My Roller Coaster Week

This has been an amazingly wonderful and incredibly awful week, and I'm glad it's over!

My week started on a really good note. Last Friday, Karen had her baby! He was 8 lb 10oz and has reddish brown hair. They named him Liam, and other than sleepless nights, they are all doing well. Liam is absolutely adorable and very sweet! Good job Karen and Rob!

Right after we saw him at the hospital, we headed to Boise for Ellie's baptism! It is so exciting to have another 8 year old in the family! 8 is great, right Ellie?! Unfortunately I don't have a single baptism picture, so here's a picture of Ellie and Emma at Emma's baptism. Cute girls! Congratulations, Ellie!

While we were getting ready for the baptism, I went looking for Maren and found a scene of intense drama! She had tried using Katherine's round brush to blowdry her hair and got it stuck---really stuck! She had tried to get it out herself and managed to work it in tight two inches from her scalp! I tried calming her down and removing the brush but both seemed impossible, so I called in the expert---Grandma!We slathered conditioner in her hair, but it was still stuck! Finally, I used scissors to cut all of the bristle nubs off. Still, it took AT LEAST a half of an hour to work her hair out! I guess I wasn't much help because I kept laughing (it was SO funny!) and I reminded her that she had said she wanted a haircut! Fortunately, only one little clump was lost (I got a little too close with the scissors when I was cutting the brush) and her beautiful red hair is still there! Hurray for Grandma!

The major drama of the week, though, was when we got home from Boise and couldn't find our cat, Max. We were worried, but we kept hoping and praying. The next day, Del called the animal shelter and they said they had a few cats that fit his description (huge, fluffy, no tail). Unfortunately, Max had been hit by a car a couple of blocks from home. We were devastated and had a very teary funeral that night with a eulogy written by Emma and a little grave marker she bought at the dollar store that says "Peace".

Here's Max with Millie, who mostly despised him, but occasionally tolerated him. He adored her and followed her everywhere. Millie is a normal-sized cat and he was huge compared to her, but she picked on him all the time. The kids called him their Cabbit because they were sure he was a cross between a cat and a rabbit.I don't think any cat has ever been so loved or fought over! Everybody loved to hold him because he was so snuggly and passive! He was a great cat and we will miss him a lot! Emma has already claimed the right to have him in heaven. She was like his little Mommy. He loved it when she held him like a baby and he'd purr and purr when she would kiss him. He was just sweet.

The week ended on a positive note. I had been begging, threatening, cajoling and bribing Devin to ask a girl to the Senior Prom, but it was going nowhere. I just wanted him to go and have fun. I loved dating in high school, and I think he would regret missing out on his Prom. Finally, I involved peer pressure, and his friend, Andrew Bringhurst, who is extremely social and outgoing, took over. He persuaded him to double with him and drove him to the store to get balloons. The next day a balloon bouquet was delivered to Justina Schmidt in 5th hour with messages inside inviting her to Prom. This is how she answered:

Her teacher let her leave class early the next day with a few other girls and they decorated his car. Devin thought it was fun and he enjoyed eating the honeycomb cereal off the window. Yuck! So now Devin is going to the

in a few weeks! Hurray! We ended on a very good note!