So, first things first, meet the new kitties:
This is Snickers, aka Snickerdoodle. Or, if you ask F, "Knickerdoodle." She's 3 months old. Snickers is my favorite, because she holds hands, likes tummy rubs and knows where the cat box is. She sounds like a lamb and sticks her tongue out when she meows. The only probalem with this kitty is her indescribable gas. I've never known a cat with constant stinky gas. I guess Kitten Chow doesn't sit well with her.
This is Oatmeal, or Oatmeal the Narcoleptic Kitty. She's a month younger than Snickers and is a favorite with the kids because she's one of those floppy, sleepy cats that lets them handle her and purrs the whole time. She has been spending the last week or so confined to our smallest dog kennel with nothing but her food and water and a cat box. This in an effort to teach her the difference between my bed and cat box. Or the floor and the cat box. Or my clothes and the cat box. This cat has also recently cost us almost $50 at the vet - I now have to wrestle her twice a day to give her fishy smelling medicine to stop her from bleeding from her behind. So far it seems to be working. I've let her out of the kennel during the day for the past two days and we haven't had any accidents yet - she still sleeps in there at night, though. Or, rather, she meows in there at night and gets her bed all wet because she hasn't yet realized that she can't escape by hanging from the top of the cage and then falling into her water dish. Go figure.
A week or so after getting the kittens we had a game of musical dogs. Our red heeler Molly wouldn't stop eating out the cat box and was getting increasingly nippy every time she got in trouble. One day she decided I wasn't the boss of her and she bit me while I was getting her in trouble. It wasn't bad, she just barely got me because I read her evil mind and moved my hand in time. She spent the next few days in her kennel while we decided what to do with her - no shelters would take her because she bit me but we didn't want to put down a perfectly healthy 3-year-old dog if we could help it. We placed an ad in the local online classifieds with full disclosure of her faults (and that she bit me) and someone came the next day to look at her - loved her, and took her away. So, Molly found a new home.
The very same day (*sigh*) R found another dog on these same classifieds and somehow talked his brother into picking her up and delivering her. This dog carried the ridiculous and insulting moniker of Baby which we changed as soon as we thought of something that sounded similar enough that she would still know we were talking to her - Bailey. So for a few weeks there I had the pleasure of cleaning up kitten AND puppy messes. I lead a charmed life.
So that's the all-important pet update. I didn't intend to put it at the top, but stupid Blogger won't let me move the pictures or the text, so what I intended to be at the bottom is now at the top. Next time I'll try to remember to put the pictures in first, then start typing. But here is everything I wrote at first, which was supposed to be above the pet update:
Everything is so weird here lately that I haven't been writing because I don't really know what to talk about. And I had a really cute Christmas background and everything, but no one saw it because I didn't post anything. Oh, well.
So here's a little update:
Christmas was fun for the kids and we managed to give them less than last year, which was my goal, so yay! They all got stuff they wanted but just not a ton of extra stuff. O's favorite present came from Grandma and the Greats, a real live American Girl doll (Kirsten). B's favorite present was probably his tool box, full of tools, from Daddy. J's favorite present seems to be a stuffed giraffe from Mommy and Daddy. F's favorite gift is a Fisher Price Little People garage thingie - one of those big plastic things with a lift for the cars (it rings a bell when it comes to the top) and a long twisty ramp for them to careen down. It didn't come from us, it was doorbell ditched along with presents for all the other kids and a bag of groceries - including a spiral ham that we had for Christmas even dinner, and for several days thereafter. It was yummmmmmy.
My favorite present was a boxed set of the Chronicles of Narnia - one big book with all of the books in it, and each book on CD read by a whole slew of awesome famous British actors (and one not-so-famous-but-probably-awesome-anyway British actor):
The Magician's Nephew, read by Kenneth Branagh
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, read by Michael York
The Horse and His Boy, read by Alex Jennings
Prince Caspian, read by Lynn Redgrave
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, read by Derek Jacobi
The Silver Chair, read by Jeremy Northam
The Last Battle, read by Patrick Stewart
I'll admit I don't know who Alex Jennings is. According to IMDB he played Prince Charles in that movie The Queen a few years ago. I saw that movie, but that doesn't help me to remember the guy. Other than that, he seems to be a British TV kind of guy. Either way I'm sure he'll suit and I'm really excited to listen to my CD's.
R's favorite present seems to be socks but he's not here to ask so I don't know for sure. Ages ago I bought him some really soft warm socks and he loved them so much they're all worn out now and he's been wanting new really soft warm socks for a long time. I have been looking off and on but they don't sell them at the places I frequent (Wal Mart, Smith's...the bathroom) so this year I actually went TO THE MALL. To a department store. And spent $15 on two pairs of socks - they were 50% off. But it was worth it because he loves them and wears them every night and goes, "OOoooohhhh" when he puts them on.
He has to wear socks at night, along with sweats and a hoodie (hood on) and two extra blankets because I can't sleep unless the window is open and without the extra precautions he wakes up dead in the morning.
So that was Christmas.
New Years was cool - R and I throw the kids a party every year (I use that term loosely because it's only been 2 years now) with all of their favorite things to eat. We ordered pizza from a different place this year and that turned out to be a big mistake - Salt City Pizza makes a 24" pizza which we thought would be impressive for the kids. Looks cool, tastes nasty. I've never been around a pizza that I couldn't finish, but this one took days - and not because it was big. *shudder* We'll stick to The Pizza Place from now on.
Anyway, so we had the giant disappointment-with-cheese and then almost every kind of treat the kids wanted. Licorice, donuts, candy, cupcakes, chips, cookies.....I can't even list it all. Oh, and Little Smokies in BBQ sauce. It was too much. B excused himself during the festivities and came back saying, "I barfed!" and proceeded to eat more. O woke up in the night and barfed, but was not nearly as excited about it as B was. So, I think that may have convinced R to rein it in next year, which no amount of rational arguments from me managed to do this year.
But the party itself was fun - we watched movies and played around and at midnight we made lots of noise and threw lots of confetti. The kids had spent the week cutting up construction paper, and I added some cut-up shiny ribbon to the mess, then we added it all to a bag of shredded bills and other things from the paper shredder. It made excellent confetti. F didn't like having it thrown at him but once he realized he could retaliate, he began to crawl around the floor hoarding it all into a huge pile that he wouldn't let anyone else touch. Then he threw it at people's knees and laughed. R and I had silly string, which the dog kept eating off the floor. F tried some, too, but didn't fancy it much.
So that's a recap of the holiday fun.
R just got home, F is about to wake up and I have to make dinner. I do not enjoy making dinner.
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