Snow Day Number Two!

A lot of Louisville lost power due to the ice/snow storm so Curtis and I are home from work for a second day. Here's some pictures and a video of the beautiful winter weather!

New Stuff!

We've purchased a few new things lately for the house. Continuing with our kitchen "update", Curtis installed a trashcan in a lower cabinet that pulls out. I love it! He's also installed the microwave over the stove! What a handyman I married!
We also purchased some chairs to go with the table we brought home from Curt's grandma's house. The table is an antique "Duncan Phyfe" table and we searched online and at local antique stores for matching chairs, but everything was either too expensive, not sturdy, or part of a set that we didn't want to mess with. I like our new chairs. They have nice clean lines and go well with the original color of the table. Of course, my other pieces in the dining room no longer match...oh well. It's a work in progress going from hand-me-downs to things-we-really-like.We've spent a lot lately on these items so our kitchen under cabinet lighting and tile will have to wait a bit. We decided to paint under the cabinets in the meantime just so it doesn't look so unfinished.

Oh, and here's Curtis's cake that he made for a co-worker's birthday last night. He was very proud of it and I was extremely impressed by his "basket-weave"!

Snow...er, Ice Day!

We had about 4 inches of snow fall last night and now we're having freezing rain all afternoon and evening. It's supposed to turn back over to snow and accumulate another 2 inches or so. Needless to say, Curtis and I stayed home from work to avoid the slick conditions. We're hoping we don't get the 2-4 inches of ice they're predicting...if so we might lose the tree in our front yard that was weakened by the windstorm in the fall. Here's a video I took this morning...

Since we have the day off, we're doing a few things around the house, playing with kittens and blogging. Here are our fosters right now.
Neela, the beautiful diva. She still hisses occasionally, but she's coming around....slowly. We've moved her downstairs to a condo so she can get used to the activity down there. We'll post her soon so that she can get adopted...I'm sure we'll have plenty of hits on her since she's stunning.
Faith is the newest foster. She was brought to us by another Shamrock foster who had her in a condo but wanted her to be able to run around. She had been "mildly mauled" by a dog, no serious injuries, just some abrasions and some missing hair. She is very sweet and calm and so very cute in these "window shots".

Bye Bye Sensei

This past weekend I passed my true test as a foster mom...I said goodbye to Sensei. If you don't know me very well, I'll let you know that he is basically my "Dream Cat". I love Siamese, they're pointy-ness (in color and shape), their voices, their need to be near you and under the covers. I've always wanted a cat just like him in personality....but we have two of our own and need to keep it that way if we want to continue fostering. Also, he would have never wanted to share my lap with a baby once we have one, and that would have been a problem. Once I've had my babies and they've gotten a little older....then I'll find my Meezer. Here is Sensei with his new parents, Mark and Jeanie. They have a great home for him and he is already adjusting well since he doesn't have to share them with any other pets. I wish I could say I'm adjusting well to his absence...I miss him very much.

Foster Update

Of our most recent foster cats, Darla, Dulce, Duff, Biscuit and Mysteria have all been adopted. Dugan and Demi are still in their condo at Feeder's Supply, a local pet store chain here in Kentuckiana.
Moses (green collar) and Noah(blue collar), our two labs that we rescued (see previous post, Anybody Want A Black Lab?), were accepted by an amazing rescue group in Muncie, IN called Adopt-A-Lab. We were very excited because they have a very successful program placing unwanted labs from our region in homes up in New England. So far they have not been adopted yet, but we watch the site regularly for updates on their status. These pictures were taken by the rescue the day we took them and if you look at their "before" pictures, it is amazing to see how they transformed in the month that we cared for them. They are absolutely gorgeous!
Speaking of "absolutely gorgeous", this is Neela, our newest foster. We named her Neela because it means "blue" in Sanskrit and she has the most beautiful blue eyes! Also, Neela Rasgotra is a character on ER, one of our favorite TV shows. Neela was a feral kitten trapped by a fellow Shamrock foster but she is not your typical wild barn kitten. Although she is a bit skittish and might hiss if startled, she is very quickly warming up to us and loves to play and be petted. We're going to give her another week to continue coming out of her shell and then we'll post her on the website/Petfinder to be adopted. She's such a pretty thing I'm sure we'll have lots of applications.
We still have our foster cat, Sensei (aka, Stilts), who I will have a hard time parting with. He sleeps with us under the covers at night and is almost ALWAYS in my lap when I'm eating or watching TV. Here is a cute video of Sensei and Gypsy demonstrating the vocalization of the Siamese/Balinese cat. I did get a hit on Petfinder today that sounds like it might be a good one. Hopefully they'll send an application and we can get him into his forever home. He has only strengthened my resolve of someday adopting a retired show Siamese from a RESPONSIBLE breeder. I cannot speak out enough about "backyard breeders" and the like that bring more cats into the world than they can care for, just trying to make some money, and do not take responsibility for them when their owners can no longer keep them!

Christmas in Review, Continued...

On to the Cunningham/Wagner Christmas! There were sooooo many presents!
Here's Aunt Kimberly with little Eli on his first Christmas!Caleb, with his favorite thing in the world...Elmo!!!I love my new chimes! and my nature sound machine to lull me to sleep:)Uncle Curtis and Caleb in their new hats.....and we're spent!Daddy monitoring the candy making process...he serves as quality control. We took the Mint Oreo Truffles to the Dubois Christmas and managed to also make an appearance at the Cunningham Family Christmas! The Hardacre Family Christmas had a great turnout and we used a new facility, Rainbow Christian Camp, and I really liked having it there! There were games for the kids, enough space to move around and a great kitchen for serving dinner. I hope we continue having it there.I participated in the giant gift exchange (Dirty Santa style) for the first time in about 3 years and it was pretty mild and I enjoyed myself...I got what Leslie brought and she got what I brought.Daddy, Leslie, Travis and I went skiing on New Year's Eve at Perfect North Slopes and had a blast! Me, sissy and Travis all tried snowboarding...I stuck with it the longest, but then decided I really didn't want to hurt myself and traded in for some familiar skis.It was a really beautiful day, not too cold, not too crowded.Here are my Christmas decorations...wish we'd had some snow to go with them...I tried to have "candles" in the windows too, but they kept getting broken. Curtis went and bought a TON of christmas lights at Walmart when they dropped in price, so we might be able to light up the whole fence next year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and safe Happy New Year!

Christmas in Review...

I haven't had much time to blog lately because of family Christmas plans and work being hectic during the holidays...but I don't have to work tomorrow (MLKJr. Day) so I have a minute to catch up! Here are some pictures from our Christmas vacation (we both had a week and half off and it was wonderful)!Here is our beautiful Christmas tree all decorated and lit up!Travis and Leslie came to visit, bringing Milo (our former foster, Nebu) along...he and Hobo had fun playing and playing "King of the Tower." They also left with another kitten adopted through Shamrock.
Sensei is much more tolerant of Gypsy than of Hobo...she was visiting Sensei in the foster room.
Sensei, making himself at home, has joined the "general population" and will tolerate Hobo being this close for short periods of time.And this is Hobo's new trick...I believe he's asking me, "Why is all the rum gone?"
Christmas at the Hardacres... Travis and Leslie with their babies Merlin and Milo.
Curtis's present from me, an air nailer...I expect great things to come from that gift!
Curtis and I with our "haul!"

I will pause now to catch my breath...and continue the review in my next post!