in october, pia came back! she was super skinny and her poo showed that she had been eating nothing but twigs and branches, but now she is home and she is loved. she is really fat now! i am so happy she is back. even if she occasionally dances across our heads in the middle of the night!

she ran off last june, so she was gone for almost four months. i wonder what she was doing....

HAHA! GOTCHA! no, i'm not pregnant. but imagine my surprise when i got home from hyogo to find our family had increased by about 25! i'm not kidding! there are about 20 goldfish, and some bell crickets. i don't know how many bugs, more than one, but perhaps no more than five. apparently my in-laws brought them over for the kids, when MIL came to help yoshi take care of the kids while i was gone.

there's even a new fish tank, though i'm not sure who got it. of course, i'm the one who got the rocks, backing, torii gate and plastic plants for the fish. hopefully they won't get any bigger because this tank just isn't big enough for 20 fish!

the crickets are really noisy. that's the whole point, apparently, but ugh. they make the dog bark, too. quite annoying! oh well, soon enough we'll be bug free. the two kabuto-mushi have passed on. now, to wait out the crickets and fish...

ok, confession time: i have been battling lice for a very long time. as in, just before sasha started kindergarten long time. it's not so bad, if a little gross, lice doesn't really bother me all that much. i wash hair with lice killing shampoo, comb through hair and am in general, pretty much aware of what's going on with the kids' hair. this will be a never ending battle (and i don't really need advice, thanks) because no matter what, they will always bring more home from kindy. just waiting it out, really. poor sasha gets it the worst, with her long hair and (seemingly) tasty self (she's also very popular with the mosquito crowd) but we wash and we comb and we use tea tree oil (the tea tree oil conditioners are great!) but then sasha feels unwell at school and they have her lay down in the office on the futons and BAM! here come the lice again. the boys don't get it so bad, though when tommy does get lice, he hates the lice ridding procedure(s) and it can get really rough in there until i pin him down and get the job done.

thankfully i have to do these things, though, because last night tommy had a tick on his head!! ARGH!! (ok, imagine me screaming in horror.) i hate ticks. gross gross gross. thankfully it was still small and also that i could get it off without breaking or squishing it. i have no idea where it came from. yesterday morning, when i took the dog for a walk, it looked like he had a blister on his ear. i wondered where it came from but when i looked at it closely, it was a tick! a bloated, shiny tick! *shivers* i tried to get it off but it wasn't going to come easily. after i came home, the kids were up and sasha found it first. she kinda freaked out about it, poor girl. then yoshi came downstairs and i told him there was a tick on his dog's ear. at first he looked *inside* the ear and didn't see anything. i turned the dog's ear and showed him the tick. OMGSHOCK! yoshi had never seen a tick before, can you believe it? i tried to carefully take it off but failed--the head detached. now we are on ear watching duty for the dog, and head watching duty for tommy. totally squicked out over here. and i never ever ever want to take a hike in the woods again! or even go into the back garden (it has really overgrown this rainy season. time to put on jeans, thick socks, long sleeved shirts, bandanas and hats and tackle the garden--with thick gloves, too, of course!

because i don't have any energy for writing. pictures are worth a thousand words, so these should make up for that.

right?









(pia has about as much tolerance for the peace sign as i do!)

i forgot to write about yesterday's post's title. my nose is stuffed. i think i have a summer cold (lucky me) but i suppose it could always be allergies. unlikely, but could be. so, i can't breathe well and have a slight headache.

yesterday i was so tired. i didn't sleep well the night before. mainly because of the dog and the cat. the dog barked and barked so i finally went downstairs to see what he needed. turned out he was really thirsty. put him back to bed, went upstairs to my bed and thirty minutes later the cat started meowing. not cool. finally put her out of my room and dozed for the rest of the night. with my cold i wasn't feeling all that hot yesterday.

early this morning the cat did her meow thing (as she usually does--at 4 am. WTF, cat?) but she was outside my room. i got up to let her in when the door started to open. i thought maybe the cat was trying to do it until i opened the door and sasha stood up. nearly peed my pants! made sasha go back to bed and the cat did her normal cat stomp and meow until i threw her out again. i am so ready for her to be a bit older and sleep through the night-type cat!

today is going to be a scorcher. i think i'll go to the mall and get some cold meds, then a cold drink at starbucks. yeah, sounds like a plan!

i know you're all dying to know. so, i'll tell you: we decided to get both the dog and the cat! once you've all picked yourselves off the floor with shock (i am not a dog person), i hope you'll be ok! haha

the dog's name is zorro, and we'll probably keep it. the cat is named pia, which i don't like very much, but we're not coming up with anything better. if anyone has suggestions, please leave them in the comments!

zorro will be joining us on sunday. there will be a two week trial period, to see if he adjusts to us, and if he'll work out for our family. cross your fingers!