Funnies

Trey came to play with us again today. There was some giggling and playing in the other room, then I heard "MOMMY! HIDING!"

Then I heard "Hiding! MOM!" He doesn't seem to get that my name isn't actually 'Mommy.'
Cute though. They thought it was so funny that I would take their pictures under the door.

Here's another funny thing. I look at my cats and I don't see a huge size difference. Mostly because the only time they cuddle is when they are in my lap, and a lapful of cat is a lapful of cat. Then I dug out this bed again.

It's a big bed.

And he is a BIG cat.

Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I'm sure you've noticed the lack of Nemo pictures. He tore through the screen and the storm window in the basement and escaped. We see him from time to time and we keep a bowl of food out for him, but he doesn't want anything to do with us. He runs and hides almost as soon as he sees us.
As you can see, Remy does not share those tendencies.

The bird feeder.

It's an interesting place, really. And very educational. We have Pine Grosbeaks visit us in the Spring and Fall, and they are stunning. Dark-eyed Juncos herald the Spring. There are various other visitors throughout the Spring and Fall, and I do try to get a good picture of them but some are so jumpy.

These guys are used to me. They hardly fly off when I walk out the front door. They're also very quick, so it's hard to get a picture of their faces. These little birds will also land on my hand when I offer them some of Charlie's grain on very cold days.
Black Capped Chickadees

The nuthatches got to know me last winter, and I don't believe they ever left, so they'll sit around and pose. I had to start using pre-shelled birdseed because they would sort all the millet out of the mix and leave it all over the porch. Andrew was not pleased. So far, nobody wastes any of this stuff, so it has the added benefit of lasting longer between refills.

This little guy is very timid. I had to stand very still next to the window for a long time to be able to get this picture. Not sure if it's one of the ones that was here last winter or not, but it's fun to see them so close. He's a very tiny woodpecker. We also get big woodpeckers but they tend to stay in the trees. Or hammer on our furnace chimney. Whatever. Reminds me, I need to go get them a new suet bag.

Another play day.

Go figure. Seems like we have play days more often than non-play days.
We played Ring Around The Rosy

And then everyone fell down!

Then we needed a snack, because we played so hard.

What a fun day!

Today Trey came to play with us again, and he and Katie had so much fun.

They went for a horseback ride,

They played peekaboo.
(and let's climb all over the tower for an hour)

Then we built a fort and they were so very excited.

Then Trey climbed on top (where the tower was on it's side) and fell through.

And they decided that that game was even better than having a fort.
You'll notice that Katie is much more cautious than Trey, who just plunked his bum down in the middle.

And then Trey went home and Katie went to bed, and the cats got to play.
I guess Mooch likes the tunnel the best. Remy, apparently, just likes the blanket.

Your morning funny.

Katie likes to eat cold cereal for second breakfast. This morning's choice was raisin bran, because it has a picture of "cat food" on the front. (the scoops look just like our cat food scoop) And she was very excited because her cereal had yummy beans in it.

K: Katie found a yummy bean!
Me: Honey, that's a raisin.
K: No raisin, brown bean.
Me: Ok.

You just can't argue with a 2 year old.

Fun, fun, fun.

Today Katie found her dress-up bin.

And put on everything in it.
And played me a song.

Here are a couple more from a few days ago.
Feeding Charlie
Looking for Remy

Ack!

Lots of things happening around here. First thing that happened was I put my camera card into my card reader and then promptly lost it. It has been found, and someday soon those pictures will find their way onto this blog. Oh, I guess that wasn't the first thing.

First thing was, I misstepped off our deck stairs on Halloween night when I took Katie to look at the pumpkins and tore a bunch of ligaments in my ankle. So I'm splinted and hobbling around like a pro. Still working out the kinks in driving my 5-speed car with my clutch foot injured.

But we'll figure it out. Family and critters are healthy and well, and we've started getting snow more frequently, and it appears that it will continue as such.

Alphabet Soup

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Happy Halloween!

Katie got to go trick-or-treating this year. It's a bit different here than what I grew up with. I grew up in a temperate climate where we didn't need coats on Halloween. I also grew up in town, so we just walked to different houses. Here, the houses are sometimes miles apart, so we drive.
We do have some friends in town though, so we stopped there and snapped some pictures.

She won't say "trick or treat" she just says "yes please candy". But she's cute enough that no one seems to mind.

Even Bailey got in on the act.

But she just had to stay home.

More cooking with Katie.

But first, the pumpkin patch. No pumpkin pictures, because it was really a bunch of pumpkins in a greenhouse and some fun kid activities, but we had fun.

Katie was a ghost.

Apparently, it was cold. These poor ducks are sitting on the frozen pond.

And now, cooking class with Katie.
Tonight's lesson, Pizza.

First, you have to spread some sauce on. Make sure you get yours good and coated, but don't worry, Mommy doesn't need much on hers.

Then you lick the brush, because that sauce is "yummyummyummy."

Then you put some cheese on, but only on yours. Then you try to share with Mommy, and help her pick it off again. At least you tried.

Mommy gets tomatoes and olives on hers. You don't want any of those weird looking olive things on yours!

Then it bakes a while, Mommy cuts it up for you, and you proceed to refuse to eat it and demand to go to bed instead.

More adventures.

The fun just never ends. We've had some crazy winds the last few days, so I had some clothes out on the line. Those winds also caused a bit of trepidation for us...

I had just been telling Andrew that I needed to go out and check the fence line when he said, "Oh look, that tree is coming down."
Why yes, yes it is.

It was braced on another tree, but that one was leaning at an alarming angle as well, of course, in the direction of the fence. So I hustled out and put a fence across so that at least if the trees came down, Charlie would stay in the pasture.

Then Andrew decided to just take that one down, and since he couldn't get only the one down safely, they both had to come down.
Notice my spooks-at-his-own-shadow horse grazing 20 feet from the running chainsaw. He did move a bit further away when the tree broke loose and Andrew came running toward him, chainsaw in hand.

Later in the afternoon, those wicked winds brought us a new present.

Our first snow of the fall.
So we stayed in and built forts. This one's good for watching cartoons while Mommy cleans the kitchen.

Who me?

Oh the joys of toddlerhood.
We had a meeting with a financial advisor yesterday, future planning and all that. And he was a nice guy, he's got 2 kids and he was more than happy to have Katie down on the floor playing with things. Wasn't much in there that she could wreck, and she's pretty good. Even when she was crawling under his desk and we told him she might poke the power button on his computer.

A little while later, he looks out the window and gets a funny look on his face. Says, "That's weird, the police are outside. I'll go see what they want." No big deal, right?

Seems a little girl found a bright blue button under the desk. Yep, the panic button. Called the police. And, since the receptionist was out yesterday, and we were in a meeting, Mr. Advisor didn't answer the phone when they called back to check if everything was okay.

We were a bit mortified.

Ouch!

After I got done posting about Remy and Nemo last night, I picked Remy up to put him back in the basement for the night. I started walking across the room and something very sharp poked me in the arm. Now, he was relaxed and purring, and hadn't really moved, so I knew it wasn't intentional. I figured he must have a rose thorn caught in his chest hairs, like Bailey gets so often. So I had Andrew help me hold him down while I untangled him. Not that we really needed it, he just kinda laid there. But imagine my surprise when I find, not a rose thorn, but this thing.

The black part was in him, the white is what poked me. That's right, part of a porcupine quill. So he got a good searching-over to see if that was all, and besides the little lump that went down right after we took the quill out, there was no sign of anything abnormal. We'll have to keep an eye on that lump, but I imagine he'll be just fine.

New faces

First things first, a picture of the yummy asparagus from this recipe. But it's missing the pine nuts because I ran out.

Also, I have to apologize for the smudge that is apparently on the lens of my camera.

Now, it's only been a week and a half since we lost Hugs. I had not intended to get another cat for a while, probably until spring. But, we all know how that works out. Bailey and Mooch had an appointment at the vet last week for their checkups, and as we were leaving, an elderly couple came in looking for some help to find a home for some cats. Seems that they have an acreage, but they are moving into the city at the end of the month and wanted to make sure that their cats found good homes. So, I spoke with them about about the cats and we decided that we'd take 2 of them. They are adjusting slowly. They were full-time outdoor cats, and are a bit shy, but they're coming around. Neither of them knew their names (Cheetah & Cougar), so I've changed them.

This is Remy. He is enormous. When he stands on his hind legs, his head is at my hip, and he weighs only 4lbs less than Katie does. He's adjusting best of the two of them. He is loving the life of a house cat, spending all day curled up on the couch.

And Nemo. I tried out a bunch of other names on him, but nothing suited, Nemo suits the best. He's a big cat too, quite a bit larger than Mooch (not saying much, she's tiny), but so timid. He's spent a good part of the last 2 days, after being pried out of a hole in the basement, wedged into this little cat house thing. I finally got him to come out for a minute tonight, so it's progress at least.

Miss Mooch is still a bit bent out of shape about the whole thing, but she's coming around too. They haven't met Bailey yet, but they'll have to before too long.

Another recipe

Cookies this time.
Got this recipe from a friend, not sure where she got it, but it's super easy (and super unhealthy), and it's gluten-free, so Mom can eat it, and dairy-free, so I can eat it. But it does have an egg, so Lindsay, you're out of luck.

1C peanut butter
1C sugar
1 egg

That's it. I've done it with both smooth and chunky peanut butter, and you can add things like vanilla, chocolate chips, coconut, just don't get too eager or you'll upset the balance. I like them with cinnamon. But I like cinnamon in just about anything, so who am I to judge?

Beat the egg, mix it in with the sugar. If you mix the egg in last, it won't blend well and it won't bake well. Trust me. Then add the peanut butter and blend well. Scoop it onto a cookie sheet (or a baking stone like I do) with a spoon (or a cookie scoop). Then you bake it at 350 (i think. maybe 375) until they look done.

Enjoy.

Oh Good Dog!

Apparently Bailey needed a story.

Or three.

Mooches.

Miss Mooch has been sitting in this window for 2 days watching down the driveway. It's about enough to break your heart.


Last night, I went to my first card stamping group meeting. Had a blast, made some cute stuff, stayed out too late, didn't want to get up this morning.