Jingle Goes Zip Lining!

Jingle decided to have a little fun last night and went zip lining to the Christmas tree! He sure has a lot of fun after we go to bed.

And here's Monty, he knew Regan wasn't feeling well so he was cuddling with her! He's so sweet and cuddly these days, especially when it's cold out!

My Birthday Miracle!

Around the weekend July 4th, Monte got out of the house. He had done this quite a bit, he would go out for a bit, explore the backyard, but wouldn't venture out too far cause he's a big scaredy cat. Well, for whatever reason, when he got out over the holiday weekend, he never came home. We have a big deck in our backyard and sometimes he would go under it, but we could never see him under there. We also live next to a greenbelt where there are racoons, rabbits, coyotes, and even a mountain lion has been spotted. So, we prayed about it, the kids prayed for him to come home, but honestly, as the days wore on, I gave him up as eaten by a coyote.

Then about a week or two ago, David and I were watching TV late one night, and heard a cat fight. Hissing, scratching, screaming, so we grabbed a flashlight and ran outside in time to see our little Monte run up under the deck. We called, we stomped on the deck, we set out food and water, but we could never get him to come in. David did almost grab a possum thinking it was Monte though, that was pretty funny, and gross, those things are really ugly!!

Then again, a night or two later, heard the cat fight, and saw Monte run across the yard. I don't know why he wouldn't come to us or come meow at the back door like he used to. But, we prayed for him to be safe and have food and water, and come home soon.

Then, on my 40th birthday (or, the 1st anniversary of my 39th birthday, as I prefer to think of it) David let Princess out, and when I opened the back door to let her in, who is standing there but Mr. Monte?! He was meowing and I gently walked up and grabbed him and got him inside ASAP, got him some food and water and sure enough, he walked right over to the dog food and started chowing down. He always did prefer dog food (he's a little special).

So, wow, after over 2 months living on the street, he's skinny, he's scrawny, he's dirty, and roughed up around the edges, but he's SUPER lovey, doesn't want us to put him down, he just sits on our lap all day if we let him. The kids are SO happy to have their Mont-ster home!!

End of Summer

It's been pretty boring around here lately. I thought I would finally tackle the carpet, and started ripping out one hallway and realized the padding had been very heavily glued down, and the tack strips weren't coming up without some serious tools, so I abandoned my pursuit of wood floors for a bit. At least until I get better tools, and my big strong man is home from work to help!

And then we had to put the truck in the shop. The rear a/c hadn't been working in a while (it would click whenever we turned it on) so we had just been running the front a/c on super high, until that started clicking, anyway, with 100+ degree temps this time of year, the kids were sweating, and then we were sweating, it was time to get it fixed, but required me to be stuck at home without wheels for almost a week! Which if you know me, you know that's like a death sentence!

So we've been stuck at home, trying to organize and get ready for school to start back. I spent the last couple of weeks ordering curriculum and now that it's all in, and piled on top of the dining room table (I mean, the home school desk!) it's time to sort through and get it all ready to go on Monday (wow, summer is over already!).

And here's the Mont-ster, he has decided he wants to be an outside cat, but we haven't come to that conclusion yet. He just likes to sit and stare outside, until a door opens and he tries to kill you by running right around your feet to try to get out. He's so cute though.


And here's Regan at a birthday party recently, she had fun sliding down the water slide. She asked me on the way home if I thought she was too young for a boyfriend. I was like uh, why? And then she asks how I knew that dad and I would get married. Ack, a little serious for 8 years old! But apparently there was some boy rocking a Spongebob bathing suit that she thought she could see a bright future with. I'm not ready for that!


So, that's the update on our end. Not a lot going on, just getting ready to get back to our routine and get some order in this house!

Riley and Monte

Monte loves Riley!

Meet Princess

This was kind of bad timing, but we have been planning to get Regan a dog for a while now. She really wanted a small dog that would sleep with her and be her best friend. We didn't really know what breed to look at or anything, but thought we would keep our eyes open. Well, we got an email that a breeder of Pomeranians was having some health issues and needed to get rid of her dogs, and was giving them away for free to good homes. Well, I called, headed out to Elgin today to look at them, and ended up getting this little cutie for Regan. Her name is Princess, she's not quite 2 years old, and she's the sweetest thing. Regan is going to have a HUGE birthday surprise when she gets home from camp, I can't wait!

And this is what Monte thinks about the new dog:

Snugglepuss

Regan and the Mont-ster. He's such a snuggly kitty!

The Mont-ster

Isn't he cute?! He's the most lovey cat, and he has the most annoyingly loud meow when he wants something. But he likes to stand on his back legs like a Meerkat and he gets right in your face and rubs his face all over you. It's funny, and endearing, and we love him so much!

New Family Member!

One of Regan's favorite things to do on my computer is look at the animal shelter web pages and take pictures of all the animals with my camera. I don't know why she needs pictures of them, but she does. She then tells me which dogs she wants us to go and rescue for her. It hasn't happened yet, but a girl can dream, right?

So the other day we saw some cute kittens online and David said go get one. It took me a minute, then I realized he was serious so we started looking around at the animal shelters around here. We went to Georgetown and found little Monte, he's so tiny for being 10 months old, but he's the sweetest, cutest thing! The kids fell in love with him almost instantly, we brought an application home to think about it, sent it in the next day and they called within hours to say we had been approved. So far, he's super lovey, loves to cuddle, and is deathly afraid of Bailey, who could care less that there's a cat around.

He spent the night going back and forth between Riley and Regan's bed, which is what we wanted, and right now they are laying on the bed, cuddling, all 3 of them! Maybe Monte will help them get along? Maybe? Like I said before, a girl can dream!