The Last Week of August

One might wonder if this was going to become a cat-heavy blog and I suppose maybe it will ... they just do so many funny things and since I am not ready to fully share our house yet, what I can offer you is silly cat antics! Loki is definitely the alpha male for our two silly kittens, while Spook just kind of follows along with Loki's antics! 

The kittens are getting much more adventurous in their explorations - we arrived home mid-week last week to discover they'd knocked over my flowers and also dug in the plant sitting on the corner of the counter, so we had to reassess. They were initially hesitant about us, but they are getting over that uncertainty even more each day! They are definitely not uncertain about hopping onto every chair, table and spot they can access to investigate - every space must be explored! 

Loki has truly gotten bold over the weekend; he absolutely wanted to sample my pizza on Saturday at lunch, even going so far as to reach out and bat his paws at my plate! We have been blessed to have my parents come over and help us get things organized and in place - Ryan and my Dad were able to put up a huge storage unit that Ryan's mom gave us over a year ago, so now we have tons more storage for things like our bikes, the grill, and tons of outdoor stuff. 

We also got curtains hung in our bedroom and finally got WiFi on Sunday; the Comcast guy finished up just in time for us to make it to second service at church! I think the house is finally almost complete with the basics - if only we can get our washer and dryer delivered, we will be in business! The kittens seem to be fascinated by the TV once we got it all set up; they definitely are paying some attention to what's on TV! 

The weekend passed so quickly because we were busy trying to get the house to a more livable place - so that once we come back from Norway, it will be business as usual. I leave you with a picture of Spook, attempting to "garden" with my indoor plant - hopefully he won't completely destroy it now that I've moved it (hopefully) out of his reach. 

It's Time to Travel Again!

 

It's time once again to travel abroad; next Friday, August 30 - we are bound for Norway; the land of fjords, Vikings and the northern lights! This trip has been in the works since Christmas of 2023 and we are so looking forward to getting to finally see a portion of the Nordic/Scandinavian countries!

We will be focusing our trip on Southern Norway - we quickly discovered that the journey from Oslo (the capital) to Tromso takes twenty hours via car; so we had to pick a region and stick with it. Since we are flying into Oslo, we decided to target the southern region of the country - which will allow for taking in tons of lovely villages, fjords, mountain ranges and more! 

We will be taking in the towns/locations of Oslo, Geiranger, Bergen, Stavanger and Kristiansand and all the lovely locations in between! Ryan and I will be hiking to the summit of Pulpit Rock mid-week and I know we have at least one fjord cruise planned during the week! Something tells me that Norway will be one of the most gorgeous place Ryan and I have ever been - I cannot wait!

So - while these are just generic stock pictures of the land that is Norway - which means Northern Way, in case you didn't know - I can't wait to go explore and then come back and share all the gorgeous sites with you here on the blog!

Loki & Spook

We are now a family of four - two humans and two little furballs - kittens, to be exact! We picked up our little guys on Sunday evening around 6:45 and they have been keeping us amused ever since; which is a good thing since we don't have Wi-Fi until Sunday, ha-ha! 

The boys were born to a cat that just wandered up at my boss' house pregnant - so to say they were born wild is a true statement. However; from the time they were tiny, they have been around their foster family - so they aren't completely feral or anything, ha-ha! Having said that - they still aren't too sure about us as their new humans! We are slowly coaxing them out with treats and evening food/play time and they are getting more social every day. 

They are well-trained with their litter box and for the most part, don't seem to be too bad about clawing things... although who knows what they get up to when we are at work during the day? Suffice it to say, I haven't yet come home to anything damaged or destroyed (knock on wood). It seems their favorite place to relax is in the front window sills where they can soak up sunlight and watch the world passing by out front - it's always cute to see them sitting in the window when I get home from work. 

So far - they are very motivated by treats and food - but hey, who isn't? They still seem a little more skittish than I'd like to see them, so we are going to try some calming chews and a diffuser that emits some calming pheromones that help with stress and anxiety; it's a whole new situation for them and I am trying to remind myself that it will take some time for them to come around to us completely. 

We are definitely enjoying watching their silly antics as they play around the house, learning to play on their cat tower and especially when Spook sees his reflection and seems to be wondering "who is that handsome devil of a cat that I'm staring at?" Ha-ha! They seem to know their names pretty well - their foster family used their names in the weeks leading up to us adopting them, so when we call them they usually look at us and if they think there is food - they'll come! 

They are certainly keeping us amused and I know they will for a long while yet - so here's hoping we have a future of funny cat antics, snuggles and purrs.

We Survived the Move!

Survived is the key word here - ha-ha! I would say I'm joking but man, I'm not! Last week was kind of a wild experience but thankfully, we are in our house & slowly but surely getting it livable! The week started off with some family trials on Monday, then some work trials on Tuesday... and then on Wednesday morning, I found myself feeling a little under the weather. It got worse as the day progressed... 

By the time I headed home around 4:30 - I was aching all over and was pretty horrified to discover that I was running fever! Between the sore throat, headache, cough, fever and achiness - I was worried I was coming down with the flu, so we started praying, Ryan whipped up some chicken noodle soup and I was loaded up with medications! Ryan even made me go to bed at like... 8:15! He's a hard task master when I'm sick - but his ministrations worked because thankfully I woke up on Thursday feeling almost normal!

We signed all the paperwork to become homeowners once again on Friday, August 16th at 3 PM - and by 4 PM, we were back at our new home, beginning the process of moving things in! If I'm being honest; with the lead up to the move being so stressful, I found the moving process to be really overwhelming this time around. Everything went so smoothly, so I absolutely have no complaints but man - I was definitely feeling some sort of stressed around 6:30 on Sunday afternoon when all was said and done! Thankfully - each day has gotten better!

We spent Friday night in our guest room (our new mattress didn't get delivered until Saturday) and with the help of Ryan's friends and co-workers, and my parents - everything was in the house before lunchtime on Saturday! I didn't realize we had so much kitchen stuff; but holy cow, if there is something you need for cooking - we've got it! And I had to try and find places to store it! Thankfully, my parents gifted us a hutch and once that is in place, we should have much more storage!

We made our first grocery run on Sunday evening before picking up our kittens to bring them to their new home and as we were leaving the Food Lion, there was a gorgeous rainbow on display! Our house is starting to feel like home and we are slowly but surely getting things put in their proper places - bit by bit! I know it will take a little while to truly get everything like we want it, but in time I know it will all be perfect! 

I think our home is shaping up to be quite lovely - don't you? I can't wait to share more as we continue to make progress on making each room and space just perfect for us.