The Laird Lowdown: Fishicide... yes there was a death!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Fishicide... yes there was a death!

Rule 1 - NEVER follow the feeding instructions on the back of the package of fish food.
Rule 2 - Always check with the pet store before you start feeding new fish.
Rule 3 - Destroy the evidence before you get caught.
And last but not least...
Rule 4 - Never tell the kid that the fish is dead.

So, Tuesday morning I get up and go to feed the fish... the back of the can said to feed them 2-3 times per day as much as they could eat in 5 minutes... THEY LIED and the Fish DIED! I find poor little Eyeballs laying in the little plastic plant, like some poor shmuck who got foisted into the wilderness after someone murdered him. I admit I thought Bubbles might have pulled a Godfather type of hit on him, but I didn't find any evidence of gun residue or piano wire, so I couldn't prove it.

So, I called Tim down from his slumber to help me clean up the crime scene and put him in the morgue... I mean fridge... so he would be safe from grave robbers... I mean Dru... for the day, until I could get him to the fish store so Kaylee and I could trade him in for a replacement. Oh the horror, when to my shock and amazement I check the pet store website and read the Goldfish feeding instructions. And I quote:

It is very difficult to starve your fish, but very easy to overfeed it. If the food falls to the bottom of bowl you are overfeeding. In a bowl if you overfeed 2 or 3 times in a week you could kill your fish. We recommend you feed your fish every other day once a day.

Every other day! Once a day! What? I'm... I'm... I'm a MURDERER! I have committed Fishicide! Oh the horror! I was of course upset that I had just killed one of my sweet baby's first fish. What was I going to do? My first thought was dump the body, but then there would be no replacement. My second thought, blame the cat... no really, I wouldn't do that! What kind of monster do you people think I am?

I actually confessed to Tim and then to Kaylee... and then to the pet store fish guy. I would be a terrible criminal, because I would just go and confess to whatever I had just done! So needless to say, today after two days of being "Eyeball-less" we now have a new fish. He is an orange larger fantail. No deformities to speak of or abnormalities. Kaylee named him Orange! Real original I know, but she was extremely adamant about what his name was. She was also adamant about which fish at the pet store she wanted! I have to say, my child is very decisive.

Well, now that I've confessed on the web, I suppose I'll have the PETA people after me, or the FCSI (Fish Crime Scene Investigators) hounding me for a DNA sample and an affidavit stating where I was on the night in question. I'd have to say, "Sound asleep in my bed, while my goldfish pellets was killing Eyeballs the fish! I did it officer, please don't throw the fin at me! I promise not to overfeed again!"

Grissom would have figured it out in a minute and would have had me hauled in by Brass by breakfast. It took me half the day to figure out that I was the responsible party. Shhhh! Just don't remind Kaylee when the next one croaks, I'll probably get blamed for that one too!

Here's to hoping that there are no more deaths in the immediate future. I don't know if my conscience can take anymore murder and mayhem!

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Our Adoption Story

Everyone always wants to know our adoption story. It is a long and complicated affair, but the short of it goes like this:

Tim and I decided after long discussion to build a family through adoption. Any children we adopted would be ours but just not have his eyes, or my hair… Anyway, we started our adoption journey on September 11, 2003 in an international program to Thailand.

In late February of 2005 we received word that the Thai government had turned down our request. We were devastated. We began looking into other options. We turned to domestic adoption.

A girl at Aquinas, where I work, had a friend who was looking to find an adoptive home for her baby. We decided to go ahead and find out more about her. We then got news that she was pregnant with twin boys. Oh my… what to do? So after talking and praying we decided if that was what God meant for us, then that was great.

So we talked with her and it was progressing toward us having twins. Unfortunately, the mother went into premature labor and one of the boys was still born and the other boy was very sick. The mother wanted to keep him, which was fine with us, since to voluntarily give up a child is one thing, but to have one taken from you is another.

After much sorrow, we again started over. We had our portfolio looked at by a bunch of birth parents, but nothing came of it, so we waited… and waited… and waited. Until one day I was getting out of a meeting and my telephone rang at work. It was the social worker calling about a birth family. Finally we had been chosen. That was Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

The only downside was the baby would be here any minute, literally. The birth mother had come in on her due date to make an adoption plan… oh my, again! We said that yes of course we’d take the baby, so in a mad dash, we finished paperwork, bought out Babies R Us, and made many phone calls to parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, and the list went on.

It was Tuesday when we got the call and by Sunday, September 24th, we were a wreck, so we went to church. After church we had to do a little more shopping to get ready and so we stopped for lunch at Taco Bell. A familiar face jumped out of the crowd at Tim, it was the pregnancy counselor, Emily. He saw that she was talking on her phone and said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if she was talking about our baby?” I think I answered that it would be “scary, not funny.” So he went over to say hi. Well, it turns out he was right. She was talking to the birth mother; she had just gone into labor.

At around 7pm that evening we got to meet our little miracle, our Kaylee. Two days later we got to take her home to a house that was full of people waiting to hold her and even more people waiting to come over to the house to hold her. On, June 13, 2007, Kaylee Raquel Elaina Laird became officially ours and we are so happy to finally have an “official” complete family.