The Cat Whisperer

Adam James - The Cat Whisperer

Project 365 / Project Life - January 3

When Adam was a few months old, we came across these two kittens. We named them Mio & Mao -- if any of you ever watch Baby First TV channel with your kids, you'll understand the name of these kittens inspired from claymation kittens.

Adam and Mio developed a special bond together. Mio would snuggle with AJ all the time, and AJ would love Mio's snuggles. Now, I'll add here that AJ had terrible reflux as a baby and was cranky all.the.time. Suddenly, we came across this miracle cat who calmed AJ down. As they grew more comfortable together, Mio even started sleeping (gasp!) in AJ's crib with him. However, he would never get near his face, he'd lay by his legs and purr away while AJ would fall asleep with his hand on Mio.

I wonder if it started with Mio, or if AJ naturally has a special bond with cats, or maybe a little of both?

Poor Mio passed away almost a year ago (February 2010). We've had many pets come and go, but that was a tough loss, especially knowing how close AJ and Mio were. For AJ's 3rd birthday, we adopted two new kittens (one for AJ and one for Elijah). A few weeks ago we found another kitten under the house. AJ adores all the cats. He plays with them, he feeds them, he carries them around the house. The most amazing part, they all put up with him! I'm sure you can create a glorious image in your mind of a little boy carrying around a cat like a rag doll. However, the cats just love him, and he loves them!

Needless to say, AJ has a new name around the house, he's "AJ the Cat Whisperer."

Tuesday Blog Hops

Happy Tuesday!

Project 365 / Project Life - January 2

Nothing like hanging around work on a slow evening and playing with your new digital camera, right?

Around 7:00 it was as if the High Desert went to sleep and left us all lonesome at our Sprint store. What else do Sprint employees do when we have free time? Play with technology of course... this evening was time to learn more about my new digital camera. Meanwhile, I got a self portrait of my coworker Daisy and I. Cute, right?!

Hello... customers?!

Project 365 - January 1 (aka Project Life)

A few years ago I was reading on different scrapbook blogs about "Project 365" (or Project Life from Becky Higgins). I always thought, "I should do that. Maybe next year." A few years went by and I still never got around to it. Perhaps I was just overwhelmed with finishing my degree that I never got around to it. This year I was reading in Scrapbooks, Etc magazine about Project 365, once again. I turned around to my husband and said, "I'm going to do it this year! I always put it off, but this year, I'm doing it!" For Christmas I asked him for a new camera (which is absolutely adorable, by the way, it's a pink Canon Powershot ELPH 100HS -- awesome). I know photographers are very familiar with Project 365, and while I love photography, I really need to get my scrapbooking back in order! It has been way too long since I've made a page or even a card. I'm worried that before you know it, I'll forget those little memories I want to keep about our family life. You know, all those little things the kids do, small things you've done in your day to day life that we'll probably forget 10-20 years down the line. I don't want to forget those memories! Therefore, this year I'm jumping on board the Project 365 bandwagon in an effort to (1) take more photos, (2), blog about those photos to preserve the memories, and (3) scrapbook!!!

You know the funny part about my first photo I took? I have my wonderful new Canon, and I pulled this photo from my camera phone. LOL!

I decided in celebration of bringing in the new year, I need a new purse for the new year. Now, how absolutely adorable is this? The funny thing was I went to Kohl's before work thinking I might find one purse I may like -- I'm picky with my purses. It has to be perfect, you know. Well, I found not just one purse, I found three purses I loved. This picture was inspired from my indecisiveness as I was texting my good friend Brandie to help me make a decision. Of course, she wasn't much help and told me how much she loved them all (thanks Brandie... haha!). I had to go back on my lunch break to decide, and this was the one I finally decided on! It's spacious -- perfect for a mama -- and the best part, it comfortably fits my wonderful Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet (my other baby). It is gorgeous, right?! Don't be jealous, you know you are going to run out and buy yourself a new purse now. ;)

Happy New Year!

Blind Date

I spent the last two years working towards my degree in English. I started at National University in January 2010. It felt like forever until my completion date would come. Here I am, two years later, and a college grad. (Whoohoo!)

Besides the support of my family, of course, I would have never made it through without my girlfriend. One day I got a friendly email from a classmate and over time we got to chatting through our emails, then we started texting, then one day we started talking on the phone. Before we realized it, we became incredibly close and started sharing everything together. We went through all our ups and downs of life, our trials and tribulations of school together, encouraged each other when we had those moments of, "I can't do this anymore!", and celebrated our victories of good grades. The funny thing about all this, though? We never met! National University is an online school. We lived two hours away from each other and never had the chance to meet up. Our schedules never worked out so we could see each other face to face. Not even a picture. Meeting up felt like a blind date. Apparently both of us were nervous what to wear, what the other one looks like, and --God forbid-- will it be awkward?!

We fretted over nothing. It was wonderful!! It felt like we were meant to be there the whole time. Destiny, I tell you, destiny!

Now that we are both done, we agreed, it is time to finally meet. We laughed how we consider each other one of our closest friends, yet don't even know what the other looks like! I'm so happy to say that on Friday we finally met each other!

We had a wonderful lunch together as we toasted our accomplishment over a glass of champagne!

Blog Hop

Freedom!

I am officially DONE with school! Last week I finished my last final and turned in that last paper, and now I am a college graduate! It is surreal to sit here with nothing school related on my mind. It's like, my whole life I feel like everything revolved around school and it was never going to end. In particular, the last 2.5 years working towards my bachelor's degree in English felt like they dragged on and on. Here I am though, all done!

I spent the last days of my studying and writing in Starbucks. What is it about Starbucks that seems to attract us all to do our work and studying there? Coffee? Company, yet solitude? Maybe it is the comfort of a place where you can look around, see other students with their noses buried in books or behind laptops and think, "I'm not alone!" I will admit, my cockiness got the better of me when I looked at everyone else and though, "SUCKERS! I'm done after this and you all probably have another 2-3 years to go! HAH!" (Are you seeing Vizzini from the Princess Bride going, "haha you fools!! HAHAHAHAA!" -- Yes, that's exactly what was playing through my mind).

I love my new freedom! Although it is still tripping me out to not have school in the back of my mind. I feel like I keep forgetting something. What I am excited about though, is finally more time to read books I want to read (albeit, a lot are still classic literature), and write what I want to write on my blog. It's amazing to think I actually have time to write now without feeling guilty that I should be doing something else for school.

And what perfect timing -- just in time to celebrate the holidays stress free!

Insert Mel Gibson voice...

FREEEEEEEDOM!!!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Due to popular demand... the recipe for homemade laundry detergent.

I love this laundry detergent. The cost breakdown is about .40 per gallon. It makes 2 gallons at a time.... so .80 cents each batch! I've used this for well over a year now and it works great on all my clothes. There is no difference whatsoever in the quality between this and the overpriced stuff at the store.

Ingredients

6 cups of warm water

1/3 bar Fels Naptha Laundry Soap (grated)

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup Borax

Directions

Heat 6 cups of warm water and the grated Fels Naptha in a large pot until dissolved. I have a designated stock pot from Big Lots I use for my laundry soap. Stir in the washing soda and Borax. Mix and heat until dissolved. Boil 15 minutes. Remove from heat. It may have a honey-like consistency (but it is not required to be a honey-consistency). In a 3 or 5 gallon bucket, mix the soap and enough cold water to make 2 gallons. Gently mix. Pour into old laundry detergent containers or milk jugs. Let sit for 24 hours. The soap will gell*. Use 1/2 cup for each load. Shake before each use. The detergent separates and may have clumps. This is normal! It will not suds up in the washer, but it still gets your clothes nice and clean.

*If the detergent doesnt' gel up or reach honey consistency, it will still work!

Where to find the ingredients

Borax is very easy to find! It is at most stores, including grocery stores and Target.

Fels Naptha is mostly found at grocery stores, sometimes super stores like Target & Wal Mart.

Super Washing Soda is the hardest to find. I find mine at WinCo, but most people say they find it at Ace Hardware or sometimes large Wal Marts.

1/3 bar grated Fels Naptha

Stir 6 cups water and grated Fels Naptha until dissolved

Add 1/2 cup Super Washing Soda & 1/2 cup Borax and boil 15 minutes

Fill soap mixture and enough water to make 2 gallons

Fill in old laundry detergent containers or milk jugs.

I need to write before my brain turns to mush.

And somebody remind me I need to change my blog banner to working mom, not stay home mom!!!

I passed my English Capstone class, HOORAY! I got a 95% on my paper! I am so incredibly proud of myself that I can't even find the words to express my excitement. Hey, that really says something when the English major can't find the words! It is surreal that there is only one class left. My girlfriend/BFF I've made in this program just finished her last class this month, and now it only makes me more excited for December to scream out: I'm done! We're already planning our celebration in San Diego. I think confetti and champagne is in order for December.

October has been a bit crazy. You'd think it would have settled down because I don't have my class to worry about, right? No! Sprint now carries the iPhone, so we ended up swamped at work in preparation for the iPhone. The good thing is I'll have a bit of overtime on my next pay check. Of course, Apple didn't make enough of the new iPhone 4S, so nobody has it anymore and we're all anxiously awaiting more to come in.

There was a point this month though that I swore I'd never eat an apple again.... (hardy har har!)

You know, the funny thing about working in retail... while I'm reading on Facebook everyone boo-hoo-ing over it being a Monday, today is my Friday so I'm rejoicing! Tuesday & Wednesday are my days off, yippee! I have grand plans you know, it consists of coffee, Dr. Pepper, and book 3 of The Hunger Games. I can't friggen wait!

By the way, where is fall? I mean REALLY, it is still in the 80s here. I shouldn't complain much because I know in a month it'll drop to freezing... but come on! It's almost Halloween and it is still HOT?! Oh well, I'm still excited for Halloween coming up. Look how cute my little knights are!

One to go!

My apologies for my absence! First, I hurt my finger, and then I was worried about finish my thesis paper for my Literature Capstone class. Nearly 20 pages later, and I'm done! Hooray! That was by far the longest paper I have ever written. I really had to force myself to put everything on hold and focus on the paper. Basically, my life for the last month was paper, work, family, paper, work, family. Haha! I'm proud to say it is DONE! I don't have the final grade yet... but I will be updating as soon as I find out.

Work is going great. I really enjoy the job, the environment, my coworkers, everything! One of my favorite things about retail is there is always something new every day. In particular in the technology field, there almost IS something new every day! Even day to day, you see new faces, get to talk with all sorts of people, and have something different happen each time. It's fun. People have always called me crazy that I actually enjoyed working in retail. What can I say, I like to talk and I'm a people person; I'm perfect for a retail job!

My boys are adjusting much better than I thought they would. I think my going back to work has helped us all. The extra income is great and I don't feel nearly as stressed as I used to, which in turn makes everyone, the boys included, much happier! Going to work makes me feel like I appreciate them more when I come home at the end of the day, or on my days off. I suppose some people can pull of the stay-home-mom thing well, but I have to admit, I think I like being the working mom much more! I'm so grateful for the time I was able to be with them as babies, but I'm also incredibly thankful for the opportunity to go back to work. It reminds me that I do have my own personality! I'm not just Elijah & AJ's mom; I'm Marlana! - a mid twenties wife, mom, student (almost graduate!), slightly hyper, intellectual bad ass (you could say nerd, but I like intellectual bad ass instead).

Upcoming BLOGIVERSARY!

Yay! I'm having my 3 year blogiversary in a few days!

I have a giveaway planned!!!!

More details to come after work today. :)

Oh, and in case you all are wondering... my gimpy finger has finally recovered. The finger nail still looks nasty, but at least I can finally type again!