The Plague of Frogs

Okay, let me first begin this post by reminding you of our last encounter with this particular plague in our house. (click on the link to read about it).

So then, last night, as Jay and I sat in the living room watching TV... (okay, fine. we weren't really watching TV. Jay was in his chair snoring, and I was busy doing lesson plans for the kids' homeschool), I kept hearing the "thump. thump." again. I looked up in the light fixture, where the last critter had somehow trapped itself, but there was nothing there.

Eventually, I went to bed, thinking that it must be the refrigerator making some sort of dripping noise or something...

But... nay, nay!

This morning I awoke to the sight of Kiki the Cat, laying on a blanket the kids had left in the living room floor. This is not uncommon behavior for Kiki, since she is an extremely overweight, fat lazy cat. Her favorite pastime is sleeping... and eating, of course.

This time, however, Kiki did not look like her normal, comfortable, lazy self as she lay on the blanket. There was a gleam in her eye that I had not seen before. Nevertheless, I don't like her laying on the children's blankets, so I tried to make her get up.

She refused.

This is highly unusual behavior from my normally compliant kitty. But, I finally got her to get up... only to notice that something had been underneath her, and that she would not venture far from it.

Here she is, in her "conquering" pose...

I quickly realized that the "thump. thump." I had heard last night was not the refrigerator. It was another episode of The Plague of Frogs.

Yes, my sweet, docile, declawed kitty had become a predator in the night.

Here she is with her "kill"...



And here is a close-up of the carnage, all squished (yuck) - flattened under the weight of my 20 lb feline...
Definitely not something I wanted to wake up to this morning! And certainly not something I wanted to find on my daughter's blanket! Yuck!

Soon after Jay came to the rescue, and disposed of the "present" she had for us this morning, Kiki went back to doing what she does best...
I suppose I should be glad that my fat, lazy cat is finally trying to earn her keep around here. Good job, Kiki! But, no offense if I think twice before letting you lick the kids when they're loving on you! :o)

Mirror Messages

Jay and I have a little thing that we do. We write silly love messages to each other on our bathroom mirror with a bar of soap. Sometimes, it is merely a message telling the other what time we will be back home from the store. Sometimes, it is a particular Scripture passage that relates to something we are dealing with. And sometimes (like when a pregnancy causes the body to get into weird, swollen, puffy shapes), it is a sweet message from a wonderful husband telling his self-conscious wife how beautiful he still thinks she is.

We have done this for several years. In fact, it has been going on for the entire 12 year duration of our marriage. It's just one of those kooky things we do that makes our marriage so unique... and fun. However, as our children are growing older, and beginning to learn to read and write on their own, they have discovered this "secret" message writing that their daddy and I do.

The other day, R came into the master bathroom to gather towels for the laundry. She saw a note on the mirror that Jay had written to me, telling me how beautiful I was. She was so impressed by it, that she talked nonstop about it the rest of the day, even writing in her journal about how she wants to marry someone who writes notes to her on the mirror like her daddy does.

The following day, I wrote a response to Jay's note on the mirror, thanking God for the wonderful man He gave me. R saw it, and decided that she needed to add a message on the mirror to her daddy as well. Then, Jay responded back to her. Then B wanted to get in on the action, and wrote a message of his own on the mirror. Pretty soon, there wasn't a spare inch of space on my bathroom mirror!


I suppose I should be happy that we have such a creative and artistic family. Of course, it sure makes for some extra scrubbing on the mirror. I guess it's a good thing we use soap instead of lipstick or something!

I guess there was just one thing left to do... scrub the mirror and start a new message! :o)