Crazy times!

I can't believe so much time has passed since my last post. Time is flying by so quickly right now for me, I can hardly believe summer is over and school starts back up next week. I have no pictures to attach with this post so I apologize right now for that. Mostly because I have been so busy getting my kids ready to go back to school and taking pictures of that would be down right boring.
My days lately have been spent driving, talking on the phone or filling out paper work. I told you boring! I have been getting Jessica ready for her senior year at a new High School, trying to get her a drivers license, filling out a mountain of paper work so that Savannah can carry her insulin pump at school ( yes, it's worse than trying to buy a house), getting the other girls registered at the Jr. High school, taking Luke in for his teacher meeting for 1st grade, football for Cody and so much more, I'm afraid I'm boring all of you too much.
It's all been good though but I can't lie, I'm really looking forward to next week and a quiet house! I'm still in a little bit of shock and can't believe all 5 kids will finally be in school full time. I'm a little bit afraid I'm going to find myself bored. Of course the first month will be complete heaven, but after that I hope I can find enough to keep myself busy all day long.
On to a different subject, we recently added to our pet population when Savannah decided to earn enough money so that she could buy herself a hamster. She and a couple of her friends decided they wanted to get something that connected them, like in the book Sisterhood of the traveling Pants, where they shared a pair of Jeans. Well they came up with a great idea to share a hamster. All three moms agreed that if they could come up with the money themselves we would let them. So, they decided to sell some baked goods on the street corner to earn their money. Savannah asked me if I would bake some chocolate chip cookies, which I did with her help, as her contribution to the bake sale. In one day they sold $40 worth of cookies, water bottles and crystal light drinks. So when they went down to the pet store to purchase the hamster they figured out they had enough to buy each girl their own hamster. That wasn't the plan I had in mind, but that is what they did. Of course when Savannah came home with her own hamster Luke went crazy and begged us to get him his own hamster too. We of course said no! It just so happened that Nana Collins came home from her cruise the very next day and gave Luke a belated birthday card with a hefty birthday check in with it. Luke decided to spend his money on his very own hamster. So off to the pet store we went to buy our second hamster. Now I have to admit, these hamsters are pretty cute and very small. They are called Robo Dwarf Hamsters and they only get to be 2 inches in length. I really don't mind them at all, but I knew we might have a problem since Luke loves to hold his, all day long. Now since they are small, it makes them very fast and they also can jump right out of your hands. The very next morning after we bought Luke his hamster he came into our bedroom at 7:00 a.m. to tell us he had lost his hamster. Clay asked him what he was doing up so early and he told us "he just wanted to play with his hamster". He didn't want to make any noise so he took her out into the garage and that is where he lost her. Clay and I just rolled our eyes, knowing we would never find the tiny hamster, but Luke was so upset we had to at least try. So, off to the garage we went to search for this 2 inch hamster. We looked for over a 1/2 hour and couldn't find it anywhere. Clay had to leave for work, so Luke went upstairs to wake up Cody and ask him to help out in the search and rescue mission. Cody being the soft hearted brother he is, got up and spent the next hour trying to find the hamster. I went in earlier to make breakfast for the boys when Cody came running in saying he saw it running behind the air compressor. I ran into the garage and lifted up the compressor and saw the hamster. I immediately grabbed a dust pan and placed it infront of the rodent. I then stuck my hand behind him so he would think I was trying to grabbed him. He ran right into the dust pan, I put my hand over him to block him from running or jumping out and got him safely back into his cage. Cody then told me how they had said a prayer earlier to help them find the hamster and he just knew it would be answered. I was so proud of my boys and was amazed at their simple faith. What a great lesson for them on prayer and I can't even say I had anything to do with it. They did it all on their own. When we came back inside to eat breakfast (yes, Melinda we all washed our hands, a few times) Luke said the prayer to bless the food and it was so cute how he thanked Heavenly Father for helping them find his hamster. It's been three days since that happened and in every prayer Luke still thanks him for helping them find the hamster. It's very cute!

So, that has been our exciting lives the past few weeks. My three girls have been at Lake Powell with my sister in law Kym and her husband, so the house has been very quiet with just the two boys. But I have enjoyed doing things with the boys this week and can't wait until Saturday when the girls get back. We just feel like such a small family right now, I don't like it, I need my girls back with us!