'S Happnin' today

Three's Company

Yes, three cats. Pretty drastic for a family who has only had pets in cages. And, yes, the mice were that bad. We came home to a house that smelled of mice. That's disgusting. Year after year living near a field we've dealt with a mouse problem. Dennis is the one who'd had it this year. I'm not even going to say what put him over the edge, but he said we HAD to get a cat.

We chose a cat over a dog since it is easier to leave a cat for a few days, we don't have to walk it and they pretty much take care of themselves.

We chose three, well, they were a package deal. We went to the animal shelter and these three were older cats who had always lived together, so they know their pecking order and routines. And they will take care of each other.

They are three friendly females.The oldest one is seven and the other two who were litter mates are four. Thanks to Linnea's creative genius we've named them Signe, Hilda and Inga. Some Swedish aunts' names. :) We got together on the phone and with photos last night to figure it out. We couldn't go too long with no names! They are three strong women's names!

Andrew says this will take the pressure off to get grandchildren! We'll give them 5-10 years now.....

Scotland photos

I think I've uploaded all the photos that I'm going to on to my Flickr. I've made a "Scotland 2009" set there so you can see them in order from beginning to end. Any of you Scotland folk find some missing, let me know. There were so many and it takes so long to weed through all of them that I just chose a few, actually I think there are 96 in that folder.

Anne Frank Remembered

While driving to Minnesota and around Iowa and back this long weekend, I listened to this book. It is co-written by Miep Gies and Alison Gold. Miep Gies is the woman who cared for the Frank family while they were in hiding in Amsterdam during 1942-1944. The book is like hearing the story from the other side of the wall of "the attic". It is written in first person told by Miep herself beginning with her own refugee experience in leaving Vienna after WWI as a starving child and being sent to a family in Amsterdam to be cared for. She tells about the difficulties encountered before the war and how things got worse and worse as the war wore on. We Americans have no clue about what the war was like for Europeans. Even Britain fared much better than those on the Continent.
The story was a reminder of God's gracious providence to this woman and all eight people she cared for. Although she referred to every close call as "luck", one could see the hand of God protecting and providing for them.
It was a great way to spend a lovely weekend in the car!

Photo credit:http://images.theage.com.au/2009/02/14/382666/annefrank_feat_420x300-420x0.jpg

The art of Thomas Joseph

I know, I have a ba-gillion things to write about, but I have to post a link (the link won't work, so go to www.tomjoe.com/index/) to this really great Irish artist. It's so funny, and so creative. My friend gave me a couple of mugs and a tea towel of his art, and I bought one for my mom. I hope you go to the site and laugh at all the funny images of sheep and the artist's creative use of "ewe"! Enjoy!

The only picture I could find that I could post is from amazon.co.uk. But go to the gallery at the link. The cards are really funny!

Oh, so tired, but here are some more photos!

Is this Heaven? No, It's Scotland!