lost

I kneeled down in the dirt to be eye-level with my three year old.

He was trudging his feet at the pumpkin patch and kicking up as much dirt as his little converse could kick up.

"Twain", I said sternly, "You need to stop kicking dirt". 

"Yes mama", he said nodding his head up and down. But not meaning a word of what he said.

This child is giving me a run for my money these days. I finally know what it's like to have a kid that 'gets into things'. He wrote on my wallpaper wall. He colored with ballpoint all over my couches. He's always climbing high onto furniture and jumping off of everything. 

When I stood back up, my eyes quickly scanned the pumpkin patch for my 5 year old. In the few seconds it took to reprimand Twain, Ollie was...gone. Just like that. Lost.

"Ollie...OL-LIE!", I called. My eyes quickly scanning the hay bales and tractors for Ollie's rust-colored shirt.

I refused to let my mind panic. After all, it had just been a few seconds. How far could he get, right?

I grabbed Twain's hand, so I didn't lose him too. "Ollie...Ollie!"

No sight of him anywhere.

By now, I am running around every nook and corner of the pumpkin patch.

I'm sure my eyes look wild as they are darting too and fro...

I think of the child with the disorder who is gone without a trace.

And now I am shouting "OLLIE!!!!!!"

I am starting to feel that frantic feeling of panic rising. But really. My child was just there a minute ago. I just couldn't believe he could be gone that fast. Still I felt half-crazed as I watched random people lounging around casually chatting with friends.

Finally I spot his rust-colored baseball tee across the entire patch. Playing happily amongst a bunch of pumpkins. I let out an enormous sigh of relief. Thank you Lord! When I get to him, he's like "what?"





Never so happy to see that little face. Now that I've recovered from my fright over losing Ollie, I realize how insanely in love I am with this boy!

"Oliver John! You must stay right next to mama! You were lost!" We had a good long chat about not running away from mama.

"Ok mama", he said happily as he skipped obliviously right into the dirt parking lot.

"Ollie get back here!" I am now shouting. I literally drag my boys to the van, shaking, and strapped them into their seats as fast as I could.

It had been a loooong morning at the pumpkin patch.

It started off chipper enough. We went with Ollie's preschool, which included dear friends {and neighbors} Patty and her sons.




We had a bit of trouble getting through the corn maze. "Keep right, keep right", they instructed.







But right after right after right...and circling over half an hour, it started to feel like we were the Isrealites wandering in the desert.








Finally, when we could take the claustrophobia no more, Patty hacked her way out through the sides of the corn stalks to daylight. And we followed, not too close behind. Phew!





After the corn maze the preschoolers are allowed to pick a pumpkin.


But Twain is cranking out and throwing a fit about his raisins--apparently the ratio of raisins to nuts was not high enough. Ridiculous. He was screaming so inconsolably, that the owner of the patch started to twitch, and told me "Give him a little pumpkin. It's on the house".

The tiny pumpkin just made him scream louder. Stinker.
It was snack time, and one of the mom's from the preschool started handing out cookies.

Twain stood there with his hand clutching a chocolate cookie, and crying with his mouth open. You know you are DONE when your kid has a cookie in his hand and he's still crying.

Normally I like to go back to the patch with the whole family, but I think I'm good this year. That was exhausting.

Besides. I just can't do it all. We just got back from our church beach camping trip and I am buried alive in laundry. Just wanted to pop my head out from the piles to say boo.

and the winner of the bow goes to Mallory Crain of The Crain's Nest! Congratulations!
contact me at davirebecca{at}gmail{dot}.com

introducing,

the world's smallest felt bow...

for the world's sweetest kitty.


And, I'd like you too officially meet our newest family members:

Moo is our big boy and Lucy Blue is our lil princess. Funny. I always wanted to adopt a boy-girl sibling set.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess what some of you are thinking: "Davi has gone mad! Making itty bitty felt bows and taking pictures of kitties! She needs a baby!"

And while I do not have baby fever, I will gladly accept any baby delivered to my doorstep, or under my deck. Same diff.




Moo was so excited about Blue's bow, that he chewed it off! Thanks Moo. After all that effort to attach the silly bow in the first place. I had quite the initiation into the world of bows. You should have seen me googling how to attach the bow to hair.

And um...no lie, but I initially tried to attach the bow to kitty with KY because that is what all the websites said to do for babies...but I learned that does not work on a wild kitty, mkay? I glued it on with elmers. Hahaha.

At first I made a standard sized hair bow. Compared to Blue's tiny bow.

The bows only took a few minutes to make last night. It was just supposed to be a joke to make a small bow for Blue, but then she looked so cute in it...I'm literally giving away the top yellow felt bow because it's too large for my cat-child. It's a true story. If you want it, just mention it in the comments below.

And here goes the birth story of Moo and Blue. Just kidding. But here is how it all went down.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

After discovering the 4 kitties under our deck, they became our constant source of outdoor entertainment. The boys lived for these "kitty sightings" when the kitties would tentatively emerge from under the deck and come prancing and rolling out onto the deck.

They were very playful with each other, but were very shy and skittish when we tried to touch them.

All except for the one "Si-ma-mese", as the 2 youngers called her. She let the kids hold her.

Then one morning I awoke to find that Ollie and Twain had smuggled the "Si-ma-mese" into the house. Yup, as I was blinking the sleep from my eyes, I saw the two boys toting kitty around under their arms like she was a purse.

And I was uh-mazed at how tolerant this kitty was of my little boys!


Not too mention she sat very still and lady-like every time I tried to take her picture.


Seriously, I just placed her here and said "smile and say cheeeeeeese".

I really should send her to model in Hollywood to raise money to get her stray mama spayed...

All day long, little kitty patiently complys with every whim of her lil captors.


Snuggling up with Ollie for a cat nap.


He is in kitty heaven.




I just could NOT believe she fell asleep on him.


"Please sleep here kitty", I said. And of course, she did.


Ok, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret here. Don't judge. Buuuuuut, Ollie has recently become a hoarder.  His clutter pains my eyes.

Later in the day, I was looking around trying to find the Siamese kitty and I couldn't find her anywhere.

"Ollie. What did you do with the kitty?".

And lo and behold, I pulled back his pillow...And to my shock, I discovered that he tried to stash her with all of his hoarded possessions.

And she just sat there. Fast asleep.

WHAT KITTY DOES THIS??????!!!!!!!

No kitty on earth. No way did Peach ever tolerate this. Never.

We HAD TO keep this kitty.

Besides, by the end of the day, the boys had grown hopelessly in love with her. The thought of parting with this kitty was becoming very painful.

By the next day, the boys were so head over heels for this kitty, that I felt like we needed to make a decision about the other kitties, and fast.

My neighbors wanted a Siamese too, and I felt guilty hogging the nice kitty, but my neighbor GRACIOUSLY offered to take the other Siamese kitty, along with the black kitty to help socialize and make the transition easier. Praises.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

Next day: Operation catch the kitties. Because there were still 3 {scared}kitties left hiding under the deck.

This job....easier said than done.

For the first hour, Libby and I flopped and floundered, as little kitties clawed, hissed and scratched their way out of our clutches.

We tried every plan and contraption we could think of--big box set up with food inside, to coax them, but to no avail. Brother Tate came over to help us.

I even heated some tuna to try to entice them, and it exploded all over my microwave.

After a long while, we finally caught the black kitty...and then the other Siamese. One by one, we threw them in the big bike trailer and carted them off to Libby's house...laughing hysterically the whole time.

I think I might have turned into a giddy 10-year-old that evening. Wish I had a picture.

Last. But not least. We had to catch Moo. We didn't want to leave the poor thing outside by itself, all alone.

This kitty. OhMyWord. Never seen anything like it. So fasssssst, it took forever to catch him. Poor thing was FREAKED OUT.

We finally caught Moo and threw him inside our house. He was so panicked, that he starting running into my furniture and walls like a wild mashugana. He was so determined to escape, that he was literally crashing into the glass french door to get out. Seriously, he was a maniac, freak of nature.

He hid behind my green leather chair and would not stop crying.

All while his sister lay there, stretched out on the floor like a persian princess.

I brought her over to console her distraught brother, and if you could believe it, she HISSED at him. Little stinker! She had been in my house ONE day and she thought she owned the place.

That was a looooong night. Moo hid under our oven and cried all.night.long. "meow, meow, MEOW"

He kept us up almost the whole night and I had a headache the next morning. I know what some of you are thinking...Serves me right, huh.

Day by day, Moo started to slowly come out of his shell.
Started to play with his sissy.
Wouldn't let us touch him, but would come out from under the oven or the bed, or whatever hiding place.

One night, as I was giving Ollie and Twain a bath, Moo started to cry from the doorway of the boys' room. He would not stop crying til I came to see him. He ran under the bed but was very happy that I came to sit by him.

Whenever, I left the room, he would cry for me to come back. As tiring as his little game was, I was charmed.

The next day, Ollie walked into my room carrying Moo in his arms.


Moo just lay in Ollie's arms, super chill. I was surprised that Moo let Ollie hold him. They developed this sweet little bond.


Every day, Twain would walk around carrying the Si-ma-mese, and Ollie would hold Moo.

The two kitties kept my little boys entertained all day long. It was basically purrrfect.

But there was this one little problem: my husband. The supposed kitty lover. Whatevs to that.

John only wants ONE cat and ONE dog. I mean, he could have mentioned this in premarital counseling.

Well, he married me. And nothing is ever that simple with me.

I wanted ZERO cats and ZERO dogs--it took John 16 years to convince me to get Peach.

And now we had 3 kitties. Made perfect sense to me.

But John was not on board. That night at dinner, he said we could only keep one new kitty. And I thought of how much my boys LOVED Moo AND Si-ma-mese. And I was so miserable I just sat there and cried. No joke. Big crocodile tears were streaming from my eyes.

And I kinda had a thing for this crazy-faced kitty. Uh, my face looks kinda crazy here too.


Moo loves to hang out on our gigantic kitty tower. When he's up there, he's king of the world and does all kind of snuggling action--he nuzzles his head into you.

He has become so affectionate. Much more so than Si-ma-mese.

After a few days of agonizing, and begging daddy, he finally said "YES". We could keep them both!

There were a few conditions:
1. no more kitties allowed. I mean, obviously.
2. get rid of mama kitty(she's going to my mom's house)
3. John wanted to make sure he was still allowed to get a dog.

We shook on it. I literally forced John to shake on our deal.

And I kid you not, the next day he offered Moo to our dear friend up the street.

"JOHNNNNNNN! We shook on it!" I practically shouted.

Not to worry. Moo is still at our house. Along with Si-ma-mese, who I named Lucy Blue. But we call her Blue. I really wanted to name her Peeta, but my boys shouted with a resounding "NOOOOOO!"

So Moo and Blue it is. And we could not be happier!

And for reals, if you want this {bigger}bow, just write "want bow" in the comments section and I'll randomly pick someone Friday. It has never touched the kitty. World's smallest giveaway. Not so much a giveaway as a takemyleftovers. But hey, it could look cute on headband, hairclip, on a baby boy onesie or as a little boy bow tie.

{not so} wordless wednesday

i tried to be wordless, i really did try. but the silence would just not come to me.

in fact, every time i see my new purse, i want to sing the hallelujah chorus.

the first time i laid eyes on this baby, i was walking through target. and was like whoa. look at you hot stuff. i kinda felt a little unfaithful toward my faithful old yellow purse.

the yellow purse i got 3 years ago for my birthday. as a present to myself, of course.
the yellow purse i bought at target for $22 and expected to last forever.
the yellow purse that was completely unraveling and falling apart at the seams. and still got compliments everywhere i went.
i was convinced i'd never find a purse that cute again.

until i saw the new purse. i admired her every time i walked through target. which is like two times a day, i kid you not.  did you see they were hiring seasonal employees? i should really apply. i live there anyway. "follow me ma'am, to the party aisle".... i could totes pull off the red shirt and tan pants.

however, i never bought the new purse, because i'm kinda cheap like that. besides. i'm saving for a couch.

so you can imagine my glee when one of my dearies, alisha, surprised me with this purse for my birthday last month!

apparently, she could not stand watching me carry my dilapidated purse everywhere. she's kind of fancy like that. she's also my fashion advisor because she's so young and hip.

as soon as i got my new purse, i chucked my old yellow purse in the trash without even a 'how do you do". not even a picture of her. may she rest in peace.

i pretty much love how this new purse goes with everything in my wardrobe and house, lol.

dresser + purse is one of the first sights i wake up to every morning.

this purse almost hopped on my little sister during her christmas card photo shoot because it looked so cute with her outfit ensemble. did you know it's that time of year? christmas card picture time? for reasons beyond my comprehension i think it's so entertaining and interesting listening to people's wardrobe selections for picture time. fun stuff. tell me what you are wearing. now. haha.


ollie's flannel with mama's green sweater. our layering uniforms during this wishy washy weather.

i love this flannel-clad boy so much.


we've been listening to dumbo lately, fyi. am i being random today? i can't really tell. twain is crying loud so i can't think.




another little goodie is this clutch from Lorieloo. isn't it just darling?


made by the little green thread. it likes to hang out with my new purse above and can often be found snuggling inside her.

getting a new purse and clutch is kind of a big deal around here.

ok, time to get ready for awana and small group!