"Squiggy, Come!"

For Christmas, Aunt Trish brought the kids a "Fun With Your Cat" kit. Included in the contents was a book containing several activities you can do with your cat to observe Cat behavior and even train them. Yes, you read that correctly, train a cat. While most of the activities held little interest for me, "The Cat's Meow" in which you teach your cat to come on command, sounded like a practical idea. With Squiggy just beginning to go outside by himself, I could think of many good reasons it would be helpful to be able to call him and have him come. So I set out to train him and sure enough, within a couple of days, he was coming when I would call. This of course was rewarded with a tiny bit of tuna each time he came. Beamer, our toy fox terrier, picked up on the benefits of coming when I said, "Squiggy Come" much quicker than the object of my training. Whenever there is food involved, Beamer is one smart doggie! Obedient too!

When I want to locate our orange kitty, I call "Squiggy, come!" Within seconds there is a scramble of toenails and I know it will not be long before the enthusiastic figure of Beamer makes his appearance. I continue calling "Squiggy, come" while Beamer sits beside me, actually shaking with anticipation for the small nibble of tuna he will receive after Squiggy eventually shows up. I continue calling, "Squiggy, come" several more times, until finally, a small orange figure lazily makes his entrance, while Beamer sits barely able to restrain himself. After Squiggy sniffs a bit at the tuna, seeming to weigh whether or not it's really worth eating, he will then delicately lick the morsel. After a while, I turn to Beamer so he can inhale his small bit. Often Beamer will then lick Squiggy's mouth, just in case he left a little behind. The cat is located, and the dog as well for that matter, and thus ends a successful session of "Squiggy, come."

BTW, if you would like an entertaining look at the difference between the way dogs and cats approach mealtime, may I suggest "Kibble Run" for your viewing pleasure? We really should have named the dog "Hooover" instead of "Beamer"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4919iXJ85Q

Got Comments?

I have no idea why my previous post has no place for comments!! I've looked through my dashboard with all the completeness that a limited attention span combined with a woeful lack of tech savvy (what's the matter with interweb?) can muster. Oh well...if you were so very moooooved by my tea party saga that you feel compelled to comment, you are certainly free to do so in this space.

The Spice of Life

This past weekend I hosted a lovely tea party for 1st grade mothers. My sister-in-law had tried to purchase a tea party I had donated to a school auction, but had been out-bid. She asked if she could hire me to do another one for her fellow 1st grade moms. I had neither the time, nor the desire to say yes. Although I love doing tea parties, doing one I was paid for sounded awful. Truth be told, I don't even know what the definition of a high tea is. I don't know which direction is the proper way to pass food and I don't even know how long you're supposed to steep tea! I just like pretty tea cups and fancy little sandwiches and making people feel pampered. But when someone pays for something, they have expectations, and with that comes a different level of pressure. Anyway, I worked out a deal with my sister-in-law. I offered her a date for this weekend since Scott & the girls would be away at a Father/Daughter retreat. She would bring all the food, I'd set the pretty table and wait on them, and no money would be exchanged! Win, win if you ask me.


With Scott and the girls gone, and Johnny hidden away with a pizza & Play Station, I was able to turn all my attention to the tea party. It was very fun and I enjoyed meeting the mothers of first graders that were able to attend. Would you believe they have FOUR SETS OF TWINS in that class? (Three sets on campus and one set in the independent study program.)


One of my favorite things about a tea party is how utterly feminine and dainty everything is. After my guests left, I tackled the dishes. It is the only time I actually enjoy doing dishes -- "feminine and dainty" even make dishes more satisfying!


I went to bed quite late, topping of my girly evening with a couple of chapters of Anne of Green Gables. I've been reading it aloud to the girls and we're all thoroughly enjoying it. Since Saturday was one of those VERY RARE days where I could basically call the day my own, I allowed myself to read into the wee hours of the morning.


When I awoke, very lazily, and headed down to make myself a cappuccino, I discovered we had been TP'd in the night. Wow, twice in one month. There were no clues this time. It might have been the girls' friends, having taken up the challenge Catie practically dared them to at the end of her post about catching the last TPers, or it could have been Johnny's nemesis, recently back from college. Either way, it didn't take long for Johnny & I to clean it up. I made the tree my special project and had fun using the ladder to get up into the branches. I asked Johnny to take a picture of me in the tree, but he was busy rolling TP into one huge ball. Being much more comfortable BEHIND the camera, I'm not in the habit of asking to have my picture taken and was not willing to ask twice.

Like I said, it was easy to clean up and fortunately this time, it did not cost me any sleep.

***

Cleaning up a yard of TP is a far cry from tea parties, nothin' feminine & dainty about that, but as the saying goes, variety is the spice of life.


P.S. One of the funnier aspects of this came later in the day when I happened to meet my elderly neighbor at the mailbox. He asked if we'd had a party the night before. I said yes and told him I'd had some ladies over for tea. Then I realized he might be referring to the TP that garlanded the yard until about 11:00 that morning. "Oh, and we were TP'd in the night."


He looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked, "Who does that?"


"The kid's friends." I answered, but sensing this did not clear anything up for him, I added, "It's just something that happens when you have teenagers in your house." Although he did not press for further explanation, I could tell he found the whole thing rather troubling. Hopefully he won't have occasion to be troubled by TP in our yard for a long time to come!!

A Few Comparison Shots

Well this post was birthed after reading the following two comments on a previous post about my mother.

Megan C. said...
First of all, a very sweet tribute. Secondly, can I just say that at first glance at the "brady" picture, it looks like Johnny and Christian dressed up as girls. I cannot believe how much they each look like their mothers! Wow!!! I would love to see a comparison of them at those ages beside the picture you posted.

It took a little work on my part, but I tracked down some photos of approximately the same age. I think Johnny and I are both in the "sixish" range in the top two photos. I am the one in red. His red bow is actually the top of Michelle's head -- the picture is taken from our 1996 Grandkids Christmas picture and really merits a post all its own.

Jody and Christian, the middle row photos, are both in the "threeish" range. Christian's shot is from our 1997 Grandkids Christmas photo -- not as story filled as 1996, but always an adventure!

Drama Queen said... Happy mothers day all you mothers out there! i am strong in my belief that the first picture resembles me when i was that age. yup, know you know where the good looks came from...

The bottow row is of my mom on her bicylcle at a young age. Catie is on her bicycle at the age of four. I know the bike helmet and lack of contrast make it hard to compare features, but Catie was blessed with coloring that does not scan well. My appraisal is that Catie shares Grandma's coloring but inherited Grandpa's even rounder head.

So there you go Megan. I have to admit there are some striking similarities. Maybe you'll have a little boy that will look just like you! That zoo shot is awfully cute.

Fundie Update

Did you know The Fundamentalist That Never Posts is up to 36 comments on his July joke??? I only point this out because I noticed that his wife, My Sister Who Has Resolved to Post, is up to 25 comments on her January post resolving to post more often. I was going to add an extra few comments to hers and put her ahead of her husband, so I went and checked his blog to see what he is up to and was shocked to see him almost pushin' 40! It is in a large part due to Kludge, of Kludge Spot fame, and his many comments he left. They are worth reading -- quite witty in fact! But you'd hardly expect less from a fellow that received 2000 hits on his blog this past weekend!!!! Even with lists pooping up his site, he is on a roll!

Our Cute Little Mother

Today is a day we have set aside to honor those very special people in our life we call "Mother". I am blessed to call a wonderful and delightful lady my mother. I recently went to a ladies retreat with her and cannot count the many people that mentioned to me, "Your mom is so cute", or "Your mom is so fun to be with", or "I just love your mom". I have to agree -- she's cute, fun to be with, and I just love her. One of the "mixers" at our ladies retreat involved answering several questions for the other ladies at your table. The question which drew the best response was something like, "When were you most embarrassed by something one of your children did?" It's amazing how much material we give our moms to answer a question like that And yet, they love us anyway. Although I honestly believe my sister gave my mom more material for that question, I certainly gave her plenty to work with. Rather than tattling on myself further though, I think I'll just share a few pictures and then try to quickly sum up some of the many reasons my mom is a woman to be honored.

This first picture is one of my very favorites. What a cute little girl my mom was! No wonder people still think she's cute. The foot ware might clue you in that her childhood was not exactly a "princess" experience.

This next picture could be called her "Carol Brady" years. Doesn't she just look like a young version of Florence Henderson? And don't Jody and I look just like Cindy & Marcia? Well, maybe not...

The final picture is one of our complete family of five. My brother did not come along until I was 10 -- it is a tribute to my lack of vanity that I am willing to post this picture when he is the only cute one in it. This phase for my mom was the "Big black glasses phase". I remember my Uncle used this picture to put on the cover of a brochure for a family retreat his church was doing -- he chose it because it looked like a family who really enjoyed one another. That's true, we did. I guess enjoying one another was more important than looking good!

Mom has left behind her "Carol Brady" and "Big black glasses" phases. She's now in our "Cute little mother" phase. She's always been tiny, but has grown more so in the past several years. My thoughtful son has informed her that she is legally a midget and should apply to the DMV for a special parking placard. She spends much of her time these days fussing over my dad -- their love for one another and enjoyment of each other's company is one of my greatest treasures!

Although her life has had many phases, some things have remained constant. Even more important than her love for her family has been her love for her Lord. Ever since she discovered that she is "God's beloved princess" through the ministry of Young Life years ago, her love for her Heavenly Father and her Savior, Jesus Christ, have been key to her identity and have enabled her to be the wonderful wife and mother we know her to be. She is and has been a godly example to us, a prayer warrior for us, a cheerleader beside us--a blessing from the Lord.

Proverbs 31:26 - 28

She speaks with wisdom,

and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her:

Never a Dull Moment

I'm home from San Jose. Actually, I'm also home from Konocti, and from the ladies' retreat as well. As I was pocketing the pen from my room at the ladies retreat, it hit me that it was the third complimentary pen I'd collected from hotel rooms in the space of a week. Maybe the norm for a traveling salesman, but not for a "stay at home mom".

The picture to the left is of three of the handsome gentlemen from the RVCS tennis team who were getting ready to dump water on the cute young ladies of the RVCS tennis team while we were at Konocti. It was in retaliation for the tennis balls the girls had thrown in on them through the removed screen window that morning while they were still sleeping. That of course was in retaliation for the stolen purses, which was in retaliation for...actually, I've lost track of what that was in retaliation for, but you get the idea. It made for an eventful three days! (And for the record, the girls started it!)

But I digress, because this blog is really about my version of the same story my girls have each blogged recently. My apologies for the redundancy but it was too good not to recount. It really began Sunday evening as I was chatting with Johnny's history teacher. She made mention of the fact that the seniors (her son being one of them) were going to be out until all hours of the night TPing the Juniors. Now the thought occurred to me that since Johnny is a junior, our chances of being TP'd that night were rather good. However, I didn't know if all the juniors would be targeted and I hated to ruin a time-honored tradition by spilling information I do not think I was supposed to have had, so therefore I chose not to mention it to the rest of the family. By the time I went to bed (late -- Johnny had three papers due the next morning and I stayed up late with him to offer moral support) I had forgotten anyway.

It was just before three a.m. that Michelle burst into our room to let us know, in a hushed voice, that we were being TP'd. Scott reacted quickly thinking this was a great opportunity to try out his new birthday gift -- a really fancy airsoft mega weapon. I have never been particularly good at thinking coherently when awakened in the middle of the night, and in my defense, I had spent five of the previous nine nights in a hotel room with different roommates. But anyway, I spent the next several minutes worrying that Michelle was going to wake up whatever lady was sleeping in the next bed. Still in a fog, I padded into Catie's bedroom, all the while being warned by the girls to be very quiet, and took a peek at the scallywags TPing our front yard. As I watched the two girls casually decorating our car, I was aware that the rest of the family was downstairs ready to make their move. I awaked enough to call down (quietly) and tell Scott NOT to shoot ANYONE. I then took up my post in the window and watched as I heard Scott open the door, yell out to the girls and fire a round. The girls dropped their TP & scattered, one behind the car & the other out of my line of vision. Then I saw Catie charging down our driveway and chasing down one of the fleeing girls. I could hear the car start and speed away. Curious about the one still hiding, I was surprised to see Catie return to our driveway and run straight behind our car, flushing out the hiding vandal. She then chased her down the street and managed to pull off her hood before she too fled away in her car. Our girls then retrieved all the abandoned TP and were contemplating heading up to TP our neighbor's house when I ordered them inside. It was about this time that I hear a sleepy voice from Johnny's bedroom call, "Hey, what's going on?" He, who all this FUN had been aimed at, slept through the whole thing.

So about 3:20, everyone retreated to their beds completely wide awake...I for one stayed wide awake for a VERY LONG TIME. The next morning was quite difficult in my sleep-deprived state. I know the rest of the family thoroughly enjoyed the experience surprising the TPers, but once was enough for me. I hope next time we get TP'd, we sleep through it.