New Mama...

Well, this week was actually very slow.  Scott was sick with the flu or something for the WHOLE week.  I don't remember the last time he was that sick.  Between the rest of us, we can't tell if we have a touch of what Scott has or allergies or both.  It FINALLY rained a lot yesterday and has helped with the allergies, but there is still some coughing going on, so I assume it was a little of both.  We really enjoyed the whole day of rain.  It has been a long time since we have seen anything.  We maybe had one day of snow up here and that is very rare for this time of year.  As soon as the rain hit, I was driving down the road and there are spurts of green popping up everywhere.  It's a nice change from the dreary brown.  It's amazing what life a little bit of water can do to...well, everything!  We also had a nice surprise yesterday...our cat, named Hooch (I call her "hoochy-mamma" for getting pregnant in the first place!), had her kittens.  Copper, the other cat, is not far behind.  We should have her litter here in a few weeks.  Here are pictures of Hooch with her 5 little kittens.

She had 3 orange ones, which I think are the same as the dad, and 2 black/grey ones like her.  Copper has been a wonderful Auntie and tries to keep them all warm.  She helped keep them clean and keep Hooch clean when things were, well, not so clean.  There are a few things I have learned about cats that I didn't before this whole thing.  It only takes them two months from start to finish to have kittens...they are almost as fast as rabbits and mice!  They actually have a very clean birthing area.  Cats are in heat pretty much any time they aren't pregnant or nursing.  Guess what is going to happen to Hooch in about 7 weeks?!?  Yep...no more kittens for her!  I found out also that the law of incest does not apply to cats after about 6 months of age.  Brother came by and got them pregnant.  So, needless to say, as much fun as this is and all...I'm with Bob Barker...get your cats spayed or neutered!!!  Dallen and Ashton think they need to keep at least one of this litter.  I haven't decided.  They really are good to have around and they haven't been any trouble except for the whole pregnant thing, which is fixable...so we'll see.  Maybe Copper's litter will be cuter?!?  We'll post pictures of their progress.  It is fun to have little ones around again :)  

We also got to be part of the Gilbert Temple Dedication.  We went to the 3:00 pm session for several reasons.  It was good.  Elder Callister gave a really good talk on why temples are important.  It made me want to go right then!  They said that starting on Tuesday and through the month of March, they already have 100 weddings scheduled for the temple and over 140 more with in the next few months!  Good thing they built it big!  Maybe Mesa Temple can have a little breather.  I am glad we got to go through it with the kids.  Did you know there were 33 dedicatory sessions for the Salt Lake Temple?  There are some people that were at all 33!  That's crazy!  I was looking at our Stake President and thought "I wonder if he's been here all day" and then when they said that the SLC had 33, I didn't feel so sorry for the Stake President anymore :).  They also mentioned that as of 1985 there were only 35 operating temples.  The Gilbert Temple make 142 operating temples as of today. It's just amazing.  Another talk that I liked was about finding our ancestor's names.  It was given by Elder Richards.  He explained how he felt there was no genealogy left for him to do because his great grandpa was president of the Genealogical Society for years and then his grandpa or father had a big role like that also.  He said that his ancestor was one of the first major contributors to the family search index.  He then mentioned that with the new technology and the new family search, he has now obtained over 700 family names that are currently being worked on.  He mentioned that he now has a monthly temple day with his endowed children and they do sealings.  I just love that idea.  Anyway, we'll see if that can ever happen, but I have found a new sense of "maybe I can do something" and I plan on having a family home evening with the ward family history person in our ward because she is amazing at all this and what better way to help someone in their calling by allowing them to do it?!?  We'll see if the rest are on board...maybe I will be doing this on my own.  Well, that is all for the week.  We are getting healthy again and we are reminded how blessed we have been because we have been so healthy.  We are grateful that it will go away, as there are those that it is a trial for life.