Cat cuddling

Chad cuddling with both cats in his lap.

Such cute cats!

Roxy all stretched out and sleeping.

March 2011 bird pictures

This is not the best picture since it was getting dark, but here is Mr. Cardinal stopping by our feeder.

More birds at our feeder.

Coupon Savings

One of my goals this year is to save more money by using coupons/sales/etc.  I've been using coupons for awhile, but I want to try to be more on top of sales, special coupon events, etc. so that I can really save the most money I can.  This week is Super Doubles at Harris Teeter - which means they double manufacturer's coupons up to $1.99.  So, I got $58 worth of groceries for $24 - saving $34!  I was VERY happy with that purchase, so I took a picture of all that I was able to get for my $24:

Reader's Club

One of my favorite things about my job is being on the Reader's Club team.  This team runs the Reader's Club website, which is a reader's advisory website that is part of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library system.  We review books and post the reviews on our site, plus try to get author interviews and other online resources about books.  I've been on this team for going on 6 years now and it's one of the best parts of my job.  Each month the team members rotate various duties, so I get to work on a different aspect of the team and the website each month.  Plus, I've had some great co-workers on this team since I've been a member!  At our most recent meeting I thought it would be nice to have a picture of our current team.  We were only missing Paul, our web services person who makes sure all our content gets into the website.  Here's the Reader's Club Team as of Feb. 2011:

Left to right - Jessica, Sally, Kim, Christine, Cassandra, Angela, and Megan.

Dad's New House

My Dad recently bought a new condo closer to his work.  So, Chad and I came to visit and help him change out some of the old light fixtures and just help him get set up in his new place.  Here are some pictures from our visit:

Here are some before and after pictures of the lights we changed out:

Here are some pictures Chad and I took at Wrightsville Beach while we were visiting Dad:

February Cat Pics

Here are some pictures of Sandy & Roxy from February 2011.

Roxy & Sandy cuddling.

Roxy.

Sandy doing the over-the-shoulder look.

Jimmy Eat World concert

For my Valentine's Day gift this year I wanted to go see the band Jimmy Eat World again.  They were coming to Amos Southend on Feb. 5, 2011.  They are one of my favorite bands, so I was very excited to get to see them again!  They definitely put on a good show, but unfortunately it seemed like most of the people around us were more interested in trying to talk to each other or text on their phones than listening to the band.  I don't understand why people would pay $25 per ticket to scream at each other during a concert!  I still enjoyed the show and Jimmy Eat World was GREAT as always.  Here are some pictures from the show:

Our Church is AWESOME!

Chad & I have been attending Mecklenburg Community Church for over 8 years now and we love it!  It is the best church I have EVER attended.  Meck is starting a new phase - in 2009 we started a building campaign to fund an expansion to our campus.  We are also going to launch new locations around the community as well - this past weekend our Mountain Island Lake and Lake Norman campuses launched.  In the near future we are also planning to launch campuses in Mint Hill and Kannapolis.  This way our church can impact even more of the surrounding community.  At the February 1st Wednesday service our pastor Jim White gave us some statistics that I thought were worth sharing, so here are some stats about Meck.

• In general 80% of churches are either plateaued or declining in membership and the average church loses 10% of their members/attenders every year.
• Between 2008-2010 Meck GREW 23.54% and of that growth 69% were people who were unchurched before coming to Meck.
• Meck has approx. 18,000 names in our database and over 5,000 active attenders - active attender is definied as somehow being on the radar through tithing, attending a class, being in a small group, serving in a ministry, etc.
• In 2008 Meck baptized 127 people, in 2009 150 baptisms, and in 2010 330 baptisms!
• Each year Meck does a special offering at Christmastime called Giving to Christ at Christmas - this is above and beyond normal tithing and the money goes to special ministries that our church supports.  In 2010 we were able to purchase land in the Philipines to build a home for rescued brothel workers - that is one example of the type of ministries Giving to Christ at Christmas funds.  In 2008 $178,888 was given for Giving to Christ at Christmas.  In 2009 we started Unhindered - our building fund, so we didn't have a Giving to Christ at Christmas collection.  In 2010 Giving to Christ at Christmas brought in $239,041. And this is all during a terrible economy as well!
• Most church building funding campaigns have about a 60-70% fulfillment rate, but Meck's Unhindered campaign has had a 94-95% fulfillment rate so far!

I absolutely LOVE being a part of a church that is doing so much in our local community and throughout the world.  I know that any money I give to Meck will go to ministries that are really making a difference.  It is such an awesome feeling to belong to a church that I feel like is really on the right track and has the right focus.  I can't wait to see what our stats will be for 2011!

The Original Plaid Cat

For whatever reason I've always drawn plaid cats - I would draw a little outline of a cat and then fill it in with a plaid pattern whenever I would doodle in school or whatever.  So, one year for my birthday my good friend Amanda made me a stuffed cat out of green and blue plaid cordoroy fabric.  He is so cute!  He even has a little bow tied around his neck!  I was recently going through some things and found this guy again.  This was such a great gift and since my blog is called Plaid Cats I thought that I needed to take some pictures of this guy and post them on here - I also made one of the pictures my profile picture.  Here is the original Plaid Cat and inspiration behind my blog name:

A close-up of Plaid Cat.

Craft Table

Chad made me an awesome craft table for my birthday last year.  I was so incredibly surprised too!  I have been meaning to take some pictures of it and finally post them!  He got me various colored cloth bins to store my supplies in and also made a matching shelf.  I love having all my craft supplies organized and together and now I can keep my sewing machine set up all the time too!  Here are some pictures of my craft table:

This picture is my whole craft area set up with the table and shelf.

Here is just the craft table.

January 10, 2011 Snow

We had our second snow of the winter on January 10, 2011.  We got about 5 inches at our house and then in the evening it turned to freezing rain, so everything was covered with a crust of ice too.  The library was closed for two days, so it was nice to have a 4 day weekend too!  Here are some pictures from our snow days:

Random outside pictures

Some birds at our feeder.

A really pretty sunrise at the beginning of January.

Visit to T & D Farms

Chad & I have been buying all of our meat from local farmers at the Farmer's Market.  Since the market was not open as much in the winter we decided to go out and visit one of the main farms we buy meat from so we could stock up until the Farmer's Market re-opens.  The owners were so nice and let us walk around the farm and even showed us some of their "pet" animals - goats and a few calves.  We go to see some goats that had just been born the morning we visited!  It was really great to get to visit T & D and see all their animals.  Here are some pictures from our visit:

2010 Year in Review

For the past few years I've been posting my Top 10 books of the year that I read - not all were published in 2010, but were ones that I read last year.  In 2010 I read 69 books total.  So, here is my Top 10 Books of 2010:

Fiction

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Rescue by Anita Shreve

Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

Non-Fiction

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost

Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

The Dirty Life: on Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball

Food, Inc. edited by Karl Weber (companion book to the documentary)

The Kids Are All Right by Diana and Liz Welch

2010 was a crazy year for me at work with two rounds of lay offs in the spring and summer.  Thankfully I survived both rounds and even though I was reassigned after each round I still have a job!  Chad had a great year with his business too.  2009 was really, really slow for him, but thankfully things picked up a lot for him and he was so busy that there were weeks where he worked 7 days and had to hire people to help him.  We are both so thankful for our jobs!  We were also able to pay off both of our cars and Chad's student loans this year - so now we will enter 2011 debt-free other than our mortgage.  I also kept track of how much money we saved in 2010 by using coupons and we saved a total of $1,205.86 - an average of over $100 per month!  2010 was a great year for us and we're hoping 2011 will be even better!

Sandy & Roxy's Christmas 2010 video

Last year we shot a short video of the cats playing with their Christmas toys, so we decided to do the same thing this year.  Some friends of ours gave the cats some new toys - including a treat ball.  You put treats inside a ball with a hole in the side and the cat has to hit and play with it to get the treats out.  Roxy LOVED this new toy - she is very food motivated, so this is perfect for her.  Here is their short video from Christmas 2010:

Christmas Day Snow

This year as we were driving home from my brother's apartment after our Christmas dinner it started snowing.  By the time we got home it was really coming down and sticking to the ground.  The snow was beautiful the next day, but thankfully the roads weren't bad at all since my Dad needed to get back home.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas Day snow:

Christmas Day 2010

We had a very good Christmas this year.  Chad & I keep Christmas Eve as our holiday time together - we have made it our tradition to go to the Christmas Eve service at church and then go eat dinner at Outback.  This year on Christmas Day we spent the morning with Chad's family and the evening with my family.  Here are pictures of all our Christmas Day fun:

Chad & Jessica's Christmas celebration

Celebrating with Chad's family

Celebrating with Jessica's family

Christmas Craftiness

I usually try to make a few Christmas gifts each year, but it really depends on what I want to make and how time-consuming it is to make it!  This year I made a few gifts and also a new wreath for our house.  Here are the pictures of my Christmas crafts from this year:

This is the new wreath I made - I'm learning to knit, so that's what inspired this wreath.

This is the tag blanket I made for Braden.

I cross-stitched this set of tropical fish towels for my Mom & Mike.

Tropical fish towel #1.

Tropical fish towel #2.

Tropical fish towel #3.

I also put together calendars in iPhoto on our computer for my Mom, my grandmother, and Chad's parents, grandparents, and sister.  Even though I put them together I didn't physically make them, so I don't consider them "crafts", but they are still very personalized gifts that I really enjoy making each year.

Christmas 2010 Parties

This year we had Christmas parties every weekend in December before Christmas!  The first party is with a group of friends that we either used to be in small groups with or are currently in small group with.  We always do an ornament gift exchange game and eat a meal together.  Here are some pictures from this party:

Our second party was with our current small group.  Dave was sick, so he and Melanie weren't there and I forgot to take pictures anyway!  This party was the same night as a Mark Kano and Mike Garrigan concert, so one of the couples in our group came with us to the concert too after our party.

Our third party was with the Mint Hill library staff.  Even though I was reassigned away from Mint Hill this year they still invited us to their party!  It really meant a lot to us to still be included - I really miss working with everyone there.  Mint Hill always does a gift exchange game called "dirty santa" that's always a lot of fun.  Chad originally got a gift that included a hand-made ink pen, but it got stolen from him.  Then after the game Donna (the hostess of the party) said that her husband Dennis had made the pen and would give Chad another one.  That REALLY meant a lot to Chad since he really wanted that gift - especially since Dennis made it.  Here are the pictures from the Mint Hill party:

Christmastime Concerts

One of my favorite Christmas traditions now is going to see the Behold the Lamb of God concert at our church.  This year we saw the concert on Dec. 15th and I think it was our 5th time seeing it!  This is a really unique Christmas concert where the songs all tell the story of Jesus from the Old Testament to His birth.  Andrew Peterson wrote the songs, and he has an incredible cast of singer/songwriters/musicans who play and sing with him on this tour.  This year I wanted to take some pictures at the concert, but I forgot the camera.  Here's a picture of the CD art at least!

It's not quite a tradition, but it seems like for at least the past 3 years I've gotten to see either Athenaeum or Mark Kano sometime in December.  Mark is the lead singer for Athenaeum and he is one of the most talented musicians I've ever seen.  This year we were able to see Mark Kano and Mike Garrigan (also of Athenaeum) perform at the Evening Muse on Dec. 10th.  Here are a few pictures from that night:

Mark and Mike.

Mark Kano.

Mike Garrigan.

Christmas Cats

The cats love to check out the Christmas tree - thankfully they don't try to climb it!  Usually Sandy spends a lot of time under the tree, but this year it seems like both cats are hanging out under the tree more. 

They also hang out on our bed more in the winter time.  They love to snuggle on our thick winter comforter, plus it's normally warmer upstairs!

Here are both cats in Chad's lap.

Here is Roxy begging for attention (as usual)!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas is probably my favorite time of year.  I love decorating the house and the Christmas tree.  This year we decorated the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is earlier than we normally would decorate, but we were hosting a party the next weekend, so we had to decorate early.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas decorations:

Star 1996 - 2010

For my 17th birthday my boyfriend at the time, Stephen, got me a kitten we named Star.  We adopted her from the Union Co. humane society in September 1996.  She was so tiny, but quickly grew into a beautiful, long-haired cat.  When I got married and moved out she and our family's other cat Panther stayed with my family since I hated to separate the cats and then when my parents divorced my brother took both of the cats when he moved out.  Panther had to be put to sleep a few years ago, but Star made it to 14 years old.  It's actually amazing that she lived as long as she did because I've never seen a cat with more health problems.  She almost died as a kitten from a flea bath at the vet, then she ate a bee and her throat started to swell up, she also had allergies and asthma.  In early October my brother called me to tell me that he had taken Star to the vet for a spot in her mouth that wasn't healing and it turned out to be a tumor.  Since she was so old the surgery would have been too much for her, so we decided to see how long she could make it.  This week my brother said he was scratching at the tumor and that is was getting bigger, plus she was starting to use the bathroom all over his apartment.  We made the extremely difficult decision to put her to sleep so that she wouldn't be suffering anymore.

I was extremely impressed with Fullwood Animal Hospital, Star's vet, and how well they handled everything.  When we brought her in they knew us and knew what we were there for.  They asked if we wanted a paw print momento and one of the vet techs even came in the room to pet Star one last time.  They made an extremely hard situation a little better.  After Star was gone Fielding and I took her and buried her next to Panther out in the woods near our old house where they grew up playing together. 

Making the decision to put an animal to sleep is always hard.  I think it's harder because the animal can't speak to tell you that it's time to go.  But, if you are a good pet owner and you know your pet then you know when it's time and when they are suffering.  I know for sure that Star had 14 great years.  I pulled out some old pictures from Star's prime and scanned them, along with some more current pictures.  Here is a little slideshow of Star's life:

This is the paw print momento the vet made for us.

I made mine into a Christmas ornament.

Thanksgiving 2010

This year we didn't have Thanksgiving with my family, but we were able to celebrate with Chad's family.  Here are some pictures from this Thanksgiving:

Vultures

For some reason our neighborhood is a hang out for a lot of vultures.  But, recently I was walking and saw the most I've seen in a long time, so when I finished my first loop I went back home to get my camera.  While I was taking some pictures I noticed that a house across the street from our neighborhood had quite a few vultures on the house and in the yard.  Before I could get a picture of them on that house a police car pulled up and turned on the siren scaring them all away.  Then the police officer got out and I heard him tell the home owner that "...they're all gone from your yard now.", so I guess the person that lives in that house called the police about the vultures!  I know people think they are creepy, but they like to hang out in big flocks and it's not like they will attack someone.  I just thought it was crazy that that person called the police about vultures in their yard!  Here are some of the pictures I got that day:

This is the power line tower closest to the front of our neighborhood.

A close up of a few vultures.

This is when they were flying away across the street.

The power line tower in the back of our neighborhood.

Fall cat pictures

The cats love to snuggle when it gets colder.

Roxy sitting with Chad on the couch!

Fall pictures

The weather this fall has been pretty nice - it's cooled off, but we've still had some nice warm days too.  Here are a few pictures of this fall:

Our house with our tree if full fall color.

A bird nest in a tree in our neighborhood.

A beautiful tree in our neighborhood.

A bird in the tree in our front yard.

Birds at our feeder.

My Mom's NC Visit

My Mom always come to NC for my Grandmother's birthday in October.  I usually try to take a week off work and go to Wilmington so I can spend time with both my Mom and Grandmother.  Here are some pictures from her most recent visit:

Sleeping cat pictures

My cats LOVE when my Mom comes to visit because they get to sleep on the guest bed.  The second room upstairs gets the most sunlight, so they love to curl up on that bed and sleep in the sun.  Here are a few pictures from my Mom's last visit and you can tell the cats are really enjoying using her bed!

A close up of Sandy.

A close up of Roxy.

Halloween 2010

Every year Chad and I go to a local farm, Hodges Dairy Farm, to pick out our pumpkin.  They have hayrides for kids, a maze, animals to see, and plenty of pumpkins to choose from.  Here are some pictures from our visit to the pumpkin patch:

We decided to carve our pumpkin into a bat, so the actual pumpkin was the face and then we made bat wings and ears to attach to the pumpkin.  It worked out really well because I drew the face and wings for the pumpkin bat and Chad worked out how to attach them to the pumpkin so they would stay up.  We also roasted the pumpkin seeds for the first time this year and they were pretty tasty.  Here are some pictures of the carving and our finished pumpkin: