My Adventures in Babysitting

Here it is -- the best investagory piece on children and pigeon swaps. Funny - pigeon swap is false advertisement. I thought there'd be just birds, ya know? :-D

Animal Science 200 MWF 1:20-2:10PM Christina Makos
Extra Credit – Watertown Pigeon Club Swap Meet Attended: 2/26/05

(A.K.A. Christina’s Adventures in Babysitting: What to Do When there are Animals for Sale)

Since my Aunt Linda lives in Johnson Creek which is ten minutes from the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, I thought it’d be interesting to go to the Pigeon Swap and stay overnight at her house. I could probably write an extra credit paper on her house alone. She has had two birds, a snake that got out and they never did find, and multiple fish, one of which committed suicide by jumping down the drain while she was cleaning the bowl. She vows never to have fish again. Right now she has 6 cats, 4 kids, and 2 dogs. And the kids are always trying to bring home more animals. So when I thought “pigeon swap”, I thought it would just be birds. It would be easy to convince Jessie (age 8) and Kelsey (age 4) that they couldn’t bring home a bird, which is why they came with me. Sounds easy, right? But…there were more than just birds.
Yes, more than just birds. And I had two little girls who LOVE animals. The first animal we saw was a python. She was kept warm with a heat lamp and came with a 40 gallon tank. At that moment I was glad that my cousin Alex, who owned the last snake, had not come with me. At the same booth were mice (I think they were meant to be pets and not food for that python). Walking around the outside, we saw puppies, kittens, ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens, chicks, hamsters, an iguana that sold within a half an hour, and water frogs. Oh, and lots of bunnies. I was the one who had to be kept away from the bunnies because I’ve always wanted a black mini flop. They happened to have two today for only $10 each. A quick phone call to my mom confirmed my “I should not get this bunny” train of thought.
My cousin Jessie was a completely different story. She happened to fall in love with one of the Jack Russell Terrier puppies for sale. She tried to convince me to shell out $200 for this dog. Although I know that’s a very good price for a purebred Jack Russell and totally cute dog, I just couldn’t. First of all, Linda would kill me. Secondly, I didn’t have the money (that’s groceries for over 3 months!). Thirdly, let’s face it, I wanted it for myself. But the most important reason was that Linda would kill me. Nope, not all the big brown eyes in the world could convince me otherwise. Especially the ones belonging to my cousin, the dog, and the lady trying to get me to buy it. I know I’m a mean cousin. Especially since it was a really cute dog.
Those owners also had a kitten for sale that Kelsey dubbed “Gala” and spent over a half an hour petting while I was talking with the breeder over the qualities of the puppy, which if Jessie had gotten it, would’ve been called Brownie. I convinced Jessie to discuss the matter with her mom over lunch. Her mom flatly said no and that was the end of it. At least I think so….I went home after lunch.
During the two and a half hours we were there, I realized how much my mom went through while I was growing up. Most of the time I was walking around with three jackets, a purse, a kiddie purse, a bottle of pop, a full-sized blanket, and a doll. My arms are still sore. I knew the minute we walked in the door that I should’ve brought a backpack. Or a suitcase.
I haven’t baby-sat for a long time. I forgot how fast little kids move! Luckily I only lost Kelsey twice when she wandered off. Since it wasn’t a big building she was easy to find. Aunt Linda was rather shocked, because normally she wanders off more! One of the few times I got to sit down and unload, a woman and I started talking. I told her that now I know what it is like to be a mom. I think I’ll get a puppy first and work my way up to a child. She laughed. When my mom came to pick us up for lunch, I made sure I thanked her for every time she lugged around my coats, groceries, moving boxes, and various musical instruments.
I really wanted to learn about the animals, but chasing around two kids and convincing them they couldn’t get the puppy or the python takes a lot of time. I did talk to one guy about his Rhode Island Reds which he was proud to say were homegrown. They were only $.75 too. There was another lady with half-silky cross chicks. I would’ve considered one of those but they were going to have regular feathers in a few days. It looked like they might keep the little grey fuzzy crest though. The only silky there was sold before 7:30AM, about a half an hour after the doors opened. I was thinking about a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but I don’t have a place to keep it until next year. I’m pretty sure they aren’t allowed in the lease. Everything there was homegrown and fairly cheep. Oops, I mean CHEAP.
Oh, and there were pigeons there too.

Update

I thought I'd put some Josh Groban pics online so you could see what he looks like....I would've put in the "Baywatch Josh" Doll but I figured it wasn't quite appropriate for small children....or Mom :)

We ended up not riding the bus - instead Michelle's mom drove us all the way to Madison. Along the way we got to visit Aunt Linda at Lands End (yes, she did jump in surprise too!). I got lots of clothes that I'll pick up next weekend when I visit again :) Then we headed to Ella's Deli for lunch. Erin and I split a banana split.....mmmmmmm....banana split.

Next weekend I'll be visiting Aunt Linda and family and going to the Pigeon Club Bird Swap. If I write a small paper on the swap I can get extra credit in Animal Science (browine points too, 'cause the prof specializes in birds!)...and I'll get my shirts too.

Well, I've already rewritten this thing again and I haven't gotten a single thing studied this weekend. Oscar-boy's getting on my case again ---- sad thing is that he's almost always right too. I've got to earn my celebratory Desperate Housewives and ice cream break at 8PM and then a new Monk at 9PM......lots of love from the snowy state ~Christi and Oscar

here's one of the dress-up josh dolls :) 

Josh Groban - we never got his autograph, but he really is that cute! 

Mmmm....Margarita good.....josh groban better

Last night was the Josh Groban concert -- before hand we went to the Imax theater and watched the Coral Reef show. It was a little disorienting, but still really really cool. Then we headed to Grafton to visit Michelle's mom and get checked into our hotel. Then it was off to dinner at Senor Luna's for some really nice Mexican food (real Mexican food! I had a virgin strawberry margarita - mmmm...yummy. I ate the non-spicey stuff like the spinach wrap that was really good. Then it was off to the Josh Groban concert! Wow...the jazz guy before the concert was alright, the violinist was fantastic, but Josh...there was nobody who could compare. Even with a "frog in his throat" (which he said if it jumped out, someone could sell it on eBay and donate the proceeds to charity), the performace was solid and he was super boy-next-door/best friend's older brother cuteness, complete with corny jokes and being comfortable picking on himself. He was given a "dress me up Josh" shirt (see below) as well as a "Josh as superman" shirt and a cheesehead which he donned for a few seconds and had probably a hundred pictures taken in those few seconds. He also got a teddy bear which he kissed and then threw back out into the audience. I wouldn't be surprised if it were on eBay by the end of the week. And everytime some people yelled "We love you Josh" he always said "Well I love you too". Lol --- lots of fun for us! I didn't buy any souveniers 'cause they were so incredibally expensive... guess I'll just have to keep my memories and my copy of the paper Michelle's mom gave me. After the concert we bought junk food and rented "Wimbledon" -really cute,but only a rental to be watched a few times. Up until 2:30AM - back up at 8:15AM to get ready to go..... even though we have no idea when we are going to actually be leaving though. We'll be heading back today on the bus 'cause Michelle's mom isn't up to driving during the winter weather advisory. Means we won't get to visit Aunt linda :( I hope to get to visit her next weekend. Well, must finish packing sine I've been on the computer now for a few hours. Love and snow to all ~Christi

Dress me up Josh - http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/music/feb05/302527.asp
Concert Review - http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/music/feb05/303368.asp