Crazy Cat People

We are now the crazy cat people.  I know - it is truly as exciting as it sounds.  A couple of weeks ago we had exactly one cat - Carlye's cat, Petunia.  Then, some very odd things began to happen.  First came Shelly (short for Sheldon).  A stray cat that showed up on our porch one day.  She was skittish and looked like a skeleton with kitty fur draped over the top of it.  We began feeding her, and now she is getting healthy and happy - and has, of course, chosen to say.  FYI: Her name is Sheldon because she laps her milk the way Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory knocks on doors.  Lap-lap, Meow.  Lap-lap, Meow.

Then, on Wednesday Uncle Michael came in and told Carlye that when the rock guys dumped out their load of rocks a litter of 9 kittens was dumped out, too.  7 of them were crushed and killed, but these two survived.  Since they had no mother, and we couldn't just leave them, Carlye rescued them.  Their names are King Tut (the black one) and Tom (the orange one).  For those of you who were wondering, she named him King Tut because they found him under a pile of rocks.  Obviously he was the runt.  Maybe he'll grow into his name!

Tom was injured, but the vet said it was superficial.  King Tut has a broken leg.  We have to feed them every 2 to 3 hours with a mixture of kitten milk and nutritious food since they are only 4 weeks old and incredibly malnourished.  It is AMAZINGLY time consuming.  Have I mentioned yet that I don't like cats?  'Cause I really fancy myself more of a dog person.......

 Well, that may not be entirely true.

Meet MingMing.  (Wonder where I got that name!)

In July, my 15 year old Siamese cat, Molly, died.  Carl immediately began looking for another one, and found a litter of long haired Siamese (obviously not pure bred - she said a Himalayan got in there).  They weren't ready yet, so he's been waiting to pick her up.  She came home today.

Emmaline thinks she's the cat's meow.  

Okay, sorry for that one.

She's a spunky little thing, with sweetness and attitude all tied together.  

So, I was wondering - in 2 to 3 weeks will anyone be interested in an adorable black or orange kitty?

Oh, and my pictures are still doing crazy things, but at least the subjects within these pictures are visible......

First Day of School

I've been trying all week to upload this photo so that I could blog about the first day of school - but every time I upload it, it looks like this.  :(  When I load them on Carl's computer they are great.  Sorry, I don't know what the issue is!  And since I have a lot to say this week, you're getting it this way!

First day of school was WONDERFUL for the kids!  Not so much for me.  Nathanael and Noah have amazing teachers, and we are truly blessed again by the instructors that have been put in our children's lives.  Carlye LOVES her teacher as well (hehe), although I can't say that she's being a model student.  We have a few kinks to work out.

At the boys school on Monday morning I was in charge of the Boohoo/Yeehaw breakfast for all of the parents.  I baked muffins, made adorable little fruit cups filled with tiny grapes, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, I had donut holes, fresh fruit, orange juice, etc.  We arrived early to the school, and both of the boys were helping me carry things in.  While we were walking into the school, the bottom fell out of my fruit tray, and all of the fruit and cups went flying all over the very, very busy parking lot.

I looked up, and my precious, sweet little boys were walking as fast as they could away from me and into the school.  By the time I had gathered together all of the trash and dumped it in my tray and actually made it into the school Nathanael was already with his class, having placed all of the items he was carrying in for me on the sign in table.  I began looking for Noah, and caught a brief glimpse of him as he handed everything he was carrying to the principal with the words, "These are for the BooHoo breakfast."  I immediately had to start setting up, so I wasn't able to walk either of the boys to class.  After school I asked both of them about it and Noah said, "Mo-om, I'm in 2nd grade!  Your not supposed to walk me to my class!"

Home schooling is proving to be incredibly rewarding and incredibly challenging.  I should have thought a little more carefully about the fact that I didn't even take Geometry in middle school, so how on earth am I going to teach it to Carlye!!!!  Everything else is a breeze, though, so I'll take this minor headache with joy - and learn some Geometry while I'm at it.  Thank heavens for her online teacher!!

Tomorrow I have an exciting post about cats and kittens, so stay tuned!

More Pictures

Family Reunion

Better late than never!  My sisters and I each had our own color growing up, so for this cousin picture we dressed our kiddos in the appropriate colors.  Mine are in yellow, Heather's are in blue, Heidi's are in red and Pammy's are in green.  Then we lined them up in birth order and snapped away.  This is one of my favorite pictures from our family reunion.  I had thought that Heather would post some, but I know she's busy - so here's one of ours.  I'm sure that they aren't as good as hers, but  I LOVE this picture!!!

Imagination

The kids had some friends spend the night Sunday night - 3 to be exact, so there were 6 energetic and incredibly imaginative kids running rampant through the house.  We would have told them to go outside to play, but it was 102 outside, and we didn't think the other parents would want their kids suffering from heat stroke.  Of course, because our children don't just sit and rot their brains in front of the TV there were a lot of games being played.  Hide and seek, Nerf wars, Cops and Robbers......

While playing Cops and Robbers the kids made Carl's office upstairs the jail cell.

This is when things went very, very wrong.

Sadly, my children seem to have become caught up in the moment, and forgot that this is a HOUSE and not the set of an action movie.  Nathanael was trapped in the loft (12 feet off the ground) and couldn't get passed the other kids without getting tagged.  In that moment he decided to jump - yes, jump - from the railing on the loft and onto the love seat down below.  When Carlye and Tate saw that he did it successfully and without getting hurt they decided to try it, too.

Total # of jumps onto our $2,000 leather love seat - 7

Total # of jumps per child - 4 for Nathanael, 2 for Carlye, 1 for Tate

Total # of broken bones - 0 (thank heavens!)

Total # of torn cushions - 2

Total # of creaks and sways - innumerable!, happens every time you sit down now

Total # of days grounded from EVERYTHING (no TV, iPods, video games, etc) - 5 days per child

Unfortunately for our oldest 2 children, the back cushions were torn from the back of the couch.  The leather has come completely apart from the back.  It also creaks and sways EVERY time you try to sit on it.  

Even though I was VERY upset with my kids, I have to say that I was impressed with their imagination and their bravery, especially since no one was hurt (that would have been a game changer right there).  Carl, however, isn't there yet.  He's still in the VERY upset stage.   And I don't know if he's gonna move past that point any time soon........

I'm sorry for the lack of posts, lately!  It's not for lack of things to share because, trust me - there is PLENTY to share!  I'll try my best to get some more up - and I wanna hear from y'all too!!  I love reading all of your blogs!

Chick Fil A

Yesterday we went to Chick Fil A for some yumalicious chicken nuggets and to show our support!  Carlye used my phone to take this picture of herself while they were sitting in front of the restaurant waiting for me to come out with our order.  The picture below is of our friend Hank's son, Justin, posing with a nun.  It was amazing to see how many people showed up yesterday in support of traditional marriage and freedom of speech.  I don't think I've ever been in a place that packed full of people where people were actually nice to each other!  It was great for our kids to be a part of and to see people standing up for what they believe in!