Michelle and Mannie (GA)
Member Since 2009
Good Morning LL!! 
(Ahhhhhh.... elixir! Thanks Elsa), and Happy Catmint Caturday!
LL! It's is I, Elsa, KBP, president and CEO of Coffee Cat! Life is GOOD! GUESS WHAT! Paw Prints Pizza is open and ready for business! They are running a Caturday Catnip special today, in honor of Catmint Caturday - lots of nip in those pies!
They have even used their signature nip cheese. 
Best order early! OOOOOOOOO! They have perfected their NY Style hot dog pies. MAJOR YUM!!!! Try one, you'll see! Just order the Mannie and Stu Special! so. well. anyways. Coffee time! For today, I proudly offer Elsa's special 10 hour energy coffee, and Double shot espressos, with beans from deep within the mountain slopes of Africa, AND.... for all my Mocha fans: a venti quad peppermint white chocolate mocha, with peppermint infused whip, garnished with peppermint candy chips and white chocolate shavings... It is my bean's fav! SWEET! OH! No worries, a dollop of peppermint and vanilla and chocolate and caramel swirl ice cream, on top of a dollop of fudge, sprinkled with peppermint chips and a chocolate caramel drizzle.... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh....... mega good!
I hope everyone had a great day yesterday, and a great week. The days with the boys have been good ones! We have been very busy, that part of life has not changed. Will it ever? ;-) NOPE!!
What a BUSY week! We have been swimming, and hiking, a family day in Leavenworth and on the river, and the science center. We have had lunches at rivers edge, car camping some too, and indoors on benches,and in anice restaurant while in Leavenworth. Amazingly the boys did very well with that one, and actually ate! . Life is good!
Fall is upon the boys, with their scheduling and activities. We are officially fine tuned it all, with all flowing fairly well, the routine seems to be set. William has taken well to the pool, Nicholas is enjoying school. YAY!!! Last week I wrote about how the The kitties are into Fall too. There sure is alot of napping going on, and seeking out of the fleece blankets, and that continues. Even Lola has mellowed! well that sort of continues.... :shock: :lol: I say that with tongue in cheek, as she has been a hellion on four legs this past week. :roll: :roll: The kitty thunder runs in the middle of the night are back, the antics during the day are back. I guess she just need some off time to reboot the engines. :lol: :lol: go Lola.... keep on being Lola!
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday were our swimming days this week. :shock: That's alot of pool time! William went Monday and Thursday, Nicholas went Monday, and Wednesday. We did not swim Friday night, due to the family Leavenworth trip. I wrote this lasl week, and it continues to be true for this week, not too much as changed in the pool.
Monday morning, after the boys swim time, I spent the afternoon in Seattle, visiting my friend. It's nice to be able to get back into "town" once a week and catch up with people I used to work with, before I hung up the working mantle. Coffee time with barb though is great! I enjoy my weekly trip to Seattle to see my friend from my working days with Nordstrom. Life and all it's drama in corporate retail America continues. We both are glad we were/are behind the scenes corporate employees, payroll oriented. After listening to all the drama going on there I am happy I a no longer working.... :lol: :lol: I do enjoy though being able to connect with her once a week, and head into the city for a bit.
Tuesday was my hiking day.
. I had so wnated to be in the North Cascades, but the weather in most of the state didn't support hiking, and up in the mountains? reports of lots of freezing white stuff. :shock: :shock: :shock: Already? but.... but... but.... I'm not done yet with my mountain hiking!!! :lol: :roll: Tuesday has been a good one. It was a hiking day for me, as well as a breffis day with Anthony. LOVE those breffis's! We still go to the same place, still like as much as the first day we were there. Good prices, with a nice good morning atmosphere. He had this massive pancake thing, called the "Tower": four large pancakes covered with a berry glaze, strawberries, raspberries and blue berries, and of course a mountain of whip cream. :shock: With a side of bacon. YUM! Sure was good! I did make my hike, after breffis. I ended up near Leavenworth today. It had semi-decent weather, had the aspects I was after in the North Cascades. so I went to Icicle Creek. The hike itself is easy, maybe 5 miles. But it has the color, and the larches, so it ended up being a good choice, despite the occasional rain. We had sun too, a day full of all kinds of weather. The fall colors were great, lots of larches, and the creek was on overload. Drive over was wet, cloudy and foggy at times, but wow on the colors! Stevens Pass was exceptional: lots of reds and oranges, and the yellows were vivid.It was really very pretty, also a tad bit on the wet side. All in all, a great mini road trip and hike. The only drawback was that I really left almost too late to head over there, made the return trip late and not in my door to 6. In suppose that really isn't too bad either.... I had a great time. :razz:
Wednesday's weather kept us pretty much confined to quarters so to speak. The rains were steady heavy and full of thunder and lightning. So after Nicholas's morning swim we just hung out at home. Nicholas was able to go though a few stories, play games, and watch his fave Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. William was into books for the afternoon, so we had a nice story time with both boys, as we watched the rains fall with a vengeance. It felt odd not to be out running around, but with rains like that it is just to hard to keep William dry. When he's a bit more mobile that will change, and off we will go, rain or shine. Nicholas had wanted to go to the Science Center, but wow: traffic was a nightmare, and I knew there would not be enough time to do that, and still get him back to his mom and dad on time. so... promised to take him the next day if the wet continued.
Thursday Afternoon, after William's swim,and Nicholas's school we were off to the Science Center. Once again the weather was not our friend, what rains! and winds! and fog! so........ Nicholas's solution was the Pacific Science Center. SWEET! and an excellent choice. Science center was alot of fun, both boys got into just about everything, Even William wants to participate. That was fun to see. I think we spent 6 hours there, did it all. it never really did stop with the rains yesterday, rains all day. We had a small break when we were at the science center, enough that we could get a half hour or so out with their waterworks through science stuff outdoors. Nicholas just loves that stuff. William too. It was water and all he wanted was to be in it. :lol: Nicholas likes the place, is getting much better at understanding some of the science behind what he interacts with. William just likes pushing all the buttons turning all those knobs. ;-) It's a great place, lots to do, lots for them to learn. It is unfortunate that some of the exhibit areas need work in that the stuff simply does not work anymore. other than that, still good. Neither boy wanted to leave.... BEAR made the trip too, he was a very busy bear....
Friday was our free day and it also happened to be a free/off day for Nicholas and William's mom and dad. so.... off to Leavenworth! The road trip there was great, lots of fall color along the way. we did great, very nice time in Leavenworth. I don't think there was one shop that we didn't visit. They were all very nice, all very touristy oriented, but still fun just to play, and look. We visited alot of great food stores too. We were there by 10, which was nice, not too busy then, until noon when all the tourists showed up. Tourists weren't too bad. busier by noon, but the town wasn't on over load. By then we headed on down to the river, way less busy there. I loved Nicholas's comment when in these stores. All is a lit up and he says " we got to turn these off, they are wasting electricity". probably... :lol: :lol: Shops were just that: shops. nothing I needed to buy, but some very nice things there. Nicholas liked looking, did well with it as long as we kept him moving, and as long as he got his ice cream. haha, that was his priority: ice cream and the river. River was really nice. We spent some time on the river too, wow, that sure was pretty. We did see a few fish, very few. Boys loved the river, no surprise there. After all the recent rains it was running high but we still could get down to the shore. Weather cooperated too. it was chilly, not much sun, but no rains. There was a couple there we met when we were headed out, had their dog with them. So we stayed a bit longer and watched the dog play in the river. Boys loved that. that was fun, nice people too.
Normalcy in MusketeerVille! The kitties are all doing well. Not too much new with them... Fall mode is here, they are bunkering down, but still yearning for the great outdoors when the sun is out. Elsa still ventures out, and when out she doesn't stay long. Bug could care less, Lola is ALWAYS grounded, and always wants OUT. :lol: I am still waiting for my new patio door to be installed, it will be this coming Tuesday. FINALLY, and step one on the catio development will be completed. I still haven't done much more than that. When I did price out what I really would like to build for the kitties, and I had a severe case of sticker shock. :shock: :shock: So back to the drawing board on that one. :lol: :shock: I may just try and figure out a way to enclose a portion of the deck for them, dunno on that... Lola, I have not forgotten your catio.... but you may have to wait a bit longer. ;-) I like Ann's idea in last weeks condo of making some tunnel runs for her, along the fence line. I think that would work, and she could get her need to run in. So, I will start looking at that option. Nicholas continues to talk about Mannie. Last week, and the week before, I remember writing how at one point he told me that he really wishes Mannie could come home. ;-) He did this week too, and just like last week my thoughts were "Nicholas, so do I". A few times this past week he mentioned, out of the blue, that he misses Mannie. I usually respond by telling him Nicholas and Mannie stories. That always brings a smile to his face. We all miss ya big guy! cat_pet_icon
Have a great Caturday everyone. Sorry this post it late today. Sorry too I missed everyone's condos yesterday too. Time this morning, and the days, have gotten away from me. At least the shopping is done, and the laundry. I am off in a few for an afternoon walk in the woods. The rains continue, it will be a little WET, but I probably will go anyways. LOL: normal for Fall here... WOOT! Erin, Jason, Nicholas and William will be by this afternoon for a visit too. YAY!!!!
KITTIES! Remember: think BLUE, think GREEN cat_pet_icon
And Ann, sorry I didn't get to your post until this morning.... no worries on the condos. I know how it is. I do like your idea about the cat run tunnels. it is what I have always wanted for her, so she can run. She is such a runner. So... we will start seeing what I can do along those lines. Elsa and Bug would be content with just a small enclosure, but not Lola. THX on the yard! it needs work, but we are more than grateful for the size of it all, most developers anymore do not allow for that much yard space. :roll: Yupp, it really is kitty nirvana. Mannie loved it out there... spent as much time in it as he could. I was always so grateful that he didn't wander, so I could give him the time he needed and wanted.
(Ahhhhhh.... elixir! Thanks Elsa), and Happy Catmint Caturday!LL! It's is I, Elsa, KBP, president and CEO of Coffee Cat! Life is GOOD! GUESS WHAT! Paw Prints Pizza is open and ready for business! They are running a Caturday Catnip special today, in honor of Catmint Caturday - lots of nip in those pies!
They have even used their signature nip cheese. Best order early! OOOOOOOOO! They have perfected their NY Style hot dog pies. MAJOR YUM!!!! Try one, you'll see! Just order the Mannie and Stu Special! so. well. anyways. Coffee time! For today, I proudly offer Elsa's special 10 hour energy coffee, and Double shot espressos, with beans from deep within the mountain slopes of Africa, AND.... for all my Mocha fans: a venti quad peppermint white chocolate mocha, with peppermint infused whip, garnished with peppermint candy chips and white chocolate shavings... It is my bean's fav! SWEET! OH! No worries, a dollop of peppermint and vanilla and chocolate and caramel swirl ice cream, on top of a dollop of fudge, sprinkled with peppermint chips and a chocolate caramel drizzle.... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh....... mega good! I hope everyone had a great day yesterday, and a great week. The days with the boys have been good ones! We have been very busy, that part of life has not changed. Will it ever? ;-) NOPE!!
What a BUSY week! We have been swimming, and hiking, a family day in Leavenworth and on the river, and the science center. We have had lunches at rivers edge, car camping some too, and indoors on benches,and in anice restaurant while in Leavenworth. Amazingly the boys did very well with that one, and actually ate! . Life is good! Fall is upon the boys, with their scheduling and activities. We are officially fine tuned it all, with all flowing fairly well, the routine seems to be set. William has taken well to the pool, Nicholas is enjoying school. YAY!!! Last week I wrote about how the The kitties are into Fall too. There sure is alot of napping going on, and seeking out of the fleece blankets, and that continues. Even Lola has mellowed! well that sort of continues.... :shock: :lol: I say that with tongue in cheek, as she has been a hellion on four legs this past week. :roll: :roll: The kitty thunder runs in the middle of the night are back, the antics during the day are back. I guess she just need some off time to reboot the engines. :lol: :lol: go Lola.... keep on being Lola!
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday were our swimming days this week. :shock: That's alot of pool time! William went Monday and Thursday, Nicholas went Monday, and Wednesday. We did not swim Friday night, due to the family Leavenworth trip. I wrote this lasl week, and it continues to be true for this week, not too much as changed in the pool.
"They both are truly water babies. William has taken to it all so well. He never cries when there, always asks for more of whatever he is playing on. He doesn't seem to mind, too much, when the water spray features are on. He loves the slides, and wants to climb up the stairs on his own. So we do, slide down together. :shock: :lol: I am continuing to introduce him to being underwater, for short periods at a time. He doesn't seem to mind them, I've even had a few smiles. He's adjusted to back floating, and "swimming" on his front. I have no doubt that he will like this as much as Nicholas does. Nicholas has been very supportive of William's efforts in the pool. He still asks how he did when he can't swim with him, tells me what I should be training him on, asks if he did certain things. It is cool when he says" "He's doing great Grammie!" Yes, that he is. Nicholas still is our energizer fishie. That I think will never change, as he just has so much fun with it all. He has taken a liking to the new pool we started going to a few months ago, in Snohomish. it really is a wonderful experience, and he can do alot of the things he likes there: like the slides, the lazy river, and deep water jumping and diving. That has become our new Friday pool. It is a ways away so it does add to our commuting time, but we all agree that it is very much worth the effort and time spent. We are still trying to "convince" Nicholas that swim lessons would be great, but he is adamant that he does not want to do them. silly boy! All in good time. I am seriously toying with the idea of seeing if I can schedule a private lesson thing with her on the days it is just Nicholas and I, as he really likes her. I think I shall see if I can get hold of her this coming week and see if she has the time. I continue teach him what I can, review what he learned from the day he swam with one of the guards, and marvel at how well he does on his own. He's been making lots of new friends when he goes. it's fun to see him connect up with kids when he gets there. We all just love pool days, and are grateful that we have the pools and the time to be able to do this. GO NICK! GO WILLIAM!"
Monday morning, after the boys swim time, I spent the afternoon in Seattle, visiting my friend. It's nice to be able to get back into "town" once a week and catch up with people I used to work with, before I hung up the working mantle. Coffee time with barb though is great!
I enjoy my weekly trip to Seattle to see my friend from my working days with Nordstrom. Life and all it's drama in corporate retail America continues. We both are glad we were/are behind the scenes corporate employees, payroll oriented. After listening to all the drama going on there I am happy I a no longer working.... :lol: :lol: I do enjoy though being able to connect with her once a week, and head into the city for a bit. Tuesday was my hiking day.
. I had so wnated to be in the North Cascades, but the weather in most of the state didn't support hiking, and up in the mountains? reports of lots of freezing white stuff. :shock: :shock: :shock: Already? but.... but... but.... I'm not done yet with my mountain hiking!!! :lol: :roll: Tuesday has been a good one. It was a hiking day for me, as well as a breffis day with Anthony. LOVE those breffis's! We still go to the same place, still like as much as the first day we were there. Good prices, with a nice good morning atmosphere. He had this massive pancake thing, called the "Tower": four large pancakes covered with a berry glaze, strawberries, raspberries and blue berries, and of course a mountain of whip cream. :shock: With a side of bacon. YUM! Sure was good! I did make my hike, after breffis. I ended up near Leavenworth today. It had semi-decent weather, had the aspects I was after in the North Cascades. so I went to Icicle Creek. The hike itself is easy, maybe 5 miles. But it has the color, and the larches, so it ended up being a good choice, despite the occasional rain. We had sun too, a day full of all kinds of weather. The fall colors were great, lots of larches, and the creek was on overload. Drive over was wet, cloudy and foggy at times, but wow on the colors! Stevens Pass was exceptional: lots of reds and oranges, and the yellows were vivid.It was really very pretty, also a tad bit on the wet side. All in all, a great mini road trip and hike. The only drawback was that I really left almost too late to head over there, made the return trip late and not in my door to 6. In suppose that really isn't too bad either.... I had a great time. :razz: Wednesday's weather kept us pretty much confined to quarters so to speak. The rains were steady heavy and full of thunder and lightning. So after Nicholas's morning swim we just hung out at home. Nicholas was able to go though a few stories, play games, and watch his fave Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
William was into books for the afternoon, so we had a nice story time with both boys, as we watched the rains fall with a vengeance. It felt odd not to be out running around, but with rains like that it is just to hard to keep William dry. When he's a bit more mobile that will change, and off we will go, rain or shine. Nicholas had wanted to go to the Science Center, but wow: traffic was a nightmare, and I knew there would not be enough time to do that, and still get him back to his mom and dad on time. so... promised to take him the next day if the wet continued. Thursday Afternoon, after William's swim,and Nicholas's school we were off to the Science Center. Once again the weather was not our friend, what rains! and winds! and fog! so........ Nicholas's solution was the Pacific Science Center. SWEET! and an excellent choice. Science center was alot of fun, both boys got into just about everything, Even William wants to participate. That was fun to see. I think we spent 6 hours there, did it all. it never really did stop with the rains yesterday, rains all day. We had a small break when we were at the science center, enough that we could get a half hour or so out with their waterworks through science stuff outdoors. Nicholas just loves that stuff. William too. It was water and all he wanted was to be in it. :lol: Nicholas likes the place, is getting much better at understanding some of the science behind what he interacts with. William just likes pushing all the buttons turning all those knobs. ;-) It's a great place, lots to do, lots for them to learn. It is unfortunate that some of the exhibit areas need work in that the stuff simply does not work anymore. other than that, still good. Neither boy wanted to leave.... BEAR made the trip too, he was a very busy bear....
Friday was our free day and it also happened to be a free/off day for Nicholas and William's mom and dad.
so.... off to Leavenworth! The road trip there was great, lots of fall color along the way. we did great, very nice time in Leavenworth. I don't think there was one shop that we didn't visit. They were all very nice, all very touristy oriented, but still fun just to play, and look. We visited alot of great food stores too. We were there by 10, which was nice, not too busy then, until noon when all the tourists showed up. Tourists weren't too bad. busier by noon, but the town wasn't on over load. By then we headed on down to the river, way less busy there. I loved Nicholas's comment when in these stores. All is a lit up and he says " we got to turn these off, they are wasting electricity". probably... :lol: :lol: Shops were just that: shops. nothing I needed to buy, but some very nice things there. Nicholas liked looking, did well with it as long as we kept him moving, and as long as he got his ice cream. haha, that was his priority: ice cream and the river. River was really nice. We spent some time on the river too, wow, that sure was pretty. We did see a few fish, very few. Boys loved the river, no surprise there. After all the recent rains it was running high but we still could get down to the shore. Weather cooperated too. it was chilly, not much sun, but no rains. There was a couple there we met when we were headed out, had their dog with them. So we stayed a bit longer and watched the dog play in the river. Boys loved that. that was fun, nice people too. Normalcy in MusketeerVille!
The kitties are all doing well. Not too much new with them... Fall mode is here, they are bunkering down, but still yearning for the great outdoors when the sun is out. Elsa still ventures out, and when out she doesn't stay long. Bug could care less, Lola is ALWAYS grounded, and always wants OUT. :lol: I am still waiting for my new patio door to be installed, it will be this coming Tuesday. FINALLY, and step one on the catio development will be completed. I still haven't done much more than that. When I did price out what I really would like to build for the kitties, and I had a severe case of sticker shock. :shock: :shock: So back to the drawing board on that one. :lol: :shock: I may just try and figure out a way to enclose a portion of the deck for them, dunno on that... Lola, I have not forgotten your catio.... but you may have to wait a bit longer. ;-) I like Ann's idea in last weeks condo of making some tunnel runs for her, along the fence line. I think that would work, and she could get her need to run in. So, I will start looking at that option. Nicholas continues to talk about Mannie. Last week, and the week before, I remember writing how at one point he told me that he really wishes Mannie could come home. ;-) He did this week too, and just like last week my thoughts were "Nicholas, so do I". A few times this past week he mentioned, out of the blue, that he misses Mannie. I usually respond by telling him Nicholas and Mannie stories. That always brings a smile to his face. We all miss ya big guy! cat_pet_icon Have a great Caturday everyone. Sorry this post it late today. Sorry too I missed everyone's condos yesterday too. Time this morning, and the days, have gotten away from me. At least the shopping is done, and the laundry.
I am off in a few for an afternoon walk in the woods. The rains continue, it will be a little WET, but I probably will go anyways. LOL: normal for Fall here... WOOT! Erin, Jason, Nicholas and William will be by this afternoon for a visit too. YAY!!!!KITTIES! Remember: think BLUE, think GREEN cat_pet_icon
And Ann, sorry I didn't get to your post until this morning.... no worries on the condos. I know how it is. I do like your idea about the cat run tunnels. it is what I have always wanted for her, so she can run. She is such a runner. So... we will start seeing what I can do along those lines. Elsa and Bug would be content with just a small enclosure, but not Lola. THX on the yard! it needs work, but we are more than grateful for the size of it all, most developers anymore do not allow for that much yard space. :roll: Yupp, it really is kitty nirvana. Mannie loved it out there... spent as much time in it as he could. I was always so grateful that he didn't wander, so I could give him the time he needed and wanted.
