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?!"

Poem

While I was cleaning out the spare bedroom upstairs, I found a box of papers and such from my school years. There were school papers, poems, notes, slam books, etc in there. I started to go through them, but then decided that it would take too much time and I would go through them later. But with the few that I did go through, I found this poem that I wrote. Based on my writing, it was sometime in high school....I'm guessing somewhere between 1999-2000, but I don't know for sure. I never was a good writer, and don't know why I'm sharing it now, but I'm going to. Who knows, I might end up removing this post.

(untitled)

Death so close

People rushing around

Loud voices

Sirens

Frantic Screams

I whisper in a breaking voice I love you

To the one who holds my lifeless hand

I take a deep breath while tears stream down my face

Visions float through my head

Playing with laughing cousins

Christmas at home

Good times in school

Sleepovers with my friends

You

My wedding

A loud muffled voice interrupts these visions

Repeating I love you, don't leave me here alone

I am torn

Where do I go?

Someone gently guides me

Angels appear

Everything is white

Silent

But loving

Comforting

BANG

I whisper in a terrified voice

What was that?

I feel a cold hand on my shoulder, shaking me

I slowly, mechanically turn around

I see a smiling face

We embrace

He says we will be together forever

I smile and we walk away

Hand in hand on the clouds

Watching over the world

Ma and Work

Man, it's been forever since I have posted here. I'm so sorry! I'm hoping to be able to post again more regularly. Every just had a post brewing inside you and you had to get it out? That's what this one is doing to me, and I feel that I just have to get it out.

Growing up, Ma worked many jobs. One of the earliest jobs I remember her working at was a small town cafe as a waitress. (Side note, that is actually how she met dad. Not that that matters or anything in this story...) As I continued to grow up she worked as a Pharmacist Technician, a waitress, bartender, cleaner, Pizza Putter Togetherer, secretary, and I'm sure many more jobs that I'm forgetting. She would work all day, and come home and clean the house, and do all the stores that are required on a hobby farm. Feeding and watering the animals, tending the garden in summer, splitting and hauling work in the winter, and many, many other things. My point is that she is one damn hard working woman. She can have a to-do list a mile long and get it all done. The house was always clean and company ready. Desserts for when people stopped by where in the freezer just in case someone dropped by unannounced.

No matter what job Ma was working, even if it was less than minimum wage, she put her all into it. It didn't matter what the job was, she always went above and beyond doing things, even if she didn't get paid for it. Now, I'm sure that Ma would never tell you any of this, and she would brush it off and say "It's just what I do" or perhaps "It just needed to be done and I had time so I did it." No work was beneath her or above her. She did it all. And then some. Then come home and do it all again. And then some. No lying, I still swear that she is SuperWoman. She can still run circles around me.

In this day and age, I have come to realize that there aren't many people out there who work like that. They get out of bed, do the bare minimum to scrape by and nothing else. I'll be the first to admit that I've been one of them. They just want the paycheck and won't do anything other than what is in their job description and required of them to get that paycheck.

I'm honored that Ma was able to instill her hardworking morals into me. It doesn't matter if it's my slightly above minimum wage job or my job that pays me 3-4 times minimum age. I work my ass off at both jobs. No matter what job I'm at, I find something to do. Cleaning isn't "below" me or not in my job description. If it needs to be done I do it. If I'm so busy I don't get my breaks, I'm not going to whine and cry about it. Stuff needs to be done so I do it.

I have recently realized that there aren't many people like that left anymore that are willing to go above and beyond. So many people feel entitled to that paycheck and aren't going to do more than the bare minimum to get it. I'm happy to say that I have realized that I'm not one of them. I work my ass off for my paycheck. There is a great sense of accomplishment in working your ass off and seeing all that you have accomplished.

Thanks Ma for instilling your hardworking morals into me. I don't want to know what I would be like otherwise.

Now if only I could be so hard working at home too...I'll get better at that. I promise.

February Food and Drink Challenge

Andrew has inspired me by this blog entry to join in his food and drink challenge for February. Andrew and his girlfriend are giving up coffee, tea, cheese, brown & tomato sauce, vegan mayo, and booze. Now my list isn't going to be that long. And giving up cheese and tea? WOW! They are amazing.

For the past few months, Jason and I (more so me, than him if I want to be honest) have slipped back into eating out way too much. We have even slipped back into having fast food again. Ugh! I want to break us from this habit, so in February we are going to give up going out to eat! With the exception of when I go to the cities with the Bellywings in February and when we are up north in February. So maybe I should just say that we are limiting it...but if I said that, I know I would use that to my advantage of eating out and I don't want to do that.

I have also decided that I am going to give up pop again as well. Once again, I did this before, and was great, but it has slowly crept back in my diet, mainly when we eat fast food, or when I am scrapbooking. I know it's not good for me, so I am giving that up completely. No exceptions to this one. I have no excuse to drink pop and I'm hoping to get rid of this one completely from my diet for years to come.

Consider joining in to the challenge! If you do, feel free to post a comment on my blog or Andrew's.

Day 22. Cake. YUM!

The Bellywings are the best!! We were cropping tonight and they brought some snacks and this beautiful cake to celebrate my birthday!! Isn't it pretty? Sprinkles and pink. My fav.

Larger image can be found here.

Day 21

Waiting in the car for the ice to melt off the windows a bit and for the car to warm up. Wouldn't you pass the time taking pictures of yourself too?

Larger image here.

Quote

I seen this quote on Ella Publishing and knew I had to blog it. I just love it. I think I might even need to scrapbook it.

Day 20

All of this came out of my purse. Interesting huh?



A list of a few things:
Battery charger for my Rebel camera, which I don't carry with me.
Cash! I never have cast on me!
An empty bottle of Excedrin, how it got empty, I don't know.
A coloring book picture, all colored in from Haley
Many pouches
Bling and stamps that I bought at RSC. (Doesn't everyone have this in their purse?)
Receipts from Target, RSC, and various other places.
A leatherman type tool, that doesn't have a knife. (I actually use this at work quite often.)
Remote for the ipod thing we got for hte car
Camera cord
Notebooks
Wine corks (I'm collecting these for a friend of mine)
USB drive
Aromatherapy Headache stuff.

Larger image can be found here.

Day 19 Hoar Frost?

Day 19

I believe this is hoar frost. Different than any kind of frost I have seen before. I wish I could have snapped a picture with my nice, new camera, but I didn't have it with me. I could have gotten a much better capture, I feel. Not very happy with how this one turned out.

(Shot with my point and shoot camera)



Larger image can be found here.

Day 18

My desk at work, when I am not in class. It's one tiny office. :) Yup, I like having lots of beverages handy.

(Shot with my point and shoot camera)

Day 12

Day 12 As soon as I come home from work I get into my comfy clothes. I turned around and on the couch were Jason and Cullen. Of course I had to grab my camera. This is a common sight around our house. Isn't it sweet?

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 10 {Lazy Sunday}

Cullen enjoying a lazy Sunday.

Day 9 {Rearranging}

Day 9 I spent 12 hours at RSC (the local scrapbook store) helping rearrange the store. This is a huge pile of Thickers that had to get moved off the wall and moved to a new home. Believe it or not, this was the only picture I took. I was too busy helping move stuff around!

Day 8! {Fun at RSC!}

Day 8 Dun, Dun, Dunce! Jessi being all silly at RSC! Oh how I love my night crops. So many good laughs!

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.

365 Days of Pictures

Random picture from my 2008 self-portrait a day challenge that I did. Man, I miss the green grass!

Andrew asked me something in a comment here on one of my blog posts and I thought it would make a good entry. :) Here is what he asked.

"I was thinking of the 365 photo project myself this year, but instead will do a weekly project me thinks. Would like your views on doing a 365 project if possible. Intense at times for instance?"

My first thought is, "Go for it! What do you have to lose?" I mean if you don't finish it, at least you will have taken more pictures and documented a few things right?

Now I would love to tell you all that the first time I started a taking a picture a day for 365 days that I finished it the first time I started. Nope, I didn't. I did my first complete 365 days (actually it was 366) in 2008. I started it the year before and got maybe a weeks worth of pictures done, that's it. I also tried to do a picture of anything a day in 2009. I didn't get very far into that one either.

For 2008 I think that it actually helped that I had a focus. Self-portraits. At least part of me had to be in the picture and I had to take the picture. I hated being in front of the camera and wanted to have more pictures of me. I also went into this with the thought that I wanted this to be real life. That I didn't want to sugar coat anything and that I wanted the pictures to capture moods, things going on in life, essentially to be a nice capture of what the year held.

I think I'm starting to ramble here, and I'm sure that's not what Andrew had in mind. Let's try to get back to his question.

I don't think that it was intense. I wasn't all about capturing the perfect shot, I just wanted to make sure that I had at least one photo for each day. I carried my camera with me everywhere, just so I wouldn't miss an opportunity. I would highly recommend that.

I will admit that for me, the 365 days of pictures was time consuming, but not everyone is like me. What took me the longest was choosing the picture (very rarely did I take 1 picture to choose from, I took a few, but again, that's just me) and of course the editing of the picture. I played around with my pictures a bit in Photoshop Elements, and then I resized them, and put my name on them before uploading them to flickr. Then after uploading them to flickr, I blogged them all. The editing and that process is what took me the longest. Now you don't have to do all of that, but I did. In fact, I also decided to scrapbook those pictures and I'm still working on that book. I really should finish that....maybe that's what I will bring with me on the next retreat. But that's a whole different subject. :)

The 365 days of pictures was a great experience for me. I learned so much about my camera, editing, everything! I loved it! I also met some fabulous people while doing this and I was so inspired by other peoples pictures. I think that my photography skills improved, at least I hope they did. I also accomplished the goal of being in more pictures. I'm now more apt to be in them as well, I guess you could say that it got me over not wanting to have my picture taken. I also succeeded in documenting life every single day for a year. I would have loved to be able to look back and see a year in the life of my parents, or any of my relatives. What a great history.

A tip I have if you are interested in doing a 365 project, is to keep up with it. I mean obviously you will snap the pictures everyday, but if you want to share them somewhere, then do your best not to get behind. I remember being overwhelmed by not keeping up with that and being overwhelmed by it. I know and understand life gets busy, but if you are feeling overwhelmed by it, then it's not fun anymore. Sharing it right away also makes it much easier to share the story behind the picture, if there is one. There were some days when I went to share the pictures, I couldn't remember why I took that particular shot. What was going on that day, etc. But once again, that was just my preference, I like knowing the story behind the picture.

Honestly, I would encourage everyone to do a 365 project. I found it very rewarding as I described above. I caught many moments (even pictures I didn't share on my Flickr/blog) that I normally wouldn't of, simply because I had my camera at hand. To this day I still carry my point and shoot camera with me wherever I go.

As you can tell from my previous blog posts, I'm attempting a 365 again this year. I'm not doing self-portraits every day, but various things. I want to focus on the here and now. The story behind the photos. How life is now. Record my random thoughts and memories. Likes/dislikes. I'm also using this as an opportunity to learn how to use my new camera. Looking back on 2009 I realized I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, and I hope that this gets me back into it. I missed so many moments and memories. Everyday life moments.

I also found a really cool site through Twitter (I can't remember who initially linked me), if you are wondering what in the world you are going to do with 365 photos at the end of the year, it's a possible solution for you. It's called Shutter Cal. At the end of each month, you can order a box of prints from them with the date and a description printed on back. Now I haven't ordered these yet, but I'm planning on it, and I love how they look in the photos! I look forward to seeing for myself. :)

If anyone has any questions about my thoughts on doing a Project 365, leave me a comment and I will answer it! I love comments. :)

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!

Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures that I have taken lately that I wanted to share.

If you want to view them larger or read the story behind the pictures, please visit my Flickr account.