Post #2 - The Love Ya Part

I wanted to thank my smiling friend, Mary, over at Pile of Smiles for the Love Ya Award. The Love Ya Award states that it goes to an exceedingly charming kind of blogger who aims to find and be friends. My back of my hand is swooped across my forehead, and my other hand is over my heart, as I swoon and gush with honor as I accept this award!

I told you I live in Utopia. But it's fun, isn't it?

Love Ya back Mary! Thank you for finding and being my friend!

Signed: The Drama Queen

There Aren't Enough Days In A Weekend and Love Ya

I've come to the conclusion that I need eight days a week, the extra day being added to the weekend of course. Fantasy Land has always lived in my mind, why stop now? I'd rather hope for something huge and get some of it, then hope for something small and get all of it. {there is no extra charge for the enlightened rationale' here today folks}.

Eight days a week would have been swell last weekend when we were out of town (again!) for a family reunion having loads of fun laughing and playing ROOK and watching the kids grow right before our very eyes! Kevin is the youngest of eight {here we go with "eight" again, I think we're on to something here} so when this bunch gets together for a reunion, it's a BIG BUNCH. Andrea and company made the trek, and I'll post pics soon! Rhegan ran an errand with me to pick up KFC, and along the way we saw a Pizza Hut and the conversation went like this:

Grandma: I love Pizza Hut, maybe we can have that for dinner this evening.
Rhegan: I love Pizza Hut too! We are just alike, Grandma!
Grandma: I know! On the day you were born, I held you in my arms and said "Rhegan, we are just alike."
Rhegan: I know! I remember!

I love Rhegan-isms! NOW THEN ... to tell you how busy we've been lately, I started this post two days ago and I am just now getting back to it! That's how we roll around here. Just for the sake of bullet points, I'm going to list what's on my mind and on my plate this week:

• I'm doing decorations for an upcoming fundraiser, An Evening in Fletcher Place. Gonna be a good time, with good people, for a mighty good cause. So I've met with the owner to discuss themes, borrowed a truck load full of catering goods from my friend, and have been happily paper-crafting table tent cards and the like.
• I'm continuing on with my Summer Scripture Challenge at our weekly women's bible study. Enjoying the time in God's Word and scrapbooking various scriptures. I feel like a whole cheerleading squad lives inside my head most of the time, and the Summer Scripture Challenge gives me the perfect opportunity to let the squad out. Each cheerleader girl inside my head sends encouraging emails to the girls, and lunches with others, and yaks about what I'm learning and experiencing. Good stuff, girlfriends!
• Got a telephone message from Mac, the neighbor cat, about life A.C. (After Cozy). He misses his bud, but says it's not so bad since he is now the neutered king of the neighborhood. Pfft.
• No more out-of-town weekends planned -- I'm so ready for a stay-at-home season. Routine isn't all that bad, except of course that it's life A.C. We're gonna look for another lil' buddy now that we'll be home.
• BIG rate case going on at work. Happy hands are billable hands in any firm, mine included.
• Neighbor girl is home from college for the summer, and called to announce her exciting new summer career selling cutlery (Oh Joy! Can't you just feel the excitement?) and would I spend an evening viewing her wares?
• My nice niece Brook needed help on her 4-H project, wrapping cylinder shaped gifts, which is oh so much more fun at her Aunt Kay's house with all the scrapping supplies! {And we ordered pizza, isn't that part of a perfect girls night?}
• Fussed on Kevin for various reasons not the least of which was finalizing the WBE application we are trying to get filed for our business. But he did gain points for lunching with my mom and his sister yesterday. So I told him I would give serious consideration to letting him in the house this evening, if he called me at 5:00 o'clock to see how I felt about it then. We do have fun!
• BTW, the "hood" gang is going to the lavish dessert bar at the fundraiser next weekend. I TOLD you it was gonna be a good time!
• Woke up to dark skies and raining cats and dogs (awww, if it was really raining cats and dogs I might've grabbed one. I digress). So when I arrived at the firm this morning I announced to Cat (our receptionist - geez I'm surrounded with paw-prints!): Today is no day to be out and about - I'll melt! Then later today the sun shone brighter than a meteor and the heat was hotter than a frying pan. So when I arrived at the firm this afternoon I announced to Cat: Today is no day to be out and about - I'm toast! If I would just get over my sweet self, the weather could carry on, yes?
• I am blessed beyond words! You'll never know a soul on the face of this earth who is blessed more than me! Psalm 36: 5-7 says: God's love is meteoric, His loyalty astronomic, His purpose titanic, His verdicts oceanic. Yet in His largeness nothing gets lost. Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks. How exquisite Your love, O God!
• Sure comes in handy for being blessed beyond words, doesn't it?!

Goodbye Cozy

I didn't think I would cry this hard over losing a cat ... but he was our cat, at our house, with our family, for 14 years. This picture taken today was his last, taken minutes before he took his last breath. Cozy was a model patient for the vet 3 days ago when they treated him for hyper-thyroidism and a heart condition. And he rallied for the last few days, absorbing the fluids they gave him and eating his special food. This morning, he wasn't exactly the model patient on his return check-up at the vet, so much so that he worked himself up to the point that they had to give him oxygen! To a cat! I'm amazed. Cozy spent the rest of his day under the church pew, as usual. And there he waited until one of us got home, which was Kevin. And then he took his last breath with Kevin by his side. What a cat! What an amazing cat! He was a part of our family, and we are going to miss him. Like crazy. He was purrfect.

Paws-A-While
They will not go quietly, the cats who've shared our lives.
In subtle ways they let us know their spirit still survives.
Old habits still make us think we hear a meow at the door.
Or step back when we drop a tasty morsel on the floor.
Our feet still go around the place the food dish used to be,
And, sometimes, coming home at night,we miss them terribly.
And although time may bring new friends and a new food dish to fill,
That one place in our hearts belongs to them. . . and always will.