Kittens Make Me Smile

Yesterday I traveled to my parents house to help feed and take care of some kittens. My friend Yvette will be taking a kitten... Brian and I will be taking one... And my parents will keep the other two.

My Dad is an absolute sap when it comes to kitties that need a home. On Thursday he was walking up to our back porch and stumbled upon four of the tiniest kittens he'd seen in a long time. The Mom was out hunting. Determined to keep at least one he scooped up a little calico. You have to be sneaky while dealing with wild cats. If the Mom saw my Dad there, she would have run off with the others and hid them... And they probably would not make the winter. (She did that two years ago.) He got the little calico to the vet. She was about 4 weeks old and she still needed formula for the next several days until she could be weaned off of it and put on kitten chow.

Being the big sap he is, he couldn't let the other ones die, either. And I don't really blame him. I would be deeply saddened if I took only one out of the cold and left the others.

We've seen it many times... This same mother cat... She'll have a litter and favor one of them and the other(s) die. And since winter was coming, her survival instincts would kick in and she'd most likely fight to the death for food.

Anyway... Enough about that...

I took pictures.



Doesn't it just look like they're in some sort of dance club? The toy could be a disco ball...



These are the two that my parents will be keeping.



We'll be adopting this kitten. Not sure if it's a boy or a girl just yet... I believe this little one has Horner's Syndrome. That, or he/she's partially blind. Doesn't really matter to me... I'll love it just the same.

If it's a boy, I'd like to name it Simon. If it's a girl, I'd like to name it Willow or Daisy. (No reason why...) Buuuuuut, I don't know how Brian feels about those names.

Next weekend Brian and I will be staying at a hotel in Grand Rapids. We'll be celebrating three years together on the 30th. It's pretty dang exciting. :)

And on the 18th we'll be going to a baptism for our friend Lindy. She recently gave birth to a bouncing baby boy named Carter.

Where The Heck Have I Been?

It's been a long looooooooong time since I've posted a blog. Brian and I have been so busy with everything.

On labor day we went to Grand Rapids and ordered new furniture. It's a custom sectional (with a recliner!) so it will take 4-6 weeks to receive. Brian and I have been so terribly antsy for it to come in. We currently have one couch. It's an old couch that Brian got for $60. It's not that I hate the couch, it's just not what we both want. We'll be re-arranging the whole house in a few weeks so that we'll be able to get the sectional to fit properly. We'll be hanging onto the old couch for additional seating.

Also on labor day we went to the John Ball Zoo...


The zoo seemed kind of sad in some parts... This tiger never really got up. Just kind of stayed there.


These guys were adorable, though.


Brian took this... Every time I got near this guy, there were several kids in the way... So, of course the moment I go to the bathroom Brian gets this awesome shot...


My boys. :)


Tortoise 'tocks. :)


The bears were our favorite... They wrestled each other...





In other news, Thursday I got a call from my brother, Jason. A mother cat decided to have a late litter of kittens. Brian and I will be keeping the one kitten that is blind in one eye. We're currently trying to give a home to one...



She's about 4 weeks old. Currently being bottle fed.

This is the kitten we'll be taking...

Ah, Nothing Like Baby Giggles...

Okay, I know this isn't much of a post, but I've been meaning to get this video on here... So... WATCH IT!



I promise you totally awesome pictures on my next post. Pinky swear.

Recent Happenings & Some Wedding Pics

Friday night we had dinner with Brian's family to celebrate Colleen's birthday. We dined at the County Seat in Hastings. Happy Birthday, again!

Saturday we decided to have the yard sale again because this weekend would be perfect for it. Mom, Robert, Brian, Sara, Natilee, & myself hung around and worked the sale. Brian got a call that he had to go to his parents house in Battle Creek because they had left for a few days. They had forgotten to lock the door. So Robert and Brian left us and headed to Battle Creek shortly after that call. Sara, Mom, and I actually wished they wouldn't have gone. Mainly because we had a group of about eight or nine Mexican people show up. They were being loud and trying to distract Sara and I. They kept trying to pay with hundreds and fifties from their huge wad of cash. Even though we could visibly see they had ones and fives. Their little grifter plan didn't work though and they ended up paying us with a smaller bill instead.

Apart from that, the sale went really well. We made about $70 and Sara racked up about $40. Awesome, huh? Way better than the last sale when were rained on and everything.

Also, yesterday, the wedding pictures arrived in the mail...

Here are some:







Getting ready in the bathroom.



Nicole helping me get the dress zipped.



My Family.



My second family. :)



A close up of the cake.



Brian meeting my friend, Lindy, and her husband, Darren, for the first time.



Dancing with my Dad.



Jon caught the garter! Woot!



Makes me smile. :)

Where Did August Go?

For me this week has been going by at an incredibly slow pace.

Coming up on Labor Day Brian and I decided that since our three year anniversary (dating wise) is in the middle of the work week we would celebrate it together at the zoo in GR. I'm pretty excited about that. I'm hoping that I don't get halfway up there and realize that my camera is at home...

Today my friend, Emily, stopped in at the office to drop off a belated wedding gift. It is AWESOME. She cross stitched this:





One of these days I need to learn how to do that.

This is a short post tonight... Dinner is calling my name.

Here are a few pictures I took earlier tonight...



Georgia's model-esque shot.



Bella can catch snacks with her mouth. It's the trick I taught her. :)



I just had to take this picture.

Good Eatin'

Wow, I haven't blogged in what seems like ages.

Our yard sale was kind of a flop last weekend. I think Sara made around $20... Brian and I made around $9. Nothing to get excited about. We still have a full garage of stuff. I couldn't believe how much baby stuff Sara has. So many things that Natilee never even wore.

Work has been busy, though. It's so hard to think that Brian and I have been married for almost two months... And that we've been back to work for about a month and a half since the honeymoon. Our house is still a mess... But with both of us working 40 hours a week and doing copious amounts of laundry and other house chores, it's a little difficult to get some things put away. I still have wedding stuff lying around. And I have so many ideas for some of the things that I don't want to put it in a box somewhere and never get around to making something. I have a huge wedding shadowbox mapped out in my head that I can't wait to make.

Tonight for dinner I made meat balls and garlic mashed potatoes with green beans, greek pasta (store bought) and cottage cheese as side dishes. My meat balls came together beautifully. I used ground beef, egg, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian bread crumbs, organic tomato paste and sauce, a little bit of salt and a little bit of ground pepper and Tony's creole seasoning. It was so good. I have this thing about me where at times I eat my foods separately... Which is what I mainly did tonight... And by the time I got to my meat balls, I could barely finish the first one... Oh well... That just means I'll have lunch tomorrow. ;)



Bella's been doing well. She pretty much only hides behind the couch when we have company over... Stranger danger? Cognac feels the need to randomly goose her, too. It makes no sense considering he didn't really do anything like that when Bella first came here. So... Bella in front of couch + Brian on couch wearing shorts + Cognac running up and goosing Bella = Bella freaking out and Brian with freshly made scratches on his aforementioned bare legs. Sigh...

Anyway, here are some pictures!



Isn't she gorgeous?



Remember that spider from my last post? Brian and I think we know what it is... We think it's a Banded Garden Spider (Argiope trifasciata) Also, in that last picture our spider, lets call him Manny, had a missing leg. Manny has moved out of the tailgate to one of the rear wheels... And he has grown an eighth leg that is all one color. I'll need to get some pictures as soon as the rain lets up...


Now I'm off to watch some Monk.

"Good Lord Show Me The Way"

I'm currently listening to Alison Krauss. That should explain my post title.

Well, Sara forgot the backdrop for Natilee's pictures. And Natilee is teething and was pretty crabby anyway. So, Sara and I are going to try for later on this week to do Natilee's pictures.

And I ended up getting sick on Friday. So, I was unable to walk in the relay. Thanks, Jon, for walking with Brian.

My Mom, Sara, and Robert came over to my house on Saturday. Robert and Brian ended up going and seeing District 9 and then came back to play some video games.

We didn't end up having a yard sale. Sara had way too many boxes of things for the yard sale and she didn't have enough time to go through them before Saturday. So, we're shooting for next Saturday.

Brian discovered Saturday morning that a spider had constructed a web in the back of the '84 El Camino (tailgate). So, I got this picture:



I did get a couple of good shots of Natilee enjoying a popsicle while she was over on Saturday...





Saturday night we ended up having to call the police. Just after Sara left with Natilee, someone came to our front window and pounded loudly (and fast) on our front window three times. Then ran off. At first I thought it was a couple of boxes in our livingroom because that's where we have the yard sale items... But it wasn't. Brian had been in another room and came out and into the kitchen because he thought it had been something that fell in there. I told him it sounded like something hit the window. He opened the front door and saw fresh finger prints on our window. So we called the police, and since the station is a minute from our house, they were over in about two minutes. They checked over our cars and wrote down the information and gave us our claim/disturbance report number. We don't know who or why someone would feel the need to do that. I'm just glad that Natilee wasn't in the house because it could have scared her.

Bella's getting along better and better. She's getting more and more comfortable with the house. And she's even feeling confident enough to get up on the cat tower and play with the kitty toys. :)