Wordful Wednesday ~ Meet Meep!

Well, hello, humans!

My name is Misty, but people around here call me Meep.

Just because I couldn't say the word "meow" when I first got here.
So I said "Meep", and now I guess I'll never live it down!

*sigh*
All they ever want to do is take my picture.
I know I'm cute, but give me a break! I need my cutie sleep!

Enough already! Call off the paparazzi!

It's rough being incredibly adorable. *wink-wink*

xoxo,
Meep!


{Visit Angie for more Wordful Wednesday posts!}

Friday Fragments ~ All Over the Place!

Good Friday morning! This week has been kind of 'meh' and I'm ready for the weekend.
As most of you know, Mrs 4444's hosts Friday Fragments every Friday. She says it will help clear your head and unclutter your mind, and I am ALL ABOUT THAT! So off I go.





~~> Speaking of Friday Fragments, I was one of Mrs 4444's Favorite Friday Fragmenters from last week! This is my second time receiving this honor. I'd like to thank the Academy....no seriously, my BFF Danielle for giving me that Fragment! She is a HOOT!


~~> Do you like my kitten divider I'm using this week? There's a reason I chose that one. We have a new family member!
Meet Elayna's new kitten, Misty.



I only planned on taking a couple of pics of her, but I swear, this cat posed, smiled, winked, and turned it into a total photo shoot! So there will be more pics to come!





~~> I'm sure that a lot of you already know about Monkey, but since the blogosphere is so vast, I wanted to make sure and talk about her here. Monkey is the daughter of a blogger, Momma's Pixie Dreams, and she was just diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. This family needs our prayers and support!




~~> Tonight is Shelbie's 8th Grade Social. Or as I've nicknamed it, Mini Prom. These girls go all out! I think it will be a really fun experience. {I also think my debit card shed a tear after all the shopping I've done. Or maybe that was sweat I saw? Not sure.} Anyway....pictures to come next week!




~~> Other than that, we have no plans this weekend. None. And I am very happy about that!



~~> If you missed my posts from earlier this week, please go back and check out the Snail Mail Project that I have started. I'm very excited about it! I'll be matching up partners next week, but there's no deadline to enter; it's an ongoing project and as long as people sign up, they will get matched up! It's going to be FUN!







~~> And I do believe that's a wrap. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! And don't forget to visit Mrs 4444's at Half Past Kissin' Time for more Friday Fragments.

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.

Not Me! Monday - If NOT ME....Who?

Visit MckMama for more NOT ME! Monday posts!

Last week, we had 2 little foster kittens at the house.

Then I got an email from the head of the rescue group.

There was a mommy cat and 5 beautiful, still-nursing kittens at the shelter

who really deserved a shot at life.

Could I pick them up and foster them? NOT ME!

Would I add 6 more animals to the zoo? No way, NOT ME!



Would I give this sweet Mama a chance to live and raise her babies? NOT ME!

Would I give this wild man a chance to have a happy, cozy home? NOT ME!
(he's just meowing, I swear!)

Who would give these sweet babies a warm, safe home until they can be adopted and bring their love and joy to another family? NOT ME?
If not me...who?

There are nowhere near enough homes for them all.

There are also not enough foster homes for them all.
Do you have room in your home and your heart to foster even one kitten?

Do you have a tiny bit of extra time to save a life?

It doesn't take much. Most rescues pay for everything....food, litter, vetting, etc. All it costs is love and a very small amount of time, picking up the kittens and then taking care of them (feeding, watering, changing litter).

Summer is "kitten season". (the kitten in that pic looks just like one of our fosters!!)

I can promise you that your local shelter, Humane Society, ASPCA, or rescue group(s) would JUMP at your offer to foster kittens right now.

Can you help save a life?
If NOT YOU...who?

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.