LUV - one positive out of this experience is that the girls were trying to find a home rather than send the family to the shelter which may after a week or two with no interrested adoption parties may take other measures ~ unless its a no-kill shelter. Yup, they should have told parents their plans but I can see how at a young age being in the moment can sweep you right off of the sensability track. In the end you have a very caring daughter with an equally caring friend ... good eggs LUV good eggs.

Well d, I'll try to make this story short:

A couple weeks ago someone apparently dumped a lovely mother cat and her two kittens in the field behind our house. One Saturday they showed up relaxing in the neighbor's yard and then that evening slept on our patio chairs. The kids found one kitten alone one day last week and called me, I told them to ask the neighbor girl to borrow her cat carrier and I would take it to the shelter when I got home. I get home and the neighbor girl refuses to give it up. She tries to smuggle it in to her house and ends up grounded and her mom took it to the shelter. Now we've been trying to get the mama and other kitten. Last night I'm watering and hear mewing and find the kitten in the egress window unable to get out. Then mama showed up too. The neighbor girl brings the carrier and we feed them and put them in the carrier for the night. My plan was to take them to the shelter after work, but this morning I called animal control out of concern of leaving them in the carrier outside all day in the heat. He says he will pick them up about 10:00. About 9:30 I call the neighbor and find out the girls didn't tell her anything about the cats. Then she tells me they had come in and asked if they could walk to the park(no call to me which is the rule and I had told my daughter to stick around the house because the officer was coming). She says she'll go put a note on our door telling the officer to come to her house and she'll check on the cats. Then the officer calls and says he's there and no one's around. The neighbor walks out as he is talking to me and they discover the cats are missing. Seems the girls took them to a nursing home near our house to see if they would want them. So with the rule breaking, cat "stealing" and lying, I'm pretty much done.

I did make myself feel a bit better by writing a scathing "shame on you" letter to the editor of our local paper about being responsible pet owners and not abandoning your animals when they find themselves with child.

This morning part of me was feeling guilty about not doing more fun things this summer too, but now not so much.

Silver ~ Good for you!!! A journey of 1,000 miles starts with one step. You can do it.

LUV ~ I agree, there are more details.

D ~ Kids sure do seem to have an amazing ability to catalog all of our "you can do that when you're __" comments and then recall them with total accuracy at the given age. I'm trying to remember if I made any "when you're 14" promises to Shorty that will pop back up next month.....

Shorty starts school tomorrow and says he's actually excited about it. He needs to meet kids his own age and start socializing here. I worry for him because 8th grade is such a social land mine but he's a great guy so I'm sure he'll make a few good friends. He says he'd always rather have one or two people he can hang out and have fun with than 'be popular'.

I start school Monday. (I love saying that!!!)

Okay Luv--there have GOT to be more details to that story...animal control, kittens...give it up girl!!!

Hubby has been "gone" so much this summer between foot surgery (okay he was here but immobile), Tennesee, funerals, and football practices..he was supposed to go tonight to work baseball registration and I was letting it occur and then he JUST sent an email saying he was staying home with me. Isn't that sweet!!!

Yes--everyone here is ready to go back to school. I feel badly that this has been such a long and boring summer for us but really have little more I can do. We are having about 8 children over this Friday night for a High School Musical 2 premier night for the kids in the basement. That'll be fun...and the brand new 11 year old is happy with his iPod Shuffle and the fact that he can now play a computer game I told him no too when he was 8 following that with "you can do it when you're 11" thinking he was NEVER going to reach 11 and then what do you know.

Transfered big debt to a zero balance account yesterday. There is now a "processing fee" so it really isn't as good a deal as it used to be. Oh well...better than gazillion dollars in finance charges you know.

I have so little initiative when there isn't something pushing me forward. I could sit on this dang thing all day and surf....

d

Okay, have I said that I am SOOOOOO ready for my kids to go back to school?! This week it's like their brains are on shut down, just one thing after another. This morning I put them under house arrest since they can't seem to communicate with me about their activities. It didn't just inconvenience me, it caused work for a neighbor(who was very nice about it all and I'm sure is grounding her daughter too) and kept the animal control officer who was coming to pick up the starving cats we found last night longer than he had planned. I've got to send him a thank you note. Nine more days!!!

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