Well, my idea of writing a note on Tom's collar DID work, after all. I got a call from the other family- turns out they were moving and their last day 2 doors from us was Saturday. They were calling him Melvin. We talked a lot. They made the decision not to take Tom after they knew he had a home here, and they had not been wanting to keep him inside all day yet they would have been afraid to let him out because it's a busy street. Turns out the man was a cat-hater and allergic until he met Tom/Melvin, whom he wasn't allergic to.

Well it turns out Tom has ingratiated himself to no less than 4 neighbors. The woman across the street, the woman next to her, the people between us and the neighbors that moved- he would walk in to ALL of their homes, get fed because all of those people were charmed by him, and all kind of thought they owned him, but who was doing the owning? TOM/Melvin owned us all. And he still does. I have made an agreement with the remaining neighbors that if they want him to just walk in their homes like he owns the place, that is fine with me. They would like it and so as far as the immediate future, Tom's house is about every house here though we are his official residence still. We just happened to have a lot of cat lovers here. He doesn't settle down and has no shame in lavishing affections in order to garner some bites of food. No wonder he was gaining so much weight. He's getting fatter and more lethargic, and no wonder. The neighbor across the street thinks he is still too skinny. She is one of those people who lets their cats grow into monstrous proportions. Micah is happy; he was heartbroken when he thought Tommy was going to be gone and lately he doesn't seem to get emotional about so many things, trying to be a tough guy skater boy and all. But he just lrrrrrrrrrrves his animals.

Lily and Trixie are really cute, and Weasel is something else. Pretty little kittens, and mastering the art of peeing and pooping appropriately is at least going faster than it does to teach a human.

We have now added to our family.

About 4 days ago, Micah came home with 2 calico kittens he had found roaming near Dairy Queen. We cleaned them up. We had to take them to the vet. So now they look much prettier than when we found them. Micah named the callie/tortie mix Trixie and his friend Alex named the pure calico Lily. I was wanting calicos and now I have them. :-)

Not to be outdone, Steve went out and bought Weasel, a ferret. She is playful and we are training her not to bite.

Pictures shortly.

Tom is around a lot but we also have been sharing him with another family. We have no idea who they are but they thought he was a stray, I guess, and put a flea collar and rabies vaccine tag on him. When we lived in F-town, we sort of shared him with the Rumpings this way. He is just not a one-family cat. Philanderer! Anyone with fresh fish and he's there. I wrote a note to the "other family" and attached it to his collar, but he pulled it off. I am going to have to write another one, enclose it, and attach it more securely. We are offering to share but, since Micah loves that cat so much, not cede ownership entirely. I will offer to pay for his vaccine. But I do know he has his affairs. He loves easily and for food.

Here's Nathanael via phone from his dorm room showing off how purty he is. ;)

Major fights over homework now. Hey, I'm going to post some pix of Nathanael. We had a Skype camera call last night. If you all want to see me and chat with me sometime I have a camera and microphone. Nathanael has the camera but no microphone.

Bad day at work today. I really got slammed for daring to make a suggestion, and some people are realllllly hypersensitive and think I'm a total and complete halfwit. I really don't understand the response I received for something I was trying to do to help, but it actually fueled a big old fire...does this sound familiar...the thing I caution Micah not to do. I made a suggestion that it turns out has already been nixed and nixed and nixed again by the powers that be and that I had the guts to suggest it REALLY had people jumping out of their skin.

I really, really have a problem and now that I look back and analyze my life and situations in my life, I do have a knack for saying the Emperor has no clothes at VERY inappropriate, sensitive times. (If the Emperor HAD clothes on, no one would be so hypersensitive about this...there really is no good reason that I have heard of why this can't be done...it's just that my suggestion agreed with a very arrogant, disagreeable, antipathic, verbally abusive person who happened this one time to be, in my estimation, right.) This person is someone no one can tolerate but they do because he makes the company lots of money. SOOOO anyway...it is like any workplace. I tend to have a very lacking knowledge of timing, or knowing when to shut up. So now I am JUST going to shut up....everything is just yes. no. yes. no. If I don't know, I will find out for you. I guess I stuck my hand in a HUGE battle going on and it's time to slink away with my tail between my legs. I have a poor sense of who to align with, and I am politically obtuse. My boss blows everything out of proportion and makes it seem like the sky is falling, so from now on I'm just taping my mouth shut.

Micah's in his loft now with 2 friends from his new school, Connor and Alex. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't have at least 1 extra kid at my house. That was at the old and the new house. Well they're up there talking about stuff that, well, 14-year-old boys find humorous. Nathanael didn't prepare me for this. Micah's going through a lot of the kind of rebellion that hits most boys around this age. :O So- unbeknownst to them, I listened for a while to their talk (b.s. more to the point)- it consisted of past injuries, (did you see the you tube video of this guy that broke his leg and it was all shaped like thiiiiis), what girls in school are hot and which ones are butterfaces (Everything on her looks good but her face...), various other topics, and everything peppered with "Dude, that would blow a$$," "that was BEAST" (means cool), "I'd feel salty if..." Connor uses a lot more of the 4-letter words. "Why do girls always get drunk and then wake up the next day saying why did I F that dude?" Um, yeah....sure, how many girls do YOU know who do that on a regular basis... He dyed a green stripe in his hair the other day. He is a goofy kid looking for attention. Well you know how 14-year-old boys talk like they are BMOC. Oh please tell me this doesn't continue forever...I hope Micah matures out of this...but I honestly remember being in college and seeing how many people, both men and women, talked like that all the time. Sorry, when you're 25 this isn't so cute any more: "Dude, I was making out with this one girl once..." "Yeah RIGHT...what girl were YOU making out with..." "Well anyway, dude, Jackie from that 70's show is HOT". "Dude, one day I'm gonna get a (name that car)."
Nathanael didn't prepare me for this! HELP- people with grown kids, how did you deal with this? I just know there's a light at the end of this tunnel, but I hope that light isn't a train waiting to run me over. Shrink says he's a normal boy seeking independence, which people do at about this age.
Man I remember how utterly horrible I was at age 14. I can only imagine what my parents went through. I was a drama queen, nowadays referred to as emo. I was an emo. I screamed and cussed and caused a HUGE scene many times. I remember threatening to run away and really NOT wanting to live with my parents because they were totally nerdy and retarded. My thinking didn't go much beyond that except for having crushes on rock stars and boys at school. Everything my parents did embarrassed me beyond belief. I guess they just knew I would grow out of it but boy was I a pain when it was in process. But my mom says she herself was a total nuisance to her own parents and I know my dad was to his. Smoking and running around and my mom in the attic kissing boys. LOL
God, please pull him through this unscathed...

By the way, Micah is really enjoying having a broken arm. "All the hot girls want to sign my cast."

Resolution finally. We went to the superintendent. Had a meeting this a.m. Got the doctor's report saying Micah is a normal 14-year-old, warts and all, but certainly does not have dangerous tendencies. He's going back to school Tuesday. Superintendent is very nice. Principal and vice principal fine, everything OK now. We have a meeting with Mrs. Wade (principal) Monday. Everyone now knows Micah is not a threat. Immature, yes, but not a threat. Shrink says he's developing fine. Normal brain development for a boy his age. Nothing I didn't know and needed to pay $360 to know. He has a "metric buttload" of homework to catch up on still. And I went to meet the teacher night tonight. This place is interesting. I have never seen so many anorexic, frosted-blonde soccer moms in one place in my life. :) They are pretty nice, though. It was an informative, effective evening. The teachers are definitely a league above most others, too.

I am grateful to God because I really desperately prayed my way through this and my nerves were twisted into a million knots that are slowly loosening now. God answered in His usual BIG and generous way.