The time has come. Two out of three of our adorable kittens will likely be gone by the end of next week. We are considering keeping one as a playmate for kitty, but we can't decide who to keep. Should we keep the slow one, Minnie, who walks in circles and runs away as soon as you come near her, but who is hilariously entertaining and will chase anything that moves (except humans)? Or should we take Sam, the one sleeping on my lap in the picture above who is definitely the cutest and follows Kitty around everywhere like they are playing a game of follow the leader? Or should we keep Chewbacca who is the friendliest and most curious and follows Paul and I around everywhere we go? Big decisions to be made. =)  

Displayed above are some photos from our trip to Disneyland earlier this week. (Can it really still be the same week?!) For those who were there, the top photo makes me laugh so hard I cry every time I look at it! I really need to get off of the computer, but here is a brief update on our summer thus far:

Paul is in Austin, TX for a teacher training conference - it's awful not having him home and I can't wait until he returns (which, thankfully, is tomorrow). He's having a great time though. I called him on Wednesday night as our former college pastor, Steve, was giving him a tour of the city and the first thing Paul said to me was, "we have to live here." Apparently, Steve is an excellent tour guide.

I am working full-time right now for Kala Brand Ukulele. It's a cool job and I'm learning totally new things. I spend my days taking orders over the phone listening carefully to differentiate between the letters "C," "E," "T," & "B" (every product has a code and it's surprisingly difficult to hear these sounds without seeing the person's mouth - it can make a big difference as C=concert B=baritone T=tenor and E=E.Q., as I'm sure you were dying to know), entering orders and receiving customer payments in Quickbooks, filing mounds of invoices, and practicing my Hawaiian phrases.

We still have our kittens, although we will be getting rid of one of them soon. They are pretty big and very fast and feisty. I haven't been letting them out of our laundry room while Paul has been gone because I don't think I can catch them all by myself or contain them in our yard. When I go to feed them they come charging at the door and I have to nudge them back with my feet. Usually one escapes under the door, but it's a lot easier for me to round up than three.

Our weather has been nasty due to the fire in Napa. It's smokey and hazy all day long. I can't wait to see some blue sky again! On our way home from Disneyland Paul and I stopped at this bike warehouse in Torrance called XYZ bikes and he bought me a 24" (I'm short) vanilla cruiser like this one. Because he had to leave at 3:30 in the morning on Wednesday, immediately after we returned from Disneyland, it's still sitting in the box. I'm hoping for some clean air and blue sky this weekend so we can go bike riding through the countryside together!

Aloha!

Introducing (from top to bottom) Minnie, Chewbacca, & Sam. Our kittens have grown from little blobs of fur into miniature cats. They walk (Minnie generally walks backwards), run, spin in circles (Minnie does this constantly, we think she's trying to figure out how to get out of reverse), chew on plastic bags, fight with each other, jump at sudden noises (Chewbacca is particularly jumpy), lick bare feet, and eat kitten chow. They are really cute and very entertaining to watch. 

I took this one picture of them before they could walk and it really reminds me of that Genesis video for that song "I Can't Dance." Paul denies any similarities, but it makes me laugh every time I see this picture.

Last Friday night we got to spend the evening with a group of Paul's students. HCS recently had an auction and one of the items to bid on in the silent auction was bowling and pizza for four with Mr. & Mrs. Johnson. We had a really great time and they are a hilarious bunch. They were so funny that as Paul and I were walking to church on Sunday morning we were recounting the funny things that they had said and could barely stand up we were laughing so hard. Good times.  

Three peas in a pod.

Kitten wrestling.

More kitten wrestling.

Chewbacca (guess who's getting attached!) was the first to open his eyes.

We have rats in our house! (Not really, but don't they kind of look like rats?) In the wee hours of the morning on Thursday, Kitty Johnson gave birth to three kittens. Actually, she gave birth to two kittens before we left for work and when I came home for lunch, a third one had appeared! They are really pretty cute even though they are still deaf and blind and spend all day nursing or sleeping. We'll post more pictures as they mature and start to play!

Paul and I went to the lovely V. Sattui winery in St. Helena today. The weather was perfect as we sat on the lawn under the shade of a tree, talking, people watching (unfortunately, one woman we watched passed out), eating some very delicious sandwiches, and, of course, drinking a glass of wine.  V. Sattui is one of my favorite places to go because they have this amazing barbecued tri-tip. I seriously have no idea how they make the tri-tip so tender and flavorful, but I have never had anything like it anywhere else in my whole life! Suffice it to say, I highly recommend visiting the V. Sattui winery.