Normal again. . .almost!

We are finally beginning to feel a bit more normal. Our house is clean, with the exception of the cook top area. Almost all of our clothes have been returned. And we are back in our own sweet beds. 

But some things aren't the same. We can't use our stove or oven. So meals have been a bit entertaining and creative. I'm slowly putting things back since all of the items were returned in boxes all mixed up together. We have piles of "discard" bags sitting around that we can't do anything about until we get another visit from an insurance person.

And our sweet kitty hasn't returned home. The fireman scared the stuffings out of him and he ran outside. He always comes back and we spent that first night in our sooty house. I truly expected to hear him at the door that night. So I wasn't too worried. But as each day went by with no kitty we all became concerned. It is now almost 3 weeks later and no one has seen or heard him. I've asked all of the neighbors, posted notices on lsn and facebook, taken pictures to the humane society, and called the current and previous vets. We even, very briefly, considered getting another kitty. But we still miss Tolkie too much and it just didn't feel right. The kids cried on the way home because they saw all of those cats in cages and felt sorry for them and yet they missed their cat too much to get another one. In the words of Dominic "Someday I might want to rescue another kitty. But right now I can't. I miss Tolkie and I don't want to hurt his feelings when he gets home. Because I'm really praying he comes back home soon."

 

So if you get a chance, please send up a prayer that our kitty comes home. We miss him a lot.

We are moving on with the kitchen as best as we can. We've gotten estimates from all of the local cabinet places and have decided on a company. Ironically enough, Lowes is the most expensive. We have picked out tile, colors, etc. Our appliances arrived and are sitting here waiting. So now we just wait for a phone call letting us know that we can proceed with the demolition. 

I've been posting all of the fire updates here on the kids blog. It happened to all of us and affected all of us. But once the real renovations start, I'll move over to the other blog since all of my renovation pictures are there.