THEY ARE HERE!!!

Cody and Rex were born today along with their brothers and sisters. It sounds like there might be 11 of them total, but Candy wouldn't let Keith close enough to count them. It sounds like her parental instincts are in high gear, which is good. I'm glad to hear she's being a good mother. In the next couple of days Candy might get off the nest long enough for Keith to move her and get a better count. As of right now, though, everything is running smoothly and little Cody and Rex are getting their little tummies filled and are growing into big, healthy, happy boys :D
I'm going to go back to jumping around the room like a crazy person ;)
I will try and post updates as often as possible. Hopefully in the next two weeks I'll know which boys are actually mine, and I can post pictures so you all can see them as well.
As for right now, all I can do is send happy, loving adopted parent thoughts to my two new baby boys :D

Impatient as I am...

My patience has started to dwindle. Candy should be having her babies today or tomorrow, and I honestly have not been able to contain myself this weekend. I have spent most of the weekend with the Carolina Blue Rattery site up waiting for the change to let me know how many babies Candy has had. I keep emailing Keith; he's probably tired of me asking if Candy's had the pups yet. Fingers crossed they come sometime during the night.
It's gotten so bad that I even went and got the cage all put together even though it won't be used for another 4 weeks. It probably was a bad idea to get it up because seeing it empty will probably make me even that much more impatient. I swear I'm more impatient with this than I am about waiting to hear back from medical schools.
At any rate, here's a picture of the cage completely put together. I even went so far as to put the food bowl, water bottle, and litter box in it :-P A tiny bit ridiculous.

They're coming!

So, I talked to the breeder, and it sounds like Candy should have her babies sometime this week!! He said she was really big, so hopefully that means she'll have lots of healthy babies. I know this is her first litter, so hopefully everything works out well and she makes a good mother! Then, about a week and a half after the babies are born, their coats come in, and I'll be able to pick out my Rex and Cody!! I'll put up pictures as soon as I get any, but it probably won't be until the first or second full week of April (maybe...).
The shelves should come in sometime this week, too. I know they were at the delivery warehouse as of Friday, but I don't know when they'll actually be delivered to the Walmart. Once I get the shelves, though, I'll actually start getting all the rat stuff organized.
I also got in touch with Harlan, so I may be able to order my stuff directly through them and have it shipped to the UNC DLAM (Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine). Even if I can't, it's still cheaper to order the Harlan food than it was to buy the Kaytee's Fortidiet, and the Kaytee's isn't formulated for older rats.
I will post as soon as I know that Cody and Rex were born. I can't wait!!!

And so it goes...

I finally finished sewing everything for the new little ratties. I finished the bonding pouch this morning! It looks really good. It turned out better than I thought it would seeing as a can't seem to cut or sew a straight line :) I ordered the set of plastic drawers that the cage will sit on so now I'm just waiting for them to arrive. I also need to order food, but I think I'll do that later.
I bought a class ring yesterday and it was a little bit expensive... Oh well, I will wear it all the time, and I really just can't believe that I'm graduating in two months. I just can't imagine having to possibly leave Carolina. I've loved it here. I don't really want to go through undergrad again. As fun as it was, I don't think I could bear having to take some classes over. But I just love Carolina. It's a beautiful campus. I love all the people I've met both students and faculty. I love getting to interact with so many wonderful people on a day-to-day basis. I know I'll meet plenty of new people in medical school, but it just won't be the same. I mean, at least the UNC Medical School is on the undergrad campus. Most other schools have the medical campus separated from the undergrad campus. I don't think I could stand that. I need some diversity.
I haven't heard from any med schools yet other than Wake Forest (alternate list). UNC said I would hear by the end of this month or the beginning of April. ECU said I could hear as late as the beginning of May. That is such a long time to wait. I'm just glad that my back-up plan doesn't need to be set in place until that time. I'm praying I get into UNC though. I would LOVE to stay here another four years!

Back on the Hill...

Well, the break has been incredibly relaxing, but it is nice to be back on campus. It is also nice to have a computer that is working like it should be. My computer decided to act it's age, so I took it to get all its internal organs fixed up and back in working order. Now my computer runs at a normal rate, and it actually starts up without any complaints. It's running like it did when I first got it!
I haven't really done anything else to prepare for the ratties. I have the travel cage, but I still need to sew the lining for it. I also need to order some food and the stand for the cage. All of that can wait though since I don't really need any of it for another month or so.
At any rate, I'm back at school, but not really ready for the last 8 weeks of classes. It's really beginning to set in that graduation is coming. It's a little bit terrifying, especially since I don't know right now where I'll be next fall...

Oh Boy(s)...

Wow...I had a bit of a scare last night. I found out yesterday morning where I was on the wait list for Sphinx's litter and realized I was pretty far down. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get any rats from that litter, so I frantically tried to figure out what to do because I really miss not having any rats around and am not sure how much longer I can wait. So I emailed Keith, and it sounds like I have nothing to worry about (thank goodness).
I'm home for a couple of days. I got the travel cage cleaned and put together. The plastic is sort of brittle because it's been up on the top shelf in the laundry room for about 6 years now. But I finally got enough pieces that aren't completely broken so that the cage will stay together. It looks really nice. I'll make the liner for it when I get back to Chapel Hill. I also have to sew together the bonding pouch as well.
I'm just glad to know that I will be able to get the two boys I've been waiting for...

Relaxing...

I'm officially on Spring Break!!! AWESOME!!!

It's been so nice, do a little work in the morning and then just relax the rest of the day. I finished the tube hammocks this evening. I think I might use safety pins to attach the hammock to the cage. I'm thinking I'll put it either over or under the very top half shelf in the cage. I also think I'll put the open hammock in the top as well.

I also think I'm going to get a set of drawers to put the cage on top of. I can put the rats' stuff in the drawers. Food in one, toys in another, extra liners and bedding stuff in the top one. Then the cage will be more at eye level which I think will be really nice. Hopefully the set of drawers I get are stable enough with the cage on top. I think they will be. I'm really excited. It'll be fun the have the rats right there by my desk. Of course, it also means that I probably won't get any work done :-P I think I can handle that though ;)

I may save the rest of the sewing for sometime later. I just want to relax this week and just do a little bit of grading each day.

About 3 weeks!!!!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!
Sphinx and Candy were paired today so that means in about 3 weeks the little babies will be born. Then 4 weeks after that, I'll be going to the Carolina Blue Rattery to pick my little boys up. Grow strong and happy little Rex and Cody!! I'm so excited; I'm seriously just shy of jumping around my room like a maniac!!! Except, I kind of don't want complaints from the person how lives below me, and I don't want to scare my roommates :-P Eeeee :D:D:D

Creativity at its finest...

So, I talked a couple of weeks ago about making liners for the cage. After I made those, I had alot of polar fleece leftover. I had gotten more than I needed in case I messed something up. At any rate, I had a bunch leftover, and wasn't sure what I was going to do with. I finally figured it out. Part of the fleece will go toward lining the travel cage for the rats. This is a recycled hamster cage that I'm getting from my parents. It will only be used while the rats are in the car and while I'm cleaning their cage. I will NEVER use it as a permanent home for them for an extended period of time. I just think the smaller cage will be safer for them to car-travel in, as well as keeping them out of trouble while I'm busy cleaning their cage out for them. Some scraps I tied together into little balls for them to play with. I'll sew it together so they can't pull it apart even though it's all made out of fleece and won't hurt them if they do get it apart. Some will go toward making a bonding pouch. I think it will be fun to have while I'm wokring on homework. The little babies can stay close to me while also staying out of trouble. Another big chunck of the leftover fleece will go toward making tube hammocks. I think these look really neat, so I thought I would make some because they do look so neat. I'll make two of those. And last but not least the rest of the fleece as well as this nesting material stuff from the chube I got will go towards making little pillow beds. I figure I'll make pillow case type things, stuff them with the nesting material and then smaller scraps of fleece to make a nice comfy bed, and then sew it closed. As I said to my boyfriend, I'm going to all this trouble to make as many nice things for these rats, and I bet they'll prefer the tissue box and toilet paper rolls to all the other "fancy" stuff :) Oh well, I like making all the crafty stuff, and it'll make their cage look really exciting :D YAY for an enriching environment!!
PS-any day now my ratties parents should be paired. I can't wait!!!

YAY!!!

I have the greatest students ever!! We had evaluations today, and they were all so nice. There're some things that it sounds like I can work on, but for the most part, all the comments were really positive.
We had the genetics lab today which is a little dry because it's difficult to have a hands on genetics lab in a introductory bio lab. My gel didn't work because I didn't put in enough buffer to make a complete circuit. The corn part is somewhat boring because it's just counting corn kernels and then learning how to use chi-square analysis. Still, I used rats as part of the genetics lesson, which I think sort of surprised some people. Especially when they found out I had a pet rat and was planning on getting more. Hopefully my excitement over the lab was helpful. We'll see on the final evaluations. That tends to be the least enjoyed of all labs.
I keep checking carolinabluerattery.com everyday now, waiting to see that Sphinx and Eve have been paired. It should be any day now. Hopefully I'll have some good news going into my tests at the end of the week. I have two, but then it's Spring Break which should be nice and relaxing.

The big scary monster

Today was pretty good. I spent most of the day doing work. At 5, I went to some friends' apartment for dinner with my boyfriend. They have a cute little puppy that was so much fun to play with. Though, I think at the end, he wasn't really in the mood to be picked up, but a did anyway and he sort of snipped at me. I don't know why I get bent out of shape over little things like that, but right now I kind of feel like an idiot even though I shouldn't. It's not like he doesn't like me, he just didn't want to be picked up. And maybe I'm embarrassed by it, but I shouldn't be. It happens to everyone. Maybe that's why I prefer rats. They really don't ever bite or get perturbed for that matter, so it seems. They may squeak, but Petey never acted like he didn't want to be held. Sometimes he would rather walk around, but always close to me. I guess I still kind of look like a big scary monster to a tiny puppy :-P At least he won't remember that the next time I see him ;) At any rate, any day now Sphinx and Eve will be paired and then the count down will really begin. So, in about a month, I'll know what my little boys will look like. And then a couple of weeks after that, I'll be picking them up. Granted, it will probably be right before exams. I may be a little stressed out, but having the babies around will be nice!! Another procrastination tool, and maybe these will reduce my feelings of stress due to exams.