Another pet???

So here's the deal..... Dave and I both work at the High School.  One day a student brought a couple of kittens to school, she was planning on giving them away I think.  Word got out that there were cats on campus.  In fact a student came into the office saying that a girl was shoving a kitten in her locker.  The sad part is she didn't know the girls name or locker number!  This started Dave on a little hunt.  His direct boss told him not to bother with the cats.  When one of our principles got word of it she sent Dave out on the hunt!  First one cat was located and a call made for someone to come pick it up.  Towards the end of the day another cat was found and brought into the office.  The student holding the cat at the time said it wasn't his but a friends.  The girls name came out but we all knew she had already left school for the day.  PAUSE For those of you who don't know, Dave is a cat lover.  He is especially fond of small, cute kittens!  UNPAUSE  Well a bunch of us were debating on what to do with this cute little cat.  Dave was holding it and it looked right in his eyes and meowed!  So Dave declared, we'll take him home.  I dropped my head and shook it from side to side, I couldn't believe we were taking on another pet!  (his daughter had begged for a kitten in the summer, his answer always NO) So I resigned myself and found a box to bring him home in.  Maybe five minutes later the girl in question from earlier in the story showed up and saw the kitten.  She looked right at me and said, "that's my cat."  I told her she'd have to talk to Dave.  He came back in the office with her just a few minutes later saying we had to give her the cat.  She had asked permission and even had a little brother at home excited about this new pet.  I hate to admit it but I felt a little sad for the rest of the night, we had already started our bonding process!  (even if it was just a few minutes)  So Dave declared that we would find a kitten and that is what we did.  The kitten we adopted is much cuter than the 1st one, all white, blue eyes, and still tiny.  Come to find out later (not much later) the girls Mom who adopted the first kitten is allergic to cats!  They were going to have to find it another home.  We weren't available anymore!   

Quick Catch Up

I have been away from "the blog" for several weeks now.  I may have had a short lapse of amnesia.  Something strange happened.... it was Jessica's birthday and then I blinked and it's almost Dave's birthday!!!  When seasons change I find that especially hard on the body and mind.  Do any of you agree?  From what I observe it seems to be a universal problem that nobody really knows about.  What does that mean????  Well what I'm trying to say is that people become more absent minded than usual, fatigue sets in, kids act crazy.  I attribute this to season changes, specifically the changes to fall and spring.  Allergies at both those times are high and that alone makes a person tired, forgetful, and crazy!  Well, let me quickly recap a couple moments I might remember from the last few weeks, it's all a little fuzzy though......

Jess now officially turned 11.  She nearly cried when we gave her a Nintento DS lite.  She tends to become addicted to video games so she thought we'd never buy her one.  Needless to say she was thrilled with the present.  I didn't see her much on her birthday.  She went to school, I picked her up and went to the park with the kids thinking that would be fun for a bit.  She played her DS the whole time while Taylor and D.J. enjoyed the park.  Then I brought her to the High School to wait for football practice to end so she could go to youth group with Dave.  She brought a chocolate cake I made for her the night before and her friends brought her little presents.  She came home just in time to go to bed for the night.  I promised her a party though and we need to get on that.   I lose all momentum after the birthday passes. 

D.J. has transitioned into his new school year finally.  He had his first panic attack this year when I walked him to class and he decided at the last minute that he didn't want to go.  He said "Mom, I don't know what's wrong with me, I feel weird!" While he was crying and laying on the ground.  After that day I came up with a new goodbye system.  We give hugs and kisses in the car and then he gets out and blows me kisses.  One day he said he would blow me 700!  Once in a while he would ask me to walk him but I had to stay strong.  All this last week I've only gotten maybe 5 kisses blown at me.  He has worried about being on time so he doesn't miss PE and races down the sidewalk to class.  I'm glad the emotional tug is over in the morning but maybe am a little sad that my last child has crossed this bridge to "big kid land".  It really struck me hard this morning when he took communion in Church.  He was sitting next to me and I was asking him questions to see if he understood.  He seemed to have a good grasp on why we take communion.  I flashed back to another blond haired child at that same age sitting next to me taking communion.  Today that child was one over from me with red hair, braces, and high heels!  Some days I feel so old!  (and tired thinking back on all these years of parenting... there are so many left to go!)

Jessica is playing flag football now.  She is the only girl on the team but really loves it.  Taylor went on her first all day hike with girl scouts.  I was so proud of her! The rest of us stayed home and slept in.  (they hiked out here at the ranch)  Nicole loves High School and is fitting in well.  She's practicing with her drama class for Les Miserable, whew!  Our kids are growing faster and faster every day!  How is it that time flies by so quickly as you get older?  If anyone has any theories or scientific evidence about this let me know!  

SAD story, part II

Seems like the ending of part I was quite enough drama for the evening, but it didn't stop there.  At 1:30 in the morning Nicole called down to our bedroom on the intercom to say that someone was at the door.  That was a chilling feeling!  Dave immediately got out of bed and went to check it out.  (people don't just "pop in" out in the country)

I didn't share with you in part I that the guy with the horses had just gotten them that night.  He was taking them home for the first time.  He had purchased the horse trailer from a woman and she gave him the two horses with it.  

The person at the door was the lady who had just given her horses away that night.  She had gotten a call about what happened and immediately got in her car.  She wanted Dave to bring her out to see Dixie, the deceased horse.  Dave said no, it was the middle of the night and we did have guests at the ranch.  She then asked if she could stay out in the corral with Willow, the healthy horse.  Dave agreed to that.  She was very worried about Willow.  You see the two horses were twins and had been together for 8 years.  In fact this woman had helped birth them, so she was very attached.  Why did she give them away you ask?  She was going through a divorce and had to move and was unable to take them with her.  Needless to say she was very distraught about the whole situation.  She drove to the nearest Safeway in the middle of the night to get first aid supplies for Willow.  Willow did get a few scrapes from the trailer fiasco. Dave decided to give the "trailer guy" a call in the middle of the night to share the news of the original owners arrival.  (it was the least he could do, seeing as though this man had told her where to find us!) In talking to the man Dave found out it was his birthday that very day as well! (how much more can you take?!?!) 

The next morning we all had to leave the ranch to go to work and school.  I went to the corral to let the lady know.  I had to wake her up, she was sleeping in her car.  She cried several times in the course of our conversation.  In fact she thought maybe she heard Dixie crying in the night.  It was the wild pigs though, they were extra active that night I remembered.  I said goodbye and she planned to wait until the guy came with a new trailer to pick up Willow.  

Later that day Dave did get a call saying they had picked up Willow and would be back the next day to take Dixie's body.  We heard that all of them did go to visit Dixie and had a little memorial service for her.  We didn't think the previous owner would want to see Dixie in such bad shape but she needed it for closure.  

The next morning two trucks drove in, one with tall wooden sides around the bed.  After about half an hour they both drove out.  That was Dixies' exit from the ranch and the closing scene to this very strange and sad, yet true, story.  

this is a VERY SAD, but true story

On Thursday, September 4th around 9pm someone randomly showed up at the ranch.  It was a guy that was passing by on the highway pulling a horse trailer. He had been on the road for about 5 hours.  Some people behind him had been trying for at least a mile to flag him down to let him know that something was dragging from the trailer.(we heard this part after the fact) He pulled over to discover that one of the horses in the trailer, he had two inside, was dragging!!!  The floor of the trailer had rotted through and broke!  Cell phones don't work out here so he walked into the ranch and stopped by our house hoping to use the phone.  (the turn out to the ranch is one of the rare stopping points on this end of the highway) He really had no idea what he was going to do.  It just so happens that because we do live on a ranch we have a corral.  Dave offered the use of the corral for the guys healthy horse.  Dave also went out with the man to his truck to help.  Once he got out there to see the situation he said it was not a nice scene.  The horse that had been dragging was extremely injured and needed to be put down.  They drove the truck and trailer into the ranch, put the healthy horse into the corral, then had to put down the other horse right there in the field.  Next they drove the truck to the back field, Dave drove the 4WD Bronco too.  They had to tie a rope around the body of the deceased horse to pull it out of the trailer with the 4WD.  It was going to have to stay out there until it could be disposed of properly.  By this time the kids knew the story of what was going on and were waiting to hear the gunshot.  Thankfully it was quiet enough that all didn't hear it, just Nicole and I.  There were some tears and much explanation was needed on the way things work with horses and injuries.  The man who had the horses drove his truck and broken trailer another hour to his home promising he would be back the next day.

Growing Kids

So tomorrow is Jessica's birthday.  She's turning 11.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  It does kind of make me shutter when I think 13 is just around the corner and 9 was only a couple years back.  D.J. turns 6 a month from tomorrow.  Then all of my children will be 6 and older.  Very strange!  I always heard this time would come; when they would all be school age.  It feels nice to have a little more breathing room.  Literally.  No more babies crowding my internal organs and pushing my lungs up to my throat!  Even though I do have fond memories of carrying all four of my children for 9 months, each.  There are no more newborn babies laying on my chest after we both fell asleep during feeding time.  I'm not carrying anyone around in my arms anymore and gasping for breath after just having climbed 5 flights of stairs.  (with child still in arms...)  They run off to play and I have moments alone now.  I feel like there is a part of me that I am rediscovering!  But it did tug at my heart a little when I asked D.J. tonight at bedtime if I was still his sweetheart and he answered "it's up to you".  If it WAS just up to me, I'd be his sweetheart forever.  Sadly, it's not only up to me.  He was the one who said those words to me when he was just a little guy, "Mommy, you're my sweetheart".   I may not feel ready to separate from the closeness we once shared but my children are raring to take off and grow.  So I stay rooted and watch from my place as the sun shines and rains flow in order to bring these lives to a place they were intended to go.

Why I started a blog..............

We have had some strange, funny, dramatic, sad, exciting, and happy moments in the life of this family.  Someone recently told me, after sharing with them a rough night we had, "you can't make that stuff up!"  I have also heard several times now that we need to publish these events.  So here I am entering into the world of blogging.  For those of you who engage in the reading of these blog posts, enjoy!  (I am really hoping this turns out to be a cheap form of therapy for me)   

Cheers!