And I'm Off ... Almost

I've been slightly stressed about the idea of flying off to this conference tomorrow, for several reasons.

1. All the scary, really smart, new people! ... Will they like me, or will they think I'm weird? (This is why I write YA, people. I can relate to teen-aged insecurities ... This is where I start my mantra: "Focus on others, focus on others, FOCUS ON OTHERS!")
2. Will I remember everything I'm supposed to take? (I'm going to try to squeeze everything into a carry-on and hope my clothes don't get too wrinkled.)
3. Will the family be okay while I'm gone? Did I stock enough food in the freezer? Will the Dashingly Handsome Sidekick get ANY sleep?
4. Why did I leave all the house cleaning for TODAY, the last day, when I also need to pack, and do all the last-minute shopping, and make sure my children feel loved and provided for? (ugh)
5. Do I have time to write my Story A Week today? (Sure, I do! There's always time for writing! HA!)

So, how do I handle stress?

Well, today I'm handling it by posting pictures of cute animals and children on my blog. Here are a few of my grandcat, Midnight, and my almost-two-year-old, Sophie. Midnight is Sophie-sized, which is great, except for the times she tries to haul him around by the hind leg. Midnight is the perfect addition to our family because he's a luxury cat ... and enjoys a good book when he gets a chance to fall asleep on one.

I'm going to miss my babies while I'm gone.  *Sob*

Obviously, I'll be MIA for a while. But please keep your google-reader-eyes peeled for my return. I'm hoping to bring a few books to share back from the conference ... maybe even SIGNED books. I never had a 100 follower give-away, so I need to make up for that. (YAY!)

And hopefully I'll have some useful nuggets of writing wisdom to share, too, if I'm not so star struck with all the smart, important conference attendees that I lose my brain entirely.

Take care, everyone. I'll *see* you when I get back.

Amy

Scruff Vs. Luxury: An Adoption Story

Introducing the newest member of our family!
We adopted a kitten.

Olivia has been asking for a pet FOREVER. Finally, we felt settled enough to give her the thumbs up. And today we went through with the deed.

My friend works at an animal clinic in a nearby town and she mentioned they had a whole bunch of kittens available for adoption. So, today I told Olivia she and I would go down and pick one out.

Upon entering the clinic, Olivia instantly bonded with a black ball of fuzz who honestly does have a cute face, but wasn't nearly as adorable and striking and luxurious as the long-haired, white-and-black kitten in the same cage. The white-and-black kitten looked like a kitten model. He was docile, sitting quietly as I stroked him. Fuzzball was all over the place, nosing into everything, trying to play with everything.

I was set on the long-haired designer cat. I mean, seriously. This was the cat of my dreams.

Olivia, however, had fallen in love with the hyperactive fuzz ball.

I tried my best to reason with her. "We want a quiet cat who will sit in our laps. And I've always wanted a long haired cat ... and look at his face! He's gorgeous. He's going to be a beautiful adult."

"But, Mommy," Olivia replied, her eyes filling with tears as she stroked the scrappy kitten's head. "This kitten reminds me of me!"

Well, what can you say to that?
For those of you who don't know, we brought Olivia home from an orphanage in China as a skin-and-bones six-week-old the orphanage was hoping some love could revive. (Love & bottles worked.)
My friend at the animal clinic had already told us this scruffy kitten had had a rough go of life so far. They almost lost him a couple times. Yeah, okay, so maybe there were a few similarities.

I still tried to reason with her. "But, honey, this isn't a child. It's a cat. Let's not think about this emotionally. We need to be rational."
More tears. "But I love this one!"

So, the end of the story is that we now have a scruffy, playful kitten in our home.

I wanted to bring home my designer cat, too, but the dashingly handsome sidekick exercised his authority and insisted on one cat only. Since he rarely speaks in exclamation points, I had to take him seriously.

I'll be honest. I'm still thinking about that designer cat, how good he'd look curled up in my lap, how I'd enjoy brushing him....

But that's okay. We have Scruffy, who Olivia has affectionately named Midnight. He does have a cute little face and he purrs like crazy every time you pick him up.
I'm sure I'll like him just fine.

And I guess there are worse problems than having a little girl with a very big heart.