Busy Life

These pictures are from the baby shower I coordinated over the weekend. I made a diaper cake to use for the centerpiece on the food tables, and it was also our gift to the new baby. It turned out really cute, and the mom-to-be loved it. The centerpieces for the tables were little duck ponds: rubber ducks floating in glass bowls of water. The kids loved them! There were also rubber ducks floating in the punch bowl. The cake that my mom made turned out beautifully and it tasted great. I think I’ll consider this shower a success. Next up: Pastor Appreciation Night. I’ll be out of town for that one, but I’m getting everything ready ahead of time so someone can just facilitate it. October is going to be a busy month at church. There’s Pastor Appreciation Night, the Ladies Overnight Retreat, and the Fall Festival, plus various prep meetings for things that are planned for November. Time is going to fly by, but I’m sure it will be fun.

What’s been going on? It seems that Squirt has become quite the fighter lately. It’s not uncommon to hear bone-chilling cat screams from the great outdoors late at night and early in the mornings. There was one this morning, actually, and it was loud enough to freak us all out a little. He came right inside when I turned on the lights. Upon inspection, Dave found another sore on his belly. This one seems to be healing up without any help from me, but I’m still doctoring the one on his shoulder. It looks better, but he’s still picking at it on occasion.

The cats have really been enjoying the cool weather lately. They have a new pet door, courtesy of Georgia. She didn’t realize the screen was shut the other day and busted right through the bottom of it. I decided to leave it like that so the animals can come and go as they please – and they have taken full advantage of it. Jewel E. Cat followed us to Daddy’s house for family dinner the other night. He has a new screened-in porch. With her mastery of pet doors, she quickly learned how to use the pet flap in the screen porch door. That is, until Fat Tasha (my parent’s cat) came onto the porch with her and inspired a fit of panic in Jewel E. to escape the porch. She was trying so hard to get off the porch that she couldn’t remember where the flap was, and she kept butting her head up against the screen at random spots, trying to find the flap. In the midst of my laughter, I picked her up and put her through the flap, thus saving her life for the evening. It was quite funny.

Georgia played with Lucy all day yesterday, and she was still so tired this morning that she wouldn’t get off the bed, so we made it up around her. I thought she would get out once we put the pillows on, but she circled up tighter with plans to stay there under the covers for a while. We left the room and Dave called out, “So, do you want to go visit Lucy today?” I thought she would hurt herself trying to get out of the made bed. Needless to say, it needed to be remade. Georgia is going to be a star soon, too. She and Dave are going to do the Hokey Pokey at the Fall Festival talent show for the kids. We are taking her this weekend to pick out a costume at PetsMart. I just hope she doesn’t get stage fright.

Dave, Dave, Dave – he’s such a kid. Last night we were lying in bed, chatting about the day like we normally do. The lights were out, I was very sleepy, and he was wired from having just finished a motion to continue for court today. He was chattering away about various and sundry things, and I was trying to stay awake to listen. His chatter started to slow down and taper off and I was almost asleep when he busted out with, “So, how about a verse or two of There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly?” I probably laughed for about ten minutes – the snorting, crying, unable to breathe kind of laughter. And yes, I sang There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly for him. His favorite part is how the spider wriggles and wriggles and jiggles inside her. He’s not right.

An update on the honorary member of my household (my sister, Rebecca, in case anyone missed that reference) – she has a new boyfriend-type. I say boyfriend-type because I don’t know if he’s really her boyfriend yet, but they’ve been seeing a lot of each other and he’s met the family. I only mention him to introduce a disgusting and funny story about my sister. He rode in her car last night and when they came in he was talking about the nasty smell in it. Apparently, there were some decomposing French fries in there and he didn’t find the aroma appealing. This led her to tell the story of The Lost Taco.

While she was still driving her old car, she and her Lucky’s coworkers ordered Mexican food for dinner one night. The specifically sent Rebecca to pick it up because she would make sure the order was correct. One of her coworker’s orders included a taco. When she got back to Lucky’s with the food she couldn’t find it, and everyone assumed they had just left it out of the order. A week or so later, her car started to stink. Three weeks later, someone hit her car and she put it in the shop to have it fixed. The guy who worked on it commented on the smell. He thought it smelled like old pizza – and he reassured her that he knew what old pizza smelled like. :) The day after she picked the car up, she decided to clean it out. Guess what she found? You got it, The Lost Taco – it was hiding between the passenger seat and the door. I laughed hysterically while she was telling the story. The new boyfriend-type is glad that he didn’t know her when The Lost Taco story happened. I’m glad I never got in her car during those four weeks. Blech.

There’s been lots of laughter lately. That’s a good thing. I needed it after the last two weeks at work. We just finished the biggest release of the year last Friday night at 8 pm. In the last two weeks, I put in over 100 hours at the office. It was exhausting. I spent last week with the QA team (that’s Quality Assurance, for those who don’t know). QA is the last step in the software development life cycle before the product is given to the client. It is the responsibility of the QA team to thoroughly test the software to assure that it works and that it meets the needs of the client. I am grossly understating when I say that it’s a BIG job. It’s very fast paced and high pressure. Mix in a little frustration and the long hours, and it quickly becomes a hard job. So, I spent last week testing with the QA team, and I was nearly at my breaking point when we left Friday evening. I'm really not cut out for that kind of hours. I just want to say thanks to my QA and coworkers, because I know that I couldn’t do that job full time, and they are great at what they do. Good job guys, and happy 9.0!

That’s enough for now. Maybe this will appease my audience members who’ve pestered me about updating. Really, I haven’t had time until now.

Out Cattin' Around

Jewel E. Cat has become quite the outside kitty lately. She probably spends about 20 hours a day outside, usually coming in for breakfast and dinner and maybe a nap. This morning, she yelled at the door, demanding to be let inside for breakfast. When I opened the door for her, she staggered in like she'd been out drinking all night. :) I don't know if she even ate breakfast; I think she just went straight to her princess perch (the ottoman) and passed out. She slept until it was time for me to leave for work. When I let the dog out, she came running to the door, which I promptly closed in her face. I was going to make her stay inside today, but she gave me such a dirty look as she stomped away that I decided it would be better to just let her out. She's such a witch.

The other two come and go, and I actually get to see them in the house sometimes. Gypsy doesn't spend too many nights out because she likes to get kitten cookies at bedtime - the others will gladly skip the cookies for a night out.

Squirt stayed out all night Saturday, and when he came in Sunday morning he was soaking wet. It took several hours for him to dry out completely (Dave didn't feel the need to dry him with a towel like he would do for the dog). The drawback? The rain and excessive grooming it takes to recover from a night in the rain washed the medicated powder off his sore. So he licked it. Until it bled, again. I was very upset because it took a week to get a good scab on it, and now we are starting over. I really might end up taking him to the vet over this. He's so neurotic that he can't leave it alone. I wish I could put a bandaid on it, but I don't think it will stick to all that fur.

In people news:

I worked all weekend, so Dave did my chores for me: laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking for the pot luck lunch after church. He's a good, good man.

Life goes on.

Happy Birthday, Dave!!

Today is Dave's 28th birthday.

I gave him one of those wooden boxes that has several different games in it. He got Chess, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, playing cards, Cribbage, Backgammon, Pachisi, and a couple of others. This is just another testament to our nerdiness. Maybe he'll teach me how to play Chess. He's currently grounded from Scrabble, which saddens me because it's our favorite game. The last time we played, I beat him and he got an attitude. I told him we wouldn't be playing again for a while. Maybe his grounding is almost over. Maybe I'll un-ground him for an extra birthday present. :)

We have family dinner tonight, because it's Thursday, so there will be cake. His second cake, actually. We had our standing Sunday night family dinner with the other half of the family, and that was also the September birthday celebration. There was birthday cake with a picture of the Beatles on it for Rob, and Dump Cake for Dave (that's one of his favorites). We are going to the County Fair Saturday for his birthday date. That will be fun.

Tie Dye Adventures

Dave taught Rob how to tie dye tonight. These are the fruits of their labors.

This shirt was Rob's design.




















This is what it looked like with the rubber bands on it. I don't think Rob realized that making tie dyed shirts involves work. :)













This is Dave's design. We gave Rob three colors of dye in his kit: yellow, green, and blue. Previously (to brush up on our skills) we tie dyed two shirts for him with purple and pink. We thought he'd enjoy the lesson for his birthday. It will be fun to see what else comes out tie dyed now that he knows how to do it.



















This is what Dave's design looked like with the rubber bands on it.











This is Rob. As I said before, he's a wanna-be hippie. Sadly, there isn't much my dad can say about the hair because he had hair like that when hippies came into being. I'm ready for Rob to outgrow this phase. I keep telling him I'm going to shave his head in the middle of the night. He doesn't believes me. :)

I think our next adventure will be color remover. We want to get a school t-shirt and reverse tie dye it with color remover. I'm just curious to see how it would turn out. Yes, I am a nerd.

I think Rob enjoyed himself, and he got to go home with a bonus birthday present: a Grateful Dead cd that survived Dave's teenage years.

Life goes on.

Jewel E. Cat

I've been asked to explain what the "E" in Jewel E. Cat represents. The answer is nothing. Her name is Jewel because Dave gave her to me when he proposed and my engagement ring was on her collar. I call her Jewel-y Cat (sounds like "Julie") all the time. Instead of writing her name as Julie (because that's not her name) or Jewely (because that looks dumb), I started writing it as Jewel E. Cat. Much like Ted E. Bear (or "Teddy Bear"). That's the explanation; the "E" stands for nothing.

Furry kid news:
Jewel is recovering from her UTI, and has learned how to spit. She doesn't like her medicine, so she figured out that if she holds her mouth open after I squirt it in, she can let it run out again -thus, onto the floor and not down her throat. I think this is the closest she can get to actual spitting. Now I have to hold her little beak closed until she swallows. She also starts making gagging, coughing noises and gestures when I pick her up to take her to the kitchen to get her medicine (before I actually have the medicine anywhere near her). She's always been a sassy cat.

Squirt's sore spot is getting better, I think. I have been diligent about putting the medicated powder on it and it finally scabbed over, and now it just looks like a bald spot. Squirt is so neurotic, that he has been licking and licking that spot so it wouldn't heal. It just got bigger and bigger. I think the medicince keeps him from licking it as much, so we seem to be on the right track.

Gypsy is the same old pygmy, kitten-mini. In the mornings she barks a little bark at me (not a meow) and runs to the food bowl (if it's empty) or the front door (if she wants to go outside), always with the crook in her tail. If I do not respond in a timely fashion, she repeats the whole process until she gets what she wants. Dave told me this morning that Gypsy and I together put off too much heat at night, and I have to start throwing her in the floor. She always sleeps on me when she's inside, and if I throw her off, she comes right back. I don't think he will win this battle with that little speckled butter bean.

Georgia had an exciting weekend. She got to go to a new house and play with some new people Saturday night. She had a blast with her new friends. Sunday, we took her to the baseball field for frisbee and ball fetching. She drank a gallon of water, then she swam in the creek to cool off. She was so tired later that she was an upside-down dog for about twenty minutes with a basket of laundry piled on top of her. She was still tired this moring, and ready for her kennel.

I think that's about it.

Family News

My 16-year-old brother, Joshua, has been providing the family drama lately. He is not part of my household, but I'm going to tell this story because it is a perfect example of God working.

Friday morning, September 8th, my mom called me as I was leaving for work to tell me she was calling Rescue for Joshua. He had stroke-like symptoms and he wasn't coherent. I arrived at her house just as the Resque squad was arriving. This is what had happened up to that point: He had a sleepwalking episode early Friday morning and it woke my mom up around 1:30 a.m. She knew that something was wrong because he couldn't communicate and he almost fell down the stairs. (Some history: Joshua has a long history of sleepwalking during which you can have entire conversations with him without him ever waking up. If you were seeing it happen for the first time, you would not believe he was sleepwalking unitl the next morning when he wouldn't remember anything. For him not to be able to talk and walk normally was really unusual.) They got him back to bed and stayed up until 3 a.m. to make sure he didn't get up again. When she went to wake him up for school, he couldn't talk, he wasn't coherent, one side of his mouth was drawn down (like a stroke victim's), and he couldn't control his body. He was jerking and twitching, and he didn't realize it. All of this, on top of the bizarre sleepwalking episode, convinced her to call Rescue.

The paramedics checked is blood sugar (it was 60) and his blood pressure (102/60); both were pretty low. He had played basketball after dinner the night before, so they thought maybe he didn't eat enough. They continued talking to him and gave him an oral glucose test. Meanwhile, they we were discussing his prescriptions. He was taking two, and one of them didn't list the dosage on the bottle. I went to get the bottle the second time and realized that it was empty. It was empty, and according to the date on the bottle, there should have been a week's worth of pills left in it. This was an anti-anxiety medication that he was taking to prevent stress-induced migraines. I brought this to my mom's attention and she asked him if he had taken it. He said he took it before bed (like normal) and there were pills in the bottle, but he couldn't remember anything after that. At this point, my fears of epilepsy or other unexplainable causes were replaced by fears of overdose. The paramedics finished up and told my mom to take him to the ER.

They spent the entire day there, with him hooked to a heart monitor most of the time. After 8 hours, with no further setbacks and some improvement, they sent him home. It would be Monday before they got the results from his bloodwork so we could find out exactly what happened. It was unclear because the symptoms for low-blood sugar and for an overdose on that medicine are almost identical.

Fast forward to Monday: He went to school but called home because he felt really bad and he couldn't remember anything from the week before. His short term memory seemed to be completely shot. He was also still twitching. They went back to the ER to get his test results and have them sent to his regular doctor. The doctor found the evidence to be inconclusive, but decided to act on the assumption that he had in fact overdosed since the levels of medicine in his blood were high and that was most likely, given the circumstances. The thing that really concerned her was his memory loss. She decided to follow up with a CT scan to rule out a fall (while he was sleepwalking) that caused head trauma or a tumor. The CT scan was scheduled for Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, we found out that he had gone to bed with a headache Thursday night, which would explain why he took his medicine while he was sleepwalking. We also found out that his other prescription, which he had just started taking the week before, can cause sleepwalking. This was his first sleepwalking episode in several years, so that explains why it started again.

The God parts: 1. Had this happened early Saturday morning, he may have died because my mom wouldn't have been trying to wake him up for school. 2. Had there been more than a week's worth of pills in that bottle, he probably would have died before she tried to wake him up for school. The medicine quickly and strongly affects the central nervous system and the heart, and kids have died as late as 72 hours after overdosing on it. 3. In our Wednesday night Bible study about prayer, we added him to our prayer list. Our specific prayers for him were that his CT scan come back normal and that he find some peace of mind (because he was really upset and had almost quit talking). Friday afternoon, the CT scan was normal, his blood tests were normal, and over the weekend he started returning to his old self. Those were answered prayers.

We still don't know what to expect as far as long term effects, and he's still twitching involuntarily, but it looks like he's going to be okay. It was a very scary week.

God is amazing and prayer works. This Bible study has demonstrated that fact over and over again. It is really exciting to watch God answer prayers.

Other news:
My other brother, Rob, turns 17 a week from today. We had a September birthday party last night (there are a few in our family), and Dave and I gave him a tie-dye kit. Tonight, he's coming over to learn the art of tye-dying from Dave. He's really going through a psuedo-hippie/Beatles phase right now. Oh, and I feel old. How did he get to be 17?

Rebecca and I spent Saturday looking at wedding and bridesmaids dresses with our cousin, Jessica, who is getting married in July. She found a dress that is absolutely beautiful, and perfect for the occasion. We didn't have as much luck with the bridesmaids dresses, but I think she has a better idea now of what she wants us to wear. It was a fun day, and the plans are coming along.

Life is crazy as ever.

My Favorite Sister

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This is my sister, Rebecca. She is upset with me right now because she just became a blog reader and she found issue with the fact that I've only mentioned her once; I quote: "I have one complaint about your blog. I have read a whole lot of passages and I was only mentioned once. I consider myself a part of your household, even if I don't live there. . ." So, favorite sister, this entire post is dedicated to you. :)

Since she considers herself a part of my household, I will take the same liberty of writing about her as I would Dave, Georgia, Squirt, Jewel E., and Gypsy (the members of my household that actually live there full-time). If she's reading this now, she's already upset that I posted a picture of her. (Sorry, Booka, I only have a few people pics saved on my Snapfish account, and that was the best one.)

Rebooka is her childhood nickname that my cousin and I assigned to her when we created the Sea Gully Club so, so many years ago. There are many variations of the name: Bookie, Book, Booka - all pronounced with the same "ooooo" sound as in "Moooo" (like what a cow says). She's also been called Bug, Reebeck, and Reebock. I'm sure there are others that escape my memory right now.

What can I say about her? Hmmm. Well, she's my best friend. She's the kind of best friend that I love even when I want to strangle her, the kind that makes me laugh when I'm crying, the kind that makes me hurt when she's hurting. She's the only person in the WORLD who has been through what I've been through. True, we've gone our different ways, we have different lives, but there's nothing like the foundation of childhood to bind two people at the heart.

Oh! I just thought of another nickname: The Beez Knees. When she was little, she was all angles and bones, and her knees stayed skinned. We knew it was summer time again when The Beez Knees were skinned. :) She broke her ankle playing soccer in the backyard. She flipped over her handlebars during a bike race and had to have rocks picked out of her elbows (she still accuses me of running her off the road). As recently as last summer, she fell out of an SUV and skinned those knees again. Some things never change.

She's a bad influence on me. :) She forces me to lighten up. She's the only one who inspires inappropriate and spontaneous fits of giggling that no one else understands. Her tears bring me to my knees. She's smart and funny and beautiful (inside and out), and watching her realize these things about herself over the past year has been amazing. I'm so proud of her.

That's my favorite sister.

P.S. For anyone else who is concerned that I don't mention you in my blog, realize that I limit myself to writing in detail only about the members of my household. Most of them can't complain, and the one that can doesn't read this blog. :) I don't want to embarass anyone who wouldn't want to be mentioned here.

P.P.S. I only have one sister.

Roll Tide

A fellow Bama fan told me I needed to show my team spirit and change to blog to crimson. What was I thinking with that orange?! :)

Done.

Face Lift

I decided it was time for a change, so the blog now has a new look. I felt that orange was a little more Fall friendly than the greenish blue. Feel free to offer questions, comments, or editorials if you don't like it - or if you do.

Time for Another Update

I gave up on toilet training. I've reached the conclusion that if I only had one cat (Jewel), it could be done fairly quickly. Since I have three cats, I just don't think this is going to work for us. The other two just don't seem interested, and Jewel quit using the litter in the toilet. Plus, I'm tired of the mess and living with just one bathroom. I cleaned it all up this past weekend, so we are back to two litter boxes. The good that came out of this is that both boxes are now in the little bathroom, instead of one of them being in our bedroom. I like it much better that way, and there isn't nearly as much cat litter on the carpet now. For a funny demonstration of why I would never teach Jewel to flush (if I had toilet trained her), watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WofFb_eOxxA .

I spent last week in Indianapolis with a new client to kick off a new project. The week went really well, and I got great feedback from the client. That's always exciting. :) It looks like Indy might become my second home over the next couple of months, as I'm already supposed to go back there next week. I like occasional travel, but I don't like leaving my little family for very long. A week is plenty long enough, and I'm not sure I'll be ready to go back so soon. On a positive note, the people we are working with are very nice and cooperative, and the city is pretty neat. We stay in the Hilton downtown, and the office is only half a block away. We don't rent a car because everything (except the airport) is within walking distance. However, if I'm going to be there during the winter (and I'm sure I will), I'll need real winter clothing. I have a feeling my Alabama winter clothes aren't going to do the job. :)

Dave is moving right along in his law practice, and picking up new cases every day. He seems to love the work, even if he sometimes feels like he doesn't know what he's doing. (He says that, not me.) The majority of his clients really like him, and I know he's doing the best he can for them. I'm so proud of him, and so happy that he's happy. There is also a possibility of some teaching in the future, and I think he's excited about that. Actually, there has always been the possibility of teaching, as the man has a Masters in Education as well as the gift of teaching, but the possibility has become more real as of late. We'll see where that goes when it goes.

Dave and I spent Labor Day canoeing with my sister and some of her friends. That was the first time since Dave and I have been together (6 years) that I have been able to get him on the Cahaba River. We had a great time and we didn't see any "Rattlecoppermouth" snakes. :) He's terrified of snakes, and that is the primary reason we haven't played on the river before now. I think he'll go back again, and we definitely have to go in the spring when the water level is higher. It was pretty low yesterday, so there was lots of getting stuck on rocks and walking the canoe. It's a smoother ride when the water is higher, but its REALLY cold in the spring. I liked being able to hop right in the water without the fear of hypothermia. Oh well, there are always trade offs.

Dog Breath turned 2 years old last week while I was out of town! It's hard to believe she's two! I gave her an early birthday present before I left. It was a Good Cuz, which is a thick rubber ball with feet and an obnoxious squeaker. The feet make it easy to fling, so she plays with it by herself a lot. Dave named it Big Yella'. :) She has matured so much in the past several months, it's amazing sometimes. She's really learning to run and play with little kids without jumping on them, though she still loves to lick their dirty hands and faces. Who wouldn't? :) She and Jewel E. Cat have become faster friends lately, too. I've witnessed a lot more snuggles and licks than ever before, from both parties. It's really cute.

With October coming upon us quickly, Dave and I have been joking that it's time to add another one to our pack. We seem to collect animals in the fall (which makes for a huge annual vet bill, by the way). He gave me Jewel and Squirt when he proposed to me in September of 2003. Then we got Georgia in October of 2004. Last October, at the 2005 annual vet visit, we adopted Gypsy from the vet's office. It's hard to believe we've had her for a year already. She quickly made her place in our fur family, even though Dave still calls her "The Spare." So now it's almost October again and he already mentioned that it's time to add another. :) Of course he's concerned that we don't have space for another kennel, but I told him we could get a smaller dog and we'd have room. It would have to be medium-sized, as I now tend to trip over small dogs after living with a big one for two years. I'm thinking a Basset or something of that nature, but I have to wait for him. In case anyone is wondering, EVERY one of our animals was HIS idea (with no prodding or hinting from me) and HE initiated the procurement of each of them. :) I know that if you know me, that's hard to believe, but it's the truth. Even Gypsy was his idea, and supposedly he's not really an animal person. :) Yeah.

Life goes on.

Toilet Training Continued

One week has passed and we have completed phase one of toilet training: both litter boxes are now in the bathroom next to the toilet. So far, we haven't had any issues with the boxes being moved. Jewel is using the toilet litter consistently, Squirt is starting to, and Gypsy is holding out on me. She prefers the box, and I think she has one to herself now that the others are using the toilet litter. My next step is to take one of the boxes away while raising the other one a little at a time to the height of the toilet.

Dave made up a funny song about toilet training the cats. It goes something like this (sing it to the tune of "That's the Night That the Lights Went Out in Georgia"):

That's the night that the cat fell in the toilet;
That's the night Jewel spun her spotted head;
Don't trust your butt to no roast pan in the toilet,
'Cause when the duct tape breaks you'll fall and get wet.

Yeah, that's my husband. :) He's still working on the lyrics to the actual verses of the song.

Jewel E. Cat has also been helping me with a cross-stiching project. She LOVES string, and occasionally she will realize that I'm cross-stiching, so she joins me on the couch. Then she chases the thread as I'm using it. Last night, I could not make her go away. She was watching the fabric, and every time I stuck the needle through it, she hit it with her paw. She was trying to catch the thread. She went at it from every angle. I would think she was bored because she went away, but she'd just come back from a different angle, chasing that needle and thread. She was really being a witch. I couldn't finish one stich without her little, furry paws in the way. I finally picked her up and snuggled her, and she went away. She hates it when you hold her tight to snuggle her, and that's a tried and true method of making her leave you alone.

People news:
The law practice is now a week old, and going fairly well. He picked up 4 cases in court last week and made an appointment to write a will. We'll call it a successful first week. He also took care of all the administrative things involved in setting up a business. It's been a long time since I've seen him this happy, so I think this is where he is supposed to be right now.

Operation Toilet Training

Operation Toilet Training officially started Sunday, August 13. What in the world am I talking about, you wonder? I’ll explain; it might be a little long.

Since moving to Montevallo and a much smaller house, we (The Cats and I) have had some issues and misunderstandings with our litter box habits. Previously, they used two boxes, covered with one large wooden box, a “kitty outhouse” if you will. Now, they have two separate covered boxes (covered to keep Dog Breath from helping herself to “litter box crunchies” – no, she’s not weird, she’s just a normal dog). Apparently, the smaller space and the sharing of the boxes is causing some domination and territorial issues amongst the cat population. Throw in Squirt's neurotic litter box behavior, and you’ve got quite a mess. In the 4 ½ months we’ve been there, we’ve ironed out most of the problems and everyone is sharing the boxes nicely, most of the time. Occasionally, there is an ambush as one cat exits the box, but that doesn’t happen very often.

Enter Squirt, the sink pee-er, and also the most ambushed of them all. Squirt is my most neurotic cat, who has always had the habit of pooping in one box and peeing in the other. The problem with this method is that he cannot get his sisters to cooperate. They consistently use both boxes for both functions. So, after several incidents of peeing on the floor next to the box because he didn’t want to go in the smelly box (this is my assumption based on his behavior), he got the bright idea to pee in the bathroom sink. Don’t freak; this is the tiny bathroom that houses one litter box, and we rarely use it because it’s so small. He did this several mornings in a row, and it made me start thinking about toilet training them. I feel like he is a good candidate because he’s open to alternative places of pottying.

I did some Internet research and formulated a plan and timeline to start training. I also got Dave’s support because it involves occupying one of our bathrooms for the next couple of months. Yes, he thinks I’m as crazy as you do, but he admitted that it’s worth a try if it means getting rid of the litter boxes and solving our litter box issues. Sunday, I duct taped a disposable metal roasting pan into the toilet and put some flushable litter in it. I also began moving the litter boxes closer to the toilet. This has to be done little by little to keep them from freaking out on me. The plan is to slowly move the boxes into the bathroom and next to the toilet. Then I will slowly start raising them, a little at a time, to the height of the toilet. Once they will use them at toilet height, I will take the boxes away so that they will use the pan in the toilet. Once they are using the pan, I will gradually start cutting bigger and bigger holes in it until they get used to using the toilet water and not having litter to scratch in. Once the entire bottom of the pan is gone, they will be toilet trained. I estimate that we will be at that point around the end of October, hopefully. There are no guarantees that they will like using the toilet, even if they know how, but I’m going to give it a shot.

With all that said, we had a breakthrough last night! I went to check the toilet litter pan last night and the toilet lid was closed. When I opened it, I found that someone had used the litter in the toilet! I really didn’t expect this to happen so soon, so I was thrilled. At that point, I thought I might see them start to use the pan more and more since someone did it first. Well, this morning I woke up to scratching noises, and when I looked in the bathroom, Jewel was “covering” the litter pan. She actually took advantage of the entire roll of toilet paper that was on the wall to cover the mess in the pan. I had to laugh at the pile of toilet paper in the toilet; that’s so typical of her. When I removed the toilet paper, I saw that she had actually used the pan! So, since the inception of Operation Toilet Training, they have used the toilet pan twice. I’m very excited, and this may mean that training will not take as long as a thought. I will still have to slowly phase out the litter boxes, but we seem to be on our way.

P.S. You may think I am ridiculous right now, but you will really be laughing if this actually works.

People News

We gave up the fight with Level III Communications and asked Bellsouth to give us a new phone number. I'm kind of disappointed about it, but I'm happy to have home phone service again and that wasn't going to happen for weeks if we didn't give in. We are still waiting on a bill from Level III so we can report them for slamming (and fight some more). Dave also asked for a pick freeze on our account so that Bellsouth has to contact us if they receive a request for service change.

I gained back 2 lbs. of the weight I lost on my trip last week. :( Traveling makes it so hard to eat right. Oh well, I'll continue to watch my portions and refrain from drinking sweet tea. :( Tea isn't supposed to be good for you anyway.

My trip was crazy. We left Thursday morning, the very same morning as the thwarted terroist attack trial run. As I was standing in the security line with my one bag that I wasn't going to check, I became aware of the ban on liquids, gels, pastes, etc. I'll admit that signs were posted, but it was early and the blurb on the news hadn't fully penetrated my brain yet. I ended up asking the man in front of me to hold my spot in line so I could check my bag. I waited in that line for an hour and a half; at the security checkpoint, my laptop case and purse were searched and my lipgloss was confiscated. I think the guy just liked my lipgloss. :) At the gate, they searched our bags again, and the lady took my pepper spray. It never occured to me that I shouldn't be traveling with pepper spray. That spray has been on my key ring for nearly six years, and I've traveled with it all that time. This was the first time anyone has said anything about it. Even the guy at security didn't take it when he was searching my bag. Hmmm. Anyway, the flight was delayed about 45 minutes. The flight back on Friday wasn't as bad, but Charlotte has a much larger and more efficient airport than Birmingham. I'm just happy to be back.

Dave quit his job Friday!!!! He didn't like it, and hasn't been happy since he started it, so he finally decided to quit. As of right now, he has two juvenile clients and some potential clients for wills and things like that. I am so proud of him. He's really excited about practicing law, and he hasn't been this happy in a long time. He's going through all the steps right now to set up a business, but has decided to wait on getting office space until he really needs it. For now, he'll be working out of the house and meeting people at thier houses when needed. Please pray for us because this is a big change. Also, don't hesitate to call if you need legal help. :)

We finally joined the church Sunday, so we will be serving on committees soon. I think I will be doing the Shower Committee, which means I'll be organizing and setting up baby showers and wedding showers and stuff like that. I'm excited about it.

I'm also helping my cousin plan her wedding for next summer, and I can't wait to get started on it! Rebecca and I are going to be in charge of decorations and we have some good ideas. As of right now, it's going to be an outdoor wedding at home, so it should be really neat.

That's all for now.

Update on the Phone Scam

What happened to us is called "Slamming." Here is a link to the FCC website that explains what to do if it happens to you: http://www.fcc.gov/slamming/ .

I spent another hour and a half on the phone with Bellsouth this morning because our phone was not working when I got up and checked it. Apparently the lady in Sales did not understand the problem when she said it would be taken care of by midnight. The man who said three weeks was right.

Maggie in the Porting department was very helpful in explaining what is happening and how I need to handle it, but none of it sounds good. Basically, our service was just switched and they are in the process our building our account over at Level III Communications, so Bellsouth cannot request to switch up back until Monday because they have to wait 72 hours. My options are: 1) contact Level III and get them to agree that they switched my service without my authorization and have them "snap back" my number to Bellsouth. This will expedite the process. If they do not agree (and they may not), then I move to option 2) wait until Monday and submit my request with Bellsouth to petition for my number, which will take about 3 weeks to go through the legal procedure. There is an option 3, and that is to create a new number with Bellsouth, but we don't want to do that since we just changed our number a couple of months ago and it's a PITA to redistribute the number. Besides, I should get to keep my number; it's the principle of the thing.

So that's where we stand right now. Dave is going to call Level III today and fight with them. That conversation is bound to be argumentative, and he will handle it much more rationally than me. :) Plus, he can speak some legalese to threaten them. Hopefully they will agree to snap back our number to Bellsouth and speed up this whole process.

I'm starting to wonder if we should just cancel our land line altogether and use our cell phones. I really don't want to do that, though.

I am the Victim of a Weird Phone Service Scam

Last night, Dave informed me that there was something wrong with our home telephone line. I checked them all to make sure they were plugged in and the "real" phone was not off the hook (both lessons I learned from my kitties). I thought about letting it go for a while to see if the phone would come back on, because sometimes there is a random outage. Finally, I decided I should report it because we needed the phone and our cell phones were both charging.

I called the Bellsouth Repair Line, where I spoke with a representative who clearly did not want to be there. I told her that my phone had no dial tone, something was wrong with the line. She told me that I had changed service providers and my line had been disconnected. HUH?!?! At that point I became progressively more irate because I did not change service providers and neither did Dave. I had to give him the phone because I was about to be VERY rude to the underpaid employee. According to Dave's conversation with her, the change request was made Sunday (8/05) and went into effect Monday. She offered to have Customer Service call us to reinstate our phone line. I was fuming all night long. A thousand scenarios were running through my head: someone has it out for us and wanted to cause us trouble by canceling the phone line (I know it's ridiculous), someone at Bellsouth is an idiot and disconnected the wrong phone line, etc, etc, etc. We never got a call from Customer Service and I went to bed mad. I could not wait until morning to make that phone call.

Advance to 8 a.m. today...... I called Customer Service where I waited on hold for about 6 minutes. I explained my problem to the very nice man who informed me that the service provider I switched to was Level III Communications, and that the request had not come through Bellsouth. He offered to transfer me to someone that could explain how that possibly happened.

I waited on hold another 6 or so minutes. The second man explained that Level III Communications is a cable provider of VOIP (or Voice Over Internet Protocol) service. I explained to him that I had not changed my service, my husband had not changed our service, so how could this have happened? He informed me that it's a legal process and we would have had to sign something or otherwise authorize the change, and that it could have happened by clicking on a pop-up advertisement on the Internet. (Please note that I do not click on pop-up ads because of this exact problem.) I told him again that we did no such thing and I needed to know what I needed to do to fix it and transfer my line back to Bellsouth. He explained that it would take 2 - 3 weeks because Bellsouth would have to petition Level III Communications for our phone number, and that the petition to Bellsouth from Level III had occurred around the middle of July. (In my head I'm thinking: FOR TWO FREAKING WEEKS MY PHONE HAS BEEN IN THE PROCESS OF TRANSFER AND I'M JUST NOW FINDING OUT?!) The man offered to connect me to Sales so I could set of up the reinstatement of my phone line.

I waited on hold another 6 minutes (it felt like hours, I was at work and not working). Ms. Lovett came on the line and we went through the process of transferring the phone line back to Bellsouth. As with everyone else I spoke to, I explained the entire situation. At my request, Ms. Lovett arranged for the petition for my phone number (because YES, I wanted to keep the same one!) to be expedited, as I did not request this change and it is sorely inconvenient for me. She said it would be done by midnight tonight, at no charge to me since I did not request the change. I then had to speak to the Verification Department to authorize the petition of my number and the reinstatement of my phone line. By midnight tonight, it should be working again. I have to say that other than the long hold times, I was very pleased with Bellsouth's handling of the entire situation, especially Ms. Lovett in Sales. (Note: If I get a bill for the reinstatement fee, all hell will break lose.)

The moral of this story: beware of Level III Communications and whatever scam they are running. I promise that neither Dave nor I authorized any changes to our phone service, yet it was changed without our knowledge. We don't even have the hardware for VOIP service!

P.S. If you've called and gotten the "disconnected" message, it's because we got scammed, not because we didn't pay our bill. :)

What to Write? What to Write?

Georgia was very good when she met Christopher and Caleb (the new little boy cousins). They were a scared of her at first because she's so big, but they were fascinated with her. A thousand times I answered the question, "What that doggie doin'?" and "Why?" She sniffed and licked all over them, and Christopher had to smell her in return. :) Saturday morning, she laid in the floor while they crawled and sat all over her. It was amazing; she was so good with them. I wish I had my camera. There were pictures taken of that, put I don't have a copy of them yet.

She and Lucy swam in the creek for a little while Saturday afternoon, but she got stung or bitten on the foot so we had to cut it short. Her foot swelled up Saturday night, and she was hobbling around on three legs because she didn't want the hurt foot to touch anything. She also wouldn't let me touch it, until I held her down Sunday morning and checked between her toes to make sure there was nothing in there. A couple of doses of Benadryl and some baby aspirin, and she was good to go. The swelling went down and she was walking on it this morning. Hopefully she will feel well enough to play with her new frisbee tonight. The poor kid was following us around on three legs with her new frisbee in her mouth yesterday morning.

In people news....

We have a fresh crop of green tomatoes on the vines right now, and I'm really hoping these don't burst out of their skins like the last ones. Not that it really matters because they still taste good, they just look bad. I did a little research to determine if a tomato is really a fruit or a vegetable the other night (to solve a debate, not just because I'm a nerd-well, I am a nerd but that's beside the point), and as it turns out, they are fruit. Why, you ask? Because the seeds are inside. That means that other "vegetables" are actually fruits: cucumbers, squash, etc. Real vegetables do not have seeds inside: carrots, potatoes, etc. So, there you go.

Hokey Pokey and Things

The big news from the weekend is that Georgia learned to do the Hokey Pokey! (I know our lives are SO exciting, it's unbearable.) She's very cute, she sits and puts her right paw in and then her left paw in, and when it's time to "do the Hokey Pokey and turn yourself around" she does a funny little wiggle dance and spins around. That's all she knows right now, but I think Dave is trying to figure out what else he can teach her that will work in the Hokey Pokey. It's quite funny.

She also got to visit with Morgan and Zander (my little cousins) again on Saturday. She loves them because they usually have food stuffs. While Zander was in the high chair having his dinner, she kept her nose on the tray trying to figure out what he was eating. He loved it because he could pet her without being licked in the face. She seems amazed by him. He was crawling on the floor and she was following right behind him, poking him in the butt. It was really funny. She will get to meet some more little cousins this week, two boys who are 4 and 2 (I think). My cousin is coming to visit from Tampa, and the little ones are his boys. I hope they like dogs, because she loves kids.

There are house guests at our next door neighbor’s house, and one of them is a Boxer. He and Georgia have been socializing through the fence, and the new game is to run the fence line until they both drop from heat exhaustion. It kept her busy this weekend. The cats do not appreciate the Boxer, whose name is Tupac (as in Shakur, the dead rapper). He came to visit the kitties while they were playing in the carport, and they did not like him at all. Apparently he chased them. Later I heard him bark while the cats were outside, so I went out to check on them. My fearless, witch kitten was perched precariously on his fence – puffed up and hissing – while he barked from below. I made her get down. It’s one thing if he comes to their house and bothers them, but she can’t be teasing him from the fence. That’s just rude (and possible dangerous, though I’m told he wont’ hurt them). Anyway, Tupac loves Georgia, but doesn’t like me and Dave. He barks his fool head off whenever we come near the fence.

Okay, people news…. We FINALLY closed on our house Friday morning. Thank goodness!! I was starting to doubt that it was going to happen. We helped Brody and Brandy move out of their house Saturday, and that was about it for the weekend. We watched Glory Road Saturday night, and it was a great movie. It’s Disney’s version of the first black, college basketball team to win the national championship. Good movie. I think that’s about all for now. Later.

Oh, I almost forgot to vent about our HUGE power bill from the Gardendale house that we haven't live in since March!! We got the bill for last month and it was $140!!! I know that's not too bad for summer time - but that's the biggest summer time power bill we've ever had from that house and WE WEREN'T EVEN LIVING THERE!!! Apparently someone left the air on like 65 degrees while showing the house and it ran forever. Can I tell you how mad that makes me?? How rude and inconsiderate!!!

Okay, now I'm done. :)

I've Been a Real Slacker

Actually, I've been crazybusy with work and home, so I haven't updated this thing in almost a month. Here goes....

We've sold our house and we close at the end of this week. Yay!!! We went to Gardendale last Saturday to get the rest of our stuff out, and of course it rained. Whatever. It hasn't rained in so long that we didn't even consider the possibility, so it rained on the way up there in the truck (with the window that doesn't roll up) and on the way back when the truck was full of stuff. Whatever. Anyway, we took Georgia with us. That was the first time she's been back to the Gardendale house since we moved. She ran all over the place, all through the house, basement and yard, smelling everything. She had not seen the new carpet either, so she checked that out, too. It was cute, and really good to see her running across that great big yard one last time. I have to say it was a little sad, knowing that was the last time I would see the place while it was still mine. It's a great house and a great yard. Sigh.... Well, it'll also be great money in the bank, so I'll get over it. But, I'll always love it. I got MARRIED there and we started our life there. It's a great place.

In other news:
I got bit on the butt by a Brown Recluse spider. Yes, you read that correctly. :) It was living in the dress I put on for church Sunday morning. When I bent down to pick up my shoes, I trapped it in my dress and it bit me. Soooo, I killed it and saved it in a plastic bag for confirmation that it was in fact a Brown Recluse. It was. By the time I got to the doctor after church, I was already running a fever. She prescribed some antibiotics, and I feel better now. The bite appears to be fine; it hasn't swelled up or anything weird like they are supposed to do. Hopefully it won't since I got the antibiotics so quickly. That's that.

Vacation Bible School started last night, and it wore me out! I was supposed to be helping a crew leader keep up with her crew, but it seems that I may have become the crew leader myself. We have 5 kids in our crew, 2 boys and 3 girls. The boys are WILD! In the ten or so years since my brothers were thier ages, I had forgotten how wild boys can be. Why can't little boys sit next to each other without touching? HMM??? Anyway, it really was a lot of fun, and that's good because I'll be there every night this week. :) Viva VBS!

Dave and Rob took Oscar to the Shelby County Humane Society because he got too big and played too rough to keep him with Georgia. At approximately 8 months, he already outweighed her, and she had stopped wanting to play in her yard. The way I see it, the yard was hers first so I had to let him go. He's listed for adoption a www.shelbyhumane.org. I think he'll find a home because he's a sweet beast and he's healthy; I just couldn't risk him hurting Georgia. It was very sad. :(

The tomato harvest is coming along nicely. We've had a ton of tomatoes and I've been able to pick some ripe ones nearly every day. They taste great, too!

OH! Dave particpated in his first trial, sat second chair with another lawyer, and they won! They actually won really big, so he started liking his job last week. :) He really likes being in the courtroom, so he had a great couple of days at work. He has another trial coming up next week, and we're hoping he'll be even more involved.

I think that's all for now. Later..

Crazy Things That Happen

Early Monday morning, around 2 a.m., I could hear dogs barking outside. At first it didn't really register, but then Georgia started barking and running around the bed to poke at me. I decided to go out and check on the cats, because I had left Squirt and Jewel out for the night and the barking dogs were in our front yard or driveway. When I turned on the light, the dog ran off and I called Squirt and Jewel inside. It didn't take much convincing, because they were ready to come in. I didn't know if the dogs had been barking at them, but they both seemed to be fine - aside from being scared. I was amazed at Georgia for being persistent enough to wake me up and make sure I went to check on her kitties.

This evening, I got some very sad news that Cody Cat, the neighbor kitty, didn't make it that night. Apparently the dogs got him. I don't know if it happened before I went out, or if that's what they were doing when I went out because I never saw him. It's entirely possible that he put himself between Jewel and a dog, because they were buds and I've seen him rescue her from a cat fight once before. It makes me very sad, and scared for my kitties. They will not be able to be indoor/outdoor cats for a while, because I just can't take the chance of losing them like that. I don't see a point in purposely exposing them to what has now become a real threat. Those dogs have been terrorizing the neighborhood for a while (I feel like it's the same dogs that killed Smokey), and they will be back at our house. Because there are more cats there that aren't dead yet, they will come back. It makes me sick. They aren't going to understand why they can't go out to play.

On a brighter note, we have a contract on our house now. If everything goes well, we should close on the 21st of July!! This is great news and an answered prayer. I am seeing many prayers answered lately. Prayer is a POWERFUL thing. Don't underestimate it.

Anyway, I'm in Des Moines for the week, and I have to get back to work now. Later.

We Need Rain!!

I'm tired of all the dirt in my house! I have this theory that if it wasn't so dusty, there wouldn't be nearly as much dirt tracked inside after pool time. Maybe I'm wrong, but right now the yard is a big dust pit - mix it with a wet dog and you get dirt in the house. I could get rid of the pool, but I have a feeling that two dogs would find that unacceptable. Or I could try to convince some more grass to grow in the bald spots, but that would require RAIN. I can handle a few muddy paw prints, but right now she comes in covered in dirt because it sticks to her wet fur. Whatever, we've settled on putting down pine chips in the worst area and Georgia now has a sponge bath every night when she comes inside. She actually seems to really like that part, so I guess we are okay there. Oh, and she's MUCH dirtier than Oscar. It's as if her number one goal every day is to get as dirty as possible. And now that we have two dogs and the backyard is non-stop doggy fun, she's always dirty. :)

Oscar is doing great; his sore is almost healed and I hope to put a collar on him by the end of the week. I really want to get him out on the leash so he can have a change of scenery, and of course so he can learn to walk nicely. Plus, leashing him will make training two dogs at once MUCH easier. Training a puppy with an attention span of a gnat can be quite frustrating - add in a big brown dog to distract him at every second, and you want to pull your hair out. Somehow, though, he's learned quite a lot. He's very good at SIT, and sits now to be petted without being told. I'm so proud of him. :) He's breaking my heart though because he wants to come in the house with Georgia so bad; he tries to follow her inside every time now. :( I'll admit that I've already fallen for him; and I'd keep him if he could be an indoor/outdoor dog with Georgia. I may end up keeping him anyway if we can't find him a home, so I guess I need to harden my heart.

I've rambled long enough. Later.

It's Official

Oscar is officially up for adoption with the Friends of Cats and Dogs Foundation. To see his ad, click the following link, type 1625 into the ad number field, and click Submit. http://www.fcdf.org/fcdfflyer.php3

We found out from the vet that he is healthy except for his neck wound. He is not neutered yet, but we already have an appointment to take care of that. He got his first round of puppy shots and rabies vaccination and some antibiotics for his neck. His neck is looking great, too. I can't believe how fast it's healing!

Also, the aggression issues seem to have subsided. Georgia stuck her head in his food bowl during breakfast this morning, and he gave no reaction. No growling or anything. Yay!! I'm so proud of him. He has also learned to sit, and the stinky smell is gone! We've had lots of small victories over the past few days. He's doing great, he and Georgia play so well together, and he's a real sweetheart. I'm excited about finding him a good home, because I think he's going to be a great dog. If you know anyone who is looking for a large dog, please direct them to his ad, or to me. If we can find a home for this one, we'll have a vacancy for the next dog Rob brings home from the logging road. ;)

Meet Oscar

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This is Oscar, so named because Rob found him in a trash pile. Of course he brought him to me, because he knew I couldn't turn him away. We are pretty sure he's a lab/shepherd mix. He's about 6 months old, the best I can tell, and has been mistreated. He apparently had been wearing some sort of chain or wire around his neck and broke out of it. The underside of his neck is a nasty, raw, open sore; the rest of his neck has scabs on it. He seems fairly healthy, other than that. He's going to the vet today for a thorough checkup and treatment for his neck. He's also a little skittish around men, which makes me think he was probably abused.

I think I'm still in shock at having another dog at my house. He was only going to stay Saturday night until my brother could take him to the humane society Sunday, but Dave couldn't handle the thought of that. So, he made a deal: Oscar can stay outside in our backyard as long as Rob pays half of everything. That's what we are working on right now. I'm still going to try to find him a home where he can be an inside/outside/only dog, though. We just don't have the space for him and another large kennel in our house right now. He gets along pretty well with Georgia, though he's a little territorial over food and space. We are already working to correct that, but it's difficult since he can't wear a collar right now. To top it off, Georgia is such a submissive dog, she's a little intimidated by him when they aren't playing because he jumped on her when she sniffed the spot he's been using as a bed on our portch. We are working with her too, so she won't be scared to walk across the porch to come inside. Other than that, they play very well together.

He's smart, and has basically learned not to jump up (with a few reminders) and he learned how to retrieve yesterday. He's so sweet and starved for love and attention. I will do the best I can to provide that, and hopefully I can find him a good home. Wish us luck.

I Thought I Should Check In

Life moves so fast! We stay busy and the days just fly by. Gypsy was spayed on Monday, and this morning she finally made an appearance. She's been hiding under the guest room bed for three days. Not that I blame her, but I was glad to see her out and about this morning. She was also working on removing those stitches herself. It looks like she's got one of them partially untied already. The incision looks good though, so I am not going to worry about it. Crazy cat. As tiny as she was before, now her sides are caved in and she looks like she's starving. I'm sure she'll fill out in no time, but it's a little freaky when they look so skinny.

What else? Dave's job is going better. He's learning a lot and each day he seems to have a better day. I'm so thankful for that because it was kinda rough in the beginning. It's really hard to go from knowing nearly everything you need to know, to knowing virtually nothing. He catches on quick though, so he's doing well.

My job has picked up some. I got another project, so I'll be travelling to Des Moines again at the end of this month. I'll be there for a full week this time. I'm really looking forward to seeing Des Moines in the summer. I thought it was a nice city even when it was 9 degrees outside during the day (I'm so Southern), so I can't wait to see it with leaves and flowers. The drawback: my Monday morning flight leaves at 6:50 IN THE FREAKING MORNING!! Rest assured I'll be sleeping on that one. :)

Georgia destroyed Dave's glasses last night. :) I think it's quite funny because 1: they were the old ones he uses as spare and 2: he's left them on the end table at eye level for three days. I knew it was going to happen, and I couldn't help but be amused. I know I should have moved them for him, but I'm not his mom. :) He thought it was amusing too, so don't worry. He knew he shouldn't have left them there.

I harvested the first red tomato the other day. It's a little one, but it was ready for picking. We've got a ton of tomatoes on the plants, but they aren't ready to pick yet. Most of them are going to be decent-sized, too, I think.

The church hunt is going well. We feel like we might know where God wants us, but will continue to visit and pray for a while longer. Our house has not sold yet; in fact, we've not had an offer. I think we are going to lower the asking price a little. Dave is ready to get it sold, and so am I really, just so we don't have to worry about it anymore. Hopefully it will happen soon, like by the end of the summer since I have to start re-paying my student loans next month. (Yikes!!)

I think that's enough for now. I'm starting to ramble. :)

Lots of Things to Share

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In random order... Dave was the Salutatorian of his class, so he had to give a speech at graduation. The picture isn't great because the lighting in there was BAAAAD - at least for my little camera. :) We wrote the speech on the way home from Auburn Saturday night. I say we, because he spoke and I wrote notes in the dark. :) It was a great speech, and he did a great job with the delivery.

I have no pictures of him accepting his diploma because it happened too quickly. Sorry.











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This is Dave and his friend Ric, after the ceremony.












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This picture was taken before the wedding Saturday evening. I insisted on it because we had not had our picture made together since our wedding. Plus, I love the dress and he looks so handsome all dressed up. He didn't like the tie very much, but it was coordinated to match my dress. ;)







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The is the back of his gown with the fun hood attached. Purple is the color for law degrees, yellow and black are the school's colors, and the tam and style of robe denote a doctoral degree. That's right, he's a doctor now. :)

















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This is the picture I made him pose for with the plaque he received from the banquet Friday night.

To recap, we went to the annual awards banquet at The Club Friday evening. He found out then that he was the Salutatorian and received a plaque for that honor. He also found out he would have to give a speech at graduation on Sunday. Despite the time crunch, he was excited about it. Thank goodness, I would have been a wreck. :)

Saturday, we took Georgia swimming at the park because we all needed some exercise. We left Saturday afternoon for Auburn to attend a wedding. Dave's college roomate got married, and they had a great ceremony and party afterward. I wish we had been able to stay the night, but we had a speech to write and a graduation to attend. On the way home, he wrote his speech.

Sunday morning, we went to graduation, and everyone loved the speech. Then we had lunch afterward with the families, and dinner at Daddy's Sunday evening. Then we crashed. I'm still tired. Mondays suck. :)

I Forgot the Camera

That's right, I forgot it. I reminded myself a dozen times last night and this morning to put the camera in my bag, I just never made it to the camera to put it in my bag with that thought in my head. :) Sorry, no pictures of the banquet tonight. Hopefully I will remember it for the rest of the things we have to do this weekend. Oh well, if Dave gets any awards tonight, I'll make him pose with them later for pictures. He will LOVE it. :)

He got his cap and gown yesterday for graduation. I truly believe that the final test in receiving your doctorate degree is figuring out how to wear the little cape thingie that comes with the gown. It looks really neat, but we don't know how to work it. :) I think that's why the graduates have to be at graduation 3 hours early - so they can dress them all. :) I will definitely post pictures of him in that, because he's going to look so cool - if you've ever been to a college graduation, you know what kind I'm talking about. His ensemble will be similar to what the professors on the stage wear, though the colors are different to indicate his law degree. I might have to get my PhD one day so I can wear a fun cap and gown.

Things that Make You Say "GRRRR!"

Brought to you by the letter "G". :)

This morning, I had an epiphany. I often wonder, while wasting away in traffic, what makes morning rush hour so much slower than evening rush hour (excluding those afternoons when wrecks make the interstate an obstacle course)? As I was racing along at 10 miles an hour, I observed the woman behind me shaking a bottle that looked suspiciously like liquid foundation. I knew she was not about to put her face on while driving up the interstate with her kid in the car! But she did, only I didn't get to watch the whole process because as we started to move from a dead stop to 15 miles an hour, I left her in my dust. Apparently, it's difficult to maintain a steady speed and apply foundation at the same time. One has more success when one comes to a complete stop first. :) I only wish that the people BEHIND her could see what she was doing. My epiphany? Women putting on makeup seriously hold up traffic. If you don't have time to do that before you leave your house, GET UP EARLIER!!!! Men, don't get too excited, because I don't know how many times I've seen men driving and READING, or SHAVING - seriously, can you see past that opened newspaper in your windsheild!?!? So, if you are one of those drivers that acts "idiot" during rush hour traffic, please, stay away from me.

Another thing..

Why would you make a tube of lip gloss with an applicator that does not reach the bottom? Hmm? I can see that there is plenty of lip gloss in there, but I CAN'T REACH IT!!

I had some more saved up, but I'm starting to sound grumpy. :) Seriously, we've been so blessed. Please continue to pray for our friend, and for Dave in his new job. Hopefully I will have some fun pictures to post after this weekend. We have a banquet, a wedding, and graduation this weekend,then, the swearing-in Wednesday in front of the Alabama Supreme Court. I should have some good pictures - provided I don't forget the camera, like I did my keys when I locked myself out of the house yesterday. GRRRR. :)

Warning: Sad Stuff Follows

I had back-to-back bad phone calls today. The first one was to tell me that Grandpa died this morning. :( That wasn't a surprise; he's been sick for a long time and they called hospice in about three weeks ago. His heart was bad, among other things. It's sad, but at least he isn't suffering anymore.

The second call was from my husband to tell me that the wife of a friend of his died. This was very sudden and unexpected. She was about thirty, and they had been married a little over a year and she had a 5-year old daughter. Plus, they just brought their 8 week old twins home from the hospital two weeks ago. He just passed the bar with my husband. They aren't sure how she died, but think it was an anuerysm. Please pray for this family...they are really going to need it.

I know this is depressing, but bad always comes with good, so why should I only blog the good stuff? So, we have two visitations and funerals this weekend. Death is a little easier to stomach when the person dying has lived a long life - especially when they spent the end of it suffering, but it just seems so wrong when a young mother dies suddenly and leaves a very young family behind. I don't even know what to think; I cannot fathom losing Dave.

A Busy Weekend

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Saturday, Dave and I visited some friends of ours at their property in Childersburg. Our friend was clearing some land he just bought, so we were hanging out and watching him rip things out of the ground with a front-end loader. That was pretty cool. Dave actually got to drive the front-end loader, and I have to admit I was just a little jealous. :) Our friends have three little girls, who came equipped with rubber rain boots and dune buggy. I wished I had some rain boots to play in the mud, but I played in it anyway. We had a blast riding the dune buggy. The girls made all sorts of mud sculptures, and of course, the littlest one refused to keep her shoes on. Mud just feels too good on your bare toes, you know? :)

We also went shopping for lawyer clothes, much to Dave's dismay. Lawyer clothes are pretty freakin' expensive, but you have to dress the part. He got 2 new suit coats, 4 pairs of suit pants, 3 pairs of khakis, a sport coat, 3 dress shirts, 4 ties, socks, and Monday he went back for black dress shoes. I think that will be enough to get us started. :) Saturday night we crashed.

Sunday we went to Sunday School and church and the grocery store (yuck! I hate grocery shopping.). Then we did a little math tutoring while Georgia played with her dog friend, Lucy. Lucy is a 7-month-old Golden Retriever, and she is going to be HUGE when she's full grown. You can see in the pictures that she's already as big as Georgia, though I don't think she weighs as much yet. Georgia played at Lucy's house while we were gone all day Saturday, then Lucy came to our house while we helped Joshua with his math homework. As you can imagine, Georgia was one tired brown dog Sunday night. She was so tired that she passed out in the floor and didn't even get up to follow us around. A tired dog is a good dog. :)

The kitties also played outside all day Sunday and Sunday night, so they slept all day long Monday. When I got home from work Monday afternoon, they were still sleeping - I think they must not sleep at all when they stay outside. Jewel has become quite the outside cat; I have to make her come inside when I leave for work, and this morning she was pestering Dave to let her out. Silly, persistent beast.

Proof of My Swimming Dog

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Georgia and I walked to the park last night for some exercise and a swim. I finally remembered to take a tennis ball with me, and that was just the thing to keep her focused on swimming instead of the people walking by. Apparently, sticks are a dime a dozen, but tennis balls are one of a kind (in the creek, anyway). We had a little incident on the first dive in when she forgot to close her mouth and nearly drowned herself, but she came out and puked up creek water and bits of rawhide (which she ate three days ago - this is a testament to the fact that rawhide is not easily digested). I guess that week off between swimming trips got her a little out of practice, or it could have been the tennis ball that made her too excited to close her mouth. Who knows? After that, she did great, though she seemed to forget that balls roll and kept dropping it and letting it roll back into the water. Silly beast.

If you have pets and enjoy gardening, there is a product you need to avoid called Cocoa Mulch. It contains the same toxic chemical that is in chocolate, theobromine - only in a much larger quantity. You can find this stuff at places like Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. and the packaging makes NO mention that it can be harmful to your animals. While not all dogs will eat it, it only takes 9 oz. of the stuff to kill a 5o lb. dog. Don't risk it! Read more about it here: http://web.archive.org/web/20031013173740/http://www.aspca.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12729 .

That's all for my public service announcement. :)

More People News

Not only do we have a lawyer now, we have a lawyer with a job! Dave was hired by a small Birmingham firm called Gorham and Associates; this is the link to the webpage: http://www.gorhamandassociates.com/CM/Custom/Home.asp. This opportunity will allow him to get some on-the-job training with a regular paycheck and health insurance (two of our biggest concerns about opening his own office right away). He will basically be assisting the owner, Bobby Gorham, for the first year - doing paperwork and sitting second chair in trials - in exchange for all the knowledge he can soak up in that year (plus salary and insurance). After a year, he will be able to maintain his own case load. I'm really excited for him because this is a great chance to practice law with someone to guide him as he learns. I know he is much more comfortable with this situation than he would be starting his own firm right now. He knows the law, now he just has to learn how to practice law. :) His first day at his new job will be May 15th. Please continue praying for him as he embarks on this newest adventure.

In other news:
We have a baby tomato on one of our plants! I was going to take a picture of it, but I waited until it was too dark last night. The plants don't look like they've grown much taller, but there's already a tomato out there and most of them have blooms on them. So far, the poor things have not been pilfered by a Brown Dog, but then, they don't have large, red tomatoes on them yet, either. (If you are wondering, yes, she LOVES tomatoes and has been known to steal one off a plant before.) On the subject of tomatoes, we tried some frozen, battered green tomatoes from Wal-Mart the other day, and they were really good! Of course, fresh ones are always better, but these were better than I expected a frozen green tomato to taste. Frying them was an adventure since we never fry anything, but they turned out really well. And, like everything else, the more burnt the crust is, the better. :) Seriously, we always like the crusty burned parts of things, and the best tomatoes we ate were nearly black (the crust, not the tomato). Yum. So, if you need some fried green tomatoes and don't have any green tomatoes yet (well, I have a tiny baby one, but we aren't going to fry it), try these frozen ones. They come in a white and clear bag and they are some kind of generic looking brand that looks a lot like Southeastern Meats frozen vegetables. That's probably enough rambling for now.....

Everybody Say "WOO HOO!!"

We have a lawyer! I just checked the Alabama State Bar Directory, and he's listed. :) See for yourself: http://www.alabar.org/directory/dirDisplay.cfm?URLId=8h6s7[4ZO9750\RR&-:GTan .

Thank you to everyone who prayed us through this. I know he felt those prayers, and we couldn't have made it without them.

He'll be sworn in on May 24 before the Alabama Supreme Court. I'm so excited and proud of him. :)

A Few More Pictures

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Notice the large brown dog to the left? She knows those kitties aren't supposed to be outside. Notice the evil glowing cat eyes? Jewel does NOT care what Georgia thinks. :)
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These are our tomato plants. They are just babies right now, but a couple of them already have blooms. Let's hope I don't kill them. :)
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Don't they look like they are having a serious conversation?
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I think this one was up to no good chasing a bug. She loves being under the porch where the ground is cool. Her pretty white bunny (belly) fur came out orange.

What's wrong with these pictures?

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If you guessed, "The cats are outside," you would be correct. We decided to let them out to play last weekend and they all had a great time. I've decided, based on the number of cats that roam the neighborhood unharmed, that mine can play outside occasionally while I'm home. Jewel would be an outside cat all the time if I let her. She stayed out until I made her come in at dark. Squirt and Gypsy went in and out all day, but didn't go far from the house. I think they don't want to deal with the dog. Consequently, Georgia is having a hard time letting go of the "No Kitties Outside" rule, and has been chasing and poking at them whenever they come out. Jewel does not give a rip, but Squirt and Gypsy are a little more timid.

Jewel got herself in a pickle when she hopped the fence, then decided she couldn't get back over in a different spot that had pokey things on top. Dave had to drive around the block to retrieve her from the backyard behind ours. I know she would have found her way back just fine, but we were ready to leave for church and I wasn't leaving her out. (I know I'm a worry-wort, so save it.)

In other news, Daddy and Dave planted the tomatoes Saturday. Dave tried to brutally murder a frog with the rake (okay, not really, he just raked at it accidentally), but Daddy grabbed it up and handed it to me. I don't know if I've ever held a frog before, and I was a little surprised to find him in my hands so suddenly. :) He was actually not at all slimey, like I thought he would be. He was cool and smooth, and I liked him, but I let him go on the other side of the fence. Staying in our yard would mean certain death for a froggie, especially since the kitties are coming outside some. That's all I've got for now.

The Great Escape

Actually, there have been two escapes recently. Well, actually, there have been four, but only two this week. Both were pretty funny.

Remember when I was bragging about Georgia staying in her fence? I spoke too soon. Last Saturday, the next door cat (Cody is his name, I think) was sitting nicely in his backyard. Georgia was very excited about this; Cody was not at all excited. Georgia acted like she wanted to scoot under the fence in a pre-established weak spot (she didn't dig the hole), so I took the rebar out of the gate and stuck it in that spot in the fence, to make the fence more stable. I thought this would be fine because the gate was still latched. We should have been secure, right? Wrong. Cody decided he couldn't take the pressure any longer and took off running. Georgia, in hot pursuit, used her head to ram right through the gate! It certainly caught me off guard. She didn't go far, just chased Cody around his house, then inspected the neighbor's backyard. Apparently, the rebar must remain in the gate at all times if it is supposed to hold the brown dog. That was the first escape of the week.

Last night, my opportunist cats decided that during a thunderstorm is a good time to venture into the yard. I was not involved in this adventure (as I have been in all of the escapes thus far) because I was reading peacefully on the couch. Dave had been out on the porch and come in to get a shower. When he came out of the shower he said, "Who left the door open?" Um, not me, I haven't moved. Apparently, he didn't shut it all the way when he came in and the wind blew it open. So, we searched the house for the cats, and they were no where to be found, of course. I stood on the back porch, in the pouring rain (okay, the porch is covered, but that's beside the point) calling Jewel. I knew that if only one was out there, it would be her. Georgia assisted me in rounding up the kitties, and soon they came in one-by-one. Gypsy, being the street smart cat that she is, had snuggled down on one of the chairs around the table. She was the first to come in, and she was nice and dry. Georgia convinced Squirt and Jewel to come out from under the porch. I don't often see Squirt's furry, black butt move as fast as it did through the rain to the back door last night. Apparently, he doesn't like rain. :) Jewel was the last one in, and in no hurry at all. I wasn't surprised. They all got cookies for coming when I called them, and settled in to bathe all that outside thunderstorm off of themselve. Crazy cats.

In people news: I am happy to report that we are spending lots of time playing in the yard and at the park. I'm loving not having a project to work on, though I think Dave is getting bored already. He'll find something to get into soon, I'm sure. My work has been crazybusy, as has become the norm. That's fine, it makes the days go fast and I'm loving it. On that note, is 4 in the afternoon the official witching hour? It seems like things get even crazier in that last hour when I'm trying to leave on time.

We are waiting and hoping for our house to sell soon, and waiting and hoping for good bar exam results. We spent Easter at our church in Gardendale, and that was kind of sad, but we plan to start looking for a new church this week. That's all I really know for now.

Our House

Here's the link to the listing of our house in Gardendale. http://www.eraoxford.com/selected-residential-listing.asp?page=2&Min=1&Max=150999&Beds=3&Baths=2&acres=999&Proptype=SFR&Area=110&id=295366

If you know anyone who is looking for a house in Gardendale, please let them know!

We have a Swimmer!

Labrador Retrievers were bred to retrieve fishing nets from the icy cold waters of the North Atlantic. This explains their thick, water repellent, double-coat, webbed feet, and otter like tail - all things that are used for swimming. Given this information, one would think that a Lab would naturally know how to swim and love it. One would be wrong. :)

Apparently, we have spoiled Georgia with her kiddie pool. She LOVES the water and loves to play in her pool, but she expects the ground to be under her feet at all times. The few times we've tried to get her to swim in a big pool, she completely freaked out. She can swim when she falls in, she just didn't know it, and certainly didn't think it was fun. :) Well, now that we are in Montevallo with a good park to play in, we decided to make her learn to swim in the creek. My theory was that if she could wade into deeper water gradually, she would realize that it's okay when the water gets deep and wouldn't panic. Dave took her to the park while I was gone to Charlotte and let her stomp around a bit in the water. He said she was really funny going deeper and deeper, but stomping her feet the whole time to make sure the ground was still there. Once I got home, I bought her a 50 foot leash so she would be able to move around in the water and we could still control her. We took her back to the park Saturday, walked her a lap to get her hot and thirsty, then took her to the little beach entrance to the creek. At first she just splashed around until Dave found a stick. He started throwing the stick for her, and she did just was she was supposed to do, found it and brought it back! She could swim! The more he threw the stick, the more she wanted to swim and retrieve it. I know we looked like lunatics cheering and clapping for her when she actually swam out and back to get that stick, but we were so proud! Our water dog is actually a water dog now. :) We took her back Sunday, but she was still very tired and there were too many kids and dogs around for her to focus for long periods of time. She swam, but we lost a few sticks because she kept getting distracted. :) I'm such a bad dog mom, I just realized that I didn't even think about taking the camera to get pictures of her swimming. Maybe next time.

No Smooth Sailing Yet :(

We had another anxiety issue this morning, a little breakfast surprise for us. I don't know which kitty is responsible, but I'm pretty sure it was Squirt. I quit giving him the anti-anxiety medicine two days ago, and it seems that might have been too soon. Add into the equation a few things I hadn't thought of: animals lived in the house previously (which would cause territorial marking) and the weather is supposed to be bad (which will further aggravate the anxiety). The good new is, no one seems to be sick anymore. The bad news is: HOW DO I MAKE THIS STOP?!? My patience is wearing thin with cleaning up animal accidents. I believe I've had my fair share this past year, and I'm ready to pass this responsibility to another family. Anyone? I will continue giving him the medicine, and do some more research, and wait, and pray, and hope he is adjusted by the time the medicine runs out. If all else fails, I think they might have to be outside kitties. It breaks my heart just to think about that. :( He was one of my engagement kitties, and part of my little fur-family, how can I just put him out? :( Everyone please say a little prayer for my animals (if you don't believe in praying for animals, we may need to talk); this has been so life-altering for them. Okay, enough whining.

A happy story. Georgia passed the fence test this morning with flying colors!! Yay! I've been concerned that she might leap right over it in a tempting situation, because that would be no problem for her. I let her out this morning, and she did her normal boxing bounce out the door and off the porch to check for unwanted guests in the yard (you can't know how happy it makes me to see the boxing bounce again, it means she's accepted the yard and house as hers). Lo and behold! There was a cat drinking from the bird bath! She bounced and barked at it until it ran, and she chased it right to the fence and watched it go over, BUT she didn't follow it! Yay! I just knew she'd chase a cat right over the fence, but we were spared the trauma of retrieiving her from someone else's yard this day. The first time she realizes she can jump the fence, we will have a problem, but for now we are trying to make her respect the fence before she gets the idea to jump it. She really is finally starting to enjoy the yard. She patrols in the mornings and evenings and she has learned to catch the frisbee in the smaller space. One thing that still gets her (that we find ABSOLUTELY hilarious) is the motion light on the workshop. She wanders under it during her nightly patrol and it scares the $%$^$# out of her! HA HA HA! :) I laughed so hard last night when I saw her jump and run like something was after her. That should be good entertainment for a while. :)

In people news: we got our Gardendale house on the market. The new carpet makes it look bigger and cleaner, which is wonderful. I still have to do a thorough cleaning, but it will be a much more pleasant experience now that I don't have to look at the disgusting old carpet. We also still have to touch up some paint that was messed up in the move and a few other chores like that. I have to admit that I had a moment when we were leaving there the other night, but I'm good now. I love the new house, and once my crazy cats are all adjusted, it will be great.

We're In!!

We are moved and unpacked, and everyone is adjusting nicely to the new house. The cats seem much better now that their stuff is all unpacked. I'm guessing the most traumatic part for them was seeing it all go away from the old house and not understanding what was happening. When I unloaded them into the new house (after everything was unpacked and set up), they were fine and happy. I'm still medicating Squirt for a few more days just to be on the safe side.

It's funny what you discover about people and animals when you live closely with them. This new house is smaller, but we fit comfortably into it. The biggest difference is that we don't have a basement. Previously, we kept the litter box in the basement, now, it's in the bathroom off of our bedroom. Well, as it turns out, Squirt is a 5:30 a.m. pooper. :) The past three mornings he has been scratching obsessively around the litter box between 5:30 and 6 in the morning (don't worry, litter box scratching has always been an obsession of his). He's so consistent that I think Dave will just start using him for an alarm clock. :)

The kitties also LOVE the screen door on the back porch and the cool tile floor in the bathroom. They accepted their room without question, and Georgia has not bothered the baby gate (except for the one time she hopped over it to steal a cat toy - that's pretty normal). She's pretty much letting them have their space. Georgia and Jewel are becoming sweet sisters, and we saw proof this morning. We were sitting at the table for breakfast and Georgia was sitting with us waiting for her bites. Jewel slinked up to her and loved on her just a little, like she does to us when she needs love. I've been suspicious that they are really best buds for a while now, but that just confirmed it.

Georgia is learning to live in a fence, and it hasn't been too bad. She just doesn't understand why she can't chase the cat in the backyard next door, or the squirrel in the backyard behind us. She settled for harassing a woodpecker, but it scolded her nicely and she's left it alone since. She swam in her pool yesterday for the first time this year, so I think that made the fence situation a little better.

Dave has finally calmed down, and I think he really is finished with projects for a little while. I know I am. I'll post some pictures when I have time to take some good ones. I have a few of Georgia on the back porch, but I forgot to upload them.

Later.