More of Penny

My favorite person to write about (in third person, at least) is Penny.

She is growing up and learning a lot of cool stuff every day. This morning, I think I saw her dance. Or she may have just been quivering to the abundance of bass coming from Uncle Daniel's stereo system-- which he installed to one-up Kevin's system. We have a lot of sound in our house.

Penny is starting to snuggle. She only does it for a few seconds at a time, but more and more often she rests her head on my shoulder. I love it!

And no one has responded to any of our advertising of our cats. We locked them in the bathroom to keep them away from Penny, and they did all right in there. I liked the idea of their living in the bathroom indefinitely rather than at the Shelter, where the end could be very bleak. They were happy enough. Penny sure did great. After a couple days of their being in the bathroom, her puffy eyes went down, and she stopped her general itching. I guess it was worth it.

I kept putting up signs and thinking of more places to advertise, but it seemed that no one wanted a couple of grown cats.

After a few weeks of this, we noticed that Penny really didn't have any more reactions. Sometimes the cats would sneak out, and it didn't make her whole face pink. Hmmmm....

Then Kevin suggested that she might not be allergic anymore. As unlikely as that seemed, we tried it out-- cautiously at first and then more and more contact. Um, yeah. It turns out that Penny is no longer allergic to our cats.

This is really more than we could have hoped. I mean, about 30 seconds after we picked up our cats, Penny's eyes were red and itchy. Then for the next couple weeks or so, she was red, itchy, and grumpy. This promptly changed when we kept her away from the cats.

I don't know how to explain it. Maybe the cats were covered in dust and pollen, and that is what Penny was reacting to. Maybe she just built up an immunity very quickly. I'm not really sure. But I'm grateful that no one responded to our advertisements, that we didn't go through with sending them to the shelter, and that we have been blessed to be able to keep our cats AND our dancing, snuggling baby.

The latest ad on craigslist and freecycle

Unfortunately, we've come to a point-- again-- where we have to find a new home for our cats. Permanently this time. This is the ad Kevin wrote for craigslist and freecycle. I know most of you don't live anywhere near, but if you could talk it up, we need all the help we can get finding a new home for these little guys.

We have two beloved, healthy cats who need a new home, Toby and Howie. We would do almost anything for these cats. But we just can't force our baby daughter, who turns out to be allergic to cats, to suffer itchy eyes and skin. Free, with equipment, to a loving home.

October "Toby": The "smart" one
Black cat with smooth, shiny fur and a very social personality. He'll follow you from room to room and talk with you. He's very smart and we've taught him to come on command. He's does best with those who respect his space. If you respect him, you'll find that whenever you sit down to read a book, or lay down to relax, you'll have a purring black cat snuggled next to you--or on top of you. He hides from two-year-olds--we can show you pictures explaining why if you want. He's almost four years old. He's a proven mouser.

Howie: the "cute" one
White, black, and brown cat. He's very furry and very soft. He's a relaxed and pleasant cat which means he's great with kids and will take almost any kind of childish enthusiasm (read: abuse) without batting an eye. He'll even let you shave him with a minimum of fuss! He will often walk up to you and flop onto his back, begging to be loved. He's three years old. He's proven to steal mice from Toby.


Moving and New People:
These cats have recently gone through three moves and were watched for four months by family while my wife and I traveled. When they were watched by family, they hid under the bed for the first two weeks. Here's how to avoid that: lock them in the bathroom until its obvious they want to come out. We've done this twice and it helped them adjust in just a few days. Oh, and keep overexcited boys at bay.

Outdoors, indoors, and other animals:
These cats have been both indoor and outdoor cats. They've lived with strange cats and a strange dog. Though Toby wasn't particularly fond of new animals, they've done fine in all these situations (no fights, just some hissing). Howie's only problem is a fondness of chewing on fish hooks.

Please feel free to contact us. Thank you!

Cats

I guess I forgot to update on the cat quandary.

On Christmas morning, Kevin told me that for Christmas he'd talk to his mom for a long time and come to a temporary solution: the cats could live in the downstairs garage while she was out of town until February.

I was overjoyed!

But that still left us the problem of what to do with them after February. Also, I knew they would hate it in the windowless garage and spend most of their days and nights meowing to come inside or to go outside. They wouldn't be terribly happy, but at least it was a step in the right direction.

Then Kevin's brother's wife's mom, Kim Marks, stepped in and offered to let them live at their house until we have a place of our own that could allow cats.

I was torn. I love my kitties, and I want to have them with me. But I also want them to be happy, which they wouldn't be in the garage. And then I'm still not sure what we'd do with them after February. So I decided to send the kitties to live with the Markses. There would be just the one transition for them, and once they got settled, they would be happier than cooped up here in the garage and the rain.

They're still transitioning, and we'll see if this is a solution for them. But I hope it works out.

I really miss them already. I was unpacking some boxes and tossed some string into a basket. It was sad to see it just fall into the basket and sit there. Howie would not have let that happen.

I folded some sheets, and it was remarkably easy, since no one decided to sit IN them as I tried to fold. But I miss the challenge.

I took out a baby quilt and noticed all the fuzzy white cat hair all over it. Well, I guess I don't miss everything.

Quandary

I'm having a bit of a dilemma.

We're moving in to Kevin's parents' house on New Year's or just after that. We feel really good about that decision and have made necessary preparations for the move. I've cancelled my student teaching appointment in Boise, Kevin's finishing up his job, my sister is coming up to take my piano, and the ball is definitely rolling.

Now here comes a big road block, one that tears me up inside and I can't seem to find a solution for: our cats are not welcome at Kevin's parents' house.

I had originally thought it would be fine for the cats to just stay downstairs where we'll be living. The litter box would go in the garage, and everything would be fine and dandy. I'd vacuum every couple days to keep things from getting too fuzzy, and no one upstairs would be any the wiser to there being cats in the house.

This was not okay.

Hmm.... plan B. The cats could live in the downstairs garage. They wouldn't ever come inside, but they'd live in the dark, cold garage full time. I'd put their scratching tower in there and probably a nice cozy blanket or two so they could get comfortable. Kevin and I decided if this was what we had to do, we would probably let them go outside once in a while so they wouldn't feel to cooped up.

Turns out this was not okay either.

Cats are just not welcome in their house, period.

I really don't know what to do. The only "compromise" that they're willing to accept is for the cats to live outside full time. The only problem with this is that Howie would run off, and Toby would spend all day pawing at the door, crying and meowing to come in. This is what happens when we let them outside in Boise, and even before that in Provo. I had originally agreed to this "compromise," but once I thought it through, I realized it wouldn't work.

We could find someone to take in our cats for the next 6 months or so while we're living in Washington. But it seems like people who love cats already have a houseful of them, and anyone who doesn't have cats is allergic or hates them.

Anybody want a couple cats for a few months?
Amongst the din of volunteers elbowing each other out of the way to have the opportunity of taking care of our kitties, the prospect looms of having to get rid of our cats.
I won't do it.

I'd rather live in Boise for absolutely no reason (no job, no student teaching) and keep paying what will turn into thousands of dollars in rent just to keep them with us.

But then the nagging thought comes back that, even though there is this huge deadlocked situation that bars our way to smooth sailing, I still feel really good about moving to Washington. I know it's the right thing for our family to be doing right now.

I just don't know how it's going to work.

Meow!

Toby joined our little family in October of 2006. We lived in our tiny little cottage in the middle of a big field, and we had a bit of a problem with field mice. For Kevin's birthday, we went and picked out a tiny black kitten and brought him home. Kevin named him October, and we call him Toby for short.

When we brought him home, he was the size of two of my fists with my pinkie sticking up as his tiny kitten tail. He fit inside Kevin's sweatshirt pocket, and when he got scared, he would run under a coffee table. I remember the day he was big enough that he ran to the coffee table and thunk! He didn't fit under it anymore.

When Kevin went on his internship in Hong Kong, Toby was my little b

uddy. I'd come home from work, and he was meowing and happy to see me. I'd talk to him as I worked in the kitchen or around the house, and he'd meow back to me.

He likes to snuggle with me when I'm sleeping. When a small kitten, he'd weightlessly pad across our bed and make himself comfortable in my hair that spread across my pillow. Now that he's

huge, it's a little bit painful when he steps across me, and he curls up on my shoulder more than my head--which is good because I enjoy breathing.

(warning, unflattering picture)

I had several miscarriages before having Penny, and during each one, I'd snuggle Toby like the baby I didn't have. I know he's a cat, but he filled a need for me, and for a few years he was my baby and my child. I needed someone small to love, and he filled that void perfectly.

A couple years ago, I remember hearing a cat meowing LOUDLY. I was in the back room, and it sounded like Toby was in the kitchen having a major fit about something. But Toby was right next to me making no noise at all. It turns out that there was a little fuzzball kitten stuck in a tree outside in our neighbor's yard. Kevin went out to investigate, as did several of our neighbors. A little while later, we had another kitten. This one we named Howie.

He is a good friend and little brother for Toby. They entertain and fight with each other, and they keep each other in shape. They run around the house together, and when they're not fighting, they lick each other's faces clean and sometimes even snuggle together to nap.

As a matter of fact, we have Howie to blame for Penny's birthday being a week before her due date. We let him play outside our apartment while we went for a walk on a Saturday. By the tim

e we came home, he was nowhere to be seen. I love the little fuzzball, and in my extra hormonal state (38 weeks pregnant), I was very upset by his being lost.

I roamed around our neighborhood a few times that Saturday looking for him, alternately weeping and calling for him. Then on Sunday, I was really upset and couldn't stop crying, so I left church early to go look for him. I walked around the neighborhood in every spare minute I found, calling for him and looking everywhere I could think of.

We put up a few signs around the neighborhood, but then it rained and ruined them. So that Monday, I went to Kinko's and spent a good chunk of money making full color flyers for our Howie. We walked around our block that Monday evening putting up flyers, and I had painful contractions every so often during that walk. When we got back to our apartment, I peered off our balcony and saw that fuzzy little stinker over in the next parking lot over. I toddled down the stairs and ran (yes, ran!) over to scoop him up.

And then Penny was born a few long hours later.

I didn't grow up with cats, and I never really understood how people could get attached to their pets. But somehow it happened to me.

What I've been doing lately

I think the only way to spend your time when you have a newborn baby is to hold her, stare fondly at her, and of course sleep while she sleeps.
Here is a picture of us playing dress-up. Please notice the INCREDIBLY AWESOME tennis-shoe booties, crocheted by the INCREDIBLY AWESOME Melanie Helm: My mom is visiting with us, and here she is with a smiling Penny. Okay, so it's just a random face to her at this time, but we think it's cute:

This was taken today. The thing on her head is a hat; you just can't see the yellow top of it.

She does open her eyes once in a while. And they are very dark, even darker than Kevin's.

On Sunday we took her to church-- just for Sacrament meeting. She really liked the singing and decided to try it herself:

Toby tries to help out sometimes:

Last night she got her first bath. She turned really pink from crying. How cute!

Then she gazed into Kevin's eyes while wearing her new bathrobe:

We had a ward swimming party, and Penelope decided to try out her wading skills.

The gory details... kind of

So here's the long, detailed story of Penny's birth:
On Monday night, we had our childbirth class, but we decided not to go. It started at 6:30, but at 5:30 we had gotten a phone call from Kevin's brother John. They're on a road trip, and could they come stay with us that night? Sure!
Elisa, John's wife, is allergic to cats, so we needed to vacuum and de-cat the place, plus Howie was still missing, and we needed to post signs for him. So there was no time for the childbirth class. Plus we didn't really like it-- pretty boring.
You already know what happened with Howie, and then a few hours later, our guests arrived. While we were running around posting Lost Cat posters, I was having contractions (which I wrote in that post as "getting tired") every 15 minutes or so. Once John and Elisa came over, they were every 10 minutes. We talked and chatted and generally hung out. I had a blast talking to them, but every once in a while (about 7 minutes and then 5) I'd need to stop talking, relax, and do some deep breathing. We went to bed at like midnight, and by then the contractions were like 3 minutes apart.
I called the hospital, and they figured I should probably come in, which I did at 12:30. Once I got in, the contractions stopped for a while, and I felt kind of stupid. But they found that I was dialated to 5 cm, and I didn't feel so dumb.
I wanted to take one last pregnancy picture, and when Kevin tried to do so, we found that the camera was missing its memory card. He drove home (like 2 blocks away) while I walked the halls for a few minutes. Eventually, at like 2:00, they admitted me to the hospital, and by 2:30 or so I had an epidural and all was good. The contractions had gotten to the point where slow breathing was beginning to not quite cut it, but they weren't too horrible. I feel lucky to have an epidural, but I think that I COULD have done it naturally if I had to. That's nice to know. It's also REALLY nice to know that I got to skip it.
Once I was pain-free, I got to sleep (or at least relax) for a few hours. It felt like being on a long airplane trip. There was a bunch of constant background noise (Penny's heartbeat and the aquarium noises coming from the fish program I was watching on TV). It was dark except for the glow of the TV. I was drinking juice from little cups covered with foil, and I couldn't feel my legs. Exactly like flying to China.
At 7:00, the doctor came in, and I was ready to push. I pushed and pushed (at least I think I did. I was quite numb), and Penny finally came at 9:43 AM.
I'm not sure how long that was. Do I start counting from when I was admitted to the hospital? When I came and started walking the halls? When I started having contractions sometime earlier that afternoon? Whatever. It was long enough, but I didn't mind because I couldn't feel it. The hardest part was that pushing for 2 1/2 hours was really tiring. Otherwise, I could totally do labor any time!
I'm so very blessed and very lucky to have had such an easy time. Once morning sickness subsided, I had a very easy time of being pregnant. I didn't have any weird complications, and Penny and I are both healthy and quickly recovered. I know I don't "deserve" any of this, but it reminds me of that part of Mosiah 2:
20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another— 21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. 22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
I have so many more blessings than I could possibly write about on here, but I will just try to be grateful!

When it rains, it pours (and that's quite the image. Sorry)

The thing I like about cats is that they're pretty much no-maintenance pets. You leave for the day, they're fine. You leave for a weekend, you just heap on some extra food and they're mostly fine. You pet them, they purr. They meow occasionally.
But then you have times when they're not fine.
We lost Howie and then he came back, and that's the most trouble we've had with our cats.
But when we went to the hospital, our Toby decided to get sick in the fiercest way. For a couple days, he just didn't make it to the litter box.
(Emotional post-partum moment here) You guys, I am just so lucky to have Kevin. He loves me, he loves Penny, and he even loves our exploding cats.
Because Toby didn't stop there. (Explicit bodily function descriptions ahead). Oh no, he hacked up hairballs, vomited everything he ate, and here's my favorite: instead of just missing the litter box, he started pooping nasty-smelling blood-ridden mucuous and hair.
This was a joy to come home to from the hospital. Not only did I have a brand new baby doing nothing but eating and pooping, but I had a cat who decided to revert to this behavior as well.
I couldn't deal with it that first day home, and while Kevin dutifully cleaned up our nasty house, we didn't take any action.
Yesterday, though, we took him to the vet. Toby, that is. I made an appointment and planned on taking Toby. Once I said this outloud, though, I realized how stupid it was to plan on taking a 4-day-old baby to THE VET. Um, of all disgusting places, that was possibly even worse than our house. (Which we have been cleaning constantly, but it's just frustrating.)
So obviously Kevin took the cat and I stayed home with Penny. An hour and a chunk of money later, Kevin brought Toby home with some medicine that keeps his innards in, an X-ray showing that Toby hadn't swallowed any pins or anything (a real threat in my house), and a dose of deworming medicine, which Howie got treated with as well.
Things are looking better. I'm still just washing my hands and taking care of the baby. She's beautiful. Toby is in one piece, and hopefully Howie has avoided the whole mess.
We'll keep you posted.
I'm sure you can hardly wait.

Money well spent

Since I'm a stay-at-home mom with no kids, I have a lot of time on my hands. Today my biggest (and only) task was to make cat flyers to post around the neighborhood. We made some on Sunday just on our printer, but we were out of black ink. So they started out kind of weird looking (we colored in the black parts with a pencil), and then after the rain all afternoon, they were pretty much useless and illegible.
So I went to Kinko's and made some nice color copies, and this evening Kevin and I plastered our entire block with them. We replaced the old ones, using staples this time instead of magic tape. I got kind of tired from walking around, so while Kevin went to put up the last two flyers, I headed home.
Flyer:

We live upstairs, and so at the top of the stairs, I peeked over the rail to get a better view of the neighborhood. And there was Howie! I hollered for him and ran as fast as I could waddle over to where he was. He flopped over onto his back so I could rub his belly while he purred. He was FILTHY! All his fuzzy white parts were full of leaves and dirt. But I grabbed him and brought him inside... to stay.
I'm happy the posters worked so fast.
Toby missed Howie a lot. He tried to get me to chase him around the apartment, but being 9 months pregnant, I wasn't very fun. I waved his toy around, but he didn't chase it. He doesn't really chase the toy; he just chases Howie who chases the toy. Toby meowed at the window a lot, and I could tell he wondered where Howie was. It kind of made me sad, especially when I had to leave, because I knew he'd be bored in our tiny apartment. I'm glad he has his friend back. They're good buddies. Here is Toby, pining away at the window:

I know Toby missed him, but I missed him more. There should be a rule against hormonal, pregnant women losing cats. I wore myself out on Sunday from crying, and I cried a couple times this morning. By this afternoon, I had come to terms with the fact that Howie would either come back or not and there wasn't much more I could do about it (besides putting up posters).
So now we're all home. Except for Penny, who will now be able to meet Howie. I'm glad, because Howie is good with kids, unlike Toby.
And I know I'm rambling now, but I'm just so happy! Here is one happy girl:

And here is one filthy little cat:

And this is just for my family. See, it does exist!! We just turned the wrong way.

Sad day

Howie and Toby like to drink fresh water from the tub.

Howie liked (just this one time) to feel the baby kick.
And this is what happens when you use a flash on a cat. Glowing green eyes (instead of... glowing green eyes. Wait a second...)

This week our ward's organist went out of town, so he asked me to play the organ today in church. At BYU music camp in 1998, I took an hour organ lesson, so I'm quite the pro. I went over to the church twice to play around on the instrument, playing with the different stops and preset combinations, and attempting to learn the pedals.

I learned that it takes more than 2 days. Maybe next time.

Basically, I can play the pedals, but the accuracy leaves something to be desired, as does the tempo. So unless I wanted everyone to sing funeral durges while cringing at my random bass line, I decided to leave it to the manuals.

And I did fine. It was pretty fun, actually. When I got nervous, my hands got a little sweaty, and then they started slipping and missing notes. That wasn't good. But I doubt many people noticed.

As for the title of my post, it was a very sad day today.

Yesterday morning when Kevin and I went on a walk over to the nature center by where we live, we let Howie play outside.

And that's the last time we've seen him.

Now, if this were Toby, I wouldn't be terribly worried, since Toby has common sense. Howie, on the other hand, has no sense of direction and no sense at all. He may be out playing in someone's backyard. He may be smashed in the street somewhere. He could be stuck in a tree. Kevin thinks he probably ran up to someone, purred, and flopped over so they could rub his belly and take him into their home. Whatever the case may be, he is gone.

Toby is really lonely without him, and he whines at us a lot. I don't blame him. I miss Howie too.

We walk around the neighborhood every couple hours, and we put up some signs this morning. This afternoon it rained, so I'll have to do it again tomorrow.

I really miss the little guy, and seeing as how we came upon him by finding him stuck in a tree, I really don't doubt his getting into trouble. If he were coming home, I think he would have made it back already, being hungry and lonely or something.

I still hope he makes it back, and I check out our windows all the time to see him come prancing out of the bushes without a care in the world. And I really hope it happens. He's a sweetie pie. And so soft! And incredibly affectionate and appreciative. We all miss him so much!

Simply showing off

My favorite surprise since I've moved here to Boise is that we got a knock on our door with a special delivery. Woo hoo! My cousin, Sylvia, who lives in Boston, had sent us a changing pad to transform yonder dresser into oh-so-convenient changing table. I set it up and got it screwed into place, and then to try it out, I decided to buckle one of my cats into it. I grabbed Toby and strapped him onto the changing table.
He didn't seem to notice.
He stayed there the rest of the afternoon, and now that's one of his favorite spots to hang out-- although he doesn't buckle himself in for some reason.

Toby is really a sleek, adorable cat. It's just that in pictures, all you can see is the angry green eyes glowing out from a black hole. I promise he's not that mean in real life.

And this corner of our house (this dresser with the blank walls and empty space all around it) is the baby's nursery. We still have some work to do, I guess.

I finished this baby quilt a couple days ago. Here's my horrible confession: I made it for a friend who is also having a baby girl shortly after I am. However, once I finished it, I decided to keep it for myself. Mwoo ha ha ha ha! I'm so evil and selfish.

But it's so cute!
Most of it is made of scraps from other projects I've made.

And then if you look at this bottom picture, you can see the way-cute flowers I quilted into the plain section. See, that's why I decided to keep it. I've never made anything cute through actually quilting designs into the fabric, and since I really liked how it turned out, it's mine.

And then today we have company coming to visit us. I should probably get dressed and clean up the house a bit. But that hasn't happened yet. What HAS happened is that Howie kicked over a glass that shattered all over and behind the kitchen table. So I got that all pulled apart and swept up. I decided to vacuum off the dining room chairs, but the vacuum wasn't working so well. So I pulled THAT apart. After cleaning out a couple parts, it still wasn't working so well, so I decided to rinse out the filter.
Boy, was that dumb.
I think I'll just leave the house how it is (dining room scattered throughout the house, vacuum parts scattered throughout living room) and just pretend not to notice when they come.

Goodbye Provo!

I am really happy to have left Provo in the spring. If I'd waited a few more months, I don't think I would have any pleasant memories-- they would have all been erased by the oppressive heat!
But on Friday we packed up the moving truck (and by "we" I mean Kevin, my parents and Daniel, and a few folks from our ward). I went and bought treats/breakfast for everyone. By the time I got back about 30 or 40 minutes later, the whole truck was packed! It helps that a lot of our furniture (i.e., the nice stuff) actually belonged to our landlord, and so we only had to move our small things.
Then while we (i.e., my family) helped finish up and clean the house, Kevin and I went to buy a mattress set. Dave, my brother-in-law, used to work at this place on State Street called All the Great Rooms (next to the kick-boxing place), and in addition to beautiful, new, expensive furniture, they sell nice used mattresses. We got one that had probably been in someone's spare room, and we got an AWESOME deal on it. Thanks Dave!
Then after a lot of cleaning and finishing up, we finally departed on Saturday.


And above you can see the rose bush I tied onto trellises last year. It reminds me of the part in Alice in Wonderland where they're painting the roses red.
And this one (above) is a picture of our pond. On the right, behind the blue delphiniums, are some hollyhocks, which will be BEAUTIFUL in just a few weeks.
And above is my amazing white rose bush. It's the first year that it bloomed, but holy cow! I can't believe how gorgeous it is! I had tied some branches of it onto the fence, and it continued for another 6 feet or so. But back when the YM and YW came to work on our yard, someone (for some reason-- couldn't they see I had carefully tied it!?! Not still angry/bitter or anything...) cut off the trailing branch. Booooo!!!!
But it is still beautiful. Just not AS beautiful.
And this final picture is how my cats spent most of the drive to Boise. They NEVER cuddle up together, but after about an hour of pitiful, pathetic yowling, they finally both settled into the cat carrier. It must have comforted them to have the other one there, because they were both content the rest of the 6-hour drive. :)

Psarkles

My niece, Rachel, just turned 4, and for her birthday she got a new black kitten. We went over to celebrate with her family last night, and I spent the whole time holding her cat, who she named Psarkles.
That's how Rachel deals with these darned compound consonants. She's kind of ksared of psiders, and when I make cookies, she asks if she can help tsir it. It's really fun to try and figure out what she's saying.
She's really nice to her kitten. Well, as nice as a 4-year-old is. She picks it up a bit too much by the neck sometimes, and she makes it kiss her dollies, whether it wants to or not. Poor little thing! I love kittens, and if we weren't having a new baby in July, and if we weren't moving into an apartment where two cats might be a bit of a problem anyway, and if I didn't think two cats is PLENTY, I might just want to keep her.

More apartment stuff

Since I know everyone is FASCINATED, I want to put a bit more info about my new apartment.
I was saying it was in a really nice area of town, and this is some info I found about our neighborhood (well, the main street by our apartment-ville).
"Warm Springs is centered around the tree-lined Warm Springs Avenue and contains some of Boise's largest and most expensive homes (many of which were erected by wealthy miners and businessmen around the turn of the 20th century; Victorian styles feature prominently). The area gets its name from the natural hot springs that flow from Boise's fault line and warm many of the homes in the area."
Thank you, Wikipedia.
Kevin's work is only a mile from our house, and the hospital is about halfway between our house and Kevin's work. While this doesn't mean I'll be walking there when the big moment comes, it does mean instead of a 15-minute grueling drive across town, stopping at traffic lights and generally being uncomfortable and impatient, it will be a 2-minute drive of the same nature. Kevin might still like me by the end of it. (I am not the most patient passenger anyway.)
And about our apartment: if I can get a doctor's note, we can keep our cats. I'm not sure what this note is supposed to say, but I'm willing to admit that it would be emotionally traumatizing at this delicate time in my life to be parted from them. I could also say that since I am leaving everything and everyone I know, it will benefit my emotional health to have these companion animals. Basically, the apartment manager doesn't care; I just need a note from a doctor. And I think almost everyone in the complex had pets anyway.
And everyone that comes to Boise better come see me. As I just mentioned, I really don't know anyone up there, and I'll love seeing my friends. And keeping my cats. But I find I can have more intellectual conversations with my friends than my cats, so I really hope you'll remember to come visit me!
Now that I'm sure you're sick of hearing about my new future apartment and my pets, I'd like some of your thoughts. Kevin and I keep vacillating between liking the upstairs apartment and the downstairs apartment, both of which will be available in the beginning of June. I know we'd like either one, and there are small inconveniences about each one. So what are your thoughts?
We may just leave it up to chance, saying we'll be happy to move into whichever one is open first.

Upstairs:
Pros:
Better view of trees and gardens outside
Railing to put tomato plants against
Fewer neighbors
Cons:
Stairs to climb while pregnant and then again with baby.
Will need lots of help getting piano up-- or professional piano movers ($$).

Downstairs:
Pros:
Not as many stairs to climb trying to get baby, laundry, groceries, and/or piano upstairs.
Still get decent view of gardens
Cons:
Noise from upstairs neighbors
Neighbors on every side who get to hear baby cry
Not as much light

Boise, here we come!

In a few weeks, Kevin and I are moving to Boise, ID. We are both really excited to be moving forward and taking the next step(s) in our lives, even if Boise is not the most exotic place in the world. ;)
And since we are moving there, we thought it might be a good idea to go visit before we just show up with a moving truck at the end of the month.
Kevin's been spending a lot of time finding apartments that fit our every need: finding websites, comparing areas and prices, calling landlords and companies, etc. I'm so glad he has the time to do this, because he's found some really nice places with really reasonable prices. Some sound like pretty good deals!
So this weekend we'll head up to Boise and stay with my awesome friend, Jaylee, who I went to China and taught English with back in 2002. It will be great to visit with her and catch up on what's going on.
Tonight we're having the missionaries over to dinner, and from the time I get off work and when they come an hour after that, I have to run by the grocery store, drive home, and make food. It will be a tight squeeze. But thankfully, large as I am, I'm getting used to these tight squeeze situations.
And does anyone (Sarah) want to take care of my cats this weekend? You'd just have to come once or twice. Let me know, or I'll call you. (That's a threat!)

Strong Feelings

I haven't blogged anything lately, and I think it's because I really only have something to say when I have strong feelings about something. And I haven't really been that riled up lately. I mean, I made another dress and put it on Howie, but this time I didn't even take a picture.
Though I might....
However, tonight I got super angry/annoyed/insulted/disappointed, and I just wanted to share.
So my class that I'm taking is over today. We had this group project due on Sunday, and I finished all my bits on Saturday. I posted them along with my sources so that the compilers could easily do their jobs.
I logged in earlier today and flipped through the posts and got the general idea that people had been working on the project. I figured they'd finished it and turned it in. But I was wrong.
I got a phone call this evening from Antwoine, one of the guys in my class. He was pretty upset that it hadn't been done and hadn't been turned in. I tried to sympathize while frantically logging on to the class to see that it, indeed, hadn't been finished or turned in.
The guy who was supposed to compile the project had misread the syllabus and thought it was due on Monday.
This did not make me mad. I have done plenty of dumb stuff, and I always feel horrible afterwards-- especially when it affects other people, like a group project. This guy apologized and explained his mixup. No biggie-- to me.
Since he hadn't done it, though, I felt like I could step up and do some final editing. I'm good at it and I like it-- and it's what I do all day anyway. So I start the final comb-through of our group's paper. Some people are stronger writers than others, and some people had just put a list of information instead of a couple paragraphs. I can deal with that. I didn't rewrite the entire thing (congrats to self for such restraint), but I did make it flow a bit better.
However, I got to one of the last sections, and instead of sounding like a research paper on our videoconferencing system we'd chosen, it sounded like a cheesy advertisement for an electronic classroom enhancement program. I did a quick google search, and lo and behold! it WAS a cheesy advertisement for some other program.
Ok, I've written before about how much I hate it when my students turn in plagiarized crap as if they'd written it. I feel insulted that they've tried to pull the wool over my eyes and get by with doing nothing. It's also frustrating because it takes just like 5 minutes longer to read the stupid material and then summarize it in your own words.
So imagine how I felt when I realized that had I not done some major editing at the last minute, MY NAME would have been written on this project with a huge, stupid, mismatching plagiarized section in it! It had nothing to do with the rest of the paper, except that they were both made up of words. It was very clear that this team member had never even visited the videoconferencing website-- because if he had spent one minute there he would have known how off-base he was submitting what he did.
And this guy wants to get a Master's degree and become a teacher! I am horrified.
In addition, this guy was supposed to write our paper's conclusion. His original conclusion had been just a rip-off of the introduction. Yeah, our teammate who wrote the introduction had a few words for him then! So this guy rewrote the conclusion, taking bits of random paragraphs throughout the paper and stringing them together as if they were a conclusion.
What a loser! I hope he doesn't get his degree. We don't need teachers like this. There are enough students like this already.

More fun with Toby

Toby loves it when I sew!

Today I have a paper due, a review of an online course-- which I haven't started.

But look at what I HAVE been doing today:

Today's fashion is being modeled by the lovely Toby.

He loves his new pajamas! He doesn't mind that I haven't put the snaps in yet, as that's where his tail comes out.

Aren't these PJs so cute?! I got the fabric in Beijing. It has little blue and yellow chickies on it, and they're saying, "Start of new," and "Are you born?" It doesn't make sense, and it wouldn't make sense in Chinese either, so I'm not sure how they chose that. But I thought it was pretty awesome!

And contrary to what it looks like, this is Toby's happy face.

Empathetic

I like to read the New York Times while I'm at work. Sometimes I learn things, and other times I'm amused. Today was an "amused" day. This is from an article about middle schools teaching empathy. Yes, and our next lesson will be on herding cats

"In the cafeteria, Alex Primavera, 12, described empathy as putting himself in someone else’s shoes. He said he had been trying not to put down his classmates or call them 'moron' and 'idiot.' Then he yelled at another student to shut up.

“'He tries but he doesn’t get very far,' said Alan Zhong, 12, adding that Alex had just kicked him in English class."

Darn that tail

I also made a set of frilly underpants/diaper cover thingie to match the yellow dress. Unfortunately, Toby and Howie have tails that wouldn't fit so well, so you'll just have to imagine how cute they'd be in them!
I also learned (from my bilingual sewing pattern) how to say panties in Spanish: Pantaloncita. Yay, now I'm bilingual!

Octobina

Here are some shots of our lovely October modeling some new baby clothes. The clothes are for babies 18-22 pounds, and Toby is only 17 pounds, so it's a bit big. Otherwise he said he'd be happy to wear them every day.

I'm going to add lace to the bottom of the dress and then hem it. Otherwise it's pretty much finished. I made it using the same Simplicity pattern I used for the black and red ensemble, only this is the dress version and that was the skirt. It's super simple, and I really like the pattern.

The yellow fabrics were both in the remnant bin at Joann's. That's seriously the only place I go for fabric-- actually having them cut your fabric takes soooo long because there is ALWAYS a line of at least 10 people waiting for fabric to be cut. Booo. But the remnant bin has cute fabrics, they don't need to be cut, AND they're half price. For now, I'm sticking with remnants!

And Toby totally reminds me of a Beatrix Potter story. What a cute little girl cat he makes!