"Miracle" kittens

Some of you may have heard this story, but this past October, our neighbor moved out. Before he left, he asked us if we'd take his little kitty cat, who was spayed, declawed and very sweet. We declined, because we just didn't feel we needed to add a 3rd cat to our family. Two is probably 2 too many.

Well, they moved out and left the little kitty behind, which shocked me a bit, especially since it was the coldest day of the year up to that point and she'd never been outside. We adopted her immediately, and found out pretty quickly that although she was not declawed, she was definately sweet. Shortly thereafter, she began going outside with her 'brothers'.

We've recently confirmed that not only was she not declawed, she also was not spayed. Either that or we have a real miracle on our hands.

She is definately still sweet though. Anyway, we now have 3 calico kittens, a grey kitten and a black and white kitten to add to our menagere. We do plan on giving them all away...but I'm already becoming pretty attached to the little one pictured here. Really-what's not to love?

Snowy Greetings! It's February, and the snow came down harder today than any other day so far. The kids have been outside killing each other with snowballs and sledding.

Here's a picture, to 'warm' your heart.

Last weekend with the snow that was supposed to be huge (not so, but it was bigger than most of the other one), we went to the big hill in Spring Hill, where there's a nice park and a few Civil War memorials. If you don't know the history, TN was supposed to be 'neutral' in it's position on the Civil War, at least politically. The truth was, it's got a lot of historical 'closet' confederate-ism in it's history. Anyway, around town you'll see shrines and memorials to 'famous' battles-one being on top of the hugest hill in the vicinity. As soon as an inch of snow had accumulated, Bob took all the kids down to the hill, and up they went---to slide down the hill on the sled. The snow was too thin and the grass was too high to thin on anything other than the main path going up the hill, but they did pretty good anyway and had a few good runs before it all melted.

It's only going up to about 30 today, so we don't expect a lot of melt off today, and there's supposed to be more later. Maybe we'll even get ALL the ground covered!

Here's a few more wintry pics from the accessing:

(before I go get them to post, I just looked out the window and saw Amanda whack Heather with a snowball that was packed so hard it bounced off her head without breaking. That was weird.)

I hope wherever you are, you're staying warm. I'll try to do a better job at keeping up with the blog...It sure makes it easier when you're stuck in the house, though!

Blessings from the Hawkes family....

A little better....

Well, we’re all starting to finally turn the corner. Bob still can’t be up and about for more than a few minutes; and I’m still aching.  If you’re thinking of skipping the flu shot this year, I’d personally advise against it.  I’m really hoping Bob doesn’t come down with it so soon after surgery.  I feel like a terrible wife-the best I’ve managed for the most part has been to be able to get out of bed and go put a blanket on Bob as he’s laying on the couch.  Bob got a ride to the ER on Sunday, because he was violently ill, but the docs think his primary reactions have been because of anesthesia.  I’m just glad he’s doing better.   Next time you talk to Amanda—give her an ‘atta girl’.  She did a great job of taking care of all of us this weekend. Even Heather was down for the count with a fresh broken toe, broken the night before Bob’s surgery!