Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Kitten Tales


It appears we have a new cat, as you can see in the above picture. Meet Annie - as in "Orphan Annie"! About 3 weeks ago the boys discovered a litter of kitties in the empty fish tank in the shed. They've been keeping an eye on them ever since.

Well, Saturday, David reported that the mama kitty had moved all the kittens - except for this gray one. I told him she'd be back to get the last one. But Sunday morning came and poor Annie was out there, mewling away. So Paul brought her in and tried to feed her, but she was too little to eat on her own. So, we de-flead her and got a baby bottle made for kittens. Now she's living in a box in the kitchen. She's made remarkable progress in just the two days since Paul rescued her. She's sleeping a lot more and drinking really well from the bottle. She's very anxious to explore the kitchen. The boys are having a blast with her and David, especially, loves to feed her.

Everyone who knows me knows that I am not an animal lover - at all. In fact, I suggested to Paul that we just let "nature take its course" with the orphaned kitty. Or, I will admit, I even suggested that a quick snap to her neck would take care of the entire situation (don't hate me!). But, I have to admit that little Orphan Annie has wiggled her way into a spot in my cold, dark heart. She's still going outside just as soon as she's big enough to make it on her on, though! I guess between her and Mittens, our other female, we can be assured of having plenty of kitties around the old homestead for years to come! Although, Mittens isn't her mother. Annie's mother is a calico cat, but I don't know who she belongs to.

In addition to a new cat, I also have a new bathtub and door. Paul and Ben went to an all-day auction Sat. (Ben says he's never going to another auction for the rest of his life!). Paul got quite a bit of lumber for the addition. He also got me this beautiful Victorian door. I'm more of a "country" decorating type person, but I love this door anyway. It's got this huge oval etched glass in the center of it. Painted up, it's going to be absolutely gorgeous! And it's looking more and more like we're going to end up re-doing our downstairs bathroom with this whole project. We have a double sink Paul picked up at another auction a couple of years ago and the other night he was measuring the bathroom to see how we could make it fit in there. The subfloor is buckling so that's going to have to be all re-done. And now we have a new tub that he picked up for $10 at this auction. It's different from a standard tub, though. It's the same length, but it's quite a bit deeper and then it's wider at the top than it is the bottom. So, it will be good for soaking! But in the meantime, I have the sink on my deck and the bathtub in the driveway - kind of hillbillyish!

Saturday Paul plans to rent a dirt elevator (I don't even know what that is) to haul rest of the dirt out of the basement. Then he'll be ready to pour the floor. I have a feeling the rest of our savings is going to go "poof" in the next few weeks!

So that whole situation means my weekend plans may be up in the air. I'm supposed to be driving to Council Bluffs either this Sat. or the next Sat. to meet up with Kathy. I'm waiting to hear from her to see which Sat. works better for her. And then whatever Sat. she and I don't get together I had planned to take the boys up to Waterloo for the day. But I hate to leave Paul without Will if he's planning to do that much work Sat. So, I'll have to see what Kathy says and then plan from there, I guess.

In the last few days I've really noticed that Sam is starting to stutter. I don't know if this is a phase and will pass as quickly as it came on or if it's an indication he might be developing a speech problem. Both my brothers were stutterers in their preschool years and I have vivid memories of that so I've always been more conscious of that with my kids. So - I don't know! I guess we'll wait and see. Paul suggested that maybe Sam is imitating Ben because there are times that Ben still stutters when beginning a thought, although it's never been a severe problem with him. Could be - I don't know.

The other day my friend, Julie's, husband posted on Facebook that it had been six months now since Julie had died. Wow. I hadn't realized that much time had passed. In fact, her funeral was exactly 6 months ago today - Feb. 3rd. Thinking of that made me sad all over again. But, that's just sadness for me and those she left behind. I've been reading this amazing book called "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn and it is really opening my eyes to what is waiting for us after death or the rapture. I find myself getting so excited as I read and actually yearning for death. Ok, that sounds morbid and somewhat suicidal but that's not what I mean at all. I don't think we realize just how one dimensional and flat our life is down here. There's no way Julie would want to come back now, after all she's gotten to experience the last 6 months. And I wouldn't want her to.

Will leaves today for football camp. So, I let him sleep in this morning (he slept until well after 10) since he won't be getting that much sleep the next few days. Now he is hovering around my shoulders willing me to type faster so he can get on the computer. I really need my own laptop! Oh, Will says he's the one who needs the laptop!

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