New House Sneek Peak

I have been spending way too much time planning the colors and layout of the new house, and not enough time actually putting it together. Until then, here is a sneak peak. Have I mentioned that I am in love with my house? I never want to leave it.

Mischief Managed

Midnight's favorite thing to do is eat the plants. She doesn't care if you are watching. She doesn't care if you tell her "no". She will keep eating the plants until you get up, go over there, and attempt to make her stop. At that point she darts away just before you reach down to pick her up. She knows she's not supposed to eat the plants, but she doesn't care what you say, she's going to do it anyways. Then you get the glorious job of cleaning it up when she throws it up later. I couldn't live without her, the little brat.

Baby Kitties

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our Halloween Kitty. I can't wait to show you Leia in her costume.

Camera Critters

I found this fun meme, and since I have plenty of critters around this house I thought I would join in. It gives me an excuse to post pictures of my babies.

I took this picture of Midnight this morning. She was enjoying the great taste of my plants, naughty kitty. The way the light hit made the plant reflect off of her eye, making it super green.



And here is the proof of her misdeeds (see the grass hanging out of her mouth). Doesn't she look silly with her tongue hanging out like that.

Hilarious Floors

I thought I would give you a sneak peak at our brand new floors. We spent two weekends laying these babies. They are so beautiful. If I was a polygamist I would marry them. Every time I look down at the floors they make me all warm inside. All that is left to do is cut the underlayment and put up the quarter round. Another weekend should finish them off.

This is the hallway that makes a great slip and slide (minus the water).


This is the guest room. It needs some art on the wall, but it is almost there. Do you see Leia sneaking up on Little Miss, crazy animals. I'm not sure how to hide the bed risers, but we need them for the extra storage, any ideas?


The hilarious part is watching the animals slip and slide all over them. We got Leia all round up the other day just so we could see her slide across the floor. Which lead to us sliding across the floor, and fun was had by all. The most fun is when one of them jumps off the bed, their feet slide out from under them, and they fall flat on their face. I know, I am a terrible parent, but it is hilarious.

A full before and after showcase will be posted when we are done with everything. For anyone who is interested, the floors are Swiftlock (kronotek) laminate in Acacia from Lowes.

Midnight

Two weeks ago ABC Wednesday was all about "M". I wanted to devout the post to Midnight, but I was busy and didn't post anything. So, today is all about my baby girl, Midnight.

Derek and I were sophomores in college when we started living together. Our first place was a little two bedroom apartment that we shared with a friend from high school (that's another story we will not talk about here). We got home late one night and heard this pitiful little cry. Being the girl that always came home with a rescued animal when I was a kid, I just couldn't go inside without investigating. I walked all around the parking lot calling, "Here kitty kitty, here kitty kitty." I got to the steps across from our apartment and sitting there was a cute little black and white cat. I slowly moved closer to it, gently talking to it, when it suddenly darted off. Realizing that it didn't want my help, I turned around to walk away. Sitting right behind me was a skinny fur ball of a cat. She gave me a little meow, as if to say thank god you found me, and walked right up to me.

Of course, Derek said I couldn't keep her and our roomate said she was a greasy flea ball. I fed her lunch meat over the next couple of days and made a little bed outside of our door. She slept there almost every night. The following weekend Derek's sister and parents came to visit and told him to let me keep her (They love me). I opened the door for her and she walked right in, making herself at home. We named her Midnight because we found her under the stars at night (it helps that she is black, although I probably still would have named her Midnight if she was white).

A couple weeks later we discovered Midnight was pregnant. The vet asked us if we wanted to end the pregnancy, he obviously didn't know me very well. We took her to Ohio with us for Christmas. When we were ready to leave Midnight was due to have her babies any day. We couldn't risk her having them on the airplane, or putting her through all of that stress, so she ended up staying at my mom's house. She had the kittens two days later. Derek's parents took one of the girls, Lucy. His grandma took a boy, Willy. My mom kept two, Big Foot and Black Sister (don't ask). A friend of the families took the last one.

Five months later I finally got to see Midnight again. To this day I don't think she has forgotten the day I rescued her. She sleeps on my pillow every night and loves me more than anyone else. She is my baby girl.

For the love of boxes

Funny Story. I had this blog planned out about my camera being sick. I thought my light meter was broken and was asking my smart camera friends for help. Well, when I went to post the EXIF data for the "sample" picture I was showing I found my mistake. So, the tip of the day is: If your images are turning out darker than expected check your exposure. Somehow mine got set to -2.7. I'm not sure how or when this happened, but I was about to go insane trying to figure out what was wrong. I'm glad it was my fault and not the camera's though.

On to the real blog. This is Midnight's favorite time of year. All of the boxes come out of hiding and she gets to play. Her favorite game is hide and seek, and for once she played it peacefully with Little Miss. No hissing at all, surprising.



It's your turn in the box.



I think you got a little shmuts on your face.

Why you should live in a house for more than a year.

1) You will have the opportunity to actually unpack all of the boxes. (This one is embarrassing) That "Moving Sale" box was from 4 moves ago. It made it all the way from New Mexico.





2) The craft room won't just be a place in the basement you run down to to grab a pair of scissors and a marker. The craft table won't just be a catchall for things you don't know what to do with. (Yes, that is my craft table, and I wonder why I can't get anything done.)



3) The perennials you planted last summer will get the chance to grow instead of being dug up and transplanted.

4) The animals will understand what the word "home" means, and won't think you are just visiting. (This will be Midnights 8th home if you count my mom's house).



5) You will remember which drawer the spoons are in.

6) You won't have to patch another hole in the wall made by hanging giant mirrors.

7) The credit card company won't think that you are on the run. (This didn't actually happen, but I'm surprised they don't think we are running from the law.)

8) Your family will actually remember your address instead of asking every Christmas.

9) You will actually have people left that didn't help you move over the last three years. (Apparently the rule is that you are only allowed to ask for help to move once every 5 years, we broke that one already.)

10) You will finally have a place to call your own :)

We are dreading packing, so we haven't started yet. There is always something that comes up: we are too tired, we have to go to dollar burger, we have to go to the ballet. We are just too busy to tackle that pile of boxes. And for all of you who think we are disgusting for having a pile of boxes strewn in the basement, you try being forced to move every year and see where you keep your boxes. The end of April is coming way too fast.

ABC Wednesday

Today's letter is the letter "E", I feel like I am on Sesame Street :)

My first picture is "Edge". This is a cliff somewhere in Colorado looking over this beautiful valley. We stopped here on a geology trip to look at the brecciated volcanic basalt.


My next "E" is "eyes". These are Midnight's beautiful eyes.

Panther

I call Midnight my little panther because when she is in a frisky mood she growls like she is in the wild. Today she made the best panther stare I've seen as she sat for about 20 minutes letting me take pictures of her. She finally gave up on me getting the "perfect shot" and promptly jumped off the bed. I think I got a few good ones of her, though.

Excuses, Excuses

I have a great excuse for not posting yesterday. I was going to post when I got home, but when I went to do it I realized that the cable was out (Which explains why the TV wasn't working).

# of times a pipe has broken under the kitchen sink -- 2
# of times the husband has been gone when a pipe broke under the sink -- 2

Last time a pipe broke was when we lived in Las Cruces, oh that was fun. Derek was in Mexico, of course, and his sister was visiting. We were hanging out when we heard this wooshing noise in the kitchen. Upon making our way to the kitchen we discover water pouring out of the cabinet below the sink. It wasn't just trickling out, it was like a waterfall pouring out. Called the landlady, she was out of town. Ran to all of the neighbor's houses and soon we had the entire neighborhood in our kitchen trying to catch the water. The knob to turn off the water wouldn't turn so we couldn't get the water to stop. After about two hours of water pouring out of the pipes, moving the refrigerator to sop up water with the towels from all my neighbors (plus newspaper), and throwing 50 buckets of water out the back door, someone finally shows up to turn off the water. That was a fun adventure.

So yesterday I decided to run the dishwasher. I go eat dinner in the living room, come back and walk right into a pool of water a half inch thick on the kitchen floor. I didn't want to turn off the dishwasher because it hadn't reached the rinse cycle and I wasn't sure what I would do with soapy dishes. So, I frantically ran around grabbing towels and trying to find a way to fix the pipes before the rinse cycle started and more water poured out. I eventually settled on holding up the pipes with plsatic cups because the pipe wouldn't tighten and stay put. Where was my husband this time, in Mexico no where close to being able to help me. Oh, and the animals decided it would be fun to walk through the pool of water and track water all over the house, aren't they sweet. I'm sure next time Derek goes to Mexico the pipes will decide to break again. This isn't the most artistic picture, but oh well. Notice the helpful animals and the pile of towels, fun fun.

Another Sleeping Beauty

Midnight was sleeping/posing. She opened one eye, saw me with the camera and flipped herself upside down for a cute sleeping pose. She's a cooperative model.

Package Under the Tree

Midnight loves to hang out under the Christmas tree. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it is the feeling of being outside that she likes, or maybe it's just a good hiding spot.



If anyone has any ideas on how to get the dark kitty to be brighter and the bright lights to be darker let me know. Ideas on how to do this while taking the picture would be awesome, but post processing methods work as well.