Why is Cookie so embarrassed?

Cookie is a trick cat - mostly in the mornings.  When the heat comes on around 6am you can hear her squeeze in through the bathroom door, then shut it behind her to keep warm.  She then waits for us there  so that she can bask in the heat of the hair dryer (if we don't share she yells until we do).  When Cortney is brushing her hair, Cookie paces the counter, arching her back until she is rewarded with her own brush strokes.  She waits until we are gone to roll in the water on the bottom of the tub, then paws the linen closet open so that she can dry herself on the towels. 

But this morning she took things a bit far.  After her preening ritual it would seem that she decided to dress herself also, and made her way into the top drawer of Jon's dresser.  When Jon went to shut the drawer, he heard...a cat.  We couldn't see her, so we opened the next drawer down, which was accompanied by a quiet "thud," as she fell down one more level.  We repeated this with each of the remaining three drawers until she was safely on the bottom, then removed the final drawer, revealing a sheepish blond kitty.  That is why she is embarrassed this morning.

Preparation underway

Even though it's snowing outside, we're doing the spring cleaning now. The dust is flying as we cross paths, carting boxes for recycling upstairs and piles of office gear down. Even the front room is getting attention as it will be the new scrapbooking zone, with attached games closet. Though you wouldn't know it from this picture of the nursery pre-clean sweep, we finished emptying the room and couldn't be more excited to be picking up the crib set from Babies "R" Us this weekend.

Speaking of Babies "R" Us, we had a great time registering last week. We'd been to a few different baby stores and baby sections of department stores, and found there's really nothing that compares to their layout and selection. Sadly, they did not carry any Cap'n Crunch, so we couldn't match what we had on our wedding registry (sorry, Curtis). It took us the following week to make changes to the baby registry online, and now we're very happy with our cute, educational, and essential picks. Who wouldn't be excited about Bugs on Board?

All quiet on the Western front

No news is good news for baby development. It's been another week of steady growth for Raspberry. He has become an acrobat, busy a large portion of the time, and his swiping kicks suggest somersaults. What stimulates him the most? Singing in choir, drinking orange juice, and Cortney trying to sleep.

Our nesting instinct is working its way through the house. We've cleaned the clutter out of the basement and organized it. Next up is Jon's office, and then the nursery (currently Cortney's office). We have a musical safari planned for Raspberry's room, and we'll keep you posted as that renovation develops.

Cookie's having a ball...

More effective than a dog whistle, and nearly as effective as the sound of a can opener, we have a new cat calling technique.  In doing some spring cleaning this weekend (hey, it might be January, but it was over fifty degrees) we found a package of unopened cat toys.  They don't look interesting (they are pink and yellow plastic balls with small bells inside) but there is just something about these balls.  Cortney took one from the package, preparing to toss the rest of them, and dropped it on the ground on her way to the kitchen trash.  There was a rumble somewhere in the basement, followed by a stampede and the emergence of a cream colored whirlwind that, for the following minute or so, engaged itself in play with said ball.  And it works every time - drop the ball from a standing position and no matter where in the house she is hiding Cookie will be there in a matter of seconds.  She may not play with it for long after that, but at least now we know we have a fail proof way of locating our cat.

The arrival

Who knew that furniture companies delivered on Sundays?  The scheduled delivery for our new set was between 8 and 11  today, but we couldn't be here because of church, (and church was especially important and long this morning because it was all-church picnic day and "good-bye" Lloyd day, a wonderful man who we will all miss).  We were all set to have Cortney's parents come and hang out during the delivery hours as a special favor (and because Cortney's mom loves the dogs) but low and behold, the delivery guys called at 7:10 am and wondered if they could come early—they were right around the corner.  Worked for us...although we were almost late for the 8:00 service.
But the furniture is great. It is bigger than what we had before so it makes the space seem a little smaller, but we were expecting that and it still looks great and is really comfortable!  Unfortunately we didn't get to spend a lot of time sitting on it.  Instead we tried out the weed whacker and mowed the lawn in sprinkles of rain, and we cleaned the bathrooms and our offices, and even some of the basement.  We always keep a clean house, but it has to be spotless this week;  Steve and Rachel (our best friends) are visiting from Seattle Wednesday and Thursday.  We are really looking forward to seeing them, but I'm not sure they were worth the lawn mowing in the 86 degree heat. Finally, after finishing the above and grabbing a shower we were able to sit on the new furniture...but it was 6:00 by that time!  We want to point out that even the animals look pooped in this picutre, and they sat inside in the air conditioning all day!