Well, I have got to tell you about my night.

We arrived home around 6:15. Katie's friends came over for a little bit

while I cooked supper. Robert had spilled something on himself at

day care, so I put him in the tub while I cooked.

Got Robert out, we ate. After cleaning up most of the dishes, I helped

Katie with homework, Robert went to play.

Found Robert in the hamster's room with the cage open. Closed cage and

asked him not to open it again.

Went back to help Katie with homework. Robert came to the kitchen and

asked, Daddy, do you want to see the wall? I looked at him and replied -

I am not sure, but I guess so. I followed him back to Katie's room and he

pointed to his masterpiece on the wall. A nice original artwork by Robert

Simmons III. Many, many green ink marks on the walls.

I began cleaning the marks off the wall with a wet cloth. When I had

removed about 1/2 of the marks, Robert asked me, Do you want to see the

other wall? I am sure my eyes were as big as softballs. He led me to my

room to proudly point to his second work or art. I asked him, now where

else did you write on the walls. We walked to the living room and pointed

to two more walls. Then a third. Then one in the hall. GREEN, GREEN,

GREEN, GREEN everywhere!

I slowly cleaned all the marks off all the walls except Katie's room (with

a great deal of paint being removed in the process). I then returned to

Katie's room to finish the removal process. While I was finishing up,

Robert moved really close to me and whispered in my ear in a soft,

loving, tender voice - "Green is my favorite color."

After completing the project, I returned to help Katie with her homework

and finish cleaning up the kitchen. Katie took a bath and they were both

in bed by 9.

I had a little work to do, so I was up until around 11:30. I went in to

check on the hamster on the way to bed and..... THE CAGE WAS OPEN! The

rat was on the loose!

I searched high and low, the rat was nowhere to be found. I moved the

cage on the floor and placed some food in his bowl. I was thinking he

would come for some food and I could catch him (this worked

before). After re-filling the bowl a number of times during the night and

coming back to find it empty with no hamster in sight, it was finally time

to get up and get ready for work. When I went to the kitchen to weigh, I

found a nice pile of hamster food in the bottom of the pantry. No

hamster. I turned around just in time to see the hamster run behind the

refrigerator.

I got Katie up to try to help me catch the hamster. We were able to flush

him out. He ran straight to my room, under the king-sized bed. Have you

every tried to catch a rat under a king-sized bed? Not easy. Well, we

finally caught the rat and put him back in the cage.

I asked Robert if he had left the cage open. He looked up at me with the

most beautiful little sheepish grin possible.

Katie's friends came over around 7 to ride to school with us. I fixed the

kids something to eat and we were off to school. Kids were at school on

time, Rob was about 10 minutes early to work.

Isn't life interesting?

Rob