For those of you who HAVEN'T heard/seen, Chase and I got a bearded dragon a couple of weeks ago. His name is Crumb and we can't be totally sure of how old he is but based on his size and picturs we've seen he is most likely a couple of months old. He was the smallest dragon out of the 3 at the pet store.

He will get to be about 2ft long and they are usually full grown within a year.

We have a smaller terrarium for him right now, it's 30x12x12 I think. We have a heat lamp and uv light for it. The temperature in the hot side of the tank is usually around 100-114 and the cool end is usually 87-93.

He eats crickets, meal worms and veggies. He doesn't need much water, because he is native to desert Australia, BUT beardies (as they are sometimes called) can become dehydrated. They don't soak up water through their scales, they can only get it through their "vents" aka butt and mouth. At first we had a "lizard lagoon" in the tank for him to get in and drink from but he wasn't using it much and it was causing the humidity to rise (which can cause respiratory issues for beardies) and it was making the alfalfa pellets...gross. So now we just bath him a couple of days a week in the kitchen sink. He doesn't like it much right now but he will...someday haha!

As I mentioned before he has alfalfa pellets in his tank right now. There are many different kinds of flooring you can put in there. We bought a bearded dragon starter kit and it came with the tank, lights, substrate and food. So, we have been using the alfalfa pellets simply because they came with the tank. They aren't pretty but Crumb always ends up eating one or two when he's trying to catch his crickets and they won't hurt him so that's good. After researching some more we have decided to switch it for something else. There are a number of different substrates you can use: tile, reptile carpet, shelf liner, sand, astroturf etc. And it sounds like there are pros and cons to every one. I think we are going to go with a reptile carpet. They can smear their poo on it I guess but it's really easy to clean and he can't eat it...I don't think... Anywho, we also went out on a bike ride and found a stick that he can "bask" on and a rock and Chase is making him something special to climb on. :)

Oh yeah, we don't know FOR SURE if he's a he. It's incredibly hard to tell unless you're a beardie freak until they have sexually matured, about a year, and then the males have small bumps beneath their hind legs.

They also wave! I've read that it's a sign of submission, the experts think, but I think it's just an involuntary movement. Like a really cute spasm or something. Beardies also do a head bob which is supposed to be a sign of dominance but Crumb will do both at the same time and he waves at his food...why would he be submitting to his food? It sounds like they are kind of weird until they are grown up though.

They are called bearded dragons because when they are upset they get dark, almost black some have said, mainly under their head, where a beard might be and they puff it out and do their head bob. They are not really known to be too aggressive though. They bite but I haven't heard any horror stories about it, usually they only bite on accident when they are overly-excited to be fed.

I've noticed Crumb changes colors a lot too. he will get really light and then he will get really dark and you can kind of see his "beard." A lot of different things contribute. Mood, body temp, environment etc.

If we take good care of him then he can live up to 10 years! :)

Anywho, tried to answer all the general questions. Bearded dragons are great pets!!!





here he is sleeping on his log/stick. I think he's adorable!




here he is looking really light!




here are all of his really cool colors! He is turning out to be pretty orangey.




he will do a "glass dance" when he wants out. He just jumps all over the glass.




We've only had him for a couple of weeks so I don't think he is totally used to us just yet and sometimes he hides from us and just peeks his little head out.




This is how he slept the other night. Don't ask me how he does it! (sorry for the poor quality, it was hard with the shutter speed in the dark) Another time he slept like this but on the floor and he fell over at some point in the night, didn't even wake him up haha!



This is his favorite spot. Butt to glass.




Look how dark he looks here! (and look at all the "crumbs" on his stomach ;)




Looks like he is high-fiving himself here haha!




Everyone says he looks big and scary in the pictures until they see this one. He is still just a little guy!

Wedding blog

So, I was going to do a whole big wedding post and include a ton of pictures and a story for each picture (you know me) but then I thought about it and really, the only people that look at my blog have either seen all of my wedding pictures on facebook or...took them... So. I have too many favorites to pick from so I chose these 3 randomly! THANK YOU MEGAN! :)

I guess I could take advantage of the writing aspect of a blog...

Um...it was a wedding. haha!

Okay, it was an absolutely beautiful, perfectly perfect wedding! Ya know how when you get married (or you talk to someone who is getting married) you get this picture in your head of how it will all go and how everyone will look and walk and all this and that? Well I had a picture in my head of the ceremony and it turned out EXACTLY how I had hoped! It was perfect weather and temp and everyone looked so very nice! (especially Dan and Brandon...BFFs haha!) And I really do remember it, for now anyway. As I walked out I remember thinking "this is my wedding...and it's exactly like I imagined! I should really pay attention and take it all in." And I did.

I want to thank everyone that was a part of it. Especially everyone that was a part of it AND read my blog haha! Thanks...Megan, for taking wonderful, reasonably priced, pictures :) Thank you Breana for making the flowers for our hair and coming to my dress fittings and giving me your opinions and letting me talk about it non-stop haha! Aaaaannnndd I wanna thank Chau! Thanks Chau for being a part of my wedding and looking so good! :) And I wanna thank Amy for coming and Monique! :) It was fun to have you there...even though I didn't really get to talk to any of you haha! It was a great day and all of you helped with that.

June 27th 2009 ROCKS! :)

...leading up to the weddin'

So. Here are some pictures leading up to the wedding!

The next post will have wedding pictures...I'm not sure why I'm posting them on my blog since the only person who hasn't seen them on facebook is my photographer...who took the pictures...oh well. It's something to do right?

And of course I still struggle with adding pictures so look at the pics from bottom to top.



Here is the right-before-I-walk-down-the-isle pic!! Excited I am!

These are the double rainbows after the rain the night before the wedding!

Here is the drive up to the ceremony. It was SUCH a perfectly beautiful day!

me and the some of the girls who went to get our hair done. :)

here I am getting the finishing touches on my hair and make up. Evolve Salon & Day Spa...they're awesome!

My hair taking shape...

This is me before the wedding look

This was our rehearsal dinner. After my mother-in-law confessed that the dinner was becoming too expensive at Silver Fork Lodge we decided to have Panda Express at the vacation home. :D Everyone was happy.

This is where my mom thought all the guys should stand at the front and the girls walk down by themselves...uh...not! haha! My mom likes to be in charge me thinks.

This is the wonderful table with the pictures and where the guest book should have been had it not been stolen the day before the wedding...well, stolen...lost...same thing.

My line of ladies and my moms. :) I gave the girls leatherbound journals and I totally burned their names into them with my leather-burny tool...it didn't turn out QUITE as well as I would have imagined...but it's the thought that counts! The bride and groom rehearsing! :)

campin' and huntin'

hello!

Last weekend we went camping because it was the start of the bow hunt.

Chase doesn't hunt but he's into archery and his brother and dad hunt so he went along with them and shot video of it all! Nathan has a tag for a deer and an elk and Bart has a tag for a deer, elk and antelope I guess. That's A LOT of hunting! But I don't think he minds ;)


People were out there camping from Tuesday to Monday I think but Chase and I were only there from Saturday morning until Sunday evening. The hunting season didn't officially start until Saturday and by the time we got there (around 12:30) Chases cousin Chelsea had already gotten a deer! And later her brother got a deer and then LATER LATER Nathan came home and had gotten his deer! What an exciting camping trip! It was my first time seeing a dead deer and, I'm not gonna lie, it was a bit much for me...I had a nightmare...shhhh don't tell my hardcore in-laws haha!




We played win, loose or draw...it's basically pictionary. The whole game is drawing and I'm pretty sure nobody really wanted/liked to draw but we all played anyway!

Here is Nathan and his dad and Chase with the deer Nathan got! I didn't name the deer because he was dead...it did cross my mind though... There were also other pictures of the deer but they were a bit more...bloody so I left them out.

This was behind the campsite. SO beautiful!!

I went on a walk Sunday morning and it was great! I saw a doe, a deer, a female deer.



We also played phase 10 while the hunters were hunting. In this had I had the first turn and I got out my first turn!! So, that was a short round haha! Doesn't really matter because Breana kicked all of our butts anyway haha!


oh yeah, I also saw cows on my walk!! One saw me and got up from where he was laying and started to walk over to me but I got scared and ran away...I'm a city girl and I don't know what cows are capable of!!


The men in their camo!

Just another Wednesday night

Chase and our went to Nathan and Breana's house last night (my brother and sister-in-law.) It was fun because I got to see all of the baby stuff Breana had for Olivia and I kinda helped put her crib together! It was fun. AND I got to see the ultrasound! It was totally RAD! Mommies and babies are amazing! :)


Here is my husband's concentration face...

here is what the guys did while Breana and I were taking care of business. Starcraft.


Crib full of fun new baby stuff!

Here are some SUPER CUTE, HOMEMADE, flower hair clips/headbands and bracelets for Olivia! :D

Look how tiny!!!

There she is! That's her...something...I dunno...

This is the SNUZZLER...not the SNUGGLER, which is a cute name, the SNUZZLER...what is snuZZling anyway??


Starting crib....


Finished crib! :) Love the cute bedding!

So....I am bored. I'm at work...it's my early day...my early day always goes by SO slowly! Probably because I'm so focused on it being early... WELL I'm really trying to stay focused at work. Sometimes I go to work with otehr stuff on my mind like "Oh, I can get this bill paid at work." Or "I can look up this information at work." When I should really be here TO WORK! But when the phones aren't ringing it gets SOOOOOOOOOOO boring! And if I don't do SOMETHING else to keep my interests up then I get really tired and slow moving/thinking and I'm unfocused. I almost prefer busy days. *sigh*
I miss Bejeweled. That game was MUCH easier to play in between calls. Reading a book is too involved and I don't want to stop in teh middle of a sentence to answer the phone!! That's just crazy!

Well, there ya go. A new blog post.