No big news... but an update nonetheless

We just can't seem to stay on top of this thing! Probably because we have just been busy overall. I'm keeping very busy with work. John has taken a job locally, so very little travel now. All their work is within 100 miles of home, so the only time he has to travel now is when he goes to a training.

We've gained and lost family members since we last posted. We added an African Grey Parrot to our household in May. His (or her, we don't really know for sure) name is Joe. Joe is about 20 years old, and we are his 4th family. The third family only had him for a short time, and then took him back to the second family. When he was then ready to move on again, we got to go pick him up. He is bonding pretty well with me, but does not like John too much. He actually bit John twice, both in one night. I was going to add a picture here of Joe, but they don't seem to be stored where I thought they were on the computer. Maybe next time I can post some.

In late June/early July we had to put down Cutz (our newest cat). She continued to have problems adjusting, and we had tried to find other homes for her. She had been through a lot, but we just couldn't put up with her messing up our house, so she went up to kitty heaven. We were sad to see her go, but knew it was the right thing to do, both for her and for us.

This weekend, Anijah is going to come up to visit us for about 5 days, so maybe we will manage to post again soon with some pictures of our fun activities with her.

Long overdue post

So, where to begin. It has been way too long since we posted. We've just been plugging along like normal, keeping the house clean, taking care of our zoo, etc. John is back working with the company he left in Noblesville. Things just weren't going well with the company here, and I told him I'd rather have him gone all week, and get two good days with him than have him home all the time, but angry. So he quit and went back to working with the jails. We are not planning on staying there long term, but until something comes up (which in the current economy could be a while), he is "in jail" most of the week. My work has been keeping me busy. I have been carrying a pretty full caseload, and have started doing evaluations to qualify children for our program. I still love what I'm doing.

We haven't really done too much to the house yet. We did tear up some carpet in the basement that a previous owner's cat had peed on, and put down some laminate floor just after Christmas. It looks great, and no more pee smell:-) Here are a few pics from the two evenings of work.

This is after one night's work. Notice the wallpaper pattern at the bottom of the wall where the baseboard came off.

Elsa has to inspect the first night's work before we can contine:-)

John and Brian (and the girls) with the finished product, baseboards back up and all!

We have plans for some of the other projects we want to do to the house, but we need to save up some money first. We have also painted the room that will become the baby's room (no we're not pregnant yet).

In August we acquired a new cat. Her name is Cuts. John's grandpa fell and had to go into the nursing home, so we took his cat. Grandpa died on Christmas Eve, so the cat now has a new permanent home. There were definitely some rough times at first, and there still are figths, but it has gotten better. She is cute, and has definitely grown on us. We still think she would be better off in a house with no other animals, but at least for now, she's stuck with us and our zoo. Here's a picture of her (she looks a lot like one of our other cats, April). This is the only one we have of her where she doesn't look evil or isn't a blur.

Over Christmas Break we had Anijah come up and visit us for a few days. She enjoyed playing Wii and hanging out. We also took her to a movie and to go ice skating. It was her first time ice-skating, but she did pretty well once she found her skating legs. It took her a while, but she liked it, and I have a feeling we will be able to convince her to go again if she visits next winter (or if we are in Indy visiting).

Well, I should probably get going. I have a few things to do before I join Mom and Mel for dinner and a movie tonight!