Woo Hoo, My Seeds Are Finally Here- well, at least part of them anyway....

My heirloom seed packets

The Freebies that I received
(most are not heirloom seeds...hmmm...)

The other day, we managed to finally get to the post office to check the mail. As it turned out, it kind of felt like Christmas when my hubby returned to the car carrying an armful of packages. Amongst those packages were two Etsy related goodies and my vegetable seeds! Some seeds are on back order and will hopefully come when I need them. I would imagine that peanut seeds are kind of in demand at the moment so that explains one back order delay. My potatoes will be coming later in March as they are not shipped out to my zone until then.

My kids are working on starting their own Etsy shop soon and they are going to be working on some little goodies to put in that store. Their package came that had the materials in it to get started. (More on their little venture- to come when I finally get their banner uploaded) (wish me luck....).

I even got my bracelet that I won in a blog giveaway. My intentions were to give it to my niece but my oldest daughter very meekly hinted that she loved it. This softy mom couldn't resist bringing joy to her angel.

Well, I know that you are probably not excited that my seeds came, but I am! I have a feeling that between garden planting, the great impending fire ant war, and Uncle Bubba's outhouse, things are going to get mighty interesting this summer.

Stay tuned to some hilarity in the garden in the next coming months...... I can feel it coming.......

A Wordless Wednesday (almost)

Even trees get runny noses sometimes

Uncle Bubba Built an Outhouse- How is That for Handmade........

"Uncle Bubba's Outhouse"
(currently gender neutral by the way...)

I am increasingly becoming more of a country girl at heart. I grew up in the country but was not fortunate enough to live on a working farm. Living on a farm is my dream.

We always had a garden, dogs, horses, and when I was really small, we had chickens (baby yo-yo's- I called them). I vaguely remember a pig somewhere in my clouded childhood memories too. My father grew up farming and in my opinion, farming stays in your blood. He always was plowing something up, bush hogging, or some such other type of farming activity. He is gone now but his legacy lives on....

My brother has farming in his blood. (Hey wait, isn't this supposed to be about an outhouse?) Bare with me, I'm getting to it...

Like I was saying, my brother has farming in his blood. He also acquired or "inherited", a creative building streak from our late grandfather. Tie the two things together- farming and building. The result is an outhouse.

See, I told you this would end up about an outhouse.... just trust me next time.

Uncle Bubba (And no, that is not his real name- just what my kids call him. The funny thing is, I have called him Bubba for as long as I remember too.) (Rosemary, stay focused)

As I was saying, Uncle Bubba built this outhouse over a couple of days from some aged wood. We would visit his farm every couple of days and watched the progress of the outhouse until one day, it was finished (complete with seat and hole, no less).

(Back View)

This outhouse even has a rusty old tin roof on it. The door has a very creaky old hinge on it that reminds you of some old fashioned country screen door. He was going to cut a moon shape in the door but he hasn't gotten to it yet. Regardless of what shape is on the door, it appears to be a fully functional outhouse in every sense of the word.

Hey the locals have totally "dug" Uncle Bubba's outhouse and moved in. So, can you guess who actually moved into his outhouse? You would never guess in a million years (unless you have older relatives that know what I'm talking about).

OK, I give in, I can never leave people in suspense. A family of skunks dug up under the outhouse and were living under the seat. Not only is it funny that skunks moved into an outhouse, what was really funny was the surprise that Uncle Bubba received when it was almost dark and he noticed something white- moving inside of the outhouse bench. Luckily, he did not get sprayed but I would imagine he ran. Ran long and fast.

If you ever need to know how to run a family of skunks from your outhouse, moth balls in a jar with holes poked in the lid, do the trick.

A little outhouse history: the moon on the door was for a woman's outhouse, a sun or star shape was for a man's outhouse. The sun or star shape was harder to cut out so, throughout time, people just seemed to stick with the moon shape. The moon shape just kind of "stuck" as the official outhouse door shape.

We joke that we are going to bring Uncle Bubba a tin can with corn cobs in it next time we visit. (We tried to save some up the last time we ate corn on the cob, but when we put the corn cobs out to dry on the back step, the neighbor's cat drug them off into the yard.) Maybe one day we'll finally get to surprise him with some corn cobs. There is always his birthday after all.

Lincoln Logs are Awesome

"Before"

My kids have been after me for some time to post their Lincoln Log creation that you see in the pictures. I love Lincoln Logs. They are just plain, simple, and creative fun. The "Before" picture above is a log cabin built by my oldest daughter. The "After" picture is the result of my youngest son. You can fill in the blank as far as what probably happened between the two pictures. My daughter wasn't too mad at her little brother when all was over and done with. After all, I did snap the picture before the cabin "fell". We do have proof that a cabin was built successfully.

"And After"

Maybe next Christmas, Santa will give my kids another set of Lincoln Logs. That would be nice.

No Animals Were Harmed in The Making of This Blog Post

My "fake" Hamburger Patty

Some time ago, I bought a pack of dried lentil beans. I had no idea what to do with them except that I had planned on sneaking some of the cooked lentils into some re fried beans (for burritos). After all, if I mashed them enough, no one would notice.

The other day, I had this crazy idea that involved turning lentils into hamburgers. What did I do next? I searched the trusty Internet and found a pretty decent looking recipe. There is one quite picky eater at my house- when it comes to trying something new in the kitchen- so I proceeded with caution.

If you look hard enough on the Internet you will find literally hundreds of women and men that are writing posts on how to save money grocery wise - especially in these tight times. One of the things that I can easily agree with most of them is to reduce your grocery budget by serving "meatless" meals every once in awhile. I know what you might be thinking, I am not turning vegan, I am just exploring my economical options grocery wise.

Raise your hand if you hate beans.

I have never been very fond of beans in general but in my family's journey of trying to eat healthier, beans have slowly found themselves inching their way into the cupboard. Which brings me back to what I had originally wanted to share with you all: Lentil Burgers.

Being one of those cooks that do not write down recipes and does not make exact measurements of ingredients, you may be at a loss if you are a beginner cook but bare with me, I'll try my best to explain my crazy lentil recipe. As I said earlier, I found a recipe on the Internet by searching "lentil burger" but I did not follow that recipe exactly. I changed it. OK, I altered it a lot.

Ingredients:

Small pack of dried lentils
One small onion (chopped)
Salt
Pepper
Whole wheat bread crumbs (dried) (About 5 slices of bread crumbled and dried out in the oven)
Three eggs
Olive Oil
Ketchup (about a tablespoon or so)

That's it. Can you believe it? Those ingredients turned into the picture above. Amazing, huh?

I started by soaking my lentils overnight in the crock pot. You don't have to, you could simply rinse them well in a colander, put in a pan of water and boil for about 40 minutes or until tender.

If you have read enough of my blog posts, I tend to do things the long, hard way. You don't have to soak your lentils, but I did. Basically, I soaked my beans over night in water and lemon juice. Why you ask? Check out The Weston A. Price Foundation for further info or read the cookbook, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. (Basically, soaking grains and beans in an acidic solution releases the "nasties" that cause gas and bloating in some people and also unlock some of the goodies inside to make it easier for your body to absorb the nutrition inside of the food). No one likes gas and everyone loves better nutrition- right? The next morning, I rinsed them with clean water, added fresh water back to the crock pot, covered the beans and cooked them all day on low.

When your beans are done, drain all extra liquid from them and dump them into a blender (you can use a mixer too). Add the three eggs and ketchup and blend until smooth. What you will end up with is a nasty looking brown liquid but it will surprisingly, smell good. I went ahead and added some salt and pepper to taste and blended awhile longer.

Meanwhile, tear up about 5 pieces of loaf bread and lay the pieces on a baking pan and bake for a few minutes. My oven was set on 350 degrees. I kept peeking at the crumbs and took them out when they were nice and toasty. At that point, I was able to break the larger crumbs up into smaller crumbs. Set them aside.

Transfer your brown lentil juice mixture into a large bowl and add your chopped onion. I ended up only adding half of the chopped onion because there are a few in my household that don't like onions. (I did not want to over do it). Mix in about half of your bread crumbs and stir the mixture. Wait a few minutes to allow the bread crumbs to absorb some liquid, and see if the mixture is too soupy. If so, add more bread crumbs to the mixture and stir. Don't worry if you think the mixture will not form "patties". All you need is a slightly firm glob that will plop easily from a spoon. (Don't you just love my proper cooking terms?)

In a medium heated frying pan with about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, carefully drop the patty mixture from a large spoon. Using your spoon, flatten the "glob" into the shape of a patty. (I fit four patties in my pan). Cover the pan and let them fry for about 6-10 minutes. Lift up an edge and see if they are browning well. If after 6-10 minutes and they are browned nicely, carefully flip the patties and cook for an additional 6-10 minutes until browned.

That's it, veggie burgers! Can you believe it was that easy? Just wait until you taste them. I couldn't believe how good they tasted. The guinea pigs at my house thought that they had ground beef mixed in with them.

They even look like ground beef patties don't they?

Yum, Yum and saved some money too!

"Boo Boo Tator"

"Boo Boo Tator"

A Different Version of "Boo Boo Tator"
(Although washable marker color is not recommended)

I realized that I haven't gotten very "crafty" lately and there hasn't exactly been anything exciting "Outside my Windows" either. Maybe I have exhausted every last ounce of anything that resembled creativity. Maybe I can't seem to figure out my camera and it's "particulars". Maybe I'm going through an early mid-life crisis. Who knows.

I did have that great idea to do a mini meatloaf cook along but after looking at the pictures of raw hamburger meat- let's just say that the idea of a meatloaf cook along was a bad idea. I decided to spare everyone the nasty looking photos. (I just had a cold chill just thinking about it).

Ok, so I haven't been crafty but one of my kids has. My son has created what he calls, "Boo Boo tator". Boo Boo Tator was born from the question, "What happens when you put a potato in the freezer"? The answer, it freezes. Well, this quick thinking mom got to use my son's creation fairly soon after Boo Boo Tator was completely frozen. That creative son that I was speaking of, you see, he ran through a room and bumped his foot (or was it elbow?) and was crying hysterically. Well, it just so happened that I was standing at the open freezer and spied the frozen spud.

"Here," I said. "Put Boo Boo Tator on your boo boo". Guess what happened after that? My boy stopped crying immediately and giggled. There must have been some magic in that old spud. The boo boo was forgotten.

A few nights later, I had came down with a horrendous sinus condition. I blew my nose a little too hard and you can guess what happened next. My quick thinking hubby ran to the freezer and instead of grabbing some ice, he grabbed boo boo tator and wrapped him in a wash cloth. It was 10 minutes later when my nosebleed had stopped that I realized that there was a frozen potato on my nose. (Don't worry, the boo boo tator I used was thrown away immediately- I secretly replaced it with another so my son wouldn't know)(Aren't I sneaky?). Twice in one week, a "boo boo tator had saved the day.

So folks, A Boo Boo Tator is the simplest and easiest of all home made crafts that I could come up with to share with you this week. Now take this knowledge and go freeze a spud.

A Little Something New at Minnie Maes (and I do mean "little")

My prototype
(yes, I was too lazy to take the red thread out of the machine but it worked anyway....)

Card Holder #5

Card Holder #6

I get bored easily and because of that little fact, I often try making new things for my Etsy shop: Minnie Maes. Lately, the idea popped up into my head to try and make some fabric business card holders. I had no idea what size that they needed to be and how to close them. (Velcro doesn't get along with me- so Velcro was not an option in my eyes).

Eventually, I ran across a small packet of pearlized snap closures (assembled nearby in Spartanburg - believe it or not) and I bought those little guys right on the spot. I searched on Etsy to see what other people were charging and I was rather shocked at how expensive card holders were! "Hee, Hee, Hee", I said to myself. I knew that I could produce the same product at much lower prices. (I'm a bargain hunter- especially lately and I figured there are hundreds of others that are the same).

One thing led to another and I made my first fabric business card holder. It was made out of some spare "Love" fabric that was left over from making a grocery bag. Since I didn't know what size to make, it ended up being about two or three inches too wide and deep. It was a learning experience and now, I have this over sized card holder in my own purse- holding my cards.

The other two pictures above are two of the 6 holders that I made for my shop. I finally figured out the size requirements and have my measurements written down (for once- I usually file things in my head but always forget them anyway).

So, there you have it. The newest items listed in Minnie Maes. Who knows what I'll be sewing up next! Now, if I could only figure out something to sew for men........

What Does A Frisbee, A Pecan, A Lot of SweetGum Seeds, and A Dandelion Bloom Have in Common?

A four year old's treasures

Life gets way too hectic sometimes. This afternoon however, I took some time to slow down and discover something that my four year old already knew. You see, she knows that there are beautiful treasures all around us. We just have to slow down and look. I forget that sometimes. I think that God uses our little ones to remind us of the beauty around us when we forget.

This afternoon in particular, my little one (don't tell her I called her a little one- she would be "powerful" angry at being called "little") and I ventured outside. It was quite chilly and this winter, I have seemed to grow into a sort of house hermit so it took some urging to get me to grab a coat and go out the door.

I watched her play her make believe games (you know, the princess types of games in particular- the one's most four year old girls play) and she soon wanted me to join in. It was at this point in time that we started throwing a Frisbee around.

Suddenly, "Look, it's a Katamari seed" my little one cried. (Now those of you that are familiar with video games are probably cracking up at this point- careful that you don't spew your drink onto your computer). If you don't know what Katamari is, you can see it here.

The video game, "I Love Katamari" makes no sense to me either but in this case, it was a familiar in a little one's world.

The Frisbee quickly turned into a vessel to hold precious "Katamari" seeds (or sweet gum balls as we call them in the south). One "Katamari" led to another and before I knew it, she had an entire Frisbee full. Upon careful inspection, she had even noticed a single blooming dandelion blossom, a rogue pecan, and some shriveled up weird pieces of tree bark. Any home school mom would beam with pride, as I did at that moment. She was discovering her world and learning to look closer at things. We need more moments like that.

Where those sweet gum "Katamari" seeds came from, I will never know as there are no sweet gum trees anywhere near our house, but I am grateful for them. A little one expanded her world and reminded me that there is more outside than just cold air - simply because of some stray "Katamari" seeds.

A Wordless Wednesday (almost....again)

Dr. Hill Turkey (It's a family thing)

Raffi's Boo Boo Repair

This is "Raffi"

Raffi is a favorite critter of a small boy at our house. He came from some claw machine somewhere back in time. The exact location, none of us can remember. Who knew that one day, Raffi would count as "home school".

Last night, Raffi was brought to my sewing table with the hopes that I could repair him fairly quickly. He had a triangle shaped "boo boo" somewhere on his hip. The small boy at my house (that is well known in these parts, for his impatience), grew tired of the wait and decided that he needed a needle. "Why are you looking for needles?" I asked. "I'm going to fix Raffi" the boy replied.

This is the beauty of home school folks! Now, we do follow a set curriculum but as life deals it's little questions, we can stop what we are doing and investigate. Well, today, investigation just happened to be in the eyes of an eight year old boy, to be the day to learn to repair a "boo boo" on a stuffed animal. I am a firm believer that boys and men should be able to sew on a button and repair little rips. This doesn't make them "sissy", it just means they are well prepared for little sewing disasters that may occur in life. It's not like I'm making them sit down at the sewing machine and sew a frilly apron or something....

A spectacular "first" sewing job

Well, here it is, that little 8 year old boy's first sewing job. I say, it is a super first try.

(And it counts as school too.)

Decked out for Saint Patricks Day

Well, Valentine's Day is done and gone. I learned something because of Valentine's Day. You can't post pictures of grocery stores on your blog. Or at least, I can't seem to get away with it.

Yep, my Winn Dixie Picture that I posted on my hubby's Valentine's Day post was removed. I know what you are thinking. No, I did not swipe it from a copyrighted site. I searched for a long, long, long time to find a picture of a Winn Dixie Marketplace and finally, I found one that was not copyrighted and free for the taking. Or at least I was led to believe. Go figure. Why an unlinked photo was removed, I am completely at a loss. I'm not one to stir up trouble and I doubt I would ever get an answer as to why my picture was removed so I'm just going to pick up the pieces, and move on. (Winn Dixie isn't a dirty word is it? In the south, it's a grocery store- surely it's not a dirty word.)

By the way, if anyone has a free (no strings attached) picture of a Winn Dixie Marketplace, send it my way please...... That way, I can plug it back into it's intended spot. Much obliged.

(And yes, my hubby and I met at Winn Dixie- in the floral department no less and on Valentine's Day). It is a long story and as much as I would like to share it, there just isn't time or space on any blog for the long, and weird details. Just trust me, it was the strangest day of my life. Let's just sum it up and say there is such a thing as Divine intervention!

Well, this post wasn't intended to talk about Winn Dixie or even Valentine's Day. It's purpose was to simply say that I changed the background on my blog to celebrate the next holiday in line on the calendar. Boy, I sure do go the long way around just to say something simple, don't I?

I have a wonderful update on my Winn Dixie delimma. My sweet hubby drove by and took a picture on his cell phone, of the very building where we first met. I now have it in it's appropriate place !

Ordering Vegetable Seeds

The 2009 R.H. Shumway's Illustrated Garden Guide (otherwise known as the place where I just spent all of my spare money)

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about gardening, or at least about our plan to garden this year. Since we eat a lot of vegetables around here, I figure that growing our own will save some much needed cash this year. I'm all about saving some money nowadays!

I have been patiently watching my spare money account until the needed amount was reached and as of this morning and thanks to my Etsy shop, I was able to order our seeds! (Well, the bulk of them anyway.)

I feel that preserving the original aspects of seeds is important. There are so many hybridized varieties out there today that were bred for long shelf lives, easier growing, etc, but I am just partial to the "old timey" types of things. I tried to order as many "heirloom" varieties of seeds as possible. I also wanted to be able to save some seeds from our crops this year, for next year. See- money well spent this year. If I do it right, I will not have to purchase many seeds at all next year. (Mental Note: Read up on seed saving.....)

In order to keep a sort of "picture" diary, I'm going to post what we are going to "try" and grow this year. There will be a few more things I'll add later, but money only goes so far!

Here is what I ordered this morning from RH Shumways:

Homestead Tomatoes, Dwarf Kentucky Wonder Bush Beans, Kentucky Wonder Wax Pole Beans, Pinto Beans, Early Wakefield Cabbage, Scarlet Nantes Carrots, Blue Dent Corn, Boston Pickling Cucumbers, Butter crunch Lettuce, Spanish Peanuts, Little Marvel Peas, Early Golden Squash, and Fingerling Salad Potato.

Can you tell I'm excited?

I'm still scared of fire ants. I'm just not going to think about it right now. ((((cold chill))))

Hey SC, thought I forgot, huh?

I remember getting that bouquet ......

And I remember where I got it from on the strangest day of my life......

Happy Anniversary and Happy Valentine's Day to my best friend and love of my life.

I Have A Guest Writer Today in Honor Of Friday the 13th.....

The Basket of Friendship- symbolizing how friends help carry each other through life

The Cross- symbolizes faith

The beginning of insanity- (by the hand of the apprentice)

Finished- The product of insanity- monkey with his tail in his mouth- symbolizing always keeping a smile (by the hand of the master)

Remember that bored teenager that I told you about here. That bored teenager's favorite day (besides Christmas) is Friday the 13th. We aren't superstitious around here but he has noticed that on Friday the 13th, when everyone else has bad luck, he has good luck. Go figure?

Well, he has some Internet friends that have been requesting to see some of his carvings. Since that bored teenager doesn't have a blog yet, I am letting him step in here and have a go at it. (forgive me please......) Naaaahhh, I'm just "Joshing".

So, without further adieu, here is Maverick (name has been changed to protect the innocent). His friends will know who he is.....

*Bows* Greetings Cyberspace! (Specifically that of gaiaonline, lol) Yes 'tis I Maverick, as stated above due to the fact that you all wish to see my master carvings (nah, my papa is the master carver...I'm barely an apprentice, lol) I have persuaded my mother to post a few pictures of my carvings. (What I carved them from, I will keep a secret, lol) Yes, I do say lol frequently to answer your question. (Scary how I know just what you were thinking huh?) No I am not physic...I am just an exceptionally good guesser. (How am I such a good guesser? Why are you asking me!? You should be asking God that question not me! I am just good at guessing, I don't know everything! lol) Yes, I have wasted many a minute that should not have been wasted with my strange ramblings....wait...*thinks for a second*..Hey! I am the guest writer! I can ramble all I want. lol Albeit I have wasted many sentences with my odd ramblings....*shakes head to clear thoughts*....enough of the ramblings! Back to more intelligent conversing!

I spent many hours sweating and bleeding (mostly bleeding, as the numerous scars on my thumbs show) preparing and perfecting these carvings. They may not be perfect, indeed far from it; but theses carvings are the product of an eye for detail and a love of art. I pray that you all like my carvings and will wish to buy a few from me when I open my store in the near future. Alas, I must go (my mother said I was only to say hi, not write an entire book of comments on here, lol), fare thee well all, and until we meet again. *bows*

Maverick

There you have it folks, my guest writer today on his lucky day. Yes, he rambles and yes, his favorite word is "lol" (I think he does spend too much time online now that I think about it.....). Just be glad he forgot to say his other little favorite word "excelsior" a million times. Could all of these strange ways be a result of reading too many medieval books and having a mother with a weird sense of humor? You be the judge.....

A Special Etsy Find: Check Out Mom Potter's Shop....

Three Red Hearts bracelet

Here is my favorite piece from a fellow Etsy team member's shop; mompotter. Mom Potter runs a successful jewelry shop on Etsy and is founder of the SHETeam (schooling at home etsians). How she finds time to make jewelry, teach, and keep her team in order, I will never know.

Her jewelry pieces are affordable and beautiful so make sure and visit her shop and browse around. I'm sure you will find something you love.

Leaf Earrings

Champagne Cross Earrings

A Wordless Wednesday - (complete with Play Dough)

Procrastination is Contagious

"Dude Named Mickey"

So, what does a bored teenager do while he listens to his teacher discussing American Literature and he wants to be doing something else- somewhere else? A better question would be, what does a bored teenager do when his little sister leaves her Play Dough all over the kitchen table? The dude named Mickey is the answer to those questions.

"Moby Dick"

So what does a bored teenager, that has a hold of his little sister's Play Dough, do when his American Literature teacher is discussing Moby Dick? The Play Dough version of Moby Dick shown above, is the result.





So where are the other kids while all of this creative "art" is going on? They are outside enjoying the temperatures in the 70's. And their mom is playing with the black and white settings on the camera.

So why is the mom outside, (enjoying the warm weather) and playing with the camera?

The obvious answer is that she is trying to avoid the clutter inside the house!

Clutter

I just read somewhere that it is impossible to organize clutter. Could that be my problem today? Hmmmmmm.... I've got to do some thinking to do on this subject. I'll report on it later.

?Could my problem be procrastination?

What's new today?

Here are the two newest additions to Minnie Maes etsy shop.








"Grocery" Love Fabric Tote















Sunflower Explosion Grocery Tote

You know you want one......

A Wordless Wednesday - (Almost)

mmmmmmm.....cake

Check out the South Carolina Team's Contest

In January, the South Carolina Etsy Street Team issued a creative challenge to all members to create something with the theme of "love". Here is a peek at all of the gorgeous items that were created and submitted to the challenge.

Visit the South Carolina team's blog for your chance to vote on your favorite and make sure and leave a comment. One lucky person will win a free monogrammed note card set from gqzmommy.etsy.com just for commenting! What do you have to loose?

The South Carolina Team's blog can be found here so get clicking!

I won a blog giveaway!

That's right. Little ole me won a contest for a romantic woven bracelet from AngelHeartBeads - a jewelry shop on Etsy. Can you believe it? Me- winning something!

If you are familiar with Etsy, there are a lot of giveaways that float around in the promotion thread section. One day I happened across one from AngelHeartBeads, entered, and here I am. Be sure and take a look at their shop. They have some pretty pieces!

Hey, maybe one day, I will finally win that pin cushion giveaway that has been floating around. I can hope can't I?

Thanks so much to Tracy and Robert at AngelHeart for my fabulous prize!

The Story of Moe Moe

Moe Moe (sometime around 2006)

Moe Moe (present day and time)
pay no attention to the reflection of the photographer...

I know what you are thinking. What am I up to now? Well, I wanted to share with you, the story of Moe Moe. You see, Moe Moe has been feeling under the weather for the past couple of days. I wanted to pay tribute to him for hanging tough for the past few years. (Not to worry, he is on the mend now and doing quite "swimmingly").

Moe Moe started his life in an unknown place to me. I don't know where goldfish come from. (Eggs of course- but you know what I mean.) All I do know, is that this particular fish came from Walmart. Yes, he came from Walmart. He was cheap and cute. Moe Moe came home along with three other siblings one fine summer day. The next morning, two of his buddies had - lets just say, they didn't make it. Later that day, the last of his three buddies had joined the previous two. So, Moe Moe was alone. All alone to swim in and out of the fake log and fake flowers in his 5 gallon tank. (At the time the first picture was taken, Moe Moe had grown considerably but earlier that summer, he did fit into that log in the first photo).

Life was easy for Moe Moe. He had, in just a couple of days, been rescued from Walmart, got a new aquarium, made (and lost) some friends, and was getting all kinds of tank tapping entertainment from the human kids in his new family. Not to mention, he was getting fed way more than he had at WallyWorld. He even had this super cool log that he got to hide in and make the humans think he had died and was swallowed up in the filter.

Moe Moe obtained his name based on the Nickelodeon cartoon, "Avatar". If you don't know anything about Avatar, you can go here or here for your education. In the cartoon, Moe Moe is a lemur. Why is a goldfish named after a lemur? Don't ask me- the kids did it. (By the way, Moe Moe's late siblings were called, Aang, Sokka, and Katara- after the main characters from Avatar in case you were wondering).

Moe Moe has done some traveling his lifetime- apart from Walmart. He even stayed with grandma and papa for a short time. Just a couple of months ago, he even got a brand spanking new 10 gallon aquarium. He can't fit a single fin into his old log but we kept it in just because he likes to kiss it a lot.

In case you are wondering, Moe Moe is, in actuality, a goldfish. Ok, a type of goldfish to be correct. Officially, he is called a black moor. Go here to start your education on black moors.

Well, that is the background information that you need to know about Moe Moe. Now the sad story will begin.

Moe Moe has a cousin named Jake. Jake is a Labrador retriever and lives with his mommy, Aunt Nee Nee. Bare with me here, I promise this will all make sense in the end..... Jake listens to grandma on the telephone. He knows who she is and wags his tail and looks around when he hears her voice.

You see, Moe Moe is a jealous fish. We now know that. Moe Moe overheard some of his human family discussing the hilarious fact that Jack the dog likes to talk to grandma on the phone. Guess what Moe Moe up and did? He played "possum". He started moping around in the bottom of his tank. Slowly floating sideways along the bottom of his tank. Not wanting a bite to eat and almost giving the appearance of a "hummmmmp" expression.

I am the primary care giver of Moe Moe so I was immediately worried. I did all the necessary things aquarium wise that need to be done (changed the filter, added some electrolytes, etc).

Moe Moe still moped all day. He is usually an active fish and I was worried that he might be nearing the end of his life. After all, we have had him for 3 years.

Late last night, I tried some psychology on the fish. Standing in hearing distance of Moe Moe's tank, I just mentioned the fact that I knew why he was acting sickly and I would let him talk to grandma the next time she called. Guess what? This morning, I awoke to the happiest, swimmiest, goldfish that I had seen in a long time. He experienced a full recovery- just over night. See, he was jealous. He wanted to talk to grandma. Wonder what grandma is going to say about all of this?

The million dollar question is, will Jake fake an illness to get more attention from grandma if he hears about what Moe Moe did?

Aunt Nee Nee, you had better not mention a word of this......