A few more pictures of Koshka...

Make sure to scroll down to the next post for Koshka's story (pronounced with a long "o" like "kosher").

Koshka's shaved belly and wrapped up paws after her surgeries...there won't be any little Koshkas in the future and hopefully fewer scratches!

I love when she does the "superman" pose.

Looking so regal when I tried to snap a "family photo" one evening . (Yes she has a blue collar and she is a girl, but they were out of pink when I went to the pet store and she needed one before she went to get spayed/declawed!  She has a black one with a bow that we are waiting for her to grow into. )

She loves her furry bed...

...but sometimes Koshka isn't quite sure how to get comfortable...we all toss and turn, but this is serious! :)

She is a mommy's girl because she loves cuddling with "puppy" (my childhood blanket) almost as much as I do!

A morning ritual...waiting for us to shower!

A daddy's girl as well, she loves egg nog, cheese, marshmallows, and watching sports!

Our little addition!

So 

it has been months (4 in fact) but I haven't posted on our little addition...so here it goes.  There was a student at the studio where I work that works in a vet office; they had come across some tiny abandoned kittens and were trying to find homes for them.  Of course she remembered previous conversations where I had told her I am more of a cat person than a dog person (my 

co-worker has 3 of each and we frequently talk about pets)...so she asked if I would like a kitten.  

Of course I would!  However, Nick and I had to talk about if we really thought it was a good 

idea right now.  Eventually I won when Nick saw pictures...he is kind of a sucker for our little girl!

Rachel brought her to us on July 14th- she was so tiny!  Barely weighing in at a pound, we tried to make her feel at home.  We discussed all sorts of names, but decided on Koshka which means "cat" in Russian.

She has been a joy for us- we love watching her play and grow!  She now weighs over five pounds and sure loves to play and jump...and then sleep a ton.  We weaned her off wet food (since she was only 4 weeks old 

when we got her and barely off a bottle) and have started to try to teach her tricks with some treats. Stay tuned for a video of her playing football!  She is definitely a part of the family-she sleeps right in between us on the bed (if not actually on us) and is offended each time we try to leave the apartment without her.  She is starting to be more independent and "cat-like", but she is still our little kitten and loves attention.  Despite the scratches and chewed through cords, we are so glad that she has come to join our family. :) 

(Side notes: She loves to chew on all things and quickly chewed through our home phone cord 

and ipod dock/alarm clock cord.  They are not cheap to replace!  Now we have all of our cords covered in those plastic cord-keeper things.

Another one of Koshka's eccentricities is that she loves water.  She often gets in the shower with us and will dive in if we ever take a bath.  In the picture above she is in the sink- I tried to get her out by turning on the water and she didn't 

move.  So I tried plugging it and letting the 

water fill up...still she was content to sit there!  Weird-o cat!)

(Pictures are as follows: Koshka and Daddy having a nap, loving dinner time!, her new bed, 

hanging out while Dad reads, she was so tiny when we first got her!, the picture we got of her before we got her...the one that turned Nick's heart into mush!, in the sink- like that parable of the frog that got cooked in the pot of boiling water!)

Husband of the Year Points

So I haven't been very good about keeping track of Husband of the Year points.  I give them all the time- Nicholas is a fantastic husband and my bff- but then when I go to put them on the blog I forget (or get lazy because I have to sign into a different gmail account to do them).  

I just wanted to document why Nick is a great husband though.  Tonight he brought me home Pumpkin Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory...a holiday favorite of mine that happens to be located right by his office.  Then he escorted me to the Cypress Market Night out in our front common area where there are all sorts of vendors set up- crafts, food, music, etc.  He not only let me but encouraged me to buy some jewelry I really wanted...plus some other various items.  

Speaking of Cypress Market Nights, this was our 2nd one and we knew what to expect this time.  I knew there would be a farmer's market selling fresh produce, so I was excited and prepared to buy some home grown veggies.  I am positive the green beans are going to taste amazing!

So that is all for now...I know nobody will comment because there aren't pictures, but there you go.  Cypress Market Nights are cool and I have the World's Best Husband. :)

Random thoughts from people my age...

Nicholas sent me this forward from someone at his work...while I didn't favor all of the thoughts, there were a few that I either found very hilarious (mostly because I can identify with them!).  Here are a few for you to enjoy :)

1. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

2. More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can
think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell
my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves
me.

5. Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're
going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to
be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the
direction from which you came, you have to first do something like
check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to
yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're
crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

7. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was
younger.

8. Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may
know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately
choose not to be friends with?

9. Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it
wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would
magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did
we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message
boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

11. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger
and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I
first saw it.

13. How on earth are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

14. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand
than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

16. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to
finish a text.

20. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and
hunger.

21. Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a
Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

24. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just
nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

29. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure
I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

30. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how
the person died.

32. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get
dirty, and you can wear them forever.

34. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

37. Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every
year?

39. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to
go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so
incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this
shouldn't be a problem....

40. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at
work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything
productive for the rest of the day.

41. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't
want to have to restart my collection.

44. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this
ever.

46. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?
Nuts!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and
goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone
and run away?

47. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not
seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

48. When I meet someone new, I'm terrified of mentioning something they
haven't already told me but that I have learned from facebook.

49. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle,
then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

54. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not
to answer when they call.

60. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

Hope you got at least one laugh out of these...even if you aren't "my age" :)

Craft Time!

I have been into crafts lately...well, always actually.  But recently I have been more motivated to actually do a few that require more than a little effort.  I am so pleased with them that I decided to share them with everyone.

First off is my wreath.  I bought one plain wreath that I could experiment with...you know the kind that is just brown twigs.  I made it into a springy/summery wreath a while back, but it desperately needed to be redone.  I went to Hobby Lobby and found some fall leaves and berries and such and tried to put it all together one day when Koshka was sleeping.  Now it does help that I have the cutest wreath hanger invented, but I am really happy with how it turned out.  Pretty good for my second time ever to make a wreath!

Then there is the ottoman.  This one was a bit more complex.  See, we got new couches (which we love) but we hated to lose the ottoman.  After realizing that we could break the set apart since it wasn't going to anyone specific, I was determined to recover the ottoman and bring it back home.  I found some old fabric from one of my other undoubtedly great ideas that went wrong and made a prototype before I went to the store and bought more expensive home decor fabric.  I also sewed part of the ottoman together so there wouldn't be crevases...that was hard work and I am not sure how to explain what I did really but lets just say it was very necessary and was very hard on my hands.

When Nicholas went to the Priesthood meeting last night, I headed to JoAnns.  Now the fabric I wanted was $25 a yard and I needed 1 2/3 yd...nuts.  I found some microsuede that would match the fabric of our new couches that wasn't home decor (so just not as thick and nice) that was $13 a yard, but on sale for $5 a yard...but they didn't have black!  I went back and forth a bunch of times in the store on what to do and finally found the black microsuede by the courdroy...clearly in the wrong spot!  I was so happy to find it!  I got my fabric and batting and headed home.  I used my dad's staple gun to affix the batting and then pinned my new fabric in place, sewed it, slipped it on and stapled it to the underside.  Then I reattached the feet of the ottoman and Nick helped me bring it home.  It looks so much better and we are so excited to have our ottoman back!  (Above is the new ottoman...below is what it used to look like!)

I am so happy to be crafty.  It brings me such joy and a great feeling of accomplishment that I can do things and make things...it makes me sad for people who don't take pride in making things or cleaning their own home or just doing things for themselves.  I am so excited that one day (hopefully) this will get to be my full-time job! :)

Take Us Out To The Ball Game!

Last weekend I was left to "hold down the studio" while all of the other staff went up to Dallas for a competition.  I wasn't exactly thrilled to be working all weekend.  However, my boss had tickets to the Astros game and obviously couldn't use them because they were going to be in Dallas; thus, he was looking for a new owner.  I couldn't use them all- I had to work during the games Thursday and Friday nights and Sunday was church- but I could go to the Saturday evening game.

We asked my parents if they would like to go with us, and they said yes.  So we picked them up and headed to Panera where we bargained that if they would get "dinner" we would get parking downtown.  We ate dinner- by the way, the new BBQ Chicken Salad is fantastic- and then headed down to the game.  We were within sight of the ballpark and so we started looking for parking spots.  I said "How about that one?" and Nick whipped into it across a few lanes of traffic.  It was a metered parking spot but the meter wasn't running so after reading a few signs to make sure we could park there, we headed to the game.

The 'stros lost to the Cincinnati Reds, but it was fun to see a game in person...TV just doesn't do sports justice.  Our seats were out in right field, but in the 8th row and so we had a pretty good view.  We watched until the bitter end and then headed back to see if our car was still there.  It was!  So not only were the tickets free, but so was the parking...and the dinner!  (Disclaimer: we did buy my mom a Diet Coke in a souvenir cup at the game!)

"Home" Improvements

I think I could be the best wife ever if it were my full time job.  As it is right now though, I have two other jobs that consume my thoughts and time and thus I haven't been doing that stellar of a job as a wife lately.  Oh I still make Nick's lunches and all, but we had just gotten lazy and I finally decided to do something about it.

Nicholas and I rarely eat dinner together at home.  I work Monday nights, we eat together on Tuesdays pretty well, Wednesdays and Thursdays I am at the studio, Friday and Saturday we don't really make meal plans because it is the weekend, and Sundays we are blessed to eat dinner at my parents' home.  You can see how I would justify our poor dinner schedule...really it was just poor effort on my part.  So I took out the calendar (the Utah one that my grandpa gave me that is hanging in our kitchen/entryway) and started planning out our meals.  I planned for one week what we were going to have every night...whether we are together or not.

This started on Monday and I think we have done a good job of it so far.  I went to the store and got everything I needed for the whole week and have actually prepared meals for us to enjoy together or apart.  It has been really nice.  I like knowing what I am going to eat/cook and I really have loved getting regular fruits and veggies...something that doesn't always happen when it is "microwave your own burrito night".

In this whole thinking about how to be better prepared for when staying at home is my full-time job (hopefully) I decided that Nick could grow in an area or two as well.  This part was largely influenced by Ben having to get Isabelle ready one morning during the Bees weekend.  I decided that if Nick could practice putting my hair in a ponytail he would definitely be able to do it if we had any daughters someday.  So last Sunday night I got out my brush and elastics and let Nicholas get his feet wet.  He put it in a few ponytails before I asked him to do pigtails.  All in all he wasn't half bad...at least for a first timer.  We will definitely have to work on speed as I doubt any little girl will sit for 10 minutes to get their hair parted, but I was very impressed not only with how well he did but how willing he was to try it.  One husband of the year point right there.