Rock, Maggie and a Couple of Hard weeks

The past two weeks have been an eternity it seems. We have been very busy as well as surrounded by some trials and tragedies.

Last weekend we made a trip to Flattop butte to gather red sandstone for our landscaping projects.

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We found out that we have some great friends that are willing to get up at the crack of dawn with us, drive out to the desert with us and spend hours loading rock into trucks only to unload it once back at the house. Yes, those are good friends and we are blessed to have them in our lives.
Saturday evening we attended the play 'Into the Woods' at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. It was a great performance, a musical and we enjoyed seeing it with Jordan.
On Sunday we headed to the local hardware store to get some things for the work we are doing with the firepit in the backyard. We ended up coming home with much more and have welcomed into our hearts and home Maggie, a small calico kitten.

She is a delight to have in our family. Ceecee and she play like they were the same size and she holds her own with Oscar. Aika wants to mother her and cleans her at times. Mags has turned out to fit right in and is the most well behaved kitten I've known. We hope you all get to meet her sometime soon.

Monday night we had a sprinkler person out to the house to estimate work that needed to be done to replace the main valves from the city water supply to our house. They dug a huge 6' deep hole in the front yard to make the repairs.

It was something that needed to be done but after spending a large sum of money to get it fixed, we still have a leak somewhere in the system! We will work on finding it this week.
Two times in the past week and a half we have had bird rescue in our lives. Most of you know that our whole family does volunteer work at the Ruth Melichar Bird Center in Boise where birds are rehabilitated. The first time was a rescue I had to do during the day downtown of three juvenile kestral hawks.

The second was when Oscar got ahold of a fledgling robin who had fallen from the pine tree and into the back yard. We interrupted and promptly took the little guy to the bird center for some much needed help and parenting until he is old enough to be on his own.

At work, my boss assigned me with the task to create a scrapbook of quotes from attorneys about a fallen US soldier who was killed in Iraq last April; He was an affiliate of the attorneys at the State Bar. As honored as I am to have created this memento for his widow, it was a depressing and daunting task. The book has turned out very nice and I hope that her and her children will cherish it.
Also at work, a friend in my department found that their long battle with cancer has turned out a great triumph. They received the final test results after a second surgery and countless chemo treatments stating that they are cancer free!! I'm so relieved and happy for this wonderful, loving person and hope nothing but cheer and great life to them.
Friday a close friend of ours had a very hard, life changing event and I have experienced something very similar in my past. It was a difficult time and again, brought our spirits down very much. We visited her and her husband today and they are doing very well, we will continue to keep them in our minds and hearts.
Saturday we worked hard in the front yard and again went to Shakespeare in the evening. I had written down the wrong date however for the play and they were gracious enough to change our tickets to Saturday night. The play was 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller and although not one we wanted to see this season, we were grateful, the performance was magnificent.
Sunday morning we headed to the rock quarry again to get more for our yard and some for our friends who were helping us and fell in love with the stuff. So up at dawn and to the desert again for more manual labor. After returning from the quarry we cleaned up and visited another friend's house to celebrate their son's first birthday. It was a weekend full of hard work but we can begin to see the results. Attending the birthday of a 1yr old is a good way as well to gain some perspective and know that life is great and precious and does go on.
This week we look forward to working hard on our yard, spending time with our family and enjoying the time we have here. Thank you to all our good friends for all their wonderful work and support this week.