Kids and Animals

As most of you know, we have two cats. Ding and Dong. No no, Boni and Bam :) Two furbabies; we've had Boni cat for three years, he's a rescued shelter cat and we've had Bam since August-a friend of ours had a cat who had kittens and we decided to take one. They bring so much pleasure to our family. Yes, they annoy us, but they also make us very happy. More than making Geo and I happy, they really make the kids happy. There's never a time when there isn't a cat curled up with one of the kiddos when they're in bed. If you're sick, there's a cat nearby to purr in your ear. If you're having a snack, you guessed it, there's a kitty.

Having cats has taught the kids responsibility; they have to make sure the cats have food and water every day. They have to make sure they aren't locked in a room or a closet (which has happened before, whoops) and they brush the cats to keep them clean and lookin' good.

I grew up with pets, Geo grew up with a dog. We both loved having pets as kids and we love being able to share that with the kids. So a few weeks ago, we decided since we all love the cats so much, how about adding a few more pets to the family? This weekend, we'll be getting two little guys called Degu's. They look like a giant gerbil; they're similar to chinchillas and prairedogs (which is a weird combo, but they're sooooo cute) they're highly intelligent, they adjust to your schedule (rather than being up all night like other rodents) and they can be trained to do tricks. We went this week to play with some at the pet store and make sure they'd be the right animals to add to our family and they definitely are. They don't bite and are really social. The one I was holding kept checking my face out, trying to see what I looked like. All of us are super excited to bring them home this weekend and you can expect to see pictures in the near future.

Do you have pets? Did you have pets growing up?

Random Thoughts

Those of you who do not know me may be surprised to learn that I am a bit of a grammar fanatic. Not only do I strive to use proper grammar and use words properly, I try to make sure the kids do as well. I'm telling you that so I can tell you this...

At my former job we made iced tea every morning for customers. The brewing pot was labeled so we didn't accidentally put coffee in that pot, etc etc. The label said "Ice Tea" which drove.me.insane. So insane that one day I whipped out a sharpie and put a "d" on the word ice. Geo, my darling sweet jerky husband loves to tease me about it. Gabriel overheard me saying that the proper way to say it IS indeed Iced Tea because the tea is on ice, hence the "iced" part. That was easily a month or two ago.

We were at a gas station last weekend grabbing a drink on our way to a birthday party and Geo being the goof ball he is said "Oh hey babe, do you want some ICE tea??" Gabriel looked at him and said "Dad, it's ICED tea, not ice tea. That doesn't even make any sense. The tea isn't made of ice"

Thata boy Gabe!

Gabe is obsessed with writing the date on his papers. He loves to write it numerically, making a point to say "DASH" when he writes a dash. Last night I had to work, so daddy helped him with his homework. I checked it over when I came home and saw that he had written the date...it said "14 September" and September was in incredibly small print. Also since there is another Gabe in his class, he now has to write "W" after his name.



SarahAnne is convinced that Jax is part black bear. The longer he lives in our house, the more convinced *I* am of this fact. He is constantly on his hind legs batting at things. He's always climbing into things and getting into trouble and he makes weird little noises (Not quite like a bear, but still weird)



Because we have two black cats now, we have started referring to them as "big" and "little" I have the mentality of a 14 year old boy when it comes to somethings...one of those being the fact that Bitsy refers to Boni as "big boner" all of the time *snicker* No one said this was a highbrow blog people, I don't know why this would come as a surprise to anyone that it amuses me that she calls him that...



Alright...enough of this chatter-it's time to get Gabe up for school and get our day started :) Have a lovely hump day *snicker snicker*

Out, Out Damned Spot!

I have a persistent black spot on the end of my bed. As a general rule, the spot is right near my feet, though sometimes it migrates to Geo's side of the bed. It's a huge black spot; I'd say about 14 pounds :P In case you hadn't guessed it, my black spot has four huge paws, a long twitching tail, and purrs like a motor. Since getting Cicero, Boni has had to mark his territory (so to speak) by sleeping at our feet. As a general rule, he prefers to sleep on Gabe's bed, but Cicero stole that spot. For about two weeks now, I've been trying to figure out how to sleep with a giant cat on my end of the bed and last night I figured it out: If I slide my feet under him two things happen: One, my feet get incredibly warm (definitely a good thing) and two, the cat generally moves over to Geo's side of the bed to get away from my feet. It's a win-win situation for me-warm feet AND he goes and annoys Geo :P Also, if he's on Geo's side of the bed, I don't have to deal with the inevitable 4 a.m. cat fight on my feet. The last cat fight involved claws and (my)toes being bitten, it was unpleasant to say the least and now Geo gets to deal with it...he he.


It should be noted that Boni does NOT approve of this post and would like me to tell you that he only weighs 12 pounds and does NOT bite toes. His hope is that by looking at his picture, your soul will become his, as all of ours have...don't say I didn't warn you...