When I last spoke with you we were in the midst of March Madness and the Brown eyed Man was beating me (not literally). It turns out that he and another guy tied for the win and we won $45 for our (my) efforts. Next year I'm going to just pick the teams randomly. I did all kinds of research on mine and it did me no good.
Have I mentioned Sweaty Kitty? This is a long story that ends with us now owning a cat. Here we go... The mother of The Boy and The Girl now lives in Wilsonville, OR. In a big house. With bars. Maybe I should say she lives in THE Big House. Okay, okay - she's in prison for embezzling a boat load of money from her employer. This was by far the most dramatic thing to ever happen in any of our lives. Brown eyed Man and I grew up in separate versions of White-Picket Fence Land where your Dad goes to work and your Mom stays home and dinner is ready every night at 5 and nothing really bad ever happens so having an ex-wife who stole the previously mentioned boatload of money was a huge shock to our Leave it to Beaver lifestyle.
It turns out that her current husband was unaware of the boatload of money that was being used to fund his lifestyle. He didn't work, she liked having a house-husband. He enjoyed it as well. The Boy and the Girl were also blissfully unaware that their mother was committing a felony for approximately 10 years. That all came crashing down in October of 2009. In May of 2010, mother of Boy and Girl was sent to prison for 9.5 years. She might be able to get out in 7.5. I could go into the myriad excuses she has for committing this crime and the really weird lies that came out while this was unfolding and maybe I will in the future but let me just tell you that if you're considering committing a felony, and you have kids, you really should re-think you plans. I can tell you from firsthand experience that they will not appreciate your actions no matter how many pairs of $200 jeans you buy them. It's funny, but they would actually prefer to have their mother in their lives than have "stuff". Weird, I know.
Anyway, I will probably rant about this situation for years to come. There are many days that I would like to drive to The Big House and tell her exactly how I feel, but I will take the high road and just blog about it. Ha! I have benefitted greatly from her stupid life decisions as my relationship with my wonderful children (I see no need to call keep calling them "step", they're the only kids I'll ever have) has grown and we've become so much closer as we have worked to help them understand and make peace with this whole stupid mess. Their mother didn't appreciate what a wonderful life she had with these kids and while I would do anything for them to not have a mother in prison, I am so grateful for what I have with them in my life.
So back to Sweaty. When the Girl was little and didn't spell very well, she would write things about Sweaty Kitty. Sweaty's real name is Sweety Kitty, but The Girl didn't know how to spell that and I have never been able to forget it so she goes by Sweaty around our house. Turns out that now ex-husband of the mother (he divorced her after she went to prison, can you blame him?) had to move out of their house because he couldn't afford the payments and there was this tiny little $743,000 lien on the place from her former employer. He moved to a place where he couldn't keep the two cats and dog so at the last minute (he's not a planner), we needed to find homes for these two cats that had belonged to The Boy and The Girl. Don't ask me about the dog. I don't know and it breaks my heart to think about having to give your dog away to someone. Salem, The Boy's cat went to live with my In-Laws. They already had 4-5 cats and I was surprised and pleased that they took him. I was also disappointed that they didn't take Sweaty. I really didn't want a cat.
The Girl, who shows no emotion to anyone about anything cried her eyes out over Sweaty not having a home. This made me cry my eyes out and this made the Brown-eyed Man cave in and let her move in with us. He didn't even want to have a dog and in less than a month we had both a dog and a cat. He deserves a medal. Here is a great picture of Sweaty. I took it with my phone camera.
This is the perfect cat for us. She spends 99% of her time in The Girl's room. When she does come out all she wants to do is sit on your lap and purr. She makes an occassional early morning stop on our bed and the Brown eyed Man actually seems to enjoy her presence. Sweaty does not care for Clover. It may be due to the age difference as Sweaty is 10 years and Clover is 4 months. It may be the fact that one is a dog and the other is a cat. I choose to believe it's the age difference because I just don't know how you could NOT love Clover. Look at her!
Clover looks at Sweaty like a toy with personality. Sweaty looks at Clover like a hairy black nuisance. They're making progress though. Yesterday I got them both to nap with me on the same sofa at the same time. I think that only worked because Clover was asleep before Sweaty arrived on scene.
In this photo, Clover is thinking "Cookie? ...Flash! Stars! ...Cookie?" and Sweaty is thinking "If only I had a voodoo doll and opposable thumbs."
If I can find him and get him to hold still, I'll get a picture of our outside cat, Pierre Katmandu Carter. He's another long story, but without all the felonies.
I'll leave you with this photo of the most beautiful black dog since Princess Buckwheat Daisy. Her name is Clover Carter. I love her.
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