Ode to a Nut

A year ago this week we lost our favorite nut: Peanut, our cat. He was the best cat EVER and I still miss him dearly. I figured it was high time to write a proper tribute about my favorite pumpkin sized feline, recording some of the antics and highlights of his years with our family.

Prior to bringing Peanut into our home, we had already had two kitties. A brother-sister duo named, ironically, Peanut and Parfait (in honor of the peanut buster parfait at DQ!) While I was very pregnant with my son, Peanut got sick and died suddenly. Naturally, I didn't handle that well. Cried for days. Original Peanut was an adorable fluffy peanut colored kitty. He was very smart and could even speak and fetch with his favorite toy: a rolled up napkin ball!

Nearly a year after Peanut passed away, friends of ours were looking for a home for their kitty, named - you guessed it - Peanut! My immediate response was to fill that Peanut shaped hole in my heart, so we took in the little nut. He adjusted fairly well, considering the strange environment with another feline in the house. He and Parfait pretty much kept their distance from each other and he attempted to escape on a daily basis. I have never seen a cat so intent on getting outside. If you put your foot in the doorway to stop him, he'd just wrestle it down, flip over and make a run for it. Despite living on a very busy street, I finally gave up and let him become an indoor/outdoor cat. He was extremely well suited to the task and seemed to really enjoy the freedom.

About a year after we adopted Peanut we moved to a more country suburban home with a big yard backing up to some woods. This was heaven for Peanut! He roamed the neighborhood, hung out in the woods, kept many wild animals away from our house and everytime I would look out the window when the kids were on the playground - there he would be standing guard. Anytime we headed out back to play we could just call his name and he would come bounding out of the bushes to greet us. Considering he had grown immensely over the years, to a whopping 22 pounds at one point, his "bounding" was quite humorous! Peanut was the quintessential fat cat. He was basically Garfield in real life. When I saw those movies I couldn't help but laugh extra loudly at the fat cat maneuvers and falls which was art imitating the life of my cat!

Peanut became a household name in our neighborhood - everybody knew and loved him. For awhile there he would come home in the summers smelling like perfume! We never did figure out with whom he was having a regular rendezvous. One time I opened the front door to let him out, I heard laughter coming from our neighbor's yard and then "Hey Peanut, come on over!" Yup, our cat had just been invited to the party!

The neighbors on our other side loved Peanut like their own cat. They had a little bed for him in their garage and sometimes he'd have sleepovers at their house. They would even let him inside their house to hang out. When Peanut passed away they came over to the grave to pay their respects and we all shared our favorite stories about our shared pet!Some of Peanut's favorite things were:

FOOD

BEGGING FOR FOODLOUNGING NEAR HIS FOODPAPER BAGS

BOXES

LOUNGING IN GENERAL

Over a year later and I still pull into the driveway missing how the big nut would run to greet me as I got out of the car. I miss his addiction to feet - he had quite a foot fetish and loved to rub his face all over anyone's feet if they'd let him. If you didn't allow him to do so, you risked getting nipped in the ankle! In general we all greatly miss the cool cat whom we lovingly remember as being a "really good dog!"

Check Your Heart

The other day I heard a little blurb on our local Christian radio station encouraging listeners to take a look in their checkbooks to see what is important to them. You know, where your treasure is, so is your heart. As I am the one who carries the checkbook, I thought this sounded like a great way to check my heart and see where it lies. OK, deep breath, here goes!

Gift for baby shower
Chiropractic appointment
School Tuition
Cash for lunches
School T-Shirt
Piano registration
Doctor's office for supplements
Cash for groceries
Compassion child
Cleaning help
Hospital bill
Musical DVD from school
Taxes
Taxes
Taxes
Dentist
Cleaning help
Church lunch
Church tithe
Macy's maternity clothes
Motherhood maternity clothes
Giant groceries
PT gym use
Cash for groceries
Church tithe

So to sum it up, since the beginning of April, the checks were written for:

friend
me
kids
family
me
kids
me
family
charity
me
me
family
government
government
government
kids
me
church
church
me
me
family
me
family
church

Yup, pretty much me! 3 checks for the gov't, 5 checks for church, charity or others, 8 for our kids or family and 9 for, well, me. Hmmm, my heart sure seems to be focused on me, me, me! I think I need to do this more often to check my self spending.

Well, that was a bit of an eye opener and hopefully, it will help me curb my spending where needed. I know hubby, and our checkbook, will appreciate that:)

Pondering Easter

My daughter has been doing an online devotional with some of her friends. They take turns creating a weekly email devotion and I thought that I would pass on to you some of her insights on Christ's death and resurrection. A great reminder to us all as we celebrate Easter.

Christ's death and crucifixion. Luke 23:26-49

In this passage it talks about Christ's death and the pain he went through for us. If you can imagine all he went through for his sinful people that he was faithful to for so many years, well it's unbelievable!! Jesus was God (and He still was on earth) and He came down to this sinful wicked world to walk and talk with His people. He loved the people so much he died on a cross for their sins. He was sinless and yet he took on all of our sins on that cross so we can live forever with him in heaven. Imagine having everything and coming to sacrifice yourself for these people who rejected you and some who hate you. Even God the Father rejected His son when he was on the cross because he contained all the sins of His people. He sacrificed so much for us!

Here are some questions you can answer in an e-mail and in your journal:

• Can you think of anything you would die for like Jesus died for us?
• When you think of the pain Christ went through for you how do you feel?
• Do you feel free to give Christ all your burdens of sin to hang on that cross?
• Christ died for you, are you willing to die for him?

Luke 24:1-12.

One word describes this passage perfectly!!!! AMAZING!!!!! He is risen guys!!!! The Lord Jesus Christ was under the curse of death for only a few days before He was alive again!!! This story is so amazing. I just read the passage and do you know what I just realized? Before Christ died He told His disciples He would die and then raise from the dead. But those disciples didn't believe Him!!!!! After He was raised from the dead the woman told them what the angel said but Christ's best friends didn't believe it!!! They didn't remember what their teacher said!!! They forgot about how He mentioned rising from the dead!!!! But Jesus still loved them. Even if His chosen ones give up on Him, there is no way He'll give up on us. We might doubt Him, but every word of the Bible is the truth!!!! No matter what we do, if we're a Christian we'll never be taken out of His hands! His love is so amazing!!!

Happy Easter

Knowing

If you're up for an edge-of-your-seat thought provoking thrill ride then this latest Nicolas Cage blockbuster is for you. Knowing is an intriguing suspense thriller that had me hiding under my coat for much of the movie. In fact, had not an old friend of mine been one of the writers, I highly doubt I would have dared to set foot in the theater after viewing the trailer. To be honest, I was a bit concerned about what I had gotten myself into after several previews for slasher/horror flicks that preceded the movie, but I braved my fears for the sake of helping contribute to the movie's eventual #1 box office slot for opening weekend. I must say, that despite jumping out of my seat with a yelp to the amusement of movie goers around me, I was quite impressed with the film.

Instead of just another spooky doomsday flick, this one wrestles with philosophical questions of the meaning of life while providing an action packed adrenaline rush. Nicolas Cage's character is a professor of astrophysics who, in an odd turn of events, finds himself deciphering a 50 year old list of numbers to determine when and where great catastrophes will occur. He begins his journey believing that everything is random and by then end of the film is realizing that everything had been determined beforehand. The philosophical aspect of the movie falls short there, without giving meaning or purpose to such determinism - something we can find in reality if we hold to a biblical world view. But hey, it was much more thought provoking then I ever imagined a suspense thriller to be! Many will note the obvious eschatological and apocalyptic themes throughout the movie. I, however, saw more of a modern day Noahic parable with recurring themes of destruction/judgment, pre-destination, election, redemption and salvation.

In my estimation, Knowing, was like The Sixth Sense meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with action sequences reminiscent of Independence Day. All great films, to which I think Knowing aspires. The destruction scenes in the movie were disturbingly intense, with amazing special effects. In the words of my screenwriter friend, Stuart Hazeldine, "I wouldn't have your grandma see it. It's pretty dark and scary in places, especially the disaster sequences." I would also recommend keeping the kids home too, otherwise you may be in for a few weeks of nightmares. I still peer out in the woods at night half expecting to see creepy men lurking on the edge...yikes! You know a suspense thriller has done it's job when it gets into your psyche for just a bit.

Well done, Stu! I give it:

Parent's Day Faux Pas

This morning was Parent's Day at my son's school, Grace Christian. I arrived around 10:30 and we had a lot of fun together - even took him out for a treat during lunch! I would be remiss, however, if I did not share my story and provide you with a good laugh for the day. The thought still brings me to tears...

To start the special day, the whole school gathered in the sanctuary for worship songs. After that several of us parents were "volunteered" by our children to participate in some skits focused on serving others. Lil' Buddy and I eagerly joined in on the skit (because, if you don't already know, I secretly long to be an actress:) I must admit that I threw myself into the character of a-stressed-out-pregnant-mom-who-breaks-down-crying-over-the-messy-house...yeah, I know, it wasn't much of a stretch for me! Apparently, my on cue crying impressed, laughter ensued and I felt that we had achieved our goal: get the most laughs while getting the lesson across!

After all the skits each grade returned to their respective classrooms. I followed my son upstairs to his 5th grade room where we settled down to play hangman before moving on to the next event. Bud was up and after a few guesses I thought I had the answer, so in true Horshack form from Welcome Back Kotter, I raised my hand and piped up, "Ooooh!Oooooh! Ooooh!" When I went to answer, I realized that I must be wrong because I thought the answer was "storm troopers", but he had written so_ _ _ t_oop_ _ _. Oops, he had written it wrong, so my guess was right and it was my turn to come up with the next word.

I was completely at a loss for anything fun to write and felt that I just couldn't live up to the Star Wars terms that had come before. So I wrote my blanks on the board and declared that it wasn't much of a fun word before I took their guesses. I had chosen the word "CLASSROOM".

One of the first guesses was the letter "S", so I eagerly filled in the appropriate blanks. A few more letters called resulting in the formation of the poor dangling stick figure. Next was called, "A!", so I naturally wrote that on the board. Immediately, I chuckled and turned bright red since, to my astonishment, I had just written a bad word on the board of my son's 5th grade class! Quickly I turned to the giggling kids and smiling parents and begged them to hurry up and pick some more letters. It took several tries, but finally my son yelled out "R!" Whew! After a few more letters I filled in the blanks and we were on our way to the cafeteria chuckling the whole time. One of the other moms just looked at me, laughing and commented, "Nice one!"

Next time I'll be much more careful with the words I choose or else my _ _ _ might be grass - oh, look, another word I should never choose for hangman!

I don't believe I'll be living this one down for quite awhile.

The Feeling of Goldfish

Well, it's sure been a long time since the last post announcing my pregnancy. Things are going very well! I am nearing the end of 16 weeks, have completely replaced my wardrobe and have said good-bye to the queasiness and fatigue that plagued me during the first tri-mester.

I was never one for morning sickness, so it was quite different for me to be even queasy every day. Although, the benefit of feeling so off meant nearly no weight gain in the first tri-mester! Compared to my previous children where I gained 40 & 38 pounds respectively, I am off to a great start with only 2-3 pounds gained thus far! Starting overweight this time 'round is limiting the weight gain to 10-15 pounds and absolutely no more than 20...yikes. With my previous record, I'm a little concerned, but I do feel I'm getting a better start with this one!

I thought I started feeling the baby a couple of weeks ago, but wasn't sure. Now that there is a consistent feeling of goldfish wriggling around in my belly it is sure confirmation to me that there is life within. Having had two previous miscarriages, I can't tell you how reassuring that little goldfish sensation is - it will get me through til I can hear the heart beat again next week.

Keep on the look out in April when I hope to reveal the gender - as long as baby cooperates with the "cameras" at this months ultrasound! Naturally, Darlin' is hoping for a baby sister and Lil' Buddy is hoping for a baby brother. In addition to a healthy baby, I'm hoping for a redhead!

Hopefully, I'll be able to check in again soon to recap on the many birthday extravaganzas that we've had the past few months. This week is Buddy's birthday and I hope to create a dice cake mounted on a game board for his birthday party. I'll let you know how that turns out!

Mommy Math

Following is a mini math quiz to see how many of my friends and family check in at Denitra's Den, even when I do so quite sporadically! If you do, I promise a sneak peak at the bottom of this post, but you have to do your math first!


Solve the following word problem:


After 16 1/2 years of marriage, Mom has had 5 pregnancies. Sadly there have been 2 miscarriages. Happily she has 1 daughter who is 13 and 1 son who will be 11. How does that add up?


You do the math!

See answer key below:)