"Lauren's Momentous Failure"

Amazon has a new security feature where you save your shipping and credit card info and it's only identified by a payphrase when you checkout. This was my pre-assigned pay phrase. Really?? I reloaded the page and got "Lauren's Glorious Costumes" and "Lauren's Realistic Reportage" as options...

Scorpios Hate Scorpions

So i know i'm a Scorpio and all but i *hate* creepy crawlies, most especially scorpions! For some reason this is the first time i've ever even seen scorpions in Georgia, but they've decided to venture into my basement when it gets cold outside. I haven't been stung by one (yet) but i'm incredibly clumsy and don't see things that are right in front of my face (as evidenced by the 4 broken toes). Jake has pushed me out of the way from almost stepping on one at least three times (probably more) and when i just went to get something out of my car (in bare feet) i almost stepped on two. I figured i should probably be prepared because i don't know anything at all about scorpions except that i detest them.

Well the good news is that scorpion stings generally don't kill you, they're more like bee stings. However, the nifty way to find them (suggests the creepy crawly website) is with a black light. I happen to have one, so i tested the theory. Scorpions totally glow in the dark and now that i've seen green alien bugs from hell in the pitch black basement i'm scared to turn the lights off. Why do they have to glow in the dark? It's totally creeping me out....and it really sucks that Jake went to bed early.

Cats Feeding Themselves

This morning we woke up to find the cats had decided to feed themselves. This is nothing new, they've done it before, however this time i just can't figure out how they did it! Due to their past attempts, we have not one but TWO closures around the cabinet to keep it from opening. So this morning we found the food bag spilled all over the floor about 6 feet away from the cabinet.....but the cabinet was closed and still locked. I can only surmise that a burglar broke in the house and was so annoyed by the hungry cats following him around meowing that he grabbed the food (and being courteous, locked the cabinet back) and threw it down before running out the door with his ears covered and no loot. It's the only plausible explanation.

Hillcrest Orchard and Yahoo Farm

Picking the perfect apple

Feeding the goats

They would eat *anything*, including my jeans

Me and the baby cow

My favorite farm animal!

The Three Musketeers

Milking Buttercup wasn't as hard as i thought it would be

The pig race...go David Beckham!

Finally found some gloves after searching at 3 different stores!

Heading into the corn maze with a teeny flashlight

All bundled up on the first freezing night this season

I got kissed by a skeleton! And then he gave me some beads

Yes, that's a pig butt

Lauren, Ally, and the Giant Pumpkin

Mmmm....hot apple cider!

The end to a very fun day!

Ally *Really* Needs to Be a Veterinarian

I took Dala to the vet yet again. Her chin is just awful! She has really bad red bumps (just like people acne but bigger) and the vet said it's a really deep infection. We clean her chin twice a day, clean her water bowl every day, use a clean paper plate every meal......Argggg! So today they gave her an antibiotic injection that lasts 7 days. The only thing that has changed at about the same time as the acne appeared is that we started using Pill Pockets. So we're going to stop using those to give her the medicine (which sucks because she looooves them) but she'll eat cream-cheese-coated-medicine just as good. The vet said if it isn't getting better in 2 weeks that we'll have to start looking for possible allergies. Which would most likely be a food allergy, except it's the same food she's eaten for years.


Dala trying to get out of going to the vet by "helping" Daddy clean windows.

The Pinecone Theory

Jake insists that animals don't *really* know their names. They instead respond to the tone of your voice. To try to prove his point he now occasionally calls the cats Pinecone. Just randomly. He'll be saying "Daaa-la" and then will call her again "Pineeee-cone". I, on the other hand, think my kitties are perfectly smart. Of course they'll respond to your tone, because it's almost like baby talk; it's totally different than you talk at any other time. This is, of course, when you're talking directly to them. (I dare you to look your cat in the eye and talk to him/her for 2 minutes without defaulting to the baby talk) So anyway, yes they'll respond to the baby talk because they obviously know that even though you haven't said their name you're still talking to them. But i've noticed plenty of times i'll be talking to Jake about the cats and when i say their names they either look at me or at least give me the obligatoy ear turn. But either way, Jake has now decided we need to get another cat and name it Pinecone.

Dala

My poor kitty! I don't know what the deal is but she *still* has kitty acne and it's a lot worse. The stainless steel water bowls didn't help. I'm going to try to wash her chin every day and wash her bowls every day. But should i go ahead and take her to the vet AGAIN? She still has some fun, though.

Dala looooves listening to the IPOD

Kittens get super excited when we open the windows. It's like being outdoors--but without the hassle!

Dala is always mesmerized by water. Apparently it's very, very interesting when it moves.

Dala's acne. It's awful!