Introducing....

We've had Bonnie & Clyde for a week now.

When I first got them home, I couldn't tell which was the boy and which was the girl. I thought I'd finally figured it out, but it turns out I was picking up the same kitten every time, so I'd gotten it wrong. When Jon got home and we got them both still, we determined who was whom. Even now we have to check their noses to know who we're looking it. Bonnie's nose has more pink than Clyde's.

We tried to put collars on, but they would have none of it. Clyde freaked out.

Clyde is the more high-strung in some ways. He about hyperventilated on the first car ride, and meows and pleads on any car ride. Bonnie seems to be more laid back. She instigates wrestling, and has even perfected a body slam from the couch, but Clyde always gets the upper hand.

They follow pretty well in male/female roles. Bonnie is communicative and loves to be held. Clyde is more aggressive and wild. I think both have the makings of lap cats, but the jury's still out on that.

The cats have made themselves quite at home. They have free roam of the house, including the bedroom, which Friday didn't get to go in for quite awhile. They do get kicked out of the bedroom at night. The first night they were in there it worked out okay, but the second night they decided to have a long wrestling match on top of the bed, so that was the end of that. Maybe later when they're older and sleep more!

These cats have two speeds: crazy playful and dead asleep. There's no cat napping or "resting." They're either wide awake or zonked out. It's a constant blur of motion and noise while they're playing, and then suddenly it all stops, and they've cuddled up together (evidently calling a truce during naptime) in some dark corner--under the couch, behind the pillows under the bed, and other places we haven't figured out, yet.

Bonnie & Clyde are very social. We had 8 people over to the house last night, and the kittens were immediately at everyone's feet. Clyde found a friend in one of the guests, and Bonnie flitted from person to person, depending on how interesting their shoe strings were at the time.

All in all, we love these kitties! They are happy and healthy, and they make this house and crazy and fun place to live. I'm so glad we have them!

Uncle Jon

We got to see my family over Memorial Day weekend. Ian, like most babies, loved to hear Jon's voice.
What a cutie! It makes my heart melt to see how babies love Jon. I love him, too! :)

Off to Boston!

Jon and I are headed for Boston in the morning! I'll be attending the HOW Design Conference, and Jon will be tooling around town taking pictures of everything I'm missing! I'm pretty sure I'll get a chance to sight-see, too, and I'm really excited for the chance to go somewhere. This will be my first trip to New England!

See ya next week!

Secret's Out!

I just told my boss, so everyone can know now! Secret's out!

The details:
13 weeks along
Due November 21st
Check out the blog for the Norvell Newbie!

Blogs

Pearls Before Swine

I've decided to combine my LMN-o-Photo blog with this blog. I don't post much on it, and not many people look at it. So, when I have a cool photo (and time to format it), I'll stick it here.

Hooray for simplification!

You know you're in the sticks when...

...you've lived there for years and Google still hasn't mapped your neighborhood.

The Auction

Tuesday night was the night of the auction. Since Jon would be downtown just getting off work at the time the sample portrait needed to be there, he took everything and set it all up for me. He came home telling me there was tons of stuff there, and we needed to be back there at 9-ish to pick everything up.

Before we left, I put on a cute top--just in case we met the person who bid on my services, I wanted to look artsy. :) We got to Joe T's, and it was a madhouse of people. The auction had just ended, and everyone was in a long line...for what I don't know, but it was something about claiming their purchases. We made it through to my portrait pretty quickly. There was a small table right next to it, with a framed piece of paper explaining what was being bid on, and my business cards in front of that. The stack of business cards was noticeably smaller than the stack I sent with Jon, so that was exciting.

Then I saw another framed piece of paper--this time for another photographer, with a value of $600!! Sheesh. Were all the donations that generous?? I knew at this stage I couldn't afford more than the $150 I gave, so I didn't feel bad in that way, I just felt kind of small. That coupled with the fact that I found the rest of the stack of business cards underneath my portrait kind of deflated my balloon a little.

I wandered around looking for the coordinator--I'd never met her, and thought someone might care if they saw a random person walking off with a large portrait. I didn't find her, but I did find all the other auction items. Thankfully, it seemed $600 was toward the high end of things, and there were a lot of $25 and $50 items. Usually, with charity auctions, items go for much higher than their value--a cake for $150 for example--but given the volume of donations, I'm wondering if things went for less than their value.

Finally, Jon and I just packed up the portrait and left. I did find someone who looked somewhat important and told her I was taking it. She said that was fine. She didn't ask my name or anything...weird.

All in all, it was a weird experience. Not quite what I'd expected, but I'm hoping it gave me a little more publicity than I'd had. What I've learned in marketing is that if your name is out there, it's out there. It's not always easy to put numbers on how valuable that is, but it's valuable every time. And even if I don't make any more money or connections out of this auction, it still gave me a good deadline to get my website up, my business cards together, and my price sheet finalized. So I'm glad I did it.

New site is up!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to give a quick introduction to my new site, lmnovations.com. I've had it for awhile, but it's housed my graphic design, etc. portfolio, and now it houses my photography stuff!

It will still have some tweaking and more pictures added, but I'm already passing out business cards, so I wanted it to at least be up.

More about the progress of the photo business coming soon!

Kitten pics!

Okay, we made it back from the vet! We played with four of the cutest and healthiest little kittens and their mama! I mean, these kittens were just balls of fluff, two weeks younger than Smith & Wesson, and probably weighing twice as much. You couldn't find a bone on them. Mama's milk has been good to them! And on top of that, they were so lively and cute. They had just had a nap and were wired for playing. Balls, string, boxes, each other....everything was fair game.

There are three females and one male. We picked out the male and one of the females, but someone else actually has first dibs, and she's picking two as well. So we'll get the two kittens that she doesn't pick. If she's not picky, the vet techs said they'd let her know our preference.

So yes, we're getting kittens!!

We're going to Boston for a conference mid-May, and they're going to hold the kittens for us free of charge until we get back. Or, we can pick them up earlier and take them back for the week we'll be gone, but that seems like a lot of change for the little guys to go through. Plus, this gives us a chance to get our house kitten-proofed and load up on toys, because these are some toy-lovin' kittens!

I don't think I got pics of all of them (well, I did, but they were so active a lot of the shots came out as blurs), but they all look basically alike. The boy has more orange on his face than the others, and one of the girls has an almost solid black back. So now, without further ado, the kitties!


And here is the mama so you can see how beautiful they will grow up to be.

Kittens

The vet's office called yesterday and said they have a litter of kittens, if we'd like to come look at them. The kittens are only 4 weeks old, so not ready to come home with us, but that actually works out well because the next few weeks are going to be very busy in the Norvell household, with many days out of town. So, we're going to look at little tiny kittens today!

We still have the vouchers for the Humane Society, but Jon doesn't really want to go that route since we're not guaranteed healthy animals, and we had such a bad experience last time. By going through the vet's office, we know the entire life history of these kittens (and their mother), plus we know that the vet will be taking good care of them until we can bring them home. If we go through the Humane Society, we had decided to get older cats with stronger immune systems, but we were sad that we would be missing out on the super-cute kitten stage. Through the vet, we'd still have that kitten stage. So, there are a lot of positives to going through the vet, though that would mean we'd lose our money at the Humane Society. However, I'm pretty sure we could reallocate that money to "sponsor" a cat who is less likely to be adopted. By covering the adoption fee, it could encourage someone to adopt a cat that is older, has been at the shelter for a long time, or needs special care. I'll have to see what I can find out about that.

But first, the visit to the vet this afternoon! I'm taking my camera because I don't want to miss out on any photo-op of our potential new babies! I'll let you know what happens! I'm just excited to be petting tiny kittens!

I understand

The last couple of weeks, the Calvin and Hobbes comics have been very poignant...and very close to home. I miss my kitties.
(By Bill Watterson)

(click on the comic to see a larger version)

Update on the earring

In February, I got the cartilage pierced in my left ear. Just in case someone was considering doing the same thing, I thought I'd give an update.

My ear was very sore for the first two weeks or so. I also had ringing in my ear, I'm guessing from the swelling. The swelling went down and my ear got much better, but I wasn't able to sleep on my left side until about two weeks ago. Even then, I have to shield my ear from the pillow with my hand. So, I thought my problem might be the earring post and back getting in the way, catching on my glasses, and generally keeping the area sore. Today I bought a nice sleek hoop that's small and makes a perfect smooth circle when it's closed. I figured it would be perfect.

I've had this piercing about 11 weeks now. The instructions said to keep the original earring in for 8-12 weeks, so I figured I was fine. It was kind of hard to get out because the earring back was "locked" on from the piercing gun. When I did get it off, my ear immediately swelled up. Great. I cleaned everything off really well, including the new earring, and started to put it in. But, the new earring is rounded, and the hole had swelled too much for me to easily put it in. At this point, I started to feel faint. :) I called Jon in to figure out what to do. After a few more attempts, we decided it was simply not time to put a new earring in, so back went the stud.

Maybe I'll try again in a few weeks. I do think the new ring would help keep it from getting knocked, which might be one reason it hasn't healed. On the other hand, I mentioned the soreness to a girl I bought the earring from today, and she said that could last up to a year! So maybe this is just normal.

It's not infected, and in almost every situation I don't even notice it, but I will be glad when it's healed. And I'll be glad when I can put the new earring in, because I like it.

So to all of you considering cartilage piercing, 3 months into it I like it, but I'm not sure it was worth it. I certainly wouldn't get another one. However, I do think I'll keep the one I have.

Japanese Gardens

Last Saturday Joe and Leanna came out to visit the Japanese Gardens with us. It was tons of fun, and we got lots of neat pictures. Lea, if you want any of these full-size, just let me know!

Awareness

There are a couple things going on that I wanted you to be aware of.

First, there is a new movie called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. A documentary by Ben Stein, Expelled seeks to open up conversation between those who believe in Evolution and those who believe in Intelligent Design. To do so, he brought in the most polarized scientists from each camp. That has stirred up some controversy, because there are many "middle ground" campers. However, taking a view to its logical conclusion often leads to the very view of the polarized group. To illustrate the point, Stein interviewed Richard Dawkins, a staunch Darwinist and athiest. He argues that evolution, taken to its logical conclusion, means that there is no God. Another scientist whose name I can't recall, exultantly stated (in paraphrase), "There is no God, there is no life after death, there are no moral values, there is nothing!" That same scientists was also in favor of euthenasia, which is another logical conclusion of evolution. If we are just cells smashed together by chance, here for ourselves and no one else, then why live after it's not fun any more?

The real revelation from the movie is that both scientific theories--Evolution and Intelligent Design--come through their own world views. A world view is, simply, one's belief about the world that affects one's decisions. The important word is "belief." Evolution requires a belief system for it to work, and yet Intelligent Design is invalidated for that same reason.

All in all, it's an excellent documentary. I would highly recommend it no matter your beliefs. I would caution you, however, on your discussions after the movie. The point of the movie is to open calm, thoughtful conversation between the two sides. However, this is an issue where emotions run high, and rational thought is easily put aside for less productive words. You can find evidence of that all over the internet; I encourage you to do some sleuthing on both sides. Find out if the movie is showing near you!

In other news, many of you have probably heard of Oprah Winfrey's new "cult religion." Oprah has started a webinar series on the book A New Earth written by Eckhart Tolle. In typical Oprah fashion, the book is very New Age. And also in typical Oprah fashion, what she touches turns to gold, and thousands have joined in on the webinar series. I read a blog post that had some very good comments on what is going on, and I will encourage you to read it as well instead of me rewriting what's been said. I'm not an Oprah watcher, but I know many people who are. Be aware of what's happening so you can discuss it with someone who might be duped by it.

It's good to be informed about these kinds of things: origin of life discussions and support of a New Age movement by a very influential person. As much as I'd like to duck my head in the sand 'til Christ comes back, I know that won't do the Kingdom any good. And it won't help the people who are lost and seeking.

Get informed and get in the conversation!

Showerhead Innovation

I ran across a new kind of showerhead today, and I thought I'd pass it on. There is a whole line of showerheads made by Evolve that preserve water when you're not using them. How many people (or people's spouses) turn on the hot water to the shower, then go off and do other things waiting for it to warm up? Shave, pick out clothes, check the mail.... When you get back, the water is nice and warm. But how long was it running nice and warm?

The Evolve showerheads have an auto-turnoff that reduce the flow of water to a trickle once the water hits 95 degrees. That will indicate that it's hot, and if you're in the middle of something, you don't waste any more water! Some people like water hotter than 95, and the showerhead does not prevent it from getting hotter; the designers evidently figured 95 was a comfortable temp to start, at least.

Check out the site! Only one of the showerheads is a low-flow design; the others are normal flow just like what you're used to. The cheapest one is $40, which is more expensive than the cheapest you can find at Wal-Mart, but really pretty on par with other showerheads. There's also an adapter which looks like it fits between your existing showerhead and shower arm, just in case you just bought your dream showerhead and are now finding it lacking. The site says the showerheads are available at The Home Depot, so we may go check them out. I know this would be useful at our house!

A Step

Today I've signed up to donate my photography to an auction whose proceeds go to a Christian school here in town. I'll be donating a sitting and a 16x20 portrait. I had started to donate an 8x10, but that's not going to be very impressive over someone's mantle, s0 a 16x20 it is. I'm giving about a $150 value (yes, those new prices I've yet to really use), and hopefully someone will bid more on it than that so that the school will make lots of money. And also, hopefully, this will be good publicity for me, too. I'll get to have my business cards set out as well as a sample of my work.

As far as a sample goes, I have two options for family portraits. One is the Sapp family. The other is the Schield family. The Sapps are a little older, with two grown boys, while the Schields are a mixture of ages (though they're all siblings except Mrs. Schield). The Schields is a more colorful picture, but I like the lighting in the Sapp portrait. What do you think? Let me know which one would make you bid for a portrait sitting for yourself.

This year's garden

This year, I haven't done nearly the planning as I did last year. I decided this morning that during my afternoon holiday, I'd go get some flowers. I didn't know how many, or what I would put where. I did know I wanted another rose and cucumbers.

So, I went to my favorite garden center and found flowers: petunias, daisies, verbena, and a rose. I also got some herbs: cilantro, dill and chives. And of course I got the cucumbers.

When I got home, our neighbor (not Holly) had her normal passel of kids over--her own, her nieces and nephews, and I'm pretty sure a few just come over that are no relation. Anyway, one little girl asked if she could watch me plant. Fine, I said. I was planting the herbs at the time, so I had them smell the leaves of each herb and I told them what they were and how to use them. I was pretty proud of myself. (Oh, and I say "them" because one little girl had grown to two girls and three boys, ranging in age from 5 to 10, most closer to 5).

Then, suddenly, it was not fun any more to just watch. Everyone wanted to help. Which was okay, because at the moment I was struggling with getting my rose planted. Well, before I knew it, the rose was done, as well as all the flowers, and all I had done was enough to show them how to plant. I showed them the proper way to get a plant out of it's plastic pot, how to carefully separate the roots, and how to cover it with dirt. I planted two flowers, and suddenly, each kid is at a different pot, planting "their" flowers however they saw fit. And, they didn't do too bad of a job, I have to admit.

They all begged me for the petunias. They asked how much they were, and could they buy them from me. I told them to ask their mommas to take them to Wal-Mart to get some petunias. I'm sure their mommas will appreciate that. But, at the end, we had a little dirt left over, so I asked each kid to fill one of the little plastic pots with dirt, and I gave them all seeds I had left over from last year's gardening experiment. They planted them and I watered them, and each kid took one home! I hope they have better luck than I did!

So, at first I was pretty proud of myself, able to handle five and sometimes six kids in a garden. Then I got a little frustrated, because I was reminded how self-centered kids are--especially young ones. But I think they had fun, and maybe they'll want to garden a little. And it was pretty cool, all in all.

I hope my plants grow! If not, I'm totally blaming it on the kids. :)

Happy Birthday!

We all celebrated at John & Karen's house. Bekah made the cake and it was SO yummy!

My dad laughed because he got to hold Ian first.

My mom looking upset because she wasn't the first to get a hold of Ian.

Little did either of them know that Jon and I got to hold him first!

Ian working on tummy time!

Look at how high that head is coming up!

Jon and I headed for the Stockyards today.

This horse was beautiful, and the longhorn was NOT wanting to do the walk around the block they do twice a day.

This guy was really pretty.

My handsome man! Taking me to Riscky's BBQ for lunch!

...and 5 pictures later....

I, however, never tire of the camera.

I'm so distraught about being in jail....and did I mention I dyed my hair red?

This little girl was the cutest, riding the bull like a pro!

Another sad post

Sorry for yet another sad post....Wesson died today. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Kitten update

Smith died this morning. Wesson is doing worse--acting like Smith was a couple of days ago.