End of the semester.

We are in the middle of studying for tons and tons of finals. I hate this week. Every semester I get really stressed before and during this week that I always get a cold no matter what time of the year it is... Well it looks like Brandon beat me to it. He has come down with a nasty cold this week and feels miserable.

I have tried to make him feel better by cooking anything warm for his throat, making the house warm for him, taking care of all the chores around the house, and asking him if there is anything I can do.. but he is still miserable:( I guess the flu shot doesn't really work? Or does it just cut down your chances of getting the flu.. but yet still allows you to get it? I am not sure.. but it has helped me so far.. (but I am bound to get sick since I cannot resist kissing and cuddling with my poor sick boy).

Oh and p.s.. I love my crock pot! I can throw anything I want in there at the beginning of the day and have dinner ready at night! (This may look gross but it was so yummy! I made it up too!)

This past week we went to 2 Christmas parties. On Thursday was our ward Christmas party. There was a talent show so I signed Brandon up (without telling him!) to bring and display some of his art pieces! He was a good sport about it and we packed up some of his recent work. There was a raffle for some presents and since so many families had left by the time they gave them away, we got one! (Brandon and I are both not very lucky people so we NEVER win anything.) Brandon got a little "Intelli Heli" which is a mini helicopter that is controlled by a remote control. He loves it! He sits and flies that thing all the time now.. and the kitties are so intrigued that they chase it around the whole time. The second party had Comedy Sportz there.. which is an improv comedy show here in Provo. Brandon and I have worked with a few of the guys at Comedy Sportz so we LOVE to go watch them. It was hilarious!

Brandon and Trent (our hometeacher) with their presents.

Here is some of his work:
This first one is of me and Brandon (hopefully you can tell!) He drew this for my birthday last year and he hated it so he has told me for a year now that he is gonna fix it.. well finally for my birthday this year he finished it! And I love it.

These are from his painting class that he has to do paintings of single, simple objects.




We also played the Wii Mario Cart at Erica and Shawn's house with Jeff (my cousins) and we loved it! And they helped us complete on of Brandon's projects he had to do. We decided we had to leave their house early so he could finish, but as soon as we told them what the project was, they all started searching the house for letters. So Brandon's project: Find all the letters in the alphabet in things around you.. but in their natural habitat and surroundings.. meaning you cannot move them around to look like a letter. Not fair I think. My homework involves ethnographies and stalking people in Walmart asking if I can survey them.

Thanks guys for helping! He got full credit!

See if you can guess what letters these are!





On Friday, after I left work, I had a whole list of things I had to get done. First stop: Walmart. I rushed through the store so I would have time for every other stop.. I put all my groceries in the trunk (all while I am freezing because I left my coat in the car), shut the trunk and ran to go put my cart away. By the time I got back to my car, it was locked. And I discovered that I had locked my keys in my trunk! I have NEVER done this! I called and texted Brandon probably 20 times but he had left his phone in his car and was still at work. So I had to call his boss to ask if I could talk to Brandon. And being the most awesomest husband ever, he hurried home to get the spare key, then came to rescue me in the Walmart parking lot. So I never had time to run all my other errands. Sad.

So lately I have been researching the prices for all the many initiatory health things we need to do for the kitties. I have been looking at how much their shots are, neutering, as well as declawing. Well it turns out.. having 2 kittens is not that cheap! So I have decided all I want for Christmas is money so I can afford my kitties!

But anyways, we decided right when we got the kittens that we would declaw them. Well as I have done my research, it turns out to be the cruelest thing you could do to a cat. Cats claws have nerves in them and it is described that if you declaw a cat.. it is just like cutting a humans fingers off to their knuckles.. but even worse. Cats obviously walk on their paws and usually the majority of their body weight is on the front of their paws. But after you declaw them, it hurts so bad that they teach themselves to walk with their weight more on the back of their paws. This in turn causes arthritis and tons of pain in a cat. It also causes depression in a cat and usually changes their personality to be bitter. I had no idea! Our fat cat at home is declawed and I never thought anything about it. So I have looked around for another solution.. because they are still so young (12 weeks old!) they are very hyper and tend to claw at the furniture. So I found this company called Soft Claws. They sell claw covers that are soft plastic that you simply glue on the tips. So the cats still can have their claws and still walk normally, but the claws don't stick in to anything. We put them on this week. At first they hated them but they don't even notice them anymore. A few have come off and we have had to replace them but it is so nice not to be clawed anymore! We will see how long these things last...
The goods..

Sniper with his claw covers on!