Almost there!

We are still working on our cabinets. It has been a loooong process, but we are loving the final result. After bead board, crown molding, new (to us) appliances, MANY coats of paint and lots of sweat, we are thisclose,

 

About another week left until our new pantry doors are ready to be installed and we will be completely finished. I cannot wait to show you the end result!

 

 

Here's a sneak peak of a portion of the kitchen... stay tuned for the finale!

What is a mom?

Yep, that's me! Aren't I beautiful?!?

All of the kids in Jake's class were asked 'What is a mom?'

There were lots of standard answers, and even this: "a mom is someone who says 'just a minute!' a lot"... (ouch!)

but my favorite response was Jake's: 'A mom is a person who takes you to special places and when it's your Birthday, she will give you cake'.

Never mind the labor pains, the birthing, the nursing, the billions of dirty diapers, the no sleep thing, the tornado of a house from kids messes, the mounds of laundry, the refereeing, the chauffeuring, the millions of snacks and meals prepared, bedtime stories, baths, etc...

Nope, a mom will give you cake on your Birthday :)

Haha! Gotta love kids... especially my boy :)

School friend playdates :)

One of Lauren's best friends at school came over a couple days ago and they had a blast :)

 

Lauren and K.!

 

Bathing suits, picnic lunch's, crafts, and fun... love school-friend weekend playdates :)

Timmy and LeeLee

A few weeks before school started, my kiddos and I decided to take a trip to the animal shelter. To be honest, I'm not sure what I was thinkin'. My man told me it's because I wasn't thinkin', haha!

 

Anyway, we checked out the kittens, the adult cats and the dogs. While we were in the kitten area, I noticed an Animal Control Tech marking on certain kittens tags. I knew what that meant... I was an AC tech and knew they were deciding which animals to euthanize (due to overcrowding... ugh). So I looked at this one kitten who was barely 8 weeks old and already scheduled to die. It BROKE MY HEART. I spoke to the tech and she confirmed that it was simply due to too many kittens and he had been there too long.

 

That was it, I called my man and sent him this picture with the situation:

 

 

 He responded, 'how can I say no to a cute little girl with a kitten?!?'

 

And just like that, with my children ecstatic beyond belief, we became the proud owners of little "Timmy".

 

We took him home and all was well for about a week before I noticed something was wrong with his eyes. They were hazy and cloudy. After a vet check, he was found to have a rare condition in kittens called Juvenile Cataracts. Basically, he's blind... at 9 weeks of age.

We had to make a choice, We could take him back to the shelter, find him a new home or live him... although, it was super hard to see him bump into walls.

Thankfully one of my friends recommended a 'seeing eye cat' for him. We prayed about it and decided to give it a go, this time taking in another kitten with no sight issues. Within days, and I mean days, he was a new kitten! He played and groomed and did all the regular kitten things he should have been doing! We put a bell collar on his new friend and he followed her around, getting to his food bowl and litterbox without a problem. Praise God!

It was the best choice ever.

We named her 'LeeLee':

 

These kittens are the best of pals, and the kids absolutely adore them. They are the most loved, cuddled, petted kittens in the history of cats. Sure, we have to be extra careful with doors being left open, but it's a small price to pay for their love and cuddles :)

 

Ways to Perler bead...

One likes to make bead magnets, orderly and neatly:

 

and the others, well, notsomuch. They dump.

No order, no nothin'... gotta love little siblings :)