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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

a peek into my cats' secret lives...


"Caught!"

Ever walk into a room and be surprised by what you find? If you have cats (or any critters) you are occasionally taken back. In my case, I usually run for the camera. My computer room is generally off limits to the cats unless I'm in there. Why? Because to my shame, it's usually a mess and I don't want the cats digging through my clutter. If I'm in there, I can always say, "stop that"... or "leave that alone", etc.  However, the doorknob on this room has become faulty. It doesn't always catch... so an industrious cat can just give it a little push and find himself a new hidey hole.  This is what I found earlier this morning.



"I'm sorry... it was just too comfy to pass up."


Later today when I was passing the room and found the door ajar again, THIS is what I found...


3 startled cats! (Can you find them?)


There's Tux!


And as you know, Ghost has many faces... mostly grumpy, but this one is a little different... maybe 'guilty'?

"uh... hi mom!"

Julie is on the pillow and really doesn't care if she's caught doing something she shouldn't. So... only Rose was missing, but I found her in the hall... 

"What....?"

At 21 (almost 22), Rose usually isn't part of too much mischief. She knows where her food is, where the litter box is... and how to find her 2 favorite spots; by the Aga or in a sunspot on our bed.  She has a routine she follows every morning... between 6 and 7 am she starts howling... letting us know from the spot she sleeps on our bed that  it's time to start thinking about getting up. Between 7 and 8 (if we're still not up), she will run over to the Plantation blinds (on both sides of our bed) and start rattling them. This usually gets us up. Once we open the door and let her out of the room, she starts her 'walk about'. She walks around and around the house in a large circle and continues this until I make coffee and give her a tiny drop of Redi-whip (which she adores). Then she will sit in the kitchen and wait for DH to start feeding for the day.





Oh well, I'd rather wake up to a cat howling than an alarm clock any day...

On a totally different note, I want to ask if any of you always answer the front door when a stranger knocks on it?  We have a camera on our door, so we can see that we don't know the person. We also have a sign that states 'no soliciting' (more or less). Actually what it says is:


The police recommend you answer the door, so that they (whoever they are) know someone is home, but since there is no screen or anything between you and them, I'm hesitant to do so. Someone was knocking rather loudly on our door this afternoon. We could see that it was a man we didn't know and he had another man in a car out on the street. We didn't answer although both our cars were in the driveway... so I'm guessing it was obvious someone was home. Not sure what the best thing to do is in these cases, but opening the door didn't seem like a good idea. What do you think?












Sunday, January 24, 2016

getting old, washing bottles, and funny cats...




Took my first exercise class this semester. It's an emeritus class so everyone is over 50... and the class is not supposed to be too strenuous.  Well, I want to say that it wasn't, not really... but still I was huffin' and puffin'... so I'm guessing that I'm a bit out of shape. It's for an hour and 15 mins over at the college. By the time it was over, I was thinking... OK, I must be getting old as none of this should have been difficult - but it was - a bit. 

Unrelated Question: Do any of you out there wash your bottles of bottled water? I've always washed the tops of canned foods before opening the can, yet never thought to wash our bottled water. And I've known that canned goods (as well as bottled goods) stand around in warehouses that probably have rats and other rodents and insects crawling around. After seeing on Facebook a nest of baby mice (or rats) in a plastic wrapped case of bottled water, I thought... OMG, why haven't I realized that?  Anyway, I now wash my bottled water... gallons as well as individual bottles. Just wanted to pass this on.

Caught Ghost and Rose off guard today. Ghost had just sat up from a nap and I stuck my camera in her face. This is what I got:

Really?

and Rose:

What?




Still tired...


and then I found these 2 posters on Pinterest that made me laugh:




and



Have a great week!



Wednesday, January 20, 2016

48th Wedding Anniversary...

So young...

DH and I at our wedding 1968

DH and I leaving for our honeymoon 1968


Well, today is DH and I's 48th wedding anniversary!  Hard to believe.  We may make 50 yet... 

Both of us were still at LSUBR when we got married. I had actually finished my BS in Animal Science , but had to be back 3 days after the wedding for the graduation ceremony. DH had a 5 year Engineering curriculum, so he had to finish the spring semester before his graduation. We lived in the married student apartments off campus that spring. It was fun. 

Now 48 years, 3 kids, and 4 grandkids later... I have to say that although there have been tears along the way, it's still fun - and yes, I would do it all over again. 

Our 3 kids have grown into such wonderful adults. We are so proud of them.  Couldn't love them more. And our grandkids... wow! the best ever!  We have so much to be thankful for.  

I hope that I didn't bore you with all this. Certainly don't like to get too personal, but today I'm a bit sentimental and it all means so much to me.  My family, immediate as well as extended and cousins, nieces and nephews, etc. are such wonderful people. How lucky can one get. And friends, personal as well as online mean a lot also. We're not an overly emotional bunch (maybe because my dad was English?), but we *feel* it even if we don't say it. 

OK... enough. Have a great week!





Saturday, January 16, 2016

life goes on...



Brownie Bark
Made Brownie Bark this week. Here is the recipe: (I got this off of Pinterest and it is really good)


Today is rainy and cold. The cats and I are hanging out by the fireplace... Tux and Julie on my lap.  

Tux patiently waiting for me to sit down


Rose is deciding whether to stay by the fire or return to lying by the Aga with Ghost.


OK... now Ghost is in here checking out our comfy chair by the fire.

Can I fit up there with you?

At the moment DH is alternately chopping veggies and watching either soccer or football. He's making us a batch of Cajun red beans and rice this weekend. My favorite! Can't wait...

We went out to dinner with our youngest son and his family yesterday.There's a little Italian restaurant near their house in Rowlett that they frequent. DH and I split a plate of chicken Capellini (or something like that). It was very good. And I got some quality grand daughter time! She is 3 now and talking up a storm.

This next picture is one of our little (actually he's getting quite big) outside feral kittens. We call him the Lion King because of his mane. You can't see it well here, but it's a light grey and really showy.

our little Lion King

Well, I guess that's about it here.  I do have a few pics of Ghost defending her sunspot in the bedroom. They usually share, but occasionally can get a little possessive.


"It's my sunspot..."


"Don't you dare..."

So you see... life goes on.





Tuesday, January 12, 2016

not the best of times...

So much has happened in these last few weeks that I'm a little shaken with it all, but decided it was time to get back to blogging.

One of the things I've not mentioned previously is that the night before we left in December to go to BR to visit DH's mom in hospice, my daughter's beautiful Friesian horse died of colic. We were all stunned. Goliath was such a beautiful animal and my daughter and grand daughter's *heart*. He had a history of colic, but has always gotten through other episodes well.  I plan to post a few pics of him here... 









As you can see, these pics are all old, since my grand daughter was only 5 or 6 at the time. She is now 14. They do have 2 other horses that she rides in cross country, but I'm not sure that any horse could ever take Goliath's place in their hearts. 

There have been other incidents... like 2 family members having pneumonia during the holidays and a third being diagnosed with lung cancer. This (along with my MIL's death and the tornado) have been a bit much. I've been praying a lot these days... for everyone. Hope you will do the same. 








Friday, January 1, 2016