As some of you know, today was the day we thought we were going to get our court date. Unfortunately, we did not get it today and court will be a couple of weeks after we had hoped, hopefully early February. But, the reason why it’s later is because the judge wants to make sure that all of the paperwork for Helen is in order, to save us from any headaches while we’re in country. We know Helen is in great hands, so waiting a couple of extra weeks will not be too bad.

Our poor friend Danae. This girl has known us for 3 months and I treat her like my friends I’ve known for years. She and her husband helped with our dogs while we were away in November. She was also the one who found our dog sitter for us. Then, on Monday, when we had the whole runaway dog incident, I called her. She wasn’t available, but I know she would have been out there with us if she was.

And then, today, my house key disappeared. I exhausted all of the options and searched everywhere, but in the end, I had to call Danae. And she was so sweet… she made me not feel like a total dumbo for calling and bugging her. We drove over to her work and she not only gave us the key, but also Starburst. Oh, and she asked if she could give it to the kids, and not right in front of them either… major points for that!

Of course, while I talked to Danae, I forgot to tell my kids to take the wrapper off the Starburst before eating it. OOPS! One kid figured it out, one kid didn’t.

I promptly found the missing key when I got home and started unloading the groceries.

Do you see it?

I didn’t even think to check inside the grocery bags! It seems so unlikely that the key could even fall in the bag without me noticing… and fall so perfectly in there that it was way down on the bottom.

This evening the kids were bored, and I thought about a fun thing I found on pinterest. You microwave a quarter of a bar of ivory soap for 3 minutes. The kids were fascinated and loved watching it get bigger and bigger. Then, they hauled it off to the bath and turned it into snow and played with it. They lovvvvvved it.

Cut up your bar of Ivory(it MUST be Ivory). It’s very easy to do with a butter knife.

Put it in the microwave. Microwave it for 2-3 minutes. We did it for 3 and I don’t think it needed to be quite that long. It got a tiny bit burned on the bottom.

This what it looks like when it’s done. It’s not hot to touch, except on the bottom where it was touching a plate.