...just a few teaser pictures from an album I'm making.....

Goodbye Jilli-bug

Twenty years ago, before Mike and I were even engaged, we become "parents" for the first time to a teeny, tiny, not even weaned kitten. Our neighbor and friend Mary found her abandoned by her mother at the horse stables where she worked and brought her home covered in fleas and spent two weeks getting rid of her fleas and bottle feeding her. Mary asked us if we wanted her and Mike and I took her in. Mike was telling the kids tonight the story of how I went out and bought her all these kitty toys - I think she got a new kitty toy every week there for awhile :) - and put them all in a basket for her. When we got home from work each night - every toy was strewn about the house. Mike and I would spend hours playing with her and wondering what we did before she came into our lives!
Six months later Talasi, a one-year-old wolf hybrid that belonged to Mike's sister came to live with us. I was so worried this wolf was going to eat my baby! We found someone an hour's drive away, clear on the other side of the Phoenix valley and took her to be "psychologically analyzed". I had nothing to worry about. Talasi was so gentle with her and Jilli used to curl up right against her and sleep. (Talasi became one of our most loved dogs ever and loved our children and our other cats we acquired like they loved her. She passed away in 2004)
Jilli had this unusual habit of kneading and sucking on my hair whenever possible. At times she was quite aggressive and annoying about it. The vet told us they thought it was due to her being weaned way before she was ready to be weaned and I was like a mother to her and it was a response she had to me. She continued that habit for most of her 20 years. She also liked sleeping on us. She would go back and forth between Mike and I and drape herself across our waist at night. It was such a comforting habit that it was hard to sleep if she wasn't there.
She loved to eat pieces of banana out of my hand and mandarin oranges. She loved to drink out of the bathroom sink. She loved playing with the tie on Mike's bathrobe. She loved immediately sitting on Uncle Larry's lap when he sat down on the couch, "knowing" he was massively allergic to her. (Larry eventually grew out of his allergies to cats and I'd like to think she helped build up his immunity to allergies against our cats.) She loved us and we loved her.
Jilli started going downhill a few months ago and we started giving her Magic Minerals from a friend and wet cat food. She rebounded for a while. Then the weight just started dropping and about a week ago quit eating. We tried everything and she wouldn't eat. She was having trouble walking and could no longer jump up on anything without falling and was sleeping non-stop. She would curl up with anyone who sat down on the couch and would lay between Mike and I at night. This last week she would curl up against my chest and sleep with her paws on my shoulder and her head tucked under my chin. I think she knew her time was coming and wanted to be as close as possible to us.
If you have a love for your animals, you know that they become just like one of your children. It's devastating when you have to say goodbye. You want to be selfish and keep them close to you for as long as possible. We made the hard decision to put our much beloved kitty to sleep. It's been a very emotional weekend and very emotional goodbye. I don't see Mike cry very often but he has had just as many emotional moments as I have knowing we were going to have to say goodbye. We went to the vet together, Mike carrying her in. Mike said his goodbye to her in the lobby while I decided to spend her last moments holding her. I'm glad I did. I know she's not suffering any longer but oh, how I will miss my baby.

Pictures from Christmas

Welcome to the Menagerie

We have acquired a new cat. His name is Sport, compliments of all the guys on Mike's job-site in Kaysville. Sport showed up on the job, bedraggled and starved and the guys started bringing him food and eventually named him. He would follow Mike around the job-site just like a dog. The day before Thanksgiving, Mike brought him home, with my blessing, afraid to leave him over the long holiday knowing a huge storm was passing through then. He has taken to our household like he was always a part of it. The only one who has a problem with him is CeCe, Kaylies' cat. To this day, over a month now, she still has violent reactions towards him. So now we have 3 cats, 2 dogs, and a lizard. Jilli, our oldest "baby" is 19, maybe even 20 years old and sadly getting closer to the end of hers, though in good health for being so old. It's sad to watch her waste down to nothing even though Mike and I try everything we can to keep weight on her. It worked for a while; now it's not. Our house has been home to cats, dogs, wolf-hybrids, fish, hermit crabs, a tarantula and a bearded dragon. Our kids have a love and respect for animals of all kinds and I'm glad no one has allergies that would deprive us and them of the experiences we've had with them. (Just had to attach some pics of Zorro sitting in the windowsill sunning himself while I washed dishes)

Just Posting Pictures....

James' 17th birthday, and Mark's first dinner he cooked all by himself - ultimate chicken fingers and french fries!

Halloween Pictures

Bye-Bye Post Office Job

For the last 4 months I have been in the process of applying for, testing for, and training for Data Conversion Operator for the USPS. This job would be a part-time evening job four nights a week. That process ended last night when I made the decision to "give it up" so to speak. For the last two weeks, I have been working 6pm to midnight (that's after working my day job - which I would never give up - I love my job and everyone I work with!) The training requires one to encode mail that the scanners at the post office are unable to read and one must due it with a very low error rate and a high speed rate. In and of itself, this job would not be difficult for one who loves to type (me!) and the hours are doable. The family was very supportive and pitching in extra to take over the things I normally did in the evenings. The hard part of this training was 1. remembering how to encode the multitude of different types of mail, keep your errors low and still type the required rate of speed and 2. the lack of sleep. Being up at six in the morning with the kids, seeing them off to school, getting myself off to school, being home an hour and half then leaving again for 6 hours and not getting home until after midnight. Getting through the workday and then subsequently the night on 4 -5 hours of sleep for the last 2 weeks was extremely difficult. (I did it with the help of Lift-Off- a B vitamin drink and 5 hour energy drinks! Anyway, after 2 nights this past week where I really struggled to pass off the typing tests, I was really behind. I have had a lot of friends and family praying with and for me but ultimately if this was the path that HE wanted me to be on, then I would make it through this training. I firmly, deeply and faithfully believe that and last night when I knew I wasn't going to be able to pass this one test and move on, I relinquished that responsibility and said okay, I'm done. I told one of the trainers I was done - I have no regrets and no disappointments. I am proud of myself for trying my best. I think it's good for the kids to see that I attempted something that was at times difficult and even though it didn't come to fruition, they are able to see how an adult handles trying something that doesn't work out and the attitude of acceptance and faith that I have toward that. When our children try for something -I'll say sports as that is what my kids are into the most - and do not make the team, or make a team they didn't want etc... it's easy for us to say, "have a good, positive attitude" "there is a reason for everything" etc.... but it's even better when they can see that we as adults can go through the same type of situation and come out of it with a positive attitude. This job would have been helpful financially, but the positive is that the training was paid for and I made enough to pay for some specific truck repairs we needed. HE provided the way for that. The other positive (beside the fact that I can actually sleep more than 4 - 5 hours) is that I believe I am meant to be home in the evenings with the family and Mark said as much to me. He was glad I was going to be home and he had really missed me. That, is really all I need!