THE KING HAS RETURNED!!

That’s right, folks! This morning, at 6am, Will came running into the bedroom practically screaming my name. If you know me, you know that I am NOT a morning person. So, I knew it must be something really important for Will to have the courage to wake me so early (yes, I said so early!). “Petey’s at the door! Petey’s at the door! Petey’s at the door!” he said to me. I don’t think it fully registered until that third time. “What? Petey’s at the door?? Well, bring him in. Why are you yelling at me?” I thought.

Well, then it occurred to me through my morning haze that Petey really was at the door and I needed to get my butt up to bring him in. Will was afraid that if he tried to get him, Petey would run away again. But, Petey always seems to come to me, so he wanted me to bring him in.

I ran down the hallway in my underwear (no time to put on pajama bottoms), and there Petey was – peaking in the screen door, crying to me. I slowly opened the screen door. He was a bit skittish after his long 2 week adventure, and VERY hungry (I think he’s probably lost about 5 pounds), but none the worse for sure – no cuts, bumps or bruises, it seems.

Of course, Buddy and Freddy are not very happy about the whole thing. They were already vying for the position of King of the Household. But, alas, Petey will always be the King!

By the way, how can the same camera that took the amazing photo below, take such crappy pictures at home? What is with that? Ugh…

You just can’t set stuff like this up…

Does this image just scream Hawaii, or what? After sleeping until 1pm today, I decided to head down to the beach to… well… relax some more. I was struck by a couple of things today:

1. I heard so much laughter around me today. Why don’t I hear that much laughter around me at home? Do I just not notice it because I’m so caught up in my own little world? Why can’t we laugh like that all the time?

2. I was on the beach as the sun set this evening. It was the strangest thing. The laughter, the talking, all of the movement around me just stopped. I don’t mean like some kind of weird movie sequence. It was as if every person on Waikiki beach stopped to admire God’s beauty all at the same time. You know, the Bible says that every knee will bow in worship to Him. I think I witnessed that today… and it was beautiful.

And the image above… well, I just stumbled upon that. Why is it that every trip that I decide to not take my professional camera I seem to stumble upon these gorgeous images? Of course, even if I had my big camera with me, it would have been in the hotel room because there is no way I would have left it on the beach while I swam today.

Anyway, back to the image. After the sun set and the world began to move again, I decided that it was time for me to head back to the hotel. I had walked some distance from the hotel to find my “perfect” spot, so I had a bit of a walk back. And there, on the beach, were these hula dancers performing on a stage between the palm trees.

Oh, and for the record, this is an untouched photo that I took with my little Cannon point and shoot. Unbelievable, huh?

Aloha!

Good Tuesday morning to everyone! I’m excited to say that I made it safely to Hawaii last night! The flight was long and uncomfortable as the person sitting next to me decided it would be alright to spread out as much as possible. He promptly fell asleep, which left me stuck in my seat for the entire five and a half hour flight. Totally worth it!

My husband greeted me at the airport in our fire engine red Chevy HHR. Our baggage made it safely down the carousel and we were off to the hotel. I had hoped to take a nice moonlit walk on the beach, but it was not to be. We both were so exhausted that we just headed to the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat and conked out.

I’m even more excited to report that my youngest son, who is staying with my parents for the week, is being well behaved. Grandpa taught him how to drive the “Gator,” a small farm jeep type thing. They have big plans for lots of outside adventures this week. Should be a great week all the way around.

Things are looking up… (now if Petey would just come home, all would be right in the universe)

Just not my week…

We stayed up most of the night packing for Hawaii (and periodically looking for Petey). With all of the excitement of the pending trip, I will admit it was difficult to fall asleep. I slept for about 4 hours before Will popped out of bed at 4am.

We decided that we should just get up and go to the airport. Well, it’s a good thing that we did. It took us two hours and forty-five minutes to get to the airport! Traffic was terrible and getting our car parked was not so easy either, but we squeaked into the airport 40 minutes before our flight.

Any of you who have flown out of LAX recently may already know that this is a problem. I had no idea, but if you have bags to check, they have to be checked in no later than 45 minutes before your flight. 40 minutes is too late! Yeah, you read that right… no exceptions here.

So, after fighting with the airline attendant and my husband, I decided to send Will on to Hawaii without me. He has to be there for work. I am just going for play. Obviously, it was much more important for him to get there on time than for me to be there at all. We got his boarding pass printed. He ran to the gate and was able to take off on our original flight.

Me… well, I’m still sitting in the airport in LA! I was able to rebook my flight for 6pm this evening and check both of our bags… to the tune of $100! Ugh! I have been sitting here for 7 hours already and have another 3 or so to go.

But I’m still going…

Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who has left a kind word, said a prayer or sent a kind thought my way. Petey is still missing. My heart is so heavy with sadness right now. I’m trying to pack and be excited about my Hawaii trip, but it is so difficult with this weighing so heavy on my heart.

The good news is that my oldest son will be here during the day all week to care for the zoo (all of the other animals that we have). I spoke with him tonight (he’s staying with his father for the week) and he told me that he will be leaving the front door open all week in hopes that Petey will return. The bad news is that Will and I have to leave for Hawaii in the morning not knowing if our beloved kitty will come home.

We have all run the gamut of emotions – hope, anger, sadness – and spent our fair share of time crying over his disappearance. The little one came to me last night crying his little eyes out, blaming himself for Petey’s disappearance. The husband woke up every hour last night, got up and scoured the neighborhood looking for him. I wandered the neighborhood with a bag of food and little hope this morning.

Come home, Petey! We miss you so much!

Petey’s Missing!

As things have been insane around here… too much work… too much laundry… too many trips… it seems that I have not been as attentive to things as I should be. One of my children accidentally left the back door open the other night and all of the cats got out.

Big Buddy was just happy as can be to be outside of the confines of the house. We found him enjoying the morning air on the cement in the backyard. Freddy the ‘fraidy cat lived up to his name. When Will found him, he tried to catch him. Freddy, of course, bolted over the fence as fast as he could. When I woke up, I went out in back and called his name. We played a little game of Marco Polo, as I called his name and he answered me, for about 5 minutes before I was able to locate him and get him to come to me.

Petey, however, is nowhere to be found. We have scoured the neighborhood numerous times and tried everything we know to get him to come to us, to no avail. He has been missing for 2 days now. With each passing hour I grow a little more distraught.

To make things worse, Will and I are leaving for Hawaii on Monday morning. Will was asked to visit a client for work and I’m tagging along. I have been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks now (since I found out), but I’m afraid that I will not be able to fully enjoy myself if my Petey does not come home.

I HATE the Puppy Phase!

I adore my pups, but I have to say that I REALLY hate the puppy phase. You know, the phase where they chew on everything and aren’t quite house trained. I’m so tired of the mystery puddles on the tile floor – could be that my son spilled something again, could be dog pee. Fun!

But I have to say that the chewing and ripping things up phase has got to stop soon. After working all afternoon yesterday on my beautiful little wing mini book, I woke up this morning to find it ripped to shreds by these two maniacs! Yeah, I spent some time crying over that one.

Could you just die? Of course, I had made this to be a sample for the store. AND of course, I got the papers for the book in Oakland. Not one store in the area has the paper in stock, so I had to order it online so that I can make a new book. Thank goodness we had another wing book in the store or the dogs would have been in really big trouble.

I’m Still Here!

Hey there! It’s been a while, huh? Sorry to have disappeared like that. Things have been almost unmanageably crazy here. I have lots to update you on, so grab that cup of coffee and settle in.

Things at the store have been just insane. So much new product is coming in that I can barely keep up with the UPS driver! The good news about that, though, is that as soon as I get it checked in and out on the floor, it seems that it’s being sold! It’s so great to see the store doing so well after all of the hard work that Mel and I have put into it.

I did take a week off, however, to spend with my adorable friend, zanne. Zanne flew in to Oakland on Saturday. I met her there and we spent the last week driving down the coast. I can’t remember when I’ve had so much fun seeing the sights in California! We spent a couple of days in San Francisco, then it was down the coast to Monterrey, Hearst Castle, Santa Barbara, Solvang, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Orange County. We took TONS of photos, ate amazing food at Sears Food in San Francisco and Paula’s Pancakes in Solvang, bought WAY TOO MUCH stuff and had an incredible week.

Waiting in line at Sears Food

Riding a Cable Car

Exploring China Town

Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle

Ronald Reagan Library

BACK TO CRAFTING!
Because I took the week off, I was able to spend a little time crafting this weekend. Oh my goodness was that fun! It was just so nice to get my hands dirty again. What better way to start my crafty weekend than with an AMAZING kit from Jennifer Stewart. I ordered a Halloween Haunted House kit from her Etsy store and it arrived on Saturday! What perfect timing. I have to say, this is one amazing kit. I think I might have to take it to work with me just so that I can enjoy it every day!

Not only did she include incredible hand drawn templates for each piece of the roof, but she also included the cutest little battery operated tea light that actually flickers like a candle! Oh, and she also included a bottle of black craft paint! Hello? Who does that? AND, because she shipped it late (according to her… since I would never have known), she included what she called “a little bag of goodies.” This was no “little” bag. It was filled with yummy ribbons and fabric and embellishments! Holy cow! If you have never ordered a kit from Jennifer, let me tell you… it’s worth every single penny! I LOVE my house!

Lastly, I was able to finish a mini book today. I got this adorable wing book from Kaisercraft. Seriously, this thing was calling my name from the catalog! When I brought it home, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I just knew that I had to have it. Well, I decided that I wanted to make a small baby album of my first born (who is now 16) using the Cosmo Cricket Hello Sunshine line. I just ADORE the bright, cheery colors of this paper. Plus, most of the photos that I have of my son at that age are of him wearing bright, primary colors. So, here are the results:

Here’s hoping that I will be able to keep more regular posts again…