Second Vacation!

One day after returning from LA to home, I am in San Francisco with Nick's family!

Let the seafood eating commence!

Venus

One of my greatest faults is procrastination. A great example of this is that I killed my cell phone a few months ago (Goodbye Motorola) and did not purchase a new cell phone, despite the fact that I was due to upgrade then. 

I lived without my cell for months! And at first it did not bother me, mostly because I was so busy and could just borrow Nick's phone. But lately I have really wanted a cell phone. I wanted my contacts numbers, and my phone camera, and I wanted to be able to CALL people! 

At first I wanted the LG Venus, mostly because it was pretty and slid open (my last phone's flip broke and would flap open and closed too easily, didn't want that again), but didn't want to spend $70 on it so gave up. 

Then I wanted the LG Decoy because it was $20 after a rebate! So Lesley and I drove to the mall and found a kiosk Verizon store--and a Decoy for $150.

Stupid shark guy was all "You won't beat this price!" 

Me: "I was just online and it was twenty dollars. Total."

Stupid shark guy: "No way. I can look it up right now. $150."

Me: "Seriously. Fifteen minutes ago it was twenty."

Stupid shark guy: "I betcha fifty dollars it is $150."

Me (shaking head in disbelief): "You're stupid. Goodbye."

Around the corner in the mall was a Verizon Wireless store where I found the Decoy and Venus for $20. I wanted to stick out my tongue at the stupid guy but refrained because I was calling my mom on my new shiny LG VENUS slider touch-screen cell phone! And then called Nick and both of them were all "Wha.... Katie's cell phone? She has a phone again? No way!"

Yayayayayayayayayay!

(Also, programming contacts is exhausting). (Also also, this is not my exact phone, because I have a cool purple flower on it. Totally make the difference!)

Yay!

Holiday Car Adventures

We drove to LA for the holidays. Something pretty exciting happened too! (Not getting presents, although that was awesome). 

So, we left in the Honda Odyssey van.

We arrived twelve hours later--SIX HOURS LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE TAKEN--in a Mercury Marquis. 

Yep.

In that sedan we had squished our four family members, presents, bags, food, and two retrievers that spent the last four hours of the trip lying on our laps--since there was no room at all. 

Guess why! Guess! Guess!

When we were about halfway to LA, I was driving, and all of a sudden I heard a quiet thunk sound from the engine and then nothing happened when I was accelerating except the rpm's needle shot up to the danger zone. Instead of going 80 mph all of a sudden I was going 60mph. Since all the cars were going more than 80 I immediately clicked on my emergency lights and after we realized that all I was doing was revving and not accelerating, even in lower gears, I moved into the break down lane and we coasted for maybe 1/2 of a mile total before stopping. 

Dad looked in the engine and we were leaking fluid and our transmission was shot. AAA came forty-five minutes later, hooked us up to the tow truck, and towed us an hour and a half away to a auto mechanic that had a transmission shop. (We rode way high up in the truck! And the dogs were alone in the car--Kali was sitting in the front smiling at everything she saw, and we couldn't see Sage, she was probably hiding). 

So here's another cool part!

This happened Tuesday--and they cannot look at it until MONDAY! SIX WHOLE DAYS LATER! And they are quoting us at LEAST $2,500 for the transmission and $800 for a cylinder thingy. 

(So we might get a new car! Woooooot!)

So we were still hours away from LA with a broken van full of presents and dogs. We called at least four rental places and the ones that had big cars didn't take dogs and wait, sorry, we don't have any big cars, just a Hyundai Sonata, and we close soon anyway, bye! 

Finally we got ahold of a Mercury Marquis--a big sedan. We had to leave only a few things, but did have the dogs sleeping on us the whole rest of the way. 

(Note! Sage did NOT vomit on this trip at all! They were incredibly well behaved!) 

So we arrived and heard the story of our relative's day in Disneyland--complete with one person getting sick from the rides and while driving home throwing up all over the side of the car! 

And that is why our trip took us two times longer than normal. Yaaaay for holiday travel! 

Bleeeeeaaaagh. 

Happy Birthday to Me!

This post is kind of belated since I turned twenty a few days ago! I was hoping inspiration would strike and that I would compose a brilliant post . . .but nope. It didn't. So . . .

I'm twenty now.

No longer a teenager.

Is it sad this makes me feel old? I want to say "I'm twenty-teen" because for so long "teen" has been tacked on to the end of the number. Now it's not, and it feels weird!

I am spoiled. I got perfume, a one-hour massage, penguin socks, two (delicious chocolate!) cakes, lots of clothes, four pairs of shoes, lipgloss, cocoa, Spanish software, a manicure/pedicure set with OPI nailpolish, and I bought myself a car. Sorta. It was my grandma's, and I am getting it for a discount, and I haven't paid YET. But oh, I will. But oh also, it is so pretty and shiny and new!

I feel very lucky in my family and boyfriend and friends! Thank you everybody for spending the year with me!

The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning

Ta-daaa! Here is the long awaited review of Ariel's Beginning! Short summary: Cute little Disney sequel. But I know you want more, so here is the actual review! ^_^

(Take note of the music box in Ariel's hands, as I will mention it again)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



In the beginning, there was much music and love in the Kingdom of Atlantis, for the boring and grumpy King Triton was married to his love, and thus he was happy.



Then one day King Triton and his lovely Queen and their seven daughters were out frolicking and the King gave the Queen a beautiful musical box, for she loved music and singing.

Out of nowhere . . .



. . . came a PIRATE SHIP! And then . . . it SQUISHED the Queen!!!

The entire kingdom was heartbroken. Then King Triton was grumpy and boring and mean and he banned music from the Kingdom of Atlantis.

His daughters were very very bored. They had a governess who wanted to become the King's right hand and wanted to get Sebastian the crab in the dungeons away from the King. The seven princesses wanted to do fun things but they were not allowed.



One day, Ariel was scrubbing coral when she noticed a flounder hitting some coral and it was making . . . (gasp!) . . .music! He was scared that she would bring him to jail and he ran off.

However . . . Ariel followed him!



Then she found an amazing secret music lair, where fish who loved music and dance and singing could gather and be happy. And Ariel also found out that Sebastion was the lead singer!



Unfortunately, King Triton found out and destroyed the music lair. Ariel and the band ran away! Then they found a secret beautiful cave and Ariel discovered the music box that belonged to her mother. She had an epiphany of how much her father must miss her mother and that hearing music was painful to him.

King Triton was searching for Ariel and realized that his daughters were more precious and deserved to hear music if they wanted.

Then the governess (see scary purple woman below) tried to kill Ariel. Through some tricky and cheesy moves they trapped her in the dungeon.



King Triton was so happy he said "Music for all!" And then there was happiness in the Kingdom of Atlantis.

And that is the story of how Ariel returned music to the Kingdom with love and friendship!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So. Yeah.

I know I am a dork.

And . . .yes. I did cry during this movie. Multiple times in fact!

EVERYONE DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO WATCH THE MOVIE!!!

Freaking Cute Kittens

Here's something to brighten up your day . . .

Hugs!


Squish!


ZzzZZZzzzZZZzzz


Just take a moment to appreciate the above picture . . .this is the first time that I have seen Io actually snuggling with a foster kitten. Cute little boys!!!

The Tree Hunt!

Here is our belated Christmas tree hunt post! We took the dogs and our family (Nick was too sick to be out in the freezing weather hiking all over) and headed off to our local tree farm.

Here's my Mama. ^_^


We spent maybe fifteen minutes looking for a tree before we found the perfect one. Actually, Troy found it. And then it only took Troy to cut it down instead of all of us hacking away for twenty minutes! This is us with our tree... Mom's taking the picture.


It was the shortest tree hunt in our family that we could remember! The dogs were very well behaved and we hardly fought at all!

This pic is from a few days later, when we had the decorations set out. We lost Edward and then found him . . .sleeping peacefully on the decorations. They have been choosing the weirdest places to sleep lately!



We had to put some of the cut branches on the floor so the kittens would leave our tree alone! It worked--except they LOVE the branches and attack them all the time and now we have branches spread out all of the kitchen and little pine needles covering the floor. Good thing they're cute!

The True Reason for Santa Hats

How to have fun while decorating the Christmas tree:
1) Procure a fluffy Santa hat
2) Force said hat upon every available head and snap pictures
3) Repeat until bored. Then find a new game! Like how many times you can deposit a kitten on a dog before they both freak out!

Fluffy little Bella with a fluffy huge hat=Sweet!


Nick! So cute.


Us!


Dad and Sage


Kali is too cool to show both eyes.


Ziggy. And Bella and Edward hugging!


Yes, we had fun. Happy Holidays!

Troy

My baby brother turned 17 today. It seems crazy to write that because I swear, he was just ten, and before that he was just five, and he was the cutest, sweetest little boy imaginable. There were some crazy "Ohmigod stop being a freaking teenager!" years but they are mainly over now... and he's still pretty sweet. Usually. ^_^



We woke him up early this morning, so that we could give him his present before Dad left for work. He was groggy and had a hard time getting the tape off... but finally he opened it and there was a brand spankin' new ipod touch, 32GB, oh-so-pretty! He was THRILLED and spent the entire time I was home--like 8 hours before I went to work--downloading applications and playing games and exploring his cool new ipod. This boy loves music! Hmm let's see.... Troy plays the piano and the drums, is in the band at school playing drums, writes his own music for the piano, can play the vibraphone as well... He has a nice girlfriend...a third degree black belt in TaeKwonDo...and a junior in high school.



Happy Birthday baby bro!!!

White Christmas

This is the first Christmas in California that we have had snow flurries outside while we were decorating our tree! It's sort of sticking to the ground now, and it's great! I dumped sleet down Troy and Dad's shirts too! Hehehehehe.

Nick came over and helped us decorate the tree, and it was a lot of fun--he mostly played with kittens while we held up ornaments and said "Awwwwww this is Troy at five years old!" or "This is Mom's. Or.....maybe it's not. Huh. Who has the weird artichoke ornament?!" And we drank eggnog and were happy.

Tonight we had our family birthday dinner, as Troy and I are only one day apart--my baby brother turns seventeen tomorrow!!! (And Nick turns twenty years old six days after I do) (I'm dating a younger man!) Anyway we had delicious steak, potatoes, salad and bread. (Go Mom for cooking it all). And then amazing chocolate cake!

Here's hoping for snow snow snow!

DONE!

I am officially done with my third semester at college!!!

(Jumping, shrieking, and happy dancing ensues)

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!


. . . Now I am going to go sleep for a month. Or until 7am, which is when I wake up for work. But whatever, because I AM DONE WITH MY THIRD SEMESTER OHMIGOD YAY!!!



Edward, fast asleep under the china hutch, with the heater vent next to him. He anticipated my need for sleep and BEAT ME TO IT. Darn adorable kittens.

Three More Days

. . .and then VACATION!!!

From school at least! ^_^

I cannot wait for this semester to be over and done with! Just have to survive three more days . . . but I don't have that much to do--just a math final and interdisciplinary assessment and essay, and another essay. Woooot!

And then hopefully I can actually post something interesting!

Dork

Vicky let me borrow her six year old daughter's movie "The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning" and I am so ridiculously excited, I just might have to watch the first one and then scrounge up the second one from somebody before I can see it so that I don't forget anything.

And don't worry--I'll be sure to post a movie review letting you know if you should run out and watch it too. Unless you are a Disney sucker like me, and then you probably already have seen it!

ThanksgivingSmushyChristmasTree

Since I have been remiss in my posting duties and also am lazy and tired, I hereby present the smushed version of my "Thanksgiving AKA Stuffing Yourself Until You Explode" post and the "Great Search for the Perfect Christmas Tree!"

Thanksgiving was great but very quiet, I kept thinking that we had the date wrong or something since none of my relatives were up! Missed you guys! It was just my family and Nick eating a huge amount of food. I ended up making a sweet potato casserole, and, like my boss suggested, putting in about 2 cooked banana per 4 sweet potato, and then whipping and covering with brown sugar and butter and sticking it in the oven for half an hour. Delicious!

All of us (except Dad, he was watching the game) then walked around the circle and fought the dogs every step of the way. (We will soon be buying one of those poky collars for Sage).

Then Nick and I drove off to his grandma's house for ANOTHER Thanksgiving feast! And I do mean feast--there was enough food for about 20 people and there were only 10 there, but it was soooo amazing! Nick and I and Clair played pool and first Nick won and then I won. Then we all exploded, the end.

This morning I woke up dark and early and drove to Nick's to go search for a Christmas tree for his family, and we all hiked for TWO HOURS up hills and down. I fell on my bottom once and slid halfway down a hill on my slippery boots, but Nick kept catching me! So sweet.

I took probably a gazillion photos with his dad's expensive camera, and hopefully will be able to post some of them soon!

Finally we found the perfect tree, after about 200 had already been examined and pronounced faulty for being too small or too short or too fat... it was hilarious! Nick's dad hefted it and we walked back down, and then bought delicious fudge and adorable Christmas ornaments! It was a lot of fun, but I am exhausted now. (May also be partly caused by the beginnings of a cold and a lack of wanting to do math and spanish homework).

So probably next weekend my family and Nick will go to a different tree farm and buy one for our house, even though we are going to LA for Christmas! Wish us luck and sturdy legs, for we shall need it.

Kitten Expressions

Hey lady, you lookin' at me?! What! You woke me up from my nap, fetch me some delicious fish this instant!



Lazy woman. Never mind. I'll just stare up and dream of fishies.

And long fuzzy white haired kitten and blackie sez "ZZzzzzZZzzz"

Lipgloss Addicts Anonymous

I know I have a problem. You don't have to tell me.



Guess how many lip glosses/lip balms/lipsticks are there. Go on, guess.



There are 36. And that is not including what is also in my purse, car, schoolbag, and various pockets.

While cleaning my room I am going to sort through them and throw out any mostly used or old lipglosses. I fully expect that I will be so upset at losing them that I will have to run out and purchase some more.

Anybody have favorite lip balms/glosses that they want to suggest? My dream lipgloss would have a great look, slight gloss, and a great flavor without being sticky or thick.

Clean at last!

A few days ago I finally had enough.

I moved my cat Io's litter box out of my room (ew, I know) and also bought him a space-age litter box with a top and a clear door flap so he couldn't kick litter everywhere.

So I spent all day today cleaning my room from top to bottom. I vacuumed and mopped and steam cleaned, moved all of my furniture so I could get under and around them, washed walls and scrubbed, windexed and febrezed and ran loads of laundry, and sang along with music really really loudly while I was doing it all.

I also cleaned the kitten's bathroom and wrote a spanish speech and paper and worked on selling my car.

My back aches like a bad word and I really don't like Spanish right now, but my room is clean!

(Except I want to wipe down all of the surfaces of my closet . . .later. And I need to let my carpet dry before I move my dresser and bed back. But ohmigod I think it might not smell like poop. Amazing!)

Kali does not agree with my cleanliness and protests in her passive-aggressive way. I am NOT cleaning her this time.

Twilight

Guess who saw TWILIGHT today! Go on, guess!

MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEEEEEE!!!!

And Vicky and her cousin Shasta! We had a great time, and it was an amazing movie! It was so like the book, which now of course I have to own all of them!

Sucker for Romance

I admit I am a total romantic fool. I love flowers, I love surprises, I love shiny things and being taken out. I also love chick flicks and romantic novels, and I cry when people on the radio profess their undying love.

What I never found romantic was Romeo and Juliet killing themselves because of a mistake. Tragic teen suicides, bah. Not my kind of romance.

I do, however, love the first part of the book, when Romeo and Juliet declare love at first sight, and sneak around to be together. Beautiful dresses, Romeo throwing pebbles and balconies...it makes my inner romantic sigh.

So obviously this is now my favorite music video. How could it not be?



I want her dress and her hair.

Drat. I just realized that Halloween is over and my chances of dressing up like that and convincing Nick to be Romeo are gone for at least a year...although having a whole year to convince him might actually be helpful. Hmmmm. MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

EDWAAAARRRDDD!!!

I finally gave in to the pressure (from myself!) and bought Twilight, the awesome vampire and human love story novel by Stephenie Meyer. ("Soon to be a major motion picture! Free poster inside!").

The pictures were everywhere. My aunt and cousin were raving about the soon to be released movie. My friend asked me if I wanted to go see it next weekend. It had been like a whole month since I had read Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Pick any excuse you like, I COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE.

When I spotted it for $8.59 at Target I just couldn't stop myself. So now I have my very own brand-spankin' new copy that I barely have time to read . . .I dream of reading it while laboriously working on math, forgetting to study Spanish, or while I'm at work. Last night I stayed up to 11:30 reading up to a "happy part" so I could put the book down without fretting that OHMIGOD EDWARD IS UPSET. WHY?!? Never mind that I technically remember, I HAVE TO REREAD IT TO KNOW FOR SURE.

So yeah. If you haven't read Twilight, push off that rock you're under and prepare to fall in love. You can choose from all the amazing beautiful perfect characters! Edward is the perfect vampire. (Almost too perfect. Annoyingly perfect? Perhaps, but I will bury that thought, never fear!) (Okay, seriously. His character weakness is being overprotective. WTF? Doesn't he leave the toilet seat up too?)

I cannot wait to see the movie this weekend. I hope it is amazing because so many Twilight fans are waiting with bated breath and a sucky movie would....suck. But if it's not? I plan to buy the three next books and console myself with written vampire perfection.


EDWAAAARRRRDDDDDD!!!!!

Kittens + Boys = Cute

We've been very busy here--still--but here! Have some fluffy kittens!

This is my baby cousin Adam holding the black kitten.


Nick in the morning before school with sleeping kittens.


My mom with all of them, that I woke up trying to get a cute picture!


And little white kitten, off balance and blinded by the flash of my camera.


We are trying to get them to start eating real food, and they will suck it off our fingers but not eat out of a bowl. They just have to figure out that they can open their mouths and chew instead of sucking! They are definitely ready for real food however, because they spend half the time on the bottle now being frustrated and chewing on it. It is a pain in the butt to feed them now since they are eating so often.

They are also starting to play a lot more! Right now two of them are wrestling next to me on the couch (while fluffy white kitten sleeps on mom's lap). They were tentatively named Edward (black) Jasper (short white) and Bella (long white) by my cousin and my mom, but we think that Edward might actually be Edwardette. Or something. Soooo we are not sure of names still!
They are growing well and still oh-so-cute!

Sad Day

Today I, along with my extended family, buried my Grandma and Grandpa.

It was a beautiful day, they were buried in a very peaceful and lovely cemetery. But I want them to be back with us, not in the ground.

Then I went straight to work, we had a easy but busy night. A ton of fevers! Then I came home and realized that I did not complete my online college assessment that was due last night at midnight.

Sad, sad day.

Remembering Shirley and Alan

Today was my grandparent's memorial service, a day that has been simultaneously anticipated and dreaded. My mom has exhausted herself trying to make today as perfect as possible, and all of the family has done so much . . . and it worked! Even the weather cooperated today, it was a beautiful slightly cool day, the sun was shining and there were perfect little white clouds in the sky.

We had the service at the country club in their home area, in a lovely large room with big round tables covered in white cloth, with blue accents everywhere. The flowers (the main ones from a florist, the table flower centerpieces we made, courtesy of our creative aunt!) looked and smelled great, and the pictures and remembrance cards were set up perfectly, and the food ended up delicious! The priest was very kind and well spoken, my uncle presented a fabulous slide show of their life, the eulogies were sweet and made me cry, (even my little cousin Nathan raised his hand to go up and speak, he was so brave), and Troy and I each played a piano song. I performed "Chanson" by Nancy Faber, which is French for song. It was the last piece that Grandma gave to me, just a few weeks before she went into the hospital. And I played it for her when she was still at home, and she said I played it so beautifully . . . it was also the last piece that I played for her. Troy performed an untitled piece that he wrote himself, in honor of Grandma. It was so beautiful!

I met so many family members I did not know, and friends of Grandma and Grandpa that I also did not know. They were all so sweet and friendly, the only problem is that my feet were dying from standing so long talking to them in my high heels! Four inch pumps are a no-go methinks! (But oh-so-pretty, I will probably bear the pain for the looks). Also, on my short (like seriously, 20 feet trip) to get coffee after our delicious lunch it took me about ten to fifteen minutes to get back to my table! Walking to the coffee I was stopped three times, getting coffee once, then walking back three more times! All they wanted to do was be friendly and nice and say that they loved the piano and they loved my grandparents and they'd be so proud, but man, it took forever! Even when I stepped outside with the little boys for a break nearly five people followed us! I don't really mind though, they were so sweet.

All-in-all, my grandparents were amazing people. How many people do you know that can meet and marry within 23 days and then be best friends for 54 years? My Grandma was 19 when she married Grandpa, and they were lucky enough to meet and marry the person that was perfect for them. It's so weird to think, that if they hadn't met and fallen in love like that, our entire huge, loving family wouldn't exist! They were great parents, the perfect grandparents . . . they were loved, and I will miss them so, so much.

Goodbye for now!

Three Weeks

We figured out our three kittens are about three weeks old! They actually now look like fluffy kittens, not hairy rats. We are trying to get them accustomed to eating out of a bowl now, but every time we try they inhale through their nose, step in it, and then wobble and fall in . . . So they are still bottle fed. Which, as you will see, they absolutely love!

Sleeping on my lap!


Tangled up between Kali's legs!


Squish!


Still squished!


So cute! Curled up on mom after eating.


Then eating again!


OMG where is the bottle we need food right now!!! They're sucking my hand!


Practically running after the bottle! While oohing over the kitten, take a moment to admire my Victoria Secret smoochie kiss lip pajamas. Am sexiness personified right here!

Decisions, 2008

By my last few posts you can obviously tell that I am a liberal democrat, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-alternative energy/fuels. I really did not like McCain or Palin that much, as they are against what I believe in.

However, after watching our country's decision on November 4th, I can now say that I respect McCain. He gave a very gracious concession speech, pledged his support to Obama, thanked his own supporters, and urged them to give Obama a chance.

Nick says I'm opinionated, especially about politics. It's true! I was working and found out Obama was our next president from a phone call from Aimee, and I squealed and danced in a circle in our back office. And I came home and watched Obama's speech on the TV and it brought tears to my eyes.

I realize that Obama is not going to turn our country around on a dime, and that I will probably not agree with everything that he does in the next four years, but I feel so happy and filled with hope. We have a new chance.

I am happy that Prop 4 was denied, (mandatory notification of guardians of a minor in order to procure an abortion) because I do not believe that 1) the government should have any say in abortions and 2) that it is not safe for some minor's guardian's to be notified, and that violence or homelessness would ensue.

I am so disappointed in Californians, however, for supporting Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage. Religion has no part in our government. "Separation of church and state" is what we are supposed to be, yet we are definitely not separate. I feel so badly for all of my friends or anyone whose life is affected by this ban, and I hope that it will be overturned soon. Equality for all!

(Also, OMG, 10 billion dollars to built a train?! Potentially 100 billion dollars?! We have a huge deficit, is right now really the best time? I do think it can be a good idea, but right now?)

President Elect

Ohmigod. Obama is going to be the next president.
YEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

C-Section

Last Thursday I saw a human c-section!!!

For my college career planning class I had to do a job shadow (still need one more) and luckily got ahold of a nurse in the local hospital, so the Friday before last I shadowed her for four hours and learned SO MUCH. I had a wonderful time, she was so nice and explained everything that she was doing, had me feel a fundus and told me about different medications. I got to hold a c-section baby that was only two hours old and then help bathe the baby, and hold two other babies that were just a day old! (Soooooo cute!)

And THEN she asked me if I would like to see a c-section, because they had one scheduled for Thursday! I was so happy and excited!!!

So Thursday rolls around and I go into the hospital and say hi to everyone, meet the expectant mom and father, (who are so nice, they had no problem with me being in there and were very friendly), meet the nurse anesthesiologist, some other nurses, the assistant surgeon, and the surgeon and we all go in the surgery and get things set up.

When the nurse anesthesiologist started prepping for the spinal block, I was so excited to see it, and got right up close with another student.

When he started to stick the needle in multiple times . . . we got woozy. The mom was flinching away from the needle and . . . I just don't like needles! I'm fine with them near animals, but near me or humans I get all weird. I started feeling odd and went and sat down with the assistant surgeon, but then the anesthesiologist called me back up to see him pulling out some spinal fluid and then injecting the drugs through the huge needle.

Lights started flashing in front of my eyes, my vision went blurry, my face went numb and my body felt detached from my head. It was all I could do to concentrate and tell myself "I am not going to faint. I am NOT going to faint."

I have never felt like that before in my life and I don't want to feel it again! I was totally out of control of what my body was doing. I went over out of the way (they were prepping her stomach for the incision) and sank down against the wall on a stool. Several of the nurses came to see if I was okay. The other student had to leave the room, I later heard she thought she was going to vomit.

A nice nurse gave me a cold cloth for the back of my neck and I slowly got control of myself. I looked up and saw they were just about to start, and right as they started to slice open her stomach I felt better. This is familiar! I see DR cutting into dogs and cats all the time. So I stood up and felt much more like myself, and watched the rest of the surgery just fine!

It was SO cool. They cut her right open, used really big hooky things to pull the skin apart, cut open the uterus and out came baby butt! And then feet. And finally a head! A beautiful baby boy! It took them longer to suture her back up than it did to get him out! Also the surgeon gave me an anatomy lesson by pulling out her uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries and showing me intestines. Totally cool.

I hung around for a few more hours, peered over their shoulders at paperwork, ooohed over the baby in the nursery, hung out with the mom, and generally had a lot of fun!

Seeing a baby born is an incredible experience, and I would totally recommend it to anyone!

Also a bonus: grossing out anyone (like Nick) who doesn't like blood and guts with your awesome stories. Like the large amount of blood and the clots and slicing flesh.

(One more thing to be excited about--Aimee might let me be in the surgery room when her baby is born! Wheee!!!)

Halloween

We had a good Halloween. 

Nevermind that we ate all the candy about a month ago! We don't really get any trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood--houses are too far apart! 

It was my mom's birthday and she woke me up hollering for me to make her breakfast! So I made a delicious apple cobbler coffeecake. Then mom, dad, two of their friends and Nick and I went to pizza for dinner and went through a baby haunted house. Dad and the other guy friend drank a whole pitcher of beer and we all told funny stories and tried not to debate politics. 

Then Nick and I rented "Fido", a hilarious zombie movie (God help me, I am addicted to the zombie movies!) and watched it with my parents. 

And then we all went to sleep. We're some wild party animals! 

Happy Halloween!

Meow. Meow. MEOW. MEOWMEOWMEOW!!!

Kittens are adorable hairy stinky rats. Sage loves them even more than Io's litter box, and will lick pee, poo, and milk off of them until we yell at her to stop, Sage, EW! and then she will sneak back and try to lick them again.

They sleep through the night and love to suck down warm KMR (kitten milk replacement), will cuddle together in your lap if they are sleepy (which is a lot, apparently eating is exhausting), and will cry at the top of their little lungs for attention and/or milk. And they will cry even when they are getting both.

One very cute thing they do, is while the nipple is in their mouth and they are sucking down the milk, is to do a little upset "mewmewmewmewmew", and I have no idea why they do it but it is hilarious.

We are teaching them to go in a litter pan (otherwise known as paper plates with a small little layer). Blackie does a pretty good job so far, but OHMIGOD kitten poop is nasty. Especially when they climb over each other and smear the poop around.

They're still damn cute.


Hee!


Io, pissed off that kittens have again invaded his bathroom, stands guard self-righteously.


This one is the troublemaker. He cries and roots and just stuck his head down my shirt. Eeek.


The first time I fed them at home--that's not a bottle, it's just what we had lying around. Now we have a real bottle and wow, it's amazingly better! This looks uncomfortable for the kitten!
We've gotten much better at feedings since then. They were pretty hungry!


Cute!


Tiiiiiny things. They curl right up in your hand!


And now it is bedtime and the two white kittens are quietly, nicely sleeping, while blackie here yells his head off. The last two nights they have slept in my room in a big carrier; let's see how they do downstairs in the made-up shower tonight!

Anybody have ideas for names?


Update: We are going to be fostering these kittens until they are big enough to be adopted, so we will probably have them for the next month or two! Yay for kittens!

Who needs sleep?

Guess who got herself three wannabe foster kittens? A lady found them and dropped them off at work. Sooooo I decided I didn't need sleep and took them home. They're TINY! And loooove to cry!I've fed them three kajillion times and they're just finally quieting down. Two little white babies and one blackie that has the talent to make the others cry.
I'm calling the boss lady we foster for tomorrow to see what to do, will update then. They're crying. AGAIN.

Update half an hour later: Kittens are fed again, two have peed, and they are in a cozy carrier with a warm water bottle as company with a towel covering the carrier and the lights off. Let's see what happens!

Rocky!

Vicky and Rocky came over last weekend and watched movies. And my dogs just about fell in love with Rocky. Especially his slobber!

Kali was so sweet with him, even when he grabbed onto her lips. She just came right back for more!


This is just the cutest picture! 


Happy chunker! 


He reminds me of Sage sorta...tongue is always out!


Sage wants the drool! 


Cute smile! 


He's sitting on the floor between my legs and Sage is trying to lick him, and Kali is trying to scoot under my leg to get to him! See her paw? 

I took a gazillion pictures but I couldn't help it, he is just the cutest thing!