The Loss of a Loved One

So tonight our family experienced the death of a Kyle's hamster. It's pretty pathetic when the only thing I have to blog about is this occassion, but Kyle's heart is broken and he is really hurting, so I thought I would do a eulogy for "Shadow".
Shadow was a dwarf hamster given to Kenedee back in October. This rodent (I mean hamster) was given to her FREE of charge. Shadow came with all the necessities of life, which wasn't much. (Wasn't expected to live very long) but we reluncently gave in and told her that as long as she brought home good grades she would be allowed to keep him. She also had to keep the cage clean and take care of him, that under no circumstances was I going to take care of this hamster! She knew the rules going in to this right from the beginning. If the grades didn't meet our standard, dad would take care of it. (He's not a family pet kind of guy!) Anyways, when the first report card came back, without even complaining, she graciously gave her hamster to Kyle as an option instead of letting her father put it out of its misery.
Since then, Kenedee lets herself into Kyle's room many times a day for visition rights. She feels she's owed this since it was originally hers.
For Kyle's birthday when we realized this rodent (I mean hamster) was going to live longer then we thought, I gave in and we bought "Shadow" a new condo with accessories. Trust me, one accessory cost more then buying a new hamster!
Kyle was so excited. He and Kenedee spent days trying to make Shadow's new residence a comfortable enviroment. At last, Shadow had moved in to his new home. Life was good for this little rodent. He was never neglected, infact there were times that Kyle had to tell Kenedee to get out of his room and leave Shadow alone because it was his hamster not hers. Often there were moments of contention as Kenedee would remind him of who the hamster was originally given to.

This past Saturday morning, Kenedee, Kyle and Ryan had all left for baseball jamboree. Tessa was sound asleep and I was just getting out of the shower. I heard a sound coming from my bedroom but couldn't figure out what I was hearing or where exactly it was coming from, when all of a sudden a hamster came running out from underneath my bed. Mind you, all I had on was a towel and I was running around screaming as loud as I possibly could. Tessa, who could sleep through an earthquake, never even budged. I tried to capture this hamster with Kyle's hamper, but it didn't work. This darn rodent crawled underneath both Kyle's and our closed bedroom doors to make it's way into my room. He was out to get me I just know! I ran downstairs woke up Tessa and she came to save me from this fierce hamster that's about the size of a small potato!

Anyways....of course I questioned both Kenedee and Kyle when they got home to find out who was the last one to play with Shadow that morning. Kenedee still won't admit to it, but I know it was her. I saw her leave his room with my own eyes! What we think happened is that the wheel on Shadow's cage wasn't fully locked into position and upon running around and around really fast, it popped off and down came the hamster. Falling 3 long feet off of Kyle's dresser.
It appeared to be unharmed for the distance he fell, but did that fall lead to a fatal death? No one knows. This morning Shadow was fine, this afternoon when Kenedee was going in for one of her many visitations, she noticed he didn't look good. Kyle was having a play date as his friends house, so he had no idea anything was even wrong. Just this morning he was holding it and kissing it at 6:15 AM.

When Ryan came home from work we discussed what we should do. There was no way in the world that we were going to take this hamster to the vet, so I decided to let Ryan handle it and I went shopping at Northgate Mall. I felt that was the best place for me at that time. Oh I did give Kyle loves and told him how very sorry I was that this was happening to him, I'm not heartless, but honestly....aren't hamster's meant to be disposible? While I was shopping I had called my neighbor Sandra whose boys also just recently experienced the loss of their hamster to tell her the news. She said that she would have the boys go over and be with Kyle. Sandra also went over and said her good-bye's as well. You see, they watched Shadow for us while we were in Florida so they felt an attachment to him. Then the call came in at 7:30 PM, Shadow had died, belly up with all 4 legs straight up in the air. It was a sad time.
I finished up my shopping and came right home. They were waiting for me to have the funeral services. Poor Kenedee, never even got to say good-bye.
Funeral services were held at 8:20 PM in our back yard. Those in attendace were Kyle, Ryan, Shannon, Tessa, our neighbor Tod, and Sandra's boys, Gavin and David. Kenedee was still at her baseball game. (She didn't even know he had died but it was getting dark and Kyle didn't want to wait any longer) Loving words were given by many and Shadow was laid to rest in a box with stuffing provided by Gavin and David. Flowers were also provided by Sandra's garden.
May Shadow rest in peace.

Photo's taken moments before Shadow's death.

Our Next Family Vacation!

This year Ryan and I will celebrate 20 blissful years of marriage. After much thought, we've decided on our vacation spot. We're going to take a Mexican Riviera Cruise. I've never been to the 3 ports of call, but Ryan did finish his mission in Mazatlan and would love to return back to visit areas that he was unable to see. We've never taken a cruise, for several of reasons. For Ryan it was lack of interest, for me it's because I have a fear of large bodies of water. After talking to many people who have cruised, we have overcome our issue's and decided to try a new experience.
Ryan and I have been planning this for the past couple of months. Lots of things to work out, like....We still need to keep the daycare open while I am gone, who's going to house sit, whose going to care for the kids, how are they going to get to all their activities, lots of details. So after much thought, we've just decided to take our children with us. We were going to hold off telling them for awhile, but it was killing me to hold it in. So last night for family night, we brought it up in conversation. I don't think I've ever heard my girls scream so loud and jump so high off the ground in my life. Kyle's only concern is that the ship is going to sink, just like the Titanic. I assured him that this wasn't going to happen. He's okay with it now.
The only thing that Ryan requested was that we have separate rooms and he wanted a balcony room for us. The kids will just be across the hall from us.
Although this trip isn't planned until November 29th, it gives Ryan and I an incentive to keep up with weight watcher's.

Time To Get Some Rest!

So today is Ryan's 41st birthday. I can't believe it. And wouldn't you know it, he and I are both really sick. Ryan never ever ever goes to the doctor and yesterday he tried to go in to the office for a couple of hours and his work kicked him out and made him go to the doctor. They did a culture and we're just waiting to see if he has strep. Needless to say, he's home today feeling just awful. I on the other hand have bronchitis. My cough is so bad that when I start coughing I can't stop and then I start chocking. Kind of scary. I however am still working. I can't take time off even when I feel like this. That's the disadvantage to my business. Too many people depend on me everyday. Maybe my body is finally telling me it's time to slow down and take it easy.
Of course, I'm hosting Easter this year and have a ton of things to do before Sunday. No time to be sick!
Traditionally the birthday person gets to choose a restaruant of choice on his/her birthday, but I think tonight we're staying in. All birthday plans for the weekend are shot as well. It's always a bummer to be sick on a special day like this.

Weight Watcher's

So tonight, Ryan and I attended our first weight watcher's meeting. You're probably thinking, is that really worth blogging about? Well yes it is, because the more people I tell, the more accountable I have to be. I can't do it on my own, believe me I've already tried. I signed up about 4 years ago and lost about 7 pounds, but was really discouraged because I didn't have anyone to help me get through it. I gave up after a couple of months. It was too difficult to stick to it when no one else in the home was feeling the same way as I was. Ryan and I have been discussing this for quite some time now. Of course there's always a reason to start next week, right? Well we have a goal in mind and we have 9 months to get there, so I'm hoping with everyone's support, I can make it this time! Just getting Ryan to attend with me and join up as well will really help:)

Kyle's Birthday Celebration

So Kyle celebrated his 11th birthday this past Friday on January 25th. Bro. Perry had learned about this sleep over and asked if he was invited to the party. Kyle told him the only way he could come is if he brought a box a Krispy Kreme Donuts. I told Kyle not to get his hopes up, and wouldn't you know, Bro. Perry called me at 5:55 PM on Friday night and asked if the party had started yet. I asked him if he was planning to stop by for pizza, but he said that he just wanted to bring Kyle some donuts. Wasn't that sweet? He remembered and totally made Kyle's birthday! What a nice thing for him to do. He has no idea the impact that made on Kyle. Not just for the donuts, but remembering his special day in general. Thank you Steve.

Kyle had invited 13 friends over to help him celebrate. What was I thinking? Everyone came over for pizza and such and we tried to play games, but the energy level was out of control! At one point I even told the kids that my 3-4 year old daycare children were better behaved! It was awful. I was thinking the energy level would have changed once the girls went home at 9:30, but actually I couldn't even tell they were gone. By 11:30 PM I couldn't stay awake any longer and went to bed. Those boys never went to sleep. I heard them all night long. By 7 AM the next morning, I heard loud noises in the daycare kitchen to find out that they were going to cook their own breakfast. I don't think so! Once breakfast was over there was still almost 3 hours before the party ended. Now in the past when we've had sleepover for the girls, I had to drag them out of bed to feed them before going home at 10:30. I thought that would have been the same with the boys. I was proven wrong. Just a suggestion for those thinking of having a sleepover for boys, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! Or.... take them all swimming for the entire evening before hand.

Sunday after church we drove to Puyallup to celebrate his birthday with family. My sister Suzy offered to let us use her home since they have a ton of things for the children to do there, verses going to my parents house. Kyle received mostly items relating to the Seahawks. He was pretty excited about that. He didn't want a traditional cake, he wanted Krispy Kreme donuts instead. Between what Bro. Perry gave him and what he had on Sunday, I think we're good on the whole donut thing for awhile. Oh ya, my sister Niki also gave him a Krispy Kreme gift card.

Friends and Family Cookbook

As most of you know, I love to cook. Doesn't necessarily mean that I'm a great cook, but I do like to try out new recipes. My most favorite hobby is looking through cookbooks and collecting new recipes to try out on family and friends. Although I cook all day long for many children, night time cooking seems to be neglected around my house simply because I'm just too tired. Having friends over for dinner gives me delight as well as an excuse to sit down and eat as a family. (What a concept!)

I was inspired to put together this cookbook because many of my family and friends have requested recipes in the past from different dishes I have made. So over the past 2 years I've been compiling recipes and trying to put this cookbook together. A lot of thought was put into the layout of how I wanted this book to look. I wanted it to be extra special by adding pages that had measurements and substitutions, counting calories, cooking terms as well as quick fixes. I had lots of options for additional pages, but I wanted to stick with the most practical ones.

It took a couple of years to achieve this goal. The first time I entered all my recipes and tried to submit it for publishing, the on-line company said that this was only on on-line site. Are you kidding me? There was no way to get these in a cookbook form? I was really discouraged an uncertain if I wanted to commit the time all over again. I decided to do some homework before investing that kind of time again. I finally found a company that would publish for me, of course after I re-typed everything in their program. So the task began all over again.

I dare say this book was made with love. Many of these recipes I grew up with. I didn't tell most of my family and of course none of my friends that I was putting this together because I wanted to give these out as Christmas gifts to everyone. Many recipes are from extended family and friends. I did give credit where credit was due. I do hope that these recipes are enjoyed for generations to come.

Unfortunately, when placing this order the minimum amount of books that I could order was 200. So....if anyone is ever looking for a gift idea for someone, I have cases and cases of cookbooks for sale. I am selling them for $15 a book. Please let your friends know.

Provider of the Month

http://www.funshineexpress.com/C_provider.asp

I received a call today from Fun Shine Express who is the company I order my preschool curriculum from, and they told me that I won Provider of the Month. Several of my daycare mom's nominated me and now I'm being featured on the web. I felt honored to have received such recognition. Click on the link if you want to find out what they said.

Thank you Mindy, Shana, Kim and Suzanne for your thoughtful words. I really do love my job and my many children.