Fetchers

I'm a week behind and actually have a lot to catch up on. Good things... days filled with joy that, in turn, filled our hearts with gladness and healing.

But, after a brief getaway with my Love, there seems to be this perpetual lump in my throat upon returning back to "normal life." And, while I attempt to swallow that lump, I'm finding it hard to get anything out, even through my fingers. Life seems to have found a way to overwhelm me from every side this week. Fortunately, I am hoping that the large doses of chocolate and ice cream, and chocolate ice cream will soon have their calming effect.

Luckily, we also have some pretty hilarious cats who bring us healthy doses of laughter at times like this. Do you remember last year when we found that Einstein knew how to play fetch? Well, you can refresh your memory of that glorious day by going here.

Apparently, Watson didn't want to be left out and busted out his amazing fetching abilities, totally out of the blue the other day. His fetching toy of preference? A white twisty tie. Funny cat. Check this out:



We're love our little fetching cats.

Exhaustion

This is our kitten, Watson. (Isn't he just the cutest kitty ever?!)

This is how I've felt for the last couple of weeks.

Everything from school, to work, to Church, to family, to daily chores, to enjoying the beauty of Springtime... life has been full of so many good things lately. And, every time I think about catching up on the blog, I feel overwhelmed because there is just too much to catch up on. And, actually I don't even have time right now to catch you up on what's been going on, but I did want to let you know, at least, that we are alive and happy and doing really well. And, stay tuned for some catch up posts in the next few days... and hopefully I can deliver on that! :)

O Christmas Tree

So, we like to buy our Christmas tree about a week before Christmas... hoping that the pine needles will stay on the tree until after Christmas is over, rather than having a bare, needleless tree on Christmas morning.

Well, it has always worked fine for us to find a tree the week before... except for this year. We went to the place we've gotten our tree the last two years and they were out. Okay, no big deal, right? We'll just find one somewhere else. Well, in all our searching we couldn't find any place that still had trees to sell.

At one point we had half-jokingly talked about buying a potted tree. And, it turns out that is exactly what we've done! At the last place we'd gone to check for a Christmas tree, we looked at their potted tree section and finally decided on buying an orange tree. (The choice was actually really easy as that was the only tree they had in stock.)

So, we have an Orange Christmas tree... well, it's actually green, but produces oranges instead of pine cones, but I guess you probably figured that out. :)


Here's Einstein checking it out:


And, Watson also gives his approval:


The best thing about having this as our Christmas tree? We'll plant it next to the apple tree in the Spring, and hopefully have some of our own home-grown oranges for Christmas next year. How cool will that be? Yes, we are feeling rather self-sufficient and environmentally friendly with this little adventure!

As we were driving home from the store after having bought the tree, we were laughing at our situation and how crazy it was that we were using an orange tree as our Christmas tree. That was about when Marc said, "Procrastinate now, get oranges later."

So, there you have it. We have gone against tradition and it's actually been kind of fun. Although, I think I'm going through withdrawals of "pine-scentedness" right now. I'll have to find some pine branch somewhere. Or a candle.

Our Masseuse - Watson

So, while I was catching up our blog this morning, Watson jumped up on my lap and settled in next to me on my chair and fell asleep. For the little guy that he is, he sure has a heavy duty purr. He is like a little hand-held massager.

But, rather than having something like this:

We have this:

So, in case it isn't obvious, Watson is resting up against my leg (I'm wearing red sweat pants)... and it really felt like he was giving my left thigh a nice massage before falling into his deep sleep.

Now, come on, really, is there any question which one you would choose?

Our fun-filled Friday

Yesterday was kind of a crazy day. First thing in the morning we took Watson to the Vet to have have his neutering done. Poor little guy. We dropped him off at 8:30am and finally picked him up at about 2:00pm. They let me know that they put a collar around his neck to keep him from licking the general area of the stitches, so that he doesn't cause any infections. I guess we should have asked for another one for Einstein to be kept from licking Watson. So, here's Watson, post-surgery:


And, here's a little video we took of him, trying to figure out how to function with the collar on:

We were only able to watch him like that for about an hour, before we took the collar off. The Vet said that if he started to thrash around, then he was going to do more harm to himself than any licking might. So, we just kept an eye on him for the rest of the afternoon. By Friday night Watson was extra cuddly, rubbing his nose up against our faces and purring extra long. I think we're all glad this procedure is behind us.

Some highlights from our trip

Day 1 - Woke up at 3:41am. Spent about 14 hours in the car - Marc, me, and my Mom and Dad - before arriving at Matt and April's near Ogden, Utah. April fed us some delicious tortellini soup with spinach and sausage, which really hit the spot after eating snack foods most of the day. Visited there with April and 2-year old Kelly for a while, before heading up to Smithfield to see Dawnette and family.

Day 2 - Woke to the smell of blueberry pancakes and bacon. YUMMY! We were introduced to their two new baby kittens, one white and one gray/black. Since they could only keep one of the kittens, they offered to let us have the gray one. We decided to name him Watson. (They later decided on "Sherlock" as the name of their kitty.)

Attended the Logan temple with Mom, Dad, Dawnette, and John.



Played soccer in the front yard with McKayla, Dennison, Truman, and Malachi. Went on a nice little hike up the canyon with everyone, and spotted tons of dragonflies. When I tried to point them out to 2-year old Malachi, all he noticed was the dog poop on the trail. :) Ended the day with an ice cream cone from Casper's. Oh, while we were waiting at the car for the others, Marc taught the kids some karate moves. Here is Malachi showing his stuff.



Day 3 - We relaxed at home most of the day. Played more soccer. Went shopping with my big sister, Dawnette. She and I ended the day with pedicures. I believe self-pampering is a healthy activity! I tried to convince Marc to join in, but he was too busy watching a movie on his new laptop. Oh well, next time. :)

Day 4 - We met up in Ogden with four of the eight siblings for a family picnic with Mom and Dad. After eating lunch, we chatted, played with the kids, and tossed a football and softballs with each other... until we were all so hot that we returned to Matt's house for Popsicles and air conditioning.



Drove down to Provo with Mandi and Adam. Had dinner at Guru's and watched part of Casino Royale.

Day 5 - Went to Church. Hung out with Mandi and Adam all day. Played with Watson. Went on a walk with Marc, and then later went on a walk with my little sister, Mandi. Mom and Dad arrived later that night, excited to enter the MTC the next morning...

Day 6 - Bid farewell to Mom and Dad, well for a couple of hours anyway. They checked into the MTC and got their name tags and then came back for lunch with us, before attending more meetings in the afternoon.


Don't they look so great?!!

Marc, Mandi, and I did a little shopping and then later played Skip-Bo. Marc and I checked out the mural that my Dad painted at Mandi's work, and then took a stroll around BYU's campus. We made French Bread Pizza for dinner and Apple Crisp for dessert. Jamie and his family joined us from Idaho that night, which was a treat! With it being our final night in Utah, we really soaked up the time with everyone. We enjoyed some much-needed quiet moments with Mom and Dad.

Day 7 - Woke at 4:45am. Shared hugs and kisses and tears. It was hard to leave the state where both of my sisters live. In my ideal world I would live across the street from both of them, or at least around the corner. Hopefully one day!


Mandi, Dawnette, and me - both my sisters are expecting! :)

It was even harder to say good-bye to Mom and Dad. They'll be in Australia in just a few days - on the other side of the world for a year and a half. But, I'm so proud of them... and it gives us an excuse to make a trip to Australia! :)

It took us about 12 hours to drive back home to California. We listened to a book on tape that Mandi let us borrow - Outlander - which actually made the trip seem to go faster. What a relief to finally get out of the car. Watson traveled really well.

After arriving home, we cuddled Einstein before introducing him to our new kitty, Watson. Here's a video of their first introduction. (DISCLAIMER: Please ignore our annoying, high-pitched kitty-talking voices.)



And, then this is the following day, after we had given Watson a bath. The first clues that Einstein and Watson are going to be good buddies.



As you can see, we had quite the trip! We had a fantastic time in Utah. It was great to spend time with two of my brothers and two of my sisters and their families. And, it was wonderful to have some time away with Marc. There really isn't anyone I'd rather be with than him. I love our time together!

Utah Roadtrip

We just got back from a quick trip to Utah. We drove out there with my parents, to see them off at the MTC (Missionary Training Center). We were able to spend time with family, play with nieces and nephews, attend the Logan temple, have a self-guided tour of the latest renovations at BYU, hike up a Utah mountain, and send my parents off on another mission. It was a week packed with a lot of fun and tender moments with family.

Come back later for photos and other highlights of our trip! :)

Oh, and by the way, we also came back with a four-week old kitten, Watson. So far he and Einstein get along really well. We captured their first introduction on video. They're some handsome kitties!

- Megan