Favorite Kitty Pic Friday/Saturday!

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Oops!  I totally forgot to put this up yesterday!  I didn’t have it scheduled this week either, so, sorry for my tardiness.  I was kind of busy yesterday.  We had an OB appointment in the morning which was originally supposed to happen on Thursday, we went for breakfast afterwards, then I came home and tried to accomplish a few other things on the computer, and finally went out and about for some shopping, bill paying, and sending the car seat base back to CSN stores, thanks to their complete mess up (that you can read about here).  I finally remembered to do this post after midnight, but I was heading to bed, and figured I’d just do it today instead.

Here’s my choice for this week, taken earlier in the week:

Jasper looks so sweet and innocent when he sleeps…don’t be fooled!   ;)   He really isn’t terrible or anything, but he’s certainly not as sweet and innocent as he looks here in this photo!  He can really work on my nerves sometimes, especially lately when my patience seems to wear thin quickly.  But he looked so cute all sleepy on the couch the other night, and actually stayed that way for the picture.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!  We’ll be accomplishing things around the house, hopefully getting dining room furniture from my aunt and uncle, but that’s still up in the air at this point, and apparently going out to eat with my grandmother/family on Monday.  Who goes out to eat over having a cook out on our nice (except for some stray weeds that still need taking care of) patio??  We do apparently…

Have a great weekend!!!

Scrapbook Sunday

Yesterday was busy with yard work, then we ate dinner with my parents, grandmother and uncle.  Then I was just very tired, and didn’t feel like doing this post yesterday.  At least I did one this weekend!   :)

Hubby in front of our first ever fire outside on the patio!  Plus I managed to snap this really cool picture of the fire itself, even though being in that little frame does it no justice.  I used a premade template, but got rid of a few things and added in some of my own touches (fire frame included – that one was from a Halloween kit).

Hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween today!  Enjoy your trick or treating or any parties left to go to.  It’s quite chilly here today, so hopefully it’s warmer wherever you are or you are able to keep warm tonight!

Our Patio!

So, we waited all summer for our patio, mainly due to figuring the whole thing out, picking stones, getting a permit, and the landscaper’s schedule, but it was finally finished a couple weeks ago!  I absolutely love it, and I’m glad we still have some time to enjoy it yet this year before winter sets in.

I have progress photos from each day something was worked on and completed:

Day one:  The stones were brought to the house and the base was spread over the grass.  We had the patio built up, not dug into the ground because we have a sloped yard, and the water would have run onto the patio if we would have had it even with the rest of the yard.

 

 

 

This little area might look funny, but we had a plan for it – you’ll see in the finished product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day two:

The border was put in place, the border stones were laid out, and the main stones were starting to get laid out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kind of crappy wooden step was finally gone!  He had to cut the thing off because of how it was bolted to the house, but we saved the step mainly for wood, since we did pay like $180 to have the thing put on when we bought the house!

View from the upstairs out onto the patio:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We picked EP Henry stones, Village Square style, in the pewter blend laid in a random pattern with charcoal brickstones for the border.

Day three:  Patio stones are all laid out and sanded in place!  All that’s left is the drain off to the side, the stone step to replace the wooden ones, and finish off the planting bed around it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day four:  Original step design was put in place, but luckily not glued in place.  It turned out a little to shallow, and we were afraid of falls happening on it when coming in and out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See how small it is?  I have small feet, and my shoes hung over the end of the step when I stood on it!  We re-designed, picked up more stone, and created a much nicer, larger, and safer step:

Day five:  new step in place!  Fix-ups done!  Planting bed edged and ready for flowers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And finally, the finished patio!  Plants planted, pergola set up, table and chairs set out, grill in place, and that little circle area filled in:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have 2 butterfly bushes, Belgian mums, day lilies, and icicle pansies currently planted around the patio.  Once the weather cools down slightly and stays cool, I have tulip and daffodil bulbs to plant, so in the spring we will have those growing, the icicle pansies coming back, and the butterfly bushes.  I may have to get other annuals for the summer.

Unfortunately, today’s weather has been very rainy and windy.  The wind blew 2 of my chairs around, one of which landed on one of my mums and crushed it.  It also managed to blow the grill over, which landed on one of my butterfly bushes.  The grill is dented in the rear, and we’re hoping that’s the only damage, but we won’t know until we use it.  I tried to fix up the mum, but I don’t know if it was too broken to snap back, and the butterfly bush was pretty crushed, but I’m hoping and thinking it should be ok.  We’re at the end of its blooming season, and in some areas they can be cut down all the way to the ground for winter, and grow back in the spring.  So hopefully that will sprout new branches and be ok.  It’s amazing how the wind we’ve had today, which is nothing compared to some days, caused so much destruction, but when we had 70 mph gusts last week for a bad storm, NOTHING HAPPENED!!!  It just doesn’t make sense.

So now I’m headed out in this crappy weather to do some grocery shopping, or we won’t have anything to eat after today.

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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It’s Friday again!  The weather is a little crazy here this week – 94 degrees forecasted for today, and it’s supposed to be fall!  I was starting to get used to the slightly cooler weather, and was absolutely loving the fact that we could have the windows open and be cool (if not down right chilly some mornings) while saving some money on our electric bill.  The AC went back on yesterday!

Anyway, here’s my choice for this week’s post:

Dusty is so adorable when he sleeps!  I remember he was so pathetic when I took this picture – it’s part of a series of photos from that moment.  So sweet!   :)

I hope you all have a nice weekend planned.  I will be going to a baton/dance performance for the group I teach with, and hoping all goes well, since the director won’t be there!  I also plan to enjoy my patio as much as possible this weekend.

If you’d like to participate in this post, grab the badge up top, create your own post, and link it here in a comment, or just leave a comment with a link to your favorite kitty pic if it’s viewable on the web.

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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Happy Friday!  And a great weekend forecast for my area too!  The patio is 99.9% finished by the landscaper, just needs some cleaning of some of the stones, so hopefully we can set everything up on it this weekend and enjoy it during the last of the beautiful weather.  I will do a post all about it when it’s finally set up and completely finished, pictures and all!  But today is devoted to kitties, so here’s mine:

 Here’s tubby Jasper in a predicament!  (Sorry for the poor quality of the picture – not one of my best, but still funny!)  We have this cat tree/perch thing for them.  He hardly fits through the hole in that top part anymore, but still goes up there all the time.  I haven’t seen him lay like this in there since we moved to the house and the tree no longer sits up against a wall like it did here in the pic from the apartment, but he used to get himself into this position a lot back then, usually to wash his big fat belly (you see the massiveness of him??), and then he would give me this panicked look like, “Momma, I can’t move – I’m stuck!”.  Simply due to his size and very little room to move (the space next to him is where the open hole is to crawl in), he’d literally get stuck in this position and would try to roll around, but not really be able to and I would have to rescue him.  I love my tubby kitty!   :)

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!  I’m off to go finish planting my plants and flowers around the patio!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday/Scrapbook Saturday

I’m cheating a little here.  I know it’s not Friday, I totally missed doing my “Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!” post yesterday, and I was very busy today, so I’m late in the day with my Scrapbook Saturday post too.  So, I’m combining them both right now and I created a kitty digital scrapbook page for today!  :)
I think this picture of him is just too funny!  I caught him laying like this on my computer desk chair today, and it made me think to use this picture of him laying the same way on our couch back at our old apartment.  It just strikes me as funny because he’s laying there like, “Woe is me!” or like he’s playing dead.  I’m still learning how to use this program, so this is mostly a pre-made template with his name, the word lazy, and the paw print tag added in.  Be prepared for some less interesting/busy scrapbook pages when I finally start trying to create one from complete scratch.  Digital is still very different for me and I have to definitely get used to it.
In other news, our patio is “finished” (yay!) but we have a couple issues making it not quite finished (boo!).  I will do a whole patio post later, progress pictures and all.  We did buy some plants and bulbs today for the area around it where we are landscaping, but more on them at a later time too.
I hope you all are enjoying your Labor Day weekend!  No special plans here, since the patio isn’t 100% yet and the rest of the backyard is a mess now.  Just relaxing, maybe some crafting, probably some video game playing…   :)

“I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”

Quote from “Zoolander”.  I’ve never seen the movie, but I will give you some insight as to where this came from.

My hubby has caught a cold.  Not a great time to be sick either, and I’m really hoping I don’t end up with it too.  But today he said he was feeling lousy, and I asked if he took any medicine.  When he said “no” and that he didn’t know what to take, this is parts of the conversation that followed (we were chatting back and forth via IM, since he was upstairs in the office and I really didn’t want to move from the couch at the time):

ME: what are ur symptoms?

HIM: feeling lousyness, stuffy, sinus congestion, my throat was sore, but I think that was post nasal drip from over night.  my brain feels cottony

ME: the box of red and green capsules on ur night stand, take those

ME:  that’s daytime sinus congestion medicine with some tylenol in it for ur cottony head

HIM:  merry christmas!

ME:  lol, the color of the pills?

HIM: yeah, my present from pharma clause

ME: lol, let me know if they start to help at all, cuz if not, i will see if i can find something different when i go out later

(some time later) 

ME: any effect from the medicine yet?

HIM:  I dunno

Then we began discussing some patio stuff.  The guys started today, and I was concerned about the size, location, etc. since a few changes had to be made from what the landscaper painted for the outline.  I told hubby before that I might need to go out with a tape measure later to measure everything and see for myself.  That’s just how I am with all house related repairs, additions, etc.  It takes all I have not to stand right there when things are being done so I can see and question everything – I drive myself crazy!  (Maybe I need the “crazy pills”, lol)  So this is how the convo continued from there:

ME:  the screening goes on tomorrow, that’s the sand-like stuff.  he said the black edging will go on tomorrow too, and they should be able to put down the charcoal border.  do u know about the black edging?

HIM: yes, cause I asked him my "why don't the edge bricks just fall off" question yesterday and he told me

(our patio is actually being built raised up due to the slope of our property, not dug down into the ground and made level with the rest of the grass like usual – hence the concern of the edge bricks falling apart)

ME: ok, u'll have to explain to me then, cuz i didn't know anything about that, but i nodded and smiled and said ok great

HIM: lol, "I don't know what your talking about but okay great!!!"

ME: lol, yeah, pretty much

HIM:  thanks you, you cheer me up

I then ask him if he needs anything else when I go out for other things.  Earlier for lunch, he said he wanted something else, more food.  After I told him what snacks were here, he said he wanted “chippies”.  Now, usually when we say “chippies” in this house, we mean nachos – tortilla chips covered in melted shredded cheese and bacon pieces.  So, when he said “chippies”, I immediately went to that kind, and told him we didn’t have the ingredients, to which I got the response that that’s not what he meant, but thanks to me, he now wanted that, and I was mean.  So when I asked if there was anything else he needed while I was out, this is what followed:

HIM: ingredients for chippies...

ME: and is that what u pick as ur side dish for the chicken? chippies and cucumber salad?

HIM: YES!!!  Chippies!

ME: lol, oh my

HIM: *dance dance*

ME: should i really buy real bacon or use the bacon crumbles?  and what cheese?

HIM: BACONSES!  Delicious CHEESESESES!

ME:  oh my…

HIM: What were in these christmas pills, pharma clause?!

ME: lol, y?

HIM: I feel goofy... I guess you couldn't tell.

ME: this is so getting a blog post!  lol

HIM: …I’ll need to review it before you publish it  :p

ME: lol, y?

Which brings me to the Zoolander quote:

HIM: I don't want strangers on the internet thinking I'm taking crazy pills!http://www.moviewavs.com/php/sounds/?id=gog&media=WAVS&type=Movies&movie=Zoolander&quote=crazypills.txt&file=crazypills.wav

I told him he’s taken these pills before, and asked if they always made him this goofy, but apparently he was just being his normal goofy self. 

So this is the story of the Christmas pills, and how I became “Pharma Clause”.

Good News! I Love My Neighbors!

First things first, we had an awesome time at our very first block party yesterday!  Unfortunately, not every single neighbor was able to be there, but we got to meet almost all of everyone else, and I like our neighbors very much!   :)   After yesterday, I am even happier about where we live now compared to a year ago.  As many issues, big or small, we’ve had with a brand new house, I love our neighborhood and am very grateful to have such nice neighbors.  I absolutely love not sharing walls with anyone anymore, and no one is obnoxious, loud, or downright crazy.  We all just got together in between a couple of the houses, grilled some hamburgers and hot dogs, everyone brought 2 additional side dishes, and we all just got to know each other and even played a game of men vs. women in volleyball.  We (women) lost, but it was still a lot of fun!  And one of my side dishes was a big hit – I made Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies, for the first time ever.  Sooo gooood!!!  All in all, a great day – we even watched some of our newest neighbors move in!  (Yes, one of the guys offered a hand, but they must have had 6 people moving 2 truckloads of stuff that no one thinks will all fit into the smallest house on the street.)  I even found out one of our neighbors is an Athletic Trainer too.  If you read my about me page, you know that’s what I went to college for, started my career life as, and decided to give up a few years ago.  It was nice to talk to someone else in the field and make a connection if I ever decide to get back into that line of work someday though.

The good news is our patio will finally get started tomorrow!  I am so excited!  We’ve been working things out, doing all the preliminary stuff, and waiting all summer long, and tomorrow is finally the day to get it all started.  Our landscaper, who is also a friend, came this evening to mark the spot off, and leave his small forklift here to be able to unload the stone tomorrow.  We’re doing an EP Henry paver patio, 15’x34’ (quite large!), with Village Square stone in pewter blend color laid in a random pattern, a Brickstone border in charcoal color, and a stone step in gray with charcoal Bullnose stones.  Once it’s completed, we already have everything to furnish it except the fire bowl.  One side of the patio will have a pergola with a canopy that we bought at Target and our dining table and chairs underneath, and the other side will be the grill area with the fire bowl and extra chairs.  I don’t know how long it will take to complete, but it looks as though I will definitely have enough of fall yet to enjoy it this year!   :)

That’s all for now – I hope everyone had a great weekend!