New Jones Family Member

Last November we had to put our old (18+ years) cat down.  She became frail and had lived a good long life.  This left me without a cat in the house. The first time this had happened since I met Nick, so 24 years or so.
I really missed having a cat around.  Thullee is a wonderful dog, but he's a dog. So the hunt was on for a new cat.  I had expressed years ago that I wanted my next cat to be a siamese cat.  Or at least a siamese colored cat.  A purebred siamese is a bit out of our budget range. Anyway last week I decided to check out the rescue sites around our parts and darned if I didn't find the perfect candidate to have join our happy home.
Meet Freya:

She is a 4-5 month old kitten that was rescued from a feral cat area and put up for adoption.  She is very sweet, kind of shy, but curious and playful and she loves Thullee.  He's not so sure about her, but he's good with her anyway.
The boys are over the moon and I'm thrilled with the addition.

I really think we could have called her perpetual motion.  Or blur.

Have a good week all!

Getting Out

We were able to get out of the house this weekend and go skiing.  The weather was wonderful. Cold and crisp, the snow fabulous for skiing and the kids had a blast.

We are hoping the snow and weather will cooperate and we can get out again.  Getting out of the house makes the winter that much easier to get through.

New Year's Thoughts

For years now I have resisted the dreaded new year's resolutions and instead made promises to myself. Keeping these promises has been more successful than resolutions adn I thought I would keep up the tradition. 
Therefore, these are my 2017 promises to myself:

1.  Exercise more.  Now, since I am not doing a whole lot right now, this one should be easy.  I need to clean the room with the elliptical so I can use it again. There are also some outdoor activities I can engage in, cross country skiing, hiking, biking, yeah, I just need to get active, or more active.
2. Cook something new twice a month. I used to do this, but got out of the habit.  It's a habit to get back into.  Our meals have been getting a bit ho hum. The almost 8 year old in the house is rather picky. Turbo in the other hand, will try anything and enjoys most of it. The joys of being a teenage boy.
3. Reconnect with my hubby.  Find time to spend just with him, doing something outside of the house.  Go for lunch, go for a bike ride, go for a walk, do something.  We are so work oriented that we have lost the mojo to do the fun stuff. We need to dream again. It might help us over come the inertia of being home and get out and do things.
4. Have a shopping day (or two) with girl friends.  It's been ages since I got out of town with friends to go shopping for me.  Black Friday does not count. I want to go be fun and frivolous.
5. Go camping.  We never got out camping last year.  It was a crazy summer that just didn't give us time to go camping.  We need to go this summer.
6. Bike to work this summer.  Nick got me a lovely purple cruiser bike and I want to ride to work.  I will once the need to take the kiddo to school and/or pick him up from school is not there.  
7. Do something new once a month.  Not sure what the new thing will be, but something new.
8. Continue the organizing of the scrapbooking room.  We made progress in there, but then the stuff from my mom got stacked in there and I'm not sure I'm ready to go through it all quite yet. I'm getting there, but it's not easy.
9. I would like to make an epic trip this year.  Florida (the keys), the West coast, Washington/Oregon area, Glacier National Park in Montana, something grand and maybe involving plane travel.
10. Do something frivolous for me.  Get a makeover, buy high heels, get a manicure/pedicure.  Just do something that is just for me and not for any particular reason other than to feel good about myself.

So there are my promises.  We shall see what I am able to keep.  Hopefully all of them.  They seem like good for the soul and mind and body, don't they?