Oscar Stew

Today is a happy day. This morning Cheddar came home after being lost for 18 days. He is dirty, stinky, scrawny, hungry and scared, but he is home!

We found him through a small series of miracles. I was supposed to be visiting teaching this morning, but I woke up with pink-eye and had to cancel the appointment. After I dragged myself out of bed I was greeted by two hungry kids whose only request was a popsicle for breakfast. Sure why not, you only live once, right? It was nice out and we had some orange juice popsicles in the freezer anyway. Knock yourselves out. Of course I had to follow them outside and take a picture.

Not even two seconds after I snapped that picture I heard him meow. We dropped the camera and popsicles and started calling to him. We found him in the side yard crouched down inside a window well, his voice was hoarse and he needed help.

After scarfing down dry cat food and tuna fish he was ready to say hello to his buddy Oscar.

I made sure to let Cheddar know how much we missed him by torturing him with a nice hot bath. He will thank me later.

After a few hours he was back to his lively, playful self. He has already sought out his favorite spots and is making up for lost time by begging for affection.

Today I am grateful for small miracles. And pink eye. And popsicles.

We were all pretty excited when Back to School night finally rolled around. We were able to go inside Drew’s classroom for the first time and see what he has been up to for the past couple weeks. Drew was happy to show us the reading corner, and where he sat on the rainbow rug and the whole “check in” process. 

We saw lots of Kindergarten artwork…

And some of the details around his classroom. The right picture is of Drew’s small stash of “You Rock Tickets.”

At his desk, the “blue table.”

As we toured the classroom I was surprised to see Drew on the yellow light. We later found out that he was placed there on accident while the kids played around the classroom that night. phew! Although I am sure there will be more yellow lights in Drew’s future. I’m just bein’ real here…

And finally, Drew on his first day of school in a collage of other pictures taken by his teacher. What a stud muffin!

Drew had a blast showing Brinley and I around his classroom, he felt like the star of the show. Brinley soaked it all in and hated to leave.

One of my favorite things about living in Colorado is The Berry Patch, it’s almost enough to make the long winters worth living here. We try to go a few times each summer to collect enough berries to make a year’s worth of jam.  I don’t think we will ever be able to go back to store-bought jam. Ever.

Drew and Brinley are veteran berry pickers, and are extremely meticulous in their selection. mmhmmm.

The experience just wouldn’t be the same without a healthy dose of Binnie Crack. She always ends up being the butt of the joke…

Her majesty got to observe from her throne on high. This is also physical proof that I exist, and that Ryan actually knows how to operate a camera. Go Ryan!

The Berry Patch is an organic farm, so one must exercise caution and avoid the prickly weeds.

Good ones Drew!

The fruits of our labors! Rowan might have some of her own jam in her pants. Any takers?

After some back-breaking manual labor nothing feels better than being blasted by an ice cold swamp cooler while chewing on a cookie.