We've done it again!

Last week we were sitting around the table eating lunch and drawing names for family gifts. Gabe got my name and asked me what I wanted. I said, "You know what I really want? Another kitten!!" The kids all screamed YESSS! in agreement. Well, Zeke says I started a mutiny that just 5 hours later, resulted in this:

I'm just a *tiny bit* impulsive I think.

He kinda reminds me of Yoda...

However, we can't totally settle on a name.
First, he was going to be Hiccup.... I still like that one, but I was voted down.
Then, he became Skeeter (from "Bedtime Stories" because he was for FREEEEEE! We thought Skeeter was a better name for a cat than Ferrari.)
Now, we call him Percy. My older three kids say he's Perseus, as in Percy Jackson. Beck thinks he's Percy from Thomas the tank engine.
I'm not sure... Zeke and I really like the name Thor.
We've also considered Taco and Zucchini... I'm not joking.

Needless to say, we are having SO much fun with him right now. He's a sweetie and Caspian and Nora don't seem to mind too much... other than the 23 hours a day he's trying to bite their tails. He's had a few good whacks to the head... ahhh, I love it!

Someday when I get around to it, I'll tell you the whole story...

P.S. In other news, I sent my story to two publishers last week! Cross your fingers!!! If I get brave enough, I'll post a bit of it for you...

Prince Caspian's Adventure

Hi everyone, it's already December! How are things? Are you getting excited for Christmas? I am. We put up our tree on Monday and our cats are loving their favorite napping spot. Beck is so excited this year -- I love watching my kids enjoy all of the decorations and lights.

We spent a crazy Thanksgiving weekend at my parents. It was fun though. I got to see almost ALL of my family. I really enjoyed seeing my brothers and nieces and nephews.

The toilet in my parent's only bathroom starting leaking the day before everyone came. By Friday, it was obvious they needed it fixed. Zeke took it apart and found water had been leaking under the floor for quite some time. Long story short: Zeke ended up replacing the entire floor, including all of the sub-floor. We were going to go to Colorado and visit his parents as well, but we ended up staying at my parents house, while Zeke worked on the floor night and day. It made for a very interesting weekend WITHOUT A TOILET. Ha! Oh well.

Anyway, I was looking though my goals for 2011 and I still haven't done everything I want to do. (The ballroom dance lessons were on a Wednesday and Gabe's scouts changed to Wednesdays this year -- so that is still something we are going to do as well.)

I've been talking with my family about finishing my book and I got a lot of good feedback from them over Thanksgiving and well, I'm just about finished with my first draft! It's a children's book -- and it's taken me awhile to decide what direction I want to take it. I think I just needed to start. I've had notes on my phone since May.

I'm going to be busy with that and I hope to submit it to a publisher by January. :) I have a really good feeling about it. Gabe is going to do some artwork for it and we'll go from there. After all, if you don't write it down (literally) it's just a wish!

Here is the star of my book:
I'll keep you posted on my progress and maybe give you a sneak peek in a week or two --
I could use some feedback. Also, I'm thinking about using a pen name? Thoughts on that?

THIS is the definition of Insanity

"The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." ~ Albert Einstein

I can't believe how often this quote applies to my life. When I finally wake up and realize what I'm doing -- this quote always comes to mind.

Thanks, Gabe, for letting me use your AWESOME gorilla skull on my blog
(I think it would make a cool T-shirt):

I was whining to Zeke this morning (Wednesday after my last post) about how hard it is and how stressed I am, how messy the house is and how grumpy we all are and sick of each other. DUH!

Kids eating breakfast hours apart, sleeping in until 10 or 11, friends coming and going, insanely stressful dinner making times, "the witching hours" as my friend Stephanie calls it. She talked about quiet/play in your room time right before dinner when they're hungry, tired, and excited for Dad to get home. GENIUS. She also told me to spend more one on one time with each child. INSPIRED. Hard to do, but VERY important.

Today I changed, made a schedule, not just in my head, but on paper on the fridge and went through it with each child and well, tried to follow it --aaaaah. So much better! Another quote I need to practice more often, "If you don't write it down, it's simply a wish."
Not every member of the household was pleased with the "SCHEDULE" (i.e. Gabe), but I think they'll figure out soon enough, "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!" There HAS to be some structure even to summer. June was so crazy and July was so busy. Better late than never, right?

We've done a lot of cool things -- swim lessons, play group, afternoon at the county fair, late nights with friends, summer reading program, cooking together, yard work, sewing, etc, but it's all been "roly-poly, pell-mell tumble-bumble" and I end up at the bottom of the hill in a big heap.
Now that there's only 2 weeks left, I've got it all figured out... for NEXT YEAR! Bring on the Strawberry Shortcake! :) 10 pts. to the first person who can identify one of our favorite books I'm quoting. Oh, and here's the guardian of our front porch (Thank, Caspian):

Is he cute or what?
(Dedra and Tawnya don't need to answer this, but I love you anyway :)

Dying to tie-dye

My kids have been BEGGING me to make tie-dye some T-shirts for FOREVER. Last Saturday was the first Saturday we've been home in FOREVER. This was it! I got a kit from Wal-Mart ($20):

It was really fun and easy. We also got most of our shirts at the D.I. (thrift store) for $1 each. Yeah! After getting all the shirts damp (I just ran them through a rinse/spin cycle in the washer), we got to wrap them all up and "tie" them with elastic bands according to the pattern we wanted. The kit came with some great ideas and instructions.

I would recommend doing the dyeing part OUTSIDE!

Ziploc baggies came in handy to store the shirts once they had been dyed so they wouldn't bleed onto anything else.

After letting them sit for 8 hours, I washed them according to the directions in the kit. Next time, I think I will let them sit longer for even brighter colors. They faded quite a bit. We wanted to get them done so Gabe could take some to Scout camp. Here we are:

Do we look tired? We are, we stayed up past midnight on Saturday rinsing them all out and getting them in the washer...

As soon as we got home from church on Sunday, we all put on one of our shirts. I decided Caspian needed one too.

Poor cat, he was in the right place at the wrong time...

and Noira makes three!

Here she is!

Well, you knew we'd get her, didn't you? I called on Thursday and no one had claimed her... so a quick drive to the Humane Society, $85 later, and she's OURS!

Zeke and I both agreed it was a LOT of money, but Zeke also said, "I can be easily swayed." Well, that's a YES in my book! I know it's silly. It's just a cat. But I am so thankful that Zeke got this new job in October so we could afford to adopt Noira. She is really sweet. It is SO worth every penny to see my children enjoying her; to see Gabe hold her and talk to her like she's a little baby. Thanks, honey, for giving in!

There was a sign at the Humane Society: "Cats are like potato chips, you can never have just one!" When I was a little girl, I had a "School Memories" scrapbook. Each page was for each school year. There were different sections of the page to fill in different things about you such as: friends, teacher's name, interests, favorite school subject, etc. There was also a section labeled: "When I grow up I want to be _________." When I was 10 years old, I wrote in the blank: "a person with 100 cats." Well, I won't get 100 or even 10, but I really enjoy having them in our home.

I'm quite surprised at how well Caspian and Pippin are handling the new addition. She's been growling at them tonight when they get too close, but that's about it. They just look at her and then at me like, "What's her problem?!"

Staring contest:

Pippin was showing off after we brought Noira home.
He was vying for some serious attention:

Caspian was bored with the whole ordeal and promptly went to sleep on top of Kaia's coat:

P.S. The Humane Society named her "Simone." So we decided that would be her middle name. "Noira Simone" sounds very French, doesn't it?

P.P.S. Just for the record, Caspian's middle name is Blue (also from the Humane Society). And Pippin's middle name is Zucchini (from Kaia).

Doctrine and Covenants 59:18 "Yea all things which come of the earth are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart." Well, I think Heavenly Father created cats to gladden our hearts.