my dad

my parents are on a mini-vacation in the Finger Lakes this week. i've been staying at their house to watch the kitties, water the plants, and empty the dehumidifier.

my dad was convinced i did NOT know how to empty it (which, in fact, i do...even though i made Josh do it every day i was at Rachel & Brian's!). so, being the awesome, informative, instructive, artistic and funny dad that he is, he drew me a little diagram.

i'm not sure how easy this is to read, but the top says, "EMPTYING DEHUMIDIFIER: Easy Instructions for Interior Designer's." the picture of the person is labeled as me, as well as the sink, water, collector, shoe, ponytail, and volleyball.

i have the exact sense of humor as my dad does, so of course this little diagram was very enjoyable to me. my dad was an art teacher for 7 years in England before marrying my mum and moving to America. since then he has been working as a salesman and doing side artistic work, mainly writing children's worship music and heading up the children's church ministry at Grace Church as "Captain Bill".

snow!

sunday i went with my parents to my grandparent's house for some of gramma's homemade sauce and meatballs! it, of course, was amazing and like none other. when i was younger, i wouldnt eat ANY other spaghetti sauce but her's. nothing out of a can or at a restaurant. i would eat mum's only because it was the same recipe. i'm glad to say i've branched out a little, but there's still something about gramma's sauce that i adore!

anyway, while i was there, brooke decided to sleep in cute places. first, in my coat.

then, in the laundry basket.

and yes, there was snow in erie yesterday! i had no idea it was supposed to snow, so i was pretty shocked when i looked out my bedroom window.

here's the snow on my drive to work...



here's the slushie mess known as my "walk" to work...



looking out the back door of the office. only a month ago i remember looking at this tree [on the left] in it's autumn beauty. the leaves on the tree become completely all yellow...a beautiful, rusty yellow. i meant to take a picture of it so many times...it would be a good shot to show the sesasons i think...

annnnyway, it's tuesday, whatever. i'm ready for the weekend again...

oh...AND OUR CRUISE IS ALMOST A MONTH AWAY! ONE MONTH FROM TODAY WE WILL BE PACKING AND SLEEPING IN OUR BEDS THE LAST TIME BEFORE WE'RE OFF!!!!!!!!

kitty update!

yesterday i visited my gramma and papa [it's been quite a while since i've seen them!] and got to see their three beautiful baby girls growing up!

little brookie


dolly


go with the flo girl




bekah and brooke

due to some unforeseen circumstances, flo was returned home to be with her sisters after a month vacation. the three of them are crazy and getting along like they were never separated! brooke looks SO similar to their mommy, Miss Mew, it's crazy. all the kitties are healthy and happy...they are getting so big!


yesterday i tried sending a picture from my boss's phone to my phone at about 11am during our meeting. iPhones can't "technically" receive picture messages [they can't at all send them], but you get a text message sending you to a website with a user id and weird password [like "vet8lazy"] where you can see the image. nothing happened on my phone, so i sent the picture again after about 10 minutes of waiting.
well, at 4am this morning i received two text messages from my boss with the picture link in it.
weird.

it's almost another weekend...

oh well, i'm blogging about LAST weekend before THIS weekend...

friday i planned on driving separately to my volleyball game [it was an "away" game, but it was in erie] so that i could leave as soon as we were done and get on the road to pittsburgh. of course, i was required to ride behind the bus back to the school so i could make sure all the girls had rides [all 6 of them - 2 were boarding school kids...so all 4 of them - who all had rides waiting at the school - my other 15 girls wrote notes and went home with parents]. it is understandable - but they should have told me that i would have to do that in the first place. seeing as i had to jump on I-79, i had to go up that way anyway.

so i left about 7pm, things were good, driving smooth...and then i get a voicemail right at grove city. my plan had originally been to stop there, get gas and get a snack. but kt said there'd be buffalo chicken wing pizza waiting for me, so i opted to get gas in the morning and make it to pitts on my 1/2 tank [i was easily going to make it]. so, i check my voicemail, turn down my music...and hear an awful sound coming from the front left of my car. no clue what it was. it was dark, i was in the left lane, and i was going fast [ok, not THAT fast, but at least...72 mph]. so i managed to pull over, and started to call josh before i even got out of the car to ask for his advice. so, i step out, he answers, i look down - and there is a FREAKING FLAT TIRE. i was so irritated. josh offered to come out and change it for me [i have a donut in my trunk...isn't he sweet?], but luckily kt has AAA and was able to call, say it was her, then they came out and changed it [it took the guy 3 minutes and he didn't even ask who i was]. while i waited, i was visited by a cop, who checked my tires, driver's license and set up flares behind me, i updated my facebook & twitter statuses to make sure everyone knew my awful luck, and talked to josh & nikkie via AIM on my phone.

so, it took me a little over 3 hours to get to pittsburgh - where it would usually take me just over 2 hours.


saturday kt and i had to go to get a new tire, which...took us a LOT longer than expected. we told nikkie to meet us at Ikea at 10...but we got to the tire place AT 10...and to Ikea at 12...oops! and then the didn't have some of the stuff i wanted!! [like these shelf brackets and laptop stand...] oh well. kt and i managed to fit all my purchases [and her tiny bag of things] in her passport - but we couldnt look at each other the whole ride back because the boxes were sticking out past our heads...

[here are a few ikea purchases...]

and we still have two baby kittens at home. so....:(

kc and i get the keys TOMORROW! hopefully we are done moving in Saturday! [well for the most part].


i feel like i've been super busy at work for the last couple months...and all of the sudden...i feel like i have nothing to do today! crazy.

finds & purchases

last night's awesome deals:

[value city furniture & jc penny]



this morning's awesome find:

lucy, our 4-year old princess, sat inside making growling moaning noises while the two ate outside. dad says he saw an adult cat run across the street. they were healthy looking, clean, full-bellied, so we think that could have been the mother. the cats were no where to be found when i left for work, however. they might have been hiding in the ferns. i hope that it WAS the mother, that she comes back for them, and they go elsewhere...these are the 4th and 5th cats that have been found outside our house in 5 years. it's crazy. we can't take any more cats in...maybe gramma misses having 8 kittens and wants 2 more so she can have 4 again?? :)

house hunting!

that's right folks - KC and i are in full force looking for apartments! ok, not "full force" [whatever that means] but we are looking harder than before! we visited three different locations [and four different apt. layouts] on Monday. Here's what we thought.

Location 1 [Apartments 1 & 2]
pros:

1. great location - central area, 10-12 minute drive for us both to work
   
2. opportunity of gated parking
3. really cool interiors
4. high ceilings
5. quiet
6. large windows
7. dishwasher & disposal
8. laundry on each floor
   
9. 2 full baths in Apartment 2
   

cons:

1. tiny rooms
2. gated parking is $40 a month per person!
3. other parking is off street or in another area's parking lot
   
4. at the top of our price range
5. no dining room
6. not much storage
7. small closets
8. 2nd Apartment didn't have as much light
9. 2nd Apartment had upstairs loft bedroom with no door and overlooking entry and living room
   

Location 2 [Apartment 3]
pros:

1. entry is at a super cute courtyard
2. good size kitchen with lots of storage
3. dining "area"
4. large living room
5. large 2nd bedroom
6. decent price

cons:

1. entry is cute courtyard...but also scary and secluded...makes us nervous for dark nights
2. kitchen kinda looked run down, pretty out dated...
3. 1st bedroom is slightly bigger than my closet
   
4. pretty much no privacy - 1st bedroom has a window open to the kitchen, 2nd bedroom is open to the living room and has no door
5. bathroom is really tiny and icky
   
6. very little storage
7. overall it was just dark
8. parking was on street - this wouldn't be too bad but it's METERED parking from 9-6. so, either make sure you leave before 9 and get home after 6 or take your chances. they ticket on saturday - so the guy said you can again - "take your changes" or pay for 8 hours...

Location 2 [Apartment 4]
pros:

1. 3 bedroom + dining room, good sized kitchen, pantry & bathroom
   
2. nice yard with beautiful view of lake erie
3. clean
4. basement for storage & washer & dryer
5. upstairs guy would probably shovel our driveway and neighbor would mow our lawn

cons:

1. bedrooms weren't too big, but that wasn't so much of a big deal
2. view is great - but there's a huge vegetable garden and old garage blocking it
3. on street parking
4. possibility of brand new house being built next door. this could be good or bad...
5. ok neighborhood...but a few blocks down it gets a little scary
6. upstairs guy seems to do a lot of woodworking in basement...what if he did this at 7am saturday mornings!?
7. pretty much we want to purchase the land at the back of the house which overlooks lake erie and the pepsi amphitheater and build a new house on it. we would then be able to watch fireworks and shows from our front lawn.

we plan on looking at another place next weekend that could be promising.

oh, and in other very sad news - they had to put my gramma's cat that had the kittens down on Tuesday. she was really really sick [some digestive disease]. couldn't keep any food down, super skinny and just moaning in pain. it was pretty sad, but the kittens are doing fine and she was really suffering. if you could give a quick prayer or thought for my grandparents for that and my gramma's got more cancer tests coming up soon [and has been having some post-cancer related health problems].

cute!

oh my, totes cute bags [totes].

found the first via designmilk, but they are from etsy. so cute. but i'd love a smaller, more purse-like one.

dad and i were spontaneous yesterday and ran out to see Prince Caspian at the dollar theater. i love those narnia books/movies. now i need to read that one. i hear it didn't do too well - i say it's because it wasn't publicized enough, because the 4 Pevensie kids were so good in it [i just love them all] and i enjoyed the guy that played Caspian as well. so - if you loved or liked the first narnia, you'll love or like this one!

my besest friend Alicia got into town today. we've known eachother since we two [i think] and have been best friends, though far apart, ever since. she lives in Florida now [for the past 3 years], and i definitely miss her. we may not talk as much as we should [say, once every...um...other month] but every time she's in town we get together and it's just like it used to be! we are hanging out tomorrow, going to our traditional dinner spot of Max & Erma's. for Alicia's 16th birthday [i think 16th...] i started a scrapbook for her. ever since, we've put pictures in it as well as momentos, quotes and old "letters" from when we had our make believe businesses. i've got some more pictures for her to put in [we trade the book back and forth, doing pages for each other]. i love it! it is so cute.

i printed out a bunch [over 150] pictures i've taken in the last several months and put those in an album. i also started a scrapbook from our England vacation [2 years ago] and have never finished it. i miss scrapbooking. i when kc and i move out, i vow to have a room dedicated to it!!


just kidding. that'd be nuts! :)

that's all for this boring post. oh, and the kitties are doing well! looks like 4 girls & 4 boys? i think...anyway, i want to keep this little boy - Geppetto.

something like a picture update

i've been staying at sissy & brian's since last friday. it's been fun...i tell you - that 12 minute drive to work is wonderful! however, sleeping has been SO comfortable...i've been getting up later...and later...

tycho was trying to get a moth yesterday. i didn't get a great picture of it - but at one point he was literally HANGING onto the wall. it was so crazy.

and he's pretty much as bad as is the ushe. if you don't give him enough attention, he climbs on top of things and knocks things over [remotes, cell phones, glasses, candles, earrings, rings, napkins...]. he also kept trying to help me cook yesterday, mostly w/ the raw chicken.

mum and dad came over for dinner last night. i made this easy Betty Crocker Cheesy Chicken Casserole - with chicken, frozen veggies, cheddar cheese sauce & Bisquick/Parmesan biscuits on top.

Tuesday went something like this...
i went to see the kitties again...

then mum and i went to our friend Diane's to see her and her new baby girl, McKenzie!

the josh came over and we watched the new Futurama movie!

lemon bars & kitties

yesterday my [youth group] small group went to Kayla's house [one of our girls]. we ate yummy lemon bars thanks to Katie J and some brownies [thanks to Megan] and much much more...



and miss mew [gramma's stray cat] is having her kittens today! i got to see her over lunch, and she had 6! #7 is on the way!!! [and they think she could have 1 or 2 more after that!!]



you can see more [blurry] kitty pictures here. i'll try to put more up soon!