daxeros

Hi! My name's PJ. I was born and raised in Maryland, but am now living in Colorado (since 2006)!!!

The loves of my life are my husband (Chad), my two daughters (Kimiko (3) and Satori (1)), and my numerous furkids (currently 3 cats - Eros, Fancy and Harlot; and 2 dogs - Sake and Wrangler).

I am a stay-at-home mommy that enjoys all different kinds of crafts, from sewing to drawing to scrapbooking to photography. I enjoy doing projects in my free time, which is very sporadic, but I still have a long list of things on my "want-to-do" list. I also have a passion for writing.

I also try to keep up with a family blog, which I was not good at last year at all...it seems since having my second little girl, my life got very busy all at once. LOL! I've made an early resolution to keep up with it better this year...we'll see how that goes.

My taste in music is all over the place. I listen to pretty much anything and everything.

My absolute favorite is country music...old and new...from Hank Williams, Sr to The Band Perry. I love Alan Jackson and Chris LeDoux especially.

When doing chores around the house, I find myself rocking out to the 80's hair bands. Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley Crue, Europe, etc... I still have my black concert t-shirts that I used to wear back in high school with my neon colored earrings. LOL!

Hip Hop/R&B is another one I dance around to. I can't seem to sit still when these tunes are in the air. I love Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Ludacris, etc... Now that I have a three year old daughter, I have to watch the type of lyrics that are sung/rapped, but as long as there's no cursing, I will blast it for a little dance party with my daughters! :o)

We tend to put on classical music at night to start the "getting-ready-for-bed" process. It seems to be a nice way to signal that's it time to end the day and go "night-night." I love how it seems to calm everyone in the house down...including all the furkids.

I also find myself rocking out to...The Wiggles! LOL! I can't believe how much this 30-something year old loves these guys! I had never heard of them until I had kids and saw them on Netflix. Now we own a few cd's and dvd's that are getting some good play almost every single day. I love that they have a good sense of humor and actually play music that I don't mind listening to and singing along to for my daughters. Does that make me weird? LOL!

I read all kinds of books. I love the classics and will re-read them over and over again...currently I'm re-reading Gone with the Wind. :o)

I loved The Cat Who... series by Lilian Jackson Braun (I'm still mourning her death).

I also loved the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz.

I find myself drawn more to horror and mystery novels, but will pick up a Jackie Collins novel every now and again. LOL!

If a movie is coming out based on a book, I will make it a point to read the book before seeing the movie. Sometimes this means waiting until it comes out on video, but I feel it's a little more rewarding to do it this way. I read The Help (it was sooo good! I read it in four days!), then watched the movie...I must say, the book was sooo much better than the movie. If I had watched the movie first, I may not have even bothered reading the book, which is why I'm so glad I do it this way.

I have read the Twilight saga, and really enjoyed it. I admit that while reading the books, I was definitely "Team Edward," but watching the movies, I'm all about Jacob (he's super hawt! LOL!).

I'm a little obsessed with vampires (although the Twilight vampires are not true vamps in my book), and I love to read about them. My husband and I got married on Halloween in 2007 and he dressed as my very own vampire to fulfill my dream of marrying a vampire all of my very own. LOL! :o)

I am obsessed with all things Halloween! I got married on Halloween in 2007, I have pumpkins and Jack O'Lanterns decorating my home all year round, I have an advent calendar that counts down to that holiday that starts on October 1st, and all my friends and family get me Halloween related stuff for Christmas and my birthday, which is in June! :o)

My favorite color is orange, of course. LOL! I do love rainbows, but orange is definitely my favorite color out of them all.

I'm big into animal rights, so I love anything animal related. I have 3 cats (all domestic shorthairs - one tortie and two brown tabbies) and 2 dogs (one German Shepherd/Great Dane mix and one Pembroke Welsh Corgi) for furkids. I love bats, turtles, tigers and prairie dogs. I really want to adopt both a male and a female Eclectus parrot at some point in my life...not to breed, but just so they have each other and I have two beautiful unique long-living friends. I worked in the veterinary field for close to 15 years before becoming a homemaker for my children.

I love nature and living in Colorado. I love mountain living. Waking up and seeing the Rocky Mountains out my bedroom window still takes my breath away even after all this time.

I love hiking and going geocaching with my family. I like swimming and walking. We frequent the zoo quite a bit when the weather is nice.

And, I love being a mommy! Technically, I became a "mommy" 18 years ago when I adopted my first kitty, and although I loved it, nothing compared to when I had my first daughter in 2008.

My husband is Chad. He works on Minis for a living. He used to work on BMWs, but then became a master-tech for Minis and moved on to them. He collects old pocket knives and loves gadgets. Unfortunately, he doesn't follow any sports, which makes it harder to shop for him at times. Oh! But he does have a big obsession with zombies! Go figure! LOL! :o)

My oldest daughter is Kimiko (we call her "Miko"). She was born on October 21, 2008. She loves Dora, princesses, cars, and the color purple. She likes to play with doll babies and her sister. She is obsessed with her blanket (which used to be my orange throw blanket), and her teddy bear. She also loves to collect shiny rocks and play with flashlights. Painting is one of her favorite things to do, and she loves her markers and crayons as well.

My youngest daughter is Satori (we call her "Tori"). She was born on October 17, 2010. She pretty much just goes with the flow right now. She loves playing with her sister and running around. She seems to love Elmo and Sesame Street, and will watch an episode or two of Dora with her big sis. Right now she still tends to try to eat crayons, so I'm not sure what her favorite color is or if she even like to color yet. :o)

At one point or another I had six cats (Dax (a calico), Eros (a tortoiseshell), Fancy (a brown tabby), Harlot (another brown tabby), Morris (an orange tabby), and Barbara (a Siamese)), but lost Dax (15) in September 2009 to cancer, Morris (19) in November 2009 to renal failure, and Barbara (13) in May 2010 to neurological disease...Eros is 16 and Fancy and Harlot are 10 right now. I also had three dogs (Rodeo (a red and white Pembroke Welsh Corgi), Sake (a tan and black German Shepherd/Great Dane mix) and Wrangler (another red and white Pembroke Welsh Corgi)), but lost Rodeo (10) in October 2010 to bloat...Sake is 5 and Wrangler is a year old right now. Although it hurts like crazy losing them, I know I will see my sweet furbabies again in the afterlife and that makes me happy. They are all a major part of my family and we love them so very much!

My family is ovo-lacto vegetarian. We do not eat any animal flesh, but we do eat dairy and eggs. I became vegetarian in February 2007, my husband in March 2008. My daughters have never eaten meat.

We live kind of a "crunchy" lifestyle. We use cloth diapers, we do the whole recycle-reuse-reduce thing, and we're all about making our own household products and such. We are also very interested in possibly homeschooling our girls when the time comes (not that we haven't started already, but when they're at the technical "school-age," we're thinking about making it official).

We consider ourselves Shinto/Buddhists. We believe that all living things, including annoying insects, deserve the right to live. We catch and release everything that enters our home unwelcomed. We believe in karma and try to live our lives in a way that only good will come to us in the future. We don't knock Christianity (or and other religion for that matter), but it's just not something we believe in. :o)