Stupid Pet Tricks

Pictures courtesy of my children. I think we have more stinkin' pictures of Elvis on my hard drive than any member of our family...except maybe Jordyn..she is kind of a camera hog.

You know I have a love-hate relationship with our cat, Elvis.

It all started when "Santa" surprised us on Christmas morning a couple of years ago...only Santa didn't realize I grew up in a family of cat haters.

With that being said, I hope you will read the following experience with the knowledge that I am not going to turn this into a cat-lady blog.

But, I just have to share.

The other day the kids were in the front yard weeding. It was a cool morning, so the windows were open. I could hear them yelling at each other to hurry up kindly talking to each other and bonding while they learned the value of work.

Apparently, Elvis could hear them too--because he kept going to the front door and meowing like crazy.

Now, Elvis is an indoor cat. I know this seems like a crime against nature..but so does me owning a cat...so whatev.

I was in the kitchen doing my best to tune out the arguing listen to the kind words being spoken amongst my children, when I heard the front door open.

No wars or rumors of wars followed the opening of the door--so I assumed it was one of the kids trying to pull the old 'sneak in and hide from work' trick.

I walked to the front door and noticed it was ajar. Not a child was in sight.

I also noticed the meowing had stopped.

I walked out onto the porch and said, "Elvis?"

He came skulking around the corner and ran in the house.

At first I thought one of the kids were playing a trick on me, but nope, they were still arguing over who had pulled more weeds.

I shut the door and Elvis started to meow and meow again. Then he started running towards the door and with a leap into the air he tried to open the door. I have a latch type of door knob..and the dang cat almost got it open again!

Are you kidding me?

This explains a lot of things the kids have been blamed for...like leaving doors open, letting Elvis out of his room, and drinking all of my diet coke..{okay so that last one was all me}.

So, what's the best stupid pet
trick you've ever witnessed?

What's Your Favorite Paint Color and a Giveaway

We had tons of rain last month and my neighbor across the street emailed me this cool picture of my house with the message, "Looks like your house is at the end of the rainbow".

I emailed her back and said we were still looking for that pot of gold.

On most days, I really do feel like the end of the rainbow does end in my backyard...{except those times when it looks like a bomb went off inside my house...on those days its more like a tornado warning.}

Now, I'm not saying we live in a mansion...because trust me we have some serious fancies in our neighborhood...we're definitely not one of them. But, our house is perfect for our needs {although the AC and laundry room do leave something to be desired}.

Come this 24th of July weekend we will have lived in our house for four years.

And I've decided four years is a long time to live with boring tan walls. I am sick of it. I need a change! A sprucing up.

So, sometime over the next couple of weeks I am planning on painting a wall in my family room and my kitchen {hopefully El Jefe will be on board}.

This is where the giveaway comes into play...my dear cuz, Jenny, suggested in her last comment that I do a chalkboard giveaway. I thought it was a great idea.

All you have to do to enter to win a chalkboard is tell me YOUR all-time-favorite-never-fail paint color {brand and name of the paint color}.

So, come on! Even if you've never commented before--I'd love to hear your favorite paint color.

*The drawing will take place Tuesday, July 28th at high noon.

Dinner Tonight? Tangy Cats and Mice

One of the fun crafts I made with my BFF, Mary last month were some cute chalkboards out of plates. It was quite easy and they turned out darling.

The only problem was we used a chalkboard spray paint...and since I was too lazy to go outside...I decided to cover my table with newspaper and stay inside to paint.

Did you know there is such a thing as over spray?

So, even though we sprayed very carefully just the one taped off small area...it floated everywhere. Like on the kitchen floor...the chairs, my bench, even the back of the couch.

I'm talking a film of oily, black dust, people. Not fun. Not easy to clean up either.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I bought a cute plate rack to put my new chalkboard on and set it up in my kitchen.

Now, fancy Miss Mary writes the meals for the whole week on hers...cause that's the kind of organized gal she is.

Eventually I'll start that up...when I actually get around to planning a menu before I shop {that new Harmon's on the corner will be the death of me...it is far too easy to just run there for a "few things" and never get all the things I need}.

So, until then everyday I just write down the {dinner} meal of the day. {don't be too impressed sometimes it says "Git yer Own"}.

And almost every day a little elf (we'll call her Savvy), changes the menu to a 'funny joke'.

The other day I wrote "Tangy Pork and Rice" -- an hour later I noticed it said, "Tangy Cats and Mice".

On a "Git yer Own" night she changed it to "Dad on a Stick".

Before we left for a reunion in Idaho this past weekend she wrote, "Idaho Potatoes."

I keep telling her to stop it--because it's MY chalkboard after all.

{Apparently, she hasn't been listening..or more likely she just doesn't care.}

Last night, I finally had my camera handy and took a picture of her latest Dinner Creation. She changed my delicious "Chicken Pot Pie" to "Chicken Pot Fly--with real Flies!"

Appetizin' ain't it?

I think I'll be making that clever girl of mine her own chalkboard.

It's Been THAT Long?

Seriously? It's been so long since I last blogged that I had to sign into my account? Took me three times to remember my password!

Sheesh!

And I thought with school being out I'd have more time for such pleasures.

What I have had more time for is:

cleaning the house with my Cinderella mice,
hanging out with my sis,
crafting with my Bff, having fun
summer visitors, going to
Family Reunions, chasing kids around
from activity to activity...
...especially swim meets, having sleepovers,
cleaning up messes, Facebook,
trying to stay caught up on things of an RS nature,
reading all of YOUR blogs on my google reader,
almost getting murdered at the apt's
the other day ...truly another story for another day,
drinking lots of diet coke,
holding my cute nephews,
watching Jay qualify for state swim in 4 events,
perfected painting sparkle toes on Jay and her BFF,
waiting for my new nephew to be born,
injured my back {at the temple no less},
went to Webelos scout camp, tried to
write the great American novel,
ate a new favorite dessert,
witnessed a miracle.


So what have you been
up to this summer?

The Sunday Funnies

Yesterday, I drove down to my sis-in-law's baby shower in my old home town...Oak City or the OC as my brothers have nicknamed it.

Somehow, my dad got schnookered into taking Savvy and her cousin Syd on a four wheeler ride.

They drove all over town, had a great time, and came home smelling like a campfire...mostly due to the happenings at one of the neighbors' weed burning parties.

When they got back, my dad was chuckling and shaking his head.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"While we were on our ride, Savvy yelled as loud as she could...'Grandpa! Make sure you drive by the cat lady's house!' We happened to be driving by the cat lady's house...and they were sitting out on their front porch and heard every word," he said.

Me-ow!

{Truth be told, it is Savvy's goal in life to be a cat lady with hundreds of cats}.

Lost in the Translation

Today I took Jay and her friend shopping for some last minute snickadees before youth conference.

In our travels, we stopped at Aeropostale to snag a couple of t-shirts and we happened upon their clearance.

They had jeans for $6!

{Of course, the catch was you had to be a Size 0 Short or a 14/16 Short.}

Feeling extra lucky, I ended up finding a pair of jeans that said "half" regular.

Jay normally wears a Size 1. But, I asked her if she wanted to try on the "half" size to see if they would fit. {I thought it was pretty unusual that they would make a size in between a 0 and a 1.}

"Mom," she said. "That isn't a half size--it's a size one slash two."

Sheesh!

But honestly, what's a girl to think when they put a 1/2 on the size sticker?

Family Home Evening

Tonight swim team practice got canceled due to bad weather.

This meant I finally had the kids home on a
Monday eve..so I put them to work.

I told the three of them they were in charge of every aspect of family home evening (except I'd do the refreshments).

Generally, when any of my kids are in charge of family night, it will either be a movie or some sort of game. So, I made the stipulation that there must be a
spiritual thought involved.

Apparently, they really wanted to play "Life". So, they orchestrated a FHE around it.

Jay narrated the creation from Genesis--whilst Savvy and Auzy held up homemade pictures.

I especially loved Auzy's rendition of Day 3-- does anybody else notice how earth looks an awful lot like Bikini Bottom (Spongebob Squarepants' domain)?


To-may-to, To-mah-to?

After the lesson, we played "Life" and I discovered some interesting tidbits.

#1 Auzy wants to name his children
Spongebob and Patrick.

#2 Savvy is planning on marrying a cat.


#3 The man on the $50,000 bill of Life looks a lot like Lorenzo Snow.

#4 Jay always took the pathway that earned her
more babies...not more money.

#5 I always took the pathway that earned me more money hey, I've already had kids and they aren't cheap

#6 Jay won the game by $100,000--and
boy howdy did she rub in the fact that I failed to follow one of the basic tenets from our FHE lesson...
multiply and replenish the earth.