Dumb Cat

Let me start this post by stating that I firmly believe my family benefits from having a cat. However, sometimes I hate that dumb cat. Yesterday the tip of his tail got stuck in the heavy door to the garage and a big tuft of fur and a little skin came off. No big deal, right? I called the vet. Of course they said I should bring him in, but when I asked what they would do, she couldn't answer me. She suggested that maybe Herbie would need pain pills. I love the cat and all, but I was not about to spend $60 so he could feel a little loopy. At the time he was running around and there was no blood involved. We opted to lock him in his room so he could stay quiet for the evening. When I went to let him out at 9:30 last night, you would think there had been a murder in that room. The carpet had several large blood spots. Evidently, he keeps licking the wound so it can't scab over. (Sorry for all the gross details!) Jared, Emily and I scrubbed the carpet, but we still can't get all the stains up. The cat spent the night in his carrier, and when I let him out this morning to pee, his tail is still bleeding. UGH! Now we have an appointment with a different vet this afternoon. I hate to think what the grand total of this minor injury will be.....does anyone know of a good carpet cleaner?

On a funnier note, the cat had an adventure this fall that we are now able to laugh about. I had backed out of the garage and was driving away. I usually check to make sure the garage door is closing. When I did, I could see the cat hanging from his neck and scratching like crazy from the top of the closed garage door. (He had jumped on the van and onto the top of the open garage door. When it started closing he panicked and did NOT jump down. This is not the first time this has happened. Like I said, dumb cat.) I frantically pushed the button to open the garage and pulled back into the driveway. I went running to catch the cat, but couldn't find him. Emily and I searched, but couldn't find him. We even climbed on the van to look on top of the garage door. I figured he jumped down while I wasn't looking. Oh well, he will come out of hiding in a little while, right? Wrong. Three hours later we still hadn't seen the cat. The kids started searching in his normal hiding places. After several minutes, they were all crying. We were sure he had hid somewhere and died. Jared was searching in the garage and found him in a tiny alcove up high next to the garage door. He was curled up as far back as he could get. We told the kids to stay in the house while we got him down. We had to be not so gentle to grab him and get him down. He was hissing and growling like crazy. We were sure he had several broken bones. Jared laid him on a blanket and rubbed him all over to check his bones. Then the dumb cat got up and walked away. HE WAS FINE!
Like I said, my family benefits from having a pet. The benefit of that adventure was they knew Heavenly Father answered their prayers.

Jared Jr.

My daughter Ainsley added Jared Jr. to her name this weekend. In her short five years she has managed to:

*Jump off the bunkbed ladder and break her wrist

*Trip on the back stairs and knock out a tooth

*Trip onto carpet and sprain her arm.

*Fall down the stairs while climbing up them and break her hand

And last (hopefully)

*Slip on ice and break her ankle this weekend.

In the almost 13 years that I have been a mom, the only other big injuries that have occurred to the other THREE kids are:

*one sprained ankle

*one set of stitches

*one broken arm

It is a good thing we love Ainsley so much. Sometimes being so full of life is not a safe thing!

Random Thoughts

First of all, I would like to sincerely apologize for my complete lack of posting. I will think of things to blog about, but then never get around to it. Call it lazy, call it lack of confidence, call it whatever.

I hate when others don't blog (myself included), and I hate to see my name in the over one month category of other people's blogs.

So I can move up in the post list I will give you some of my random thoughts:

* Going back to school/work after Christmas break is a drag.

*We painted and redecorated Lizzie and Ainsley's room this week. They now have a purple and blue room to match their new comforters. They rearranged the furniture and it looks so cute!

*Ainsley has her first (and second) loose tooth. I hope they come out before her top tooth starts to come in....it would be such a cute smile.

*Tyler has passed up Emily in his knowledge of the Wii. I think I am raising a gamer. He prefers to play Indiana Jones Lego over doing about anything.

*Lizzie got bangs cut in her hair just before Christmas. Believe it or not, she didn't read that much over the break.

*Emily saved up her money and bought herself a Nintendo DS just before Christmas. I had to drive all over town, but we found it in her signature color- lime green. It is a good thing we finally found it...I had heard from Santa he was making her DS games, what a yucky Christmas morning that would have been.

*I caved and let Emily read the first three Twilight books. She finished them in less than three days. It will be awhile before I let her read the last one.

*We went ice skating over the break. Ainsley skated the whole lap two times without holding on to anything!

*Jared had the week after Christmas off. We went to Hardware Ranch, hosted a New Years party, and painted the girls room.

*"Did you know" became a new term in our house.

*Cheap white bookshelves are hard to find.

*I would like it to snow, a lot.

*Ainsley saw a tow truck picking up a dead car in front of our house. She asked if it was a repo. Evidently my kids watch too much of the white trash show Operation Repo.

*I spent some time on facebook with Emily, I still don't like it.

*I threw out or gave away about 400 pounds of junk from the girl's room this week. What a wonderful feeling!

*We forgot to put out the trash cans the day after Christmas. UGH!

*I'm pregnant!

* Just kidding, I wanted to see who actually read all this!

Maybe this week I will change from a Christmas background!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

My sweet little boy was cleaning up my newspapers last weekend. He excitedly came running upstairs for scissors, and then quickly walked back downstairs. A few minutes later he came running in to show me a picture of some turkey cupcakes he had seen in the coupons, and please could we make them. The picture sat on the fridge for 10 days. Finally, they had to be made today or be outdated. Luckily when we started this adventure, we were able to find enough stuff to make our turkeys look somewhat normal. Tyler graciously let Ainsley and Aubry help him make his treat. After much licking of hands (and much hand washing) we have a whole gaggle or herd of turkeys!

I just love that cute little boy!

As you prepare for your feast tomorrow, I hope you take time to realize all you have to be grateful for. I am so blessed, and grateful to my Heavenly Father for all that He has given me, even those darn trials that seem to be so yucky at the time they come!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Family Pics

We had the funnest family pictures taken on Saturday! A friend in our ward loves photography....and it shows in her pictures. She has posted a few on her blog. http://glimpsesjmphoto.blogspot.com

I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!

Thanks Jamie for making this such a fun experience!

Soccer

Yea Silverbacks!

UNDEFEATED!!!!!!!

I can't wait till spring to see how you do again!!!!

Who thought?

I am having Halloween dilemmas this year. Emily's costume is done, thanks to needing it for a costume party two weeks ago!! Lizzie's should be easy after a DI trip. Here is my dilemma....don't you think you could find a vampire cape in children's sizes? The only cape I can find is an adult size. I could probably sew a cape, but he really wants one with the big red collar. Luckily this adult sized cape has that, and I could somehow make it shorter. Also, I have only found one store that sells vampire fangs without all the make up or without buying 30 sets of teeth.
My other dilemma is Ainsley wants to be a dog. "You know Mom, I am already Penny most of the time" (See the post about kid updates.) But, where can you find a dog costume in a kid size and not a toddler size? I have bought brown sweats to turn inside out because they don't sell plain sweats anymore. The one thing I am missing now is ears. Every store has bunnies, kitties, mice, pig, tigers, elephants, etc, but not the most common animal on earth!!!!! I know I can make some ears, but I am not good at making things look cute. UGH! By the way Jenny, every time we go into another store looking for ears and capes Ainsley informs me that you are making her costume so why should I be worrying about it. Let me know when you get that done for her!!!!!
My final Halloween dilemma: I have never missed a Halloween parade at the elementary school in seven years. This year the parade is at the same time as Ainsley's Halloween party at Gardner Village. Luckily Jared offered to take Ainsley to her party so I could go to the elementary parade and parties. I thrive on these events for my kids, and I am dreading missing the preschool party.

I know my dilemmas are pathetic and easily solved. I just needed to vent about them to someone who may care. (Jared doesn't fit in this category, and just doesn't care.)