Peeing The Bed

Who?! Me?!

First off, it's not me. Or Steve (maybe). Vindaloo, in a day and a half, has peed on the bed THREE times. Twice, she has done it directly in front of Steve.

She's now afraid of him, but still loves me even though it was ME who 'punished' her this last time for it. Even though I don't really know how to punish a cat. But she made me cry, so maybe that's why she feels bad and is nice to me (you should see the scratch marks down my back at the moment). She even sleeps on my pillow (which my grandmother was like, 'That has to stop!' but I kind of like it...) and RIGHT NEXT TO MY FACE all night long...and she will not pee near me. Good girl.

So now we're taking her to get a check up and to get a behavioral consultation on Wednesday while the exterminator is finishing up his second round. I'm still a little confused as to how the behavioral thing will go. But Steve has already said that he hopes that, if it's a behavioral issue and not a medical issue, she can be brainwashed to stop being on the bed.

Have you ever had these issues with your cats? And, if so, how did you get it to stop? Steve seriously wants to give her away. I'm looking at other options at the moment like she has a urinary tract infection or anything else. But my husband is allergic to her and has, it seems, been the subject of her pee attacks. I told him that if he gave her to a shelter, he'd just have to deal with me being mad for a bit, but that I'm leaving it in his hands.

I feel like I can't argue on this one because I fear he's worrying so much about everything that he's going to have a heart attack and put himself in an early grave. I've never seen him worry so much since we moved into this new apartment and it really makes me nervous/upsets me how much it's effecting him.

To me, it's just some sheets. But we all see the world/things differently, you know?

Either way, how are you doing? How are things?

Men's Deodorant And I Can't Find...

Hi guys!
Sorry, it's been a bit. The exterminator came on Wednesday and everything had to be boxed up, bagged up, sealed, etc. You should see our apartment. I should totally take some pictures. It's ridiculous.

All of our things need to stay sealed until...February.

Well, they said that we can put our kitchen and bathroom back together, but they're coming again in two weeks, so we may as well not put our stuff back.

...minus the fact that I've decided that I'm baking three cakes tomorrow and making an artichoke bean thingy for dinner. I bugged Steve until he agreed to the grocery store with me and we spent too much on groceries, but half of our stuff had to be thrown out when the exterminators came. Or we just can't find the things I need.

It's ridiculous now, how much we CANNOT FIND. Thursday morning, I couldn't find my deodorant, so I wore Steve's. I've worn mens sweaters for the last two days because all of my sweaters need washed. Steve always meets me at the PATH station and last night, he saw me walk up and took off his coat and gave it to me. All of my winter coats are at the cleaner right now. He gave me his coat this morning too. My old boss always noticed when I was wearing man clothes, but he isn't here anymore, so at least I won't have get a hard time about it. ;)

And it really sucks, sitting on our couch. Mainly because it crunches. They wrapped it in plastic and the plastic has to stay until February too. But it makes our cat sleep with us. She is SO cute! I wish I could take pictures. My husband and I were spooning (is that weird to say? I was going to say cuddling, but it's better with the cat when I say spooning...), getting ready to go to bed and Vindaloo lays down right against me and just stretches out with her front paws above her head and her back paws by my feet. She is a HUGE cat when she does that. It was like three spoons in a drawer!! Love it. :)

How are you doing? How's your week been? I am SO thankful that it is Friday today!

A Weekend (Slash Sick Day) In Pictures

So I was sick on...Thursday? Yes. Thursday and I stayed home with Vindaloo, our new cat. I learned on that day, that I could get her to jump around like a crazy cat by flailing her toy around. Of course, I needed pictures of said thing. I tried to do a video, but obviously need to re-read the manual on the camera.



Because of the bed bugs, Vindaloo needs to be out of the apartment for 8 hours, so we bought her a harness...which she hates. Also, she is afraid of the world. No joke. When outside of the apartment, she stalks around with her hind legs lowered down. She's ridiculous. But I got some silly pictures.





And because I was sick, I wanted a nap(s). Vindaloo was totally willing to take one with me. She goes INSANE when she hears the camera (because she wants to chase the light) so I got 2 before she lost her mind. She looks so cute when she's relaxed.




Happy Halloween! Eh. Halloween is eh for me. But I LOVE handing out candy to kids. I grew up on a dead-end street with no street lights. Seriously. But that was after I was 5. Before I was 5, we lived in a city. My parents would buy 12 bags of candy and STILL run out and have to turn out the porch light. So when we moved to Canal Fulton, they thought, well, not as many kids, we'll buy 8 bags of candy. I think they had 5 trick-or-treaters that night. To make a long story short, we started to get more trick-or-treaters when we passed out the giant candy bars. Not King Size, GIANT.

Like the ones we bought for our trick-or-treaters tonight:




We were excited! We put Vindaloo in her harness (come on! Black cat on Halloween!?!) and set some chairs in our doorway and waited. ...and waited.

This is Vindaloo being terrified of the hallway:



Why do you make me wear this stupid harness?



This is how much candy we had at 7pm, which was half-way through trick-or-treating in our building:



This is Vindaloo and Steve. Vindaloo got out of her harness and we were trying to calm her down. By the way, guess who we found out is allergic to cats? Yes, the man holding one. But that's okay. We're keeping her. He also found out he's allergic to chicken. Like...eating chicken. He claims he's not going to stop eating chicken until he goes into anaphylactic shock.



This is Steve and Vindaloo right before she dug as much of her claws into his skin to get away from him as she could. Once again...fraidy cat. Steve kept calling her a 'big pussy.' Well...yeah. But what does she care? At this point, she uses my legs for warmth, as a stepping stool when I'm in the way on the couch, and as a holder for her play toy. I still love her.



Would you like some candy? We still have 5 HUGE bars (Steve just finished the Kit Kats) and took 3 down to the doorman. No joke. We STILL have that much candy. Not including the Reese's and Milky Ways that are the normal size for Halloween.

To keep my mind off of the ridiculous amount of candy in the apartment, Steve and I walked in the rain and bought a ton of cake pans and cupcake pans so that I can have a ridiculous amount of cake in the apartment tomorrow. :)

What a weekend! But it's been fun. Now we just have to finish packing up all of our stuff for the exterminator.

How's your weekend?

Aaaaaannnnnnddddd...it's gone.

This is before Vindaloo was comfortable with us and this is Steve with a 'stache.

That title is technically about a few things. We have a few things that are gone. But the biggest one is...

My husband's mustache.

He couldn't do it anymore. Plus, I kind of made a deal. I volunteered us to give a talk, together, as a couple, at church on tithing and he was like, what?! And then after that, he said okay...but that he could shave the mustache. Which is fine because...really...it was like he'd JUST hit puberty. I love him, but growing facial hair is not his thing.

But at least he raised $80 for pediatric cancer!!


What? I don't think that you're busy at all...



This is our not so timid cat. She is ridiculous. I woke up this morning and she was on my head. And then, just a minute ago, she was trying to drink my husband's brandy. Right now, she's chasing a light all over our apartment. I love it :)

I would also like to ask a favor. I've been praying for a few people and if you could pray for Kenz as she struggles in her journey with the Lord and praise God with Karsie who's finally going home after being in the NICU since her birth. I know that God is working through us for each other and prayer is such a huge vehicle. :) Thank you!

How are you doing? How's your week been?

Mustaches, Vindaloo, and a Prayer

It's been a good weekend. Steve is off to a great mustachioed start of Mustaches Vs. Cancer!! Though his mustache is somewhat sad. Just a bit. He looks a bit creepy in that picture, right? Maybe it's just me. He was saying, 'No one is going to want to donate to me with that picture!' He's a dork. If you'd like to see his page for Mustaches vs. Cancer, please click here.



Vindaloo has been looking for a good five minutes for the light that she was trying to attack in this picture. No joke, she's STILL looking for it. And she's kind of upset that she can't find it.

But we did find an awesome alternative.



Lastly, so my blogger friend Vashti told me a story!! Tell me how awesome this is. She was walking around in South Africa (where she lives) and this guy walks by and says, 'Hey, you're wearing TOMS.' And she says, 'So are you.' BAM. She realizes that she's talking to BLAKE, THE CHEIF SHOE GIVER. Aka: The guy who started TOMS SHOES!!!!! HOW F-ING AWESOME IS THAT?! I freaking love my TOMS. So comfortable. She told me that story and I almost peed myself. FREAKING AWESOME.


Me in my TOMS

So she told him what they do for the AIDs orphans in South Africa and he wrote down all their information. Could you please pray that Blake loves their mission and wants to help their orphans? That would change things so, so much.

I'm sorry. What did you say? You said that you'd like to also e-mail and send letters to Blake? I think that's a great idea!! You are so thoughtful. That's why I like you.

Here's where you can send letters:
TOMS Shoes
3025 Olympic Blvd., Suite C
Santa Monica, CA 90404
800-975-TOMS (8667)
310-566-3170

And e-mails can go here.

Thank you!! You guys rock.

Meet Vindaloo!

Meet Vindaloo, the new addition to our family! She's too cute. She's a year old.

So I went to the shelter and I get there and...I don't have anything with our current address with my. My friend, Kate, is coming to meet me and we then find out we have an hour to wait for adoptions to open. My husband gets a cab alllllll the way from Jersey City to the upper West Side to the shelter.

Kate, Steve, and I all go in and start looking at the cats. Because there are SO many older cats, so that they don't have to euthanize them, they started giving any cat a year or older away for free, with a free office visit, and a goodie bag.

The first cat we picked out, I loved. She looked like Sprite (the last cat I had) and was a short hair and had these soulful eyes. She was a stray and the named her Tiger. PROBLEM. We went to adopt her and they said that we couldn't even submit papers on her until 5:59 pm tomorrow. We have friends coming over and we couldn't come until Monday and then there was no guarantee that she'd still be there. So I found another cat named Kimmy and...she was okay. Eh. Then my husband said, well, I kind of liked this black cat...

AND SHE HAS THE MOST SOULFUL LITTLE EYES. The perfect amount of fur (she barely sheds so far) AND she's ridiculously calm. She's still a little bit afraid, but, for the most part, she's taken to us and only hides under the bed when she hears the train (we live near the light rail), the washer and dryer, and when there's something loud on tv (we were watching Men In Black). We found out that she had been dropped off today at 11:21am by her owner and the reason was (they include the reason): 'Did Not Have Time For Cat.' There was a 15-year-old cat beside her and the reason was 'high vet bills.' *sigh* I guess what makes me sad is that they do euthanize cats at this shelter if they've been there for a month. Vindaloo was there for TWO HOURS!

I love it :) Thank you for all of the advice!!!