Hornets

So apparently this sucker had been growing on the side of the house for about 6 weeks. Our trusty kudzu.com rated pest removal guy came out yesterday to assess it. He said he's bee in the business for decades, so little surprises him. This surprised him! Good gravy this surprised him! He said there are between 2,500 - 3,000 hornets in this nest!!!

Well worth the couple hundred to take it down!!!! It's being removed today, but wow! Yuck!

Adding Color

Mission: Add Color to the Living Room

Our living room is kind of dark and dull. You see a lot of movies filled shelves and dark furniture. Don't get me wrong, I love me some black & brown, but it got a little obsessive. We wanted to liven it up and add some color to the living room. We've rearranged the furniture several times and I think the missing piece was always color. I think we're on our way. 


We've moved the room around a few times (will show later), and we were procrastinating, and the best thing to do while procrastinating is...do something productive so you don't feel guilty for procrastinating! 


So we decided to move the furniture back to the way we had it originally, but with an ottoman rather than the giant coffee table, we moved the little end lamp, and changed things around. 


Here are the changes:

 

1. A few years ago, Alex painted the fireplace red & brown. You can kinda see in this picture, it's your standard white fireplace...as you can see by the fan next door...it gets hot in Georgia! 


The walls are the same color, just different lighting. I'm now slightly wishing it was black not brown, but we have some brown furniture pieces so I guess it matches!

2.We changed original window treatment to brown curtains to nothing and then as of yesterday to a nice red! We're still missing something on the walls, working on the toilet paper art (although Alex thinks we're doing a chalk board sorta thing). I think the red is rich and warm (and provides a bit of sun protection). We spent more than we wanted too on curtains, but getting them at Target was cheaper than nicer curtains. The material is burlap which makes it a little thicker. 


As you can see, the cats enjoy it! In one of the previous room reiterations, we had the TV in front of the window. That worked well unless I was outside and Gus had to be near me, or the cat walked behind it carefully switching the TV switch off every time...yeah that was fun...


Oh you can also see we removed the blue window treatment from the door and added brown blinds. This was a Gus separation anxiety issue as he ruined quite a bit of the blinds. I did learn how to restring the blinds though! It was surprisingly pretty easy!

3. We gave back the nice coffee table to my in-laws basement, and got an ottoman which Alex painted. The coffee table we had before was great & big. However it was a giant 2.5'x2.5' foot glass giant sucker that took up a lot of room! I semi-wish we would have purchased an ottoman that had two sides (you can flip just half of the top). But this one works. The cats like to lay on it (of course they do). It works well for what it is and I like having the extra storage space for blankets, etc.

4. We painted the fan yellow & red. 
This poor fan needs to be cleaned more often, the dirt was nasty! Yuck...come to think of it, I need to dust my fans more often anyway. Alex kept saying, Oh it's LSU colors. I had to keep telling him LSU is gold & purple, but what do I know! 


It does kind of look like a Gryffindor scarf, but I really like it. I can't wait to have kids so I can paint their fan! I like the rings on the end too. It just helps to add that little bit of color to the massive amount of white on the ceiling!

5. Alex took a blanket and tucked it into the back of the couch, giving the couch an accent wall to speak. I'm not big on accent walls, but I actually don't think this is that bad. 


 It's just a large blanket we got from Target (that I frequently use, and thus can no longer....). He just tucked it under the cushions on each side and boom an accent couch! He tends to do this sorta stuff while I'm away...that'll learn me! (Yes that was said wrong as a joke).

 6. Sixth, we changed the cushion pillows, I'm not sure what happened to the original ones...I'm going to blame Gus on this one (we had a rough coming of age with him)...Plus they aren't really comfy anymore. So we have two yellow & a red one!

Final Before and After Pictures

 We still have a few things left...mainly the spot between the shelf & the window. However, all in all, I think I like the new layout! The original layout is on the right. I couldn't find clear pictures of the middle format where we rotated everything one wall. But I think these improvements are good anyway!  I'm still surprised that darn couch is hanging around...it was a hand-me-down from my parents, so it's probably 12-13 years old? Yikes!

Our Monkeys

I'm also going out of town to visit family this weekend then on a business trip next weekend, so I'm feeling a bit sad about leaving our monkeys, the pet name for our furry friends. 

Reagan & Duckie

The first two are Duckie & Reagan. I got them when they were 4 weeks old. They're coming up on their 6th birthday! I was living with some friends for two months. Over Memorial Day weekend one of my roommate's mother's cat had kittens. They were going out of town so asked that we watch the four kittens. Well we returned the momma cat two weeks later, but kept the kittens.

 I took the two females and they took the two males. Duckie is the talker. She meows allllll the time. She's also big & fluffy and has a habit of knocking things off tables.She curls up into the oddest places. She is the king of the dogs, er queen. She just walks past the dogs and has a cool attitude. They generally leave her alone, because of that. We say she occasionally gets lost, because she'll go upstairs and meow in meow that sounds like a "hello?" If you call her she comes running, as if "Oh! You're finally here!"

Reagan

 Reagan is the sweetheart. She's the only animal that comes every time I call. I pat my chest & say "Kitty" or "Reagan" and she wakes up and comes running. She is definitely a needy cat. She has to be on my lap at all times. She also drools...yes I have a cat that drools. It's gross. If she could spend her life on my lap, I think she would. She's more skittish with the dogs and has no problem swatting them if they get too close. She loves the window sills, especially when the window is open.

Gus with Rhino, his hamster.

He lays like that...all the time...

 Gus has been our learning experience. He was our first dog. Gus is a pure bred chocolate lab. He was born in July 2008, and we found him on Craig's List in March 2009. So he was 8 months old. The family was moving and couldn't take him. Good gravy he's been a handful! He had to have shots before we got him, because he found a copper head in the back yard and was playing with it. Aside from crying the entire way back to the house, when we got him, he's completely ours.  He loves his momma, and as such my little man has some severe separation anxiety! He chewed out of his crate one day, as seen here. He was able to open the closet door, even if we tied rope from the door around a large cage. He'd sneak himself in (and then would lock himself in).  He was house trained, and my Dad leash trained him with us. He's finally over his chewing stage (calmed down about June of last year). 

He loves trash (once ate old previously-frozen sausage out of the trash...he's gross...). We could let him have free range of the house if it weren't for the trash can. He's smart too. He can beg, give you his paw to "Say hello", will then give you "both hands", he knows the "Go Dawgs" cheer, jump through a hula hoop, "Bang Bang You're Dead," and Rollover. He cycles through them all when you have a treat. Almost like..okay I did them all! Now where's my treat. He likes to lay between Alex & I...adding to his momma's boy, neediness.

 He also loves water. We had to get him a life jacket, because he just kept swimming. He'd wear himself out! He's super sweet and a momma's boy. If I fall asleep on the couch, wake up in the middle of the night (realizing oh crap, I'm still on the couch), he's right there with me. He's gotta a little barky lately towards other dogs. He sounds a lot more ferocious than he is, but good gravy that's our next big project...curb the barking! In the furniture he's gnawed on, carpet he's chewed up, doors his scratched, clothes/shoes he's chewed...we've learned to control our anger & have patience.As you can see, he's a total ham.

Then came Lucy. Alex felt lonely, because I'd end up with all 3 of the animals sitting on my lap (I have no idea how it was possible). He wanted his own dog. So last June/July, we went to the Animal Shelter looking for a Boston Terrier. We ended up seeing Lucy. Don't go to the animal shelter at lunch and not expect to come home with a dog. So we picked her up a few days later (after they spayed her), and brought her home. She's become the bully of the group. Gus is pretty good about taking it, but it runs on her time. They play constantly, sometimes a little rough, but they are constantly playing. 


She still has some accidents, so she's not allowed out during the day yet. Hopefully that will change, but Gus sleeps in my closet during the day so I'm sure he won't actually like that. Lucy, while we call her dumb because she's clumsy, has learned quite a few tricks. She can give you her paw, beg, and moon walk (stand on her hind legs and walk backwards). She almost has "twirl" down, where she twirls on her hind legs. She's learned some manners in the last 9 months and is absolutely one of the family. She likes to hide behind cushions, dig between the cushions, take something she shouldn't have and run up under the bed with it. If you get it while she's still playing keep away, you're fine. If not, she'll destroy it. She's eaten numerous pairs of glasses (hence my switch to contacts). Oh she also chewed up & ate her rabies & ID tag...they were metal. She's awesome like that...

The four never cease to amaze me. They generally all get along relatively well.