Toadally Awesome

Where is heaven? Is it very far?...

For Freestone, heaven is Little Big Planet. For Golda heaven is found backstage, ready to go into the lights. Araceli's favorite thing is mothering her dolls. She's already pretty good at multi-tasking. Xanthe's heaven is whenever somebody is giving her their undivided attention. The closest I can get to heaven, and it's pretty darn close, is having all the kids at the pool together. I love to see them so happy and carefree. Meanwhile, our pilgrimages to the pool free up Scott to enjoy his own heaven...home alone in his man cave watching Sports Center. It's a win-win.

Ruby has finally earned her own little piece of heaven. She completed her goal of finishing Book Two in guitar and went yesterday to get a fire-belly toad that she has wanted since first grade. The toad's name is Firebella and she is black and lime green with orange fingernails. Scott took Ruby to the pet store and came home just a tiny bit excited about Ruby's new acqusition and all the crickets, waxworms and bloodworms that go along with it. It was accidental genius on my part to send Scott rather than bringing all the creatures home and trying to convince him how cool they were. Because I'm not so sure myself that it's going to be awesome to have a pet that eats bugs. It was fun for Ruby to have Dad there to help pick out the prettiest toad. Firebella is pretty hot, especially her flaming orange fingernails. And the way she eats crickets with a flick of her head is pretty amazing. She has a nice habitat in an aquarium that has been waiting for her arrival since I found it at a garage sale last fall. Here we go, into another chapter of kid-centric hobbies, learning more about fire-belly toads than I ever though possible. This is going to be fun, Rubes!