Never Boring, Never Quiet

The kids are back in school and are grinding hard at the mill.  

Nicole has another new job. She is now a hostess at The Grove (a local restaurant). She says it's super boring but they pay $8 an hour so she is toughing it out. She has also been working out like a fiend, is back with her old boyfriend (Ken) and trying to work out a 12 week class schedule at our community college. 

Chelsea has been busy trying to get all her college applications done. This is a tricky thing for her as she likes to do everything at the last minute. And I mean the very last minute!! Unfortunately because of her propensity for procrastination she missed the A & M deadline by mere minutes. It wasn't in her top three but it was a backup school that she wouldn't have minded attending. Live and learn... 

Chelsea has also been busy with high school soccer this month. Every weekend she has had a soccer tournament. They leave school, usually, Thursday morning and get back Saturday night. This definitely makes school a challenge! But they have so much fun all staying in a hotel together that it is worth the makeup work she has to do for school.

Jordan hasn't played WOW in three weeks. This is a huge thing!! And because of all this extra free time he has now, he has been able to actually go do things with his friends ~ like in person and everything. They have been to movies, out to eat and to Bob Schneider concerts. It is hard for other non-kid-WOW-playing-parents to understand the joy this fills our hearts with! Of course it helps that all his friends now have their driver's license. 

Emma's club volleyball, her homework and a love of reading has been taking up all her time. She really enjoys her club team and her coach says that he can really rely on her lively happy personality to lighten the mood and make everyone feel welcome. Since she is the silliest girl I know, this works out perfectly for both of them! 

Somehow Emma has managed to read 6 books this last week and a half while still keeping up with her homework. I go to sleep before her and wake up after her. I have no idea how she functions all day!

Brandt's basketball has started up again. He is on a different team this year that doesn't seem nearly as intense. We only practice once a week with games every Saturday. Last year we practiced twice a week with an "optional" third practice. The difference in practicing time really shows in his games but it is nice for him to have more free time. Almost everyday Brandt and all his buddies are outside having air soft gun wars in the neighborhood or in our park (we have a park literally right behind our house). He comes wandering in at dark exhausted with everything he took with him either lost or broken, but as happy as a clam. If he's happy then we are too.

James has been working like a mad man trying to get our media room finished. The poor guy started two years ago but had to put it on hold for various reasons but now works like a man possessed on it. He has torn into walls and floors; taped, mudded, textured; installed double doors; prep the sub floor for carpet; chosen carpet and wood; and primed walls for painting. Next is the cabinetry. I'm a construction widow...

And last but not least, classes have started back up for me too. This semester I have an Art History class that starts at 7:45 in the morning ~ ugh! I also have 3 other photography classes that are all 4 hours each twice a week. Only one of those am I doing any shooting in though, so that's kind of a bummer. One of my pictures that made it into the print show (the flower) the school kept for their permanent collection. Kind of exciting!

Fandango still has giardia. So far none of us has caught it but the vet trips are never ending!!! And it is hard for him to gain weight with constant diarrhea. But he is so sweet and loves to give kisses, not the greatest idea with giardia!

This sweet baby came to live with us the last week of November. We had promised Chelsea a kitty when we moved to Austin as we had given ours away before we moved. Sadly the first two attempts at a new kitty didn't take (one was peeing all over my furniture and the other turned out to be a feral cat that wanted to live outside - our neighbors have a couple 0f outside cats and he now lives with them). So this time I announced that we were not going to get a cat from the animal shelter but instead were going to get a sweet, healthy kitty from a breeder. Ha! After searching for months on the internet I convinced everyone that what we wanted was either a Savannah or a Bengal cat. Both are domestic cats that their ancestors have been bred with either wild Serviles (the Savannah) or wild Asian Leopards (the Bengal). Both are extremely outgoing, playful smart cats that usually are larger then a normal house cat. They can be taught to fetch and walk on leashes. The Bengals have extra soft fur (like petting a bunny), blue green eyes, a "M" on their foreheads, black tipped tails, striping on the legs, black bottomed feet and can have rosettes all over (ours just has his spots on his underbelly).

Since I had that week off from school we started touring catteries. Oh my goodness!! I'm thinking nice sweet old people with too many cats - wrong again! These were old people but this was their livelihood. They had outdoor facilities filled with dog runs that had multiple cats in each one climbing up the sides of the cages (the Serviles had all their own cages as they would eat the smaller domesticated cats) . And people were charging from about $1200 to $4000 for these cats. Emma saw no problem with these prices or the wildness of the kittens and thought we were the meanest parents ever for not getting her one!

Finally I saw this add in the paper advertising Bengals starting at $300. When I called the lady she was so rude I almost hung up on her but I guess if something is cheap enough I will put up with a lot of abuse. Only James and I drove out there because this lady insisted that we not bring anyone along with us. Think "crazy cat lady from the Simpson's". When we got there she made us stand off her property by the front fence and she would bring the kittens to us. Once we saw her 4 pet wolves wandering around, we agreed wholeheartedly with her! She had three very sweet, very pretty Bengal kittens that she was willing to sell to us. She had two normal friends there with her that had adopted two kittens from her in the past and they sold us on getting one of her kittens. Later we found out that she has cancer and several other serious health problems. She lives all by herself with all her animals and these people were out there checking on her and bringing her food. She had 15 other cats that live inside her trailer with her; a good 20 outside; two horses; and a few months ago a rescue group came out and took 19 of her wolves away leaving her the 4 we saw.

Of course we took our new little guy right to the vet. The vet said that the kitty had really bad ear mites that took three weeks to get rid of but the kicker was she had never seen such a bad case of giardia. It is a single cell parasite that is highly contagious to other animals and people. Hikers get it drinking contaminated water. 4 weeks and hundreds of dollars later we are still trying to get rid of this parasite. He's darn lucky he's so cute!

But having 7 people in a house trying to decide on a name has been ridiculous. Some call him Kanye, some call him Sheerkahn, some Mowgli, some Jumpin' Jack, but Fandango is what is on his tag so that wins this week...the ladies that work at the vet are excited to see what we are calling him each week. They have bets!!