:)

 This picture may one day go above our fireplace.

One Calm Kitty

I can't believe February is almost over! I know it's a short month, but I really can't believe it's almost Spring. And I really can't believe how nice the weather has been this year- we really have been blessed this winter.

No big news. I baked my first two-tiered cake for the hub for Valentine's Day.

It came out a little lopsided, but made with love.

The biggest change in our household is that we have, for the moment, solved the nightly behavioral problems of our cat. I have not mentioned this before, but, since we have moved into the house, one of Lydia's favorite things to do is jump on our television. She literally likes to jump on top of the TV, which makes it wobble, and scratches the screen. Not good.

As parents of this little gray stinker, we tried several things.

We tried scolding her....she really couldn't care less.

We tried spraying her with water. She loves water. She even tries to jump into the shower in the morning.

We tried spraying her with water and some vinegar in it. She did not really seemed to mind smelling and having raggedy fur.

We tried paying more attention to her. We usually play with Lydia at nighttime anyways, but we really tried to play with her more. This worked sometimes, until she decided she wanted to play the game called jump on the TV.

We tried putting her out in the garage each time she did it. This backfired because a) she loves the garage and b) when its really cold, momma is a wuss and doesn't have the heart to stick her out there

We tried some techniques from the cat behaviorist. I was randomly watching TV one day and came across a TV show called "My Cat From Hell" Naturally I tuned in. The guy on the show (who I guess is like the Cesar for dogs) said that cats like to claim their territory in every room, so it's important that they are able to claim a space in each room. A lot of times, these spaces are up high.

So, we tried making her a spot on top of the bookshelves. She seemed to like it, but then we had a scare one day when she woke up from a nap and took a tumble off of the bookshelves (I am pretty sure the cat is down to 7 lives now).

So, we were kind of at a loss. The only other thing we could think of was to get a new TV stand-one with a cover shelf. I, of course, loved the idea- since I want a new TV stand anyways. However, the husband, as well as the bank account, did not love this idea.

So, I was running out of ideas, thinking about checking my cat into cat therapy for her issues, when my mom mentioned to me to try tape. At first, we were against the idea, since it would look so horrible. But, after several more days of having to pry the cat off of our fairly new TV every 15 minutes, we busted out the duct tape and went to work.

The gray beast has had one interaction with the tape. It consisted of her jumping up on it, getting stuck and then tumbling off right away. This was followed by a dirty look for both of us.

Now she goes up and sniffs the tape, just to make sure its still there, but then walks away. Victory is ours.

Well, sort of....

At some point we will have to deal with the fact that we have an absolutely hideous TV stand as the focal point of our living room.

But for now we will just enjoy our calm kitty.....





Nothing new under the moon...

Hey ya'll!

I hope everyone is having a great winter (although it really feels more like Spring around here, which is fine, even though I wouldn't mind one good snow!)

I haven't updated in a while, but I really don't have anything earth shattering to update. Shawn and I have both been pretty busy with work, especially Shawn. He has been really busy working on a project for work, and helping completely renovate a house for a friend. I have been busy with the kiddos at work, and just started working as an after school tutor this week.

So, I really don't have any big news. I haven't really done any big house projects (we are saving those for the summer times), and have been keeping cooking pretty simple due to our busy schedules. The other day I did start to blog about the process of making "healthy" brownies, but decided not to reveal the end product, which was pretty much a gooey, squishy mess (and not really in a good way).

Anyways, life has been good, yet busy. I am looking forward to a Valentine's Weekend with the hubby, and maybe a big snow someday soon???:)

I hope everyone has a lovely Valentine's Day!