We had a busy day here today. I had a Pampered Chef party this evening, so the kids and I spent the day cleaning and getting the house ready. We also made a trip to the store to get a few things and I thought fresh flowers would be nice. So Rachael picked out beautiful red roses. On the trip home, I hear her muttering about roses from her seat. I ask her what she's doing and it turns out that she was naming each rose. The best part is that she named one of them Rose Tyler. I don't know how many of you will get the reference, but it made me laugh out loud.

Hard to believe summer is practically over. I have my last softball game today, assuming it doesn't get rained out. School is looming on the horizon. How did the time go by so fast? You'd think by now I'd stop being amazed at how quickly time passes, but it still catches me off guard. I remember thinking back in May, "Oh, I have until August to do that, no hurry." And now it's August and it seems like it's only been a week or two. Anyway, I'm sure one day I'll accept it, but for now it's still weird to me. :)

Rachael has lost another tooth. This makes 8. All 4 front teeth on the top and bottom. She was excited that the tooth fairy visited last night. We also cleaned her room yesterday, so the tooth fairy had a clear shot to the bed and wouldn't trip over anything on the way! It's amazing how trashed a 7 year old's room can get. We need to establish a few routines to keep things tidy so it doesn't get so out of hand again.

Our oven has been broken for a while now, at least a month, maybe a little longer. The lower heating element went out. Brent is fixing it right now actually, so hopefully it'll be in working order today. It'll be nice to have the option to bake again. Granted, I use it mostly for baking frozen pizzas, but you never know when the urge to bake brownies might strike.

  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.