Random, once again

Here's our sweet new cat, Bellie. She looks so similar (in color) to our last cat "Bella", that the girls felt her name should be similar too.

She's the perfect cat. When she's outside, she's a hunter and is currently working on our gopher problem in our lawn. When she's inside, she's sweet and loving and falls at your feet and purrs. She's a great cuddler, she curls right up in my arms and purrs me to sleep. Her favorite bed though is Arissa's, where she spends the whole day sometimes.

And the best part of all about her is: she only poops & pees outside! So we get to enjoy all the benefits of having a cat, without the annoyance of having to maintain a litter box. I love this cat.

But as if one black-and-white animal weren't enough for our house, this guy came by to eat the catfood we left outside and Jesse wanted to domesticate him too!:

The picture's not very good at all, but YES that is a skunk...on our back porch....eating our catfood. I've never seen a skunk in real life....so close up....that wasn't dead on the side of the road. They are SO cute! Google "skunk" images, and you'll see what I mean...their bodies are the big hairy things I imagine when I picture a skunk, but then they have the littlest tiny black heads that make you just want to pick them up and cuddle them! But that won't be happening any time soon because, as I learned on google, it's illegal to have their scent glands removed. So no skunk for us. :o(

And a word of caution if you do google "skunk"....apparently there's a type of marijuana called "skunk" as well because every other picture was of that. Imagine my delight when I discovered that....googling it AT WORK at the DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE!

And look at this sweet girl....went to bed and fell asleep wearing the hat I made her:

And lastly, I thought I'd share the process I call "anatomy of a drill team pony tail":

We begin with two sweet girls who have a s***load of hair:

We spray, and brush, pull, and cry (the girls, not me) until the pony tail is at a sufficient height (you place your hand on the top of the head and make sure it's at least at that height):

Then you take 1 inch section by 1 inch section....brushing, dousing with MAXIMUM HOLD hairspray, brushing again, spraying again, then wrapping around perm rods until you get this:

And when their hair is so tight that they can't help but smile, you know you're done. Oh but then you have to spray the entire thing like 3 more times.

Then you have to clean up the area you were working in, which is now toxic from all the hairspray fumes. And you have to try to get 2 excited-but-sleepy girls to rest and fall asleep, even though they can't really lay their heads down without being in pain.

But in the morning, when you unwrap each 1 inch section (clockwise only, you don't even want to know what happens if you do it counterclockwise...) spray the whole thing 3 more times, you get this:

Then you stick a hairnet on it and get the heck out of the house, and into the car, and down to the dance studio, praying you won't be even 2 minutes late cause if you are you have to stand at attention while everyone else is talking and having fun until it's time to leave.

Needless to say....we were late. :o)