*sigh*

Post-script: yes, a post-script is supposed to be after the post, but this one is coming before. I hate Blogger. I'm sick of Blogger. I DO know how to use the "enter" key, I promise, but Blogger messes up my flipping spaces EVERY TIME. So to avoid Blogger ignoring my paragraphs and merging everything into one big blob, I intentionally made MANY spaces between my paragraphs. So there, Blogger.


So, first things first, meet the new kitties:


This is Snickers, aka Snickerdoodle. Or, if you ask F, "Knickerdoodle." She's 3 months old. Snickers is my favorite, because she holds hands, likes tummy rubs and knows where the cat box is. She sounds like a lamb and sticks her tongue out when she meows. The only probalem with this kitty is her indescribable gas. I've never known a cat with constant stinky gas. I guess Kitten Chow doesn't sit well with her.



This is Oatmeal, or Oatmeal the Narcoleptic Kitty. She's a month younger than Snickers and is a favorite with the kids because she's one of those floppy, sleepy cats that lets them handle her and purrs the whole time. She has been spending the last week or so confined to our smallest dog kennel with nothing but her food and water and a cat box. This in an effort to teach her the difference between my bed and cat box. Or the floor and the cat box. Or my clothes and the cat box. This cat has also recently cost us almost $50 at the vet - I now have to wrestle her twice a day to give her fishy smelling medicine to stop her from bleeding from her behind. So far it seems to be working. I've let her out of the kennel during the day for the past two days and we haven't had any accidents yet - she still sleeps in there at night, though. Or, rather, she meows in there at night and gets her bed all wet because she hasn't yet realized that she can't escape by hanging from the top of the cage and then falling into her water dish. Go figure.


A week or so after getting the kittens we had a game of musical dogs. Our red heeler Molly wouldn't stop eating out the cat box and was getting increasingly nippy every time she got in trouble. One day she decided I wasn't the boss of her and she bit me while I was getting her in trouble. It wasn't bad, she just barely got me because I read her evil mind and moved my hand in time. She spent the next few days in her kennel while we decided what to do with her - no shelters would take her because she bit me but we didn't want to put down a perfectly healthy 3-year-old dog if we could help it. We placed an ad in the local online classifieds with full disclosure of her faults (and that she bit me) and someone came the next day to look at her - loved her, and took her away. So, Molly found a new home.




The very same day (*sigh*) R found another dog on these same classifieds and somehow talked his brother into picking her up and delivering her. This dog carried the ridiculous and insulting moniker of Baby which we changed as soon as we thought of something that sounded similar enough that she would still know we were talking to her - Bailey. So for a few weeks there I had the pleasure of cleaning up kitten AND puppy messes. I lead a charmed life.




So that's the all-important pet update. I didn't intend to put it at the top, but stupid Blogger won't let me move the pictures or the text, so what I intended to be at the bottom is now at the top. Next time I'll try to remember to put the pictures in first, then start typing. But here is everything I wrote at first, which was supposed to be above the pet update:





Everything is so weird here lately that I haven't been writing because I don't really know what to talk about. And I had a really cute Christmas background and everything, but no one saw it because I didn't post anything. Oh, well.



So here's a little update:


Christmas was fun for the kids and we managed to give them less than last year, which was my goal, so yay! They all got stuff they wanted but just not a ton of extra stuff. O's favorite present came from Grandma and the Greats, a real live American Girl doll (Kirsten). B's favorite present was probably his tool box, full of tools, from Daddy. J's favorite present seems to be a stuffed giraffe from Mommy and Daddy. F's favorite gift is a Fisher Price Little People garage thingie - one of those big plastic things with a lift for the cars (it rings a bell when it comes to the top) and a long twisty ramp for them to careen down. It didn't come from us, it was doorbell ditched along with presents for all the other kids and a bag of groceries - including a spiral ham that we had for Christmas even dinner, and for several days thereafter. It was yummmmmmy.



My favorite present was a boxed set of the Chronicles of Narnia - one big book with all of the books in it, and each book on CD read by a whole slew of awesome famous British actors (and one not-so-famous-but-probably-awesome-anyway British actor):



The Magician's Nephew, read by Kenneth Branagh
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, read by Michael York
The Horse and His Boy, read by Alex Jennings
Prince Caspian, read by Lynn Redgrave
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, read by Derek Jacobi
The Silver Chair, read by Jeremy Northam
The Last Battle, read by Patrick Stewart

I'll admit I don't know who Alex Jennings is. According to IMDB he played Prince Charles in that movie The Queen a few years ago. I saw that movie, but that doesn't help me to remember the guy. Other than that, he seems to be a British TV kind of guy. Either way I'm sure he'll suit and I'm really excited to listen to my CD's.



R's favorite present seems to be socks but he's not here to ask so I don't know for sure. Ages ago I bought him some really soft warm socks and he loved them so much they're all worn out now and he's been wanting new really soft warm socks for a long time. I have been looking off and on but they don't sell them at the places I frequent (Wal Mart, Smith's...the bathroom) so this year I actually went TO THE MALL. To a department store. And spent $15 on two pairs of socks - they were 50% off. But it was worth it because he loves them and wears them every night and goes, "OOoooohhhh" when he puts them on.



He has to wear socks at night, along with sweats and a hoodie (hood on) and two extra blankets because I can't sleep unless the window is open and without the extra precautions he wakes up dead in the morning.



So that was Christmas.



New Years was cool - R and I throw the kids a party every year (I use that term loosely because it's only been 2 years now) with all of their favorite things to eat. We ordered pizza from a different place this year and that turned out to be a big mistake - Salt City Pizza makes a 24" pizza which we thought would be impressive for the kids. Looks cool, tastes nasty. I've never been around a pizza that I couldn't finish, but this one took days - and not because it was big. *shudder* We'll stick to The Pizza Place from now on.



Anyway, so we had the giant disappointment-with-cheese and then almost every kind of treat the kids wanted. Licorice, donuts, candy, cupcakes, chips, cookies.....I can't even list it all. Oh, and Little Smokies in BBQ sauce. It was too much. B excused himself during the festivities and came back saying, "I barfed!" and proceeded to eat more. O woke up in the night and barfed, but was not nearly as excited about it as B was. So, I think that may have convinced R to rein it in next year, which no amount of rational arguments from me managed to do this year.



But the party itself was fun - we watched movies and played around and at midnight we made lots of noise and threw lots of confetti. The kids had spent the week cutting up construction paper, and I added some cut-up shiny ribbon to the mess, then we added it all to a bag of shredded bills and other things from the paper shredder. It made excellent confetti. F didn't like having it thrown at him but once he realized he could retaliate, he began to crawl around the floor hoarding it all into a huge pile that he wouldn't let anyone else touch. Then he threw it at people's knees and laughed. R and I had silly string, which the dog kept eating off the floor. F tried some, too, but didn't fancy it much.



So that's a recap of the holiday fun.



R just got home, F is about to wake up and I have to make dinner. I do not enjoy making dinner.

Virtual Baby

So, I added this cool baby thing to the blog but you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom to see it. It was too big to fit on the side bar and I don't know how to fix that kind of thing so I just put it on the bottom. I've seen ones with better graphics but this one is fine - it shows how many days I have left (which sort of depresses me) and a little 3D image of a virtual baby at whatever stage of pregnancy I'm at, which right now is 28 weeks. I imagine it changes every week, but I'm not sure - I wonder if I have to change it myself. Hmmmm....well, we'll see.

I'm not updating right now because I can't sit here anymore. For one thing, I'm in pain. For another thing, I have pie crusts and bread to make. Pie crusts for Thanksgiving at mom's house (I'll make the pies tomorrow) and bread just to have because we're out.

I'll write again someday, that's all I promise.

News of all sorts (no, that's not what I'm eating)

Well, first bit of news - we had our ultrasound today. It's a boy! O literally slumped in her chair when she heard (and saw) but she's recovering admirably now. I might have slumped a bit myself if I hadn't been laying flat on my back. Since this will be our last (intentional) pregnancy, it would have been fun to have another girl - but it's oooookaaay. I love boys, and obviously I'm meant to be the mother of many of them. It's nice to know - it gives the kids time to adjust, instead of being disappointed on his birthday.

So that's the first bit of news.

The second bit of news is that I got a new sewing machine today! YAY! It was from my mom and grandparents, for a birthday present. I've spent a long time trying to decide on one and I finally picked a Janome-made Kenmore. It's very simple - non-computerized, basic but strong. It was the highest rated machine on every website I checked, even better than the more expensive Kenmores. I'm super duper excited and now all I need is energy to sew. And money for Halloween costume stuff. B is going to be Despereux and O is going to be a mouse from one of the Redwall books, named Cornflower. Both of those are simple - basically just the right kind of clothes (Cornflower wears a habit, actually), with mouse ears. J is going to be Spider Man. I'm doing his last because we have a Spidey costume in the dress-up - it's just way too big so he really wants me to make one. But this way if I run out of time at least he'll still have the costume.

The sewing machine cost less than mom was planning to spend, so I also got a trip to Bath and Body Works and got a lip gloss, 2 body washes (Pearberry and Vanilla Noir) and 2 body butters (Warm Vanilla Sugar and Midnight Pomegranate). MMmmmmmmm....

Now for the last bit of news.

I saved it for last because it's sad and everything else was happy. This morning we had to put our sweet kitty Pickle to sleep. Here are some pictures of her:



(This picture embodies the Agatha Christie quote, “It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.”)

Pickle was 12 years old and we've had her ever since we got married. She ate ribbons and cotton balls, wrecked toilet paper and threw up next to the bed. She loved Koosh balls and string and stole socks in the night. She liked to sleep under the covers and ride on shoulders. Over the past few months she's been getting skinnier and looking worse and worse - then she stopped eating and drinking. I've been able to get her to lap up tuna juice or the gravy from her cat food but she wouldn't eat the food; she wouldn't drink water and only ever occasionally took a lap of the milk I tried to give her. She seemed to be losing weight every day and last night she was having trouble breathing. I finally had to admit that it was time to let her go. For her sake, I maybe should have done it sooner but it was so hard to let go of her. When I noticed her struggling to breathe I made up my mind - I really didn't want her to suffer.

I took her in this morning and R and the kids buried her in the backyard while I was out later with my mom. I realized when I got back and it was done that I wish I'd been able to see her one more time but it's okay; I got to be with her when she passed away and I got to pet her and hold her after that for awhile. Plus she came and slept with us under the covers last night, which she hasn't done for quite awhile, and that was a great comfort. I sleep much better with a warm purring kitty snuggled up by my tummy. She hides so much during the day, I think bedtime and during the night will be the hardest times for me to adjust to her being gone. I really miss her a lot.

So that's all of the news for today. Soon I'm going to post pictures of our gigantic pumpkins and talk about the garden and update on everyone. But now I'm going to have popcorn and watch a movie with an empty lap and try not to cry about my kitty.

Oh....too late.