Someone's Been In My Bed... And He's Still There

JAAAAAAACK!! What are you doing? Lazy boy. Happy Sunday everyone!

Out With The Old...

Yup, the old thrown has seen better days. My husband decided he was tired of fixing it so he found himself a new throne.

Jack approves of the new throne.

Looking good!!

Ta Da! This puppy flushes & refills quickly & quietly. Thank you, hubby for putting your talents to work in our house.

Next project coming soon.

My Hubs' 51st Birthday Celebration

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HUBBY!
My hubs turned 51 last week. He celebrated by going to an Ice Hockey game at our new arena in town. We gave him a few gifts and were planning to go out to eat after church last Sunday, but he was sick. We'll find a date to go out for lunch sometime soon I hope.

Jack is always helpful at opening the gifts (not). He just loves the paper and gift bags.

Relaxing after trashing paper.

The arena. Shiny, slick ice.

And of course the ZAMBONI!

My son & his friend (Nan's son) at the Hockey game with my hubs.

My hubs' little brother went too. His wife went too, but no one took her picture. Just can't trust the guys with the camera, geesh!

Happy Birthday, honey!!

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is my first attempt at Not Me Monday. It was fun. I just remembered this event in my life a couple days ago and remembered Not Me and thought I'd try to write it that way. Hope you understand and enjoy my first attempt. I did.

When I was 23 years old, I did not drive across the United States in a Ford pick-up truck with no AC. I did not bring an un-neutered cat and a 9 month old female dog that had Parvo with me. The dog did not refuse to eat and did not throw up for most of the trip.

The cat did not spray inside the cab of the truck right before I went into the real estate office to sign papers for the sale of our townhouse.

I did not bring my SIL who couldn't drive a stick shift and my BIL to help me drive. We did not camp in the canopy together with the cat and the dog every night until we got home.

I did not go almost blind from driving for ten hours a day with cheap
sun glasses on. My eyes did not burn so bad that I couldn't do much of
anything, but apply ice and wait for my eyes to get better.

I did not climb in the back and let my SIL, instructed by my BIL drive the truck until we found a place to camp.

The cat did not get loose in one of the campgrounds and climb 25 feet up a fur tree and have us chasing him all over and calling him to "Please, please, come down" for an hour.

We did not go inner tubing on a river in Montana on the way home and see a snake swim across the river just ahead of us.

I did not try to pass a WA State Patrol officer at a pretty fast pace in his unmarked pretty blue car when I was only three hours from home. I did not just drive all the way from Virginia Beach, VA at this same average speed without getting stopped by the State Patrol in any state.

I did not posses an OR registration, a VA License plate and a WA driver's license and avoid getting a ticket. I did not say "I'm a military dependent and my husband is out to sea and we just sold our townhouse in VA and I'm trying to get home and I've been driving for five days and I didn't notice that you were a State Patrol."

He did not say, "Well when you're driving a long distance like that, be sure and slow down when you get near the cities."

None of this happened in the scorching temps of July 1981. No, I would never do things like that.

Jack's Big Day

This was Jack's day to get his nails trimmed. I am not experienced with pets and I thought it would be best to have a more experienced person do this. I also wanted her to apply the flea treatment.

Jack hasn't been in the car since he went to be neutered. When we brought him home after the procedure he was terrified and urinated in his carrier. That was nasty. My daughter had the carrier on her lap and of course she got a little wet. Since he wasn't too fond of it then I wasn't sure how he would like it now.

We let him get into the carrier and get familiar. It's clear now, he has outgrown the carrier. It was suppose to be big enough for adult cats. Apparently not Jack. He's kinda big.

There is a little fish toy hanging in there and Jack likes that, but he doesn't care about it when he's in the car. He's too scared to play I guess.

We get to the groomer and my daughter takes the carrier out of the care and puts the shoulder strap over her shoulder. Next thing I hear is "OH!" I walk around the car to see the carrier on the ground and the shoulder strap in H's hand. She said it just dropped. Poor Jack! He is truly too heavy for this carrier.

We take Jack in and the groomer takes him out of the carrier. She says, "Oh, Jack peed!" Lovely! She quickly trims his nails and puts him back. She explains he needs a bath before he gets the flea treatment. She showed me how to do the treatment and we took stinky home and gave him a bath.

He hates being bathed. Thank goodness he had those nails trimmed. He wanted to get down and away from me.

He sat by the back door and licked himself for quite some time. The kids combed him some and got a lot of loose fur off of him. No fur balls I hope.

Here he is in all his regalness. His head is dry. Now he sleeps by the back door. A cat's life is rough isn't it?

Independence Day 2009

There were only a few of us that gathered to celebrate July 4th this year. We enjoyed our usual BBQ'd chicken, salads and desserts.

Here we are just about to dive in, but stopped to pose for my picture for my blog.

After we were stuffed we relaxed. My BIL and SIL tried out the hammock. Her long black skirt covered my BIL up. Looks funny, but they're comfy.

Behind them is my struggling project...my garden in the shade. It is a learning process, but some day I hope to fill this area with all kinds of healthy bushes and Hostas. Takes money for that. I'm going to hit up my friend's SIL for some of her stuff when she starts thinning her garden this year.

This would be one of the desserts. Chocolate cupcakes.

I took a picture because they were patriotic. My SIL made them.
That's cream cheese frosting made from scratch rolled in sprinkles.
They were so good. I admit I ate more than one.
She left them with us darn.

We were finished, but someone had to inspect to see if every crumb had been cleaned away. No he didn't get on the table. He's been pretty good about that. See the American Flag on his license? My hubby put it there.

Some of us went for a walk while some of us cleaned up and then it was time for the second dessert course. My hubby and his little brother eating ice cream cones.

Our H eating her cone. Mmmm mmm good!

My SIL just didn't want her picture taken.

My MIL just before she dozed off on the couch. It was rather warm at our house and our tummy's were full and we all got kinda sleepy.

H wanted to retreat to the computer room, but I suggested a game with everyone first. We played Outburst Remix for a while. Everyone was a good sport about it and it was fun. We were kinda laying around still as we played.

Everyone left by 5:00pm and my sis came to get my daughter to go to a waterfront fireworks display around 8:00pm. Just my hubby and I were home since JB was camping with friends.

We had a few Roman Candles and a few other fireworks so later my hubby and I lit them off in our front yard.

Here I am in my American Flag t-shirt holding a Roman Candle. I'm not real excited to hold pyrotechnics in my hand, but I wanted to celebrate too.

This is how Jack, our cat celebrated the fourth almost all day. Until the firecrackers and M60's kept going off. then he retreated to his favorite hiding spot, way under the bed.

This last picture of Jack is to celebrate his birthday. He spent the morning in this box, another favorite activity of his. He turned one today, July ninth. Happy Birthday, Jack!! We love you.

God has blessed us with a wonderful country and people to keep it safe. Thank you, God and our military forces.

The Thing About Pets

What is this fascination with our pets? I've always liked cats and most dogs, but for a long time I did not get the obsession people had with their pets.

Some people treat their pets better than their kids or grand kids. When my kids were young I found this disturbing. Humans are certainly more important than pets aren't they? Especially babies. The babies should come before the pets for sure, right?

Fast forward thirteen years...our family finally gets two pets in one week. We were apprehensive for years because of pet allergies and asthma in our family, but we thought we'd give it a try.

This fella became our "child". I'm not kidding! He is so spoiled. He gets kissed and hugged more than anyone I know. He gets away with more than our kids ever did. Who can resist this gentle, sweet, soft, four legged creature? Awe, isn't he the cat's meow! Ha!


If he's in it or on it or playing with it, it's his, at least for the time being. King, Jack!


But this...not this! I cannot stand a cat on the counter. My daughter captured this moment. Get the sanitizer! I just don't like this. I know he does this when we're not around so cleaning the counters real good is a must.


My daughter loves to pose him. If he's really sleepy you can mess with him a lot. Poor Jack!


Same doll, different day. Oh the humiliation! Well you should hear the stuff he does to us.


Meet pet #two, the mouse hamster, Mattias. Matt for short. He's so sweet. My husband will not touch Matt though. He's just not into rodents.

Now Jack on the other hand is my husband's second son. Oh my gosh! Jack will follow him and try to get my husband to do things for him. It's hilarious!

Matt gets hugged and kissed and played with more than our kids do. You wonder if Jack likes Matt? Well, we keep an eye on Jack.

Some days he can't keep his eyes off of Matt. Once he pulled the cage down onto the floor with a huge crash. Matt was safely sitting very still under the bedding.

He seemed fine, but the cage was in many pieces and had to be reconstructed. Jack was just looking at the mess on the floor. I don't think he knew where the little mousie hamster went.

So if you're wondering why people are obsessed with their pets, just look at Jack and Matt and you'll want one too, unless you are allergic of course. We love them to pieces.


Just one more of stretchy cat. I guess he was very relaxed this day. Pets are fun! Enjoy yours while you can.