Santa Claus is Coming to town

Ever try giving a rat a bath?  It's like trying to bathe a REALLY small cat.  It was the first time my boys have gotten a bath and will be the last for at least a little while.  That was an awful experience for all.  I have scratches up and down my arms and two rats pouting.  Jasmine thought it was hilarious, of course, she was watching from the sidelines and not from the view I had.  That'll be the last time they go near the sink easily. 

I'm making one of the sugar cookie recipes that I'm looking at for Christmas.  They look good, smell good but who knows if they'll taste good.  I have never used shortening before so who knows if I measured it right or not.  They are supposed to stay fluffy and soft and not get crispy.  I think I'll also make some frosting for them after they cool.  (as long as I have enough vanilla left)  If they taste as good as they're supposed to, I'll post the recipe for anyone who wants to try their hand at them.  The other ones I'm going to try are cream cheese sugar cookies.  It only uses 3 ounces of cream cheese but because the batter is so sticky, you have to put it in the refridgerator overnight before you can cook them.  I definitely don't have enough vanilla to make those tonight so they'll have to wait till tomorrow night.  Most of these cookies will be going to work with my husband whether they taste good or not.  Well, I guess if they taste awful I probably won't send them with him.  I'd like to be known as a good cook.  ; ) Jasmine just tried her first one and she says they're yummy.  She's a picky kid so that's saying something.  I guess they're alright but they could use some frosting and more sugar.  Considering this is my first try at any sugar cookie, they were pretty decent.  Definitely needs frosting.

Wow, have you listened to some of the country xmas songs lately?  They're really starting to get hillbilly with it aren't they?  We have a station here that from midnight on Thanksgiving, till the day after Christmas, they only play Christmas songs.  It's a country station so there's a lot of country singers on it but they mix it up pretty good with the older stuff too.  A little Christmas music, the smell of sugar cookies baking, it reminds me of the holidays at my mom's house.  She bakes like a crazy person around Christmas time.  My husband's favorite is probably the peanut butter balls covered in chocolate.  I don't like peanut butter on anything besides crackers so I'm not a fan.  It depends on my mood as to which is my favorite.  She always makes fudge (which is sinfully good), sugar cookies and sometimes other things. 

There are days when I look at Jasmine and she's so cute that I want to cry and then a few minutes later she's being so bad that I want to throttle her.  I guess that's part of the terrible twos.  Well off to make frosting before Jasmine eats all of the cookies.

This indecision has gotten me down

I'm having such a hard time deciding on what to make for Christmas.  I've been looking at cakes, mousses, cookies and just about any other dessert type food.  All of them look really good and it's so hard to pick one.  Obviously, whatever I choose I will make as a trial run beforehand.  One month doesn't seem like enough time to make them all.  (or enough time to lose the weight from each dessert!) I've also been looking at recipes for dinners.  I suggested to my mom that we have a Sunday dinner once or twice a month where anyone who wants to come, shows up.  (cousins, aunts, uncles, bf/gf) There's a lasagne I would like to try making.  It takes over 24 hours of prep time but it sounds worth it.  (most of that is refrigerator time) As well as a spaghetti and meatballs dish and many others.  Maybe we can finally start eating something other than chicken, steak and pork chops in my house!  I've just grown so tired of the same food all the time.  When it comes to making dinner I'm just like what's the point, it's the same crap we had two days ago.  Wouldn't be nice to think wow it's been a month since we've had such and such?  I'm a very picky eater though so it may take a few recipes till I find something that fits.   (and many back up dinners when I hate it)  Now I just have to start making grocery lists each week until I find something that fits.

I'm still debating on whether or not to return to the doctor for the colonoscopy.  I really don't want to go through the 24 hours before the scope.  I recently watched my mom deal with that and quite frankly, if I can avoid that, I will.  There are some days when I think there must be something seriously wrong with my stomach and other days when I just think it's only IBS-D.  My mom saw what happens when I'm out somewhere and get sick today.  I think it freaked her out.  I don't know what I look like when it happens but I usually feel faint and in general like hell.  I hope my daughter doesn't have to deal with this ever.  I think it's much more embarrassing to be a girl and have these issues than a boy.  Boys are expected to be gross and do gross things, girls are expected to be proper and clean. 

We came home late Thanksgiving night to find that the aussie boys had literally eaten the flooring in our backroom.  I KNOW which dog it was, Tarin.  He always seems to be trying to destroy some part of my house when I'm not around.  For the moment we'll be borrowing a crate from my mom.  Right now we have two hard crates and one soft.  We haven't got any of our already crate trained dogs to go in the soft one without trying to destroy it.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  The crate was massive and only 20 bucks.  Big enough for even our doberman to be in.  When we tried the dogs in it, the just tried to walk out of it and ended up rolling the entire thing.  Unless your dog is really well behaved in their crate, I wouldn't recommend one of these.  Thankfully, we were already planning on replacing the linoleum in the backroom.

All I'm missin' is a cup of coco

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

The room that my husband cleaned out to make his office has become some what of my refuge.  This was the room that was originally our bedroom and I didn't like it before.  Now, it has Christmas lights in the window, carpeting (most of my house is wood flooring) and a little warmer feel than the rest of the house. Plus, I can shut the door and keep Jasmine in here, keeping her from sneaking off to create messes elsewhere in the house.  Last winter, we didn't use this room at all.  I actually turned the heat off to it since we were never in here, leading me to believe it would always be cold in here even if the heat was on.  It's actually quite comfortable, despite the very old windows that seem to have a steady stream of cold air coming through them.  What's weirder still is that there is no tv, no radio and no clocks in this room.  It's rare that I will stay in a room without background noise.  Although, the lacking clock is not unusual in this house, we only have one and I did it on purpose.  I don't like to always be looking at the clock.  Why do I need to know what time it is if I don't have anywhere specific to be.  I prefer to live by the sun and the moon rather than a ticking piece of machinary.  Although guests frequently ask why there aren't anymore clocks.  This room is nice, it's quiet with few distractions and I think it's what I've been needing for a while.  While my husand still uses it at his "office," I have obviously taken over, what with the candles and plants that have moved in slowly over the last few days.

The story of the rat and the monster

My name is Tikki and this is the place I have been since I came into this scary room.  You see it's the underside of the chair.  Mom seems to think I'm liable to be crushed so she keeps dragging me out everytime that noisy small human gets on top of the chair.

My name is Rikki and I vow to discover and conquer every inch of this strange land for it is.... (excruciatingly long pause... rat is on his back legs with fist in the air) my destiny.

Ah, yes, done searching this wall.  I can only imagine the dangers around the next corner but alas, I WILL prevail.

Drats, the monster has captured me!  I must find a weapon in which to escape... aHA, I have it, a loud high pitched squeak should do the trick!

HA, I foiled the monster's plan to have fila minorat!  Now I must search for safety till the monster tires of me.  Where's the pansyass at???  He could serve as a distraction... or bait.

This should work perfectly.  As long as I stay low, these concealing walls should protect me.

Blasted!  She has managed to find me, purhaps these walls weren't made for concealing things?

Finally, I have found my safe haven.  The large monster never would allow the smaller one to take me from her.

And that has been the crazy Jamie show... we'll be here all week.  haha

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Onto the rabbits and birdies

Before you view the pictures of Scrappy I want you to know a little about him.  He is a Rex Rabbit, also know as a velvetin rabbit because their fur literally feals like velvet.  I would not reccomend Rex Rabbit's to anyone who wants a very calm sweet bunny.  They are a little more flighty than other rabbits and rarely appear calm.  While there are many qualities that make me really enjoy Scrappy, he can nudge you really hard when you're in his way (it's cute), he can roll a ball from one side of the room to the other and he can investigate things like he's on a mission.  But he's NOT cuddly.  He's a rabbit that likes to come hang out by you but doesn't want to be petted a lot, a few is enough for him.  If you ever want a cuddly rabbit, you're better off going with a netherland dwarf.  They're naturally sweeter and MUCH smaller than most rabbits.

 

This is Scrappy and that's the same place he was for about twenty minutes...

Until, that is, he found out there was a carrot on the other side of that chair. ; )

From left to right... You can see the tail end of the nice baby.  Next to Mr. McBitey, the other baby.  Next to him is proud papa, Romeo.  And the bird taking flight it momma, Gollum.  You see slightly, that the babies are a little smaller than their parents.

This is a picture (not a good one obviously) of my favorite baby.  I'm calling her a female for now even though it won't be known for a few more weeks.  Her chest feathers are a much darker (more of a stormy blue) than those of the other three. 

Bird in front is mom, next to her is Mr.McBitey, next to him is Pretty girl and looking on from a lower perch is papa.

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My silly Jazzy girl

No, she has never seen the movie Home Alone.  I just told her to put both her hands up and this is what she came up with.

Another one, she seems a little more dramatic here, could have something to do with showing off for daddy.  This is our guest bedroom/office.  It is being remodeled... ok so the remodeling process is taking more than two years but alas, money really doesn't grow on trees.  ; )

This was when she was starting to act like she was going to be sweet and cute.  This is the only picture with her hands up where she looks innocent.  haha

In a basket that she has been too small for for a very very long time.  But apparently, she thought if the rat can fit, so can I.

Classic Jasmine, her tongue is always out or her mouth is always wide open, as was the first picture.  She rarely aims for sweet when she knows she's getting her picture taken. 

 

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Ratta Tat Tat

What a difference 24 hours can make.  Last night I felt absolutely hopeless and like there was no light at the end of the tunnel.  I was at my mom's till 2am, unfortunately she had to get up in the morning for work but I needed someone to talk to.  This morning, Shawn and I got into it and it seemed to help just to get some things off my chest and I honestly don't think he totally realized the way he was behaving.  I knew he was being an asshole but not to the extent that I had noticed.  We went and got burgers and had a nice dinner.  Jasmine loves cheeseburgers and it's one of the few things she will eat completely.  Once we got home, Shawn went to bed.  Me and Jasmine got the rabbit and rats out of their cages and took them to the spare bedroom.  Shawn just finished cleaning it out the other day so it's small animal safe, plus it has carpet which makes it much easier for the rabbit to hop around.  I thought this would be relaxing and allow me to do some things online.  I ended up having to watch Jasmine's every step.  She doesn't yet understand that falling on one of them would probably kill them.  For the most part the rabbit, Scrappy, just wandered around the room.  The more outgoing and adventurous of the two rats, Rikki, was all over the room.  I have pictures that I'm going to post once I find the camera cord... AGAIN.  He was climbing on me, up Jasmine's leg and over the rabbit.  At one point, I allowed our border collie, Mia to join us.  She has a very high prey drive but is VERY aware that these are NOT animals she can have for lunch.  It's quite funny to watch a 55lb. dog run like mad from a less than 1lb. rat.  You would've thought he was breathing fire.  And of course Rikki is stupi... er thinks he's bigger than he is, and made a game of chasing Mia around the room, trying all the while to hitch a ride on her tail.  The other rat, Tikki, sat under the chair the whole time.  He doesn't like things that he doesn't recognize.  The only room he's adventurous in is my bedroom.