April Update

Here's a quick update on life in Oregon:

1. We moved into our first house! There were over 20 people who helped us and it was really a fun day :) We had so much help that the moving went really quickly and people ended up unpacking a lot of our stuff too. By the end of this week, we should be totally unpacked and settled. I'm hoping to spend this weekend doing some outside garden/yard stuff, and I am really excited for that! I keep getting giddy about the little things...like parking my car in a garage for the first time.
2. Tonight, I'm starting a Beth Moore Bible Study with our women's ministry. My two best friends from church are doing it with me too, so I am really looking forward to it. Most of my church activities are focused on teenagers, so I'm thankful for this opportunity to focus on my own spiritual life. It is at the same time that Kory has a guys Bible study at our house, so that works out perfectly where we don't have to spend more nights apart than we do currently.
3. We got some sad news yesterday at the vet's office when we found out our cat, Kabie, has feline leukemia. This is a virus that attacks the cat's immune system and leaves it unable to fight off many diseases and other viruses. Our other cat, Mr. Sir, has not contracted it and the vet doesn't believe he will since Kabie has likely had it for over a year and she hasn't given it to him yet. Unfortunately, this means Kabie can't be an outside cat, like we hoped. We don't want to risk exposing other cats to this virus and her weakened immune system means she would probably pick up other dangerous diseases if exposed to them outside.
   
   It isn't likely that she will die soon, but the vet did say this will ultimately shorten her life span. This is probably part of the reason she is so lethargic and fat...she just lays around all day, because she is sick :( I feel really bad now that we haven't been very nice to her--we just thought she was lazy and fat! haha She really isn't very friendly, but now that we know she's sick, I have much more compassion towards her. I still really want Mr. Sir to get to be outside as much as possible. I know he'd love the trees and animals and grass in our big backyard!
   
   Kabie doesn't seem to be suffering at all right now. If she starts to, we plan to end her pain peacefully before it gets bad. When talking to the vet yesterday, she told me she doesn't think it's a good idea to let the cats outside because there are dogs/bigger animals and cars could hit them and it's just really too dangerous. I think she's lost perspective on the fact that they are animals! I would be SO sad if either cat was killed, but I think their quality of life would be so much better playing outside rather than spending their life indoors looking out the window.
4. One more thing about Kabie...that chunky girl is over 21 lbs now!! haha She is huge! Sadly, she can't really groom herself or jump much at all, so she's going on a strict diet ASAP.
5. Things at my work have been really busy for about the past 3-4 months, and it's just now starting to slow down a bit. Any time I'm tempted to complain about how much I have to do or how I don't want to do any of it, I'm quickly reminded by our lobby full of customers that there are a lot of people here who would gladly take my job in a heartbeat. It doesn't always motivate me, but at least I realize I need to keep my whining to myself :)
6. We had a beautiful winter in Roseburg this year...lots of sunshine and mild temperatures. Spring, however, has been crazy crazy rainy!! The month of March set a new record for the most rainfall in one month here. I still love the rain after spending most of my life in a drought, so you won't hear me complaining about how wet it is...I am always thankful to fall asleep listening to the rain. I do look forward to some summer sunshine though!