Friday Fragments/Freewrites 8.7.09

It's so nice to be back to the blogging routine! It's Friday and that means it's time for Friday Fragments/Freewrites.

~ We're going camping at the beach this weekend! We've been wanting to do this all summer and we're finally going. The only negative is that Tim has to work and can't go. I am SO bummed that he will miss out!

~ Last week we met with an in-home child care provider. We were looking for after-school care for Andrew & Elayna so that I can get more than 3-4 hours of sleep this coming school year. My friend Heather also came, she was looking for child care for her daughter Savanna. We were SO impressed with this provider! She has been in child care for over 15 years, has education in Special Needs children, and seems very committed to her work. She is also a vegetarian and serves only vegetarian food. The kids will be exposed to a different culture and I'm really excited about that. I think she'll be particularly good for Andrew. Elayna came with us to meet her and is very excited about going there after school.

~ Tonight we are going yet again to the Free Friday Concert, and the performer is Caitlin Eadie. She is a young country singer who grew up near our town, and she has opened for Tim McGraw and Lynyrd Skynyrd, among others! I think it's going to be a great show.

~ This week I discovered that one of the bloggers I follow, lives in my town! It's Manic Mother, and her sweet son Ezra has cancer. Their buttons are in my sidebar.

I am so excited to find her. Hopefully we will get to meet up at some point. I still have NEVER met another blogger friend in person! Is there anyone else reading who lives in or near Gainesville, Florida? (I think it's pretty obvious that I live near there, by now.)

~ The foster mama and her kittens got spayed/neutered on Wednesday and will be at Petsmart all weekend. One of my nurse friends is probably going to adopt the black & white girl. The mama is a sweet, pretty calico and her two boy kittens are orange. Hopefully they will find good homes this weekend!

~ This just made me laugh, so I had to share it with y'all! It actually looks just like our orange foster kittens.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Weekend Wrap-Up 6.29.09

We had another great weekend at Casa de Dysfunction!

Friday night, we went to the Free Friday Concert again. By we, I mean me, John, all four of our kids, my friend Heather, and her 2 kids. We threw down two blankets, snacked, had a blast, and listened to Black Violin. They are awesome! We bought their CD. They did a lot of Michael Jackson tributes, which we enjoyed. Tim got their autographs on his CD. Very nice guys! All of the kids really enjoyed themselves.

Saturday, we watched my friend Heather's daughter, Savanna, while she worked. We dropped off two of our foster kittens at Petsmart, and one of them, Smudge, got adopted! Yay! The kids played on the slip & slide, and we filled the little pool that we bought for the kids. That evening, we went to a bar-b-q sponsered by Mike Peterson of the Atlanta Falcons. He put on a Family Fun Day. He paid for everything including the food. There were bounce houses, bouncy swing things, face painting, you name it, they had it. He grew up in our town and it's one way that he gives back to his community. What a great guy! I forgot my brand new camera (go ahead and say it - DUH!!) but my friend took pics. I'll have to post them later. Mike posed for pictures with us and was very friendly. It was great!

Sunday, the kids mostly played in the pool all day. John and I tackled laundry & house cleaning. Later in the evening, my friend Heather came over again, and we had dinner together and the kids played in the pool some more. Then we watched movies.

Here are some pics from the Family Fun Day. Hope y'all have a great week!

Elayna

Savanna and Elayna

Savanna on that crazy swing thing, getting strapped up

Savanna in the air

Andrew in the air

Dumping Mah Brain...

....a.k.a. Friday Fragments ;-)

Hola, mi amigos!

It's Friday and it's time to dump mah brain into Friday Fragments.

~~

*** My boys rock. Today, while I slept, they not only took care of themselves, they:
~went to the library

~made their breakfast & lunch

~ cleaned up after themselves

~ washed dishes

~cleaned the floors (they swear they mopped, I don't see it but hey, I'm not complaining)

~fed/watered/let out pets

~let me sleep all day!

(Sorry, they are not for sale or rent. Today. Tomorrow, I may be singing a different tune. You never know!)

~~

*** Tonight at work, in addition to all of my normal responsibilities in this hospital intensive care unit, I've been fielding calls from a psycho ex-girlfriend! Her ex-boyfriend has a relative here in our unit. He has asked us not to put her calls through to him. Well...girlfriend does NOT like that. Not one bit. So, she calls over and over. Then, she cursed out our charge nurse.

Not a good move on our part. So, I've also been chatting with hospital security and the police department tonight. Girlfriend will be getting a call from the po-pos. Let's hope girlfriend stops calling an INTENSIVE CARE UNIT harassing people! Seriously, what is wrong with people?

~~

*** I am reading a wonderful book right now. It's called Same Kind of Different As Me. And I highly recommend it!

~~

*** Smudge and Tailz, two of our foster kittens, are going to get spayed/neutered today. Then they will be up for adoption this weekend! We need good adoption vibes for them. I love them, but they don't like to let me sleep. They like to bite me. In the face. While I sleep. They can haz loving adoptive homez? Plz?

~~

OK, if I dump mah brain any more, it will be totally empty. Have a great weekend!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

~~

Go visit Mrs.4444 at Half Past Kissin' Time to join in or see more Friday Fragments!

If You Give a Kid a Camera 06.11.09

Yesterday, Elayna decided that it was high time she take some random pictures. She grabbed my Blackberry and started shooting. Naturally, since we live in a 'zoo', she captured mostly our pets. This time her focus was on cats.

This is Tailz. He is not of the nursing litter, of which we have now lost TWO kittens. =( He's the one who had an unfortunate tail accident and is left with a little half-tail. Thus, the name Tailz. He is super-cute and sweet.

This is Smudge, and this is a totally weird picture. I did not retouch this picture in any way, it's straight from the Blackberry's camera. The funny thing is, he's in the basket where we keep Wii controllers. I think he thinks he IS a Wii controller! Look Mom, I haz sensorz!

Close up of Smudge....so cute.

He looks so innocent.

Ha!

This is Wall-E, lounging on the kitchen table. At least he's laying on newspaper.

And Lilly, following Wall-E's lead.

Charlie, the kitten of the family (fosters don't count), who has gotten so big. He's on the bench just below the table.

And of course, Elayna had to get one shot of herself. I have no idea why she chose to include her brother's wallet and some mail in the picture. Artistic license?

Have a great Thursday!

xoxo

DysFUNctional Mom and the Crazy, Surreal, Bizarre, Horrible and Wonderful Day

Let me tell you about last Friday.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you are wondering if you're having a dream, or a nightmare? Things are so bizarre that they just don't seem real? That was my day Friday.

To begin with, I had just worked a 12 hour shift. I was a little tired. It was the kids' last day of school, and I was allowing Shelbie to spend the day with friends, but she hadn't been picked up yet. I walked into the room where the mama cat & her 5 babies stay, to check on them, feed them, etc. When I opened the door the first thing I saw was a tiny kitten lying limply on the floor. I picked him up and saw that he was alive, but in bad shape. He was clearly dehydrated, so I tried to get water into him. I ran into the living room and said to Shelbie, "DON'T LOOK!" She is SO tenderhearted, I knew she couldn't handle seeing him like that.

He wouldn't drink, but I got water into him with a straw and he was able to swallow. He even started meowing, but not really moving. I called the rescue director but got her voice mail. After giving him more water and still seeing no improvement, I decided to go to the Feed Store and buy kitten formula. Meanwhile, a storm had began and the rain was coming down in BUCKETS. I wrapped the kitten in a dish towel, and Shelbie and I ran out into the torrential rain. (I swear, I'm not exaggerating for effect. I was considering building an ark.)

The feed store is only about 2 blocks away. We ran in through the rain and looked for someone to direct us to the kitten formula. My eyes lock in on someone wearing Feed Store shirt....then I look at her face. It's one of my BEST FRIENDS, who I'd lost touch with in the last 2 years! We met in high school, and have been in touch off and on since then. She's the one who got me the job cleaning houses with her after my ex and I seperated. Then I worked in the day care and took care of her sweet daughter. I could not believe it was her! And...she has worked at that feed store, 2 blocks from my home, for the past SEVEN MONTHS.

Surreal. I'm standing in a feed store, holding a critically ill kitten, hugging one of my best friends! So, we get the formula and I immediately start trying to get it into the kitten, but at this point, he wouldn't even swallow. So I decided to get him to the vet. Shelbie had given my friend, Heather, my phone number & written down hers, while I was attempting to feed the kitten, so we promised to call and ran out the door.

When I got to the van, I looked at the kitten, and realized that he was no longer breathing. He had died in my arms.

I slowly drove home and Shelbie said "What are we doing?" I told her that there was no need to go to the vet, and we both started crying.

I had never had an animal die in my arms before. It was so, incredibly sad.

Later in the day, to add to the total weirdness, I'm standing in line at the grocery store near my house, and someone walks up behind me and says "You've got to stop following me around like this." I turn around and am face to face with my high school BOYfriend! My first 'real' boyfriend. We chatted for a minute and then he left. While I was paying for my stuff, he walked back in, handed me a slip of paper, grinned, and walked away. I opened it when I got in the van....it was his phone number! I was cracking up. It went straight to the trash can!

So, in one day, I reconnected with a friend who I dearly love, had a sweet baby kitten pass away in my arms, and then ran into my old boyfriend. Totally random and bizarre.

I keep wishing I'd found the kitten sooner, had formula on hand to give him, on and on, but I am trying not to feel too guilty. The rescue director said sometimes there's just one kitten out of a litter who doesn't make it. You do what you can but sometimes they just don't survive. Maybe something was wrong with him from the beginning, we'll never know. We buried him in our front yard and put a decorative stone over his grave.

As for my friend, we visited her Saturday night and got to spend time with her darling daughter, and we're planning on getting together again this weekend! Good times.

WordFUL Wednesday ~ Cute Edition

Holy Wednesday, Batman! I can't believe it's Wednesday already, and I haven't posted in forever.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that we picked up 2 new kittens last week. Not surprisingly, they are CUTE as buttons!! One of them had to have his tail partially amputated because it was degloved. If you don't know what that means....don't look it up. It's sad. =(
Now he has a little half tail and it is SO FREAKING CUTE!! I just love him. He's a little timid. The other one is fearless and bad to the bone.

It's really interesting to see the distinct personalities in such tiny kittens. They are so new to this world, but they have minds of their own already!

So, here they are.

This one is the one with the half tail. We call him Tails.

This is the feisty one. He has a cute little black mark on his nose, so his name is Smudge. (although more often he's called "GetBackHereYouLittleShit!")

And one more fun shot...this is me and Elayna last week when I had lunch with her. I love her snaggle-toothed grin!

Have a wonderful Wednesday, my friends!
For more WordFUL Wednesday posts, visit Seven Clown Circus.

Weekend Wrap-Up 5.11.09

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day Weekend! I definitely did.
Friday night, we went to the Crawfish Boil in St Augustine and had a blast!!

Saturday, we went to St Augustine beach, the fort, and shopped & had lunch along St George's street. It was great!

Then I ended up not feeling well so we went ahead and left Saturday afternoon. We spent the night with the in-laws. Other than that, we had a really good time overall, and I felt much better Sunday morning.

Sunday was Mother's Day, of course. Hubby had given me a single red rose the day before, and woke me up with a massage. Ahhh! We picked my kids up from their dad and headed over to my parents' house. Andrew came over with the in-laws. We had a very nice time and I got some beautiful gifts. I also got some of the best cards ever! The one from my MIL was especially nice. Also, Tim and Shelbie bought Mother's Day cards themselves for me, and they were both great. The Littles made cards for me which were super-sweet!

Also on Sunday, I found out that a reader of my blog adopted one of our Foster Kittens!! The kittie were at Petsmart this weekend with the rescue group. Astaryth had emailed about them after realizing we live not terribly far from one another. So Saturday, she visited Petsmart and took home the little black and white girl! I'm thrilled that I'll get to watch her grow through Astaryth's blog! There are still four left...is there anyone else nearby out there looking for a kitteh? =)

*ETA: I almost forgot to tell you ~ I am 36 years old today! We celebrated yesterday but hubby is making dinner for me tonight. Gotta love him!

Hope your week is great!

Wordful Wednesday, Kitten Edition

This is going to be very wordful and very picture-ful.

Wordful: Life has kicked my butt lately! We've been very busy, and on top of that I got sick. I was ticked - I did not have time to be sick! So I ignored it and kept going until Monday afternoon, at which time I practically collapsed, and spent most of the next 48 hours in bed.
It showed me who was boss. It won - this time.
On top of that, life is crazy and I have less and less time on the computer, which makes me sad. I am so behind on reading all of your wonderful blogs. Posting and blog reading on my Blackberry is just not as easy as I'd hoped it would be. I can Twitter! Which is awesome and I can and do Twitter all day long. But my blog time is few and far between. :sigh: It's not you, it's me!
I have so much I want to say here but in an effort to keep this manageable, I'll just get on with utter cuteness.

Pictureful:


These are our foster kittens. We picked them up on Saturday, 5 two-month old balls of fluffy, naughty cuteness. They are also incredibly messy and demanding and take up a lot of time! The kids are having SO much fun with them.

It is darned near impossible to get 5 frisky kittens in one photo! But here are four...

whassat noise??

woah, I have it all to myself!


I didn't do it!

Total, irresistable cuteness.

Total, insane bravery. This crazy ass kitten climbed the closet doors and was at ceiling level! But then I had to help him down.

Visit Angie's Circus for more Wordful Wednesday posts!

Friday Fragments 12.12.08

It's Friday again, and I've got some Fragments for ya!
Friday Fragments are courtesy of Half Past Kissin' Time.

One Dog Down

One of our fosters got picked up yesterday, and is on her way to her (hopefully) Forever Home. I say hopefully because I didn't have any communication with the adopter at all, and this is not your ordinary dog. After being with us for several months, she's still extremely timid, and scared of her own shadow. She has issues, and she's not a happy, playful dog. She's a sweet, fearful dog. I have no idea if these potentional adopters know this or anything else about her. When we started fostering for this group, we were told that we would have contact with any potential adopter of our fosters and whether or not we thought it was the right fit. I've gotten none of that this time, and I am not happy. Between that and some other things that have been bugging me, we're not going to foster for them any more. There are several local non-breed-specific rescues and we're in the process of choosing which one to volunteer with.
This is one of the first pics we took of her (on the left, with a former foster we adopted, Suzie). You can tell by her body language how frightened and defensive she is.

We sure will miss our Honey. Suzie will, too.

Slumber Party

My almost-teenager, Ladybug, is having a slumber party for her birthday tonight. She was reasonable with the invites, and then with it being holiday season, it looks like she'll have around 5 girls. That should be pretty manageable. We're planning on grilling out hot dogs and having a fire and roasting marshmallows. Then the girls are going to watch Chick Flicks all night. I think we're going to have a fun time!

Dysfunctional Family Update

So, my mom called me yesterday and was as happy and pleasant as could be. It's like a roller coaster ride, sometimes! I'm just going with the flow, for now...

Wheeeekend

We have another busy weekend coming up; Christmas Parades, church events, and another birthday party for a friend. I probably won't be around the bloggy world, so, I hope you all have a great weekend! See ya Monday.

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta AND Fragments!

Yep, today I'm doing a twofer. First is Candid Carrie's Fx4.






These pictures were taken at a pond outside of the Butterfly Rainforest, but on a different day than the butterfly pics were taken.
I love lotus flowers (water lillies), I even have one tattooed on my upper back. They are very meaningful to me. So, I really like these pictures.

And now it's time for my version of Mrs. 4444's Friday Fragments.

* I am so ridiculously pleased to have my blog back in working order. It was like someone came to my house and made a mess and rearranged everything, and now it's all back in place and better than ever!

* a lot of you have been asking me about Beany. You can get updates here. Unfortunately though, there's no real news.

* I dyed my hair red! And while I had my wet, goopy hair stuck on top of my head, one of my foster dogs escaped. I was wearing a huge shirt and some huge shorts, and I had to run around the front yard like that. She was running in circles and doing whatever she could to dodge me. Finally, for some bizarre reason, she stopped in some sticker bushes, and I caught her. I'm sure the neighbors were entertained.

* We have a little old lady in our unit who has decided she really likes me. She can't talk but she'll mouth words to me, and the other night she mouthed "don't go!" when I was leaving the room. Awww! She's the cutest thing.

* Hope y'all have a great weekend. TGIF!

Friday Two-fer

Please make sure and read the post below, too!

I couldn't just end on a negative note, because (a) that's just not my style!
and (b) I have good news to share, too.

First, doggie pictures! This is the newest foster, Kato. They said he was named after a character in The Green Hornet comic? I'm not into comics, so it makes me think of OJ Simpson's buddy. I can never remember to call him Kato and for some bizarre reason, I usually call him Lucky. He's fat and very sweet, and follows me around like a shadow. (I can't figure out why ALL of these fosters instantly attach to ME? Why can't someone else get this privilege occasionally?)

Kato/Lucky:





He actually looks just like Suzie, except twice her size. Literally.

So, the other good news is, my best friend in the whole world, since high school, is graduating from college tomorrow. I don't get to see her often but I'm NOT missing this, and I'm so excited just to see her, not to mention the graduation! AND, her daughter and my Ladybug adore each other, and consider each other their numero uno best friends, and they have been together since Wednesday and I will get Ladybug back on Saturday. She is having SO much fun over there!

I could probably think of more happiness to share, but this is pushing it considering the last couple of days I've had.
Have a great weekend!

Monday Memes

I'm catching up on a couple of Memes today. Here we go.....

This first one is from AllMediocre, the blog promotion site that lists the web's BEST blogs!
This is the One Word Meme.

1. Where is your cell phone? counter

2. Your significant other? husband

3. Your hair? straight

4. Your mother? quirky

5. Your father? kooky

6. Your favorite thing? sleep

7. Your dream last night? strange

8 Your favorite drink? water

9. Your dream/goal? travel

10. The room you’re in? cluttered

11. Your hobby? blogging

12. Your fear? loss

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy

14. What you’re not? pushover

15. Muffins? no

16. One of your wish list items? camera

17. Where you grew up? Florida

18. The last thing you did? bloghop

19. What are you wearing? comfy

20. Favorite Gadget? camera

21. Your pets? spoiled

22. Your computer? outdated

23. Your mood? sleepy

24. Missing someone? yep

25. Your car? minivan

26. Something you’re not wearing? shoes

27. Favorite store? Target

28. Like someone? yep

29. Your favorite color? purple

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? forgot

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was tagged for this meme by my local friend, Irregular Tammie.

Six unimportant things about me:

1. I am in need of a hair trim & highlights.
2. I love taking pictures, and wish I had better skills and a better camera.
3. I'm extremely sleepy right now!
4. I don't usually like the stars that most people like. I'm not a Brad Pitt or George Clooney fan, at all.
5. I love Pixar films and can't wait to see Wall-E.
6. I never watched Sex in the City and you couldn't pay me to go see the movie.

Now, according to the rules I have to tag six more folks to play along. I'm not usually one to tag people, but what the heck. If you don't want to do it, no problem!

1. Chel How about a meme for me?
2. Krissy Take a break and do a meme!
3. Groovy Mom.......You have been MIA lately! How about a meme?
4. Lunanik......do you do memes?
5. Rock and Drool.......have time for a quick meme this summer?
6. Sue...how about you?

The rules are as follows:
1. Link back to the person that tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your entry.

**A couple of updates:
~We ARE keeping Suzie! I read all the comments and knew that you all were right. She is already where she belongs!
~The other foster puppy, Spikes, is being adopted - by the guy who adopted Tebow! The brothers will be together forever.
~I have now lost 77 lbs. Please check out Weighting for Change for my updates!