Where does the time go? (And who reads this anyway?)

Well, I got Miles' mission blog updated, created Jotty's mission blog and then set aside my determination to update my blog and now.....really? I haven't updated since then?
So, I guess I will have to do a "Reader's Digest" version... again.
MAY Alright, the big news was that Jotty finally received his mission call! He will serve in the "Mexico, Mexico City South Mission". He is totally jazzed!
Also in the end of May, the pool liner got replaced. I was amazed at how fast these two guys got it done. Apparently, the bullfrog living either under the sand on the bottom or behind the foam on the wall of the pool was surprised as well. About a week after the pool was filled, I noticed something on the bottom, where it meets the side of the pool-at about 5 feet deep. The shape was darker than the liner...and shaped strangely...like a..FROG!? Yep, he was stuck under there with the weight of all that water on him. Dead, but not flattened. So, I called the pool company and then email them a picture... because it is OBVIOUS that there is a frog under the liner. In the end, we struck a deal and got a few hundred dollars off the original price of the job (suggested by Royal). I told the owner, "How about you give me a discount so that I can just pretend that I like that conversation piece down there?". He agreed. Afterall, I was making it easy on him...they wouldn't have to drain the water out,remove the frog, and put the liner back in again...and we wouldn't have to lose use of the pool for another week or more.

Le Frog
JUNE & JULY I didn't quite get things put away from doing costumes for the college's production of "Big River", before I was knee deep in fabric again. First I was commissioned to make a "Queen of Hearts" costume and then did the costumes for "The Depot". This time I was working for a new theater company in Enterprise called "Southern Broadway". They have done small dinner shows so far but decided to "The Depot" in the huge, wonderful, state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center at the new Enterprise High School. This production was actually the first theater production done on that stage and the first time most of the equipment was used. VERY nice to have a proper and roomy stage and FOUR dressing rooms!! They had a "costume shop" too but were using it for other stuff so I used a dressing room to hang the costumes in instead. It wasn't a problem because each dressing room is very spacious and each has a shower, two bathrooms, two long counters, a sink and 3 very big mirrors. For the production, we had a men's and a woman's dressing room, a make-up/hair room and my costume room. The show is an original script by one the the owner's of Southern Broadway and played 3 shows. The mayor has asked them to put it on next year too. It is a great story and was well done. The guy that has done the scenery for each show I've been involved in really outdid himself...fab-u-lous! I designed and made a few dresses, and made or put together the rest of the costumes. Oh, and this company PAID me! Whooo-hoo!
Summer was great and I even went swimming several times...
probably more than I've been for many years. Part of that was because I didn't work this summer. The average temp of the pool water was 94 degrees. Lovely, as there was no "shock" when you jumped in.

AUGUST-Royal and his family came to visit for a couple weeks and we had a blast with them! The kids behaved well and are cute (of course...I don't have a grandchild that ISN'T cute)! One of the most fun things I've done in a long time was go on a "Pirate Cruise" with them down in Panama City. Real ship that goes out into the ocean for a 2 hour trip. A captain and his pirate crew keep the kids busy for the whole trip. Absolutely delightful! The weather was great too. We all came with "pirate gear"...scarves and earrings. Mae was mostly entertained by all the action...she even got her "sea legs" fairly quick. I am so glad they invited me on that adventure!

Royal, Elizabeth, Grace, Sienna, Jimmy, & Mae

August also brought the beginning of school again so back to work I went. Jotty and I also worked to finish getting his stuff together for his mission. At the end of the month Jim and I took Jotty to the Birmingham temple and Kira and our friend Dan came along(we went in Dan's van). Jotty loved it and was on a "spiritual high" until we came out of the temple and Jim listened to his phone messages. One of the messages was from the stake President, saying that the MTC had called him and let him know that Jotty would NOT be entering the MTC on September 14th as previously instructed. Instead, he would be part of a pilot program and would enter the MTC on October 5th. (The pilot program is a 5 week training in the MTC instead of the current 8 weeks). Jotty was soooo bummed-because he was sooo ready to leave-NOW! He snapped out of it soon enough and a "pro" to leaving later was that he can take me to the "Weird Al" concert in Montgomery on Sept 29th.
SEPTEMBER has arrived much too quickly and I am now starting into costumes for the college's production of "Nunsense". Lots of costumes but easy...15 Nun's habits. Before I start sewing, we are going to check to see if Dothan's theater group has any we can borrow. The nuns in the Catholic churches around here don't wear tradition habits.
Now, we are just two weeks before Jotty departs and 7 weeks before Miles returns from his mission. Lots of conflicting emotions are going to be experienced by all of us. Miles thinks his mission president will allow him to call Jotty before he goes into the MTC and I hope he's right.
I hope I won't take too long to return and blog again. Until then!

I sew, I sew, it's off to the stage I go....

March was mostly uneventful as we continued to take care of JaNae and Jeremy's kids on weekdays and cook dinner for all of us. It's kind of nice to have more than just the 3 of us for dinner...and I am sure Jim and Jotty like it because I am actually cooking more!

The big news was Brice's baptism! Brice turned 8 on St.Patrick's day and Cian turned 6. They had a great time when they all went down to Grayton beach for the weekend. Anna's oldest,Karina, was down from Augusta and she and I went down too. J & J had rented a cabin at a state park so we all had access to the private beach there. Very nice and not crowded. The weather was perfect but the water was cold so yours truly only got in up to her calves. The kids jumped right in...crazy kids!
That Sunday (the 20th) was Brice's baptism. It was so pleasant and spiritual and he had all of his grandparents there and all the family that live in the area.

April was a very busy month for me because I spent most of my time making costumes for the college/community production of "Big River". Before anyone wonders...no,I did not get paid for it. I volunteered since it is a hobby of mine. I enjoy creating costumes even though it is sometimes stressful for me(self-induced stress). There is a great satisfaction of seeing my "creations" on stage and I won't pretend that I don't like to hear, "good job!".

Some of the costumes I put together from other items I had or acquired and others I selected the fabric and created from beginning. This year there was a lot more total constructing done. I made 12 dresses,6 skirts,5 shirts,and 4 shawls. There was 72 yards of fabric,and approximately 10,000 yards of thread used. I don't remember how much trim. Most of the costumes for the males were put together from used clothing to create something that looked like it might be from the 1840s. Each skirt or skirt part of the dresses required nearly 4 yards of fabric. And then there were all the ruffles... The fabric and anything I bought at thrift stores were paid for by the college.

I was only really frustrated by my machines...my serger blades were out of whack so they wouldn't cut and I didn't have time to get the serger repaired. I was finally able to borrow a friend's extra serger but neither of us could get it to do a rolled hem. Then, my ruffler was fickle as to when it would work properly.

There were the occasional alterations and repairs but the kicker was two different NEW zippers broke! The first broke on the 2nd wearing and I had time to replace it. But the second zipper broke on the 3rd wearing so I had to sew the poor girl into the dress for the Saturday shows because I could not repair it. By the time the matinee was done, the ONLY place I could get a zipper was closed so she got sewn in a second time. She was very patient about it.

On the day of the 2nd show (Friday), I abandoned all of that and took the time to join Jim in being Tour Guides for the Atlanta Temple open house. What a great day and wonderful opportunity! We really enjoyed it. I especially love all the new artwork they added...some of the pictures I had never seen. And there was also murals added to one room. It reminded me a bit of the inside of the Newport Beach temple.

For the last two weeks my kidneys have apparently been on the fritz. The edema in my feet and lower legs was an average of a minus 3. Even after being in bed all night, in the a.m., they would still be swollen, yet my blood pressure would be fine. Now I have time to go to the doctor. Being on my feet all day work,sitting at the sewing machine for hours, and 4 hour rides to the temple and back didn't help but what can you do when you have to get things done? Funny thing...the worst edema was on Sunday, after I was done with everything...a minus 4! Weird.

I also received "battle wounds". I tripped (as did several others) on a problematic prop backstage in the dark. Only I did it best...I went flying (from the momentum of my speed and weight) and hit several parts of my body: my head, arm, legs,neck and back and bruised my ego terribly. Everything is fine but I have some big, ugly, bruises on my legs. JaNae said to me, "Mom, you're getting old...you're bruising easily." yeah, thanks for rubbing it in. LOL

Hope I can get a slide show of my costumes on the blog...but don't hold your breath.
We are on spring break this week and I hope that soon our pool liner will be be replaced so we can be ready for summer. I certainly am ready for this break from school!
Happy Easter to you all!

Where was I?

Oh yes, ignoring things I ought to do and comparing them to my list of need to do and want to do. They all lost!
This why I do not succeed at writing a journal. I either can't keep it up or get so bogged down with everything else I need to do, that it is relegated to the bottom of the "list". And I fail to understand how anyone would find this interesting in the first place. However, it is as close as I am going to get to a newsletter OR a journal so I continue to add to it.
I didn't find out until after my mom died, that she used to keep journals/diaries. If she continued to keep them after we were around I haven't found them. I did find earlier ones and dream of one day transcribing them so that my kids and grand kids can read them one day. Of course, it's only a dream. It will never happen because I can't manage to even update a my blog or Miles' blog on a regular basis. So, what's new you ask? Nah, you don't ask because if you KNOW me, you know that it is one of my biggest faults.
As for the goings on of our family: On a daily basis, life coasts along and day in and day out our lives seems to be the same. On the other hand...there's always something unexpected to shake things up a bit. Isn't that pretty much how your lives go?

This Thanksgiving, for the first time in my life, I did not have a thanksgiving dinner to host or attend. It was odd, but okay. We were asked to go up to St. Louis for Grace's birthday and baptism so we did. Jotty couldn't get off work so just Jim and I went. We rented a car and were fortunate to spend a few days with Royal and his family. The baptism was lovely with all her grandparents there (plus a few extras) and Grace was radiant with all the attention.
Royal took us to the area that Jim is from and he showed us the houses they lived in, the school he attended etc. He was surprised at some of the things that hadn't changed in all the years he'd been gone. Another day, Elizabeth and the kids took Jim and I to the St. Louis arch. Elizabeth graciously bought us tickets and convinced me to go up in the arch with dad (something I swore I would never do after listening to his stories for 20 years). I loved it! The view was everything he said it was albeit the arch swaying tremendously in the wind. When we were at the top I asked the worker there if it often moved so much. Wide-eyed, he replied that he had NEVER felt it sway so much! Earlier, Elizabeth, the kids and I walked around the free history museum under the arch while Jim walked all the way back to the car to deposit his belt. Seems that there is security you have to pass through and Jim realized he had on his belt with the buckle that is a knife. A very sharp knife, sheathed in the belt... NOT something that passes through security these days.
All in all, we had a delightful time visiting with Royal and Elizabeth and our "St. Louis grandchildren". It was so nice to connect with them and play with them. Little Mae charmed "Ponka", having wrapped grandma Jan around her fingers earlier in the year. And "Little Jim" just loved playing and getting to know Ponka better. We arrived back home on Thanksgiving day. Grace and Sienna were such big helpers the whole time and loved having their pictures taken.

Then on Saturday, Michelle and Mila arrived from California for a visit. Jason had gone to Japan to do more training in ninjitsu so Michelle decided to come see us. We are so glad they did! We had a great time and it was so good to see them again and let Mila get re-acquainted with us. Unfortunately, both Jim and I had to go back to work so we didn't get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked. Mila is a cutie with an inordinate amount of dramatic flair. She loves to sing and dance in particular. I like to tell people that Jason is now an RN and a Ninja.

The next few weeks brought the Christmas holidays and we were able to get visits in with most of the kids and their families. Ian and Jessica came from Mississippi for a short visit with Ava and Riddick, their two huge Great Danes. Big, but sweet and gentle. Then they went up to Birmingham to see her folks. Jessica recently graduated and is now working as a counselor. Ian is unemployed now, his last job drying up as the oil spill got cleaned up. It was so good to see them as they had been very busy the past few months.
Anna and her family arrived the day after Ian and Jessica. They didn't get to stay too many days either as Toby couldn't take much time off of work. The kids had grown so much since the last time we'd seen them. That's when the house inevitably became very busy and noisy...because all the other cousins wanted to come over to see and play with Anna's kids. We had a lot of kids playing here and enjoying each other's company...and Jim sleeping through most of it. Don't know how he does it. It was unseasonably cold the whole time so there wasn't the option of playing outside as they had done in Christmases past. Of course we also saw the local families: JaNae's family, Jacob's crew, and Kira's bunch. It was a very enjoyable Christmas!!

January continued to be freezing as we got back to the grind. Then we got word that Jim's brother David had passed away unexpectedly. We left immediately for Texas, this time with Jotty in tow. We stayed with Jim's dad and his wife Mary. No matter how unfortunate it is to lose a loved one, it does offer the opportunity to reconnect with others you haven't seen in awhile. Not only did we also see Jim's sister Donna and her husband Carl, Jim was able to see a niece and nephew he hadn't seen since they were small, and we got to finally meet Mary's children and their children. It was such a treat to meet more family, and get to know Mary so much better. She is such a lovely, lively, and sweet woman. No wonder dad married her! The funeral for David was at the National Cemetery there in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. It was held in an outdoor pavilion and it was cold and windy that day! I was ever so sorry that I hadn't grabbed a hat to take. Jotty had one, but of course had to remove it for the service. He'd gotten a haircut right before we left on the trip so his head was mighty cold.
So things are now, kind of, back to normal. I have JaNae and Jeremy's kids each day after school and we sometimes even get homework done! The weather is finally starting to warm up enough that the kids can play outside again and I see little green sprouts here and there in the lawn and garden. Soon, it will be time to give a little attention to the garden and break out the lawnmower.
Jotty is completing his mission application and really only needs to get his wisdom teeth removed so he can submit it. He is anxious to finish it all but the appointment with the oral surgeon can't be moved up.
Until next post....

After the Appraisal

So, the appraisal went well or so I thought. She gave it a value of $120,000 which is a little low for this area in town. She loved the purple shutters on the house anyway (repainted) but she doesn't know the difference between a split-level house and one with a basement. When I looked at the appraisal on the bank's website I was confused...she reported that we had 3 bedrooms 2 baths and a finished basement. Now she included in her report pictures of all 3 bathrooms and walked through the 4th bedroom. The big room downstairs that the boys all used couldn't technically be referred to as a bedroom because there are no built-in closets (it is supposed to be a "Florida" or rumpus room---we just added temporary closets). But it has never been an unfinished room. The floor plan was fairly popular in the early 70's aroound here. Anyway, I called the lady who is handling our re-fi and told her that all of our other appraisals through the years have the house listed (and we bought it based on this)as a 4 bedroom, 3 bath AND that she had shorted us 100 square feet. The agent said that she would "contest" the appraisal on our behalf. Hope that works well. How do you lose a bedroom and a bathroom without a tornado?
Included here are updated pictures but if you haven't seen the house before...
The top picture is a "before" of the garage...with a wall that divides it into two areas. The 2nd pic is with the wall taken down and room for a car!
The bathroom is the one downstairs that JaNae and I replaced the medicine cabinet and the sink. I love that pedestal sink! The bottom pictue is the downstairs (guest) bedroom that she couldn't identify as such (food storage is behind the curtain).

Where was I?

I just can't figure out why I can't keep this blog going. And it isn't because I'm on Facebook...because I don't go on Facebook. Pretty much, I am sure it will suck up even more time up than I already use on the computer. I see how long my kids/friends spend on it and know I will be worse. If someone can convince me of the value of it then maybe I will try it out. Even if no one reads it I ought to be able to keep it up-just for my own sake. Ah well.

By the way, lucky for some of you; no clear winner for the clutter question...because no wants my junk - even if it IS a reward. As it is, I just may be the winner as I am letting go of stuff more and more. Some of it is laziness...how hard is it to list something on Craig's list or ebay anyway? You would think that it takes all day the way I drag my feet about it. I finally listed the fussball table we inherited on Craiglist and NO ONE WANTED IT!! As it is, I think Jacob is going to put it in his in-laws basement.

JaNae and I made a quick trip up to St. Louis the last weekend of September. Some of you may have heard, so to make a long story short: Royal's oldest daughter, Grace, had a bike accident(no car involved). It was the first and only time she's not worn her helmet and she had a depressed skull fracture and some road rash. We went up just in case they might need us. Royal was in the Netherlands at the time and he came home too. Just the thought of brain surgery is scary! I wanted to be there - instead of wishing I had gone up. She went through surgery fine - came out with a 3 1/2 inch scar and a titanium plate.
She is a very blessed little girl! Many thanks to those who were praying for her. The plus is that we had a nice visit and I got to see our youngest grandchild, Mae, for the first time. Jim, Jotty and I will be going up in November for Grace's baptism.

This last week we have been trying to do all the smaller odd jobs around here and manicure the yard for an appraisal. Since we now pay over $700 a month for health care benefits, we have to cut costs somewhere - the budget just can't take it. So we want to re-finance the balance of our mortgage at 3.25%. BUT- the house has to appraise for enough. AND, of course, we have let little stuff go, so now we are playing catch-up. What fun! Jacob came over Saturday morning to help with the yard and JaNae has been helping inside. It's nice that some of the kids still live close enough to help. What we can't afford to do is get siding on the house or replace that ugly back fence. Not sure if we can paint the house or not. Time will tell (and someone who doesn't mind heights).

Next post: after the appraisal

Use it up, wear it out, all this stuff is making me shout!

Jotty and I cleaned/straightened up most of the garage Friday. It is a nice feeling to see SPACE in the garage. I wonder how people do it with their cars actually being IN their garage? I mean, where do they put their "stuff"?
I didn't sort out my paint supplies or gardening stuff and I didn't go through all the boxes on the shelves (Christmas, Easter, Halloween, costumes, wedding deco, camping, sports, etc.-ad nauseum). It will take a day to do each of those catagories. On Friday, we just got rid of the clutter, got a van-load of stuff to Christian mission and put other stuff where it was supposed to be. It was sooo hot; much like the sweltering tropical jungle...without as many bugs). There was about 80 to 100% humidity but it had to be done. Here's my logic: In order to do some sewing for a sister in our ward, I need to clean the sewing room (that, or throw in a hand grenade). To clean the sewing room, I need a place in the garage for some of my sewing/crafting things, and stuff I just need to get rid of. I also need to clear the office of stuff from Music Man...which means I need more room in the garage for "stuff" and a holding place for things before they go to Christian mission. I know it is my own laziness that created this. I get in a hurry to get other things done so I put things in one of the rooms to "put away later". If I can't decide just where something belongs, I pledge to "put it away later". AND, if I have a problem deciding if I need to keep it or toss it...I decide to decide later. Are you seeing a pattern here? If I am nothing else I am a master procrastinator. Eventually, I am faced with a bunch of stuff that I didn't deal with immediately. With regard to the boxes I didn't go through: I think if I had a week with no responsibilities, no phone calls, no visitors, no need to leave...I think I could put a dent in what is in boxes in the garage. Since that is not likely to happen, there they sit.

Okay, you must see that I have a terrible habit that I can't figure out how to break. I save stuff. I'm not a hoarder I just save stuff. If it is good and still usable...for someone or something, then for most part I will save it...usually in a "good safe place"(which is another post entirely). I even try to "save neatly" - which means I have a LOT of cardboard and Rubbermaid-type boxes - most are even labeled! I don't have a problem making it look neat or organizing it...I just have way too much!
Do you know the adage, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"? Well, that saying is going to be THE END of me! The kicker is that it has served me well to save stuff. There is no way to count the times someone has asked me, "Do you happen to have..." Or "If I just had...." And 9 times out of 10...yes, I will have it. And it is NOT just family members. Church activities, work, school assigments and productions... I usually have some of the supplies, the start of a costume, props etc. ...all from my stash of stuff. So, I DO get rid of some things by finding them new homes; and occasionally I go through and take stuff to Christian mission to let them figure out what to do with it. On the other hand, I also get more junk the same way...through productions and activities.
The way I see it, if I had never heard that adage I think it might have been easier to cure myself of "Johnson-itis". Oh, my brothers and I all have it to varying degrees. We inherited it from our parents...who (I think)got it from the necessity of being able to "make do with what you have" and be thrifty. All four of us save stuff...some of us just do it neater than the others. I believe in being thrifty, I believe we don't always need new, and I don't believe in being wasteful (yes, I wash out good, used zip-lock bags). What I can't get is: How do I justify just getting rid of stuff that is useful but not useful to me? I've tried having a yard sale now and then but honestly, I'd rather have surgery than have a yard sale. WAY too stressful for me.
When I get the hankering to scale down and SIMPLIFY, that old adage starts humming in my head and then I look at things closer and before you know it I have only gotten rid of a smaller portion of things I really wanted to chuck. There are crafts I know I won't be doing again, fabrics I'll never use, bargains I should have left in the store, and clothes I will never wear again-even if I lose weight. I end up looking at things anew and thinking, "Well, I could do that with the grandkids" or "maybe I can use that at work or in the next play", or "this is so cute, maybe I can find someone who wants it" OR the impossible, "when I get time I think I will finish that". The road to hell is paved with good intentions! Apparently I am paving mine with premium asphalt.
I have got to simplify. There are things I cannot get rid of and which are, in and of themselves, a stress for me. I must eventually conquer it or die trying. That is: sorting out all the photos and getting them to the kids. We have boxes, chests and cupboards full of pictures. If I only had one picture a week for each of the 9 kids for 20 years, I would have nearly 10,000 pictures. The fact, is that I have 40 years of photos with a miniscule amount being in albums. Is there such thing as a photo fairy? Ah, but I digress...
Something's gotta give and I would prefer that it NOT be (what's left) of my sanity.
Is there anyone out there that has a justification or reason for me to allow myself to just let go and clear un-needed things out? I want to be able to not feel guilty when I am getting rid of things or think, "oh, I guess I could save this for a yard sale". How can I equalize the adage with the common sense that I can't keep everything. (And please, don't suggest we move to a smaller place. Thought of that already and it can't be done right now). Let me know if you have the cure. If your suggestion wins, you even get a prize...I'm sure I have one somewhere in all my junk!

I'm Baaa-aacckk!

Okay, not that I really went anywhere --- I just got lazy. I don't know why it seems like a monumental job to update this blog. Plus, I'm not sure if more than my followers (thank you loyal readers...all 3 of you) even reads this. Maybe Miles' blog is easier because all I have to do is, for the most part, post his letters. Someone wanna write this for me?haha
Let's see... in June, Jotty graduated with Honors...and was also a member of the Spanish Honor Society. Graduation night was great; it started on time and we had fine weather - NO RAIN! Our last one graduated! Not too long ago I realized that for more than half my life I have been dealing with our children and their schooling. It is NOT a bitter-sweet moment though. Frankly, I am glad to be done with it considering the direction that so many public schools are going...I fear those here in the "bible belt" will soon follow suit. In view of Jotty being the last one graduating, I made signs for us to hold... I thought Jotty would be embarrassed but he wasn't - he's a cool kid! The week after graduation he went to staff week at Camp Alaflo, was home a week then back to Alaflo for a week, then up to Gainesville, Georgia for EFY, then home where Anna and her family just arrived to visit for a week. In between when he was home, he and I worked on parts of the yard. This week he has Youth Conference (I am going as a chaperone) and then we think he starts his job at Walmart in the next week or so.
Our friend, Dan Danford, works at Walmart and let Jotty know they were about to start hiring again. He helped Jotty through the whole application process to make sure the paperwork was submitted in time. Actually, he has helped several people at church get jobs at Walmart. The guy who interviewed Jotty was apparently impressed because he said that Jotty was more qualified for the job he was applying for and would be hired at a level 3 in a better job...that means more than minimum wage. Whatever...he's got a job!!!
The pool and I were pitted against each other for several weeks at the beginning of summer. Our floatron (it ionizes the water, preventing algae growth) kind of died and before I knew it we had algae...a green pool. For the first time in 12 years I had to buy chemicals other than chlorine and "finesse" the pool water back to good health. Note the "before and after" pictures. Now, we are enjoying it nearly everyday. Average water temp is 85 degrees.
JaNae's kids are here every weekday since JaNae is still in school and Jeremy is working. I am so glad we DO have a pool. Cian finally decided this year that swimming was fun and getting his face in the water was fine. While Anna and family were here last week all of her kids were thoroughly enjoying the pool and I think Cian saw them and figured he could enjoy swimming as well as they could. Kira and Ben brought their kids over too. Their two older kids are fine being in the pool but are hesitant and don't want their faces wet. But little Josie; she is going to be a fish! She can completely relax in the water and if they instruct her, she listens and follows. She is very at ease and loves being in the pool. Jacob and Amanda's kids haven't been over much yet because Amanda is working this summer. This is the last week so I expect them to be coming over a lot the rest of the summer. Their kids love the water!
We recently adopted a new kitten. He had been abandoned at the vet where our friend Frances works...to be put down. She is always rescuing animals, paying out of her pocket for their care too. Most of them she has adopted herself but she felt this little guy needed more time than she had since she works full time. She also has several cats and dogs already. Anyway, this little guy was about 3 or 4 weeks old when he was dropped off with a VERY infected eye. His eye had to be removed so Frances paid for that and his meds and then bottled fed him for a week or so. She called and told us about him and asked if we would consider adopting him. Jim said he was fine with that. Feeding the kitten every few hours and having him at her home... she had grown very attached to him. It was no easy task to give him up. She said she prayed about it even. We told her it would be an "open adoption". Anyway, she had been calling the one-eyed kitten "Cyclops". A friend suggested "Popeye" and the grand kids had all sorts of ideas. I was kind of partial to "Jack" as in one-eyed Jack and Jack Sparrow the pirate. Goofing around I suggested to Jim the pirates exclamation, "Arrgh!". Jim liked it best so the kitty's name is Arrgh!. We just call him kitty anyway...(not that any of our cats come when we call)so his name will just be for identification purposes. Please note that we decided that you must include an exclamation point at the end of his name AND, you must close one eye when you say his name--pirate style. The grand kids got a big kick out of that. Arrgh! is a feisty little cat. He isn't being bottle-fed anymore as he keeps chewing the nipples off the bottles. He is very vocal, will play with anyone or anything, and follows us around when he isn't in his enclosure (to keep him from annoying the stew out of the big cats who aren't used to him yet).
That's about it for this update. I updated Miles' blog too if you haven't seen it lately. We were very blessed in that our friends, the Todds, bought Miles a new bike and had it delivered to the mission home while they were there in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, they were there to attend the funeral of a son of very dear friends of theirs. The Todds were not only generous but still thinking of others as they usually do. They are really cool people and our sons get along so well with theirs. Their oldest, Eric, is Miles' best friend.
Well, the rest of the summer will be digging out my sewing room, the office and cleaning the garage, watching the kids, doing yard work and a host of other things that I probably won't finish. Anyone else fill their summer plate too full?
Till later!