a surprise

In the past few weeks we have had a stray cat hanging around our yard. It's a pretty kitty- black and white with long hair. Very pretty.

But this cat is not friendly. Maybe because we weren't friendly to it. I don't know which came first. But this black and white kitty growls at us from inside our bushes, and it chases Bill and Bambi away from their food.

We have seen what Bill and Bambi can do to other woodland creatures they have harvested, and I can't believe that they are scared of this other cat.

Handsome and I have shown our children a side of their parents that they have never seen. I have chased this cat with a dish towel. (more therapeutic than you might think)
Ken has thrown things at it with vigor that is normally reserved for killing spiders or bugs in the house. Neither of us have been successful at running this cat off.

So now we are up to last night. Little Bear found a tiny black kitten inside our playhouse. Can you imagine the excitement of a little girl finding a teeny tiny kitten in our playhouse? She was elated. She picked it up put it outside where the mommy black and white cat was waiting.

We have been somewhat responsible kitty parents. We had Bill and Bambi fixed last year. With that, Bill told me that this black and white kitty was named Billie Jean.

Handsome and I went outside to see how many others there might be. So far we think there is only the one, however unlikely that seems. The little kitty did have its eyes open and was walking, but it was so tiny, it was hard to for it to climb over clumps of grass.

I picked it up, and it immediately stopped crying. It's solid black, with a little white on its face, and has white feet. Pretty cute.

Then we saw the momma kitty under the playhouse growling at us still, so we put it back.

Ugh. Now what?

This morning when I asked Little Bear to feed the cats, I told her to put some more food for Billie Jean in another dish far away from the others. I heard myself saying "We need to feed the black cat now because she has a baby."

She came in bouncing around, so excited about the new little friend that has come into our lives. "Mommy, are you trying not to like the little kitty?"

"Yes. I am."

"Well, I'm not trying not to like it. It's cuuute!"

Enter lesson from the Holy Spirit. One that I need to learn, but my daughter has already mastered: Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. James 1:27

And it means feeding stray cats who have kittens in your yard.

Tweeting

I have had grand notions of blogging and sharing with all three of you who read my blog, the randomness that enters my head. However, given that I received such a fine education on the Plains, I tend to get a little wordy. (But not too wordy. Omit needless words. These are the leeches that infect the pond of prose.) Yes, I failed JM 101 the first time, and I took it again, and thus memorized half of The Elements of Style

There I go, off on a tangent. Told you I failed it once, and have since had two children. I am happy to get dressed in the mornings.

Anywho- Long, lengthy witty fun blog posts ain't happnin, yet I still have these thoughts that I want to share. Maybe only a sentence or two- Maybe in 140 characters or less...

Therefore, until my boy is potty-trained, I will tweet. But under a pseudonym. Told you I was a journalism major. I had a poster of Mark Twain in my room in school with some of his greatest quotes.

I have determined that the pseudonym on twitter is necessary, because I have friends on Facebook that I don't really know. These are maybe Handsome's co-workers, or moms I have met in carpool, or church members who look to criticize my husband's work on staff and therefore judge him by his wife's quirky status updates.

Anyway, I will share my new Twitter name with only you who know me, or folks that don't know me- Not those that don't really know me.

My boy

My boy should be potty-trained by now. He's almost 3. However, he ain't havin' it.

We've put bad guys (broken crackers) in the potty, and told him to "shoot" the bad guys. That didn't go well. Lots of TT and toddler spit all over the potty as he used his hands for guns instead of my weapon of choice.

This morning, I was changing his diaper. It was a dirty one and I had just gotten him all cleaned up, and I notice that he's looking at me with the sweetest look I have ever seen. It was like he was in love, and I was the most beautiful thing in the world to him. He was staring at me, for several seconds.

I smiled, and touched his sweet cornsilk hair, and said something sweet to him in my most loving, gentle, mom-of-the-year voice. He grinned a little grin, and I noticed that that little stinker was peeing all over himself. No diaper, just open air. All over the changing table, and his shirt. So much for that mommy love I thought he was feeling.

Summer breeze...

It's hot as blue blazes. I can't stand it.

I really don't care what I wear right now, as long as it's somewhat cool and I don't embarrass my husband. I pulled out a pair of capris for today, and got all nostalgic. Right after Abbie was born and my official maternity leave was ending, Handsome took me shopping for new "work" clothes that I would need as a stay-at-home mom.

One of my favorite pieces were some army green capri drawstring scrub pants. (Could I BE more frumpy?) I remember thinking just this morning, "Wow, I've had these for a long time, there seems to be a tiny little tear in the back there, it should be fine for just one little errand."


Flash forward a few hours and a couple of squats later, and it's 10th grade homeroom all over again.

I had a bottom locker back then, and I might have gone through a sassy phase where I bought some zebra-print underwear, one of which could have been red. That morning, I walked from one end of the hall to the other, through the senior hall and lots of first bell traffic. When I sat down in homeroom, something didn't feel right, and I cleverly backed out of Mr. Kidd's room down to the Home Ec department where I borrowed a needle and thread.

Same feeling came over me today when I hopped back in my swagger wagon. There was a little more leather touching my hiney than should have been. Upon further research, I deduced that a major wardrobe malfunction had occurred.

This time the only seniors that saw me were a few grandmas in the little store I was in. Oh well. Who cares? I can laugh at myself a whole lot easier than I could back then. And if I can make you laugh too, my job is done here. Now going to look for new uniforms.

Candyland After Dark

The audience is quiet. There's a new player to the game this time, and folks, he's a wild card. His name is Boodreaux. He's a rule breaker for sure. We will have to watch him.

Our junior player tonight has a bit more experience, and is showing tremendous promise for the future. My friend, I think will hear a lot more from Little Bear here at Candyland After Dark.

Then we have Mama Bear. Mama Bear has moved down to Candyland competitions now. We saw a darker side of her personality when she ventured into the Risk circuit, but we are proud to have her here at Candyland After Dark. Colors, candy and gingerbread men. Yes, Mama Bear is going to be a regular at CAD for years to come.

Our competition is now under way.

Our rules state that the youngest player begins each game. That means Boodreaux. Boodreaux is at a disadvantage, as he thinks every color is green, but it appears that a few turns at Candyland, he definitely knows orange now.

The Little Bear's first turn is only a single color. She doesn't move very far in her first turn.

Mama Bear takes her first turn, the moves on to help Boodreaux. He's doing great folks. He seems to be recognizing yellow now.

After several turns for each player the game had been progressing nicely. Little Bear was way ahead of the pack, when she drew a Princess Frostine card. Friends, this is the first character card we've seen tonight. Little Bear is really showing her inexperience now. She seems to be extremely excited about this princess card, until Mama Bear shows her how far back she must go on the Candyland trail to find Princess Frostine's candy cane. Folks, we have a star player here. She's not disappointed at all, she's just so excited to have that princess card.

The family has been able to avoid Lord Licorice tonight. We haven't seen anything from him so far. However, Little Bear did pass through Gramma Nutt's woods during several turns. She held her breath and is not showing any allergic reactions right now.

Friends, it's just not Little Bear's night for Candyland. Mr. Mint has pulled her back for an ice cream, and she had some setbacks with a blue gumdrop.

Boodreaux is not a contender, as he has been allowed to play by newcomer rules. It looks like Mama Bear will be the first one to make it to King Kandy and his yard full of skittles.

Tune in again soon folks for another episode of Candyland After Dark.

Abbie's plan

I am dictating for Abbie:

Mommy- I have a plan for if we get tied up. One person who has the longest legs has to sneak into the kitchen and open the drawer that has all the knifez in it and cut the rope. If Ethan is with us, he can fight. Drew can't. Just Daddy and Ethan. Me an Drew- somebody has to wiggle over to us and cut off our ropes. We need to practice that. After the bad guys are dead, well, if they are not really dead, they are just feeling bad or are asleep, we will just call the police and make them apologize.

Goose and Grace

So Handsome came home this evening with a haircut. I swear the voices in my head started singing the doxology. It would suit me if he would get his hair cut every two weeks, but he doesn't see the need for it. Well, it had been way past two weeks since his last haircut, and I was contemplating making bows to match his clothes.

So back to the haircut. I think really short is cute. This one is a little shorter than normal, but it looks nice. Bless his heart, he's starting to be a little self-conscious of his receding hairline. He cannot comprehend that he married a woman who thinks bald is cute; someone who has mourned Goose and Dr. Greene equally and often. Handsome is not even bald, just receding. He's cute to me no matter what.

It all reminds of me Christ's love for me, and how I find it hard to accept sometimes. He loves me no matter what, yet I still feel unworthy. I suppose if I am worthy to die for, I am worthy to love. It's still hard to imagine. I'm going to work on that.