Kitty Trouble

While I was in Las Vegas last weekend, the grey stripped kitty, Scout,  learned a new trick. On Monday, he decided to demonstrate his new trick for me.


He sneaks into an unfinished closet in the basement. We use it for all the cables and wires.  Scout jumps on top of the shelves and climbs up on to the rafters. Then he wanders around on the ceiling.

As he wanders, he mews and mews. Then the other kitty sits on some furniture and mews back. I pushed away some of the ceiling panels in hopes of grabbing him, but he was already gone by the time I moved this one.

Here he is peeking down at me.

We have an old Defender arcade game machine below this tile, so once I left an opening, he made his way down.

After the first incident today, I made sure to shut the closet door. He discovered a new way to get into the closet. So I blocked that opening. He found yet another way up. It's kind of creepy listening to him move around above me while I am sitting at my desk. He made his way up there 3 different times today. What a silly kitty!

Las Vegas {Day 4}

Monday was President's day. Since the kids were out of school, Bethany arranged for a babysitter so we could have a day at the spa. Bethany had purchased a couple of discounted spa vouchers for at the Drift Spa at the Palm's Place. We enjoyed massages and body scrubs which were heavenly. We also spent some relaxing time in the steam bath and hot tub. It was definitely a wonderful way to spend President's Day!

 After our time at the spa, we went and had some delicious wood fired pizzas at Sammy's.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent hanging out with Bethany and the kids. Shortly after dinner, Bethany took me to the airport. My flight was a red eye and didn't leave until 11:30 pm. I played a few slots in the airport. No big wins for me! I arrived back in Atlanta around 6:15 am. I think the red eye wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't the whole three hour time change, too. I made it back to the house around 7:30 and took several naps throughout the day.

I had a wonderful visit with my sister! 

Las Vegas {Day 3}

On Sunday, I accompanied my future brother-in-law and Beatrix to Plant World. Warwick had decided that he needed an herb garden. Plant World is not your ordinary plant store.

They have exotic birds.

And more birds.

And more birds.

They have fish and turtles.

They have rabbits.

They have tortoises.

And they have plants. 

After our outing to Plant World, we hung out at the house for the rest of the afternoon. Then after dinner, we made a quick stop at the Royal Resort Vegas so Bethany & Warwick could make an appearance at a friend's birthday celebration. Then it was off to the Hard Rock Hotel to see Motley Crue in concert.

This night marked the end of the 2 week "residency that Motley Crue did at the Hard Rock.

Here are Bethany & Warwick standing in front of the Motley Crue display. Warwick is the one who puts all the displays together at Hard Rock.

The concert was pretty enjoyable. I was never a huge fan of the band, but I did know several of their songs and I must admit that I did own one of their albums back in high school.

Here I am with my sister before the show began.

Bethany & Warwick. 

A few pics from the concert.

Drummer Tommy Lee played his drums upside down for a while. Carrot Top joined him for one loop around.

It was a fun evening. It would have been better if we hadn't been seated behind a 6 foot 10 "mega fan" who didn't sit down the whole evening! Plus, he spilled is red fruity drink all over the floor in front of us!



Las Vegas {Day 2}

On day 2 of my visit to Las Vegas, Bethany and I took the kids to the farmers market at Tivoli Village. We ate frozen yogurt at one of those self serve yogurt places and the let the kids play on the little playground there.
Here I am with Beatrix. Beatrix was quite the slow eater.

August did not care for the yogurt. We couldn't figure out if it was the taste or the temperature. So while his sister was eating, he was running around and climbing everything he could.

At the Farmers market, they had free kiddie tattoos, face painting and balloon animals. Beatrix decided to get her face painted.

Here is the finished darling.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet. Bethany & I played a lot of Scrabble (on our phones) with one another. It was nice to just hang out with all of them.

For dinner, Bethany's fiance', Warwick, made mussels. I had never had them before and was a bit hesitant, but they were quite delicious! I couldn't help but sing the old tune by Squeeze, "Pulling Mussels from the Shell".

We called it a night after a few hours of wine and conversation.

Las Vegas {Day 1}

For my birthday last month, I told my husband that all I wanted was a trip to Las Vegas to visit my sister. So for President's Day weekend, I took a few days off to spend time with her and her family.

I arrived late on Thursday. Bethany told her children that I wasn't arriving until Friday. She did this so she could get the kids off to school easier. She thought that if they knew Aunt Laurie was already there, they wouldn't cooperate. Getting a 3 year old and a 16 month old out the door is challenge enough!

On Friday morning, Bethany had made reservations for us to go to the newly opened Mob Museum. When I say newly opened, it had only been opened for 2 days.

The museum was designed by the same people who did the Spy museum in Washington DC and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The building is the historic former federal courthouse and post office. Some important "mob" trials actually took place in the building during the 1950's.

The presentation of displays was very well done. Though not everything was labled, which we were assuming because it was so new. There was lots of history of organized crime in the US, not just about Las Vegas. Though some of my favorite displays were about the history of Las Vegas, such as seen in the photo below.

Bethany was getting a bit tired, so she found this chair to sit on.

After touring the 3rd and 2nd floor, we decided that we needed lunch. The Mob Museum was located right in downtown Las Vegas, so we walked across the street to eat at the Triple George Grill.

Our lunch took a little bit longer than we had anticipated, so we didn't go back to the museum when we were done. There was still one more floor to see, but we will have to save that for another time.

We picked up Beatrix and August from school and spent some time playing with my neice and nephew.


Beatrix and I put together a puzzle. Then almost as soon as we finished, August took it apart.

We played in the backyard. August is a little monkey and loves to climb.

Beatrix rode her trike around.

Peek a boo with Auggie!

Here the kids are swinging on this ornate wooden swing. Bethany's fiance' purchased it at an auction of things belonging to Slash, from Guns N Roses. Here's the link to the actual auction information: https://www.julienslive.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/21/lot/5009/

After dinner and after August was in bed, Bethany & I went to the Red Rock Casino for a Girls Night Out.

 We played some slot machines, but the real purpose of our outing was to play Bingo! Bethany and I have both become addicted to Bingo Blitz on Facebook, so she thought we needed to get out and play real bingo!

It was very satisfying stamping numbers with our daubers! We had a blast, but we did not win.

We didn't stay out very late. It was my first day in Vegas and I wasn't totally adjusted to the 3 hour time change.

Girl Scout Cookies

We got our Girl Scout cookies over the weekend. Hannah helped sort them for all of the girls in our troop. It was a bit cold out there, but we got all of the cookies for our troop sorted.

Since Hannah was the only girl there, she got creative with her sorting and created cubbies, walls and such.

If you ordered cookies from Hannah, we are working on getting those delivered. If you didn't, there's still time to get your order to Hannah!

Honor Band

This year James was selected for the GMEA District 12 Honor Band. He auditioned for it back in December and this past weekend was the actual event. There were two different Honor Bands. James made the "Clinic" band which the lesser of the two bands, but still an honor to be part of. There were 8 students from James' school that were chosen to be in one of the two Honor Bands.

The clinic band performance.

James was first chair tuba. We were very proud of him! You can see him just under the curtain.

The kids were given the music on Friday night. They practiced for a couple of hours Friday, then all day on Saturday. The performance was on Sunday afternoon. It amazes me how well they played considering they had never seen the music before Friday!

What Am I Reading???

I finished reading Victoria Dahl's Bad Boys Do. It is book 2 in the Donovan Brothers Brewery series. It was another super fast read.  I love that the books take place in a brewery. The last book revolved around the lone sister. This one focused on the middle brother.

As soon as I finished Bad Boys Do, I immediately downloaded the third book in the series. This one was called Real Men Will. It centers around the oldest of the 3 Donovan siblings. I LOVED it! I was disappointed when I finished because according to author Victoria Dahl's website, it's a 3 books series and that was the third book. I would love to read more about the characters. They were so much fun to read!

The next book that I read was The Bride's Baby by Liz Fielding. It is a Harlequin Romance that I got for free when I first got my Kindle over a year ago. It was an okay read. I was entertained while on the treadmill, but nothing spectacular. I don't read a lot of "Harlequin Romances", but it was on par with the ones I've read. The lead male was a roguish billionaire who was really quite a jerk. I guess if you have a lot of money you can act that way?!?

I read another "old" Kindle book called Irresistible Forces by Brenda Jackson. I was attempting to clean out some of the books on my Kindle by reading some of the first ones I had downloaded. I found it a bit unbelievable. It was about a young, successful woman who asks a wealthy business client of hers to father a child with her. It was very "steamy" which I don't have a problem with, but it got a bit repetitive after a while.

So after reading these romances, I decided to go for some  British Chick Lit by reading An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell. It was about a young woman who is paid to stop dating her boyfriend by the boyfriend's mother. Then 10 years later, their paths cross again. This book made the time on the treadmill pass by very quickly. I even walked more than my 20 minutes on a couple of occasions.

I was so excited to learn that Gemma Halliday had a new book in the High Heels series. This one was called Fearless in High Heels. I liked this one, but not as much as some of the other books in the series. This one had a vampire theme and I didn't really care for that too much. Maddie, the main character was also 20 weeks pregnant which made some of the storyline seem a bit unrealistic.

Now with only a few days to spare, I am currently reading this month's book club selection. We are meeting on Sunday evening to discuss it. I put off reading it until now because since I read so much, I sometimes get my books mixed up! This month's title is Molokai by Alan Brennert.

Happy Reading!