a groundbreaking weekend

a little behind on a weekend post, but we've had a crazy busy two last days of school and TODAY starts Thanksgiving vacation. Wa-to-tha-hoo, friends.

My reasons for this post title are three-fold. First, literal groundbreaking took place for our church building on Sunday.

We had a short service followed by lots of picture taking with golden shovels. Can I just say what an awesome day this was? Not only was the weather absolutely gorgeous, but God's presence was so incredibly thick as we remembered His faithfulness over these last 19 months and his protection on  that day.

The second groundbreaking thing that occurred happened on Saturday when I took everything out of the shop/Walter's house and swept it from ceiling to floor for the first time evah. GAH-ROSSSSSSS. Needed to be done though, and now it is! The hubs and I have already had talks of turning it into an actual working space now that it's de-nastified for the most part. Maybe a sewing/crafting shop for me, or just an additional space where we could play games and hang with Walter. I think some carpet is in the future for the room, and maybe another scrubbing of the walls plus some paint. We shall see. For now, here's some before + afters.

And just because I want you to truly understand the level of rank-nasty grossness I was working with, this is what was all over the window...

I know.

Most of what was being stored in there was junk, plain and simple. And so I threw it away. Some of it I listed on a local garage sale site, some of it was donated, and I downsized my Christams decor from 7 large plastic bins to 4. Heck yeah. I didn't even use most of my Christmas decorations last year because I made new stuff. (Another lesson from 7: if you haven't used it in a while OR if you don't think you'll use it again....get.rid.of.it. No more hanging on to stuff we don't need.) 

The third groundbreaking thing that occurred? My high school's new Musical Theatre club performed Hairspray last Thurs-Sun, and after asking my seester & a couple friends if they were free to go with me, and striking out, I remembered that I had a musical lovin' 3 year-old who would probably be jazzed to go with me. And she was. We got dressed up and had a most fun and memorable Mommy/Eliza date watching a musical that we can both sing songs from. Love that one of my kiddos loves what I love. While it's definitely not the first show she's been to at the ripe old age of 3, it's the first show I've taken her to that I didn't direct. And we had a blast.

Kudos to my friends Joey, Alisha, and the entire cast + crew on a fabulous production.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We're looking forward to spending time with family, some of which we only see once or twice a year. Later, friends! 

Where Walter Baby lives

It's been exactly two weeks since we first heard that sweet sound. Walter (baby) White is still with us, despite the fact that his favorite place to sleep is inside our car engines. Thank heavens we figured this out quickly and knew to pop the hood first. I know that to a non-pet person, (or a non-cat person) saying that this kitten is the sweetest kitten to ever walk the face of the earth or I'm so glad that God decided to 'place' him magically in our yard or I will personally cut anyone that lays an unkind hand on him may sound a bit premature. 

But you'd be wrong.

Because he's the sweetest kitten to ever walk the face of the earth. I swear it. I can only recall two other such kittens that were handed to my seester and me back in '88. Remember this pic?

Her name was Pearl. My parents gave her to me and handed her brother, Earnest T. Bass (Ernie), to my seester.

Pearl was with us for 9 years, Ernie for 22.

Just typing that evokes beautiful memories.

 And now I have tears in my eyes.

Back to Walter.

As I mentioned in THIS post, he wasn't too keen on getting close to us for the first few days. I told Oliver to be patient and that if we sat outside with him enough, he would eventually come around.

 

What I didn't tell Oliver is that every night after he went to bed, I would head outside to feed Walter. Once I had him distracted with food, I scooped him up and made it my mission to make it clear to him that we were 'friend' and not 'foe'. I loved on him and gave him food. Love, food. Love, food. I repeated this for 4 nights until finally, he came running to me, begging for my hand to rub his face and scratch behind his ears and love him.

4 nights. That's what it took.

Check out the look on my boy's face when Walter climbed into his lap for the first time-

Pure sweetness.

Walter also went from sleeping on a couple of bath towels,

to a cozy cat bed,

to a cozy cat bed inside a little house that hubs built for him.

Now friends, this is the part where I tell you that if I had my way, Walter would be inside our house right now, sleeping in my lap as I type. Hubs is not on board with a pet inside, and that's okay. This is also where I tell you that we've come up with a compromise, and it happened Monday night when the temp dropped below freezing here in Alabama and I nearly lost my mind thinking about poor Walter Baby out in the cold all.night.long.

I don't think I've ever mentioned this on the blog, but we have a little house behind our house in the backyard. The man that built our house was a contractor and used the front of it (which also has a bathroom) as an office. We keep our red/green tubs of Christmas decor in there, along with a few other random boxes of stuff and some yard sale signs. The rear of the building (which has a seperate entrance) is a workshop and houses all of hubs tools and a few pool toys.

I should also mention that while we've lived in our house for 4 years now, we have never ever ever done any cleaning in the little house, so it looks a bit 'horror movie-ish', what with all of the cobwebs and leaves and general nasty that have been collecting out there all these years.

Enter freezing temps, and a cat, and hubs with a broom. After a discussion that, for the sake of time, boiled down to this:

Me: I want the cat inside.

Hubs: No.

It was actually hubs that came up with the brilliant plan of putting him in the little house where he'd be warm and safe and I wouldn't be up all night worrying that he'd freeze.

And so this is where he sleeps.

 We moved his bed out there, along with food,water, a litter box and plenty of blankets and a heater, so it's pretty much a cat hotel. (And yes, that's the 'Leg Magic' you see at the top of that pic that I swore would change my life. Ahem.) My mum even brought him a scratching post yesterday so he has more than just leaves to play with. My plan is this: to de-nasty that space like we should have done when we moved in but didn't because we had more pressing matters to attend to. Like ripping up the 50 year old carpet, and painting over the baby pink walls in the master, and buying appliances. Once we actually rid that place of junk that we've been holding on to (I'm talking to you, Oliver's high chair) there will be plenty of space to actually stick a few chairs out there, and perhaps a rug. Maybe it could become a nice 'mommy retreat' when I need a time-out away from the house. Who knows. I'm just glad that hubs and I were able to find a compromise, and that Walter baby has a warm place to sleep and play. And no, we won't keep him cooped up in the house all the time. It's just that he came to us at a point in the year when it's actually COLD here. Which won't last long.

p.s. I've always been a cat person. Here I am with our cat, TC, at 4 years old. Yes this is a picture of a picture. For the love, someone come teach me how to use this scanner thingy.

How to involve your kids on election day

The last time we elected a President, my oldest child was 3, and clearly not old enough to comprehend what was taking place on that day in November 2007. Now, however, he's 7 and three quarters and smart as a whip, so I wanted him to understand yesterday's significance as much as possible. We talked about the candidates and about our beliefs and about the importance of exciersing our right, as Americans, to VOTE.

I left out the part about wearing red, white, and blue on days such as this, because ya know...it's not mandatory.

Just fun.

I took him with me to vote, and was pleasantly surprised that there was no line. Well, one man and a baby, but I'm pretty sure the babe didn't get a ballot. Several polling places in our area had well over and hour and a half wait, so we were lucky.

My polling location is in a mall, by the way. So you can cast your ballot and buy new boots, all in the same place.

I explained to him that I'd have to color in the circles on my giant scantron-like ballot, and immediately wondered how many scantrons I'd taken tests on in my lifetime. Hundreds? It's pretty much all we used in high school.

I digress...

I completed my ballot, stuck it in the giant scantron machine, and got a sticker.

I have to stray from the topic for just a sec to show you these precious pics from supper last night. We had a dinner guest.

Walter baby sat on the window ledge and watched as we ate, then sang a little 'meow' song with MM at the door.

ohmygoodnessthiscatisthesweetestthingandIlovehim

Moving on...

This is where I really got Oliver involved in what was happening last night.

I copied this map from a friends homework (thanks Anna Claire!) and thought it would be a great way to get O excited about watching the news with me. We grabbed a red and blue crayon...

and watched the numbers start to pour in.

And started filling in that map.

Not only was he interested in the news, and excited each time a new state was announced, but he was sad when he had to go to bed with an unfinished map. Well, I guess the entire country went to bed with an unfinished map since FL was still gray this morning. Anywho, no matter who you vote for, get your kids involved. Let them know what matters to you. Let them know how blessed we are in America to have the right to vote. Make sure they understand the importance of election day.

And make sure they know that no matter who our President is, God is still in control. He's known the outcome of yesterday's election since time began.

***

And now,

on the issue of Walter White-

I couldn't stand the thought of him sleeping outside in the cold, so I placed a few towels at the door, hoping he would dig his way under the top one and have 'covers', if you will.

This is what I found this morning.

Sweet. Precious. Babe.

We call him Walter White

We heard it for the first time at the supper table Wenesday night. A faint, high-pitched sound that could have been coming from one of the girls, had they not been sitting right beside us. With food in their mouths. It just kept going and going until hubs and I found ourselves up on our feet, walking and listening, in the dining room, then into the den. What was that?

And then we saw him.

Sweet little bundle of gray and white fur, poking his head out from under the mini. Hubs put a little tuna in a bowl and took it outside, and while he did scamper away quickly when we got too near, the tuna was gone the next morning.

We've repeated this ritual everyday since then, but he still backs away when we get too close. Saturday morning, I had the brilliant idea of moving the food closer to the window so that I could get this...

I named him Walter White, and if you get the reference then you must be a fan of our fave tv show.

We played outside Saturday evening in the hopes that he'd see what a fun, non-violent family we are.

Hello 80 degrees in November.

But it's my Oliver who is the most determined to get Walter to like us.

He sat like this for quite a while, and just watched.

And waited.

When we arrived home from church yesterday, he was asleep on the picnic table. Again, Oliver watched.

And waited.

And Walter went from this,

to this,

and then this.

Which is definite progress in my book.

I was able to get these with my mega zoom lens.

Pardon my fancy photograpghy jargon.

So...if you live near me and are missing this precious kitty, we have him.

His new name is Walter White, or Walter baby, as the girls like to call him.

And if no one comes a'lookin' for him, well I reckon I'll keep you updted on whether or not Oliver ever gets to pick him up.

Which the poor boy is desperate to do.

We shall see...