There's a turtle in my bathtub!

Our turtle is quite the story. A year and a half ago, Rafiki came home from his best friend's house with a turtle in a ten gallon fish tank.

"It's my birthday present."

"Your birthday isn't for four more months."

"It's an early birthday present."

Okay. So Rafiki is given full responsibility for the care of this turtle. I think it's good for him. When we moved, the turtle came with. A couple months later, the tank cracks when Rafiki was cleaning it. I quickly bought a tank off craig's list and decided to paint the living room before putting the tank together. So the turtle remained in the small tank with little water because of the crack.

I painted three walls during that general conference (last April) but never got around to finishing the room, including the wall where the new, bigger tank would be sitting in the TV room. A few months later (yes, months, I had homework and residency and all sorts of other stuff that apparently took priority), the tank shattered into the bathtub while Rafiki was cleaning it. Since the wall hadn't been painted, I didn't let church_mouse put the tank together, insisting I would get to it in a couple days.

The next general conference came and went. After another crazy quarter of school, I decided it was time. Since we didn't have Thanksgiving at our house this year, I spent the day before painting, organizing, cleaning, and dejunking. As soon as the paint was dry, church-mouse put the tank together for the turtle.

Now having the turtle in the tub wouldn't have been so bad, except that church_mouse and I share the downstairs bathroom with the little boys. The two big kids have bedrooms upstairs by their grandma. Grandma has the master bedroom and bathroom and the big kids share the main level bathroom....with a turtle in the bathtub. To make a long story shorter, the big kids were using our bathroom as well for bathing for a couple months. We dealt with it fine until my family came for a week long visit, which added three more people using the basement bathroom. I just shake my head thinking about it.

Now the turtle has a beautiful tank that sits on a matching cabinet in the TV room. I do believe the turtle is happier there with swimming room, a sun lamp, and lots of people to watch her. The tub has been thoroughly scrubbed to get rid of the salmonila (however it's spelled) and the shower head has been replaced with a nice one to entice the big kids back to their own bathroom.

Just in case having nine of us using the downstairs bathroom wasn't enough, right before my folks came for a visit, we discovered a leak in the toilet. Apparently the "inards" need replacing. Unfortunately the previous owner who finished the basement installed carpet in the bathroom. UGH. Well, that makes for easy removal, but then we have tools, a small bathroom throw rug and concrete for the nine of us to deal with. Fun, fun. We've decided to install tile in that bathroom, but unfortunately church_mouse just went out of town for a class, so we may not get that floor finished for weeks to come. I'd do it myself, but I don't know how to fix the toilet. --heavy sigh. As hard as I try, I can't do it all.