Whimpulsive» alice

The 5am Gerbil Grab

Lisa — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:34:08 +0000

Alice woke up at around 4.45am this morning, wanting a drink. So to avoid the low mutterings turning into 10 decibel screaming that would wake the whole house, I got up to make her a bottle. As I was walking downstairs I heard what can only be described as a scampering across the laminate floor in the living room. The first thought that went through my mind was “oh god, the cat’s got in and let the gerbils out!” So I flicked on the light to see the back end of a gerbil disappearing under the table.

The gerbils cage is in the backroom, so to reach the living room it had to get out of its cage, and come through the kitchen before getting to the living room. My first reaction was to check where the second gerbil was – luckily she’d had the sense to stay at “home” and was sitting on the top level inside the cage, peering out. It looks like the sidedoor had been pushed ever so slightly open and the gerbil had squeezed her way out.

I returned to the living room, muttering under my breath about 5am not being the time of day for chasing rodents around the house and spent half an hour enticing the stupid thing out from under the sideboard with some gerbil treats and the enticement of a cardboard tube to chew. Thankfully, our gerbils are pretty tame and don’t mind being handled so wasn’t in the least concerned when she did poke her head out and I grabbed her. I gave her a mild lecture about keeping me out of bed while she wriggled and glared at me and then dumped her back in her cage with her sister.

Bloody things! They’re both curled into a ball fast asleep now.

The 5am Gerbil Grab originally appeared on Whimpulsive on January 6, 2009.

Family Visit

Lisa — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:50:34 +0000

Gary’s sister came over today with her girls. She lives a few hours drive away so this was the first time she’s been able to come down since Alice was born. She is staying at the MILs so we only got to see her for a couple of hours. But it was a nice visit and the kids were pleased to see their cousins. Needless to say, the whole time they were here all the kids were tearing around the house making loads of noise. But two more kids didn’t really make much of a difference to the noise levels here!

Shannon got a bit upset when they left – she gets a bit overwhelmed I think. She adores having people come over and gets really excited so when it’s time for things to finish she gets a little teary-eyed. Still, it meant the girls had a pretty late night and didn’t get in bed until 9pm. I’d like to think that we’d get a lie-in in the morning because of it, but it’s unlikely. I’ put money on them still waking up at 6am, but we can hope!

Gary’s watching the third Resident Evil film as I type. It isn’t really grabbing my attention at all, in fact it seems to be very boring and bland from the bits I keep glancing up and watching. I’m giving serious consideration to going to bed. Dunno what it is about having visitors but I’m always shattered after they leave. Probably the unsociable part of me needing to work hard to make conversation and it tires me out!

Family Visit originally appeared on Whimpulsive on February 22, 2008.

Wallowing in Self-Pity

Lisa — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:29:10 +0000

It’s school half-term. Need I say more? A whole week with all the kids at home. I don’t think I can cope with the agony! It wouldn’t be so bad if the girls would actually grasp the concept of the fact that they don’t need to get up at 6.30am! (Not that they need to get up that early on a school morning either, but I can cope with it then.) I think I’d kill for a lie-in beyond 8am. Before you tell me to get a grip, remember that half-term for me means six kids at home – not your average 2.4 (I wonder how you get the .4 of a child, I have visions of just the legs or maybe the head and arms….. :oh: ).

The oldest boy – if you’ve been keeping up with the saga – has left home, so that leaves the two teenagers (DJ and JD) and the girls, who are all under 6. The two boys swing between getting along fine and hating each others guts on a minute to minute basis so it’s hard to tell what is going to happen at any given moment and some days I just can’t be bothered with the aggro. Luckily, today they managed to get through the whole day without resorting to violence and it was left to the girls to drive me insane instead.

From 8am to 5pm, Erin and Caty have done nothing but fight. Screaming at each other constantly at full banshee volume. My ears are still ringing from the noise. Shannon, while better behaved, was just as loud. Alice, the babe, was peaceful as ever – which is a nice change from the rest of em! There was a unanimous decision made by Shannon, Erin and Caty to watch Jurassic Park at 8.15am. My ears are still ringing from the shrieks of pretend terror whenever a dinosaur appeared on the screen. I say pretend as none of them are phased in the slightest by scary movies of any kind. And that seemed to set the mood of the day. By the time Gary came home from work, I was ready to murder them. What a terrible parent I am!

But now here I sit, upstairs on my pc for a change instead of lounging on the sofa with my laptop. My ears are still ringing from all the noise, but I’m starting to chill down as I listen to Blue October and surf the net, looking for goodies to add to my little blog and my forums. Tell you what would be nice. Some of you lurkers actually saying hello instead of just popping in, reading my waffle, and departing without so much as a wave as you pass by! :lol:

Wallowing in Self-Pity originally appeared on Whimpulsive on February 18, 2008.