God cares even for the critters

Hailey and Jake are playing with brownie (Hailey's hamster). Hailey goes to get her coat on for school and goes back in her room and brownie is now gone. Of course she is freaking out. The bus is honking. She gets on the school bus with tears running down her face just knowing that her beloved hamster is gone.

Jake lets brownie out of the exercise ball while Hailey is getting her coat. His 4 year old attention span is now onto playing with buzz light year or something. As Hailey comes in and asks "Where's Brownie?" he then realizes Oh crud, I let her out! Hailey begins yelling at Jake as Jake frantically searches and now tears run down his face and he can't hardly see 2 feet in front of him.

Mimi hears all the commotion going on in the bedroom. Mimi learns that brownie is now missing. Mimi is frantically searching as the bus is honking. Mimi drags a little girl to the front door trying to console her and tell her that we'll find her. Mimi comes back in and starts in on Jake for letting brownie out. Mimi has now moved stove, refrigerator, sofas, chairs, toys etc. trying to find brownie.

Fast Forward 8 hours . . .

Mommy comes home. She begins tearing up the house even more so in search of the little rodent. There is not a cushion unturned, a pile of toys unmoved, a closet destroyed or furniture rearranged in this search.

Fast Forward 2 hours . . .

Daddy, Papa and Mimi have now joined the search committee. At this point, there is no where we haven't looked upstairs or downstairs. Everyone is growing hungry and give up to go eat dinner.

We come back home and do a quick look and get everyone ready for bed as we have an early basketball game in the morning. Jake and Hailey say their prayers "Dear God, please keep Brownie safe. Please don't let Pepper eat her. Please help us find her and we'll give you all the glory, in Jesus' name. Amen."

Fast Forward to 3:02 am . . .

I awake to a little bitty noise sounding somewhat like chewing or scratching. I listen. I stop breathing so I can listen more. "Am I dreaming this?" "Is Brownie on my mind and I am thinking I am hearing her?" I sit up in bed. I listen again. I still hear it. I get out of bed and stand in the total darkness of our bedroom. It sounds like it is coming from one of our closets. As I head over to the closet that leads up the the attic, I get a little scared. (Yes, I am still afraid of closets that have attic entrances in them! - that's a story for another time.) I stand in front of the closet debating if I should open it without the light on or turn on a light. I decide to go with the latter option - I want to see Freddy Krueger in the light if he's in there!

I slowly open the closet and look around. From under the bottom rack, Brownie crawls out.

I reach down to get her and she darts back into the closet.

I decided I must trap her so I stretched out laying in front of the closet door and look over to see Hailey in our bed. Her hair is hanging off the side of the bed because everyone knows children do not sleep straight in the bed. I grab her hair and beginning to tug on it a little while keeping my eyes peeled on the closet. I keep trying to wake her. "Hailey, Hailey. Help me. I need your help." She finally wakes and looks ever so confused to find me on the floor pulling her hair. "Hailey, I have Brownie trapped it in the closet, help!"

Hailey runs to the living room grabbing Brownies cage. "I can't believe my mom is on the floor pulling my hair. She must be crazy!" "I am so happy she has Brownie trapped. I wonder how she figured it out she was in the closet?" "I'll grab the food and some peanut butter too. Maybe that will help draw her out of the closet." "Oh gosh, I just dropped the cage, now it's all fallen apart but who cares, let's get Brownie" "Here Mom, I brought the cage!"

I tell Hailey that she probably won't come out on her own and we should take all the clothes out of the bottom rack. We begin throwing them on the bed but also keep an eye on the floor so Brownie doesn't escape.

"There she is!" "Come here sweet Brownie" as Hailey grabs her and picks her up.

Brownie has decided she has liked her freedom and is not going back without a fight. She peels out on Hailey's stomach, jumps through the air and burrows her self back into the closet.

Hailey and I are laughing at this point. We begin to pull out more clothes that are in the very back of the closet. As I pull out one of Mike's suits, I notice that the waistband to the back pockets is missing. Brownie has chewed the entire back portion of his pants.

Oh wait, here is two dress shirts she has been working on too!

We find a little pile of her scrapping work where she was creating her new bedroom.

Mike is in Hailey's room. He gets kicked out of bed ever so frequently from little feet. Hailey wakes him up saying "we found Brownie and she's chewed your suits and we need your help"

Mike sees Brownie's cage is in shambles so he decides to clean the cage and put it back together so we have a place to put her. He then reaches in and picks her up with no problems. I guess she must like him better than us!

Brownie is now safe in her pink palace and seems to be happy to be back home. She is very thirsty and drinks almost 1/4 bottle of water. I guess Italian suits and cotton dress shirts make you very thirsty.

At 4:00 am since the entire house is up, I cooked bacon, eggs and toast for my family. We say our prayers and thank God for keeping Brownie safe and waking me up to hear her. I have two very happy children at this point.

At 5:00 am, we are sleepy. The kids and I decide to take a nap before the game.

What a Glorious Saturday and it isn't even time to get up yet!

New Year's day Recipe

Ingredients

7 c	faith
7 c	courage
10 c	patience
12 c	prayer
20 c	love

Take twelve fine, full-grown months; see that these are thoroughly free from old memories of bitterness, rancor and hate, cleanse them completely from every clinging spite; pick off all specks of pettiness and littleness; in short, see that these months are freed from all the past—have them fresh and clean as when they first came from the great storehouse of Time.

Cut these months into thirty or thirty-one equal parts. Do not attempt to make up the whole batch at one time (so many persons spoil the entire lot this way) but prepare one day at a time.

Into each day put equal parts of faith, patience, courage, work (some people omit this ingredient and so spoil the flavor of the rest), hope, fidelity, liberality, kindness, prayer, rest (leaving this out is like leaving the oil out of the salad dressing—don't do it), and one well-selected resolution.

Put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of folly, a sprinkling of play, and a heaping cupful of good humor.

Difficulty:	EASY
Serves:	The World!!

Crockpot Smothered Steak

Here's what's for dinner tonight. It's a new recipe I am trying. I took a little taste this morning and I think it's going to be good.

1-2lbs of Round Steak (sliced)

1 Large onion (sliced)

1 can diced tomatoes (drained)

1 can mushroom (drained)

1 green pepper (chopped)

1/2 C Flour

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Pepper

1 can Green Beans - French Style (drained)

Slice uncooked round steak into strips.

In a large Ziploc back add the flour, salt and pepper.

Add the steak strips into the flour mixture. Seal and shake.

Place the coated steak strips into the crock.

Add the sliced onion

Add the green peppers

Add the mushrooms

Add the tomatoes

Top it off with the French Style Green Beans. (I did sprinkle a little Cavendars on the beans)

Cook covered for 1 hour on high.

Turn crock pot to low and cook for 6-8 hours.

Serve over rice or egg noodles.

August

OK, so I just realized the last time I blogged was August 3rd and it was about a recipe! Tons have been going on since then so I will try to recap most of August and it's highlights.

Hailey started 2nd grade on August 17th. 2nd Grade - I still can't believe it. I am not sure who was more excited for Hailey to return to school - Me, Hailey or Mimi who is with both kids everyday! If I had to put money on it, I would bet Mimi!

On August 21st, we planned a surprise 40th anniversary dinner party for my parents. It was a small event due to most family didn't come which is a whole other blog that really isn't probably going to be written as I would probably start a family feud.

I know my parents were very much appreciative of the party and of the family and friends who did take the time to come and celebrate the evening with them.

Once again our busy school schedule is back in full swing. Soccer practice now for two kids, dance, gymnastics, modeling and American Girl Fashion show practice - oh and our full time jobs. Can't forget about that!!! It doesn't seem like a lot but when I look at the google calendar, it is completely full except Monday nights. Most of the time we have to do the "divide and conquer" route. You take one kid and I'll take the other or you take and I'll pick up. As I told Mike, it's going to be like this for the next 15 years. I hope that my future "rascal" or "hover-round" has top speed!