R.I.P. Carmen

2/24/2012:  3:20 PM

Yesterday, Carmen, Annakate's bearded beta, passed away.  He has been pretty bloated for awhile, and yesterday morning, it was showing all the signs signs of dropsy, a fatal fish disease. I am not a fish expert and I know of no veterinarians who care for fish, so I did what every mom with a computer does, I googled it. And sure enough, there was the information I needed. Sadly, the fish was dead a couple of hours later.

Luckily, Annakate is not sentimental about her fish. We had a short and sweet ceremonial flushing today. I know it sounds crazy, but I think flushing a fish is like some sort of rite of passage in childhood. Anyway, that was that. I think I will miss looking at that little fish every day.

I get such a kick out of Annakate most days. Today, I asked her to refill the Dixie cup holder in her bathroom.  Boy, did she.

Kyle took Davis to chemo today. I had to stay home because I had the flu this week, and didn't want to risk putting any immuno-comprised children at risk. I will gather all of the details from him and update later. Davis' ANC (neutraphil count/immune system) was only 12 when it was checked today (healthy kids run btwn 2000 and 3000). Yikes!  But Davis feels well and is in good spirits, and that is most important.

We will keep you posted.

Thought I would share a couple of photos from this week  . . . .

My backyard early Tuesday morning. I absolutely love my backyard.

Annakate made good use of her day off on Monday. Not much
to shoot at with her little BB gun.