Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Oliver

As I'm sitting here listening to my "beloved" cat, Oliver, scream/meow his lungs out, I thought I ought to introduce you to him.


I have always been a cat girl...we usually had two or three in our house growing up. Keven is not a cat guy...allergic and all. So, throughout the first year of our marriage the subject of cats came up a few times and we agreed to start looking for the perfect cat for our family. We happened upon a breed of cat called Burmese. We thought (at the time) that this breed sounded wonderful. So, for our first anniversary, Keven bought me Oliver.






This description is taken from the above link...

Burmese are extremely people-oriented; their personalities are almost dog-like in a tendency to shadow their owners and in a desire to give and receive affection. If encouraged, many Burmese converse with their humans, using soft, sweet voices (they are neither loud nor raucous).

How true that is, except Oliver seems to fall into the loud and raucous category. His need for attention and vocal abilities used to be really charming and laughable. Not so much anymore.

Since the kids came along, Oliver has decided that he is miserable in our home and tries anything he can to escape when a door is open. Or he sees how loud and how long he has to meow in order to get thrown out.


We have contemplated many times finding a better home for him but I REALLY want my kids to grow up with an animal and I REALLY want Oliver to be buddies with them.

Lately, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Tatum has seemed to warm Oliver up quite a bit and just the other day I found Oliver and Asher "snuggling" on the floor in his bedroom.

So, we remain patient with our "dog-like" cat and look forward to the day when he is seeking the kids attention and not running away from them.





Friday, September 14, 2007

There should be a rule...

that mom's are never allowed to get sick or injured. It just complicates things, you know?

I was taking a class at the Puyallup Athletic Club on Wednesday morning and the teacher was warming us up on the steps (lisa...I feel your pain). About twenty minutes into it, my right foot slips off the step, rolling my ankle flat onto the ground. I felt something pop and my whole foot went numb. Now, I have a pretty high pain tolerance and my nature is to take a few deep breaths, stand up and keep going. Well, I knew right away that this was not going to happen. So, I very casually put my step away and hopped out of the room to assess the situation! A very nice man from the class came out to check on me and went to get me ice. I am one who would like to avoid attention at all costs so was pretty happy only a few people saw this happen. After about 10 minutes, I gathered my sweatshirt and water bottle, hobbled to the car and drove to Lindsey's house where my kids were, calling Keven on the way to let him know I would probably need his help for the rest of the day!

In all of my years of gymnastics and working out, I have NEVER done anything like this. I took step classes for years and never did this. It is SO hard for me to sit still and be taken care of.

I'm quite certain there is a lesson in this for me.....

Thankfully, I have wonderful husband with a servant's heart who knows me well enough to force my rear end on the couch!

Wednesday, I spent most of the day sitting with my leg up, icing it, and "resting". I was not going to go to the doctor until I woke up the next morning with my ankle twice the size as it was the day before and all black and blue. The pain wasn't a big deal but I don't want to deal with any long term effects. So, I went to get an x-ray yesterday afternoon just to confirm it wasn't broken...it isn't. I will now spend the next week in a brace, trying my hardest to rest it as much as possible.

Seriously, shouldn't there be a rule?

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Labor Day....a week later!

A little late but here are some pictures of our day in Seattle last Monday. We love any chance we get to hang out downtown Seattle. We spend some time walking along the waterfront, played some baseball in the loop at SPU and then had a milkshake at Kid Valley. It was a wonderful family day.






Tatum spent most of our time at SPU trying to get into one of these mailboxes...no luck but she was certainly determined!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

God Bless...

Tatum has a favorite song right now called "I See the Moon", sung by Chris Rice.

The chorus goes like this...

I see the moon
The moon sees me
The moon sees the one that I'm longing to see
God bless the moon
and God bless me
And God bless the one I'm longing to see.

This morning, Asher added another line to the end of that chorus....

and God bless the Nascars too!

It was a very funny moment.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Argentina

Asher, our 3 1/2 year old son, wants to go to Argentina. Badly. Now.

Once he discovered that many dinosaurs were discovered there, it was all over. Yesterday and today he especially wanted to go to Argentina. We were wandering around downtown Seattle today and whenever there was a transition being made he would ask, "Can we go to Argentina now?" We tried the best we could to explain to him that it's just not that easy. That it's a long plane ride away and that it would require some planning, as well as more money than we have right now. None of these explanations were good ones for him though. He would just say, "let's drive to the airport now and get on a plane and fly to Argentina." Made sense to him.

So, we'll try to pacify him for the next 10-15 years and take him one day when he'll really appreciate it! We LOVE that he is so interested in another country and will definitely encourage travel and exploration. Until we can get there, we'll just learn all we can about Argentina and dream with our son.


one more thing...

***Two months ago when we were driving back from the Oregon coast, with no prompting, Asher says from the backseat, "Mommy and Daddy, lasterday I kayaked to Argentina to look for dinosaurs."