That's My Bench

Once upon a time there lived a cat named Jersey. He loved sunbathing in the living room window sill where he could watch cars and people pass by.

But let's admit it, it was awkward (check out that back foot action), so his ahhhmaaazing owner *cough, cough, yours truly, cough, cough* made him a bench.

Boom! Your face.

Years ago, after donating our old dining set and searching for a smaller one to fit in our tiny Destin apartment I bought some dining chairs off craigslist to hold us over for the time being. I searched and searched for a dining set that was small and yet would comfortable sit our large family but I'm picky to my search came up empty for the longest. Eventually I found a dining table I loved. I refinished it, more on that here. But I still couldn't find chairs to my liking, so I bought a set of four for the meantime (the four in the photo of the link in the last sentence). They served their purpose (we used them for about a year at our dining table) so I feel like I got my $40 worth out of them. When we moved back in August I finally found two chairs I like for the dining table so I bought those and no longer needed two of my craigslist chairs, I didn't want to trash them because they were solid chairs and I knew I could get more use out of them (I'm tree-hugging like that) so I broke out the jigsaw and cut the backs off, painted them with some cream colored paint I had on hand, and recovered them with navy blue fabric I had laying around. 

Holla! A quick little makeover for my kitty and it didn't cost me a cent. I intended to screw the two together to give it more of a bench feel but Ari suggested I not attach them to each other and simply push them together so that if we wanted to ever use them as extra seating or what not we could do so with ease. That kid's a genius I tell ya, pure genius.

Jers loves his new little benches. Here he is with Owen enjoying them the first night I made them.

And not only does he use the benches to sunbathe and be nosey during the day...

But he also takes hardcore cat naps on them at night too. 

If you're happy stick out your tongue!

Ha, couldn't resist including that pic. 

Jersey's 2nd

So as you all know we moved right before the school year started. Don't remember? That's because you suck and haven't been keeping up with us, and what's the purpose of my lil' ole blog? To allow you to keep up with us without me having to talk to each and every one of you on the phone. Because I ain't a phone talker. I got shit to do. Talking on the telly isn't one of them. Except on Sundays, to mi madre, padre, and bro bro. I digress.

Days before our move we celebrated Jersey's second birthday. Read the story of how we picked/came to adopt Jersey here. We've had him since he was a few weeks old. He was tiny. Now he's ginourmous. He's so big that I even thought he needed a diet or something so I took him to the vet and she said, "He's gorgeous. Nice and muscular. Not overweight at all. He reminds me of my *insert ridiculous cat name here (such as Mr Sugar Pants or Sparkleboots)* that I have at home. I have five." She obviously hates cats.

It took Bear (our meat head) and Jers some time to get along, but they finally did. And now they live in perfect harmony. But on to Jersey's bday, yes? Ari picked out this little cowboy hat. He fought the love for a while but ended up wearing it long enough for a photo op.

The kids also picked out a few toys for him.

Owen even made him another gift after our move. A marker with some string tied around it with a note that read: For Jersey. We love you.

If that's not ingenuity then I don't know what is.

Back to the festivies and the kids wanted to give him ice cream, but since he's already a bit overweight in my opinion super "muscular" I didn't oblige. Instead we came to an agreement, Jersey got food but got to eat it at the table with us while we ate ice cream. 

Even Owen's monkey joined in on the feast, see him in the chair next to Jers?

Jersey's a chill little dude. A bit of a snob, not very curious, and waaaaay serious. Like for real. If he were a person he would wear a pocket protector. But we love him oodles. Even if he does tear shit up every once in a while.

So there you have it, an update of what happened in August of 2012. I really need to get more organized...

My Kidlets, Jersey, and Franklin the Frog

Can we discuss my middle child right now? She is a mystery. I'm certain my parents felt the same about me when I lived in their home. Hell, I'm sure my parents feel the same about me currently. Ariana is prissy and yet she can hold her own. She is a bit of a contradiction, that kid - I've been referred to as the same so I shouldn't be surprised that she followed suit. She is a girly girl and yet she'll roll in the dirt. She'll wear a dress then play in the rain. She'll apply lipgloss then join in a Nerf gun battle. She loves animal, and critters, and a few weeks ago she began a love of tadpoles. There's a little 'pond' in our neighborhood where she collected a single tadpole - it seemed that everyday that I came home from work there was another tadpole added to the jar.

After days of feeding and changing the tadpoles' water we came home to this yesterday...

I counted 12, but they kept moving so I'm sure that count is off. It was admittedly neat to come home and see the tadpoles grow arms, then legs, then their tail lessened, and now, they're teeny tiny froggies. Super cute.

We released them the moment we saw they were officially frogs. Jersey came outside to see what we were up to also, but he was a little too interested in the frogs so Ethan wrangled Jers up for the protection of our dozen-o-frogs.

I love this photo even though Jersey's face isn't in focus.

It seemed as if each frog paused for a photo op prior to hopping away. Seriously, Ari would take one out of the jar, he/she would sit there, I'd snap the photo and as soon as I was done they'd hop away.

I caught Jersey mid-yawn. Then we put him inside so that we could release the frogs without running the risk of a cat slash frog throw-down, but not before he ate a flower off our freshly bloomed plant.

It was super cute watching random little dots (frogs) jump from the grass. It was like popcorn popping, except it was a slew of frogs jumping.



Owen favored Franklin. Yes, Franklin is one of the frogs. Yes, he named and favored one of the frogs in a matter of 10 minutes. Yes, he managed to know which one was Franklin despite half of them looking exactly like Franklin. He even yelled to the his buddy as he hopped away,  "Bye, Franklin! You were my favorite! Don't forget me! Have a good journey!!!!" 

And yes, he's wearing his Halloween costume on September 30. For the second day in a row. Let's take bets on how long that'll last - my vote is: 31 October. Wish me luck with that.

Xo, Lorri

My Cat, the Hero

Jersey is my precious kitten that Seth adopted for me when we first moved to Pensacola a year and a half ago. He’s super cute and slightly sassy.

Bear is my monster puppy whom we purchased from a breeder 2 ½ years ago. He’s undeniably gorgeous and slightly clumsy.

Salt and Pepper are our two goldfish that the kids won at their school carnival when we first moved to Pensacola – A YEAR AND A HALF AGO! They are obviously part ninja considering how long they’ve lived.

I tease Seth about Bear being completely ‘special’ with his goofy, brain-cell-lacking ways. I gawk at the fish and their unusual and borderline disturbing ability to live so long (in an unfiltered bowl at that). But I rarely talk trash about my lovely kitten - although he has been known to sleep in a non-gentlemanly position and keep himself entertained with his own tail for hours. Seriously, he will jump around as if a snake is after him and all he is really doing is playing with his tail.

But last night I knew.  I knew that Jersey was just as ‘special’ as our other pets when my sweet little kitten sat, frozen like a statue, eyes glued to my wine glass for a solid five minutes. I called his name, nothing. I snapped my fingers in front of his face, nothing. I did everything I could think of to get his attention but he never winced, he just stared down the glass.

And is the tail thing really that unusual? I mean, if I had a tail I’m pretty sure I’d be fascinated by it too. Jus' sayin'

Xo,

Lor

Oh So Thankful

Is it just me or are you scratching your head, asking yourself where the year went? It's December; wowza!

Soooo, raise your hand if you I failed to decorate for Halloween! So did this girl! *raises hand*

I bought a pumpkin with the intent to carve it and yet it sat in the trunk of my car for about a month - fear not, it didn't rot. And our Halloween decor stayed tucked away in the plastic bin labeled 'Halloween.' All this went down (or, didn't go down) because of the munchkins' absence. It was the first holiday that we didn't decorate in someway, and I'll admit that it kinda sucked not having the house decorated.

So after the whole Halloween debacle, I figured we can't not decorate/celebrate a holiday just because our brood isn't physically present, but then again we don't have to go all out as if they are here either. I figured Love and I could find a happy medium, and maybe make some new traditions.

So we I came up with a Thankful Jar:

The idea was: beginning 1 November and continuing everyday up until Thanksgiving we would each write down something we are thankful for (and we weren't allowed to look at each others until Thanksgiving). Then, on Thanksgiving we could read all the silly, sappy, awesome things we are thankful for.

I suppose it's similar to the time capsule tradition we do with our munchkins every year, except with the 'thankful jar' we only have to go for a month of anticipation rather than a whole 12 months.

Well, we ended up doing it for the entire month of November because we were out of town visiting family during the Thanksgiving weekend. So the other night we finally got to read all the things we are thankful for.

Let's begin with mine, shall we?

Both Seth and I seemed to have a nice little balance of silly, serious and simple things we gave thanks for. A few of mine included:

- That we're alike enough to have a common ground but different enough to keep things     spiiiiicy

- That I met you 

- For the simple things: lights, food, a home

- That you got F-15s

- That Crossroads wasn't our one and only Thanksgiving "celebration." Seriously, God, I'm thanking You directly for that blessing!

- That we get to have Krissy and Drake visit every summer

- That Bear has a VERY SCURRY bark

- That I've never burnt down the house in my attempts to 'cook'

- For our triad-O-children: E, A & O!

- That my parents are able to spend Christmas with us

And some of Seth's were:

- My truck

- My wife's new hair

- Going to see my grandparents for Thanksgiving

- Battlefield 3

- The kids

- F15e

- The steady income we have

- Burnt cookies

- My truck

- Being married

- My gorgeous body

- My truck

Ummmm, am I the only that sees a problem? His truck? I'll admit; it's a sexy ass truck, but holy shit, really? I was mentioned one time directly and maybe three times indirectly, but his truck was mentioned too many times to count! I was the one reading the thankful cards aloud and when I read, "My truck" for the second time, I screamed, "What!?" And he laughed while trying to convince me that he didn't remember writing it down more than once. He even thought I was making it up at one point and asked to see the card for himself, when I showed him that "My truck" was written in his handwriting he just continued to laugh and say, "I must've forgot I wrote it down already." I gave him the stank-eye and told him he better pray he wrote down "My perfectly amazing, totally gorgeous wife" as many times as he wrote about that damn truck. 

And do you like how we both referred to my terrible cooking? A few weekends ago I was baking cookies and burnt 'em. That day I wrote down, "That I haven't burnt down the house in my attempts to cook" and he said that was the same day he wrote down, "Burnt cookies."

Great minds...

And do you like how he gave thanks for his "gorgeous body"? And to Battlefield 3. Some evenings I'll say, "I'm gonna read my book." And he counters with, "I'm gonna go defend our freedom." Which means he's going to play Battlefield 3 with his buddies. Oy. 

And while we were gone over the Thanksgiving holiday my friend Sara was housesitting for us (a.k.a. watching our monster puppy). And she slipped a note in the jar unbeknownst to me:

Isn't that the sweetest? And I mentioned Sara in one of mine too. It was the day we were leaving town, I wrote, "That Sara is willing to watch our Lil Hellian. aka: Bear" 

And when reading all of our thankful notes, Seth made mention to me that I had Bear in quite a few of mine. But trust me, they were not all positive. One was pure sarcasm: "That Bear listens so very well." Which made me realize that I didn't mention Jersey at all! Seth loved that. We have this ongoing feud of who has the best pet; him with Bear... or me with Jersey. He said that since I didn't mention Jersey it meant I unconsciously care about Bear more. My reasoning was that Bear is such a problem child that he is simply on my mind more than Jersey who doesn't give me any trouble. 

Seth didn't buy it. And apparently neither did Jersey because he was ignoring me for the rest of that afternoon. He typically lays right beside me on the couch, but that day he laid on the faaaar end of the couch, seriously, he couldn't have picked a spot farther away from me.

And look at the look on his face. I guess I should understand his annoyance with me though, I mean, he's giving me the same stank-eye I gave Seth over that damn truck.

Hope your Thanksgiving was as entertaining as ours,

Lor