Fairbanks Visit, March 2016

So last weekend we drove up to Fairbanks to visit Steph and Isaac.  One the way up there, we ran into blizzard weather through Denali Park.  Since we didn't really have a winter at our house this year, for me it was a welcome sight, even though it significantly slowed us down, which Chuck wasn't too happy about.  Why are men always in such a hurry to get to where they wanna go?

Why is it that men can never just enjoy the journey?

Hurry, hurry, hurry............!

When we arrived, I was glad to see Mica again.  She is such a nice cat.  I really wouldn't mind taking her home with me. We always laugh at her cuz every time she meows, she sounds like she's asking a question.

"Meoww??"

Of course Charlie was SO EXCITED to see us!

For his Easter present, we gave him this stuffed Easter bunny.  He carried it around with him all weekend and even slept with it at night.

Speaking of which, he INSISTED on sleeping with me and Chuck at night.  

Have you ever slept with a horse?

Me neither, but I think I know now what it would be like to sleep with a horse in your bed.

It doesn't work very well.

Since Steph was on spring break from her work, she decided to use this time to work on some home improvement projects, so we came prepared to help her with that.

Chuck's job was to help her install some windowsills on all of her windows.  It took a few trips to Lowe's and/or Home Depot, a lot of cutting, and a lot of priming.

While they were working on windows, I was given the task of painting one of her bathrooms:

It took me about a day and half to get it all done, including all the taping, and redoing some spots three times because textured walls are hard to cover evenly, even with a roller. I was supposed to do the ceiling too, but graciously bowed out of it because I didn't have confidence that I would do a decent job with that.

Chuck's job of doing all of her windows took pretty much the whole weekend, so when I was done with the bathroom, I helped him with that wherever I could or when Steph was too busy with other things.

So, it was a busy weekend.  We did have some down times though.  Chuck and Isaac sometimes found themselves both sitting at the table with their computers, discussing and comparing videos and information about their favorite subjects:  snowmachines, motorcycles, and for Isaac - Jeeps.

(yawn........!)

So that was pretty much it.

On Sunday we went to church, got a bite to eat a Chinese restaurant, and then drove home.

After a weekend with a hyper pup, it was so nice to get back home to Bossy!!

So now that I'm home, I got back into "gardening mode" and figured out which seeds I needed to start right away.  From what I found, the tomatoes needed to be started 8-10 weeks before the last frost.

It's pretty hard to tell when the last frost is gonna be since every year is different.  But the smart people usually consider June 1st to be a safe day to plan for planting outdoors.  I always hope to plant on Memorial Day, but just to be safe, I counted 10 weeks before June 1, which turned out to be today.

So here we go:

This time I ordered two different varieties of tomatoes.  The Stupice tomatoes are supposed to be strictly for growing in the greenhouse.  The Polar Beauty tomatoes, so it says on the package, can be grown in the greenhouse OR in a warm place in a garden bed.  So I started seeds for 6 Stupice tomatoes, and 12 Polar Beauty tomatoes.  That way I can try my luck with them in both places.

For the rest of the seeds, I counted the recommended weeks before the last frost, and wrote down the dates on the packages, so that way I know at a glance when I need to start them.  In a couple weeks I will need to start the zucchini and the pumpkins.

So here are my tomatoes so far.  Looks yummy, don't it?

Since I had some leftover pellets, I also went ahead and planted some other seeds, just cuz I didn't wanna waste the pellets. Maybe I should've just went ahead and made them all tomatoes, but I didn't know if that would be too many.  

I know, here I go with my boring gardening posts again..........

Before I close this out, you wanna see something really weird?

I was cutting apart this green pepper the other day, and I found a GREEN EAR inside of it!

That is weird.

Matthew 7:7 ASK!

As most of you know, I am a self-taught student of NT Greek, or I should say "self-teaching", since I am still learning, and always will be learning.

Anyhoo, I learned something today that I thought was very interesting and I wanted to share it.

This morning, my translation exercise was Matthew 7:7.  You are all quite familiar with the English translation of that verse:  "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you."

I was particularly interested in the word "ask" because I knew that there were several different Greek words for the word "ask", and I wanted to know if there were any significant differences in them, and how it would enlighten me in a new way whenever I came across this word in the future.

Indeed there is a significant difference!

As I said, there are several different Greek words for the word "ask", but I will only focus on two of them, since they are the ones that should be distinguished for deeper meaning.

1. The first one is the one you see here - the first word in the verse, pronounced "hye-TAY-te".

It is in the imperative mood (a command).  The lexical form is "hye-TE-oh".

It suggests a request or a petition that is made from a person of less equality or status than the person to whom the petition is made.  Like a child to a parent, or a subject to a king, or in this case - man to God.

Are you with me so far?

2. The other Greek word to compare it with is "air-o-TA-o", which also means to ask or request, but it suggests that the petitioner is on equal footing or familiarity with the person of whom he requests, like a king to another king, or sibling to sibling.

So, if I am going to request something from a friend, I would use #2.

If I'm going to ask something from any authority figure, I would use #1

Interestingly, in Luke 7:36, one of the Pharisees "asked" Jesus to eat with him. The word that Luke used in that narrative is #2, which suggests that the Pharisee considered himself to be equal with Christ.  Perhaps at that time, the Pharisee didn't understand who Jesus was? Or perhaps he thought Jesus was inferior to him? In vs 39, he refers to Jesus as a prophet, so maybe he was just arrogant?  What do you think? Certainly, by using this word, the Pharisee didn't consider Jesus to be above him in any way.

(The way I see it, #1 may suggest an attitude of respect and humility.)

Okay, here's the really interesting part that I'm still trying to wrap my brain around: Jesus never used #1 when making requests to the Father. The reason is obvious - He was EQUAL to God.  

It would very interesting to point this out to the Jehovah's Witnesses and see what they would have to say about that!

It's amazing how something so trivial can have so much meaning!

And this is just one teeny example of why I love learning Greek!

So there's your little Greek trivia for today.

In other news:

I got my veggie seeds already!

I will be planting pumpkins, winter squash, zucchini, tomatoes, snap beans, beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, cucumbers, salad mix, peas, and sunflowers.

I would like to start planting some of them NOW, especially the squash and pumpkins, but we are leaving for Fairbanks in a couple days, so it will have to be my #1 priority when I get back home.

Other news:

Bossy took Kiska's place as far as helping me with my quilting.

It's kinda hard to sew it with a cat sitting on top of it.

She likes cushy things, I guess.

That's all for now.  Hopefully, I will have some news from Fairbanks when I get back.

Good Riddance, Kiska!

Today, I had to do something that was very hard.  I took Kiska to the pound.  :-(

Here are the last couple pictures that I took of her today:

She was napping in a sunny spot with her tongue sticking out.

It breaks my heart that I actually did it, and I feel like a wretch because she's been part of this family for 10-1/2 years, and now all of a sudden she's whisked away to sit confined in a small cage, surrounded by other kitties.  And she has no clue as to why, why, why?!  Poor Kiska.

I wish I could've made her understand before I had to take this measure.

But here's why:

She would not use the litterbox!

A very trivial thing for her, but a very big deal for me.

We got her when she was a kitten:

... and we enjoyed her fluffy cuteness for 10-1/2 years.  

Even when she was a kitten, I knew she wasn't very healthy and prepared myself to deal with problems that she would probably have.  For starters, she had runny eyes all the time.  The vet said she had some kind of virus, probably a herpes virus, and there wasn't anything I could do for her except maybe slip some Lysine in her food.

Then she was seriously constipated.  It was terrible listening to her crying so loud every time she tried to poop, which often came out with blood.  Poor thing.  And because of that, she started pooping outside the litterbox.  The vet said it was because she was associating the litterbox with pain.  I had sympathy on her, so I patiently waited it out.
And I suppose this was the beginning of her litterbox woes.

Then for awhile she was fine and we had no problems.

Then winter hit.  For some strange unknown reason, she would get diarrhea twice a year - once in the winter, and again in spring/summer.  Then I had to muster up more patience as I dealt with a VERY STINKY cat, who left poopy butt prints on everything that she sat on, so I had to resort to giving her baths in the kitchen sink which of course she hated.

Then she would be fine again.  Then she would get stressed about something and start peeing on someone's bed, and this would last a few weeks, while I tolerated it and again waited it out with an irritated kind of patience.  (I can name plenty of people who probably would've shot her in the head by then, but I apparently am a very patient person.) Then she would be fine again.  She would keep going back and forth like that all the years that we had her, and I began to entertain wicked thoughts of hoping she would get hit by a car, or maybe an eagle or a hawk would snatch her up.  (does that make me a bad person?)

Then last year she got sick with a urinary tract infection.  The antibiotics cured her, but the habit of peeing outside her litterbox got worse and did not go away.  This was now a fixed habit that was here to stay.  Ever since then, her favorite place to pee was ON MY COUCH!  And it was EVERY DAY, TWICE A DAY!!  (sometimes three!) We had to throw out one of our couches because we could not get the cat pee smell out of it.  I knew she would then choose to start peeing on our other couch, so I kept it protected with plastic underneath a blanket.  So every day, twice a day, I had to change the coverings and wash them.  Then she started pooping on it as well, and Chuck and I started throwing around the "P" word (P is for pound).

I deterred this habit and tested her for a couple days by placing the plastic on top of the blanket, knowing she wouldn't pee on a plastic sheet.  I was hoping it would work, but instead of going to her litterbox, her next choice was MY BED.  Okay, that was a mistake.  So it was back to the couch.

Twice a day, every day.

I thought my wash machine was gonna wear out.

At 10 years old, I knew she still had some years left in her yet, and Chuck and I both agreed that this is a habit that is here to stay, and I didn't wanna keep dealing with this twice a day, every day for the next 5-10 years.

No way.

Plus, we both agreed that it was only a matter of time before she moved on to another piece of furniture, or worse - the carpet.

So I had to do the inevitable and take her to the pound, knowing full well that no one is gonna want her with that habit, thus knowing full well what will happen to her.

I don't wanna think about it.

Anyway, here is how she has spent the last week here.

As I was preparing to sandwich my quilt, she was right there to hold it down for me.  Or maybe she was just there to be in my way.

Here I'm trying to lay out my batting while trying to work around her.

And here she is enjoying a nap on it after I got it all pinned together.

As you can see, she's good company.  I will miss her when I'm scrapbooking cuz she always follows me and keeps me company whenever I go upstairs to work on my scrapbooks.

It really breaks my heart that I had to betray her like this.

But, at the same time, it really does help to be mad at her.

Bossy, on the other hand:

She doesn't give a hoot, and as soon as she realizes that Kiska is gone for good, she will be doing cartwheels.  She hated Kiska with a passion and got really grouchy if Kiska was even in the same room as her.

And now, Bossy is the queen of the house.

For now.

Until we get another kitten, which we are already talking about.

For me, I will enjoy getting up in the morning and NOT having to start the morning routine by washing the couch covers, only to wash it again later in the afternoon.  AND, I will be able to sit down on the couch without first having to sniff it to make sure it hadn't been peed on since the last washing.  And when we have guests over, I won't have to embarrassingly warn them about sitting in cat pee.

So, yes, I did shed a few tears, but it really does help make this less painful when I am mad at her. All I have to do is think about cat pee on my couch, and the tears no longer flow.

Other news:

We had SNOW!

But alas!  It was all gone within an hour or two.

Other than that, there's nothing else to report, other than I have been working on a "secret project", which I will reveal to you in due time.  I have been pretty obsessed with it, and it is the reason why I've been writing letters and making phone calls and connecting with people that I hadn't been connected with in a long time.  I'm very excited, but I cannot spill the beans just yet.

  Next week we will be visiting Stephanie and Isaac in Fairbanks, so maybe I will have something to write about after that trip.

 I must keep myself busy so I don't think about Kiska too much.