Crunchwrap Supreme

We experienced a death in the family. Cajey, aka Barry Allen, aka the Flash, Phillip's beloved hamster entered hamster heaven on Sunday the 31st of March. The water bead in the water bottle was quite stuck so the poor animal had no water for days on end. Just the night before he was performing back flips off the side of his cage. Now I think he was hallucinating and out of his little mind crazy. I felt so bad! Phillip was completely devastated. He did not sleep for a week, anxious out of his mind, couldn't stop thinking about Cajey.  He spent many sleepless nights on the floor in my room vying for space with Evelyn. Last week our bedroom felt like a hotel with kids sprawled all over the floor. Phillip and Evelyn carefully packed the hamster inside a toilet paper roll stuffed with soft toilet paper. After school Phillip dug a shallow hole to bury Cajey in. The hole was not deep enough so Evelyn brought in the paper roll a few days later, caused another 2 nights with insomnia. I reburied the hamster in a better place. We thought replacing the hamster would help...

Monday was also April Fool's. We had little jokes going all over the place. Amelia replaced the toilet paper with rolls of tape, stuck silly notes inside the fridge, and served brown E's for dessert. Everett printed out a cute photo of his face and taped the papers to the toilet seats. He loved surprising us all! Phillip's heart was not into celebrating.

Tuesday right after school Amelia informed me she had a choir concert at 5 pm. It was 4 and this was the first time I heard of this event. I did not get any emails from Mrs Munley so we called and clarified the information, which was correctly reported to me by Amelia. I rushed to get Phillip to Scouts, Everett was able to stay as well with the bears much to his delight. The little girls and I went to a furniture store downtown for the school district art show. Josie pretended to be a cute bunny hopping about with a bunny ear headband on. Amelia sang gorgeously! She sang American tears (again) and several new songs with her mates. I picked up the boys and Justin on our way to grab a quick dinner at Taco Bell. The boys wanted their very own crunchwrap for dinner, it was taco Tuesday and the dinner I had planned was put off due to the impromptu concert. After dinner we went to PetSmart to check out hamsters. Phillip found a larger white male hamster as his new friend. He was friendly at the store! We tried out a dozen names but I threw out crunchwrap, that was a hit! Justin wants the name to be spelled, krunch rapp! LOL. The kids and Justin got the new hamster settled in his new digs. His new wheel is so squeaky I kept waking up unused to the new sounds.

I got a new to me serger! Finally got it set up and ripped through a dress like butter! I am so pleased with me new machine. I had some frustrations with it but that is next week's story. The new machine is 10 times quieter and smoother than the one I inherited. I sewed up a pink dress for Josie using fabric she chose! Of course the dress is pepto pink with Princesses! I cannot wait to try sewing up some of those popular knit dresses. I sure have enough fabric to learn on. Most of my week was spent editing the plethora of photos I snapped on Saturday.

I invested a couple dollars in meal planning system through Etsy. The packets come with master grocery lists, weekly lists, month of meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), AND the recipes. I'm hoping to save money by eliminating the excess and eating some different meals. So far the meals are delicious. I've switched around a couple days so the Monday and Thursday meals are either easy or crock/instapot easy. We really need to invest in a used freezer and fridge for the garage. I would be able to shop sales and buy more in bulk. Sunday we dined on oven roasted chicken with scalloped sweet potatoes. Yum!

Friday night we took the kids (minus Josie) to see The Music Man performed at Gilbert High. Our neighbor Jacob was in the production as Winthrop Paroo and his sister was one of the Pickalittle ladies. Jacob worked hard for 3 months going right after school to practice. We were all excited to watch them perform. The songs brought back memories of my mother singing those songs around the house. My favorite was the Wellsfargo wagon! It was quite a lovely evening. Evelyn enjoyed the first 20 minutes then was ready to leave, by the end she was almost asleep.

Conference weekend was so lovely. All the talks were focused on the Savior, simplifying our lives to easily turn towards Him. After three months of Come Follow Me, the talks all seemed to support what we've learned so far this year. Elder Holland! He's my favorite. Sell the ox and fill in the mire! LOL. Read his talk. We heard many references of the time being short, this chapter is soon closing, gotta step up our game and work hard as missionaries and at our temple work. The Chandler Calls came over for conference crepes Sunday morning. Laura brought cookie butter, quite possibly my new favorite way to eat crepes. The boys got bored, so decided to hoe deep holes into the back lawn and fill the holes with water. They threw mud and grass on the walls as a finale. Guess that's one way to aerate the lawn. Phillip wrapped up Crunchwrap in his ball in some paper to look like a giant candy. He was pleased with his creation.