Lovely Day

My fabulous family treated me to a lovely day yesterday.  We never really officially celebrated my birthday and they wanted to make up for it.  We had a beautiful, yummy brunch on the patio.  There were flowers (red roses chosen by O and pink flowers chosen by M), balloons, donuts, kolaches, mimosas and fresh strawberries.  Yummmmm!  The weather was perfect.  I very much enjoyed myself.  Thank you to my wonderful family.

Oh, and Chinese food for dinner!  Also yum!  I also had time to study for my upcoming quizzes.  No stress.  It was a lovely day.

March Birthdays

Since Grandma and Grandpa were here and we ate so much we didn't have an official birthday party for March birthdays.  Grandma and my birthdays are in March so we celebrated.  And celebrated some more!  But, I wanted to make sure our fellow March friends knew that we were thinking of them on their special day.  

Grandma (C's mom)

Cousin Colin

Cousin Bethany

Cousin Brian (same day as mine!)

Great Aunt Ginnie (now deceased) 

Great Uncle Herb (also now deceased)

And numerous friends including:

Anna-Marie

Kappi

Colin W

Corbin C

Hope you each had a perfect day.  Love to you all!

Toofwess

O can now keep his jaw closed and put his tongue through the hole where his front teeth used to be!  Observe:

Nice party trick for a nearly 7 year old.  When he gets the giggles and laughs with his mouth wide open it is even more obvious.

Top right front tooth lost last night while eating pizza for dinner.  Bottom left 2nd from front tooth lost this morning (not pictured) while eating his waffle.  The tooth fairy is going to go broke at this rate!

Birthday Thanks

Thanks to everyone for the great cards, phone calls, $$ etc for my b-day.  I love you all and wish you could all be here to celebrate with me.

Would you look at that

Guess who came home for my birthday?!

I got a voicemail this morning.  A lady named Kristie called to say that she thinks she found our cat, Rusty, in her garage so please give her a call.  I call back as soon as I get the message.  I get her voicemail.  I leave a message saying that Rusty has been gone for 2 1/2 weeks.  We are anxious to see him and see what kind of shape he is in.  I didn't out and out ask her, "Is he dead?"  She calls back and we finally connect up.  It seems that they have seen him around their house lately.  They live in our neighborhood at the end of one of the cul-de-sacs near the soccer fields.  She has outdoor cats as do several of her neighbors and they all leave food outside.  They store stuff in their detached garage and some kids got into it a few weeks ago and stole some stuff.  So, when they left on a trip for spring break last Tuesday (3/17), they made sure their cats were outside and locked up the garage.  They heard Rusty meowing from inside of the garage this morning when they walked by the door.

I don't know where he was for that 10 days or so between when I last saw him and when he got locked in their garage.  I took him straight to the vet.  He looks like a different cat.  His sores are nearly gone, his eye looked tons better, the sores down his throat look better...the only thing that seems even slightly worrisome is he lost 3 pounds putting him below the 10 pound mark.  Otherwise, I think he is healthier than when he left!!  He doesn't seem dehydrated or lethargic.  The vet was just as perplexed as I am.  She even said, "maybe all he needed to heal from his allergy response was benign neglect!" We are assuming that there were mice or something to sustain him while he was locked in the garage.

So, he got his leukemia and rabies shots that we had been holding off on since he had been taking all of the other meds.  I will wait a day then give him his flea treatment--only 10 days late.  It is all kind of stunning.  

Now we aren't sure if there might be something in our house that may be causing his allergic response.  I mean, he's been away from here for 2 1/2 weeks and gets better.  Is there mold or something like that in the house that is affecting him?

Time will tell I guess.  In the mean time, I am super happy that he was found alive and well on my birthday.

Space-Monkey

My good friend, LW, is a total space geek and proud of it.  She has so much space trivia in that brain of hers!  It is quite impressive.  Plus, she is passionate enough about it to share info with the rest of us who, while we are impressed with the whole thing, cannot begin to comprehend what goes into it.  If you enjoy learning about space in an entertaining fashion where the narrator does not talk down to you read these posts:  Space News  and  Launch of STS-119  Then, if you enjoy those, browse her blog for more NASA related information.  You won't be sorry.  

Plus, one day when she is an astronaut herself, you can say you remember her when she was only blogging about it.  Just think how cool her blog posts will be then!!

10 Days

Just to catch you up.....no, the Great Rustola has not returned home.  It has now been 10 days since I last saw him in the back yard.  You know how after something happens and you look back you feel like you had some premonition?  When I saw him sitting on the white plastic table on the patio I had this urge to go and pet him and love him up.  I was really tired at the time, however, so I briefly encouraged him to come to me, come inside and lay on my chest in bed where I could love him up and hear him purr as I dosed off to sleep.  He wasn't interested in that prospect.  Well, at least he didn't move quickly enough if he was interested.  I remember our eyes meeting and he held my gaze for a bit longer than normal.  Did he know?  Was he saying goodbye?  Or am I just hallucinating?!  Probably the latter.  Regardless, I still watch for his little face to pop up at the back door, meowing to be let in for some grub.  I still miss him.