Video of Maggie and Ruth Playing

I found out how to use the video feature on the camera tonight AND how to upload them to the blog. They LOVE their new wheel we bought them and thought I'd share it here.

Cute Picture of Fancy Mouse Ruth

Below is a picture I took of Ruth the other day while she was sleeping in her FOOD BOWL. Click on the picture to enlarge.

We went to PetSmart today to get them a wire wheel so their messes will fall through, and not onto, the wheel. Maybe that way they'll also both be able to play on the wheel at once. One on the inside and one on the outside like I saw them doing at the pet store when we bought them. I also picked up one ball (hope to get a picture of one of them playing in it in the next couple of days. I was going to pick up two but decided one should be ok. And got some sort of odor obsorber. I hope it works. I'd like to eliminate one of my 3 cage cleaning days each week.



Got the house good and clean too over the course of yesterday and today. I've done laundry all day today and STILL have one more load to do. I'm not sure how I managed to get that much laundry; I just washed Thursday.

Oh! I'm finished with another pattern but I want to do one more that will go with this one before I release it. I need to hurry cause these are Christmas oriented.

Be back soon! Have a nice night.

Just a Friday Update

It's been a strange week of trying to catch up from last week's housework and adjusting to the new pet mice. It's not only fun watching them play but also watching them out-wit each other. Poor Ruth is so tiny so she has to use the strategy of staying aware. So she will sleep in the wheel so she'll know when Maggie comes up. She'll have the upper hand by already being in the wheel. Or she'll sleep in the food dish so she'll know when Maggie isn't in the wheel (because she has come to eat) and she will scat to the wheel at that time.

Maggie has become very aggressive. Perhaps because of Ruth's "possessiveness". I saw her chase Ruth away from the wheel yesterday. Already today I've heard them squeaking as if they're fighting. This is the first day that's happened and it's happened at least 3 times over the course of the last 30 minutes. Of course by the time I get to the cage nothing is happening. I'll need to find a few minutes later to just watch. I'll be looking for another wheel and the little mouse balls they can play in outside of the cage this weekend.

I did figure out yesterday that if I leave the wheel on while I remove the bedding that one of the girls will run while leaving me with only one to keep from escaping. That was much easier yesterday. I'll be able to handle them shortly as they don't seem so timid of my hand now when I'm cleaning inside their cage.

I have really got to get my planned routine housework done this weekend as now I'm behind on my deep cleaning. I'll be glad to finally have this week behind me and move on. After the weekend I can really concentrate on Thanksgiving. Mom and I have already started planning the menu but I have to get it down on paper next week.

Have a great weekend. I'll be back with more soon!

Words of Wisdom from Maya Angelou

I thought I'd post these inspiring words that I received in a recent email. I've seen it before but sometime I may NEED to read it again myself. Enjoy!

Autobiographer Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 70+ birthday..

Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older.

And, there on television, she said it was 'exciting...' Regarding body changes, she said there were many, occurring every day.....like her breasts. They seem to be in a race to see which will reach her waist, first.

The audience laughed so hard they cried. She is such a simple and honest woman, with so much wisdom in her words!

Maya Angelou said this: 'I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.'

'I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.'

'I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.'

'I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life .'

'I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.'

'I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back....'

'I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.'

'I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one..'

'I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.'

'I've learned that I still have a lot to learn..'

'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

Fancy Mice and a Dusty Situation

Vicki summed up the mouse purchase pretty well with "What a surprise!" Indeed it was. I never dreamed of having mice as pets. They are lots of fun. We were cracking up at them last night. Ruth, the black and white one, kept guard over the wheel all day yesterday. She SLEPT in the wheel to keep Maggie from getting into it. I didn't see her eat at all yesterday....I suppose in fear that Maggie may take over the wheel again. I thought that was pretty smart. Maggie does have the strength to take over if she wants to run though. I think I'll look for the little balls they can run in so they can leave their cage during the day. They were cuddled up together again this morning. That didn't happen at all yesterday while they rested. I didn't get time yesterday but I will clean their cage sometime later this morning or early afternoon. I'm still trying to figure it all out in my head but I still think I can get coax them into a small box (eventually the balls) so I can clean the cage for them. Bleach, bleach, bleach! Yes, it will be diluted bleach and I'll also rinse, rinse, rinse very well. Ü I have a great schedule; just need to figure out now how to work a 15 minute cage disinfecting into the day every other day. I just don't think it can go longer than 2 days. NOT in my house anyway. NOT as hard as I've worked to keep the house clean.

Next, I spent 2 hours in the older son's room yesterday and I only cleaned his intertainment center! I know life is hectic but give me a break! Dust bunnies hanging off cords that are on TOP of the shelves. They don't even hang off our cords BEHIND the furniture in the rest of our house. And the dust was thick elsewhere. Fortunately his girlfriend was working last night; and he didn't have to work so he cleaned out his closet (had 3 trash bags full of stuff), put away all the stuff that he had tucked under his futon into the closet. He got rid of a ton of stuff he had on his desk also. He told me he would finish dusting but I don't think he did so I may do that today but I don't think I'll have 2 hours into the rest of the room since he did what he did when he got home from class yesterday. Just look at the photos I snapped below. It doesn't look like that now and it won't look like that again. So another hour or so I need to work into my cleaning schedule. I told him that there isn't that much dust in all the other rooms combined.





Today the younger one and I need to get back to lessons. I have to add an hour to each day this week to catch up for missing yesterday. By the time I got the older one registered online for his spring classes (took me about two hours as they were late getting the web registration started, the site was extremely slow, and I got a lot of "page cannot be displayed" errors due to the heavy traffic because of the first day of spring registration AND I barely got him registered for the welding class - he got the LAST of 10 seats available and that's the class I registered him for FIRST), finished a newsletter, took care of numerous customer support issues (long story but that was because of two patterns in the newsletter), getting more items ready and added to Ebay, cleaning the older son's intertainment center, washing and drying a load of laundry, meals and dishes, my day was over.

Sometime between lessons, the mice cage and tomorrow I also need to finish cleaning the bathrooms. I managed to get off my cleaning track over the weekend. I hope that doesn't happen again for a while. I just don't have time for cleaning during the week!

Ok, enough rambling. I'll be back in a few days. You all have a great week!

Fancy Mice

We got these little gals yesterday at PetSmart. These little Fancy Mice have been very intertaining. They're a little stinky this morning so need to clean that wheel to get rid of the smell.

Ruth - the one on the wheel by herself in the bottom picture - is white with little black spots. She got away from me when we were transferring them from the box into the cage yesterday. Gave me a scare cause she's so tiny. Anyway she bit me on her way into the cage. She was scared too. She didn't start playing until it was time for bed. She just wanted to fix the bedding to her liking. And she looked like she was praying a lot. So that's why I chose the Biblical name Ruth.

Maggie has awesome red eyes and is solid gray. She transferred more easily into the cage and was less nervous. So she explored a lot. I named her after the explorer Magellan. LOL!

I was really afraid they'd keep us awake all night because they're described as nocturnal. But I guess they couldn't see the wheel well enough to play on it cause I didn't hear it after we turned off the lights. They did, however, make a mess with their food so I assume that's why all the poo poo; they can easily eat when they can't see.

I never thought of having a mouse as a pet but they kept looking at us but I couldn't resist their little twitchy noses. The cats didn't want to play so the mice got to come home with us.

Grabbing a Quick Minute

I just wanted to quickly come in and post this morning. I've been so busy this week.....well, I did slow down yesterday. But I really didn't have a choice. After 2 days of climbing a ladder to clean the high places in the basement and the kitchen, I wasn't able to sleep Wednesday night (Thursday morning) because of the nerves in my legs jumping so badly. I was awake at 1:56 am and was JUST dozing back off as the alarm went off at 6 am yesterday morning. Instead of getting up and diving right into my day, I re-set the alarm for 8:30 and did manage to fall asleep. I was awake at about 8:15 but that was at least 2 hours of sleep I got. Thursday is the only day I can do that since the older one doesn't have to be at school until noon. So I consider yesterday a gift from God. I just took it slow the rest of the day. Oh, several things still got done but I didn't try to work a week's worth of work into a single day.

Mom came down too yesterday so that was another gift. I enjoy spending time with my mom.

Oh yeah, I got my fabric I ordered from Hancock Fabric yesterday. It was like I was being showered with gifts yesterday.

I'm back to my routine today. But I feel rejuvenated so I should do ok.

Have a nice weekend and I'll talk to you soon.