There Ba-ack...

We have a pond. I love the pond. It is a relaxing place to just go and sit. The people we bought the house from cut down two trees and used the stumps for legs and the trunk of one of the trees to make a bench to sit on at the pond. It is a great seat. When you are there, the only thing you can see is the pond, and the trees behind it. No houses, no fences, nothing. It is so peaceful. Cailin is already learning to love sitting on the bench and listening and looking for God's creatures, or a pretty flower.

The peacefulness has left... at least for a few months. Last week, we could sit by the pond and enjoy the tranquility. Today, you can sit by the pond and get a biology lesson. One that is too complex for kids. When you crack a window, or even the door to let the dogs out to potty, there is a high-pitched humm along with some chirping sounds for a lack of better descriptive term. Cailin's frogs haven't failed her. They have come back, just like Chris and I told her in September. In the evening at the pond, there are a ba-zillion frogs... some are who-knows what kind of frog, some are tree frogs. Last year, Cailin was particularly fond of the tree frogs that would scale the living room windows and we could see their bellies from the living room. She thought that was a hoot. Every night we had to go outside and say goodnight to the "bibbits". They are all out by the pond breeding in full force. I have no doubt in my mind they will soon be finding my windows to climb looking for bugs who are attracted to my lights.

With the exception of the daffodils blooming, and the fact that Easter has already been here, This would be one of the First signs of spring! Bring on the good weather!!!!!

Cailin Can Count!!

Cailin can Count!!!!! I was so excited, and proud this morning. She was coming down steps from my room and said "momma, dount steps... un, doo, bree, dix, debin, eeeight, nine, ten YAY NA-NIN!!" It was very cute!!

ps, it still counts as counting if we skip 4 and 5 right? That isn't too bad for just turning 25 months old today right?

New Homes

Frankie has a new home!!! Thursday I took him to the Vet. Bea with a rescue group said if I took him to her vet, she would cover the bill. She called the vet while i was there and asked if i would be able to contribute anything to his bill... I paid for some. He got tested, vaccinated and neutered in about 20 minutes. Bea came in with another cat while I was there. She introduced herself, told me she had an extra carrier. Frankie has a foster home set up, so he went home with her instead of me!!!

I am glad he gets to be inside where he is safe!!

On a side note, the white kitty with a brown face has a new home too!!!

Growing up!

Not Cailin this time... It's me. I have a watch. I wear my watch ALL time time. I love my watch. I feel naked if I leave the house without my watch. My watch is nothing fancy. To be honest, it is quite the opposite. I think I spent a grand total of $14.99 on it 3-4 years ago. It is a black plastic band on a waterproof Timex watch. It has a light on it, it has a stopwatch or timer, an alarm, It can beep every hour if I want and i can keep 2 different time zones on it which is handy when traveling back to the east coast... My watch band it cracking. The little loopy thing that holds the extra band down against your wrist has fallen off, or broken off... I don't remember. Now I use a 1cm in diameter hair tie to keep it down. It adds a bit of color to it! My watch has definitely seen better days!!!

I have decided that i really ought to look into one that is a little more girlie, something that I could wear to church or to go out and play, and one that looks a little more grown up. My 2 main requirements for a new watch was that it couldn't have that elasticized metal band. I don't like my arm hairs being pulled out when ever I move my arm. And the other is that I would like for it to display not only the date of the month, but also the day of the week. My current watch has this and I rely on it SOOO much.
Chris has a Citizen Eco-Drive watch. It doesn't have a battery. I am not sure exactly how it works, but the basic gist is that it will take in sunlight or artificial light through the face and charge itself up. A full charge on his watch will last about 2 months. He hasn't worn his watch for several years and it stopped. All we had to do was put it under a 60 watt light for about 6-10 hours and it was good.
I was killing some time on Saturday while a friend took Cailin to get her picture taken with the Bunny. She wasn't happy. It was better without me there. She wasn't looking for me for security. Instead, I was hiding in the closest jewelry store watching from there. I thought that it would be an ideal time to check out watches. I found some that I really liked. One had a pearlized look to the face. It was pretty. Definitely would pass as a dress watch. There were a few inset diamonds around the face that decorated the face up a bit too. I learned the pearlized part was mother of pearl. The band was stainless steel... there was one with and one without gold accents. Check the price... OUCH. it was over $200. I was later told that most of these watches were in this price range, but they are good watches and would last a long time. One plus, there were at least a few that had my day/date requirement and NONE of them were stretchy elastic anymore.
I think I am going to grow up and finally buy an adult watch!!

My Pet Peeve

Everyone has them... they show up at different times in our lives. Those little things that just get under your skin and there is nothing you can do except rant to no one in particular about it. Aren't pet peeves wonderful?

I have a few... clothes on the floor around the hamper instead of IN the hamper; dishes on the counter ABOVE the dishwasher instead of IN the dishwasher are a few of my housekeeping ones. As far as my child is concerned... when she was newborn and even now, when people would use that high pitched baby talk with words that weren't pronounced properly and not making any sense... You know that commercial where there is a small toddler in a stroller and the mom stoops down and says "mommy has a french fry, yes she does, oh yeas I do... I have a French fry" and the girl reaches out and whacks the mom on the head and the headline comes up "should have had a V8". I feel like that girl! I just want to whack those people over the head. Talking to kids/babies that was does nothing for them. It doesn’t help them to build a vocabulary. For my daughter at least, it didn't catch her attention any more than when I would talk to her like I would talk to any other normal person. I want to record those people and tell them they sound like a babbling bafoon and an idiot. I bite my tongue, but really, is it necessary?

My latest pet peeve, I have been rather vocal about because it really bugs me and to be honest, it down right pisses me off more than anything. We had our ultrasound a week ago on Monday. We have had oodles of people ask if we know what we are having. The answer is No. We are waiting till the birth day to find out. I tell them we don’t know if it is a girl or a boy. They ALWAYS respond with “Well, as long as it’s healthy”. SERIOUSLY…. Are you kidding me? So if it isn’t healthy, do you think I am not going to love the child as much? If it is a sick child, are you not going to think it is as great of a being as a healthy child? Don’t you think that would make God a little upset if you tell him that one of his miracles that he has created isn’t as perfect as you would like? To be honest, I think if I had a child who was sick, they would probably end up being loved a little more… they would require more attention and have more needs and you would be tending to them more. Why do people say “as long as they are healthy”?

Cailin isn’t healthy… mostly she is. I know she could be a lot sicker… but we have had our share of battles with health. She is getting surgery in 2 weeks to hopefully fix the problems we have been having. Do I want to trade her in for a better model? NO WAY!!!! I would not trade the “ning gain mommy” I get at night when it is bed time and she wants another song. I wouldn’t trade the “my dit it”s when she wants to do something on her own. I wouldn’t trade anything for when she is having a hard day and just wants to sit on my lap and cuddle for a while. Maybe other children do the same thing, but this is MY child.. the one that God picked out just for me. I wouldn’t trade that for a million bucks or anything else in this world.

Please if you are around me, don’t say “as long as it’s a healthy child”. I just might have to give you an ear full….

New Room

Cailin is getting a new room. It is easier to move her room to the guest room and keep her room as a nursery. We are telling her that she gets to have a BIG GIRL ROOM and a BIG GIRL BED. She loves it. There are still 'grown up sheets' on the bed. The bed is shoved into a corner of the room. There is no headboard or footboard on the bed. I made it sideways so that the blankets/sheets pull down from what is really the side of the bed instead of the headboard area. The comforter is pulled down from the headboard side just a touch to cover what would be the footboard area. To hide this, it was simple, all we had to do was put her stuffed animals on that area of the bed. NOT ALL of her animals covered over 3 foot by 2 foot area of the mattress.
She LOVES sleeping in her 'big girl bed'. Who cares if it needs some kid touches. Here are some shots of this 'big girl room'!!!!!!

These first 3 are of the beginning of the cleaning/rearranging process.







Here are some of the After shots as well as Cailin Modeling her ner bed.










Here is her after her first full night in her new bed.

hurting yourself

The white cat with a brown face is still outside. It is raining. He is staring in the windows of the livingroom meowing over and over sounding kind of pathetic. My BRILLIANT cat is on the inside of the window letting out a low grumble.
Chris walks by and says "It's okay bud. He won't hurt you". As Chris says this to the cat, Jesse lunges to the window and smashes into the window in an attempt to get to this stray kitty. Chris quickly adds "You might hurt yourself, but the other cat can't hurt you".

Who says cats are smarter than dogs. Rebel at least waits for the door to open before racing around in a way that might get him splinters in his pads of his feet!!

Halfway there

I am 20 weeks done in my pregnancy which means I am halfway done. This morning, we woke during a booming thunderstorm and got ready for our doctor’s appointment. We had to be there at 8:15. Cailin normally gets up at 9:30 in the morning, so we had to wake her up early. THIS WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!!! She was not happy. Once we were dressed and on the way to the appointment, she was much better.

****DISCLAIMER**** From here until the baby is born, I will most likelly refer to the baby as HE. We do not know the baby gender, but it sounds significantly better than referring to the baby as IT!!!!!****

We went in and got to see our little baby today. I haven’t felt any movement until today. I had to laugh. The baby had hands by his ears, and then elbows out to the side. His legs were crossed at the ankles. The ultrasound technician said that all he needed to be comfortable was a remote control. We all laughed. Cailin kept saying “jeddy beddy” (this translates to jelly on belly). Anyway, The baby had his face up against the placenta so we couldn’t see the face. The ultrasound technician poked my gut rather hard and made the baby move. He didn’t like that. We saw both legs start kicking as well as both arms start flailing. That was the first time I could actually FEEL the baby move! It was neat to see the movement while I was feeling it!!!! Here are some pictures that we got.

Semi-Soft Spot

Everyone that knows me knows that I have a soft spot for animals. Especially the ones that are injured in some sort of way. I went to school to help heal them and make things better. I'd be the first to admit, I am a sucker for any 4-legged critter that needs some help.

A few weeks ago, we were gone for the weekend. When we came home, there was a mew mew mew sound from the back of the house. I, thinking it was my own cat that got out, started calling Jesse James. Well, a kitty came out, but it wasn't Jesse. Jesse is 13+ pounds; he is black and tan striped, and not too much a people person kind of animal. He won't come to you when you call, unless you have food... The kitty that came out is black and grey striped. He has white feet and a white star on his chest. He also had a huge gash down the side of his face about 1 cm wide, a wound the size of a half dollar on the back of his head and on his ear, a decent sized hole in his side, and a smaller wound on his side further down. He truly looked like Frankenstein's Kitty. This tore at my heart in the worst way. We tried to ignore him hoping he would go back to his home. After 2 days, this didn't happen. I had to feed him. He just sat on the bench looking in my front door all day long. When you walk past him, he would rub up against you wanting you to pet him. All he wanted was some lovin.

I started flushing his wounds with saline and cleaning it with some gauze. There was nothing that looked like it was infected. In fact, there were scabs on most of it. The 2 on his side looked like they had been there for 5-6 days already. The tip of the injured ear had a bit of weeping, but that was about it. I kept cleaning and putting Neosporin with pain reliever on the wounds that were open. This was the least, and also the most that I could do for the guy. When the scabs would loosen up and detach on part, I would trim that off so it wouldn't snag and rip off more than what needed to. The entire time that I would be cleaning him up, he would do nothing but sit on my lap and purr and purr and purr. I would finish cleaning him up and he would start rubbing on my hands.

It has been at least 3 weeks since he has showed up. The 2 wounds on his side have all but healed up. There is one that is the size of a pin head. The spot on his head is not nearly as bit. It has dropped to about 1/3 of the size that it started at. The gash down his face has healed. I am surprised because all of these wounds looked horrible. I thought he would have lots of scar tissue. I was wrong. He is actually getting hair back on ALL of these wounds!!!

I have taken before and after shots, but because they are so graphic, I am not going to post them on this blog. I don't want to make anyone queasy.

Yesterday, we had 2 more stray cats show up. I do not want my house swarmed with stray cats. I can’t feed them all. I want to be able to let my cat outside without worrying about him fighting with other cats and getting an abscess. I don’t want to be swarmed by other cats that might be spreading diseases.

The sad thing is that I know where these cats are coming from. We have a neighbor who you can only see their house in the winter. I was there one day a year and a half ago asking if they happened to have seen a kitty that I was babysitting that went missing. They had probably 10-12 cats. I asked if they were all theirs. They were. None had any veterinary care. None had been altered. None had been tested for FeLV or FIV. I have a feeling these cats have been breeding with each other and wandering to the neighbors for food. One of these 2 stray cats must have caused a ruckus with Frankie because he has a new hole in his side. It is about the size of a quarter. I would like to take him to the vet. I think he could use a stitch or two. I just don’t have the extra cash to do that right now. I am waiting to hear back from a rescue agency to see if they can help with the bills of this little guy and then help him find a home. His first fight left him blind in one eye, so he is extra vulnerable outside. He really needs an inside home to stay in. I already know that he is great with kids. He lets Cailin carry him all over outside. He still just purrs.
Chris says he knows how to get rid of the other strays… I am too much of a softie for what he wants to do. I told him if he does it, I don’t want to be around, I don’t want to hear any gun shots, and I don’t want to see any evidence.
Frankie now is going to be locked in the garage without the other kitties able to get to him at night, and then during the day, when the food is gone, I will crack the door so he can come and go as he wishes.
I hope that he can find a safe home soon. If anyone is interested in a wonderful kitty that needs a home, please let me know!!!!!!!

Peek-a-boo

We have been telling Cailin that there is a baby in my belly, but i wasn't sure she quite understood really. If i asked what was in my belly, she would tell me that it was a baby, but how much of this is her just repeating and how much is understanding? A few days ago, she caught me off guard. She lifted my shirt, put her eye up to my bellybutton, and says "Air'd go momma? Air'd baby go"? She pulls her head back and pokes her finger in my bellybutton and says "Ere it is!" Then she pats my belly kind of hard and says "wate up baby! Wate up"!!!