Happiness

I found this somewhere in my online travels and made it my itouch background. I need to live by this. Need to remember it.

Kittehs!

No matter how old Cullen is I still call him a Kitteh. He will have his 2 year birthday in June. I can't believe we have had him over a year now! He is part of the family. Now you noticed that my post was titled Kittehs! with an s. Cullen has a friend called Noodle that is staying with us for a while. Both cats have been adjusting great together and it's so fun to see them interact, especially when they think no one is watching. There have been so many cute things that I haven't managed to capture on my camera. Here are a few cute pictures.

If you want to see any of the pictures larger, you can view them on my Flickr account.

Descriptions are going to be directly below the pictures. :)

Time for treats! Both cats love the treats. Though we had some Pounce ones and Noodle wouldn't eat them, but Cullen used to. Now that Noodle won't, Cullen won't either. It's too funny!

Jason has them eating out of both hands!

Window Buddies! They both LOVE looking out the windows, watching the birds and the people. Now they share the window together. Or should I say that Cullen hogs 90% of the window sill and lets Noodle sit on a small piece of it? Still so cute though!

Cullen saying, "Talk to the paw!"

This was the first time that we had seen them curled up next to one another! Isn't it precious? Now they sleep next to each other often. I still think it's so adorable!

Noodle sniffing the treat bag. He would put his paw and nose in the bag to try and get the treats out. I thought it was so adorable!

Don't mind the mess in the picture, my scrapbook room needs lots of helping getting clean right now...want to come over and help? Pretty please? Ok, fine...anyway one day we couldn't find Noodle, he wasn't in any of his usual hiding spots. Here he was in my scrapbook room, sleeping on top of my backdrops in a bag! He loves it there for some odd reason!

Another close up of Noodle sleeping on the backdrop bag...

Cullen: "REALLY? You gotta take my picture when I look like this?"

Noodle sleeping in the window. When he sleeps in the window, this is how he sleeps. Head in the corner and everything. Oh and that is one of Noodle's favorite toys there. He carries that toy with him all over the place!

Cullen watching the birds.

I had Jason set up the Kitty City again. It was a great idea as both cats love it and play with it! Cullen loves to be in that little compartment there.

Cullen watching everything going on outside.

Noodle being all cute and laying in a sun spot!

This picture cracks me up. First you have to know that Cullen has his claws and Noodle is de-clawed on his front paws. Noodle goes up everything and rubs his paws on it, like he is sharpening them. On the couch, the laundry basket, the scratching post, everything. He doesn't leave any marks though as he is de-clawed. It's so funny to Jason and I, because Cullen doesn't do that at all! On anything! Cullen has never used the scratching posts on the Kitty City, but man Noodle loves them! I think Cullen is looking at Noodle in the picture and thinking, "What in the world are you doing?!"

Day 11 {Kid's Favorite Chocolate Chip Muffins}

Day 11

As far of my New Year's Resolutions, I'm going to try more recipes. Specifically, 3 a month for a year. This is the first one that I've tried so far this month. Here is the link to the original recipe.

I didn't have any whole wheat flour on hand (thought I did, but apparently I used it all!) so I used all purpose flour. Also, I used pumpkin pie spice in the muffins since I have a ton of that for some reason.

The verdict is that they are really good! Jason even liked them despite the fact that they have pumpkin in them! I will be making them again for sure, though of course with a couple modifications.

I think next time I'm going to use the whole wheat flour, cut the oil in half and use applesauce, and I need to see if I can't cut down the sugar. Though I won't be making these again for a while since we have 36 of them! That is a ton of muffins for 2 people!!!

If you try this recipe out, let me know what you think!

Day 7 {Winter is here to stay}

Yup, it's definitley winter out there. It's been snowing since last night and we have about 5-6 inches on the ground. It's also freezing out there! We have Windchills of -25F. BRRRRR. It's freezing out there. Sadly I wasn't able to stay outside long, but I'm thrilled with this shot I took of a tree in our front yard.

Jason finally got his snowblower this year. He gets so excited every time there is snow in the forecast in hopes that he will get to snowblow. Today he go to do this that. But man it was cold out today! Windchills of -25F. BRRRR.

Day 6

Day 6 Jason and I got married back in August 2003. Yup, over 6 years ago. I can't believe where time has gone. One of the best decisions that I made for the wedding (though I'm not sure if Ma agrees with me!) is going with silk flowers. Ma did all of the flowers for us. She is amazing. I absolutely love my wedding bouquet and still have it displayed at home. One of the things that Ma did to the bouquet as she was making it, was put this little bumble bee in it. No one really even noticed it, but it holds great meaning to me. That little bumble bee is from Great Grandma Ho-Ho's (I could never say Holmstrom growing up and called her Great Grandma Ho-Ho) sewing stuff and she passed away before the wedding. I love having that little bumble bee as a small reminder of Great Grandma.

Day 5 and Bonus Shot!

I love both of these pictures so you are getting both of them. :)

Day 5 Before Christmas I was at Hy-Vee shopping for baking stuff to make cookies and such. I knew I wanted to make fudge and to do so I needed Sweetended Condensed Milk. While perusing the shelves at Hy-Vee trying to find the best price, I game across this little gem, which happened to be the cheapest one! Even if it wasn't I would have bought it because I loved the vintage feel of the can. I think Jason thought I was crazy for loving this can so much, but I do. Oh and if you are wondering if the fudge ever got made. It didn't. I really should make that sometime soon. Maybe this weekend.

I snapped this picture of Jason after he came in from the freezing outside. I can't believe how cold it is out there!

Pictures

I found this picture tonight while going through older pictures. It's from March 15, 2009. I just love it when Jason does little things like that.

Best gift ever!

While we were up north over the weekend, Ma gave us our Christmas gift so that it wouldn't freeze in December.

LOOK AT ALL THIS YUMMY GOODNESS!!!!

She gave us pears, (Jason's absolute favorite! I wish I could have got a picture of his face when he seen the pears!) Caramel Apple Butter, Apple Cider, Apple Juice, and Applesauce! I couldn't believe all that she gave us! The homecanned/homemade stuff is the best. I love Christmas gifts like these. They are the best ever! We will be eating good this winter.

Thanks Ma!!! We absolutely love our Christmas gift!!!

My Weekend

This weekend Jason and I went up north to see my family!! I had a fabulous time, although the weekend seems to always go by so fast. :( I wish it were longer. I need to head up north and spend a week up there again. That was so much fun.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend!!! The captions are directly below the pictures. :)

Trying to take a picture of Hobo. As soon as I pointed the camera in his general direction, he was trying to sniff it and wanted to play with it. I thought he was going to eat it!



































Since we haven't been up north in forever, we celebrated Birthdays! Dad's was on September 17 and Julie's was on October 1. (Yup, just a little late!) Back when I was younger Grandma and Grandpa Rapp always gave me and the girlies an un-birthday present when it wasn't our birthday's. Just a little something that we could open. I thought that was really cool and despite the girlies being 17 and 15 now, I still do it. Though they are old enough to understand that they don't get presents when it's not their birthdays! Anyway, I got Susan a VERY cute (if I do say so myself!) stuffed Hello Kitty! Isn't she adorable? Susan needs to keep it away from Hobo though....apparently he has a thing for stuffed animals.


































Julie opening her presents! She got a book, "Into the Wild", a Barnes and Noble gift card and some scrapbooking supplies. She wanted to do a book for Eli's niece who passed away when she was only a few days old. Later that night we did a few pages! It was a lot of fun!


































Julie and the birthday cake! I thought it was so cute and fun!

Eli tried to give me Revenge as a gift! As much as I would have loved taking her home, it just didn't happen. :(

But isn't she just adorable? And she is so sweet and loves to sleep on you!

Revenge and Biscuit eyeing each other.

Apparently I'm an auntie! A cow auntie that is? Perhaps? The little black calf in the center was less than 24 hours old! Awwww, so cute! His mom is the big brown heiffer. The little tan calf to the left is about 2 months old. So very cute!

Eli had Jason show him how to play PackRat. (A Facebook game.) Revenge loved just sitting on him and sleeping.

The best part of the weekend? DAD! He has stopped drinking (again), actually sat and ate supper with us, and spent a bunch of time upstairs talking to us! It was great and he looked amazing! I love it when he doesn't drink. I'm praying that he will stay sober. It makes a world of difference.

Today Mom, the girlies, Eli, Jason and I all went out to eat at the Casino Buffet and boy it was good! Yum. A wonderful treat. One funny part of the meal was teaching everyone that the fortunes from the fortune cookies should always have "in bed" added to the end of them. There were some hilarious ones!

It was a great weekend and I had a fabulous time. Weekends like this make me wish I didn't live so far away from them.

New Corset Pictures!

Here are some pictures of my new corset! It's bright pink and black, which is so me! I just love it. :) It was a happy day getting my Torrid order in the mail. It's all about the small things.

Now I have to figure out where I can wear this.....

Happy Halloween!

This is what I dressed up as yesterday for the RSC Halloween Crop!!! Can you guess what I am?







I'm a Wannbe Domestic Diva!! I LOVE IT! I had the dress already (prom dress junior year!), the apron as well. I made the long pearl necklace quickly. All I had to buy was the Tiara, which I got on sale at Hobby Lobby 40% off!! I loved that I had just about everything!

I haven't blogged in a while either. There is a bit new with me. I got a part-time job at my favorite scrapbook store ever! Rochester Scrapbooking Company! I started this week and boy is it fun! I just love it all! Helping customers, checking in and putting out product, answering the phone, creating! It is honestly my perfect dream job! I honestly can't believe how fast the hours go when I am working there. It's crazy! Tomorrow is the first time that I am working alone. I'm opening and closing alone. I am a bit nervous, but I'm sure that things will go just fine.

Oh and did you like the picture I posted? I edited it heavily in Photoshop Elements, and I know that some might consider it a bit overdone, but I think it kinda has a nice vintage appeal. Thoughts? Constructive criticism?

Special Delivery?

Perfect gift in my opinion!

Love that cat.

Cullen {Cat in a bag}

Cullen still cracks us up. We are so lucky to have him and we love him so much. He is such a funny cat and his antics crack us up daily. One of his quirks is that he loves reuseable bags. At first we thought that it was one in particular (My green Quickutz bag) but that's not the case as you can see here.





He is an odd cat, and he does fit right in with Jason and I. :)

Mail

Am I the only one that gets so very excited when the mail arrives and loves getting the mail, but once I do the initial peek at it, I let it sit in a pile? Went through this pile last night. Didn't take long and 90% of it was recycled/shredded.

First Snow! {October 11, 2009}

Taken at 11:30 p.m. First snow of the season. Yes, I am out there barefoot. It seems really early for this year.

Simple Joy Sunday

Heather at CoolZebras hosts a Simple Joy Sunday and this is my first time participating in it. Since I had random pictures that make me happy, I thought it was perfect.

A nice bunch of daisies that Jason and I seen on a walk.


A cute new pair of summer shoes that I got on sale!


Cullen peeking out the window when we are outside. I just love that cat.

Grandma & Grandpa's Wedding Picture

Grandma & Grandpa Nelson's Wedding picture from 1950.   

Larger Image here.

MA: Can you please identify these people?

Cullen on the computer

Well maybe, on my lap. :)

Cullen really likes it on my lap. If the laptop is actually on my lap he tries to push it off, and if the laptop is sitting in front of me, he doesn't like it when I type. He also likes to walk on the keyboard, which I am trying to discourage before my new laptop arrives. But it's so cute!!!

Day 32 {Kitschy Lamp Shade}

At IKEA I seen this lamp shade and fell in love with it. After going through my pics, I wished I would have bought it. I have no idea where it would go other than by a couch in the living the room, but I am in love with it.

Day 31 {Shopping?}

Day 31

There are all of our bags from 3 of us. I say we didn't do any shopping! ;)

If you want to see more pics from our adventures, read the post below!