Meet Willow

I know, second blog of the day. Sorry, our laptop bit it so I'm trying to catch up while I can.

I'm SURE you've seen my post about Sunny. Well, this is our new baby, Willow.

We decided we loved Sunny SO much we that wanted another goat. We wanted him to have someone to play with. The dog just isn't really into getting headbutted! So we went to out sourcee who just happen to have two babies. Daddy took our youngest to pick one out and here she is.

There are a few differences between her and Sunny. First of all, she's more of a farm goat. More of what you think of if you think of a goat. Sunny thinks he's a dog. He's even picky about only eating dog food and fresh leaves straight from the tree and/or rose bush. He tries to run in the house just like the dog. He REALLY thinks he's a dog. Willow does not. She is a goat and doesn't want you to hold her. In fact, it would be hard to even touch her if it weren't for her uniqueness (which I'll get to). You see, we got Sunny straight from his Mommy. He was a BABY! We bottle fed him and he thinks my daughter is his Mommy. Willow is a baby, but she's been away from her Mommy for a while.

When we put her in the fence with the dog and goat, naturally the dog wanted to inspect. This FREAKED her out and she seeked shelter with the other goat. What she didn't know is that the other goat thinks he's a dog and SHE was freaking him out! It's been a few weeks now and things have settled. She lets you get a little closer, doesn't so much mind the dog, and Sunny is nice to her unless he gets jealous.

Now I'll explain the uniqueness...

When Willow was first running through the yard she looked funny. We decided rather quickly that she wasn't the same kind of goat as Sunny. We thought they were both "mutt" goats, until the next day. So the next afternoon my daughter was sitting in the chair holding her. When she put her down the dog ran by, freaked her out, and she fainted! I called my husband who said he had seen her do it that morning. We now have a fainting goat! Or stiff leg or myotonic or whatever you want to call her. It's so funny, but also a little sad I think.

If you've never heard of them do a youtube search. One day I'll get video and maybe I'll share.



King Bed

I've decided I need a king bed. My family LOVES to hang out in my bed. In fact it's our favortie place to hang out. We watch TV, play games, listen to music and color, everything in the bed. The problem is that my family of 6(+ at times) hardly fits in the bed. My oldest son rarely gets in the bed anymore. He usually just sits on the floor if we're watching TV or playing a game. It works, but I wish we could all veg in the bed together. Are we wierd or do others hang out in their beds. Where do you like to hang out with your kiddos?



Pool

This year my husband and I splurged on an above ground pool for the kiddos. In years past we've done sprinklers and the little $20 kiddie pool. This year we made a $100 initial investment on a 12' almost 3' pool for the kids. It even has a filter, chlorine dispenser, etc. I know that may not seem like a splurge for some folks but for us it totally was!

So the kids have TOTALLY been loving the pool. And by kids I mean my 4 and my niece and nephew that also happen to be my neighbors. When we first set it up we didn't realize it took chlorine and we didn't have a bucket for the kiddos to step in and we didn't have a cover for it. It only lasted about a week before the water kinda started turning green. YUCK! So we drained it, cleaned it, and set it up again, but this time we did all the fore mentioned things that we had not done the first time. That was about 3 weeks ago and the water is still nice and clear! We also bought a skimmer and do that daily.

Today I FINALLY gave in and put my bathing suit on and joined the kiddos. The 100+ degree weather made watching unbearable. At first it was just refreshing, but then it was SO much fun! We stayed out for hours! I was the "momma piranha"! It was SO SO much fun! I blew up my raft and we had fun all trying to fit on it, swimming under it, dumping each other off of it, etc. I also showed the kids how to make a whirlpool! We would all swim/walk really fast one way and then just stop. The water would pull us down! It was so fun! I will now be sporting my bathing suit on a regular basis. Maybe not in public, but most definitely in my own back yard!

As much as we love our pool we are having a serious issue with it. It requires these "D" filter cartridges. Last time I was at the local store we got all this mess from, I bought all they had, luckily, cause they've not restocked. Not only have they not restocked, but they don't even offer the products on their website! I finally found them on ebay for 8 times what I originally paid for them! Are you kidding me! I'm peeved! How are you going to sell me something that I'm not going to be able to use for more than a month? I've emailed their customer service so we'll see where it goes. We are down to our last filter!

UPDATE:

The store I got the filter/pool from no longer made or had the filters. They told me I could bring the pool back for credit on a new pool. We ran home, drained, and pack up the pool to get back before the person who told me that left. So they gave me my money back on a gift card. Yay! Or so you would think. They didn't have anymore pools. NO ONE DID! So I went home and did an online search. AMAZINGLY there was ONE store that had ONE left and we got it!! I also bought every filter they had so I'm good for the rest of the summer.

The lesson here is buy the filters upfront! That way you don't have to go on the hunt!