Kitty Cuteness

The best couch time is couch time with a kitty.

Awwwww.

Dave!

Should have posted this yesterday, but it was a long day so I didn't. And it didn't get posted earlier today because I was totally lazy today. Didn't even change out of my pjs. And yes, we did miss church today (as much as those at church would love my green fleece monkey pajama pants, that is an experience they will have to miss). Dan and I didn't make it to church because we overslept. By about 3 hours. Even with the alarm. I guess all the busy weekends we've had kind of caught up to us.

But I'm getting off topic (surprising, isn't it?). Yesterday, Dan and I got to see Dave Ramsey! Whee! We went to his Total Money Makeover LIVE! event in Dallas.

Dave Ramsey at Reunion Arena

Dave!

It was 5 hours long but went really fast. It was so fun and very motivating. I mean, Dan and I are currently debt free except for the house, which we are working on paying off early, so we are at Baby Step 6. But it is still nice to hear all those things... very encouraging. I keep thinking about one thing he said:

"What could you do if you had no payments?

Anything you want."

I mean, how true is that? Already not having a car payment is awesome and just the thought of having no house payment.... It just blows my mind. And it has been so cool because the better we handle our money, the more we seem to have! I mean, it keeps increasing! In the past two months, we've paid more principle on our house than we did in all of last year! And the neat thing is - it's fun!

Okay, I need to nip the gushing in the bud or else I'm going to write paragraphs about the neatness that is Dave and probably end up posting our budget or something.

Yeah, Dan and I are totally drinking the Dave Ramsey kool-aid!

Why is the Rum Gone?

Okay, so I'm not a big PotC fan or anything, but this video always makes me smile.

Can't Sleep - Duty Calls

*giggle*

Because I Have Too Much Time On My Hands...

I've made some videos. Nothing long, just from some footage I took this week of the cuteness that is our kitties. They are both pretty short but, I think, cute.

The Amazing Balancing Nibby

Also, on a slightly less random note (though still not "educational" or anything) we had quite the weather happening yesterday. Lots of rain. And of course, Dan and I were out in it (without an umbrella), but it was worth the dampness and squishy socks because on the way home we got to see a HUGE full rainbow.

By the time we got home and I got the camera, the sun was setting and the rainbow was fading, but I managed to snap a shot of it.

Fading Rainbow

Pretty, isn't it?

I have this thing...

I have this thing, this "touch of death", if you will, when it comes to kitchen thermometers.

First, I killed Dan's electronic fork meat thermometer. I put it in the dishwasher. Yes, yes, I know. I'm an idiot. But I would have sworn that I saw it being removed from the dishwasher one time, so I just popped it right in there.

Didn't even take the batteries out.

So anyway, Dan's new handy-dandy electronic fork meat thermometer has removable tines that are dishwasher safe.

The next one I killed was my mom's candy thermometer. It was a big ole mess and I managed to dunk it in oil and, surprise surprise, it was NOT airtight so hot oil got all in it, destroying the cardboard temp readout card beside the thermometer among other things. All in all, that one died a torturous death. It managed to live like 20 years with my mom and I kill it in a matter of days.

So I got mom a new one and picked up one for myself, too. Just the little cheapy ones you can get at WalMart. I was hoping for something better, but candy/oil thermometers are hard to find.

Turns out that mom, being the kind soul that she is, had already bought herself another one with the plans to let me keep her other one which she didn't know had been boiled in oil. Literally. After keeping the now spare thermometer around for literally months, I managed to finally get my act in gear last weekend to return the darn thing. Because no one needs two candy thermometers around.

Well, until you break the first one. Yep, I broke another thermometer. I was measuring the hot water in my mug because I wanted to see what I needed to do to get the 195-degree water that comes out of my awesome hot water dispenser to 175-degrees (perfect for green tea - the dispenser can also be set for 175 (and 208, too) but Dan and I figured to keep it on 195 since that is for black tea, knowing we could cool it easily to 175-ish for green tea). Where was I? Oh yeah, I went to measure the water and I dropped the thermometer. Not much, just maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch in the cup (filled with water so even more of a cushion, right? Wrong).

Can you see it coming? Can you?

Yep, it broke. The glass around the tip shattered. *sigh*

So now I'm going to buy me a new thermometer with an Amazon gift card I have. This is the one I'm getting:

It's a "professional" one so I figure it should last more than a few weeks at my house.

I hope.

Hehe.

Yeah, I know I've been posting a lot of random (hopefully funny) stuff. But it is just a portion of what I run in to. And lately Dan has been on a Chuck Norris kick (Every night before the boogeyman goes to bed, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris) so be thankful I haven't made a "Chuck Norris" label for my posts.

This? Is Funny!

The Nature Boy Ric Flair has also endorsed Huckabee. I can't figure out if that's something that will help or hurt him in the primary!

This morning...

There was a mouse in our bed this morning. Seriously.

Of course, it was a red felt mouse. But still, it was a mouse. Resting by my pillow. Cocoa apparently decided to leave a little gift.

Crazy kitty.

w00t!

60%

(Some weirdness with the alignment in IE (though Firefox is okay), but it says 60 - go me! Better than 50/50!)

My Final Scrapbook Page

Okay, so this isn't my final scrapbook page ever, but this is the final page in what I have planned to be the 'Dan and Amanda Scrapbook One' (anyone have a better name for that? please?) which will have 64 layouts covering the time period from our graduation in 2001 to the end of the year of 2007. So basically, our first 6 years - five of which we were married and (due to not taking many pictures) those five years of marriage will cover all but 5 pages (one being the title, one graduation, once for our engagement dinner and two for the wedding). So yeah, one year of dating will have two pages basically. Unless I want to include a soup eating page. For some reason Dan took multiple pictures of me eating soup in college... Weird.

Anyway, the hockey game took place on 12/29, so that's the end of 2007 and thus the end of the scrapbook. I think it is kind of sad but I have the entire book planned out - each even, how many pages and where in the book it will go. I figured I had to do something so I didn't have to insert blank pages to ensure that two-page layouts kept facing each other even when previous events were scrapbooked and included(if that makes sense).

Okay, so that was a bad "anyway" because I just kept babbling. So here's the real one:

Anyway, here's the page:

Blues Hockey

I like it.

Happy Scrapbook Day, My Hubby!

Today is Dan's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAN!!!. He's a whopping 29 years old. For his birthday I pulled out all the stops and made a big dinner of his favorite (meatloaf) with baked potatoes, green beans, garlic bread, salad and even a two-layer Red Velvet cake. Yeah, it's a good thing his birthday is only once a year because I was cooking for about 4 hours today. But you know what? He's so worth it!

In other news, I did my Christmas 2007 layout this weekend.

Christmas in Graham

Christmas in St. Louis

Fun, yeah?

In more fun, Kitty Bellies!

Chlo-belly

I guess Chloe got a little warm today. So had to expose that cute pink belly.

Co-belly

This one if from a few days ago. I took a nap and so did a horde of the kitties. Dan got this classic Cocoa-belly picture. It's so big!

And while this one isn't a belly, it's a kitty and it's cute so I'm sharing.

When my parents come visit, they usually have a bag of goodies for us - magazines, cards, random goodies - and nine times out of ten, I give the bag to the kitties so they can play in it. Well, lately they've changed the way they use the bags.

Nibby utilizes the paper bag

The kitties aren't climbing in it (well, Chloe did until it got flattened), but laying on it! I'm not really sure how I feel about this. I mean, it's just one step up from laying on a piece of paper on the floor. But it is still cute. So I share.

Hmm, Nibby obviously enjoys the paper bag. I wonder if I should have gotten one for Dan's birthday. Nah, he probably likes the cake better.

But he better not lay on it.

How Could I Forget??

Guess where we are going?

Guess Where?

Recognize it? If you said Peru, you'd be wrong. I mean, seriously. Peru is not an island, folks. That picture? Yeah, island. So those that said Peru, stop reading this and go stand in timeout for 5 minutes or something because. No. But if you said Hawaii, you win a virtual cookie.

Please only look at the cookie if you guessed correctly.

That's right - we are Big Island bound! w00t. Hehe.

Anyway, the "we" going is my parents and Dan and me. Dad always said he'd never go back to Hawaii unless it was to go to the Big Island and Mom found this travel package that is centered around the Kona Brewers Festival so you know Dan and Dad are on board with that. And please, like it takes any convincing to get Mom or me to go back to any part of Hawaii.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what all we are going to do. There are tons of things to see: turtles, whales, volcanoes, lava tubes, reefs, funky architectural and elaborately painted churches, ancient Hawaiian refuges, ranches, botanical gardens, there is even a green sand beach!

So yeah, I'm fairly excited. Of course, this means I need to get my little behind moving on some of my scrapbook pages I have planned because I'm going to have to make a Big Island scrapbook when I get back.

And I get the feeling this post is a little odder than my standard fair (though no odd purses are included) so I feel I must apologize. The past couple of days about half of my diet has consisted of sugar - mostly SweeTarts, Runts, Gobstoppers and yes, even a packet (or three) of actual sugar. Needless to say, I've been kind of buzzing a bit and I think Dan is ready to muzzle me.

And just because I can, I went back to that place with the chicken purse and found these lovelies:

Who thinks of this stuff?