Ups and Downs and All Arounds

The Spaz is back!

I'm alive and well and so is the rest of the Spaz clan. Life is busy around here and when life gets busy I don't seem to have any blog worthy thoughts. I guess when I'm trying to keep up with the day to day, I don't spend a lot of time pondering the life, universe, and everything so the blog suffers.

In the past couple of months we've taken a trip to North Carolina, kicked around the idea of moving there and then decided to shelve the idea for the foreseeable future. It's beautiful up there and the idea of raising the kids in a small town environment is definitely appealing, but for right now we think it's best to stay put.

Though, when we returned home to find that we needed to drill a new well, fix our air conditioner, and replace our stove, I almost got back into the minivan, pointed it north, and refused to come back. A nice, new house in the gorgeous Great Smokey Mountains sure beats a messy, hot, and humid one with no running water in the middle of hurricane season in South Florida.

But responsibility won out and we got to work fixing the home owners nightmare we had returned home to. At this point, the biggest issue has been repaired (we dug the new well), the AC is in the process of being fixed, and the stove has been put on the back burner. Literally... that's the only burner I can use. The back one. But it's so hot I don't want to cook anyway. See how things work out?

This is the time of year I start obsessively checking weather.com and wondering when we'll get our first cold front. I do it every year, knowing full well that we'll be sweating while we trick-or-treat at the end of next month and I need to just give it up. In January I'll be complaining that my feet are cold and that my winter coat (aka ratty old hoodie) isn't warm enough.

The kids all went back to school in August and it's Bug's first year of middle school. He started making farting noises playing the clarinet with the beginning band and seems to be adjusting relatively well to the new, HUGE, middle school. Aside from his ridiculous new schedule that doesn't get him home from school until around 4:30, he seems to like school. We're having a bit of a hard time with homework since he doesn't appear to have enough time to complete it all before any reasonable hour, especially with karate three days a week, but we're working on getting it all organized. I have hope.

Munchkin is currently enjoying her "top of the school" fifth grade status and has found her passions lie with horses, skinny jeans, and this glam-goth style that would have been the height of cool when I was in high school if only we'd had the foresight to figure it out ourselves. She brought home a poster of Taylor Lautner from school today so I fear that she may have discovered boys.  Is it too early to start crushing birth control pills into her oatmeal?

Goober has started second grade and has joined the chorus. He's having a bit of a rough time because his best friend moved away last week and he's feeling a bit alone and sad at school. I'm really hoping he finds a new niche to settle into soon. His best friend has been in his class since kindergarten and to say they were tight is an understatement. He just celebrated his 8th birthday and the main focus of the day was, again, on LEGOs. He has amassed a LEGO collection worth several thousands of dollars I imagine and could probably build us a new house out of them if he put his mind to it. So we'll always have that to fall back on.

Two weeks ago we were mourned the loss of our beloved cat, Felix. His death was sudden and heartbreaking to our family and the kids were truly crushed. You might remember reading about him when our dog, Sudo, found him outside in a nest of kittens with his brothers and sisters causing him to be abandoned by his mother and then adopted by us. He will always hold a special place in our hearts as we bottle fed him and raised him from a little ball of fur with barely an eye open.

Without missing a beat, we decided to adopt two new kittens from the animal shelter to help heal our broken hearts. It's been a little over a week since we welcomed our new babies into our family and they've provided a great healing joy in our house. The kids have named them Mordecai and Rigby, but I call them Buddha and General Tso. The Man has decided to call them Sneezy and The Free One (kittens were buy one get one at the animal shelter... I kid you not).

So we're all getting back into the swing of the day to day here at the Spaz house. It's go-go-go around here with an activity every day. Between school, the barn, karate, eBay, girl scouts, and chorus, the minivan is getting a work out and so are we. I'll try to get back into a regular posting schedule soon. :)

So soft and pointy... like a cashmere cactus

Remember last year we got a kitten? Or, more accurately, Sudo got a kitten that I bottle fed and wiped his little bottom and did all that crap for.

Our kitten is now a cat.

And he’s got quite the personality.

Felix is demanding. Case in point: Two minutes ago I was trying to type up a blog entry. A blog entry NOT about Felix. Evidently, Felix feels he should be spotlighted on the blog and therefore made a concerted effort to sit squarely on top of my keyboard. He typed out a series of numbers (most of them being the number 9 – a direct nod to the fact that he has 9 lives, I assume) and looked at me with that cat look that means, I assume, “What are you going to do about it, human?”

Of course, I laughed and pet him on the head before picking him up and gently placing him on the floor. Of which he had none of. He quickly jumped right back on the keyboard, obviously to type his demands out more furiously.

Felix loves water. Sort of. I mean, he doesn’t really want to get wet. But he loves water. If there is water running somewhere in the house, Felix must be there. He will come running full speed, barreling through any obstacle that may get in his way (people, doors, baskets of clean laundry), to get to where the water is. And then he will bat at the water continuously as it runs from the faucet. If this dueling of the faucet happens to get in the way of a human trying to wash something, Felix couldn’t give a flying friskie. He must battle the water and show it that he is the superior species.

Felix wants to be outside. I’m sure his feral roots are calling out to him from deep within his kitty genetics. When the front door is open, he can span the length of the house in mere seconds to squeeze himself through whatever crack is left open and triumph to have found himself outside. Once his paws touch grass he freezes, however, allowing for relatively easy access in retrieving him and putting him back inside.

Felix must be at the highest point possible at all times. The top of the refrigerator, the top of the credenza on my desk, the shelf on the top of the closet, all of these are places in which Felix can be found. His dismounts are not always graceful and he has been known to knock over many things placed in these high spaces when he decides to come down to earth. So far, nothing has been broken, but it’s only a matter of time.

Felix would love for the dog to play with him. If Sudo is sleeping, unsuspecting of his doom, Felix will ferociously pounce upon his head and bite his oversized ears until Sudo has no choice but to retaliate. Poor Sudo awakes, shocked that someone has disturbed his beautiful dreams of all you can eat bone buffets and open, endless, soft grass filled dog parks and can only jump up, disoriented and snarl at his attacker. Felix then runs off and prepares his next attack, when Sudo has finally relaxed enough to get back to dreaming.

Felix is impossibly soft. His fur is like an exquisite angora, cashmere sweater or one of those llama rugs people bring back from South America. We all want to bury our faces in his delicious softness but Felix will have none of it. Trying to get him to stay still long enough to snuggle with him is an impossible task. And if we restrain him for a second too long, he will show us how soft his teeth and claws are. How can something be so cozy and yet so pointy at the same time?

But, with all his evil traits, we can’t help but love him. He is a constant source of amusement in this house and he keeps us all on our toes. He’s been with us a little over a year now and the Spaz family really can’t imagine our life without him.

Birthday, Earth Day, & The Wild Kingdom

Today is The Man's birthday and I got to see him for a whole 15 minutes before he trotted off to work this afternoon. He's turning the big three five this year and he's looking quite dapper for his old age, if I do say so myself.

Today is also the eve of Earth Day. Last year I went all gung ho on the Earth Day front and I figured it might be about time to reflect on the big changes I made to The Spaz household a year ago in honor of our planet.

Recycling bins. Yes, we got them. I even placed them in my kitchen when they arrived and lectured the kids on how to separate the plastics from the papers and which bin to place them in. Oh how much fun we had separating and filling up our bins which were to be collected once a week on Wednesday mornings.

After three Wednesday mornings had gone by and no one had taken out the bins, they were a little full. And stinky. And then one Friday night while everyone else was sleeping I threw everything in a garbage bag and put it out on the curb for Saturday morning's regular pickup. And that is how our recycling bins became acquainted with the back of our garage, never to see the light of day again.

Maybe I'll dig them out this year and try again.

Eco Friendly Lunchboxes. I'm actually doing great with this because now Goober is in kindergarten and therefore eats school lunch. So I haven't had to pack a sandwich in a ziploc bag or buy a box of Capri Suns all year! Score one for The Spaz!

I did, actually, have to pack Bug a lunch today for a field trip and did utilize a sandwich container and reusable plastic container for applesauce. That was more of an avoidance of the grocery store, though, than a real attempt to save the earth. I was out of ziplocs and only had a giant jar of applesauce. I did, however, save gas by not driving to the store.

Buying jugs of water. I can honestly, and not sarcastically, say that I've done really great with this. We still use our Brita pitcher and I haven't bought any jugs of bottled water. Seriously, I'm proud of myself here. Score another one for The Spaz!

Reusable shopping bags. Let me just tell you how much I use these bags. They're great for packing a kid up for a sleepover. You can send kids to school with all sorts of stuff in them. In fact, on the first day of school all of those supplies went to school in reusable shopping bags. They work great for bringing gifts to parties, sending stuff home with guests, the uses are endless!

If only I could remember to bring them with me to the actual grocery store I might be saving the earth.

I don't feel too terribly horrible about my Earth Day Failures, though, because I read a blog post today that let me know how much I do for the earth every day that I didn't even think of. Water conservation? Big giant check!

In other news, I have managed to keep Felix, the kitten, alive for over 7 weeks now. He's quite the feisty kitten these days so I guess I did a pretty good job. Cause The Spaz and wildlife go together like PB&J, y'all.

In fact, I saved a turtle crossing the road just this afternoon by standing in the middle of the road and motioning to cars to go around. Pick him up? No way. Those things can bite your finger off!

How can something so tiny make my heart explode?

This week has been a little different around the Spaz household. We've been waking up every few hours, heating bottles, and oohing and aahing over the newest member of our family.

His name is Felix.

See, last Sunday Bug and Munchkin were outside playing with Sudo in the yard. I was inside preparing a lovely pot roast with roasted veggies (parsnips - yum) when Munchkin ran inside in a frenzy and yelled "MOMMY!!! SUDO IS KILLING KITTENS!!!!"

I immediately pictured a horrid blood bath. I pictured tiny little kitty parts strewn across the grass and Sudo's mouth stained red with blood. I resolved in the five seconds that it took me to get outside that I would never be able to look at my beloved dog the same again.

As I ran outside I screamed like a banshee "SUDO!! DROP IT!! SUDO!!!!"

I'm sure I was heard by everyone within a five mile radius.

Sudo dropped it.

Evidently, while playing, Sudo had scared off a mother cat and found a den of kittens.

After much "oh my gosh isn't that the cutest thing you ever saw it's so adorable oh my gosh awwwwwww oh my gosh oh my gosh" we examined the little guy and found that he seemed to be just fine with no broken skin or bones or anything.

So we put him back in the nest with his brothers and sisters.



Later that evening, I went back out with a saucer of milk and set it out. Momma cat ran off again and then looked at me as I sat the milk down. (I've since learned that giving a cat milk is a no-no, I didn't know!) I was relieved that she had come back and went inside to leave her alone.

In the morning, before bringing the kids to school, I sent them out with a can of chicken and a bowl of water for her. They assured me that she ran out of the den again so I was thrilled, assuming she'd be happy to have food and stay put with her kittens.

That afternoon, though, Bug and I went out to check on her and found poor little Felix all alone in his den, crying and cold. Momma cat had abandoned him and moved all the other kittens to an unknown location.

So we brought him inside and googled how to take care of the little monster.



Since we took him in, Felix has gone from 5.8 ounces to 7.0 ounces and he's started purring and sort of kind of playing by batting his little tiny baby kitty paws at my hand when I rub his belly.

Or maybe he just doesn't like that.

I'm not sure if we'll be keeping him or not since I'm terribly allergic. I'm hoping someone in my family will be able to take him in (hint, hint guys!) so I'll be able to visit him. I'm sort of attached.

And how could I not be?