Morgan’s 1st Birthday

On Friday, I ended an exhausting week at both of my jobs with a drive to Minnesota/Wisconsin for Morgan’s 1st Birthday Party. I was glad that my Dad was joining me for the drive so that I could take a nap on the way. The stress of driving from Alabama to Minnesota was definitely worth it to see Morgan have so much fun with all her new stuff. That girl is growing so fast I wish I could come back once a month to watch her grow.

Morgan had a great 1st birthday party. Her 3 cousins, Anthony, Zach & Whittney came and made the party fun. I had the honors of getting her ready for the party. Getting 2 onesies, tights, a tight fitting dress, and shoes on a 1-year-old is not as easy as it sounds (for a girl out of practice.) :) Watching her eat her piece of cake was very uneventful. She had more fun mushing the cake in her hands and then eating bits of cake off of them. Once the cake was just a gray mush, she then smeared it all over her face. No cake in her hair, diaper or on the floor.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Morgan before, during and after the party.

Chewing on her favorite keys

Hanging out with Grandpa Hayden

Checking out all the fabulous gifts from Auntie Katie

Walking around with her new baby

Not too happy to be wearing Mommy's witch headband

Sonny the Kitten

Meet Sonny the kitten.

Last Saturday, as my friends Paula and Andrew were leaving my house, a little kitten came running up the driveway. There are a few cats in my neighborhood that are owned by my neighbors, but this was a new one. I’ve never seen him before. As I was saying goodbye to my friends, I picked him up and as I was petting him noticed that he was very skinny. So I after they left I went in the house and got some water and some of Pepper’s food. After I fed him, it was all over. That little kitten didn’t want to leave. I spent a little bit of time outside hoping that someone would walk by looking for their little kitten, but no one ever did. I checked him over for any sign of being in a cat fight or anything else that may be wrong. He was a little dirty and had leaves in his fur, but that was all I could find. So I went and grabbed Pepper’s brush and brushed the kitten to get the leaves out and as much dirt as possible. Pepper seemed curious about him so I brought him in the house with some hesitancy because I didn’t know if this kitten had some sort of disease. The kitten wouldn’t stop purring as he sat in my lap and on the couch next to me as we watched Cops. I put him outside once it got dark and hoped that he would find his way back to his house. When I woke up Sunday morning, that little kitten had stayed all night and was crying for some more food, so of course I had to feed him again.

This little kitten had figured out how to weasel his way into my soft spot for kittens. I now had to take care of this kitten until I either decided to keep him or turn him over to the pound. On Monday, I called around to a couple animal shelters and got no response, so I tried again on Tuesday. The Humane Society didn’t seem too interested in taking him. Tuesday, I named him Sonny. And according to the news, the over night temps were going to be in the middle 40s, so I decided to bring the kitten in the house for the night. He did well in the house and even used the little box. Wednesday afternoon, I decided I would keep him and said on Thursday morning I would call and make an appointment for him to get his shots. Well, between Saturday and Wednesday when I would allow Sonny in the house with Pepper, Pepper increasingly started trying to find ways to run up behind and pounce, pounce from the side, and try to get him from above. There was never any down time for Pepper. I was starting to get annoyed with the hissing and all the running. Yesterday before I went to work pepper and Sonny were still at it and I decided that I wanted my Pepper back to the way he was before and decided to bring Sonny to Huntsville Animal Services.

I left work around 3:30 yesterday to scoop up Sonny, give him his last good cat food meal and take his picture. I was really worried about if I was doing to right thing, but once I got there the workers put me at ease. They were all very sincere and truly cared about animals. And of course Sonny won over the lady that took him from me. As soon as she took him out of the pet taxi she set him on her lap and he started purring and just sat there. I felt really good leaving him there because he had already made a human friend and I know he would be well taken care of. When I got home from dropping Sonny off, Pepper was looking around the house for him and couldn’t find him. He eventually gave up and went back to sitting in his favorite window. When I got home from my second job, he looking for Sonny again then gave up. This morning, Pepper appeared to be about 95% back to his usual self and I was happy to be back down to one animal.

It was fun to have a kitten outside keeping me company while I did some gardening last Sunday; but I now know how Pepper would react to having another cat in the house. I have decided that for my own sanity I don’t need to have 2 cats. One is just fine for me.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Awards Day

Me and Tereasa Washington, Director of OHC

Yesterday, at my NASA job, my office attended the department’s annual award banquet. The theme this year was Mardi Gras. The location was all decked out in gold, green, yellow and purple table clothes, beads, masks and streamers. I received an OHC (Office of Human Capital) Achiever Award for (to quote the award) “For communicating and coordinating with customers on what Academic Affairs is and does to support the Center’s Human Capital strategy and the Agency mission.” Only one person gets this award each year. So all my helping beyond my contract boundaries, the tasks that fall under “other duties as assigned” such as helping with tours, answering the main phone line, supporting student events, running errands, and anything that they ask for volunteers has been recognized. I usually get in trouble for helping the other contractors (not on my contract) too much, but yesterday I got rewarded for it. So my years of helping out – despite being told not to – have paid off.

My Visitors Have Left

My Mom and her husband Charlie came to visit me this past weekend. I was a little nervous about them coming because I wasn’t sure if I would get my house clean to my liking and what they really wanted to do while they were here. I got all the cleaning I wanted to do done by Saturday morning and decided to make the plans once they arrived. I finally got a second bed in my guest bedroom, so I didn’t have to give up my bed or have my guests sleep on an air mattress or the couch. So anyone that wants to visit, I actually have a guest bed now. Hint, hint. ;)

Saturday, Sept 13
Weather: around 90 degrees, sunny and humid. Mom and Charlie showed up around 1:30 on Saturday afternoon. They got settled and we decided to go for a walk in the neighborhood. I haven’t really gone walking in the neighborhood yet so I was up for the walk. We then went out for dinner at a Bar-B-Que place that I heard was the best in town. I would not agree, but it was still good. After dinner took a little drive around the historic part of down town then went to the grocery store.

Sunday, Sept 14
Weather: Around 85, rainy and humid. I took them to church with me and we got a treat with a baptism, which I haven’t seen yet at the church. They both really liked the service. We went to my favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch then went home. There was a break in the rain and we decided to go for another walk in a different direction, but we weren’t so luck to stay dry for the entire walk. Good thing we brought our umbrellas. Mom made her famous home made spaghetti sauce for dinner and I loved it. I had forgotten how much I love her home made spaghetti sauce.

Monday, Sept 15
Weather: 75, rainy and cool. Charlie wanted to go to the US Space and Rocket Center. So I took them over there for a couple hours. They have a new entrance and I haven’t been to the new part. The new part was nice, but they just took displays from the museum and moved them to the new part. So I had seen pretty much everything there before they were just in a new spot. But the outing was for me, it was for Mom and Charlie. We ate a quick dinner of pizza and salad and played a couple rounds of the card game kings in the corners. By about 8 pm we were all getting tired and decided to stop and watch a little TV, One Tree Hill and CSI: Miami.

Tuesday, Sept 16
Weather: 78, sunny and a cool breeze. Mom and Charlie left this morning after breakfast around 8:45am. It was nice to have them visit.

Pepper did really well with them and only hissed once. Most of the time he acted like he usually does when it is just me in the house. I was really expecting him to be all upset and cranky. I really didn’t want to come to work after they left, but I had to go back eventually so way not this morning.

Not So Exciting Labor Day Weekend

Saturday morning I got up early to join my Uncle John, Aunt Kandy, Grandma Hayden and Uncle Jim on a historic trolley tour of downtown Huntsville. It was very informative, but I don’t remember any of it so don’t ask. Even my Uncle John learned some new things. He usually knows tons of history on the downtown area and the adjacent wealthy neighborhood called Twickingham. After that we all headed back to John & Kandy’s house for lunch and a weekend filled with watching DVDs, eating out at my least favorite Mexican restaurant, Univ of Alabama football, watching 2 hours of Mystery Diagnosis on TLC, and eating way more food than any one person should eat. Kandy always makes twice as much food as there are people. So there were only 5 of us there, but she easily had enough food for 8-10 people. Grandma and Jim left for home around 9am on Monday morning, so I didn’t bother going to John & Kandy’s. I got to stay home and catch up on chores around the house.

Monday I got up and waited until around 9:30am to go out and mow the grass. Tropical Storm Faye’s winds had dropped some branches in my yard so I had to pick them up before I started. I had such high hopes to get tons of things done around the house: mow the grass, laundry, dishes, watch the 2 movies I rented, and clean the bathrooms. Around 1:30 or 2:00, as I was watching the movie Georgia Rule, my sinuses started hurting, so I took a nap until around 6:00pm. There goes my super productive day. I could have slept longer, but I wanted to catch the season premiere of One Tree Hill which I thought started at 7:00pm but was really at 8:00pm. I am so glad I stayed up long enough to watch One Tree Hill. That would not have been as good to see recorded. I then went to bed in hopes that my sinuses would clear out in time to go to work in the morning. No such luck. My sinuses were not as bad, but they still hurt and now my eyes did too. So I stayed home yesterday. In the afternoon, I got a good dose of really clean hospital air at my second job and it helped clear them out. So today I am back at work with just a sinus headache that is a little worse than my everyday sinus headache.