Oh Rats!

In my English class right now we're giving presentations of our latest persuasive essays. Mine's gonna be on the importance of fathers (of deaf children) learning sign language. But that's not for another week. Today, one of my fellow students gave a presentation persuading us (we represented middle-school age adolescents looking to buy a pet rodent) to turn to pet rats instead of hamsters. Then she described the various pros and cons of rats compared to hamsters.

Which, in my personal experience, is that hamsters are just fluffy, cute poof balls that really don't do anything except run in their annoying wheels from 12:43am to 5:14am. On school nights. And they don't really serve any purpose besides being cute to look at. And...uhh...being cute to look at. Yeah, that's about it. Oh, and they like to bite.

But rats are friendly and playful! Not only are they not nocturnal, but they like company and people. (Ahem, tame rats like people. Don't go picking up rats out by the gutter. They are wild. And they don't like you.) I began trying to tell Angie about them, but - miracle of miracles - Angie wants a pet rat TOO!!! (Enter Alleluia Chorus) So we decided a few things. First, we're getting a rat once we move out of this apartment. :) Second, we were going to look at cute rat pictures. Right. Now. So we did. And here's our spoils:

Notice the guy's tongue on the left, the overbearing grandma the top right rat
unfortunately posseses, and the adorable eyes of the white one.
::sniff::

Now come some of our favorites. Of. All. Time...

This is Bug. He's "the most adorable rat in the world." (Angie)
And where did he get those miniature teddy bears???

These were runner ups:

The cutest position a rat could stand in.

And this mama & baby rats were to die for

That's what we stayed up late doing. And we're happier for doing it. ;) Soon we'll have a rat. Any name suggestions??

New Toy

We got a webcam from my family so that we could have lovely conversations over the internet. Anthony was really excited to get it set up. :)

Chester

Last Saturday March 7 around 4pm, I received a call from my mom that our beloved dog Chester had passed away in the animal hospital. He was unexpectedly attacked by our neighbor's Rottweilers the day before but only suffered a few teeth marks and a broken leg. But when they put him under the anesthetic on Saturday morning, his lungs reacted to it and he died of a heart attack.

The news was extremely sudden so I had a hard time controlling my emotions. I pretty much didn't want to be (or pretend to be) happy all weekend. But thanks to my wonderful husband, I did have a little fun Saturday night and got my mind off of it for awhile. He was so supportive and very comforting. I'm very grateful to have him in m life :)

Chester was 8 years old and the best dog we've ever had. He was energetic, obsessed with playing fetch, slept with me in my bed, loved to cuddle on the couch and had the two biggest puppy eyes that no one could say no to. I will miss him very much and I'm not sure any other dog could hold such a dear place in my heart.

Reminisce

Awww...

I was just looking through some old family pictures and look what I found! Bekah and Jordy all snuggly. :) These two wouldn't be caught DEAD cuddling like that now. They grew out of that loving sibling stage years ago. So why are we so eager to become adults when we are young? Amidst adulthood, I often wish I could go back to those carefree days of playing Barbies and watching cartoons all day. Those were the good 'ole days.