Who wants a semi-perfect cat?

Meet Kit Kat. He is a semi-perfect cat. His pros are overflowing, just like his fluffy fur.

Pro#1 - GREAT WITH KIDS - We found Kit Kat in our backyard in the summer of 2004. We knew he belonged when immediately Dylan crawled over to him and laid on top of him and he didn't kill Dylan. He is super sweet. He has endured a lot of abuse thanks to Dylan and many little cousins. They love Kit Kat and Kit Kat tolerates it.

Pro#2 - BEST NAP BUDDY - All of us love to snuggle up with Kit Kat and he loves to snuggle with us. I love taking naps with him curled up next to me. He is so warm and soft.

Pro#3 - HE IS BEAUTIFUL AND SOFT* - He has such soft fur and when we shave him in the spring he is softer still. He loves how we can't keep our hands off him when he is shaved. *We didn't shave him this year, due to money constraints and so he is not his best as his fur is clumping to get rid of his winter coat. He is a giant cat and quite striking to look at. He always looks tops because he looks like he's wearing a tux.

Pro#4 - HE IS GREAT WITH OTHER ANIMALS - Kit Kat was our only pet at the time we brought home our giant lab. That was the only time that Kit Kat had a problem with another animal. He soon became accustomed to our lab and the little puppy that followed and the kitten that followed that. As far as animals outside the house and family? Kit Kat is a gentle giant. He will not start a fight, he is confident enough in his superiority. That being said, he will not start it, but he will always finish it. He's a beast when he needs to be.

Pro#5 - HE IS DE-CLAWED - After the problem with Kit Kat and the lab we decided to have Kit Kat de-clawed. I didn't even question it. I've since read that I am a horrible person for doing that because of the pain I caused the cat. Here's what I think. If the stipulation for staying in my house and having me feed you and change your litter box for what might be close to 20 years is that you lose your front claws, I think you can live with that. He recovered quickly and it has never seemed to cause him any problems. Here's how we know...

Pro#6 - HE IS THE BEST MOUSER I'VE EVER SEEN - Kit Kat is a pro. Even with no claws he is amazing. In 2006 we had a vole infestation in our city. It was crazy. Our yard and home stayed rodent free while others were overrun. Towards the end of the season we just found dead vole bodies around because Kit Kat couldn't even eat them all, but he wouldn't let them live.

Pro#7 - HE IS AN INDOOR/OUTDOOR CAT - During the summer Kit Kat will stay out all night sometimes. We don't really worry about him because he is tough and he eats mice. He goes out almost every day though. He could easily be a completely outdoor cat. We lock him up at night in the laundry room due to his semi-ness.

What do I mean by that? Well, here's why he's not the "perfect" cat and just "semi-perfect." Kit Kat likes to leave surprises around the house sometimes. It's not all the time, but we do find poop in the basement from time to time. He has also been known to pee on things for no apparent reason. As anyone who has potty trained a child or had an animal with potty issues, you know what kind of strong emotions come up when poop and pee are involved. The last straw was when we found he had peed on our brand new down comforter. I stayed up all night washing the bedding and cursing his name. That was the night we decided that we couldn't keep Kit Kat. I've tried to convince Kenneth that Kit Kat could just live in the garage, but Kenneth has said that the time has come for us to part ways with Kit Kat, that he is not longer a part of our family.:( This is breaking my heart, though the logical side of me sees the sense in it. I swear Kit Kat knows something is up because he has seemed extra affectionate lately. I don't want to send him to the pound. So, I ask my friends first, "Does anyone want a semi-perfect cat?"

Cutest Valentine's Ever!!

My friend, Christine, is giving away the most beautiful valentines. She is very creative and talented. So, head on over to That and That Creations and enter to win.

Painting story

January of 2009 my life was disrupted by painters. It was such a stressful event that I wasn't able to share it at first. So here is our story, or at least bits of it.

We finally decided to get the whole interior of the house painted. It does look amazing, by the way, and completely changes the feeling of the house. When I see pictures of our house with all white walls it makes me want to barf.

As most of you know having someone in your house working all day is very disruptive to your life. I also made them lunch everyday so that they wouldn't leave and could work as much as possible, because I wanted then OUT OF MY HOUSE. I do not like trying to think of something different to make for lunch everyday. These were very nice men and one nice woman prep worker/cleaner, we will call them Jose, Carlos, and Maria (I really don't remember their names, so I don't know if I'm protecting their identities or not). They worked for my brother-in-law, who is the owner of The Painting Business. My bro-in-law does really amazing work himself, his workers do good enough work. Anyway, I was under an enormous amount of stress having them here everyday. I was also doing most of the prep work, another ploy at getting them out of the house sooner rather than later. The predicted 2 week job ended up taking 4.:(

Out of it we received beautifully colored walls and this one shocking story. One day I had been prepping the basement and then had to leave to go pick up kids from school and take a child for shots, so I was out of the house for a little longer than usual. When I was back home I went downstairs to start working again. As I rounded the corner I discovered in the alcove under the stairs Carlos and Maria totally going at it. He was laying on top of her and... yeah. I AM NOT KIDDING!!! (They did still have clothes on.) I was shocked, totally frozen in shock. Well, they immediately stopped and started apologizing and then asked what I needed. I said I was going to finish the prep work and they assured me they would take care of it. I quickly about faced and walked up the stairs. I was FREAKING OUT!! Kenneth wasn't home yet and I had to get it out of my head by telling someone. I walked across the park to my friend Jenn's house and told her and then waited for the workers to leave my house. I'm a coward. By the way, Maria never came back.

I didn't know what to do. Should I tell my bro-in-law immediately? At this point I was not willing to knowingly cause any lengthening in the process of painting my house. So I chose not to tell until after they were finished. Is that wrong? I did tell my one sister who had just had her house painted by them as well. She told me that she knew that Maria and Carlos liked each other, but Maria was married, but separated. Shocking!

After they were finished I told my bro-in-law. He told me that I should have told him immediately and that he would have made sure the work was finished. I still feel that it was best not to rock the boat at that point. Ending to the story: After the divorce Maria and Carlos started dating legitimately. Maria found out she was pregnant and they soon after were married. Just to think, I was able to witness one of the dry runs for the making of said baby. Lucky me.

And so it goes.

I think many of you know, but there may be some who still do not. We are selling our house. We are starting slow and on our own for right now. It's just up on KSL and no For Sale sign out front. We are currently just seeing what it's like out there in the jungle. If nothing much happens we'll take a step farther and put it up with Media One, which gets us on MLS and gives us a sign in our yard.

It feels somewhat surreal. We have worked so hard this last month since deciding to go for it. I have never been so consistently tired and crazy as I ripped my house apart and slowly put it back together. I think it looks great and now the key is keeping it that way. That's possible with 5 kids and 3 pets, right? I love my house and really want the right family to find it. So, if you know that family let them know that their house is ready.

Our plan right now is to build in the Pleasant Grove area. I remember saying that I would never build again or if I did we would finish everything before we moved in. Well, that's not the plan now. We will move in with an unfinished basement and an unfinished yard. We are hoping this will be our last move and so I'm not feeling a tremendous amount of pressure to get it all done up front.

And so it goes...we'll see what happens.

Pizzer 712 Dinner Club

Kenneth and I love Pizzeria 712. They make excellent food. Yes, their pizzas are delicious, but they make other things that are outstanding as well. Kenneth and I have splurged on their Dinner Club once before and it was amazing. It is a little pricey...usually. This month is yours, and our, lucky month. P712 is doing a special dinner at my sister, Amy's, farm on July 26th and the cost is only $5 a person if you pay in advance. Sweet! It's an awareness dinner for my sister and bro-in-law's farm and their CSA.

I encourage everyone to come and support Amy and Dale and eat some really yummy food. At $5 a person the whole family can come and you can make a night of it, especially because it is on a Monday night. I hope to see you there. Here's the number to call for reservations:  801.623.6712

Bend Left

Last night while chatting I had the idea to do a surprise celebration for Dylan's birthday a day early, with all of his cousins around.

This morning I went out and got a cake for Dylan. I convinced family members to stay around and gathered people up. By 10 we were all packed up and ready to go so we told the kids we were going to say goodbye to everyone. I went down to the house first with all the people and the cake and got it ready for Dylan to come in. When he walked in and we all yelled surprise he was in shock. He went bright red and wanted to hide. Poor kid.

I think he warmed up to the idea when he saw the toys on the cake, the ice cream and the candles. I mistakenly bought those magic relighting candles. I had no idea. Very funny. It was nice that we were able to have a lot of family around to wish him a happy birthday. Sadly, it doesn't mean that he doesn't want cake and ice cream again tomorrow.

After the food it was time to say goodbye and cry. Another 10 1/2 hours and we are home. We've only been gone for 5 days, but it feels so good to be home.

Dylan walks in and we yell.
He is in shock, we can tell.
We ate up the cake.
One I didn't make.
He smiles. We know all is well.

Bend Right

I'm going to speak as if it were yesterday, as yesterday didn't actually end until today at 2am. Thus, know that when I say, "today," I mean Sunday.

Today we went to church at 10, my favorite time for church. I also love going to another ward on fast Sunday. You learn a lot about the ward in a short amount of time.

After church we went home for some quick family pictures. I use the term “quick” loosely. Then we had a delicious hamburger feast.

Next we were heading to a place called Tumalo Falls. You can drive right up to the falls. The whole clan decided to go except for some moms with young kids. It was a challenge to drive caravan style to the falls. There were 8 cars in the line. So, we lost people and drove around in circles, many times. It was amazing that we all ended up at the falls at the same time. It was a really beautiful place. We were able to follow a short trail up to the top of the falls. At one point someone, who shall remain nameless, saw some younger cousins walking along a trail under where this person was standing looking down. So, this said someone, grabbed someone who was a proficient spitter and told that person to spit on the poor kids below. The spitter missed the first two people, but beautifully hit poor Mark. It was awesome. Good times, good times.

Later was fireworks shot off the top of Pilot Butte. We found a viewing spot on a hill and watched. It was cool to watch. I love fireworks. Unfortunately, Orion fell and wanted to go back to the car to get cleaned up. Fortunately we could still see from the car.

We have had really bad sleep hours here because we are always up late talking. We were so tired, so we decided to just go say goodbye to all the clan since everyone was leaving Monday morning and head to bed. We made it through one house fairly quickly. Hugs and promises to see each other more often all around. Then we went to say goodbye to Kenneth's twin uncles who are only 11 years older than he is. They asked us to sit and we did. We didn't leave there until 1:30am and didn't finally get to bed until 2. So tired, so very tired, but so worth it.

We had such a fun time with everyone. Big thanks to Grammy Evie for making it possible for everyone to be there. Big thanks to Mom Rawlings for arranging all the details for all of her kids. Big thanks to Scott who was the reunion guy this time around. I feel so blessed to be a part of the Rawlings clan. They are an amazing family with a lot of wonderful people whom I love to be around.

Tumalo Falls was where we went.

Driving in circles all patience was spent.

Someone spit on Mark's head.

Something we should all dread.

Building relationships was what this time meant.