Girl's Best Friend

Grace and Scotty love each other. Scott has been her "protector" since before I knew I was pregnant. He always wanted to lay on my tummy or right beside it while I was pregnant and since she has arrived, he always wants to be near her. Now, he is still a cat and he has claws and he does get annoyed when she is too rough with him, but he is very tolerant and allows way more rough housing than I would have anticipated. Overall he is very gentle and loves his Gracie girl.

Well, while we were in WV, Grace found one of my Mom's cat toys - a long stick with feathers on the end - and it became her favorite thing. Neither of Mom's cats would play with her, but she was playing with it for her amusement, not theirs. :) When we got home, I got a coupon for a free toy with the purchase of food from petsmart so I chose the same kind of toy, mainly for Grace. She LOVES it. She plays with it all the time and much to her amusement, Scotty plays with her. She flings it all around and Scotty chases it, jumps up in the air and tries to catch it...she thinks it's hysterical. It took her a day or 2 to figure out he wanted to play, not take it from her, but now they play with it daily. The other day I snapped a few photos of them together, they are so cute!

Where is my motivation? (& stuff)

I haven't been feeling great this week - I blame the allergies. I had to stop taking my allergy meds 2 weeks ago and won't be able to take it through the end of the pregnancy and beyond. Anyway, with this generally crappy feeling I haven't felt terribly motivated.

We found out on Monday that sweet Martin is a stressed out kitty. He has been having the occasional accident outside his litter box and we thought that it was all the changes we've been making for the baby (or his general sense that the baby was coming) and he was just acting out. We had also moved his litter out of our bedroom since I wasn't supposed to be breathing in the litter and this could have annoyed him. After some more research we found I could be around the litter, just not change it, after 20 weeks. We moved them back into our closet 2 weeks ago and he settled down some which just confirmed our suspicion, but then he had another accident so we decided it was best to get him checked out. The vet said that he has an inflamed bladder (which is caused by the stress) and it is painful for him to go to the bathroom. He is associating the pain with the litter box, so he isn't using the litter box when it hurts. The vet said the stress could be from his brother being a bully, the baby, the changes, all kinds of things. So, I've been spending as much time in our bedroom as I can to watch him and make sure that he gets some solo time at the food and water bowls without his brother hovering and that he gets as much attention and soothing time with momma as possible. He seems to be doing well and not sleeping as much, and he's on day 3 of an anti-inflammatory that she said should bring him some relief in 7 - 10 days...so hopefully he's making progress.

Anyway, this morning I was feeling a bit better. My friend Leigh-Ann and her daughter Lydia came over for a bit to hang out and check out the nursery and home improvement projects we've done lately and then I had lunch with my friend Elizabeth which is always so enjoyable. I love opportunities for ladies social times and 2 in one day was just lovely. :) After I got home though, I just couldn't get myself motivated. I have lots I can be doing, but apart from my daily chores and a few projects here and there, I have been less than productive this week.

David did get the bookshelf we wanted for the nursery so last night we put it together...we LOVE putting the baby's room together. :) On Sunday we ordered our La-z-boy and we can pick it up on Friday so that's exciting too. (We decided on a La-z-boy instead of a rocker or glider because they aren't that much more expensive and we'll get alot more use out of it in the long run. :) Hopefully tomorrow I'll find my motivation and get some things done.

Friday night my mom & step dad are coming into town for a brief visit. It will be great to get to visit and for them to get to feel the little one moving before he/she arrives in just over 11 weeks. I'll try to do a better job of taking pictures this visit as we venture to Fry's and Bass Pro over in Gwinnett and of course, trek it up to Red Robin in Alpharetta.

Oh and for you family who read...Grandad is improving some and they are talking about bringing him home which is great news, JP's surgery went great today and he is recovering well and finally - we found out this morning that Jennifer & JP are having a baby boy in February!! Lots of good news today!

Daddy's little helper

We finally finished the master bath renovation about 2 weeks ago and we are so thrilled to have our fully functioning space with 2 sinks!! While David was installing the sink, he had a cute little helper anxious to be a part of the action, as well as one observer. Somehow I didn't get a picture of Marty sitting at the door watching, but here you can see Scotty "helping" daddy out.

Somehow I didn't get a before picture of the bathroom either - doh! (I have got to remember to start doing that!) So you know what we changed, it had the full size mirror that stretched across the entire wall and 2 can lights above the mirror. There was only one sink and a completely useless vanity space (ya'll know I don't do my hair or makeup) that was open underneath. The only thing we still want to do is have a built in piece go between the 2 vanities with drawers and shelves for our storage. In the interim we're using these plastic drawers which function just fine until we can save up the money for that. We're definitely going to hire a contractor for that portion of the renovation since it's so custom and we want it to match.

Here's the finished (for now) product

More renovation pictures to come soon! We have been busy, busy in the Bilbo house getting everything done and ready for baby!!

Family & Fun

For the last few days I've had family in town. David had a men's retreat last weekend so on Friday on the spur of the moment, Carol decided to come down for the night with Anne. It was so nice to have some adult time with her without all the kiddos running around under foot. A rare moment for us to have fun ladies time that of course included cheap mexican and margaritas for Carol (you know I don't like tequila - yuck!) We mostly just hung out and she got lots of hours of sleep which seeing that Sunday was her birthday was a welcome gift. I was so glad to have some time with my chunk-a-munk of a niece too. "Little" Anne is 25lbs at 11 months and starting to walk some, amazing. Saturday morning we went up to Kennesaw to shop at some of the stores that she doesn't have in Dayton before she headed back home.

Saturday afternoon Dad & Linda arrived again and they will be with us until Thursday. Sunday we just relaxed most of the day and ordered pizza to top off our lazy day so no one would have to cook. Monday night we headed off to the braves game. I LOVE going to Braves games, but don't normally indulge. Thankfully, Dad treated so we could go and have a fun night at Turner Field on our single income. It was alot of fun and a mostly great game despite the loss to the Cardinals. (Note - they won tonight though so hopefully tomorrow will go in our favor too!) Plus, David got his cotton candy & I got my pretzel - the real reason that we go to the ballpark.

Today was certainly out of the ordinary. It started with a cake for a repeat client then Linda & I ran a few errands. The most unusual thing happened at 4pm this afternoon...I had the pleasure of participating via the web on my BFF Lacey's 4D ultrasound. It was so much fun! I got to find out with her, along with her hubby in Iraq and family in NC, that she is having a little girl! It was very exciting indeed. I knew she was having a girl and certainly hoped she was and couldn't be more thrilled for her. This is baby #4 for her, boy, girl, boy, and now girl!

Tonight Dad & his friend Tom from Savannah, who joined us last night as well, took in another Braves game and Linda & I watched Bride Wars. It was definitely a chick flick but very cute and David finally watched Max Payne which he said was "bleh, and they added 80% more plot to the video game." Tomorrow will be another low key day, which I am coming to enjoy. I've read 4 books in the last 2 weeks, perhaps I'll finish #5 tomorrow.

Scotty's Big Adventure

So last night when we came home, the front door didn't latch close and the boys got out. David ran to the grocery store to pick up a few things and when he got back home a half our later he noticed the door was ajar. He caught Martin in the yard and saw Scotty on the porch so he went to get Marty and put him in the house. Scotty got spooked or something and jumped off the edge of the porch closest to the garage - nearly a story high! He ran away and we couldn't find him.

David grabbed a flashlight and was walking through the woods while I was shaking his food bowls and his treats and calling his name on the front and back porches. Paul & Bethany came over and we locked up Marty in the bedroom with me so the door to the house could be left open in case he decided to come back while they were searching. It was so frustrating and we were very worried that he could have hurt himself in the jump and that he would freeze, it was only 28 degrees outside...

After an hour or so of canvassing the neighborhood and not finding him, they came back in and David put his bed on the porch. After they left Marty kept going downstairs and each time David would follow him, open the door and call for Scotty. Finally at around 11:30 David when to check for the last time and Scotty was on the porch! I was so excited. He came upstairs and cuddled with us on the bed and went right to sleep. It was a very hard night and we're so glad he's home safely!

Merry Christmas - #1

On December 19th we (David, the cats & I) headed up to Elkins, WV to celebrate the holidays with my dad & step-mom. We got in safely around 11 Friday night and let the boys get adjusted before heading to bed. Since Casper was with us at Thanksgiving, it was a pretty easy transition and they seemed excited to see each other. Saturday we spent a leisurely day before heading to the Chinese restaurant in town for dinner and then to the Christmas Show at the American Mountain Theater. They were silly and sang songs, told the story of Christ and had a patriotic moment too. It was alot of fun, my favorite part was the chickens that "bocked" the Carol of the Bells...hysterical!

My brother Mark & sister-in-law Kayla arrived Sunday night and we've been hanging out since. Unfortunately, one of Dad's friends passed away last week and Dad traveled to VA for the funeral Monday. While he was gone us kiddos hung out with Linda dining at the Mexican place Sunday night and then heading to Buckhannon for some shopping on Monday. Mark & Kayla made this cat tree for Casper, you can tell who really loved it?

All 3 boys, best buds!

Here's dad & Casper in his favorite spot.

This was one of Casper's toys that I was curious about. I turned it on and put it in front of Scotty who paid attention to it for about 2 minutes.

My sweet Scotty cuddled up in fleece

On Tuesday morning David & I went to the YMCA for a workout since we had already had lots of yummy goodness and we are just at the start of our 2 week family (and food) extravaganza. It was nice to work up a sweat - hopefully we'll be able to make that happen again during our vacation time!  After showers, David headed outside to help my brother with our dad's gift.  We had made him open a gift early - we got him a new pulley system for his canoe (that he stores on the roof of the porch). The boys got it all set up and here they are attempting to pull it up for the first time...

They got it up to the top - will it stay up?

It works!

That afternoon we headed to the theatre to see the Tale of Desperaux, which was cute but not nearly as funny as Four Christmases which we saw a few weeks ago (very funny!).  Then we headed home to get Christmas dinner started and Linda made us a wonderful feast with ham (my favorite!) and afterwards we settled in to watch Wanted on DVD (definitely left something to be desired) while enjoying the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies I made while we watched. 

Wednesday morning we celebrated Christmas by opening our gifts.  Here's a few pictures from the festivities...

Linda with her new fancy, schmancy Scrabble game

Scotty so excited to open his present - we've never had a cat try to get into the package before! He actually got a few pieces of tissue ripped off before he gave up and pestered me to open it.

My brother Mark and his wife Kayla with Scotty after all the gifts were open

Casper excited about Scotty's new toy. Almost all the feathers were gone after just 15 minutes!

After all the presents were opened, we headed up to Fairmont to start Christmas #2 with my mom's side of the family. We'll be there until Saturday night, so a recap will come soon.

Merry Christmas!

My "Helper"

Last night we put the garland, lights and bows outside and the candles in the windows. That, and the tree, are really all we do for Christmas. We don't have a ton of Christmas decor, I mostly just use the greenery that we cut off the bottom of our fresh tree to decorate our mantels and shelves. We love the smell of the Carolina fur we get each year from the Coker Tree Farm, so I try to spread it around the room. We always had artificial trees growing up so going to a tree farm to find the perfect tree, cut it down and bring it home is so much fun!

I have also been wrapping all the presents. Thankfully, we had alot of our shopping done before I lost my job and we have gone in with other family members to combine gifts, which is good. I learned when we first got cats that bows and ribbons are a no-no. Tissue paper will now join the list. I have screamed at least 15 times "Get out of my tissue paper - that's mommy's!" to a willful little kitty. Here's a picture of him "helping" me fluff the tissue paper.

Then he helped me fluff the garland as I was getting it ready for David to wrap on the porch. Here he is in the middle of the freshly fluffed garland.

Christmas Trees & Kittens

We got our Christmas Tree on Tuesday. We knew Marty would be thrilled. He is always in awe of and in love with our Christmas Trees. He likes to sit under them and look up longingly at the tree. He does this with and without the lights, so we know it's the tree he truly loves. His first year with us we didn't get a Christmas tree since my Grandfather had passed when we would normally have been decorating and we made 2 trips to WV that December. By the next year, he & Vinny were too big to climb the tree or even get in it for that matter, so having a tree this year is going to be interesting.

When we brought the tree in, Marty lit up. He looked up saw David coming in with it, jumped down off the couch and patiently waited until he could get close enough to smell the tree. Scotty, however, acted like a cat on crack (and continues to whenever he gets near the tree). From the minute David brought it in, he has been in, on, under and in any way possible "involved" with the tree. He has climbed it several times already (that we know about!) and has "adjusted" the landscape of the tree...this means he has created several holes in the tree by weighing down the branches. We've rotated the tree so the major holes are in the back, but if he does it again I guess we'll just have to live with it. For now we've decided not to put any ornaments on the tree...it's just safer that way. We'll see if he calms down after we've had it up for a few days, but until then he's going to be locked in our room with us at night until he can be trusted.

It is fun though, especially with Marty - he is so cute. We got the lights on tonight and they have both had naps under the tree. Here's a few pictures for your enjoyment.

What A Mess!

So the other day, we came home to this:

Scotty had completely riped to shred 2 of the 3 flutterballs, and the feathers were everywhere! David and I just laughed when we saw it, Scotty has been playing with those things since he joined our family and it was just a matter of time before they were completely destroyed. I'm sure he was proud because on Saturday he did it again. Linda and I had run to the grocery store and he destroyed flutterball #3 while we were gone. Alas, all that remains are the balls themselves - I think we know what he'll be getting for Christmas. =0)

Scotty's 2nd favorite toy is Marty's tail. Marty has gotten so much smarter about it though. When he lays on the ottoman, or anywhere up high, he always tucks his tail in some fashion so it's not hanging off the edge and tempting his little brother.

The boys are getting along much better these days. They bathe each other more regularly and can even share a smaller space sometimes. Marty has rejoined us in the bed each night, though he is still sleeping at David's feet instead of his head. Maybe he has just changed his mind and that's his permanent new place to sleep, who knows. I do think it's super cute that Scotty has taken to sleeping in the pillows on the guest bed - Vinny used to do that. Here's a few updated pictures for your viewing pleasure...

He LOVES to cuddle with his mommy!!

Our New Addition

We are pleased to introduce our newest family member, Benjamin Scott. As is our custom, we named him after one of our all time favorite artists, this time a musician, Ben Folds. We will call him Scotty for short as we just can't call a cat Benji. He's 13 weeks old and is just a super sweetie. He's part Russian Blue, part Maine Coon, and possibly part something else, they weren't sure. He's solid gray and has the cutest black whiskers and brown nose. We had gone to the adoption agency with another kitten in mind, but we saw him being so calm and docile as his 4 cage-mates (some of whom were his siblings) acted crazy and climbed all over him. We thought that was a good sign since Marty is such a quiet little guy.

We brought him home and the introduction exceeded our expectations. Marty was very excited and couldn't wait for us to open the door of the carrier and let him out. Marty immediately climbed into the crate and licked his new brother. They have done so well with each other, we can't believe it.

Scotty is definitely interested, but not overly so, in Marty and the feeling seems to be mutual. Marty has shown a few signs of aggression, but Scotty doesn't seem to mind. They mostly just stay near each other and show interest, but don't get too close. =)

David has made a strong effort to not let our new little one sleep on him, hasn't played with him when Marty is around, and more importantly has given Marty as much attention as possible to let him know that he is still Daddy's boy. Thankfully, Scotty was really attached to his foster mom, of the human variety, so he has bonded with me which is also good news since our Vinny Boy was definitely more my baby.

So far, he is very much a lap cat. If he is going to sleep, he wants to sleep in the arms of someone...so far he's not particular about who. =) Here he is sleeping with his new daddy:

Bethany came over today, since Paul is in AZ for his brother's wedding, and Scotty has spent a good chunk of time in her lap too. He's such a social little guy, we couldn't ask for anything more!

For those of you who are interested, we decided to get a new kitten now since Marty has shown so many signs of loneliness. Thursday I stayed home from work and I heard him chirping (he never makes noise, so this is rare) and went to check on him. He was standing at the window sill with his nose pressed against the glass, purring so loud I could hear him before I could see him (again, rare) and shaking. I just about lost it. There was a neighborhood kitty in the bushes and they were staring at each other...Martin has shown other signs, but this was kinda the final straw. I called David at work and told him what was going on. While I was on the line with him, the kitty ran away and Marty ran through the house looking through all the windows until he couldn't find him anymore and he looked so deflated and sad. We both decided that it was time to get him a new sibling. We had originally thought we'd wait until after Christmas before even thinking about getting another cat...but in the end, we want Marty to be happy and if a friend will make him happy, a friend it is.

Family Reunion, 2008

We headed up to West Virginia on September 11 for our annual family reunion. It's usually the 1st Saturday in August, but with Maggie due any moment, we postponed it this year. It was nice to get to go when it was a little cooler. We headed straight for my dad & stepmom's place in Elkins where we introduced Martin to their kitty, Casper. They did really, really well with each other - which we were really excited about. We wanted to see how they did with each other in hopes that they would get along so we could bring Martin with us when we head up for Christmas. Since we'll be gone for almost 2 weeks during Christmas & New Years, as always, and this will be Martin's first alone, we wanted to see if we could bring him along to WV for the first week so he'd get some attention and only fly solo while were with David's family in LA (that's Lower Alabama). It was such beautiful weather, we got to sleep with the windows open and listen to the crick, which Martin (who spent the night in the open window sill) loved. It was such great weather, a beautiful weekend to be in West Virginia.

So Friday morning, we all headed up to Fairmont to meet my brother Mark & his wife Kayla at Att's, the super yummy hot dog place for lunch. After David had his fill of dogs, we all headed over to my Aunt's place to meet up with my cousin Jennifer and her new baby Maggie. What a cutie! Jenn had an appointment, so we even got to babysit for a little while.

My step-mom Linda and Maggie

Before Dad & Linda headed home, we went up to my Great Aunt Ruby's house to visit with my Great Grandmother Haddix- she's a real hoot. She's been saying that she's going to die since as long as I can remember...she's never been a real positive person. She is getting older though, she's 92 now and she can barely hear so a visit with her is always interesting. Here's a picture of us together before we headed off.

Here's David & I, my brother Mark & his wife Kayla with our Great Grandmother

That night, Jenn, Kayla & I headed out to the grocery store for our moms and to get pizzas. It was Uncle Wally's birthday and since David & I are so close as well, we had a big combined birthday party. The funniest part is the cake. Neither Aunt Reta nor I had time to make one, so we bought one. This girl who looked about 16 wrote on the cake and oh my... Jenn said that it was only fitting for 2 cake designers to get a cake that looks like this...

Saturday we got up and started cooking before heading up to the cabin to meet the rest of the family. This was a fun reunion because there were 2 little ones in quite some time. Maggie and Ashlyn - my 3rd cousin's daughter. Ashlyn is 9 months so she was a bit more active than Maggie, but they were both sweet and it was nice to see the next generation starting. I know it excited my grandparents and Great Aunt & Uncle. I took lots of pictures, but somehow missed Volleyball & fishing. You'll see Bocce though. Here you go:

JP, silly as usual. Wouldn't be a family function without a silly picture of him.

We set up this teddy bear in the rocking chair to get some pictures of Maggie. She kept fussing every time we got out there, so we snapped some of Ashlyn and this one was by far my favorite.

Ashlyn taking her 2nd nap of the day...kids really can sleep anywhere!!

My great Aunt Annie & Uncle Bud

My brother Mark and sister-in-law Kayla

My grandparents with Maggie - this was so cute. They have been asking for a great-grandbaby forever. They are just head over heals for little Maggie.

Here's my favorite picture of Susan playing Bocce. I love the willow branches in the background. I remember when that tree was planted...it's so pretty now.

My mom with Maggie

We finally got a few pictures of Maggie. This one was cute, I love her little fingers.

Proud Mama!

My 3rd cousin Daniel & his family - wife Emily & daughter Ashlyn.

My 3rd cousin Devon & his girlfriend Andrea

My 2nd cousin Rodney, his wife Kim and their son Russell

Susan's ever expanding family!

This one was just for my mom. She wanted a picture of the 4 of us. Somehow we always take a picture to the end of the day when we are a little "less than fresh". I told her we'd take a better one when we're all home at Christmas.

It was such a great trip, we can't wait until Christmas. I told Maggie not to change to much, but I'm sure she'll be a completely different little girl by the time we see her again.