Smart or just lucky?

Is my cat really this smart, or has he just gotten lucky?

Picture this. It's Monday night/Tuesday morning, a.k.a. 2:30 a.m. I am asleep until... something is pushing on my chest, I faintly hear a motor boat, wait, could that be purring? Ahh, wet something touched my nose. That is how Milo woke me up. Doug's reaction was better, Milo tickled his (Doug's) ear with his (Milo's) whiskers (Doug only has whiskers when he doesn't shave for a week). What are the cat's doing out at 2:30?? I know we put them away. There were only 2 explanations, we have ghosts, or Milo opened the door himself. I haven't had any other "haunting" experiences, so it must've been Milo.
He has opened the door once or twice before (we have lever handles, not round doorknobs) by jumping up and accidentally catching the doorknob. This hasn't happened for months, so I took it to be accidental.
Now it is Tuesday night/Wednesday morning 3:30 a.m. Can you guess what happens? If you said the cats got out again, you'd be correct. I promptly put them back in their room, climbed back into bed (still warm, mmm) and was drifting back to sleep when... I hear a click, squeak, and... purring. Urgh. He did it again!
Now tell me, is this an accident? I think not. I was tired, and not thinking well, so I put the cats in the garage for the rest of the night (garage door has a round doorknob). Thinking more logically now, we lock them in their room. As in, we have to open the door with a key. Is this normal? I mean, Milo doesn't even have to jump anymore to get the doorknob. All he does is stretch out his slinky of a body, and tahdah!

Other than that, our lives are the same as always. School (boring) work (boring) and dishes (boring). Sidenote, I made a sugar scrub from here. I made it just like the recipe, and it worked surprisingly well. I smelled like a cookie all day (best day ever).

Happy New Year's Eve-eve

Christmas vacation has been great. It's been nice not worrying about school. Work has been pretty laid back. Since so many people were gone I was obliged to be a delivery driver. I had gotten my BYU Driver's Permit during the summer so I could drive to Aspen Grove (about 2 hours round trip, anything to get out of the Laundry). I was one of the few left over break who can drive. It wasn't bad except for the snow, cold weather, and heavy heavy bins full of laundry. Did I mention the size of the trucks? They're huge! With side mirrors that stick out like whiskers, and no rear-view mirror. I thought I was going to take some poor missionaries out with them (mirrors) as I was driving down the sidewalks of the MTC (one of the perks of driving is you get to drive on sidewalks). No more work for the year, and thankfully no more driving.

Doug and I got new cell phones for Christmas. We're having a lot of fun with them, me mostly because it's my first smart phone. I don't know if I'd be happy with a regular old phone anymore. I'm spoiled.

Cheryl was kind enough to give us her old Christmas tree (they got one that was prelit). We put it up and decorated it... And then the cats got involved. Sadly we had to take it down early. We feared they would strangle themselves on the lights.

It was pretty while it lasted. Hopefully by next year they'll have grown up enough to stay out of it.

I had a great birthday. We went to IHOP (because I love breakfast food). I got pumpkin praline pancakes. Delicious! Then we went and saw Secretariat at the dollar theater. It was a really good movie. Doug wanted to change Milo's name to Secretariat after. It hasn't stuck. Then I reread all of the Hunger Games books (because Doug got me the first one for my birthday and completed my set). What more could I ask for? It was a perfect day.

School starts again on Tuesday for the last time! I can hardly contain my excitement. Hooray for 2011! I thought this year would never come.

Pictures!

I opened my computer to do some homework, but got distracted. Oh well, you will reap the fruits. I have lots of pictures, not only of my cats! Shocking, I know. But, I'll start with the cat ones. This first is a video of them with the ping pong balls. This is at the bottom of the stair by the front door. They spent over an hour down there playing. Of course when I pull the camera out they get shy.

Right when Doug got home today and sat down Milo climbed up on him. So cute.

Then Pepper wanted in on the picture action.

Milo has huge ears. Sidenote: I took off their collars because one morning I let them out of their room and Milo had gotten his jaw stuck in it, don't know how long he was stuck, but the collar was soaked with saliva and his fur around it was soaked too. Poor guy.

Enough of that. Now on to my plants class. Every week we get to bring home a new plant. I gave Doug the first one to take to his work. Plants in the workplace increase productivity, health, and all over well-being of the employees. The next week we made European Gardens (a bunch of plants in one pot).

This one has a Madagascar Dragon Tree (the big spiky one), Fittonia (the one with pink veins), a Rubber Plant (in the back can't really see it), and I don't know the name of the dark green with purple or the other green one.... yet.

The week after I got this cute Neanthe Bella, it's in the palm family. To spice things up my teacher had various plastic animals to put in the pot. I chose the frog, and named it Doug II.

Then today we got to make Bonsai trees. Ours are just small young ficus trees. I got to make two, one variegated and one not. I braided the trunks of the variegated one. I'm excited to continue to prune and shape them.

And all of them together.

Can't think of a title.

So after a year I finally added myself (Lizzie) as an author to this blog. Before, I would have to sign out of my account, sign in with Doug's (since it's under his email) and then post. Before I could check my email, I would have to sign back in to my account. Doesn't sound too bad until you have to do it all the time. I'll use that as my excuse for not posting very often.

After that preamble I'm sorry to say I don't really have anything in mind to blog about. I'm just that bored. Doug is at the football game. I'm home alone with my cats. I really am the cat lady. How far have I gone? Milo was sick, I took him to the vet, and didn't even hesitate to fork out $120 for it (exam, de-worming pill, anti-biotic shot, and anti-biotic medicine). The recent fire in Herriman caused me to ponder on what I would take if I only had 5 minutes to evacuate my home. My cats, my marriage certificate, and my memory box. I love my cats.

Milo is even helping me write my blog. I won't go as far as having a Facebook page for my cats, or even their own blog (though some might argue I'm turning this one into an ode to them).

On a different note. I'm thoroughly enjoying my plants class. Each week we learn about caring for indoor plants and in the "lab" we plant one and get to take it home. So far I have a Lemon-Lime Dracaena, a European Garden (basically a bunch of plants in just one 8-inch pot), and I'm propagating a Spider Plant from some clippings. For Halloween we have to take a hollowed out pumpkin (I'm guessing we'll plant a plant in a pot and then stick it in the pumpkin). How festive. I like Halloween. I would like to decorate more, not the creepy-fake-spider-webs everywhere, but classy Halloween decor.

Doug and I finally got a ladder (to put a new battery in a smoke detector). But I was able to put up my vases, that I've been collecting, on the ledge. They look nice, but I need more. It's a long ledge.

Just an F.Y.I. I bought Tootsie Pops the other day, they have Raspberry and Banana flavors! I didn't get to try the Raspberry, someone ate them all before I could. But the Banana tasted just like the banana twin popsicles. I would highly recommend them.

One year older, and wiser too

Wow. Doug and I have almost been married a year! Crazy how time goes by so fast (unless you're working at the laundry and it's 20 minutes until lunch). When we went up Millcreek Canyon with Mom, Grandma, Sarah, and her kids (baby James is super cute btw) Sarah asked me what I've learned this past year. At the time I couldn't really answer, I'm much better at multiple choice questions, I stink at free response. So now that I have had time to ponder on the question, I have come up with some responses.

• Don't sweat the small stuff. Just because your significant other can't seem to get his dirty clothes in the laundry basket is no reason to get bitter and resentful.
• Be patient. Boys are weird, and they think weird ways. It takes time to explain why you (a girl) is right. Lots of time.
• I'm not always right. This may contradict the previous response. Proving, I am not always right.
• People have very different views about money, how to save it, how to use it, and what to spend it on. Me=Consumer. Doug=Saver.
• People's views about money don't always coincide with their views of food (special, non-staple food), how to save it, use it, etc. Me=Saver. Doug=Consumer.
• I'm not heartless, I actually have emotions, and they show more now.
• He can't read my mind and know what he did to make me upset. I have to use words.
  
• Being married is a lot more work than dating, but there are more rewards

To update on the previous post. Pepper and Milo have become good friends now. They cry if we put them in separate rooms at night, and they enjoy chasing each other and acting like lions and tigers (not bears). I'm glad we got Pepper a friend, plus Milo is a lot sweeter and more of a teddy bear than Pepper. He likes to cuddle, and she.... doesn't.

Aren't they cute together? My babies.

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.