Awww..

Kiley just came up to me, gave me a hug, and said, "We're best friends, Mama." How cute is that?!

The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever!!!

Sometime between 11 pm Thursday (5/7) night and 9:30 am Friday (5/8) morning, our two strictly indoor cats managed to pop one of the screens to the windows in our front office out. Ryan was the first to notice that the cats were missing, and woke me up soon after. We both ran outside to start our search. Within seconds, one of the cats, Bandit, was located in the front yard. I started up our long driveway in my robe and pajamas, frantically calling for the other cat. There is a woman who lives up the road from us that owns several cats, so that was one of the first places I checked. Unfortunately, he wasn't there. I decided to head back to the house to change because I was receiving some unusual looks from the motorists passing me on the road.

By this time, Kiley was awake, so we all head out on foot to look for our missing kitty. Still no luck! He is a very skittish cat, so I was worried he was hunkered down somewhere unfamiliar and too terrified to move. We have a fairly fast moving stream through our backyard, trains rolling by at all hours of the day, and the road our street intersects with is very busy. There are a number of places he could be injured or even killed. Ryan decided to drive the nearby streets to see if there were any black and white causalities. Fortunately, there weren't.

We continued to call for him through out the day to no avail. We placed some food out for him, but there are so many cats in the neighborhood, we'd have no idea if it was him eating it.

Saturday came and went without any sign of him. I was starting to think he was going to end up like his sister who ran away a month before we moved to Roseville. We ended up finding her again, but she was too "wild" we couldn't even get near her to catch her.

So, this morning as I was getting dressed to go out this Mother's Day, Kiley was playing on our bed and Ryan was in the front part of the house. One minute, I'm picking up one of Kiley's rubber duckies off the floor, and the next, I'm staring at Ryan holding Bailey in his arms. Apparently, Ryan thought he heard knocking at the front door, and when he went to investigate, Bailey was strolling down the steps from the lawn. We were relieved and so happy he was home safely. He had sticker burrs in his fur and a little muddy, but otherwise in good condition.

Here's a picture of Ryan and Bailey relaxing on the loveseat in the office several hours after they were reunited:

After Ryan returned from Iraq, Bailey was never the same towards him as he was before. Ryan would struggle just to get Bailey to come near him to pet him. So, when I see this picture, it makes me wonder what he went through for 2 days on his own.

Caching, Tea, and Silly String!

So, today officially kicked off what I will call my "birthday weekend" even though it's not until Monday. I had a day packed full of fun with just my mom. This morning we headed to Citrus Heights (in the steady rain) to our first ever flash mob geocaching event. I've never seen so much silly string before! Too bad there weren't any muggles around to witness the whole thing!

Aftermath:


It seemed to be over in a blink of an eye, but it was unforgettable! We found a couple of caches in the same park with geo-friends from Folsom and some on our own. Soon we headed back toward our house to change into our nice clothes for afternoon tea. The warm tea and yummy food was perfect for a day like today. After chit-chatting over full-bellies, we made our way back to the house again to change for more geocaching. We managed to find 3 more in the never-ending rain. It was a great time and very memorable, even if does mean I'm one year closer to 30. :o)