(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

I just want to start off by thanking you all for the condolences on this post. We really appreciate all the thoughts, prayers and hugs. It hasn't been easy but it gets better each day. We definitely still miss our Stanky boy though. But in other good news, we've still got our silly Seabass to keep us company and to keep us entertained. Man he's so much fun!

Cindy

A Sad Goodbye

Friday was a very, very hard day for us. We had to say goodbye to our first "kid", Stank. About a month ago we noticed Stank started losing some weight. Then after a little while he started eating less and less. We took the first appointment we could get with the vet and they did lots of tests. All they could find was that he was anemic. They told us that likely he had cancer but the only way to tell was by doing expensive tests and x-rays. And they also told us that even with treatment his likelihood of survival was very slim and the treatments would make him very sick themselves. We tried our hardest to get him to eat but he just refused. We even tried appetite stimulants which didn't have any affect on him. The poor cat was miserable. He was hiding under our desks and when we'd lay with him he would let us love on him for a little bit but then he'd move away as if to say "just let me be, I don't feel good." It was so hard to see our buddy so miserable. We knew what we needed to do, but boy was it the hardest decision we've made. But at least our Stanky isn't suffering anymore.

Stank, you were such an awesome cat. You had so much love to give, you were so, so sweet and such a beautiful cat. Your daddy and I love you so, so much and we miss you like crazy. Your little brother misses you, too. I will always love you, Stank, and will always remember and think of you fondly. Life just won't be the same without you sitting on my lap, without you trying to swat at my necklaces, without you eating the bugs for me (Seabass just doesn't have it in him like you did), and of course without your snuggles and love.

All my love sweet boy.
Your Mommy

5 Fact Friday

Happy Friday, my friends! It's another rainy one out there today. It finally cleared up yesterday afternoon/evening and then in the middle of the night a thunderstorm came through and it's been raining ever since. Not sure that it's supposed to stop until much later today, either. =( I hope it's clear for the two weddings we're going to tomorrow though! Though it rained off and on during our wedding day and it was still a fantastic day!

1. Last night we went to Taco Bell for dinner and it was delicious. I hadn't eaten at Taco Bell in months. Actually, I haven't really had fast food much lately at all. It's kind of a feat for us since we used to eat fast food at least once a week.

2. Earlier this week I contemplated writing a blog post rant about people asking us when we're going to have kids. I'm just so tired of getting asked. Sure we've been married for 3 years already and I know that people are just excited for us, but it really upsets me to get asked because I don't know that we will even be able to have kids.

3. The past two nights have been horrible, sleeping-wise. I normally don't have trouble sleeping. Some nights I'll wake up to use the bathroom, but the past two nights were both interrupted by thunderstorms and various other things. It was quite annoying. And I'm quite tired!

4. Cats can have the funniest positions. I walked in the door from work one afternoon and found Seabass relaxing on the couch...

5. Since Big Bang Theory isn't available to watch anywhere online and since Collin and I don't have TV service, we'd never really seen the show. However, we've been borrowing the DVDs from people we know with them and we love it! It's such a funny show!

I hope you guys have a great weekend. I am sure that we will enjoy our wedding-filled one! I even got a cute new dress on clearance at Ross for the occasion! I can't wait to wear it and share some love with our good friends tomorrow! I just love love!

Cindy

Back on the Grid

Hello blog world!! It's been over a month since I last posted! Whoa. That is so not like me. Sure, at times I would go days, maybe a week without posting, but a month!? Goodness! I suppose I've been sort of in a blog "slump". I just haven't felt compelled to write anything. And then after some time went by without posting I found it got harder to post because I felt bad that it had been so long. But a couple days ago Lynn left me an Instagram comment asking what happened to me. It made me think and realize, ya know what, it's not that hard to get back into blogging. I just gotta do it! So here I am!

Not a *whole* lot has happened in the past month. It's been pretty fun, and a bit busy, but nothing too terribly noteworthy has happened. We're in the pit for our local summer youth musical (cast is ages 10-21, the crew/pit can be any age) and that's taken up a chunk of our time. We have rehearsal for that twice a week and starting next week we have rehearsals Monday-Thursday and then 4 performances Friday-Sunday. Then we have the week days off and then 4 performances that next weekend. It's crazy busy! And to top off the end of those crazy two weeks, my mom's side of the family is having a family reunion on Friday and Saturday which we'll try to stop by in between performances on Saturday. AND my grandma is coming in from Chicago to spend 10 days with us that same Friday! Lots to look forward to.

Besides Summerstock, we have 4 weddings this summer and 1 in the autumn. Two have already happened, and two are THIS Saturday. Two weddings in one day. Good thing they're slightly spaced apart and sorta close together. =) The weddings we've already been to were great! The first one Collin and I did the music for the ceremony, and the second Collin was the DJ. It was so fun seeing my talented hubby at work!

Oh! A fun little thing we discovered... we have a bird feeder up on our porch filled with sunflower seeds. The birds LOVE it. A few weeks ago we noticed little sunflower sprouts popping up in the mulch off our porch. We got curious since we had the feeder at our old apartment, too. We walked over there and it was like a sunflower field! So many flowers, and tall too since they've been in the ground longer! We went back about a week later and they were actually flowered! We loved it! We can't wait for the ones outside our current apartment to flower!

Seabass has been keeping us thoroughly entertained lately. He's so crazy. He runs around like a maniac. Then he just flops over and falls asleep. He's so much fun though. I just love watching him with all his energy and his little personality. Stank is sick though and that's been really hard on us. We aren't sure what's wrong with him but he hasn't been eating. We've taken him to the vet and done a few different tests and the doctor said he's ruled out everything he thought it could be and it looks likely that it's cancer. =( We'd appreciate some prayers for us because this is really hard.

Stank before he started acting sick.

Seabass bird watching. I have so many pictures of this cutie to share!

So yeah... that's basically what's been going on. I mean, there have been little things here and there but that's the majority of how our June was. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging regularly! Not necessarily every day, but more often than once a month. =)

Cindy

5 Fact Friday

Hi friends! Did you think I disappeared? I haven't (obviously), but I just haven't felt like blogging. Anyway, I'm here today to do the Random 5 Friday thing with Nancy!

1. My little baby turned 1 year old last Friday! We've only had Seabass since last August, but it's been so fun to watch him grow up and thankfully to calm down some!

The day we brought him home.

This was taken just a few weeks ago. He's practically doubled in size! The boy eats so much!
We have to shoo him away from Stank's food. Little booger.

2. I painted my toenails on Friday for the first time since like October. I hate having bare nails when they will show. However, I hadn't worn open toed shoes until Friday. So hot pink it was! And then I realized it matched my night gown!

3. On Sunday evening a little bit before bed I went to the bathroom. While I was almost done I see a huge wolf spider come scurrying under the bathroom door. I scream and scream and scream. Collin comes running and at this point I'm crying because I'm trapped inside the bathroom with this giant spider. It was the most traumatized I think I've ever been. Holy cow. I literally cried for about 15 minutes because I was so traumatized. Thank goodness I was able to leave the bathroom and Collin was able to get rid of it after I did.

4. The other day we were out on the frisbee golf course. We stumbled upon this beautiful purple flower/plant that was all over this one section and neither of us knew what it was. It makes me sad because I'm pretty good at identifying flowers. Do any of you know what this is?

5. It's been a little while since I've seen a sunrise or a really good sunset. The sun has already peaked when I leave for work now and either I've been at home when the sun has set lately or it's been too cloudy for a nice one. So I was thrilled when I saw this sunset on Tuesday evening!

I hope you guys have a lovely weekend! It's supposed to be warm and nice here. Don't really have much plans except for a minor league ball game on Sunday! It will be fun though. I know that much!

Cindy

5 Fact Friday

Happy Friday, friends! This week has seemed so long. Not sure why, but it definitely has. =( I'm grateful for the weekend, even though I won't have too much at home time. I know it will still be a nice weekend!

1. I've been wanting a pretty plant for our porch to spruce it up and make it colorful and pretty. We went to Lowe's on Sunday looking for the perfect thing. Our porch doesn't get much direct sunlight so it made it very difficult to find a plant that would work. However, I found this New Guinea Impatiens and loved it!

2. Until yesterday, I had never made a Pineapple Upside Down Cake before. I know how much Collin likes it so I offered to make one for his birthday. I then decided I really wanted to make the cake batter by scratch. I was so concerned it was not going to turn out very well, but everyone said it was good!

3. I think Collin had a pretty good birthday! He seemed to really enjoy himself. And he even got to play a little bit of guitar in the afternoon! He loves to play his guitar.

4. It's so funny watching the cats play. Especially when Seabass is climbing up or down his cat condo. It's really nice though when he's finally being peaceful and calmly sitting atop it!

5. I hate that I haven't taken too many pictures of the spring pretties this year. I mean, I did get like 100 some shots, but all on my iPhone and I didn't do a photo walk and get pictures of some things I was meaning to before they turned green. Oh well. Photos like this one make me not so sad about not using my Nikon though. The iPhone can take a pretty good picture!

Have a great weekend, friends! I'll see you back here next week!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

It's interesting how moving affects not just us people but it also really affects our pets. Our kitties began acting out as soon as we started packing. They knew something was up and I do believe that pets, especially cats, dislike change more than we do.

Once we moved them into the new apartment, Stank began freaking out. The person who lived there before us very obviously had a cat; you could smell it. I hate that! But I suppose that's the price you pay for living in apartments; you have to deal with issues from the prior tenants. Anyway, Stank was NOT happy about the move at first. He was very, very nervous and he wouldn't stop sniffing around (which is normal) but I know he smelled the previous cat. And since there wasn't that cat to show his dominance to, he began to hiss and growl at Seabass! And poor little Seabass didn't know what was going on. He and Stank have become buddies so I'm sure it was upsetting to him that his big brother was being mean again. =(

Fortunately Stank has calmed down and I think our smells are beginning to permeate and dominate the smells from the other cat and prior tenant. Thank goodness! We were really concerned about Stank there for a little while! I knew it would be normal for the cats to want to sniff around and that it would take a day or two for them to be comfortable enough to be themselves in the new place, but we didn't expect behavior like that from Stank!

Seabass taking advantage of the extra space that packing boxes provides. He also loved jumping into the empty boxes!

Stank on moving day. He didn't want to get out of bed because he knew something was going on.

If you have pets, how do they react when you move? Do they freak out like my cats did?

Cindy Also, I've had Bloglovin' for a while, but in case you didn't know, you can follow me either by clicking on this link or by clicking on my button in my sidebar!

5 Fact Friday

I love Fridays. Absolutely love them. Most of the time anyway. =) I love them even more when it's my Friday off. Unfortunately this is not that one. Actually, I don't really blog on my Friday off. I'm too busy enjoying my free time! This week actually kind of flew by, which is a very good thing!

1. We are moving a week from tomorrow into a 2-bedroom apartment. We have nothing packed yet. And we've only acquired 3 boxes so far. Good thing we have people putting boxes aside for us...

2. Last weekend I read a really great book called invisible by Ginny Yttrup. I highly recommend it. Actually I'm posting a review of it later today!

3. Last weekend it was really nice outside so we spent Saturday afternoon playing frisbee golf for the first time this year, and then we got Rita's!

4. I think I found a solution to our problem with the cats waking us up. I started giving them half of their normal food amount in the evening and giving them the other half just before bedtime. So far they've not woken us up and it's been 3 mornings now!

5. Our play is coming along pretty nicely. We have performances April 19 and 20 at our church and it's been a pretty fun experience so far!

Have a wonderful weekend, dear ones! I'll see you next week!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Today is one of those days where I both love my cats very much and am very aggravated with them at the same time. It's not that they really did anything wrong, it's just that they're annoying! We feed our kitties twice a day, once in the morning and again after getting home from work. If we fed them anymore, they would get so, so fat. Anyway, we sleep with our door closed at night and every morning at about 5-5:30 they start meowing and scratching at the door. We still want to sleep until 6. But it's pretty much impossible. Most mornings we eventually have to get up and put Seabass in his cage temporarily because he's going to destroy the carpet clawing at it.

We tried to use a timed feeder, but Seabass figured out how to get into it. If we were to use an auto feeder, I have no doubt that they would eat all the food by the end of the day and would get really, really fat. Anyway, it's just really frustrating. I'm tired of losing sleep because the cats want food. Shouldn't they have learned by now that their obnoxious behavior doesn't get us to feed them any sooner? Ha. I wish.

At least they're so beautiful and lovey, most of the time.

Anyway, any suggestions on how we can get a full night's sleep without the cats driving us crazy?

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Stank has actually been snuggling with me lately. I've missed it.

Seabass really enjoys sitting on the toilet. No idea why.

While eating dinner on my parent's porch, their cat Jake fell asleep with his head on the candle holder and behind the digital photo frame. Ha!

Cindy