The first day of April and we have overcast skies with rain. yuck. Just when you think you're bored with the routine of real life, things get a little crazy. As many of you know, I took Joshua to a modeling agency a couple weeks ago to see if I could get him in a magazine or something. I figure a little extra cash would be nice. Call it payment for all those diaper changes and midnight feedings! Anyway, you probably know about the guy stopped me in the parking lot. Well, I called him back a few days later after talking it over with Rusty and we decided "what the heck- let's do it!" The Learning Channeling is creating a new reality show called Real Moms. They want to document moms who are encountering a new page in their life, whether it's bringing home their first baby or moving to a new house or dealing with out of control kids. All sorts of topics. The producer is looking for three moms bringing home a new baby while their first is still in diapers. They want to see how these families deal with the added pressures of a new addition. I spent a lot of time interviewing and being interviewed by their staff. They like the fact that our house doesn't really have room for another baby and that our little guy is only 10 months old. Of course we would get compensated nicely ($7500) for letting a film crew into our homes for 15 months. That more than pays for the cost of another natural birth and helps us buy another crib, clothes, car seat, etc. To make time work for the show, we're going to start conception this month. So we're having another baby!

On a side note, Rusty's job is shifting as of this weekend. His boss's boss got promoted out of the department. That upset several people including Allyn (Rusty's boss) who is leaving the firm for a telephony startup in China. That leaves Rusty with an option to move to China to join in the startup (I said No Way) or to move into his boss's position and clean up the mess from this fall out. Several people are leaving the team from all this so Rusty's job now includes rebuilding the team and bridging the gap that Allyn's boss once held between the various departments. He's asking for a huge raise since he'll be taking on new responsibilities and ultimately more work. If they don't accept his proposal for $220,000 per year he's walking too. That throws a kink into our family-planning. I hope the company doesn't baulk. And if they do, I really hope Rusty can find a new job quick enough.

I almost forgot to mention the bird attack I had earlier this week. I was sweeping out the garage on Wednesday and left the garage open for a few hours afterwards. I lost track of what I was doing after being "paged" by Josh to feed him and change his diaper. After I realized the overhead door was still open, I reached around the corner of the door and pushed the button to close the garage. Moments later I hear all this racket in the garage- stuff falling down, something thumping on the wall- I freaked out thinking someone was in there. I grabbed a kitchen knife and swung the door open to spook whoever was in there. Then I spotted this huge blackbird on my car. I was relieved it was just a bird so I opened the overhead for him to get out. But he freaked and flew past him into the living room. It was all chaos after that. He flew into the ceiling fan, knocked out pictures, banged on the windows trying to fly out. He went from room to room looking for the exit then landed on top of the dining room table. Josh was a little anxious but curious to crawl towards the dining room to see what was going on. Our cats heard the bird and immediately came out to watch. Samson was scared and kept pacing between the front rooms and the hallway. Merlin was intent on hunting so he crouched down and started inching forward. Darwin was spooked too so he side stepped close to me but stayed crouched locked on the bird. I wasn't sure what to do. There's that pause when things settle and everything is peaceful and surreal. I didn't want to scare the bird because I didn't want him to go flying everywhere again. But he was nervous with the cats surrounding him anyway so I slowly moved for the front door. Then he crapped! On my table! The lousy bird crapped on my table! I swung the door open and yelled at him to get out. He flapped his wings and started for the door- but just then Merlin leapt into the air and sort of "tripped" him mid-take off. The bird and Merlin wrestled for a few seconds before breaking free and flying out. Merlin got a scratch so I had to take him to the vet. Darwin and Samson didn't sleep for hours expecting the bird to come around the corner. Josh was pretty much oblivious. I had such a mess to clean up. Oh well. That was definitely more entertaining than television!

Happy April Fools Day!