New Addition

We have a new addition to our little (but growing) family. His name is Milo. He is an almost 3 month old, orange, baby tabby cat. I don't know what really prompted us to get another cat, but we did, and we're loving it. Pepper, on the other hand, is not so enthusiastic. She has done well, considering she goes from being a pampered, queen of the house, to a moving play toy for a very rambunctious kitten. They are slowly learning to get along together without too much hissing.


Some of my coworkers seem to think I am turning in to a crazy cat lady. All I have to say to that is, if I am, at least my husband is sweet enough to support me. Some people are passionate about crazy things, my thing is animals.

The past few weeks

Oh school. What a bother. Doug and I are almost done with spring term, and we don't plan on going summer term... thank goodness. Working full time will be a nice break I think. Things at The Laundry are interesting. One day we worked on our animal impersonations. I got everyone rolling on the floor (not literally, that would be really gross) with my seagull, it went something like this "I-eeee". Other favorites were zebra, whooping crane, donkey, and BobWhite. Apparently there is a bird called a Bob White, whose sound is "bob white bob white" I'll believe it when I hear it. We also find random things in the laundry, which we play with. Today there were kitchen tongs in the table cloths, we've also found a head-lamp thing, and it worked, we even found beef jerky in a bag (no we didn't eat it- bedbugs).

About Pepper:
She learned how to drink out of the toilet, I resisted the temptation to push her in this morning... She isn't opposed to getting wet, which stinks because when she's doing something wrong I can't spray her with water and have her stop. The other day was really hot in the apartment, I could tell she was really hot, so I petted her with wet hands. I kept dipping my hand in water, and eventually I got her soaked, and she just sat there and took it. Weirdo. She is as defiant as a two-year-old. She'll put her paws on my couch, look at me, and then start scratching it. All I have to do is point my finger and give her a death stare and she gives a protest cry, but then stops. Jenny can attest to this. She likes to sit out on our balcony and watch people or catch bugs.

As a side note, I was looking through pictures and found this old one. Doug apparently didn't want baby Pepper to eat his popcorn. Precious.

I started a little herb garden, so far only parsley and sage have sprouted... It's been two weeks since I planted the seeds, should I be worried? I also planted a pot of cat grass and catnip. The grass grew really fast.

What is up with Utah weather? We skipped spring. It went from blistery cold to unbearably, sweaty knee pits hot. Where is my nice pleasant warmth? Oh well, at least it's warm now and not freezing. On a happier note, Winco Foods opened in Orem :D Salt water taffy is only $2 a pound. And the bulk food is awesome. They even have cat food... I'd buy it if I thought Pepper would eat it. She's spoiled, we still give her canned food, supplemented with hard food. She's still so skinny, I just want her to get fat, or at least a little chubby.

P.s. I just noticed, as I was about to post this blog, that I had titled it "The pass few weeks" When I was writing it I knew it didn't sound quite right, but I just shrugged it off. Der. "The past few weeks." The sun is making me more blonde, in more ways than one.

Picture Proof

This is picture proof that Pepper watches basketball. She doesn't just get up there for a look. In this picture she watched for at least 5 minutes.


Usually she sits on the floor, but she has found out she can get up right next to it. She touched her nose to the screen, and got shocked... I laughed pretty hard.

That is all. Have a great day.

Of Laundry and Loofahs

Things we do at the laundry to keep ourselves entertained:

• Make up nicknames for each other, such as Raj (as in Raja from Aladdin because the girl's last name is DeLione which means "lion" but a tiger is close enough), mine is Mom (I checked on some people because I heard them shouting, they called me mom, and it stuck), Butch (don't know the story on that one), etc.
• Think of different foods we could send through the Mangle (the giant flat-iron machine) such as pizza in tin foil, crepes, and tortillas with cheese to name a few.
• Push people in the giant dryers while they're unloading them.
• Hide water bottles.
• Ride/push people in the bins.
• Hide in bins and scare people as they put there hand in to get stuff out.
• Sing really really loud

The kitty is doing really well. She likes to watch basketball on t.v. (something she and Doug have in common). Recently she has discovered our dresser drawers. She loves to crawl in the bottom drawer and then magically appear in the top one. We tried closing all the drawers so she couldn't do that anymore, but it just makes her so happy, and it keeps her busy so... we keep them open. She doesn't bite as much as she used to, so I think she's growing up, thank goodness. Her favorite toys are milk caps, Doug's socks, and recently she has been taking my shower loofah out of the shower and carrying it around like a prize. Just as a size comparison I've included pictures:
(That's the kiss that Jenny told me to give her.)
If it seems like I talk a lot about her it's because she's really the only thing that changes, school and work stay the same, besides, she's my baby and I'm allowed.

6 weeks later

4 weeks

9 weeks

It's hard to believe we've had Pepper for 6 weeks already. She still looks like a kitten at 9 weeks old, but comparing to when she was only 4 weeks, there's a big difference. Her face used to be so little! It's weird because she still has kitten fur. Not so much on her head, but everywhere else she's still fuzzy. I think right now she's in the everything-is-a-toy-including-fingers phase... I hope it's just a phase... She has her sweet moments where she'll purr and cuddle... those last for about 5 minutes before she's playing again. She can reach the top of the scratching post we got her, it's about 4 feet high. We put a collar with a bell on her so we can hear where she is. She's good about coming to me when I call her, I've never had a cat do that before.

As for Doug and I. We're still surviving school... and that's about it. My supervisor hired too many people this semester at the laundry, so there's nothing to do (I'm serious, sometimes we'll fold and unfold blankets for an hour just so that we look busy). I still get paid for it though, and shy-anti-social-Lizzie actually made some friends there. It's true, they added me on Facebook. We love our new apartment, the commute to school hasn't been a problem. The ward seems a lot more friendly too. We've already been to another couple's apartment to play games. And they invited us over again tomorrow night for FHE. Things are good.

Happenings

We got all moved in and got all the appliances working. We had a problem with the dishwasher. First it flooded the kitchen floor after a cycle because the tubes in the back were loose. We tightened them and ran it again. No flood! But it didn't drain either... Why? Because they didn't knock out the thing in the garbage disposal when they installed the dishwasher. We did it and now it runs great. We love our washer and dryer. It's the first time I've used a front loader by choice. I never liked the coin-op front loaders in my old apartments. They stunk. So I was apprehensive about buying one. It was a great deal at RC Willey and will turn out being a lot cheaper in energy savings. It said that with a gas water heater it will only cost $13 a year to run the washer 8 times a week.

Plus we got a Christmas surprise. We have been thinking about getting a kitten, but were waiting until we were in a place that allowed pets. On Boxing Day I was just browsing the ksl.com classifieds and found one that had just been posted. I called to see if we could come see the kitten. The lady found her in the backyard under the bushes on Christmas night. She waited to see if the mom cat would come back, but at around 9 she brought the kitten in so it wouldn't freeze. The next day she tried putting it back outside for the mom to come get it, but she didn't. The lady was allergic to cats, and needed to give it away asap. We went and saw it and I adored it. How could you not?


We think it is a "she" and that she is about 4 weeks old. Usually kittens stay with their moms until they are about 8 weeks old. That's when they can really do things on their own. We got kitten formula and have been feeding her a bit with a bottle. We are also feeding her a mixture of the formula and canned kitten food. She loves it and gets all messy because she's just learning how to eat from a dish. I was worried for a while because she hadn't pooped at all but she had been eating. Very young kittens can't eliminate on their own and they need stimulation to poop. She seemed old enough to do it on her own, so I was worried she had worms or was constipated or something. But she's pooped twice now! The first time was on the bathroom floor (we keep her in the bathroom at night) and the second time was in the litter box! She's so smart already. I feel like a proud parent of a potty trained kid... even though one success doesn't necessarily mean she's trained. But it is a victory. Mostly she eats and sleeps. She likes to cuddle up close to us on the couch and sleep. That's what she is doing right now. She hasn't caught on to playing with toys yet, they scare her. But she will be a lot of fun.

She still doesn't have a name, hopefully we'll pick one out tonight.

Homeless.

Well, we did it. We got out of our spider ridden apartment. Surprisingly enough, as we were packing and moving I didn't see any... where do they go? I swear they know when I'm home all alone. The other night I grabbed a Kleenex out of the box and just about had it to my nose when what did I see? You guessed it, a SPIDER. Right by my face! Doug wasn't home, but he probably could've heard my scream a mile away. I don't scream much, never at sporting events, not when I hurt myself, not even in Provo traffic. Spiders are pretty much the only thing that will raise a scream out of my little lungs.
That was a tangent I wasn't planning on making. I meant to tell about how we packed up our entire apartment in one day, got it into a 14' U-haul, and two Toyotas, and eventually made it back to our hotel room. Doug stayed home from work today and started packing things up this morning. I got home at 3. His parents came to help at about 4:30. By 6 we were on our way to the storage unit in Spanish Fork where we're keeping our stuff until the condo closes. We get to the storage place around 6:30. Find our unit... with the lock still on it, and the office closed at 6... I panicked. But we got it open and by 7:30 we were done. We still had boxes at the apartment, and we had to clean. So we went back, filled up both cars again (we had returned the U-haul) and closed the door to Cambridge Court for the last time. It was a good feeling. Now it's just a wait until we get to undo what we spent so long doing today. But I don't mind so much. The hotel has a very nice heater.