Buffy the Cute Calico

Here is Buffy's impression of a pancake.

Just waking up!

Aaaand asleep again!

Rocky!

Absolutely adorable 10 month old boy + Spoon =Delicious!


Here is the same picture from above, but after I fiddled around with it. I think it looks better but I have zilch experience in photo stuff, so you guys will have to let me know!


What is more delicious, the spoon or the smile?


Rocky would argue that the spoon is better. I think Vicky would agree with me that Rocky is better.


Yum! NOM NOM NOM.


AAAGGGH! It's the Rocky Monster!!! Come to squish Tokyo!


Nearly walking! Vicky holds him up ^_^


Happy boy + Happy mommy = Adorable!
(P.S. Vicky I'm sorry I cut off your eyes! I need picture-taking lessons apparently! ^_^)


These were from about a month ago, I think. Rocky is now walking and running all around! He turns one next month!

Troy's Junior Prom 2009

This is my baby brother, Troy.


Okay, I know he's not a baby anymore. I can't even say my "little" brother anymore, as he's quite a bit taller than I am. I can say "younger" though. I'll always be able to say that! Or I could say he's my age minus 2 years and 364 days.


Ahem. So, my baby little younger brother just had his Junior Prom. He had a lot of fun. He went with his girlfriend of about six months, Margie.

Slinky Kittens and Other Furry Adventures

First, you have to get their attention, and find the missing kitten. Cordy! Riley! Oz! Buffy!


There we go! Oz is front and center, Riley is the stretching one, Buffy is curled up behind them and Cordy's ear is making an appearance.


Boo! Cordy demands attention for waking her up. She demands. . . . tummy rubs!


Cordy is a very slinky-like kitten. She gets the attention because she is so cute!


Now we have a happy kitten that wants more tummy rubs! Such a cute look of bliss on her face!


Oz wants the attention now, and would like to let you know that he thinks Riley is a very comfortable kitten to stand on.


Buffy would like to show you the orange, jingly, fluffy mouse tail she has killed just for you. She would also like to remind you that this sunbeam is hers, and any attempt to steal it will end with you just as dead as the mouse tail.


Riley would like you to kindly leave her alone so that she can jump from the chair to the counter and eat any crumbs. But if you insist on snapping pictures, she insists that you make note of her very adorable long legs.


Riley prepares to use her long legs to jump to the forbidden zone. (She is foiled by the Almighty Squirt Bottle.)


All that adventure tired them out again! Cordy curls up next to Kali, who is a little bit intimidated by the fierce sleeping kitten taking over the dog bed. Sage is even worse--she runs away when the kittens curl up next to her!


The Vampire Slayer Kittens would like to request that the paparazzi leave them alone for a bit now, but no worries, they will be up and at 'em again soon. Of course, you are welcome to stay and give tummy rubs and offer delicious wet food.


(Oz wants to give a grateful shout out to everyone who thought happy thoughts towards him, he is feeling much better now--all things are slowly getting back to normal, he is slowly putting on weight, and he even PLAYED this morning! He looks forward to being able to keep up with his sisters soon, but is going to miss his all-you-can-eat buffet of wet food.)

My Brain Has Been Eaten By Snot

In other words, I am still sick. Yes, I am aware that it has been FOREVER since I last posted, it is because I am too busy sopping up all the excess mucus my nose is producing, and also the task of typing was too gargantuan to deal with. I spent most of the week lying around watching Star Trek episodes, making towers of tissues, and avoiding driving (I tried once and nearly drove off the road, my head was so hazy). (Also! I somehow lost a day this week by being so boring, and almost didn't make it to work on Saturday because I SWORE that Friday was actually Thursday, when in actuality it was not. Stunning!)

Wait! This post isn't all about me! It is also about Oz, our little black and white foster kitten, who got sick around the same time as me and spent days in the veterinary hospital. He started out vomiting and we brought him in because he wasn't eating, and he stayed and then his illness turned to diarrhea. He's had subcutaneous (under the skin) fluids and now that he is home again, in addition to daily subQ fluids we are giving him fluids by mouth as well because he just isn't that interested in drinking. He's in isolation from our other kittens, and is staying upstairs in my mom's bathroom/room, where we now spend most of our time reading, cleaning up shite (which is getting slightly less liquid-like, TMI!), petting him, and making him drink and eat. Everyone think good healthy thoughts to Oz! 

My icky snot sickness (which includes lovely headaches, weakness, fatigue,  sore throat, and now coughing) has spread over to Nick! He has more of a bronchitis type sickness--a tightness around the chest, plus some awesome headaches. Yesterday in order to cheer ourselves up we had a lazy day of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes and sat in the cool jacuzzi (it was cool because it is 100 degrees out) and that was lovely! 

So basically, the moral of this (disjointed) story is to avoid snotty-headed people and wash your hands. 

Ugh

Am sick. Went to bed with a mild sore throat, woke up 2 hours later unable to swallow and unable to breathe through my nose. Symptoms then progressed from there to an achy body, upset tummy, throbbing headache, and irritableness. 

(Am extra irritable because this probably means our bonzai trip to Nick's grandparents cabin will be delayed). 

Bleagh. 

Celebration

We had a party to celebrate the end of Anatomy! We celebrated with awesome pina coladas and the movie 300, of which we ogled the graphically-enhanced abs of the Spartans and made toasts to us not anymore needing to know the name of the abs (rectus abdominus, transverse obliques, etc.) (I may know it, but I don't NEED to know it, and that makes it way different). 

I slept on the teeniest couch ever and woke up after 5 hours sleep to drive 45 minutes home before quickly showering and getting ready for work at 8am. I felt surprisingly good, and was just kind of hazy-headed. For a fun example, that early morning while driving through McDonalds (don't you judge me.) I ordered an egg McMuffin "and. . . .one of those potato. . . . things. . . . that you fry?" 

Silence over the microphone, and then she said "A hash brown." And I was too embarrassed to do more than pay and skedaddle off to work. 

But the night before was way fun! 

Belated Post: High School Graduation!

I am a proud 2007 Colfax graduate! (Nick is, too). (Oh, okay, so were about 270 others). On June 2, 2007 (our theme for senior year was James Bond, 007) we stood outside in the boiling hot sun, wearing our fashionable green tents, and received our diplomas.

But first! Here is a picture of all of us in Culture Club, and the mural that we worked on all year instead of doing Spanish IV Honors work. (We still got the credit, but instead of doing work we froze our butts off outside and painted. It was AWESOME). In order from left to right, we have Ben, Drew, Andra, Kristin, Me, and Keelia.

The mural is of a sun shining on the earth, and the rays are made up of most of the flags of the world. Yes, they are accurate, and yes, they were very detailed, and yes, they took a long time. And they are oh-so-pretty.

One of my favorites that I drew was of a very detailed dragon. Man, that took forever!

Earth, flags, signatures of all of us who painted.

Here is the field of Colfax High School, Home of the Falcons.


I was also in Treble and Concert Choir, and we all sang a song about friendship from the musical Wicked for our graduation song. Mr. Wilkinson was the teacher of choir, he did a fantastic job, even if he was grumpy sometimes. I think I'm on the left.

Yep, I'm on the left.

Then we sang another song! I don't know what it was.

Finally, time to graduate! Somebody, Me, and Tyler (acquaintance), getting ready to walk up front.

Shaking hands with Mr. Spears, our principal, as he handed me my diploma.

Troy, Jason (from TaeKwonDo), Me, and Eddie, my boyfriend of nearly 2 1/2 years. They were all sweet enough to brave the heat and come out to cheer for me.

Mom and I!

Mi familia.

So that was my graduation. It was hot, it was crowded, and it was great. Two years later I'm at my community college, and I have gone from a veterinarian career to a maybe deciding to be a labor-and-delivery nurse. Most of my friends are off at UCDavis or Santa Barbara, Irvine, Berkeley, or off living in Idaho, only a few stayed here. We still all get together during breaks though, and I luckily get to see Nick a lot! ^_^

People say high school will be the best four years of your life. I think it was four really good years, but these last two have been pretty great too! I'm looking forward to more great ones.

Belated Post: Christmas Tree Huntin' 2007

We like to have fun while we tromp around in the snow, a-huntin' for the perfect tree. I thought I'd show ya'll how crazy our family can be!

Exhibit A: Katie killing Troy with a scythe. Or something. Ignore that, let's just all talk about how skinny I am. Look! I can't fit those jeans anymore! And look at how flat my stomach is! I want my old body back!

Exhibit B: Mom, the legless wonder, with Dad, the leg-chopper. 

This is just Mom and Dad being sweet and holding hands. Or possibly dancing?

The quest is complete! The perfect tree has been found!

Yep, I come by my weirdness honestly. 

Belated Post: Snow 2007

Snow is pretty rare at our house, so when it does come here we usually have a lot of fun in it! I was looking through my pictures and found these!

Troy and I in a fierce snowball fight.  (I won, of course). 


I can't imagine why I've kept these pictures private, can you? I would love for everyone to comment on my fashion sense. (The beanie is from my uncle Scott from our cruise to Alaska, the gloves are from a garage sale, and I have no memories of that sweatshirt). (No, really, absolutely no idea where that sweatshirt came from. We collect random sweatshirts at the Symington household). 


This is our fabulous snowwoman. Snow-woman? Snow-she? Princess Snow? The next morning she was Princess Puddle. 

Fluff For a Rainy Day

It's been raining here for days now (DAYS! Agh--I do not like rain. Way too wet!) so I figured I should make good on my promise from, like, weeks ago and actually post some kitten pictures! 

And with no further ado. . . .

Spike or Cordy (short for Cordelia) being squished by his/her siblings. 

All six kittens: 4 girls and 2 boys. Of the 3 orange kittens, 2 are girls: Cordy (all orange, no white paws) and Riley (we thought she was a boy, she has white paws and a sharpie marker'd black dot on one ear). The lone orange boy is Spike (white paws). Riley started off the most friendly, but now they all are very sweet and loving. 

Aren't they cute?!?! The one black and white is a boy named Oz. Of the two torti's, the one with a white nose is Buffy, and the orange nose is Dawn. 

Cordelia attacks the rocking chair! 

They are so much fun! This is the largest litter we have ever fostered, but they are so sweet we don't mind. We've pulled out some of our school posters--the big fold-out cardboard ones--and use those to block the stairs and dad's office, but sometimes they get around the gates. Last night I was reading in a bubble bath and I heard what sounded like marbles being rolled around in a bowl (weird, I know, but that's what it reminded me of) and I look around in surprise and see three kittens staring up at me. Buffy jumped up on the bathtub and tried to eat some bubbles! 

P.S. Yes, they are named after the characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My mom actually came up with the names and they fit them so well! 

P.P.S. Will post more later! Hope that'll do for now! ^_^

Disaster Averted

You know those days where you just barely miss a catastrophe? This may not seem that bad to some, but for those trying to get into impacted classes . . . I just barely figured out in time that I had signed up for my next fall's Chemistry and Microbiology classes on different days than I meant to!

I signed onto the college website with my heart in my throat, to see that I chose a Tuesday/Thursday class for microbiology and not a Monday/Wednesday, which would have left me SIX hours of doing nothing in between lecture and lab . . .which would have sucked, to say the least.

I quickly dropped one class and added another (this time correct) one, but I had to make my schedule a Tuesday/Thursday instead of Monday/Wednesday. I will be in school from 11am to 9pm next semester, plus an online class. At least, however, I do not have to try to add chemistry on the first day of classes-I probably wouldn't get in, it's so impacted! To add some spice to this lovely situation, www.ratemyprofessors.com says that my new Chemistry teacher is practically bipolar and likes to make people cry. I am hoping that this is not the case, as Chemistry is not my strong point. Aack. If anyone would like to chime in with stories of how they survived sucky teachers, now would be the time! ^_^

FOUR DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT!!!