Friday Night Photos

Yay for Friday! Today was Eli's last day of school, so it feels like it's officially summer now. I don't know why I feel like a kid who is giddy about summer vacation, but there is something about school being out that is exciting--even for me.

I have a smorgasbord of completely random photos from this past week...

I'll start with a couple of new recipes I tried. These are Indian Potatoes from Two Kooks in the Kitchen and they were SO good. Don't they look amazing? 

This isn't as pretty as the potatoes, but it was delicious. This is Spicy Black Bean Soup from Midwest Foodie. It made an enormous batch (this bowl is one serving--there are eight servings in the recipe), so we're going to have the leftovers tonight. Everybody really liked it!

This meme made me laugh; Jerry and I always play this little game of "what joints did you hear?" when I stand up. I can't move without my body making cracking noises all over the place!

Of course I have cat pictures... Sadly, I probably have more cat pictures on my computer from the last few years than I do pictures of my family. Chick has always had a great sense of balance, but when I saw him sleeping like this, I was kind of amazed. It's not a great picture because of the clutter, but his bed is balancing on a little shelf in front of the window. He was just chill, no idea that he was about to tip over.

It's funny what brings cat enemies together. Phoebe and Estelle despise each other, but when the sun is shining midday, all of the cats can be found lying in the sun. It's like they make a truce each afternoon so they can relax in the sun, and then immediately afterward, they are enemies again.

If you know how to get peanut shells out of a shag rug, please enlighten me! When we feed the squirrels, we tend to track peanut shells into the house and they stick in the rug.

Phoebe is kind of known for sleeping in the most uncomfortable positions. And she likes to find something random to perch on--below, she's sitting on my computer. The way she's sitting is how she sleeps! I don't know if she's in pain because of her kidney disease or if she truly finds it comfortable, but that's how she likes to sleep. It was cute that she saw my computer and thought it looked like a good place for a nap.

I was walking past the living room when I noticed Duck sleeping on the floor with his tail sticking up and curled over--it looked so funny! When I grabbed my phone to take a picture, he woke up--but his tail was still sticking up. Something only a cat-mom would grab her phone for.

Noah got contacts and was having a hard time with them. I wore contacts for years before I had LASIK surgery, so I was trying to help Noah. I didn't realize Jerry was taking a picture, but I think the look on my face was funny!

This is the least exciting transformation ever to look at, but I put new casters on my workbench--wahoo! I had some that were mounted on the side and you could raise and lower them (so the table would rest on the floor and then stepping on the lever pushes the wheel on the ground, lifting the table up). I felt like I needed two more casters for the middle of the table, so I swapped them out with some regular casters with brakes. I like them a lot more.

I spent a lot of time in the garage this week! The weather has been perfect for woodworking, and while I haven't completed any projects yet, I have a couple of things I'm working on. I love having the tools on little carts like this (there were a couple more behind where I was taking the picture from) because when I'm done, I just push everything into the corner to clean up my mess and make room in the garage.

I have Reynaud's Syndrome, which is part of the reason I hate being cold. It's mainly on my feet--my toes and heels get completely translucent-white when they are cold and it's really freaky to look at. It's kind of a fun party trick; people always gasp when they see my white toes, hahaha. 

Lately, as stupid as this sounds, I've been trying to get used to being colder. Instead of wearing hoodies every day, I'll wear a long-sleeved t-shirt or something like that until I can't take it anymore and I put on a hoodie. Anyway, I wore a t-shirt when I had to drop something off at Eli's school and by the time I got back to the car, the tips of my index and middle fingers were numb and turning white. I have no idea if I'll actually get acclimated, but I hope so! (Interestingly, the Renaud's and constant coldness only started after I lost about 100 pounds.)

And lastly... an update on the ducklings! I cannot believe how BIG they've gotten. And I think it's hilarious that they are still at my parents' house. My mom said taking care of them is like a full time job, and I believe it. They do pretty much nothing but eat! Ducklings eat constantly because they grow super fast. My dad gave them some seaweed from the lake (is it called seaweed if it's in a lake? hmm) and they love that. 

This was a little set-up that my parents made for them in the yard. I thought it was odd that they put a chair in there, and then my dad told me it was to create shade for the ducklings, hahaha. 

And of course, they love being in the water. My dad was excited to show me how they dive under the water, so we put them in the pool and naturally, they made him look like a liar as they floated on top of the water and nibbled on the seaweed.

He put a rock and some more seaweed in there and finally, they started diving. I'd never seen ducks do that--when they are in the lake, they disappear for a second and resurface, but you don't get to see what they do underwater. In the pool, I could see that they dive under and swim super fast underwater--it reminded me of penguins. They go from one side to the other in a blink. 

... and that's all I've got. Have a great weekend! xo