Poor Sweet Kitten

About a week ago we had a kitten hit in the road in front of our house. It was so sad. I came home and Kaitlyn was outside crying and Travis was standing beside her wearing that same bewildered expression that he had the first time they placed her as a newborn in his arms, trying to figure out how to comfort her. Then today, I backed out of the place I park my car, which is just a spot under a tree for shade and could not be considered a driveway, to find another baby had gotten under my car. I was devastated. My whole body hurt. I could literally feel an ache in my skin. We had been on our way to do a quick errand, and after I regained my composure we went. That errand was to pick up kitten food so that we could take the babies into the house and keep them safer, ironically. When we were at the store, Kaitlyn said she could only imagine as sad as that was for us how terrible Steven Curtis Chapman's family must feel. It seems proper perspective is always available. Poor sweet kitten - but not my child. That poor family must still be hurting so badly.

A Cat House

My neighbor made me this terrific pillow for my porch swing, all I had to do was give her the fabric. She even made the cover removable so I can wash it. It is really spectacular and I enjoy sitting on the porch swing so much more now. However, every time I go outside to sit on MY swing, the above is what I find. It appears that the kittens have found the lovely cushion as well, and have decided to make it their new bed. All during devotions this morning I kept seeing the swing jangling outside, and eventually the cushion fell off for all of their frolicking. Goodness gracious! It seems the kittens have taken over my house!

My Confused Kittens

I took this video footage yesterday. Our kittens have taken over my front porch rocker. I looked out the window near my desk yesterday morning and saw the younger kittens snuggled up in the cool morning air with their older brother. A short while later I found that they had confused their brother for their mother - and he didn't seem remotely offended. It was so funny!

My Favorite Kit Cat

I know I shouldn't have a favorite - but I always do. With every litter of kittens, there is one that just grabs my heart. I think they are all beautiful - but I fall in love with certain ones. This one might be considered ugly by some standards - she isn't really striped, or calico, or spotted, but she is a mixture of it all. I am just crazy about her. She wasn't squawling like some of her siblings - she just laid contentedly in my hands and fell asleep, securing her place in my heart! Since Renae wanted to see some kitty pictures - I'll just use this one to whet the cat-lover's appetite for more later!

Catch-all Post

Nine hours after the first kitten was born, more finally started to appear. This morning I woke up to six baby kittens in my closet. They are beautiful, just like her last litter. We are going to definitely make an appointment to get her fixed this go-round. I am not sure she can handle any more pregnancies, nor can I. I hate to admit it - but I am totally in love with this cat, and if something happened to her, I would be beside myself as apparent in how I reacted to the sight of something unexpected yesterday morning. The poor nurse at the vet's office talked to me three times yesterday! Lord help me when I actually become a grandmother to human babies!
I have 24 personal pan pizza crusts to make today - and thankfully, I found a pizza crust recipe that is really good. It is a Pizza Hut mock pan pizza recipe. I will share it here later when I have a minute to type it up. We are hosting a youth pizza / movie night at our house for the local homeschool group. It ought to be fun!
Yes, Hurricane Humberto did aim straight for our area. There were power outages and flooding all over the area just south of us where Travis works, but we never really even got much rain. It was the most bizarre thing - a hurricane forms one morning over the Gulf of Mexico and makes landfall that night. Very unusual indeed. Fortunately based on the where it developed, it did not have a chance to gain strength. I saw on the news last night where one house with an elderly couple were sleeping had the roof sheared off and the entire house was moved 7 feet off of its slab.
I really don't like these catch all posts - but really none of these things in and of itself make much to post about. Besides I was trying to dump it all out of my head so I can get on with my busy day! Hope you're having a great Friday!

Oh What a Day!

Today has been one of those days. It started first thing this morning when I got up to make homemade syrup and pancakes for Kullen's 10th birthday breakfast. In the bleary eyed confusion of the morning - I added 2 CUPS of water instead of the 2 TBSP the recipe called for, and spent every possible mental resource trying to figure out the obvious. Then, I opened the front door to let the meowing cat in, and when she walked past me into the kitchen, something red was hanging out of her. She is in the "family way" but I had no idea that she was due. This is the same cat that had kittens in May, and while we missed the window of opportunity to have her fixed, the tomcats in the neighborhood are evidently right on their game. I don't have to tell you that when I saw this, I freaked. I ran to the phone and with gasping sobs tried to tell Carrie at the vet's office what I was seeing and asked if I could bring her in. She talked me down out of my tree and said she was likely in labor and that it was no big deal, that we needed to just wait and watch. Kitten #1 was born at 10 am or so, and at almost 7 pm we now have no other kittens in sight. Mama cat seems fine - so we are still waiting. In the meantime, after we figured she was alright, and that my great breakfast plan was going to be a failure, we headed off to Sonic for some breakfast eats and left mama kitty to labor solo for a while. On the way home, I was traveling along the flat-ish, straight highway when I looked in my rear view mirror to see flashing lights. I was being pulled over. The officer that pulled me over was one we have heard was the meanest DPS officer in this county. I think it was the fact that I had on my "Ugly Betty" glasses, and hadn't brushed my hair that caused him to take pity on me and only give me a warning, and asked no questions about the car full of school aged children in.their.pajamas at almost 10 in the morning! Several people since have told me that he doesn't let anybody off. I thanked him for not giving me a ticket on my son's birthday and went on my way. In the afternoon I had an acquaintance unexpectedly stop by, making Kullen and I late for his art class - but I was very cautious about keeping the speed limit after being pulled over this morning! Whew!
Tomorrow is another busy day. Dare I say, I hope it won't be as eventful as this one!

Kitty Cat Update

Okay, you're gonna gush! Are you ready for this? Here is my new feline baby. My kids do NOT want me to call her Callie, so we need a name. I'll be taking suggestions. She was inside my bathroom today sitting on some clean linens when I was able to snap this picture. She has the best - absolute best personality of any cat I've ever had - and I am totally in love with her. We have also got homes for all of the others - so it has been a very good kitten experience for all of us. We are going to let this one grow up and have a litter before having her fixed as well - they will probably be absolutely precious!
Help me give not-Callie a name. Suggest away!

One Down, Four to Go, Where the Sixth One is We'll Never Know

The kittens are SIX WEEKS old today! This morning a FedEx truck stopped out in front of our house, and the lady asked what we were doing with our kittens. Evidently she had stopped once before and asked Kullen about them (big mistake) and he said we were keeping them all. Anyway, she had her eye on my calico - but I had to sadly inform her that she was the one that we were not getting rid of, but she took a liking to this little white one. We realized when she left that we had never named her - and so we decided we would call here Edelweiss - Edie for short! (that really means that I decided!) It is sad to watch them go - but we really can't keep six cats! I know she will be loved - the lady has a 10 year old son and a 7 year old daughter. Edie is sure to get lots of TLC.

URGENT Prayer Request - Lost Kitten

We have a serious issue going on in our house right now. We can only account for 5 of the 6 kittens that were born on Tuesday night. We were gone so much of the day yesterday that we didn't count them again until this morning I took pictures of some of them yesterday morning though - and this little calico sweetie is missing. Please pray that we find her. Mama kitty doesn't seem the slightest bit worried which makes me think wherever the kitten is - she knows it. We've emptied every closet and checked under every bed and nook and cranny. Please pray for us that we will find her - we are devastated. This was my favorite one.
Update: It is 11 pm and we still haven't found her. Please continue to pray. Mama kitty may know where she is and be taking care of her elsewhere. My house has been turned upside down - but still no sign of her.
Update: 11 am Friday - still no kitten. I don't know where else to look. I am so sad about it. Please keep praying - for a miracle. I worry that wherever she is that if she hasn't eaten in 24 hours - she is starving.

Too Much Excitement for One Day!

We have been anxiously preparing for a visit from WV! The girls have two of their best buddies flying into Houston tomorrow afternoon - and none of us can wait! That's what the countdown is for on my right hand sidebar here - Jessie and Tayva are coming! I am sure that posts over the next week or two will have many details of their visits. I have known Jessie since she was a 2 year old squalling in the church nursery! She is a lot of personality in a small package. I met Tayva when she was a precocious 9 year old - who always spoke her mind. It has been a joy to watch her grow into a young lady and have gracefulness and tact season this still outspokenness! I love these girls - and it will be so awesome to see them in person. It will be like a little love from "home". Don't tell their parents - I might try to keep them!

Also - breaking news - this morning I knew something was up when the cat didn't knock me over on my way to the bathroom to get my attention so I would FEED HER. This evening we returned home after a long day out and couldn't find her. It was strange - so we thought maybe she snuck out when one us opened the door and we didn't notice. We have been trying hard to keep her inside because we are worried she'll get up under our house or a neighbor's house and have those kittens - who will in turn become snake food. We looked everywhere - under beds, in closets, and didn't find her. A second search eventually found her way back behind Kendra's formal dress that was hanging in my bedroom closet. Her eyes were wide - and beside here were six squirming kittens! They are so gorgeous! You know I have to show you:
It looks like two white kittens who may end up looking like their mama, two very calico-ish kittens, one black kitty and one that seems to have stripes. They do seem to change as they get older - but it is a gorgeous variety. Fat Mama (a/k/a Rayne or Princess Sushi) should be so proud! She seems to be taking very good care of them. She did NOT like us moving them from my closet to Kaitlyn's - so we accommodated the princess and moved everything OUT of my closet so she could make a home for her babies there for the time being.

Earlier today - while making a grocery shopping trip for a month's worth of groceries, Kendra and Kullen decided they had enough of Walmart and wanted to go to the car so I gave them the keys. TheY ran the radio and the fan - and long story short - drained my battery. 45 minutes later AAA was there giving me a jump-start. I am going to have to get a new one before we make our trip to WV in a week and a half!

I have also cleaned out my inbox, sorted emails and got generally caught up on work (ah but there will be more tomorrow!), made dinner, and have bread baking in the oven now at half past midnight! I have a long day tomorrow too - so I had better get my butt to bed!

Hope y'all are doing well - I missed my blogging buddies today!
Love ya ~ Jewls

I Don't Know Nothin' Bout Birthin' No Babies

This is our cat Rayne (I call her "Princess Sushi"). The suspicious bulge you see in her mid-section is not too much tuna. This girl is seriously pregnant. We took her to the vet last week because I was worried she may have worms or something and he said we would probably have baby kitties in about 2 weeks. As you can see she is a most gorgeous feline specimen - and we all love her so much. I am about to go crazy worried about her. She is just around a year old. When we got her she was literally a "wild cat". She lived across the street from my mother-in-law's house, behind Uncle Raymond's house. He told me he had a beautiful siamese mixed kitty that we could have if we wanted, and I thought Kaitlyn would adore having a new friend in Texas so we got the kitty for her birthday. Aunt Vonda who is a TOTAL cat lover offered to hold the kitty on the ride home in the car - but the little brier patch hissed, and pawed with claws bared so we decided the kennel was a better alternative. (I could see the leather seats in my new mini van in shreds by the time we made the 2 mile drive!) Kaitlyn fell in love with her and we took turns pulling her out of hiding and holding her and loving her through those first couple of weeks. She is still a bit skiddish - but we couldn't love her any more. We'll have to keep you updated on the kitten saga. She is laying around a lot, and crying (the one "siamese" trait that she has the strongest), so we should have babies any day now. Anybody want a kitten?