What We've Been Up To

So, just a few fun things that we've been up to as of late. This blog jumps around a bit, but just to catch up...

First, a couple at church invited us to come decorate holiday cookies the day after Halloween with them and their 3 year old. These are a few of the cookies we decorated. Their son's cookies had MUCH more candy on them... It was a lot of fun and he was pretty hilarious!

Next, I've been doing a lot more sewing. I made the gliders new bags after we got the boys.
And then had to make new, bigger bags so that they could all fit in the bags when we tried to introduce them to each other. I also made the net that covers the top of their cage, but am not ready to put the effort into pulling it out so I can take a picture... yet.Then we got all the gliders into the same cage! There was a bit of fighting at first, but now everyone is doing well. Here is Ajax after drowsily leaving the nest box they all sleep in during the day.
Here is our latest adventure. Today we drove to Auburn and back, all in time to make mutual! There was a good reason for this drive though. We got 4 Lady Gouldian finches for Steve's classroom! The lady gave us a great deal since they are for educational purposes. So we have one adult male, and 3 adolescents who are not fully colored yet so we can't sex them. Guess which one is the adolescent!
But before long they will all be as beautiful as the male. And he is GORGEOUS! We can't wait for these amazing to blow Steve's students' minds. Once the rest of the budget comes through, a few more finches to come!

Hey look, more heavy stuff to move!

Moving sucks, a fact that is more obvious than the fact that the sun comes up in the east or that the "public option" is a really, really bad idea. Furthermore, the more heavy stuff you have; the more the move will suck. Since we just moved 3 months ago, and we might be moving again in a couple of months, you would think we would be avoiding heavy stuff......well you would be wrong.


Say hello to 300 lbs of new heavy stuff that we will have to move, our new gun safe. A gun safe was something we knew we wanted to buy, but that was one of those down the road things. That all changed with one trip to Ranch and Home store in the Tri-Cities. We came across this safe on a $250 off sale and jumped on it.

It's only a 14 gun safe, but as you can see its more than big enough for us.........for now. I do wonder how they got 14 rifles into this safe, were they BB guns? Toy guns? The arsenal of the munchkin army?

But you know what, we absolutely love it. This safe is far more than what we thought we could afford. Thank goodness for great sales, and parents who pitch in as their Christmas present to us.

So 300 lbs of new stuff, have we learned our lesson yet? Um, that would be a no.

Here's another 150 lbs of heavy stuff, we finally got around to building the new sugar glider cage. 6 feet tall, 3 feet wide, and 30 inches deep. The idea was to make a cage that could fit through the 31 inch doorway to the pet room. Well......the best laid plans of mice and men.

So I built the glider cage to be 30 inches deep, thinking that that would give me an inch of clearance to go through the 31 inch door. Great plan, till I added the door latches. Now the cage is almost exactly 31 inches and won't fit through the door. Experience is a great teacher, but experience charges one hell of a bill. Oh well, this screw up is minor compared to some of the mistakes I made with the chin cage.

So that's the top half of the cage.

And that's the bottom half. We are still rearranging the perches and climbing toys. So far it seems that the gliders really like their new home, especially the nesting box and the big blue rope. They also like the fleece net Nicolle made.


So at the end of the day, we got some really cool stuff; but we also have 450 lbs more we have to move the next time we move. Is it too early to start stockpiling pain pills?

The Last of the Wedding Pictures

So I got these from my cousin Tammy, and many have had the beautiful background cropped out so that you can see us a little better, because as always, Steve's expressions in pictures are priceless!

So this is how Steve spent some of the post-wedding/pre-reception time. Hanging out on the dock and taking random photos of people.
He may be devilishly tricky, but this next picture is more the reason why I absolutely love him. He really is a great guy.By the way, if it looks like there was something else in that picture, there was - me. But I looked really awkward, so you just get to see the best part of that one - Steve!

And then back to our gun fight. Fingers vs guns.... I obviously win.
Which is why Steve chose to take himself out instead of losing in epic fashion. You have to look closely, but it is his hand around mine holding it to his head. I would never do such a thing because I need him around to kill spiders and open jars and stuff... And I think my own father would arrest me. Yeah, there's that too.

Luckily, even after Steve got "the look" for holding my hand to his head in the last picture, we were still friends. We had a blast being silly while everyone else was much more serious and wedding-like.
Just one of the many ways of showing you all why life as Steve Bennett's wife is full of fun and laughter!

As Promised

So, I know that these are almost 2 full months late as I misplaced the CD Dad gave me and only recently found it after tearing our place apart... I still need to see if I can get pictures from my cousin. Here are a couple of my favorites of Steve and I being - us- at my cousin's wedding back on Labor Day.

This is why Dad talked about Steve being an exhibitionist at the wedding. That is not the best part of this picture though, the best part is Jennifer's expression as we consistently gross her out.
This is what happened when we found some of the kids' toys when everyone else was doing wedding-ish things. Steve thinks his gangster-ness makes him triumphant here, but considering he's down a gun and says I'm decent with a pistol to begin with, you decide who won here. I certainly have.

Steve's New Calling

So, Steve got called on Wednesday night to come meet with the Bishop. And I laughed and danced about him getting a new calling. Mostly, I'm just nosy and wanted to know what it would be. We both thought he was probably being called into the Young Men's organization as we had heard they were shy a couple of leaders. Well, we were right. Sort of. Steve has been called as the First Counselor in the Young Men's Organization. So, he teaches the 14-16 year old young men on Sundays. He is also temporarily in charge of kicking them in the butt when it comes to Scouts as they are just about to call an Advisor for the Teachers (14-16 year old boys).

I know what you're all thinking, probably what we were thinking - doesn't Steve get enough of high school boys during the week? Apparently not! I guess Steve is just so great that the Lord thinks that the Prosser young men shouldn't miss our just because Steve teaches in Mabton!

Congratulations Brother Bennett! I guess next Wednesday we will be going to Mutual together as I go hang out with my 12-13 year old girls and Steve hangs out with his 14-16 year old boys. No more "church vacation" at the Bennett Zoo!