Puppy or Kitten?

Matt & I are talking about expanding our little family.  (No, I'm not pregnant.  We're not planning on "taking the goalie out of the net" for another couple years.)  No.  For months now, I have been bugging Matt to get a kitten.

Don't get me wrong, I love our Paris girl.  She is a perfect dog.  (Except for her love of our new leather couch...but who can blame her?  We love it too.)

Anyway.  I grew up with both cats and dogs.  Big dogs (labs like Paris).  (REAL dogs, people.)  And I love them.  But I also like cats.  They're easy to take care of.  They sit on your lap for hours while you read.  Before I met Matt, I had a cat named Lola.  She had six toes on each paw.  She was pretty great.  But she ran away the day I met Matt.  (THE DAY I MET HIM!)  Which I think is kinda weird, but I digress.  (Who am I kidding, I digress every other sentence.  If you're still reading this far, you probably don't care about the digressions.  It's kind of Kelly-speak.  Everything is relevant to every conversation, in my opinion.)

Here is Lola.  (She is sitting on my Bible.)  I used this picture on her lost kitty posters to no avail.

  My conversation with Matt on Lola's absence went like this (it was 3 days after our first date):
Matt:  What'd you do today?
Me: After work I put up posters for my lost cat.
Matt: I didn't know you had a cat...are you a crazy cat lady?
Me: Oh, totally...I knit blankets with her picture on them and tell people what she thinks of them all the time.
Matt:  (laughs..cuz I am funny and was joking and am NOT a crazy cat lady despite my unyielding desire to have a cat on my lap while I am reading...)
Matt: I like cats.
(my heart stops).
Matt: I mean, I love dogs.  But I grew up with cats and dogs and I like cats.  I never understood people who say they HATE cats.  I mean, how can you hate something that is cute and furry?
Me: You have no idea how much my heart just warmed to you right now.

I fell for him hard and fast.
Fast forward 15 months.  We have been married for over a month.  We're successfully keeping our dog alive and semi-successfully keeping our house clean.  I think we are ready to shake up our little world with a furry mess-maker.  And I have begun emailing Matt pictures like this:

these are real kittens that I could own right now and have no right to have images of on here. 

and NOW Matt is all anti-cat and is, in turn, now trying to talk me into getting a puppy!  And not just any puppy.  A lap dog that will somehow be the best of both worlds.  Which sounds ridiculous considering the way we both feel when those dogs are running around your feet at other people's houses...(they don't feel like dogs...not real dogs.)

But last night we found this:

also dogs I don't own and therefore shouldn't have pictures of on the internet...

the second picture, this one right here,   ^ ?  We squealed over that picture on and off for 2 hours last night.


I mean, my husband is a pretty big, muscle-y, manly man.   Here he is with his groomsmen, looking all B-A...

But he gushed over that puppy with me for a serious amount of time.  And now claims that "yippy dogs are only yippy when they are allowed to be".  (which doesn't really make any sense except to imply that he can train a dog to not yip.  right.  I mean, Paris was on the couch again today when I came downstairs from my shower.  She didn't even care that I WAS HOME while she was doing it!    Who are we kidding about this dog training business?)

So now we have a choice.  Free kitten.  Or $200 hybrid "designer" fluffball.  I have been given the decision.  (I think...or rather, I have been presented with the option of changing my mind and choosing the puppy.)  :)

Thoughts?  Which should we get?

Either way, I think it'll be a nice friend for Paris.  Although there may be some jealousy issues...

don't look so sad, Paris.  You're still #1.  See?  I made your picture biggest.

Columbus Day

Today is the day we celebrate the lie possible truth that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America.  Most of the country celebrates it by going to work but inconveniently being unable to receive mail or go to the bank.  At MY bank on Saturday, my friend Natalie and I quickly learned it wasn't funny to ironically tell customers to enjoy their "holiday weekend".  No one got the joke.  Or appreciated it, at least.  (Which didn't stop Nat & I from repeating it throughout the day, just to amuse each other.) 

Anyway.  Regardless of the validity of the holiday, I am appreciative of a whole day off.  And what am I using my precious spare time for?  Basically to be a super-housewife! 

Laundry, dusting & some organization this morning.   Taking the dogs with me to go grocery shopping this afternoon, and THEN, I am making:

(I loooove cooking in the iron skillet.)

Chili and cornbread!

 

 

and Pioneer Woman's apple cake in an iron skillet:

I am obsessed with her.  I'm also planning to use her recipes for cornbread and chili.  Yum!