When Scott and I first got married, we kinda thought we'd have start having kids about three years into our marriage. I'd be done with school, and we'd be on our feet by then. It's been two and a half years now.
Our first married summer we planted a garden. That's only keeping plants alive for a few months, right? Easy peasy. Turns out...not so much.
We got it started, got it growing, and harvested some fruits of our labor. And then...we let it die. Like, before it should have. I guess we got tired of watering and weeding or something. It was a premature death.
The next summer we decided to try again with some potted plants. We had some other plants before that hadn't made it either. We started a joke that we couldn't have kids until we could keep a plant alive for a year. So we bought some flowers...
And once again, it was an epic failure. There must be something about September. Maybe it was the fact that I started student teaching and Scott got busy with Bankers and....well, enough excuses. Another one bit the dust.
However, we bought a tree the same time that we bought those flowers. And the tree...the tree! It was hearty! We only had to water it once a week! Surely we could manage that!
Success! There have been some scary patches...but we always managed to bring it back. Oh, this tree. It's been wonderful. It hasn't been quite a year...but close enough.
We finally did it! We kept a plant alive for a year!
...
But with all the failures, we knew we didn't graduate straight to a child. It's like we graduated from high school...now we're ready for college, not a doctorate.
We graduated to a pet! Huzzah!! We've been married for two and a half years. It's time for a pet.
A furry pet, though? No. I don't do furry. I don't like the hair everywhere, and I have a slight phobia of animal hair getting in my food. Now, I know it's not really that way and I have friends that have dogs and cats that are just wonderful. We had cats and dogs when I was little, and I adored them. Just...not so much as an adult, I guess. So...what to get? We decided to start small. A betta fish seemed to be just the thing.
So here we are! Meet Koji Kondo--our new male crowntailed betta fish. He's beautiful. He has a silver body with blue and red fins. Sigh. He's great. We bought a nice bowl, some food, the stones for the bottom of the tank,
and some water cleaner. We got everything set up for Koji when I was
reading the water cleaner solution. We've owned him for about an hour and a half now...and he's still going strong. I think that's a good sign. However, we've already got a problem. As we were putting the water cleaner in the bowl, I noticed it said it was not, in fact, a cleaner, technically. It's a pH balance formula. So we need that...but we need a chlorine cleaner thing, too. Sigh. Our first parental mistake. It won't be our last either, unfortunately. I just hope he stays alive until Monday when we can get it. Are these things totally necessary? Do we really need it? I don't know...but that's what's recommended, so we'll get it.
; )
Anyways, we're excited about the newest addition to our family. Maybe, if we can keep the fish alive for a year, we'll graduate again...
