Meet Jake....

I promised an update on Macie's gerbil Jake......well today is the day to let it all hang out...Why today you ask?...because the stinky little thing kept me up most of last night and I had to be up at 5 am to get ready for work.

This is Macie's gerbil Jake. Jake and I have had a love/hate relationship for the past two years or so. The people at PetSmart told me I should consider a gerbil intead of a hamster because gerbils are less likely to bite (not true in our case), are more likely to be awake in the early to late afternoon so the kids could actually play with it (also not true), are just all around more sociable than hamsters (yet one more time...not true.) I'm wondering if they saw a sucker coming and told me anything to make the sale. (Those stinking liars..ha!)

Just wondering...after seeing the beady red eyes and the long tail, what makes a gerbil much different than your average mouse or rat other than the color?? His little red eyes give me the creeps but Macie wanted a white one.


This gerbil is a piece of work. He's had this "exercise ball" (in which he gets absolutely NO exercise) for the past two years. I thought that if he can figure out how to turn the wheel in his cage (which he does very well, esp at 2am...and it squeaks LOUDLY) that he should be able to figure out how to run in this thing but NO!!! He just sits in it....staring at us....Dumb gerbil. Whatever happened to the good ol' days when a gerbils life expectancy was 1 to 2 years?? I had hamsters growing up and they never lived more than 1 1/2 years or so. This thing is (almost) 2 and seems to be going strong. Macie will probably get very upset after reading this post and I apologize, but my goodness....He bites, he sleeps all day and is up ALLLLLL night, he pushes all of his shavings out of his cage onto the floor, he stinks....the list is endless. But in the end, Macie loves him. He bites her too, she can't even pick him up. I'm wondering if his fear has anything to do with his first few days at our home. The story is hilarious...until the pulling off the tail thing ; that part is not so funny. Flash back two years ago to late Oct. early Nov. My children and I are walking though PetSmart getting stuff for our then living hermit crabs (also a disaster...much more stinky than Jake- not good for kids) Macie sees the gerbils and wants one. I, being the good mother that I am (ha!), tell her to ask for one for Christmas. So I decide to get her one. Heck... I had hamsters as a kid....why can't she? Ha!! They spent Christmas that year with their Dad. They got out of school like on the 18th or something and went straight to his house for the holidays (through the 26th at noon ). I was working that day (the 18th)and drove from the hospital like a maniac to get to petSmart before they closed at 9pm. (I had already gotten the cage and all of the accessories and hid them in the attic weeks before.) The people at PetSmart had warned me that they tend to sell out of gerbils and hamsters early at Christmas time because they are such a popular gift (that's probably one more thing that is not true- what can I say? I'm a sucker with a capital S) So I got this red-eyed rat thing and drove home with him in the tiny box they gave me hoping the whole time that he wouldn't chew a hole through the box on the 40 min ride home. I get home and my mom and I set up the cage in the kitchen and it is time to put him in the cage. There was one problem... she and I were both terrified of him. To make a long story short, my very brave mom put on oven mitts and got Jake out of the box and into the cage. There was ALOT of screaming and laughing involved. I should have had Dad video it... we might have won $100,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos. Then I had to take care of this thing until the kids come home on Dec 26th. When she gets home, Macie of course wants to touch him, so trying to be brave... I try to get Jake out of his cage, there was more screaming and laughing and slamming the cage door on his head. After a while of this he seemed to become more afraid of us...wonder why??? So, I try to grab him by the tail...Big mistake, HUGE!!! The hair and skin on the tip of his tail came right off, and boy did it bleed. I almost threw up it was so gross, plus the knowledge of what I had just done to this poor animal was almost too much to bear. Then, the tip turned black over the next few days and eventually fell off. His hair grew back over the remainder of the tail eventually. Ughhhh...it was terrible, Merry Christmas Macie.... here is your tail-less, bloody gerbil. Anyway, back to Macie, present day, she has to trick him in to his ball to get him out of the cage. She does remember to feed him and water him which is probably why he has been healthy. Can't say I always remembered that about my hamsters! (Sad but true). I must admit that even I find myself going to check on the stinky little thing several times a week and adding food and water to his cage in spite of myself. Well, I think I've vented enough about Jake, It's off to bed, had a LONG day at work today. Take care....

Wii had a fun day

Macie's gerbil, Jake

Wii had fun.

Hello everyone, today was a school holiday for the Fab Four and I have today off from work so...we had fun playing the Wii today. We had some rousing good games and we played until the typical fighting started then it was everyone to their separate corners. I wonder if there will ever be a day when the arguing will be set aside and we will be able to spend a day together just enjoying each others company......oh well....Leave it to Beaver we ain't.....Scott made us lunch today (sweet guy) and Macie had her gerbil, Jake, out of his cage in his "exercise ball" yeah right... that thing hasn't figured that ball out in two years! But that is another post... Anyway, she cleaned his cage, Yeah, the smell coming from it was staggering!!! Allie and Holley built a fort and the list goes on....It is funny to me that any two of the kids, and most of the time any three of them can play together very nicely. But watch out for the fireworks when all four of them try to do something together...Yikes....

Another Super Saturday

Holley and coach Kristin 10-11-08

Well friends, it has been another super Saturday around here for the Browning Bunch. Scott played a football game this afternoon and his team won. Yeah!! A great comeback from last week's loss. He tried his hand at quarterback for two plays today. He did pretty well according to Dad. He threw the ball directly to the receivers both times but the receivers did not catch it. This info is coming from Dad however, and we all know he is not biased or anything. He also told me that Scott played center and tight-end today too. All in all it was a good game. I wish I could have been there. I, on the other hand, took Holley to her gymnastics meet which of course was at the same exact time today. How many football games do you know of that don't start until 5 pm???? Anyway, Holley had a FANTASTIC meet. She scored high enough on the balance beam (9.0) and the floor (9.1) to earn blue ribbons. She scored an 8.2 on vault to earn a red ribbon, and her old nemesis the uneven bars proved too difficult once again. She scored a 6.8 earning a yellow ribbon. If only she could get one move, her kip, her score would dramatically change. There are two kips in her program, one on low bar and one on high bar and she can't do either one yet. That is the main new move that separates the level 4's from the level 5's. It is apparently a move that is difficult to get right but her coaches tell me that one day, all of a sudden, she will get it and then it will be easy for her. I hope they are right. Half of the girls have their kips and the other half don't, so I guess we will just have to wait until she figures it out. She's having fun anyway and that is the important part. Take care..... P.S. Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday Perry!!

Here's Holley's arch enemy, the uneven bars. Notice how her coach has to help her do each of her kips. The kip is the swing move to actually get on the bar. She does it on the low bar and on the high bar.

Starting them young

I believe in starting them young......enough said...

There is a boy under all that hair...

Scott's hair cut 10-08

Hello all, Scott is finally looking like the handsome ,clean cut, young man that he is. He had his hair cut after months of us being so busy it felt like we were living in a whirlwind. I never carved out a chunk of time to take him. I just had to brag about my little man, oops sorry, my young man. Scott is such an amazing guy. I hope one day he reads this and will know how very proud I am of him and how much I love him. He is truly an amazing young man. There are not many other young men who will let his sisters beat on him and not retaliate. Oh, he will threaten one of them every now and then but it is justly deserved when he does. The worst thing he does is scare Allie with his scary mask and that is usually when she has pushed him too far. He has amazing patience. I am so grateful that the Lord chose me to be this wonderful child's mom. Oh he is not perfect let me assure you. His room is often a mess and I have to remind him to take a shower and brush his teeth (several times before he does it), but his heart is pure gold. He truly cares about other people's feelings and I am convinced that living in a houseful of women will benefit him one day when he finds the precious woman that the Lord has in store for him as his wife.

Life in the fast lane...

Macie having 3 baby teeth extracted

Hello friends....it's been several days since I've found time to post...sorry about that...we've just been so darn busy. Let's see... where to begin... the last time I posted Macie was going to have her teeth extractions. She did very well. She was sore of course, but no major complications. This weekend Macie competed in her very first cross country meet. She finished the meet in a time of 16minutes 23 seconds. (a 2 mile course) which was pretty dang good considering that is the first time she has actually run the full two miles since she had tendonitis. She placed 26th out of 50 which is very good. Her coach was extremely pleased. Scott had a football game on Saturday and sadly, the mighty Bucs were handed their first loss of the season. Holley had gymnastics on Sat morning and then went to a slumber party for one of her gym buddies. They had a great time and went ice skating on Sunday. I am very happy to announce that she did not break, strain or sprain anything while ice skating. She did tell me that she spent quite a good bit of time on the ice (literally sitting on the ice, ha!) and that her bottom was pretty sore but no injuries. As for me, I worked all weekend, Fri., Sat. and Sun. So I participated in none of the activities. That is probably the one thing that bothers me the most about being a working mom. I miss not seeing all of the fun things the kids are doing. Luckily, Meme was able to see Scott's game, and their Dad handled everything else. His sister came into town for a friend's wedding in San Antonio, so the kids were excited about getting to see Aunt Brenda. This week, Nana and Grandpa and Great-Granny and Great-Grandpa are coming so they are very excited to see them and they will be gone with their Dad again. As for right now, it is homework time. Scott is at football practice until 730 pm, Macie had cross country this afternoon until 515, and Holley is working on homework. So it is a usual crazy, hectic day around here. I stayed home from work today. The dreaded stomach bug hit around 230am this morning so I called in. I'm feeling much better this afternoon and hopefully will be back to 100% by tomorrow so I can keep up with everything we've got going on on Wednesdays around here. Allie has school (as do the rest of the kids), Holley and Allie have gymnastics, Macie has cross country, I have a hair appt (finally, yeah!!) and poor Scott gets taken along for the ride tomorrow.

Cute Lil' Pumpkins

Allie at the pumpkin patch 2008

Allie and her cute little friend Nicole

Hello all, today Allie's class from SHEEP (St. Helena's Early Enrichment Program-Mon. & Wed.) went to the 'pumpkin patch'. The patch is sponsored every year by the Methodist Church. This is the earliest that she has ever visited the patch and we were amazed at all of the weird looking pumpkins that are out there. Some were white, some had "yucky bumps" (as Allie called them), and some were the hugest, most perfectly sized pumpkins for carving that I've ever seen. In previous years her classes at Mother's Day out (Methodist church Tues & Thurs) have always gone to the patch but it is usually much closer to Halloween and the supply has been diminished. This is the first day that they are opened this year. She will go again with her other school (Methodist MDO) but they go on Oct. 30th, just one day before Halloween and also Allie's 5th b-day, so I don't imagine there wil be much left to see. It was fun getting to go with her this year. The last two years Meme has gotten to go because I was either working or in school. She had a great time, but I could definitely tell that she is not 100% back to herself after being sick. She ended up being sick all night long (Mon.) and well into Tues. morning. Then she started running a fever so she did not get to go to MDO yesterday. Her fever broke late yesterday afternoon and by the time I got home from work last night around 9pm it was gone. So...I broke down and let her go to the patch this morning. I am a firm believer that kids should be fever free for 24 hrs before going back, so I did not let her stay for school, we came home immediately after the patch. She got to pick a movie 'Monsters Inc.' and we watched it together. Macie has her dental appt. today at 2pm. She's a little nervous about having her teeth extracted. I'll let you all know later how she does. I imagine she will hurt some tonight.