Mao and Mao

Introducing... our new pets!

Alright, not really.  Our apartment complex has several stray cats.  When we lived on the West side of the complex we had all sorts of issues with the cats.  We often woke up in the middle of the night to cat fights or some poor cat wailing.  To be honest, they were annoying.

Shortly after we moved to the East end we noticed two cats frequented the area.  They tend to keep together and snuggle in the shade.  Justus thinks that they may be siblings.  Mao and Mao (that's what their meowing sounds like), are also friendly, there's been several times that they've attempted to follow us up to our apartment (in search of food most likely).  Justus and I think our downstairs neighbors may feed them, although we occasionally see a burst of feathers.

We've grown some-what attached to Mao and Mao.  Their "names" have evolved from "The Cats" to "Meow and Meow," to "Mao and Mao."

YW Girls Camp - Sweetness

In my random "nutshell" post I forgot to note that in addition to serving as a young women's advisor, I've been asked to serve as a Stake YCL leader for Girls Camp!  The past few months have been interesting and challenging to say the least.  I am so humbled by the other Stake YCL leaders (all of whom seem to have been YCL leaders for years!) and their dedication to the Young Women.

I get to work with the First Year YCLs and the First Year campers, too.  We're planning some fun, wonderful and spiritual activities.  It will be... wait for it... legendary!

I am so excited to go and am so happy that I have this privilege to go!

Nutshell

It is very polite for people in social gatherings to ask "what have you been up to lately?"  While it is very nice of people to ask and be genuinely interested, I am often puzzled as how to answer.  Ummm, nothing much...  It's no secret that Justus and I are "home bodies." We tend to jokingly describe ourselves as "boring."

So today I took a few moments and brainstormed a few responses to "save" for the next social gathering:

- Justus bought some new wheels and tires for his bike.  He continues to enjoy riding his bike to school and for exercise on his days off.  Recently he's been "building" wheels and is quite good at it.  If you need help with bicycles, give Justus a call.

- Justus survived another round of mid-terms last week.  We're hoping that we'll be able to say, "no more mid-terms" in the near future.

- I started a new quilt blog and am participating in a quilt group.  It's a wonderful group of ladies.

- I finished one of my first solo projects at work this past month.  It was crazy, stressful, and wonderful all at the same time.

- Our church had a cooking contest, a friendly competition of taste tests and trash talk.  Justus is an excellent cook, but the event conflicted with a huge week of mid-terms and projects at school.  Instead our family supported the event by "bedazzling" an apron for the winner.