Sleeping arrangements

I never ever ever ever thought I would let a pet sleep in my bed.  Never ever ever ever. 

And then came Lola.  Pair her up with Mike's insistance on keeping the bedroom door open (easier access for trespassers?  I don't know...), and you can easily see where this is going. 

This is what a typical night looks like:*

Not so bad.  She mainly keeps at the end of the bed, neatly tucked between two sets of feet, only occasionally venturing to the head of the bed for a 3 am pet-and-purr session.

Sometime through the night, I found that the arrangments had changed.  Somehow, Lola managed to push both sets of feet to their respective sides of the bed.    She is a sly one, that Lola.

Imagine my surprise this morning that Lola had designed a totally new sleeping arrangment somewhere between the hours of 5 and 8 am that positioned her right on top of the back of my knees.

Lola's response when I moved her back to her spot?  Look at owner, streeeeeeetch, aaaaaaaand upsidedownheadflop.

* Being under the same roof with Mike for the last 5.5 years, it was inevitable that I would start taking on some of his habits. Like drawing diagrams to explain things. If I ever start rambling about random historical topics, please bring this to my attention.

Lola's Snow Day Hat

I finished this hat...well, the cat version anyway.

She didn't seem to mind it that much.

Probably because she knows she's adorable.

Then she found the strings...

...and soon we were finished taking photos.  :)

Random pictures from my iPhone

There are many, many things I like about my iPhone.  One of them is that it's great for snapping pictures of random little things.  I thought I would share some of those random things today.

I declared Tuesday morning "waffee" time.  (waffles + coffee.)

My husband makes a fantastic roast duck.

Lola climbed up on the desk the other night.  Rare opportunity for a picture with my kitty.

Lola, possibly wondering why in the world I was home when there wasn't that much snow on the ground.  :)

From our December dinner with our knife-and-fork group.  (Knife-and-fork is a chance to get to know other people from our church -- we get paired up with three other couples/singles, and meet once a month for dinner.)  We brought the ice cream bar that month.  :)

My Peddler's Mall finds from the weekend.

Dominoes with the Bess cousins at Christmas.

My desk after the first day back from Christmas break.

Mike and Lola.  She really likes him, and usually find the most inopportune time to climb in his lap.  Like when he sits down while his waffles are in the toaster.

We had dinner at our Sunday School teacher's house.  His kids drew this to welcome us.

My dad taught me to play Rook over Christmas break.

Quite possibly my favorite food.

And most definitely my favorite guy.  :)

Riding with the Bess brothers over Christmas break.

One of my co-workers going all-out for Spirit Week.

I love snow days that actually have a significant amount of snow.

It's a cold, snowy day today.  (A legitimate snowfall this time.)  School was cancelled today and tomorrow, so this has been my veiw for a good portion of the day:

Tomorrow I really want to build lots of tiny snowmen. 


Cold weather leaves me craving soup.  So I made a pot of cheesy potato soup for dinner.  It's pretty easy.  Boil about 5 diced potatotes and 1/2 a chopped onion until the potatoes are soft (use just enough water to cover them in the pot).  Add milk until you get the desired consistency.  Add a couple spoons of butter.  Let this heat back up, then add shredded cheese.  I use about half a bag (which I think equals about a cup).  Serve with bacon bits.  Yes, I'm very inexact with my measurements when it comes to soup, but this one is pretty easy to figure out. 

Mike's project

We're nomads when it comes to our bedroom.  We started out in the downstairs master bedroom, but it's so dank that it's just more depressing than it is relaxing. 

I thought we had settled into the upstairs "guest" room, but it lacks closet space (we still keep our clothes in the master bedroom downstairs).  Then Mike had an idea -- add a big closet in place of the dead space in my scraproom, and make that our bedroom.  (Don't worry, my scraproom is just moving across the hallway.)

I thought this was a "wait-until-spring" project, but before I knew it, Mike was purchasing lumber and putting up the framework for the closet.  I'm very excited about this, not only because it's my very own closet, but because this is Mike's first construction project.  I'm also trying to learn by watching, because this is an area I am not so confident in.  When I was in college, I think we spent a day on this part, because it was assumed that everyone knew how to do this.  :P 

We're waiting on a visit from his dad before we move forward, but I have to say that he's done a fantastic job so far! I can't wait to show you the finished product!  And to move my shoes and purses in.  :)

Oh good. I didn't forget how to scrap.

I've been feeling a little creative lately.  Probably because I organized my scrapbook stuff.  It's been several months since I scrapbooked just for me, so  I just wanted to share a couple of pages that I made over the weekend. 

So, my friend Ashley is just the cutest.  Last winter, while on our church couples retreat, a big group of us played Password (the game where you have to pass the game around and not be the one caught with it when the buzzer goes off).  The following is Ashley's strategy for Password domination: 

And one dedicated to my love of all things crochet. This was simple, but I really like how it turned out.

It was a nice surprise this morning to log in to SIS and see this:

Thanks Angie!!!

And I also played around with a couple of challenges this week. 

Scrapping the Music is highlighting the Golden Girls theme.  One of my very best friends from college was a huge fan of the Golden Girls, so I knew immediately that the page was going to be about him!  Seriously, I cannot hear the theme song without thinking of Jonathan. 

The Creative Type posted a challenge recently, too:  involve newspaper in your layout.  This one actually inspired two layouts, but I'm only finished with the first one, so I'll go ahead and post it today.  I hand cut my title from newspaper.

It feels good to get back into this.  I need vacations more often.  Or snow days.  I'll take snow days.  :)

Oh, speaking of snowdays, we had our first one today.  Would you like to see what qualifies as a snow day around here?

I'm not even kidding.  We are such wimps.  My favorite professor said in her facebook status this morning that if she got out for this kind of snow in Montana, where she grew up, she would only have gone to school in September and May, and would still be in the 8th grade. 

Yes, we are wimps. 

Things I really want to make.

This hat from Elsie's blog.  (I started it last night.)

This panda, from Craftzine.  I'm pretty sure I picked up the wrong kind of yarn the other day, but I think I'm going to say the heck with it and just try it anyway.

Finish these gloves, also from Craftzine.

Granny squares.  I haven't gotten this quite right yet.

This owl mask.  While you're there, browe the rest of this blog.  And be amazed.

This fawn.  Isn't it darling? 

These bunnies kind of stole my heart.

How great are these flowers?! 

Oh, and a whole bunch of scrapbook pages.  :)