High Five for Friday (3.1.24)

 

One

Starting today and running throughout the month of March, I'm participating in Catwalk 2024, a fundraiser for Six Kittens Rescue. For just $10, you can join in the fun! 

Have you ever wanted to swish your tail on the catwalk? Here is your chance!

Walk 200K steps throughout the month of March to help promote our mission of saving the most fragile of kitties in the Brazos Valley. It costs only $10 to register and there are TONS of prizes available. You don't even have to be local to BCS to walk with us!

You know we are all about community, so every person who registers will have access to an EXCLUSIVE Facebook group to network with fellow Catwalkers. Want to get a group together? Do it! Want to encourage one another? YES! Want to win prizes? You gotta join!

Register here: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/catwalk2024

Once you register, you will be sent the link for logging your steps!

Two

Another week, another Lads update! On Friday night the Lads beat Magnolia at home to add another tally in the win column. 

Mamas in their boys' jerseys, plus a great photobomb.

Yes, Will's initials actually are WTF.

A slightly fuller post-game selfie for the Magnolia game.

I keep posting these, partly because I want to remember the
fun I had with my soccer mama friends and partly because the
photobombers really do deserve to have their hard work shared.

Tom drove home from the game proudly flying his Lads flag.

However on Tuesday night, they lost for the first time in district to their cross-town rival. For the second time this season, they lost a player to a red card foul. That foul led to a penalty kick, and then the Lads had to play down for the remainder of the first half and all of the second half. Though the scoreboard at the end of the game indicated a loss, the Lads truly showed up, stepped up, and played a great game, fully hanging in until the very end despite competing down a man on the field. Additionally, our fans showed up and stepped up - we had an INCREDIBLE turnout for a soccer game, and I'm so proud of those who worked tirelessly to get butts in the seats and grateful to the students, student organizations*, teachers, staff members, families, and friends who supported the Lads from the stands. 

An even bigger selfie for Will.

Jenn and Avery had to leave before we took
our selfie, but we still got our friends picture.

Hallie liked soccer much better with a friend.

Will and Ms. Jedlicka, his physics teacher, who he chose
to honor for Staff Appreciation Night. I love watching him
develop relationships with his teachers - he had such fun
banter with her, and I heard him call another of his all-time
favorite teachers "C-Money." (Which she then explained to me that
they'd landed together on after he tried out a few failed nicknames.)

* We held our first-ever Staff Appreciation Night with 25 staff members showing up in support of the student who selected them as their honoree, the outstanding Aiden Ross (a member of choir) sang the National Anthem live, the Maroon Men hyped the crowd, the Bengal Belles performed at halftime, and the drumline played throughout the first half. I don't think any of these things have EVER happened at a soccer game at our school (or pretty much any other high school we've been to, for that matter) before. We also held our regular teacher vs. student halftime competition, offered giveaways to the first 25 students in attendance, and raffled off gift cards to local restaurants. We are working our tails off to make sure our school community knows both how awesome the Lads are and how amazing soccer is to play and watch. 

Three

Though I was sad we couldn't give them two wins, my parents were thrilled to be in town - all the way from Wisconsin - to support the Lads for both of the above-mentioned games. They've been soccer fans since I started playing in kindergarten or first grade, and have loved getting to be in the stands in support of another generation of "Mueller" athlete. And they haven't missed a beat when it comes to yelling at offering constructive criticism to those officiating the game. 😉

Four

It's a law that if kittens fall asleep on you, you can't get up. I laid here for more than an hour until they woke up and decided to be crazy again, and it was the best (except that I was wishing I'd already brushed my teeth, given that it was 11pm). 

Five

Happiness Highlights

Plié's new favorite napping spot...she
looks so peaceful on top of the refrigerator.

Will's team dinner 'fit - he had an orchestra concert
in the middle of the team dinner, so he ate, ran to his
concert, and ran back while everyone else hot tub-ed.
Photo credit belongs to a six-year-old "fan"...

Do you think we had enough chips?

My new tiger earrings!

Shopping when Grandma comes to visit. (No,
we didn't buy all of those shoes. These were just
the pairs the three of us wanted to try on.)

Team dinner - love seeing these Lads hanging out together.

I frequently turn my nervous/anxious energy (like the
energy I feel before big games) into frantic cleaning or
organizing projects. Too bad I started this one - my
closet - and haven't finished it yet. 

Lads matracas for Staff Appreciation Night! We've made
and shared these noisemakers all season, but they made it
into the Happiness Highlights this week because I printed
the final three all by my big girl self!

Popeye's finished product from Tuesday's
post - thanks for sending this to me, Mal!

Happy weekend, friends!

Arts & Crafts with Popeye

Yes, I'm actually writing about doing arts and crafts projects with cats. However, since you could do this project with a wide variety of animals and because the final product makes a great gift for anyone who loves the animal, perhaps we could think of this post as one targeting all animal, craft, and gift-giving lovers? That makes it feel a bit more inclusive. 😉

Cat painting doesn't actually involve handing a cat a paint brush, an assortment of acrylics, and a canvas; I can only imagine the mess that would result from that combination. But cat painting can be done - almost completely mess-free, I might add - and here's how Hallie did it.

First, Hallie encouraged Popeye to choose the colors with which he wanted to paint. It took a while, but I think this was his favorite part.

Once Popeye had selected his colors, Hallie squeezed small dollops of each paint color onto the canvas. (In hindsight, we should have used more paint/bigger dollops.)

Next, Hallie slid the canvas into a large ziplock bag. She pressed as much air as possible out of the bag and zipped it closed. 

Then she put the bag on the ground, and called Popeye - he comes when called, as long as you say his name or "kitty kitty" in what I like to call a "treat voice" - to come check it out. He was a little nervous (he's a little nervous about all new things), so at first he spent a lot more time sniffing and pawing at the bag than actually playing with it.

That is until Hallie busted out the toys. She strategically held/placed all of his favorites so he would simultaneously play with them and walk/shuffle/scurry/roll around on top of the canvas.

When we decided he had painted enough, Hallie gave Popeye got lots of treats. I take back what I said earlier, this was his favorite part.

When the canvas was dry, we used a paintbrush to paint Popeye's toe beans a different color and helped him "sign" his painting with his paw. (We then of course thoroughly cleaned his toe beans.)

We actually didn't keep this art project of Popeye's. Instead, we gifted it to our friend Mallori, one of the founders of Six Kittens Rescue and who - if circumstances had been slightly different - probably would have been Popeye's forever mom. She and her wife (they founded SKR together) are moving away soon, and we wanted them to have a little gift from their beloved tripod. 

I realized as I was pulling this post together last night that I somehow don't have a photo of the finished product (either I didn't take one or I deleted it - I truly can't remember), but I'll ask Mallori to send me one and share it soon. It's a shame Popeye didn't love painting (the process was a little trickier for him given his mobility challenges) because he's a true talent. 😉 

High Five for Friday (2.23.24)

 

One

You know where we start...your weekly Lads update! 

Last Friday night was tough. Among other challenges, with 28 minutes left in the game the referee gave one of our players a red card. For those of you who might be unfamiliar, after receiving a red card, the carded player must leave the field and the team is not allowed to replace him, meaning the team plays down a man for the remainder of the game. The Lads managed to hold on to the 0-0 tie (and even came incredibly close to scoring the go-ahead goal more than once), which is saying something given that they were playing with 10 men. They weren't happy with their performance, but a tie and the accompanying point is better than a loss. 

On a more positive note... JV-A played immediately prior to varsity. With the score tied 0-0 and just a few seconds left on the clock, Mag West kicked the ball FAR out of bounds hoping the game would just end. Southern - Will's varsity coach - was standing on the sideline near where the ball went out, and rather than wait for the ball boys to retrieve the ball (which would have undoubtedly used up the remaining second seconds of the game), he grabbed a new ball out of the ball bag and tossed it to the Consol player. Consol threw the ball in, the player who received the throw passed it immediately back to the thrower, and he took a shot from basically the sideline. And with .2 - that's POINT TWO - seconds left on the clock, the ball sailed through the air and dropped into the back of the net just over the goalie's outstretched fingertips. All of JV-A and all of varsity - who were warming up on the far side of the stadium - rushed the field in celebration. It was a fantastic display of grit and fight, a lesson in playing until the final whistle, and a beautiful of example of Lads supporting Lads, regardless of team.

On Tuesday night we traveled to Brenham, where the Lads pulled out kind of a messy win. Three points is three points though, so we move on and go again tonight at home against Magnolia. If you live in the BCS area, come on out and join the Lads' fandom!

I'm surprised this pic turned out, given that they'd just turned
off the lights on us and it was taken in almost complete darkness. 

Two

We celebrated a little bit of Valentine's Day on Wednesday and a little bit of Valentine's Day on Thursday, thanks to everyone's different schedules. The kids may be 17 and almost 15, but they still love my Valentine's Day treasure hunt to find their gift, which this year was a CraveBox (a snack box care package) to share and new heads for their electric toothbrushes because #candy. 

"Airplane Ears" (what we call Popeye when we catch
him doing something he isn't supposed to do) has recently
learned how to get on the counter. He knows he isn't allowed
up there, but he's also so proud of himself. He really liked
Hallie's cat-friendly Valentine's bouquet from AJ! 

Hallie with her Valentine's box for
choir (for which she won a prize).

Their Valentine's Day treasure hunt always looks
like a combination of wrestling match and race...

Divvying up their Crave Box goodies.

Three

Both kids have really great friends. I've written a more elaborate version of this high five multiple times, but I keep deleting it because, or at least I think it's because, the elaboration just isn't necessary. So both kids have really great friends, and I'm tremendously grateful.

I don't have pictures of Will and his friends, because they don't need me to drive them around the way Hallie and her friends do. I guess that's my shuttling tax - I get to take pictures.

Four

Introductions have begun! Popeye is always so interested (and yet so scared, at least at first) to meet our foster babies. We had to delay - beyond the initial two-week quarantine period - introducing Popeye to Anne and Belle because they had quite a few poop issues at first, but now that we have all of that under control, they can start spending time together. 

I think they're going to get along just fine...

Five

Happiness Highlights

He doesn't let me take very many pictures of him, but
apparently he lets photographer friends take pictures of
him. So when those photographer friends share those
photos, I screen capture them. I'll take what I get of my
"teenager in the wild" - thanks, @noahandcamera!

Will follows two dress codes: "full suit" or "athletic
clothes closely resembling pajamas." He wears very
little in between, and these two pics are proof.

 

The things we'll do for kittens... I'd gotten down on
the bathroom floor to clean something up, and while
I was down there, Anne climbed on my back and fell
immediately asleep. So I had to stay there, with my
45-year-old joints on the tile, for 20 minutes, because
she was too cute to wake up. 

The high school newspaper had both a Lads blurb (if you
zoom in, you can see my Lad was given a shout out)...

...and a full spread article devoted to the Lads' fans!

I continue to love my monthly flower subscription
through the high school's advanced floral design class!

Just came across this pic... May you wrap up your week with
as much confidence as this tiny tot delivering mail to the mailbox.

She discovered sunbeam naps. 

Please let this be true!

Happy weekend, friends!