Cynthia Rebecca Nine Days Old

painting, kittens and a birthday party

This weekend was full of painting, kittens and a birthday party. August 28 was Kyrielle’s eighth birthday and Larry decided to surprise her with a party. This was actually a big deal for Larry and for Kyrielle. Larry has never been present at one of Kyrielle’s birthday “parties” due to ex-spousal conflict. We’ve had little celebrations of our own for her but they’ve never been a true child’s party with guests and games and prizes. This year Larry approached his ex about having a joint party and Kami (the ex) thought it was a great idea. They planned the whole thing together including theme, games, prizes and guest list. The only thing I had to do was get Kyrielle out of the house the morning of the party so the guests could arrive without her knowing about it. Larry even took care of most of the food (hamburgers and hotdogs). Kyrielle was floored by the party. She had no idea. Well, she pretty much figured it out when she saw the Jupiter Jump in the front yard as we drove in but up until that point she was clueless. By all accounts, everyone had a great time. Even though we’ve had regular visitation with Kyrielle for five years now we’ve never really interacted much with Kami and Grant (the stepdad). In fact, I had what I would consider my first real conversation with the two of them during the party. And that’s sad. Larry has put the past behind him and I see no reason why we can’t all be friendly with each other. I think Kami and Grant feel the same way. Maybe we were all just too nervous about the situation earlier. I don’t expect us all to become best friends but I think now it will be easier for us to do things together. And I think that’s important for Kyrielle. She needs to see that her parents, even thought they’re married to other people, can still respect each other and do things together in her best interest. Anyways, it was a great party.

I’m almost through painting the kitchen. We took all the cabinet doors off so I could paint them and then I ran out of paint. This was Friday night so I had no doors on my cabinets Saturday during the party. More than one person thought that we left the doors off on purpose and they really liked the look. I don’t like the look so the doors are going back up as soon as I finish painting them.

The weekend ended with us getting two cats. Ever since I’ve known Larry he’s sworn hatred for all things feline and refused to even consider the idea of us getting a cat. Imagine my surprise then when about a week ago Larry called me at work and asked me if I would like to get a kitty. A friend of a coworker was moving and had to get rid of her cats. I grilled him about his motives for a few minutes but he seemed genuinely interested in getting these cats so I agreed. This person actually had nine cats, about half of them a year old and the other half six months. When we went to look at them they were all hiding under a bed and it took about fifteen minutes for her to pry one out of the corner. We ended up taking a six-month-old short hair tortoise shell female and a year old solid black female. They were both very skittish the first day at our house and basically hid under Kyrielle’s bed the whole time. By Monday night the tortoise shell decided she wanted to be friendly and now she’s all over us. The black one is still very aloof. She’ll let me pet her but she still spooks easily and spends most of her time watching us from a safe distance. I think she’ll warm up though. The cats are still nameless because I refuse to name them after X-Men or Anne Rice characters. Mystique?? Acacia (spelling?)?? I think not. Actually, Larry wants to name the black one Mina after the character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and I’m ok with that. We just need to name the little one now. I’m leaning towards Scarlett but we’ll see. Just in case your keeping track this brings the animal count at our house to five dogs, three ferrets, two cats, 25 chickens and a tank full of fish. We’re also in negotiations with a co-worker to buy their pony just as soon as she can convince her daughter to let it go. I don’t see how we can ever go on vacation again. If anyone would like to spend their vacation tending to animals in beautiful rural Oklahoma, just let me know. We can hook you up.