Romance

We don't get a lot of romance in our lives most days.

Luckily we are easily charmed, and little things go a long way.

I do not need flowers, candy, etc.  Honestly when he cooks, even a burger (which is about all he cooks... hint to all, don't try the grilled cheese :/ lol) it is a romantic gesture to me.  When he comes in and says "hey, you want to watch another episode of _____" <--- insert whatever show we are currently watching together, I find that wonderfully heartwarming.  Let's not even get into the video game butterflies he sets off.

Anyways, I know you may wonder if there is a point to this.  Well here is the point...
I have been working on some paintings that I am giving to relatives for Christmas.  (I already have the supplies, so cheaper than buying, and I think my 6 year old brother will really like having Angry Bird pictures in his room)

My legs were starting to kill me, but I powered through until nap time, because Joshua was so wonderful that he kept her out of the living room (which is where her toys and main time is spent) and kept her entertained, so I could continue.  I was not going to waste this time.  Well now she is down for a nap, and my knees and ankles are killing me (starting to wish I never sold my easel, but hey, the floor is better than nothing :) as is my lap).  So I got up and went and sat at my computer for a moment, and told him I needed a short break.  He suddenly got very excited, and slightly agitated.  Clicking on his computer, and telling me not to get comfortable.

Finally, he started playing Patsy Cline on YouTube and held out his hand.  He said "dance with me."  :) and we did.  While we danced he sang to me, and held me close.  "Crazy..." :) I got lots of kisses too, and nuzzles with his scratchy beard.  Then towards the end I hear him say "you know, I combed my beard for you this morning."  He said it so proudly, that with a slight smile, and in a whisper, I responded "I can't tell" in a very amused way.  He laughed, I laughed, we parted, and I came here to immediately blog about it... yes I know we are lame, but we are in love, and we still show it.  So if you are a guy, go be corny with your gal!  :)

Feeling Special :)

I just logged on real quick, and saw my blog has 1111 views!!!  I feel so special right now.  Thank you whoever is reading!

Christmas Time

So sorry for being gone so long!  So much going on lately, good and bad.

Let us start with the bad, so we can get to the good, and leave on a happy note.

Over the last few weeks we have had some money trouble, oh the fun!  But with vet bills, vaccinations needed for school, tuition payments, a baby (oh diapers... sad face), and 2 dollars to do one load of laundry (with 3 people living in the house, it stacks up! way to go little baby lol).

So that has been fun, but it looks like Joshua has found a possible job :) we will know more right after the new year.  He is considering taking a little time off from school so he can work and we can get back to good on our finances.  I sold some of my stuff so we could have a nice Christmas :) so at least that is good!  Plus we get to have Olivia for a few days after Christmas! (oh yeah, those are good things, wrong section!)

Another special thank you to all of the donations we have received from generous people to our Donation Site.  We are over 600 dollars right now, which won't cover all of Rosie's medical bills, but will at least help out since we have so many other things going on.

After the finances, we still had a little bad luck with some injuries.  My wrist is starting to finally get better.  I think I mentioned it weeks ago.  I hurt it when I was helping carry my daughters stroller, up a set of stairs from the train (no elevator, sad face).  It looks like I had a mishap with my muscle, and I am told 6-8 weeks is the norm for it to heal.  So it has been I think about 5 weeks now?  Almost 6?  so yay!

Now here is some inbetween news.  Both good and bad.

Evelyn is getting new teeth!!!
When she was 11 months old, her two bottom teeth came in together.  Since then, nothing, nada, niente.
During the last 2 weeks or so though, she has had 2 molars coming in, an upper vampire fang, another bottom tooth, and another upper one (not sure what they are called).  So yay!  Lots of teeth :) On the downside, there has been a couple of days where she has been eh... not too happy, extra crabby... but she can chew her food better, and we feel better giving her crunchy things.

Now for all the good things!

Joshua may have found a job!  Sure it is a downer that he won't be going to school for a quarter (his school goes by the quarter system) but it will be so nice to have some security again.  He is only taking one quarter off though, it does not do a lot of good to postpone something so important to our future for a long time.

I signed up to be an egg donor :D  I am very excited to hear back.  I have always wanted to do this, but between giving birth, nursing, or living really far away from the nearest clinic, I just haven't had the chance.  Now we live pretty close, and I am really happy about my decision :) I can't think of a better gift to give a family, than a baby!

Evelyn took her first steps last weekend.  She has only taken a few since then, but it was so great.  Joshua and I were so lucky in this crazy important event.  We were both in the room with her, coaxing her with "you can do it"'s and "one foot in front of the other"'s :) She did it, and she celebrated!

Evelyn has also learned some new things in the last week.  She can now say (sorta, but we know what she is saying) cookie, cracker, cupcake, goldfish, sippy cup, and kitty.  We also taught her how to fist bump, which can be added to her other wicked cool abilities (touchdown, raise the roof, patty cake, itsy bitsy spider, big belly, etc).

I went with a friend to dollar tree and got a couple cute things to add to my trunk of Christmas decorations.  I love that I was able to make my place look awesome, with old things, and $5 worth of new ones!  :)

I finished allllll of my Christmas shopping in the week following Thanksgiving, and I did not even have to go into black friday hell.  I am still working on a couple gifts, that I am making myself, from things I already have.  We have gotten a bunch of stuff in the mail too, from family we don't get to see often, and they are sitting under our tree.

Rosie is doing AWESOME.  She is actually better than before I think.  Josh asked me last night if I thought there was anything different with Rosie.  I said that I think she plays differently.  He asked me to clarify, and I told him that he often plays with Evee now in a very rambunctious way.  Tapping her leg, then running away, and getting in the pounce position.  She is acting like a brand new little kitten, rather than her lazy cat self.  She is much more spunky, and really wants to play allllll of the time.  If we had our money we would really be getting her a new companion, especially for night time bursts of energy.  :)

In addition her weight is gaining back to normal, her hair is growing back, and she is still really sweet :)  Though now she is obsessed with trying to find ribbon, or other strands.  She was never this enthusiastic before, and sometimes I swear I want to rip my hair out when I see her trying to find something lol.  Do you have a deathwish cat?  :) I love her though.  Silly kitty.

Okay now time for the pictures!!!


Evelyn discovering the tree for the first time :) The day after Thanksgiving


Snow Man doormat (dollar tree!)




Gifts under the tree (the green basket on the left, dollar tree!!!)


The front door (giant stocking, dollar tree!!!)


Scraps of felt, and construction paper that I already had on hand


Felt Christmas tree for Evelyn :)


Wall decoration (from dollar tree! seriously this is probably my favorite thing!)


Snowflake ballerinas (already had the material, yay!)


Cherry Almond cupcakes that I made for Joshua :) Evee also loved them.

Rosie 11/14/12

Rosie is doing great!

We took back the bag of food we had previously purchased (the bland kind that would be easier to digest, but she wouldn't eat any of) and we got a new type!  Which will hopefully go well.  We are going to mix it in with her food, and see how that goes.

We are still under orders to keep an eye on her eating and drinking, plus checking her stools.  So far so good, hopefully it stays that way.

They told us her stomach is still sensitive, but they did take out the stitches/staples!  

I finally felt comfortable enough with letting her and Evelyn play together this morning.  Evee was very, very good about it.  She was gentle, and Rosie loved it.  She kept pushing herself closer, rolling onto her back, stretching her head up to nuzzle Evelyn's leg.  They even watched Harry Potter together :) my little nerd girls <3 taking after their mama!  I have some pictures :) I would love to share them with you!  Here we go!

If you have some free time, please visit Rosie's donation site .  If you are unable to donate, I understand completely, but please spread the word on facebook, pinterest, twitter, or your own blogs.  We would really appreciate it.  We have our meeting tonight, about organizing a bake sale.  So if you are in the Northern Chicago area, please keep us in mind for holiday treats this Thanksgiving, and Christmas!  When I know more, I will post more.  For now, I think I am going to finish my movie, and have some cereal.  Everyone else is napping :) 

11/11

Today has been a long, and tiring day, but a good one.

My dad decided to make a last second trip up here, with my baby brother.  They have never seen our new place, and had planned to come see it on Thanksgiving.  However that won't be happening, because my youngest brother is having his tonsils taken out, and won't be fit to travel.

They arrived yesterday, and left today.  Very short, but pleasant visit.

Yesterday was the Marines Birthday.  Joshua is a marine so <3 I hope we made it enjoyable for him... other than the fact that I beat him (and my dad) at poker :)

Today is veterans day.  My dad was in the Navy, and Joshua, as stated above, Marines.  I have thanked them both today, and hope they both enjoyed the recognition they so rightly deserve.

Rosie has been doing great.  She was sleeping on my hip last night, while I laid on my side.  At one point my hip bone started hurting so badly, that I wanted to roll over, but I held my position as long as I could so I didn't wake her.

We go in on Tuesday to get her stitches out. (yay!)

I think I will have to make a batch of cookies and brownies to take in with us on Tuesday, for all the help they have done.  They even put Rosie's facebook campaign page on their facebook page!  A couple people have since donated to Rosie after seeing it.  We are now at 24% of our goal!  As my dad said when I showed him, there are still good people in the world, willing to help their neighbors.

I took my dad and brother on the CTA to get back to Union Station, so they could get home.  I really wish more stops had elevators.  I hurt my wrist carrying the stroller, and the baby up and down so many stairs.  I decided after leaving them at the station, to take a longer way home and walk to the nearest known station with an elevator.  I realized on my walk, that I was walking for 20 minutes, to get to an elevator, rather than going down a set of stairs that were only 5 minutes away.  That is my worst attempt to be "lazy" ever!  Though in all fairness, my wrist hurt, and I did enjoy the walk :) nothing wrong with walking!  Evee seemed to enjoy it (other than intersections, when the wind attacked!)

Joshua heated some pizza up for me when we were all home, and then we sat and watched an episode of Doctor Who.  Love David Tennant <3

Joshua couldn't remember how to play Rummy, so I retaught him, and we played.  He beat me :)
Now I am just going to settle in on the couch, and watch a show until I fall asleep, which shouldn't be too long from now.  I will have some new recipes to try this week, so be on the look out.  I will also get some new pictures of Rosie, Evee, and everyone up too.  I have blue hair btw.  I got the stuff for it before Rosie got sick, and finally decided to do it, once everything had calmed down.  But haven't had a chance to take pictures yet.  I miss the purple some, but I have gotten a lot of compliments on the blue.  To each their own I suppose.  :)

Rosie 11/09/12

Rosie is doing great!  She seems to be mostly her normal self.  She is still a little more cautious with her steps, than she may have been otherwise, but I can see an improvement each day.

She has not returned to chasing around glints of light, or the goldfish my daughter drops on the ground.  I look forward to the day that she does.

Tonight is a momentous night, because in just a couple hours, we will give her the last syringe of medicine :)

She still has pain pills :/  but there are only a few of those left as well.

We watch her to see if we can sense any pain, and so far we don't think so.  I am hoping that doesn't change tomorrow, when she will only be on one kind of medicine.

As always, thank you for the well wishes we have received.

Everyone has been so kind, and generous.  Our Campaign has earned 17% of our goal.

I have spoken to an organization that helps people out, including running a soup kitchen.  We are meeting with someone this week, from said organization, who is very interested in helping me set up a bake sale fund raiser.  Like Rosie's donation site, we will not profit any money from this benefit.  All profits will be donated to this organization, as the extra money from the donation site will be donated to local shelters.

:) again, thank you for caring so much about our little kitty! If you have a moment, please visit her facebook page, like it, and share it!

Rosie 11/07/12

Rosie is doing pretty well.  We have our medicine routine down now.  She doesn't particularly like me shoving a pill in her mouth, but she is a very good girl, and doesn't try to escape... too much.

The syringes of pain medicine are definitely easier in my opinion.  She even seems to kind of like them.

She is sleeping a lot, but she has always been a pretty chill/lazy kitty.  She does like to play, but we don't want her to move around too much and disrupt her staples and stitches, so we haven't urged her to chase her ball.

She has been keeping the same trend with her food the last couple days.  She doesn't eat as much as normal, and when she does it is like a last resort.  She whines a lot about it, and then just eats a little.  We were positive she didn't like her food, and we were right.

I talked to her doctor today, and she told us we could try her old food and hopefully she digests it well. More stool babysitting for us :) but I do not mind at all!

She is meowing at me right now, so I should probably cuddle her some more.

I wanted to say something about the staff that took care of her, and the hospital she stayed in.  I am going to copy and paste it from EveryBlock.com where I have already posted it.  Sorry for that, but it is quicker, and I want to cuddle with my Rosie.

I just have to say that I am astounded at the purely amazing Broadway Animal Hospital. I know some recommended it, and others told me they did not care for it. I beg all of you to give them a chance though, or second chance.

After all of this, I honestly can't imagine going anywhere else for any future care for Rosie, or any other animals we may bring into our family.

Not only did we receive multiple calls daily, with updates on Rosie's condition, prognosis, and even attitude, they did so much more! All the effort, around the clock, the kindness in their voices every time they spoke to us, and the superb care they gave her, just means the world to us.

I talked to Dr. Schmitt today, to give her an update and ask about the food. She was very professional, and talkative about Rosie, and showed interest in how she is doing. She told me that the tech Melissa (I have mentioned in previous posts) has since left them, but sent a message asking about Rosie.

This level of care is just amazing! How thoughtful is that? :) so wonderful! The whole staff! From the people that answer phones, to the doctors, and techs. I really can not rave about them enough.

On top of all of this though, I went to check my gmail just a few minutes ago. What I found literally brought tears to my eyes, and I am not that sappy of a girl. We received a donation from her doctor, to Rosie's donation site :)

I had told her about it, but I didn't give her an address to go to. I was just telling her what all was going on. I can not believe this level of kindness, and care.

Reading so many really hateful political posts today, I lost a little faith in humanity, but it was given right back to me with this.

In fact, I have received multiple donations from people in the Rogers Park area.

All of you are so kind, and I truly wish I could hold some sort of event to thank you all. Maybe after we get Rosie's bill figured out haha. :) but really, thank you!