real life: my cat's in the tub (again)

on a daily basis leko ends up either on the edge of or actually inside the bath tub.  this happens several times a day.  he is totally obsessed with drinking water from the faucet and he loves getting wet from the dripping water too.  

i have known a lot of cats in my lifetime, but i have never met a cat who loved water as much as leko!  i snapped this picture on my phone the other day (it's a little bit fuzzy, but you get the idea).  that kitten sure keeps us entertained!

happy monday!

love, laurie

fun links

happy friday!  i'm so glad the weekend is here and i'm looking forwarded to the nice weather that is forecasted for saturday and sunday!  here are a few fun links that i found around the internet recently:

1. remember all of those dear kitten videos that i have shared in the past?  well, they made three more and they are just as good as the others: bathing your human, the art of massage, and regarding friendship

2. speaking of cats, these texts from the cat are entertaining.  luckily leko hasn't figured out how to text yet!

3. one of the courses i teach undergrads and grads is public speaking, so i really liked this article about 8 master strategies for public speaking

4. this cake looks insane!

5. this cheesy corn dip looks really good, not healthy, but good

6. 12 ab workouts (which would be necessary after that cake and cheesy corn dip!)

7. pinterest food fails never fail to make me laugh

8. bizarre ingredients hidden in food labels . . . yuck!

9. amen

have a wonderful weekend!

love, laurie

it's just hair . . .

the last time i got my hair cut in the beginning of the summer i instantly fell in love with the length and the cut.  in fact, it was my favorite hair cut to date.  it fell right in line with my clavicle bone when straightened and it was so easy to manage, especially during the summer.

yesterday i decided to get my ends trimmed up for the fall.  my intention was to get it cut like i did in the beginning of the summer, but maybe just a tad shorter.  my stylist only took a little extra off, but boy did that little extra make a drastic difference.  it felt way too short (this is the shortest my hair has ever been) and i panicked a bit.

ryan (being the superhero that he is) reassured me that it's only hair and my hair grows back really quickly.  i know it will be back to "normal" before i know it, but man did it shock me when i looked in the mirror.  on the plus side, it does feel light and healthy, but i'm still looking forward to it growing out about an inch or two.

we took a photo after my hair cut (you know, for documentation sake) and leko got in on the action.  i always say he is so photogenic.  whenever he sees a camera he looks right at it and poses, i swear.  ryan snapped two photos in succession of me holding leko and when we looked back at the photos we burst out laughing because those two photos perfectly captured him yelling at ryan behind the camera.  of course i made them into a gif.  too funny!

love, laurie

the perfect pillow

we spent the entire day at home on sunday working around the house.  it was so nice to be able to get a bunch of things knocked off our ever growing to-do list and to not have to run anywhere.  we completely wore ourselves out, but we weren't the only ones who were tired from a long day of working.  leko was totally exhausted from "supervising" us.  hey, it's a hard job but someone has to do it!

ryan sat down in bed for a few minutes to rest his aching body and feet, and leko jumped right up and nestled down for a nap using ryan's foot as a pillow.  we just couldn't stop laughing.  i grabbed my phone to snap a picture before he woke up.  this furry little guy always keeps us entertained!

love, laurie 

water pipes and sewer lines and underground excavation, oh my!

remember that famous line from the wizard of oz: "lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"  dorothy, the tin man, and the scarecrow chanted it as they made their way through the woods right before they met up with the cowardly lion in the movie.

we felt a little bit like the wizard of oz characters this week, blindly making their way through the forest, except our chant was a bit more along the lines of: "water pipes and sewer lines and underground excavation, oh my!"

being home owners has been one of the most rewarding and frustrating things that we have ever done.  it's great when everything is going along fine and working well, but let me tell you, when it rains it pours.

it all started with a little drip from the kitchen faucet.  before we knew it we had several major problems on our hands.  in the last week we have had to rip out our front yard to repair a sewer line in our yard, put the yard back together, rip out more of our front yard including our sidewalk to repair more sewer line in our yard, put the yard back together again, majorly clean up our basement from the sewer line issues, and then to top it all off rip out the plumbing for our kitchen sink and replace all of it.

it has been a stressful, exhausting, and very expensive week.  however, i'm happy to report that as of yesterday afternoon i do believe everything is finally fixed.  thank goodness!  i'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything holds for a while and that we don't have any other issues for a bit!

happy tuesday!

love, laurie

saturday at nay aug park

the weather was absolutely glorious this weekend.  the temperatures were in the 80s and the humidity was relatively low compared to what it has been lately.  we soaked up the gorgeous weather on saturday by hiking around nay aug park with my parents.

we love to drive through nay aug park every december to see the elaborate christmas lights that the city displays in the park, however, it has been a while since the last time we walked around the park in warm weather.

it was so nice to be outside enjoying nature and watching the waterfalls (along with watching the crazy people jumping off the rock cliffs into the water below).  it was a nice way to spend a saturday afternoon!

love, laurie

snapshots of life lately, according to my iphone pictures

. . . and ryan's iphone too.

follow along with us on instagram

love, laurie

hello, kitten!

a couple of weeks ago, ryan and i were taking a walk around a nearby neighborhood in the evening for some exercise and to enjoy the nice weather.  while we were walking, we heard a cat crying and initially thought that a cat was stuck up in a tree.  after searching around, we discovered the noise was coming from a baby kitten under a bush.  she was only a few weeks old and not much bigger than a chipmunk.

a neighbor came out of her house, scooped up the kitten, and gave her to us wrapped in a kitchen towel.  the neighbor explained that the neighborhood was filled with baby kittens from stray cats who kept having kittens all summer.  the kitten was starving and in need of help.  the neighbor insisted that we take the kitten to find her a good home.

we knew right away that we couldn't keep the kitten ourselves (because leko rules the kingdom in our household) so we planned on taking her to a shelter.  however, we didn't have much luck with the shelters and the kitten was so sweet that we hated to give her away.  we kept her in our garage for a few days and gave her food, a bath, and a lot of love.

ryan's parents agreed to adopt the kitten and now she has a good home.  it's great that she is in the family because now we can visit her.  ryan's parents are still debating about a name for the new kitten but they are thinking about calling her pepper, which i think is really cute!

here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks with the new kitten in the family . . .

^we snapped these pictures on our phones when we first found her.  ryan and the kitten fell in love with each other right away.  those two sure spent a lot of time together in our garage the first few days we had her.^

^when we drove the kitten down to ryan's parents' house, she made herself right at home.  she even ate dinner with us on the table.  she'll fit right into this family, for sure!^

^she really liked hanging out on our shoulders.  i felt like i had a little bird sitting on my shoulder.  the day we took her to ryan's parents' house she spend the majority of the time we were at the dining room table asleep on my shoulder.^

^ryan was excited to see the kitten again when we went down to ryan's parents' house this past weekend for ryan's birthday party.  all of the attention sure wore out the little girl and she fell asleep on the birthday boy's lap.  so cute!^

. . .

we sure are excited that this little kitten is staying in the family because she is such a lover and we look forward to spending time with her and seeing her grow!

love, laurie

tuesday night at the harford fair

one of our co-workers has been raving about the harford fair for several years now.  since the fair is going on this week, last night after work we decided to head up to the fair to check it out.

we walked around the fair, grabbed a bite to eat, visited the animals, and looked around the vendors' stands.  we spent about an hour watching a tractor pull too.  i really couldn't get over how seriously these people took the whole tractor pull event.  it was nuts!  we had a good time walking around the fair and it was a fun little mid-week date night.

^these two alpacas were so funny.  they had such personalities!  it was really warm, so they just parked themselves in front of a large fan to cool off and watch the people passing by.^

^we couldn't get over the outfits on these guys.  don't they look like they are wearing kkk robes?!^

^we liked walking around the displays of all of the flowers, vegetables, food, and crafts.  we really liked the cake decorating display with the cute farm cake and the giant cheeseburger cake.^

^before heading home, we shared a funnel cake made by a local high school marching band.  it has been years since either of us has had a funnel cake!^

love, laurie

ryan's 31st birthday party

birthdays should definitely be celebrated for several days, and that's exactly what we did this weekend.  we started celebrating ryan's birthday on friday with our trip to lake wallenpaupack.  then on saturday, we got together with our families for a birthday party.

we went down to ryan's parents' house and started off the morning with a bike ride (that birthday boy sure loves his biking).  we had hoagies for lunch and visited for a while before having dinner on the back deck.  we grilled chicken, shrimp, and pineapple for dinner.  we also had tomato salad, asian cauliflower salad, and corn fritters too.  it was great.

after dinner we celebrated with a heath bar inspired birthday cake and birthday presents.  we had such a great time celebrating ryan's birthday with our parents on saturday.  i can't believe he's 31!

love, laurie