Sykes Revisited

Hey everyone. Sorry for the oh, so short blog yesterday, but I was really tired. Anyway, the video was way more exciting than anything I could say. I know I should be talking about Christmas and our visit, but I'm not over this cat thing! While we were away for the three weeks, we locked Sykes in the maid's quarters (has outside access on back of our villa) and had someone stopping by to feed him routinely. Secretly, deep down (not really too deep down), we were hoping for him to have escaped. I know that sounds awful, but this cat is awful. The night we got home while I was sitting on the couch, he jumped up and bit me on the nose. I swear, he really did. My whole nose was in his mouth. I screamed and David tossed him on the back patio. Time to make him an outside cat...where he belongs. He meowed so much that I felt sorry for him and let him back in. Well, yesterday morning, Sykes was being really bad again, so I tossed him out the front door. Kristi walked in and asked me where he was, and I told her what I had done. She walked around to the foyer to take a peak and he was walking in the front door. We couldn't believe it. We tossed him back outside (we had to wait for him to do something bad, which of course didn't take long). I got my camera and boom, click here to watch. So, now when I kick him out, I have to lock the door. Isn't that the craziest thing you've ever heard?

As far as Christmas goes...it says it all in the pic above. It was wonderful to visit with the kids and the six of us stopping at McD's for lunch on the way to Tennessee. It brought back so many memories, except I don't remember it costing so much. We got the house in Kyle unpacked...a very big project for the very short time that we were there. Dustin will no longer have an obstacle course to work around. I say Dustin only, because Miss Kayla got a resident's assistant job at St. Ed's. They provide her room and food, now. So much for buying her a house! Actually, we're really happy for her. She really missed being involved on campus and realized that the grass is not always greener on the other side, as we've told her so many time before. She moved in last Thursday, the day before we left. Shea left for Fort Benning for airborne school on Thursday, as well. We drove back to Kyle from Port Arthur that morning to see him off. He left about 6:30pm to head out for a 14 hour drive. I was so happy when he called his last hour of the trip to verify directions with David. He did remind me before he left that he was "army strong". That was supposed to make me feel better and actually, it did. Airborne school will take about three weeks and then on to language training at Fort Bragg. Dustin is now solely holding the fort down for us. Kayla promises she'll pop in often to keep him company. Last, but not least is our beautiful, wonderful, well mannered cat that we left behind...Saudi. She's full grown, fat, fluffy and I didn't know how awesome she was until we got Sykes. But, her one shortcoming is that as wonderful as she might be, she cannot open doors.

P.S. I told y'all a while back that I needed a better pic of Dustin. Does this qualify? haha!