having many issues and the final straw...the software wouldn't load on Hubbys new souped-up laptop (or my ancient one). So, after returning that, I used the extra birthday money I got from other family members and upgraded to a Garmin 60cx. It's a breeze. Batteries fit, my ancient PC had no troubles installing the hardware or software, and the functions on the unit just seem more intuitive to me. I'm really happy I switched. Now to find some freebie maps for it...teeheehee. I'm psyched to get back to geocaching again. :)

Several of you have asked me about the recent Subway issue, knowing we're homeschoolers. I have to bring up this point alone. As homeschoolers, we eat 3 meals a day at home. We do not spend money on school/work lunches every day. So we have a bigger variety to choose from when we do eat out, I would imagine, than non-homeschooled families. Our family doesn't frequent Subway very much at all anyway simply because I can build the same sandwich for pennies comparatively (and more healthy as well, utilizing veggies from my garden and non pre-packaged meats). However, I do believe that homeschoolers frequent Subway more often than non-homeschoolers simply because our lifestyle doesn't demand that we eat 'on campus'. I believe it's a very bad move for Subway and in our house, we'll continue business as usual, making our sandwiches at home. I'm just glad that my 5 and 7 year olds can probably spell the words, 'United States' and 'basket' better than the Subway PR people can. 'Nuff said.

The high yesterday was 68F, I believe. Today is supposed to be 78. Such is life in Missouri. So the kids and I ran to the zoo yesterday. One, most people wait to do the zoo on really hot days (I have no idea why either!?!). And Two, some schools are still going for maybe another week. So we went. It was a very nice day and we really enjoyed it as it was our first trip of the year. Usually we go much more in the spring but it's just been too wet. Some pictures of the day...

First the kids wanted to check out the new amphibian exhibit. We saw a metamorphosis area where tadpoles were turning into frogs. Very cool. The woman running the exhibit started by talking down to my kids but was quickly corrected when Matthew started telling *her* more about the chytrid fungus than she was supposed to be teaching that day. I was quite surprised myself at all the information spewing forth from him especially since I've never heard of it. He said that he'd read an article about it in a magazine a while back. Hmmm...


Jade was quite proud of herself that she touched this boa in the Children's Zoo


Here are some more pictures from the zoo:





Jade's baby elephant (also named Jade) sure has grown since this time last year!


Next...wait. just. a. second. There's a KNOCK. at my door. Maybe it's the worlds only May Santa Claus?? Gotta Run.