Christmas in July

Christmas in July at the Wal*Mart Fabrics and Crafts department was a special time... freight suddenly consisted of : cinnamon and apple scented potpourri in regular and liquid form, cheesy red/green/gold traced fabric bolts, and if we were lucky, snowmen and santa dolls one could put on the piano and bookcase. While I enjoyed the variety, it helped me realize I was that much closer to the beginning of the school year. And while today I have the benefit of working a low paying job once again, I don't really ever have a school break, therefore don't require a change-up at work to help me adjust to the imminent year of classes ahead.

The last six heavenly weeks I've been taking a class online. Not as much $4.00 gas to buy, no Michiganites to mix with-it's been great. This bit o heaven was expected to continue until at least mid-July. I was informed last week that there was a miscommunication with my classes, and while I will still earn credit for my last course taken, I now have the opportunity to drive to Michigan and hang with the locals once more. Sigh. Nothing could be done, yet I became the student I always hated anyway..."are you sure there isn't anything else we can do...please??" I've attended my first week of Family, Couple, and Child Counseling. I have been looking forward to this class for a while, so I'm not complaining (completely), but I'm still not ready to respect an instructor with the first name of "JoMo". I keep wanting to say "MoJo", and while this should seem worse, I am about equal with the names. MoJo is a good instructor, but way intense about APA writing style; he also verifies comprehension by repeating his last sentence, but leaves a few words out; kinda like a MadLib, but more like a repetitive, not funny MadLib. Example-MoJo: "Okay, so the headings should be spaced 3 inches apart. So, the ________ (class fills in) should be _______(yep, we're on) inches _______ (not exaggerating too much)". I must give him credit, because it forced me to remember items, yet later I found myself wanting to speak the same way. I really ______ my current class, cause it's _______. So there.

Witches sailing through the sky...

After our downer of a week, we set out yesterday afternoon to find Thom a friend. So back to the Humane Society we went. We were in our church clothes because we had just returned from the Columbus Temple, so I was a bit nervous to get too involved with cats (my skirt has a lot of uneven edges that could've been tempting). Luckily, we found one we liked quickly, went to the play room (future owners are required to be alone with the cat...for an interview?), and watched a black cat chase a fly with impressive accuracy. We were sold on her, but not the name (Boo Boo), so we took the cat and left the name. Last night after we got home, we learned what having a black cat means...in the course of a couple of hours, our friends' bikes and our car were locked in a garage we can't open, Thom escaped to the basement and sustained a scratch wound (we think of her own doing, but it was still a bit scary), and I chipped yet another mug. The last incident was hardly devastating; however, since being in Toledo we have made quick work of breaking all of our glasses and at least one mug, so our drinking vessels are becoming endangered. The bikes and car are still locked in, Thom's wound has been cleaned and dressed, and the mug is resting in our cupboard, safe from harm's way. Because she is a bit riled by the newcomer, Thom has taken to hiding under a table, waiting to attack either an unsuspecting ankle or an innocent gato negra. Nate mentioned all of our issues could be due to the hue of our new Halloween cat...we will be holding a trial next week.

Fallen Soldier

I have internally made a solemn promise to not devote my blog to cats, but I must update a few matters. My last entry introduced Paddington to our family. Unfortunately he wasn't doing well (he wouldn't eat) so he had spent a while at the vet while they watched him. He didn't ever improve, so he was put to sleep last week. How can one get attached after a few days? Well, we did and we miss him. :(

The Cat House

That's right...things around our house have changed just a bit. As of last Saturday, Nate and I are the proud owners of two kitties. They are still actually nameless, so we'll take suggestions, but at least for now we wanted to introduce them to you.


Male kitty the humane society had named Paddington. He's about 8 years old.

Female kitty the Humane Society named Thomasina. She is about 1 year old.

They were both about done for the day by the time we took these; I promise they both have eyes.

Cinco de Mayo

Me with some statues peeking into the stadium

What better way to celebrate the Mexican forces victory over France than by attending a baseball game? Because of a work connection, I was able to score some free tickets to a Toledo Mud Hens game. I had Nate pick the date we would attend-he chose well. The first 1,000 fans to the stadium were given sombreros! After a trip back home for some forgotten tickets, I was convinced I had just missed my only chance to earn a free sombrero. Apparently, Mud Hens' games are nearly as well attended as I thought because there were even enough sombreros for Nate to trade...his first one was pink, so he traded for...less pink. I've always enjoyed a good baseball game, and this one actually was; the Mud Hens won, it didn't rain, and we didn't have to pay for parking. It was also fun to walk around to check out "downtown" Toledo. Let's be honest, there really isn't much there, unless you enjoy a mixture of abandoned buildings and "70's architecture" (says Alana), but I still had a good time and enjoyed the walk back to our car. Especially the catcalling. I was lucky enough to be reassured that both someone in a Jeep Cherokee and Nate find me attractive...(Nate decided to yell back his agreement), so thank you to all involved...I think.


Nate was pretty excited about the sombreros also



Packed house as you can see


Nate has a beautiful profile

Going Dutch

The last couple of weeks at the Ohio faction of the home has been filled with love, laughter, and...homework. The weather has finally turned, but both Nate and I (mostly Nate) were required to stay in, be good and study. As of last Friday, one of us is finished with classes for the summer. To celebrate Nate's feat of (mental) strength, I got off work a little early on Friday and we hopped in the car for Holland Michigan. Exotic, eh? Holland is on the west side of Michigan, so it was a little over a three hour drive. Three hours is a long time, especially with Nate's "techno mix", but it was definitely worth it. We stayed in a bed and breakfast called The Crimson Cottage Inn the Woods; we had a lovely host and hostess, a great breakfast (french toast and bananas foster) and a lovely view of the forest/pond combination.
Every May, Holland celebrates "Tulip Time" for a week when all of the tulips are in bloom; there is also a huge Dutch influence there (yes, hence the name), so we decided to check it out. Once we got settled at our B&B, we headed downtown in search of food, flowers and fireworks (on recommendation from our hostess). We ended up eating at a Irish pub, Curragh's; which was tasty and allowed me to eavesdrop on the table of "gentlemen" to my left who were trying to impress the waitress by telling her one of them had been to prison. Hot! We walked around and search for fireworks until we were informed by a girl that they had been canceled. We really appreciated the information, and we unfortunately rewarded her with telling her inaccurate information regarding the theme park (impermanent, scary rides + funnel cake and elephant ear stands); sorry, girl.
The next morning we headed to Nelis' Dutch Village. To celebrate spring I decided not to pack many warm clothing items for the trip-the morning we arrived at the village I was really sad about my choices. Although the sun was out, the wind was blowing, and I was encouraged to move around a lot to stay warm. The Dutch Village was awesome; we would recommend it to anyone (relatively in the area). Some of our highlights include:
-Wooden shoe race
-Dutch dancers
-Holding baby chicks
-Petting baby goats/letting them chew on hand (hooray for undeveloped teeth)
-Mini "Turn of the Century" type ride
-Missing the cheese making demo but arriving in time for the sample
-How to make wooden shoes demo
-Learning how carved candles are made (crazy)
After we finished with the village, we went back into town and got some lunch at a pizza place. Just before then, there was a costume change. We put on rain jackets (thanks to Nate for thinking of it) and I changed into Nate's warm up pants. High fashion. The pictures prove that I looked ridiculous, but somehow more Dutch than I did before, so I was unconcerned and stayed dry. We spent the next hour or two checking out the lanes of tulips lining the streets, very proud that we had reached a point in our lives that we were more proud of being warm and dry than young and (very) cool. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend:

Totino's Party Pizza Promise

A few months ago, my friend Jessica blogged about an unfortunate incident involving a Totino's pizza. She got food poisoning and found out through their website that there had been a recall on several of their varieties. Because she was nice enough to update everyone on her own plight, Nate and I were saved from a similar fate. We checked the UPCs and sure enough, we had been sold pizza that was on the recalled list. The website urged us to throw away the entire pizza immediately and send the UPCs back for a replacement coupon. Nate followed half of the these requests (cutting out the UPCs). The pizza, he decided, was just fine for animals, so he was going to leave them outside for any and all to enjoy. Noble, I thought, but disgusting. I questioned Nate's desire to feed the (probably) possum and raccoon combo; wondering if they too could get sick. To appease me, he took removed and threw away the offending meat, and deposited the pizzas outside. It took about a week for them to be eaten, which produced another fear from me..."what are the neighbors thinking about the frozen pizza under my car?" Fast forward a couple of months, and we finally mailed in the UPCs for our reimbursement. I got a letter this past Friday with four coupons for a free pizza each; the letter describing them as follows: "The enclosed product certificates will allow you to replace the product that we asked you to destroy as a precaution". Destroy. We didn't exactly do that; do we still deserve the coupons?