When Are the Tadpoles Coming?

When are the tadpoles coming I wonder?
What is this package under the tree?
Ohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohno Oh NO!


When are the tadpoles coming I wonder?

While futzing online during my trip to Wyboring, I decided that it would be a good idea to order the tadpoles I have been promising the students since the beginning of school. In the spring, 2nd grade studies complete and incomplete metamorphosis so I thought it would be fun to have tadpoles. Usually I have this grand idea in May when it is far to late for them to metamorphasize before school comes to an end. Anyway, I order the tadpoles and expect that a certificate for live specimens will be sent and that I will mail that when I get back to San Diego I can mail in the certificate and the tadpoles will come just in time for school to start again. This is the way it worked in my head....

I returned home on the 25th and was wondering when exactly the tadpole certificate would arrive. I chalked up this delay to the fact that it was Christmas week and the shipping people may be off or it got stuck in the Christmas package rush. No big deal, the kids aren't coming back until the 3rd.

What is this package under the tree?

On Monday, the 27th, I wake up ready to get my life in order. I decided the best idea was to take all of my stuff that has piled up in the living room to the basement and therefore at least the living room will be less cluttered even if I don't get the basement completely cleaned. I am gathering the little piles of things that Catherine so carefully stashes when she finds my junk scattered high and wide. I am ever so gently shoving things into bags and taking them downstairs. I get to the tree and find a present (oooooh unexpected) with my name on it and a package under that present from THE FROG COMPANY!

Ohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohno Oh NO!

This package is SUPPOSED to be a certificate NOT the tadpoles!!!! I immediately drop everything grab the package, that is on it's side, and hustle to the kitchen. I grab a knife and hastily open the package. In it I find the container, special sand, food, AND two desperate looking tadpoles (I am inferring their desperation). I know that I can't put them in regular water and the booklet (which is trying way too hard to be cute and provides very little actual information) says I need "Spring Water"....this goes against my water buying philosophy but we are talking about LIFE OR DEATH. I grab my keys and rush to the door. I drive in a fluster to Vons and jump out of my car. It is at this point that I look down and realize that even though it's about 2pm I am dressed in slippers, pajama pants, a teal t-shirt, and a brown jacket with lime green buttons. I also haven't showered in like 4 days and still have the travel look still from plane ride 2 days before. Needless to say, I am looking rough.

Abandoning my vanity (ha), I grab two gallons of "Spring Water" and a liter of Diet Coke (on account of) and rush back to the house. I quickly pour the water into their container then empty the tadpoles from their shipping containers into their new home. I finally take a deep breath and realize that I haven't really taken one since finding the package. I am convinced that these tadpoles will not survive as they are both looking very ill and laying on their sides at the bottom of their home. I then read and re-read the FAQs section on their website and they said that this lack of liveliness is normal....of course I am convinced that my tadpoles are special in every way INCLUDING the fact that they are more sick than any tadpole has every been in the history of all tadpoles.

Luckily after about an hour they started to perk up. As of today they are doing fine. I am now very concerned that they will be frogs before next Monday when the kids will get to witness the miracle of metamorphosis. It is very cold in our house so hopefully that will slow them down a little bit. When Catherine got home I asked her when exactly the package got there, she didn't know but thinks it was sometime before Christmas. So really there are two Christmas Day Miracles here, one that the USPS actually works sometimes and the other is that my Superior-In-Every-Way Tadpoles are of such resolute determination and upstanding moral fiber that they can survive anything...hopefully that includes 2nd graders.

Look you can see its little leggies!

Another one of the same tadpole. This one is a littler dark and more developed than the other one.

This one has little tiny leggies and is lighter. Oh my heck!