My sneaky daughter

This past week was a bit stressful. Our cat got out of the house and was gone for over a week. It was freezing the first night and I was sure he was a goner. This was upsetting for 2 reasons.
1. We love him and he brings us a lot of comfort with his purrs and softness
2. We paid a lot of money getting him neutered and de-clawed

I put an ad on craigslist and in the local paper. Then I put up posters on all the streets around us and put fliers on my neighbors porches. I got a lot of replies that said don't worry. He's just hiding out but after a week things were looking pretty dim. My neighbors called on Valentines Day and said that they thought they saw a grey cat in their garage but he wouldn't come out for them. He was hiding up in the rafters. So, I went over, climbed up their ladder and called him. He came right out when he heard me and all was well again in the smathers house. While he was gone I even fed the neighborhood strays with the food I left on the porch. As we have well learned, all is never well for long. That same night I got a call asking me if I was missing my dog. I thought that was odd and told them no. I was missing my cat but he was back. He then said but I have a dog with this number on her tag. Apparently the land lord had stopped by and the idiot left the gate open...again. He KNOWS we have a dog. So, instead of holding onto Jinglebell, the guy lets her run and she just barely missed getting hit by a car. So she went out for a 3 hour joy run before deciding it was too cold and she should run home. She let us chase her for 3 blocks first of course. Usually Jake ends up doing a diving tackle to catch her. I was not even about to try that. I'd probably have broken something. At least this time she barked in front of the right house.

Other than the drama of missing pets, things have been pretty normal. We finally have a date to look forward to. Jake will be home for R&R on March 20th!!! We're all excited, especially Hails. She keeps telling me that she's going to make an invention that reaches all the way to Iraq and will suck Jake back to our house through a humongous tube. She asked Nate to help her build it. She calls it the Iraq come back...or something like that.

One funny story before I go which will explain my blog title. Sometimes I will bribe Hailey with little things to help me find things like my keys. She asked me if I would buy her a wenkinz if she found Charlie. I (somewhat sarcastically) said "Hails, if you find Charlie, I'll buy you 3." When Charlie was missing, Hailey and I would say our prayers and ask for Heavenly Father to watch over him and help him find his way home. It went like that every night until about Friday when Hails asked Heavenly Father to bring Charlie home tomorrow. I didn't want to crush her faith but didn't want her to be upset when it didn't happen. She taught me a lesson. The neighbor's called the next day. Hails was about to make them a thank you card for finding Charlie when she said to me. "mom, the neighbors didn't really find Charlie" (me) "Oh? Well then who did?" (Hails) "God did" I was very impressed that she recognized that he answered her prayer when she added "and since I prayed to God, I helped find him so you owe me 3 webkinz" How do I argue with that? I don't.