What our hands hath wrought

Pets can be quite expensive, so we have tried - in our very cheap way - to DIY. Thankfully, our two projects this week have come out pretty well. Here is our newest toy - the "bird" - that Norah loves, and even hunts and begs for when we put it away. She can really jump and twist as she pounces on it! It was quite cheap, as it is simply a dowel rod, some lightweight twine, and a few feathers glued together.










Next up, the major building project! Cat trees are super expensive in the store, and we were wary of buying a used on, as it might have fleas or other not so nice guests. We thought we could do it ourselves... and we did. Some of the supplies were in our basement(sound familiar?), and some needed to be bought. Ever wonder what to do with the carpet you take up in previous home-improvement jobs? Recycle!

Things seen in Meadville

Norah

After much preparation - and way too long of a wait, according to the kids - we have finally replaced the fish. Today we headed down to the animal rescue center, and picked out a cat. Norah is our beautiful new one-year-old cat. The kids are having a hard time letting her adjust without "help" from them. (If she ate everything they wanted to give her she would be so fat!)
So far we have found out that she is extremely curious, a good jumper, and can smell the mouse that has invaded our house. Stay tuned to see if she will ever get used to the kids!

Mail Call

Do you remember getting excited whenever the mail came each afternoon? Perhaps when you were young your mom or dad lifted you up to the mailbox, and you reached eagerly for the treasure inside. Andwhat about the excitement you felt when there actually was a letter for you - and it wasn't your birthday!
There is a little person in our house who calls out, "The Mail's here!" every day, as soon as it hits the mail slot. Ah, but he is so often disappointed.
"You open the door, I get the mail. Oh, no! Junk mail. No mail for me?"

Meadville

This weekend we traveled up to Meadville to celebrate Grandpa's 90th birthday. The kids were thrilled to stay in a hotel Friday evening, and Jamie thought Super 8 was our new home. After a pitiful "Continental breakfast" on Saturday morning we headed out on the road. We neared Meadville around 9:30, much too early to go directly to Grandpa's. Hooray for side trips!
Pymatuning has been fixed up, and is much nicer than I remember from my childhood. The refreshment/souveneir stand was open for business, and we bought the requisite bags of day-old bread. Dot showed restraint, carefully breaking up the buns into smaller pieces, and her bag lasted the whole time we were there. Jamie, however, quickly threw whole buns into the water, and spent much of the time without anything to feed to the ducks and fish. (Apparently he is cute enugh that older women will give him free bags of bread, though, so he recovered at the end.) The fish are still large and numerous, and willing to fight for their food. The ducks provide more fight, color and sound, which Jamie really enjoyed. However, the wind was blowing the cold air through our clothing, and we were turning blue.










Back to the car, and onto Meadville! Of course, we had to stop at Cutters. Unfortunately, it's not as tacky as when we were young, and there wasn't much there to interest us. We did buy a "flipping frog" and a pig mechanical pencil, though; our bill was less than a dollar, so I guess it was worth the money.
We finally headed up to lunch with Grandpa, although Jim decided not to infect the whole retirement home with his cough- he headed out to KFC. It was good to see everyone who was able to make it up for the party. (The staff bent over backward to keep Jamie and Dot happy at lunch - I would have left a large tip if we had been at a restaurant! ) Once we were done, though, and most of the other residents had gone back to their rooms, Jim came in for cake and conversation. We enjoyed the few hours we had, and I am sure we wore Grandpa out thoroughly. I know I'm up for a nap this afternoon!

latest home improvement

We took advantage of extra time off this weekend to do some much needed home improvement. This task was supposed to have been completed earlier this summer, but someone got sick with a sinus infection... (no hard feelings, really!) After some general cleaning, we began to move furniture - and lots of books - in order to tear up our badly-stained-no-longer-cream-colored-carpet. We were very relieved to find that the wood under the carpet was in fairly good shape - a few paint marks here and there, but nothing to worry us right now. In a year or so, or when the kids stop spilling, we'll take the time to sand and refinish the wood. For now, though, we've thrown down the area rugs and will live with the wood the way it is. It looks a whole lot better than the carpet did!