Cats

This is one of our cats, Jinx. He may look dead, but he isn’t. He and his sister Binx both came from Dad D’s sister’s house. They are both Dill’s. He thought it would be great to have pets, however he is regretting having ever said, “I’ll clean the cat boxes every day if I can have them, please, please, please!!” He does not like that we’ve been holding him up to doing the job. (Now he loves to say, “Let Pete do it, Please, please, please!!”)

I am not a cat person…. I like dogs. This fact is unknown to our cats. That is probably one of the reasons Jinx is laying in front of MY closet looking so cute. As I was taking this picture I was standing in a wet towel…. Wishing I had pulled out my clothing BEFORE I got into the shower!
For some unknown reason all three of our cats like to lay on the back of MY chair while I am in it. They never sit on the back of Pepper’s chair, they never sit with the kids. They all try to fit on the back of mine. If they were smaller this might not be such a problem. As it is, they typically half sit on the back of the chair and at least partially sit ON MY HEAD. I do try to be tolerant. Then they will start swishing tails, flicking my ear or thumping on my head as if to say, “please move, your head is in my way” Pepper thinks this routine is hilarious, me, not so much.

My favorite cat, isn’t even our cat. He sort of just showed up one day and is living in our garage. I was completely opposed to naming it or feeding it, because I thought that would make him feel welcome and too cozy. I wanted him to go back where ever he came from. Dill asked if it could possibly be pregnant…. We had not been close enough to it at that point to see the boy parts. So Pepper and I both ‘snuck’ out a little food for him that night because we were worried for the kittens. (I said I didn’t like cats, everybody likes kittens) Since then he has been on the same feeding schedule as our other cats.

This cat has had a “hard life” look that I admire. One of his ears has a cut along the top edge, like someone took toenail clippers to the tip. I told Dori one day that I thought we should call him “Clip” but she said it sounded too much like a word I didn’t even know she knew, but shouldn’t be surprised, she is 18 after all. It has many names at this point, Dumbledore, Captain Tuxedo, Kitty. I keep trying not to let any of them stick. I think who ever his real, permanent owner is some day should get to name him (and I am trying not to let that person be us!)

I know we should take him to the humane society. He really wants to be someone’s pet. He is super social and loves being around people. Sometimes when I am working in the garden he comes up behind me and rubs against my leg. It scares the heck out of me every time because I think it is a big spider or something. I worry though that no one will get past his rough exterior look and he won’t get adopted. I suppose I will need to make some decision by the time the weather starts to get cold. I think he already feels like he has a home…. But a FOUR cat family?! I am really trying hard not to be a cat person.

Camp guests

It is the middle of July and I am finally camping! …and blogging. I have been asked (read: reprimanded) by several people wanting to know why I have not put up any new posts lately. I guess my only excuse is that I have been doing other stuff.

For many camping trips, if we have room in the car, etc. we let the kids bring a friend to hang out with. It makes things go much smoother because then Pepper and I do not have to be the main “cruise directors” of each trip and have to find entertaining things for everyone to do… friend can provide entertainment.

Nothing teaches you better how truly trained your own children are until you take others for a long weekend! We took one kid (a friend of Macy’s) that lost his bike (we felt so bad that we couldn’t find it that we bought him a new one) We thought it had been stolen until a park ranger showed up with it at the end of the trip! Another child loved to poop. Seriously… in the RV. Big time. I am not sure what his mother fed him, but it wasn’t pretty… and the ventilation in our camper wasn’t as good as I thought. Pooping in the RV isn’t a big deal… its not like we make our kids hold it or feed them only hard cheese, but the shower house/flush toilets were just up the drive… our kids just know to use those. Many of the friends were messy. Underwear left in the middle of the floor, wet towels on the couch, spilled milk and cereal on the table those were all to be expected I suppose. One little friend of Dori’s woke up in the middle of the night. She came into our room and stood crying over us until we woke up…. That startled me a bit.

This trip we have brought just the boys (Dori is in Europe with Kiwi and Macy is on a church trip). We also brought along 2 siblings from church. These guests are (so far) my favorites. They are experienced campers. I am sure they could teach me a thing or two about ‘rustic’ camping. Boy guest is accident prone, daring and chatty. A lot cuter and more clever than I ever gave him credit for in church. Girl guest is charming. Polite, helpful, quiet but seems to be enjoying herself and a good leader for all the boys. She does a good job keeping boy guest in line and will also call for help saying things like, “He is not listening to me…. Could you tell my brother to step back from the fire before he burns his eyebrows off…AGAIN?!”

I was a bit worried about bringing them. One is vegetarian and the other is allergic to dairy. We eat lots of meat and dairy. As boy guest said, “Dairy products make me get really puffy and vomit…. A lot” Oh goody! And girl guest mentioned that her tofu hamburger could not come into contact with any meat products. A little tricky when cooking for 6 on a grill smaller than the average comic book.

But darn if they aren’t the most independent, self-sufficient kids I’ve met. They hauled in their own stuff, found spots to stow their gear, set up their own tent, bait their own fish hooks and I only have to tell them things once! We’ve had them with us less than 24 hours, but things are looking good so far.

I am a bit concerned that their Mother will be mad at us when we return. I am sure she won’t be happy that they ate pop-tarts for breakfast (they had never had anything except the whole grain kind they get at the food co-op). They also went up to the camp store/arcade. I went to check on them… Boy guest was holding a plastic rifle shooting at make believe bad guys and girl guest was watching, a candy cigarette dangling from her bottom lip. :)

One down 3 to go...

Dori graduated today. The ceremony was celebrated by lots of family.... it all went beautifully. We are very proud. Now just Macy, Pete and Dill to go.

Yea Dori!!! :)

I Approve...

We have had a car radio incident. Macy is usually the one to ask for music in the car and is the most picky about the station. Pepper was scanning through stations the other day to find a good one. Apparently, a good song came on because Macy suddenly yelled, "Stop!" Scaring the heck out of me, the driver. We discussed with Macy that she could not just yell "Stop!"

A few minutes later, Pepper found a popular song, from the back seat, Macy calls out, " I approve of this station!!" :)

Dad B's birthday card

We celebrated Dad B's birthday yesterday. We ran to a few different stores to get him his gifts and birthday cards and had everything in the car and set to go. We'd also grabbed a graduation card for Jay's son. We were headed to the grad party first so I found that card. I told Pepper that I signed all of our names on the card. When we met up with Dad B and Dad D we gave him the gifts, the card from the kids and the card from Pepper and I. As I was handing the card to Dad B I said, "Did you sign my name to the card too?" Pepper said, "No, you signed my name!"

Oops, we gave Dad B a blank card.... well, my birthday coming up, he can use the same blank card for me!! :)

Mom age 3

This is one of my favorite pictures of my Mom. It has a lot of glare and shadows on it because Dori snapped the picture while it was on the wall in a frame, but considering it was probably taken around 1946, I thought it looked pretty good. It is hanging in my Grandmothers room and I asked her about it when I visited her over Christmas. (I realize this is June but I just remembered I had this picture and I thought I would post it as a remembrance of her birthday this year)

So I asked my Grandmother about the picture and she said that the neighbor was a photographer and often asked to take pictures of my mom and her brothers. In the picture she is about three years old. I asked where the picture was taken and she said she thought it was taken in the neighbor’s basement…. But she wasn’t sure because she wasn’t there.

It was very hard not to have horror images flash in my mind from “The Butterfly Effect”… a movie that made me not let my own kids go anywhere for several weeks and still gives me the creeps when I think about it. I can’t imagine allowing any of my kids to go hang out in some neighbors basement while he took pictures of them that I wasn’t there to see….. but this was 1946. It was a different time.

When I look at this picture, the round face reminds me of Macy, but the eyes are different. This is before my mom broke her nose, so it is still cute. Mom fell out of a moving car when she was a little older and she never liked her nose after that. (It is a definite plug for why kids should always be seat belted) ….. Apparently cinders and rocks do not help the breathing process! It was also right before her brother’s found two long sticks and an old sheet and made a stretcher (they learned how while in the boy scouts). They wanted to try out the stretcher and mom wanted to be the first to ride on it. They insisted that it had to be used by an INJURED person. … so mom jumped off the roof of the barn and made her brothers quite happy.

Today would have been Mom’s 68th birthday. :)

Square Foot Garden-1

A friend from church suggested I go hear a presentation about something called Square Foot Gardening. Pepper and I went to listen and learned a lot. Pete made the 4X8 foot box for us and we planted lots of great things in it. The kids all helped. I am looking forward to lots of great things from our little garden in the fall! :)