Our New Friend

Well if you are up-to-date on the Boline family blog then you know about the death of "Female Fishy" last week. For a while it was touch and go with "He-Fishy," too. He didn't seem to know what to do with himself without his sister and appeared to get depressed. He hasn't really been eating well, either. But "He-Fishy" is still swimming and appears to be on the up-swing.

In the meantime, Patrick checked with our letting agency who in turn e-mailed our landlords to find out if they really and truly meant "No Pets" in the lease we signed last summer.

I do believe we are blessed with a property owner who is an animal lover - at least, a cat lover, because we received permission to get a cat! They must have had a cat themselves, as there is already a kitty door installed in our back door.

The kids were ecstatic. Patrick took them out right away to buy a litter box and some cat toys.

Then comes the decision regarding what kind of cat/kitten to get. We didn't really want a kitten, as cute as they are, because we still want to be able to travel regularly, and it would be some time before we'd be able to leave a kitten for any length of time. And we have always believed in rescuing animals when possible, so onto the internet I went, doing searches for local cat rescue centers.

When I came across a photo of this sweet cat:She is a one-year old cat found under a porch, pregnant when she was found. She is a delicate little thing, due to the assumption that this is already her second litter of kittens at such a young age.

Many of you may know that I am not particularly a cat-person. I have nothing against cats, but I am more of a dog person. But when we went to visit this cat at her foster home with her kittens, she couldn't have been more friendly, loving and sweet to all of us. She came right up to all of us, rubbing our legs, looking for love, even from the scary almost three-year old who was as gentle as he could be with her and with the kittens.

Today, the foster mom came to our home to check out our digs and make sure we had a suitable place to keep our cat. She came in, had a look, and said the cat was ours! All we need to do now is wait. The cat's kittens are only five weeks old, so she will stay with them for three more weeks, then have a proper female-cat surgery to make sure she never has to go through the pain of childbirth again, and then she will be all ours.

So then, all we need to do is decide on a name .... the foster mom called the cat "Meg" she said, 'Because you have to call it something.' I already promised my sister we would not be keeping that name. Joshua's vote is for 'Biscuit.' Gillian likes the name 'Daisy.' I thought the name 'Boots' was appropriate. We shall see which name gets pulled out of the hat! Or maybe we should draw straws ...

One Dead Fish

About six months ago I blogged about our two goldfish, Bubbles and Buddy, who promptly died in a little over a week. Then I shared about my trip to the fish store and my new knowledge of the American Flag Fish who have a reputation for doing well in a small, filterless tank. At that time I bought two American Flag Fish for Joshua and Gillian, a girl and a boy.

Joshua and Gillian never named these fish. I think it was a defense against losing more pets. Occasionally I would mention that their fish had no names, and they would argue with each other because they had both determined to name their fish "Fishy." Again, a defense mechanism as far as I'm concerned. But truly, no names ever really stuck. They were just, 'The Fish.'

A couple of days ago, Gillian's fish started looking a little unwell. Not swimming very much, not very interested in food. Last night, Patrick called Gillian into the kitchen where we keep the tank to talk to her about her fish. It was so sad. I was nearly in tears. Her fish was still alive, and she wanted to pray for it. Patrick prayed for Gillian's fish and he asked God to make Fishy's end quick and painless if it was her time to go. And it was her time to go last night after Gillian went to bed.

My little girl has a big heart for animals. She still cries over our big yellow lab we had to give up when we moved here. It was painful to comfort Gillian this morning - to see that look on her face. She talks about wanting another fish, but I don't really think she does. I mean, after not naming this last fish ... She constantly chatters about what kind of dog, cat, bird, and bunny we are going to get when we move back to the States.

So we are in prayer about a new pet. Our landlords specified that we aren't to have a pet in this house, but we are putting in a phone call to the letting agency today. We have been great tenants the past year, and we figure it can't hurt to ask! We'll keep you posted.

Weird Things

My friend, Sara, said I should blog this, so here I go:

Sometimes, in this house where we live in here in Cheltenham, we get mail addressed to .....

"Mr. and Mrs. Harry and Gillian Potter."

Isn't that weird? I think it's really weird. Harry Potter and his wife ... Gillian?

And if I were to be totally truthful, here's what it really looks like on the envelope, because they don't use periods like we do in this country:

Mr and Mrs Harry and Gillian Potter

AND, they don't use these kinds of quotation marks: "
They only use this: '

BUT, when Joshua is typing a paper, the quote mark can't be the straight up and down kind, it has to face in. Like this: `

So now, when I'm doing the obnoxious finger quotes with my hands, I only use one finger for each hand. That makes it oh SO less obnoxious ...

Adieu, Cornwall

I realized I have never finished my Cornwall postings. This will conclude my posts on Cornwall. We spent six full days there, but the very last day I don't think we took any photos. So this, our full fifth day, will be the final post regarding our wonderful family trip down south.

There were two castles on my list that we really wanted to see, both built by Henry VIII, sister castles built to protect the southern coastline. We started out at Pendennis Castle.

This castle was truly spectacular as it had original carvings that read "Long Live the King" referring to Henry VIII as well as "Long Live Prince Edward" for those of you familiar with Tudor history.

The other thing we found very interesting about Pendennis was that it was in full use through 1956. So it had been updated and had many different kinds of artillery on display. They even had a fantastic hands-on museum for the kids describing the many different uses the castle had been involved in.

One thing about the southern coast, however; it is windy. Really, really windy. It was so windy this day that one of Aidan's crocs blew off his foot, and we nearly lost it. Later, we found out that they had actually closed the castle for the day because it was too windy for people to be walking around the perimeter.

Next stop, St. Mawes Castle. We had to take the "King Harry Ferry" to get there. Heh, heh.

This castle, too, was spectacular. But also so windy that we didn't spend nearly enough time there. One of the National Trust workers told me that he had been blown over twice in his time working there. And he was about 6'2", 250 lbs. So we did a bit of exploring and then called it a day.

The last day of our trip we did kid 'fun' things like go to an aquarium. It was a good, last day of our trip. This concludes my series on Cornwall! Hope you have enjoyed it as much as we did!

10 Big Ones

Ten years ago today I was in a hospital in Takoma Park, Maryland enduring more pain than I ever thought imaginable. Joshua took his sweet time entering this world - he knew he had had a good deal for 9 1/2 months and apparently didn't want to give that up. But every moment of those 9 1/2 months and the 2 1/2 days of labor was worth it. Because God blessed our family with Joshua Samuel. He will never know how precious he was to my entire family at that particular time in our lives. My parents had died when I was about 7 months pregnant with Joshua. My entire family was still grief-stricken, when along came this amazing, beautiful little boy, and he gave us so much hope and joy for what the future may hold for our family, for the families of all of the Owen children. 10 years later, Joshua now has two siblings, four first cousins and another one on the way, and three 2nd cousins - and that's just on MY side of the family! God has blessed our family immeasurably.

But today we celebrate Joshua and the blessing he is to our family. He brings us laughter and joy in his own funny way. He is so bright that when Patrick was in London I had to make a new rule just for Joshua: If your question is in any way related to anything historical, write it down for Daddy.
Joshua strives to please God and his parents. He is already wise in his thinking as he always 'Saves the best for last' and gets his chores done as soon as he gets home from school.

Joshua loves his sister and brother. I love seeing him grow in his affection for his family, as I recently witnessed when he hugged Gillian for no good reason other than just to give her a hug.

He is growing in his empathy toward others, and it warms my heart when I recall how recently Joshua said to me, Are you okay, Mommy? This said when I was sitting on the kitchen floor crying after Aidan had accidentally knocked his plate of macaroni and cheese and applesauce off the table and all over the floor. Not only did Joshua show me empathy, but he scrambled to clean it all up for me and comforted Aidan in the loss of his dinner.

All in all it has been an amazing and blessed 10 years with this, our first-born. I thank the Lord daily for the three blessings he has given this family, and it all started with my little man, Joshua. We love you so much, son.

An Informal Concert

This is what the kids' school calls their mini-concerts/recitals that they have once a term or so. This past Friday we were privileged to be in the audience of Joshua's orchestra informal concert and piano recital.

I must say that we were decidedly impressed with how well Joshua kept the beat on the snare and cymbal. We had no idea he could maintain tempo so well! It was hard to get a photo of him - being in the very back and sitting down. But if you look hard enough you can see Joshua peeking through the legs of his classmates.The orchestra played a piece called 'Sidetracked.' It was great!

Afterwards, the Advanced Recorder group played a piece called 'Polly Put the Booze Away.' An interesting song choice, but the kids sounded great on their recorders!

Then, on to the individual instruments. Joshua was the only student who had his music memorized, and he played his song perfectly with no mistakes! Well done, Joshua!