So much to do, so little time ...

Morning siesta! First they wake me up ... yep, both of them jump up on the bed, paw at me until I roll over in their direction, purr until the bed shakes and beg me to please get up and feed them. When I get out of bed they tear through the house to beat me to the food bowls and stand and meow their morning chorus. I must feed them, although I'm always sleep walking at that point. They each go to a bowl and absolutely gobble their breakfast (which means I've put the food in the bowl apparently). Geez, they can't be that hungry, they always have "crunchies" in their bowl. But ... as I make coffee and pack my lunch & breakfast for the work day, they race (Indy style) through the house often catching one another by the rear leg wherein screaming uncle ensues. After running several races, and engaging in wrestling matches, they come into the bathroom the moment they hear the shower start to settle in so when I get out of the shower and we have our morning meditation time. Now that the weather is warm, Artemis meditates from the window sill. Spartacus is still on the towel on the floor ... wet towel only please. As I move from room to room, they follow me around, just watching and talking. By the time I'm ready to go to work, which is generally about 8:20 but should be 8:00, they are in REM sleep. This is Spartacus's favorite new sleeping spot ... corner of the kitchen.

This is Artemis ... this chair is tucked under the kitchen table so he is hidden. He does NOT like to be vulnerable. So he sleeps where he thinks he is most safe ... to him that is hidden from plain site. He always seem a bit surprised when I find him just by looking under the table!

Paul has begun finding old chairs. (treasure, you know ...) This one was beaten to death with an old rotten wicker seat hanging off of it. He brought it home, sanded it down, oiled & stained the wood, and bought some garden twine from Brinkley's. He spent one evening in front of the TV weaving this beautiful chair!! Artemis has now decided it is his new favorite place to sleep. So glad Paul could accommodate him. Cats are funny creatures. Paul is really creative and a great weaver of obscure ideas.

Beth went to England and brought the man back this sack of goodies. He was thoroughly tickled, and I'm sure he felt like an 11 year old again holding this bag in his hand!

Beth asked him what he wanted and the only thing he could really think of was licorice torpedoes. So by golly, that is what he got ... a million or so! He's still grinning.

Here he is, telling her his stories from childhood about candy shoppes and etc. Just for the record, my presents included MUCH cooler stuff than candy (my opinion - I don't even LIKE candy! well, except for the chocolate my mother in law gives me. It's always excellent! thanks, B.) But my gifts from Beth will be left for another post ... they deserve a spot all of their own!

When I got home Wed. night, this is how I find my entry way ... Holy loom! My sweet and slightly exasperated husband had begun the assembly! Hallelujah! However, during said assembly the discovery was made that we are missing some parts. (drat) Well, that explains a few things! So he hopped on the blog and found a hugely helpful and very sweet weaver who is helping us get it together, very very generously taking pictures of her loom to help us out with the explanation. Thank you immensely Marie!

You can almost see the smoke coming out of his ears! It's hard to put something together that has missing pieces and no directions! Thank goodness he's a genius! We're going to the weaving room tomorrow to see what they have to say ... and to just sit in the midst and watch some weaving. Can't wait!

Meanwhile, we're sprucing up the place ... and hanging new shutters (along with pressure washing the siding and cement). So imagine our surprise when ...

Paul pulled the shutter off of the house and found this little guy !! I'm sure we were ALL surprised. For one thing, he was awakened while it was still quite light. EXPOSURE is an interesting concept and lesson. We knew something was behind there, but thought it was a bird's nest or even, not hopeful, a mouse. But it was a bat, for all the world, a bat!

SO ... Paul actually called me from the ladder and told me to bring the camera out and ready to shoot. Once I got outside, we were only privileged enough to take 3 pictures. And unfortunately I missed the photo op of the barred teeth and puffed up body language as the camera was resetting. This is where he began crawling toward Paul's hand ....

Then he showed us his teeth, flexed his little bat wings and was G O N E ... history. He was really pretty cute and endearing until the whole teeth display thing. So, we bid him farewell and moved on to hanging the new shutters (after we washed the house where he'd been snuggling up against the warm siding in the sun. :-)
Now it's Friday night, Paul has pressure washed the front of the house (oh yeah, he scrapped the old paint off of the window frames and repainted them too) while I dug and planted some beautiful dalias and black eyed susans that we were gifted to us. We are hoping for a beautifully sunny, warm Saturday so we can carry on ... and hope the momentum stays with us through the weekend. However, since we didn't have any internet or cable last night because of hell storms, we're both catching up on our correspondence this evening. I am doing so with an incredibly delicious glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005, Cartlidge & Brown (cheers, Scott!). And I might even go for a second glass ... it's pretty good! I hear fresh pear & blue cheese calling to go with.

Our friend Jennie (from Jennie & Chad) has a little brother who is 19 or 20. He unfortunately had to experience brain surgery today after an unexplained brain bleed and clot that was discovered because he had a really bad headache for two days. We understand he is doing great, and we have said plenty of thank yous for that! If your head REALLY hurts and there is not a good reason that you can think of for the pain ... you might wanna get checked out. Please. Swift healing to you Sean. Hugs to you, family! Jennie and Chad, let us know what we can do.

Work is totally picking up and I'm a limp noodle after the day at the office today. But really, it feels good to be busy and see everyone again.

Paul is no longer thinking the second shift thing is a viable hope after talking with the company this week, so we're on to really putting all of our energy and spirit in to finishing the building and opening the iron biz. Sometimes it just takes a little time for unquestionable direction to find its way. I think we've got it now. We're going to get some men (who are also out of work) to come and help pull all of the roots out of the crater on Monday. It'll be worth the expense to get the help. It's an overwhelming job for one person. Needs to get finished. So ... the biz will obviously need lots of tweaking, but it'll be a fun adventure putting it all together and meeting LOTS of new people.

I talked with Jon last night and all is well with them. The boys will arrive via Jon on Thursday! I talked with Jenn, who is on her way to Charlotte for a weekend workshop. She will be picking everyone up on Sunday, the 5th. SO, we will get to spend the 4th watching through the eyes of the boys. WoWzEr!

Paul talked with Nina this evening, and sounds like all is well there too.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Yesterday was Austin's 9th birthday. I will do a birthday write up on him this weekend. He is such a grown up already! Can't wait to see them all! (yeah, I know I might have mentioned it once or twice)

Will update growing goats with pictures too. So much to do, so little time!

Happy Weekend!

Paul & Cheri