Firsts

I thought it would be a fun idea to chronicle some of the firsts in my life so I don’t forget, in big things and little things, and in no certain order at all.

So, here we go. Let’s see what I can remember.

The first tooth I lost was when I was four years old in a fish and chips restaurant. I actually can still conjure up the rather blurry memory of digging it out of my mouth.

The first young man to ask me to be his proper dance partner was Stephen, and that was this past November. We’d actualy just met several months prior at Family Camp and we just really hit it off well.  Whenever we’re at the same parties we end up being together for the entirety of the evening. He’s lots of fun.

The first story I wrote was about a boy named Tom and his siblings. I was about seven or eight years old.

The first superhero movie I ever saw was Captain America: The First Avenger. (The second superhero movie I saw was Thor.)

The first mystery series I ever read (as far as I can remember) was Cam Jansen, the girl with the photographic memory. Did anyone else read Cam when they were young? Or Encyclopedia Brown? Or The Boxcar Children? Or American Girl History Mysteries? It’s no wonder my primary entertainment is sleuths and whodunits nowadays, that is all I read as a kid.

My first official crush was Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes. Unashamed.

The first vampire book I ever read was Dracula. Not Twilight. That’s how it should be. (By the way, Dracula? Best. Book. Ever.)

The first person I ever wanted to marry was my best friend Ben. It was kinda devastating to learn that cousins couldn’t marry however.

The first time I got to pet stingrays was at the zoo. But the first time I got to feed stingrays was two year later at Sea World. Both of these things are one of the best feelings in the world, especially if you’re an animal lover, like myself.

The first poster I ever bought was Star Wars related.

I’m pretty sure the first movie I ever saw in theaters was VeggieTale’s Jonah Movie. And I still like that movie.

The first pet I ever personally owned with a hermit crab.  Who’s name I can’t remember anymore.

The first laptop I ever owned weighed about 100 pounds and could barely run the old Army Man games (well, it wasn’t literally a 100 pounds but it was so old that it was just super heavy). My parents were nice enough to get me better one when I proved to be responsible.

My first boyfriend (and so far only boyfriend) is not even a boy. But he’s a he. And he’s the neighbor dog. Clarence. Who adores me because I’ve been walking him for nearly four years. And he treats me like I’m his girlfriend. Because he gets jealous of my attention. So everybody says he’s my boyfriend. Speaking of which: he was my Valentine this year! He laid on my feet, gave me his paw all on his own and even gave me a kiss on face when I asked for one.  Oh, if you were wondering, he’s a Golden Lab. And he’s my first boyfriend.

The first PG-13 movie I saw was The Blind Side.

The first kitten I ever saw delivered from beginning to end was the oldest of Princess’s litter, Dot.

And I would tell you all about the first time someone called me crazy but I don’t remember because it was so long ago and there have been so many numerous times that it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact first time. So, anyway.

~Jamie

Life Update

Hiemdall (better known as Tubby!)

Ahhhhhh. This week has been full of thoughts and posts on writing but I feel ready to give a post on life in general (aka post where I ramble about the first few topics that come to mind.)

I haven’t mentioned the kittens in a while, have I? Well, we still have all five, they’re so big, so cute and so fun. Up there is one of the two males, Tubby, who’s official name is Hiemdall! XD I don’t have pictures of all of them, but the shot below is of the Dot (or Dr. Watson), who was the first kitten to be born. She’s adorable. The other kittens all have official names and than nicknames that we call them. The other male is a black kitten who Mom named Vader but we call him Blackie. The black and white kitten is Holmes but we call her Socks (Yes, Holmes and Dr. Watson are girls. What can I say, my mom named them.) And than Kayla named her kitten Katniss and that’s what we call her. Here’s a picture of Dot below.

Yes, I did take these pictures, actually. I wish I had more pictures of when they were small but it was actually pretty stressful when they were first born and taking pictures was far from my mind during the whole ordeal. I won’t even both to go into details right now, it was just tough those first few weeks.

This week I started learning a new song on the keyboard. I’ve been in LOVE with the song when I found it on YouTube and after several weeks of listening to it, it dawned on me that I should try to find the sheet music somewhere. Google never fails. I found the music and was able to download for a few dollars. I’ve spent all week making my fingers fly on my keyboard. The song is fast paced and full of rhythm and I’m finally getting the hang of it. I actually was playing it on the Oboe setting on my keyboard and Kayla thought it was the computer and not me playing, so that was funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKhSMDUBfuY

This is not the first song I’ve looked up sheet music for from off YouTube. I also bought the a five sheet piece entitled Rain and spent a week to two weeks learning it. I can now play that song with my eyes closed and it’s one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard. It was worth the time to learn. Go ahead and listen to it; just pretend that’s me playing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWh5YR8sVrI

Okay, enough music.lol

Let’s see, what am I reading right now… oh, yes, I’m reading Dracula again. I know, I know, I just read it, like, two months ago. I’m now reading it with Dylan and he hasn’t read it in a year. I actually don’t mind rereading it because it’s so good. It’s nice to be able to talk about the different chapters with him now instead of just, “ohmigosh yes it’s sooo good!” So, that’s what I’m reading right now. I think we’re going to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow next, if I remember right. He said it was the perfect story to read around Halloween. I’ve not read it, so I’m looking forward to it. After that I think we’ll tackle a couple of G.A. Henty novels and I’ll be doing everything in my power to get him to read Treasure Island. Who’s read Treasure Island, by the way? I love that book so much.

We actually got some rain in my neighborhood this week and that was super nice. I was reading Dracula, actually, right before it started Sunday evening and I’m at this really intense part and all of a sudden “BOOM” there was this huge crack of thunder, perfectly synched with the story. I was like, “Wow. That’s creepy!” I kept reading to the sound of thunder until I also heard the sound of rain and than it was like, “I CAN READ LATER! IT’S RAINING OUTSIDE!” I love seeing lighting in the sky; I also picture it being Thor cracking his hammer up there, having some sort of battle or something. So sometimes I’ll yell at him from the porch, “GO THOR! GO!” Lololol. I’m such a dork.

Okay, I’m going to end on a funny note…. at least, these are funny to me. XD I’m going to start with this one because I think we’ve all experienced this at least once in our lives.

HAHA! Anyway… I’m going to be off and running now! Have a good Saturday!

~Jamie

my 4th was great

Well, my family had a great 4th; it actually drizzled over lunch and it was cloudy all day; I love dark weather, so it was perfect for me. We had to move Princess and the Kittens into a different box to avoid the rain but they adapted quickly (no, we still haven’t named them yet.)

The family had hotdogs for lunch and we listened to Big Band Swing (at my suggestion) (I thought it would give us a great ‘American’ feel, lol) and we played Star Wars Monopoly all afternoon. We watched our cleaned version of The Patriot over pizza into the evening.

At eight some church friends came over for the nearby firework display. We all got to have big sparklers and I showed the twins how to set off ground fireworks.

I stayed up late afterwards laughing at obnoxious freedom posts and filling out a Star Wars interview for Helen at Star Wars Here and There. Read that interview HERE. Kayla kept trying to read my writing over the bunk rail. And that sums up my 4th. Hope you all had a good day yesterday.

Oh, more kitten pictures to come soon!

~Jamie

Kitten Pictures

me sitting up late last night

Princess with baby Number One, freshly licked

Princess with numbers One, Two and Three

As of now, I don’t have any good shots of all five, but hopefully by tomorrow that will be solved. But anywhere, here are some of the better shots from last night. The bottom one was actually taken this morning, as well.

Who thinks Heimdall would make a good name for a boy cat? LOL (if you haven’t seen Thor, than I don’t expect you to understand.)

~Jamie

the kittens are here

Last night at about ten in the evening, Princess went into labor. I noticed it first, as she came over panting very heavily and squatting funny on the backdoor mat. I quickly put her in the box and for the first time, she didn’t get out. I quickly sounded the cry that the kittens were on the way. We went inside to wait, as your supposed to leave cats alone when they have their kittens. But she got out of the box and cried at the door for attention.

Mom and I sat outside the box with her and watched her having contractions for a while. She meowed and cried very loudly and than leapt out of the box, ran over the back door mat and delivered it there. It looked just like her. She cleaned it up and ate the sack and everything, than Mom and I put them back in the box. The second one came about fifteen minutes later and it was the spitting image of the father, Solo, with a completely black body outside of four white mittens. With each kitten, Princess got quicker at knowing what to do. In total, she had five kittens. I didn’t get to bed to 1:00 in the morning as I wanted to supervise and give her attention, considering she had climbed out of the box when we had left.

I’m quite tired this morning, and we’re battling the heat with her outside (it’s about 101 degrees out). Princess is still panting very heavily and we’re trying to keep her as cool as possible. All five kittens are strong and loud. We’re thankful for the relatively easy delivers; especially since this was Princess’s first time.

Pictures to come soon.

~Jamie