How far will Kipluck drive to Get fried balls of dough? TO THE CAPITAL BUILDING!!!!

Yeah. So this week some major ups and downs. First a silly tidbit. Rinny and I had to be at the UEA Convention for work plugging or Field Trips, trying to get high schoolers into The Fairchild Challenge, networking with groups who might give our kids some events to go to for their "Environmental Immersion day," and collecting an inordinate amount of free pencils and whistles. Woohoo! Anyway, after that I really wanted to splurge and get something yummy. As in hush puppies and fish at Long John Silver's which I was pretty sure there WAS on State Street in the Sandy to Salt Lake area. So I figured I would just drive till I saw one.

Well, after awhile even though I pretty much knew there was no way there was a Long John Silver's on that street, it was like playing Chicken with myself. I WAS going to drive the whole street. And so, yeah, ended up at the Capitol Building to take pictures. hee hee!

I love the Lions. And the other statues. And the funky angles (I just adore architecture anyway)! And the random Spanish lady asking me if the Brigham Young in the capitol was the same as the prophet. (Si.).

So, that was Friday and some silliness. Earlier in the week was a bit more emotional.

First, there was Josie. The very first person who called ended up being the PERFECT person for her. A young Grandma who wanted her as a cherished pet. She will live with kids and grandkids to play with (which is much better than goats and sheep who she never really liked and with whom, well, she was the lowest on the totem pole. See how she ate?
This was how she ate EVERY DAY. UNDER the trough, picking at crumbs. MY PRINCESS should NOT have to grovel for food!) Josie is a PEOPLE Goat. She thought she WAS a human kid and liked playing with the neighbor girls (my mom's surrogate grandchildren). Also, Josie HATED the cold and wet and would have been miserable in the snow and yuckiness, especially with less people to visit her... and now she will have attention everyday with a warm goat house (and a lady who admitted she will probably end up inside the house more often than not this winter!) and her fluffy dog bed again. And all this farm stuff is moot anyway since they were going to sell her and who knows who'd buy her! But probably not someone THIS AWESOME.

Even with those scriptures about sheep and goats that now make me purse my lips a bit Heavenly Father surely answers prayers for little goats. I know he did. My mom and I were praying so hard and then this lady... and she hugged me 3 times when she met Josie and told me how beautiful and perfect she was (and she IS but I am glad SHE knew!) and told me all about her missionary son and hugged me again and talked so sweet to Josie and she was just... PERFECT. She is EXACTLY an answer to prayer. Pretty much the only way God could have topped this was to make this better was to magically give ME my own farm to keep Josie on.

But He's not Santa Claus or the Genie... He's Heavenly Father. And He obviously loves his GOATS as much as His SHEEP after all.

(Which totally reminds me of a story I am putting in the other blog. YES. A church story about Goats. Kinda. Hee hee!)

But I sure will miss her.

Then I went to my house (because sometimes I try to visit my OWN house and take care of things (even though my awesome roomie is caring for everyone) to make ME feel better.) after a trip to the Pet Store. I was missing Josie and decided to just poor that into my other pets. So I decided my little gerbil Boo needed some spoiling and hadn't got a new chewing treat in awhile. So I bought it and went home to her... to find her dead.

She had JUST died. The Roomie had seen her acting just fine just the night before. I had to pet her to even be sure she WAS dead because she looked just asleep, but not responding to my voice. I started crying so hard. There were some of those tears in there for missing Josie. But truly, Boo was the BEST Gerbil.

Most gerbils hide when people tap on the glass. BooBonic came out of hiding when you tapped. She would come to the top level to visit you. She would often follow the dogs in her ball. The Roomie works with the disabled, and her main client, J, loved Boo. She never once bit him or anyone else, not in her whole life with me. He loved to help care for her and it was part of his routine. Boo actually became the smallest animal in their Pet Therapy Program! She was so patient with children and the disabled. She was active to the end. She never slowed down or was arthritic. She got a few grey hairs, but other than that, she was very healthy as an old gerbil. I know she likely died of old age... she looked just like she was sleeping. When I burried her, she looked like she was sleeping still. I marked her grave with a stone painted like a pumpkin for one of Rinny's TV spots, then labeled with her name and dates.

She was sweet and funny and a WONDERFUL gerb. I will miss her terribly.