Christmas Wishes... Granted... Early (WE GOT A CAT!)

Harriet, for as long as I can remember, has wanted something to hold and love.  She loves babies for that reason.  When she started to realize that it probably wasn't going to happen for her to get a baby sibling, she switched gears and started asking for an animal to call her own.  Yes, we had 2 dogs when she started asking, and no, that wasn't what she was after - the pets we already had.  She wanted something small and cuddly and cute to hold on her LAP that would love HER unconditionally.

Earlier this year, when we were having such a hard time with her, I started looking into small animal possibilities for her.  A puppy - nope, all full in the dog department (even with one now.)  A cat? Really nope - David is allergic, they shed, they scratch your furniture, they scratch you, they get on your counters, and they require a box of poop in your house somewhere.  So, it turns out, does every other small animal you can think of - it's basically just a box of poop in your house.  And, most small critters do not care much about you anyway, let you hold them for 2 seconds, and bite you.  I looked into Chinchillas - they supposedly have affection for their owners and are small and furry and cute.  Turns out, they wouldn't do too well here in the hot summers and also... they live for 20-25 years!  No, thank you.

Poor Harriet.  She was just desperate for something to love and love her back.  Then, cousin Kate turns up with a random kitten?! Life is just not fair!

Fast forward to an evening earlier this fall.  It was a gorgeous night.  I had all the doors in the house open.  The kids were out riding bikes.  I was making dinner, and an orange tabby cat walked right under my legs in my kitchen.  ExCUSE me?  Who are YOU?!  It was extremely nice, seemed like it was lost, seemed familiar (there are lots of neighbors with cats,) and it was hurt - limping on a back paw.  I scooped it up and started knocking door to door, thinking certainly it belonged to someone nearby.  Nope.  No one claimed it, but several people said it was a known stray (I had never seen it before.)  It tried many attempts to hide in our garage and stay the night.  Eventually, I kicked it out.  It was a warm night and I knew it would be ok.  We can't have a cat anyway! (At the time - still 2 dogs too.)

The cat did stay in the neighborhood for several weeks and it's paw seemed to be better.  Apparently, plenty of people were feeding it and plenty of kids were naming it.  Leopard, Sunshine, Sunflower... I didn't worry too much about it.  Harriet wished...

Then, I didn't see it for at least a month maybe.  Hopefully, it went home and the coyotes didn't eat it.

Our neighbor, Debbie, offered to do our trash cans while we were gone over Thanksgiving.  She sent me a text with a picture of the cat in my flower pot.  It had apparently been sleeping in it.  Cute.  We came home from Thanksgiving, and a few days later it started getting pretty cold in ABQ.  The cat came around.  It would be on my front porch mat trying to stay off the cold concrete.  After a few days, I threw an old bath mat out for it to sit on.  The next day, it got colder, it was crying to come in and tried to run in our house whenever we opened the front door.  I put the mat in a box with a few old towels for it to snuggle down in.  I put a note on the neighborhood Facebook page:  Who wants a kitty for Christmas? Come and get it!  It's cold and lost and it's nice and needs a home!

Another neighbor, Gail, responded.  She had been offering it a heated pad and quilt on HER porch.  She would bring it right over.  No, let's leave it at your house, Gail.  Don't you think it needs another station?  She wouldn't hear of it.  Over she came, supplies in hand.

David had been pretty quiet other than to say "if you feed it, it's your cat."  (i.e. - DON'T FEED THAT CAT!)  I didn't feed it.  I only offered it a warm place to sleep.  It got so cold, I let it sleep in the garage, fearing the whole night that it would tear up the place or pee in the camping gear.  Nope.  It gratefully slept in the warm box and left in the morning.  The next night, David spent an hour making it an enclosed house to keep outside so that it could come and go and be warm all day and night.  I might love him a lot more because he made a house for that cat.

The next day, I decided to really try to find its owners if they were out there.  It was a REALLY nice cat.  I posted on craigslist, gave the info to animal control, looked in the classifieds for lost cats.  Nothing.  Gail offered me her little dog carrier to take it to the vet to scan for a microchip.  We doubted it would have one, but it was worth a shot.

Unbelievably, it was microchipped!  Hooray!  It can go home!  Nope, I traced the microchip to the ABQ Animal Shelter.  They told me the owner information was untraceable from there and to treat the cat as though it did not have a chip.  It is stray and lost.

Harriet came home with a story about a friend whose friend lost an orange cat as they were moving.  I called to track down that story.  Oh, it was from kindergarten - 2 years ago.  Not the right cat.

The shelters here are full.  It won't last more than a day if we turn it in.  The no-kill rescues charge a $50-$200 surrender fee to take in an animal.  DEAD ENDS EVERYWHERE.

It started to look like a homeless kitty camp on my front porch.  I moved the box to the back patio.  The cat stayed nearly all day and all night in our back yard for days.  It had nowhere to go.  Plenty of neighbors were being nice to it, but it was homeless, just the same.  We knew we had to make a decision.  I thought, maybe I will have an outside cat who lives on my back porch!  Genius.  I'll just start feeding it and it can stay out there and if Hattie wants to hold it, she can.  The next night, an unknown, but larger-than-a-cat black animal, chased it out of its little house in the middle of the night.  Great, now I'm attracting other strange animals to my back porch, and kitty still doesn't have a safe place.

Harriet's big green eyes, Kitty's big yellow eyes... they were too much to take.

On my birthday, Harriet and I stayed home sick.  We let the cat in to see if it would get along with Shadow.  No problems.  Does it jump on the counters?  Nope.  Does it scratch my brand new couch?  Nope.  Does it pee on my carpet?  Nope.  Does it scratch or bite?  Nope.    Does it climb in Harriet's lap any chance it gets and purr?  Yep.

Does it nap under the Christmas tree like the Christmas present it is obviously meant to be? Yep.

Crap.  We have a cat.

(Ironically, as I was decorating for Christmas, I put out this Christmas pillow with an orange tabby cat on it and thought, "strange I have a cat pillow - we don't even have cats."  Oh the things the universe picks up on!)

I still had not fed it.  Friends were sending me texts of themselves with pouty faces and captions like "please feed the cat, we are so sad."  (THEN YOU FEED IT!)

Harriet went back to school Wednesday morning.  Instead of finishing Christmas errands, I went to the pet store and stocked up on litter box, kitty litter, kitty food, kitty dish, kitty bed, kitty carrier (so I can take the thing for shots!), oh fine, and a kitty toy.

We fed her.  We named her.  She pooped in the litter box.  She moved in.

Meet:  Kit Cat (short for Kitty Cat) Sunny Ray Chapman.  I'm serious.

Folks, just when you think that the world is short of Christmas miracles, it's not.  A little girl got the deepest wish of her heart and a lonely, cold, sweetheart of a cat, got a home and a bed, and a little girl who loves her so much - she better not break her heart!

This morning, I took Kit Cat to her first vet appointment for shots and exam.  She is officially a "she", is spayed (even has a tattoo to prove it,) is about 2 years old, is healthy and sweet, and pretty much the best cat you could hope to have decide to move in with you 5 days before Christmas.  The vet could not believe that such an awesome cat turned up on our porch.  Turns out, its even pretty rare that "SHE" is an orange tabby.  Usually, they are males.  It's rare to get the genetic combo for the color in a female, and traditionally, orange tabbies are the nicest cats in the world.  We're pretty lucky.

I hope that whomever lost her knows somehow that she is okay.  Maybe she was abandoned and no one was ever looking for her or hoping to find her someday.  (That is a real possibility since her info on her chip is blank and people often abandon animals out here on the mesa.)  But, I can't imagine that she will be loved by anyone more than she will be by Harriet.  It has been a really weird experience.  I feel like it was somehow meant to be and that 2 little match-made souls in the universe found each other.

Shadow tolerates her.

Grace likes her, but will not allow her in her room.

David does not seem too allergic and has been caught talking to her, and I... well,  I think I have fallen in love with her too.  Harriet is OVER THE MOON.  It's one of those really cool moments as a parent when you realize you can do something to bring PURE JOY to your child.  Maybe we should have named her Joy.  For the sentiment, and the holiday, and all.  Oh well, Kit Cat.  You've got a candy-bar kind of name from a sugar-infused little girl.  Welcome home, Kitty.  Merry Christmas, one and all.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Christmas season at our house is fairly predictable.  It's supposed to be.  That's what traditions are, right?  Predictable.

We finally made it out to Galloping Grace, one cold and windy night, to get our tree.  In grand tradition, we bought the biggest one they had.  Although, each year, their biggest one gets smaller...  It has gone from a crazy 15' three years ago to 11' this year.  Still, that's a pretty big tree and plenty to deal with and decorate.

Grace was pretty cute; she picked up the guitar by the fire at Galloping Grace and started playing while they waited for us to load the tree.

Tried to get some good pics, but it was too dark, cold and windy!

We LOVED getting to bring the tree home in our new sleigh!

Finally got it decorated after a couple of days.  

Finally got the house pulled together after a couple of weeks. 

I dare anyone to come up with something that looks more cozy than a dog sleeping in front of a fireplace under a Christmas tree.

My new birthday tradition is to buy tickets to the Nutcracker and take the girls.  (We've been going for a long time, but I've decided to make it my birthday party and present.)  David doesn't go with us anymore.  He's seen it many times and is happy to buy the tickets for my present.  He also bought me those cool nutcrackers on my fireplace.  Anyway, I love the excuse to get the girls dressed up and take them somewhere fancy like the ballet.  You can't tell how much from this picture... but Grace did make a pretty big effort to look her nicest.  She hates having to dress up and have any fuss about her hair beyond brushing it.  I bribed her with a filet mignon to curl it.  The curl lasted about 10 minutes and she ended up looking much like her normal self (although, still in a really nice dress and dress boots.)  We were out of time to try anything else, and I had already bought the steak.  I was happy with the fact that she just let me touch her hair and attempt to make it look nice.  She felt bad though, and has agreed to let me do it nice for church on Christmas weekend too.  Harriet is my little Christmas angel.  I think she looks like a little puff of a heavenly cloud in this white and gold dress and shoes.  

The girls have developed a tradition for themselves to take their own money to the Nutcracker performance and buy their own Nutcracker every year.  They are getting quite a good collection.  I know they will love that they did this someday.  Well, they already love doing it, but when they are grown, they will have an amazing collection full of memories. 

One day in Albuquerque, it snowed!  Shadow was DYING and I mean, dying for someone to come play with her in the snow.  I tried, but I wasn't fun enough.  I think she was really missing Velvet that day.  The two of them used to chase each other through the snow.  The school district did an optional early release as of about 11am that day. My kids have missed so much school this year, I felt bad taking them out for no reason, so I made them stay until early afternoon.  But, I couldn't resist letting them take advantage of the weather a little bit and hoped I could get them home to play with Shadow in the snow.  Too bad the storm didn't last.  By the time they got home, the snow was gone.  Poor Shadow puppy.   Hopefully, it will snow again.

Traditions are cool.  People, not just kids, depend on them.  They are comforting and defining.  We probably have a lot of the same traditions as everyone else.  Advent calendars (chocolate and LEGO this year!), making sugar cookies and fudge, finding the elves every morning... it doesn't feel like Christmas until you do these things.  We like to have seafood on Christmas Eve, at least shrimp, and clam chowder is also a favorite.  We make quiche for Christmas morning and have Buche de Noel for Christmas day dessert.  I was trying to decorate more quickly this year and save myself some time.  I debated about putting out the Christmas Village.  It didn't come out right away, but Harriet spotted the absence and demanded that it come out.  Whatever your traditions are, you do them and you love them, even if you forget why you love them until after you do them.  

We hope our friends and family far and near have a really Merry Christmas next week! 

Thanksgiving 2013: a trip and a truck

Over the continental divide and across the desert...
to Uncle Brian's house we went.

We swore we would not go to Salt Lake one more time this year.  We've been quite a bit for one calendar year.  Then, Brian and family decided to move there after we planned to visit them for Thanksgiving in San Diego.  So, back we went.

For me it was one of those best and worst trips ever.  Best because we got to spend a lot of time with a lot of family on both sides, best because we got to see some good friends, best because we got to do lots of great things in Salt Lake, best because we FINALLY got a new car!  Worst - because it was just too much.  Kids stayed up way too late every night and (especially Harriet) were cranky every day, all day long, including a melt down at Grandma Pearlie's house that I'd rather pretend never happened.  Worst because the kids were truly awful in the car driving up - worst they have ever been on a trip.  (I say that with full memory of a 3 hour layover I spent in Minneapolis one year with Grace having an eternal meltdown.)  Worst, because, when we got back from 8 days in Salt Lake over a late Thanksgiving holiday, it was DECEMBER SECOND.  Everyone else had their trees up and half their Christmas ready to go.  I still had to unpack, do 1000 loads of laundry, throw away the rotten pumpkins still on my fireplace, and find a tree.  I kind of feel like December punched me in the face.

Here are the highlights.  We did have a good time, and it was well worth it:

We started out on Sunday going to church with Brian's family.  They live in the Ave's in Salt Lake and go to one of the really old and cool church buildings up by the Salt Lake Cemetery.  Their whole ward was so refreshing to be around and Brian and Wendy and Clare all spoke in sacrament and gave the best talks.  Alec played an amazing piano piece too.  It was the best day I have had in church in a very long time.

Then, we went to Melissa and Randy's house for a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner with my family, including Sloan's first birthday party.  I'm so glad I got to be there to see that little dude and give him his first birthday present.

My parents gave the girls an early Christmas present.  LEGO advent calendars!  I have to say, these might be the cutest presents they've ever gotten.  They are having a blast with them.  They get to do a mini lego build every single morning as they count down to Christmas.  It may be making us late to the bus stop, but it is so exciting.

We started week on Monday by "taking the new truck out for a test drive."  We have been thinking about buying a truck pretty much since we moved to ABQ and have been looking for the right one for a long time.  We finally decided that the 2014 Nissan Frontier was the ticket when we saw the features they were going to put on it.  No one in ABQ would have any until next February, but we found one red one in Salt Lake.  We crossed our fingers that we might be able to sell our car up there and swing the whole deal in a week.  My dad is so great about helping us with cars.  He works so hard on our cars for us and I always feel like I've robbed someone when he gets us such good deals. As we walked into the dealership with the Subaru, he had his wholesale buddies there ready to bid on it.  They totally gave us a great offer and we were able to sign the papers and buy the truck that day.  It's pretty sweet.  It's the first brand new car we have bought together and definitely, the kids' first brand new car.  There is just something about driving a car that no one else has sat in or ruined or worn out.  We are having tons of fun driving it!

The kids with Grandpa Lyle and the new truck!

While we were signing papers, my dad was playing with the kids in the dealership.  They all thought this car was pretty cool.  Grace thinks she's getting one for her 16th birthday? ha!

One of the cool things we were able to do during the week was go to The Leonardo museum to see the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit.  It was really incredible to learn about how they were found and acquired and assembled.  Seeing the scrolls in person and seeing artifacts from the same region and time period was really humbling.  No photography is allowed, so I don't have any pics, but if you get a chance to see that exhibit, it is totally worth it.  The kids were even into it and very interested in most of the details.  At the end, they have an actual piece of the wailing wall from Jerusalem.  You can write your own prayer on paper and leave it in the wall.  They say when the exhibit is over, they will actually transport all of the papers back to the real wall in Jerusalem.  So neat to be able to do that.

We ate dinner on Thanksgiving with Brian's family, as planned.  Normally, they have a big crowd, but this year they chose to just keep it small with their family and ours.  It was a really nice, peaceful, Thanksgiving.  One thing that made it really great was being able to see Alec, who was home from school in Pittsburgh.  He has always been such a sweet kid and so good to my kids.  Harriet started the week kind of mad that she didn't have any cousins her age at Brian's house.  She slowly learned that Alec was a really good big cousin to have around.  He played with her and was so nice to her.  Clare was great too and Jeremiah finally warmed up to having us around and decided we weren't too bad to hang out with.  

Wendy assigned everyone a part of the meal to cook.  It was surprisingly easy and fast.  Everyone down to Harriet made one thing and it came together in a snap.  

I used to spend the month of November making "grateful" posts.  We always have a lot to be thankful for, especially when you start counting the good things in life.  But, I really liked something in Brian's talk on Sunday that made me start thinking about being thankful for the hard parts of life too.  When Velvet died, so many of my friends said "well, that's why I will never get my kids a pet, I don't want to have to go through that."  It is so short-sighted to think that way though.  Our lives have been so much better because of that dog and even her death was a really special thing in our family.  Our kids learned so much from it and have done so much thinking about things since.  Even though it was really hard, it was something I wouldn't trade.  I don't hope to go through it again anytime soon, but I think we actually can be thankful for the hard things in our lives and what they teach us, as well as all the good stuff, which is also plentiful.

Black Friday was pretty funny.  We have, in the past, done our due diligence in seeking out the great deals and door busters and standing in line.  This year, we decided we were all too tired and not in the mood for that.  So, Melissa and my mom and I, set out to a couple of small local stores that we love.  We were the only ones in the first store the whole time we were there and then barely the only ones in the second store.  It was way more fun and relaxed that way and we found some great stuff that I guarantee was NOT at the mall or Kohl's or Best Buy.

For our last day in Salt Lake, we did spend some time with Grandma Pearlie.  (I hope she will someday get over our spectacle of meltdowns.)  Then, we took everyone downtown to see the lights at Temple Square.  Grace saw them once, before we moved from Salt Lake.  She wasn't even 2 years old.  Harriet has never seen them.  I have been looking forward to being able to take them for so long.   We started the night checking out the candy windows at ZCMI.  These were probably the best part of the night for the kids.

As we walked across the street to Temple Square, Harriet was not impressed.  

(why? look at this place!)

Hattie was done with the whole thing before it started. She wanted to leave and she would rather play with her cousins one last time than "see a bunch of stupid lights on trees."  Little stinker!  I waited 7 years to show these lights to that kid!  She was not down with the field trip.  

Luckily, she likes to smile for pictures even if she is in a bad mood.

David, however, does not smile in pictures unless you specifically tell him to.  

He does not fake having a good time well. (I think he was done with the trip at this point too.)

In his defense, it was hard to walk through the 100,000 people and keep track of 3 different families who were all going at different speeds.

But, look who we found downtown?! Our long lost Merrill friends!  It was so great to see them.  Christmas Eve in ABQ will not be the same without them this year since they had to go and move to Washington last summer.   

Jamie, also does not like having a picture taken.  I was quick with my camera and grabbed this one.  

I think Grace and I enjoyed the lights at least.  Bah humbug to the rest of ya!

And somehow, we packed up everything that was in the Subaru plus a bike and a tent into the truck and went home in our new "sleigh." (Since we got the truck at Christmas time and it is a great cherry red sleigh color, I think it would suit Santa just fine for a vehicle.)   Shadow was extra happy to move up a row and get to sit with the girls all the way home.  Thankfully, no one was too terrible heading back and we got home in record time and we didn't have to drive through this storm (but we got to see what it left behind!)

November Kid Update

Wait, wasn't there just a kid update in October?  Yes, things can change quite a bit in a month and these two never cease to do more and be more.  

Sorry, these pics were both just too cute, couldn't choose between them.  They were taken just after the girls' first guitar recital.  (If you want to see video, you'll just have to go to my Facebook page.  Videos on blogs just don't cooperate for me anymore.)  They did so well.  Grace played MK Ultra by MUSE and Harriet played Ode to Joy by Beethoven.
They continue to LOVE guitar lessons and we still adore DJ, their teacher.  He is amazing!!!

Grace ran for student council president against about 6 other kids.  Check out her campaign speech.  I thought it was pretty great:

Got Grace? Hi, my name is grace chapman.  i am running for your student council president.  I love our school.  This is my last year at tierra Antigua and I want to make it the best I can.  I value all of your opinions and hope to make it a great year for everyone.

If I could, I would:

1-  make the school lunches way tastier

2-  persuade the principal to give us longer recess

3-  arrange for nicer toilet paper for the restrooms

4-  give all the teachers raises

5-  replace all the chairs that have broken or missing feet

6-  get cushions for every seat

7-  make the school day shorter

8-  make the summer longer

9-  sound proof the classrooms so that we can talk as loud as we want in the hallway

10-           make any drink you want come out of the drinking fountain.

But, unfortunately, I can’t do those things.  So, I promise to:

1-  be honest

2-  work hard

3-  be a good friend

4-  encourage compromise and agreement in student council meetings

5-  plan fun activities for the school

6-  admit when I make a mistake

7-  help others when they make mistakes

8-  plan good service projects that help our community

9-  represent our school in a positive way

10-           help everyone have the best year ever

So, vote for me, grace chapman, your awesome 5^th grader.  If you’ve got grace for President, you’ve got a great year!

Unfortunately, she lost to a girl who actually promised to get a snack bar installed in the school.  LAME!  Oh well, she still gets to be on student council as a delegate.  Harriet was so mad though, she had been campaigning for Grace in the lower grades and had lots of kids ready to vote for her.  Then, they didn't let the lower grades vote!  Only 3-5 got to vote.  LAME!  It's all good though.  Grace isn't too upset about it and I think, frankly, relieved that she doesn't have to go to ALL the student council meetings.

Harriet was pretty excited to get a real piano.  My grandmother passed it along to our family since Harriet is the only great-grandchild taking piano lessons who didn't currently have her own piano.  She has played it every single day since it was delivered.  (Jessica's awesome hubby, Nick, drove it to ABQ for us!)  Harriet also "graduated" from going to therapy sessions.  She is doing so much better about going to school, feeling safe and happy there, being able to talk to adults and tell them what she needs...  she has also made tons of progress at home.  I am super proud of her.

She was also awarded Student of the Month for October and gave her first talk in Primary a couple weeks ago.  I couldn't believe that she had never given a talk before since she's almost 8!, but it was the first time she didn't turn it down and opt for a scripture or prayer.  Go Hattie!

Shadow... let's do a little report on the doggie.  (yes, she is taking a nap in the middle of a "Dogopoly" game.)

She is doing really well.  I thought for sure she wouldn't survive losing Velvet.  She did have a few rough weeks at first.  Poor thing.  But, lately, she has realized that she is now "alpha dog" and has all these rights and responsibilities that she has never had before.  She is figuring it out nicely and has taken on so many things that Velvet used to do.  She reminds me when it's dinner time.  She asks for walks.  She asks to go outside.  She begs for food.  She watches me cook.  These were all things Velvet used to be responsible for.  It's been super interesting to watch her personality change.  She seems pretty happy though, and has had tons of attention.  The kids have been really good about playing with her and making sure she's ok.  

And, here's just some random fun:

Raking our 27 fall leaves and jumping in them with the neighbor friend, Ethan:

 Sneaking in a zoo trip during the school year on Veteran's day when they had the day off.  We were so lucky!  We got to see the new baby elephant!  She wasn't scheduled to be out when we were there.