Caught in the Act

The other day I got video of some of the cats' funnier quirky habits. So cute.





Mathilda has started dunking her head under the stream of water before drinking it (usually for much longer than I captured here). Sampson always "hints" that he wants to be brushed. They keep us laughing!

Maxwell Can Tell Time

Or may we should call this post "Maxwell Gets Revenge!"

So, last night we had to give all the cats their flea/heart worm medicine. All this requires is squirting a little tube of liquid on the back of their neck. Doesn't sound hard does it? HA! You've never met Maxwell. We always try to start with him. Well, he always seems to know when it's coming. We even tried to mellow them out with catnip. And, we forgot to close the door to the guest bedroom. Under the bed he goes. So, we closed him in and did Sampson and Mathilda. Then, we opened the door and he ran under the bed again when he saw Scott.

You will be shocked at what I did next, it's so mean!

I went into the kitchen and started putting ice in a glass and saying "Maxwell, Ice!" All three cats came running. Maxwell tried to resist and couldn't. I threw them a few pieces of ice, Scott shut the door, and then together we wrestled him to the ground and gave him his medicine. We all managed to escape injury, narrowly.

When we were ready for bed, I did a cat check and couldn't find Maxwell. So, I called and called and he didn't show. I figured he'd hidden under the bed in the guest room again. I closed the door and went to bed.

I thought wrong.

At 4:56 (4 minutes until my alarm goes off), I hear Maxwell in the bathroom in our room doing his loud "I want water; I'm so thirsty I think I might die," meow. It's truly pitiful. I just said "Shhh!" and tried to go back to sleep. (I know you are surprised, but that does shut them up, even through the door, they know the water bottle will follow shortly.) Then the alarm went off and I had to shoo him out of our room.

Oh yes, he holds a grudge!

Cats and Not Much Else

So, while we have been keeping busy, I really don't feel like I have a lot to say lately. But, I did want to give an update. I can't believe we are already seeing signs of Fall! The Lantana that I talked about in the last post is absolutely out of control. Unfortunately, I haven't downloaded those pictures yet, so they'll have to wait. Just imagine that you cannot see even a peek of the HVAC unit.

We got a photography class for our digital SLR for half off through half-off depot. We went this past Saturday. I learned a few things and I hope to build on them. I took some pictures of the cats when we got home. I am not sure if they are any better than ones I have taken in the past, but I did take them without the flash...so I felt pretty good about that.

Mathilda is now 10 pounds! She doesn't really look much bigger, but she is more round. She's pretty sturdy looking, that's for sure. She guards the food bowls. We went out and purchased a second automatic feeder so that she could eat out of one and the boys could eat out of the other. She sits there and watches them eat or lays down right next to them and nudges them. Sometimes we hear hisses or growls and we figure she got too close and is being put in her place. It's about time is all I can say about that. But, there you go. There's not that much else going on I guess.

I have begun making Christmas cards again. It's going faster this year, I think.

Here are some pictures I took this past Saturday:

How much is that kitty in the window?

Grrr...I am SO fierce!

I

I don't know if I have said this before, but Maxwell and Sampson are very long, have long tails, and are also tall. They have long legs. It's not as obvious on Sampson because he is so fluffy and fat, but Maxwell is sleek, so when he walks, it makes me think of a Great Dane. Yep, feline version of Scooby Doo. Well, Mathilda is compact. Her legs are super short, even by normal cat standards, I think. So, I say that while Maxwell is the Great Dane of cats, Mathilda is the weiner dog of cats. Heehee. But, she makes up for it with her feather duster of a tail. It's not as long as the boys' but its much furrier and poofy!

Catch-up Time

We have been so busy this summer so far! Scott and I have been more focused on spending time together, reading either our Bibles or other books, working in the yard, and exercising in all this beautifully HOT weather we've been having. I find it funny that we have received two comments on how we haven't posted in so long on the very day I was already planning to do a post.

I have listened to or read all the Kathy Reichs books and I am still reading Wuthering Heights and the biography by Julie Andrews called Home. I have been working on that Julie Andrews book for over a year. I have it at work and I read it here and there but it is interesting to read about her. Scott and I did a Sunday morning Bible study (which is something new since we moved into our new building) in the John Piper book Don't Waste Your Life which was really good. I think that we both plan to sit down and re-read the book that goes along with it so that the chapters aren't split up like for the Bible study pretty soon. We are reading and RC Sproul book called Knowing Scripture in our small group that meets every other Wednesday. We are learning a lot of stuff out of that like hermeneutics and the difference between exegesis and eisegesis (which, as many of you will know, is HUGE). It is just a good book that works to try to explain how to read the Bible without missing the important parts but also without misinterpreting the original meaning. Our small group leader Zach says that reading classic literature will make you a better reader overall (which of course will make you a better reader of the Bible), so Scott ordered a bunch of classics and is working through them. He has read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, and Treasure Island. If I can ever finish Wuthering Heights, I am going to move on to the collection of Jane Austen books that my sister gave me for my birthday last year after I read a book I borrowed from my friend Lauren called Feminine Appeal. We also worked through a couple's Bible study-type book called After You Say I Do. We weren't really great about doing it so it took us forever and we took a huge break in the middle while we did Don't Waste Your Life. It was a pretty good book and while I thought some of the questions were repetitive, sometimes that's what you need. Someone told me (I won't name the person, but you know who you are) that kissing is repetitive, but no one complains about that (that isn't an exact quote because I have an awful memory, but kissing was the example used). The point is that you can never hear or read some things too many times, the Bible being one of them.

We are currently in a Sunday morning class led by Bob, one of the elders of our church and someone that we consider a good friend as well. (We love his whole family.) We have books of the Bible that we are supposed to read each week then we go over them on Sunday. We are reading a lot of the books that a lot of people have never read like Nahum, Philemon, Haggai, and Habukkuk.

Oh, and I have been listening to all the Twilight books on MP3 in my car lately, preparing for Eclipse to come out in the theaters. Scott and I are going to see it at the midnight showing! I can't wait to see what they did with the movie. I got that novella that Stephenie Meyer wrote called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and it was really good, of course. Stephenie Meyer is a very good fictional writer. She does a great job of describing things in enough detail to give you a really good mental picture and she incorporates some good humor as well. I haven't read The Host, but maybe I will one day.

We are trying to get out and do exercise 2-3 days a week. On days when Scott cuts the grass, I'll either go to the park by myself to walk or stay in and do Dance Dance Revolution or Wii Boxing (or sometimes both). But, usually, we'll go to the park together and we either walk together or Scott will play disc golf and I'll walk with my MP3 player.

We have been doing a LOT of work in our yard (and the inside of our house is suffering because of it). We had to have a french drain put in because our builder apparently value-engineered proper drainage from our yard when they had everything smoothed out to build the house. Well, they put sand down for the grass to grow back in and we have had tons of weeds coming up with it. We've pulled so many weeds and Scott keeps calling the people who spray our yard to come back out because we're tired of pulling weeds. We have pruned our big oak tree by the street. We ordered a compost bin so that we can save money in the future on buying good dirt. We plan to put in some raised gardens in the backyard this fall and we'll need lots of compost. I moved a bunch of stuff around in our front gardens that weren't looking quite how I had planned. We removed all the pine straw from our front gardens and the little one out back and replaced it with shredded pine mulch. Of course while we had all the pine straw up, I weeded and put out a ton of Preen under and on top of the mulch. I decided to do just a few container gardens this year because last year was a bit out of control. Wow, when I list out all we've done it doesn't sound like much, but believe me, it is a lot. Especially when it's 80 degrees by 9 am!

Here is a picture from May 25. The daffodil greenery was still sticking up in some places and the purple cone flowers were starting to get taller than the daylilies.

I got some geraniums from the Growers' Outlet and planted them in some little mounds I made. But, I was afraid to move those coneflowers. They were not looking great where they were. So, I dug them up...

And I put the two tallest ones between the daylilies and planted three black-eyed susans in the front. I put the two shorter ones on the other side of the front garden where I had dug up a big patch of monkey grass.

This is what it looked like yesterday. The gladiolus are a bit crazy. bit I am happier now that I moved everything around. Can you see the difference after we put out the new mulch?

Yesterday, we actually got up super early to do some yard work to replace some stuff that didn't come back. I'll have to do a separate post with pictures for that one because it's a story in and of itself.

We also had a yard sale! We sat out in our driveway all day and had tons of stuff. Lots of people came by. We made almost $100, which I hear is good for a yard sale. But, it was a lot of work for $100, really. We ended up filling up the entire bed and back seat of my truck with stuff to take to Goodwill. And, I got a really red sunburn for my efforts.

Here's all the stuff we took to Goodwill!

After we left Goodwill, we gathered up our earnings and went over the Petsmart and got the cats a cat condo. It was a long-awaited purchase and I am so glad we got it. I always wanted one for the boys and when Mathilda came along, it kind of became a necessity because she is a climber. Seriously.

Here are all three cats checking out the cat condo on the day we brought it home.

Couldn't resist this adorable picture of Mathilda!

I cut all my hair off and donated it to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. My hair is now...short. Really short. And apparently the talk of my office. It's been about a month now and there are still people just noticing it (people I rarely see, that happens when there are 400 people in your building). Also, people are still talking about it. Someone will say, oh I like your hair so-and-so told me you got it cut. I was surprised at the strong reaction to my change, but it's flattering, so I won't complain. This is kind of funny - the other day I was walking out with a guy I barely know (I don't even know what he does) and he was asking my why I cut my hair and he said it was a huge change - he informed me that my current style was sassy whereas the old one was kind of girl next door. I think that his observation was spot-on but it was hilarious to me that it came from a guy. Anywho. (That's just for you, Josh - because I think of this post every time I say it).

The picture at the top of the post is of me with my short hair (obvi) taken a couple of weeks ago at our church picnic by my friend Amy (thanks Amy!!). The ones above are from the day I had it done.

Yesterday we went to my dad's house and celebrated my sister, Wendy's, birthday and Father's Day. He has a pool and it has been so hot that the pool felt like lukewarm bath water. Crazy. It was fun to hang out at the pool all day and spend time with my family. There are so many good pictures from yesterday that I think I'll just make a Facebook album and link it here later. So, if you read this post and there's no FB album, check back later.

Mathilda is huge. She is between 7-8 pounds. I weighed her one day a couple of weeks ago and by my calculations she was 8.6 lbs. Then, later that same week I took her to the vet to have her eye looked at and they said she weighed 7.12 lbs. I'd get up and go weigh her now, but I hate getting on the scales these days. I've gained about 4 lbs since I stopped doing weight watchers and I have to go back on the wagon, um, after July 4. She is really a beautiful cat. And mischievous.

I have some pictures loaded on Facebook, I think I'll just put a link to that album here so that you can see all the mischief she gets into and I don't have to upload the pictures twice. There are some other repeats from this post in there, but for the most part, they are of our kitties.

A Little Mathilda To Brighten Your Day

This is a picture we took of Mathilda the day we brought her home, January 6, 2010. She weighed 1 lb 3 oz.

This is a picture I just took of her today, March 21, 2010. As of last Saturday, she weighed exactly 4 lbs. She has quadrupled in size!

We are still trying to decide what color her eyes are. Maybe we should call them hazel. Our boys' eyes change between yellow and green. And sometimes hers look more yellow than anything, but usually they are this coppery/yellow/green color. I don't know how to describe it. They were grey when we got her.

She was sleeping all cuddled up with Sampson last Sunday night. Isn't that the cutest thing ever?

Maxwell was chilling out on the back of the couch.

Maxwell apparently got jealous and walked over and literally layed down on top of Sampson! I wasn't fast enough to get a picture before Sampson had had enough and bolted.

Having gotten what he wanted, Maxwell settled in with Mathilda at his side. I think they are getting used to having her around.

Later in the evening, we were sitting around watching a movie and Mathilda snuggled up with me. Look how sweet this kitty is!

She is really learning so fast! She has learned that if she comes running when she hears the icemaker, she will get to play with ice. She understands the word "NO!" She knows that if she scratches her scratching post she will get a treat or two or three depending on how we feel if she finishes her treat and then scratches again! We are still working on teaching her not to scratch and bite when she's not getting her way! She really is an accelerated learner! She has made our lives a little bit more chaotic, but we all love her!

Officially Mathilda

We have officially adopted Mathila! She got a clean bill of health and the boys seem to get along well with her. She is doing much better now that we have let her out of the bathroom. I think she is already bossing poor Sampson around. She is really a sweet kitty. Yay for Mathilda!

Purr-fection

I just love it when Maxwell curls up like this. He makes a perfect oval! He really is the ideal cat, all sleek and one solid color with those cat-like green eyes. The color in this picture isn't great because I turned off the flash, but you get the picture! (haha, get it? Sorry for the cheesy pun.)

New Addition Possibly

Scott brought home this kitten that someone he works with found the other day by their office. He took her by the vet and she seems healthy but they can't test her for Feline Leukemia or Feline AIDS until she is at least 9 weeks old. They estimate she is about 5 weeks old. She is super sweet. She pooped on herself in the box they had her in, so we gave her a bath. She was not sure what to think about that. I am not sure how our cats will like her. They keep sniffing at the door of the bathroom where she is staying. We are going to introduce her slowly. Now we just have to come up with a name for her.


Update: We think we are going to call her Mathilda.

Flowers and Cats

While we are away, I want you to have something to look at on our blog. So, I am leaving you with some pictures of our flowers for so far this year. I planted some things in our front bed called celosia. They look pretty cool, but I don't think they like all the wet soil from the rain. I really hope they don't die. I am pretty sure I am done with planting pots and baskets for the summer. I planted just a few...ahem. We have also planted 2 tomato plants, a bell pepper, and a jalapeno plant. So, we'll see how those turn out. I saved all my geraniums from last year and have incorporated them into this year's pots. They are already getting some pretty green leaves. I really hope they bloom as well as they did last year.

I have also adding in some pictures of what the cats do while I am working on the gardening. I usually open the windows to air out the house and the boys sit right in the window and watch me. They like to sniff the air, which is what Sampson is doing in one of the pictures where he is making a funny face. We've been getting a lot of bird activity lately, too. The boys love it. The birds and the cats are eating us out of house and home.

Catnip Craziness

These are out cats:

These are our cats on Kitty Crack aka Catnip (Bubbles, that is):

This is after the "buzz" wore off:

Just FYI, I needed to cover up the audio on this because Scott was on the phone with his parents while I video taped this and it's kind of boring to hear him talking to them about where we were meeting for dinner on Monday night. SO, I had to do "audio swap" on YouTube and choose from their selection of songs. I cannot understand the words at the beginning and we tried to google them and couldn't find them listed anywhere. But, if you understand them and think they are bad or inappropriate, PLEASE tell me.

How Sweet Is This?!

I am sure that you all already think that Scott and I are "those crazy cat people." But, our cats really are the sweetest! Maxwell has always loved to walk and jump through my hair. He was very unhappy with me when I cut my hair really short. He usually does this right before I give him water in the bathroom. Tonight, I was sitting here working playing on my computer and Scott said, "look behind you". Maxwell was looking up at me and I knew exactly what he wanted by the way his little head was kind of stretched towards me and his eyes were all big...anyway...I know you think I am crazy. So, I leaned over and let my hair hang down and was petting him and he just walked through my hair and did this cute little thing where he takes his front paws off the floor. Most of the time, he starts purring and will purr with his mouth open and it is REALLY loud! Oh, it's just too cute! Anyway, Scott got a video of it so you know what I am talking about. Don't you all wish you had cats and they were this sweet? (I really hope this works)




By the way, Happy 150th Post to Me!

Time Flies!

Can you believe that today is July 2...2008?!??!!!

I can't!

They say that time seems to pass more quickly as you get older. I think I have hit "old" because time seems to fly by.

We had a wedding shower for my sister, Wendy and her fiance, Paul this past Saturday. We had some friends and some family come. We ended up with 19 people, including Scott and I, at our house. I thought that was a good number. Wendy and Paul got lots of gifts, so that was really great!

After the party, Wendy and Paul and Emily and Kristyn (Paul's two girls) stayed and hung out and played Wii. The girls LOVED the Wii. They wanted to stay for the rest of the weekend to play! We would have let them, but they didn't have any extra clothes or toothbrushes!


Well, Friday is the 4th of July and we are off work. July 4th is a very important holiday for our country and I think that sometimes people get so caught up in fireworks, BBQs, and, for certain people, drinking, that they forget WHY we celebrate. We should always be mindful and thankful of our freedom.


Just as a side note, it sounds like someone that lives close to me is celebrating a little early. I think I'll open the blinds and check it out...I can hear it but I can't see it.

Speaking of the sky (well, I kind of was since I mentioned the blinds and fireworks...right?), on Sunday we had a really powerful thunderstorm (that really didn't bring that much rain, even though it seemed like it did). The storm happened right before dusk-ish. So, the sun had not started going down, but it was blocked by clouds. Well, the clouds started moving out of the way just as sunset started and everything was really still and...well, pink, outside. I was a little concerned that we may have a tornado, but there were no warnings. Scott went out side and got these pictures. I think they are beautiful!

This is a question for all you cat people out there: do your cats seem to get sweeter as they get older? Ours do. Maxwell won't drink water from the tub now until we pet him first. Sometimes, it isn't enough for just one of us to pet him, we both have to if we are here. Also, most days when I get home, Sampson talks to me really sweetly until I pet him for a few minutes. They didn't used to "ask" for attention like that. Sunday night, the reason I didn't take the pictures of the sky is because Sampson was curled up in my lap. That was probably because I was covered up in his favorite blanket, but I'll take it how I can get it. We just have the cutest, sweetest boys ever. I'd like to hear your cat stories!

Our um...NON-Feathered Friend

Well, I was getting tired of seeing my face pop up on the blog each time I logged in, so here is a new post. Thanks for all the nice comments about my hair. We've been very busy. We have re-listed our house with a new real estate agent. We are having a lady come in to stage our house. There will also be a professional photographer coming in to take 30-50 pictures of our house to post on the web and our listing agent gets a "showcase" listing on Realtor.com. So, I really hope it sells soon. I am tired of all our stuff being in storage and I have a feeling that even more stuff will have to go.

This past Saturday, we had an interesting visitor. Scott and I had gone to see my grandmother, Meme, and when we were pulling into the driveway, I noticed a "bird" at the feeder. I thought, man, that's a huge bird, what is it. Then, I looked closer and realized it was a squirrel! He saw us seeing him and stopped eating and held on completely still for a second. Then, he just kept on going like, oh well, they will have to come shoo me off if they want me gone! What was I to do? I went inside and stood next to the cats and took pictures, of course!

This same little guy was hanging around on Sunday when we got home from church. I tapped on the glass and everything and he wouldn't budge. So, Scott unlocked the window and started to open it and he fell off like someone had shot him and ran off. The cats had tried to duck their heads out the window (like they could get through the screen) to go get him. I do think that if they really wanted out, they could definitely break through the screen, they are pretty strong, but they don't know it. I'll leave it that way.

Anyways, enjoy:

Kitten Watching Birds

Of course, you can't watch just one video on YouTube, you get sucked in. I found this one and it is too funny. Our cats actually will do this exact same kind of meow when they are watching birds. Sometimes they meow out loud though, too. Look at the look on this kitty's face. She (I think it's a she) wants those birds so bad! I am sure she can just taste them!

Houdini's Cat

Scott emailed me this video the other day and I just had to find it on YouTube to share it with my blog readers. I love it! It just goes to show that cats are mostly made of hair and "rubber"!

New Toys

We ordered a couple of new things for our cats the other day:


They now have a source of running water all day long! We felt like they might not be drinking very much water during the day because they prefer the running water from the tub. Cats are supposed to have water all day long, so we got this fountain. First, Maxwell stuck his paw in it, then he tasted the good, clean, filtered water! Scott took yesterday off and he said that he has seen both cats drinking out of it! So, I would say it is a success. The little blue thing you see hanging over the edge is a little seed pod of wheat grass that is supposed to grow and be good for their digestive tracts and prevention of hairballs. I hope it works. Hairballs are gross!



We also ordered them this toy, which is not exactly what we thought it would be, but it's a good idea. It is a hollow ball that has a squeaker in the middle and it has these little mice that pop out as it rolls around. You can see them checking it out here.