New Babies - And Their Naughtiness

I recently inherited a new kitty from a friend of mine that unexpectedly passed away.  Her husband asked me to take her sweet baby in, and I readily agreed.  She came to me on August 21, and this beautiful baby girl is now one of my fur-babies.  Her name is Amirah (Arabic for "Princess).

The old cat, Bob (he's 6 years old now-WOW!), is just barely getting used to her.  He can now be in the same room with her without throwing a temper tantrum.  God forbid she touch him, though!  And touch him, she does!  Often!  Just to tick him off!  He was at the foot of the bed the other day, and she was sitting up near the top next to me.  She just kept staring and staring and inching closer to him.  He ignored her until she got about 6 inches away, and by then he'd had enough.  He just sat up, and smacked her in the face and knocked her off the bed.  It was quite entertaining!

Bently is excited to have a playmate, but she's not convinced she's going to play with him yet.  He get's so excited, and rushes towards her (which freaks her out).  I think they will be best buds before long, it will just take a little time.

Of course, he will have to be able to trust her not to swipe his ears off when his back is turned.  That might take a LOT more time.

This is his OMG-MOM!-AMIRAH-JUST-TRIED-TO-SLASH-MY-FACE-OFF!!! face.

Believe it or not, he usually looks a little more worried than this.  He's so precious!

She is causing quite the stir in our household!

The only times Bently has ever gotten into the trash was when my bestie's dog was around, and they decided to explore the smells together.  Since my dog is pretty good about not committing such unpardonable sin on his own, imagine my surprise when I walked into the bathroom a few days ago to find trash strewn across the floor.  I was convinced that Bently was the offender due to the tell-tale piece of evidence hanging from the side of his mouth.  Naughty.  He recieved a spanking and was sent to his bed.

However, I'm fairly certain now that Amirah was in fact the mischievous child and blamed the dog (how like a cat!).  This is due in part to the fact that last night I found Benlty sitting in my bedroom barking (tattling) at the empty bathroom with garbage littering the floor.  I wasn't sure it was him, but just to be safe I put him in his bed anyway (it was already bedtime).  I didn't yell at him or spank him, since he was already looking repentant (looking back, I'm pretty sure that's b/c he was trying to tell me he knew better, and it WAS NOT him--this time), and even then I wasn't thoroughly convinced it was him.

What really convinced me that it was the cat, however, was walking into the bedroom where I had been keeping Amirah separated from the other fur-babies (until recently) to find more shredded trash dotting the floor.

I MEAN!!  Look at that baby!!  How could such a sweet, innocent, fur-angel get into GARBAGE??

HA!  Innocent, my foot!  It's only that cute face that saves him.

If I were a Fairy Princess

I like to read fairy tales.

Don't judge.

I also like classics, sci-fi, mystery, thrillers, etc.  I like to read.  (Not so much drama or romance, though.  ugh)

A recurring plot in fairy tales is one that includes a lost or in-hiding fairy princess that is being raised by good, human parents in a modern world, and she has no idea what her real identity is and blah, blah, blah.

What I want to know is, do authors really imagine that said fairy princess who has been raised speaking our current dialect is going to inexplicably begin speaking in a dialect from the Middle Ages when she arrives in her fairy home after finding out her true identity?

I mean, really. . .

If I were a lost fairy princess (shut up--maybe I am.  YOU'LL never know!) that has found my way "home," I'm not gonna say, "Oh, Father, how I have long wished for this day!"  Or, "Oh, dear.  Sweet sister, dost thou know what hast occurred?"  I'd probably say, "Hey, Dad (assuming that I've accepted the king as my parental figure along with my new-found place in the Land of Faerie), I'm glad you found me!"  Or, "Woah, woah, WOAH!  _____ (insert abbreviation of fairy sister's funky name here b/c I probably wouldn't be able to pronounce it correctly), what the heck just happened?"

Hmmm.

Sweet patrons, I thank you all for your kind interest in my . . .

Oh forget it.

Thanks for reading!

:)

From Dessert to Main Course

Ok, so I've been struggling with a sinus infection since Tuesday of last week.  It's a first for me.  I think this comes from all the crazy allergy problems I've had this season--I think they are getting worse each year.  I've had allergy problems in the past, but it's usually just for a day or two.  For some reason, this season it's been nonstop for several weeks!  Ugh!  Can't. Breath.

Well, as I said, I came down with a lovely sinus infection last week.  (Not to worry--I went to see a doctor yesterday--well, a nurse practitioner, really.  She was awesome--I don't care what letters follow her name.  She prescribed some meds, and hopefully I'm on my way to recovery!)

My mom is really into this natural Essential Oil stuff.  Which is great, I guess.  Some people swear by it.  She has four different oils that she's making me use:  Thieves, Lavender, Peppermint, and Ravensara.  I have no idea what they are supposed to do, but I do know they make me smell like a spice cake.  And I told her so.  She didn't laugh.

I thought it was funny.

The other day I was walking out the door of her house and she yelled.  Like the good daughter that I am, I stopped and came back in to make sure she wasn't hurt.  As she's pulling something out of a drawer in the kitchen (insert my mental "Uh-oh" here), she says, "Oh, NIKI!  I WISH I would have remembered this sooner!  Take this (she starts walking towards me with something that looks suspiciously like a spice jar).  Fill your bathtub with water as HOT as you can possibly stand it, and put all of this in it and soak until the water cools.  Then put MORE hot water in and keep soaking until it cools again.  It will help draw it (I can only assume she meant my sinus infection) out."

I looked down and she's holding a jar of. . . GINGER?  "You want me to soak in a bath of GINGER WATER?  Great, so I'll go from smelling like spice cake to smelling like SOUP!"

My actual thoughts:  I officially graduated from desert to main course.  Excellent.  Why did I have to be a good daughter?  I should have kept walking out the door.  For crying out loud. . .GINGER?  Like that's going to work.  Bah.  This smell had better not stick to me!


Mom:  "Don't worry!  The smell won't stick to you.  Just take a shower after your bath."

I will say this for the ginger bath:  it smelled good, even though I don't particularly want to smell LIKE ginger.  And I was able to breath a little easier for the rest of the night.  Although, that could have just been b/c I was breathing in steam for an hour.

Disclaimer:  I do love and respect my mother.  She is a brilliant, wonderful, Godly woman.  I'm just not as convinced as she is about home remedies and "essential oils."  Give me antibiotics and antihistamines.  I feel great, today!  (That's the antihistamine talking, FYI.  I feel light as a feather!)

The only problem I have with taking the antihistamine:  I don't think the side affects are very conducive to working.  Sometimes my arms don't want to move.  Is that normal?  I sure hope this wears off before 5 so I can drive home!  I'd prefer sleeping in my bed over sleeping under my desk tonight.   Wait a second. . . Why does that sound like a good idea right now?

TWO Stinking CUTE!!

I hope this makes you giggle like it did me!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I love Irish Blessings!

May the Lord keep you in His hand and never close His fist too tight.

If God send you down a stony path, may He give you strong shoes.

May the light of Heaven shine on your grave.

Champagne to our real friends, and real pain to our sham friends.

May you be half an hour in Heaven before the devil knows you're dead.

May the lilt of Irish laughter lighten every load.  May the mist of Irish magic shorten every road.  May you taste the sweetest pleasures that fortune ere bestowed, and may all your friends remember all the favors you are owed.

A great Irish prayer:

Grant me a sense of humor, Lord,
The saving grace to see a joke,
To win some happiness from life,
And pass in on to other folks.

A couple of Irish curses:

May those who love us love us.
And those that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we'll know them by their limping.


May you melt off the earth like snow off the ditch.


How about some Irish proverbs:


A lock is better than suspicion.


Be neither intimate nor distant with the clergy.


Both your friend and your enemy think you will never die.


If you want to be criticized, marry.


You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.


When the drink is inside, the sense is outside.


A funny quote:


Sigmund Freud said, "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever."


Happy St. Patrick's day!

A New Discovery

I feel like a doofus for not knowing about this sooner, but I just discovered my Google Reader!  I follow a lot of blogs.  I mean, over 50--not really sure how many.  There is a way to check, but I don't really feel like doing that right now.  (It's 61--I checked after I posted this.)

I usually just go to my Blogger dashboard and scroll through the latests posts.  If something looks interesting, I click on it and check it out.  Sometimes I skip a few days, and I miss stuff that way.  I discovered the Google Reader right about the time I realized I hadn't check the blogs in a few weeks.

I had over a thousand unread posts.  Apparently, it stops counting after 1000.  Haha.  I love it b/c I can click on each blog and scroll through the posts.  Or I can mark everything on that blog as "Read" so it doesn't show up again.  (For example, I follow the Swapping Spoons blog, and she posts coupons and good deals.  Most of those expire fairly quickly, so there is no reason to go back and read old posts.)

Uh-mazing!!  So I've been catching up this week.  I've missed some pretty cool stuff!  These ladies are fantastic.  So creative.  Some of them are working moms, and I don't know when they have the time for their crafts and home projects.  I'm a single working girl, and I rarely have time to do stuff!  I'm down to under 500 now.  Of course, following over 50 blogs means I usually have over 50 new posts a day.  Once I get caught up, it will be a breeze to keep up!

I'm so excited!

Monday. . . AGAIN!

Bucky Katt

Monday. Phhhhht!

Coolest Clock E-VER!

So, one of my besties had a birthday back at the beginning of December.  We both love making stuff, so I thought to myself, "Self, why not give her something we can make together.  Hmmm. . ."  I had to think of something we could make.  Ok, her bedroom is black, white, and pink.  (Love that color scheme!)  Her favorite things in the world are her four animals.  She could use a great big clock b/c she's always late.  (Heh. . . heh!  Don't hit me, Sam!  It hurts!)  And the idea was born. . .

I designed the clock, and bought all the necessary parts.  Except for the most important piece: the wood.  My favorite daddy in the whole wide world gave me a piece.  And cut it for me.  Twice.  But we won't go there right now.  Here it is all finished.  What do you think?

(Honestly, I don't care what you think.  I love it!)  ;)

I decided to make each corner of the clock a corner for each of the animals.  I put their names and a whole bunch of words describing each pet into Microsoft word, and played around with the fonts and text sizes.  It only took 4 days!  The girls are in opposite corners on two different pink papers, and the boys are in the other two corners on black and white papers.  I printed the boys' names and descriptive words on pink card stock so it would stand out against the black and white paper.  The girls' names and descriptive words were printed on white card stock.  (I thought the pink would get lost on the pink paper.  I would have liked to have done white font on black paper, but I wasn't sure how to do that.)

Here goes:

First, I asked my dad oh-so-sweetly to cut a piece of wood for me.  He has a stash of 3/4 in. plywood that worked quite nicely for our purposes.  He also drilled a hole for me.  He's the best.  He did it twice for me.  I won't say why b/c it was my fault.

We primed the wooden letters (that we found at Hobby Lobby quite by accident), the board, and four wooden cabinet knobs that we used as feet on the back b/c the clock mechanism stands away from the board.  We spray painted all the wooden parts a glossy black.

We spray painted the clock hands the Raspberry color.  I'm not sure they stand out enough, so we might have to repaint them a glossy black, too.

Then we modpodged the four papers to the board.  We used wood glue to glue the wooden letters in their places so we could get the words placed correctly around them.  We modpodged the words after that.

 Glue is still wet.

Just trying to get an idea for the placement.  These words go on the top squares.

We sealed all the words with a final coat of modpodge.  After that was all done, all that was left was the feather boa and the clock hands and mechanism.  We used Fabritac to adhere the feather boa around the clock. Lemme tell ya!  Gluing a feather boa to something ain't easy!  Sheesh.  I hope I never have to do that again!  We also used a staple gun on in.  The clock hands and mechanism were easy.  We used wood glue for the cabinet knobs/feet thingies (of which I do not have a picture).

It's pretty big.  The board is 18" x 18", and the boa adds a few inches to either side.  I think it's adorable, though!

I'm going to make myself one using the first board my dad cut for me.  But much different.  And without the boa.

That's just WRONG!

Ok, so Saturday I was doing my laundry.  It's been a while.  It's not my favorite task.

As I was picking up a pile (about the 4th) of clothing from my closet floor, I looked down, and what do I see?

This.

Um.  What?

Yes, that's a snake.  A dead snake.  A small snake, but a snake none-the-less.  EWWWWWWW!

I think my cat got it.

I think it's a good thing it was already dead.

I think I should do laundry more often.

I think I should move.

The B-I-B-L-E!

A father was approached by his small son who told him proudly, "I know what the Bible means."

The father smiled and replied, "What do you mean you 'know' what the Bible means?"

The son replied, "I DO know!"

"Okay," said his father.  "What does the Bible mean?"

"That's easy, Daddy!" the young boy replied excitedly.  "It stands for Basic Information Before Leaving Earth!"

It's hot.