The Twins Daisy and Monkey

My youngest daughter graduated from college in June 2012.  She wanted a kitten for a graduation gift.  Since she's living with us, that wasn't an option.  We already had two cats and two dogs.  My husband doesn't say much but one thing he says a lot is "NO more cats!".
Well those words didn't stop us from visiting the local Humane Society occasionally, like we always do.  After a couple months of talking about kittens, I think my husband had resigned himself to the fact that we were going to end up with one.  He didn't say anything either way but you know he knew it was going to happen.
One day, on a visit to the Humane Society, the office area was overflowing with kittens.  There were two that caught our eye.  They were brother and sister.    The silver tabby was the one we really wanted, the little female, but how can we leave her brother behind.  He was a darker tabby.  We couldn't possibly take one and not the other.  We had noticed the price was quite high for a kitten and I'm sure it was because of their longer fur.  There was no way I was going to pay that price two times for two kittens, so we were going to go with the silver one.   We went up to the desk to ask about them.   Guess what?  It was two for one kitten day!  We could buy them both for the one price!  So we said, okay!  We filled out the paperwork, got the talk and paid.  Then as they go to get the kittens out of their cage, I notice one of the volunteers is a little afraid to grab them out and put them in the carrier.  They call over another guy who reaches in a grabs a very disgruntled kitty out.  As this is going on we find out that they are feral kittens!!!  Uh oh...what have we gotten ourselves into???
They give us advice on how to socialize them and introduce them into our household.  We're thinking, how hard can this be?  They're just adorable little kittens that want to be held and loved right?
We get them home, after  I call my hubby and warn him of our purchase.  I want him to have time to stew over it before he gets home from work. hehe  As he later tells friends "I tell them no more cats and they bring home two!"  He's a good guy so he goes with the flow.
We take a couple days to decide what to name them.  After many suggestions I finally decide on the name Monkey for the little male, the dark tabby and my daughter names the silver female, Daisy.
We get the babies home and decide the best thing to do is put them in the bathroom for a few days.  We'll take them out a few times a day and hold them, so they get used to us.  So we set up the bathroom.  Keep in mind that we only have a one bathroom home.  So keeping kittens in there, with all of their extras, like a litter box, toys, sleeping tent, food and water, made getting ready for the day in the morning a little interesting.  Nothing like stepping on litter, that was flung all over the floor, in your bare feet!  Ouch!
After a few days, they graduated to an area in the living room that we had fenced in with a doggy fence.  Over a period of a few more days we enlarged their area more and more.  They were very playful and little Monkey was the first to really start coming out of his shell.
Monkey has grown into a real lovebug.  When I say grown I mean really grown.  At his first Vet. appt. he weighted only 5 pounds.  Now he's over 17 pounds, after just a year.  Daisy is still quite fearful.  She likes to play and get pets, but only when she decides.  If you approach her when she's not receptive she'll either run off or cringe away from you.  She does like treats and the opening of the treat drawer will definitely draw her attention.  She has not grown as large as her brother.
 Monkey absolutely loves anyone and anything.  He follows the dogs around as well as people.  He wants to be one of the gang.  He's also a bit of a bully when it comes to food.  You pour out food for another cat and he's right there pushing them out of the way to get to it. The funny thing is, if there hadn't been that 2 for one kitten sale, we were going to buy only Daisy.  We would've missed out on this wonderful, loving cat and would've only had this disgruntled female cat.  We got lucky!
Here are some pictures of our twinsies!

Here's baby Monkey in his sock Monkey bed. 

Baby Daisy, sleeping in an odd place, as usual!

Both babies in their kitty bed.

Monkey loved this monkey toy.  He would carry it all over the place and it was nearly as big as him.

A larger Monkey, eating with his brother Weasley.  He's eyeing Weasley's food cause it might be better than his.

A grumpy Daisy face.

Monkey trying out a leash.  We're keeping them indoor cats.  We do let him out on the porch now without the leash and he stays pretty close.

The babies are now full sized cats.  They still like to cuddle together.  Daisy still looks grumpy when we bug her, as you can see here. lol

Nap Time!

There is nothing so refreshing as a nap.  Whether it's short or long it feels so good.  I can come home from a crazy day at work, eat a little dinner and then lie back in my broken recliner and drift off into a much needed nap.  Sometimes I only get a few minutes in before some type of interruption like the phone or a barking dog.
Other times I can sleep for two hours solid and wake up amazed that I slept that long but greatly refreshed.

I think that everyone should be allowed a little nap, daily.  Just to calm an overloaded mind, or rest a tired body.  I've tried to incorporate nap time into work, but for some reason that hasn't gone over too well with management, although my coworkers like the idea.  If I could squeeze a short nap into my 30 minute lunchtime I think it would work, but the break room is a little too busy and the storage closets don't have enough room to lie down.

So, for now I'll just have to be happy with a nap at home, in my favorite recliner with my soft fuzzy blanket. Mmmm  Perfect!

I love the dollar aisle!

Whenever I go to my local Target I have to make sure I pass through the dollar aisle.  There's something about finding some little treasure or another for a dollar that just makes my day.  Sure, I could go to the dollar store and find a whole bunch of treasures for that price, but it just isn't the same to me.

At Target I might find some of the sticky note pads or shopping lists in my favorite Hello Kitty designs.  Or I might find the perfect little gadget to toss in someone's stocking at Christmas time.  I've found pens and calendars or assorted holiday decorations, all for just one dollar each!  One time I bought a bunch of those microfiber dust mitts.  I love those things!

The same goes for my grocery store, when it has dollar days.  They'll have a bunch of bins with kitchen and household gadgets for a dollar each, although sometimes they try to trick me and they're more like two or three dollars, so I have to be careful!  It's just not the same if it costs more than a dollar.

When I get home after making these purchases I am excited to add them to my notepad stock pile or put them in my kitchen gadget drawer.  I feel like I've gotten such a good deal!  I think that's what it's all about.  Feeling the satisfaction of getting a good deal!

Our life is full of Beans!

Our second pound puppy arrived a few years back. I had been thinking of getting a second dog to keep our Pomeranian, Zeke company.  We'd been making visits to the Humane Society but not necessarily to bring home another dog.  One such day I said to my daughters as we arrived at the local shelter "We're only bringing home another dog if we find a female black pomeranian."  We entered the small dog room and there was a male black pom mix.  He looked kind of dejected.  Not like the other very happy, overly excitable pom mix puppy.  This black pom was 3.5 years old and named Prince.  We decided, as he quietly watched us with his big dark eyes, that he was going to be the next member of our household.  We made the arrangements for the meet and greet between him and our other dog, for the next day.

I was a little worried as we arrived the following day because Zeke hadn't been around many other dogs and I didn't know how he'd react to this new guy.  To our amazement, they seemed to take to each other fairly well and so we went home with another little dog.  

After much thought, our daughters decided on the name Beans.  Don't ask me why, we just didn't think the name Prince fit him and Beans did.

It took a few days before Zeke and Beans seemed to bond.  Zeke is definitely my guy, so he gets a little jealous if anyone invades his space by me.  They wrestled a bit but seemed to get along pretty well.

Beans fit right in with our routine.  If someone is taking a nap or sleeping in, Beans is right there with them.  He loves car rides and seems to get along with most everyone.  They warned us that he didn't like cats and we do have cats, but he never seemed violent towards them.  More like he regards them as something to chase.  Especially if they are slinking past him.  There's something about a slinking cat that really gets his attention!

Beans is not a beggar, at least not like Zeke.  He'll lie patiently on the floor at dinnertime, waiting for any scrap that Dad might throw his way.

Beans is usually a little love but he can get snarly or snappy on certain occasions.  One of these occasions is when he's sleeping.  He's fine if you want to pet him, but if you try to move him you're going to get snapped at.  I know.  He likes to go to bed early with my husband and sleep on my side of the bed.  When I come to bed he doesn't want to move and lets me know.  Luckily my husband, whom Beans adores, can just pull him over to his side without any fuss as Beans gives me the evil eye.  He also doesn't like being poked and prodded at the vet.  He doesn't like us to cut any mats off of him, so we make sure we let the groomer deal with that.

Beans can spot a pill a mile away.  We try to hide it in food and he'll eat around it.  I have to cut it into several extremely small pieces and hide it in wet food, while I continue to give him more food at the same time.  He'll be so busy trying to finish his food, so he gets more that he'll eat those small pieces.

Beans also thinks he can take on any dog no matter what size.  He gets along great with Zeke but he wants to rip apart the big dogs across the street.

Another thing with Beans is he's not that smart.  He will sit on command and he's pretty good at catching treats when you toss him one but any other tricks just seem beyond his comprehension.  I really think he's probably smarter than all of us.  He knows that all he has to do is sit there while Zeke does every trick in the book and then if he raises his paw half an inch off the floor we'll give him a treat too.  After all we can't give Zeke a treat and not Beans.  Right?  He's also trained us that if we want a good nights rest we'd better have a bowl of water and food in our room, since they sleep in there with us.  If not, around midnight, he'll make an obnoxious growling noise that gets louder and more persistent until you can't ignore it.  All because he needs a midnight snack.  Yes, I know we should train them better but we're lazy.
Another thing that Beans has done is train my husband to walk them when he tells him to.  My hubby used to walk them at about 9:30 pm.  One day Beans decided they needed to start walking at 8:30.  He would bark and jump up until hubby gave in and took them out.  Before long the walk barking started at 8 and then 7:30, 7 and now sometimes even before 6 pm.  I say to my husband, why don't you wait until you're ready and he'll say "I'm sure Beans needs to poop, so I have to take him now."  You can tell who's trained who...

Ever since we brought him home he's done something that I think maybe he learned from his previous owner.  When someone comes home he runs as fast as he can to get a toy, preferably a soft material squeaky toy.  Then he'll come running with it in his mouth squeaking it nonstop.  He'll just run past you back and forth squeaking the toy.  It's so funny if  you look in the window as you're on the porch, unlocking the door you will see Beans dart off as fast as he can to find a toy.  If he can't find it in one direction he'll run past and look in the other.

He might be a grumpy little guy, but we love our Beans.  He makes us smile and he's been a wonderful addition to our family.  We can't imagine life without him.  Here's a few photos of our little guy.

This is shortly after he joined our family.  He's put on some weight, since then, due to too many treats and midnight snacks!

Beans and Zeke having fun in the snow.

Happy Brothers!

As you noticed, we don't have too many pictures of Beans on his own because Zeke always wants to be the star of the show. 

Relaxing seaside in Seaside!

Every year or two for nearly 30 years I've spent some time in Seaside Oregon.  It is always a great vacation, relaxation, destination!  We stay at the same Motel that has charming cottages or ocean view condominiums to stay in.  We love the ocean view and the easy access to the ocean, since it's right outside your window!
It also has a great boardwalk that you walk along the beachfront to the town, where there are some great shops, activities and restaurants.

This is the view from our room.

We usually went to Seaside in the summer but the last two years we've gone  in late September and it was the ideal time.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  The crowds were greatly diminished.  Peace and quiet were easily found.

One of the things I associate with Seaside is delicious, fresh seafood.  The first thing we do is go to the fresh fish market and pick up some delicious salmon jerky.  Usually a pound or two will do it.  I also have to have one of their crab cocktails and my family usually likes the shrimp cocktails.

Yum!  This is the peppered salmon jerky.  They also have teriyaki and plain.  I would've included a picture of my crab cocktail but I ate it too fast!

Most evenings we eat dinner at our favorite restaurant Norma's.  Great seafood!  My mouth waters just thinking about it!   After dinner we spend time in our room either playing family games like yahtzee or racko or watching TV as we watch the sunset.  We're usually munching on the great salt water taffy we pick up at the Candy man store.  They have so many flavors of salt water taffy to choose from.  I just usually grab a big  plastic bag and start down each row grabbing small handfuls of the flavors that sound good to me.  That's usually a lot of flavors!

One of the beautiful sunsets!

The next morning we head out to one of our recent finds, thanks to the in room local sights guide.  This place is called Camp 18.  It is a fascinating restaurant, gift store and old logging memorabilia museum all rolled up into one.  The food is fabulous!  They serve lumberjack portions and that means big!  I've had the cinnamon roll both times and I can only finish about half of it.  This time, as we were preparing to leave I saw a guy get one of their burgers and it was so big that it was held together with a large knife!  I'm getting one of those next time!

The very large ceiling beam.  This picture doesn't do it justice. That was one really big tree!

The antler chandelier.

The fun games they have at the tables for you to play while you wait.  This was a real brain buster.

The cinnamon roll.  That's not a saucer it's on.  That is a full size dinner plate!

This guy couldn't believe the size of that cinnamon roll either!

This is the first receipt I've received that told me to "please pay at the stump"!

This is the stump.  It is large enough for the cashier to stand inside of it while she rings up our bill.

After our large breakfast we headed down to Tillamook to visit our favorite cheese factory.  We decided to take a different route.  Big mistake!  It was very twisty and not the best road to take when your stomach is overloaded.  I haven't felt car sick in a very long time but I know that my daughter and I were feeling a little green by the time we got there forty something long miles later!  Thanks to the fresh air streaming in from our open windows we managed to keep it together and felt good enough to actually look at cheese when we arrived.  After picking up some cheese to take back to our room and later home, we headed back.

 The rest of our stay consisted of my husband and daughter going down to the ocean and to the aquarium in Seaside.  I stayed in the room reading my good book and watching people with dogs going back and forth to the beach.  There was one old dog that walked so slowly and stiffly, but you could just see the joy on his face each time he went down to the ocean.  His owner walked slowly by his side as his little dog buddy trotted ahead of them.  It brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.  There are a lot of dogs at the ocean!  We don't bring ours for a few reasons.  No dogs at that motel and one of our dogs doesn't like car rides.  Plus they are both little barkers and I'm not sure how good they'd be in a motel.  Relaxation, in this case, means watching other people and their dogs.

The next morning we packed up and headed home just as the rains moved in.  Perfect timing!  The flat tire just as we drove out of town was also perfect timing, since there was a Les Schwab's right there and they fixed our tire for free in no time and we were on our way!  Good times and memories were made!

The Lure of the Local Casino.

In the distant past I have enjoyed vacationing in Las Vegas or Reno.  They were fun destinations, not just because of gambling but there was entertainment, great food and local attractions to visit.  Sure, I would gamble but it was included in my planned vacation expenses.

Several years ago, sometime in the mid 90's, a small casino opened locally.  My husband and I had heard  about it and decided to go out there and check it out.  I was very disappointed.  First it looked like it was in a large tent.  The machines weren't the same as in Nevada where you put in your coins and pull the handle and hope a bunch of coins spill out.  You bought some type of pull tab type thing that you fed into the machine and then played off of it.  The buffet was a line of roped off tables running down through the middle of this tent.  Needless to say I wasn't impressed with the experience and didn't want to go back.  Unless it was a "real" casino I wasn't interested!

Fast forward several years to 2010.  My sister and Mom decided to take my daughter to that same old local casino for her 21st birthday.  I wasn't interested in going.  I still had that mental picture of how it looked the one time I had been there.  After thinking it over I decided to go along and see what it was like now.  After all it was my daughter's birthday! Was I ever amazed!  This was a big casino.  No more tent!  It had restaurants, bars a hotel and lots and lots of machines.  You walk in and it looks like something you'd find in Reno or Vegas!  I was thrilled!

You still didn't feed coins in and pull the handle but at least you could put your own money in and then cash out and carry that little ticket around, which is actually easier than a big bucket of coins.

That was the beginning of numerous trips to our local casino and even venturing out to other casinos within an hour or so drive.  We would go there for a fairly inexpensive but delicious dinner at their deli or buffet.  We would play a few dollars and hope for the elusive "big" jackpot and then we'd go home.  It became our local entertainment.

No I haven't become a gambling addict.  I would hate to become one of those many gamblers I see that win a $1000 jackpot or larger and don't even bat an eye because it's not that big of a deal to them.  I get excited when I win $20 and you should've seen my face when I won a $400 jackpot! I go with a budget and don't spend more than what I plan, usually.  I don't withdraw more money out of the ATM.  If I win a jackpot I cash out and hit the road before I spend it all trying to win more.  More often than not I don't win that jackpot so, if the machines are tight I lose the desire to go back for a while until the craving for some of their delicious Pho hits me.  They really do have good food!

Last summer my husband and I drove down to Reno for the first time in 13 years.  We had a good time but this time I was disappointed at how it compared to our casino, back home.  The machines were older and worn.  The food wasn't that great.  My own bed was more comfy.  Next time maybe we'll just spend the night at one of the casino resorts nearby and save a lot of money and a numb butt from all of that driving, although I really did like those jumbo frozen margaritas! :o)

The Power of Scents.

I'm not much of a perfume person for a few reasons.  First of all my husband doesn't really like perfumes, so it's better I don't wear them.  I also work in a scent free environment, so that's another good reason to not wear perfume.  Lastly, over the years, I've grown sensitive to a lot of perfumes.  I'd rather not wear something that's going to make me sneeze or my nose run.

This doesn't mean that I'm against scented products.  I love fruit or soft floral scented shower gels, candles, lotions or air fresheners.  The smell of fruit scented body washes perk me up in the morning.  Nothing like a little blackberry or lime body wash to get me invigorated.  Just breathing in those scents makes me feel a little more awake.

My favorite cucumber melon hand lotion not only keeps my hands soft, it helps calm me while I'm rubbing it in at work and that's a very good thing!

My fruit or other food scented plug in air fresheners or candles, make me stop and breathe in and say "awww".  It's somehow soothing to smell fresh baked pumpkin pie or peach sorbet. 

I wash my hands with scented soaps like apple, plum or coconut.  The house not only smells nice but my hands do too.  I look forward to one bottle emptying so I can open the next bottle and see what that scent smells like.

It amazes me how the right scent can stop you in your tracks, for a few seconds at least, and make you clear your mind of everything except how good it smells.  Maybe it has something to do with the food scents, since I do love to eat or maybe it's just because it's something familiar and that makes me feel good.