Random Things on a Wednesday

1. I cut 2 inches off Katherine's hair at 1:30pm. Afterwards she took a shower and has been walking around naked ever since.
2. I threatened she couldn't go to Grandma's at 4pm if she didn't get dressed--which spurred sudden interest in getting dressed. Then she called Grandma--just to check if she was home yet after her lunch at Oyster Crab. She meant Cracker Barrel--close though! At least she got dressed!

Her hair was still wet here. She's got my "hair takes forever to dry" gene.

3. I've been listening to a stink bug I put in a box 2 hours ago beside me in the trash. Apparently he doesn't like it in there. That's ok with me though because I don't like him and his 4,345,389 friends in my house!
4. For Aunt Bert: This was the picture after I left and walked back into the room about 15 minutes after you left our house:

Thanks for the blanket!
5. What do you mean it's not Christmas anymore?!? I keep finding cute Christmas ideas, so I tried one, despite the fact that it was New Year's Eve....Handprint snowmen ornaments...cover the hand with white paint, press around a glass ornament. The fingers become snowmen to decorate, add snow, and a year...

Super cute idea from the Internet!
6. I made a layout of my New Year's resolutions:

You should be able to click on the picture to see it larger. Basically they involve finishing open projects, more focus on exercise and healthy eating, run a 5K in less than 30 minutes, spend less time on the computer and more time creating/playing/trying the vast quantity of ideas I've seen and have running around my head. Speaking of focusing, I've chosen "focus" as my One Little Word for 2011. It's the idea that the word you choose helps you throughout the year in whatever area of your life you'd like. I've been feeling rather scatterbrained recently and overwhelmed with what I have started. I'd like to focus on finishing and focus on achieving my goals and resolutions. Focus on one or two things at a time because multitasking is slowly driving me nuts!
7. I got an email from someone I "know" from the scrapbook kit club I belong to this morning. She also ran the Marine Corp Marathon so we chatted via email a few times over the course of last year about that and training and how it was going. She contributes to an online scrapbook magazine called Scrapstreet and wanted to know if she could use one of my layouts for her article. ummm, hell yeah!!! One of my resolutions was submit some layouts to magazines for publication (notice the keyword: submit! not necessarily get accepted!). I hadn't even thought about online stuff; but does it count if I didn't even have to initiate it?!? I'm a little nervous though because she said the article was about punches and I didn't even really use that many punches on this layout. I'm afraid she'll get my supply list and change her mind.

Thanksgiving highlights

Just some pictures from Thanksgiving Day. Katherine took most of the people pictures--not sure why we all look drunk!?!

the all important Thanksgiving Day outfit

and my favorite: the Thanksgiving Day turkey cheeseball!

Because making cheeseballs is what I do now instead of work! I'm thinking reindeer for Chirstmas!

A Tale of Two Kitties

get it? A Tale of Two Cities Kitties : )

So this little kitty when to the vet for a checkup that I've been putting off since February. I'm not sure if you've noticed but she's a little let's just say, temperamental. Her chart at the vet is flagged because she's (and I'm quoting the vet from the last time we were there), "one of the worst he's ever seen." Awesome. Well she started losing weight so I figured it was time to do something. They sedated her and I told them to do whatever they wanted while she was out--change the oil, rotate the tires, the whole enchilada! Turns out she has hyperthyroidism. So the treatments are a transdermal gel applied twice a day to her ear, surgery, or some kind of radioactive chemotherapy that means we'd have to separate her from us, the other animals, and especially Katherine for 2 weeks. Awesome. We've decided to try the gel although it does require blood work routinely. Not sure how that's going to go...

$362 on Monday at the vet for Kitty...

This little kitty went to the vet because she has oily fur and issues with excessive licking. She was an angel at the vet no matter what they did to her. ( And apparently vets don't have patient/doctor confidentiality because we saw the other vet with Pixie and he said while he examining her, "she's great, you should have seen the cat we had in here Monday." And I said, "I have, trust me. It was mine too.") Turns out she was negative for all normal causes of oily skin and grooming so we did blood work to rule out metabolic causes--also negative. So now we're trying a diet change to rule out a food allergy. The vet's suggestion: venison and green pea (or rabbit and green pea, we went with venison--yumm!). They should call it kitty gold at $32 for a six pound bag. If this doesn't work, he wants us to go see a dermatologist--awesome!

$282 on Wednesday at the vet for Pixie plus the $32 food plus $30 for Kitty's medication; and Robin and Charlie went wah, wah, wah all the way to the bank!

(don't you just the love the combo of some classic Dickens with a children's tale)

depressed bunnies, dance recitals, & running (sorry couldn't think of anything else starting with a "d")

Apparently the bunny world around our house needs some help...like a psychiatrist's help! In the past week or so we've found three bunnies that have commited suicide (bunnicide?) in our pool--THREE! It's a little unnerving to see a dead bunny floating around and kinda feels like a bad omen coming our way or something. Every year we have a bunny nest in the grass above the pool--it's probably a good spot because that grass is fenced and therefore protected from dogs or other predators. Once we know they're there--we stop mowing that grass until the bunnies are old enough to leave the nest and we keep all dogs out of there--that's what bunny lovers we are! So why, I ask, are they killing themselves in our pool?

The much awaited dance recital went well for Katherine. I was hesitant that she would get out there and do it since she's not a fan of being in the spotlight, but she did awesome. And we're really proud of her for doing it! The photos onstage are from the dress rehearsal and we couldn't use a flash...and yes the girls are supposed to be doing the same thing at the same time! :)

Last Sunday I ran 8 miles in 1:34 which wasn't too bad considering it was about 956% humidity. I did get up to go at 5:30 to try and beat some of the heat...The week before I ran 7 miles in 1 hour 23 minutes. But that was guess-timating my distance. I figured out (before I ran the 8 miles) how to use the personal trip odometer in my car (amazing how that there technology works) and discovered my 7 miles was a tad short. I also felt like crap running that 7 miles so when I ran the 8 miles, I was pretty happy with my time. This Sunday--9 miles!

Confessions

1. Most of you know I hate worms and if you don't...where have you been? Hiding under a rock...with the worms? Recent downpours have brought out all kinds of worms on our driveway. Saturday night before I went to bed I had to find the dog. Of course she didn't come when I called out the front door. So I had to walk outside. Usually when I go to the top of the driveway she comes. But there were worms all over the place and I couldn't find a flashlight which by the way is a common occurrence around here (in case you need b-day or Christmas gift idea!). And by couldn't find I mean I was too lazy to walk to the basement to get the one flashlight I knew we had. So knowing I was going to be stepping on worms because I couldn't see, I put on a pair of Charlie's shoes--so the worm guts would get all over his and not mine. (I probably shouldn't let him have access to this blog :)
2. I don't think I'm taking this dance recital thing seriously enough. We got our "production packet" on Saturday. We have a dress rehersal at the studio on a Sunday (just hair and costume) and a dress rehersal at the stage on Friday night (hair, costume, and makeup). There's a list of makeup she needs--which probably mostly will come from my collection--mascara is optional for the under 8 crowd--thanks! I do get that she'll need makeup under the stage lighting. There's a 2 hour meeting for parents who want to learn how to do the hair and makeup on some Saturday in May. Now if she were 10 and really, really into this I probably would be too but for a 4 year old, really? Is it necessary? And we have to be there 2-1/2 hours prior to the show? Seriously?

And because I think posts without pictures are boring (and I won't justify a worm's existence with a photo on my blog), I'll leave you with a PSA from Katherine...

Don't eat candles!

eau de skunk

So it was bound to happen eventually living where we do...last night Kira found a skunk. And apparently close to the house too! I was upstairs giving Katherine a bath and heard Charlie outside yelling at the dog--not really all that unusual. I walked into the hallway to put something back in her room and the smell hit me and I instantly knew why Charlie was outside yelling at the dog. While I finished Katherine's bath, he bathed the dog with some Pert and I did some quick Googling--gotta love Google! Apparently tomato soup baths are a load of crap unless you want a dog that smells like tomatoes and skunk. The most recomended solution was hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish detergent. I"ll spare you the scientifc reasoning behind it because unless you're me it's probably boring. Unfortunately we only had a half bottle of hydrogen peroxide--I needed 3x's as much but I went with it. Could have been the Pert too but it seemed to do the trick. She still slept in the garage...Charlie wouldn't let me put the space heater out there. Her collar is another story and the house...Kira never came inside but because it was so close to the house the house stunk. After the odor disappated outside we opened every window on the first floor which helped. I woke up several times last night smelling skunk--not sure if it was psycological or it was back? Right now at 7:30am I have windows open, the garage door open and Kira's still outside. I'm on my second shower since last night and after I drop Katherine off at school (hopefully not smelling but I'm afraid we've all become immune to the smell by now and couldn't tell even if it were there) I'll either be investing in bulk bottles of hydrogen peroxide or something commercial when the groomer opens at 9 and a new collar. (Except for the invisible fence one which I guess I'll have to wash--it's nasty and expensive!) I'm thinking one more wash down and Kira will be able to come inside. And then I'll shower again--for the third time! And every once in a while I still get whiffs--is it me or something outside?

In my Google searches I came across this diagram:

from here

Freaking hilarious!!!...there're roses coming out of....oh well you can see and I don't want my blog visited by wierd people so I'll leave it unsaid...Happy Wednesday!

My ode to blue and orange & Snow-much fun!

While watching Project Runway on Saturday night, the judges had just finished bashing a woman (Amy, I think?) who made a blue and orange outfit for both her child and adult model. The child's outfit was cute. The adult pants were just a smidge on the side of hideous (think MC Hammer walking through a blue and orange flower patch). Anyway the guest judge said, "I don't even think blue and orange really go together, they don't compliment each other at all (or something close to that)" at which point I said, "wait a minute, aren't they opposite on the color wheel?" Then I HAD to Google color wheel to confirm my thinking and yes they are! Which means by nature, they are complementary colors. Hello, guest designer, where did you go to design school? (in her defense she could have been the target of some really bad TV editing) So here's some other people out there who, like me, don't think blue and orange are hideous together...
The Denver Broncos:

Syracuse University:

And Pfaltzgraff who made my dishes and inspired my kitchen color choices (yes blue and orange):

Moving on...
Snow Much Fun! (sorry, couldn't help it. I really did try)
We went tubing on Sunday at Heritage Hills with the Williams'. Katherine did really good. She wouldn't go down the big hills by herself (can't really blame her, they looked pretty steep to ME when you're sitting at the top) but she did go down in her own tube if we were holding on to her. Once we got over the steep part, she yelled for us to let go. She also went up the lift system without question or complaint which made the day so much better. We did walk up once and that was enough!

Profile Update

Just wanted to clarify for those confused when (if!) they looked at my profile. No, I'm not 1,933 years old...just 33. The mix up came when I didn't enter the "19" on my birth year--I only entered 76 so the computer assumed I was born in the year 76 rather than 1976. Don't you just love technology....