A Good and Not So Good Valentine's Day

The day started out with our oldest doing acolyte duties at the first service at church this morning.  My DH and I then enjoyed some time together hanging out at our local coffee shop.  I did some cutting for a swap I'm participating in over at Stampin' Addicts. 

Last night I did some stamping, making an easel card calendar (pictures to come on Monday).  When I set it on my DH's desk to show him, his comment was 'Wow, this is nice, but isn't it kinda girly?'.  He thought I was giving it to him!  So, after getting back from the coffee shop today, I made a masculine version of it for him.  He loved it! 

We celebrated our Valentine's dinner last night with a nice piece of filet mignon at Outback followed by seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D (again!), which allowed us to go to a handbell concert at church in the late afternoon today.  Afterward, we headed over to Panera Bread for some dinner.  When we got home, our oldest called me upstairs, that our youngest needed me right away.  I knew right away that it was her hamster, Sandy.  During Christmas break, we noticed that Sandy had developed a tumor on her abdomen, below her right front paw.  I did some reading and found that female hamsters sometimes get tumors, and that there isn't much you can do in that case.  The tumor became the size of a marble, but she seemed to be doing well.  Today was a different story.  Sandy slept as normal during the day, but upon coming home from dinner, our youngest noticed that Sandy was very limp and having difficulty breathing.  Sandy hung on for about an hour, dying in my hands.  It was tough saying goodbye, but we knew it was coming.  Our little one took it well - both of us cried together as we stayed with Sandy during her last hour.  Knowing that Sandy is no longer suffering and is now with God in heaven helped to ease the pain a bit.  It will be tough seeing that empty cage in the morning.  We'll miss that cute little girl!