IT'S FRIDAY!!!!!!

Ok, so you couldn't hear that "Good Morning Vietnam!" sound in my voice, but it was there, I promise! The kittens got kicked out on their rears today. They are officially outside cats. Last night when we went to bed, lights had been out for MAYBE 10 minutes and I heard stratching at the door of our master bathroom. I told Superhubbie to stop talking and listen and sure 'nuff...they were scratching at the door. You see, one of our other cats accidentally got locked in our guest bathroom once and scratched the drywall all up and it was really bad. We're still going to have to fix that little goof-up. So, we were quiet for a few minutes and the sound stopped. So, we went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, I wake up to the sound of one of the cute little kittie toys I put in the bathroom for them to play with rolling across the floor making all the noise I thought that it wouldn't make. For some reason, when I put them in there, I thought they'd play with them during the day....WRONG! So, this little plastic ball that has little pegs on the outside and little plastic balls inside was making all kinds of racket in the middle of the night. It quickly stopped and I very quickly fell back to sleep. I vaguely remember hearing it again some time later, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't sleep through it. But Superhubbie, I think (sleep is so vague many times), got up and grabbed the toy and put it on the carpet in our bedroom to stop the noise. You see, I wasn't coherant enough to get up and do that...sometimes he's not either, but he sleepwalks...so, things happen sometimes and he doesn't even realize it. I don't sleepwalk, so when I'm asleep...I'm asleep!

So, I got up this morning, introduced them to the rest of the family (animals) and put them out back with their bed and their food. Luna doesn't like them, like I knew would happen. She just sits there staring them down and growling like she did with Punkin. And Punkin (who I haven't posted his story yet, but will today) is trying to befriend them. Patches is her own woman and just pretty much ignores them. Woody stands on the ground as they have taken the top of the doghouse as home and looks up at them and whimpers like he wants to play, but can't get to 'em. The black kitten just puffs up and looks mean. Molly and Lady pretty much ignore them too for now. We'll see what progresses as time passes.

Punkin' is a male orange tiger bobtail (by force). He's not quite a year old yet. Joe found him last fall (early October) at the orchard that he worked at. He was only a few weeks old (maybe 6 wks) and had his tail mangled. Joe thinks one of the apple bins got put down on his tail before he had time to get out from underneath. So, Joe found him inside a Pumpkin bin, in October and he's orange. So, his name was obviously going to have to be Punkin'. We took him home that weekend and the following week took him to Dr. Price to have him looked at. He decided that his tail had to be bobbed off and he'd go head and neuter him while he had him there. So, this was definitely our most expensive cat venture thus far. Luna still doesn't like him...he's been around for almost a year and she's still evil towards him. So, our final (until this last Wednesday) rescue of cats. Here's Punkin':

Punkin's names:

Punkin' (official)

Punk (short)

Punkie (cute)

Punkster (cuter)






So, I got to spend some time with my mommy today! We went to the most wonderful Mexican restaurant ever! Fiesta Mexicana, duh! And we got to talk about all kinds of stuff, like we always do. I just thought it was nice and that I should add this in too, HI MOM! Then I went to the Health Dept. for a physical and to get the stuff to do a water test. Yup, it's all for the foster thing. Woo-hoo! All the hoops are not fun! I'm tired of jumping...it's only the beginning though.

New kittens...I didn't want anymore cats!!! Wwaaaahhh!

Ok, I must say...I love the end result, but I now loathe uploadage of pics! It took me FOR-EVA to finish the Thursday Thirteen! Well, I have some news...I'm mommy again...to 2 kittens. I took Superhubbie's dad home last night from church and on a back road I found 2 kittens. I tried getting them on the way over there, but couldn't get the black and white one to come to me. So, I didn't want to leave one alone, so I let the small one go. On my way back home, I saw them again...sitting in the middle of the gravel road (same place) and the black and white one ran off into the grass. Once again, the little white one just sat in the middle of the road. So, I parked the vehicle, got out and picked up the white one and the other one came right to me. So I put them in the vehicle and called Joe to let him know what's going on. The little white one is so skin & bones. The black and white one was really hungry too. Joe & I had gotten milkshakes on our way home from church and the black one was trying to suck on the straw of the milkshake cups! So, when I got them home and gave them some milk and dry cat food and some cut up fish that we had made the other night for supper. The poor little white one almost drowned itself trying to get to the milk! Needless to say...all of that food was gone by the time I went to bed at midnight last night. (Yes, that late...I was uploading pictures!) So, I don't know what to name them yet. I'm pretty sure the black and white was is male...I haven't got as sure of an idea about the white one. But here's a pic just to show you...yup, I'm a sucker! (Oh, I hate uploading! Dial-up is so slow!)

Thursday Thirteen #2

Thirteen things the kids did yesterday on our "first day" alone w/Missy (no Joe!):

1)Walked in the door and ran like wild children with the dogs for quite sometime.

2) Ate lunch (ravioli...mmm, yummy!)

3) Got into Joe & Missy's cowboy boots and wanted to take pictures!

4) Played with playdough! Every kid's favorite!

4) Played with the dogs...

5) Watched Nemo (to give Missy some time off!)

6) Loved on dogs while watching Nemo...

7) Played with the dogs...more...

8) Ate milk & choco chip cookies that Missy made fresh for us.

9) Played on the broken down John Deere that is sitting in the back yard because it's cool to play on a tractor! 10) Colored and cut construction paper into BEAUTIFUL things that were unidentifiable once we got done with the scissors! 11) Played with....well...you know... 12) Crashed for 45 minutes until Joe got home (the dogs did too!!!)

13) Ate supper (grilled cheese & tomato soup)

Then we got ready and went to church.

Kids and cats...

This'll probably be a quickie. I've got to go get the kiddos today and I've got to go shopping for lunch & supper today too 'cuz I wasn't planning on cooking for five. Fostermom's got to take one of her kiddos to the dr for her leg. She really didn't want to go with five kids, so I'm picking them up after Middlechild's summer school is over at 11:30 today at the school. It'll be my first day with them without help from the Superhubbie who always knows how to entertain these kiddies! So, pray for me?!? I'm pretty sure I'll be okay, they listen to me pretty well and they love coming out here. So, I don't think it'll be a problem. I just don't have a million things for them to do. They could play in the sprinkler, play with the puppies, hey! I do have some playdough they could play with, I'll see if I've got anything else. I'm sure I'll be fine. Just kinda nervewracking being "mom" by myself (no "dad" involved for the day) for the first time is all. So, I'll quickly introduce you to Patches then I gotta run.

Patches is a calico cat who used to be skin and bones. She is no longer skin and bones, I think she's saving up for a famine or something. I have no clue how old she is, I can just guess that she's probably around a year older than Luna. So, she's about 3-4 years old. I'm pretty sure that she's been fixed because we've not had the problems that we did with Luna at around 8-10 months of age. (Liz, you know what I'm talking about!) That gross, perverse problem of having a female cat in heat. YUCK! So, anywho...I can't really say much for Patches other than she's a princess that kills everything! Lately our animals have made our yard into a killing ground for birds, mice, moles, you name it...groundhogs, oppossum, rabbits, chipmunks. NOTHING is safe in our yard! So, I've caught Patchie with mostly birds, but a few mice. I don't know how she's keeping her shapely figure! We got Patches from Aunt Madge & Mark (that's Joe's side). They had found her and tried to keep her, but she was so skittish that they couldn't take care of her. So, we took her. She has s-l-o-w-l-y warmed up to us and now she loves us like crazy. But she hates it when "strangers" are in the house. She hides. So, here's Patches because I've got to get going...

Patches' names:

Patches (official)

Patchie (short)

Patch (even shorter)

Apachie (Joe thinks it's cute???)

And I forgot to add Luna's names the other day,

Luna/Loona (officials)

Lunie/Loonie (shorts)

Lunita (that's mine, with a Spanish flare!)

Lune/Loon

More than one of me?!?

I do have to admit...I got sucked into the weird thought that popped into my mind of searching my name in Google. Come to find out, there are many of me. There's one that has my entire name, the only difference is that the Ann is spelled with an 'e' at the end. She's like my evil oposite! She's a little younger than me and she's into that book series that has my last name in it and she's not very pure in thoughts. There are other me's (that looks weird) that are big people in companies and stuff like that...but it's just weird! So, my thoughts got tired of looking at all of me, so I looked up my Superhubbie. Come to find out, he was married before (early 1900s) and he's already been dead and resurrected! He's been in multiple branches of military and he's also a professor at some univeristy in Texas! (He'd LOVE that!) He's been trying to get me to move to Texas since we got married! Probably the absolute most weirdest thing of all is that there is some book out there about the red hatters ageing or something and there is mention of a Joe & Missy Potter's decorated spruce tree getting run over by an old lady named Aggie. It's really one of those odd-ball things that your brain leads you into and then you're sorry you did it because now you're kinda freaked out by other people "stealing" your identity. Y'know? They're not really "stealing", they've been given it fair and square...it's just weird.

Ok, now that I'm done with that (did I say WEIRD?) thing...I think I'll introduce you to a one of the 3 cats that we have. Loona (aka Luna) was named by Joe and I didn't like it, so I call her Luna instead. Same pronunciation and all...just different meaning. You see, Joe called her Loona because she's a loon...a lunatic...a crazy one. I told him that if he named her that, she'd live up to it. She did. I call her Luna, which means "Moon" in Spanish. I believe it was almost 2 years ago at the county fair, Superhubbie's mom found her whilst parking cars. Luna came bounding out from underneath cars toward mom-in-law and she was just a little baby at the time. So, she brought her to us. She's a gray tabby and she's very hyper at times, although she's slowing growing out of that. So she's almost 2 years old now. (once again...a rescue!)

Things to do this weekend...

It's such a beautiful day again! What have we done to deserve such wonderful treatment, God? I just got done mowing the backyard a little bit ago, and knowing my Irish skin tone...I'm probably going to be feelin' it tonight and tomorrow! I dunno...we'll see.
So, I'm pretty much going to try (again) to lose this extra baggage (weight, not my husband!) that I've been carrying around for so long. The good news is, I haven't gotten any bigger for a year and a half...I've actually gone down some. But I've pretty much been at a plateau since around Thanksgiving time. You know all that good food...especially what my mother-in-law makes. The problem is...I live only 3 miles away from her and her doggone good cooking. She's been making baked goods for the Farmer's Market and whatever she doesn't sell, we've been getting some of it. That's not helping this body of mine one iota! But man is it good!?!
This weekend is going to be pretty busy around here. Tonight Superhubbie's cousin is getting married in Reynoldsburg. Then tomorrow, Superhubbie and his mom are doing the Farmer's Market until noon. That'll give me a little more time to get things done around here...work on more laundry, straighten up the house a bit, etc. Then, when they're done, they're going to come home and his dad is coming over to help work on the wall again for a while. At 4:00 I'm going to get the "kids" and we'll have them until Sunday night church service. They want to stay longer, but the middle child has summer school until next week...so he's kinda ruins it for them all...for now. That's okay though. We'll have fun! I think we're going over to mom-in-law's for pizza Saturday night because of the wedding tonight. (We usually have pizza on Fridays, but this week is messed up.)
You should see the kids with the doggies! The youngest tries to give Woody hugs and because Woody is so small and it's hard for him to trust people, every time youngest leans down to give him a hug, Woody growls a little. Youngest looks at me and says I'm just trying to hug him! But this last time they came out...we had a breakthrough! I wish I had my camera! They didn't know I was watching and he leaned down and hugged him for a long time and Woody just sat there like he had gained a new friend. It's adorable! Ladybug slept with Oldest and they both loved it and Molly just doesn't know how to calm down with kids around yet. I'm sure she'll learn. Middlechild just keeps trying to play like Molly does but it's after everyone's done playing. It's cute! So, everytime we have to take them back to Fostermom's, (keep in mind that they LOVE Fostermom to death!) they say in the cutest voice, "Nooo....I want to stay here forever!" It breaks our hearts everytime they have to leave. After the first time they came out, Oldest went home and cried her eyes out because she missed us so much. We love 'em all dearly. This is all in code obviously for security reasons, but you can at least get a look into what we're doing. Well, plenty to do, not enough time to do it all in...later!

THURSDAY THIRTEEN #1 (sorry so late)

I know, I know...It's FRIDAY MISSY...NOT THURSDAY!!! I just decided that I'm going to take a shot at this fun little doodad I've seen on others' sites. I didn't realize it was such a big thing until I saw on Theresa's site the official Thursday Thirteen site. So...here goes...

Thirteen things I need to do before August begins:

1. Finish foster care paperwork (Yes, foster care...kinda gives you a look into the stay-at-home mom thing...)


2. Clean my house...entirely. (Big job for me!)


3. Paint the guest bathroom in blues and purples. (It'll be the kids' bathroom...yes, I said kids.)


4. Finish painting my bedroom in greens and browns (It's 75% complete at the moment)


5. Finish paining the livingroom in browns and tans. (It's half way done now.)


6. Take Patches in for her rabies shot. (That's one of the cats you haven't met yet.)


7. When I take Patches in, I must get the vet records for the foster thing.


8. Help Superhubbie get the gutters back up after we finish fixing the roof.


9. When the guys finish builing the wall between the kids' rooms, I need to paint them. (colors?)


10. Help Superhubbie take care of electrical stuff around the house.


11. Help Superhubbie finish tiling the kids' bathroom floor.


12. Help Superhubbie trim around doors and windows that aren't trimmed.


13. I'm sure there's more...but #13 is: Take all the "junk" to Goodwill so I don't have to trip over it all anymore.

My kids - part dos

Molly is (roughly) a 3 yr. old boxer mix. We think she's mixed with some kind of hound...maybe beagle. This pic is a little older...she's most likely about 65 lbs now. We got her a month after we moved in to our previously mentioned home to give Woody some company while we were at work all day. She was a rescue too. You see...Superhubbie's aunt used to run a rescue and that's where we've gotten all of our dogs. Molly was found wondering the streets at 10 weeks of age. Mrs. Aunt took her in and asked if we wanted her...we met her on Memorial Day and took her home that night. (Obviously the answer was a resounding YES!) Molly and Woody are truly bro & sis at heart. They play and fight together all the time. Something I didn't mention in the previous post was our nicknames for Woody. So, here they are in no particular order:

Woody (official)

Woodrow (Wilson)

Budrow (pronounced Boo-drow)

Bood (shortened version of Budrow)

Boodie (nick for Budrow)

Molly's names:

Molly (official)

Molly Wally

Wally (short for the above)

Marly Warly (when we want to be goofy)

Marly (short for the above)

So, here's a picture of Marly and Bood hammin' it up.

Since I've got the time now...I'll talk about our latest addition and last doggie - Lady. We got her in March of '06 from the same aunt of Superhubbie. She (the dog...not the aunt) is an English Mastiff. Sweetest breed you'll ever meet! We really don't know how old she is, we think anywhere between 3 and 7 years old. The doggiedoc tried to tell, but she had had such a terrible life before we got her that she is aging a lot faster than she should. Lady has a long story attached to her. I guess her original owner bred her a lot and she was really attached to him, but he died about a year and a half before we got her. So, this guy's son took her and mistreated her. He abused her and starved her. He even threw her down some steps which broke her leg and she had to have surgery. He almost got the humane society called on him, but he gave her away to someone that he knew just so he wouldn't go to jail. The people that got her next were druggies and didn't find the money to feed the dog that they had, but could find the cash to kill themselves with their addictions. By this time, Lady was down to 75 lbs (she should've been at least 150, maybe pushin' 200. So, when we got her, she was in bad, bad shape. She loved everyone that she came across though. Sweet, sweet dog! Lady has, after 15 months of being in our home, she has made it back to 120 lbs and I doubt she'll get any heavier. The doggiedoc said that we're basically just making her life bearable at this point. She has a lot of health issues. But we love her...she's like a great big teddie bear.

Her names are:

Lady (official)

Ladybug (Joe came up with this)

Buggie (short for the above)

Bug (short for the above)

Buggie-Wuggie (just goofy-woofy)

So, here's a pic of Buggie layin' in the sun and havin' a great day.

Well, those are my puppies! Now you'll know who I'm talking about when I say something about Budrow, Marly and Buggie.

My kids...I mean - My pets

Yes, this is the second entry today, but I'm just getting started...so gimme a break, huh?!?
Ok, I talked about all of my pets in my profile. I should probably introduce you to those I'll most likely be talking about throughout my little bloggy thing.
Firstly, I'll introduce you to my doggies. Since it takes a while to upload on dial-up, I'll do different pets each day so I'm not wasting my entire day doing the up-loadage.
We got "Woody" shortly after we got married, but shortly before we moved into our "owned" house. (Y'know the bank still owns it...we just got to put our name to it is all! That's how those things work!) Anywho...Woody lived with the in-laws (that's my in-laws) for a few months before we actually got to have him because we were renting at the time. (Liz...I know how you feel about the pet and rent thingy...doesn't work) Before he came to our house, he had already been in nine other homes in his 10 months of living. He didn't really know how to trust people until long after we got him because he didn't know when the next time he'd be passed along to the next house. Woody is a (roughly) 4 yr. old Jack Russell Terrier. He bounces off the walls...but we luv 'em anyhow. So, without further adieu...HEEERRRE'S Woody!

Beautiful day's thoughts...

It's such an absolutely gorgeous day today! It's not too hot like it has been the last few days and it's nice to be able to leave my windows open and let the breeze blow through the house. I love days like this!
I started last week on EC and quickly ran across the lizness and discovered that many of my own "loved ones" are on here doing this bloggy thing. I finally talked myself into creating my own bloggy thing and joining the par-tay. Becky (the muffin) was right! It sure is addictive!

So here I am...I figure I'd probably better explain myself on my choice of bloggy titles. Some of you may remember my mom's choice of "theme" for my surprise 18th birthday party. It was "the Spanish-speaking leprechaun". The reason for that is, well...I speak Spanish AND I was born on St. Patrick's Day (the best thing about the latter is that I am part Irish me-self laddies and lassies!). Therefore I AM the SPANISH SPEAKING LEPRECHAUN!!! *as I do a little jig around my pot o'gold* (I really don't have one y'know...leprechauns never tell their secrets!)

....when Irish eyes are smilin'....