Meet DespeROSE

Isn't she the cutest little thing?

Kloe had been asking and asking and asking for a hamster for months. We hamster-sat for a friend of hers a while back, and she fell in love. She had to have the tiniest one we could find (she's like me that way), and after looking around at several different breeds, she had decided on a Robo Dwarf, which is only 1-2" when fully grown. [That seems really funny to me, because every time I hear the name I think of Robo Cop.]


So we surprised her by taking her to the pet store on her birthday and letting her pick out a hamster and all the trimmings (sounds like we're having her for dinner, doesn't it?). Well, wouldn't you know it, it seems the very day we arrived to pick out our sweet little friend, the wee Robo Dwarfs had gotten into a tiny little gang fight and had all beaten each other up! All of them had sores and scabs, and some had even been restricted to solitary confinement.

We were told we could wait for a new shipment to arrive in a few days, but Kloe couldn't stand to wait that long. So alas, it seems the Robo Dwarf was not meant to be.

Next in line on the size scale was the Russian Dwarf, which is 2-3" when fully grown. Kloe picked out the smallest one in the cage, and we became the proud family of a new, tiny little rodent.


Kloe had decided long ago that when she finally got a hamster she would name it either Despereaux or Zephaniah (*smile*), but you know, a girl really has to see a hamster before she can know what it's name is going to be. So once we had picked out said wee one, Kloe decided on Despereaux.

Except that the nice hamster expert lady at the pet store informed us that our Despereaux was actually a girl. ALL of their hamsters are girls, apparently. They like it that way so there are no surprises of extra hamsters showing up at your house when you've only taken home one....if you know what I mean.

So I tried to convince Kloe that Despereaux is actually a boy's name.....really, honey, remember in the movie? It was a boy. But she was not to be swayed. Despereaux it would be. Maybe we would start a new trend in hamster naming.....boy names for girl hamsters. You know, the way other boy names are now making the transition over to the girl world. Evyn. Hayden. Micah. Taylor. But I digress.

So baby mouse has a pink cage. When we got her home, put the cage together, and sat back to admire our new family member, Kloe said "I should have named her Rose. See? Pink cage....ROSE....get it?"

Me: Well, she's your hamster. Change her name if you want to.

Kloe: But I like Despereaux.

Me: I know, what about DespeRose (how do you spell that?)

Can you believe she actually liked it? And so, DespeRose it is. Rose for short.

She's adorable. Noisy, what with the exercise wheel and all, but adorable.

Now my question is....why is it that we are feeding this little mousey in the house while we kill her cousins out in the garage?? :D

I can't believe I did this.

Jacob had a football game on Sunday afternoon, but he was sick and couldn't play. It was our turn to bring snacks and I didn't want the coach to have to scramble (no pun intended) to find someone else at the last minute, so I thought we'd just run by Walmart real quick, pick up some snacks and drinks, and drop them off at the stadium. In the Walmart parking lot I packed mini-Gatorades in a styrofoam cooler (so it wouldn't have to be returned to us) and covered them with ice. We ran by the stadium, dropped off the snacks, then headed back home so Jacob could rest.

Mission accomplished.

Only I forgot to get the bag with the rest of the ice out of the car.

Yes, that's a huge puddle of melted ice-water you see in my floor board. Apparently the floor of my car was in need of a good soak....look how dirty it looks in this picture. yuck. You can't really tell it in the picture, but the water was literally standing in the floor board. It made me think of those people whose cars get filled with water when they drive through a flooded ravine.

So here's my opportunity to choose thankfulness, yes?

I am thankful we had to go to the store to get milk last night, or the entire bag would have melted in there! :)

More About Me

I was thinking that since we're going to be friends maybe you should know a little more about me.

Have you ever played that ice breaker game called "Two Truths and a Lie"? Here's how it works. Each person on their turn tells 3 facts about themselves....two of which are true and one of which is not. Everyone else has to decide which one of the facts isn't true. So here's my list:

1) I played tennis in high school.
2) I played trombone is high school.
3) I love brussels sprouts (did you know it really is "brussels" with an "s"?).

Any guesses? Answer at the end of this post. :)

I loved the big puffy heart list on Julie’s blog at Joy's Hope. It looked so fun that I wanted to make one of my own! So here's a little more about me....

I heart:

Y family get-togethers

Y Sonic happy hour

Y old music by John Cougar, Bryan Adams, and Journey

Y office supplies (weird, I know)

Y green

Y humpback and beluga whales

Y San Antonio

Y Mr. Clean magic eraser

Y coffee with lots of cream (preferably flavored) and sugar

Y coffee with friends

Y scrapbooking

Y PaperBackSwap.com

Y Extreme Makeover Home Edition

Y the US Representative and State Representative from my district, and one of my US Senators (really)

I big puffy heart:

Y Jesus

YNantucket island

Y tacos

Y rain in the mountains

Y adoption

Y Arbonne Rejuvenating Cream

Y Steven Curtis Chapman

Y the giggles of my little ones

I have no puffy hearts for

x dirty dishes

x weeds

x flossing

x okra

x cooking

x litter

x smoking

x creepy-crawlies: spiders (especially wolf spiders and sun spiders), scorpions, centipedes, earwigs

snakes are ok as long as I know where they are and they’re not poisonous

x bananas

x prime time TV

x most movies rated above PG

x political nonsense (anywhere - in the government or anywhere else)

x selfishness

I have a sad, broken heart for:

homelessness.

those who are living with hunger, poverty, desperation, hopelessness.

children who are orphaned, lonely, hurting, sad, neglected.

.

And the answer to my ice breaker? #1. Unfortunately I was a big geek in high school (still am) and never played any sports. I did, however, play the trombone, which got me a gig in the State Lion's Band for three years, and a spot in my alma mater's marching band! Geekiness has its perks! And yes, I really do love Brussels sprouts. :)

Ok, enough about me....tell me about you!

Tiny Talk Tuesday (on Wednesday)

A few nights ago as we were eating dinner, I signed to Jacob "I love you".

In his own brand of faux-sign language he signed back to me. Luckily for me, he also gave the verbal interpretation at the same time.

Jacob (with dramatic, fake signs): You....are....as....beautiful....as....a....girl.

Me: I am a girl. :)

Jacob (more faux-signing): You....are....as....cool....as....a....boy. :)

Family Night Rodeo

One of this little boy's most favorite things in all of life is dressing up like a cowboy.

(tough cowboy face)

It's a regular occurrence around our house. Daily almost.

(isn't this a great picture? they look like Jesse James and Billy the Kid.
I think the blurriness just adds to the authenticity.)

And so it seemed that a Family Night Rodeo was most certainly in order.

We started the night with some traditional chuckwagon grub. Beans, cornbread, fried potatoes, and iced tea. Only I forgot to start the beans cooking in the crock pot over the camp fire that morning, so we had to improvise and trade a couple of chickens for some already-cooked beans at the mercantile.

Then after dinner we mosied on out to the arena for a bit of friendly competition.

Miss Kloe designed and created our programs for the evening....

....and also proudly carried the banner of our great nation.....

....while honorable cowboys paid their respects as the National Anthem was sung.

And then the festivities began!

First up....barrel racing! Mom logged a respectable time on Cinderella....

but Kloe took first place with an amazing time of 14.5 seconds!

Next on the schedule (check your program, folks)....calf roping. The calf put forth a valiant effort....

but when matched up against these talented cowboys and cowgirls....

....she didn't stand much of a chance (the calf, that is). Jacob took home the prize money in calf roping, with two winning throws!

[Ah, the love of a cowboy and his dog. Our Miss Annie is a true cow dog....half blue heeler and half border collie. She is Jacob's right-hand girl. Although no herding was allowed during the competition.]

After the calf roping was the ladel race. Contestants use a ladel to scoop water out of a bucket, run to the other end of the arena, dump the water into a bowl, then race back and hand off the ladel to the next person on their team. The first team to fill up their bowl with water wins.

We declared the ladel race a draw.

Moving to the indoor arena (to get away from the mosquitoes), the cowboys (and cowgirls) prepared for the most daring and dangerous sport in the world of rodeo....bull fighting!

Jacob tried some steer wrestling moves on the bull....

but, sadly, the bull was victorious in the end.

We skipped the closing sarimony (quoting the program here) in favor of a snack.

After the rodeo, Jacob offered to pay me 6 pieces of silver if I would let him park his horse at my hitching post during the dance....

....except, instead of going to the dance after the rodeo we decided to invite over a couple of friends....

....and watch "The Ballad of Little Joe".


What a great night of cowboy fun!

Ok, this post took me forever. Seriously. Like, days. DAYS! Moving photos around and trying to get all the spacing to look right in blogger is infuriatingly time consuming. I've seriously got to take a class or something.

Remembering Johnny Castle

I was so sad to hear this news late tonight.

Long years have passed and life has certainly changed a lot since the first time I sat transfixed, watching starry-eyed as the exceedingly handsome and impressively cool Johnny Castle danced his way into the heart of Baby and every other girl in America between the ages of 10 and 40. Oh how he could make my 16-year-old romantic heart swoon! :) Don't we just love to love the bad boys? Not that bad of course, but the guy with the checkered past, from the "other" side of the tracks. And Johnny Castle was all that....wrapped up with a gentle heart and a soft spot for girls who were hurting. Just what every girl is looking for.


But long before Johnny Castle taught us the difference between the mambo and the merengue, insisting that "Nobody puts Baby in a corner", there were those other bad boys we loved to love....The Outsiders.

Darrel (Darry) Curtis was the lone father figure for his two younger brothers, Soda Pop and Ponyboy, and a stand-in big brother to the nicest bad boys around. Ponyboy was really the star of the show, but Darry....there was just something about Darry that made you want him to be your big-brother-father-figure.

Man, I loved that movie! I think somehow I felt I could relate, as a shy 12-year-old who had already gone to seven different schools. Outsiders? Yeah, I understood where they were coming from. I wrote a creative-writing paper (loosely) based on the movie when I was in the sixth grade, and got a commendation from the school principal himself! My dog was even named Dally.

And can I just say....could there BE any more stars in this movie? (I copied that line from someone, but I can't remember who.) Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, Ralph Macchio, Diane Lane, Leif Garrett. If you're too young to have ever seen The Outsiders, you should have your local movie store dig it out of the attic so you can rent it. It's old. Sometimes cheesy. No modern special effects. But it's a classic. A must-see. Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.

Ghost. Red Dawn. Point Break. Youngblood. Road House (don't tell anyone I've seen this movie). To Wong Foo (haven't seen this movie). North and South (loved this movie).

The bottom line is that I'm sad that Patrick Swayze is gone. I'm sad that he had to leave in such a terrible, devastating way. I'm enormously sad for his wife, Lisa, the love of his life for 34 years. And my heart can't even begin to contemplate the question of whether, at any point in his life, he ever made the choice to say "Jesus, I need You."

Oh, how I pray that you have made that choice....

Praying for Our Kids

Marybeth Whalen has an awesome post on her blog today from guest-poster Christy Baca about praying for our children. It has some great information and suggestions. I hope you'll check it out!

Family Nights - Take 2

After the resounding success of Family Night Olympics, we could hardly wait for Family Night #2.......Under the Sea!!!

I may have gotten just a tad bit carried away with the decorations. I do that sometimes. You certainly don't have to decorate for family night, but we sure had fun with the streamers and balloons creating our underwater ambiance. :)

We made these cutie little jellyfish out of paper plates and curly ribbon. Aren't they fun?

After craft time, we had a picnic dinner on the sandy beach (aka, a tan colored vinyl table cloth on the living room floor). The menu consisted of fish sticks, beach-sand couscous, seaweed salad, sea cucumbers, baby goldfish, and ocean water (blue gatorade).

Dinner entertainment was provided by our local hula instructor, Kahiko Kloe.

And then we headed out to the shore to catch some waves in our gigantic wading pool.

You can't see it in this picture, but Kloe is actually surfing on a fence picket. :)

We are loving this family night thing. You guys should give it a try. Need some ideas for getting started? Head over to Lost in Laundry here or here. I'd love to hear about how your family spends time together!

Whatever works....

Remember what a great cook I am? Dinner tonight revealed the truth of the matter....

Jacob: Mom, look, the carrot is a log and the ranch is the water....it's the log ride!

Apparently he has to disguise his food to trick himself into eating it.

Whatever works for you, son.

And by the way....yep, that's a paper plate you see. The dishwasher is still broken and I'll go to extraordinary lengths to reduce the number of dishes I have to wash by hand.

Whatever works for me! :)

Thankful Thursday

Aren't there just so many things to be thankful for?

I am oh, so thankful for this....

And for this....

For these....

And for these....(mmmmm)

And for these sweet ones....

(The sweet kids, not the popcicles. Actually, I'm kinda thankful for popcicles, too.)

Seriously, we have so very much to be thankful for in this country. So many gifts. So MANY blessings. How could we....how could I....presume to take them for granted?

I am truly thankful for....
....doctors and medicine.
....the freedom (for now) to worship God in the way I believe.
....my car.
....doors that lock.
....weathermen who keep us informed during those raging West Texas storms!
....cream for my coffee. :)
....shoes.
....a coat and gloves in the winter.
....air conditioning (ever had to go without it? we have. for about 2 weeks once. in the hot part of summer. in west texas. it's mis.er.a.ble.)
....friends who love Jesus.
....puppies.
....computers and printers (no more typewriters! yeah, I'm old.)
....my husband's job.

....my job.
....cell phones.

I could go on and on and on. God's bounty and grace toward us truly are measureless. And I am so thankful.

What are YOU thankful for today?