Good Morning

    Good morning out there!

    This morning I was awakened to the sound of Monkey calling out "need to go potty".  This is truly a beautiful sound to my ears.  Potty training has been an extremely bumpy road in our house.  She was doing wonderfully with it, until we moved to our new duty station.  Soon after that her Daddy deployed, causing another upheaval in her life, and now we're finally getting back on the right track.

   We came downstairs for breakfast only to find that our cat, VooDoo, had been into the bread again last night.  I say "again" because I've found the bread like this on two other occasions.  Once there was also a half-eaten bag of potato chips laying next to it.  Evidently, VooDoo loves his starch.  I can't get mad at him though, because he's the baby of the family.  Although he's technically older than our mutt, Roux, he's the newest addition.  I had a beautiful calico cat named Gumbo for over a year, but she was an inside and outside cat.  One day she just decided not to come back.  Although I still catch myself looking for her as I drive around base, I'm not too worried about her.  She can handle herself out there, and I'm sure she's happier where my Monkey can't harass her.  A few weeks after she went missing, I was talking to my wonderfully comforting husband, J  (please note the sarcasm), and he told me "just get another cat".  "No,"  I replied.  "I don't want another cat.  I want Gumbo back."  A few days later, my best friend asked me to ride out to PetSmart with her to buy heart worm medicine for her dog, Kratos.  Roux needed some too, so I tagged along.  When we walked in, we saw that they were doing one of those "Pet Adoption Days", so we walked over "just to look".  I even told her jokingly, "Don't let me walk out of here with an animal".   I walked straight to the cat section and started calling them to see who would come to the bars to let me pet them.  Only one responded, a little black cat (horribly) named Nicoli.  He was so sweet and snuggly and clearly deprived of attention that it wasn't long before I had him out of the cage and in my arms.  I turned around to tell my friend that I was in danger of adopting this little kitty, only to find her with her arms wrapped around a very cute and very enthusiastic pup.  We both just looked at each other and laughed.  Well once all the papers were signed, and the new collars bought, we loaded up and headed home with our new babies in tow.  I decided that "Nicoli" was way too creepy, so I named him VooDoo instead.  My friend later pointed out that my logic behind that seemed a little off, but growing up around New Orleans makes the term "voodoo" seem less daunting than "Nicoli", because if you've ever read any of the Left Behind books, you'd know that Nicoli Carpathea is the antichrist.  If nothing else, it sounds like some creepy, stalker guy's name.  VooDoo is way less creeper-ish.

   There is a point to all of this.  When I saw the bread, I decided to use what had gone untouched to make these:

They're Cinnamon Twist Rolls, and they're really good.  I found the recipe while browsing foodgawker.com, and they are one of my favorite go-to items for breakfast.  Here's the recipe:  http://circle-b-kitchen.squarespace.com/food-and-recipes/2011/6/2/cinnamon-toast-rolls.html.  It's extremely easy, and Monkey loves them.   Try a few, they might make your Monday brighter :-D