The Frogs' First Day of School

Since we decided that it wasn't practical to take a tank of frogs across the country this winter, we found a new home for the little guys. They are going to live in a first grade classroom with my college friend Jessie. She was so excited to have them, and we were glad to have found them a home they'd obviously love :)

Today we took them to their first day of school. Marcus insisted I be in a picture with them before their day started.

One last picture of "the fat one" so we can say bye. It's such a happy/sad moment. I'm gonna miss those guys...

But honestly, I think they'll be very happy in school. Marcus calls it the School of Croak-craft and Ribbit-try. Ha.

Marcus wanted to add his goodbye to them too: "Fare thee well, friendly frogs."

First day of spring... finally!

I am so glad that it is finally springtime! Not that the Utah weather listens and actually warms up for longer than four days, but it is promising. I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of pretty flowers that Marcus has given me over the past few months. I was going to do this sooner since they were all so pretty, but this seems fun too :) at least for me. And you can see my fun vase that we bought as part of my Valentines present. (A special thanks goes out to Misha for helping Marcus decide to get me flowers some days!)

This week's fun bunch:



during a really stressful week:

Valentines Day (these ones are hanging up in our room dried):


And I've had requests to show pictures of Fish's leaf couch, and a spring post is a great time to include pictures of cute little animals. The couch is pretty sweet. The fish really sits on it. Just ignore the food on the leaf-- we fed him while he was still napping on his couch. Maybe he'll get cable next :)

Sweet, huh?!

it almost looks comfortable :)

Our fat frog charging the phone

Even though I'm crazy excited about it being spring, which means it may be nice outside sometime in the near future, we had a great winter overall. Here's some pictures of one of the most random and exciting winter evenings at our apartment:
When I was trying to get my cello and tons of other stuff in the door one night, this cat jumped on the opportunity to run inside to get warm. :) He was very clean and healthy, so don't worry! :)

First he checked out the couch.

And then the toilet, naturally.

And His Cuteness was then treated to some milk. Too bad we only had skim and 1%. But he was a fun intruder. (Now we really want a dog-- don't worry we're trying to be patient.)

Be excited for more pictures as it gets warmer-- we bought a new camera today, so you don't have to see lame phone pictures but fancy Olympus Stylus 7010 pictures. YAY! We'll have to take more pictures of our fish and frogs so you can really see how awesome they are.

Our Italian Friends

We aren't allowed to have pets, and we aren't trying to figure out how to fit a crib in our apartment anytime soon, so, instead, we have three foreign exchange students living with us indefinitely. Two arrived on the evening of August 31st after a bumpy journey and were moved in within an hour. They were holding tightly to their Italian heritage, so they brought a small piece of Rome to remind them of their homeland.

Romeo Lustefishe Betamo

Claudio Fredrique Ribbeto a.k.a. Fred

...just in case you wanted to see how big the little guy is

Their shrine to Rome

...can you spy the fish or a frog?

Then I went back to get a real plant for the beta fish. Surprise, surprise, I came home with Fred's long lost energetic friend. (I guess frogs are happier with friends, and trust me, Fred is already more active than before. Hopefully Romeo remains control of his favorite nap stop under the fake plant.)

Antonio the Gladiator

Yeah, all of that happens on just a corner. There was no other way to fit 3 exchange students, Marcus, and me in our apartment! Be grateful that we had something exciting happen because I had taken pictures of the meatball dinner I made on Sunday, and that almost got its own post!

p.s. I hope you read the names with really exaggerated Italian accents because that's how Marcus wants it to be. Just imagine the excitement when he envisioned this Italian adventure. Ok, I wanted the frogs. ;)