In the First Half of May....

The first half of May has been pretty eventful.

We started on the 1st with a drive-through bridal shower for our niece/cousin Amanda, who will be married later this month.

Janae, Alaina and I were at a station collecting Jenga game pieces that people had received earlier to write marriage advice on for Manda and her soon-to-be husband.

What made the experience really memorable, though, was the strong winds that blew our tent and its decorations up into the air! The structure lifted off the ground, turned over, and landed several feet away. Luckily it wasn't raining!

The next day, Eric gave a talk in our church's stake conference--something no-one in our family has ever done before! Eric was assigned to speak on "How I Follow Jesus." He came up with the 1-2 minute talk himself, with me serving as scribe, then he memorized what he wanted to say so we could film it. One of Eric's Primary leaders took a picture of him on the big screen and sent it to us :) 

Soon after that, we celebrated May the Fourth. Eric actually wore the Darth Vader mask to school, and I reminded Ben that he would have done the same 10 years ago, too :)

                                               

Next, Mother's Day.

Eric made the most beautiful paper lilies I've ever seen ... and I discovered later they were made by tracing his hands, his fingers forming the petals. So nice that they'll last longer than real flowers, too :)

We made one of my favorite desserts to take to my mom and Jason's mom,

and Jason gave me two giant chocolate bars, just as I'd hinted I wanted :)  

As a young men's leader at our church, Jason had the task of helping plan the Mother's Day gift. At the time they were discussing this, I had been editing a journal where the writer had mentioned (a couple of times) that his ward was giving each woman TWO LARGE CHOCOLATE BARS for Mother's Day (2013) ... and I'd read this passage aloud to Jason, just because it seemed like a good thing to do. 

The young men from our ward gave out only one chocolate bar (not too big), but Jason brought me two of the extra-large Lindt bars ... you can imagine how "surprised" and happy I was.

But the most newsworthy event so far in May came last week, and it involved the smallest member of our family: Alaina's hamster, Mars.

Alaina adores this little guy and spends as much time as possible holding him, researching his species, improving his cage, building him new playgrounds, buying him luxury hamster items, etc., etc. She's made him a sand bath, a hammock, lots of different houses, toilet paper role tunnels, and a carry cage so he can be with her wherever she goes.

On Monday afternoon, Alaina and Mars were down in Eric's room playing. Alaina left for a minute, with Mars safely in a plastic bin. While she was gone, Eric took him out to hold him. 

In Eric's words: "He was in my hand, then on the floor, then under the bed." 

In other words, he was gone. 

Eric looked under the bed but couldn't see him anywhere. When Alaina got back, she and Eric moved furniture, toys, books, stuffed animals, but still, no Mars. I went downstairs and found the kids frantically searching, Alaina crying. When I asked Eric what had happened, he burst into the saddest, sorriest tears I'd ever seen from him.

Alaina set out food overnight in various parts of the basement, and in the morning some sunflower seeds had been cracked open, the shells on the floor by our storage room. Alaina took everything out of the room--bikes, boxes, winter gear, camping supplies--but still, no sign of Mars.

The next day, no food had been touched. We started to think Mars had escaped the house, in which case Alaina said he would be dead within 48 hours. (This girl knows her hamster survival stats!)

On Wednesday, Alaina set a trap. She used DVDs to make steps leading up to a bucket, and on each step she placed a sunflower seed. In the bucket was a mountain of hamster food Mars would hopefully fall into. 

The next morning, the seeds were all gone, but Mars was nowhere to be seen. We knew the hamster was still alive, but where was he?

Friday night Alaina planned to sit at the storage room door, waiting for Mars to appear. Within an hour, she heard a scuffling, looked over, and saw him! He was running in circles, and circled around back to Alaina. She picked him up easily and came upstairs to show us, tears streaming down her face. Her prayers had been answered!

We're sure, as Grandma said, that Mars "must have been on a great adventure," but he seems happy to be home. He was so wild, running around on Alaina, darting around his cage, rolling in his sand bath, and running on his silent spinner. What a guy.

So, happy wedding shower, happy Star Wars fans, happy Mother's Day and happy hamster reunion! 

All in the first half of May.