Reason # 1,256 Why I Love My Dog

At 3:45 yesterday morning, Georgia barked her “booger bark.” That’s the scary one that wakes me out of a dead sleep in the middle of the night because something is wrong. And something was wrong. There was a dog in our yard, and it was stalking my cats. Gypsy was peacefully sleeping on the back porch like the house cat that she is (her previous street cat life convinced her to stay close to home). Squirt and Jewel were nowhere to be found, but there was a wad of fur in the driveway. You can imagine that I freaked out a little. I ran the dog off and whistled and whistled for the cats. After about 15 minutes, I gave up and decided that they were probably too scared to come out of hiding. I went back inside and stopped in the bathroom on the way back to bed. I heard Squirt jump in the window (that’s where they go to yell for me to open the door). I let him in and he was stinking like a skank-nasty dog. I’m pretty sure he tangled up with the dog that was in the yard, and got away from it. I checked him over and couldn’t find any visible injuries. When I got back in bed, Jewel was still out. I worried over her for a while, but admitted to myself that it was just as likely that she has a second family she sleeps with at night (she’s very social). Before Dave left for work at 5:30, he dropped her on the bed with me. She had come in for breakfast, as always. I checked her over, too, and couldn’t find any injuries. It seems that they escaped the killing dogs once again.

This is the second time that Georgia has woken me up in the middle of the night because a dog was after the cats. The first time it happened, I was too late to save the neighbor kitty, but mine all survived. It’s the same pack of dogs, too. They are really scary and I honestly believe that it won’t be long before they start attacking children. Apparently, Animal Control caught the main one several months ago, but it broke out of the holding pen and it’s had another litter of puppies – and it’s teaching them to hunt.

When we move to the new house, we are going to try making the cats inside kitties once again. They were fine in our first house with the basement, and the new house has a basement, too. The new house just has more room in general, so I’m hoping they can all peacefully coexist in the bigger space. It makes me nervous to let them outside there because it is closer to the creek, which is where the killing dogs stay most of the time. Plus, I get the impression that our new neighbors won’t appreciate Jewel’s social personality. We’ll see.

A Revelation About Me

Everyone who knows me knows that my animals are my children. They may annoy me sometimes when they do things they aren't supposed to do (like coughing up a hairball on the carpet, jumping on the kitchen sink to get a bug, rolling in the middle of the bed when I'm trying to make it, scratching my bare skin when I've just gotten out of the shower because street cats don't know how to keep their claws in, etc.), but even when they are annoying me, I find joy in them. As I scold Jewel when she's about to jump on the counter after that bug, I can see the expression on her face saying, "But, MOM, there's a bug in the window!" Then she sulks off and cleans her self, giving me the stink eye the whole time. They have such great personalities, even when they are sneaky little witches.

There have been a couple of temporary pets that have stolen my heart, too. Oscar was one of them. I told his story last summer, I believe. My brother Rob brought him to my house after finding him eating garbage on an old logging road. He was sick with infection from the horrible cut on his neck where he had apparently broken off a chain, and he was so stinky. Bathing him was WILD. He was just a puppy, about 5 -6 months old, I know because he was losing his puppy teeth. He stayed in my yard until he was well, and he got so big and rambunctious that I was afraid he would hurt Georgia. We couldn't keep him, so I tried to find a home for him, with no luck. Rob and Dave took him to the Humane Society, and I'm pretty sure that sweet puppy found a forever home. He was such a sweet dog, just too big and out of control for me to handle at that point in my life. I cried like a baby the night before they took him away because I let him down. I took him in, but I couldn't give him what he needed to be the pet I needed him to be.

Before Oscar, there was Taco. Taco was a husky mix with white-blue eyes. She was called Taco because she looked like a larger version of the Taco Bell dog. She had been hanging around the neighborhood of some people we went to church with at the time. They were tired of her, but they fed her because she had just had a litter of puppies and she appeared to be starving. Dave offered for the people to bring her to our house. He thought they would drop her off and she would just fend for herself. This was early in his understanding of me and animals. :) She was also a super sweet and very stinky dog. She stayed in our yard in Gardendale, and she played pretty well with Georgia. She slept on an old comforter on the porch. Her only drawback was that she roamed a lot, it was the Husky in her, I think. There was one very traumatic night when I had put her on a tie-out on the porch so she wouldn't roam and get hit by a car. When I got back from class, the dog and the tie out were gone. Dave was home, but he had not let her go - he thought she had just left. I went looking for her and found her in the backyard. She was so traumatize from being tied up that she wouldn't even move. I had to pick her up and carry her back to her blanket on the porch, and she wasn't a small dog. She had obviously been mistreated. We decided we would keep her in the house with Georgia. I brought her in and bathed her on a Friday night, and we were going to the vet for shots on Saturday. Saturday morning, she took Georgia off into the woods and we couldn't find her for a while. We decided then that unless we were ready to fence the yard (and we couldn't afford it), then we couldn't keep her. Georgia would stay in the yard on her own, but Taco took her off and we couldn't risk losing here. We took Taco to the Humane Society, and that was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I cried like a baby over her, too.

That experience is why I made sure that Rob went with Dave to take Oscar to the Humane Society. It's a hard thing to do, and if you are going to pick up strays, you need to be able to do it. The rule at my house now is, if you pick one up, it goes to the Humane Society immediately. If it comes to the house, it will be treated as one of our pets - shots, spay/neuter, flea meds, kennel trained, house trained - all of it. I'm too soft to get attached to them and then have to take them away again without knowing if they will find a family.

I wrote all this as background to help explain what I learned about myself. As an avid animal lover, it's always been hard for me to imagine not liking an animal, especially someone's pet. In the past week, I've learned that I don't love them all. We’ve been dog sitting my in-laws’ Dachshund for a week. He started and ended the week by chasing and attacking Gypsy. I’m not happy with him. He is mean, he bites, he screeches and whines, he doesn’t listen, he’s stubborn, and he constantly has to be ON me. I could deal with all of that stuff, except the cat chasing. Last night, I though he was going to kill her. Luckily, she got away from him and she wasn’t hurt. Everyone in my house was traumatized by the time we got him under control, including him. On top of that, he is not kennel trained. When he’s in the kennel, he screeches at the top of his lungs and sounds like he’s going to stroke out. As you can imagine, there hasn’t been much sleeping going on lately. We tried letting him sleep with us at night, but he keeps us awake and he chases the cats. It's hard for me to not like him. I want to like him, but we just don't mesh well.

Georgia has been looking quite frazzled and she was really clingy this morning. She doesn’t like it when he misbehaves, and she REALLY doesn’t like it when there is yelling. :) Two of the cats, Gypsy and Squirt, all but moved out for the week. I’ve barely had to fill the cat food bowl because no one has been inside to eat. I feel so bad for all of my animals; it isn’t fair to them, and I’m not sure I can do this again. He goes home today, and I am looking forward to a peaceful night of sleep. I’m hoping my animals quickly return to normal.

New Blog

This is the link to the new remodeling blog: http://amanda-newhouse.blogspot.com/. I'm going to try to keep them separate. :)

This is it!

This is the new house. I took pictures of the inside as well, but I can only post a limited number in the blog. I will be creating a separate blog for the ongoing remodeling project, so there will be plenty of pictures in it. I plan to show before, during, and after of each room we do.

Last night was Day 1, we ripped out the carpet in all rooms except the den. The hardwoods don't look too bad - not nearly as bad as I expected. Hopefully our friends can meet us this weekend to work on refinishing. They work for food. :) Tonight we will be pulling the staples out of the floor. The carpet pad was stapled down, and the staples don't come with it when you pull it up. :) We probably would have done more last night, but we ran out of daylight and the power was off.

Speaking of power, do you know that you now have to provide proof of residence before you can get your utilities turned on? What a load. We tried to line up power, water, and gas last week so that it would all be on on closing day, but we couldn't. We had to bring a copy of the deed to prove that the it's our house. So we worked by Big Light (we gave my dad a giant flashlight for Christmas) until it was just too dark to see. Hopefully there will be power tonight.

I'm ready to start painting. I'm anxious about getting everything done in time for the shower and I'm just ready to paint and make it mine.

Today is the the day.

We close on our new house today at 4:00. We had a little scare because apparently today is Confederate Memorial Day and the courthouse is closed. Our credit union is in the courthouse so we thought we weren't going to be able to get our certified check. Luckily, the main branch is open today, so all is well. Let's hope there are no surprises at the closing table.

I'll take pictures of the house the next time I am home in the daylight, which will probably later this week. We have decided to go ahead and refinish the hardwoods because we have some friends that are going to help us with it. I think we'll be pulling up the carpet later this week so we can start that project. After the hardwoods, I'll be painting. We walked through the house again this weekend and I realized that there is WALLPAPER in the bathrooms. I DESPISE wallpaper and it is a pain in the butt to remove, so the bathroom will be the last thing I paint. That wallpaper looks like it is on there good, too; it isn't even peeling in the corners. :(

The deal is, I want to refinish the hardwoods, paint, and move in by June 1. This is because I'm co-hosting a shower in the new house on June 2. Dave is willing to go along with this plan because I promised that the next thing on the list, after hardwoods and paint, can be the little out building that needs some serious help to make it a functional space. He has also been promised the basement as "his area" until we can build a bigger outbuilding for him. Eventually, I think we will make the basement a master bedroom suite, but for now it will belong to him. This will allow me to do basically whatever I want upstairs. Within reason, of course. :) Future plans for the house include new kitchen counters and floor and remodeling the bathrooms and the basement. I'm so excited! There is so much potential just waiting there.

New Things

If pets look like their owners, who does this remind you of? Rebecca? Good, because this is her new kitten. :) She got him for Vivi, because Vivi has been behaving badly - most likely due to loneliness during the day. His name was Shep to begin with (the name of Vivi's husband in The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood), but she changed it to Dean. Apparently, she likes that name. :) I took this picture of him right after she got him; she brought him to my house so I could see him, and he hissed at everything, including the camera. This picture just makes me laugh everytime I look at it. Georgia was so intrigued by him and the more excited she got, the bigger he hissed and spit. I don't think he appreciated her very much.

This is the new painting I did last night at Sips 'n Strokes class. I think it turned out pretty cute, and I plan to hang it and the other one in my new house. Rebecca and Kendall went with me, and we had good time. I never would have expected my sister to be so Type A about painting, though. I thought that all three of our paintings looked great.

That's good for now. I just wanted to share these pictures.

Not Guilty!!

The verdict came back this morning, and he WON!! He won, he won, he won!! I'm so excited for him. This is good stuff.

Some background on the craziness of this week: Dave has spent the last several weeks preparing for a robbery trial. When he got to court Wednesday morning, he learned that the robbery was dismissed, but he would be trying a theft case for the same man. That day. With one hour to prepare. You see, he spent all of his time preparing for the robbery because it was higher on the docket. The judge was testing him - because he likes him. :) He did the best he could, and apparently that was enough to create a reasonable doubt for the jury! He saved this man from a sentence of 20 to life. For the record, if he was guilty of anything, it was probably a misdemeanor - not deserving of life imprisonment. As Dave said last night, it's a hard job - harder than he ever imagined it would be.

A house update - we are supposed to close on the 23rd of this month. God willing, everything will work out fine and this will be our house. We walked through it again this week and found some things that need work. It looks like the shower in the master bathroom leaks, so we'll probably need to replace it . This means down with the pink tile! :) (What is with the trend of pink tile? Yuck.) We are going to try using it for a while first to see if it is actually still leaking, or if the water stains on the ceiling downstairs are old. On that note, we've decided not to refinish the hardwoods (the ones that are hiding under the carpet) because the shower is probably a more immediate need. We will be doing some painting, too, before we move.

That's enough for now.

I forgot something.

I forgot something really big in my update yesterday. Dave's first trial is scheduled for next week, April 9th. I can't disclose any details because of attorney-wife privilege, but please keep him in your thoughts as he prepares to try this case. He is really stressed out right now, so please pray specifically for calm and peace of mind as he prepares. Also, pray that God gives him the words he needs during the trial, that justice is served, and that Dave has peace with the verdict.

He's not on the "good" side of the law (he's the defense counsel - but then, I guess "good" is relative), so we have to be careful about praying for a victory. I will say that Dave is pretty sure the defendant is innocent, so he's really hoping to win. Are you thinking to yourself, "What does a lawyer do when he knows the client is guilty?" The answer is: He hopes that the district attorney does his job well. The majority of Dave's work is appointed by the family court, and most of the people he represents are there because they NEED to be (i.e. the kids need to be taken away, the mom does have a drug habit, etc.) so his job is to get the best deal possible for his client and hope that the other side does a good job.

It would be wonderful if he won his first trial, but I just hope he does his best and that he is happy with his effort - regardless of the outcome. Anyone who knows him well knows that he will argue with a rock just for the sake of arguing. It's fun for him. He's been practicing on me for years. I've been thoroughly cross-examined a multitude of times, so let's all hope that he uses that experience in the courtroom next week. By the way, when I said this to him last week he told me that the difference between arguing with me and arguing in the courtroom is that I don't have a lawyer present. I told him that I thought I may need to get one. :) The Good Lord knows I can't win an argument with him on my own. With all due respect for myself, it IS virtually impossible to win an arguement with someone who argues just for the sake of arguing. How can you make a point if the person you are arguing against changes his position over and over again so that nothing you say is relevant to the next point? He's very good at getting your thoughts so twisted that you don't know what you believe anymore. Surely he can do that in the courtroom and create a reasonable doubt for the jury, right? I can't think of anyone who should have been a lawyer more than him.

On that note, please pray for my sanity, and my sense of humor. :) If we survive this one, we'll be okay through all the rest of the trials in his life - court trials, anyway.

Serial Contract Writers Strike Again!

Once again, we’ve put a contract on a house. Hopefully this will be the last one. This is the house that we heard a rumor about last week. There isn’t even a sign in the yard yet. We got to see it unofficially on Saturday (that means we walked up to the people in the yard and asked them if we could go inside) and then we saw it again officially on Sunday (with our agent). I love it. It reminds me of our house in Gardendale, which I still miss SO MUCH sometimes. It doesn’t look anything like it, but it feels right. And, it has the same old people smell that the Gardendale house had in the beginning. Luckily, I know how to get rid of that now. The yard is huge and beautiful, and fenced in. There is a nice brick patio in the back and a huge front porch. It’s 3 bedrooms and 3 baths, and it probably has hardwoods under all the carpets. The kitchen is very comfortable with giant window over the sink and lots of cabinets. There is a laundry room off the kitchen – big enough for a kennel and the animal feeding station. Maybe this will be home. God willing, the inspection will come back okay and we can finish this house search.

Speaking of God, this is the Christian Holy Week – the week between Palm Sunday (when Jesus returned to Jerusalem) and Easter (when He was resurrected after being crucified). I think this is my favorite holiday because it just astounds me that God sent His only Son to die for me. Isn’t that amazing? Jesus Christ came to this earth to set an example of how we should live our lives, and then He died to wash our sins away so that we can have eternal life in Heaven. Also at His death, the veil that shrouded the Holy of Holies was torn in half, giving us direct access to God so that we can have a personal relationship with Him. As with most relationships, I don’t always give that one enough attention, and I am a sinner by nature, but I cannot imagine how hopeless I would be without God. Amazing things happen when Christians pray. Read more about the real meaning of Easter in the Gospels: Matthew 27: 35-50, Mark 15:24-37, Luke 23: 22-46, and John 19: 18-30.

Finally, here are a few pictures we took over the weekend. Bunny ears have nothing to do with the Risen Christ, but they are awfully cute on a Brown Dog. The azaleas in our backyard are gorgeous, too!

Is that a fuzzy caterpillar?

Nope! It's Gypsy and Squirt having a summer nap in the shade.





It's not really summer yet, but 88 degrees certainly starts feeling like summer. The kitties love this carpet roll that Dave and I have been carrying from house to house with us. We have a certain attachment to this roll of carpet. See, this is the carpet that we put into our house in Gardendale AFTER we moved out of it. It replaced some hideous tannish-gold carpet, and since we didn't get to live on the new carpet, we brought some with us. It stays on the carport because our house has carpet already, but we just couldn't bear to part with it.

Anyway, the kitties love to lounge on it, so I guess it's good for something.



This is a picture of the tablescape I created for our Ladies' Night Out a few weeks ago. It also had clear glasses with gold rims, but I bought them and put them out after taking this picture. A funny thing about those glasses and ladies, I had eight glasses because the table sat eight, but when the men were filling the glasses, one was missing. I could not figure out what happened to it - until the end of the evening when I happened to be following behind a seasoned lady who passed by my table to replace the glass she had taken from it earlier. Apparently, she did not want to drink out of the gold rimmed goblets that were on the table where she was sitting, so she borrowed a glass that would match from my table. Go figure. No big deal, except that one of the ladies at my table had to drink out of a plastic cup. Women. The favors were little candles in travel tins, and I had enough fruit to last two weeks once the thing was over.

It's Wedding Season!!

Obviously, since we only attended one wedding last year, we are making up for it now! Presently, I am co-planning a reception, a bridal shower, and a baby shower, and buying gifts for all of those plus three more. I'm also the Wedding Liason at church, so I'm now coordinating an unexpected wedding that just popped up. It's the first wedding in the 7 months that I've had this position, and it had to happen now. At least it will be over in about two weeks (I'm glad I'm not planning that one!). My calendar is so full it makes me cringe when I open it. I'm also in charge of the Mother's Day Basket fundraiser at church, so I'm really wondering what else I can add to my agenda right now. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?

Anxiety aside, it will all be dramatic and fun (and funny when approached with a spirit of silliness), and I won't have to worry about being bored for a while. I'm so thankful that I have a beach trip planned in June.

I attempted to decorate a cute cake over the weekend and it was a DISASTER! The cake is very tasty, but the icing melted because it was too hot in my house, so it didn't turn out as cute as I had planned. It was my plan for the bridal shower I am co-planning, but that plan has been modified.

I stayed home from work yesterday because I hurt my back over the weekend and I needed a visit to the chiropractor. He told me that sitting in my chair all day will cause me to have this catch in my lower back. I guess that means I should retire. :) How am I supposed to NOT sit in my chair?! :) He did say that I need to get up and walk around more often, so I'm trying that today and it seems to be helping. Of course, had I not walked the 70 lb. dog last night, it would probably help more, but that was me being dumb because it felt better.

On the house front... we are at a loss. There is rumor that another one in our neighborhood will be on the market next week, so we are planning to go see it. We have until June to find one before our preapproval expires.

My So Called Life

Closet Kitten

Jewel frequently adopts a favorite spot for sleeping, and this seems to be the spot for those occasions when she's feeling a little anti-social. You can't tell from the picture, but she's in the top of my closet.

I know I say this every time I post, but life has been crazybusy lately! I cannot believe it is March already. For the record, I started this post about 2 weeks ago, but I was called onto a critical project, and then another one, and so it goes. Last week felt like two because I spent the first two days in Charlotte, NC on a client site. So, updates....

We withdrew our contract on the house we were looking at because there was just too much work to be done. It was a two bedroom with a full basement, and we were planning to buy it with the intention of finishing the basement. In order to finish the basement, we were going to have to dig up the yard with a backhoe, put in a drain, fill in the yard, re-landscape, and rebuild a front porch. That was just going to be too much to fit into my crazy life right now. We are looking at another one that we've been watching for quite some time, so we'll see what happens with that. It's not in our neighborhood, but I think we've about gotten over that requirement.

What else? Well, Dave and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary on February 21st. That's pretty freaking amazing. If the past two months have gone fast, the last three years have been traveling at the speed of light. :) I found a great lawyer briefcase for Dave that has a pocket for his laptop, so that was his present. He seems to really like it, and now he has a bag for his "things." Which is good, so maybe I won't have to carry his "things" in my purse now. He really outdid himself with my present. I got a new car! Well, new to me anyway, and for those of you who know what I drove, you'll know that a 98 model would have been new to me. :) Anyway, its a 2003 Camry, and it's the nicest thing I've ever owned. It's burgundy, which is wonderful because I told him I didn't want white or any kind of non-color (non-color = silver, champagne, etc.), those are all nice, but I really needed a color after driving a white car for 10 years. Yes, that's right, the car I was driving was my first car. I bought it when I was 16 and it was 2 years old then. You can see why I'm elated to finally have a new one. The best part is that I didn't have to do the shopping and haggling, and we got a pretty good deal on it. Yay! :)

Work - what can I say? It's just crazy. I have barely been eating lunch most days. I keep hoping it will slow down just a little, but things keep coming up. Dave has been very busy with work, too, which make us both happy.

He had a car accident recently (right before I got a new one), and we are waiting to see if he gets a new car, too. A lady rear-ended him on the off ramp of the Interstate. He was supposed to see the adjuster last week, but he had to reschedule because of the storms. Hopefully he'll get that taken care of this week. He wasn't hurt at all, just the car, thank goodness. I think the accident inspired him to start shopping for a new car for me. Yay. :)

There are lots of church things coming up. We have our annual Ladies' Night Out this weekend, and I'm decorating a table for it. I'm also in charge of the men who will be serving, so that should be fun. :) I'll try to remember to take pictures of my table to post.

On the wedding front, we have two to plan for now. Dave's niece is now getting married in May, and my cousin is getting married in July. I don't have much to plan for the niece - I just have to be there, but I'm in my cousin's wedding and helping with the decorations. I found some good flip-flops to wear with the dress over the weekend, so I'm happy about that. They have enough of a heel that I won't have to have it hemmed. The wedding is outside in the park, and the tallest girl has to wear flat shoes for her dress to fit, so we are all wearing flip flops. They won't show, don't worry. Anyway, they are brown, so I'll be able to wear them with everything.

I SO need a vacation, or three. I might actually get three this year, too, if I do it right. There should be two family beach trips (one per family - my families), plus Dave and I are going to try to take one by ourselves. We haven't had a big vacation since our honeymoon, and I'm ready for one. We really need time to pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist. I'm thinking we will try to go on a cruise this fall.

Oh, yesterday marked the official start of Birthday Week 2007 for my sister. She is the only person I know who celebrates her birthday for a whole week. Me? I'd rather skip it, but that doesn't happen.

I guess that's all for now. Until next month, I guess...... :) (Hopefully it will be sooner than that.)

By the way, the date on this post says February 19th, but it's really March 5th. That's how long it took me to write it.

Sips 'n Strokes

I painted this at an art class called Sips 'n Strokes. There is a little art gallery on 280 that has paint classes several times a week; you bring a bottle of wine and $25 and the artist supplies the materials and teaches you how to paint the painting. I really enjoyed it and I plan to do it again. The art gallery is called Wendy LoVoy, and if you are interested in the class, you can see the calendar at www.wendylovoy.com.

It's Only Been 21 Days, People!

I know, I’m way over due with this update, but life has been crazy since the New Year started!

People news first (because there’s actually more of it, for once):
The unbelievable has happened – Dave’s parents finally moved. I say it’s unbelievable because they have been talking about moving and listing their house for the majority of the time I’ve known them – about 7 years, now. They’ve looked and looked and looked for houses, but could never find a house big enough for their stuff, or a yard big enough, or a house that had a place to park the camper. It really seemed as if they just didn’t want to move, and I’ve been saying all along that I would believe they were moving when I saw it happen. It happened. The ended up buying a much smaller house about 10 miles from Dave’s brother; it does have a big yard and a place to park the camper, though. We moved them on the first weekend of the January. Even though they’ve been cleaning out and “downsizing,” we moved 20-something years worth of stuff. Really – twenty years worth of tax records. I, myself, moved the tax records onto the truck, and there was a box for every year since 1987. 1987 PEOPLE! She said she was going to burn them. (Are you asking yourself why she didn’t burn them before they moved? I did, and I asked her, too.)

Anyway, we moved most of the stuff (packed in OUR plastic tubs, mind you – what a great idea!) and they had a moving company move the furniture. I also received an assignment to re-caulk the bathtub, which I wholeheartedly agreed to do because I haven’t had a home improvement project in about a year. I didn’t know when I agreed that I would be doing it THAT day, but it worked out great since I hurt my back somewhere along the way and I really couldn’t lift anything. So, I caulked the bathtub and the boys moved the stuff. When I got home that night, I could not bend over. We had to make an emergency run to the Dollar General for Bengay so that I would be able to move and sleep. It was bad. I went to the chiropractor the following Tuesday and got that fixed.

It seems that caulking that bathtub got my home improvement juices flowing again. I walked around their new house planning all the things I would do to it. Since then, Dave and I have started looking for houses. We know we want one in our neighborhood, and we’d like to have one that needs some work (because those are the fun ones). Several have been put on the market, so we’ve been walking through them and weighing our options. Given the fact that Dave finally got his first paycheck from the state (insert a mini-celebration here!), we feel like we are in a decent position to buy a house and actually be able to make a house payment. We’ve been living for free in my grandparents’ house – courtesy of Jan and the uncles – for nearly a year now so that Dave could start his practice. I love our little house, but it’s just too little, so it’s time to buy our own. We’ve got our eyes on a 2/2 with a basement on a lot on the creek that seems to be in good condition. It needs updating and minor repairs, but we aren’t opposed to that. I really think I’m ready for another project. I’ve been project-less for nearly a year, and I woke up this morning planning what I would do to this house. We’ll see if it works out.

In addition to receiving his first paycheck, Dave also found an office to rent that is right across the street from the courthouse. He’s very excited because now he has a place to go every day, even when there isn’t anything happening in court. I’m very excited because it’s just an exciting time. I’m so proud of him! I suspect that having an office will increase business, and we all know that a busy Dave is a happy Dave. We shopped for and assembled some furniture, and moved him in the second weekend of January. He’s sharing the building with two established lawyers, so I think this could be really good for him. We also recently completed our quest for guest chairs, so his office furniture should be complete.

I spent last week in Indianapolis where the average temperature was COLD (seriously, lows of 12 and highs of 27 - with wind). I came home just before the Colts fans flooded the city (Go Colts!), but the air was pretty festive by Thursday. Business was good, and I have plenty to do between now and the end of February when I go back again. Indy is becoming like a second home to me – not that I would mind having that Hilton bed at my house. Work is busy, and I like it. I’ve also been cooking out of my new Rachel Ray cookbook (If you don’t know who Rachel Ray is, check your Nabisco products for her face. She’s my favorite Food Network personality). Rebecca gave me the cookbook for Christmas, and I’ve already gotten goo on the pages! That’s a sign of a good cookbook, you know. I’ve also been re-reading the Harry Potter books. Rumor has it that the last one comes out this summer, and I want to make sure I’m prepared for it. I’m up to book four, and enjoying them even more than I did the first (or second) time I read them.

Pet news:
We got a new arm chair for our living room, and when Daddy and Dave moved it in, they nearly had to carry Georgia in it. She jumped on it before it was on the floor. She’s trying to claim it as her own, but Dave is fighting her for it. She had her first raw egg to eat last night, and she slurped the insides up but wouldn’t eat the shell. (I’m not crazy, the shells are good for their teeth and bones, and most dogs will eat them.) We’ll try again soon and see if she eats the shell.

Jewel busted up her chin in a fight (I’m assuming), so we’ve been calling her Rocky. She had a big scab on her upper lip and chin, but it’s gone now and her chin just looks really pink.

Gypsy is her usual miniature self, albeit a little more snuggly since the weather has been cooler. She’s taken to sleeping between Dave and me with her head at the pillows, stretched out like a person. Dave hates it when he realizes it, but she’s so light, he hardly ever knows she’s there. She’s definitely my cat; she follows me around and talks to me during my routine every morning and night.

Squirt has been wearing out his feather balls he got for Christmas. When he finally comes inside in the evenings, he eats first (always), and then plays with the feather balls. We are usually settled down on the couch, and we here him banging and crashing around on the kitchen floor chasing that ball. He may have actually lost a little weight, though, so that’s good. The knot on his side is gone now, but his sore on his shoulder is still not cleared up. He really messed it up while I was in Indy, so we are working on getting it healed again. Dave barely remembers to feed them when I’m away, and since Squirt only surfaces at certain times of the day, I knew he’d never remember to doctor him. I’m about to give up, myself. I can tell that he just licks and licks it, but it really had started to grow hair again. Now we are back to square one. How many times have I said that about this sore? Three, I think. Neurotic cat.

Well, I think that’s enough for now. I’ll post some random, silly pictures I’ve collected soon; and if something serious happens with this house, I’ll post pictures of it, too.

Oh, and Chance the swimmer puppy that I posted about a while back is now up for adoption. His prognosis is good and they think he’s ready for a forever home! That’s so exciting, and it’s a good thing I don’t live closer to him or have a bigger house right now, because I think I might have to have him. I’m sure he’ll find a forever home in no time.

And Happy New Year!

The boys: Nathan, Rob, and Dave.
















The favors: martini glasses with the 007 logo.

















The centerpiece.



























The girls: Me, Rebecca, and Georgia.















A very tired Georgia.

Rebecca and I threw a small New Year's Eve party with a James Bond theme, since it IS 007 this year. The boys griped because we made them dress up, but what girl doesn't like to wear a pretty dress occasionally? Let's face it after highschool, and maybe college, there just aren't that many opportunities - so we created our own. Everyone looked great, and we had a great time.

Poor Georgia didn't make it all night. She did great, but the loud music and general rowdiness got to be too much for her as the night wore on. I ended up locking her in the bedroom with the cats (I knew they wouldn't appreciate a party). They all slept on the bed together until it was over. The next morning, she was just as tired as we were. :) One thing she likes about a party, the food. She stood guard over the buffet and looked at us with sad eyes whenever we came near it. I don't know what all she ate that night, but she was so well behaved.

I made it to bed about three, and that was WAY past my bedtime. Of course, my body didn't let me sleep past 8 a.m. on New Year's Day, so it was a lazy day. Fortunately, I'd planned ahead and done all my chores so I could be lazy. We had a great meal with all the things you are supposed to eat on New Year's: pork, greens (cabbage, thank goodness), and black-eyed peas.

Despite the good food and football, I really think New Year's Day has to be one of the most depressing days of the year. It's the official end to the holiday season, the last big break until you take a vacation (for most people), the return to normality, and just a general time of let-down after the busy holiday season. To sum up: it sucks. And, this year it was on a Monday, and you all know how I feel about Mondays. They suck. :)

So, here I am in my cube on the 2nd of January, and it's time to get on with it. Of course there were changes when I got to work this morning, that seems to be a regular occurrence these days. It's getting to a point where I'm not sure what "normal" is in my work environment right now. Anywho, there was some good news: as of the 8th, I will be a full-time employee!! That means I'm no longer a contractor, I will get paid vacation and sick time, a retirement plan, insurance, and a raise! Yay!! Best of all, I'll no longer have to work through a third party company. I'm very excited since this was one of my personal goals for 2007, and it means good things for my little family.

Oh, by the way, Go Broncos!! (Boise State Broncos, that is.) I was really struggling about pulling for Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, because I think their blue astro-turf is just ridiculous, but I'm a sucker for the under dog (I know, who would've guessed?). With a minute and thirty left on the clock, I rolled over and went to sleep because I knew the game was over and Oklahoma was going to win like everyone thought. I was wrong. As Zabransky said, there was "plenty of magic left" because the next thing I knew, Dave had woken up and was yelling: "They tied the game!" What?! I have to wake up and watch the rest of this?!? I'm glad I did because that was some of the best football I've seen in a long time. I may just have to forgive them for their blue field after all.

That's enough for now.

Oh wait, I forgot to add that I rode my bike up the freakin' Student Retreat hill and I'm very proud of myself! :)

A Belated Merry Christmas!

These are a couple of pictures from our Christmas morning. Dave's radio controlled Jeep was a big hit. Apparently he never had a remote controlled car that didn't have a cord when he was little. He promptly ran the battery down. :) Georgia FINALLY got to open that bone she has been checking on every day it was under the tree. :)

We had a great and very busy Christmas. I hope everyone else did, too!

I'm really looking forward to 2007. The plans? Well, in addition to celebrating our third anniversary (Yay!!), we hope to find a house of our own and maybe a new car for me. We both have a couple of personal goals that we seem close to acheiving. The law practice is doing great, even if he has had a couple of scary encounters recently. I'm so very proud of him. He really seems to be growing into his role as a lawyer, and it's a great thing to see. At his request, I gave him a couple of Spanish workbooks for law enforcement personnel for Christmas. With such a large Mexican population in our county, he would be at an advantage if he knew some courtroom Spanish. One of his goals this year is to learn some.

I'm loving my job as much as ever, and I'm looking forward to a couple of business trips in the near future. A business trip means a fresh, new project, and I'm ready for one. There's been a lot of weirdness in the office recently, so I'm really looking forward to a new year here in the cube farm. :)

Happy Birthday to ME!

The pictures above show what my cube looked like this morning when I got to work. My co-workers love me. :) I had to rearrange some of the streamers and balloons because I kept ducking under them to get to my chair.

My sister operates on the theory that you should celebrate your birthday for a week; I have never done that, but I'm getting close this year. This is my third day of celebration. Saturday night we went out to a Japanese restaurant with the family. I got clothes and pajamas and cake. Then Sunday morning, the entire church sang Happy Birthday to me (that was slightly embarrassing), and Dave parents came down and took us to lunch. They also brought me more pajamas and a photo album (I've been quickly filling photo albums since Dave gave me a digital camera for Christmas last year). Sunday evening we had dinner at Daddy's, where I got money and cake. :)

Dave gave me two hand-thrown coffee mugs that I fell in love with at a little pottery shop in Mentone and a coffee table book of 70 years of Life (magazine) photography. The book also included a print of the V-J Day victory kiss (the sailor and the nurse) that we will be framing. Years ago Dave inadvertently started a collection of kissing pictures for me; he's given me two poster sized pictures of couples kissing. When I saw the picture of the sailor kissing the nurse on V-J Day, I knew I wanted to add it to the collection. I think he's been looking for it for a while, and he finally got it with this book because it's a Life magazine photo. The book itself is really cool, but I can't wait to get that picture framed.

I also finished my Christmas shopping and wrapping this weekend, and that's a relief! I bought cat and dog toys for Christmas (since they are my kids) and I left the bag on the dining room table. I kept finding one of the catnip toys in the floor, but I didn't know who was stealing it. Sunday morning, I watched as Squirt dug around in the bottom of the bag for the feather balls I bought for him (he LOVES feathers). Three of them come on a piece of cardboard, so he stole the whole cardboard and ran with them. I confiscated it and gave him one ball to play with, and he played and played. When he got finished with that one, he came back to the bag to find something else to play with. I had to hide it from him. :) I told you he's a Christmas kitten.

I also wrapped a bone and put it under the Christmas tree for Georgia. Now, every time she walks by the tree she sticks her nose deep into it to smell her present. :) She thinks she's very special right now because I started feeding her fish oil capsules Saturday. She's been very itchy with very dry skin since we turned the heat on, and the fish oil is supposed to make her stop itching. She was hilarious when I gave her the first one. She kept picking it up and spitting it out - trying to figure out what it was - until she finally bit into it. Then she LOVED it, and wanted another one, of course. She gets one a day, and these fish oil capsules have been elevated to Very Special Treat status because she takes them to another room to eat them - that's what she does when she has something especially good to eat. :)

I took this picture of her playing football with Dave Sunday afteroon. She is obsessed with footballs. She finally got her own real football last weekend (her granddad gave it to her). She's never been allowed to play with Dave's football, so that makes footballs extra special. She somehow stretches her mouth around it to pick it up, but when it's time to release it, she has to use her foot to pry it out of her mouth. :)

Mr. Li Zard

Last night I was working late in Dave's office. It was quiet, the lamp was on, the overhead light was not, Gypsy was circled up in the other chair. I was working away at my computer and the business cards on Dave's bulletin board kept falling, and the papers kept shuffling around. I thought the vent was blowing them. I was wrong. A movement finally caught my eye and this is what I saw.














Mr. Li Zard had taken it upon himself to rearrange the bulletin board for Dave. I'm not sure how he got in, or how he lived long enough to work in the office with me. I tried to get good pictures of him, but it was hard since he camouflaged himself to match the walls. :)

He played on the table next to the desk the whole time I was working, then he posed for the camera. He started to get frustrated with me while I was taking pictures, and he would turn his head this way and that. I left him there, turned out the lights, and went to the shower. I cannot say what happened after that, but he somehow attracted the attention of a cat because when I got out of the shower he was only half alive. Gypsy and Jewel had relocated him to the living room and were torturing him soundly. I had considered catching him and putting him outside when I first saw him, but I hoped he would have a better chance to survive if he stayed in the warm house. He just made too much noise and got caught. This morning Dave said, "Your lizard friend was dead in the kitchen floor." Oh well. That's the lizard life in my house. They don't live very long here; lizard killing is my cats' favorite past time.

Christmas Cats

That is my sweet Squirt Man under the Christmas tree. He LOVES Christmas time and will spend the majority of the season under the tree. I put it up while he was playing outside Sunday, and when he came in he ate (as usual) and went straight for the tree - like he has Christmas tree radar. He stayed under it all night long.

The other kitties and Georgia have behaved themselves around the tree, so far. Jewel is famous for jumping into the top of it and knocking it over. We cannot have a real tree because I think they would all lose thier minds from the sheer ecstasy of having a real tree in the house (this is the same reason I don't have house plants). It's been up for 2 1/2 days now, and there haven't been ornaments on the floor yet. They all love to steal the ornaments. The first year we had the kitties (no Georgia yet), they undecorated the tree so much (by stealing ornaments and just knocking the whole tree over so they fell off) that after Christmas we basically just had to take the lights off to pack it up. We also found a ton of ornaments under the couch several months later when we were rearranging furniture that year.

We also cannot have glass balls on our tree because balls are too irrestible for furry beasts. Shiny ones attract cat attention so they knock them off the tree, then Georgia gets them because they are balls (duh!). The first year we had her, she crunched a glass ball into a million little bits with her little puppy teeth. Amazingly, she didn't swallow any of it and she didn't have any cuts in her mouth.

This kittens have been very funny in this cold weather. I open the door for them, they go running toward it, feel the cold air, and stop. They ALMOST prefer using the litter boxes to going out in the cold to potty. Georgia, on the other hand, loves the cold weather and would stay in it as long as I would let her.

About the people:
What can I say? We just aren't as interesting. :) Dave and I had our annual Christmas shopping lunch date over the weekend. I always enjoy that time with him. We got a lot done, but I've still got a few more things to buy before I'll be finished. We gave ourselves a small limit for each other this year because what we really want is a car (for me) and a television (for him), so spending a lot of money on a bunch of other things just seemed dumb. The car and the television will come in good time; what we have now will work just fine for a while longer.

Just a little something that I find interesting: http://tulgeywoodlabs.com/pages/Chance.html. This link tells the story of Chance, the swimmer puppy. A swimmer puppy is one that spends too much time on it's stomach so that its legs become deformed and unusable. This puppy was turned in to a Lab rescue and placed in a foster home. The foster mom is helping it through rehab so it can learn to walk and have a normal dog life. I'm sharing it because it amazes me.

Fun Pictures

This is Jewel E.'s favorite sleeping spot and her favorite blanket. She passed out like this the other night when she accompanied Dave, Georgia, and I on our evening walk. She was outside when we passed the house, so she followed us. We thought she would stop, but instead she just yelled for us to wait up. I had to carry her part of the way because her short, little, cat legs couldn't keep up. She jumped down once we got almost back to our street, and I "walked" her back to the house. Walking a cat is quite frustrating because they stop to sniff things just like dogs, but they aren't as eager to please so they don't necessarily hurry along when you want them to. Granted, she's the most dog-like cat I've ever had, but she's still a stubborn beast when she has her own agenda.















Snooty snout. She's a brown, brown dog with a brown rubber nose (that's a line from a song I sing to her). This beast was so tired after her play date with Lucy the Golden Retriever that she didn't bother to open her eyes while I was taking pictures of her last night.















This picture just cracks me up. For several days in a row, this is how I found Squirt lounging around.















Man of the house. While I was on vacation, I got up one morning after Dave was gone and this is what I found. :) Since Dave rearranged the furniture and moved the recliner to the sitting room, Squirt has claimed it. It was Georgia's when it was in the living room, but now she has the couch. Apparently, she just likes to be in the living room.















Gypsy has so many spots that they all blend together, but if you look closely you can see her jelly beans (those are the pads on the bottom of her toes). She looks like she's saying, "Stop taking pictures of me!"