Summer Lovin'

It's been three weeks since Amelia's passing. It still doesn't seem like she's gone. It's amazing how much an animal can tug at your heartstrings. Since Amelia has been gone, I've noticed Aesop has been a lot more loving. He is by our side every night. He even will bring a toy on our bed and play with it if he doesn't feel like sleeping with us. I know this because I woke up with one of his favorite toys under me... I happened to wake up because he was pawing at my legs constantly until I discovered the toy. He is such a precious little man. I've been watching him closely and giving him a lot of play time. He seems to have more energy than our other cats combined. He's super playful and attacks my feet all the time. I have to surrender my shoes to get away from him. Too precious.

We've been through a lot of good and bad this summer; being verbally harassed on a weekly basis by a former neighbor, Brian getting attacked several times by a pit bull (owned by aforementioned neighbor), finally moving to a new house, adjusting back to the "country livin'," Cognac mysteriously going blind overnight, Cognac getting his vision back two weeks after that, our one year wedding anniversary and finally Amelia's passing. Oh, and also this week we managed to catch the common cold. Yeah, that's right, in the middle of the summer. How ridiculous is that?

We have a lot coming up, too. Coming up this weekend we're heading to Battle Creek to help out Brian's parents with a tree that fell in their yard, on Sunday I'll be doing senior portraits for a co-worker's son. Then in the upcoming weekends we'll be attending a white caps game - courtesy of HPS, a Hayes family reunion (which I'm going to make a guess that we haven't had one in at least 10 years), we'll be going to Carter Yung's first birthday, attending the wedding of Rachel and Chad (Rachel was one of my GORGEOUS bridesmaids), having a movie date with my cousin Addie, and you get the idea - BUSY. Our weekends are booked up until August 28th! Eeeep!

I'd also like to mention that I've been caught up in the book of The Death and Life of Charlie St. Could by Ben Sherwood. I'll be seeing the movie soon and I want to be prepared.

Brian and I have been going on a lot of walks now that we live in the country and don't have to look over our shoulders for a pit bull on the loose. It's been fun. I love being outdoors. Tonight I went on a walk by myself and took my Canon along.

Picture time!:



If anyone can tell me what bush produces these flowers it would be greatly appreciated. We have three thriving bushes of these in our back yard. They are gorgeous.







So open and peaceful.





This little guy was on a flower and the sun was coming through the trees. I couldn't pass it up.

And now some fairly recent pictures of the kitties:



Cognac and Aesop sittin' in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. These two have turned into snuggle buddies.



Brian and I have come to the conclusion that Aesop does not know what "personal space" means. At all. ;)



Heeeeeeeeeere's Bella!



Here is Cognac's emo shot.



Aesop playing. This is one of his favorite toys. He drags it with him all over. He even lays himself down on it and eats out of the food bowl at the same time.

Lastly,


This is the last picture of Amelia ever taken. I'm assuming she had a hair on her eye, if you're curious. Sure do miss her.

Remembering Amelia

I have been putting this off.
Amelia lost her battle with Feline Leukemia on July 6, 2010. She was around 10.5 months. It literally happened overnight.

It's heartbreaking. We tried so hard to keep our feline leukemia positive kitties alive. We ultimately couldn't save her from herself.

This hit Brian and I like a ton of bricks. It was so sudden that it still bothers us. We were so involved with Aesop and Amelia. Trying to keep them active and playful, giving them the best food available and giving them so much love. Though it feels like it, our efforts were not wasted. She was happy while she was here and lived her life to the fullest. She was fearless.

As sad as I may be, Amelia was an amazing cat. She was spunky and full of energy.

Here is a look at her life:

Amelia, a few weeks old, with formula on her chin. At this age she (and Aesop) had to be bottle fed.


Amelia with her brother, Aesop. They were cuddle buddies.




Her fuzzy kitten phase.


She was so gorgeous.


I don't really know how I even got this picture. Usually two small kittens this age have difficulty sitting still.


Here they are cuddling on my lap.


Here's the close up of her.


Sleepin'.






Boy, when she was tired, she was TIRED.


Beautiful markings.


Sleeping with Aesop.


So little and precious.


Here she is in the new house.

I bet I have more than a hundred pictures of her. I'll be making a shadowbox in the near future with her pictures and some of her favorite toys in it. I'll follow up with that in another blog.


In this picture, half of her whiskers were gone because she played too rough with Aesop.

All we can do now is hope that Aesop doesn't have to go through the same thing. Right now he's as big as a moose, towering over our adult cats.

One Year Anniversary

It's hard to believe that Brian and I got married a year ago. And then again, it seems like we've known each other since birth. Brian and I had a very enjoyable one year anniversary. We stayed at a hotel in Grand Rapids for a couple nights.


There was an awesome king size bed. (We have a full sized one at home - not as roomy.)


We were pretty excited. :)

On the day of our anniversary we were even more excited. We reminisced about our wedding day as we were getting ready.



I told Brian about the morning before the wedding. I had gotten up at 6:00 in the morning and I had only had about 1 hour of sleep. Mainly because Nicole and I were in the same bed talking all night. She was just as excited as I was. My nervousness set in at breakfast time. I remember trying to eat a bowl of plain rice chex and it just wasn't happening. I felt so sick. Sara got there shortly after to start in on my hair. After talking with her a while, she got me feeling better and I was able to eat a half of a granola bar. I wasn't nervous about marrying Brian, either. I knew that I wanted to be with Brian for eternity at just 7 months into our relationship. I was more nervous because all eyes would be on me for the whole day.

We went to the Macaroni Grill. (If you haven't ever been there, they have paper on the table tops and you can color with crayons while you're there.) I asked the waitress first thing if she'd let me keep it since it was our first wedding anniversary. She obliged. :) I don't know what I'm going to do with it, though. Perhaps I'll frame it and hang it in our bedroom.

We munched on Mediterranean olives while drawing.


The food was delicious, too.





This was a slice of their ricotta cheesecake. Sooooo good.


This is my rendition of Brian and I (as good as I could with the three crayons they gave us) on our wedding day. :)


Brian drew our just married vehicle. Pretty good, too.


The Bri Guy. :)


Me and my long hair. ;)




We got it pretty covered.


Married life is so good.

In other news, when we arrived home yesterday Amelia wasn't doing too well. Please keep her in your thoughts. She goes to the vet today. Her gums were very white this morning. She's showing signs of anemia. However, she is also feline leukemia positive. She may lose this battle. :'(