Purrrrrrrrr

This is my cat, Toby, and I love him. You have no idea how much I love him. I almost consider him my firstborn. We decided to get a cat for my 29th birthday so one day after work we headed to the MSPCA. I was looking for a small, fun kitty that would jump around after little toy mice but Scott saw this little white kitten relaxing in his cage without a care in the world. There was some sort of connection between them because Scott was adamant that this little cat was the one we were supposed to adopt. He was right. We've had Toby for over seven years now (I'll save you the math, I'm 36) and he has been such an unbelieveable joy.

As a tiny little kitty he was so playful and wanting for attention. The first full day we had him he set up camp on my lap and was there to stay. If he hadn't gotten up when he did I would have peed my pants because there was no way I was making that furry little bundle of love leave my lap when he wasn't ready. Even today if one of us is graced with his presence on our lap, said person will proclaim to the other "I Win".

He is just the sweetest and most personable cat

I have ever met and most people who come into

my home say the same. If you have a hand to offer him he will be your best friend. When he sleeps he sometimes curls a paw over his nose and I am overcome with the warm fuzzies. You'll have to fogive me for gushing but if you spent a little time with him you would gush too.

Long time no see...

I know I haven't been here the last two weeks but my computer has been so freakin' slow. Like I'm about ready to pitch the damn thing out the window slow. Scott says it has something to do with the Kodak software I use for pictures from the camera and it's really pissing me off. Anyway, one day when I have eight hours to sit around and upload pictures, I will update.

In the meantime, here is a pencil sketch that my dad did from a b/w picture of my grandfather. He did an awesome job. Grandpa's been gone for 27 years but I have very good memories of him.

Snippets

Here is a peak at what could be going on at our house on any given day...

Lullaby, lullaby...

My invisible friends and I are sharing this drink...sorry, no room for you...

Giddyap horsie...


















Lined up like dead bodies, or something like that...























I know it's not my lunch and it's 8:30am but I also know that I'm hungry NOW...


















I'm catching some rays, do you mind?

You say it's your birthday....

Today is Scott's birthday. He has hit the big 3-8 and has come to the realization that in two years he'll be 40. Come back then to read about how it went. Since he slept in this morning I had the girls help me decorate and I think I have found a new quiet time activity for them. All I need to do is hand out pieces of tape and I think they could be occupied for at least an hour. Natalie decorated the hassock and dining table with streamers while Alyssa went to work on the love seat. Seriously, at two bucks a pop I could have a small supply of streamers on hand for rainy days.

Once we were done with decorating fun I made a cake and the girls helped. Again, another saver for a rainy day. What could be more fun than spreading all that gooey, sugary goodness and getting to lick it off your fingers at 8:30 in the morning? I wish we could celebrate a birthday every Sunday morning.

A Perfect Day

That was Thursday. It was one of those days where you just want to sit on the front steps and breathe it all in. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was nice and warm outside with a bit of a breeze and my girls were with me. Natalie was home from school for the third day in a row recovering from a cold, mostly because she was coughing a lot and I didn't want the teachers to think we were trying to spread the plague. Anyway, we were digging out front, making space for the flowers I hope to plant in the next few weeks. While I was removing the grass and turning the dirt we found lots of worms. Worms have really never been exciting to me. They were always kind of slimy and gross and I would never even think of picking one up. The girls, however, were facsinated by them so we made a little worm farm out of an old soda bottle, some dirt, grass and sand. It's amazing how you can get past the gross factor when it's something that someone else is really enjoying. The gardening gloves don't hurt either. I kept picking up the big fat ones and thrusting them at Natalie just so I could see her scrunch her face and run away. Alyssa on the other hand had no problem picking them up with her fingers and moving them around. Sometimes I wish I were still two. I haven't seen any of the worms in our farm since then so they are either all huddled inside away from the sun or, well, I think I'll be letting them go tomorrow. I wouldn't want to be known as the worm killer of Western Ma after all.

Disney....revisited

I keep getting emails saying "Your Disney photos are about to expire" (these are pics that are taken by photographers at Disney and you can look at them/purchase them online). Since they are going to be deleted never to be seen again come Monday I thought I should take a look at them. There are only about 15 pictures there but some of them are really cute. The girls with Minnie, Mickey and various other characters. I decided on a few to purchase, put them in my cart and go to checkout. What! *insert sound of scratching record here* It was going to cost me $13.00 for each photo I wanted? Surely that couldn't be correct so I cleaned my glasses and looked again. Sure enough 2 4x6 prints of a single shot cost $12.95. Now we had a good time at Disney World but isn't that a bit much? They weren't teriffic pictures. They were nice and Natalie was even smiling in one but that is where I draw the line. But just in case there was one picture that came out so fabulous we couldn't live without it hanging on out wall in all it's 16x20 glory it could have been ours for $149.95. I'll be having the pictures from my little digital camera printed at the local drug store for 25 cents a pop thank you very much.

The first day of the rest of my life

This may be way too much information for some but I think the rest of my life began this morning. Alyssa did *ahem* #2 on the potty by herself...twice. I don't know whether to cry or dance.

How Much is that Doggie in the...Living Room?

We actually don't have a dog. We will never have a dog. I will have another child before I have a dog. Some people prefer other peoples kids and I prefer other peoples dogs. But I digress.

We bought one of those toddler harnesses when Natalie was a toddler thinking that it would be great to be able to give her a bit of freedom while walking the mall but still have her close to us. We never used it. Then we thought it would be great for Alyssa because she is the impish one who will make a run for it the first chance she gets. We never used it. I happened upon it today and as soon as the girls saw it they knew exactly what to do with it.

C'mon little doggie, let's go for a walk.

I have to go upstairs for a minute. Stay!

Woof!

I'm back, let's go!

My "Make and Take" Dinners Review

So, most if us have heard about these new shops popping up where you can prepare multiple meals for your family, stick them in the freezer and have a meal just waiting to be cooked on any night you like. I recently went to one with a friend of mine to see what it was all about. In two hours I had 12 meals to put in my freezer and I was anxious to start using them to see if it was really quicker and easier than preparing a meal on the spot.

Chicken Parm with Garlic Bread. What's not to love about this? I was skeptical because the chicken wasn't breaded. The directions at the prep station instructed me to sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of the chicken and then cover with sauce. In the end it came out great. The chicken was nice and tender and the garlic bread was delicious. This was the easiest of the meals to cook at home because it was prepared in a foil pan and went straight from the freezer to the oven.

Creamy Risotto & Chicken. This was also an easy one to cook at home. It took the same amount of time as it would to make rice on the stove top. Again, the chicken was nice and it was a great comfort food type of meal.

Steak with Garlic and Herb Butter. I was a bit disappointed with this one. While it was easy to cook I felt the cut of meat could have been better and since I had to make a side to go with it anyway it wouldn't have taken any additional time to make the garlic/herb butter at home.

Apple Glazed Pork Chops. OK, I have to be honest and say I screwed this one up. I was supposed to use the 3 serving recipe but I started using the 6 serving recipe and by the time I realized it I had already measured out half of the sauce/glaze ingredients. I also over cooked the pork chops and it was like eating an old shoe. Cooking was easy enough although I could have put the ingredients for the glaze together while the chops cooked if I were to prepare the entire meal at home. I also had to make my own side dish so no time saved there.

Beef Skewers with Peanut Dipping Sauce. The pieces of meat that were supposed to be skewered where cut so small that it would have taken me forever to do them all. After 5 skewers I decided to just toss all the meat into my pan. It was pretty good but I would have preferred bigger pieces of meat and, again, I had to make my own side dishes.

Baked Chicken Tetrazzini. I had planned on making this for dinner tonight but by the time I put water on for the pasta it was 4:40 and after reading the cooking directions realized that the whole dish wouldn't be ready until 6:00 (after pouring the chicken mixture over the pasta it still needs 50-60 minutes to bake). We had pasta with sauce for dinner instead and I made extra pasta so I can skip that step tomorrow.

I have two more dishes to try, Pork Chops with Red Pepper Aioli and Blackened Salmon with Pineapple Salsa. I'm looking forward to trying the salmon and I'll try not to turn the chops into something completely inedible.

Even with two dishes left to try, I have decided that this just wasn't worth the money for me. I still had to prepare my own sides for each meal and I didn't feel like having the main portion of the meal ready and waiting saved me much time. Most of the vegetable ingredients were frozen to begin with so it's not like I saved chopping time and all the of the herbs and spices used are things I already have in my kitchen. Maybe this would work better for a family where both parents work or for those who just don't want to worry about what they are going to make for dinner each night. I also think the concept of prepping and freezing is something that could be done at home very easily.

The other issue I have is with the use of so many plastic bags (most of the meals are stored in zip-close bags). In total my meals must have used about 40 non biodegradable bags and being that I'm trying to be more earth friendly this really irked me.

So, like I said, this just isn't for me. I'll stick to chopping and mixing everything myself while my kids are fighting each other in the next room. It just isn't dinner time if no one is yelling "Stop looking at each other!" at the top of their lungs.

My money is no good

Either that or everyone is suddenly independently wealthy. I'm looking for a landscaper to do some work on my yard. Like getting rid of the leaves that I thought about raking way back in the fall and leveling my oddly lumpy yard among other things. I feel like over the last two weeks I've called half the landscapers in the phone book and I have yet to hear from any of them.

Last year when we were having new walkways put in we had no problem getting "cement guy", as he came to be known, to call us back. We just couldn't get him to actually start the work. It got to the point that Natalie and I would take bets on our way home from school as to whether he would be at the house or not. Finally after four days of non returned calls we were about to go with someone else when we suddenly heard from him. He had taken a spur of the moment vacation to England to watch his friend compete in the Ultimate Idiocracy Fighting Championship.

I wish I had the kind of job where I could jet off to England at a moments notice (minus the guys beating the snot out of each other and lowering their already dangerously low IQ's of course). Here in the real world I'll have to settle for jaunts to Target and B&N and if I'm lucky the "good" Marshall's in the next state. These days that's my idea of foreign travel.