Rachael turned 7 yesterday. Unbelievable! When did she get so big? We had a great day. And the Kuster household has grown by 1.

We now have a betta fish named Beatty. Rachael has been asking for a pet for a long time now. We've been saying "Maybe for your birthday" for months. Well, her birthday came and we got her the fish. She wanted a dog, but I thought we should start small. We went to the pet store yesterday and got the supplies we needed and the fish. Our first tank had a crack down the front, so we had to take it back and exchange it. The second tank was perfect. As we're leaving the pet store, Jon held the door open for us. I thanked him and he said, "When I grow up I want to be a doorman." I laughed and wondered if any current doorman wanted to be one when he was a kid.

So this morning at 7 am I wake up to "MOM! Mom, you've gotta come. We need to change the tank!" I'm dead asleep and it took me a moment to register that someone was talking. But when I did, I heard the note of panic in the voice, not so much the words. When I finally realized what she was talking about, I was not a happy camper. "The water's all cloudy. I can barely see him!" So I drag myself out of bed and check it out. I was expecting murk, I didn't get it. The water was cloudy, but barely. The fish was still clearly visible. The water got changed anyway. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to catch a silly fish in a net. The tank is tiny, so there's not a lot of room to maneuver. Maybe I can find a smaller net. After the water was changed and the fish fed I said to Rachael, "I don't want you to ever wake me up for that again. You can wait until I wake up on my own and I can change the water then." So hopefully no more 7am water changing emergencies.

We also made a special cake for her. I will NEVER have a job as a baker/decorater.

I thought it was fairly pathetic, but Rachaell loved it. She helped do the decorating. She'd been saying for days that she was going to have a butterfly cake and that it was going to be purple. She got her purple butterfly cake. I don't think she cared much how it looked. I was just happy I got it to resemble a butterfly. When I was serving it, the first thing I cut off were the bottom wings. Jon was watching and said, "Now it looks like a bat!"

To wrap up her birthday celebration, we're heading to Chuck E. Cheese this afternoon. I am not really looking forward to that. I really don't like that place. But the kids love it. And she's been asking to go for her birthday for quite some time now. So I suppose that I can suffer through an afternoon of sugar crazed kids who all want to play the same game at the same time. I might even enjoy it, but that's a long shot. But Rachael will have fun, and that's the whole point.

Yesterday was another water disaster day. Our sump pump stopped working and our basement flooded. There was water up to my ankles and everything was soaked. So, Brent and I emptied out the basement. We put everything outside on the deck in the backyard. Yesterday was a great day for drying things outside. Breezy, sunny, dry. Some stuff is actually still out there drying over the fence. Unbelievable. Nothing irreplacable was ruined. Mostly just wrapping paper and stuff like that. A pain, but not painful. So we got a new sump pump yesterday. And a clean basement, after all the water receeded, that is.

I know there are some mothers out there who can relate to the latest 'Jon incident.' We had BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) this morning. I take the kids, they go to their class, I go to mine. Well, discussion group is just starting when a children's leader calls me out of the room. She holding a lightbulb. "Did you know that Jon had this?" she asks me. I stare at her dumbfounded for a moment. Of course I didn't know he had a lightbulb! "His hands were empty on the way in," I said. "It must have been in his pocket. I had no idea." "Well, he's quite upset that we took it away. Could you come down and talk to him." So, I head down and try to talk to him. He's not really interested in what I have to say. But we have a quick talk about how he shouldn't have lightbulbs at BSF. I go back to my group. End of incident...Not quite. At about 7:30 this evening, my phone rings. It's one of the children's coordinators. She detailed Jon's morning for me and all the different problems that they had with him today. Not the type of phone call a mother enjoys getting. But it certainly is a helpful phone call. As much as I don't like to hear that my kid causes problems, I'd rather know than not know. This way I can do something about it. So, I made a few suggestions how they can help him transition and assured them that I would work more with him before we get there and prepare him for what is ahead. Tho, we've been doing this since September, so you'd think he'd get the routine by now. I don't know. The phone call was also encouraging because she was in no way "coming down" on me or Jon. She was just letting me know what was going on and that we have some things to work on. She also mentioned that she has a difficult son and can identify with what we're going through. At least Jon's consistent. He's trouble no matter where he is!

On a completely different note, last Saturday, a good friend of mine passed away suddenly and completely unexpectedly. She was just a year older than me and had just had her 3rd baby. This is the first death I've had to deal with of someone close to me. I've had a grandfather and a great grandfather die, but they were never really a big part of my life. I loved them, but I didn't really know them. This gal was a good friend for the past 6 years. And it's sort of brought me up short. I go on crying jags nearly every time I think of this family. How do you trust that something so painful and terrible can work together for good? How can anything good come from 3 little kids losing their mommy? I don't know. But God says it can. God is in control. I find myself leaning on that assurance now more than ever. I certainly don't understand it. I know God does, but it's still a struggle to trust. Jesus, help me trust. It has also brought to mind again just how precious the time is that I have with my family. My kids have gotten lots of hugs lately. Even when they do crazy things involving lightbulbs.

I'm not sure how my daughter ended up my daughter. God must have figured the only way I'd become girly was to give me a girly-girl. (It's working, too. Slowly but surely. It's kinda scary.) Rach is a pinkaholic. It's her absolute favorite color. More than half of her wardrobe is pink. She has been instrumental in most of the purchases of the pink items in my wardrobe, too. We were trying to find something green for her to wear the other day for St. Patrick's Day. It wasn't easy. She said, "It would be better if leprechauns wore pink." That's my girl.