Spooky 1986 to 2008

Words cannot describe my feelings today. I am sad but I am also somewhat relieved. Yesterday, shortly after posting to my blog about Spooky, I realized that the end was near. By the end of the day, I told Brent that I didn't think Spooky would make it through the night. He did but he was so bad off. He was barely breathing and couldn't walk. He was cold too. Every once in a while he would just let out a half meow, more like a whimper. I finally made the decision to end his suffering. It was so hard but I knew I could not let him go even a few more hours like that. We called down to the vet and they told us we could come in and they would fit us in. I wrapped him up in a receiving blanket and he was still the ride down as I cradled him in my arms. I couldn't bare to just leave him there so we decided to be in the room while they administered the drug. They warned us of what we may witness, none is which would be a pleasant sight. None of that happened. He didn't even flinch when the shaved his leg to find a vein, nor did he flinch when they put the needle in. He was already so far gone. The vet assured us that it definately was time for him to go. He said that Spooky outlived the average cat by about 6 years. Since I have no absolute record of when Jenny found him, I can only go by pictures. The earliest one Jenny has, she is about 4 years old and she has him tucked into a doll high chair. I believe she found him in about 1986 or 87 but he was already about 6-9 months old then. That would make him about 22 or about 110 in cat years the vet said.

Good bye my Spooky. I will remember you forever. Have fun in heaven with JoJo and Addy.

Spooky

My poor Spooky. He hasn't eaten for about 3 days now. This morning, all morning, he's been hanging over the dog's water bowl; not drinking, just hanging over it. I took it away to wash it and put fresh water in it and he moaned at me. When I put it back he just hung over it again, still not drinking.

He did look up at me when the flash went off so I could get another picture of his face. Spooky is about 22+ years old now. He has arthritis,and can barely walk. He hasn't been able to hear anything for about 3-4 years now but he can still see.

Jenny found him when she was about 3 years old. He wasn't a young kitten then. Probably about 9 months old judging from his size and he was all dirty. When she came home with him, I was in the living room and she peeked around the corner wall and said, "Mommy, do you think daddy will let us have another kitty cat?" I looked at her then saw this little black furry head peek around the corner too and well... Jenny still claims him as her cat but Kim says he is hers because he was really attached to Kim. Neither of them took him with when they moved out so he's MY cat!

I really don't have the heart to take him into the vet. I don't think he would survive the car ride and I know for certain they would just tell me to let him go. I can't do it. My poor Spooky.

Harvest time

Forget the manicures, Orange fingernails aren't so attractive.

We've had a pretty good turnout with out garden this year with the exception of my cucumbers and pickling cucumbers. That darned zucchini plant finally got chopped to the ground on Thursday so now the pickles and cucumbers will get some sunlight. I even noticed some starting already.

So far, I have "put up" 16 pints of peach (no chunks)jam, 22 pints of Strawberry (without the seeds and no chunks)jam, 4 quarts of the best salsa in town using my own grown jalapenos and tomotoes (by the way, this doesn't get stored because it's too yummy and goes quickly when I have to share with my kids), two quarts of pickled beets, shredded and froze 32 cups of shredded zucchini for bread (I hate zucchini otherwise). I have an abundance of green peppers and I'm not sure what to do with those; you can only put so many into the salsa. This has all been done within the last 3 weeks. Phew!

You should see my green bean plants. The bushes are huge but there's only about 4 beans on the entire thing. I was really hoping for a bunch this year. We are almost out of corn too so it looks like we're headed to Rasmussen Farms in Draper for more. Brent's great at cleaning the corn then all we do is seal it in the food saver vacuum bags and it's good for a couple of years.

So, I am the canning queen. If you have fruit or anything else you want to get rid of, I am almost an expert now and will happily show you what to do with it.

Weekly Bowling Scores 8/23/08

Whis week is hardly worth mentioning but I guess we all have to take the bad with the good.

Brent 118 / 102 / 152
Terrie 104 / 115 / 112
Jenny / 118 / 130

Weekly Bowling Scores 8/16/08

Just me and Brent this week. I would like to say that I think my game is getting better now that I have a lighter ball. I still have my bad days but today was pretty good. I should also add, the first game, I could have beaten Brent but since neither of us were paying any attention to what frame we were on, I bowled Brent a strike in the tenth frame. Had it actually been my turn,I would have beat him.

Brent 149 / 158 / 163 7 strikes for Brent for the three games plus the 1 I gave him
Terrie 138 / 123 / 125 8 strikes within my three games.

Weekly Bowling Scores 8/9/08

Brent 151 / 144 / 132
Jenny 148 / 92
Terrie 138 / 87 / 116 Oops on the 87.

Brent's score was pretty good considering the fact that he fell last Thursday pulling the lawn mower through the gate. Slipped on the incline, twisted his knee and down he went. He won't go to the doctor because "what can you do for a sprained or fractured tailbone?" but he was in a lot of pain. In fact, this picture shows how he normally bowls. He practically lays the ball on the floor. You can barely hear it land. This week, he couldn't bend over even the slightest so the ball would land with a thud and he would immediately grab his heiny like he was pulling his underwear of there..... made Jenny and I laugh.

Jeff's visit

We had a great time while Jeff was here. On Friday he went to Kims house. Zach wanted to show Jeff how good he was on Guitar Hero and the other Wii games. On Saturday, we got up early and went to have family pictures taken. Then we went bowling and to lunch at Chin Wah. Busy day but it was so nice to have the whole family together.

Here are our scores for bowling:
Terrie 157/132
Shawn 136 / 162
Kim 106 / 104
Jenny 173 / 187 WHAT????? I think she was just showing off for Jeff.
Brent 147 / 134
Jeff 90 / 125
Matt 104 / 155
Jenny wanted me to mention the fact that she had there were only two frames on her first game that she didn't either strike or spare. On her Second game she had 5 strikes. Not in a row but she did manage to do 3 and 2 in a row. Good job Jenny. I also did pretty good on my first game. Way above my average and had 4 strikes total that game. Shawn had 4 strikes in one game too.

Jeffrey

Jeff is here for a visit. He is currently living in Fair Oak (a suburb of Sacramento) California. I thought I would share a recent photo of him and his motorcycle. He's a Certified Harley Davidson Master Mechanic. I am proud of him to say the least and glad to have him home, even if it is only for a few days. Love you Jeff!