A Rose by Any other Name...

...would smell better than this!!!



Here is a picture of our new hamster's cage. Caroline asked for this pet from GranGran and Granddad as a belated birthday present (because she couldn't make up her mind about what she wanted until now, 5 months after her b-day.) Rose is really cute and looks cuddly, but we don't know about the cuddly part yet (see below).

The girls were afraid for me to take her picture because on one of their TV shows, Drake and Josh, the hamster would freeze every time its picture was taken. I assured them that this would not happen, and so we will take some pictures of the actual hamster later.

Rose came to live with us on Sunday. The pet store employee told us not to try handling her for at least 24 hours, so we waited until last night to attempt getting her out of her cage. We talked to Rose for a while until she was awake and moving around the cage. Then, I opened the door and let Caroline put one hand in thinking that Rose would like to smell us first. After a few minutes of sniffing Caroline, Rose wandered off to eat a little food. I thought this would be a good time to put my hand in for Rose to smell, so Caroline moved her hand to give me room. I put my hand in, palm up, hoping Rose might crawl into it and she did put one paw in my hand. She smelled of my (just washed) hand for second and then bit a small plug out of my finger:) OUCH! This incident ended our attempt to hold the hamster for the night and we will try again tonight...

Caroline, the gymnast

Two weeks ago, I took Caroline to a gymnastics class on Thursday night to "try" it out. Our neighbor attends the class, so I thought this would help Caroline with starting out. (she is the nervous non-committal type.) We carpooled with the neighbor to the gym, and Caroline seemed to have a fantastic time. She got in the van telling me this was exactly what she wanted to do. This thrilled me because we have been to several classes to "try" them only to discover that Caroline does not want to go back! :(

You may remember our experience with soccer when Caroline was about 4 years old. We went to every practice. She seemed to be enjoying it. Then, the games started - and the tears came. She sat on the bench - even when the coach called her to come out on the field and play. I was totally embarrassed!!!! I walked around to the bench to try convincing her to finish the season, but she definitely inherited my stubbornness (and Josh's for those of you who may remember)! It was absolutely not going to happen. Finally, I gave in and called to coach to let him know that we would not be able to finish the season....

So, last week I came home from work ready to fix dinner and go to gymnastics class only to discover that Caroline had decided yet again that she did not want to go back! This disappointed me to no end, but I tried to disguise my frustration while thinking of some way to get her to go. I knew she would be happy if I could just get her in the doors of the gym. We finally came to the agreement that we would try gymnastics for 1 month starting last week. Caroline went to class, and she loved every minute of it! She got in the van after it was over and said, "Momma, remember that deal we made about just trying gymnastics for a month? I want to do it forever!" FINALLY!!!!! :)

Election Update

I regret to inform all of the "Gracie for Mayor" campaigners that after a long, hard race, Gracie did not get elected to the Mayor position. Please don't be too alarmed because the candidate lost gracefully and congratulated her opponent - a boy in her class named Anthony. Gracie reported that Anthony won by a landslide due to the high number of other boys in the class who voted for him.

The good news is that Gracie is now Vice Mayor. She stated in a post election interview that she was definitely planning to go for the banker position that will come available in town soon.

Thanks for all your support through these past few weeks. Elections can get crazy!

This Smells So Good!

Last night was open house at the girl's school. Gracie made this really cool map out of icing, chocolate chips, and a peanut butter mixture to demonstrate her understanding of goegraphy. As you can see, there is a volcano, mountain, plain, valley, ocean, etc.

It smells amazing!!!!! I wanted to eat it last night until Mrs Frizzell told me that all the kids had their fingers in the peanut butter mixture...

Gracie was so disappointed that she didn't get to go with me. Seh came home yesterday with a fever :(, so it's off to the doctor for us today.