June Cats and Kittens

I really ought to catch up, but it's overwhelming how much there is!  So here are some more overviews.

In June our first foster litter of kittens was ready for adoption.  It didn't take long for someone to show interest in Priscilla.  She was the first kitten we had to give up.  It was a bit heartbreaking, but she seemed to be going to a good home with another kitty friend.

The other kittens finally had a breakthrough with Ginger!  Sierra softened somewhat to the kitties, but Ginger finally started to intentionally be close to them!  

Thomas learned how to climb the curtains just before he and Felicia were adopted together -- by Mom!!!  It's been wonderful to have those two sweet cats nearby where we can visit and play with them.  Felicia still likes to run and hide when things get busy, but Thomas is great with the children who come through and is a fun companion.  We got to kitty-sit them once and it didn't take long for them to fit back in.

  

With the other three all gone we just had to adopt Shuri as our own.  She has always loved to follow Ginger around -- I wonder if it's a black cat thing, since between the litters we've had now the black cats seem to always find each other.  With her litter-mates gone she became very close and cuddly with her humans too.  At first her favorite thing was too cuddle with Daddy's goatee at night, much to our amusement.

After a few weeks we brought in a new litter of four kittens.  All four female, about 10 weeks old, as I recall.  These kittens were already named.  There were two tabbies who looked very similar -- Talley and Paisley, a sleek black girl named Riley, and the tabby with white named Luna (she had a crescent moon shape patch on her face).

May, Family Camp

Reunions in my mom's family have always been camping.  Therefore: Family Camp.  There were even some tents involved (the teenage boys slept in tents in the back yard).  Naturally I took a thousand... or so... pictures.  Here is a small sampling of the pictures featuring my little family as part of my big family!

We met at SUU (local college) where my brother in law teaches.  We had lunch and the kids went on a crazy campus-wide scavenger hunt.  The smallest kids even got a Dora themed (their favorite) smaller version of a scavenger hunt.

Then we played a series of "Minute to Win it" games.  The teams were planned ahead of time to make even groups with old, young, gimpy (that was me), and from each family. Everyone had a chance to play, right down to the youngest who wanted to play!

The church building where we played the games was just on the other side of my sister's family's yard.  They set up a ladder to make the trip shorter for those who were walking. :)  After dinner we drove up Kolob Canyon.  It was gorgeous!

I nabbed some pictures of the group up a small trail.  I was doing far more than I should have so my pain and stiffness was pretty intense.  That meant that I couldn't scout out any more ideal location for the shot.  It seemed to work okay, though.  I also caught each of the families on their own.  Unfortunately, the picture of our family didn't work out, so we had to catch ours at a different location when we discovered what had happened.

(This picture needs some editing, but that's just how it is today.)

Michael hung out with me while everyone else was on a short hike.  I wish I'd been able to go with them, though, since I saw some fantastic pictures from up there!  At least we had the tripod and a lovely backdrop from the parking lot too.

Sunday we all went to church together.  In the evening we had a nice meeting where the teens took turns talking to us about things they have learned and how they have handled challenges in their lives.  It was impressive.  They're great kids.  In the evening most everyone went up the canyon again to have a campfire.  Lizzie was very proud to have learned how to use small rocks to split a log.  Apparently she used the method to split an impressively sized log all on her own!

After tidying up on Monday morning, we all went to a fun park.  We played, ate lunch, flew kites, shot water bottle rockets, and generally had a really nice time.  Gradually we made our way back and headed home.

Chinese kites are the absolute best!!!  They work even in low wind conditions!

Our drive home: the girls watched a movie, curled up in blankets and pillows, and snacking.  It was a very proper road trip, even if it was only a few hours long.

Happy Vacation!

May, part 2

Just after the end of the school year we went on the most serious vacation we've ever been on as a family to date.  It was 3 days in Cedar City with most of my family at my sister's house.  It's only about a 3 hour drive, but there were several Dairy Queen restaurants along the way, so we indulged on our way home.

Later in the months I'd had a rough day and Daddy took us out to dinner at Cracker Barrel.  Michael got me a chocolate truffle.  I apparently dropped it on my seat in the car, then forgot.  It was pretty bad to get out of the car at the store on the way home and realize how horribly unfortunate the placement was, and even worse: what a waste of a truffle!  Fortunately I noticed the disaster *before* going in to the store.

In the never-ending saga of trying to manage my severe case of fibromyalgia, I was sent to do an overnight full polysomnogram (sleep study).  It was pretty interesting.  Especially when it comes to sleeping in a room with video cameras on you!  It took ages for the techs to get all the sensors on my scalp and my hair gathered so it would be out of the way.  It took ages again to get it all out!  It was a lovely room, but it was also hard to sleep with so many things stuck to me.  The result is that I have pretty mild sleep apnea.  I'm supposed to sleep with a dental appliance that pushes my lower jaw slightly forward to open up the back of my throat.  I can't say I feel like I sleep any better, but I'll take any edge I can get to feel better.

May, part 1

We were asked to come help clean the church building one Saturday.  I wasn't able to do any of the work, so instead I pointed out spots for the girls, carried a few pieces of paper towel for them to swap out, and took pictures (of course).

The last week of school: crazy hair day!  After Halloween we picked up several cans of colored hair-spray for about $0.25 each on clearance.  Best idea ever.  It was fast, easy, and very fun for crazy hair day.

Author's Day at school, where the girls get to share their portfolio of writing from the year.

The last day of school I waited for the girls to get home on the bus.  They each got some balloons to celebrate.  6 for Kate since she's going into 6th grade, 4 for Lizzie, and 2 for Sabrina.

...and, of course, more pictures.

In case Kate ever decides her mom and dad *aren't* cool, here's proof that she once did.  Also, a clematis bloom off the vine out back; Lizzie and Sabrina trying out the unfinished dog houses at Home Depot; Sabrina making slippers for her cousin Eliza L's birthday.

Going into summer was wonderful.  I love having the girls home.  And I *really* love not having to wake up to an alarm, make sack lunches 5 days a week, or be responsible for signing homework packets and reading logs.  Huge sigh of relief to have 10 weeks off!

Cats and Kittens

Happy 2nd Birthday to Ginger and Sierra!

We got them a new couple of toys.  Unfortunately we discovered, at home, that the mouse toy was possessed.  When it was moved it would make terrible noises and its eyes would flash demonically.  The cats loved it, except when it made noise.  We finally gutted the mouse and all was well.

After a failed attempt at fostering an adult cat around the end of last year, we decided to try again, but with kittens this time.  This litter of four was dumped at a shelter at about 5 weeks old.  They didn't even know how to eat on their own yet.  We got them within 24 hours of the time they were dumped.  Since they were new we got to name them.  We chose their names from the secret identities of cat-themed superheroes.

The all-black kitty was named Shuri (aka Black Panther.  Tabby with white was named Priscilla Rich (aka Cheetah.  Cream with chocolate points was the only male, named Thomas Rich (aka Catman), and cream with dilute tabby points Felicia Hardy (aka Black Cat).

This is trying to teach the kittens how to eat warm, slightly liquid canned food.  It resulted in a number of nips on my fingers, but all but Felicia caught on to it pretty quickly.  We had to get some baby food (smoother texture) to finally get Felicia to catch on.

 Aunt Janice and Aunt Jenny came to visit and cuddle kittens.  

February 2013

 February was a flurry of ice, snow, and pain.  There were a few delightful highlights, though.

One benefit of lots of cold and snow, is that it makes the perfect opportunity to try out snow sculpturing.  The girls made this snow dog in our yard.

I enjoy working with the 8-12 year old girls from church.  We arranged a Daddy/Daughter Dinner in February.  We served breakfast for dinner and played some fun games.  I was in charge of decorations.  We decorated with blue, white, and silver and snow.  Pompoms strung on invisible thread, silver glitter mixed with epsom salts in vases holding up pipe cleaner stems for tissue paper snowflakes (cut by the girls), snowflake table scatter shapes, etc.  It's wonderful to see the girls with a father, uncle, brother, or friend who they love.

Since Sabrina is our youngest, this is the last year for me to see the 1st graders production of "The Little Engine that Could".  Sabrina was chosen to be a narrator.  It is done entirely in choral readings / recitings.  The narrators do most of the talking, so they got to read it from a folder.  She loved it.  Especially the poster-paints she got to use for the "costume"

Around this time I took over sorting, scanning, and captioning photos from my mom's house.  There are quite a lot, many of which I don't remember having ever seen before!  Ginger was very suspicious of the scanner, though.  She often stayed handy and occasionally growled at the box that seemed to growl back.

2012: In closing

 A few pictures I missed from Christmas:   Ginger was thrilled by all the empty boxes left around.  We did stop by to visit the grands (Grandpa and Grandma Southern and Grandma Abuela, aka Grandma Jensen).

In the week between Christmas and New Years all the available Jarbh ladies of all ages got together for A Doll's Christmas.  We had a beautiful mini dinner complete with Cornish game hens and miniature cutlery.  We did manage to include the Arkansas branch of the family via Skype.  Everyone brought a doll and introduced their dolls around before dinner.

With the teenage nieces and nephews getting around to doing fun things with friends on New Year's Eve we decided it was time for a change of plans.  Instead of a late night gathering we had a morning activity.  The teens planned it and were helpers through the activities.  Breakfast (prepared via short order cooks), puzzles, unique DIY party hats, games, and more!  Each person had a ticket to have "stamped" at each activity.  Then at the end everyone who did enough activities (well, actually we just did everyone :) ) got to pick a wrapped white elephant gift.

There were some fun music activities in the music room with all sorts of instruments.  See?  I was there too!  Little J was taking some experimental steps towards being a grown up walker (which he has been for some time now).  Sabrina got the chocolate bar as part of her white elephant gift.

When it came to the actual changing of the year, this is what it looked like.  We sat at home watching something together, probably on Netflix.  The girls gathered more and more blankets and cuddled up until they were barely awake.  Happy Drowsy New Year!