Reunion.

Sarah, Melissa, Me, Harmony and Lindsey

The last time we all were together (we are missing our missionary, molly) was for Lindsey's Bachelorette Party....4 years ago!!

I have known these girls since we were like 10 or 11..maybe sooner?

They are apart of some of my favorite memories. These girls were with me when I went to my first church dance, these girls were the first ones I told when I had my first kiss, these girls are the ones I got in trouble with when our parents found out we played the "pass out" game, these girls were around when I fell in love for the first time and they were there for me when it ended. These girls were a huge part of my past, they continue to be apart of my present and will forever be apart of my future. I love these girls like sisters because they basically are.

3 husbands and 1 and a half babies later we still are the BEST of friends.

Was it just me...

or did it look as if this years LDS Christmas Devotional was a special Apostles edition of Jeopardy?

(I couldn't find a bigger picture)

"I'll take ' Book of Mormon Stories' for 500, Alex."

blasphemous? probably. funny though? yes.

Can't wait...

I go home for Christmas next Wednesday and I can't think of anything else.

A list of things I am sooo excited for... (in no particular order)

1. Just being home in general...such a great feeling.

2. Parents

3. My bed

4. Meg, Jack and Stella

5. Mom's cooking

6. warmer weather

7. Going for a T-swift drive with Keri

8. Seeing my HS best friends

9. Bunco Girls

10. singing while my dad plays the guitar

You're InVitEd!!!!!

...to my pity party.

Time: Now-Who know's

Place: Here

What to Bring: Advice

Sooo..I have been feeling a little down the last few days. Well, if I am being completely honest..probably a few weeks.

There are a lot of things I don't understand, but at the top of my list is BOYS.

I don't get them. It's like men are from Mars and we are from somewhere totally different or something...

The dating world is constantly changing. The do's the dont's. I can't keep up. So much competition out there. I feel like I need to take up juggling or something...juggling and breathing fire while jumping on one foot, cross-eyed. I need something that makes me stand out from the crowd because apparently being a good person, cute, fun, creative, funny and spiritual is not enough these days. What about a good cook? or someone who is good with children? oh wait..no..no..that doesn't help either.

I heard a quote once that I loved and I try to remind myself of it every once in awhile.

"Don't focus on finding the right person, focus on BEING the right person"

As much as I agree with that..it's easier said than done. We are created to want companionship..are we not? I am starting to think only girls were created that way. I feel like boys are getting a little lazy these days. If a boy wants to go on a date...he asks a girl out. I'm not saying that its easy for them. I understand they may get nervous and worry about getting rejected, BUT if a girl wants to go out she has to wait to be asked. I can put myself out there, be friendly, be flirty, focus on BEING the RIGHT person and it still doesn't guarantee me a date on Friday night. I don't mean to be a complainer..I guess I have just had a streak of bad luck with boys as of late and its left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Something that should go away with some frozen yogurt...

It's the most magical time of the year...

I love christmas.

Lucky for me I can still feel the magic when this wonderful season comes around.

Aleksi and I have been ITCHING to decorate our little house for the holidays.

So the second Thanksgiving was over we replaced our pumpkins and fall decor with garlands, candy canes and glittered christmas trees.

It's really important to Aleksi and I (since we are both far from home) that we make our house feel like a home.

I think we have done a fabulous job if I do say so myself. We love being there. It's so cozy and inviting.

Here is what we have been up to...

My Fa La La and Christmas tree corner. I love how it turned out. My Fa La La is backed with old music sheet paper and I hand wrote the letters with red paint and glittered them.

(Sorry the pic is a little small. I am having some problems uploading my pics.)

The candy filled dome came from Williams-Sonoma (candy from the dollar store). My Yarn Christmas tree: I created a cone shaped tree with red cardstock and wrapped and wrapped red yarn around the whole thing. Didn't take as long as you might think. Music Sheet tree: I'm sure you can figure that one out. Super easy.

I am especially proud of my garland. It looks legit. It looks like my mom would have done it..which is saying a lot. The picture does not do it justice really, but you can kinda get the idea.

Cranberry Tree: You need patience and TIME for this one, but its worth it. You need a styrofoam cone ( I found one at the dollar store) and I actually strung the cranberries on string and wrapped them around the cone. I had rhinestone straight pins and stuck some through some of the cranberries to help support and to add a little something more. Glittered Trees: I created two cone shaped trees painted one red and one green. While the paint was still wet I sprinkled with glitter. I love glitter. Book Christmas tree: I just cut 1 inch by 3 inch strips and glued them onto a paper cone starting from the bottom. I used a pencil to curl the tips up.

I found that watching The Polar Express while crafting really helps. :)

Merry Christmas!

blast from my chinese past..

Shawn was one of the guards at the school I taught at in China. We became bosom buddies. I would go visit him on a daily basis and he soon saw what apparently no american boys can see. Shawn would write me letters, tell me he loved me and he even bought me flowers one time. After I returned back to the states we did a pretty good job about keeping in touch for the first few months..then life happened and the emails stopped. It's been over 2 years since I last talked with him, but yesterday I opened up my inbox to a special little chinese treat.

Hi, cortney, i miss you. I have not keept in with you for about tow years. are you married? or you have boy friends? I do want to enbrace you again. Last year my parents introduce me a girl friend. we had kept in for about a year. at begins, we were crasy in love. but later we often were to quarrel about our future. last month we parted company. these days i am unhappy. say yours things.

yours, shawn

Where the MaGiC happens...

This past Monday I had the day off and luckily I was in one of those cleaning/organizing moods because I spent the ENTIRE day cleaning, organizing and decorating my desk in the craft room/laundry room.

Being creative is my favorite thing to do along with laughing, dancing and eating chocolate.

I worked at a scrapbook store in California for nearly 3 years and have accumulated quite a lot of fun stuff. Making things with my hands and paper crafting is an outlet for me. It makes me happy. Lock me in my craft room by myself, play inspiring music (ingrid michaelson, adele, mindy gledhill) and give me a bowl of peanut butter M&M's and thats how I invision heaven to be. I have big dreams for myself when it comes to being a designer. Will they come true? I have no idea, but its fun to dream.

Now that my desk is clean, organized and cute its where I want to spend all of my time.

what it looked like before...

...and now.

My brother and sister in law had a little metal shelf that you put in your cupboards that helps with giving you more space. Well, I got extremely creative and used it to store my paper. Now they all stand up and its easier for me to thumb through them. I organized my papers by company and made these little dividers. Really proud of myself for thinking outside of the box on this one (sorry the pic is a little blurry).

I found these old vintage jars at a thrift store in California. They are old peanut butter, coffee, tang, cottage cheese jars and I fell in love with the lids and shapes. I use them to hold my inks, stickles, buttons and twine. I also got those cool goblets at a thrift store here in Utah and they hold my glitter.

A closer look at my "Create" banner. Kinda in love with making banners right now..obviously. You can also see one of my frames. Its a picture of my Grandpa and my mother as a little girl. Two of my favorite people.

I created this little piece of artwork and framed it. I loved this paper so much and felt like it was cute enough to frame on its own. I just added a quote I love so much, " Nothing happens unless first we dream..."

Another project I am proud of... I took this chair from my grandma when I visited her in Idaho. It was dirty and had a nasty white plastic seat. I ripped it off and recovered it myself with some old fabric I found at a thrift store. I am SO pleased with how it came out! Looks professional, right?!

Now I just need to get in there and start creating!

All Hallows Eve...

I LOVE Halloween.

Its one of my favorite holidays.

I love the weather (more so in California--when its not so cold) , the changing leaves, carmel apples, trick or treaters, costumes, scary stories/movies and I love the decorations.

(does that not look heavenly?)

Aleksi and I have been watching scary movies a lot as of lately in the spirit of Halloween. Which is pretty gutsy for two single young girls living in an old creepy house by themselves, but its fun.

We also have decorated our little house with a few halloween decorations.

I cut out a silhouette of a little witch on my Cricut and framed it.

I made this Halloween banner to hang over our fireplace. I used really old dictionary pages, inked the edges, mounted them on some black patterned paper and glittered the hand written letters. I then tied little scraps of black fabric inbetween the letters to jazz it up a little.

I really like how it turned out.

Lex, got her papercraft on and made these pictures and framed them.

We painted our front door yellow. Not for the season, but because we wanted too.

And of course we had to get pumpkins.

Not too shabby for some poor girls...huh?

Happy Halloween All!!!

Aleksi

There are a few things I already knew about Aleksi prior to living with her:

She loves the beach.

She loves to shop.

She LOVES her family.

She likes to play the "would you rather.." game

Her favorite chinese student is Dave.

She likes to have her hair in braids while eating peanuts in her underwear.

She loves watching movies as much as I do

She "jeffs" (long story that needs to be told in person)

She thought my name was Aubrey even after knowing me for months.

After being reunited and living together for 3 months I have learned a few more things:

She is ADDICTED to shopping.

She cries when she thinks about Bentley

She likes to tap you on the shoulder and wake you up in the middle of the night to tell you things like "cortney, its thundering outside" and "cortney, do all mountains have names or just the big ones?"

She goes for 3 minute jogs

She doesn't cook...ever.

She is THE MOST boy crazy girl I have ever known

She can't say no to people

She likes to try on and plan out her outfits before she needs to wear them (came home on a saturday to find her trying on outfits for sunday).

She loves her accessories

She has Unicorn hair ( a piece of hair that without fail is always shooting straight forward like she is ready to stab someone)

(case and point)

She has the craziest bedhead I have ever seen. But seriously. No person/stylist/professional could mimic the way her hair looks in the morning if they tried.

She is very artistic

She wears a mouth guard at night and its my favorite thing about her.

She can't whistle

She cuts corners to close while driving and takes chunks out of her tires

She loves my family like her own

She has a huge heart

She thinks I am really funny...because I am

She does a really good impression of the Target Lady from the SNL skit

She hates cats--like a lot

She likes to leap off our front doorstep (don't ask me why)

.....

This list will get bigger and bigger and so will the reasons why I love her so much.

Did you know?

I just found out that elephants mate for life.

I knew Penguins, Doves and some humans, but I didn't know elephants did.

Did you know that elephants can die of a broken heart??

How precious/sad is that...?

If you seperate them from their life partner they get depressed and will stop eating.

Poor thing.

I like elephants so much more now.

Animals can be so human sometimes. I hate that most of the world forgets that.

Going back.

The other night Aleksi and I were laying on my bed and talking about our childhood.We were both SO blessed to have such a wonderful childhood full of fun/good memories.We talked about Christmas and how it was such a magical time as a kid...even still as an adult, but there is just something about being a child at Christmas time. Nothing beats it. My parents did such a good job at making sure there was magic at Christmas time. It's something I look forward to when I have my own children. I laugh so hard when I remember me as a child around Christmas. Well, any holiday really. EVERY year I would write a note to santa and leave it next to his plate of cookies. Don't think it was a letter telling him how good I was or thanking him for my presents. It was a piece of paper with a list of questions that I insisted on having the answers too.

1. Who is your favorite reindeer?

2. How far away is the north pole?

3. How long does it take you to go to everyones house?

4. Can I have a bell off of one of the reindeers collar?

also made a similar list for the Easter Bunny the night before Easter.

1. How far can you hop?

2.Can I have some clippings of your hair? (what was I planning on doing with that???)

3.Can I have a paw print?

I laugh so hard at these memories because I was such a curious child (still am as an adult), but it also makes tear up at the thought of my parents sitting there playing along, answering my silly questions and looking around the house trying to find some kind of hair clippings to leave me. I love my parents. They are such good parents.

Its so funny the things you do and think as a child. The way our little minds worked. When I was a little girl I couldn't figure out for the life of me how my hair grew and where it came from. The only explanation I could think of was that my little body must be full of hair and the only way for it to come out is by growing out of the top of my head. I was convinced I cracked the case of how hair was coming out of all of our heads.

You're welcome everyone.

Why were we in search a hurry to grow up? I have no idea because I wish I could be a child again--for just a day. I have thought about what it would be like if we all had the opportunity to spend the day with our younger self. Does that make sense? Just you and your 5 year old self for a WHOLE day. I wonder what my 5 year old self would insist on playing and I wonder if my present self would play along--I know I would. I would wear myself out for sure.

Mud Pies would be somewhere on the list. Oh....and capturing cats and probably getting a spoonful of peanut butter and licking it all gone while we ride around the neighborhood on our bikes. We might even get our Recorders and play them as we march on top of our picnic table.

Just an idea.

That sounds like a fun day.

Someday.

Someday is the answer to a lot of my questions these days.

When am I gonna have a job? Someday.

When am I gonna have some money to buy cute stuff? Someday.

When are my hot neighbors gonna go ahead and start falling in love with me? Someday.

When will my life not be ghetto? Someday.

Speaking of ghetto. I don't have a microwave. It's funny how much you take these things for granted when you have them. You learn very quickly when you are poor how to get creative. For instance, this is how I defrost stuff.

Blender & hot water.

Nice, huh?

and then there were 3

Happy. Excited. Grateful.

Thats how I feel about my good friend/old roomate Stef moving in next week.

Stef decided to move into the 3rd room we have (used to be our craft room) and Aleksi and I are thrilled.

I think this is a blessing for all 3 of us and the answer to all of our prayers.

I have a lot of great memories with this girl and am looking forward to some more!!

I forgot I had one of these...

Its no secret that life is hard.

Mine sure is at the current moment.

But thats just the thing, they are only moments. The hard times won't always be there. Well..at least thats what I keep telling myself.

I am still currently jobless...and its HARD.

Until my current moment passes I am creating a mental list of things I am grateful for.

1. Family- That my sister who is a mother of two who is remodeling her entire home and also pregnant took time to research and send me a list of job openings. That my brothers and their wives have fed me and gave me a place to stay when I was homeless. That my Parents...(pause while I cry some more)...love and support me and currently make it so I am not homeless and starving.

2. Friends-who also have fed me, but more importantly keep me happy. Especially my Andersen girls...couldn't survive here without them.

3. Laughter- thank goodness Heavenly Father gave us laughter and THANK GOODNESS ITS FREE. Laughing is the only thing keeping me sane as of lately.

4. Ingrid Michaelson songs- you can't NOT feel good listening to them.

5. My dreams-along with laughter this too is free and free is about all I can afford these days.

6. My extremely hot, baseball playing neighbors- I live next to three very, VERY good looking boys..correction..MEN (there is nothing boyish about them). Aleksi and I don't have internet or cable so being able to spy on our neighbors has provided some entertainment for us. Don't worry, our bedroom windows only face their living room and backyard. NOT their bedrooms..we're bored, not perverts. The other night I watched and listened from my dark bedroom window for over an hour while one of the boys and his girlfriend broke up. Tempers raged, awkward moments shared and tears were shed--by all three of us. It was like watching The Real World on MTV.

7. Reading- I currently just finished The Hunger Games series and it is the best series of books I have ever read. EVER.

8. Saron- my niece. She isn't even here yet and already brings me such joy. I can NOT wait to get my hands on her. I have been having dreams about her lately. The best part is that I get to be there when she makes her grand debut at the end of next month.

Thats my list so far, but it gets bigger each day.

Home Sweet Home......?

Aleksi and I got the keys to our house on Friday.

What should have been a really exciting day was actually quite overwhelming.

We moved all of our stuff in and quickly realized that we really don't have a lot of stuff.

Aleksi has a TON of clothes and I have a lot of scrapbooking stuff. That's it.

We have a big, empty house that needs a lot of work. A LOT OF WORK.

Aleksi and I spent hours in the backyard yesterday weeding, raking and finding treasures.

Treasure=2 dead birds, tennis ball, dice, a broken gardening tool and a lot of never-before-seen bugs.

We managed to get several huge piles of sticks, weeds, and dead leaves and it still doesn't look like we made a dent. *sigh*

Someday I will be able to post "after" pictures and they will be darling, I promise you that. Until then enjoy these ugly "before" pictures of our new house (not yet a home).

(excuse the boxes and bags--we still haven't completely unpacked the stuff we do have)

Living Room

Kitchen

We are dying to rip down the nasty wall paper border and we thought we wanted to paint the cupboards, but quite a few people have said that we shouldn't. What do you think?

Laundry Room

This room will look much better when a washer and dryer occupy the dirty corner.

Bathroom--the only thing thats semi-new in the entire house.

Aleksi's room

My Room--don't you just love the stars??

Craft Room

This room is mostly windows and will be darling with a fun color of paint on the walls. I'm mostly excited to decorate this room..obviously.

Backyard

The backyard wraps around the whole house..so its pretty decent sized. The open gate you see in the picture leads to our SECOND backyard--which is mostly dead grass and a firepit.

FYI..this picture was taken *before*our yardwork.

believe it or not...

..THIS is whats been occupying my dreams as of lately.

I know it doesn't look like much, but TRUST me this run down, deserted home has great potential and would be the perfect place for Aleksi and I to rest our heads at night. I agree the front of the house is not much to look at..in fact during my apartment/home searches I drove past it a couple of times and didn't even write down the number. Finally, we decided to go get the key and check it out. Nice size living room, big front window, fireplace, HARDWOOD floors through-out. They say its a 3 bedroom, but I say 2 bedrooms with a smaller room--maybe for scrapbooking?? :) 2 backyards..yes, TWO (one with a firepit). Aleksi and I have completely fallen in love with it. Unfortunately, its about 150 more then we would like to pay each month.

BUT I CANT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.

Out of the several, SEVERAL places that I have looked at and called on..its the only place that I get excited about and the only place that I can really picture coming home to after all the amazing dates I will be having with hot guys.

We (me,aleksi and her two brothers) actually call it The Ghost House. When we walked around to the backyard we saw a small, wooden swing hanging from the big tree in the back and it was slightly creepy. It also has a cellar under the house that we are 80% positive is the home for this girl...

scary, right?

I first had nightmares about it, but they quickly turned into thoughts and dreams of how cute we could make that house. We decided that we could live with the creepy homegirl under the floor if we put a nice, heavy desk right on top of her exit.

I know I just need to get over it, we can't afford the place, but thats easier said then done. I'm going to call the property manager on Monday and try my best to convince her (because it is run down and needs work) to come down on the price.

I doubt it will happen, but wish me luck!

♥ me some good jeans

I'm organizing and cleaning out my closet in preparation for my big move to Utah in a few weeks.

I was going through my clothes and trying to get rid of a lot of the ones I haven't worn in awhile.

I have a confession.

I have a pair of American Eagle jeans that I can't seem to throw away. They are old, stained, full of holes, but they have always been my favorite pair of jeans...ever purchased.

I know it seems so silly to hold onto something like that, but I have tried a handful of times to throw them in the trash and I just can't do it.

I remember the day I bought those jeans. It was my very first pair of AE jeans and I saved up for them (50 bucks for a pair of jeans was a lot to me). I remember how good I felt in them. I remember how bummed I was when I got paint on them right under my left knee. I was wearing them when I had my very first kiss @ 16.

Isn't it crazy how many memories can be tied into a single article of clothing??

Maybe its just me.

I should make something out of them. Maybe a beach bag or something..? I don't know, but there they sit and with me they will stay.

WARNING: Venting taking place

I'm not typically a fighter, but right now..I could be.

I'm so, SO, SO mad right now.

Remember the post where I talked about the new swimsuit I bought?? Well, I received it and wasn't too happy with the color on me, so I sent it back to exchange it for another color.

This was about a month ago and I still haven't gotten my exchange, so I called DownEast and they said that they never received the return.

"...what..?"

I called the Packing and Shipping place that I mailed it from. The lady that I talked to was like Indian I think and I promise I'm not racist, but imagine how frustrated I already was feeling and trying to talk to someone with an accent wasn't helping.

I couldn't find my receipt (again, it was like a month ago), but I knew exactly what day it was that I mailed it. She told me that the only time someone sent a package to that location was back in 2007. She then went on to tell me that they didn't even have my name or number in their system so I probably didn't mail it from their location.

"No, I KNOW I mailed it from your store. How many employees work there?"

"me and one other person"

"a young girl?"

"yes"

"short?"

"yes"

"long dark hair?"

"yes"

"IS SHE WEARING MY SWIMSUIT?!"

I didn't say the last one, but I should have.

I mailed TWO items off that day and only one made it to their destination. I was angry..I am angry and towards the last part of our conversation I sounded like it. I should have tried a little harder to stay cool because I work in the service industry and I hate when customers take out their frustration on me. She asked for my number and said she would call if my swimsuit ever showed up. So thats it folks, my swimsuit is gone...lost. Probably on some daughter or wife of a FedEx delivery man.

I hope they look good in a black and yellow floral print halter.

HeLLo YeLLoW...

I don't do favorites.

It's really hard for me. I have never been the kind of girl that can choose a favorite anything. In fact, I hate when people ask me that question, "whats your favorite_______ (movie, book, band, color, meal, etc.)?" I always give them at least 5 answers.

However, sometimes I can go through a little phase where I can obsess over something. For instance, when I first heard the song Sort of by Ingrid Michaelson--she is the only artist I listened to for days.

Right now, I am obsessed with a color. It's a color that I NEVER have considered to be one of my favorites, but right now..it is.

Yellow

Anything yellow I completely am drawn to. Sunglasses, clothes, dishes, pillows, jewelry. Maybe because its summer and yellow is a summery kind of color. I love summer. I love yellow.

(Just realized its been nearly a month since I have blogged--whoopsie. Maryland trip still to come.)

whistle while you work(out)

This morning I went to the gym...

and before you high-five me and say something like "good for you!!" (because thats what we women do, we congratulate each other on working out) I should probably say that I haven't been to the gym in a really long time AND I ate 3 cookies today. So..thats that.

I have a love/hate relationship with the gym..mostly hate, but I DO always feel better after I have gone and I'm not constantly thinking about it the rest of the day.

I wish I was one of those people that actually enjoyed it.

I enjoy exercising when its hidden and I don't realize I'm doing it. Like dancing.

Dancing is SUCH a workout and I love dancing. I should dance.

ANYWAY, after my hour was up I started for the EXIT. Walking infront of me was an old man who just finished his workout as well. As soon as he opened the door and stepped out of the gym he started whistling.

I smiled...I felt like whistling too.

I got 10 bucks that says he wasn't whistling on the way into the gym.

Call me crazy...

but I L.O.V.E. the new shoes I bought today, like a lot, like I am wearing them as I write this post.

However, it's the kind of purchase you have to justify before you even pull it out of the bag. Not because you have spent a lot of money, but because the purchase is..lets just say...different.?

I am a thrift store shopper so there has been several "just listen to what I want to do with it" kind of purchases.

With that being said..just hear me out.

I have wanted gold shoes for awhile now. yes, gold. My brother got my sister-in-law a pair of gold glittered TOMS and I want them so bad, but they are like 50 bucks and I can't justify THAT right now.

They are cute though and I will own a pair of TOMS one day, but today is not that day. Today I found gold shoes, the ones I have been looking for. Most of you will not have any clue what I was thinking. Some of you will say what my mom said when I showed her my new shoes "hmmmmmm....ok."

Picture this... Grandma Shoes+Michael Jackson Shoes= MY NEW SHOES!!! :)

No? Don't see it? Don't care. The best part??

I bought them for 5 BUCKS!!

I know some of you may be thinking it was 5 dollars too much and that they should have paid me 5 to take them off their hands, but I love them.

I may stand alone on this purchase and that is ok because at least I stand alone in some ghetto fab, moon-walking, why-walk-when-you-can-dance kind of shoes.

Keeping Perspective

If you are apart of the blogging world you probably know who Stephanie Nielson is.
I read her blog every now and then and I love it. She is a quick reminder of how life can change in an instant. I watched this video and cried. Sometimes in a world filled with chaos its easy to forget your purpose. Sometimes we need to stop, take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

If I become even half as beautiful of a person as her then I will be happy.

New Swimsuit

So fortunately its getting hot and laying out while floating in the pool will be on my TO-DO list soon enough.

Unfortunately, good weather=swim suit season. Ugh...

BUT...I am in DESPERATE need of a new swim suit, so I bought this.

Too bad the bod doesn't come with the suit...

" You and me together we'll be..."

I have always had the ability to entertain myself.
I think its something that comes along with being the youngest child. When you start to lose your older siblings aka playmates (I dislike hugh hefner for making that a dirty thing) to New Kids on the Block,sports, scooters and Babysitters Club books... you learn to use your imagination very quickly.
Unfortunately for our family pets, I turned to them.
When it finally reached the point that all of my older siblings had started school and it was just me and mom at home I remember taking our cat Sammy in my bedroom with me. I would try to dress him up and put him in my pink and green plastic stroller, which was a difficult task as you can imagine. I remember my mom calling me for lunch and being afraid that if I let Sammy go that I may not be able to find him again once I was done eating. So I would lock him in my room. After I finished my lunch I would get distracted with some other activity or toy and completely forget that pour Sammy was still in my bedroom. This exact situation happened nearly everyday.
My love for cats (animals in general) started at a young age and I believe the dislike animals feel for me started around the same time.
About a month ago I was looking through some old family pictures and I laughed out loud when I found several ones of me holding different cats. I can think of at least 2 or 3 home videos where my siblings are dancing or just playing infront of the camera and I am in the background chasing after a cat. I remember another particular video of my mom recording my sister outside and she was singing for the camera(we have a lot of those) and you see me walk up to my mom crying rubbing my arm. I had just gotten scratched by a cat. I think I cried for about a minute before I started chasing it again.

As a family we have a had a LOT of cats in our days.
We have 3 right now. My mom doesn't like all 3 cats to be in one room at the same time...she thinks it makes us look like those crazy cat people that are probably hiding 10 more in the next room (we aren't by the way).

Do you know of or remember the movie Oliver & Company?? This scene has ALWAYS reminded me of myself.


Would you find that funny or weird if I told you that I sing this song to my cats sometimes?

The whole inspiration for this post is that today is Jack & Stellas birthday.

They are 1 year old today

(P.S. normally I would not remember my pets birthdays, but today is also my real life best friends birthday--shout out to Sister Raney!)

Jack & Stella

As you can tell I *still* like dressing them up. Isn't it amazing how even animals can look annoyed??

"Im too old for this..."-jack

"worst.birthday.ever."-stella