July to October pictures

Monsoon in Phoenix before we decided to move.  The umbrella was a little bit big for him to handle

At Franklin's birthday we made sure everyone had a balloon; just the kids, not adults.

Brownie Cake for his birthday.  They liked it so much I think I'll have to do it again.

I was so sad  to leave my very first pumpkin patch behind.  This baby was going to be entered in the fair that started today, 10/11/12.  This picture was taken 8/14/12 and I can only imagine how big she got.

Lisette's great idea; get the scissors after mommy already trimmed her hair and do damage.

Car full and this is how Fiyero rode to SV for the first part of the journey

Osgood wanted to sit on Stephen's lap the whole way to SV but he's just too fat

My first visit to Cherry Creek.  So beautiful there.

Daddy's visit to us in AZ after a month apart.  Lisette could hardly leave his side.

Saying goodbye at the airport; I surprised myself at how well I did.

Notice how Franklin sleeps, like he knows he's cool.

The musical slide and she was getting shoved down.  Still my favorite PlayPlace.

Franklin wanted to do everything with Miles and Miles was so awesome to put up with him.

Lisette played and played with Chloe till it was time to sit and read scriptures, then she wanted to be with Aunt Greta the whole time.

Brought the kids to Cherry Creek and all Franklin wanted to do was eat.

Cherry Creek had a playground too; perfect for Lisette.

October 1st and we made Halloween cookies.  She kept layering the frosting and I didn't notice how much until after I took this photo.

The first snow of the season and I think we were the only ones loving it up here.

Frankenstein cookie and his favorite color.

 

She's been wanting to pick out her own clothes and on some days I given in and let her.

Lisette was so tired but didn't want to take a nap.  At least she was willing to lay down.

Goodbye Arizona; Hello Colorado

Most everyone knows by now that Stephen and I have moved. It all started with a few phone calls back in July just out of curiosity, which lead to 3 interviews on the schedule and after the 2nd one it was hook, line and sinker. For those of you that didn't know, this whole thing was faith and prayer driven.

Before Franklin's 5th birthday we knew we were going to move to Parker, Colorado but we weren't sure when, how nor did we have a place to move in to. We tried to give Franklin a fun birthday while in the middle of packing.

We had a small party at Peter Piper Pizza with the Rutherfords and it was so much fun and Franklin had a blast. Of course we had to get busy packing and cleaning right after but he talked about his birthday party for a while after.

It was a frenzy, packing and cleaning; I had no idea how we accumulated so much, I blame it on the kids. Of course we still didn't have a place to move into but we had a date for Stephen to begin work. So with it all packed and not using a moving truck to do it in one load, we moved everything we own to my parents home in Sierra Vista.

The kids were so excited to go to Grandma Aprils. So they stayed behind and attended a preschool while Stephen and I finished the last bit of cleaning at our place in Thatcher. We hooked up our trailer and drove off.

It was a beautiful drive and the whole time we felt exhilarated. As we crossed into Colorado I couldn't stop smiling and bouncing in my seat. Time seemed to pass quickly at that point and it wasn't long till we came around a hill and there was the Denver area.

Because we did not find our next home at that point, after 5 days I flew back to Arizona while Stephen worked and lived in temporary housing. We lived apart for over 5 weeks. It had its ups and downs and Franklin made things more difficult. For those of you that don't know Franklin is... different.

We are back together again and though it is stressful being in a temporary housing situation I feel very reassured we are where we are meant to be. There are things to do and it's not a that far to go anywhere.

We don't have our household of things, nor do we have our cats, but we hope that we have indeed found something. We had a cold burst this last weekend which made work crazy busy for Stephen.

Though we do want to be together more often, work has been great for him. His boss is awesome and the few people I have met that he works with are great too; Lisette likes Christy, a lot, while Franklin feels a bond with Rick, the boss. It's really is a great company Stephen works for and not just because the kids like daddy's boss.

That is us for now. I hope to be better at blogging once we are in a more permanent setting and have Internet again. For now know that we really are happy and have felt very close to the Lord through all of this. Every time I loll at the window, whether at home or while driving, I can't help but be in love with where we are. Its obvious why America, The Beautiful was written here.

A very hard good bye

This long, stressful week (and remember, it's only Wednesday) seems like it really couldn't get any worse.  So I go to sleep so very exhausted and trying to stay positive for Thursday.  Wake up, groggy, not wanting to get out of bed.  Stephen is getting ready for work and the kids are watching tv/fighting/playing in the living room.  I can hear some kind of chattering from Rizzo; I know his voice so well.  Stephen calls out to me, "You better get out of bed.  Something is wrong with Rizzo." 

Rizzo can't use his back legs at all; he can't move his tail.  He's dragging himself around by his front paws and is very tired, you can tell by his nervous purring.  But it's not purring.  I brake out in tears and lay over him, "I don't want to lose you!" looking at Stephen, "I can't lose him!!", bawling all the while.  Stephen tells me to get a grip, "He's not dead!"  He goes to look up the name of the veterinary clinic in Thatcher because he remembers seeing one off the beaten path and we both don't want to take him to the one in Safford. They don't open for another hour, so Stephen goes to work to let them know he'll be leaving and why, at 8.  I stop bawling, try to keep the kids away from him. 

Rizzo's panic worsens.  I try to hold him but he won't let me.  I can hear how much pain he's in.  It wasn't long after that that he started to lose control over some bodily functions.  Even Osgood is trying to console him.  Osgood wants to help, you can tell how worried he is.  Finally it's time to load everyone in the car and drop off the kids at grandmas.  Before I drove away from her house, I had a very precious moment with Rizzo.  It was as if he was telling me, "Thank you for everything" and "Good bye, I love you".  He was quiet, the rest of the ride to the clinic. 

Of course I knew what the end result would be while the nurse gave us on possible diagnosis; a blood clot lodged into his spine causing spinal cord death.  I couldn't help but start bawling again.  They promised to give him some pain meds and would call when the final diagnosis was given...  I never saw him again.

For those of you who think "He's just a cat" you couldn't be more wrong.  When we moved to Springville, UT in 2007, Osgood was so lonely.  We never got another cat after losing General because we lived at my mom's and there were 4 cats already living there.  So we searched for 3 weeks for the right cat.  We had stipulations: it had to be a kitten, female and couldn't be black (we didn't want it to seem like we were replacing General).  There was one I saw at a pet store but when Stephen could see it the next day, that pretty little all white female kitten was already at a new home. 

We stopped at Petsmart, again, not thinking we'd see anything different than before.  There were 3 kittens in one cage together with the label stating 1 male, peach/white, 2 female black/white.  The two females, though looked identical couldn't have been more different.  One laying, seemingly bored and the other all over the cage, playing, pouncing on the other two.  I wanted to hold that one so much and Stephen had been telling me for a long time that I get to chose alone (because when we got Osgood he was supposed to be for me, but he is obviously Stephens'), that we both new this cat was coming home with us.

So Daphne came home with us.  She explored everything and wanted to play with Osgood to the point he was so extremely annoyed with her.  Of course we found out that Daphne wasn't a fitting name for a boy and quickly renamed him Rizzo. 

Rizzo was this tiny, adorable, 4 lbs. kitten who suddenly stopped eating.  We tried everything but the only thing that seemed to work at all was force feeding him kitten formula with a dropper for 2 weeks.  Rizzo dropped down to 2 lbs and with Franklin only 3 months old, this was becoming very difficult. I called the animal shelter that he originally came from and expressed to them that I didn't want to see him die because he wasn't eating and it was too much for me with an infant.  Since it was late at night they said to bring him in the next morning.  That night Rizzo decided to start eating again.  It was a miracle. 

Obviously we kept him, so we got fixed and declawed.  He hated being at the vets and caused so much trouble for himself that they had to keep him an extra night and when he came home, his paws were so swollen, they were like a lion cubs paws, but black.

Now Rizzo became very attached to me and I to him.  Everyone who met him instantly loved him.  He was social, loving and playful; he loved to play fetch as long as you had the right toy.  He'd never bore or get tired of playing it.  We also used that game to make him do awesome tricks.

He was a great companion to us all.  He was awesome with Franklin and when Lisette came along, Rizzo couldn't have been more awesome. 

 He has wanted to be a part of everything, everyday, all the time.  And he put up with all kinds of crap from Lisette especially.

 He was so obedient.  He came when called, no matter where he was, as long as he could hear me.  He followed me everywhere.  He was always very quite, never annoying (unlike Osgood) but would sometimes "talk" to me.  Ever since we moved back to Arizona he would even meet me at the front door, or the back door of our current home.  He was always such a good sport, letting us mess with him, tease him. 

So my so typical stress filled week became meaningless and insignificant.  I had my world turned upside down in one hour.  I lost one of my children.  I also had to try to explain to kids where Rizzo was and why he can't come back home.  I was in the middle of telling Franklin that Heavenly Father made Rizzo's owie on his back go away but because He did that from him, Rizzo must live with Heavenly Father now.  Just as I finished my sentence, my mom sent me a text that made a noise on my phone.  Franklin responds, "Is that Jesus?  Can I talk to Rizzo?"

Even though I knew he was gone my mind would automatically start looking for him, or I would prepare myself to not trip over him as I subconsciously expected him to be right behind me as he always was.  I would even look for him on the counter in the laundry room where he would usually greet me when I would come home.  Though Stephen and I had talked about not getting another cat for a while, it was becoming evident that we needed something.  I was constantly breaking into hysterics; he was just like one of my own children to me, after all I raised him personally. 

I was far too hopeful, thinking that kittens would be easy to come by.  Osgood was moping, depressed; he lost another brother, and I was hysterical.  So I posted on facebook if anyone knew of any kittens.  A friend from my old ward stopped by my home that very morning to tell us of a kitten they took in a few months ago (with a very funny story all on its own) and with their full house offered him to us.  He was older than we were looking for because we didn't want Osgood to be challenged, but after another hysterical episode I went to see him and instantly loved him.  He was social, let me hold him for 15 minutes straight, all the while purring.  Gina and I talked for a long time, she telling me the rather funny story of how they ended up with Mel Palmer's kitten.

He has been perfect.  He follows me, he talks to me, he purrs constantly, he's learning his name so he's beginning to come when called.  When he talks he even sometimes sounds just like him.  Lisette even called for Rizzo and then fought with Franklin that it was Rizzo who talked, not Fiyero.  The kids have actually been much less stressful to me since Rizzo passed away.  It may have been because of how many times they have seen/heard me cry.  Fiyero has been a great help, though he's not loved by everyone in our home.

Osgood is twice his size, literally, but Fiyero has the hypodermic needles for claws.  That will get fixed, as well as himself soon enough. 

Rizzo has been loved so much that I have no regrets.  I miss him terribly and its still hard not to always think of him, nor have I been able to stop myself from looking for him sometimes. 

Until we meet again...

Stress, it's a killer

Last week was a stressful week.  It started as all weeks do; the kids constantly crying, fighting, or whining about various things.  There's usually at least one of Franklin irrational, emotional episodes every Sunday.  Then Stephen asks on Sunday night, "What are you going to do from Tuesday to Wednesday while I'm out of town?"  That's right.  I forgot he had a seminar for work.  So I say, "Going to my moms." 

As much as I love to get out of town, especially to go to Sierra Vista and see my family, it wasn't exactly helpful for my stress.  We left town hours later than I had wanted to, the kids fought way more than usual in the car and I didn't sleep well the night before so I'm fighting my eye lids.  I tell the kids that we're going to stop for potty and ice cream.  Lisette has been crying a lot at the words potty, pee pee and so forth lately, but I keep reminding her about the ice cream.  Of course Franklin is upset that he can't go in the boys potty because he's a boy and can't go in the girls. 

We get past that fit, but then while in line to buy our ice cream Lisette decides, like she does multiple times everyday, to hit Franklin in the head.  A very nice man immediately had something to say to them that was reprimanding, but very kind and said in a somewhat humorous way to me.  If nothing else, what he said stopped Franklin from going into one of his emotional fits.  To make a long (and not very fun) story short, after receiving less sleep than the night before due to Lisette, who also woke up Franklin a few times, I decided it really wasn't such a great idea to leave home.  I did have an enjoyable lunch with my sister Heidi, her two kids with my kids all at Grandma April's classroom before starting my trek back home.  I beat Stephen home by a few hours but it wasn't all that horrible of a wait.

Of course this story is leading up to my next blog.  I don't like long blogs.  They are sometimes hard to sit through and sometimes information gets lost.  I normally don't like to talk about my stress and though I don't want to fool anyone into thinking my life is perfect, or horrify them with the bad things that go on, this is leading somewhere...