Fish

Our fish died today.  It was a Beta fish named "Fish".  Fish was a good fish.  It survived even when it was not fed and when it's bowl was not cleaned as regularly as it ought.  The Halls brought Fish into the marriage. 

Brandon, Harrison and I shared fond memories of Fish.  I learned that Fish came to the Halls when they were watching Chris' Beta and it died.  Fish was the replacement Beta that they tried to trick him with.  She was originally Chris' fish.  Chris brought her back from college one time and left her.  After Chris left, she didn't get fed for an entire month before David figured out the boys hadn't been feeding her.  But, she survived.  They had a healthy debate about how long Fish had lived.  We think it was somewhere between 3-4 years, which they calculated to be 100 human years.

Some words shared at Fish's passing were: "Finally!  That has been 2 years in coming.", "He lived a full life.  It was time."  and lastly, "It's a girl." (I thought Fish was a boy).

Au Jus

We had French Dip for dinner tonight.  I asked Brandon if he liked Au Jus.  He responded, "Au Jus kidding me?" (He loves Au Jus).  He then told me that he was definitely tweeting that one since it was completely "off the cuff".  He also decided that he is turning into his father.  We laughed pretty hard at his cleverness. He was right, he is turning into his father.  David loves puns.

What Do These 3 Things Have In Common?

And the answer is ...

The first picture is a strawberry with peanut butter hanging from our tree.  Harrison concocted this as a trap to get squirrels to come into our yard.  He was using them as target practice for his Beebe gun.  In this occasion the squirrels got away with the strawberry.  However, he has hit two squirrels since using other methods.

The second picture is his April fool's joke for his dad.  April Fools has been a long tradition in their family.  Harrison spent weeks planning out his joke for his dad.  Thankfully, I got the final say about what was allowed or not.  It ended up a bit tamer than Harrison would like, but his jokes were quite effective.  He built a trap in our bathroom out of shaving cream and duct tape, making it tricky to get into without getting creamed.  Lastly, he created a fake "duty" in David's toilet out of a variety of kitchen items.  It smelled terrible, but he was pleased when David found it.

We found those potatoes in Harrison's room one week after a deep clean.  He had gotten them for Halloween, had stuck them in a box and forgotten about them.  We didn't know they were in there until I insisted on cleaning out the box.  Harrison was delighted, I was aghast and we all got a good laugh out of it.

The last picture is of Harrison in a shirt he found one 4th of July at WalMart.  It is special, it has a horse with flag colors on it.  Unique shirts are a Hall family tradition.  How can you not just love this kid?

Things I Never Thought I Would Google

You may have noticed, I love lists.  A blog entry feels empty without a list.

Here's my latest one, things I Googled that I never imagined I would ...

• "How much does hamster milk cost?" - When planning April Fools pranks for his father, Harrison convinced me we needed to find out how much hamster milk costs.  Did you know you could buy this?  You do now.  He did not end up pursuing this for his April Fools pranks.
• "How to get Pam out of concrete." - We have a pyro in the house, and our little pyro loves our fire pit (thanks siblings).  Anything flammable has been tested.  Yes, including Pam.  After finding out he had gone through 2-3 cans of Pam I noticed grease spots all over the back porch.  Did you know that dish detergent can get Pam out of concrete?  I do.
• "How to dance Gangnam style." - When this first became popular, Brandon insisted I watched.  We have watched this several times at our house.  In spite watching a video how to do this, I am not coordinated enough.
• "How to get silly putty out of clothing." - Need I say more ...

1

We turned 1 today.  I can't believe a year has gone by so fast.

On our trip to DC a few months ago we had a layover at the Denver airport.  We took a picture where we met.  It was at this very spot almost 3 years ago that David handed me his business card.  We have talked every day since.  Here's to 50 more. :)