Feeling Happy

Although I should be doing 100 other things, I just want to write and say how happy I am and how blessed I feel. I think I have the greatest kids in the whole wide world. They are really great! They try so hard to be good. Thobe had an assignment the other day to fill out a star that said,, "I am special because..." and Thobe wrote, "I am special because I am good." I hung that next to my phone. Whenever I see it I think, "He is good. All my boys are just so good." I love them so much. 

I also feel so grateful for Michael. He's so good to me and patient with me. I can't say how grateful I am for all he does. I love to be with him. He's my very best friend. I'm so grateful that God blessed me with him.

Maybe it's because we've had a few warm days after an extremely hard winter, but I just feel so blessed and so happy. I know that God lives and that he loves me and my family. I'm so grateful that he blessed me with Michael and my boys and also incredible parents, siblings, in-laws and friends. I love this beautiful Earth and am so grateful that I know where all these blessings originate. I truly am grateful for all God does for me.

Family Recharge

I want to preface this post by saying that I love Ohio. I loving living here and being close to Michael's parents. I also love the friends we have made here and the experiences we're having here. That being said, I also miss my family. It's hard being so far away and not being part of those day to day experiences that I miss out on constantly. I miss being at those family events and am sad that every time I see my nieces and nephews they've grown significantly and don't know me as well as they know their other aunts and uncles. But the thing I miss the very most is having my mom and dad nearby. I miss seeing them and being with them and so much want my boys to have a close relationship with their grandpa and grandma. I am so grateful that my mom and dad try so hard to foster and build those relationships despite the miles that separate us.

At the end of the January, I was feeling especially home sick though and so much wanted my parents to see how big Jacob was getting. I talked to my parents about having them take a trip out here. I called and talked to my dad who has been extremely busy with work because they not only have a huge farm that they are running, but his boss has also started building a dairy that is also requiring a lot of my dad. He told me when I talked to him that with a weekend exception of Alden's baptism, that he wouldn't be able to come out for at least a year. When he told me this, my heart dropped into my stomach, and I felt very sad. My mom, being the peacemaker that she is, assured me that she would come out regularly and that it would be okay. I was thrilled that she would come, but sad that my dad couldn't.

However, several days later, my parents called me and told me that my dad needed to go to Illinois for a training, and that my mom was invited to come too. I eagerly asked if I could meet them. We made plans and arrangements to meet in Nauvoo and then follow my dad wherever he needed to go and just spend time together. I was so excited!!!!

The boys and I left Saturday morning. Michael decided not to go to save his vacation days. I was bummed that I wouldn't get to spend Valentine's day with my Valentine, and I was especially worried because Alden had a fever, Hyrum had bronchitis, an ear infection, and a sinus infection, and the medicine that they put him on made him throw up and have HORRID diarrhea, and Jacob was really stuffy. Thobe was just getting over something, so he was having a ton of accidents--ugggh. I REALLY, REALLY wanted to see my parents though, so I loaded up the van with my sicklies and drove 8 hours to Keokuk, Iowa. 

We had such a great time!!! All the hotels that we stayed in had a swimming pool, so the boys got to go swimming almost every night. We spent time in Nauvoo, at a fun John Deere Tractor Museum in East Moline, IL, and in Peoria, IL. My dad had a rental car that fit all of us in it, so we got to ride with Grandma and Grandpa wherever we went. The first night, Alden's fever went away, and once I stopped giving Hyrum the medicine, he got a lot better too. Poor Jacob got sicker though, which made a lot of sleepless nights for me in the hotel, but I got to see my mom and dad, the kids got to see Grandpa and Grandma, so we were all really happy about that and enjoyed and treasured every minute we had.

On Wednesday morning, the boys and I headed back to Ohio. We were all really sad to say goodbye, but we were grateful that we were able to spend time together. On our way home, we stopped in Toledo and celebrated Michael's grandpa's 90th birthday with his grandparents, parents, and aunt and uncle. I am so grateful that my kids get to have two of their great grandparents in their lives. What a wonderful blessing!!!!

Priscilla

From the time that Michael and I first got married, Michael has wanted a cat. However, when we'd visit his parents' house who had a cat at the time, I would become almost incapacitated with my allergies. I was so allergic to their cat that I would wake Michael up in the night hyperventilating, insisting that we go for a ride in the car so that I could breathe. When I went to an allergist, Michael begged me to ask if I could get a weekly shot so that we could have a cat at our house. My allergist was disgusted, but I don't think she or I for that matter realized how important a cat was to Michael. 

We always said that when we got a house that we would think about getting an outdoor cat, but since the first eight years of our married life was spent in an apartment, it didn't become an issue. When we moved here to Lima, we decided that it was time to look into getting our outdoor cat. Unfortunately, the local animal pound said they wouldn't adopt a cat to a family who was going to keep the cat outside. Michael began looking at which cats were more hypoallergenic than others. We visited at Siberian cat farm (apparently allergic people have more tolerance to Siberian cats); however, trying to convince someone who wasn't all that thrilled about having a cat anyway to spend $300 on a discount cat didn't go over that well. Michael told me that he was done trying to get a cat and sadly conceded that our family would always be cat free.  I felt really bad that I had shattered his cat dreams, but he decided that it was over and insisted that we not talk about it anymore. We both assumed that we would enjoy our neighbor's cat Jake (no, we didn't name Jacob after our neighbor's cat) and have him be our adopted cat, even though he had scratched or bit both Alden and Hyrum because he hates kids.

However, around Thanksgiving life as we knew it changed a bit. The Tuesday before Thanskgiving a very cute little kitten with black and white and orange stripes made her way into our garage. Hyrum was ecstatic! He ran over to her and began petting her. She playfully rubbed against his leg and didn't do anything when he picked her up. Alden and Thobe also played with her and gave her something to eat. Michael told the boys not to give her any food so that she would go back home. That crazy kitty didn't leave though. We intentionally didn't feed her for two days thinking she'd go back home. She looked forward to us coming out to the garage and would always meow happily when she'd see us.

We knew if she was still around when Michael's dad came that we'd have ourselves a cat. He has such a soft spot for animals, and sure enough on Thanksgiving day, he asked me if I had an old towel and bowl. I found him giving the kitty water and made her a soft warm bed in the garage. I was surprised that as the boys let her in the house from time to time and as I'd pet her that she didn't make me sneeze, and soon I too became quite fond of her. I loved how good she was with my kids. I also loved that whenever I'd say, "Hi Kitty." She'd say, "Meow." I think Michael is in seventh heaven having a cat around. He loves that little thing so much!

We also decided that we should name our little cat. We had several ideas. Thobe especially liked calling her Cheerio. We also thought that maybe we could call her Tickle--Jacob's girl name that the boys gave him before he was born, but those names didn't work so well. I suggested that we call her Priscilla since she came to us at Thanksgiving, and it stuck. She gets called Cilla a lot, but it's a good name for her. She's a perfect cat. She uses her litter box perfectly. If she's in the house and needs to go to her litter box, she meows to let us know. She takes medicine well, she has never scratched any of the kids, even if they are rough with her. She is playful and fun, but not too playful, and Michael tells me that she'll be a great mouser (we've never had a mouse, but it is one of my worst fears). She loves it when the kids go to bed and she has Michael and me all to herself. She especially is fascinated with the toilet. No matter what, she runs to the bathroom if she ever hears any of us going, even if she was in a deep sleep.

Recently she got fixed so we won't have to worry about little kittens in the Spring. This was very troubling to Alden. He didn't like us messing with things like that. He very seriously told me that Heavenly Father has a plan that we all need to do, and then said, "Mom, have your prayed about Priscilla having that operation? I really think you should pray about that." He's such a good boy.

We decided to go through with the surgery, despite Alden's concern. She's been such a good little kitty. You could tell that she didn't feel well, but she still took care of all her business and was so gentle, even with Hyrum.

It's funny how she just came into our lives. I keep telling Michael that I think he must have prayed her here. I really can't imagine a better cat for our family. She's just about purrrfect.

By way of pets, I should also mention that our two crawdads that we have in our fish tank are now the proud parents of at least 20 new baby crawdads. For having no pets when we moved to Lima, we've sure acquired a lot in the last three years.