Random Thursday

Today has been an all over the place kind of day. My dad and brother stopped here last night on their way “Out West.” It was a quick visit but nice to see them for a bit. The bubs and I hit up the mall looking for some outfits for our family photo session tomorrow. We picked up some stuff that looked really cute on the hanger but not so cute on my girls.
After dinner it was time to hit up the mall, again, this time with all 6 of us. We had success at Crazy 8 and best of all, everything we purchased was 60% off!
 While we were busy bathing kids, reading stories and doing homework tonight, I ventured upstairs and found our schnauzer in our bathroom, with the hamster, who was laying there, dead. (I feel like I am playing a game of Clue, I guessed the schnauzer killed the hamster with her mouth in the master bathroom). I figured someone had left Max out or not closed the top of his cage, which happens a lot around here.  Just ask our weekend guests who come to stay with us.  For reals.
Anyways, the kids were all playing school upstairs in daughter number three’s bedroom before dinner and Max was the class pet, in a clear storage bin with the lid off. They forgot to put him away before dinner, then we went to the mall after dinner trying to hurry so we could get home and do homework. I’m guessing he crawled out of his “cage” and when we came home, Heidi found Max upstairs and hen I found Heidi & Max.  Thank goodness the kids didn’t find him all bloody on my floor.  Yuck.
I hated telling the kids what happened, I knew they would be sad and would cry. Yet I also realize that in the grand scheme of things, telling them their hamster is dead is small potatoes compared to things other parents have to tell their kids. It was a reminder tonight that death can happen at anytime. I think we tend to forget that or pretend that it won’t happen to us or only when we are at least 80. The truth is, everyone dies. Not to get all weird but I’m thankful for Jesus, His Salvation and Heaven. There is a better place than here, which we sometimes find hard to believe when our bad day is the washer breaking, the hamster dying or running late for work. Hard to believe sometimes when we have full tummies, full cupboards, warm clothing, warm homes and people we love surrounding us. Not everyone has this luxury. We forget that too. So easy to lose ourselves in finding outfits for a photo shoot or complaining about having to pay to fix a washing machine. We forgot that somewhere tonight a child is going to bed hungry, again. That children don’t get to eat everyday,they don’t have access to clean drinking water or get to attend a school. They are too busy trying to stay alive. One way we try to help out is by supporting a child through Jesus(pronounced Hesoos)  is our sponsored child and it’s been a good experience for our family. We correspond back and forth with Jesus about 3 to 4 times a year, it takes a while for the mail to be translated and to make it across the globe. If you are looking for a way to help children that are starving, need an education and clothing, check out and sponsor a child today, you won’t regret it!

Tonight the hubs found this in the bedroom of daughter number three, who is only in 1st grade.  That she was able to write out her feelings on paper is wonderful.  Kind of like my blog post tonight, just getting all this “stuff” out on “paper.” 

Seeing his cute little picture just made me really sad.  I am going to miss Max.  He was a good hamster. 

On to more happy items, hubby just pulled my Cake out of the oven and it smells wonderful.  We are celebrating my birthday this weekend.  Friday night we have some friends coming over to help us eat the cake and play some games.  Saturday is family day and we are planning to take and drive around, look at the fall colors, explore some cities that are near us and just have fun.  We love having guests stay with us but we have had almost non-stop guests every weekend since Labor Day and a day with just our family sounds really great!

Finally, the hubs and I rearranged our on Thursday night.  I got a wild hair about it around 11pm and we finished at 12:30 after moving the couch, chairs and love seat around to about 55 different configurations.  So this room is still in the works but I’m loving this arrangement.  We brought in the leather couch from the formal , put the Ektorp in the playroom/basement, moved the tv back over the fireplace, put the console behind the leather couch, added the bookshelf next to the fireplace for the Blu-Ray player and hung the giant map where the tv was mounted on the wall.  I changed out the curtains and even decorated my mantle to try and hide the tv cords.  lol!   I would like to find a pair of lamps for the console, more maps for my map gallery wall, add some more pillows and paint the little blue table a different color.  Some of the pictures are a little “grainy” as I have been experimenting with the settings on my camera.  I’m hoping to become a master Photographer. 

If you’ve managed to make it this far without falling into a coma, congratulations!   That’s what has been swirling around in my head and home the past few days.  I’m hoping to post some pictures of our family photo shoot soon!