Define: Storms

Michigan is kind of making me bipolar right now.  When we left Greece, it was like 60.  When we landed in Detroit, it was 9.  Then yesterday was in the 50s? Right?  And today I woke up to snow and ice.

Ugh.

After Jamin and I got married and brought Joktan to our apartment, we discovered that he is terrified of thunderstorms.  I'm not sure how no one realized this until he was four years old.  Maybe living in a house you don't realize the difference between him hiding and just sleeping in a quiet place.  In the apartment, however, it was very obvious.  His favorite place to hide was under the kitchen sink.  He could somehow open the cabinet door and slip in.

The first time he did this I completely panicked.  I looked EVERYWHERE for him, and I couldn't find him.  Then I saw Haven trying to open the cabinet door.  We kept the kitty treats in there, so at first I didn't think much of it, but after you've been looking for a big cat in a small apartment for 30 minutes, you start to look places that you're sure he's not.  Sure enough, there he was.

This Monday night, I woke up around 4:00, and I thought I saw lightning.  But that didn't make sense, because it's January, right?  Then I saw it again.  I didn't hear any thunder, but we had a fan on, so maybe I just didn't hear it.  Then I thought, "Oh, I bet Joktan is freaking out."  We haven't had any storms since we've moved, and I don't think Joktan has really found his hiding place yet.  Right now we have a lot of stuff crammed under the kitchen sink, and there's no way he could fit in there.  "I wonder where he's going to hide," I thought.

No sooner had I thought it than I felt something pawing at my back.  There was Joktan, trying to burrow under the covers to hide.  I knew he was really freaked out because he really hates Jake, and Jake was already lying on my legs, about a foot away.  I lifted up the blanket and he scurried under and curled up next to me.  Perhaps feeling left out, Haven joined about two minutes later, and curled up on the other side of me.

It was really cute until I wanted to roll over and I had a deadweight dog on my legs, whiny cat on my right, and freaked out cat on my left.

I'm hoping for no more storms for a few months. :)

Define: Chalkboard paint

I bought chalkboard paint at Lowe's a few months ago, and just never got around to putting it anywhere.  Yesterday while I was cleaning I came across it, and remembered having seen someone use it on their refrigerator.  I thought about it for the rest of the day, and when this morning I was still thinking about it, I decided to give it a try.

I always forget to take before pictures, but I'm sure you can picture a plain old ugly white fridge, so here's an after.

(Don't mind the horrible unfinished wall in the background. I'm getting there.)

After wiping down the fridge, I used Valspar chalkboard paint.  At first I was worried about the drying time, but it actually dried really quickly, which was great because it needed three or four coats.

If I were to do this again:

- I would find a way to do it while the fridge was off.  I mean, I did turn it off, but there was still stuff in there.  It would be easiest to do empty.

- I would try harder to get the handles off.  I looked at them for a minute, didn't see a way to get them off, and gave up.  I think they might have looked cool white, but since I didn't have a brush at first, I accidentally got paint all over them with the roller.

- The rubbery seal part was weird. I left it white, but there's paint on it, and it looks weird.  I think I'll probably paint it black soon.

Overall though, it was really easy and I'm really happy with it.

Define: (everything is completely) Different (because I haven't blogged since 2010)

2010. That was a looooong time ago. And even my last post was a few months after the one before. And now everything is so different.

The first thing that happened since I stopped blogging was that I graduated from Douglas J and got a job at a salon in Chelsea. I have been working there for two years now, and I am still really enjoying it. Now that I live in Jackson (another change) a few people have asked if I plan to look for a job closer to home, but I can't say that I want to. After two years, I have started to build up a clientele, and I'm not "the new girl" anymore. I don't really want to start over at a new salon. The biggest reason, though, is that I really love the people I work with. I have been really blessed to make some good friends, and I am so glad to know each of them.

The next thing was getting married! Well, I guess getting engaged came before that. Jamin and I had our wedding at my dad's house August 27, 2011. He is my best friend, my favorite, my partner, my Jam. He is the best.

After the wedding, we moved to an apartment in Jackson. We took Jamin's cat Joktan with us, but a few months after moving in, we had another addition. This story is going to seem to go into pointless detail, but it's important.
One morning before a wedding, I realized I needed to run to Meijer to get a card, and since I was going, I thought I would get a new litterbox and litter. Joktan was, ahem, slightly missing the mark, so to speak, and we needed a box with a lid. I got to Meijer, grabbed the litter and box, and then realized that I had already gotten a card for the wedding (the night before! why did I not remember that?!), which was the whole reason for going to the store. Oh well, right? When I got back to the apartment, I had both of my hands full. I knocked (and by knocked I mean kicked the door a few times), but Jamin was upstairs, so I set everything down to unlock the door. I picked the litter and box back up, and out of the corner of my eye, saw a small white something come out of the woods near our door. I turned, and there was a little gray and white kitten running towards me. I didn't know what to do. The door, was open, my hands were full, I couldn't kick it, it was a kitten! So inside our apartment it ran.
"Jamin Jamin Jamin JAMIN JAMIN!!!!!!!"
I dropped the stuff and ran inside to grab the stray. I picked her up, and she immediately started purring (and then it was all over, haha). I called to Jamin, who came downstairs, and didn't even think of putting this cat back outside. Joktan was already at the top of the stairs, hissing at the intruder. I told Jamin we shouldn't keep this cat, we didn't even know if we could have more than one. I had to go do hair before the wedding, so I took the cat back outside with me and put it down. She followed me to the car (She is still pretty obsessed with me, actually. She follows me a lot.), and after I drove (sadly) away, she started crying. Jamin heard her inside, and his big loving heart couldn't take it, so he went and let her back in. When I met up with him later for the wedding, he informed me that we had a new cat.  We decided on the name Haven.

We're pretty sure that God had a plan to bring Haven into our lives (since the only reason I went to the store was for the card, which I already had), and since letting Haven into our house, we've learned a lot of things about God. Jamin says he wants to write a book about things he has learned about God from our animals, and I am very excited to read it.

In August/September of 2012 we moved to a house in Jackson, very near our church.

We're still getting things figured out with that, but a radiator exploding in October kind of hindered a lot of the progress. All the (hot) water that came spewing out on our main floor went right through the wood floor and came through the ceiling of our (finished) basement. We have just gotten all the repairs done.

In late September we adopted a dog. He is crazy. I'm not really sure how I feel about him right now. We tried to take him back to the shelter, but we just couldn't do it.

The biggest news is that we are having a baby! Our current due date is July 1, but we are going to have an ultrasound in the beginning of February, and hopefully we'll have a better idea then of when to expect. I'm not gonna lie, I am obsessed with the idea kind of hoping to have twins. I got pretty sick for the first few months (lost a few pounds, yay!), which I know is probably nothing, but still makes me not very excited to do it again.

As of right now, Jamin and I are in Greece with a group of others from 1208 Greenwood. We've been here since last Thursday, and head back Monday. It's been really cool, but I am so excited to see my cats and sleep in my bed. And our wood floor was refinished from the radiator fiasco after we left, so I'm excited to see that too.



I also promise to try my best to keep up with the blogging again.