This was the scene at our house this morning at 6:30 am. Pajamas and tissues. No matter how many times you watch The Lion King, the circle of life is cruel when it hits your gerbils. Both were brought down by a strange illness that slowly paralyzed them. Okay, to be honest, both gerbils were brought down by David but it was the illness that started it. No one tells you when you buy a gerbil, "Do you have an exit strategy if one or both of these animal begins to look creepy and starts doing the army crawl around their cage and are hanging on for dear life but are clearly suffering?" No, no one tells you that. So with as much dignity as David could muster, he took care of them.

It's like he's the new Godfather.

Er...Lily doesn't know that aspect of the tragedy. She just misses her gerbils.

Can you believe January is almost over? I'll have to blog a little more about my spending challenge and my final thoughts--which I promise will be boring and non-illuminating. I have two books waiting for me at the library: this and this, which I'm eager to read, but I'm also eager for February to start because I think my new challenge will be one act of kindness each day. More on that later.

Today everyone is excited because Auntie Bev arrives this evening. She is my mom's best friend and honorary member of the family. To know her is to love her. To know about her is to love her, too. She's just that way. She is staying for two weeks, which is not nearly long enough but we will take whatever we can. More on her later. She is just too, too delicious.