Living Vicariously Through My Kids

The kids and I are part of a playgroup through our church. Every Friday we have gotten together with other moms and children to play and hang out and even go on some cool outings. In the last three weeks we have been to Fish Scales (an exotic pet store), Gwinnett Environment and Heritage Center(GEHC), and Gilliland's Alpaca Heritage Farm. These have been some really cool trips.
At Fish Scales, Miss Julie opened up the store just for our group. She let our crazy kids run around and look at all the cool exotic animals in the store. She fed most (if not all) of them while we were there. My favorite was watching the chameleon eating crickets. My fearless daughter touched a bearded dragon, an iguana, and a turtle. She fed lettuce to all three of them and hugged the turtle. Daniel, who is more squeamish like his mother, only touched the turtle towards the end of our visit. He loved watching a small nurse shark swim around in an open tank. I just had a blast, and I think the kids liked it too.



At the GEHC we got to go on a nature walk and find things that were listed on our picture sheet. We found grass, a dead tree, an acorn, leaves, a snake and other things that escape my mind at this point. Then we got to tour the center. They had this cool interactive room for the kids that taught them about the water cycle, ways that we use water, and how water is cleaned. The kids loved to put these balls which were 'water vapor' into a tube that went up into the clouds (evaporation) and once enough water vapor went into the clouds it would rain down the blue balls and the cycle started all over again. They also had a cool theater in which they projected the film onto a wall of water. I hope the kids walked away with the knowledge that water is important/necessary for life.


Miss Angie at the alpaca farm taught us about the difference between a llama and an alpaca (it's all in the ear shape and size). Alpacas have spear shaped ears (llamas have banana shaped ones) and they weigh between 100 and 300 lbs (llamas can get up to 700 lbs). She also told us about how alpaca fleece can be used to make lots of things (we saw gloves, sweaters, scarves, purses, and stuffed animals). Their fleece is hypo-allergenic so those that are allergic to wool could use alpaca as an alternative. Then we got to feed the female alpacas some carrots. Maggie loved them, but Daniel hung back a little until one alpaca, Samantha, laid down ("kushed" in alpaca terminology). Then he felt comfortable enough to pet her back. Despite the cold and rainy weather we enjoyed ourselves. We may have to go back in the spring to see them shear the alpacas.

In my defense

My dear husband attributes my lack of blogging to the time hole of Webkinz World. I will say that I have lost many hours to earning Kinzcash to feed, clothe and furnish the house of Lily. Lily is the black-faced sheep that my eldest brother gave my daughter. I had no idea what we were getting into when I asked Davis to go register the Webkinz pet. But, in my defense I have had many other distractions that have prevented me from blogging. We have had field trips to a Fire station in Athens, Mayfield Dairy in Braselton, playdates at parks, story time at the library, and a stomach virus. This is on top of trying to maintain a household (i.e. cook, clean, grocery shop, etc.). But, even without all of those things I procrastinate on blogging because I am just not that great of a writer. Davis is just plain funny and can write some great posts that are very entertaining. My posts are just slightly informative if you are remotely interested in following what me and the kids do during the day. At any rate here are a few pictures to enjoy.

Communication Breakdown

I'd like to pretend that we've been away for the past couple of weeks just as a ploy to generate interest through our absence, but I can't. For one thing, that doesn't really make any sense, and for another, that's not at all why we haven't written. We each have our different reasons for our prolonged silence: Angie has (on behalf of our daughter) been sucked into the time vacuum that is Webkinz World, and I... well, I've been kind of wary of writing what's on my mind. Because what's been on my mind is... politics.

Due to my personal strong belief in and support of the FairTax, I started the primary season off as a supporter of Mike Huckabee, who is also a supporter of said FairTax. After he dropped out of the race, I really didn't care much for any of the remaining candidates. I mean, they were all likable enough as people, and I was actually interested in the early promise of a civil, informative general campaign season in which a couple of guys who weren't your average politician had debates and possibly "town hall meetings" wherein they expounded upon their differing policies for making America a better place in a rational and respectful manner. I think the Saddleback forum came closest to this (by the way, I take issue with the idea that either side "won" that forum; both candidates answered the questions and presented their ideas in a way that made sense, and you the viewer/listener were left to decide with whom you agreed). Unfortunately, since then the campaigns of both candidates have proven that they are, in fact, your average politician, and my hopes for a civil October have been dashed. Having said that, as much as I tell myself not to, I still can't seem to stop myself from reading the news stories about the name-calling and mud-slinging that is going on.

And so, I haven't felt like writing. It all just makes me mad. I thought these guys were better than that. I hoped at least one of them would be better than that, to give the American people a leader who takes the high road every time. Instead, I find myself wishing that Google Labs or someone would come up with a way of re-inserting Huckabee into the race. He may not be above that stuff, either (I think he'd be better, though he definitely showed one or two signs of low-road willingness late in his campaign, if I recall), but at least we'd have a candidate who would be pushing for the FairTax, and I could find solace in that.