October Weekend Fun - Saturday

I managed to somehow have the entire weekend off work! Josh and I spent Saturday morning trying to track down something while running errands. Most of the tracking down was calling places from a parking lot so we weren't driving around willy nilly. Then we had breakfast at Einsteins and went and looked at a Dodge Dart. Mostly because I think they are cute and I was curious how big they were inside. I thought it had an okay amount of leg room for me. More than the Fiat we test drove awhile back. We're not buying a new car now, but it's fun to look.

We went home and watched "Five Year Engagement" with Emily Blunt who I think is one of my favorite actresses along with Emma Stone - they both make the best facial expressions. We had baked brie with a cranberry apple chutney for lunch (it was a Stonewall Kitchen Frozen Thing from Target) and it was tasty! We watched some funny stuff on YouTube like the new Table Top episode on Geek and Sundry and the Maria Bamford Show. And 100 Greatest Guinness World Records show which most of the records were just really bizarre.

Saturday night Josh wanted to take me to this italian marketplace and restaurant called Mandola's in the Triangle. He had been there for lunch with a coworker earlier in the month. Holy Moly it was GOOOOOOOOD. You walk in and order at a counter, pick a table, and they bring it to you. So it's a casual place but the food was really really delicious. We shared a tasty calamari and zucchini appetizer and some extremely yummy salad. Josh had lasagna and I had tortellini in cream sauce with peas and mushrooms. The tortellini had ham and chicken inside it and the lasagna had the best ricotta in it. We were so full but wanted to take home desert, so we picked out some cake, a small tart, and some cookies to take home.

I fell asleep watching Saturday Night Live and Josh tucked me into bed while I was talking about hamsters eating pudding.

Blog I Didn't Forget About You!

Sorry little blog - I had a travel-festival of August and then got sick and then had an awesome visitor and just pooped out on blog updating. Here is an apology balloon hat!

Summer Vacation: Friday Family Time

Friday morning I had eggs and toast made by Chef Dad, then I visited with Mom as we all got ready for the day. Mom and I played dress up adding a
necklace to my outfit and trying on her shoes.

I helped Deacon Dad set up the church for a funeral mass and went on the long car ride to Calumet City for the internment. The family invited us to join them for a funeral lunch at the Knights of Columbus hall. I know it sounds like a strange way to spend the first full day of vacation, but it was nice to be with Dad and chat and meet another family from church. Jane passed away after a long and interesting life and her family loved her very much.

After we got home, Dad and the kitty old lady of cute took a little nap while I tried on some clothes Mom had as a hand me down - free cute new pants wheeee!

We drove up to Evergreen Park where we had dinner with Bridget and Chris and Rookie. On the way we played classic car alphabet games that got pretty goofy - X stands for a Fox walking backwards...

Olympics! Watched the Olympics and ate pizza and exchange presents including Beavers... I brought Beaver Nuggets from Buc Ee's in Texas for Bridget and Chris they gave me a pink Webkins stuffed beaver as a belated birthday present! Great minds think alike hehehe!

Summer Vacation: Arriving In Chicago

On Thursday, I was dropped off at the airport by Josh and flew north to Chicago. It was my Mom's birthday yay and she and Dad picked me up at the airport. We drove back to Homer Glen and they had birthday dessert at Davidson's while watching Olympic Women's Gymnastics. I had a wee dinner of a kid's cheese sandwich meal.

And then we arrived to my parents house and were greeted by Miss Eeky the Loud Kitten Old Lady. She is such a sweet old cat lady. This photo is from Friday morning when Dad and I had breakfast together before spending time together. More to come in the next update....

Yesterday We Had Birthday Fun!

Yesterday was my birthday and I had a lovely day. I started the day with sleeping in and being cozy and reading birthday cards and birthday wishes online. My sister sent me this picture in a birthday email and it cracks me up! The hamster on the left looks so peeved!

Then we went to brunch at Pho Van and had tasty rice Vermicelli with pork or beef slices, and veggies and egg rolls mixed in. We've been here before and it is one of the best meals you can get in Austin I think. After enjoying our noodle bowls, we went next door to CoCo's Cafe to get almond milk bubble tea :)

It is probably no surprise to anyone that knows me, that I then went to a few pet stores to look at cute things. I had to work at 4 so I decided going to visit fuzzy creatures would be fun. We picked up some timothy hay and a new hut for the hammies and some wet food for the cats. And we picked up the softest tiny bunnies to pet.

And we visited Sophia the Two-Toed sloth at Zookeepers and got to watch her eat grapes as she wandered around her enclosure. I like her little face. And I had a little caique parrot on my head styling my hair.

Then Josh nicely took me to work so I could have an air conditioned ride. I chugged along on the train for a few hours and amused myself making balloon hats and flowers for people riding the train.

Josh picked me up around 8:30 and then we went and had late dinner of corn dogs at Der Wienerschtizel and some Tastee Freeze chocolate dipped cones.

We made to southern Austin to see a special showing of "The Dark Crystal" at the Alamo Drafthouse! I was excited the night before when I figured out they were showing it as part of their "Summer of 1982" movie event. I ended my birthday sitting in the theater watching Fizzgig and Jen and Kira run about.

Thank you for birthday wishes friends and family :)

Hi Ya'll

Our baby hamsters are getting better! We discovered they really really love yogurt so they get plain yogurt to help build up their little systems with good probiotics. After the antibiotics they were on for such a long time, I think it's really helping! Plust they need to gain a few more grams each.

They were fighting over the one syringe of yogurt we were giving them so now we give them two so they don't fall over in excitement or try to eat the yogurt off each other's faces. :) They are getting dipped in this stinky stinky lime sulfur dip a few times a week, which we have to do out in the backyard that it smells so bad! I use a little eyeliner brush to get the dip behind their ears and all over them. And they get to dry in the sunshine so they have some time to feel some breezes and sniff the air and yell at birds flying by. Hamster yelling sounds like this "Meep beep squeak" :)

Trying to stay cool working outside....so far I haven't dehydrated yet. I freeze water and let it slowly melt as the work day goes along. I drove the train at the outlet mall tonight and we had people riding right up until the mall closed at 9pm.

Josh is now a Red Hat Certified Architect! He passed his test with flying colors. I'm so proud of him! He has a new framed certificate, he can use what he knows to move onwards and upwards at work :)

I went to his work today and joined him in lunch at the peached tortilla food truck. They stop at his office once a week with all sorts of fun tacos. I had a pork belly chinese bbq taco and the BEST Chicken Pad Thai taco. And this crazy delicious peach mint sauce that went with the sweet potato fries.

Just a few more days til my birthday, then a few more days til I go visit family in Chicago area, then Josh's birthday is close behind!

Happy's Hound Dog Express

Happy's Hound Dog Express a video by bean.zilla on Flickr.

See this train? This is my job - train engineer! For Just Train Fun...pictures of me in my uniform to come. Wish me luck as my week of training is done and I drive the train on my own tomorrow at the Domain Mall.

Blugh

Got back from the vet - the baby hamsters are still sick and we're still trying to cure them. It's hard to see them so scruffy and feeling bad. I have a second job interview today for one job, and a first interview scheduled on Tuesday for another job at least!

We didn't melt in the Texas Sun...yet

Things we've been up to since I last posted

1. My baby hamsters are sick with mange and aren't doing so hot. They are on antibiotics and children's benedryl to help them with their itching and make sure they don't get infections from scratches. Giving a tiny tiny animal that weighs about 1 ounce medication with a syringe can be tricky. Josh has to help me with Atalissa because she is so squirmy. Amana just sits patiently and really likes the cherry flavor of the medication.

2. We went to a Round Rock Express baseball game on Tuesday 6/19. The tickets were provided by Josh's work. I have more pictures and a post to write up about that definitely. I had a great time and I'm glad Josh took me.

3. The last bit of our new bed was delivered on Thursday so now our bedroom is comfy and awesome and we'll be posting pictures of that too.

4. I cut off my hair so I have fun summer hair :)

C & H Hawaiian Grill

This past Saturday we took a road trip to Killeen to have tasty Hawaiian food. We were both missing the tasty Hawaiian food we had multiple times in Chicago. We tried a place in Des Moines that didn't sate our craving.

Spam Musubi! Yum! The bun on the right is a manapua which means "pork cake" in pidgin. It is a steamed bun with shredded pork in it. It was interesting but I like the pork buns at Mitsuwa market in the Chicago Area the best.

We shared a plate lunch of Katsu Chicken. Loved the breading, missed the katsu sauce from our Chicago place. I think we need to go back and try some of the loco moco or their roast pork dinner. It is about an hour from us and was an amusing drive on a nice day.

Almost home

Drivin down 195 - Animals!

We have seen cows, calves, goats, horses, and a donkey so far on our way home. I like the back road way home :)

Drivin up I-35 : part 2

Is it a requirement that every small town has a bar called Rumors?

Saturday Night Road Trip

We're here! Yum yum Hawaiian food in Killeen Texas...
Pictures and review to follow

Drivin up I-35

We're taking a little adventure about an hour north of us today. I am excited I saw a sheep with a cute black face in the back of a pickup truck just a moment ago :) yay road sheep!

Colleen - 1, Texas - 0

If temperature was a competition, then I won today. I had a fever of 101 and Texas only got as hot as 99 degrees at 4pm. I WIN....wait....no I don't win. Being sick in the summer bites. I think I have the flu. Yuck. Guh. Blah. Blurg. At least our new bedroom furniture gets delivered tomorrow and I have that to look forward to.

Flowering front yard

This bush looks like purple cabbage or some kind of lettuce leaves. What is it?

Hammie getting ready for bed

Hammie getting ready for bed a video by bean.zilla on Flickr.

Atalissa was being incredibly cute as she was getting ready to go to sleep. She had to groom and then snuggle into the bedding. Her sister likes to sleep inside their house and Ata sleeps all over the place, sometimes even flattened on top of the bedding not even snuggled in.

Back In Time: Memorial Day Weekend Part 1

Look who came to Texas!

My sister and brother-in-law came to Texas Memorial Day weekend :) He planned it all and Bridget had no idea that it was happening. He told her they were going to a good BBQ place......and then drove her to the airport! I was so excited for the visit and it was hard not telling anyone beforehand so not to ruin the surprise. We picked them up at the airport on Friday night and there was much chatting and then a quick tour of the house before bedtime.

Next post, I'll show you how we enjoyed the first full day of the visit.

Delicious Steak Salad

I made a steak salad the other night with spinach, romaine lettuce, cornbread croutons and homemade dressing that was pretty tasty.

The recipe called for store bought cornbread that you cut up and toast in the oven to make croutons. No where around here had cornbread in their bakery - I guess it's out of season? So I made some cornbread and resisted eating it while it cooled and then roughly chopped it up to make it crunchy and toasty.

There are red bell peppers and strips of flank steak on the salad along with the dressing I made. I changed the dressing recipe from vegetable oil to olive oil and added extra cloves of garlic. I highly recommend the dressing for a summer salad - 6 tablespoons olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup cilantro, 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice, one jalapeno, 1 teaspoon of salt which are all whirred around in the food processor until smooth.

Yum!

Whatcha Got There Josh?

Whatcha Got There Josh? a video by bean.zilla on Flickr.

A cute video so you can see how tiny and wiggly our new hamsters are :) Atalissa Oskaloosa is the light grey one and she has a silly name because so far, she's completely silly. And Amana Magnolia is brownish grey with a darker stripe on her back and is quite sweet and a bit more shy. They both will take treats from our hands and neither have bit us, but as you can see they are very interested in exploring and wiggling. Their names are cities in Iowa (including their middle and last name).

Tiny cotton balls with faces....

Atalissa Oskaloosa Greene and Amana Magnolia Greene say a very very very tiny "How do you do?"

Meet A Kitten: Cassie

This is Cassie. She is quite loud and spunky. She has three other siblings that are various combinations of white and brown tabby and fluffy as all get out. She might not want to eat her wet food right away, instead exploring and climbing around seem like a better idea to her. As you see she was trying to scale my shirt to my face but I wouldn't let her because it is time to eat!. I believe she is about 4 weeks old, but don't quote me on that since I fed so so so many kittens tonight.

I was feeding kittens at Austin Pets Alive from 8pm yesterday to 2:30 this morning (Now it's Saturday yay weekend yay). My new friend, Diane, was there too and we were tag team feeding kittens because there's quite a lot of small fuzzy cats right now. It was really fun and now I'm trying to simmer down so I can get some sleep :)

Back in Time: Craft Fair Weekend

Two weekends ago (May 18th to 20th), Amanda came to Austin for the Renegade Craft Fair. No, she didn't drive all the way from Iowa just to shop at a craft fair, she had a booth and sold her lovely pottery on Saturday and Sunday. And Amanda didn't drive here on her own either, her friend Calee went on the road trip to Texas with her. On Friday night we went and had sushi at How Do You Roll because I had been torturing Amanda for long enough with my delicious sushi photos every time I've eaten here :)

We also checked out a new frozen yogurt place where I had pretzel carmel flavored yogurt with chocolate rocks on it.

Saturday the ladies went and sold art at the craft fair and Josh and I washed his car and went swimming. I ended up taking a multiple hour nap that afternoon. Wore my beanself out. For dinner we went to Baby A's and introduced Amanda to the drink that is known as Purple. Purple! Doesn't Calee look adorable here?

On Sunday, the ladies once again went to sell stuff to Austinites. I went to the fair later in the day and one of the first things I saw was this addition to the water fountains in the convention center :) There was a TON of really cool items at the fair and I met a bunch of local crafty ladies. There are a few different groups that are promoting women working together to make crafts (yes!) and another place I can learn to use a plasma laser to make crafts (double yes!)

I bought myself a few small things and got a gift for the cats - Catnip Fish. Tater lovessssssss this fish. Lovesssssss it. And Neo drools on it. Goofs.

We couldn't let Amanda and Calee leave Texas without having BBQ, so we took them to Rudy's which is my favorite BBQ place in the state. Amanda made a BBQ sandwich and there may be a picture out there somewhere of Calee enjoying herself BBQing too. I think she went into BBQ raptures :) Thanks for visiting us Ladies and I hope ya'll visit again. Maybe then we can dunk you in our pool *hee*

A little taste of what my employer is like...

I wanted to share with our readership a little bit of what it is like at the company we uprooted from Iowa and moved to a state I never thought I would ever live in. Here is a news story a local station from San Antonio did on the company and its headquarters located there. The Rookie-O (Orientation) class that is featured is the one I was in. Yes three months after starting I finally got to get the full orientation.

If you don't see a video above here's a link to the news site with the same video. Is the best place to work in the world, in San Antonio?

Noted my office in Austin is not in a converted mall, but it is full of Racker spirit. I am still very excited to be a part of this company and helping it grow a portfolio of next generation internet products. In english, making the internet better my making it easier to do awesome things with it.

That being said, I was extremely lucky and found myself in the right place at the right time to join the current program to earn the top Red Hat Linux certification. I passed the fourth out of five extended Red Hat Linux certifications exams, and added RHCDS to the letter salad I can put on my resume, that's a Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist. And in just a week or so here I am in the class that goes over the materials for the fifth and final exam I need to pass to get my RHCA (Red Hat Certified Architect) certification. The test I believe is later in the month. When I pass that exam, I'll definitely be updating the blog, and going to celebrate in a major way. At that level of certification there are only a couple thousand in the world. Now that's not to say there aren't millions of people smart enough to get the certification, there are, I deal with people smarter than I am every day. But it's still impressive none the less.

After that exam I will have a little more free time as I am spending most of my time studying for that exam now so I can pass it. But I am hoping to go exploring different activities, afterward like take a beer brewing class as I have wanted to start doing that for some time now. We have a bee farm, beekeepery, whatever you call it pretty close, I would like to learn more about that and they offer tours and education. Also Archery, re-up my handgun safety (since shooting is a popular activity down here - at ranges, not at people), sushi making class at a local kitchen store. This plays into something that Rackspace made me do before my start date, was they made me take the Clifton Strengths Finder click the link for more info. And one of my strengths was Input, which basically means I crave input, I thrive on it and it helps me refine my own ideas. I like to learn lots of things, so that's what I am going to do, I've always enjoyed the process of learning and I am going to capitalize on that. That's all for now.

We raised over $400!

A million tiny meowing thanks from the kittens at the Austin Pets Alive bottle baby nursery! I have already delivered $70 of food earlier this month and tonight will bring in another food delivery :)

The facility is moving at the end of May and after we settle in at the new location I will bring in the rest of the food and all the cats will nom and nom and nom!

This 2 week old cutie named Q-Tip is happy because of you!

Well Hello There

I got done working 14 days in a row of work!

Things I Hope To Do Now other than work sleep work sleep work sleep

1. Take tons of recycling to the recycling center

2. Swim in our neighborhood pool a bunch. Be a wee mermaid.

3. Feed kittens! I am going there tonight yay!

4. Visit with my friend Amanda who is coming to town this weekend to sell cool pottery in a craft fair

5. Hug some bees

Wee Doodlebug

I'm a sleepy little one week old kitten named after Bean's sister! My name is Doodlebug :) Here I am really tired and sleepy because I just ate 6 cc's of kitten formula. I'm napping on a heating pad covered in a really soft flannel blanket.

Here I am really excited because I want more kitten formula. I'm all spunky and awake but I'm so tiny my eyes aren't open yet so I just meow really loud and flail around til someone pays attention to me.

Now....well now I'm not sure what I'm doing here. I don't have teeth yet so I don't think I'm chewing on the carrier door. I'm smooshing my face here and wiggling around because that nice lady is RIGHT THERE doing something other than feeding me or petting my belly. HEY LADY! HEY!

Also, a few days after I came to APA, the nice lady found out I was a boy....Doodlebug is a nice masculine name right?

A special Saweet treat

Josh was in San Antonio most of last week for business and he stayed at a hotel down there. I missed him. I'm glad he came home Friday night and I was extra glad when he walked in the door with cupcakes from the Saweet Cupcakes food truck.

I had a vanilla one with sprinkles that I was too excited to eat to photograph. We shared this double chocolate one after I got off work yesterday :)

Hurrah!

I am in process of sending out Thank You emails for all who have donated for the Bottle Baby Fundraiser for Austin Pets Alive. I have 2 more checks still coming in the mail and then I can announce the total raised!

I already went out and got some canned and dry cat food thanks to my Dad who was our first donator. The baby kittens like the chicken and liver flavor the best when they are transitioning from bottles to wet food. Ew! Stinky! *heh*

Also, I picked up my first set of 1 week old kittens from the animal shelter and transferred them to APA tonight - look here is one of them. Who might you be little munchkin? Because I transported them and gave them their first feeding, I get the privilege of deciding on their names. A bunch of adorable baby kitten pictures and their names are coming your way tomorrow!

Last Day of the Fundraiser

Weensy kitties like Fleur want to thank you for your generosity so far! There is still time to contribute; if you know someone that loves fluffy headed fur balls please pass along the fundraising message :)

Culvers is Culvers no matter where you roam!

The sign outside today says

"Peanut Butter Cup

Shaved Roast Beef"

:)

Landscaping and Gardening Ideas

Recently I went to Green 'n Growing Garden Center to check out some decorations for our yard. I was thinking of getting a bird bath. Instead I found lots of yard animals.

We need all these flamingos right? Just a huge flock o' flamingos in the front yard? I wish there was an easy way to mail a bunch of them to my family in Ohio :)

Or how about a cement armadillo? I still haven't seen a live armadillo in Texas yet.

The flying pigs were small and could be tucked in a flower bed easily. I ended up buying some bamboo to use to stake up my jade plant instead of an animal or two.

Meet Licorice

He has a really really full belly after eating a good breakfast of kitten formula. I know it looks like he is yelling but really he was yawning and I was trying to keep him awake to eat a little bit more. I love his wee white patch on his belly. He's not a full black cat so now he's extra lucky, right? After he ate more, I gave him cuddles and he purred while cuddled up to my neck and then licked me :)

What a soft sweet baby!

Thank you to all who have donated already to the fundraiser. I have found great deals on Amazon for the kittens food (yay 5 pound resealable backs of kitten formula powder!) and we are going to be able to feed so many kittens! I am still taking donations up til the end of April, so feel free to pass along my previous blog link to people you know who love tiny fuzzy purring babies.

Licorice says "Hey, thanks and can I have some more of that warm stuff that makes me sleepy?".

Meet Monterey

He is a dapper and charming young fellow, brother to MoMo, friend to all who pet him. He gives out purrs generously. I also think he looks like a fuzzy spotted cow :)

Baby Bottle Nursery Kittens

Hello Tiny Kittens!

I was at the baby bottle nursery and there were new kittens coming in and we were running low on kitten room. So, after feeding a few litters, I volunteered to take a few different buddies home some that I could feed overnight and see if my cats didn't mind having some temporary guests in the house. This group were very active so all their pictures were pretty much blurry *heh* There are two manx orange tabbies, a black and white one, a black one with faint tabby stripes, and one additional orange tabby.

This is MoMo and MoMo really liked Josh. Josh got a good purr out of him after he had a full belly at 10pm last night. I fed them at 10pm, 3am, and 6am. I had to tell a few of them to suck on the bottle not try to climb the bottle or chew on the bottle.

They get so excited to eat that they flail around and end up smacking themselves in the face or smacking the bottle away too.

Neo and Tater Tot were really confused why there were little yelling things in the guest bedroom and they ran away when they'd hear a particularly loud mew. I don't want to stress them out too much since we've only lived here about 3 months and they are still getting used to the house.

So, the little temporary guests went back to the nursery this morning at 8am. I stayed and fed kittens from 8am to noon and was going to go home, but was having so much fun I stayed until past 2pm. I fed some wee kitties that don't even have their eyes open yet and helped a few eat some of their first wet cat food. Tomorrow I'll post some more pictures of the wee ones in the nursery.

Thanks to all of you that have donated to the Nursery and also those who have passed on the blog link about the fundraiser. I'll be notifying everyone of the total donated on May 1st and what supplies will be taken to the nursery. Link to Fundraiser post

Bottle Baby Kitten Nursery Fundraiser

Can you help a tiny kitten today?

I recently started volunteering at Austin Pets Alive in their Bottle Baby Kitten Nursery. Imagine a room full of teensy tiny mewing kittens that are snuggled together, waiting to be fed wee bottles and get little beards of milk after they are done. It's just about the cutest thing! Or imagine a kitten weighing barely a pound trying to figure out how to eat solid food and ending up wearing half of it :) At this no-kill shelter there are so many more kittens right now than expected and they are running low on food. I have lots of time to feed kittens right now but not a lot of cash until work starts back up again in May. So I thought that maybe some people would like to help feed the cats with me through a wee fundraiser.

A donation of $3.00 - I will send a Bean Doodle postcard drawing of one of the kittens mailed to you (or anyone you choose). That $3 buys 3 cans of special kitten food which will feed many of the wee kittens that are learning to eat solids.

A donation of $10.00 - I will paint a watercolor kitten picture with a silly or cute saying on heavy watercolor paper and send it to you (or anyone you choose). That $10 buys enough kitten formula powder to feed a litter of kittens for weeks until they can try smooshy cat food. Wee kittens drinking from wee bottles awwww.

A donation of anything more than $10 - I will make you a stuffed felt kitten wearing a dress or shorts and suspenders. Your color choice, stuffed kitten will be about 6 to 8 inches tall.

Examples of my art style are at everydaycritter.blogspot.com.

Fundraiser will start now and go for the rest of April. All proceeds will go directly to purchasing food for the kittens living at Austin Pets Alive in Austin, TX. You can donate to my paypal account at beanbell@me.com or contact me if you'd like to send me a check. I will make all art and mail it out by May 15th :) I'm also posting this fundraiser on Facebook so you may see it there too. Click this Donate button to be easily directed to the Paypal page

Little Piggie Friends

Well hello little piglet! You are only 2 weeks old? Are you aware it is practically illegal to be as cute and tiny as you are right now?

Holy cow! Your little sibling is even tinier! Look at that wee snout!

Kitchen Updates

Some of our kitchen cabinets are high up on the walls and I have to stand on my tippy toes to get things off the second shelf. Some of our lower kitchen cabinets are too low for Josh to comfortably reach in without having to practically fold himself in half or sit on the floor. So, we updated our kitchen with two shelving projects.

Now we have a shelving unit to keep the KitchenAid appliances from cluttering the counters, the pots and pans are in easy reach for both of us, and the kitchen scale and mandolin are right out in the open to remind us to use them. Win! Those shelves are right on the same wall as the stove so in a useful place.

Then across the kitchen we have our breakfast nook next to the refrigerator. Josh found this cute Baker's Rack online with free shipping. Now we have our tea, cereal, tea cups and honey set up right next to the tea kettle and eggie sandwich toaster. The baskets can store onions and potatoes someday and right now there are granola bars and a jar of peanut butter in there :)

The painted bowl was a welcome gift from Josh's new employer before we moved here. The cute painted chickens and blue tea set were lovely Christmas gifts. And there is still more room for cookbooks too :)

Snoozing Sunday

Cloudy Rainy Weekend

Hello from cloudy Texas and sudden rainstorms Pflugerville.

This week was different because Josh was still sick from his San Francisco cold, I had Tuesday and Wednesday off work so I could take him to the doctor's office. He got prescribed some medicines and now he's feeling pretty much better.

Yesterday we had a mellow day around the house, watching movies and doing laundry and dishes. Today, we're having another mellow day. It is very much a "Drink Milky Irish Breakfast Tea with Honey Day" and cuddle a cat or two. Later, we may go see a movie since it's too yucky outside to do yard work or wash the car.

I hope our community pool is opening this week because I really want to go swimming. I have the next two weeks off work as we wait for kids to finish taking tests so I can process them. So, I'll have time in the mornings to swim and maybe the butterflies and grackles will swim with me?

More butterflies