Feast or Famine?

Last Saturday we were honored to have Peter & Marian Harrison stop by for a couple of days to see us. We had to tell them, though, that they weren't the first guests to have "happy hour" in the house, although they do hold the honor of being the first to have "happy hour" in our bedroom! :-) The tile guys hadn't grouted the tile yet so it was the best room to have it in! :-)

It was a busy day for company! Kimberleigh, Tim and Ashleigh came to visit in the early afternoon! Tim and Ashleigh tried a little fishing, but didn't catch anything! My theory? Ashleigh kept reeling in her line and then wanted Tim to help her cast it out! It was a windy, blustery day so they didn't fish for long! :-)

Peter & Marian left on Monday, missing all the rain we had! It rained non-stop for hours on end! I heard that we had something like 7", but it might have been more! Everyone around here keeps saying that they haven't had this much rain at one time in a long, long time! Of course, they are also saying they haven't seen the lake as high in that amount of time either! I couldn't even find the "spot" Ashleigh & Tim were fishing at! The lake has come up 9' and it's a 40,000 acre lake (300 miles of shoreline)! That's a LOT of water! When we lived in Canyon Lake, we were used to the lake rising after EVERY rainfall, but it was only a 383 acre lake (14.9 miles of shoreline)! Not to worry though...we're still a LONG way from being flooded by the Hundred Year Flood! :-)

It's been a while since I've updated our blog. We've been busy with the house and moving steadily on! I was HOPING to be in the house by April 1, but it isn't going to happen. We should be close, very close, but Don and I will be leaving on April 10 to head towards CA and the Baker-Vegas race we volunteer at. This is our 16th year and we committed to it a LONG time ago! With the possible delays of having things delivered, we decided that it would be best to wait until we return so we have tentatively scheduled our move-in for April 25/26th! We will be at the race, head into Las Vegas for a few days and then head for home - literally!

This week has been a very productive week! The tile was installed, part of the kitchen granite, knobs were started (door and drawer) and more of the faux painting was done! It's really coming together now! If you want to check out the progress, go to: www.picasaweb.google.com/vickileith. The house pictures are in Emerald Isle, Greers Ferry, Part 9! The faux painting is in it's own album, Faux Painting by Angelfish.

Ragdolls (Lolita/Sweet Pea & Freddy/Furby)

It's been a year since I lost my cat, Maggie to an aggressive tumor and just a short while since my Mom, lost her cat, Nicole. Both our cats lived a long, well-loved life. For my Mom, who lives alone, losing Nicole left a very empty house to be in. I always knew I was going to get another cat, in my whole life I don't think I've ever gone this long without one. I really thought I'd wait until we got into the house before I did, but sometimes things happen for a reason! :-)

Nicole was a Himalayan and my mom's last several cats have been Himis. My cats have always just been domestic cats. My mom thought she wanted another Himi, but we discussed the pros and cons of care. Long haired cats generally take a lot of brushing to keep them from becoming matted and of course, there is the hair to deal with.

My sister, Karen had sent both my mom and I some web sites to check out and one of those happened to be about Ragdolls. After reading about them, I knew that a Ragdoll was what I wanted my next cat to be! A ragdoll has fur that resembles a rabbits. They are a long-haired cat but their fur doesn't mat. They aren't no-shed, but they are low shed! They are also a much larger cat than the Himilayan or Persian but are in the same family. Ragdolls are very affectionate and are typically called "lapcats". The unfortunate part...a kitten can cost from $550 - $1200, with a cat for breeding (un-spayed/neutered) going all the way up to $2000! That's a little past both our budgets, especially when you can get a sweet, loveable cat at the nearest animal shelter for about $150 (spay/shots, etc.)

I was looking and found a breeder here in Arkansas, but after talking to her, none of her cats were even pregnant yet. It would be nearly six months before she would have any ready to come to our homes! I found lots of breeders, but none of them close enough to drive to when I happened upon a website of a breeder, in of all places, Diamond Bar, CA. She had several "older" kittens that she was selling for only $100. I had also found several retired breeders, but these were generally about 3 years old. The only problem, since she was charging so little, she wasn't willing to ship them. I happened to wonder if she would let me sister, who didn't live too far from Diamond Bar pick them up for us and ship them to us. When I e-mailed, she said that would be o.k. Karen agreed to pick them up and get them on a plane for us, so I set things in motion! It wasn't quite as easy as we all hoped starting with cat carriers that didn't arrive until a week after the cats got HERE, but eventually the cats did arrive! :-)

I have always had male cats, my mom prefers female so Lolita and Freddy were the perfect choices for us! Both cats are 8 months old with Freddy being the younger of the two. They aren't brother and sister, although their grandfather's are the same (or something along that line). Both of them have settled into their new homes and are both so sweet and loveable! Lolita (now named Sweet Pea) is the top two pictures, Freddy (now Furby) is the bottom two!

**Furby is going to be a great match for Tess! He's not afraid of Tess and continues to taunt her!**

Snow Today...Gone Tomorrow!

We were very excited when several of our friends said they were going to come see us in March! We were hoping to be in the house (that was months ago), but knew before they came that we would have to have them come to the RV Park we are at and not the house, but we were still excited to see them and to show them how the house was coming along! First to arrive would be Marlene & Bob Rea for two weeks, Marian & Peter Harrison just for the weekend and then Dottie & Lew Anderson who were originally going to be here for about a week and then it changed to about 4 - 5 days.

We were disappointed when we first heard from the Rea's right after our snow arrived. They were afraid that they would be running into bad weather so they rearranged their direction of travel and decided to stay in Arizona for a while before heading east. They happened to be at the same park for a few days as the Anderson's so I don't know if they talked about it or not, but then we heard from the Anderson's who also changed their travel plans. Even though we told them that the snow was probably not going to happen again, and that the "locals" all said it was "not normal", they decided to wait. We have been enjoying spring time weather since the day after our last snow, with the exception of our day of rain (7" that soaked the entire midwest). Today was in the mid-70's and tonight it's only gotten down to 50 degrees!

One thing we have learned here is that the snow is generally gone by the next day and this snow was no different! I think we've only had 3 or 4 days of snow this winter and 3-4" was all we ever had in one day! There's a saying around here "if you don't like the weather today, just wait until tomorrow"!

The good news...Marian & Peter came on ahead (they're from Indiana so I think they are used to the "white" stuff) and the Rea's are coming in May! :-) We'll be able to have them at the house instead of the RV park since we should be done and moved in by then!!!