Thursday, March 7, 2013

Kirsten Stationary

I am about to say something very judgmental.
I don't like the stick figured "family" stickers people put on their car windows. You know what I'm talking about. The little stick figures of "Mom" "Dad" and the 2.5 children and the family dog plastered on the back window of a minivan.
If you are a person who has this on your car, I'm sorry. I just find it annoying for many reasons. One, no one cares. Really. No gives a hoot that you have two boys and a dog. Two, you drive a minivan. Clearly you are not a person out living a wild single life. I don't think you need to broadcast that to all the other drivers on the road.

Once Josh teased me about my dislike and contempt of these stickers by telling me I was jealous because my "family" sticker would have only cats. In actuality, I would rock the cat stickers with pride. They do make cat stickers, for the record.

I have found in the past two years that I have been bombarded with the questions of if I have children, or when I am going to have children. My standard answer is I only have furry, four-legged cat children. Most people still press on with, "Oh yes, for now. But when will you have real children?" Who says cats aren't real? Asshole. And who said it was your business to know anything about my reproductive plans? (Once again, for the record, we are NOT at any point in the near future even considering the idea of having babies. Period).

I recently had a patient who asked about my child-bearing status, and when I responded with my standard "furry four-legged cat children" answer, the patient told me, "That is weird." I let a very long, awkward silence pass before I said, "Yes. Yes it is." I suppose I have finally gotten used to being asked repeatedly about having kids, although I'm still not sure if it happens because I'm married, my age, or because I'm surrounded by military families. I think my getting used to this has also strengthened my comfort in my "status" of being a cat "mom." That being said...

I recently went to a My ThirtyOne party (think Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Tupperwear, ect). Normally I shy away from these types of things as I don't necessarily like to be pressured into buying something, and I try to avoid buying things I don't need. But. A good friend of mine was hosting this party, and I thought it would be a way to meet more people. The party was fun, and the company (by the way) does sell some great stuff. One of the things I ordered was personalized stationary. There is all sorts of ways you can personalize it, and I found it funny to play on the family stick figure sticker situation. So. Hopefully someday soon you can get a letter on the Lehman Family stationary.


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Where did the time go?

Only one blog post in all of February is a little pathetic.But, it happened for two reasons. One, we don't have internet at our new house. I could explain it and go into a huge complaining rant about how I hate the German internet company... But I will just say we don't have internet, and it looks as if we won't have any until April. Yes, April. So. Until then my internet time is limited to work and when I go to the library on base. In addition to no internet, we have been busy trying to unpack, organize, and generally get situated in the new house. Because of that there really isn't anything too exciting to report. Most weekends have been spent shifting things around, digging through boxes, and trying to find a place for things. It's a long process. I almost feel like it's easier when our stuff is all packed (as in moving over-seas style) versus just half "move across town" packed... I guess with things being half unpacked it makes for lots of stuff being strung out all over.

I can't believe February is here and gone. One day we are doing a crazy mess of a marathon move... suddenly it's my birthday, then Valentine's day... then our anniversary... and now it's suddenly March and I feel like I only blinked and the month was over. 

I was planning to post some new pictures of the house... but things are still pretty messy. But. The cats are loving the stairs at the new house. They run and up down them a lot getting their kitty exercise. There is a little nook at the top of the stairs where Vega likes to sit. I knew as soon as we saw the house that this would be "her" spot, so I put one of her kitty pillows there. Usually this is where I find her.



We also recently updated our bedroom a bit. When we moved into this new house we weren't able to get our boxspring up the stairs - it was too low and narrow. So currently we are sleeping on two mattresses which sit on the floor. It's the proper height, but it does look a little odd. I was wanting to figure out something for a headboard. Obviously we couldn't exactly get a bed frame since we had no boxspring... but I wanted something to make our bed look a bit more polished. I was looking on Pinterest and found all sorts of ideas of ways to "create"  a headboard. I liked the idea of making your own headboard, but I knew with moving and other things going on there was no way I would have the time, energy, or materials to make one. So. I "created" my own type of headboard (or illusion/idea of one) thanks to Ikea. Right after we moved into the house we made a huge Ikea trip, which was wonderfully successful. Yay for decorating!

Yes that is Mister Puck posing on the bed. The goal is to decorate/use the shelves... but at the moment they are empty minus an alarm clock. I am, however, in love with my new curtains.

In addition to all the unpacking we dog-sat for our friends and now new neighbors (one of the perks of our new house is how close we are to them). The cats did NOT like having the dogs in the house. While the dogs were at the house we didn't see the cats as they were hiding. The dogs, Max and Milly, were entertaining to say the least. Max is quite active and spent a lot of his time investigating and then stealing/playing with cat toys. Then there is Milly. Milly is a little runt who has an underbite. Maybe it's the dental background, but I found her underbite to be hilarious since her teeth and tongue were always sticking out. Milly is also just generally... special. She is very sweet and spent most of her time cuddling with us... but you get the impression that the lights are on but nobody is home. Milly became well known at my work as I couldn't help but share her "special" antics.


This picture pretty much sums up Max and Milly - Max was trying to lick my face and Milly looks on from the background....

But. Now that we are somewhat moved in, we are gearing up for more travel and more trips. The sun is shining and spring is (possibly) coming to Germany. It's time for us to get out there and do things. We are planning a trip for this weekend - although we aren't sure on the destination or the details  yet, ha ha ha. But we are going somewhere. I am headed back to the states to visit my family and attend a wedding at the end of March. But when I return we have more big travel plans ahead... and I am excited. So despite not having internet I hope March has most posts... and more interesting ones at that....