Whirlwind of Happiness

In spite of Bjarne looking so sleepy in the above photo, this week has been sort of a whirlwind!

My parents arrived last week (to spend the winter here in Arizona!), and I have been spending lots of time with them.

Yesterday, happily, my Mom and I shopped all day (with a stop at In-N-Out Burger in the middle!) and had a wonderful time.  Before we went, we analyzed our current wardrobe situations and decided on purchases we need to fill in holes and make what we already own more serviceable.  

(Click here if you want to know the questions we went though!)

I found this fantastic tote bag (it's quite roomy) at TJ Maxx (my favorite store!)

It started out at $230 and I got it for $54.99 

(actually, I got it for Christmas from my parents and Greg's Dad & Step-Mom, 

since their gift cards paid for it! THANK YOU!)

And a Quicksilver polka-dot denim shirt.

Today I put together this outfit with the shirt + a teal skirt + some cute blue shoes and a ladylike blue bag 

I found at DSW.

Skirt from Target
Shoes from Splendid

Sometimes it's really fun to be matchy!  Especially with BLUE, my favorite color!

(By the way, as much as I remember loving pink as a little girlie girl, my Mom told me recently that my favorite color was blue even then!)

I also bought these delicious sparkly shoes (by Sperry)!

My Mom added some very helpful things to her wardrobe (a maxi skirt, some animal prints, a cheetah-print bag - like mine above, only smaller and cross-body style! - and some palazzo pants).  Wonderful!

Then we went back to my parents' condo and my Dad grilled deee-licious steaks and my Mom made sweet potatoes with brown sugar, and we had dinner together!  Sadly, Greg was busy last night, so he couldn't join us, which would have made it even more fun.  But we had fun anyway!  

Today I got to go to the eye doctor - one of my favorite things is choosing glasses!

I LOVE being bespectacled!  It suits my style, my personality, and my love of books (and love of cats!)

The doctor added a bit more prism to my prescription and I ordered new frames with the lovely new crisp prescription put in.  Here's what I ordered!

by Kate Spade
style: Twyla
LOVE the snappy stripes on the inside!
And the color of the frame is almost the same color as my hair -
they look pretty together!

This last week I have expanded my eating a bit . . . I ate a "protein style" burger at In-N-Out (wrapped in lettuce)!  And while I pretty much only consumed the two leaves that actually held the burger, still: I ate lettuce!

And this last week, I made three dinners with a spicy kick.

Here's the great news:  I haven't had any major digestive distress because of any of this!

Also, I got a cold last night.  Now, I realize that doesn't sound like a great thing, but I haven't had a regular old cold with a sore throat and stuffy nose in about five years.  I actually was sort of concerned about my lack of colds, because it seemed to indicate that my immune system was indeed in overdrive (in auto-immune disorders, the person's own immune system attacks other parts of the body that it shouldn't attack).  So the fact that I have a cold makes me wonder if perhaps the LDN is calming my immune system down so it's responding more normally.  I hope that's the case!

There's the update for now.  

Now on to CATS!

Allistair loves to snuggle

Bjarne has been whining alllllllll the time lately,
but he looks calm and cutsey in this photo!

Claude hid under some packing paper

... and just sat there, looking pretty!

My generous parents brought a gift for us:
seven glasses they found at an antique store in
Alexandria, Minnesota, near their lake cabin.
BEAUTIFUL!
They are bumpy with branches and twigs shaped into the glass.
I love them!

From the side, you can see Juvy's cute little snub nose!

I love to look at her from the front, too!

Allistair got really crazy on catnip and rolled around in this box like a cuckoo.

YouTube link

And here is some video of our GORGEOUS new quilt, made especially for us by Greg's Mom (THANKS, Linda!)  The cats love it, and so do we!!!

YouTube link

Happy Thursday!