Fall Front Porch

Hi!

We had a nice weekend.  C was diagnosed with bronchitis but is on antibiotics so she's on the mend.  Both kids had friends over this weekend.  C on Saturday and N on Sunday.  Plus we went out to eat on Saturday to celebrate my MIL's birthday (which was Friday) and the kids went to Sunday School.

I finally got around to decorating the front porch for fall. I feel like I've fallen a bit behind in my seasonal decorating....

I made a new wreath. Here's how it looked when I laid it out.

I took a foam pool noodle and wrapped it in strips of fabric from this chair.

Then I hot glued a bunch of fake fall foliage on it.

Here it is hanging up on my driftwood hanger.

I also put some faux foliage in the window boxes.

Here's the one on the left.

Here's the one on the right.

I had an extra scarecrow so I put him on the Welcome sign.

Here's a far-away pic. 

I put my fabric pumpkin (made of the same fabric as wreath) on the table in the front room.

And put my last faux bouquet on the magnolia wreath.

Won\t it be nice when the front room is finished? ;-)

Have a great week! :-)

Tasty Thursday

Hello!

Well, I missed last week's Menu Post, since I was sick.  I thought maybe I'd go back and write what we ate last week, instead of what we're going to eat next week.  (Since I usually go back and edit anyway when we don't eat what I've planned or we switch things around.)

And speaking of not eating what I planned, we totally didn't last week.  Not that I'm complaining, because it was nice to have K fix all the meals from Tues-Fri and then Sunday. I didn't really eat much Tues-Fri. I was glad K had made soup the previous Sunday, because I ate that everyday for lunch when I ate.  However, much to my dismay, I had to throw out a whole lotta groceries that didn't get eaten and started to go bad- greens; leftover mac & cheese; a whole bunch of K's soup that never got frozen (not sure if it would've frozen well anyway); a block of unopened cheese that somehow went mouldy (maybe there was a little hole in the bag? It was supposed to be good til Oct);  green beans that went mouldy; and some other stuff I've now forgotten...

Anyway, here's what we ate last week.

• Thurs- Frozen Samosas, Fries
• Fri- Hotdogs (C gone to friend's) 
• Sat- Pita/Tortilla Pizzas
• Sun-Chili Dogs (I had eggs)
• Mon- Enchiladas
• Tues- Rosemary Cod with Plum- Tomato Sauce, Rice, Carrots (nobody liked the cod-it turned out funny, but the sauce was good.)
• Wed- Out- Kids to in-laws, K & I to C'town

I still plan on planning (haha!) my menus since it makes my shopping easier and I think I'll keep it like this from now on.

:-)

 

Kittens (Plus a History of our Cats)

Hello!

Oh, goodness!  We are a sick house!  N is finally done with his antibiotics, but still on his puffers.  C developed a cough with no fever so she's on puffers too!  Last week I had some sort of sickness- stomach trouble, weak, tired, feeling awful and then I got a cough!  Then K got a cough!  AAHHH!  I'll be glad when we're all back to our regular health.

Well, we got two new kittens!  From C's friend, whose cat had kittens on the day that our other cat Lisa died. These weren't from that litter, though.  They were from another litter so they're 12-13 weeks old.  C's friend had 18 cats before we got ours and are looking for homes for most of them.  There's a wild mother cat who lives outdoors that they can't catch who keeps having kittens, plus a couple of those kittens have had kittens themselves!  That's why they have so many.

Anyway, meet Paris and Lilly...

Paris is on the left, Lilly is on the right . 

They're both girls.  Lilly was already named that and we liked it since it kinda sounds like Lisa, so we kept it. Paris was named Tubs (because she fell into the tub), but we thought that sounded too boyish so we re-named her.  Anybody know the (loose) connection to our other cats- Elvis & Lisa? ;-)

BTW, there's no relation between Elvis and Lisa.  K and I first got kittens when we lived in Dallas in 1997.  A cat who lived in our apartment courtyard had kittens.  We decided to adopt two of them.  K had to catch them by throwing a blanket over them since they were always running away.  We named them Elvis and Bebe (or BB).  And not after Elvis Presley, but after Elvis Costello who is a fav singer of K's.  We joked that we named Bebe after Bebe Neuwirth, but I guess it was really after BB King- even though our cat Bebe was a girl.

We moved to Kansas City, MO and the cats came with us. Here they are in our apartment.
Elvis is the one on the left with the white and Bebe is on the right.

Here's Elvis.

And here's Bebe.

We had those cats for many years.  When K & I were travelling with K's work, my mom looked after them.  Finally, my mom brought them up to PEI when she came for the summer of 2001.

 Here's Elvis outside in the sun.

Bebe and Elvis in their beds. 

Unfortunately, Bebe was a little more timid than Elvis and she ran away in the fall. We never saw her again.

But Elvis stuck around. Here I am in 2003 doing some "nesting" with Elvis on the table.

 Here's a picture in the winter of the snow outside our front door (which is now our master bedroom window!). 

Elvis trying out the snow. 

Elvis remained with us for many years.  He eventually went under the Canoe-zzi and died of old age.

, 

We got Lisa and and Babba in 2007. They were barn cats from a friend of my FIL.  The kids picked them out.  We named Babba after these Little People N had when we lived in Cary, NC in 2005/2006.  He had one named Nono and one named Baba. The name also reminded us of our cat Bebe.  Babba was a boy cat.

We thought we might name the other cat Nono, but then thought it would be confusing to tell her "No"- "No, Nono, get down from there!"- so we called the girl cat Lisa, after Elvis Presley's daughter, and to remember us of our cat, Elvis.  Plus, Lisa kinda looked like Elvis.

 Here's a pic of little C holding Babba.

Babba ended up running away (just like Bebe) and we never saw him again...

We had Lisa until August of this year.

And now we have Lilly and Paris!

Paris kinda looks like our cat Bebe.  They both have gold, black and grey colors (although Paris has more white).

Bebe

Paris

And Lilly kinda looks like my mom's cat Baby. They're both black and grey striped with white paws.

Baby

Lilly

One last picture!

(I know they're not the best cat pics- C has taken some really nice ones with her camera.  I'm sure I'll post more soon!) 

Have a great week! :-)

Back Room Changes

Hi!

Some updates from the weekend. C and I went to Charlottetown on Saturday and had a really nice time.  She got a new outfit for dance and is excited again!

I'm sorta back in the groove of things. N went back to school Monday (finally!!) for 1/2 day.

I just kept waiting around though until it was time to pick him up before big recess/lunch at 11:50. Yesterday he had a dr's appt. at 1:30, so he had to leave early then too, but not as early as Monday. He's still on antibiotics and puffers, but will be at school for the whole day today!

I have some updates on the squirrel. We caught one in the rat trap! But K and I both thought it probably wasn't the little one with the white on its back.  This one seemed bigger and more brown.  We're still seeing lots of squirrels around and most just hop right over the trap so K borrowed his dad's BB gun in order to shoot one. Here are the kids practicing their shots.

N has a lot of fun practicing.  K and N have already gone thru a whole pack of 500 BB's so N had to wait patiently for K to get home from work Monday with the new ones. The sight was off, but now it's fixed.

C is  a good shot.  On her first try, she hit her target 4 out of 4 times!

However, she has taken a liking to the squirrels and definitely doesn't want to shoot one!

So, before my parents arrived, I bought a new rug for the back room.

Well, actually it's a carpet that we had bound.  The kids and I went to S'side and checked out the carpet store and the hardware stores and this was what I thought would be the best option for the best price. It was a 9x12 remnant that I had bound in a 9x9.  It cost $280 (I think).

When we got the rug, we re-arranged the furniture. 

Here's how it used to look last year in September.

See how the old rug was too small?  I like the size of the new rug, but wondered when I got it home if it made the back room seem too fancy and not cottage-y.

Anyway, here are some other pics from around the room.

Now

Before

 Now

Before

There's a heater behind the couch so it'll have to move back to the other side soon. 

Now

Before

Now 

Now (Different angle)

Before

On the tv wall, we raised the speakers for better sound.  Right now they're sitting on milk crates, but "one day" we'll make some better stands.

Now

Before

So, in a bit I'll probably have some new "After" pics to share.  We're not using the heaters yet, but we have had few frost warnings already.  The weather network is calling for us to have snow in November!

Enjoy the rest of your week! :-)