Cat Attack!

Yesterday, I mentioned an event that pretty much turned the entire Downright Domestic household upside-down.

We began Friday with a trip to the beach with a friend who will be leaving town soon; we ended the day by taking these home:

Please don't tell our landlord.

We were ecstatic because we both love kitties and have been considering getting one for a while. This could be an opportunity for a free kitten! we thought.

Ever hear of Baby Think-It-Over? It is a life-like baby doll with real-life crying intervals and care needs that high schools programs will give to teenagers for a few weeks to convince them that having babies in high school isn't such a good idea.

More than once, I have turned the kitties upside-down and checked for batteries.

They are incredibly cute and fun to play with, but we are realizing quickly that we simply don't have the room for a cat. There isn't any good spot for a litter box or food.

I have boarded up and stuck more towels in nooks and crannies than I can remember (just how did I find out about these secret passages? Guess). Last night, I rounded up all the kitties to put them in the bathroom for the night, as usual. After much time spent fruitlessly searching for one lost kitten, I decided to just leave him out for the night. Maybe then he'd learn his lesson!

I woke up at four this morning to ear-splitting screeching from the kitchen. Where did I find this lost kitty? Inside my closed table-linen drawer. Don't ask me how. I'm still scratching my head over that one.

In spite of all the kitten adventures, Mama cat has proven to be the worst of the bunch. We have been the lucky recipients of a non-stop monologue from the cat. When one of moves to the other room to get away from the noise, she follows us, meowing all the way. We go to sleep listening to her vocalize. Come to think of it, this cat may be a perfect specimen to try this hilarious idea.

So, all in all, I'm having fun with the kitties, but I will be even better when my friend returns in a couple weeks to get his cats back!

Evidently, this whole marriage thing is working out

I am pleased to announce that, as of yesterday, Adam and I have been blissfully married for one whole year!

According to tradition, the one-year anniversary gift is supposed to be paper. This could be a book, a love letter, tickets to something, or whatever else your imagination comes up with. 

Adam told me he was going to buy me a ream of paper. What a romantic! (and a kidder, of course. I hope. For his sake.)

We actually didn't end up giving each other anything because we had an event that disrupted our entire weekend, which I will write about tomorrow. So I'm still open to suggestions as to what to give hubs for our one-year mark!

One fun thing we did was buy the game of Life and play it on a blanket at the park. Adam is awesome because he lets me cheat. I was doomed to go through Life without landing on a single kid space, so he turned a blind eye when I landed on the kid spaces anyway. :-D

So, thank you, Adam, for putting up with me for a whole year! I love you, and am ready to celebrate another hundred anniversaries with you!

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!

As you may have noticed, I have not been blogging for about a month or so. This is how it feels, coming back to the land of the living:

This is also a very close representation of what I go through every morning before I've had my coffee. That being said, I have been reading and somewhat keeping up with my favorite blogs- I just haven't had any creative blogging ideas for a while.

This has been a crazy month! I finally graduated from college a few weeks ago, thank You, Jesus. My parents came down from Washington State, and unfortunately, they were the only ones taking pictures, so it might be a few years before you ever see any graduation photos besides these two:

Yes, I am standing in front of a giant pair of hands. My university is like the Disney World of academia. 

Adam is such a giant compared to my family! I'm thinking my parents agreed to let him marry me because they were afraid he'd beat them up. :-P

Every year, the Music department chooses one instrumentalist and one vocalist from the graduating seniors to do special performances for the hooding ceremony. I was honored to be the chosen vocalist! So on the day of hooding, I got up in front of a packed house in my regalia, and started singing. A few minutes into it, I felt my mortarboard hat s.l.i.p.p.i.n.g. off. And then it just fell off right in the middle of a cadenza! ACK! Everybody laughed, but fortunately, I'm very experienced at humiliating myself in public, so I was unruffled. That's one hooding nobody will ever forget!

Tomorrow will be one week since my last day at the Mexican restaurant. I'd been feeling impressed by God for a while to give my two-week's notice, and one day I finally stopped saying, "God, are You CRAZY?" and handed in the notice. So now, both Adam and I are job-hunting. It's kind of an uncertain time for us, but I'm trusting that God is not playing some sort of April Fool's joke on us, and that He'll provide for us what we need.

Wax Removal

Aaaaaaaaand I'm back from a nearly three-week hiatus! I haven't been home enough lately to be Downright Domestic, because I'm pretty sure my manager at work is trying to kill me. Lol. According to my little Sitemeter, however, nobody's been by here anyway, so everything's good. ;-)

One homey thing I did do the other day was remove wax from a doily. Apparently, my husband is so fascinated by watching wax melt that he will let it flow freely over any doilies in its path. *smacks forehead* After picking at it, freezing it, and searching the internet in vain for solutions (for some reason, removing wax from doilies is not a hot topic!), I threw the doily in a pot of boiling water, changing the water from time to time. Eventually, the wax melted off! Hooray! All in a day's work!

On a side note, does anybody know how to remove wax from a pan? :-D

My Favorite Things: Crocs

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, and I've decided to finally take the plunge. Every Thursday, I will write a post dedicated to a product that I find to be fabulous, inexpensive, cute, or a help to the Downright Domestic way. Since my name is Maria, and everybody is always singing the Sound of Music at me, why not title this little series, "My Favorite Things"?

So for my first installment, I will bypass the talk about raindrops on roses and whiskers on

 kittens and tell you about one product my feet just love:

Wait wait wait! Don't close the browser on me yet!

Crocs have evolved way beyond those first ugly ones with holes in the top that look like garden shoes. Now, they have products like this:

And this:

But it's not the looks that make me love Crocs. It is their wonderful comfort. These shoes are so light, it feels like you're not wearing anything at all. The shoes are sized slightly bigger on purpose, so that your feet have room to expand-- no pinched toes here! They have little massage nubs on the soles that feel great when you first put them on, but don't irritate you after ten minutes (like some athletic sandals I've tried).

When I first got my waitressing job, it took me about three weeks of achy feet to break down and buy a pair of Crocs specially designed for restaurant work. It was a good investment! Not only do my feet feel better at the end of a long shift, but I'm not slip-sliding over greasy, wet floors, either, like my tennis shoes do.

They last a long time, too! I wore my first pair nearly every day for a year before they gave out on me (I wore a hole clear through the sole! LOL). And when it's time for them to go to Shoe Heaven, you can just drop them off at designated retailers, and the Crocs company will recycle them and give them to impoverished people around the world!

So, are you convinced to go buy yourself a pair sometime? Well, you're in luck, because you actually have an opportunity to get them for free! Simplemom.net is hosting a $50 Crocs giveaway here. The giveaway ends Friday the 10th at midnight, so make sure to get over there soon!

Works For Me Wednesday: Microwave Mug Brownies

Some days, my sweet tooth slaps me in the face and demands to be fed right now. If you're like me, though, you really don't want to make a whole batch of cookies or an entire pan of brownies. Because... well... this happens.

  

Gotta keep that girlish figure, right? ;-)

Allow me to introduce you to a dessert that will revolutionize those sweet cravings! Reader, meet Microwave Mug Brownies. Microwave Mug Brownies, meet Reader. All right, now that we've got introductions out of the way, you're ready for the recipe!

1/4 cup flour

2 Tbsp. sugar*

2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1 Tbsp. canola oil

2 Tbsp. water (or more, if it's too dry)

Mix all ingredients together in a microwave-safe mug. Try not to eat all the batter before it makes it to the microwave! Nuke for 1-3 minutes (depending on how fudgy you want your brownie). 

*The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of sugar, but even I can't voluntary eat that much in one sitting. It seems to be fine with half the sugar.

You can also add chocolate chips for extra chocolatey goodness.

Last time, in a half-hearted effort to redeem this nutritionless dessert, I used half whole wheat flour. My husband actually liked it better that way! Feel free to experiment with the recipe.

Eating a rich dessert with controlled portions Works for Me! Check out all the other great tips at We Are THAT Family!

Works For Me Wednesday: Reusing Plastic Bags

Welcome to my blog! Today is Works for Me Wednesday: Backwards Edition (hosted by We Are THAT Family), so I will ask you all for solutions to a quandary of mine. MWUAHAHAHA...

I have a confession to make: I have about a million plastic grocery bags stashed in a closet. The past month or so, I have been taking my own reusable bags to the store, so I've slowed down the rate at which those things are reproducing, but I still have a good amount of them!

I hate to throw them away since they can be reused; I'd like to know the clever ways you all have used plastic bags. 

So far, this is what I use them for:

• Trash can liners
• Packing material (instead of foam peanuts or newspaper)
• Wet swimsuit/dirty laundry bag when away from home

What else can I do to use up my army of plastic bags??