Drama Central at the Greene House

A week ago today, Anna and I left the house for work/school as usual. As we left the house, Anna stopped to pet the pregnant, stray cat that she had been asked not to feed but fed anyway and that she named Star Bright the instant she first laid eyes upon her. Later that evening, after piano lessons and after picking up Brennan and Ella, we got home to find Star Bright NOT pregnant anymore. Do I need to explain to you how excited the kids were? There was plenty of squeals and screams as they ran all over the yard and garage looking for where she had the kittens. They were so hysterical that even I helped in the search. We searched high and low and in every place we could imagine she might have had them. And I thought it was going to be so simple just setting up a nice box with towels in it for her in our garage. Apparently, Star Bright didn't like that location. Once we had searched just about everywhere, I began to get nervous but didn't let on to the kids. Anna had already started asking if she could make signs and put them around the neighborhood or could she go ask a neighborhood friend to help them search. Ella, aka, Drama Queen, was too busy clutching her chest and bawling. "Momma, I can't breeve very well and my heart is beeping. I don't want the kittens to die!" And anyone who knows Brennan, he follows behind sisters doing whatever they are doing. I sat Ella on my lap and told her to breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, all the while keeping my giggles to myself. The only thing I could think of to do was explain to the kids that they needed to just go about their evening in a normal routine, but follow Star Bright around. I told them that momma cats don't leave their babies for very long before they have to feed them. Brennan kept coming to me saying, "Mom, Star Bright had her kittens. Her tushy is bleedin' and that's where she had them." Okay, not exactly what I thought would come out of his four year old mouth, but wow, what an education he's getting with just having this stray cat have kittens near us. They did this for a few minutes, but quickly became bored. So off they ran with the neighborhood friend to look around the yard some more. As they were doing this, I took the few minutes of quiet time to make some hair bows. Nice quiet house....mew...mew.... At first I thought it was just my imagination, but then I heard it a couple more times so I followed the mewing. It was coming from our sunroom where all the kids' toys are. Around the corner of the doorway, Star Bright rapidly ran through the doggie door and I followed her. Right in the middle of the kids' toy box were four little kittens, each with different coloring. Star Bright jumped in and started to feed them. I hollered for the kids and they ran as fast as their little legs could carry them. More squeal and screams than before even. The kids all crowd around the toy box and are all oohing over the newborns. Ella, remember Miss Drama Queen, started bawling again. This time she was saying, "Oh Star Bright...your kittens are soooooooo cute. I wish that you had a daddy..." I grabbed Ella and hugged her and asked her why she was crying now that we found the kittens. Her response was, "I'm sooooooo happy. Mom, you know you cried when you had me!" Hilarious. The rest of the evening was spent cleaning, watching, naming, oohing, preparing, renaming and figuring out what to do with Star Bright since our house was not set up for an indoor cat. Some time after 10:00 p.m. I was able to drag the kids off to their beds, and after a half hour or so of them each running down to "check on the kittens" a time or two, or ten, the sandman finally got them. Below you will find a picture of Star Bright with her babies and the drama queen herself after we found the kittens. You can only see three kittens, but one is hidden among the others. I'll post more pictures in the future. Currently the names are Peace (multicolored), Spider (black), Joel (gray) and Zipper (orange and white). Oh, and Anna has decided that she already knows the gender of all the kittens, even though I've googled it and tried to figure out myself and haven't had any luck. She says that Peace is a girl and all the others are boys.

Happy Birthday Tony!

The kids love birthday parties...tell me a child that doesn't. I love it because I get lots of great help through the day with the threat of NOT going to the party being the motivation. Also, I do enjoy visiting with my friends. They rented the same water slide that we had a couple of years ago for one of Anna's parties. It is a huge, double slide and the kids had a blast on it.

Happy Birthday Tony!

Sad News Updated

Swine Flu has come to our house.

My in laws were telling their Bible study class about poor Brennan and Ella...they suggested some "oinkment". Too funny!

What Do They Say About Paybacks?

Walking to school one day when I was about 8 or 9, just about Anna's age, I heard my mother's voice screaming down the street and around the corner, "JENNIFER KAYE!! GET BACK HERE AND BRUSH YOUR TEETH!!" Running back home, I remember thinking, "How does she know I didn't brush my teeth?" (And now I'm thinking why didn't I just brush them!!) This was the question I asked as soon as I reached home and her response was, "I felt your toothbrush and it's not even wet!"

Fast forward give or take about 10 years. My brother, Aaron, went on a camping trip. My mom packed helped him get his bag and neatly rolled his toothbrush into a pair of clean underwear. He had a great week of camping. Once he was home, my mom helped him unpack. What did she find? His toothbrush still rolled neatly into his clean underwear. I don't know which is worse. That he didn't brush his teeth the whole time or that he didn't change his underwear. 

Continue pressing forward until today. I've done all a mother can do to encourage my kids to brush their teeth well and several times a day. Once in the morning. Another time before taking naps or after lunch. Lastly at bedtime. In our bathroom at any given moment you can find toothpastes displaying Hannah Montana, Princess, Spongebob, Cars, Super Star Sparkly, and many more. The number of toothbrushes that have passed through our bathrooms have been unreal too. There's been Thomas the Train who actually plays the theme song, The Cheetah Girls singing one of their phenomenal hits, brushes that light up, spin and many more. Currently the kids are on these crayon designed toothbrushes that light up when you smack them on to the counter top. So Miss Anna spent the night Saturday with her friend. I usually don't stand over the kids when they're brushing their teeth, so I think it was about Tuesday that I went in during the brushing of teeth. Anna said, "I can't find my toothbrush?" I asked her where she put it last time she used it and she didn't know. I asked her if it could possibly be in her overnight bag from her friend's house and she ran to check. Sure enough, there was her toothbrush. Before you get too shocked thinking she didn't brush at since Saturday night, my children don't have any qualms about using any toothbrush that they find in grabbing distance. Her teeth had been brushed at least a few times, just not with her own toothbrush.

For The Love of Mothers Contest

Surfing the blog world one day I ran across this blog called Bags That Scream Me. This woman designs and makes these bags and gives them away, along with many other things she does. She appears to be quite an extraordinary woman...take a look at her blog some time. There was a contest for Mother's Day. You were supposed to comment on her post leaving your entry. The topic was to write about someone you think is a great mother. Although I was not feeling terribly confident, not in sense I don't know any good mothers because I do, but due to my writing skills and my inability to express my feelings easily. I went ahead and entered anyway...and who did I write about...my mom of course.

Sunday evening, while I was checking on my blog, I read a comment on my last post. It was from the talented maker of the bags letting me know that I had won. Quickly, I checked out her blog and this what I saw...http://bagsthatscreamme.blogspot.com/2009/04/because-she-loves-her-mother.html

How great is that? Not only does my mom get a bag made personally for her because she's a great mom, but I get one too! For those of you who know me, you know I'm jumping up and down on the inside.

Then today it gets even better...http://bagsthatscreamme.blogspot.com/

My purse is ready and I can't wait to see my mom's.

Although I tried to keep it quiet, I ended up letting the cat out of the bag. I told Mom that we had won something and then told her not to go snooping around on my blog. Well, we know all about good mothers, don't we? Sometimes, they just can't help themselves!

Beach Girls & Boy

The Greenes needed to get out of the house and enjoy the beach.

Anna was amazed by the rats she saw on the jetties and Ella enjoyed posing for my pictures. I had a difficult time getting a picture of Anna without her net and critter box. All three of them loved getting in the water. I kept having to call Ella back closer to the shore.

Brennan got this "Awesome!" Buzz Lightyear Flex Wing Flyer and he tried it out.

Greene Visit April 09

Faithie & Charlie, my in laws, can down for a visit last week. The kids and I always enjoy their visit. Unfortunately, I did not get a lot of photos from the visit (maybe Faithie will send me some of her pictures!!) Lola, the little chihuahua, LOVES both of my in laws. She gets a lot of lap time while they are here. Oh! And he's sitting on my new love seat! While they were here, they helped me around the house and the yard, took the kids to the Sea Center and Chuck E. Cheese, sang some karaoke, visited and had dinner at my mom's house, had dinner with my Uncle Dan and enjoyed lots of visiting. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa for the great visit! Get ready for our crew to head that way in June!!