Wanted: Kitten.

It is no secret that we are an animal loving family. Jason and I love cats and dogs. We got our first pet together when we were dating, a black lab we named Abbie. Shortly after getting Abbie, we got a kitten and named her Daisy. Back then we had lots of time to play with our animals, give them attention, and train them.

Now, not so much.

In 2000 we added Elvis to the mix. Elvis is a mix of some kind, probably with some lab in him. He's a big black and white dog, and while he's not the smartest dog in the world, he's very gentle.

Abbie passed away a year ago. We were sad, and we worried that Elvis was depressed. In our worry, we decided to get a new dog.

Chester.

Chester is a full bred Border Collie. He has tons of energy and a very fun personality. Maybe a little too fun. We've learned over the past year that we just don't have the time, or the environment that Chester needs. So today, Chester found a new home. A home with older kids, and wide open spaces. Hopefully his forever home.

This has been hard for me. I've never given an animal away. I feel guilty and sad, even though we found him a new home. I guess I feel like we failed Chester.

In retrospect I realize that we rushed into getting a new dog. We've decided to be a one dog family. Elvis is getting older, and we just feel that he'll be happier by himself. He put up with Chester, but we could tell he wasn't thrilled with him.

Now for the cats.

That would be cats, in the plural form.

Currently we have one cat, Daisy. She's a healthy, pampered 11 year old cat. So why do I say cats?

Here's why...

When Ellie was four, FOUR mind you, she asked if she could have a kitten. At first we just said no, but she was relentless. This girl loves cats. From babyhood she preferred cat stuffed animals. As a toddler she collected stuffed cats by the dozens. As a pre-schooler she started collecting cat figures and decorating her room in all things cat. She loves all animals, and I honestly think she may be a vet someday, but her love for cats is intense. Sometimes I worry that she'll turn into one of those crazy cat ladies! So like I said, she was relentless. Finally, just to get her to be quiet, we told her when she was seven, she could get a kitten.

She never forgot.

She's six now, and constantly reminds us that a kitten is in her near future.

Even nearer than we thought.

When daddy announced that we found a new home for Chester, we had some sad girls on our hands. I knew he felt bad, I did too, but apparently he felt really bad. I about fell over when he looked at Ellie and said...

Maybe we should go ahead and get your kitten now.

WHAT?! Oh no he didn't!

Oh yes he did.

So today, when I told Ellie after school that Chester had gone to his new home, she immediately asked...

Do I have my kitten?!

Poor daddy. He mistakenly thought we'd have a couple of weeks to "research" getting a kitten.

I give it through the weekend.

Tops.

Wish us luck. We need it.

Thursday 13 with Pictures!

How cool, this is my 50th post! Here's my Thursday 13!

13 things we have done this week while Daddy had vacation time, and 13 pictures!

1. Thursday we went to White Water with Lane, Karlie, Dixie, Tessa, and Baron. We had a great time swimming with friends!

2. Friday we picked up Ellie from Marketplace (VBS at my mom's church). She had a wonderful week learning about the miracle's of Jesus, and she got to sing on stage for us with her class on friday. Annie also enjoyed her week (3 days) at marketplace. The girls both spent 4 nights in a row at Grammie's last week, WOW! They had a wonderful time, and I really enjoyed my break!

3. Friday night we drove to St. Louis for our "mini vacation". A normally 4 1/2 hour drive took closer to 6 hours because of many extra stops due to the need to potty, the need for something mommy couldn't reach, too much fighting and the need for discipline! We finally made it though, and the girls were very excited to "camp out" in the hotel. You shoulda seen that room, 1 king size bed, 1 queen size air matress, and a pack-n-play! not to mention the loads of other stuff crammed into every corner we could find. I wonder what the hotel staff thought as we wheeled our cart, loaded to the top, with one girl hanging off each end, and a baby hanging from my arm at 10pm! The theme song from "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody" played in my head as the girls ran in circles through the hotel lobby!

4. Saturday morning we had breakfast at Mimi's Cafe (thanks Jen!). It was wonderful and we almost went back but we ran out of time! ( i can't imagine why we were short on time, i mean, it only took an hour to get in the car and an hour to get out of the car every time we stopped.) Then we went to Purina Farms with our friends Matt and Gina. This was a wonderful place that you must go to! The girls got to play in the barn, help milk a cow, see goats, horses, donkey's and other farm animals, pet piglets, chickens, and bunnies, see geese and ducks, watch a dog show, pet the dogs and cats (i don't think the nice lady who ran the dog and cat house had ever met anyone quite as insistent as Ellie - i doubt she'll ever forget us!), see some fish, and walk the beautiful grounds. This was all completely FREE! Not even a charge for parking! We'll definitely be doing this place again!

5. Saturday for lunch we went to Fitz's Rootbeer and Bottling Co. It was yummy, and a fun atmosphere, but quite a drive into the heart of the city, and then an hour wait. It's in a, well, alternative part of town, if you get my drift. We definately saw some interesting people. I was just waiting for one of the girls to say something like, "Mommy, why does that man have a chain hanging from his ear to his nose to inside his pants. . .?" Thankfully they were too busy trying to out do each other by jumping higher and farther, and they didn't notice Mr. Body Pierce America. If you go, try it on a weekday, i think it would be less crowded and maybe less, um, diverse. Saturday evening we went to the Zoo, which is always wonderful. Then we ate at a chinese place i wouldn't recommend. We were told it was sooo good, very authentic chinese food. Come to find out, very authentic chinese food kinda looks, well, gross. I'm sure it's wonderful. . . if you're chinese. So we ate sweet and sour chicken and shrimp fried rice (we're such risk takers!) and headed back to the hotel for swimming and bed for 5 very tired people!

6. Sunday we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, where in true vacation spirit, I let the girls get GIANT lollipops for dessert! Yes, we had dessert after breakfast!


7. Then we went furniture shopping. I seriously wouldn't recommend doing that with 3 VERY tired kids that are now hyped up on sugar! I did get new end tables though! It was totally worth the hour and a half of chasing the girls down isles of couches (which they climbed over), and recliners (which they flipped every single foot rest up as they ran away from me hysterically laughing.) and a blow out diaper (that was Annie) to get two fairly well priced end tables. At one point the sales lady said "Every time I see you, you have another kid with you!"

8. After that we went to our friends' house for lunch. There's nothing quite like taking your 3 kids to your kidless friends' house. They were very gracious, but after another dirty diaper, a spilled drink, and several jumps off their furniture, they didn't argue when we said we had to go. And when we questioned them about their possible plans for children in the future. . .they changed the subject! We then headed to the Magic House. I agree with Janelle and Michelle that it is a Must see! Even though they were so tired (the girls fell asleep on the way there!) they had a blast! We plan to go again next summer and leave more time to thoroughly explore it. I didn't go for the boob shot like Janelle, but Jason had fun posing in the "impression wall". Ellie's faves were the pneumatic air chute and the ATM (that made me a bit nervous), Annie's fave was the slides, Austin's fave was the baby area and the balls, and My fave was the thingamajig that made my hair stand up!

9. We headed towards Rolla about 5:30, and towards our new puppy! Ok, the farm where the puppy lived was incredible! I'm talkin' like "Charlotte's Web" incredible! The lady, Brenda, and her 15 year old daughter Kelly were SO nice! They had a beautiful farm where they raise horses, pigs, sheep, dogs, cows, and even a duck! They showed us around and let the girls pet the horses, Annie even sat on one! We were so excited to get our puppy which Ellie named Chester! (so sorry we didn't go with all ya'll's wonderful suggestions, i was personally rooting for Harley.) He was very excited to meet us too! In case you're wondering where the name Chester came from, well, he's named after a cat! Ellie has a book with a cat in it named chester, and we had just stayed in Chesterfield, so it just seemed to fit! After almost 2 hours of farm fun, we loaded back up and headed home, finally! Jason and I were a bit nervous about the van ride home with 3 tired kids and a puppy, but miraculously they all fell asleep within 15 minutes and stayed asleep the whole way home! (love the blanket over Ellie's head!)

10. Monday the fun continued. We slept in and then went to the lake with some out-of-town friends. We took Chester along, but let him nap in his kennel while we went out on the boat. The girls LOVED the boat ride! It was the first boat ride for Annie and Austin, and the first one that Ellie remembers. I got into the fun and went "tubing" for the first time in a looooong time! After 6 summers of either having a baby in me or on me or a broken bone, I was determined to go wild! I even tubed on my knees! I am a wild child! I had a blast, but I'm still sore 3 days later!

11. Tuesday we spent some much needed time at home, the girls had swimming lessons, and I flew to target and back to get a much needed starbucks fix. Then we headed to Ozark for dinner with my Grandpa and Dorothy, and my parents. I mean, why not take our kids who've been sleep deprived for days on end out to dinner? What's the worst that could happen? Actually, they did pretty good. I think the "do we need to take the puppy back?" threat worked well. We went to Grandpa's after dinner for awhile where the girls helped drive the BIG tractor. We played outside in their beautiful yard with Chester and had a lot of fun! Then we spent the night at mom's house.

12. Wednesday we went to the Springfield Zoo. We'd never been there before (at least not in my adult life) and I guess we were in a "zoo mood" so off we went! We enjoyed it for awhile, but then it got really hot, and when I'm hot, giraffe's and hippo's don't appeal to me much. So, we went to the Nixa pool, which is a lot like the RecPlex, and cooled off. We swam with the 10,000 other people who thought going to the pool was a good idea too, and Annie fell asleep on grammie. We ate dinner at a place called Bumsteads (i continued my wildness and ordered hot wings!), which was really good, and then we bought some fireworks (wild!) and went back to mom's. Jason had fun playing with fire, as I think most men do, or at least the one's around here. Ellie wavered between being a little scared to being a lot scared, Annie loved it all, and Austin liked the lights, but the noise scared him so he got to go to bed.

13. We drove home late last night to the lights from the man made fireworks and God's fireworks (lightning), and we fell into our beds. This was one of those moments that I really don't think I could have moved even if the house was falling down! Vacation time is over. We had a ton of fun, but i think we're all ready for a little "down time". And I've missed my friends! So, we'll rest today and maybe tomorrow, but be expecting a phone call, 'cause we're gonna be needing some "friend time" soon!

we're (kinda) back!

this is just a quick post to say hi! we're kinda back. jason is still on "vacation" for today and tommorow, so i won't have much "blog" time for a couple more days. we're trying to cram as much "family time" in as possible! so here's my super fast update, i'll tell you more detail later. st. louis was great but exhausting! the new puppy is wonderful and his name is, (drum roll please). . .Chester! so far he is the world's most perfect puppy. everything else is great. I came home to find several of my friends blog designs updated and AWESOME! so now i am shamelessly begging their signifigant others to do the same for me. because i am sooo not computer savvy! anyway, i'll blog more soon! glad to be (kinda) back!

it looks like we're adding another family member.

no, i'm not pregnant! but in a week, it will be as if we had a newborn again.

we're getting a puppy. and yes, i'm crazy!

since our black lab abbie went to puppy heaven, we've been exploring the idea of a puppy. our other dog elvis is all by himself now, and he really does need a playmate. so, we decided on a border collie and proceeded to look for breeders.

that was crazy! apparently this breed is quite hard to find around here. we wanted a registered one so we truly know what we're getting. we found one near st. louis, but they wanted $500 for her! i'm sorry, but i'm not paying that much to add a whole nother level of craziness to my life!!!

seriously, $500!

so then i found this adorable little puppy in the rolla area, and they want $100 for him. since we'll be coming through there next sunday anyway, it does seem divinely arranged. we showed the pics to ellie, and of course she wanted him!

so it's settled. we've sent a $50 deposit to "hold" the puppy for us, and on our way home from st. louis sunday, we'll pick him up.

and then i truly will go crazy.

maybe the craziness has already set in, because i'm actually kind of excited about it. check back with my state of mind in about a week.

our next item of business will be to name the pup. any ideas? things to consider: he's a boy border collie, he's black and white, we have one dog named elvis and a cat named daisy. lauren (my cousin), you're working at the vet place, any awesome names you've heard? and any tips you've picked up on handling a puppy? ha! i just realized i'm asking my darling cousin who isn't really a "dog" person for puppy advice! i really am losing it! (just kidding lauren!)

oh, and did i mention we're crazy?