Belle got a present!

Awwww, look at her -- could she look anymore happy? This was Belle last night as she modeled her new tee shirt. It's hard to make out, but right above the globe it reads Tree Hugger. It couldn't be more perfect for her.

I'm pretty ornery when I want to be. Whenever Rick goes out of town, I have this joke that he bring home a present for Belle. I get the whole family in on it. In our classroom we have a write-on board that I use to write the date on. I usually draw some sort of funny picture that shows what we're doing in school or something that's going on. When Rick is gone, this board automatically turns to Belle and her present. I draw cartoons of her daydreaming about what she'll get and silly stuff like that. When Rick calls home and talks to the boys, that's all he hears about. The pressure is really on and he knows he has to find her something before he comes home. Imagine having to tell your coworkers, "I gotta run up to the store to buy a present for my cat." Yeah, yeah -- I'm pretty ruthless.

Awhile back, Rick had a training session that kept him away from home for 5 weeks. Imagine the pressure he had then! We had weeks of Belle's cartoons on the board. Anyway, Rick spent Tuesday & Wednesday in Helena on some training, so of course Belle wanted a surprise. He wandered around Target on Tuesday looking for something. He usually gets her a cat toy or some Pounce snacks or something simple. Well, apparently Target didn't have anything. He was walking by the dollar section and stumbled across these little Tree Hugger tee shirts. He knew he'd found the purrfect gift for her. I'm not going to tell her that he only spent a dollar on her. I already have a big bandage on my knuckle from trying to get the stupid thing on her. It wasn't easy getting a picture of her either. Between the blood gushing out of my hand and her tee shirt creeping up her big furry belly -- she was pretty pissed off. But all the same, the shirt is definitely her.

Poor Rick -- the things he has to put up with in this family. What do you think the chances are of him flipping out when I tell him Belle's birthday is March 25th? He better start shopping now ...