Maggie – My Large Kitty, Sophie – My Petite Kitty

Maggie is our oldest kitty and we got her 2 weeks after we were married. She is my first born because she is my first EVER cat. Maggie was a sweet kitten until she had to be de-clawed due to scratching the brand new dining room table. I truly believe it changed her personality. She no longer tolerates visitors much less strangers feeding her. Note: anyone is a stranger than is not Mister or Miss Chris. Mister Chris convinced me that Maggie is just not normal and that we should get another kitten. I also needed a back up kitty because I became very attached to Maggie.

In comes Sophie. Sophie is just over a year old. She was monitored since she was born into a friend’s kitty family. Our friend chose this kitten for us to take. She said Rolly (Sophie’s original name) was very affectionate and quite normal compared to Maggie. With that said I had to take Sophie home. She is a very loving cat and is the exact opposite of Maggie. She will sit in my lap and cuddle up to me to take a nap. Right now she is sitting on my desk watching me type. I think she’s a little sleepy. Sophie has never met a stranger and was quite the hostess when we sold our house. Maggie of course detests her presence and they do not get along.

Since Sophie came into our household, Maggie gained 4-5 pounds by eating kitten food. She now weighs almost 15 pounds. Sophie was the runt of the litter so she barely weighs 8 pounds. Other than Maggie being over weight she is a very healthy kitty. She goes to the vet once a year, to get her shots. On the other hand, Sophie is a frequent visitor to the vet. She has been diagnosed with numerous conditions, infections, etc. For example, she originally had herpes, yes herpes. It is a little different from human herpes. Kitty herpes is a respiratory condition that develops when they are quite young. She has also had ear mites, acne (yes acne – am I crazy for believing this?), skin conditions galore and allergies. She has been prescribed antibiotics, steroids, ear drops, eye drops, pastes, shampoos, liquid allergy syrups and a hypo-allergenic diet. Not to mention cleaning her chin with peroxide. She has been to the vet at least once a month since February. Do you know how expensive that is? Perhaps I should get a 2nd opinion. I thought strongly about this until a couple weeks ago. I have discovered that giving her a daily bath works wonders. You probably think I am crazy since cats hate water. But Sophie is amazingly patient and I know she feels much better awards. Just take a look…..

Also here's a picture after she gets her ear drops and goes into Yoda mode.

So now Sophie’s routine is down to her special allergy food, one steroid tablet every other day, ear drops and her daily baths. My little angel is all worth it. I will have to get pictures of Maggie off Mister Chris’s computer to post later (as long as my dell does not catch on fire in the meantime)!!

Productive Weekend!

Well since the unpacking is in it's final stages, Mister Chris and I are getting into the home improvement frame of mind. Everything in the new casa is gold and we are not exactly gold kind of people. So we are switching out a lot of things...light fixtures, door knobs, towel racks, eventually faucets, etc. Here are some of the things that were accomplished this weekend.

When we bought this light fixture it was silver. Amazing what you can do with a can of black spray paint!! I love it. There are two more in the hall just like it.

Also here is the outcome of the shopping trip in the dark. I think it turned out OK but I see myself rearranging the vine over and over again the next few months.

Not much else going on in G-Vegas. I have to tell my little guy T-man in Nash-Vegas Happy Birthday. He is 9 years old today. Can you believe it? He's growing up too fast.

Bye, Bye, Bye

The view from row #48.

Shopping in the Dark

So Mister Chris and I were on a mission to buy greenery at Garden Ridge. The only problem is that while we were in there the lights went out. It's still daylight outside so it's not totally dark. But the greenery department is in the darkest corner of the store. We had come all this way and walked to the very back of the store not to leave without our greenery. It was quite an adventure to find silk things that match and/or coordinate with each other. I personally am no decorator and I can barely match my clothes, let alone silk flower vine things. After about 10 minutes of dealing with the dark we successfully headed to the check out. Just as we got there the lights came back on. Murphy's law was on our side, yet again today.

Our Resort and Sunset

More pictures

Favorite store that I can't afford.



Beautiful Beach on the north shore.

2nd Attempt

Pineapples

Pitiful waterfall

Hawaii

Well now that we have been back almost a week, I thought it was finally time to write about the trip. It’s been a hard week though because I contracted a lovely cold on the airplane. Mister Chris has a cold as well. We are doing the Tylenol cold thing together. Not only cannot I not breathe because my nose is clogged up, but it’s also 100 DEGREES out. When I got to work at 7:15 this morning it was already 82 degrees. Insane!! Work has gotten in the way of my house cleaning since coming home and I have not been home the past two nights. I had to have a pedicure night and a scrapbook night. So tonight is catch up time!! Item #1 – dishes, finished. Item #2 – laundry, in progress. Item #3 – blog time, also in progress!!!!

Our trip was fantastic. Much more beautiful than I had imagined. I will tell you first about my only two bummers (not to mention the long flight…details in a future entry). The first bummer is that the snorkeling is not as good as in the Caribbean. I am a big fan of snorkeling and I like to see lots of fish and pretty coral/plant life. Maybe it was not the right time of year to go snorkeling but the coral is all one color and not too many fish. On the other hand, we did get swim with the turtles at our resort. The other bummer is that I did not get to see lava. According to the locals, Oahu has no live, flowing lava tubes. You have to go to the big island or Maui to see this. Definitely plans for a future trip.

As you saw in my first entry, we did it all and saw it all. One of my favorites was climbing Diamond Head even though that will kick you in the you know where. It’s a 560 foot incline over ¾ of a mile. The view from the top was worth it. Check out some photos here.

A must see on the island of Oahu is Pearl Harbor. Very nice memorial. I learned a lot that day and of course Mister Chris loved it because he is such a history nut.

Another great thing was eating all the fresh pineapple. The dole plantation was neat but slightly boring. It was very much a tourist trap with their gift shop and ladies convincing you that you must pick an oyster to get 70% off your pearl. OK, I thought pearls came from Asia or at least that is what QVC has taught me. Here are some pics of the yummy pineapples that taste 100 times better than the ones from the can.

We attempted to see some pretty waterfalls but since their rainfall has been pretty low this summer, the waterfalls are obviously not as pretty as they are in the winter. This was one of the pitiful waterfalls. But I am sure it’s quite lovely when the water is flowing more rapidly.

Our resort was on the north shore of the island. One night we ventured into Waikiki to check it out. It was kind of crowded but the stores were awesome. Here is one of my favorites in which I cannot afford one thing.

One funny story is that we found this place call the Pearl Harbor mall. Mall = food court and it was lunch time. So we ate at McDonalds and decided to do a little shopping after. I got to the register and they asked for my military ID. Huh??? I was quite puzzled. Come to find out “the mall” was really the Navy exchange. That’s why the prices were so reasonable. OK, get out quick.

Here are a few other pictures we took along the way. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Such a lovely place to visit. I highly recommend it to anyone. And remember, it’s worth the plane flight there but not the plane flight home. Enjoy the pictures!!!

I have been playing with this entry since last night and I cannot get all my pictures to attach. So I am going to go ahead and post this one and put more pictures out here this afternoon that go with the rest of the verbage. Sorry for my lacking technical abilities.

Aloha!

Aloha from the island of Oahu. Since the supposed lightening fast wireless does not really work in my room, I had to come to the business center of the hotel. Since the wireless does not work, pictures will have to wait until we get home. We are having a fabulous time. Hawaii is a very beautiful place. We have done a lot and seen alot. Pearl Harbor, Dole Plantatoin, snorkeling, Luau, Waikiki, Diamond Head, all of the north shore by car and have almost circled the island a few times. The next couple of days I am hoping to get in some much needed pool and ocean time. Happy trails until we return.

Baby Shower Time

This past weekend I hosted a baby shower for mom-to-be Karo and mini-Karo. Karo is my BF from high school. And let me just tell you, mini-Karo is going to be the cutest baby ever. I am quite partial you see. Mini-Karo will be the closest thing to my first niece. Up until this point, I called Karo’s dog, Kota, my niece along with many other pets out there. Kota is a beautiful dog, but I cannot spoil her and buy her such cute things like I can for mini-Karo. Karo has about 8 weeks left and she still looks teeny tiny. I think mini-Karo is going to be a petite little thing.

Here are a couple of pictures from the event. Lots of food and lots of gifts. I included the picture of the teddy bear because Karo’s younger brother got this gift for mini-Karo. I think her brother foresees mini-Karo following in her mother’s footsteps! The other pic is Miss Chris and Karo. I think it's obvious that I am the one on the left!

Extras

Also Happy Birthday to my daddy in NC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you who know my dad, he is doing pretty well lately. My mom said his speech is a little off lately and he gets words mixed up. In his mind his world is totally different than reality which I am thankful for! A couple weeks ago when my brother was visiting, he told my brother to go downstairs to see his new motorcycle. When I was little my dad in fact had a motorcycle, but that was over 20 years ago. For those of you who may not know my dad, he was diagnosed a few years ago with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. He now lives in a nursing home because he requires 24 hour care and my mom cannot provide that because she must work. I try not to talk about him too much because I get sad, so hopefully this blog will also help me document this part of my life. I think it's also important to get the word out and educate others about multiple sclerosis.

On a more positive note, I would like to say congratulations to my friend Michelle who got engaged this past weekend. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Keep us posted on the plans.

Me and my ipod in ET land

I first must explain that ET land is my place of employment. ET land can be a fun and interesting place. Lots of drama, lots of noise, lots of food, lots of laughter and sometimes lots of stress. I try not to focus too much on the stress especially this week. I am 9 days away from vacation so I really don’t care how much work I have right now. I don’t have any pressing deadlines on my plate. I have a few things to wrap up but nothing major. Some days I cannot survive without my ipod. Since it’s summer time and lots of people are on vacation it can get very quiet around here. That’s when I pull out my ipod. Yesterday my ipod was dead. I did not have my charger with me either. It was a difficult afternoon because I was doing monotonous work by compiling/formatting data in Excel. Oh joy…no brainer work. No brainer work = ipod time. My ipod definitely helps my creativity. This morning I was on a mission to find my charger. I had to dig through boxes in the garage to find it but I was very successful (although I still cannot find my cell phone charger – another story, another day). So now I am enjoying my somewhat stress free afternoon with my ipod while I am still working with this crazy data. Once I have it all organized, I get to make some pretty “eye candy” graphics for a report. Now that’s the fun part. More detailed stories to come soon about ET land in the category of drama.

4th of July Blues

Why do you have to go to work the day after July 4th? Everyone is up late shooting fireworks and you don’t necessarily get to enjoy yourself with an upcoming workday looming. Even if you choose not to shoot fireworks, your neighbors are certainly out there having fun until 10:30 pm. I believe the 5th should also be observed as a holiday by many employers. Kind of like the day after Thanksgiving. I say this too because our office hours changed. As of July 1st, our office hours are 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday thru Thursday and 8:00 am to 12:00 pm on Friday. I really like this schedule because it’s very nice to work ½ days on Friday. My goal is to work 7:30 to 5:30 instead and be out of here at 11:30 on Fridays. This week is different though because we only get 8 hours for yesterday so that is one hour that has to be made up. Also today is another take Sophie to the vet day. That means I had to get to work even earlier than normal. After the late night fireworks, it was very difficult to get up at 5:15 am, to be at work by 6:45 to leave work by 4:45 to get Sophie to the vet by 5:30. What a crazy schedule for a day in which I should be home relaxing after enjoying the fireworks last night.

What an ordeal indeed……

moving that is. I warned you all last week that I would be using my blog for a venting session. Well here it is. This past week I have never endured so many sweat drops in my eyes (with contacts), headaches, bruises, stubbed toes and fingers, moments of confusion/frustration, waitress moments by taking everyone’s order for lunch, high heart rate and way too much family togetherness.

How many different ways are there to move a refrigerator? You either move it on something with wheels or you pick it up. How hard is that? Well the engineer-minded members of the family wanted to have a 2 hour discussion about the subject. Well that is fine, but it was predetermined that this would be the very first thing to go onto the truck. We only have the truck for 2 days and we must have everything out of the house in less than 24 hours. No time to pull out the intelligent measuring methods. That is when I “escaped” to another a room to figure out what would go on the truck next. Just a little hint of the frustrations of moving.

After a full day of loading the 26 foot truck twice (how do two people accumulate so much stuff in 3 years) in 95 degree very humid weather, who needs to go to the gym. I just thought the best about moving was loosing those 10 pounds. Negative, when I have had fast food Japanese, Zaxbys, Arbys, Dominos, Dukes Sandwich Co., etc. for the past 10 meals (lunch and dinner since Monday night) those pounds seem to still be there.

Closing at the lawyer’s office was by far the most dramatic part. The best part for me is that I was not sweating, dressed neat, sitting in a cushy chair with fantastic air conditioning. As a home seller you hope for your home to go to a nice person/family that is looking forward to having a new home and treating it with care. Not the case for us. In walks Mr. Toolbox. He has to own stock in Sears and be related to the Craftsman family. I was very disappointed and still am. For a few minutes we were afraid that he may walk away from closing. He understood from his agent that we would be leaving the refrigerator. From what I understand the refrigerator is not standard and can be used as a negotiating item. It was not written into the contract so our agent, Karen, stood up to Mr. Toolbox’s agent and put her foot down. Karen is awesome and if you need to move to G-Vegas, check out her site. We highly recommend her as an agent.

After closing, then it was time to unload. Thank goodness for friends and ones who have just moved or are getting ready to move. We are all helping each other. Unloading was much easier and took place later in the day so it was not as hot. Now it is just a matter of getting everything in place. That will for sure be a 6 month process. We barely survived and we will not be moving for a really long time. One of our neighbors is 83 and we say we will live here until we are his age. We’ll see how long that feeling lasts.

More stories to come soon about ET land (my place of employment) and my baby girls (my kitties Maggie and Sophie). Stay tuned….

Miss Chris has Fallen to the Dark Side

I have officially fallen to the dark side and started my blog. My separated at birth friend, Katie Bonk, has encouraged me along the way. I hope her blog community welcomes me with open arms. I enjoy reading their blogs everyday. I also hope to be creative and not boring. The second reason I started my blog is because I am a scrapbooker and have been inspired to keep my journal via blog. You see, I tend to procrastinate with my pages and I scrap in chronological order, so I do not always remember the here and now. For the scrappers reading, be sure to check out Ali's blog. It is by far the best scrapbooking blog out there.

For a preview of this week, I will probably be using my blog as a venting session. We are moving on Wednesday so it will be a busy week. The best part is that we are staying in G-Vegas. At this point though, I am questioning why we are putting ourselves through such an ordeal. It should be interesting.

I must conclude my first post. I am off to Cracker Barrel to have lunch with the in-laws. It will be our planning session for the week.