The household pets

So here's the most amazing thing -- after all that has happened, I actually have been able to keep some plants alive longer than a month! The last time that happened, I think I was in college for the first time. Well, ok, maybe more recently than that, but eventually everything did end up dead. Until now. =)

Here are our family's "pets" (aside from the cat outside). Feathers is the fern (Sim's pet), Spike is the plant on the bottom (Serene's pet, though she doesn't know it yet), Planty is the jade plant (Jessie's pet), and Monster Paws is the purple passion plant (Marina's pet). Now the amazing stories truly apply to Marina and Jessie's pets.

Story 1 -- Planty. Planty started out a tiny jade plant in a 2-inch pot several years ago, before Jessie started school and we moved to Logan area at least. Since then, Planty has been repotted several times (never a good experience for a plant when I do it), been hit by flying pillows, had several parts broken off and replanted . . . and is now alive and doing well. For size, just know that our tiles are about a foot square. Yay!
Story 2 -- Monter Paws. Monster Paws started out a little plant that we got to replace Claws (a cool form of any ivy plant) that had died. Monster Paws did well at first but didn't really grow too much in the shady spot we had him. But we transplanted him to a larger pot anyway . . . and he promptly died! Well, almost. He completely wilted and started shriveling up. I guessed that maybe it was the Miracle Grow he hated (a new factor in the transplanting), so I cut off the tips of his growths in the hope that we could salvage SOME form of life from the plant and put them in water to grow roots. At the same time, I took out the new soil from the larger pot and put in some non-Miracle-Grow-infected soil. When the cuttings of Monster Paws grew large enough roots, I planted them in the prepared pot and prayed. We put Monster Paws in a sunny area (I did some reading on this plant finally), and wow! He not only survived, he thrived! (And btw, his color is off here. He really does not have any yellowish leaves, and normally you can see much more purple from his little fuzzy hair-like things.) In fact, Marina has joked about changing his name to Monster Arms, and I'm sure you can see why, lol.