It's a New Year

2016 has arrived! I can't believe it! I will be turning 45 this year, and Evan will become a 10th grader, and Lauren a 7th grader this fall! No No No Way this can all be happening--time just moves so fast!

Last year we started keeping a memory box. We would write down anything on paper we wanted to remember, or put in a concert ticket stub, etc. in order to recall those things at the end of the year. Lauren recorded the most things, I was probably second, Evan put things in when I made him, and I don't believe Roger did anything. Maybe this year, we'll all do better? Here are the things we recorded:

January
~(Rebecca, Lauren) On our way to CYT winter class, we saw a guy in his car listening to music and jamming out. He did this at a stop light and kept it up as we were following him for a while to our class. Lauren said, "Mom and I were cracking up. It was the funniest thing ever and it made my day!
March
~(Rebecca, Lauren) We went to see Wichita State University's production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. The director noticed Lauren was wearing a Peanuts gang shirt and commented on how she liked it. We told her that Lauren had just played Sally in the same show for CYT.
April
~(Rebecca, Lauren, Evan) We went to see Matthew West with Colton Dixon and Mr. Talkbox in concert. Kristi Johnson, Keirra, Daniel, and Jenny Huff came too.
~(Family) Went to Janet Grote's funeral. It was lighthearted and not depressing. She is missed.
May
~(Lauren) I got the best buddy ever in Robin Hood. Her name is Anne. She gave me so much sweet stuff and I can't wait to see her again. We had Friday, Saturday, and Monday rehearsal for Robin Hood.
~(Evan) Went with the youth group to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO.
June
~(Lauren) I went to my first Bagels and Bibles.
July
~(Lauren) I got a book at the library for the summer reading program and it's my favorite book--Recipe for Adventure.
August
~(Lauren) Attended Triple Threat Theater camp.
~(Evan) Started Biology class at Faith Academy, and dad's new Trail Life group.
~(Evan) Mom burped and passed wind all day. Yes, TMI (too much information), but it's true. I had forgotten that day until we were reviewing the memories. I don't know what my gut was going through, but it was an all day ordeal. Thankfully, I didn't have to go anywhere that day, and that the gas didn't smell. Seriously, it was just noise. Sorry you had to read this, but I believe in keeping things real. 
September
~(Family) Took a 10 day Disney cruise to Hawaii.
Some time during the year we watched a youtube video of a police officer lip syncing to Taylor Swift's Shake it Off. His dash cam taped him. He was hilarious, and did a great job. When he would pass people or have to slow down to let people cross the road, or was at a stop light, he would act all cool and nod and wave at people, and then immediately start up again when starting to drive again. Hilarious!

In addition to remembering last year, this year has had a couple of exciting things happen already. Roger's truck got rear-ended. He was stopped behind a car that was making a left turn, and the truck that hit him I guess wasn't paying attention. When he texted me our truck was a mess, I was expecting a smashed in back end, broken tail light, etc. The fender was a tiny bit smashed in, and there was a split in the metal on the right side of the fender, so I didn't think it was that bad. After an estimate, it's going to cost insurance over $2000 to be fixed. Roger said he knows this isn't how the rest of the year is going to be, but I told him I wasn't so sure. We are trying hard to work on our debt and I think we're going to get hit by the devil with things this year to prevent us from getting out of doubt--it happens every time we are trying to get rid of debt. Not only that, but after this accident happened, our church's pastor asked Roger if we would like to teach another Dave Ramsey get out of doubt class. We've taught this class 2 or 3 times before, and we always get asked in a year when we are working hard on zeroing out our own debt. Every, single time. I don't want to teach this class again, because I feel like a hypocrite. I think Roger enjoys teaching this class, and I'm not sure what he wants to do yet.

In the school year 2014-2015, a 5th grade teacher started Wichita's only showchoir for highschoolers called Flight. She held a workshop for middleschoolers called Flight Jr., but Lauren was only a 5th grade so couldn't attend. In December, another workshop was opened and Lauren could attend this year. The group met for a total of 9 hours before their performance this past Sunday. This is Lauren's love--singing, dancing, and performing. We were allowed to videotape Flight Jr., so we did. The group did a great job. Lauren is just such a natural at this stuff, and I love seeing her smile on stage. Here's the video:

 

Goodbye Snowflake

Today as we were about to leave the house, Evan went to check on our pet hamster Snowflake and discovered she was dead. We knew this time was coming soon because for the past 3 weeks, Snowflake has looked awful. Hamsters live to 18 months to 2 years. We got her in July of 2009, so she made it to about 21 months. She was getting skinnier, sleeping a lot more, not having the energy and balance to climb around her cage as much, and was getting sticky eye. One day last week we went to take her out of her cage and her right eye was closed and looked kind of swollen. I looked up some info about this and found out that sticky eye is caused when hamsters get old. Since they sleep so much at this age, the fluid in their eye can act like a glue and stick the eye shut. We took a warm watered cottonball and cleaned her eye and she was able to open it, but then we had to keep cleaning her eye because it kept getting stuck shut.

When Evan called for me because he thought she was dead, I came and took the lid off the cage and felt her to see if she would move or if I could feel her body moving like she was breathing. No, nothing. Evan had knocked on her cage to make noise and see if she would move. When she didn't, he felt her body, then he called for me. We had held her and cleaned her eye yesterday, so she passed sometime within 24 hours of when Evan discovered her. She must have died in her sleep because she was curled up in her usual ball position in her nested bedding, but she was laying on her side with her eyes open. I'm sure she passed peacefully and in no pain.

Yes, Snowflake was just a little tiny hamster, but she was our family's first pet. Evan and I are allergic to cats and dogs, so a hamster turned out to be a good pet for us. She brought us much joy. She was fun to hold and watch run around in her cages and ball. Her favorite food was sunflower seeds--didn't matter what else we gave her to eat, she wanted the sunflower seeds. It was fun to put the seeds in a line and watch her like a vacuum cleaner suck them up in her mouth and you could see her cheeks get really fat. Then she wanted to take them to her cage and it was like you were listening to a machine gun as she spit the seeds out. She would stand on her hind legs almost like she was begging at times. It was so cute to watch her clean herself with her little paws. The kids named her Snowflake because she was a Winter White hamster who in the wild supposedly turned white--she never turned white for us. She was a nice brown-gray color. We got to take her to Colorado on some visits and she was a great traveler, and we had a couple of families who nicely watched her for us during other travels. One family even had a grease fire at the time, but they made sure they got Snowflake out of their home so nothing would happen to her. (The family was fine, but they did have to do a little cleaning and I think repairing of their kitchen).

There were a few times Snowflake escaped her cage. One time I think we didn't find her for one or two days. Three of the times she escaped we found her because she got into the bottom stove drawer where the pots and pans lids are kept. There must be a hole in that drawer that she got into from crawling under the stove. We would hear the lids rattling around and know it was Snowflake. The other time she escaped, I was working in the kitchen and felt something run across my foot. I looked down and there was Snowflake standing on her hind legs looking at me like she was waiting for me to pick her up. Another time she escaped she got trapped in a sticky spider trap in our room. I woke up hearing this scratching sound thinking we had caught a mouse in the trap. I sat up in bed and I could see a tiny white cotton ball tail sticking out of the trap and I knew it was Snowflake. I had to open up the trap and cut her fur to get her unstuck.

The kids and I had church activities tonight, but when we got home, Roger had nicely put Snowflake in a match box with some bedding to make her comfortable. He had already dug a hole in the backyard. It was dark, so I decided not to take any pictures of the ceremony. Evan placed the box in the hole, and we all took turns saying how we would miss her and then scooping a shovel full of dirt on top of her. She was a wonderful little pet who we will all miss and remember. If you would like to see some pics of Snowflake when we first got her, click here.