Thursday, May 20, 2010

updates

- Daniel is standing up in the middle of any where and will stand there for minutes, still not many steps, it might not be long
- he has 4 teeth finally, front 2 bottom, front 2 top
- he still loves his daddy to hold him
- he got a little boy haircut yesterday (pictures later)

-Sarah is up to her usual funny self, always making funny comments, I should write them down more.
- her hair is getting sooo long, she tells people that it is down to her bottom now (maybe it is time for a first hair cut for her?!)
- She loves to play outside with Meg and Joseph now, they have great fun

-Joseph is playing baseball right now and really enjoys it, he loves hustling to the bases
- he has become an excellent reader and can now read just about anything, we are so proud of him
-he made friends with lots of kids at school this year and a neighbor boy, hopefully he will get a chance to play with them this summer

-Megan is her sweet self. she is taking piano lessons and really enjoys it and is quickly picking it up.
- she ran the mile for p.e. recently and improved her time by 4 whole minutes! she loves running
- she is still scared of bees so we will see if we can get her out much this summer, I hope so!

- Brent is busy with Bishopric duties but really enjoys getting to know the members of our ward better
- he stills misses our Liddy and just as excited and adament about getting a kitten after our trip to idaho/utah this summer

-me, I have been busy keeping up with our 4 kids and for the last 3 weeks have been watching 2 kids during the day, a girl a little younger than Sarah and a boy a little younger than Daniel. That is an experience all its own! (I could Never do daycare!)
- I am starting a new 10-week workout program next monday called Kosama. 6 days a week at 5am I will be getting up, and if I enjoy it then I will do the membership for most likely a full year. (see if I can lose this excess weight)
- my primary president calling is good, I still enjoy it, at times it is more busy than others, but I really love the kids and it is fun.

Things to look forward to:
The kids only have 12 school days left and then it is time for summer break, CRAZY!!!
Daniel turns 1 in 13 days, so bittersweet that my baby is getting older!

Well, that is a little update




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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Gone

My last post was written on saturday when I said Liddy only had a week or a couple days left. Truth was he only had hours left. He passed away early sunday morning. If you don't want to read on that's fine, I mostly want to write this for journaling purposes. He was a big part of our lives for 14 years.

We usually put all our cats down in the basement at night. That keeps them from sleeping on all our beds and waking us up and sometimes cats like to play in the middle of the night and aren't so quiet, plus 2 of our cats like to dispose of their food on the floor right after eating it and keeping them in the basement at night keeps most of that down there and then we don't have any surprises to step in in the morning. Anyway, since Liddy wasn't doing good he slept on a glider chair in our room saturday night.

It was crazy to see him on wednesday to still being able to eat a little and walk, to friday barely able to walk and not eat, to saturday not able to do anything but lay there. Brent took him to the vet and they said his kidneys were shutting down and he had ulcers on his tongue and most likely all down his throat. We knew it wouldn't be long.

So Saturday night I pushed the glider up to the side of our bed and I woke up at 12:00, 2:00, and 3:00, each time checking on him. I had a feeling before I went to bed that this was it. So at 3:00 I pet him for awhile and he was meowing at me, at first he had a hard time then he let out a couple loud ones, loud enough to wake up Brent a little. I also noticed his breathing had become quick and he seemed to be having a harder time. I fell back to sleep around 3:30 and then when I woke up around 4:45, he was gone. No more breathing, no more pain.

The vet had warned us that after he dies rigor will set in in about 2 hours so to curl him up the way we wanted to and that he would become pretty stiff. This was very true. I woke Brent and let him now and we laid and talked about him for awhile. Brent didn't go to Bishopric meeting that sunday morning so he could be there when we told the kids. We had told them the night before he wouldn't be with us much longer. They weren't surprised but they were still sad. Megan cried, Joseph tried not too, and I don't think it clicked with Sarah at the time.

We got ready for church and Brent took the 3 oldest to church with him since he had to be there early. I stayed at home for a little while and wrapped Liddy in a towel and put him in a box. I then put him in the garage and headed to church with Daniel. (we didn't know how quickly a he would start to stink?) We planned on burying him next to our garage in a flower bed. There were supposed to be hostas there but they never grew, come to find out there was a 2x4 board 6ft long buried in the ground there!! So we removed the board and Brent dug a hole, then it started to rain and thunder, so we stopped.

Finally on Monday Brent was able to finish the hole and bury him. Megan misses him a lot, but is comforted because we told her we could get a kitten sometime this year. It was first christmas, then her birthday, and now she is asking for this summer. Who knows, we will have to wait and see. We don't want to end up with cats like Sunny and Cleo, who run every time you go near them.

Joseph doesn't seem to be bothered much by his passing and Sarah keeps asking if he is walking again yet, or meowing or breathing, or is he still dead. Sunday night Sarah had a difficult time with it and really wanted to pet him and hold him. So we brought him back in the house and I let the kids decorate his box and they had drawn pictures for him we put in the box and they each gave him a toy ring he loved to play with. Then they were each able to pet him again and Sarah "held" him. It was a good last goodbye for them.

This has brought up good opportunities to talk to the kids about the atonement and eternal life, Sarah asks "Has Jesus come yet, so Liddy can be alive again?" It is pretty cute. We know he was just a cat, but we loved him dearly. Plus it has been a learning experience with death. I am soooo grateful for the atonement and the gospel in our lives to be able to comfort my children with this knowledge and to be able to feel the spirit and help my children to recognize the Spirit in all this too. Brent's grandmother passed away a few months ago and so the kids have had a recent experience with death and so maybe this whole thing has not been as hard. Brent and I are doing okay, we still get sad and we keep expecting to see him laying in the middle of our way. But over all we are fine. Anyway, sorry if this was boring for you to read all about the death of are Liddy-biddy-bean who will be missed!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Liddy

Our beloved cat, Liddy, only has a couple more days of life in him, if that. He has been the most wonderful cat. While he would hiss and bat at strangers who came into our home, especially children, he has been the most loving cat to us. He has always been right there in the room with us laying right in the middle of where the kids were playing, laying in the middle of the kitchen floor for me to trip over when I am cooking and hoping I would open a can of tuna and give him the juice, or laying in the middle of the floor upstairs while we get ready for our day.

He has loved the kids and followed them around and would meow and bat at them to get their attention. We have loved him dearly and will miss him greatly. He has been a wonderful part of our lives, and while we will miss him, we feel very blessed to have such a great cat to be part of our family.
Megan is very sad and cries when we talk about his little "funeral arrangements" and Brent is sad too, he has had him since he was a kitten 14 years ago.
We will all miss you greatly Liddy and love you much!!!





(although Megan is sad, she is already talking about getting a kitten for her birthday, it seems to bring her some comfort, but we will have to see about that when the time comes:)