Wild Kingdom anyone? bathroom pics

So I had to start with the long awaited pictures of the bathroom that I did forever ago.There really isn't much to it. Just paint, pictures, towels
I made the shower curtain. Piece of cake.
These pictures, however, took years to put together;) I've got bath pic's of all the kids except Ellie. When I get one of her I'll throw it up there too.


So there is always the cliche "look what followed me home, can I keep it?"
For us it's "Look what I found in the mud puddle on the way home from school, aren't they interesting. I sure would like to study them for my merit badge." Which in reference to the Southern Leopard frogs Spencer brought home yesterday, I had to say, "NO!"
I have to honestly say that I have nothing against frogs. I like them. And most amphibians actually. As a matter of fact, I was recounting a story from my teenage-hood to Dallas the other day. Would you like to hear it? If not skip to the next picture.
In Laramie, where I did most of my growing, we lived near a park that had a puddle, or a pond, They call it a lake. But it's not really. Anyway, every time it rained during the spring and summer the salamanders would venture out in hopes of escaping life in the pond. The rain would keep them nice and wet so they could survive as they traveled through the grass, and across the streets, in the gutters, and finally end up in various basement windowsills within a several block radius of the park. We lived at least 3 blocks away and occasionally one would come visit us, too. Those that made it to our house were treated well for a little while, getting some water and then a quick walk back to the park to be returned to the pond. I'm sure they were cussing us all the way (it was a college town after all, they had to pick up some language from somewhere) Now there were those that didn't have the same fortune. There were those that didn't make it across the street. One particularly rainy night. I stopped at the park, with a friend or two, I don't remember what I was originally doing there, but I'll tell you what I ended up doing. The salamanders were trying desperately to escape their mundane life once again. It just wasn't safe to cross the street. So I tried to help them get back to the pond. You must picture this. I'm running up and down this street grabbing as many salamanders as I can and running them back to the lake, trying not to step on the ones running through the grass. Oh did I mention there was traffic? So I would see one grab it, see another and a car would come and beat me to it. It was horrible. Funny now, but horrible then. Squish would go another. I just couldn't save them all. I hope in the long run, the ones I saved made up for the ones I couldn't.


So...I have no problems with amphibians. I even had a couple frogs myself, for a minute. My sister had gone to the trouble of catching one for me, a good sized one, and then a little one later, to go with it. I put the little one in with the big one. I guess the big one was hungry. The next minute I looked and there were little frog legs sticking out of the big ones mouth. I didn't like the big one very much after that, but I did feel bad when he froze because the water he lived in wasn't deep enough to hibernate in.

All this aside, back in the present day, I said that Spencer couldn't keep the frogs because he pulled the same "It's for my merit badge" a few weeks ago and we ended up with this.
Actually that was Rocko

This next one is Roxy. She was the one that Spencer brought home after a day of doing a yard work fundraiser for scouts. I agreed. She was cute. For a lizard. They are Anoles. AKA the American Chameleon because they change color(it's really cool)
Oh, wait you say... Spencer only brought home one? Yeah, here we go on another story.

So Spencer had Roxy in a giant pickle jar up in his room, so we thought. One day Jason and I were taking the boys to the store. As I walked out of the house to put someone in the car, I saw the lizard on the driveway. I was sure that Caleb had gone into Spencer's room and taken it out of the jar, shoved it in his pocket in attempt to take it to the store with us. I was in a *can't disappoint my oldest child* mood, and I was frustrated that I had to take the time to try and catch it. I ran inside to check and see if it was Spencer's lizard, his door was locked, which Caleb has the tendency of doing also, so I went to get a bowl to catch the escaped lizard with. Then back out to the driveway. I was running from one side of the car to the other(those things are fast when they think you're after them) all the while yelling at Caleb for going in Spen's room and letting the lizard out. Meanwhile, Jason had gone upstairs, unlocked the door and found Roxy sitting in the pickle jar. He came out and told me to get in the car. I can only imagine what this all must have looked like. So we went to the store. It had begun to rain by the time we got home to unload the groceries. Jason received a little surprise when he walked by his car. The lizard I had been chasing was catching some rain on the windshield. He was camouflaged in black. I decided that if he was still around it might be fun to catch him anyway. So Long Story even longer...that is how we ended up with two. Roxy and Rocko. and no I don't believe we'll be having little ones anytime soon. Roxy was quite repelled by Rocko. He is really quite arrogant. As far as lizards go.
They no longer live in a pickle jar. They have a nice aquarium. And I have to buy crickets to feed them...I don't like crickets. We had our yard treated for bugs just a couple days after we caught them other wise their food would have been free.
So to the list of 2 adults, 7 children, 1 dog, 2 cats, 1 hamster(sorta, will explain later) 2 fish, we add 2 anole lizards(and a crap load of crickets, good thing they don't chirp)

Good day to ya.