My Poor, Poor, Poor, Poor Begonia!

A few months ago a lady from church gave me this begonia plant.  It was supposed to grow pretty flowers on it, but apparently it wasn't getting enough sunlight cuz it never grew any flowers.  Or at least that's all I can figure.  Other than that, I thought I was doing a pretty good job at keeping it alive.

Until Peeka came along.

She is a very sweet cat, but has one very bad habit.

She likes to chew on my plants, both live and plastic, she doesn't care.

This plant quickly went from standing up straight and proud.....

to wilty.

Peeka had broken one of the stems, so I had to take out a whole stalk.

But she wasn't done with it yet.

I tried and tried to keep her out of my plant, but even if I manage to do this during the day, who's to say what she does during the night when I'm in slumberland?

This is all that's left of it now.

Even if I could revive it, what's the point?  

Do cats ever grow out of this habit?

Or is she hardwired for it for good?

What should I do with this plant?

Here is my other plant that she chewed up.

This used to be what they call a "money tree".

I forgot what it's real name is, but it doesn't matter cuz it's not fit to bring me any fortune now.

So, do I give up on having any live plants altogether?

Good thing for her, I don't have a dieffenbachia.

I still have one more plant that she hadn't touched yet, but it's only a matter of time, I'm sure.

I suppose you all heard about our earthquake.  They say it was 7.9 or 8.0.

When I heard it was that high, at first I didn't believe it cuz it didn't feel any worse than other earthquakes we've had.  8.0 is pretty big.

But I guess we didn't feel the big impact because it was far away, and it was really deep under the ground.  So we just got a good shaking and swaying motion.  I was just crawling into bed when it happened, and at first couldn't figure out what that knocking noise was.  Turns out it was my bookcase hitting against the wall.  Anyhoo, we didn't have it that bad here, but I guess the people closer to it were advised to get to higher ground because of a tsunami warning, which turned out to be only 9" higher than the normal tidal wave.

Better safe than sorry, I guess.

That's all for now!

January 9, 2017

I don't have anything interesting to say, but it's been almost a whole month since I've said anything, so here I am to say pretty much nothing.

I hope you all had a nice Christmas and I hope the new year started off with a positive note.

Peeka has really made herself at home here now.  She acts like she truly belongs here.  And she's also under the delusion that she's got us under her spell and will worship her and spoil her at her every whim.

She's almost right.

It's hard to resist her sweet charm and loud purrs when all she wants is loving affection.

One thing she does when she sees you coming toward her - she flops over onto her back and expects you to scratch her belly.  Just like a dog would do!

Of course, Chuck is always happy to oblige.

She's got him so wrapped.

As you can see, her fuzz still hasn't grown back from her surgery, but she's not ashamed of it.  She just wants her belly stroked - that's all that counts.

Weeners if finally warming up to her.

They're not exactly snuggling together under a lap quilt, eating popcorn and watching movies together, but Weeners no longer minds if Peeka is only inches away from her.  Sometimes they chase each other up and down the stairs - I don't know what kind of game they play or what the object is, but they sound like a couple of horses running around the house.  This keeps Chuck awake in the middle of the night.

Peeka discovered my large kitchen windows.  That might not be a good thing for me, but it's a great place for birdwatching if you're a cat.

She does so many cute things and gets into some interesting positions and poses.  I always want to get pictures of these moments but it's near impossible to do.  Every time she sees me coming with a camera she stops what she's doing and walks toward me, purring of course.

She also has been learning to use her scratching board, which is a happy huge deal.  Maybe we won't need to get her declawed???

A couple weeks ago we got our truck back from Fairbanks and it's pretty much good as new.  They left a few minor scratches on the driver window, but gave Chuck a $500 discount for not fixing it.  The scratches are so minor, we don't really notice them anyway, so we thought it was a good trade.

So last weekend we spent New Year's Eve at the cabin, now that we had a way to haul our snowmachines up there.  After all the holiday "busy-ness" it was a nice way to just relax.

It was kinda cold when we got there.  The temp inside the cabin was in the upper teens, but it warmed up enough by the time we went to bed.

As always, there was evidence of a critter visitor that tore up our insulation. Again.

I thought we were gonna do some snowshoeing the next day, but after we had everything from breakfast cleaned up and put away, Chuck was ready to go home.  I guess he had some stuff to do before going back to work the next day.

I still had stuff to do too, like finish making these magnetic labels for my Bible class.

Last Wednesday I wanted to introduce the next phase (the books of History), but classes were cancelled on account of a snow storm.  So now, I'm eager to get back in the classroom cuz I'm kinda feeling like we're running behind.  I want them to have all the books memorized by the time I'm done teaching two quarters, but I'm trying to do it not too fast, and in a fun way.  I have some activities and games planned that I think will be fun, and always looking for more ideas.  

Well, that's about all that's going on here.  

Stay warm!

"Scratch my belly!"