Well, surprise, surprise, surprise-UPDATED

So, you know my parents are moving closer to us and have found a place to live. But you may not know that when they came out earlier this month, they brought about 80% of their earthly goods, which now sit in storage. They spent 2 months packing and cleaning and painting their whole house. Then, in one weekend loaded up most of it and drove west. They locked the truck on a Sunday night and pulled in my driveway around 2:30 Tuesday afternoon. Needless to say (but I am going to say it anyway), they have worked really hard for a long time!

After being in town 2 hours, they had a verbal contract on the buildings. We were on an unbelievable high! They had planned on spending the next two weeks driving all over our great state to find their dream house. God is good, all the time! So, after returning to my house, we decided to go out to eat and start dreaming about how their house would be laid out. We were standing in our driveway (which was filled by a 24 foot U-Haul) talking to my neighbor. As we were talking, we heard meowing. Dad looked under the U-Haul to talk back to the stray cats that live at our house. He didn't see anything and went back to the conversation. The meowing continued and I was surprised because the cats who reside at our house (no, I'm still not really taking ownership) don't talk very much. I bend down and look and see nothing. Dad looks again..still nothing. As he stands back up, his head gets closer to the U-Haul and the meowing gets louder. Dad turns to Mom with a horrified look on his face, then bursts out laughing, literally slapping the side of his head! He tells me to get a bowl of water and some cat food and he opens up the back of the truck. Inside is a cat that Mom and Dad had seen in their neighborhood when they were loading the truck. On Sunday. This was Tuesday!!!

This poor little cat drank an entire bowl of water and ate a bowl of food faster than I've ever seen. And when they opened the back door, his poor little eyes were so bothered by the bright light, he would hardly open them.

He had no problem with us holding him, never tried to run away and purred with just a little affection. Dad went and bought some kitty litter and it turns out the things was house broken!! I kept laughing at how bizarre the whole thing was until I got a very clean mental image of some little girl looking all over the neighborhood for "Mittens". Then it was just sad....well, still a little funny.

Mittens (Mom named him after her childhood cat who look similar) lived in our garage for a few days (with one play day with a potential owner, who named him Tux.). He never made a mess, but he sure did meow a lot. I'm not sure how my parents didn't hear him when they turned the truck off.

Friday morning, we took him to the local Animal Shelter. They said they would check him for a microchip. If he didn't have one, they would contact the "jurisdiction from which the cat traveled" and see if anyone reported a lost kitty. Mom and Dad's neighbors are looking for signs posted in the neighborhood. If no one reports him, Mittens Buckeye will be placed for adoption here. (The Animal Shelter renamed him as a tribute to his home state.)

Here is Mittens Tux Buckeye.

This isn't a great picture, but he was one sweet kitten!!! I am confident he will find a great home!

I got a text over the weekend telling me Mittens has a home! My sweet friends parents decided they needed to adopt the lost little kitten. He She will have a pretty sweet life after all her travels, with lots of love and room to play. Let's hope she learned something from this grand adventure and will stay out of big moving vans.

I need to find out what her new name is. :)

I'm curious

What are your thoughts on this article?

ORLANDO, Florida — Some public school parents in Edgewater, Florida, want a first-grade girl with life-threatening peanut allergies removed from the classroom and home-schooled, rather than deal with special rules to protect her health, a school official said.

"That was one of the suggestions that kept coming forward from parents, to have her home schooled. But we're required by federal law to provide accommodations. That's just not even an option for us," said Nancy Wait, spokeswoman for the Volusia County School District.

Wait said the 6-year-old's peanut allergy is so severe it is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

To protect the girl, students in her class at Edgewater Elementary School are required to wash their hands before entering the classroom in the morning and after lunch, and rinse out their mouths, Wait said, and a peanut-sniffing dog checked out the school during last week's spring break.

Wait said school leaders will meet this week with parents to address concerns and try to halt inaccurate rumors that children's mouths were being wiped with disinfectant.

Chris Burr, a father of two older students at the school whose wife has protested at the campus, said a lot of small accommodations have added up to frustration for many parents.

"If I had a daughter who had a problem, I would not ask everyone else to change their lives to fit my life," said Burr.

Attempts to reach the girl's parents for comment on Monday were unsuccessful.

It makes me angry and sad.

Great News!

I'm just not even going to address how negligent I have been on this blog.

I have wonderful, happy news!! After years of dreaming and praying, my parents are officially moving here!!

After the election in November, we have been make serious, concrete plans for them to come back this way. They thought they found the perfect place in a small town north of here, but that wasn't meant to be. So, since January I have spent my free time looking for another option for them. This isn't as easy as one might think.

My parents have a very clear picture of what they want (and I don't blame them). This is, Lord willing, their last house and they absolutely deserve what they want. What they want is not a 3b/2b on a cookie cutter street. They want a warehouse that will be a clean slate for them to dream and create their own unique home. I have visited nearly a dozen small towns in our area. Some had buildings for sale, some did not. Some had real potential, most did not. Dad would get of Google Maps and see if something caught his eye and I'd go check it out in person. I did enjoy these day trips while the girls were in school, and sometimes I even had a friend or two go along.

Several weeks ago, I found a couple that had real potential. They were not for sale, but were not being used for much more than storage. I gave Dad the addresses and the owners contact information (thank you World Wide Web). I continued my search and Dad kept the number handy, but didn't act on it. As time got closer for their visit here, Dad decided he should just call and see what would happen. He wasn't able to reach the owner by phone, so he sent an email stating his interest in their property and asked for a return call. A return call came the next day. The couple who owned the building said they has just decided in the last week or so that they were ready to sell the building. Had my dad called when we first found them, they might have been ready to sell. God's timing is amazing. Dad and the couple arranged to meet when my parents got in town.

My folks pulled in at 2:30pm on Tuesday. At 4:00pm, we were walking through the property. At 4:30pm, we were shaking hands on the sidewalk with a sale price that made everyone happy. It is so evident that God was working in all this, not just the timing, but all of it. The couple are Christians and we have many mutual friends. Once we made that connection, everything just felt right.

So, in just a few weeks, they will be living within 30 minutes of us. I just can't tell you how happy that makes me.

Here is a shot of the 2 buildings they purchased. (Did I mention they bought two right beside each other?) They may look rough now, but I absolutely can not wait to see what Mom and Dad do to them. It is going to be a grand adventure!!