COOL OWL

What would you do if you saw this thing flying at you?

Nice Website

Here is a nice website. I especially enjoyed the stories (yes, believe it or not, I read every single one!) To check it out, just *click* on the link below!

http://mrmom.amaonline.com/Inspirational.htm

Which of these animals is your favorite? (POLL)

Which of these animals do you like best? Click on the link below to vote and view results!

http://pwny.pollhost.com/

What is your favorite color? (POLL)

What is your favorite color? I would like to know what the most popular color is! Please vote! *Click* on the link below to vote and view results!

http://jld.pollhost.com/

What kind(s) of pet(s) do you have? (POLL)

Please vote on this poll! I'm taking a survey on what kinds of pets you have! This is a multiple choice poll; you can check as many boxes as you need to.

http://0d8.pollhost.com/

been busy...

Sorry I haven't posted much lately! I'm not really sure what to post. I want to let you all know that I didn't disappear and I really enjoy your comments so please comment often!
Our family went to a family camp by Restoration International in New Jersey last week. It was such a blessing! I enjoyed all the messages, the choirs, meeting new friends, and everything else! They currently have seven family camps throughout the country and a few in other countries. Here is a link to the RI site in case you're interested:

http://www.restoration-international.org/

I know some of you already know about RI, but I don't know what else to post! Any ideas?

Neat cat

Here is a neat little cat. Click on the link below to play with her.

http://www.broenink-art.nl/maukie2.swf

Mixed up words...can you read this?

Kind of interesting why we spend so much time learning to spell.

Do you have a strange mind?

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55% of plepoe can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Look at all these COOL albino animals!

Wow, look at all these cool albino animals! I think albinos are very interesting. I have heard that albinos are very rare; albinism occurs only once in 10,000 births. I was surprised to find all these pictures of them! Well, enjoy!





















Neat, huh?

Do you like my blog? (POLL)

Do you like my blog? I would really like to know, so please take this poll! (click on the link below)

http://ipy.pollhost.com/

Young Disciple

Say, have any of you ever been to the Young Disciple website? I get their magazine and it is wonderful. The website is neat and I especially recommend the Between Friends Online part. If you want to check it out, here is a link to their website. God Bless!

http://www.youngdisciple.com/

Club Penguin

Sometimes I play an online game called Club Penguin, which is basically a safe chatroom (you aren't allowed to give out personal imformation like your address and such) sort of thing in which everyone takes the form of a penguin. I guess it's supposed to be a kid's game, (it's recommended for ages 8-14) but it can be fun (my dad, and older sis enjoy it). What you basically do is you waddle around the different rooms in the server and chat with other penguins. And you can play games to earn penguin coins, which you can use to "buy" things to wear (like the penguins up there are wearing) and furniture for your igloo (each penguin gets their own igloo as their own personal house). You can get a pet puffle too (a puffle is a made up animal), and they're kind of cute. There is even a newspaper; my favorite section is the comics (I even got a few of mine which I sent in used). One thing about it though that I don't like is you have to be a member (which means pay real money!) just to be able to "buy" anything, well most things. It's pretty expensive (like $57 or something like that each year) so I am not a member. My little brother, who is 7, is crazy about the game and is always playing it and daydreaming about becaoming a member. You don't have to pay just to play the game, however. They have a few tutorials (which are sort of boring, but may help you learn a little on how to play) on the site, clubpenguin.com. There are a lot of things in it and would take forever to tell about everything...anyway, here is a link to the game:

http://play.clubpenguin.com/

Well, you don't have to try it, but as I said, it can be fun.

Sparrow Nest

I found a sparrow's nest today. It was in a pine tree near our house. It was just a bit too high up for me to look into it, but my sister looked and saw 3 eggs in it, which she described as light blue with a few speckles. I got to see the mother up close, however, in fact, I could have touched her since she was only about a foot away. I think she is a chipping sparrow. I found this picture of a chipping sparrow's nest on the internet. When the babies hatch in the nest I found, I will try to take a picture to post here.

Here's something funny I did when I was little:

I had found a small nest, which had probably been blown out of a bush or tree, on the ground. For some reason I put it on a stick, stuck the stick into the ground, and put a few small, round pebbles, which resembled eggs, into it. Later my dad was cutting sticks in that area and found the stick with the nest of pebbles, and he actually thought he had cut down a nest with eggs! I hadn't meant for it to be a joke, but thought it was hilarious that he had gotten tricked.

A few days afterward I found a nest in a wild rosebush and, of course had to put an rock in it and trick someone else! Later I took my mom out to see it, and there was a tiny delicate blue egg sitting next to the pebble (which I had to take out). Well, the next summer I got some plastic eggs that looked very real. The only drawback was that they blew away promptly.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the eggs in this current nest hatching, because I have found a sparrow nest with babies before, and they are so cute! Here's a poem I wrote a while ago when I found it:

One day I found a sparrow's nest

Made of dog's fur and twigs.

The sparrow did its very best,

Though it wasn't very big.

In the nest were eggs of blue,

Mottled with dark brown.

Away, away, the mother flew,

When her nest I found.

After I peeked I walked away,

So the eggs wouldn't get cold.

Then their mother flew down straightaway,

And again her wings did fold.

Sometimes God's works speak more than words

To show that He is love.

For instance: all these little birds

Are cared for by him above.

Well, as I said, I will try to take some pics of the new baby birds when they hatch and put the pics in a later post.

Scripture Tree

This is a very special tree! Click on the link to see it. When the tree comes up, click on a flower, then close that one, and click on another. Have a great day!

http://home.att.net/~sheryl4/ST/ST.html

Amazing Maze!

Hey, this is a neat maze! Don't give up and you'll get a fun surprise! :) Be sure to turn the volume up!

http://i.euniverse.com/funpages/cms_content/6489/a-maze-ing_new_cursor3.swf

(if this link doesn't work, copy and paste the address into the address box to get to the maze)

Guinea Pigs

I used to have 3 guinea pigs. The one above looks like my Abyssinian guinea pig, Chester. He was really smart; he could find his cage easily from anywhere in the house. He would find the staircase, jump up stair after stair, and finally leap about a foot into his cage. It was really quite amazing! I have an old video clip of him doing it, but as I don't know how to post a video I am sorry that I won't be able to add it.


This guinea pig looks a little like Callie Rose, my other guinea pig. She was really sweet too. Sometimes she tried to follow Chester up the stairs and into his cage, but even though he waited for her, she usually couldn't keep up. Here's something kind of funny that happened a long time ago to Callie Rose:

My sister and I were pretty little at the time, and we were trying to see what our guinea pigs could do. We were, in fact, trying to hitch poor Callie Rose to a tiny toy wagon, without any success. Every harness we tried (hair things, rubber bands, etc) kept slipping off. So instead we slipped a little wooden ring on Callie's neck. It worked well as a harness, but...we couldn't get it off! So we called Mom and she put some oil on callow hoping that would help, but it didn't really. Finally they found that her ear was in the way, and they got it off. My, for days afterward she smelled horrible, like stinky oil. So we gave her a bath, with baby shampoo, and it worked. (And we proved our friend wrong that it would kill a guinea pig to give it a bath) But we certainly learned a lesson.

My sister's guinea pig we called Love, because when we first got her she had a heart shaped spot of black fur on her rear end (later it became a star-sort-of shape, but we kept calling her Love). She even had some long hair that stuck straight up where her tail would have been (guinea pigs don't have tails), and my dad teased my sister so much about it being a "rooster tail" that my sister cut it off! LOL!

Guy (our border collie dog) really liked our guinea pigs. If we put them outside he would watch them faithfully for hours so no hawks would get them. I have so many pics of them that I oughta develop. As soon as I can I will edit this post with new pics.

We sold our guinea pigs about four years ago. Chester developed ringworms shortly before that and it was so sad. We didn't know what was worng with him then, but we found out too late. Anyway, as soon as I can, I think I want to get guinea pigs again.

P.S. The pics on here I just found on the internet and put them on just to give you an idea of what mine looked like.

Killer Whale

Isn't this such a cool photo? Killer whales are one of my favorite animals! I have never been to Sea World to watch them perform, but I want to someday.

Two Little Kittens

Two Little Kittens, one stormy night,
Began to quarrel, and then to fight;
One had a mouse, and the other had none -
And that was the way that the quarrel was begun.

I’ll have that mouse! Said the bigger one
You won’t have that mouse said the other one
I will have that mouse said the bigger cat
You’ll have that mouse? We’ll see about that!"

Now I told you before, ‘twas a stormy night
When these two kittens began to fight
And the old woman took her sweeping broom
And swept the two kittens right out of the room

Outside the ground was covered with Ice and Snow,
And the two little kittens had no place to go!
So they laid themselves down on the mat near the door
Until the old woman finished sweeping the floor

Then they both crept in as quiet as mice,
All wet with snow, and as cold as ice!
For they thought ‘twould be better, that stormy night,
To lie down and sleep than to quarrel and fight.

Impatience

A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, and cussing a blue streak at the guy in front of you, "I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk.

"Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."

Cute Puppy Photos

How'd you like to find these in your trunk?

How much would it cost to feed those greedy things?

Why does mom punish us like this just for getting dirty?

Where'd all that litter come from?

Wow, how'd you collect all those things?

The eighteentuplets!

Baby Hippo and Giant Tortoise

A very touching story.....NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said. The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him. "It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP. "After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added. "The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

7 Reasons Not To Mess With Small Children

I received this through e-mail. I thought some of these were pretty funny, so I decided to post them here...

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was avery large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah". The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little girl replied, "Then you ask him".

A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, "I'm drawing God." The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like." Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."

A Sabbath school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor" thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest ofa family) answered, "Thou shall not kill."

One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked,"Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?" Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Momma, how come ALL of Grandma's hairs are white?"

The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture. "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, he's a doctor.' A small voice at the back of the room rang out,"And there's the teacher, she's dead. "

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood.Trying to make the matter clearer, she said,"Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face." "Yes," the class said. "Then why is it that while I am standing upright, in the ordinary position, the blood doesn't run into my feet?" A little fellow shouted, "Cause your feet ain't empty."

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of aCatholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is watching." Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples."

Hope you laughed!

Getting the Job Done

An old Italian man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his tomato garden, but it was very hard work as theground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me. Love Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Please don't dig up that garden. That's where I buried the BODIES.
Love Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad,Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances. Love Vinnie

Red-backed Salamanders

This is a red-backed salamander. I think they are so cute! I have caught a lot before here in PA. Once I even found one with her eggs. Here is some information that I found on them:

Red-backed Salamanders are our most common salamander. They are easy to recognize, with their black bodies and bright red stripe down the middle of their backs. They can also be black without the red stripe, but usually they have the stripe. Their bellies are black and white.
This salamander grows to about five inches long.

Red-backed Salamanders can be found under rocks, logs, moss, dead leaves, or inside rotting stumps. When disturbed, they will crawl into tunnels or under leaves.
Unlike most salamanders, Red-backs do not spend any part of their lives in the water. Most salamanders have to lay their eggs in water. These lay their eggs in a cluster, like grapes, hanging underneath a rock or inside an old log. They are born looking like mini-salamanders, about an inch long.

Red-backed Salamanders do not have lungs, even though they live on land. They breathe through their skin, which must be moist at all times. They come out from their hiding places at night after a rain. This is when they do most of their hunting.
Red-backed Salamanders eat small arthropods, including insects and spiders.
Female salamanders mate every other year. When she lays eggs, she will guard them for two months until they hatch, coiling her body around them.

Red-backed Salamanders help make soil better for plants and animals when they tunnel through it. Nutrients in the soil get mixed and plants can pull them into their roots more easily. Small animals such as mites and beetles find it easier to move around in the soil.

Recorders

I play a recorder. In fact, it looks exactly like the ones in the picture. In the dictionary, the definition for a recorder is "a primitive form of a flute." It has the notes from low C to high G. I can play by ear or by notes, and it is very easy to learn. If you're interested in getting a recorder, well, I got mine from "Love to Learn". They have a website. You can get 2 recorders just like these from them for $5.95, and they also have several choices for recorder books to help you learn to play. I recommend the program "Recorder Fun", which has a book and demonstration/play-along CD, for $7.95 (that's what I used).

Female Bettas

This is a female betta. Female bettas have shorter fins than males. Mine has a metallic white body with purple fins. I named her Pearl. Since I have both a male and female betta I am planning on breeding them this summer if all goes well.

Male Bettas

This is a male betta. There are many different color variations. I have a male one that is darker colored, with lavender and red on it. His name is Joe (my sister named him). When full grown, male bettas have large, colorful fins like this. Their other name is Siamese Fighting Fish. They get this name because they will fight other male bettas to defend their territory are especially colorful, will puff out their fins even larger, and lift up their gill covers when they see another male betta, probably because this will help to intimidate their rival. If you place a mirror next to their tank, they will do a showy display like the one above.

Goldfish

I have two fantail goldfish almost like this one as pets in a two-and-a-half-gallon aquarium. I got them on October 31, 2005, so I have had them for over six months now. They don't take much work, and are very enjoyable. Our goldfishes' names are Liberty and Isabella (Bell for short), so if you put the two names together, you get "Liberty Bell". I will try to add pics of the actual them soon, but that might be hard, because they swim around really fast and it is hard to catch them still!

Border Collies

As well as two goldfish and two bettas, I have an 8-year-old border collie named Guy. This is a photo of a border collie. I hope to have a photo of Guy posted soon. He is so cute and friendly! He looks different than the border collie in this photo in that the white on him is speckled with black.

Welcome

Hello Everyone, and welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy looking!