Because One Cat Is Never Enough

Here kitty kitty kitty! Calling all kitties to audition for the role of second small annoyance in the Lexow household! Necessary attributes include: cute, fluffy, and loud.
A few months ago, as she's longingly petting Ducati and mustering up all the subtlety a five year old can, Miss K began "hinting" that she wanted her own kitten. *heavy sigh* "I wish I could have a kitty just like Ducati." *peek up through eyelashes* Super cute, no?
Hubby and I made a deal with her that when she learned how to read and out a lot of effort into it, we would get her her own kitten. But we had to have a bigger house first. Miracle of miracles, she stopped asking and stopped hinting. And she learned how to sound words out!
To me, out of sight, out of mind. This was a moot point until we moved. Obviously not so much to Hubby as two weeks ago he decided that we should get her a kitten. In my mind I'm going, "But we haven't moved yet! Are you crazy?" I managed to filter my mental ravings into a respectable, "Are you sure?"
He was. Sure that is. So we picked Miss K up from school and whisked her away to the local very who had a couple litters from strays needing homes. Miss K laid down her first criteria, it had to be meowing. She wanted a loud kitten. Criteria two, it had to be a girl. That left one cute kitten, meowing away in the bottom cage, to come home with us.
Meet Princess Fiona. The loud kitten who doesn't have an off switch.
She meows ALL the time. If you make eye contact, she meows. If you walk out of the room without her, she meows. If you sit down, she comes to your feet and meows. If you happen to escape while she's sleeping and then you think about her, she wakes up, finds you, and meows.
She even meows at you when you are sleeping! To the point that a zombie Miss K kicked Fiona out of her room for being too loud.
Seriously, most annoying cat ever. And of course, Hubby is in love with the thing. Figures, right? Pretty sure I'm still going, "But we haven't moved into a bigger house yet!!"

Don't eBay and Drive

Normally, I try to be a responsible eBay user. I read the description twice, verify the return policy, and skeptically review seller ratings. To this day I've never had a negative eBay experience (unless you count having to wait for things to arrive because they haven't invented instant-delivery).

While looking for new plugs last week, hubby introduced me to the eBay app on my Android. Can you say woohoo for mobile shopping? Just what I need, conveniently accessible splurge-shopping locating at my fingertips anywhere! I promise that is totally not sarcasm...

Fast forward to this morning after a long sleepless night with sick Baby A. As I lay staring at the ceiling in bed, yelling for Miss K to get out of bed in the next room, I realized that girl needs her own alarm clock. An alarm clock that makes her responsible for getting up and moving without me nagging for twenty minutes to get moving.

"Oh, hey, look at that, eBay at my fingertips!" I say, as I race around the house trying to get ready in thirty minutes what normally take sixty. Commence distracting half-attentioned search for a cutesy alarm clock. Done! I found cute alarm clocks that light up, play music and even have a calendar. Just have to pick out the best deal and I've masterfully solved a nagging problem before breakfast.

As I'm pulling up outside Miss K's school (right on time I might add), I re-check the description on one clock for the third time. Ok, this is it, place bid and finalize! I am now the proud highest bidder at $0.01 for this item. As a back up, I have one Watched that's listed for only $10.99. Auction ends tomorrow and the clock would be here by December 3rd! What an awesome deal, right?

Well.... since I had so much free time while Baby A napped on me, I kept searching and found another clock, exactly the same, that would be here by Monday for only $9.83, free shipping! I bought it of course, who could resist? Worst case scenario, I have two clocks for cheap.

Wrong wrong wrong. Just realized, as I was cleaning up my "Watching" list on eBay, that the oh-so-good-of-a-deal clock has $10.99 shipping! Crap! If I do win (and you know I totally will just because this one time I don't want them to have a minimum bid limit), I will spend more on silly shipping than I did on the first alarm clock total!

Gah, I love these moments of self-incrimination over minor competently preventable things!

So I say unto thee, don't eBay and drive, you just might get yourself into trouble.

Zelda It Up

Tragedy strikes again! Forced to turn to the nerd side as distract from a minor technical snafoo.

Don't you hate it when really really really important things get accidentally deleted? Permanently. Like, light years away permanently. Basically, never even existed permanently. I must assuredly do loathe those moments.  When it happens, I tend to rake myself over the coals repeatedly.

Thinking I was entirely too smart fit my own good, I took screenshots of important text messages to save them from deletion. I then master reset my phone, all the whole assuming the screenshot pictures were on my sd card.... they weren't...

Long, drawn out self-incriminating guilt trip later (and one mini panic text episode with hubby), final conclusion: blaster bolts!! I'm not getting them back. Le sigh.

Regroup and move along.

Since I had to re-personalize my phone, I  decided to bedazzle it with something guaranteed to crack grins wherever a nerd be found: Legend of Zelda! (Snes obviously, can't forsake original genius).

Legend of Zelda theme song for ringtone!
Treasure Chest for notifications.
Low life alert for emails.
Secret alert for text messages.
Flute for hubby texts (I have to know his specifically, sometimes it's just not worth searching for my phone for anyone else).

Best part?

*Drum roll*

Locked Screen

Unlocked Screen

Oh how I love it, tickles me silly. Now if only I wasn't going to bed early then I could start conversations with everyone just to hear my phone go off!

Virus Factories

*cough cough*

Children are wonderful little growing pots of imagination and and excitement. They also happen to be cute little cesspools of viruses and germs. There is a special circle of life that exists when children are introduced into a household.

Child goes out in public. Child touches every possible exposed surface while in public. Child comes down with sniffles and proceeds to spread proliferated disease around the house. Mom gets disease from taking care of sick child and living in the same house.  Dad gets sick from mom. Child feels better and has erroneously large amounts of energy while mom and dad are dying. Mom and dad start feeling better. Child goes out into public. 

Repeat weekly starting September through March. 

No amount of cleanser, sanitizer or no-touching rules interrupts this cycle. (Although I'm pretty certain my husband is attempting to overdose on hand sanitizer...)

I have been more sick in the last five years since Miss K arrived on the scene than in the decade prior. Hubby liked to boast that he never got sick before we got together. Enter child onto the scene and hubby has graciously accepted his place in the wonderful circle of family disease-sharing. 

What does any good self suffering parent do after accepting one's sickly lot in life? Why go have another little virus factory, of course! 

Big Four Ice Caves Hiking

Getting outdoors and having fun is a huge must in our family. Hubby goes stir-crazy if he doesn't get is outdoors fix and Miss K runs rampant with energy on the weekends. Hiking is one of our favorite outdoor activities and we try to go as often as time and weather allows. Hubby loves long, steep hikes that leave me gasping for breath and begging for powwow sit downs. I blame it on his legs, I swear I take two for every step he does. Which of course means I have to do twice the work. At least that's my logic!

With 5-year-old legs tagging along this time we had to choose a sweet and easy destination. Off to Washington Trails Association's website we went. Major rave for WTA on plentiful information and a search engine that allows you to filter by length, elevation gain, and children friendly hikes. This past weekend we chose to make a trip up to Big Four Ice Caves in the North Cascades. With a 2.2 mile length and overall 200-foot elevation gain, this was set to be a pleasant afternoon hike. 

And let me tell you, this hike did not disappoint at all. The trails had been recently worked on and the climb was gradual enough that Miss K didn't complain about being tired until we were almost all the way back down to our car. It was drizzling off and on the whole time so Miss K was constantly opening and closing her new yellow umbrella (talk of the excitement!). We got a little wet and cold but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. 

Meal Plan: November 2012

Goal #1 Completed: Dinner menu created for the month of November.

Goal #2 Half Completed: First two weeks of November shopping done in one day with a trip to Costco and one to Safeway.

This time I was sneaky about creating the menu and got hubby to help choose some meals for the month. I waited until he was comfortably posted up in bed with his laptop and then brought in every single cookbook and recipe card I own. Plopped them right down in the middle of the bed and told him if he didn't want fish and vegetarian meals all month he better go through and pick out some man-meals. And it worked! Two hours of time after the kids went to bed on Halloween and I had not only a month of meals decided on but I also had a shopping list created for the first two weeks of November! Woohoo victory lap for me!

In my overly-proud excitement I, of course, had to text my sister the awesome news. She then proceeded to advise me that I now needed to organize her life since I had mine under control. Ha! When does one ever have life under control? Being the awesome little sister that I am, I took photos of my menu and shopping list and sent them to her. See, I finally learned how to share. Only took a quarter of a century, no big deal...

I also learned how to share documents on Blogger. You too can see and print the awesomeness that is my November Menu! (Mini preview below)

While hubby may laugh at me and my ecstatic mood, I am uber proud of myself for completing the meal plan for the month and having a set grocery list before going to the store. Baby A and I dropped Miss K off to school and proceeded to spend two (just two!) hours getting everything we needed for the next two weeks! Oh, and I also remembered to eat before we went grocery shopping so I didn't feel the need to bring the whole store home.