Headlights in the Fog

New Friends

This morning during breakfast Solomon and Isaac jumped in to the kitchen window to enjoy the view. I think that is a pretty good indicator that Isaac has been accepted in to our cat tribe. Lulu isn't so crazy about Isaac, if he comes around she gives him sort of an unenthusiastic hiss. She has never gotten along with Solomon either. She still occasionally hisses at him and he's been here for 5 years now. They have gotten along better since Gus died. Gus was Lulu's confidant and protector... I think since she had him around, she didn't need to be nice to that crazy kitten/cat Solomon. Since his death, she tolerates Solomon and he doesn't bully her around like he used to. I hope Lulu warms up to Isaac.
This morning after breakfast the kids and I went out for a morning bike ride. It was cool and beautiful. We rode around the basketball court at the school. All was well until Kitty started complaining she was tired and couldn't peddle anymore (she has been running a slight fever since yesterday.) When that didn't seem to get the correct response from me (I was racing Jack around the court) she pulled out her last Ace, "I have to POOP!" So we came home. Right in front of our house Kitty slipped on a patch of mud and came down hard on the sidewalk. Hysterical crying ensued. (Let the record show that it is an hour since we got home and no pooping has occured.) Once we got inside and got her cleaned up (nothing broken or scraped), I had a moment to look around. First I noticed egg yolk on the floor. Then I noticed a huge smear of yolk across the chair. Lastly I saw a huge fried egg on the floor leading in to the pantry... AH HA! Putting all of those clues together, I deduced that it was Isaac who was the culprit. We just bought a spray bottle two days ago to use on him when he gets up on the kitchen table. There was a bit of a misunderstanding of when to use the spray bottle because Kitty wanted to spray Isaac while he was eating cat food from his bowl. I think that would send the wrong message. Before the spray bottle, Isaac would get up on the table to check out what you were eating and you would hiss and clap your hands at him and he would look at you as if he were thinking, "What is the matter with you? I have no idea what you mean because I am just an innocent kitten." It was really maddening. Actually, now that I think about it, that is the attitude he adopts with most things. I think that is one of the reasons he and Solomon have become friends... Solomon hisses, Isaac innocently blinks his eyes at him and then rubs up against him. It's hard to keep up your indignent anger in the face of such, well, cuteness.
Jack has become quite the bike rider. He and Thom have taken two different miles long rides in the past week. I'm planning to go out with him today. First I am going to google bike riding rules because I just feel like a nag when I tell him to walk his bike across the street... I'd like to have some sort of document to back me up on that.
Kitty has been taking pictures again. Here is one of Thom on the phone with Gretchen, trying to get Skype to work. Notice the splash of color under the desk... yes, everyone should have a red fireman's hat near their computer...  just in case!

The next one my family and longtime friends will enjoy... I used to take bazillions of pictures of my feet... in fact I think my dad may still have a t-shirt I gave him for Christmas one year of my feet in black and purple pointy shoes and bright orange tights on my legs. Ah! I still believe one should wear as many bright colors together as possible... as is evidenced by how I dress my children. I really dred the day they have a strong opinion about their clothing as I so enjoy picking out what they wear. Anyhoo... here is the foot picture Kitty took yesterday:

The Kitten Cuteness Continues

Here is a picture of Kitty and Isaac watching TV today. Kitty was wearing headphones because I was just about to vacuum. Speaking of that, it was through the work of me,my sister-in-law Karen, my brother-in-law Ed, and my sweetie that I was able to vacuum. I was vacuuming the baseboards on Sunday when I spied a large, blue lego brick. The thought that I needed to bend down and pick it up was barely sent when the hose sucked that baby up. I could hear it rattling around and then everything seized up and the vacuum made this horrible shrieking wail. I turned it off. After a glance, I realized I needed to disassemble the vacuum to get the brick. That's where Karen and Ed found me 1/2 an hour later... down on the floor with the base plate taken off, trying to decipher how one got in to the motor case to have a look. Frankly, I had run out of energy. Ed took over and he and Karen had ideas and theories on what to do... one of which was shaking the vacuum violently. Had the lego been not so severly lodged, I think that would have done it. The next day, I took the vacuum apart on my worktable in the studio. I was able to get the vacuum apart enough to see the lego lodged in the intake fan. I tried all means of moving it out of there... but ultimately gave up. The next morning Thom handed me the now flatened, melted, mutilated lego brick. He said with a sly grin, "You just have to know how to move it to get it free." Wow. The vacuum works better than ever... perhaps it liked all of the attention.
Below is the best action shot of a 4 year old blowing out birthday candles you will likely ever see:

Isaac loves Kitty so much. I do not understand how a cat can put up with the amount of carrying and holding that  Kitty does of Isaac... but he does, he does. He rarely raises his voice with her and has only once accidentially scratched her. Isaac has become friends with Solomon and just tonight they were in cahoots and grabbing leftovers off of plates. Actually, Isaac was doing the grabbing and Solomon was looking on with an expression of, "How can something so wrong FEEL so right?"
Twice now when I have been cooking Isaac has jumped up on the stove to get my attention. You would think he would have learned the first time when he singed a few hairs, but apparently he has not.
He makes me laugh whenever I catch sight of him somewhere... he's so little and I don't expect him to be wherever it is he is. Today my laughing moment was finding him passed out cold on one of our kitchen chairs. So cute. Below are the two friends, posing for the camera:

Isaac is one cool cat!

Happy Birthday Kitty!

My girl turned 4 years old today! 4! She is a joy to behold... really she is. Here is the story of her birth. I can remember holding her that first night and just being amazed that this spirit had come to join our family. I made the rule that presents could not be opened until after breakfast... but things went quickly from there. Above is Jack and Kitty, post-present hysteria, with Kitty wearing her birthday crown that I made with her making all of the creative decisions. After the presents were opened, Kitty was playing with one and Isaac came over to watch:

He really is very calm about the kids. Solomon, on the other hand, is not so sure he likes having Isaac around. There has been a lot of sniffing and hissing, watching and posturing. Last night Solomon kept Isaac sequestered in the kitchen by guarding the doorway in to the hallway. When we were getting ready to open Kitty's presents, Issac was running back and forth through the kitchen, from the computer desk and then lickety-split into the hallway and back again. You forget that kittens have a certain kinetic energy until you have one living with you.

Last night Jack and I went to Five Below to have him pick out a present to give Kitty. He had a princess poster and then saw a display for some cool new crayola product and he said, "THIS will be perfect for Kitty!" and it was... it was the first present she opened when we all woke up this morning. Jack was so excited to get something for her... it really warmed my heart. I also had the grand reveal of the quilted wallhanging  of Kitty's loveys that I've been working on. Kitty loved it! I'm excited that now she'll be able to watch me finish it as it is about halfway done.
Happy Birthday my little girl! I can write that here, but if I said it to Kitty she would say, "No, I am a BIG girl!!!"

One note about Isaac's name. It was a name that Thom and I disagreed about as a name for a boy when I was pregnant with Kitty. Solomon was a name that we disagreed upon when I was pregnant with Jack. I'm hoping we'll have a cat named Josephine in our future because that was a favorite name of mine when I was pregnant with Kitty but Thom would not take me seriously.

Hello Isaac!

The kids and I went to the vet to pick up Lulu's meds. In the corner of the waiting room was a cage with three kittens in it. One of them, now named Isaac, was the spitting image of Gus as a kitten. The nice vets' office worker was more than happy to let me hold him. He was the calmest, sweetest little kitten I have ever held. Solomon was sweet... but has never been calm. So, yes, we brought him home. He is his own self, but the resemblance to Gus was/is so strong that it caught me off guard. So far, the transition to having Isaac around is going okay. Solomon keeps growling and hissing at Isaac and the kids keep running around in circles practically in to each other to get Isaac's attention. Isaac fell behind the washing machine and had to be rescued and Lulu is nowhere to be found.
Kitty had her first dentist appointment yesterday:
She followed Jack and apparently learned a great deal as the hygenist told her she was an 'excellent' patient. I wish the following picture had come out better... but here is both Jack and Kitty at the dentist:

Tuesday we went to a Corn Maze/Farm in Lancaster. We had a lot of fun, but ended up getting very hot and some of us cranky. We didn't go in the big corn maze based on advice one of my Mom's friend had given her and thank goodness for that. We went in a mini version of the corn maze and still felt really lost and befuddled and we feared we'd never see the end. We ended up going out the same entrance we had come in but we did not care because we were so thankful to be out of the maze. Here is a really cute shot of Kitty and Jack holding hands:

Here is another wonderful shot of my dad and Kitty hanging out in the rocking chairs in front of the General Store:

Tomorrow Kitty turns 4! An amazing thing to behold, indeed. Lots of presents wrapped in princess paper are ready for her to unwrap in the morning. Her birthday crown has been finished and is ready to be worn. Her grandmother arrives from Buffalo tomorrow night. Below is a picture of Kitty working at my table after watching me cut fabric for her crown. This was the only shot I got before she became self-concious and stopped working. I really must try not to smother her creative efforts with my enthusiasm of her doing creative things... but, Hey! I love watching her create.

Sunglasses

Kitty found a pair of her sunglasses (she has many that are always being lost and hardly ever found) on my worktable yesterday and wore them for the balance of the afternoon. The picture above is partially posed because I was telling Kitty to do an angry face! Now a happy one! Now a sad one! I think this one was a casual pose. I did have to explain what casual meant, but I think she captured it quite well. Below she is on the phone with Thom:

I tried to get a casual picture of both Jack and Kitty on the stairs but below was the best I could do:

Our Son, the Star

Yesterday my mom, dad, Thom and myself went to a camp production of 'Ferdinand the Bull.' Jack starred as Ferdinand. Above he is scaring the senoritas. Below he is sitting peacefully under the cork tree:

It was an awesome show... so cute with wonderful costumes and shy performers. I was so happy that my parents came... it meant a great deal to Jack, but it also meant a lot to me... for them to be able to share in the joy of watching Jack perform. After the play, Kitty showed off her close friend, Haley:

Before camp ended for the day, we all sat in on Kitty's bunk's music class. They happened to sing the song, 'Simple Gifts.' It is meaningful for us as my sister-in-law, Karen, sang it at our wedding back in 2001. All in all, a wonderful day. Here is a picture of Jack with his favorite camp counselor:

After we got home, I got this nice picture of my mom and dad with Jack and Kitty:

In Progress

I've been working on Kitty's wall hanging today. I'm trying to get as much done as I possibly can this week while the kids are still at camp before I have to start working on it either before Kitty goes to sleep at night or wakes up in the morning. Actually, I think once the wall hanging really gets to the sewing stage, I might share it with her as I think she'll really enjoy watching me work on it.  This morning I was working out the color schemes of each of the three cats... Sahnna is pink, Kitten is purple and Fake Lulu is teal/light green. The pink and purple choices were easy as they are Kitty's favorite colors. Fake Lulu being teal/green was a struggle for me... she could have been blue or even darker purples. After looking at my colors, I decided I needed more choices and went out to my local chic-chic fabric store, Lonni Rossi. I try to stay away from it or my other favorite local store: Cloth and Bobbin. They both are wonderful fabric stores each for a different reason. Lonni Rossi has very sensual fabrics both in textures and in feel of the fabric. When I want to make something with a bright color or a small pattern or need something to act more as a part of a larger whole, I go there. If, on the other hand, I am making something where the fabric is the star I go to Cloth and Bobbin.  The woman who is the manager at Lonni Rossi helped me today and of course I got more than I thought I would. All of the fabrics in the bottom row of the above picture of my work table are from Lonni Rossi. I had to really focus while at the store because I kept getting distracted by the beauty of the fabrics and coming up with ideas to use them for. When I got home, I got right to getting everything set up to start putting together the actual quilt. Below is a picture of the quilt in progress: you can see the design under a sheer piece of white fabric. That fabric is what holds all the pieces together before I actually stitch them down to make a quilt. The cats are going to look very flat until I can get in there and use some thread painting to bring them to life.