Some of the goings on for the last 2 weeks....

We survived having 6 kids in our house for 2 weeks! We also had 20 hamsters, which kept all of the kids entertained. We are now back down to our own 3 kids and 13 hamsters. We gave away 5 hamsters and Meow killed a 2 week old baby that one of the kids left running around the house, we rescued it, but it only lasted a day. Then he figured out how to eat one through the cage - we heard a noise around midnight & ran downstairs to find a half alive hamster all bloody with half its face eaten off - still in its cage. Since, it was still alive and I didn't want to kill it to put it out of its misery I threw it outside & let meow finish it off. (Grayson named the hamster in Meow's tummy "raspberry" after death)!

Meow has also scratched a hole in our carpet on the stairs, so today I spent an hour calling around to get prices on getting him declawed ($100-$330 can you believe it?) We moved the Hamsters - 4 cages - to Graysons room, where we can keep the door closed until I can put clear vinyl around the cages so Meow can't grab the hamsters when they are climbing. I am hoping that losing his front claws will make him less likely to chomp the hamsters...but now that he's tasted blood...probably not. (If it comes down to a choice between Meow or hamsters....I love hamsters!)

Surprisingly, Sophia does not try to eat them or bother them. She knows they are our pets. 2 weeks ago when I was cleaning cages, 3 hamsters escaped from the "play place" (a open topped plastic storage tub 4-6" high), it would have been fine, if Grayson hadn't left his door open, because 2 of them escaped into our bedroom. I had to leave to take Dalaina to pre school and so I left the cages drying and thought the hamsters would be ok, even if they escaped because I closed Graysons door & put a towel against the bottom...well, Grayson or Dalaina went behind me and left the door open - thats how the escape happened without me knowing it. I had to count hamsters to figure out there were some missing!

Anywho, a couple hours later I walk into the bedroom to see Sophia calmly sitting on my hope chest looking down between the chest and the wall. Whadda ya know? 2 little hamsters were hiding out! Thanks Sophia!

Ethan is enjoying his after school "Extreme Science" class every tuesday. Yesterday they made & rode a "hover craft". He'll have to explain it to you. He is also doing cub scouts every wednesday. Ethan will be getting baptized in May. Hopefully, on his birthday. I left a message 2 months ago to the people in charge of organizing it, but haven't heard back, so I'll have to remember to call again!

Jasmyn has 3 basketball games left. She is on Varsity. She had to turn in her class schedule today for HIGH SCHOOL, can you believe it?  And we just signed her up for Multimedia Graphics & Culinary Arts Academy at the Spokane Skills Center (June & July), which she wants to take and she'll get credit for high school. Still haven't convinced her to take zero hour seminary yet. She's taking Spanish for her elective (to get it out of the way) next year.  The current "in" thing for 8th graders to do on weekends is to go roller skating, so thats what she's been doing. Oh, and driving me crazy by snatching my phone to text her friends. She wanted texting back for her birthday, but we said no, cause we're big fat meanies.

Grayson loved having Dalaina here to play with - they would spend hours torturing - I mean - playing with the hamsters! Grayson loves going to the library so he can play kids games on the computer. Our kid computer got fried when we tried to add memory ourselves. We're hoping to find an old one that we can get cheap, just to put his games on & be able to surf the internet with. Grayson also loves netflix. I log onto the website and get him into the watch instantly section and he will click on a movie (bolt), watch it for 5 minutes, then go back to browsing, click on another movie (Stuart little 3), watch it for 5 minutes and repeat the process for 2 hours!!!

I use that time wisely - he's very occupied - so I get stuff done, like calling around for a new passenger window Regulator & motor & prices on bumpers. So, we have replaced our window motor 2 or 3 times in 6 years and the guy we usually have do it only charged us $100. But we're going to go somewhere else to see if we can't get it to "last longer". So, I called Dishman Dodge $192 parts and $120.74 in labor. Ouch. A local guy that did a good job on our brakes can get it for $107 & charges 50-60 an hour, 2 hours estimate. Then I was surfing ebay and found a "new" regulator for $45 with free S&H. Dave is skeptical, but I'm calling the installation guy tomorrow to see what he thinks. Then I'm wondering "how hard could it be to replace myself?"

Which is the same question I asked myself after checking out prices for a new rear bumper. It all started last spring when I backed into a metal basketball pole in the parking lot (why is it in the parking lot?) at Jasmyn's old school. That really didn't dent it, just softened it up a bit. Then this winter or was it last winter?, I backed into a concrete light pole at SVNC, that kind of pulled the bumper out a little bit...Then just as I was backing up at Girls Camp this summer to unload 6 girls and all of our gear, I heard a crunch - didn't see anything in my mirrors. I got out and saw that I had backed into a tree stump, crunching the left corner of the bumper in. Who cuts stumps lower than you can see them in your side mirrors, but tall enough to damage a vehicle??? Really! By the way, this was the same camp ground that Dave encountered the short stump that tore the entire van door off & ripped the rear tire in 2007! Not the same stump however!

So, Dishman Dodge told me that a new unpainted bumper would be $380.14 unpainted and the labor to install it would be $72.00. I asked if I could buy the paint & paint it myself...the guy laughed at me! So, I asked what the labor cost would be to install a painted bumper...$400...that doesn't include the bumper! $780.10 for a painted bumper! OUTRAGEOUS! Spalding has one for $205.00 (I don't know if I have to pull it off the old van or not), Ebay has one for $174.95...but then I got to thinking I should go get an estimate...I may not have to replace the whole thing...just pound it out so it doesn't look so horrible!  So, when I have a time I'm going to run by a place nearby & see what they tell me my options are.

Sign I made for our Blue & Gold Banquet

Dave & I started going to 5 am water aerobics a few weeks ago. We skipped the two weeks the Daltons were here (they got up at 6am & we were to worn out to go). Dave says were going back on Friday cause he got to winded playing frisbee with two 8 year olds in the gym at scouts today!