The Sanborns

It’s been a while since Chile graced the blog with his presence.

He’s still alive and usually anti-social for the most part. I’m sure he’s looking forward to Thanksgiving more than we are, he gets to be alone for a few days!

Everytime I think of something to blog about I’m not near a computer. So I think to myself, “Oh, I’ll blog later.” HAHAHA Never happens…
A few things have happened lately that I think are blog worthy. First off, Chile celebrated a year of being with us on the 17th! I totally meant to dedicate an entire entry to him but that went out the window because I forgot!!

Thursday morning I experienced something rather frightening at work. A co-worker was drunk and being unruly. That is pretty much all I can say about it, but for a while I was really scared and at the same time, I wanted to punch him for making sexist remarks. We ended up calling campus security and well, that’s all I know about the situation.

I had to go to class after that incident and I was still a bit shaken up from the experience. Luckily, we are so far ahead in class that she let us go early! Also, I got my lab practical grade back and I got an A! I have my second lecture test on Monday and I’m not feeling good about it yet..

The only other semi-exciting thing in my life right now is my mini herb garden. I recently transported the plants into their own pots (aka empty coffee containers) and now I’m just waiting and watching to see if they’ll survive the move.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and Happy Father’s Day to all you dads.

I was checking up on Chile this weekend and I noticed his water bottle was low. I thought this was rather odd, considering he doesn’t drink that much and we had just filled it up. So I grabbed the bottle and went to fill it up. Yeah, that’s when I noticed this:

Yes, Chile chewed a hole in his water bottle. This prompted us to run to the store and buy him a new, chew proof water bottle.

I am so proud of this purchase because it’s like we can rub it in his face, “You can’t chew this one buddy.”

I know, I’m a bad pet owner. Seriously though, we’ve had him for almost a year and he chews everything. First we had to replace his hay basket (seen in the left corner of the photo) because he chewed it off and caught himself up in it. It was actually kind of hilarious because I discovered him at three in the morning.

Notice the rubber ducky? It’s to let us know when the water level is getting low, in his new GLASS water bottle. Try to chew on that kid.

It’s been quite a week and I don’t have anything to say at the moment, so you get a video of our chinchilla.

This morning before 5:30 Gray woke me up because he got out of bed to check on a noise. Now, I’m not a morning person at all, and I dislike being woken up right before the alarm is set to go off. So when he came back to the room, I was a little disgruntled.

“Is it time to be up?” I asked.

“No, I was checking on a noise.”

“What noise?”

“The chinchilla had a massive poo or something.”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t hear the noise?”

“No.”

I kind of ignored his thoughts as craziness because the chinchilla make so much random noise all the time, I’m used to it.

So we did the normal routine, I got up and drove with him to school and drove back to the apartment. As I was sitting on the couch, typing away on my laptop, I heard the noise that I figured he had heard. The thing was, I saw the chinchilla when the noise happened and he was being still. So, I investigated his cage.

The noise I heard was the sound of his food pellets hitting our wooden dvd tower next to the cage. Gray’s original thought was that the chinchilla showered his poo everywhere when in reality, the chinchilla poops one pellet every few seconds or so.

The thing I can’t figure out is how in the world the chinchilla got his food pellets to fly over onto the dvd tower.

He normally does not like being held.

How was your weekend?

See that plastic ball? It’s pretty much like Elmo is for pre-schoolers. That is, I put my baby in it and he’s instantly entertained.

At first, he wasn’t too sure of it.

Chile in the exercise ball. from Becca Sanborn on Vimeo.

However, now he loves it.

Chile Lovin’ It from Becca Sanborn on Vimeo.

Best invention ever.

So, a lot has been on my mind lately. I can’t share much, because I’m not quite sure of everything. However, I will eventually.

All we have left is a Christmas party on Friday and then Sunday we drive to Memphis. It’s Chile’s first road trip and he bought him a carrier as his Christmas present. We’re actually going to take the truck instead of our car so we can transport his cage and accessories, not to mention all the Christmas presents!

One thing I’ve been thankful for is that our utilities were much cheaper this month. Thanks to high fuel prices in August/September, our electric bill soared the past few months. They charge us a fee that goes up and down based on need. It isn’t fun if it goes up, believe me!

I’m very sad the Titans lost today. It was depressing to get texts telling me we were behind. I was even sadder when I got the final score. They need to play better if they want a chance at the Superbowl!

Gray and I are looking forward to Christmas together as a married couple. We can’t wait to share photos and stories with you all. Weight loss update will probably come tomorrow or Wednesday.

So we’re back at home and it feels wonderful. Gray was sick yesterday afternoon and allowed me to drive from Memphis to Jackson. At that point he felt well enough to drive the rest of the way and I let him.

There was a lot of traffic and I was not expecting it at all! It was insane at a few points because people drive crazy around here.

When we got home I insisted on putting up the tree. Thanks to his mom, Cathy, we filled up the tree with ornaments! I joked with Gray that we needed to upgrade our tree. He look at me weird and I said, “Not for like 5 years!”

I have a busy day ahead of me. The house is still a bit messy, there is laundry to do as well as work. Chile greeted us by running into his home. Apparently he enjoyed being alone for the holidays.

We finished out the night by watching Fred Claus, which was really good! I needed a good Christmas movie to put me in the spirit and it did the trick. Now I must get back to some normalcy, which means that I must start losing some weight! I’m thinking of trying Weight Watchers, which is going to be interesting considering we’re going out to eat on Sunday, ahhh.

I’m actually not that amazed I’ve made it this far. See, in the past I could have posted every day, but I’ve restrained myself.

Today marks the beginning of week two for NaNoWriMo. I’m actually on target with my word count and will hopefully use the weekend to get ahead. Right now it’s beginning to feel like a chore to write, so hopefully I can get past that feeling and just write! My story has added in some characters I’ve never thought about. It’s interesting how that can happen.

I know I posted about the chinchilla the other day but he did something interesting that night. I woke up in the middle of the night and could hear him in his cage. I got up to inspect and found he was stuck in the plastic ball that holds his hay. He had been pulling on it and got stuck and tore it from the cage. So yesterday we went to Petco and bought him another, bigger, basketball cage for his hay. We also bought him some treats to chew on. He’s been biting me a lot lately. I can’t tell if he does it when he’s angry at me or just hungry.

Today is Homecoming for our college team. I think we’ll be staying home. The only football that really interests me these days is the Titans!

Now I’m off to clean house and make a grocery list!

I totally bragged to Gray yesterday how easy this was going. Now it’s going to be mind boggling hard.

How about a story from Chile?

I decided to follow someone’s advice and use the bathroom as Chile’s playtime area. Our bathroom is actually two rooms. The Sink is with the laundry and the tub/shower is with the toilet. Both room have doors on both sides. We use the sink area to play with him.

Two days ago he discovered that the cabinets have holes in them. These holes are not built to go anywhere, I’m not sure why they are even there. If Chile were to go in one, I’m not sure we could get him back. He likes dark places. So, as he was going into it, I grabbed him. A lot of chinchilla fur came off in the process and it took him a day to like me again.

Yesterday when I took him in to play he kept trying to figure out how to escape the room. I really need to cut up a card board box so he can have a toy to play in.

Regardless of how he likes it, it is far easier to let him play in this contained space than to yell at him every two seconds in the living room. He chewed on my laptop’s new charging cord only a few days after I bought it… brand new. Luckily, he didn’t cause damage or else he might not be here anymore.

If you’re thinking about getting a pet, I do recommend a chinchilla. They live for 10-15 years so they’re a long-term investment but they’re also relatively easy and inexpensive. Up front you will pay a few hundred to buy the chinchilla and its accessories but we only have to buy him bedding, pellets, hay, and occasional treats, never at the same time. We never spend more than $20 or $30 in a month on him. Any other pet would be far more, except maybe a fish, but they’re boring, trust me.

Plus, he’s just so cute!