Kitty...

A couple of months ago, a little black kitty showed up in Rob's workshop and fell in love with Rob's workbench. It decided that Rob's briefcase was one of the most comfortable things to sleep in (yes, I said "in"!). Rob & the boys (workers) decided since he was so black and he was taking up residence in the shop, his name should be "Oil". I didn't like that, but they continued to call him that, and Rob convinced Evan & Noah that this was a good name for him, too! Since nobody could really agree on a name that everyone liked, I just called him "Kitty". He was to be an outdoor-only kind of cat - I already have a dog & cat who live in the house and I'm allergic to both, so it's not a good idea to add in another cat! Of course, Rob kept giving me the guilt trip about how the poor thing would be too cold outside all by himself in the winter time, so he'd have to come inside! I kept saying, "I'll see what happens when winter arrives!"

A few weeks after Kitty arrived, I told Rob I didn't like how skinny he was, and that I didn't want a sick kitty around, especially with kids around. So, I took him to the vet. The vet said he probably had worms, so she gave him a pill to take care of that and then gave him his shots so he was all up to date. She also figured he was about a year old, so still just a kitten, really.

After our visit to the vet, he seemed to perk up a bit. He had a great appetite! We couldn't keep enough food in his dish! And he was a great hunter. He caught and ate mice and even a morning dove! (Absolutely gross, if you ask me!!!!)

Kitty seemed to be tired a lot, though. He'd lay around most of the time. But when you'd "visit" him, he was so friendly. He purred a lot, and he'd rub against your leg and let you pet him and he always tried to come into the house for a visit, too! Poor thing! Mean old me! I never let him in!!! LOL!

On Saturday, Kitty seemed to look a little more tired out than normal. We even saw him throw up a little bit. We just thought maybe he was warm, because Saturday was a pretty hot day. Then Sunday, Justin came running to me to go look at the cat. Poor thing had NO energy and his eyes were all runny and watery. I went inside and started to call the vets. I called ours first, and then proceeded to call every other vet in our area. None of them had emergency capabilities, and I would have had to take him to Brantford, for goodness sake. Well, we had company coming over, so none of that was an option. We prayed he would just make it through the night and then we'd take him to the vet first thing in the morning.

Monday morning came. Kitty was no where to be found. We searched and searched and searched. We'd leave it for a while and go back to the search. But no luck. Until around 1:30 in the afternoon, when Justin came yelling, "Kitty's back! Kitty's back!" So, I had him get the cat into the cat carrier as quick as possible (because he looked 100% worse than he did on Sunday). I took the kids to my mother's and then took the cat to the vet. They took a blood sample and tested it for a couple of really bad diseases, in hopes that if he didn't have one of them, that they could keep him overnight and pump the fluids and antibiotics into him and he'd start getting better.

The vet sent me home and told me she'd call me by 5pm. When she called, she told us the bad news. Kitty had feline leukemia. There was no hope for the wee thing, so he had to be put to sleep. It's crazy how we only had Kitty for a few months and he'd already won all of our hearts.

Noah just melted in my arms when I told him. I haven't heard him cry like that in a long time. It was such a sincere, painful cry. The poor wee soul. (Ya, I sound like my Nan when I say that!) Then there was Justin, who tried to be a tough guy and hold it all in. Till I told him he didn't have to be strong in front of me. Then he fell apart. He loves animals. Especially cats. He dotes on the cats all the time. He really took to "Oil" right from the start. Then there's Courtney, who's such a girl - she's just like her mother! She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed some more! Evan didn't get it. When I asked him if he understood why the other kids were so upset, he told me some 3 year old version of what he understood the rest of them to be saying. He asked me when Oil was going to come home from the doctor. When I explained it to him, that Oil was never going to come home, he had the most lost and despaired look on his face. He didn't cry, but his eyes were watery and his face was so sad.

Rob went to the vet office to pick up Kitty and bring him home to bury him. Then he wrote the name(s) on a cross that we'd had for our other cat that died a while back, and stuck it at the grave. Rob loves animals, too. It was harder on him than I think he wanted to let on, too! But he was strong for all of us. When Noah realized that the cat was in the hole, he broke down again, sobbing uncontrollably and clinging to me so tightly. Watching Noah like that brought a tear to Rob's eye.

So, we are now back to having 2 creatures in the family. Caspurr, our pure white house cat, and Pauley, our loving & great dog! We've had Caspurr just over a year. We've had Pauley about 8 years. I don't know what we'll do when she goes... if we were this upset over a cat we had for a couple of months, imagine a dog we've had for this many years!

Pets are pretty special.

Food...

Don't you just love to eat? I do. I think I love it a little too much, to be honest!!! But when you find something yummy, it's just so hard to walk away!!!!!

So, what's your favourite food???

Are you an emotional eater, or are you fairly in control of your sweet tooth?!!

Is there a certain food that you feel should be banned from consumption (you know, like lima beans or some sort of other horrible thing?!?!?! LOL)?????

My favourite food list is way too long. I love chocolate. But if you put chocolate and peanut butter together, I love it even more! And if you put both of those into an ice cream, I'm just absolutely in Heaven!!!!! But I love chips, too. Miss Vicky's Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar - YUMMY!!!! And how about Chinese food?? I just LOVE Chinese food! I'm also a lover of shrimp, lobster, crab and have even tried a little bit of sushi (although, the sushi I can take or leave).

I'm a total emotional eater. When I'm upset, bring on the chocolate. When I'm bored, bring on the chips. It's definitely something I need to work on!

So... what do you love/hate??? Please share!!!

New Light...

You know, it's funny how things work sometimes! Just when I've had questions, a wise and wonderful uncle comes along and just happens to explain a lot to me, and shed new light on the subject!!! Thanks!!!! I always knew you were pretty special!

My Family

This is my beautiful family. Of course, I'm behind the camera, but that's ok!!!

From Left to Right: Courtney - 9 years old; Rob - my "love of a lifetime"; Evan - 4 years old; Justin - 10.5 years old; and my Noah-bear - 6 years old!

This picture was taken at the Bird Emporium in Niagara Falls. It was a fun day out that we spent with the ENTIRE Cooper family while Martyn & his family were home from B.C. this summer!

Questions...

You know, growing up in the Salvation Army, my world was pretty sheltered. My parents did a very good job of sheltering me, I think! When I was younger, it seemed the only times we really did anything outside of school hours, it was at the church! Jr. Soldiers/Corps Cadets, Singing Company, Timbrels, Jr. Band, church, Sunday school, camp... There was always something to do there, and if there wasn't, I quite often ended up in Hamilton at church and youth group with Christine!

Being somewhat sheltered has been interesting, since leaving home several years ago to go to university and then getting married and involved with a whole new set of people, "outside of the Army". I've had my eyes opened many times, and yet some of it still can catch me off guard.

For those of you who aren't "Army", you may not fully understand where I'm coming from, but I ask you to understand that none of what I'm writing here is in "judgement" of others, it's just a few of my feelings and questions put to "paper"!

So, I titled this "blog" "QUESTIONS...":

What is the attraction of alcohol? How does it feel when you drink it? How does it feel when you're drinking too much? How does it feel AFTER you've had too much? How do you feel about it AFTER you've had too much?

I have never had any alcohol or cigarettes or drugs. I have absolutely no desire to have any of it, either. But I know a lot of people who do drink, etc., and I can't help but wonder about those questions I just noted above! When I go out, I can have a good time - as good a time as anyone else - so I am just SO curious about why people like to drink? Because it can really make people act silly (sometimes more than just silly!!) and do strange things. So then, the next day, or after you've sobered up, doesn't it bother you that you've acted this way? And what about the hangovers? I've heard people say, "oh, I shouldn't have had so much to drink last night!" because of how horrible they feel the next morning! But then they go and do it again, like it didn't really matter.

Ok, so I feel the need to clarify again... I'm not judging. I just don't know. So, I don't understand. And when I have friends/family who are around me and feel the "need" to drink, I feel the desire to understand it better.

I understand that "we all sin and fall short of the glory of God". I have many things in my life that are not right with God, although I do work on it, daily, trying to better myself for Him. So, how does God look at the drinking and the overindulgence of getting drunk? I guess it's no worse than my overeating and mis-treating my body that way, maybe? Or is it?

I have no desire to drink or smoke or do drugs. I'm thankful for this. I believe this is a gift that the Lord has given me. I have a very addictive personality, and I just know that if I were to ever start drinking, I'd probably become an alcoholic, or abuse the substance beyond what ever should be done. I believe that growing up in a very strict family, that being afraid of what my parents would do if they ever found out I'd been drinking, probably scared me away from doing any of it! Add in that I spent so much time at church hearing about how it was unnecessary, and being involved in church activities that I didn't have time for the parties or trouble! I believe this was God's way of keeping me away from it! And I've NEVER even felt an ounce of desire towards having a drink! I've called it will power before, but I don't really believe that's got anything to do with it! It's all about God power, not will power!!!!!! :-)

Anyway, I don't know that anyone can really shed any light on any of this for me, but it's just something that's on my heart right now and rolling around in my brain, and I just felt the need to "air it out" somewhere!

Again, please keep in mind that there's no judgement here. I have friends who drink and friends who don't drink. Friends who smoke and friends who don't smoke. I love you all, whether you partake in these habits or not. I don't feel I'm any better because I don't partake in it! How could I when I have such a strong vice as chocolate?!?!?! I just am very curious, is all. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

God bless!

Where We're At...

Well, we're 10 days from school starting up for the 2007/08 season! Does anyone else think that the time has absolutely flown by?! I can't believe how fast this summer has gone. I'm so thankful to finally have a dry and hot week. It's been such a wet summer - which is great for Rob's business, but not necessarily wonderful when you have 4 kids stuck in the house because everything's too wet and muddy!

Evan starts school this year. He's my baby. He'll be 4 on September 16. He'll be joining the JK/SK class, and couldn't be more thrilled about it. It's 3 days a week. What will I do with 3 days a week to myself?!?! lol ... I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find SOMETHING! ;-)

Noah starts grade 1 this September. He'll be 6 on September 30. This will be a big adjustment for him, having to go every day. But I think he's going to do just fine! He's starting to get excited about spelling and numbers and he absolutely loves to draw and colour and be creative!

Courtney will be in grade 4 this year. Already! My baby girl is practically half done her grade school experience! It pretty much seems impossible! She loves school, though. Although, I'm pretty sure her love of it stems from her love of being a social butterfly! She really misses her friends over the summer holidays. She has a best friend, Erin, that she can't wait to spend every day with again! Courtney has also been involved in ballet for 5 or so years, and absolutely loves music and singing and dancing to it!

Then there's Justin. My oldest. He's 10.5 years old and in Grade 5 this year! He's getting SO tall, and his feet are nearly the same size as mine already! He's a crazy guy, who loves to make people laugh, and he has this creative side to him - his imagination is fantastic! His love is playing with Lego Bionicles and sitting in front of the t.v. and computer! But he quite enjoys soccer, too. He's played for the past 6 summers and is really getting quite good at it!

Rob's business is really going very well. We are in our 4th season of being self-employed. His business is called "Five Points Lawn & Landscape". This year he had 5 employees, but I think next year he'll be downsizing that number a wee bit. He really does like to be at all the jobs personally, instead of leaving others to do the work without him. Of course, nobody will ever do the job as well as he does, right? Therefore, if he's at each job, he can control how well each job gets completed! He really does love his work, though, so it's all worth it.

Then there's me... I took over doing the bookwork for Rob's business, last year. I quite enjoy it, but find it difficult to look after it and 4 kids at the same time. It will be good for me this year to have 3 days a week to get things like that looked after without having to ship my kids to a babysitter or have them running around like animals while I'm trying to get work accomplished

Outside of working at the bookwork, though, I have many other things I enjoy. I love to take pictures. I currently own a Canon Digital SLR Rebel XTi and have 3 lenses and an external flash and a few other toys that I'm absolutely loving playing with! I was doing wedding photography for a couple of years, but that has slowed down considerably. (I do have a friends' wedding that I'll be photographing in 2 weeks from now, though, so I'm quite excited about that!!) I have been trying to get into it a bit more, but am mostly focusing on the fun of it all. I have MANY albums full of pictures, and many more pictures that still need to be scrapbooked!

Which leads to another one of my favourite things to do... scrapbooking! I don't get much time to do it, but I really love it when I DO get the chance. We actually book a day away at our church every couple of months where there are no telephones, children or husbands around, so that we can scrap to our hearts' content! It's great!

I also love to sing. Music is a passion of mine! I may not be good enough to be a professional, but I most certainly can hold my own! And when I'm singing, I feel like I'm a little bit more "complete"! I love country music, but am very fussy about which "sounds" I like, and I get pretty fussy about the language in the songs. There are a lot of catchy tunes out there, but if I can't sing along because there's swearing or inappropriate subject matter, then forget it! And my children need to see my living by that "code" because I fully expect them to be able to make that decision without worrying about what others will say. Standing up for what they believe in, even in what music they choose to listen to, is SO important! ANYWAY! My favourite artist is Paul Brandt. I love his music, his lyrics, and his Christian attitude that is so wonderfully displayed in his music and his lifestyle! I keep telling Rob that I will one day meet him and tell him how much I love his music and message, and tell him how proud I am of him for standing up for what he believes in, even in the music scene!

Okay, I could go on and on about music and Paul Brandt and all of that, but I will wrap that up for now!!! LOL!

So, now you know a little bit more about us.

New to me!

Well, hello, everyone! This is my first time setting up a blog... To be honest, I've even seen very few blogs, so this is all new to me. SO, anyone with any tips or ideas for me to make this better, please DO share!

I think I'll try to just write about things going on in my life and thoughts that I'd like to explore & get feedback on from my friends! I welcome your comments!