Fishy Tank

So a while back I did a post about a 14 gallon salt water fish tank that I bought for Alex's room. A lot has happened since then in our house with the fish! Turns out, I am pretty good at the saltwater thing, excluding a few very small (we'll call them) starter fish.  I did a ton of learning with the 14 gallon tank and pretty soon had it filled up with corals and fish.  With saltwater tanks, space and size and gallons are very important. Overcrowding in a tank can lead it south very quickly. So it wasn't long before I was sad that I couldn't do anymore with it.

So around Christmas time, Allen started poking around the Internet for a larger tank. Saltwater reef tanks are what we call "a rich man's hobby", so we weren't looking to buy one brand new. We started looking at Craigslist and had a few potential candidates. Allen wanted to go REALLY big.  He was looking at 160 gallon tanks and 190..........I have seen owners clean those tanks and sometimes it entails them actually getting INTO the tank. I was not so keen on that. We settled on a 90 gallon tank that actually matched our kitchen cabinetry fairly well! It's funny, Allen and I thought we would be all big and bad with a 90 gallon. In the saltwater tank world, that is NOTHING and Allen and I still find ourselves restricted in what we can put in there. There are some fish that require a minimum of 120 gallons and above!

As far as fish tanks go, I love fish. I love corals. I HATE the way fish tanks look. Nothing screams '90s decor more than a huge fish tank to me so I really was picky when it came to what the tank was on and under.

Below are a few pictures of the tanks.  It is constantly changing and evolving and these pictures don't show even half of what's in there, but I will work on getting some more. I am still maintaining Alex's tiny tank as well, which is a lot to deal with. I am slowly transitioning pieces from his tank over to the 90 gallon tank and letting Alex get used to the idea that we might just end p with one tank, although I currently don't have the heart to shut his down. I love the fishies in there as well.



This is called a Hammer Coral. Love the purple and green.



This is a Gobie. We call him Gobie Wan Kanobie.  His job is to keep my sand at the bottom of the tank from settling too much. He scoops sand up in his mouth and filters it all out of his gills. He is very moody and will typically come try to bite me when I have to reach in the tank for some reason.



This is called a Carpet Mushroom.  It has a very cool texture and gets fairly large and covers everything around it like a carpet.



This is a Naso Tang. He is our "Big Boy"



He is the biggest fish in the tank but also the most shy.



We call him Wrasse. He acts very strange and will literally go take naps in between rocks and sand. I always think he is dead!



This is another coral called a Frogspawn.  It is named that because it looks like lots of tiny frog eggs. See my shy Big Boy peeking out from the back.  

 

A sponge coral. I love the color of this one. It is an interesting one: if any part of it touches oxygen, that particular part dies and will soon kill the entire thing. It soaks up oxygen like a sponge and can't let go of it. Also you can see Tang.  We call him that because he is a Mimic Tang, not actually a tang. Real tangs can be very aggressive if you put too many of them together in a tank. We bought him because he looks like a tang but is very peaceful.  

 

We have two clownfish (a mated pair). It is possible but unlikely that they would have babies in the tank.  They are so goofy it is easy to see how they get their name. They play and are always excited to see people near the tank. People think that Clownfish are peaceful and sweet because they always come towards people. That is actually aggression. If they could bite you they would. This particular breed has a tiny mouth with no teeth. There are clownfish that can bite and draw blood.



The other clown fish and some polyps. Polyps are one of my favorite corals because they come in so many different colors.  The multiply and form what looks like a soft carpet over the rocks. These are called Eagle Eye Polyps.

 

Lastly, this is Sailor. He is a Sailfin Tang. He is black and yellow now but will change greatly over the course of his life.  These can get to be 12" long. He is probably only 1.5" now.

 The tank is not really hard to maintain, but it certainly requires a lot of time and diligence. I have had both and I think saltwater tanks are easier to take care of IF you know how.

Thanks for checking in!

So, long time no post

It's been a while sine I last posted. Don't blame me. Blame Google. Apparently they were going through some changes, and by changes I mean something that disables me from uploading anything to the blog!

The only reason I can post this is because I thought I would sit down and give it one more shot before I gave up on it entirely. 

SO this post will be short and sweet because quite frankly, I did not expect this to actually work and didn't make the time to really put a good post together. AND I'm hungry. 

There are quite a few events I suppose I could/should post about, but Christmas is probably the most significant, so I will start with that.  We had a big Christmas this year. It was the first year that Alex really believed in Santa so you bet Allen and I used that to our advantage with the discipline. It goes a little something like this,

"Oh, Alex.  I guess I better get on the phone and call Santa. I know he would want to know that you aren't being a good boy so close to Christmas..."

I even went so far as to actually make a phone call in front of him a couple of times. Now that is good acting because not laughing while you are fake talking to fake Santa and watching your poor son's little heart fall out on the floor while you are doing it is quite something. 

Graham's first Christmas!!!!!

Dad dressed up as Santa and came through the front door. BLEW. THEIR. MINDS.  Although just after Santa left Alex turned to me and said, "Santa sure sounds a lot like Pop"  

In awe of the fat man in red

Ruby looks so pretty in her Christmas dress. Boys are so much harder to make look nice.  A collared short is about as nice as Alex gets.   :(

Pumpkin Patch with the Entire Famn Damily

We recently went to a pumpkin patch with the entire fam. No major story to tell here, just some good shots of the day!

Rubicon with a Ruby sized pumpkin next to one of the cool antique tractors the owners had on property.

Alex playing in the sunshine.

What?!?!

Alex and Ruby hanging out on the tractor.  I just love how he has his arm thrown around her shoulder.

The Boy with ears glowing in the sunshine.

The original Boy

That's all folks!

The State Fair of Texas

 So Alex had the day off of school on a Monday this month, so I decided to take him to the State Fair. I called my good friend Mrs. Angy Pipes and asked her and her two boys to come along with us. She has to have two of the cutest boys I know. They are so sweet.

 So we hop in the car and Angy puts Fair Park into her nav on her phone. It took us to somewhere in the area, but close only counts in horseshoes. And "close" in that part of town is not where you want to be. Although, we did see 7 Habitat for Humanity homes being built on 1 street. Really made me wonder how many of them were there. The only reason we knew they were HFH was that they were being built and there were signs in the yard, so just how many of them are HFH. I mean, 7 being built at one time?!?!?!

 This is Alex goofing off in the car show building. One of my best shots of him the entire year.

 Alex and Charlie hanging out. Charlie is just the sweetest kiddo. Alex liked him a lot. Angy's other little one is not so little. His name is Jake. He would pose for a photo if I made him, but he was usually way too cool to be seen sitting still for a camera.

This is the best shot of the day.  Charlie just hopped up on the firetruck and posed like that. So cool.

Below is Jake. He totally forgot about playing it cool when he got in the Cadillac CTSV didn't he? Silly Bugger. We did have a scary moment with Jake. We had stopped to try the Fried Butter.  I know, I know, just saying it makes me cringe. I tried one, decided I absolutely loved it, and then decided I was going to have a heart attack right there on the spot, so I didn't have anymore.  But I would have..........

Anyway, I have Alex and Charlie by me and I look up to see Angy walking across the fairway to a trash can.  Jake is right behind her. One her heels practically. Next thing you know, Angy is back and looks at me and asks, "Where's Jake?"  I say,"He was right behind you."  You can imagine how this played out. We stood still for a bout 5 minutes just calling Jake's name thinking he would obviously be close enough that he could hear us. Then after 10 minutes the real worry starts to set in. I stay still with the boys while Angy starts wandering around the fairway looking for him. 15 minutes later, we were both looking at each other knowing that internally we were both just about to lose it with panic. There was an off duty police officer that joined our hunt. Long story short, they found Jake by the pet pavilion. The officer said this was a little ways down the fairway. After hugs and a stern talkin' too, we went on our way. Well, we couldn't believe it when we got to the pet pavilion. We were nowhere near this thing. It was a good 5 minute brisk walk away from where we lost him. I'll never figure out what that kiddo was thinking, but I am sure glad we found him!

 Below is Angy in her (show host announcer voice) BRAND NEW CAR!!!! Well not really but she had fun pretending. She loves the new Ford Explorers.

All in all, it was a good 13,000 calorie day at The Fair. We had a good time, but Alex was DONE by the time we left. He actually told me he was tired of walking, his feet hurt, and he wanted a nap. That's when I know I did it right!

New Fish Tank

I have always liked fish. I had fresh water tanks growing up.  I have always had a Beta or two in the house.  there is a Koi pond out back with some Koi that Allen and I have had since they were tiny. About a year ago my neighbor was showing me that he had found a 14 gallon salt water tank to put in his daughters room.  As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have one.  So last weekend I took Alex and Mom to the best fish store in the DFW area. We bought a 14 gallon fish tank, some live rock, and some saltwater.  We were told to go home, set this up, and let it run for a week. We did that and everything seemed ok.  So this weekend we hiked right up to the fish store again to test our water and buy some fish.

We bought a coral, a peppermint shrimp, and a clown fish.  The clown fish is literally the smallest clown fish you could imagine. The guy at the store had absolutely no confidence in my fish keeping skills.  He knew that this was my first saltwater tank and that it was only 14 gallons, so he was literally cutting me off on my purchases.  I told him he was no fun. Several times.

So we put those three things in the tank and stared at them for hours.  Nemo looked so pathetic and lonely.

Allen played golf today with Pops and Alex and I was supposed to meet them at 1:00 for lunch in the clubhouse. I head out the door at 12:40 only to get a call as I get on the highway letting me know they were running really late.  SO I took my hungry toddler on a distraction trip to the saltwater store near our house. NOT really a great store, but a saltwater store nonetheless.  He was going to be moving locations very soon, so he didn't have much in stick, but what he did have he was really willing to let go of.  After lunch, we circled back to the store and picked up a Fire Angel Fish and a Frogspawn Coral.

Here are some pics of our new fascination around here. We love it.  With two fish, a few corals, and a peppermint shrimp, I think we will be good for a while! We will see how these guys do.

This is a Frogspawn Coral

This is Nemo.  Can you guess who named him?

No Clue what you call this stuff

This is a Fire Angel Fish.  She is incredibly anxious

She's certainly not shy, but she's not going to sit still long enough to get a picture either!

This is Allen and I's favorite coral.  It actually just happened to already be on the live rock when I bought it.  It survived the trip.  1 point for us, 1 less point for overpriced fish store. 

The peppermint shrimp will not come out at all for us to see him, so a photo op was out of the question.  Alex has named the peppermint shrimp Rango, the clown fish Nemo, and he wanted to name the Fire Angel "Girl"  I shot that down.  I started calling her Angel, but not sure if it will stick.  We also have two tiny starfish that are impossible to find.  They came off of the rock when we bought it along with what I call sea slugs.  Hideous slug looking things.  I am pretty brave when it comes to touching all this stuff, but I swear if my finger ever lands on one of those things I am going to flip out. They are gross looking.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's Summer In Texas

It's summer in Texas which means I have to cope with my usual obsessive fear dislike of bees for a couple of months. I took this photo from the safety of the Hendricks house in Huntsville.  He was on the glass on the front door. It's probably the closest I have ever been. They fascinate me......in a very scary way that makes me shiver when I think of them.

Fourth of July: 
We had a fairly mild 4th this year.  After hee-hawing around about what to do, we met up with the Eubanks and The Kastens in Addison for Kaboomtown.  Don't get me wrong, I think the fireworks display is great, but Kaboomtown has made a name for itself as one of the best fireworks displays in TX and people come from all around to see them. There were certainly plenty of people there.  In fact, the traffic afterwards is HORRIBLE! But I won't start in on it.  I could literally write an entire post about Kaboomtown traffic. Ugh.

All in all it went very well.  It was incredibly hot.  We were out there for hours.  We had a handful of kiddos with us.  The majority of the kids could not care less about fireworks. We had ZERO meltdowns. That's success in my book.

Fourth of July, Part Dos:

 Bobbie bought us a blow up Lightening McQueen pool with a side for the backyard. Since the fireworks were actually on the 3rd of July, we got up on the Fourth and filled up the pool.  The Monster just stripped down and got in (as he does, every day now).  I don't think that there is too much cuter than my boy running around the yard naked, so I got the camera out.

Alex has discovered Locust this year. I hate those things. I think they are creepy with the weird noises they make (now that I think of it, you would think I might have a problem with crickets as well. Simply not so).  We keep finding them in the backyard and Alex loves to look at them closely.  He won't touch them though. Smart kid. GROSS. 

Gattitown with Julian:
 Our buddy Julian came over to play the other day.  We took the boys to a place called Gattitown to have some fun. Well, fun for them.  There is nothing fun to me about a place with screaming kids, a pizza buffet lacking anything resembling good pizza and covered with, what I am convinced are, the rudest (or hungriest) people on Earth, and games the seem to sense just how much money you have on your pocket. However much is there, that's exactly how much it cost to play that particular game. BUT! Three year old boys think this is INCREDIBLE! So, they had fun and they were fun to watch.  I can't remember exactly, but I believe Julian is about three months older than Alex. He is very smart and having a conversation with Alex and Julian was hilarious.

Kate: OK boys.  We need to listen and have good manners right?
Alex: yes. Like saying yes ma'am or yes sir.
Julian: NO Alex.  It's NO ma'am and yes sir.

My other facorite moment was when we were on the way to Gattitown.  Julian is very expressive. he will tell you out of the blue in the most sincere manner that he "loves his Mommy and Daddy very very very much".  He also sings the alphabet in his own sweet way:

... O  P  Q  R  yes  T  U  V ......

It took me too long to do a post. I need to do more posts more often!