Hamster Shenanigans part 2

I am sure you all will be happy to know that the hamster has been found!! On Thursday night, after we got home from Deanna and Tom's, I saw a little scurrying in the shoe closet.... and there he was!! I was so glad he made himself known. Well, since he was found, I had been wondering where he was camping out, because I hadn't seen any sign of him around the house. On Friday, as I was getting my vacuum out of the closet, I found his little nest. I thought old Mr. B was quite resourceful, he used lint from the dryer, bandaid wrappers, a paper towel and some pieces of uncooked oatmeal. Here are some pics.

The escape master in the part of the cage he escaped from (which I made sure was secure when I put him back in)

The cleaning closet where he built his nest (that houses the world's best vacuum ever! My pink Oreck!)

Hamster Shenanigans

Today I had an extra half hour when the kids were happily occupied (playing pirate ship) and Miss E was sleeping, so I decided to get out my pink rubber gloves and clean out the hamster, Mr. B's, cage. This was a job I have never had to do (or wanted to do) prior to Mr. J leaving since he and Miss M always took care of it.... but it needs to be done every 1-2 weeks.

So as I was quickly taking apart the Habitrail with my sweating gloved hands, I looked over to the plastic ball I had placed Mr. B in and IT WAS EMPTY!! He had managed to escape while rolling around the kitchen. I looked in a few obvious places, but he was no where to be found. Miss M suggested I call daddy so that he could come help us find Mr. B. But since that wasn't an option today, I did what I normally do when I need help and Mr. J is not close by... I called Deanna and Tom. They quickly came to our rescue (they were planning to head our way anyways) and in less than 5 minutes after they arrived, Tom found Mr. B under the dishwasher!! I am so glad!! I just kept thinking about not finding him, and then waking up in the middle of the night with him on my face. So thank you Tom! We will definitely miss you when you leave next week to join Mr. J in the desert.

Tonight I took some pictures of Mr. B in his cool cage...

The sneaky little booger

A golden birthday

Happy Birthday Mr. J!! Today he turned 29. I am so thankful to be the wife of this awesome guy. He is an incredible, godly husband who takes great care of the kids and I. He is a wonderful friend who I can share anything with. He is the hardest worker I have ever met. He is a man of his word. He is an awesome daddy to our 3 kids. He is so loving and patient with them. I continue to fall more in love with him every day. I love you babe!!

We were planning on having a party for him and having some friends over, but canceled because Miss M was still sick. He still had a fun day though. We went to Winchells for doughnuts this morning, then to church (which was extra fun cause he had the two girls sitting with us instead of in their classes) and then came home to make homemade guacomole. We put a candle in the guac for him to blow out. For his birthday, Mr. J wanted to add to his pet collection some spiders... black widow spiders. Last year, Chris found one in our back yard and kept it for a few weeks (at his office of course, not here). A couple days ago he found a web forming and wanted to capture it to have as a pet at work, so we went to Target and got him some cool glass containers. Last night him and Tom went on a spider hunt and found about 20 spiders! He kept a few of them and then they sprayed down the rest. Oh the fun of life with a survival specialist...

Speaking of birthdays, since Aunt S and Uncle T will be leaving the country soon to head to Germany, Aunt S sent a box of all the kids' birthday presents. Below are a couple of the pics of the kids opening their presents. I thought you guys might like to see how big they are getting! Miss O loved her anklet and showed it off proudly.

The black widow spider farm

Miss M Update: Well, her fever continued through Friday. I took her into the Dr. and he thought she may have strep throat because her tonsils her red and swollen. So he started her on antibiotics after a strep test was done. He conjuctivitis (pink eye) is all better. The fever was finally gone this morning. Praise God! It is no fun having sick kids. We are thankful she is on the road to recovery. However, now it's Mr. T's turn to be cranky. His top L tooth has almost burst thru his gums. Poor little dude is kind of miserable. We'll let you know when it makes its grand entrance.