Wow...

Every year I order the script for the RivKids Christmas Play from one certain drama service.  I have always liked their scripts and they are pretty cute.  I read through their catalog and found a script I thought sounded great.  I ordered all the scripts and was set to go.  One day during our meeting, we decided to read completely through it and see if we could add some parts somewhere.  Well, we got through 95% of the play and then it all went downhill from there.  The play suddenly took on a very Catholic feel.  It started talking about the Christ Child and how Mary performed miracles and the Madonna statue, and it went on and on.  So we obviously couldn't do this play.

The drama company has a strict policy regarding refunds... they just don't do them.  I thought for the fun of it I would contact the company to see if they would make an exception because of the unique situation.  Here is the email I got back from the company...  

"Wow!  I don't see that as Catholic, it certainly isn't intended to be.  I

honor and celebrate Mary as the mother of Jesus.  Not just anyone could fill
that roll, I certainly couldn't.  It doesn't say they prayed to her or they
took part in a mass, it was simply Christmas and they were caught up in the
miracle of it all.  It is after all, a pretty unbelievably miraculous story
about a baby named Jesus and his Mommy Mary"

"Mommy Mary"??  Wow... that's all I can say.

Update on our "friend"

We finally caught the hamster this morning in our car.  Yup, it lived in our car for more than a week.  We set traps a couple nights and somehow the hamster set the mice traps off and then just ate the food off the trap.  When that happened, I got a little upset.  It was all-out war after that night.  I went to ACE hardware and bought a huge rat trap and 4 sticky traps.  I was going to catch that hamster if it killed me.  

I set all the traps out last night and kept checking on it before I went to bed.  Nothing.  I got up this morning and looked in the car and all of the traps were still set.  Argh.  I couldn't believe that the hamster hadn't even come out.  Well, as I was walking back around the car I looked in the back seat and there it was!  It had stepped on the first sticky pad and got stuck.  I was very excited to say the least.

We also had the seat belt fixed today.  It would have cost us $250, but we found out that Subaru has a lifetime guarantee on their seat belts.  Guess it doesn't matter that a rodent chewed through it :)  All I know is I am a happy camper now that the hamster is out of the car and our seat belt was fixed for free!!

Where do I begin?

So, I guess I start with Thursday afternoon.  Hailey came home from school and went up to her room.  Ethan and I were downstairs talking and we hear Hailey scream at the top of her lungs.  We both ran up the stairs to see Hailey holding her hamster, who was obviously very sick.  The hamster really wasn't moving, and barely looked alive.  Hailey held it and wouldn't let go.  I tried to do what I could for the hamster, but nothing was working.  We wrapped the hamster up in a sock and in a towel to keep it warm.  Every once in a while the hamster would move and Hailey would get all excited thinking it was getting better.  Well, we needed to leave to go to my niece's birthday party, so we left the hamster all wrapped up on Hailey's bed, intending on dealing with it when we came home.

Fast forward 4 hours...

We got home from the party to see that the hamster had somehow wiggled off the bed.  I felt horrible - I had no idea the hamster would move that much.  I literally thought it would be long gone by the time we got home.  Well, we started working with the hamster again hoping to revive it.  Ethan ran over to the computer and googled "what to do with a sick hamster."  We read about the symptoms and it seemed like it had hamster diarrhea.  So, trying to do everything I could, we ran to Petsmart at 8:45pm.  The website also said to try giving the hamster pedialyte.  So, we stopped into Rite Aid on the way home.  Here I am at 9:00 at night trying to give this poor dying hamster drops of medicine.  Well, she seemed to come a little more to life, but then she got really bad.  I started to actually hope she would just die so she would stop convulsing.  At this point, I just took the hamster and said I would watch over it during the night.  I didn't want Hailey seeing this poor thing suffer.

As the kids were getting ready for bed, I called JR and gave him the update on the sick hamster.  I told him how we were trying to revive the poor thing.  He then tells me he had already bought another hamster.  What a guy!  Well, he ended up coming home about 1/2 hour later with a new hamster for Hailey.  Come to find out, he bought one, and the thing chewed through it's box and got lost in JR's car so he had to buy another one.

Here comes the "funny" part... We searched and searched for that hamster but couldn't find it.  JR felt it crawl up his leg while he was driving.  We figured it had going into the engine or just fallen out onto the ground.  We thought that until my niece went to sit in the passenger seat today and pulled the seat belt out.  That stupid hamster had somehow found a way to get over there and chew a hole completely through the seat belt.  The seat belt was now in two pieces.  What the heck?  How can a small hamster actually chew through a seat belt?  Well, we had to get the thing out of our car.  We didn't want him chewing through the seat or anything.  So, my niece's fiance works at Goodyear so we took it over there today.  Needless to say, they all got a laugh out of this.  Not everyday that someone comes in asking for them to find a hamster loose inside the frame of a car.  

They completely took the front dash off but couldn't find the hamster.  They could see where he had chewed some foam and the seat belt, but there was no sign of the critter.  So, now what?  We have no idea what to do.  We are pretty sure the thing dies because there is a stench in the car.  But, seriously, how the heck do we find the thing and then how do we get it out?  We can't even being to figure out where to start.  Any ideas??

What a stupid thing to have happen!  Makes for a funny story though...

ARGH!!!

Apparently someone hacked into my facebook account and sent out some kind of love spam.   How does this happen?  I am so frustrated.  I guess more embarassed because I don't want people to actually think I would send that crap out.  

So, if you are a friend of mine on facebook, sorry.  Please do not click on the link.  I think that may have been how someone hacked into my account.

Argh....

Ethan's First Surgery

Yup, Ethan had his first surgery today.  He has always had problems with his tear ducts not working properly.  Whenever he goes outside to play, or is in any ki

nd of wind, his eye waters really bad.  We went to the Dr. and he said that his tear duct is all jacked up.  It's in the wrong spot, it's way to small, etc.  So, they went in today to fix it.  Well, they found out that he's completely missing one of the two tear ducts on his right eye.  So, they had to do a completely different procedure than they had originally planned on.  The down side to this is Ethan has a tube running into his eye lid, through his nose, and back around forming a circle.  Half of this tube is on the outside of his face.  He's going to have to mess with this tube for the next couple of months.  I feel kinda bad for him.  The tube is very tiny though, so once we are able to take the tape off, hopefully it won't be that noticeable.  I can't believe how well he is doing!  He's wanting to run around like crazy now, but he's not allowed to.  He hasn't even complained once about the tube that's in his eye and nose.  He's one tough cookie!!

Here are some pictures of his day...

Here he is just after he got his I.V.

About 30 seconds after he got medicine to "relax" him

And about 5 seconds after that...

Here he is after surgery.  

Here is a close-up of what it looks like.

The best part of the boys being gone is...

Hailey and I were talking tonight as she was getting ready to go to bed.  We were talking about how JR and Ethan are gone.  This is what she told me, "Mom, do you know what the best part of Daddy and Ethan being gone is?  We don't have to watch sports!"

I had to laugh!!

Girls Night Out

Since JR's gone, I've tried to do some fun things with Hailey to make the week fun for us.  Sunday we went shopping with Grandma and out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, Monday we bought a car-load of flowers to plant in our yard (ok, that was fun more for me than for Hailey), then today Hailey had a friend over all day to play.  But, tonight we really splurged.  Hailey and I met Randi-Kay and we all got Pedicures.  Well, Hailey actually just got her toenails painted with a really fun color and a flower on each big toe.  Randi-Kay and I got Pedicures.  It was so nice... up until the point where the lady took this wire brush and started rubbing my leg with it.  Randi-Kay seemed to enjoy it.  I don't know, maybe I'm just a wimp...  

Oh well, we had a very enjoyable night!!

Talk about frustration!

When JR leaves for Mexico, I usually plan a few projects to occupy my time.  I should know by now that projects never go as easily as they should.  

I am replacing some tile that is in front of our fireplace and some tile that is in front of the sliding door to our backyard.  The tile that was there is pretty cracked and I was tired of it.  So I replaced the cement board under the tile and finally found some tile that I really liked.  I have everything ready and I put the tile down just to see what it looks like.  Crap - it doesn't fit.  What the heck?  It's 12 inch tile.  I went back and re-measured the original tile.  It's 11 3/4 inches.  Do they even make tile that size?  Apparently not anymore.  I have no idea what I'm going to do.  I know I can cut the tile, but I don't have a wet saw.  Argh!!  Why couldn't the tile be the same size?  Is that too much to ask?

I need Help!!!

I am posting this hoping someone out there has some advice...

I took a couple videos on my camera.  I downloaded them to iPhoto, but they saved as a .jpg file.  When I open iPhoto, the video plays fine.  But when I try to put the video onto youtube, it shows up as an invalid file.  Does anyone know how I can fix this??  It's two videos of Hailey's ballet recital that I want to send to family that weren't there!!!

Thanks :)