Day 26 - Outdoor Wooden Toy Chest (Throw)

I went out to get something from the garage the other day and noticed a situation that needed attention.  A few years ago when our neighbor across the street moved away, he left a big old aquarium (that he must have been using to house a lizard or turtle) right there on the curb in front of his house. I took it.  I admit that I too am a curbside collector!  I always wanted a big old fish tank, but they're so expensive - this one just needed a scouring pad and some elbow grease and it would be mine....  This thing had to hold 50 gallons or more!

Now I knew that our current house was much too small for an aquarium of that size, so the monster took up room in the garage with all the other "necessities" (We've never kept a car in there!).  This summer I pulled it out when The Princess (age 3) fell in love with a toad (named Sally, apparently) which we found in the back yard.  Continuing a Gross family tradition, we figured we'd keep the toad (for a while) as a pet. 

I lugged that fish tank from the garage and set it on top of the wooden toy chest beside the entrance to the garage.  We pushed all the pea gravel to one side so Sally would have a hill on one end and a pond on the other.  The Princess would pull Sally out every few days and play with her and, inevitably, Sally would make a run for it and disappear.  We'd find her again a few days or weeks later in the yard - surprised at how much she had grown ... or shrunk - and back into the fish tank she'd go.  Eventually we realized we were seeing two separate toads, so the second became known as Jumper.

Toward the end of summer, the toads no longer reappeared, but the fish tank, of course, sat on top of the toy chest.  We've gotten a lot of rain recently and that's what caught my eye when I walked out to the garage the other day - the tank was half full of water and the weather was cold enough lately that the water was starting to ice over.  It ocurred to me that the fish tank wouldn't last too long with ice expanding inside it.

So I bailed about half the water out with a small bucket and then decided it would be a whole lot quicker to dump the rest.  I tipped the aquarium up on one end and ... it went crashing through the top of the toy chest!  The wood was so rotten that it could no longer support the weight of that thing.  Fortunately, the crash happened in slow motion and I was able to prevent any damage to the fish tank itself, but the toy chest (and most of the long-forgotten toys inside it) went into the trash can for pick up today.

There won't be opportunity to spot toads for months to come now.  I hate winter ... and not just because it's toadless.  I know life in Haiti is going to be hot and sweaty, but I don't know how much I will miss the cold and snow.  While I was in Haiti, I kept thinking what a kick our kids would get out of chasing and catching lizards.  I suppose that would be a year-round sport there.  I would guess I saw about 20 or 30 lizards a day without even looking for them.  They ranged in size from two inches to two feet!

Speaking of Haiti... If you are inclined to pray, pray for the country as they try to sort out a very messy presidential election while continuing to deal with cholera.  And if you are inclined to pray for me and my family, here's the number one prayer request on my heart at the moment (because we'll have to start acting soon if it is going to happen):  Melissa and I would LOVE to take our kids down to Haiti this coming summer for four or five weeks.  We'd serve together as a family in whatever way we could there at the OMS compound in Cap Haitien.  On top of being a chance to serve, it would give us a great opportunity to introduce the kids to the country and the people and to see how the four of them cope.  The thing is, it would be an expensive endeavor, and at a time when we are trying to sell the house and pay off debts, we refuse to consider putting it on a credit card!  Would you pray for us that we would seek God's guidance on this ... and trust in his provision if, in fact, it is in his will for this to happen?  Thanks!

By the way, anyone want to buy a large toad habitat?