Change is Good... right?

Everything is changing and my head is spinning! I accepted a new job for next year at UNI teaching art education classes and I am in the process of enrolling in the PHD program at the University of Iowa. I will be VERY busy next year teaching classes at both universities and taking classes as well. I am so excited to begin this new challenge but I am scared as well. It will be so different than teaching elementary children.
I am very sad to be leaving my staff and students in a few weeks. I have been at my elementary school for 5 years. Below is a picture of our 4th annual end of the year art show. I had over 150 people come. It was so wonderful.


Here my new car! I needed to get it since I will be driving to UNI ( an hour drive) twice a week next year! Thanks to Kirsten's great husband who runs the dealership- we got a great new Mazda wagon.
We drove our new Mazda to Des Moines yesterday to meet Gizmo's new family. We will miss her so much. She was the smallest of the kitties and so sweet and gentle. Good Luck!

While in Des Moines, we bought a new couch at Homemakers furniture,
(our old hand-me-down couch finally bit it!)
Maybe it was 5 cats and two dogs wrestling on it for the last 2 months????

It won't be delivered for a few weeks so ... we must temporally fix our old one! Wish us luck!

All in all, change is good, right.....??
I'll miss my Volvo wagon and it's cute little quirks, I'll miss all the kitties we are saying good bye to, and I'll really miss my job most! BUT- no looking back, great new experiences ahead!!!!!

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

Goodbye Gadget...

Here I am holding Gadget for the last time. I love how he crosses his paws and goes limp in your arms. He truly is a snuggler! I am going to miss him so much. He went to a new home in Cedar Rapids yesterday. Goodbye Gadget.... Good Luck!

Next Saturday Gizmo goes to Des Moines! Boo Hoo!

New Jewelry!

I made some new jewelry for some of my family members' birthdays... check them out!

Picking Violets

Sophie and Marissa were over last weekend to see the kittens. They had so much fun with them, and just as much fun picking all of the violets in our yard.

Do you need a kitty?

We are now looking for homes for two of our kitties. Jeremy and I are keeping Mabel and Roosevelt. A friend of a friend is taking little Gizmo to Des Moines ( we think she will miss her partner Gadget) Any thoughts of taking Gadget as well, would be great. Kitttens go much better in pairs. They have someone to play with and are more likely to stay out of trouble- you know like with the drapes or the plants!!
Just a thought..... with that in mind, Darby the adorable and Gadget the great are in need homes!
Here are a few recent shots of them.
Darby the tiger striped kitten loves to run and jump on the other kittens. He is so energetic and so affectionate. Darby purrs so loud and wants to follow you everywhere. Now Gadget loves to wrestle and since he is the biggest of the kittens at 2 lbs. He often wins! He is mellow most of the time and will let you handle him all the time. He has extra soft fur and loves to sit on laps.

Gadget the Great
Gadget the snuggler
Gadget wrestling Gizmo his twin sister

Darby the Adorable
Darby the Daring
Darby needs a home...

If you are someone you know is interested, please post a comment. Thanks, Wendy and Jeremy

What's Up?

I have only been posting Kittens for the like the last month and a half, so what else is new here? I am sad to say that Chalk the Walk was this weekend in Mount Vernon, but I could not go because I was sick. I completely lost my voice- which you must know for me is HELL! Last week was so extremely busy for me that I feel the stress made me sick!
Jeremy and I decided last year we wanted to move out west BUT the Iowa flooding has left us with an unexpected mess in our basement that we can't seem to fix. So I have been looking for alternative things to do next year. I want to start my PHD at Iowa so I was looking for work I could do part time. I interviewed at University of Northern Iowa last Monday for an associate art education professor position for next year. ( I could drive an hour because all my classes would be on two days a week). I have not heard back so that may not be good! It was a very scary, new experience for me. I presented my research and teaching to over 45 people in the auditorium in the art building. It may have been more than I am ready for!

Wednesday was my birthday-Jeremy got me a new sewing machine- yeah!!!!! I took the day off and spent it with Jeremy and my dear friend Jason. We went out for Sushi, to the movies and then for a pedicure. It was a new experience for some!!!
This week does not look like it is going to slow down either! I hope my voice returns soon!

Hiding places

These kittens are finding so many great hiding places in our old house. It has been hard keeping track of them! Here are a few of my favorite places.....

In pockets....
On top of the phone book...
In our record collection basket.....

In their new cat house from IKEA.... ( thanks Mom!)
Under sleeping children.....

In Jeremy's pants!!!!!!!! OH MY!!!

I am so sorry I have not posted for a while....... I have been so busy! Here are a few fun shots for you of the kittens so you can see how fast they are growing! We have moved them downstairs and they are now eating soft cat food. They are soooo much fun!

new talents!

Darby's talents rely on his ability to be cute and show off his adorable striped belly while simultaneously attacking the other kitties and chewing on their ears!!

Mabel's talents include her strong voice and love of lying on her back and having you rub her belly.
Roosevelt has been our leader in starting new things like for instance, he was the first to use the litter box and the first to play with toys. He is our most photogenic kitty.... or at least, he is the one that will hold still the longest to get his picture taken.
Gizmo and Gadget have been hard to photograph. I am going to work hard this week on that. Gadget is much bigger than Gizmo and we are not having problems telling them part anymore.
We are very fond of Gizmo because he has become a real snuggler this week. You can often find him resting on my shoe while I am helping another kitty, patiently waiting his turn. Gadget was the first to lap formula from the lid rather than a bottle. He is the biggest but very gentle.
Any advice on getting kitties off the bottle and into soft food would be appreciated. We are mixing soft can food with formula and they will eat it if you put it to their mouths but no one
(except Gadget) will eat off the lid yet. This process has led to many baths. I will put those fun photos up next!

Who's your favorite?

We have had lots of visitors over to meet our kitties. Everyone seems to be picking their favorite kitty or kitties!

It's love!

Jeremy
Jill
Anna Jo

The naming of the kittens...

We had over 160 letters from students who wanted to help name the kittens. I congratulated the winners over announcements this morning. It was really hard to decide, but as you can see below, we had a lot of help!


Here are the names we chose from the letters!
Names from left to right: Gizmo and Gadget the twins ( Gizmo has a big circle spot on tummy to help identify) Gray tiger striped kitty is now Darby, the little Calico is Mabel, and last, the orange kitty is officially Roosevelt.

An adventure outside

Kirsten came over and we took the kittens outside for a little adventure. It was so adorable to watch them tumble and wrestle and walk all over each other. Each one would walk to the edge of the blanket and touch the grass with their little paws and turn right around. I was happy to see they weren't ready to go too far yet.


Dottie helped herd them back onto the blanket when they would start to wander. She was much more interested in them than Violet, my beagle, who is far off in the background. She is a bit frightened by their little "meows".

Worn out at last, the kitties snuggle up in our laps....

Weighing In

All the kitties have been weighed and bot are they gainign weight quickly!! On March 30th, they were averaging about 9oz. and last night they were up to 12oz. They are growing so fast!

Rescued Animals

I took our kitties to school today for many of the children to see. We had a great day, but boy were those kittens tuckered out after all that attention! Everyone was was glad to see they were doing so well after being rescued from the cold playground.
It got me thinking of these dogs that were rescued from a farm outside of Solon, IA which is near my home. There were 58 neglected dogs on a farm that were taken into our Iowa City shelter which is an amazing shelter if you have never been on their page, you should check it out.
Anyways, the dogs that were able to be adopted seemed to being doing great. One of the new owners created this web page to share updates and chat with others who adopted these needy pups. The stories are beautiful and heart-wrenching as well.

Oh by the way- we received over 150 letters from students to help name the kitties. I will post a bunch this weekend but for now I will leave you with one quote from a third grader named Max.... "name one 'Civil' to be thankful we won the war."

Naming the babies

Letters are pouring in from kids today! I hung some photos of the kitties on a bulletin board to help them out! Here are a few from one letter.....
Dear Ms. Miller I have two cats at home. Here are some names for you. One is Hope, Lovebug, snowflake, Angel (spelled Angle) and Lucy. Those are all the names I got so far.
From Lucas 3 grade