Meme for Youyou

Okee dokee, I'm so unhip now that when I was tagged for a meme by my friend Tanya, I had to go and Google the term to figure out what the heck it was. Basically, it's the blogger version of all those questionnaires you get from your friends in emails ("answer these here 4.9 zillion questions, i.e.croutons or bacon bits?" junk that I constantly delete b/c who has time, really? Hmm, some of you are thinking, that's why I never hear back from those emails I send her...). And dag-nabbit, of course she's a music nut, and I AM NOT, and it's a music meme. So I'm doing this meme, but it's lame-o for me because, again, I am no longer hip and trendy.


Total volume of music on my computer: um, maybe ZERO ? I'm so lame that way. Kent has an iPod; can I get some cool points by association thru marriage to a cool guy?

The last CD I bought: the newest REM and U2 at Christmas for Kent (OMGosh, I really am lame, that was over 6 months ago, and not even for me)

Song playing right now: The Sound of Silence (hahaha!); well, Kent has the Soundscapes channel on our satellite TV every night while he works downstairs, but I can't ever hear it thru the white noise of the fan in our bedroom (LOVE me some wireless internet in the bed!)

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me: again, lameness. I have 2 small children and we listen to Laurie Berkner and Dan Zanes(Kent's favorite) on Noggin (they're way cool, even for grownups, but remember this recommendation comes from unhip me). I'm out of the loop on hip, but I like just about anything from Matchbox20/Rob Thomas (sorry, Tanya, know you can't stand him), Seal's last CD, and all of Fernando Ortega's music.

Who I'll pass this on to: sadly, I don't know anyone personally with a blog except Tanya and I'm not sending this to people I don't know, so the buck stops here.

Beautiful beautiful creatures

OMGosh, could these little people be any more attractive? I think not.


Our former babysitter, Katie, was married this weekend, and we got very dressed up for the occasion.

Man Things

Well, here's a little piece of boy-paradise. Our road is being paved and the Y-chromosomes found that quite fascinating last week.

Hamster Trauma Re-visited

Back on May 22nd, the kids and I left for a short weekend (48 hrs) and came back to find our hamster, Runaround, missing from her cage. I looked everywhere, Mary-Chandler was heartbroken, and I feared our sweet pet was dead. After the children were put to bed, I got out a flashlight and hunted all the corners of the house. And found her through a small opening at the back of the fireplace for a gas line that goes below the house about 11 feet into the lower part of the chimney. It took about 3 hours, but basically I fished the hamster out of the bottom of my fireplace about a floor below me, thru a small hole with a juice box and some twine (like a teeny rescue stretcher). Kent's mechanical idea, but of course he was in Minneapolis so I was on my own! Lots of prayer, coaxing, and singing "Jesus Loves Me" as I finally (slowly) pulled her up to the opening, scared out of my mind that the box would tip and I'd drop her and kill her. I couldn't wait for MC to wake up and find her prayers answered (I tried to wake her up to tell her when it happened, but she was comatose!)

Her back left ankle was broken and the vet was amazed that she held up so well, and wasn't sure that she would make it. We had to remove her wheel and climbing tubes from her cage and change her to one-level living, like a senior citizen. She said the best we could hope for is that the foot would atrophy and she'd be a 3-legged hammy. What a trooper she was, just dragging her little leg behind her and chewing up her toilet paper roll!!

Six weeks later, she was COMPLETELY healed, foot working perfectly, running on her wheel, climbing up tubes, and taking the Fisher Price family van for a spin, as seen above. Our little miracle hamster! Prayers each night included thanking God for protecting Runaround.

Well, by gum, if that crazy hamster didn't escape from her cage the other night once again. And within one hour's time, just like the Israelites in the desert, that nutty gal fell right back down the chimney AGAIN, the hamster verion of taking another lap around Mt. Sinai. I was gobsmacked. Couldn't (and still can't) wrap my head around how this hamster could go right back to the thing that caused her such pain before. Parallel to our own lives? I'll not think of it just now, thank you.

Kent was luckily at home this time and we rigged another rescue contraption (this time using a mini garden flag instead of the juice box); this time there was also blood where there was not previously. Her left ear was bloody, one eye was shut, and she was unable to walk well at all (looked like she had played dizzy bat).

As the vet accurately said the next day by way of an explanation: "Well, her bell's been rung" - but no broken bones this time. A-freaking-mazing that this creature has lived to tell the tale TWICE. Her eye is now open, her ear is healing, and she can walk in a straight, non-DUI looking line. Still sleeping a bit more than normal, but hey, so would I. It's been just over a week, so we'll see how she does, but the fact that she's still around speaks volumes, and we are now thanking God in nightly prayers for protecting Runarount Two Times. ("because she's what? crazy." as Mary-Chandler says)

Go, Speed Racer!

Give it up for my hunny, who ran 5 miles straight up to the top of Grandfather Mountain this week in a race accurately called "The Bear"