About Me

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I live on 6 deeply wooded acres in the boonies of Middleville, MI. I'm married to an amazing man, Brian. He's pretty much the best thing that has ever happened to me. I'm a big animal lover. I have 5 cats; Bella (6), Cognac (3), Georgia (3), Maggie (2), & Auggie (8-9mos.) We recently lost our kittens, Aesop & Amelia, to a battle with Feline Leukemia. I feel the need to mention them. They were amazing beings that showed unconditional love like no other cats I've had. I also have Cheech (9) that I'm fostering. We have two puppies; Charlie & Henry. Having a blast! I'm a dabbler in photography, photo shop, & crafts. I'm kind of a bookworm/nerd/geek. Yes, I have read the Twilight Series. No, I'm not obsessed. I love Shakespeare, Nathaniel Hawthorne, C.S. Lewis, and L. Frank Baum - among others, obviously.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Update

A lot has happened since my last post. I apologize.
We've had a lot going on. Sadly, I haven't been able to really use my camera much, so all of the pictures on today's post will be from my phone.

Charlie and Henry turned a year old on November 9th! I didn't get any pictures of them. I had my wisdom teeth out that day and was a little out of it for a few days. This upcoming Saturday is my birthday and I figured we'd get pictures of them eating their puppy ice cream. So, I'll post those pictures.

A few weeks ago Henry got really sick. Like, really sick. He started laying on the floor and covering his ears and his eyes. We called our vet and, thankfully, they made time for Henry to come in. I stayed with Charlie since he has separation anxiety so bad when Henry isn't around him. The vet told Brian that Henry was in a lot of pain. Brian, myself, and the groomers weren't really plucking Henry's ears very thoroughly. Honestly, though, you need medical tools to get all the way down into their ears, so I don't think it's something that we can really do.

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This is Henry just after he had gotten home. He was still pretty groggy.

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Charlie and Auggie really missed him. And didn't really wander too far from Henry's kennel. (Auggie is actually laying in Henry's bed.)

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Auggie in Henry's Kennel again.

The day after I had my wisdom teeth out we had our first snow! It was beautiful! Though, I'm sad that summer and fall are over.
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We've noticed a slight change in Charlie's personality, too. He used to never want to cuddle or be a people pleaser. But now he wants to cuddle all the time.
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Especially with Brian. :)

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Charlie and Henry. Charlie's looking pretty happy, too. :)

I haven't really announced it, though, I've mentioned it a little bit on facebook. Brian and I have a cougar that lives on the state land behind our property. We've seen it on several occasions. We haven't been able to get any pictures of it from our gaming camera, though. But if you want to know what we hear at night, then click here. (WARNING: It might autoplay the sound clip.) It is quite creepy at night when you hear a cougar screaming in the dark woods, too. We've been researching cougars quite a bit and have learned that they will kill pretty much any animal that they can get a hold of. So, Charlie and Henry are never outside unattended. Ever. We try to stay on high alert when Brian and I have to run outside after dark. Do I fear it? Not really. Cougars naturally try to stay away from humans. Do I want it to die? Not at all. It's only "guilty" of being what it is. But, Brian and I are trying to prevent an attack from happening. Hunting season has started and I've found myself a little worried that someone might shoot it, actually.

But we're staying safe.

Lastly, just a couple of cute pictures of Georgia and Cogs...

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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Remembering Aesop

It's obvious that I've been putting this post off for a while. Aesop passed away on January 18th this year. It's been really difficult for Brian and I. And I have to be honest, it took me a long time to come to terms that he was actually gone. But here they are, as promised, pictures of Aesop.

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Aesop with Amelia.

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Laying with Cognac.

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So handsome.

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Aesop with Amelia about 5-6 weeks old.

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With Cognac.

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Probably the funniest picture of him. We got this to happen several times while he was sleeping.

Here they are... The last pictures ever taken of him... They were with my phone:
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This was at the vet. On January 15, 2011.

And the very last picture:
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I remember telling Brian that I couldn't do this again; taking in fe leuk kitties and living in constant worry. And Brian said something like this to me, "That's like saying you wouldn't take Aesop and Amelia again." Brian makes a very good point. And I don't know why I even said that because I would seriously do it all again in a heartbeat.

I donate often to Safe Haven Humane Society. We got Auggie and Maggie from there. It wasn't until we had Natilee over a few weeks ago that I really realized how much Auggie reminded me of Aesop. I wrote a letter to Safe Haven yesterday with a donation and I said, "I can’t even begin to describe how much Auggie reminds of us our cat Aesop who passed away from feline leukemia. He’s like him in so many ways. We are truly blessed with him in our home and we feel that we were meant to have him in our lives." I truly believe it.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Pupdate

Hello all,

There isn't much news to report at the moment. I've been seriously slacking lately in the picture department. But I do have some recent pictures of Charlie and Henry. Recently Brian and I decided to take a chance and just give them free reign of the whole house. Oh yes, we're crazy. Charlie and Henry are doing pretty good actually. They try to play a little rough with a cat here and there... But for the most part, they just wrestle with each other and cuddle. We cleaned up our basement a couple weekends ago and put up a little puppy fence down there so they can't "investigate" the cat boxes. But they LOVE running and playing in the basement. And it's great for us because Brian can work on something down there while I hop on the exercise bike. :) Here are a few pictures (some are action shots) that I got of them while they were playing:

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It works out great for us to have them play down there. They are becoming more trustworthy.

Also, here's a super adorable picture of Maggie.

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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Big Boy Hair Cuts ... And A Recipe I Tried!

Well, I'm trying to post more often.

Charlie and Henry got big boy haircuts yesterday and they look super adorable. All fluffy and grown up.

I could only get a good one of Charlie's...
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Here's Henry's too!
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So handsome!

It's hard to believe that they were only this big 6 months ago...
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They are getting smarter and smarter every day.

Brian and I are pretty excited about a new crockpot recipe that we tried today. So, I thought I'd share with you. :)

Click Here for the recipe.

Here's the salmon fillet being prepped...
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And two hours later it was on my plate!

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Brian and I could not believe how moist and tender it cooked the salmon. I would make this recipe over and over again! :)

That's all for now!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Recent Happenings

Uh oh... I did it again. I went a long time without posting anything. So sorry about that.
Brian and I have been so incredibly busy and I realize that I say that in most posts. But it's true. I think Brian's on his 23rd day in a row working. No days off. It's wearing on him a little bit. But he'll have sometime this weekend to finally relax.

Charlie and Henry are doing pretty good. They're at 46 and 47 pounds now. We took them to the vet a couple Fridays ago and they both had ear infections. :( But other than that, they are happy go lucky. They spend a lot of time playing in our bedroom. And we bring a cat in here and there to work on their manners. Henry is pretty much desensitized to them. He gets excited... But he doesn't do anything too crazy. Charlie is a completely different story. But he's gotten a TON better. He's getting to the point where when he's getting excited with a cat's presence that when we say his name is distracts him from doing anything. Hopefully in a few more weeks of working on it he'll be at the same level as Henry.

Let's do an update on my health. I'm doing pretty fantastic. I had a doctor's appointment on July 8th. And to my disappointment I didn't lose a single pound. But, that's okay. Because I've lost about 5-6 inches around my waist. So, whatever fat I did lose, I gained in muscle. I've been continuing my biking as well. When I last counted, from May 22nd (when I started biking) to July 25th I had biked a little over 192 miles in total. I'm well over 200 miles now. My original biking goal was to do 10 miles in one sitting. I achieved that goal for the first time on June 18th. It took me 48 minutes and 18 seconds (10.5 miles total). Well I can bike that and more now. I did 10 miles last Thursday and it took me about 35 minutes. So, I've gotten a lot faster. So, want to know what my new goal is? *drum roll* It's 20 MILES. And I'm quite sure that I can achieve it. I've been upping my daily miles. And I figure if I can stay at my current pace that I can do 20 miles in about 70-75 minutes. So, as soon as I reach that goal, I'll let you know. :)

Brian and I are also excited to announce that we are an Aunt and Uncle! We have brand spankin' new niece, Eliana. She was born on July 2nd. I'd post pictures, but I don't know exactly how Colleen and Johnny would feel about that on my public blog. So, congratulations you guys! We're happy for you! :)

I've recently joined a website called pinterest. It's an online cataloging site that I love. I can be on various food blogs and "pin" recipes to my food board on pinterest.

While on Pinterest, I discovered this recipe (The link is to my actual pin. But if you click on the picture, it'll take you to the recipe.) Annnwaaay, I decided to do this myself - except using turkey bacon.

Here it is before it went into the oven:
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Here it is when it came out of the oven:
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Doesn't that look amazing?

Here is a current picture of Charlie and Henry. Please excuse Henry's muddy nose.
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Brian was able to get this picture of Bella the other day:
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We bought a kiddie pool recently. This is Henry thinking about stepping in. (We have yet to get Charlie to play in it, though.)
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Also, we've had a lot of rain recently. So the last two pictures are of a washout just past our driveway. We have to technically drive on someone else's property to get to work/town now. (The house is foreclosed on, though. So, no one lives there currently.)

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That's all for now!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Pupdate

Hi all,
I realized tonight that I haven't updated in a REALLY long time. So sorry about that. We have just been so busy.

Since I'm at home and our internet here in the boonies isn't the greatest, I thought I'd share a few pictures that I took of the puppies tonight.

We got them shaved down to nothing about a month ago... So, they aren't as fluffy as they usually are...

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Henry. Always smiling.

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Charles.

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This is what usually happens when I try to take pictures... Hence my lack of pictures posted.

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Henry loves looking out the window.

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This here is "Pengy." He is Charlie's favorite toy at the moment.

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He almost always has it.

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He even has it when he's playing with other toys.

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Augustus is pretty much infatuated with Charlie and Henry. We've been working on their cat manners lately... Sometimes Auggie makes it difficult... But I just love his little smile in this picture.

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So cute!

That's all for now!