The Cat, the Ipad, and the Beach.

I never thought this day would come, but it did. Last week we brought home a kitten.Evie and William - and to a lesser extent, Sarah and Jason - are over the moon. Evie has wanted a pet for ages, and William has specifically wanted a cat. He's a cat person - takes after his mom that way :)

I grew up always having a cat. Sebastian spent most of his life outside, because my parents got tired of him spraying in the house. The nicest cat you could ask for, but just no manners in the house. He basically lived in the garage and outside, but it didn't seem to bother him. As he got up in years, he was allowed into the basement during the winter, and I think towards the end he was out and about a bit in the house, but I was busy with college at that point and don't really remember. What does stick in my mind is that the neighbors called him 'the big one' - which made me laugh - and your hands would be black after petting him. Oh, and he'd bite you when he didn't want to be bothered anymore.

After Sebastian died, I got Chelsea from a work friend. Brought her home, dumped her with my parents, went to work...came home to find her in a box on the driveway :) Chelsea had fleas. Lovely! Got that taken care of, but it wasn't long before we discovered that Chelsea was a pee cat. I firmly believe that cats are either pee cats, or they aren't. She peed in my dad's briefcase; looked me right in the eye and peed on an afghan I was crocheting; peed on Matt's leather jacket. Off and on, you just couldn't trust her. Later in life, she peed all over our townhouse - vet said something or other about her kidneys. I started feeding her homemade cat food, and the peeing stopped, for the most part, until we finally said goodbye to her almost 9 years ago. We've been cat-less ever since, but I haven't noticed, what with all the babies and such that took up that space.

Last summer, Matt and I came to an accord regarding a pet, that once the kitchen was finished and after his parents visited, we could get a cat. Not that he'd be happy about it, mind you - Chelsea left a strong impression on Matt. So last Thursday, I surprised Evie and William with a trip to the animal shelter, and after looking around a bit, I picked up Sweetie. She snuggled right into my neck, started purring, and I knew we'd found our cat.

Thursday afternoon the kids and I went shopping for pet supplies, and Friday morning we went to pick her up. So far so good, Sweetie's been on her very best behavior and seems to like her new home - although after she clawed her way up my pajama pants Monday morning I promptly bought nail clippers for her - and even having her nails clipped, front and back, didn't faze her.

I'm really hoping this works out, and that she doesn't destroy my curtains or furniture - so far she doesn't have much interest in scratching at anything, and my fingers are crossed. It's nice having a kitty in the house again, and I do think pets can be a great experience for kids - when you think the world hates you and nothing goes your way, your cat won't care and is always up for some scratches and a snuggle, and she won't tell any of your secrets either...

And thankfully, her tummy is white!

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 Evie saved her money for months, and had finally gotten enough to buy an iPad back in June. Evie's iPad is now permanently attached to her. She's forever carrying it around the house, earbuds in, listening to some stupid dragon movie or other such nonsense. I finally told her to stop trying to empty the dishwasher/make her bed/yadda yadda while holding her iPad or balancing it precariously on something. Apparently Evie is no dummy, and has invented the iPad Belt, for your wearing pleasure.

Free those hands and carry your iPad no more!! What is it they say? Where there's a will, there's a way? Necessity is the mother of invention? I'm not sure how necessary this is, but I do give her credit for creativity :) Think we can market it and make a mint?? Yeah, I doubt it....

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We leave for the beach in a month. Make that, in a month we'll be home from the beach. NO!!!! How is it possible that summer is almost gone? There's something to be said for lazy days at home where you really don't do much of anything - I know William gets frazzled when he has too much going on, I think he might be a bit of an introverted homebody (where he got THAT from, I have NO idea - I don't know anyone like that) - but if you don't get out and DO things, before you know it, summer is gone and won't come around until next year. I like going to the beach at the end of summer because it does give us something to look forward to, but at the same time it signals THE END IS HERE and the kids go back to school three or four days after we get back. Maybe we need TWO beach trips, one right after school lets out and one before they go back!!! Think I can talk Matt into it?? :) Yeah, me neither. Now if we had our own PLACE at the beach...........funny story - Matt had knee surgery 18 months ago - as he was coming out of anesthesia, he told me I could get a house at the beach and he and the kids would visit on weekends - WHY DID I NOT GET THAT RECORDED? OR IN WRITING? Although I think there were witnesses....

And that's all I've got for now. Really hoping I do this blog thing more often, because it's the only place I write anything down :)