This morning Melodie went to check on her guinea pigs and
Medusa wasn't moving. Mel had to leave for school, so she woke up Wesley to further asses the situation and see if Medusa was lethargic or if it was something worse. Wes called Mel 10 minutes later as we were close to school and said Medusa was dead. We got Medusa in 2012. Our first impressions were a little rough, but she's been a good pig and we will miss her. Mel stayed in the car for a while to try and calm down her tears before going into school. But her friends could tell she was sad, and Ethan told her friends what had happened ~ Mel's pet guinea pig had died. Then the kind friends wanted to give a surprise for Melodie to cheer her up. The surprise was a new baby guinea pig. Ethan called to get approval, and I said okay (I wish I wasn't such a softy...) Mel came home from school and went to her room to continue to let her feelings heal, and her friends arrived shortly thereafter and knocked on the door. They hid around a corner, leaving a little bundle of fur in a box on the doorstep. I knew it was them and asked Mel to go answer it.
So, Medusa was gone, and Mel was sad, but now we have Vanilla, and she's happy again. Medusa, I'm not sure if it is mean to you for us to spend so little time mourning your departure, or if it's actually a compliment and shows you just how much we loved you that we couldn't even live 24 hours with you gone and had to fill in that missing gap immediately. So, yeah, sadness turned into joy by Mel's compassionate friends and sibling (and her friend's older brother who footed the bill and did the driving to the pet store). Everyone was excited about our new arrival ~ neighbor kids came over, all the kids were in the backyard playing with Vanilla, they made a new home for her and tried to introduce Hamlet and Vanilla to each other.
Then Mel took a break to come with me and my dad as we went to the Tulip Festival again, as we had planned before Vanilla arrived. We left Vanilla in the good care of her many babysitters. The weather forecast said it was going to rain, and the gray clouds seemed to confirm the truth of that, but we figured we'd bring umbrellas and take our chances getting wet just to have a chance of seeing the beauty of the flowers again. My dad hadn't been down to the tulip festival for a few years. Fortunately we go there right after the storm had passed and did not get wet at all. Unfortunately, the storm that hit the gardens was a brutal hail storm. It hailed, and hailed hard. The tulips were toast.
It was sad to see them all destroyed and form gone, but the colors were still there, even it was just on the ground. The second photo in
yesterday's post is a before, here one of the afters:
Tulips that were new and hadn't fully blossomed weathered the hail well.
Ones that were shielded by trees did okay too. The ones that were out in the open got pretty hammered. They looked like they feel how Corey does after work these days, just beat up.
Look at these two cuties! I love Owen and Natalie!
And I thought this was a cute shot - my dad pushing Owen and Natalie in the stroller, Mel walking beside him. I was able to enjoy a nice stroll as my dad pushed the stroller most of the time.
It looked like half of the tree blossoms on this purple tree were hit to the ground during the storm making a nice purple ground covering - can't totally see it here, but you get the idea.
So it was great to be able to go to the festival again, love the Thanksgiving Point gardens - what a treasure and gift to our community. I love it.
