Pruning and Growth-Ouch.

Dear Readers:
Have you ever had everything pruned from your life all at the same time and totally out of the blue, causing you to wonder, “What the heck just happened?!”.
(If so, I would love to hear about it. I think it’s encouraging sometimes to know that you are not alone in the stage of life you are in.)
However, one thing that I have learned-just like in the world of gardening-pruning creates growth.
And, I want to grow.
But sometimes, I don’t enjoy the growing pains. There’s a reason they’re called “pains“.

The first major change in my life this year was losing this guy-Cowboy.

It may be just a cat to the rest of the world, but he was my buddy for eight years. Cowboy rode on my shoulder as I: did the dishes, folded laundry or talked on the phone. He looked for me and would make ewok sounds if he couldn’t find me. He slept on top of me most nights and lept into my lap as soon as I allowed. He passed away too early.
I really didn’t think I could miss an animal this much, but I do.

 

This is not our old church-it’s some Catholic church somewhere..
After attending our church for the last ten years, Biceps and I knew it was time to leave. That meant, the end to him drumming every Sunday morning, the end to us teaching the youth, the end to mowing the lawn and caring for the church’s general overall cuteness factor.
And it also meant the end to our relationships with our pastors and many of our friends.
It was weird to quietly fade into the night. We are presently living in the “Bible belt” so finding another church isn’t a problem. We just want to be at the right one. There are a lot of weird ones out there.

 

Biceps has pretty much quit doing this (kicking butt on stage) for over fifteen years. I have been to thousands of his shows, toured for years with him and his bands, sold merch, drove the bus, did the accounting, wrote the thank-you notes and ate the crappy food.
This life as the band wife has been wonderful and exhausting.

 

But presently, he has started doing this.
No, not serving chili…being a fireman and serving chili at the Firemen’s Chili Feed.
I know, he looks good doing both things, really.

 

And then lastly-my lovely Iweb site crashed earlier this year-leaving me stranded for months without the ability to blog. I lost contact with almost all my blogging buddies, missed out on fantastic link parties and had to rebuild my readership/friends/followers. (Won’t you be my friend, please?)
The Iweb pruning caused some major growth within me.
And while I watched my friend’s blogs grow and grow, I was forced to sit back and save my pennies, waiting to hire someone to rebuild my site in a better platform. This new site is much better, but I am still dealing with the repercussions of being out of the blogging community for almost 8 months.
Unexpectedly, the world didn’t end without my blog up and running.

With each passing year, I gain the growth from pruning-along with a few gray hairs. But isn’t that why gray hairs are referred to as wisdom?
But each trial, each pruning session, has brought me closer to the fact that I know nothing, and reconfirmed that everything I own could blow up and I’d still be ok.
So, with the pruning there are the “pains“.
But, I suppose what I’m saying is that I can survive the pains.

Weird Reasons to be Thankful

Thanksgiving is creeping in. Let’s be thankful.

I am thankful that I didn’t die when my house exploded. (Full Story Here.)

 
I am thankful for the amazing banana bread that I love to make-and eat. (Recipe here.)

 

I am thankful that even when things in life appear to be prickly, beauty can be found at the end.

 

I am thankful that I had this weird cat for eight years of my life. R.I.P. Cowboy.

 

And, I am thankful that Biceps convinced me to sell one of our houses by tempting me with a trip to Europe.

What are your weird reasons to be thankful?

Meet the New Kitties

We loved our eight years with Cowboy. He was the weirdest and awesomest (yep, that’s a word) cat ever.

He was my little buddy and followed me around the house doing strange things. He would sit on my lap for hours while I would write my articles or blog. And, he slept on top of me each night.

He would sneeze quite often, make a sound like an Ewok when he wanted something, and fought until the very end for his furry little life. We didn’t realize what a gaping hole was left when he passed away. After several days of crying and being pretty mopey, Biceps said a strange thing.
“What about getting a new kitty? And maybe not just one, but two?”
I had a feeling he was lonely without the furry dude, too.
But, I was pretty resistant at first. I mean, how could a new cat-or even two new cats-take the place of Cowboy? But, Biceps reminded me that we aren’t replacing Cowboy, no cat could ever do that. We are giving two new kitties a new home–a much needed home. And they in turn will bring us happiness and entertainment.

And so, after days of scouring rescue centers, talking with several “foster parents” and driving around, we found our forever kitties.
This is Maxwell.
Originally he was named “Flame” due to his orange markings on his nose, ears and tail. But that name we decided was weird. For several days, we confused the he k out of the little guy. I called him “Scout” and Biceps called him “Piglet”. Neither of us could agree, until the name “Maxwell” surfaced. It stuck and the name fit his personality all too well.

He does everything to the max. Whether he is eating, sleeping, being extremely cute or playing, he does it full force. There is no half-hearted efforts here from ol Maxwell.
And, he is all that is boy-stinky, haphazard and always attacking something.

And this is Bianca-the complete opposite of Maxwell. She smells like roses. Literally. We have a feeling she is stuffed with potpourri.

Bianca has taken it upon herself to clean Maxwell. It may seem sweet and motherly, but deep down, I think it’s mainly because she can’t stand the smell.

They became best buds right off the bat, doing everything together. They’ll even eat at the same time and switch to their water bowl at the same time. It’s bizarre. But pretty par for the course in our house. Nothing around here is ever normal….

Welcome home, you two crazy cats. We are so thankful that you are here. Even if you have jumped into the toilet on several occasions, knock things off the fireplace mantle and race through the house at 500 m.p.h..
They have definitely brought life back into the house. Lots of life….