The World Keeps on Spinning..

February has traditionally not been a good month health wise for my youngest daughter.  

Three years ago she was diagnosed with mono. We had taken her to the ER with severe stomach pains that we thought could have been appendicitis. We were all surprised we the test results came back that she had mono instead.  To this day, we still have no idea where she would have caught it.   She ended up having complications, and was pretty much out of commission most of the month.

The Day I Needed a Clone

I really did not mean to take a three month hiatus from this blog. Things just kind of got crazy the last few months, and I have been busy literally just trying to Survive the Crazy Life. 

During my last post, I shared about our kitty dilemna. I thought you might like a little update. Its been three months, and guess who is still here. We never heard another word from her previous owners.  She has grown quite a bit, and has thrived by eating well and staying warm inside. She spends half her time upstairs, and half downstairs. The other cats are still not sure what to think of her.  Tootsie does not mind her a bit. Reeses,who is usually our most easy going cat still hisses at her at times.  Milo, our male,  has a complicated relationship with her. At times he does not mind her being in the room, and other times he tries to hit her in the face.  When he does that, she goes to the basement door and asks to go downstairs for some alone time.  While she is not fully integrated with the other cats all the time, there has been significant progress. 

Our Kitty Dilemma

There is always something that keeps our lives busy and crazy. This week it is because of this sweet little girl.  Last Friday we found her in our yard.  She was cold, and  not wearing a collar. She was a bit shy, but loved the attention Kara was giving her.  We offered her some food, and she ate it like she was starving. The weather was pretty cold that night.  We brought her in the house. We knew that our  other cats would not be happy with a new kitty coming in their territory, so we brought her to our finished basement. While it is currently being used mostly as storage, and we don't spend a lot of time down there, it was still much warmer than outside. 

Halloween Fun

These last few weeks have been very busy.  This week with all of the excitement of Halloween, we also have the end of the quarter and finals.  If that was not enough,  Kara has a choir concert, and I have a birthday.   I am not sure even sure when we will have time to carve our pumpkins this year.  Hopefully we can before Friday night. 

Big Surprises, Corn Mazes and the Best Friend Curse

Starting back in first grade, Kara has been followed by a best friend curse. Every single year she would make a best friend, and within a year for whatever reason, they would move away. In first grade it was Brooke. They shared a locker and spent a lot of time together in class. Brooke moved soon after school was over. In second grade there were two friends who moved.  She met Hannah at the beginning of second grade. During the summer when second grade was over, she moved to another town to be closer to relatives.  Also that summer, Marlo who had been her best friend in preschool, moved to another state.  In third grade she got really close with Keely. There was talk that Keely was going to move when third grade was over, but she did not end up moving. Instead Kara was surprised when another close friend, Medaya, ended up moving instead.  In fourth grade, we thought she broke the curse, but that was not to be..  In August, right before fifth grade started she found out one of her closest friends since kindergarten was going to move to Tennessee a few weeks after school started.  Out of all of her friends, losing Caitlyn was the hardest.  She still really misses Caitlyn three years later.  During fifth grade she met another best friend named Sena.  It's been three years, and it looks like Sena will be staying put.  That does not mean the curse has been broken though. In sixth grade, Keely did end up moving to another state.  This year in September, her close  friend Emma moved without a lot of notice, because her dad got a promotion in another state.  If you have been counting, that is SEVEN friends who have moved in the last seven years.  

This weekend, we got the most wonderful surprise.  Caitlyn came for a surprise visit.  It was not announced until that day she was to arrive, in case something happened and, they could not come.  They live a few states away. Kara was so excited when she found out, she sent me a happy  text during lunch.  I had found out a few hours before, but had planned on waiting until she got home from school to tell her.   When Caitlyn lived here, she was part of our girl scout troop.  Our troop had planned on going to a corn maze that evening, and they were going to arrive in time to go. The girls were so happy to see each other. I had wanted to get a few pictures of the two of them together before it got dark, but they ended up getting lost in the maze, and were the last of our troop to exit. 

They got to spend more time together today, and this time I got some daylight pictures.  It was a very nice weekend.  As expected, it was hard to say goodbye, but hopefully it wont be too long before we see her again.  

42 pounds of Bananas

I did not mean to be away from this blog for so long this month.  The first few weeks of the school year are very busy.  In the last few weeks our activities have started back up, we had school open houses/meet the teachers nights, and homework.   Homework is my least favorite thing about going back to school.  This post though, is not about school, it is about this lovely bag of bananas. 

We Survived the First Week of School

This week was our first day back to school. We are a summer family. We love staying up late and sleeping in. I knew this week we would have to adjust to a much earlier schedule.  My youngest was the first one to leave.  She goes to a different school, and had a full day. We were able to take some great pictures, and she got to school in plenty of time.  Let's hope this continues, because she is not always good at moving in the morning, and has had at least a few tardies.