Goodbye little R.A.V.

Yesterday had a sad little element to it. I went to church with my best friend, had a good time, and then my friend and I went to her house to get some jogging clothes. We were less than a block away and her sister calls us crying.
They live on 5 acres and have a feral mama cat with her 3 kitties living in the brush on their property. Since their are 9 kids in the family, the parents drive a 15 passenger fan. One of the kitties ran in the street and got hit by it when the dad was pulling out. He did not realize it but, the neighbor saw it. The little kitten either ran or was thrown into the pushes and died. It was so sad!
Being the "calm in crisis" person that I am, I took head of the situation as my friend and her sister were both too sad and too scared to deal with it. So, we got gloves, and old towel, and a shovel, and I picked the small kitty up. I don't think he was actually run over because his little body was intact. In fact his positioning under the bushes tells me he actually did try to run off. I'm pretty sure the impact caused internal bleeding which killed him quickly. He was so floppy and may have had a broken neck and definately had a broken leg. I was nauseated but, I wanted this little guy to be buried respectfully. My friend was a little creaped out because I was "holding it like a baby". I believe all things should be treated with care and respect, dead or alive. I did hold him, wrapped in a towel, up agains my body. And I closed his eyes. He was such a beautiful kitten, my favorite kind actually, an orange and white tabby.
We buried him under a huge tree in the woods he lived, and we stacked logs on top so coyote's and other animals won't dig him up.
Since he was a feral kitten he didn't have a name. We name him Rav, or R.A.V. because those are the initials of us who burried him.

Goood by RAV.

FFF # 14: Black and White

Well, I have more black and white photos but, they are still on my old computer which is "out of service" and on my external hard drive which isn't compatible iwth my new Mac. Nice.
The first picture is of Andrew. He was my first boyfriend and my best friend. He died of Cystic Fibrosis when he was 15 ( I was 2 months shy of 15). I had this one on a disc and wanted to share it. He was much younger in that photo.
The second photo: I was diligent and managed to take this photo of my CUTER THAN EVER nephew this week! He loves riding in his new bike seat with his Auntie as driver!!!

and... I almost forgot!!!! I took this picture of Kalika and our neighbors kitten Garfield this week! Garfields mommy works nights and somehow he snuck out while she was on her way out. My Dad (so called animal hater, lol) sees the kitten scamper across our yard. Next thing I know he is saying "Violet" followed by the tinies "meow".... Needless to say, Kalika (and I) took good care of Garfield that night....we even bought him a toy, soft kitten food, a collar, and a 1 time use, pre filled, kitty litter box. Kalika LOVES kittens and she wanted to keep Garfield. She told me so. This Mama's heart would have told her fur baby "of course you can keep the kitten", except her doggie brother whimpered all night because he wanted a chance to eat the kitten and as a result Mama was deprived of much needed sleep and the Mama's Dad would never had caved in anyway. Lol.

Feeling Greatful

Sweet Andrew: Sept. 20th 1985- May 5th, 2001
My Sometimes sweet, usually obnoxious, somewhat protective, drama hating, Nephew adoring Brother Warren: June 2nd, 1989 - Present

My first roommate in college and I have much in common. We both had brown hair, brown eyes, we were messy (although I turned clean freak for just the year I lived with her, lol.), we are Daddy's girls, and LOVE LOVE LOVE animals, especially our dogs! We also had brothers of the same age. We talked often about them and compared our experiences with them. A major difference between us was that I also had two sisters. She only had her brother.
As we got to know one another I remember a certain conversation we had quite vividly. I told the story of Andrew (my first boyfriend/best friend who died of severe cystic fibrosis when we were 15), to several girls on my floor. My roommate and I talked late into the night as she asked me questions about that time in my life and what it was like. I shared with her a song/poem I wrote on one of my hardest nights. I was sobbing into my pillow and picked up my bible. I flipped to Psalms 56:8 " You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle.You have recorded each one in your book". At that point God made it very clear to me that he knew each and every tear that fell from my eye and they were precious enough to him that he collected them. He knew my pain. He was comforting me, and crying with me. He knew the pain I felt. And that is precisely the reason He sent Jesus. He felt this pain each time a sinner was born, for we were seperated eternally from him. So he made a way for reconciliation. He made a way for us to return to him. As my roommate said asked how I lived through that and claimed she couldn't handle such a loss, I told her "Yes, you could. God would bring you through it". We also talked of the hope we have in Christ of reunion with our loved ones.
Four years later, just months after my roommate graduated and moved back to be with her parents her brother drowned. Sadly, due to a technology error I did not learn of this until months later. I wish I had known and had been their to comfort her in a way she so desperatly needed. And yet, I feel like the time I didn't know God used to bring us both to a place where we could recieve one another. A place where it was not painful to say her brothers name, or for her to hear my experiences and how I coped. A place where I understood it was NOT that same. This was her only sibling, the one person who had lived life with her the longest and had understood where she came from. It was different.
A year after her brothers death my roommate and good friend moved back to my state. She now lives with 3 other girl friends of ours from our floor. I went to visit each of them and most of the time was spent giggling, remembering happy times on the floor, and making fond new memories.
Of course it had been a long, long time since I had seen any of them and each girl had their own "catch up questions" for me. Among them from the other two girls were "How old is your brother now", "where is he working", "How is he doing", "does he have a girlfriend". Each time a question was asked I could see the flinch in my old roommates face. I could almost hear her thoughts "My brother would have been 19 this year", "I wonder what kind of a job my brother would have, would he have joined the army life he said he wanted to?", " I wonder if my brother would have a girl friend". Each question was painful for me to answer because I knew it would be painful for her to hear. That part of "moving on" is always hard. 7 years after losing Andrew, my heart still wonders into "I wonder what Andrew would have been like..." when I hear about another 15 year old who is about to celebrate his 16th birthday, or get his drivesr licensce. It's part of the process to learn to hear answers to such questions and not flinch.

But as I answered each questiong I felt a renewed greatfulness for my Baby Brother's presence in my life. It's funny the timing of these things. I was getting incredibly annoyed with my brother. He doesn't clean up after himself, he cranks up movies way to loud, he is disrespectful.....
But, he is here. These things are all signs of his presence. I get one more day to see the man he is becoming. And I feel incredibly blessed to say he is 19, he works at the casino, he has a sweet girlfriend, he graduate high school. I cannot even imagine losing any of my siblings. I especially can't imagine not having another to share that loss with. Today I feel incredibly blessed to say that all 3 of my siblings are alive and healthy, not to forget my parents, nephew, aunts/uncles, cousins, and so on.

Violet needs...

Here is a little blogger game. Go to the google search engine and type in "your name"...needs...

and see what pops up. Here are some for mine:

Violet needs Coffee..... (seriously!)

Violet needs her own home.... (I'd love my own home but, I better get a higher paying job first)

Violet needs to loose weight... (I'm working on it...she says after finished a big bowl of ice cream....lol! At least I ride my bike everywhere now!)

Violet needs a wall unit air conditioner... (we're lucky, the house stays pretty cool even on hot days, especially my room, lol. But, I could certainly use one at work)

VIolet needs to focus... (On what, not school, I just got 99.96% and 96% in my classes AND that being when I had my birthday, lost my grandfather, changed jobs, moved home, helped dad after surgery all during this quarter. How did I do that?!?!)

Violet needs water.... (actually I have glass right here. It goes good with ice cream after a good bike ride, lol.). 

FFF # 13 friends with stuffing

Off all the kids I know, my Dog is the one most attached to a stuffed item. Most of the kiddos I love are into binkies, blankies, bottles, Nanna's etc. 

Kalika just loves her stuffed animals. Among her favorites are a stuffed purple hippo, and these 3 birdies. For some reason she is especially fond of the blue one. When you squeeze it, it chirps and she loves that. Here is a pretty cute picture of her with if after about 5 minutes of her tossing it in the air and running after it.

After Alex's 1st surgery for his Leg, some friend bought him an Lion named Alex (it looks like the lion from madagascar. He is really fond of Alex the Lion.
Levi is really into his "B". It just the way he is :) .

And my friends Ruby and Davis enjoy their blankies. Here Davis is snuggling with Ruby's blanky. When she is gone and I have just him, he sometimes gets fussy. He wants her blanket. I think he misses her.

2 Wheels and a BABY seat?

I am really humbled by the fact that I am car-less. Actually, it's been a blessing. I don't have to worry about oil/tune-ups/registartion/emissions tests/budgeting gas. Plus, I'm spending much more time getting exercise. I bought a bike (cheap bike, $100). But, it's comfy and just my size. It's been fun to ride to/from work, and to ride to the grocery store. My co-workers were teasing me about riding my bike. I said "yes, I officially ride a two wheeler! (as opposed to the 4 wheels on car). Silly me. Anyway, my Mom has had my nephew frequently so I've been spending extra time with him. She likes it when I take him for a run in the jogging stroller because that way she gets a break. The other day she asked me to take him on my run but, I wasn't going in the morning, my knee was bothering me. I made a statement that if I had a baby seat/carrier I could take him on a bike ride. Guess what, she bought me one! It's being used even when my nephew isn't around too! When I don't get the dogs out for a walk (mine and my brothers), I take them around the neighorhood on my bike (they run along side). My brothers Jack Russel - Spike, gets tired out a little sooner than me or my Cocker Spaniel. So, I stop, hoist him into the baby seat, strap him down, and off we go again. Kalika also enjoys sitting in their. It's pretty hilarious. At least now I know I can take Kalika if I go on long bike rides.

Praying for....

The Aquatic Supervisor Position! 

So, most of you know or read that I started life guarding and teaching swimming lessons again. I'm really enjoying teaching again. Life guarding, well, I don't mind it, I'm just doing a LOT of it with long shifts and it's nerve wracking. I really enjoy being back a the pool though. It's also getting me lots of exercise as I have free access. And I've been taking me nephew a lot. Today he did the "Mommy and Me" Class with his Auntie Violet :) . 

I hear a rumor that was confirmed today that a girl who has an aquatic supervisor position is leaving in March/April to pursue her masters. I talked to the "head hancho" and found it was in fact, true. So M. will be leaving. The question is if she will decide to quit her job or take a leave of absence (she can take a year). If she takes a leave of absence than someone has the potential of filling in with getting 40 hrs. and high pay (like $4 raise). If she quits we get to apply for the position. This position is Sun. to Thurs. 11am to 7pm, full benefits (medical, vacation, sick leave), increased pay rate..... yadda, yadda, yadda.  I talked to my boss about what it takes to obtain this position as far as qualifications and how he felt about me applying. He said he thought I'd be a great fit for the job (he really likes me!) and that I'd have to get my Water Safet Instructor license (already planning to do that in Dec.). He said having my Life guard instructor permit would be a "one up" on anyone else who applies ( so willing to do that!). He ALSO said that since I have plenty of college behind me, 4 years experience at the pool, great references, and just need to transfer 1 class to get my AA, I'd be a likely candidate. THe other girls interested are 3-4 years younger, have had less time at the pool and little to no college. 

Why I want this position: It's fun. I'd get to come up with new ideas for teaching lessons, I get to train people to be a life guard, make employee schedules, etc. (all things I've never really done but think I'd be good at).

I'm good with people. This means I get to work with the public. Parents, kids, etc. I'd love the opportunity to help meet the needs of our community as far the the pool goes.

Obviously.... full benefits. 

The schedule works for me! I'd still get to make the early service at church, or I can go Sat. night. Since my schooling is online I can do that too. 

I can see myself staying for awhile. Even thought I graduate in June-ish, I'm not sure where/when I want to go to graduate school. With this work schedule I can take a spanish class or american sign language class in the morning (something I've always wanted to do). I can probably afford a small 1 or 2 bedroom apt. for me and my pupper-roo. I may even be able to do what I've always wanted to do and be a respite foster care giver. 

It's in the community I grew up in. My family and friends are here. It's just a good way to begin on my own two feet.

I'd have an amazing boss. 

Anyway, I'm trying not to get ahead of myself and I'm praying about it a lot but, I'd really like this position!!!!