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! Since they have been spending all this week with Rusty in NYC, they have perfected their NY Style hot dog pies. MAJOR YUM!!!! Try one, you'll see! 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! I think I will always prefer it that way. We have been swimming, and hiking, and to beaches, and urban parks. We have had lunches at waterfront parks, car camping some too, and on grassy lawns picnic style. These days are wonderful ones. Nicholas continues to tell me: I have had the best day grammie. Me too little man! The other day when I told William it was time for fun, he went to his car seat, dragging his cost. ;-) Life is good!
Fall is upon the boys, with their scheduling and activities. We are fine tuning all, with some minor adjustments. Last week actually went fairly well. Swimming has moved to Mondays and Wednesdays for Nicholas. William has started on a regular schedule too. Right now he will be swimming on Mondays (this may move to Tuesdays), and Thursdays. Nicholas will be in Pre-School Tuesday and Thursdays, in the morning. When he is in school William will be at the pool. The timing of this continues to be a big plus for Me, and William. it was great to see that Nicholas continues not to mind that little bro was in the pool without him. YAY! He asks if he can watch William's videos from the pool. So he did, with this awesome look on his face. Pure joy, a smile of affection, pride, and he says when he's done: "I love these. That's my brother!" oh wow, one can only hope he thinks as fondly of him when they are older. maybe so. Mondays continues be at this point a joint swim day, with Nicholas and William both there in the morning. Bob, one of the other grandparents will he there to take on William, while I have Nicholas. We will see how this arrangement goes. So far they continue to show, but Nicholas really isn't all that happy with the arrangement, and that was more than evident this oast Monday. I have a feeling I will end up being there on my own, as Bob really isn't into swimming, and to do this jointly may cause alot of confusion for both boys, from an attitude perspective alone. Time will tell. Friday will continue to be our new free and travel day, with no obligations for the boys, except to have fun, whether we are at a river, the aquarium, wherever. Yahoo on that! My hike day at this point moves to Tuesdays which means all my social stuff moves to Monday afternoons. shesshhh! I need a calendar! :shock: :lol: anyways... onwards! and bring on the adjustments that Fall season always brings.
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Night were our swimming days this week. :shock: That's alot of pool time! William went Thursday, Nicholas Monday, Wednesday and Friday nght. The big pool also reopened! Nicholas was more than elated. Nicholas still loves going, and continues to do well in the pool. 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. Nicholas and I will continue to swim on Friday night, as he so loves that experience, at a pool that is not his normal pool. They have been very fun times for him. 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. This past Wednesday the senior guard there, a really great lady, excellent with young kids, sees us heading to the big pool. So she comes over to Nicholas and asks him if she can swim with him. He asked me is he could, so DUH, yes was the answer. so off they went. wow, incredible, she basically put him through a swim test/lesson combo type of thing, but in a way that he had fun, didn't mind doing all she asked of him. followed her example on alot of stuff. yahoo! sure was nice to see him take instruction like that, and do rather well with it. We took a huge step forward that day. I so hope she can make a few more appearances to let Nicholas see that the guards are good people, that they can teach him things, and that he will be an ever better swimmer for it, that it will help him do all that he loves to do there. WOOT WOOT WOOT!! I loved it, such a great thing. In the meantime I teach him what I can, and marvel at how well he does on his own. Nicholas has been trying very hard to swim what one considers a normal swim: big arms, kicks. last night he made several laps in the lazy river, trying to do just that. Not too badly either! He spent what was close to 20 minutes at the Snohomish pool on Friday night jumping in, swimming out to me and swimming back to the wall, and repeating that process over and over again. All on his own. Awesome! Pool time with William was great. He has taken to this just like his brother did. He loves all he did. We continue to do all we can just to let him try everything. We even had a few dunks under water, those he didn't mind, no fuss, no tears, no fear. I put him trough the same "drills" I did with Nicholas, we stayed about an hour, until he was tired. We had a few tries with blowing bubbles in the water, with alot of success. It is so great to see that he doesn't mind putting his face in the water, even did a few on his own. Success I think. This should be fun. GO NICK! GO WILLIAM!
Nicholas still looks forward to our after swim Friday Night Burger Feast.
That is just so fun: burgers and fries, just him and me, with lots of fun stories. He was so happy to see that burger and fries combo show up, just like always. Somehow I think that is part of the magic of Friday night swims: that he gets burgers etc after his swim. :razz: Yesterday we again talked about our week, swimming with the guard on Wednesday, trips to the science center and the aquarium, and future visit to the Skykomish River in Gold Bar, and Skykomish. He was really into that discussion, as he does remember last year in October when we went to the same river, and watched the big fish do their annual run. I so hope to repeat that again this year. He still talks about his camping trip with his family, and wants to go back. What fun time, talking through mouthfuls full of burgers and fries. :lol:
Nick's Pics continue!. He still loves the camera, takes them from time to time. this week he wanted to take a few of the the Aquarium fish. Not too bad! I love his perspective on things, how he changes angles to get a different picture. creative! ;-) Love those: interesting what he chooses to take pics of.
Monday morning, after the boys swim time, I spent the afternoon in Seattle, visiting my friend for coffee and some catch up. I am so glad that this still will fit into the fall lineup!
Tuesday I met with my son Anthony for breffis. We still go every other week,to a nice Pancake type place that serves lots of very good food. It is nice to be able to do that: get together and catch up on what is new. The restaurant is a great place: any kind o breakfast food you can imagine, and it is all good. and lots of it! I always end up going home with a doggie bag. :lol: :lol: Hair cut time after that, an appt I could not change, so had to forgo hiking to wrap up some dangling Tuesday appointments. I did take off after my appt for a drive over HWY 2 to see some fall color, and visit Leavenworth, spending some of the afternoon there. There still is not too much color heading over the pass, it ought to be better and in full swing in a week or so,. bummer on today, but I figure that just gives me an excuse to go back. I got in a few sport walks on the Icicle River, and the Wenatchee. There is a waterfront park in Leavenworth that I spent some time on. that really is nice. And full of big fat salmon. really cool to see the fish,. I also visited the trail head of one of the hikes that goes up into the Enchantments, and walked some of that. WOW, was that ever good. I will have to go back sometime and hike the trail. Not that day however, as it is a long 12 mile minimum hike. Sure was gorgeous though. and so went today.... rain and clouds and weather, and some color. nice time!
Wednesday After Nicholas's swim time, we went for a walk at the Mesika Trail, by the Lynnwood Pool. We thought it would be fun to check on the berries there, see if there still were some blackberries, do one more berry run at the pool trail . That was so fun. Nicholas found some time ago a hidden patch of wild raspberries, still remembered where it was, so this week he once again climbed on in looking for more. Bummer was the response when he found they were all gone. Elation when he found blackberries nearby. He got his fill, and so did William. ;-) We thought we had eaten them all over the course of the past few weeks, but found a few this week. It was fun. We ended up doing the whole trail, with alot of play time throughout of walk. Muddy play time... :lol: :lol: :shock: :shock:
Thursday after William's swimming and Nicholas's school We crammed in a visit to the Pacific Science Center in the afternoon, since by the time I got Nicholas the rains were still with us. it seemed like a good choice. We managed to do a whirlwind run of the place,and still see and enjoy what they did chose to visit. That took a little ship steering so that they didn't feel rushed and still had fun. I love that place. great stuff. The sun came out late in out visit, so we also managed some time outdoors in their water park. Awesome science at work there.
Friday was our travel day, and since the weather was AWFUL and WET, and RAINY we opted for a visit to the Seattle Aquarium. It has been some time since we have been able to go. Nicholas was excited, he really foes enjoy that place. William was excited just to see "FISHIES!" and kept saying that over and over anytime he saw water. :lol: Boys had a great time. William just loves the tropical fish tanks. Nicholas just loves everything. It was nice to have the sun poke through a little when we were done, so spent some time on the waterfront park too. YAY! Outdoor time! We had lunch #2 on the waterfront, just enjoying the sun, and the tourists and all those seagulls. Of course the boys had to chase those. So funny to see William crawl at warp speed after them :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Turned out to be a great day in the city with the fishies.
I am sitting here this morning, just like last week, trying to think what to write about the kitties.... and just like last week, thinking alot too about Mannie, and all the adventures he planned to for all the LL kitties. I so miss those days, and the fun, and relief from all the FD and the stress that comes with it. AT the risk of being repetitive, this is what I wrote last week - and will repost, as it really was much the same this week, even the part about Nicholas and Mannie". Yesterday was an interesting day in that Nicholas wanted to talk about Mannie. He has another infection in a wart on his arm, so we were en-route to meet his mom,a d take him tot he DR, for what turns out to be another round of anti-biotics. He was talking about the DR, and then asked me: "Grammie, what happened to Mannie?" oh boy.... what a loaded question that was. It told him it was time, a year and a half ago, for Mannie to leave, and go live in his Special Garden. To which he said: "He had bad bugs? In his blood and stuff? " so started a discussion on sickness, and bad bugs, and being gone. He talked about his kitty Serval who crossed to the Bridge a few months ago, and how she had bad bugs, and was gone. He then said "I think she has found Mannie, and his Special Garden. Somehow I bet she has. It was incredible to me how logical he was on it all, how understanding he was on illnesses that take kitties from us, and how relieved he was that they have this special place that they go to. He talked alot abut Mannie after that, and how much he misses him. Hard to believe that he is only 3.5 years old." That discussion came up again this week, when we were heading to the Aquarium. We passed by the vet, I made some comment about how that was the kitties vet, and Nicholas corrected me by saying that was Mannie's vet. So that was the discussion on the way to the city: Mannie. What I would give to be able to give him back those days... They are such good memories.
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 is still some what grounded after her "late night" adventure last week. Bug could care less, Lola is ALWAYS grounded. :lol: We will have the deck door replaced soon, step one on the catio development. I still haven't done much more than that. Finances are always tough this time of year as all comes due in October: car insurance, homeowners insurance, property taxes, and on and on and on. :lol: :shock: Lola, I have not forgotten your catio.... but you may have to wait a bit longer. ;-)
Have a great caturday everyone. Sorry this post it late today. Time this morning got away from me. At least the shopping is done, and eh laundry. I am off in a few for an afternoon walk in the woods. The day has turned sunny, and warm. WOOT!
KITTIES! Remember: think BLUE, think GREEN cat_pet_icon
(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! Since they have been spending all this week with Rusty in NYC, they have perfected their NY Style hot dog pies. MAJOR YUM!!!! Try one, you'll see! 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! I think I will always prefer it that way. We have been swimming, and hiking, and to beaches, and urban parks. We have had lunches at waterfront parks, car camping some too, and on grassy lawns picnic style. These days are wonderful ones. Nicholas continues to tell me: I have had the best day grammie. Me too little man! The other day when I told William it was time for fun, he went to his car seat, dragging his cost. ;-) Life is good! Fall is upon the boys, with their scheduling and activities. We are fine tuning all, with some minor adjustments. Last week actually went fairly well. Swimming has moved to Mondays and Wednesdays for Nicholas. William has started on a regular schedule too. Right now he will be swimming on Mondays (this may move to Tuesdays), and Thursdays. Nicholas will be in Pre-School Tuesday and Thursdays, in the morning. When he is in school William will be at the pool. The timing of this continues to be a big plus for Me, and William. it was great to see that Nicholas continues not to mind that little bro was in the pool without him. YAY! He asks if he can watch William's videos from the pool. So he did, with this awesome look on his face. Pure joy, a smile of affection, pride, and he says when he's done: "I love these. That's my brother!" oh wow, one can only hope he thinks as fondly of him when they are older. maybe so. Mondays continues be at this point a joint swim day, with Nicholas and William both there in the morning. Bob, one of the other grandparents will he there to take on William, while I have Nicholas. We will see how this arrangement goes. So far they continue to show, but Nicholas really isn't all that happy with the arrangement, and that was more than evident this oast Monday. I have a feeling I will end up being there on my own, as Bob really isn't into swimming, and to do this jointly may cause alot of confusion for both boys, from an attitude perspective alone. Time will tell. Friday will continue to be our new free and travel day, with no obligations for the boys, except to have fun, whether we are at a river, the aquarium, wherever. Yahoo on that! My hike day at this point moves to Tuesdays which means all my social stuff moves to Monday afternoons. shesshhh! I need a calendar! :shock: :lol: anyways... onwards! and bring on the adjustments that Fall season always brings.
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Night were our swimming days this week. :shock: That's alot of pool time! William went Thursday, Nicholas Monday, Wednesday and Friday nght. The big pool also reopened! Nicholas was more than elated. Nicholas still loves going, and continues to do well in the pool. 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. Nicholas and I will continue to swim on Friday night, as he so loves that experience, at a pool that is not his normal pool. They have been very fun times for him. 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. This past Wednesday the senior guard there, a really great lady, excellent with young kids, sees us heading to the big pool. So she comes over to Nicholas and asks him if she can swim with him. He asked me is he could, so DUH, yes was the answer. so off they went. wow, incredible, she basically put him through a swim test/lesson combo type of thing, but in a way that he had fun, didn't mind doing all she asked of him. followed her example on alot of stuff. yahoo! sure was nice to see him take instruction like that, and do rather well with it. We took a huge step forward that day. I so hope she can make a few more appearances to let Nicholas see that the guards are good people, that they can teach him things, and that he will be an ever better swimmer for it, that it will help him do all that he loves to do there. WOOT WOOT WOOT!! I loved it, such a great thing. In the meantime I teach him what I can, and marvel at how well he does on his own. Nicholas has been trying very hard to swim what one considers a normal swim: big arms, kicks. last night he made several laps in the lazy river, trying to do just that. Not too badly either! He spent what was close to 20 minutes at the Snohomish pool on Friday night jumping in, swimming out to me and swimming back to the wall, and repeating that process over and over again. All on his own. Awesome! Pool time with William was great. He has taken to this just like his brother did. He loves all he did. We continue to do all we can just to let him try everything. We even had a few dunks under water, those he didn't mind, no fuss, no tears, no fear. I put him trough the same "drills" I did with Nicholas, we stayed about an hour, until he was tired. We had a few tries with blowing bubbles in the water, with alot of success. It is so great to see that he doesn't mind putting his face in the water, even did a few on his own. Success I think. This should be fun. GO NICK! GO WILLIAM!
Nicholas still looks forward to our after swim Friday Night Burger Feast.
That is just so fun: burgers and fries, just him and me, with lots of fun stories. He was so happy to see that burger and fries combo show up, just like always. Somehow I think that is part of the magic of Friday night swims: that he gets burgers etc after his swim. :razz: Yesterday we again talked about our week, swimming with the guard on Wednesday, trips to the science center and the aquarium, and future visit to the Skykomish River in Gold Bar, and Skykomish. He was really into that discussion, as he does remember last year in October when we went to the same river, and watched the big fish do their annual run. I so hope to repeat that again this year. He still talks about his camping trip with his family, and wants to go back. What fun time, talking through mouthfuls full of burgers and fries. :lol: Nick's Pics continue!. He still loves the camera, takes them from time to time. this week he wanted to take a few of the the Aquarium fish. Not too bad! I love his perspective on things, how he changes angles to get a different picture. creative! ;-) Love those: interesting what he chooses to take pics of.
Monday morning, after the boys swim time, I spent the afternoon in Seattle, visiting my friend for coffee and some catch up. I am so glad that this still will fit into the fall lineup!
Tuesday I met with my son Anthony for breffis. We still go every other week,to a nice Pancake type place that serves lots of very good food. It is nice to be able to do that: get together and catch up on what is new. The restaurant is a great place: any kind o breakfast food you can imagine, and it is all good. and lots of it! I always end up going home with a doggie bag. :lol: :lol: Hair cut time after that, an appt I could not change, so had to forgo hiking to wrap up some dangling Tuesday appointments. I did take off after my appt for a drive over HWY 2 to see some fall color, and visit Leavenworth, spending some of the afternoon there. There still is not too much color heading over the pass, it ought to be better and in full swing in a week or so,. bummer on today, but I figure that just gives me an excuse to go back. I got in a few sport walks on the Icicle River, and the Wenatchee. There is a waterfront park in Leavenworth that I spent some time on. that really is nice. And full of big fat salmon. really cool to see the fish,. I also visited the trail head of one of the hikes that goes up into the Enchantments, and walked some of that. WOW, was that ever good. I will have to go back sometime and hike the trail. Not that day however, as it is a long 12 mile minimum hike. Sure was gorgeous though. and so went today.... rain and clouds and weather, and some color. nice time!
Wednesday After Nicholas's swim time, we went for a walk at the Mesika Trail, by the Lynnwood Pool. We thought it would be fun to check on the berries there, see if there still were some blackberries, do one more berry run at the pool trail . That was so fun. Nicholas found some time ago a hidden patch of wild raspberries, still remembered where it was, so this week he once again climbed on in looking for more. Bummer was the response when he found they were all gone. Elation when he found blackberries nearby. He got his fill, and so did William. ;-) We thought we had eaten them all over the course of the past few weeks, but found a few this week.
It was fun. We ended up doing the whole trail, with alot of play time throughout of walk. Muddy play time... :lol: :lol: :shock: :shock: Thursday after William's swimming and Nicholas's school We crammed in a visit to the Pacific Science Center in the afternoon, since by the time I got Nicholas the rains were still with us. it seemed like a good choice. We managed to do a whirlwind run of the place,and still see and enjoy what they did chose to visit. That took a little ship steering so that they didn't feel rushed and still had fun. I love that place. great stuff. The sun came out late in out visit, so we also managed some time outdoors in their water park. Awesome science at work there.
Friday was our travel day, and since the weather was AWFUL and WET, and RAINY we opted for a visit to the Seattle Aquarium. It has been some time since we have been able to go. Nicholas was excited, he really foes enjoy that place. William was excited just to see "FISHIES!" and kept saying that over and over anytime he saw water. :lol:
Boys had a great time. William just loves the tropical fish tanks. Nicholas just loves everything. It was nice to have the sun poke through a little when we were done, so spent some time on the waterfront park too. YAY! Outdoor time! We had lunch #2 on the waterfront, just enjoying the sun, and the tourists and all those seagulls. Of course the boys had to chase those. So funny to see William crawl at warp speed after them :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Turned out to be a great day in the city with the fishies. I am sitting here this morning, just like last week, trying to think what to write about the kitties.... and just like last week, thinking alot too about Mannie, and all the adventures he planned to for all the LL kitties. I so miss those days, and the fun, and relief from all the FD and the stress that comes with it. AT the risk of being repetitive, this is what I wrote last week - and will repost, as it really was much the same this week, even the part about Nicholas and Mannie". Yesterday was an interesting day in that Nicholas wanted to talk about Mannie. He has another infection in a wart on his arm, so we were en-route to meet his mom,a d take him tot he DR, for what turns out to be another round of anti-biotics. He was talking about the DR, and then asked me: "Grammie, what happened to Mannie?" oh boy.... what a loaded question that was. It told him it was time, a year and a half ago, for Mannie to leave, and go live in his Special Garden. To which he said: "He had bad bugs? In his blood and stuff? " so started a discussion on sickness, and bad bugs, and being gone. He talked about his kitty Serval who crossed to the Bridge a few months ago, and how she had bad bugs, and was gone. He then said "I think she has found Mannie, and his Special Garden. Somehow I bet she has. It was incredible to me how logical he was on it all, how understanding he was on illnesses that take kitties from us, and how relieved he was that they have this special place that they go to. He talked alot abut Mannie after that, and how much he misses him. Hard to believe that he is only 3.5 years old." That discussion came up again this week, when we were heading to the Aquarium. We passed by the vet, I made some comment about how that was the kitties vet, and Nicholas corrected me by saying that was Mannie's vet. So that was the discussion on the way to the city: Mannie. What I would give to be able to give him back those days... They are such good memories.
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 is still some what grounded after her "late night" adventure last week. Bug could care less, Lola is ALWAYS grounded. :lol: We will have the deck door replaced soon, step one on the catio development. I still haven't done much more than that. Finances are always tough this time of year as all comes due in October: car insurance, homeowners insurance, property taxes, and on and on and on. :lol: :shock: Lola, I have not forgotten your catio.... but you may have to wait a bit longer. ;-) Have a great caturday everyone. Sorry this post it late today. Time this morning got away from me. At least the shopping is done, and eh laundry.
I am off in a few for an afternoon walk in the woods. The day has turned sunny, and warm. WOOT! KITTIES! Remember: think BLUE, think GREEN cat_pet_icon
