Gretel and the Tiny Cheeseburger

Have you seen the Tiny Tuesday posts on Johanna's blog, Whirly Bird?

In these posts, she celebrates all things tiny. They're pretty adorable. This is my edition of Tiny Tuesday... except it's Friday.

On Fourth of July, when we were barbecuing burgers, Levi got the idea to make a tiny, raw cheeseburger for Gretel. We put together a pretty great little burger, complete with cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and a tiny bun.

Needless to say, she loved it.

Lily just laid on the couch and watched. She has too much sleeping to do to bother with things like eating.

my job

this is what a typical work day looks like for me:

if you look at my computer in this photo, you can see that i've gotten sidetracked from my work... ;)

lots of sunshine, lots of sitting on the couch, lots of watching kitties grooming themselves

working from home is great. i can wear pajamas. i can work anytime i want. i have the luxury of a flexible schedule.

but some of those benefits also become drawbacks. being able to work in my pajamas means that i pretty much ONLY work in my pajamas. i don't really like sitting on the couch all the time. and forcing myself to get my work done feels like torture sometimes. when you have the option of working whenever you want, it can be difficult to actually SIT DOWN and DO IT. it's really easy to put it off and do something else instead.

with that said, i DEFINITELY wouldn't trade working from home for an office job. no way. no how. i've got it made. it's also been really good for me to learn some more discipline. since i'm the one in charge of my schedule, i've really had to crack down on myself to get things done. i think this is making me a better person and allowing me to improve myself in an area where i sometimes lack - sticking with things and self-discipline.

also, i get to hang out with gretel and lily all day! they're pretty good office mates.

i love my little family.

my family is so cute.

lily is always good for a cuddle.

gretel is always good for a laugh.

and levi is good for all of the above and everything in between.

there's no one else i'd rather share this little apartment with.

you got a little something right here, gretel

we let gretel & lily finish off a container of greek yogurt last night. gretel, of course, hogged it all and didn't want to share with her sister. she's also a bit of a messy eater...

a CUTE messy eater.

our little goat

ummmmm....

look what gretel did to one of my gloves!

that's right - she ate it.

i can't find the other one...

a little bitta silly #5

i can't believe i'm posting this. i have no shame.

we cut the ends off of levi's birthday balloons so that we could throw them out. we were trying to get gretel to bounce on them, but all she wanted to do was sniff the helium. so i took over to show her how it's done.

you can play a little game of "spot gretel's toys that are thrown all over the place" while you watch this if you'd like. hint: one's a pumpkin.

i'll probably be embarrassed once people start watching this.

alright, that's enough silliness for this monday. hopefully, these made your transition from thanksgiving vacation to work a little bit easier. :)

friday, you're so sneaky!

this week, i...

...celebrated my little brother's 25th birthday with my family.

...measured myself, levi, gretel, and lily against the kitchen door frame.

...admired my newest pretty, little dancer from my mom. every time she sees a dancer, she has to buy it for me. she can't resist. i love them.

...tried the sea salt iced coffee at 85°C in irvine. sweetened iced coffee with sea salt foam. pretty tasty.

...received the prettiest, new shirt from my mom. seriously. i'm spoiled.

...put down a deposit on our reception venue!

...witnessed my little gretel turn into a funny, old man on the couch...she's actually a very small kitty; this just isn't the most flattering angle for her.

...received our first wedding gift! from a blogger! so sweet and incredibly generous. :)

...took about a hundred thousand pictures of gretel on her new "hammock" that levi built for the kitty sisters.

...visited my beloved paulette and the grove with my mom, sister, and s-i-l, chrystal.

up next...the weekend!

silly animal video

this is gretel playing the piano. she was very unhappy about it. you can kind of see the irritation on her face, and she was growling at me. (you can't hear the growling on the video.) she actually growls at me fairly frequently. i'm always provoking her. she's a good little girl though. she never retaliates. she just lets me know when she's annoyed.

december's here!

what a great way to start december!

i woke up to find levi and gretel putting up the christmas lights outside this morning.

she's such a big helper.

lily helped by napping on the couch.

(p.s. don't blame me for the hideous color of our window panes - we didn't choose it. our front door is the same color. i wish we could paint them so bad, but we're not allowed to paint outside - only inside.)

other ways we started december:

- drinking delicious cups of blue bottle coffee (one of the reasons we are considering moving to san francisco - all of the best coffee we've ever tasted is in san francisco.)

- coming out of the bathroom to find gretel licking the jelly off my toast. guess she likes boysenberry too.

- frantically studying for my french exam today. it's in 38 minutes. crap! that means i should probably be getting ready for school!

wish me luck!

and happy december! let's all truly embrace the season this year all month long.

cameras, pumpkins, kitty fights, and fall

have you noticed a lack of photos on the blog lately?

that's 'cause my camera is really gone for good now. dropping it didn't work this time like it did last time.

and i officially hate the casio exilim that we got at a pawn shop. the quality cannot compare to my old camera.

the only feature i like on the casio is the old-timey, silent movie feature.

so i made a really silly fall video using that feature and a beautiful song by beirut.

i think the highlight of the video is the kitty fight toward the beginning. some bits are dark...my apologies.

this is a tribute to our fall:

p.s. if you haven't already, make sure to enter the suzannemade giveaway before it's too late.

care packages & kitties

i got the coolest care package in the mail yesterday from two beautiful and talented girls:

lee

and

maddie

maddie sent me a print of a photo of hers that i LOVE,

and lee made me this ridiculously insane and awesome mobile.

seriously, it must have taken soooo long for her to make. i love it.

we can't wait to find places for our new treasures.

little did they know, they also included a gift for gretel - bubble wrap! she went nutso for it.

so we made a video.

and to make up for putting another kitty video on my blog, i set it to a good song!

thank you so much, maddie and lee! your package totally made my day. i LOOOVE it!

gremlin.

little gretel is growing up!

almost all of her fuzzy kitten fur is gone. it makes me so sad. why can't she just stay little forever?

gretel has accrued many nicknames. here are some of them:

gretel-bop

gretel-bot (like a robot)

bot

gretel-pop (you have to sing this one...to the tune of nsync's dirty pop)

gremlin

monkey (she has an m on her forehead)

there are more, but i think 6 is enough for now.

gretel really loves food. human food. she's always "starving." every time i walk into the kitchen, she meows pitifully. she probably is hungry a lot of the time since she spends all her waking moments playing like crazy. she's hilarious. some of her favorite human foods:

cereal milk

whipped cream

ricotta cheese

tomato sauce

peas

macaroni and cheese

parmesan fishie crackers (just like her momma)

peanut butter

chicken (that's a no brainer)

baked potato

she and lily are now the best of friends. they keep each other company all day and play like wild animals all night. we love our little kitty girls. when levi comes home, he says, "ladies, daddy's home" in a really deep, funny voice. it cracks me up. hopefully, when we're (finally) able to get a puppy, we fall in love with a boy puppy for levi's sake. we need to balance things out around here!

guess what?

jussssst kidding! it's only my gretel baby.

this week, i...

...ate an entire box of fruit roll-ups all by myself.

...had to "reset" my mood every single day.

...didn't have a chance to respond to all your incredible emails. you have no idea how much they mean to me though. i keep rereading them.

...watched lily and gretel make friends! they play all the time now!

...almost lost my little gretel gremlin baby. she got out when we left, and levi didn't discover it until he got home and heard her crying under the front window. i cried when he told me.

...didn't study as much as i should have.

...wore foot undies. hehehe!

...went to a pretty intense yoga class with levi.

...lit my very last belgian waffle candle. and they're discontinued. boo! but i did make a funny mustache with the shadow from the light of the candle:

what did you do this week?

pumpkin love

have you tried the pumpkin cream cheese pie from claim jumper?

we highly recommend it...despite the looks on our faces.

(gretel likes it too.)

he's crafty.

levi doesn't want to go out tonight (as in simply leaving the house), but i do, so he's manipulating me with sad faces saying that gretel needs us.

that's low, levi. really low.

do i need to remind you of the quote we saw on the back of that classic car the other day?

oh, i do?

okay, here it is:

"we do not stop playing because we grow old. we grow old because we stop playing."

(you can read it if you click the photo to make it bigger.)

so come on! let's go!

a gretel loaded post

she's home! the adorable and tiny 8 week old gretel snack-pack myers came home on saturday afternoon.

the snack-pack part of her name is kind of a long story, but she's gretel when she's sweet and snack-pack when she goes into kitten-crazy/adventure mode.

she fits right in here, and she is very comfortable already. she hasn't had a timid moment. within the first hour at home, she used her litter box! she's eating her food, learning what "no" means, scaring me to death by trying to climb up the screens on our windows. she already loves playing string and exploring all over the house. she plays really hard and then likes to crash on my tummy. she is a very cuddly kitty which i love. she can't jump up on the chair i use in the living room so she sits at my feet and asks to be picked up. i, of course, immediately indulge her. we have bonded like crazy. she gives me kisses and looks up into my eyes. ugh, i love her so much. i miss her when i'm not home. i am going to be a wreck when i have human babies.

i'm actually allergic to cats, so our bedroom is a no kitty zone. i thought gretel would cry when we went to bed on her first night, but she didn't! i had been cuddling with her in a blanket all day so that it would smell like me. i put it in her little bed outside our closed bedroom door, put her inside, gave her a little cuddle, and said good night. she was there every time i got up in the middle of the night and she was there when levi got up in the morning. and no crying!

lily is still adapting, but she's not really hissing at her anymore. we're giving lily lots of attention so she doesn't feel left out. within a week, i think she'll be comfortable with her. and within a couple weeks, i think they'll be friends. fingers crossed! :)

onto the photos! there's a million...i hope you don't mind.

(she's an apple kitty.)

(she's licking the whipped cream from a leftover piece of pumpkin cream cheese pie.)

(i took this photo of levi & lily about a month ago, so we had to get one with gretel too.)

the newest addition to our family

levi and i adopted a little, baby kitty today!!!

we get to bring lily's new little sister home next weekend after she's been spayed and received all her shots.

she's is such a little pumpkin!

she and lily will have so much fun together.

our little girl, gretel snack-pack myers: