What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

Scrubbing this old house within an inch of its life.

Moving out has been terribly stressful. But it's over. Mr. T came over today, curious about the "issues" Hubby had mentioned the house had.  He was kind about the things we'd had to leave undone and told me the house looked great. That was a huge, huge blessing and relief to me; after he gave this compliment and left, I sat in the old green bathroom and cried.

O Christmas Tree

This girl received her patriarchal blessing from stake patriarch John M. today.

 

Her mother cried the entire time.
 

Dad may have shed a tear or two as well.

 

The blessings she was promised were so beautiful.

 

So grateful for her and for this wonderful gospel principle.

Meanwhile:

Decorating the tree, and not a moment too soon.  That's what happens when you move in December. 

 

Merry Christmas!

Birthday Boy

Our first birthday in the new house. Note the still undecorated Christmas tree in the background. :)

THERAPY KITTY

Now that we're in our new house, we're free to take the kitty plunge!

We adopted a kitten from a guy we found on Cr@igslist, a very kind, lovely man who will be known forever here as "Jeff Kitty Guy."  Our kitten was a foundling raised by Jeff and his family, who bottle-fed her from about two weeks old on - they couldn't keep her because their very large dog was eyeballing her and obviously dreaming of a furry little lunch.   They found her trapped in a hole they'd dug on Jeff's father's property, and were about to bury a pole in it for a new pole building.  Seeing the kitty, they fixed a tiny noose, looped it around her neck and carefully pulled her up.  Her mama was long gone by then, probably having tried without success to rescue her.  Poor baby!

 Tiny baby, after being rescued, posed next to the TV remote...

 

Two months later

 

We brought her home today and named her Catness. She's a tabby/white mix and the most adorable, crazy thing.

Poor H

We just had another tonic-clonic seizure. It's been six months since his last one. 

Mutual This Evening

 I'm driving the ward youth around as they go caroling... Bless my un-Valium-ed heart. 

LATER: It was fun.