I got nothing for the picture below - they're just goobers.
Some may remember Stick from the past two summers. Dad brought up a hearty hibiscus for us to plant the summer after Mike died. It literally was a little stick about an inch in height and I'm like, "that's a hibiscus?!" Well Stick proved me wrong that summer and ever since. The first summer there was one stalk to have the large, dish-size burgundy hibiscus blooms. Last year I think there were 4-5 stalks to have blooms. This year there are at least 8-9 different stalks - you go Stick!
Two out of the three big events my church has on it's schedule for this month happened this past weekend. The basketball clinic was a good success and the two day, no price tags, just give us what you think it's worth garage sale with the proceeds going to our first mission trip to Lima, Peru was amazing. They raised over $1,800 in two days - with NO price tags! Yowza. The other big event is our Vacation Bible School - we call it Summer Splash. It runs next Monday through Thursday. I think the weather will cooperate so we can hold everything outside - but we do have room assignments in the school if there is rain.
My sis-in-law's knee surgery went well last Friday. I have been able to visit her Fri night, late yesterday afternoon and then today after church. If she gets rid of her low grade fever - they will move her to the Newton hospital until next Friday when she gets the other knee replaced. Another yowza.
I have wanted to brush up on my high school and college Spanish for some time and one of the guys I work with wanted to do the same. So I think our instant messages to each other through our company instant message program will be in Spanish from now on :) I did post something to the effect on my FB wall: "I am going to take los dos gatitoes on a road trip Sabido to see me padre in Pella. Me amigos and amigas think I'm loco". That caused a stir - why am I posting in Spanish, where is the translate button :) Basically I was going to take the cats on a road trip Saturday to see my Dad in Pella. My friends think I'm crazy - and I probably was. This was going to be a surprise for Dad - but more on that later.
I decided I better attempt to trim their nails for the second time before the road trip and Sadie's were trimmed without too much problem, but while trimming Rowdy's I accidently passed gas (ok I farted) and it scared the crap out of Rowdy - not a pretty sight. And of course I keep a death grip on him because my mindset is that I'm trimming nails and I want to "get 'er done" once I started the project. Note to self - don't fart when trimming los dos gatitoes nails.
Other random things about the cats. I decided to buy a larger container of kitty litter this week since I seem to go through it so fast. I could not believe how much heavier a 40 pound box of cat litter felt than a 50 pound bag of dog food - seriously. I about killed myself just getting it over the side of the WalMart cart and letting it drop with a loud clang into the cart.
I have a couple "back up" mice when the ones the cats are playing with need to be "buried" and Rowdy found them on my bookshelf - the goober. I came home Wednesday night after small group and there the mouse was on the floor - package and all. Back to the bookshelf. Then Thursday morning right as I was going to start my prayers during my morning devotion - there he jumped on the bookshelf, grabbed the mouse (package and all again), jumped down and started walking around with it. Took that away from him. Then I had a pair of my ear muffs that broke last winter I was keeping thinking I could "fix" them. There's no way anyone can really fix a pair of old-style ear muffs when the plastic head adjustor dealie breaks - so there goes Rowdy with one ear muff in his mouth. I chase after him to make sure it didn't have any sharp parts and let him keep it then.
My morning routine is to get up - contorting myself out of bed to not disturb the cats (there's something wrong with that....). Go to the bathroom and while I'm sitting on the stool, Rowdy plays with the tie on my pajama bottom. Well one morning I wasn't overly awake and didn't have myself sturdily sitting on the stool when Rowdy gave a jerk on the tie and about knocked me off the stool - goodness. Then I clean their pooper pan and walk bent over sweeping up the kitty litter pellets that are all over the floor. Then I feed them and feed myself...
I did find something nifty at WalMart this week - sprayable cat nip - awesome. I've been spraying it all over the scratching post hoping it will get them to use that instead of one of my chairs to sharpen what is left of their claws.
Ok, back to my road trip yesterday. I had bought a little pan and a small bag of kitty litter to take with me to make a temporary pan for them so they didn't have an accident on Dad's floor. I also borrowed the infamous pet carrier from my vet that I got to borrow when I took them to the vet for their second of two feline leukemia shots. I load the car, pick up the pet carrier on the way to the basketball clinics yesterday morning. Wipe the vet's pet carrier with disinfectant wipes when I got to the school - I got there early - then inside to help with registration for the clinics. Then back home to start the "thrill" of loading cats into pet carriers for the road trip.
I grabbed both cats and tried to stuff one into one of the carriers. Nope - cat starts to squirm away - try to stuff other cat into carrier - nope - that cat starts to squirm away. As I'm trying to stuff one into a carrier - I'm reaching out to grab the one trying to get away. This goes on, back and forth between cats for a few minutes - then Rowdy breaks free and heads for upstairs. I take Sadie in one hand, turn the carrier on it's end and plunk her in the carrier and close the door - much easier. Off upstairs I go to track Rowdy down. Not under my bed - crud he's in my closet. I crawl back into the very back corner of my closet to grab him by his tummy fat, to drag him out of my closet. Downstairs to the pet carrier - turn it on it's end and plunk him in, shut the door and off to the car we go.
Rowdy immediately starts "talking" to me in the driveway. I'm thinking this is going to be a very long trip to Pella. Rowdy pretty much talks to me the whole way - in various tones and volumes. Now-and-then Sadie would pipe up with a little "meow" so I knew she was still in the back seat. Like where would she go? I call Dad when I get to Pella to ask him to meet me at my car - I park on the street in front of his apartment building and he can see when I get there. He thought right then maybe I had the cats with me. He carries the make-shift litter box and supplies while I carry the two carriers into his apartment. Check out the pictures below of Dad holding each cat.
I posted the two pictures on my FB wall last night and have gotten a lot of "likes" and some comments from folks saying that Dad looks pretty good.
Rowdy and Sadie gave Dad's apartment a thorough checking out. Before letting them out of the crate to hand to him we close his bedroom door, bathroom door and den door so they just had the kitchen and living room to roam. After roaming they both crawled under and up into Dad's recliner. To get them out we had to tip his chair over and I had to reach way down into the bowels of his chair to bring one cat out at a time. But a good time was had by all with the visit.
I had sent Dad a picture of the mouse I buy at WalMart so he could see what the packaging looked like in case he bought one or two, but sometimes when I send him pictures they don't always open on his Web TV. Below is a picture of the regular mouse toy (the small one that is minus its tail) and then the one Dad got for the cats. I think it's really a squirrel but I call it the mutant mouse. Dad was good to get a brown toy so I knew it couldn't be real. Last night Rowdy got that mutant mouse between his front paws, laid on his back and beat the crap out of it with his back feet :)
This morning before I left for church I had both crates sitting on my kitchen floor - one on top of the other with the doors open. I watched Sadie look into the top carrier, jump up into it and just sit in hit like it was her favorite spot - I just shook my head at her.
Before church I helped with pre-registration for the church kidlets for Summer Splash and then thought my small group leader and helper might need some help in Waves since they had 30 kids and the craft they were making for Father's Dad had a lot of parts to it. By the time I got out of church and over to see Marcia at the hospital - I was ready for a nap :)
Ran a couple of errands after the hospital and then started working on the lawn. As I was spraying weed killer in the backyard I saw the back half of a snake. I think my neighbors probably heard my semi-scream. I ran into the enclosed back porch to grab the wasp spray and when I got back outside (within mere seconds) the snake had finished slithering into the hole under my back patio. I couldn't find that hole/crack if my life depended on it to spray expanding foam into it. Wish me luck when I try to find the hole again.
I was pretty pooped after doing the front lawn and called it quits for the day. All that's left for me this evening is getting the clothes out of the dryer and I'm chillin'.
