Cat Box

Apparently, my blogging career is over as well. It's funny because of all the things I have had to blog about over the last months - a trip to Yellowstone, Meowfish's surgeries, selling the boat, starting school - I pick something as ridiculous as the cat box we built to get excited about. Well, it's really two things I'm excited enough about to actually take time to make a post . First of all, Jared finished his thesis! He's defending it next Thursday and will start working full time at Marathon in only two weeks.

Next, we have had this nasty problem over the past two years with our sweet cats. They go to the bathroom, you see. I wish they would stop but as that is not a reasonable option, we have had their litterbox in our spare bathroom and have let it stink up the room and make a mess. Well, we both got tired of that. So we tried an automatic litter box. It smelled worse (I know - hard to believe and another $170 bucks down the drain...) So the inevitable conversation of the cat porch came up. Jared has been talking for a couple of years about making our covered porch an enclosed potty room for the cats. I LOVE our covered porch - it was a real selling point for buying this house, so I was reluctant to let that happen. Not to mention it would have cost us thousands of dollars. Then I suggested we put a cat door in the garage and let the cats use that. But when I got out there - I was even more selfish. It would mean parking the cars outside and being extra careful (our cat, Meowfish, has a problem with eating items not meant for consumption as we have found out this summer 3 surgeries too late). I told Jared we needed to come up with a little enclosed area where the cats could do their business and go back inside. So I pointed to a general area and Jared made it happen. He was kind enough to give me credit for the idea. But he built it. And it's fabulous. At least I think it is. No bad smells, no litter mess.

Cat Door

How it looks completely finished

You can see how it is set up here - it doesn't take very much of the garage.

Inside the Cat Box

All we had to do was train the cats to use the thing. But putting all "my useless psychology degree" behavior plans into place, they were trained in no time. I have actually found that while the degree itself was useless, most of the principles I have learned are extremely helpful. At least for me as a teacher. I can't tell you how many times I have thought back to my behavior training to extinguish and promote behaviors in my classroom.

Okay, I'm done. If you want to see other stuff we have been doing - I put pictures in. I'll probably throw in some from Yellowstone, Meowfish's surgery, Jared's new bike and golf clubs (both great grad presents from his mom), and other random things we have been up to(beach trips and the like).

Click below to see the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/redbecks07/Oct192009?authkey=Gv1sRgCJqH87ubp5HjUA&feat=directlink

My Dancing Career is Over

I was dancing in the office today - I've been known to do that on ocassion, when all the sudden I felt this incredible pain and my legs sliding out from underneath me. I looked down to realize that my leg had gone one direction and my kneecap the other. I'm still not sure quite how it happened. All I know is that I was on the floor in two seconds popping that thing back into place. My kneecap didn't look quite right there sitting on the left side of my leg. Of course, I fake bravery now, but really there wasn't that much thought involved except, this hurts...this hurts...and I know how to fix it. Jared had the unfortunate problem of constantly having his shoulder pulled out of socket and actually had to have surgery for it. So I knew right away the only thing to do was push it back in. I was prepared for that hurting. What I didn't realize is how much it would hurt afterwards. I tried to be brave, put on ice pack on and just wait it out. Surely the muscles were just sore around the kneecap. But after a while, I knew it was more than that. It hurt too much to walk. More than that though - I just felt that something was wrong. 

So around 4 pm (this happened this morning), I got up enough gumption to get to a hopsital. The doctor told me from the looks of it a ligament is either extremely stretched or torn. He didn't have the equipment to make an exact diagnosis, so now I have to go see an orthepedic surgeon. Correct me if I'm wrong - but the words orthopedic surgeon sound like it's going to cost a fortune.  If it's torn, I'm in big trouble, because its surgery. If not, it will probably just take a long time to heal. They kindly handed me a pair of crutches and an huge knee brace and told me not to walk on it. Lovely. Luckily it was my left knee so I can still drive the car (albeit, I have to make the seat go back and it is a PAIN to get in and out). Of course, everything is a pain on crutches. I whined to the nurse that the only other time I had crutches I used them for about 3 days because I am clumsy on the best of days. She probably didn't need proof of this due to the way that I was injured. But with crutches, I'm like an accident waiting to happen. Probably took longer for me to heal the first time- but my frustration level couldn't handle it. I told her I would be better this time though. Let's see how long that sticks.

So this is a warning. Those who like dancing along without a care may want to take a second thought. I certainly will. Of course, I think it is just me.  The doctor even looked at me like he didn't believe me. I'm not sure I believe me either except for the constant ache in my knee. 

Hurray!

School is out!!! What can I say? I made it. As Jared has lovingly taken the camera with him to Montana, there will be precious few pictures to add in the next few weeks. But I figured I would let you know I somehow survived. This week I am doing a district training learning how to teach Gifted/Talented kids. It has already been really interesting, and I am now coming to terms with what a nerd I am. I was dreading going this morning and was pleasantly surprised when I completely enjoyed sitting there for 7.5 hours learning. I always say I don't miss going to school. But I was sitting there realizing that maybe I prefer to learn rather than to teach. There are less behavior problems that way.  Of course, I have also learned to actually give my opinion. When I was at BYU, I think I can count on two hands the number of times I made a comment in any of my classes. Graduate school must have changed that for me, because now I don't shut up. 

As to what Jared is up to these days, he is somewhere up in the north freezing to death. At least that is what I have gleaned from my five minute conversations with him everyday. They went on their first death march today. He has class after the hikes way into the evening. But he did tell me that he attended a pig race this weekend. That must be about all of the excitement there is up there. Of course, I don't have all that much excitement down here unless you count my cats nipping at my fingers. 

In other good news, my brother and sister are coming to visit in just a couple of short (ok - long) weeks and hopefully I can get one of them to bring a camera so I can get pictures of all that. 

Finally Some Luck

What did I tell you? Jared just left this morning and already I am so bored that I am blogging. But we finally caught some fish! No, it's  not a joke. We have photographed evidence. Jared and I took the boat out once again on Memorial Day and caught not one, but six fish. I actually caught a bass, which is something I wasn't even aiming for. We also tried swimming in the lake which was fine. The problem was getting back into the boat. Jared had a hard time getting up himself and had to literally haul me into the boat and I still almost didn't make it back up. I have a great video of this, but I will spare you as Jared was in his undies for the occasion (he didn't bother wearing a swimsuit). Here are some of the elusive fish.

 Me with crazy boat hair. I can't get a lot more pasty white than that. I prefer the terms porcelain or fair. I'm staying that way though. Gone are the days of tanning. I am a redhead - it's time to embrace it.

Pretty good-sized catfish - "regulation" as Jared kept saying. 

Unfortunately, as we were going back to shore - the boat died suddenly and for no apparent reason. The shop still doesn't know what is wrong with it. 

That's boats for you. So this week when we had visitors (Mike had a job over here and brought along Ben Judd and Kelly), there was no boat to show off. Instead they went ocean fishing, and had quite a bit of success with that as well. I didn't get to go (work - unfortunately) but I hear stories about Ben catching a prize shark (pictured below). Jared also got his finger mutilated by a rather angry fish. Now Jared wants an ocean boat. I told him in a good five years - maybe. 

That fish looks blood thirsty. I mean, have you ever seen an angrier fish? 

Judd's prize-winning shark. I better throw another one in. This one doesn't have a great angle. 

You can tell he's an actual shark in this one.

I better throw this one in too. I went to my first major league baseball game (Astros vs. Rangers). This is something I never intended or thought I would do. But they go a lot faster while you are watching them in life (thank goodness - they crawl on TV). So, it was really quite fun. The funniest part was when I was getting a soda at the snack bar I felt something rubbing my hair that didn't feel the least bit like a human hand. I thought Jared had followed me out and was messing with me. Of course, I only had seconds to identify this and find the culprit. I turned quickly and saw the Rangers mascot (a horse) striding off in the direction I had just come from. I started laughing and everybody looked at me like I was insane. It reminded me of a story my mom had told me. When she was in Okinawa (my grandpa was in the military) all the kids would always rub her hair because red hair is supposed to be good luck (at least in their culture). Of course, most other redheaded myths (including the witch one) are not as postitive, so I've always liked that particular one. It probably had nothing to do with why the mascot decided to rough me up a bit, but it was certainly amusing. 

I don't know what's up with the blue captions. But at any rate, this is us in the stands pre-horse roughing up.

Make Up Your Mind!

So, it's been a while. A few things have happened since I last wrote. I was moved to 3rd grade- without my knowledge. The school is trying to keep everybody employed despite the fact that there needs to be less teachers next year due to a decrease in students (somehow, though the numbers don't add up to me). When they moved me down to third, I thought - no way. That wasn't where I wanted to be. I have been talking about wanting to move up to higher grades and now they were moving me down. So I took and passed a test that would ensure that I could teach middle/junior high students and put in transfer papers. Not four days later, the principal told me I was going to be teaching 4th grade after all. So not only is the school having a hard time deciding what to do to do with me, I am as well. I guess I will just leave the option open. I really think I would like to teach middle or junior high anyway.

Either way, school will be officially out in 3 weeks. The last week I don't even really count because it is so full of cleaning/games/activities there really is no teaching time. Some would claim there is no teaching time now with the way the kids are behaving. They are already on summer vacation in their minds. So am I. Which is why I put up my lovely Sims 3 counter over there. That is sure to be a big part of my summer plans. Also, our boat and probably many sunburns will factor in.

Jared is leaving to field camp again this year for 4 weeks (so my blogging may get a little less sparse with all the free time). He claims it's for monetary purposes, but I think he just wants to go to field camp again. Notice the lovely beard. That is a tradition which, try as I may, I can't break. I do hope it's a good time though. He gets to go up near the Yellowstone area (concidentally, it just so happens my whole family was planning to take a trip up there this summer anyway, so we are going to go get him when he's done).

He wouldn't look up from his work so I was forced to take this shot. Notice the sweat - gorgeous Houston weather we are having these days.:)

Anyway, to the point of writing this blog - two reasons really. (a) I needed a May blog, and (b) to display pictures of the boat. Now we will have this boat to play in all summer for years with any luck. It goes really quite fast and surprisingly I do like it. Any of you are welcome to come down and give it a try. We just need some water skiis. If you like fishing, you can try that too. I'm afraid we're still no good at it though, so we won't be much help.

Anyway, I am super excited for summer and a chance to get a break and just relax. I'll try and be better about sharing some of my summer adventures.

A Change of Scenery

And by that I mean the blog. Yes, it has finally changed away from the gray bathroom. I'm sure the reason I haven't written is for that reason -  it's soul-sucking gray. What do you expect? We just haven't that much motivation for anything due to its constant presence. So... some things that have happened in the past few months include (but are not limited to):

(1) My first TAKS  (the writing variety - for those of you not residents of Texas - it is the test which is the sole determinant of whether I am a good teacher or not apparently) is out of the way and over. Thank goodness. Only one more at the end of this month to go.

(2) The baconator. It's bacon rolled up in sausage topped by what? Yes, more bacon. Jared took a ridiculously large amount of photos of every step of the process of which I will only display two. If you are interested in having a heart attack instantly, I will be happy to give you the pictures and recipe. 

Without the BBQ and smoked wood chips.

It almost makes your cholesterol level higher just by looking at it.

(3) Mustache March. Clearly not my idea. Jared's entire department decided to sport a stylish mustache through March. Suspiciously, we didn't end up getting a picture of that. But Jared decided I needed to participate - so we did get one of me. What Mustache March ended up being was shave your-beard-once-then-grow-your-beard-back-out-so-your-mustache-is-only-slightly darker than-your-beard month. (That is ridiculously long!) But the first few days of last month were not Jared's most flattering. 

I think the look I am trying to attempt is tough. I think Jared's "tough" look might actually be better.  

(4) April Fool's. Along with having been harrassed on this particular day by my students for 6 hours (April Fool's is arguably one of the worst days for a teacher followed closely by the day before Christmas break and the last day of school, oh gosh except for the AWFUL TAKS DAYS), Jared decides to play a trick on me. It was clever because its something I always feared he would do one day. He calls me to tell me he found an orange tom cat on campus and is bringing it home as a pet. I was relieved this wasn't the case, but I  only dodged a bullet for a moment. That probably will actually happen. 

(5) Jared and I ran in our first 5K. It was for his professor who had a brain tumor last year. Luckily, he had it removed and is now doing great. The race was called Run for the Rose. I'd like to say I ran the whole thing, but I lost motivation once I lost sight of Jared.  Turns out we don't have the same stride at all. I did run most of it though. Next time, I'll do the whole thing. It was actually quite fun though. I was surprised by that. 

(6) Visiting my family during spring break. First I was to Colorado (Denver to be exact) to visit my brother Sam, his wife Jenn, and my nephew Cameron. They were moving into their brand new house, and I was supposedly there to help but more just to get in the way and hold Cameron constantly. Jared didn't go with me because his spring break was the previous week and he went to the Big Bend area to help lead a field trip for the undergraduate young'ins.  But if you notice he is missing in the pictures - that is the reason. There's probably a fat chance that he will blog about it since I noticed when I was leaving he didn't even take the camera.

Smiles from Cameron. I'm looking a little bit like Joker yet again - but I posted it for the greater good (Cameron is so cute in it). 

Look at those cheeks!

I love Cameron - what an adorable baby. I loved how sensitive he was and he just loved staring at me. The feeling was mutual on that account.

One of my favorite things about Denver (and I didn't even know this before I went) is the prarie dogs. They are just adorable but apparently seen as nuisances to anybody who has lived there for any amount of time.

This is kind of like Where's Waldo. There are FIVE of them (unless that stick looking thing in the right corner is one - in that case it's six). Have fun looking.

After a weekend in Colorado, I made my way to Utah to see the rest of my family. It was a great visit even though it snowed most of the time (I didn't get to go to the zoo with Harmony, my neice).  But I had the chance to see her a few times. She has grown up so much since the last time I saw her. Not so much physically - though she's finally sprouted some hair. She is so small and petite like her mommy. But she is grabbing things, scooting around, and trying her hardest to walk already.  She is so full of energy it's hard to keep up with her. I adored her, soo cute. She gives these hugs that are just the sweetest thing. She was already warming up to me by the end of the week. 

Harmony with one of her new toys at Grandma's house. My brother, Matthew, is in the background in case anybody was wondering. He is single and in Provo if anybody has a friend in those parts to set him up with (I say this mainly to horrify him).

 I told a really good joke so we're having a good laugh.

 Todd wasn't so sure how to feel about that, but Harmony knew how she felt. She wanted a good chunk of fur in her hand. 

Giving one of her patented hugs. 

As you can see, the pictures I have of the trip are a little baby heavy. But I figure that adults really don't change all that much. And when we do it's just to add wrinkles. Nobody enjoys that. Anyway, it was a good trip. I am always glad when I go. It was just the break I needed. 

I am sure that I am forgetting something. Oh yeah, Jared bought a boat. Yes, another one. It's a real one this time I am told (I haven't actually seen it). But on with that another day. When you blog only once every few months these things are tiring. I'll have him write about it once we actually get it in a week or so (to show pictures of course).  As for the other things I am forgetting, I'm fairly sure nobody will miss them. If I think you will, I'll add them in another month when I blog again. :) 

Lots of work for nothing

I (Jared) finally found the perfect time to blog.  4:30 am when you cant sleep because you ate 20 very hot wings the previous day.  There is absolutely nothing else to do, even the internet shuts down at this hour.  As Becky said we have been painting lately and last weekend was the bathroom.  We picked a color known as "Soul Sucking Grey" because we thought it would go with the bedroom.  

Turns out that the only thing it compliments is the mold in the shower.  Even the cats hate it.  Actually they have mixed feelings about our home improvement projects in general.   Once faction (Meowfish) feels that our original high-minded goals have been abandoned for a quick profit.  The other (B-Kleez) feels that we have become cold and distant.  Either way there is dissent among the crew.  I think I could fix it if I follow Big J's advice and paint the trim black and cover the window in tin foil so no light makes it through.  

In other important news I've been playing some Mike Tyson's Punch Out lately.  I can't seem to defeat my nemesis Bald Bull (above) even though my physique has become similar to King Hippo (below).

It's ummm...bright

That was my response when Jared first showed me the color we were going to paint our room. After months of indecision, we rashly decided just to go with this color. Jared was not in the least bit hesitant to paint it this bright teal color. And I do have to say, I really like the way it turned out. It's quite the contrast to how he feels about the bathroom. 

We chose to do a more subtle color (between light/medium gray) for the bathroom since the room color was so strong. I like it fine but we forgot to take into account the color of the cupboards and tile. The whole time we were painting we thought the color seemed off and actually looked a bit purple (don't worry - it definitely looks gray now). But we decided afterwards  that we actually hate the color of the cupboards and tile, not so much the paint color.  But there's nothing for it (as said in the noble words of Sam Wise on the last LOTR movie). It would be ridiculously expensive to redo the tile, backsplash, and the cupboards. We could just paint it a different color. But the problem with making rash decisions is you don't think about the long term effects such as - what color will you paint the bathroom to go with the bedroom?  And then you start realizing that there actually isn't a color that would fix the situation. I mean, what were these people thinking putting in that color of wood floor with that color of cupboard? Maybe we are just overanalyzing it and it looks fine. 

Trust me, Jared and I have stewed on this for the past couple of days. Although, if you have any suggestions - please feel free to lend your expertise. I can't guarantee we will follow it. We are pretty darn sick of painting (at least I am). 

 

Jared and I getting close to finishing the first coat.

The room finally done (I shouldn't say finally, its not like we worked on it for months)- it took a total of 2 1/2 days, two trips to IKEA, and about 4 to Home Depot.

Jared (also the cats - you should see the cat hair on that seat already) favorite part, the sitting area.

I'll post our bathroom probably tomorrow or so when we have it cleaned up with all the new towels and toweltries in place, then I guess maybe I'll post a poll and you guys can tell me how ugly you think it is on a scale from 1-10. (The most hideous thing you've ever seen being a 1) 

Where to start...

I knew it would be awhile until I blogged again, but this has just gotten ridiculous. Now I don't even know where to start. I will entirely skip the month of December except for our Christmas trip where we visited a ton of family and traveled around the state of Arizona (as well as through Texas and New Mexico of course). I made tamales with my grandma, played in the snow, and ate all of my mother-in-law's delicious food. I even got to see my neice again a couple of times. Pictures of that are suspiciously missing, but she was just as cute. This time she played and talked to me for a good ten minutes. Add to that Jared's tally another trip to New Mexico and Colorado to gather samples for his thesis and ski with his friend, Craig.  Here are some of the few pictures we do have.

The other Hamilton boys (Shane and Stoney) checking out Stoney's new phone.

Abakles loved chilling in the presents - her and Meowfish were constantly under the tree.

Meowfish's playing with his Christmas presents. 

Mike checking out his watch. 

Jared's mom bought him a record player and he has really enjoyed it already. He's been collecting albums for a long time without anywhere to play them. We took all these pictures with our new camera so a lot of them that I did take didn't turn out well because I was still getting used to it. But I'm getting better at it and its pretty nice.

Janelle (Mike's daughter) before taking a tumble down the mountain.

The reason I never buy expensive sunglasses.

Jared and I's snowball fight escalated until at one point my face was being smashed into the snow and I came up looking like this. 

Mike and Janelle AFTER the tumble down the mountain. 

Well, this will have to do for now. Last week, we decorated our room (painting walls, bought bedspreads and the like). Jared decided we couldn't do that without finishing our bathroom too. So, that's what we are doing this weekend. And apparently he needs me back for the second coat. I'll post pictures of both of those soon. (By soon, I don't mean a month and a half from now - at least I hope I am not that lazy - sure would fit with the current trend).