Princess our hamster

Here are a couple of cute photos Sarah has taken of her hamster.



She loves this cotton candy type bedding. We put it in different places, and she pulls it to where she wants it. She spreads it out and gets in the very middle of it, as if she is cuddling herself.


Here she is drinking from her water bottle.



Even though I was a little apprehensive at first, I now realize that hamsters may be the "PERFECT" pet. Here are the top 10 reasons why hamsters are great pets!

10. They eat very little; one bag of food will probably last 6 months.

9. They are easy to take for walks. You just put it in its ball, and it will run around the house for hours.

8. They potty in a litter box which you dump every few days.

7. Their poop is so small that it's not even a big deal. (It looks like a pen mark.)

6. Their little accessories are pretty cute. Ours has a pink Cinderella-type carriage / wheel.

5. You only have to clean the cage every 2-3 weeks.

4. Kids think it is a TREAT to help clean out the cage. Who needs family game night?

3. You put food and water in the cage and the thing can take care of its self for a week.

2. You really get to decide when to interact with it, or when to leave it in its cage.

1. It is a great little motivational tool to get Sarah to finish homework, or clean her room. She can play with Princess as soon as she ______... If I had known how well this would work, we might have gotten one years ago.

Even Superheroes get tired...

Here is our little guy dressed as Batman. Shane does not "nap" anymore. Most days he sleeps in the car on the way to church or softball practice. Some days, however, we find him crashed in various places.

Girl Scouts

Sarah is loving Girl Scouts. We have finished our cookie sales for the year (whew!) and have enough troop money to fund our activities for next school year. Here is Sarah with a few of her friends, selling cookies in front of Belk. I am very proud of my daughter. She really wanted this stuffed horse "prize" which was available to those that sold 220 boxes. (Will post picture which it arrives --- hope it is not 2" tall!) Since neither Steve nor I work in an office with lots of willing buyers, Sarah really had to get creative in selling cookies. She had a table on our corner one weekend. We loaded the wagon down with all varieties and walked a couple of neighborhood streets. She also worked FOUR weekends at Walmart and Belk to sell enough cookies. She ended up selling 221 boxes. :) Thanks to all of you that supported our troop and Sarah. Way to go little one!

In Daisy Girl Scouts, we work to earn petal patches that represent the Girl Scout Law. Sarah has earned half of them.

So far she has earned...Honest & Fair, Friendly & Helpful, Considerate & Caring, Courageous & Strong, Responsible for what I say and do, and Respect Myself & Others. This picture shows her awesome leader handing out her patches at the last awards ceremony. I wish we had been a little closer together. Oh, well.

Since Daisy Girl Scouts is the program for kindergarteners and first graders, we will "bridge" to Brownies in May.

Sleeping Arrangements

So, we bought this house, with separate rooms for our kids. We think we are thoughtful parents, giving them each their space and a place all their own. Shane has bunk beds and Sarah has a full. They sleep together almost everynight...sometimes on the same bunk (sharing a twin). Explain to me, why, they are both asleep in a sleeping bag on Shane's FLOOR?

Funny things that children say...

Sarah was taking a shower tonight and she had a finger in each ear, plugging them. She asked me if I could see water in her eyes. Then she told me she was trapping water in her head, and shaking her head from side to side to clean inside her head. I told her it doesn't really work that way, and she said "In Tom and Jerry, when Jerry is inside Tom's head, you can see him standing behind his eyes." Well, how could I argue with that. We've all seen T & J and know that the things that happen to them are real. Duh, Mommy!

Shane's rendition of Clementine..."Oh my darlin', oh my darlin' and her dog named Valentine..."

Another funny one from Shane. We were watching tv and Steve and I said something about a commercial that had passed. Now, having grown up with tivo, Shane is obsessed with going back to see things. (At Christmas this was extremely annoying because he had us rush in after EVERY toy commercial so that we could see what he wanted from SANTA.) Sorry, I digressed...Anyways, Shane wanted us to go back so he told Steve to "fast backward" (fast-foward works, why not fast backward?) Gotta love their little minds. If you ever stop to think about it, the English language is quite confusing. There are all these rules, and then so many words that don't fit the rules. I mean, why do we park on drive ways?

"It was God, Mommy."

This morning, while trying to get me and both kids ready for church, I decided that I would let Shane take a bath while I showered. So I told him to get naked and that I was starting his water. Now usually, he strips and is in before the water gets warm, but not today. I am thinking he went in the dining room and got distracted by the hamster.


Anyway, I started my shower,and he still hadn't come. So, I knocked on the wall, hoping to get his attention. Still no Shane. I knocked again.


Shane came in the bathroom and said "It was God, Mommy."

ME: "What was God?"

Shane: "He was knocking. I checked the front door and nobody was there. So it was God."

ME: "Shane, Mommy knocked so that you would come back to take your bath."



A little while later, while taking his bath, I heard him mumble under his breath. "One was from Mommy and the other was God."


My little sweetheart. I am so glad that he already has a heart for God. In an unanswerable situation, his 2nd choice was God. Children really do have amazing faith. They have so much to teach us.

Our new HAMSTER

Last November, Sarah had a fund raiser at school. One of the prizes they could earn was a toy hamster that you could turn on and it would roll around in a little pink ball. Sarah won that prize and decided that she wanted a REAL hamster. Since then, Sarah has been waiting for one. We made her wait because we wanted to make sure it wasn't a whim and that she really wanted one. She has been saving her money and last Tuesday, on her birthday, we finally went to Petsmart and picked one out!! It worked out well because we didn't have school due to the ICE.

Here is Sarah, VERY EXCITED, about to pick out her hamster.


Once we got home, we put our new friend in its fancy cage.

Sarah named her "Princess". She is really sweet tempered, slow moving, and enjoys being held. Great qualities when being handled by 4 and 7 year old kids.

Here is a close up shot that Sarah took.

Updates as of Feb 1st--Princess loves to sleep in her little pink bed. She has just figured out how to climb to the top of her cage and use the purple wheel. She is so small, she has trouble hoisting her body into the spoke to get out of the wheel, but she is persistant and can now do it independently. She also uses her "potty" which makes cleaning the cage easy!! (for Sarah)