I don’t know if this is a made up day or what. But I figured I’d go with it and write about my girls. Girls…not really “girls” more like one young soon to be adult and 2 young ladies. I’m so proud of all of them of course. They’ve each chosen their own different paths in life. Alyssa now 25, married at age 22 years after graduating with her bachelors degree; Daniella (Lelly) age 22 is living on her own in an apartment Manhattan after graduating early with her bachelors; Sam age 17 in her senior year of high school figuring things out.

I never thought I would have one girl, never mind three. Boys ran very strong in Tommy’s family. We didn’t find out Alyssa’s gender, choosing to be surprised. And oh man was she a surprise. I didn’t even have a girls name picked out. Only boys names. Alyssa was nameless for 2 days, literally. Tommy wanted a fairly traditional name, I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but we finally settled on the name Alyssa and it fit her perfectly.

Daniella was easy to name for whatever reason but Thomas who was 5 and speech delayed morphed her name into the nickname “Lelly”. And because she was my smallest baby at 7.5lbs we expanded on her nickname to Lelly-bird.” To this day we either call her Lelly or simply The bird.

I had a very difficult time naming Samantha. For whatever reason I had my grandmother’s name that she was given at birth, Emilia in mind. But…when I saw Samantha she totally did not fit that name. I remember reading that the name Samuel meant “and God heard” so I was thinking of the name Samantha, since I had 2 losses before her. God did hear me of that I’m certain. So Samantha she became!

I really enjoy my girls. With Thomas being special needs and all the challenges and advocating he required it was nice to just have kids in school. There were only a handful of times I had to call the grammar school for the girls and the administrators deserved my wrath. Most of the time I was like, seriously??? And for God’s sake why?? Especially after attending many IEP meetings and multiple doctors appointments for Thomas. A real kicker was when Samantha broke her leg right before starting 7th grade. I went with her the first day, was told to return with a doctors note, did that and then find out the powers that be in her school wouldn’t assign her a para to help her get around in a school without an elevator. Things were straightened out with a little help from friends and a para was assigned short term.

I love hanging out with my girls. Everyone was here yesterday for dinner. It’s fun to see firsthand their similarities and differences all at the same time. They all make me laugh in different ways and I love spending time with them. A week or so ago I had a dream and Alyssa and Thomas were toddlers in the dream. It was wild to see them that way now, you know? I cried when I Tommy. Not because I miss them when they were small, but to be able to get a small glimpse of them, then; you know?

Twelve years ago on a Saturday morning this beautiful cat appeared on my neighbors front steps. We fed her since we already had a cat (and cat food) and the next thing I know she was on our front stoop. My neighbor put up signs in the neighborhood and put this cat’s picture all over social media at the time. No one came to claim her. Tommy was telling me that we weren’t taking her in, forget it, no.

Monday came around and I managed to get this cat in a carrier and drove with her to the other side of the island to the animal control center to see if she was chipped. They scanned her and there was no chip. They practically pushed me out the door saying goodbye enjoy your cat! They did not want to take another stray cat in. I them took her to our vet to make sure she was healthy. The vet said this cat was about 8 months old, female, not spayed, and drew blood for various tests. I went to pay the receptionist and I said, OMG, this cat isn’t really mine, she doesn’t even have a name! The woman took my money and said, “Cash Menay, her name is Cash!” Perfect. Tommy came home from work and asked me how my day was and I said, “Oh I don’t want to talk about it, all the running around and money I spent on that cat…”. Tommy was puzzled and said, what cat? The cat from the weekend, Tommy was like no, no we are not bringing that cat in here.

The next day the vet’s office calls and says Cash is healthy as per the blood tests they ran. So I go to the front stoop and bring her on the house. She was so scared she ran down the basement. Tommy comes home with a friend to work in the basement and says, “Why is there a cat that’s NOT mine in my basement??” I gave every reason and explanation I had to get to keep her. And my husband conceded. Cash was home.