Our cat Abbey

Our cat Abbey has a personality all her own. She has expressive eyes which help me find her in a pinch. Being all black has it's advantages. She does like to sneak up and paw my leg. I assume it is her way of saying "hey" or "feed me." You would guess I am the worst abuser on bath day. So far her grudge has lasted for 3 hours. There is no escaping the look of disdain emanating from the top of the cat tree. It is almost as bad as the wet kitty look.

Abbey enjoys the finer things in life. Wet food is the BEST breakfast in the whole wide world! Watching the fish in the tank, also known as kitty T.V. and reading are the best cat pastimes. She is my personal cat model. I photograph her almost as much as my own children!

 Abbey and I are very partial to Lil Bub's big book. We enjoy looking at LilBubs facebook site and watching her big show on youtube. Who knew a cat could be so cultured. We knew Abbey was special from the moment she decided to live with us. Having six toes on each front foot is pretty amazing. It makes a hug a little more special. Her hands hold on even better with those extra claws. Come to find out she is a Hemingway cat. Ernest Hemingway's estate in florida still has a colony of his cat descendants there today. Rumor has it that these kitties are much better hunters. Abbey will catch every evil ladybug and moth that invades our home.

She has all the best sleeping spots mapped out around the house. So far the warmest is on Daddy's desk under the light. The next best is next to his mouse to optimize the chance of petting. He is the sucker of the house.

Our little darling is so talented, she has her own facebook page. It was started when mom had surgery and had to sit around a lot! It's "the adventures of abbey cat" if you're curious.

Humor in real life

So often I miss things. Not just appointment, parties, and such. In my normal hum-drum life I find myself on auto-pilot.  I don't live near this place, but I'm sure I do not want to go down this road...

My husband and I got quite a bit of laughs from this one! I've driven by this sign in a nearby town and never got the joke. After a lengthy conversation on this topic he asks me to write his next paper for his masters of IT program. Great! Strategic outsourcing is right up my alley. I can write how I outsource his dirty underwear to the washing machine and how my management decisions are if it's dirty enough, do I wash it separately or take my chances with everything else. The kids are slobs so their clothes don't care. My nice blouse is another story. This leads us to another fit of giggles. It is nice to just laugh together.

My older daughter is now at the stage where everything Mom does is so uncool. A funny little dance from me would have her in fits of laughter. Not anymore. I found myself trying to make time go faster at a small gathering of her friends in girl scouts. I was regaling them with stories of us old-timers doing the running man and the sprinkler dance. While demonstrating I was told to stop, please stop. While I love seeing her grow and learn, I miss the old days when I was cool and funny. Now I'm just plain weird. Oh well. At least my darling husband still gets me. With all the stress in his world, it does my heart good seeing him smile. Life is good!

Dinner with kids

  This is not another diatribe about kids and restaurants and the ensuing arguments for both sides. That dead horse has been kicked enough, I think. I enjoy cooking tasty dinners and I consider myself a cooking chemist. There is something amazing and awe-inspiring that happens when a few choice ingredients are put together to achieve a completely different texture and taste. Gravy is my latest obsession, but I don't make it very often due to our perpetual "eating right" phase and it's intense deliciousness. Our meals are sometimes my experiment on changing and eating leftovers. My loving husband laments how my cooking is too good as witnessed by his waist size. My kids are a different story. The chorus of "I don't like that," "I don't want that," and "that's yucky" starts immediately. I make a nice dinner then the fake gagging starts. Often stories of starving children around the world are told to no avail. My frustration is intensified the next day when the child whining the most and loudest admits "it wasn't half bad." It also astounds me the boy who lived on mashed potatoes has now decided they taste worse that dirt. He has actively boycotted all potato dishes which I find very odd. Our family has a predominantly Czeslovakian heritage. We genetically love cabbage and potatoes! My husband has a very German lineage. He's on the same page as me, add the taste for beer. I constantly try not to take it personally. They do try it after many threats of taking away tv, xbox, and other technology. It is getting better though. I had a child actually enjoy green beans as long as there is bacon cooked with them. It's all about the small victories!      

Hello world! Here in are the musings of a weird yet mundane housewife.

Here in my world are the musings that run through my mind. I love to create things, and think of myself as an artist. I can say I have been displayed in a gallery, granted it was a bell painting contest and the gallery was a framing store that does happen to sell original art. Not as prestigious as the big city artists, but extremely exciting here in my small town. I love colors and textures so much, I gravitate to crafts and projects like knitting. I can walk into the yarn section of any store and my eyes glaze over and every thought in my head stops. The colors hold me in a trance! I have to touch, feel, and usually carry home something without even a thought of what  might make with it. Self control has been a new skill I’ve had to practice many, many times. Colors get me into trouble. I find myself not able to get rid of beautiful, unique,or special things like dishes. Finally I have learned a few skills so I can recycle them into something useful, not another thing around here making me look like a hoarder. This is intensified by my love of yard sales. Mmmmm. Yard sales…. I feel that euphoric sensation in my head just saying that. The treasure hunt is on every year when the weather warms up here in the midwest. I love hopping in my mothers truck and taking off on our next adventure. The thrill of the treasure hunt calls and I am not one to ignore it. I do love the activities, athletic games, and such our kids are participating in so I don’t indulge in the hunt as often as I would like. They are the best bunch of kids I know. My husband AKA “Daddy” Is my incredible partner in crime. They are a whole big story by themselves! My adventures continue…