Tonight Laura took Caleb and Nathan with her and went to talk about getting ready for VBS at the end of July. I was tasked with taking Hannah to the Library to do some crazy shirt painting exercise. It was going to take an hour, so I just stayed and read a portion of a Thomas Sowell book.
Joshua didn’t want to go with mom, and he thought he be bored with me. So he got to stay home – alone. Our neighbors down the street knew the situation, so they were available if needed.
This is how kids grow up you see. Nothing eventful happened. And with that the month of June fades away.
After dad being adamant about not wanting the mess or the expense (for upkeep and additional home repairs…) of having a pet, mommy caved when she say the dwarf hamster owned by her work out buddy. So about a week ago (I guess I should be more accurate since we have a 14 day return policy that is running out fast!!), Laura took the kids to PetSmart and purchased a vermin with a cage to put it in.
I would show you a picture, but I don’t think anyone has thought to take one yet, and at this time of the morning “Helio” is still buried in the shavings at the bottom of the cage. I do have a picture of a rodent that looks very similar – only this one was in a trap… remember? (I have pictures of that one, but as we said before – they probably aren’t for public viewing)
As you have probably guessed, I’m not enthusiastic about this turn of events. My view of pets is that they are a great oportunity to teach children the life object lesson of what death means. Pets die, and we get to tell our children about that reality. And that’s a valuable lesson to learn, especially as they become teen-agers and think they are imortal. ( Bible quote )
Caleb comes down first thing in the morning and checks on Helio. Joshua likes to let him run up and down his arms. He and Laura enjoy sticking it under my nose while I’m working at the computer – there must be some enjoyment out of that. I get none.
Wouldn’t have just been easier to just adopt the squirrels already in our attic? Everybody else is happy with the decision, so there it stands. Even Hannah has purchased some garden gloves so she can hold Helio and not be concerned about rodent defecation touching her delicate skin. You can never be too careful.
It took us a while to get some audio together, but it’s here now. This episode features the debut of Laura – she’s on the last segment, so you’ll have to listen all the way through. This episode is a little longer than the others (17 minutes).
Let us know what you think by leaving us a comment. Remember, it takes a while to have comments approved – so if they don’t show up right away, don’t sweat it … they will.
Just wanted to share this tale before too much time has gone by. While we were at Campmeeting at the beginning of the month, the three older kids were staying with me in a small dorm room. We had two keys between us. We shared them as needed.
It was Caleb’s turn to hold the key between some meetings. He had it in his shirt pocket and was jumping around through the grass when it bounced out. He couldn’t find it and he came and told me as much. We retraced his steps, but found nothing. I even found out that the science teacher who lived across the street had a metal detector. We went and borrowed it and went searching for “treasure hidden in a field.” As people passed they would ask what we were looking for. One friend, Winston, asked if we had prayed to find it yet. I said we hadn’t and that I would wait until all my children could be there to pray. So when we were all there, we did have a little prayer to find the lost key.
Then we went back to searching and found nothing until it was dinner time. For the last few days of meetings we just got used to the routine with one key. On the last day, when we were cleaning up our room – no you didn’t guess it, it wasn’t that easy. I lost the other key!!!
The kids just told me to pay the fines and move on. I was just too embarrassed to do that. I had them leave the room so I could tear it from one side to the other. I found it in one of my pants pockets. So I put the room back together and then headed over to the registration area to turn in my one key.
When I got there and I told them what room I had, they turned to me and said. “Oh, one of the featured musical guests at campmeeting found your key on the way to dinner last night and just turned in your key.” He was still standing nearby so I thanked him and told him that my son would feel much better knowing that he hadn’t caused his dad to be charged for the key.
When we all got in the van to go home, I told Caleb and the others what had happened.
His eyes got real wide and he said, “So God DID answer our prayer!” Now that’s a faith builder!
If you’ve been keeping up with us – last summer I mowed our lawn with a push rotary mower. It was quite a work out, but Laura wasn’t real pleased with the results. So this summer (May 8th in fact… how do I know that? Read on) Laura went and got a Craftsman lawn mower from our local Sears Appliance & Hardware store on N. Lindbergh.
The third time I used it was yesterday. That would be June 10th – 32 days after our purchase. When I came across this:
Is that not clear enough? How about this…
Well, after that little contact with my mower, the shaft got bent and it was all over. We figured we’d have to buy another lawn mower (and leave the two broken ones in the back of the shed). I was talking to my mom on Skype and she said that I should call Sears and try to buy the warranty post mortum. I figured, “what could it hurt?”
So I called and talked to Ashley. She told me that you can, in fact, buy the warranty up to 30 days after your purchase. That’s how we discovered that it had been 32 days. She also told me that the main shaft wasn’t under the warranty or any extended warranty. She paused for a moment and asked if she could call me back in 10 minutes while she called her manager. When she called back, she said that they would do an even swap for a new mower. When Laura got home from her work out, we scooted over there and made the trade.
I finished the lawn this evening. Sears Hardware is now my favorite hardware store. That’ll be where I stop by when looking for all things hardware. See how being treated well can change your actions and outlooks?
So be nice to somebody and see what a difference it can make.