Hello Again!

For those of you who don't know--and for those of you who do, I had recently decided to take a few days off from the computer. I found myself on here 24/7, and it was not a good thing. During the 4 days I have been away from cyberspace, I have had time to recollect my thoughts, change my views on some matters, and just get some good ol' house cleaning done! :) I have also been sewing a lot, which is such therapy for me. I will post pics as soon as I finish it all.
John went to see the sports medicine doctor this past Monday. He went in to the appointment fully expecting to schedule a surgery date, but that wasn't how it played out. The doctor decided to try a cortizone shot and see if swelling is the underlying issue. John got that shot before he left the office, and he now says he can tell an improvement! The doctor scheduled him to come back in 6 weeks so he can see if it actually "fixed" what was broken. Praise God there is no surgery in the very near future!
Caitlin only has 1 more day to be a 3rd grader. Her school had a swim party yesterday at Southwest pool (my question here is this: why do they even bother having this week of school when all they do is party and watch movies?) and she got so sunburned on her poor face! I tried to keep up with the sunscreen, but I left before she did--she got to go home with a friend for the afternoon--and she didn't pay attention to me when I told her to re-apply the sunscreen. I will DEFINITELY be more on top of it this summer. She came home from her 1/2 day of school today and said that the boys in her class were calling her "salmon face." I tried not to laugh--but that's pretty creative! :) Poor, poor Caitlin.
Ok, so finally I get to the interesting stuff. Ha!
On Monday morning, I woke up to a horrible screeching fight. Christian's 2 Russian dwarf hamsters were really going at it. It was so bad, in fact, that they were both bloodied and missing hair in spots. I know, I know--so sad. They have been picking at each other relentlessly for about a week now, and I guess Monday was just "the day." They settled down and I went about my morning routine with the kids. Around lunch, I went back up to Christian's room and discovered that the albino one (Max) was dead. ACK! I hurried and was able to properly dispose of him before Christian found out. Max had been having health problems as well, so it was really no surprise that he expired. I knew I would have to clean the cage out and thuroughly disinfect it, but I wanted to wait until the evening before Caitlin's volleyball game when John would be there to watch the kids. So, that evening, I went upstairs fully expecting to clean out the cage. I opened it, picked up Alex to put him in the roll-around ball, and I was greeted with a huge surprise---HAMSTER BABIES!! That's right folks--Alex is a girl! When I realized she had been pregnant this whole time (from start to finish, hamsters are preggers for 21 days-I wish!), it made sense as to why she and Max were fighting so bad. Let me interject that when you buy dwarf hamsters, they can't tell you if they are male or female--it's the luck of the draw. Anyway, I read that you have to leave the babies alone for at least 2 weeks or the mom will kill them out of fear and frustration. SOOOOOO, the kids don't know yet. We have about 1 more week to go before we will tell them. Meanwhile, I've been taking a peek in the little nest/house and there seems to be at least 6 babies--maybe more! They are so funny looking! I will get a pic as soon as they are mature enough. The plan for now is to sell them back to the pet shop--that is, unless someone out in bloggerland wants free hamsters! :)