the kitten

Please let me first preface by allowing you to know that Brian nor I have had any attentions of getting a pet any time soon. Now, for the rest of the story...

On Wednesday afternoon I received a phone call from Brian. He was out looking at some property that he was selling before the final deal went through which was expected to happen on Friday. It is a great piece of property but the stuff that was on it was disgusting. There were two run down trailers that I would assume squattered had been living in for a while. Both homes that broken windows, boarded up window frames, over-grown grass, etc. I would assume you have seen pictures of impoverished areas or visited some yourself... just use your imagination from there. Brian let me know that he just found a stray kitten and didn't know what to do. There where three dead kittens along the wall and this kitten was hiding in a cement block by the door frame; covered in dirt, fleas and severely malnourished. I told him to get it, I would meet him somewhere and take it to a vet. When he got back from his car with a hand full of Kleenex to pick the kitten up; he couldn't find it anywhere. I told him I would meet up with him after he got off work and we could go looking for her. As soon as we walked through the door frame (the door had been removed) she stumbled right out and walked right up to me. Brian scooped her up and put her in the only type of box we could find to transport her... a weather-worn 12-pack Budweiser box with a hole in the side for her to poke her head out of. Brian and I went to Pets mart, bought some food, cat milk and shampoo to try to clean her and then went back to her house to see if she would eat anything and allow us to clean her off.

I took her to the vet the next day. They said she was probably 2 1/2 weeks old and that if we could have waited one more day to look for her she probably would have been dead. She was covered in fleas... we gave her front line and they have all since died; they gave me a gentle shampoo to wash her after 48 hours of the Front line being administered... she is super soft and fluffy now; an antibiotic to kill a yucky eye grossness (I don't know what it is)... she gets that every 24 hours; an amoxicilin for a parasite she had from her living conditions... she gets that every 12 hours; and last but not least; nutritional food to help her get some fat and muscle in her since she had absolutely none... that happens every 2 hours!!!

It has been so neat to watch her get a little stronger every time I check on her. She started purring yesterday and today she meowed for the first time!! I was like a proud parent with your child saying their very first word. She even went poo poo today!! :) I know this sounds silly but she had not gone since I had taken her to the vet on Thursday afternoon and I was nervous something else could be wrong. Her pupils have continued to fill out and she is getting more and more playful!!

At this point and time we have no plans on keeping her. She is so precious and needy right now but I don't know if I am ready for this sort of responsibility, emotionally and financially, yet.

I took some pictures today. Brian has some pictures of her from the first night we got her but he is in Seattle right now so I can't share them with you at this point and time... so please enjoy the ones I took of her today!

Blessings!!!

PS: Brian has named her Charlie, I won't name her unless we are going to keep her and mom has named her either Trailer Park Pouncer and call her/him Pouncer for short. Or we can name her Trinity cause she was one of three kittens. Or we can name her Lucky.

Enjoy the precious little creature... and I am sorry many are blurry but the little booger won't stay still for a photo opp...
















**the flash made her eyes two different colors... they are a really pretty blue/green in person**

PRAISE THE LORD! PRAISE THE LORD!!

Let His people rejoice!!! THE TOILET HAS BEEN FIXED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I called a plumber on Tuesday afternoon. I then called Brian to let him know I felt that he was just too busy with work to also have to worry about fixing a toilet... the plumber had it fixed in less than 30 minutes (and updated our other toilet hardware; just because he is nice and I think felt sorry for me). So, after almost one month of living at the new house I FINALLY have a toilet I can use in the middle of the night without bothering Megan! YEAH!!!!

In other news, our two trash cans that we keep in our car port which is in the back of the house and covered have disappeared. Megan took the trash out from the kitchen on Sunday night and put the bag of trash into the cans outside... we haven't seen them since. It is just sort of odd. Who in the world would steal trash cans... on top of the fact that who is coming onto our property and taking things that are not theirs. We hope and pray that neighbors aren't trying to bully us with this zoning project Brian is working on. We are trying hard not to jump to conclusions but at the same instance something is not right.

Brian got a job promotion last week! We are very excited for these new opportunities. He is still working on land deals but is now also getting to sale houses!!!!!!! YEAH!!! So, yesterday he went to look at a piece of property that turned out to be very run down and sort of nerve-racking being there. While walking the property, the came across some bad smells and then found two dead kittens. A little kitten popped it's head out of a brick where it was hiding. Being the compassionate person he is... he didn't want to leave the kitten there to share in the ultimate fate of it's siblings. He called me, we went out there after he got off of work, found the kitten and took it to his condo. We went and bought some food, shampoo and cat milk. It was dirty, malnurished, flea infested and had some bad cuts behind its ears from scratching. Brian gave it a bath and made a little bed for it in the guest bathroom. I am going to take it to a vet today and see what needs to happen. Brian and I really don't want the responsibility of a pet right now but we don't want it to be euthonized(spl?) if it doesn't need to be.

I'll post some pictures when I can.

Well, that's what has been going on in my world lately!!

LOVE!!!!

Grand Canyon fun time!!

Labor Day weekend was so much fun!! Veeves flew into Tucson and we went camping at the Grand Canyon. I'm not going to type much and I want to let the pictures do most of the talking... however my blog is being goofy right now and won't let me download any... so I will to that soon and very soon! I promise!! LOVE!!!

Toilet Adventure: Day... oh who am I kidding...

It must be at least day 20... but who's counting? :) The toilet is not fixed but as I type this blog Brian has headed up to Lowe's to purchase some tool he needs to hopefully complete the task tonight!! As always... I'll keep you posted!

I went on a two hour hike today around 2pm. My co-worker, Mike, goes hiking up Push Pike about 4 times a week and I asked him if I could tag along to see the trail before I ever would decide to venture off on my own... (FYI: I will never do this trail alone. It isn't the easiest hike and I would hate to be alone, slip, fall or get eating by a coyote or desert bunny :). ) It was an awesome hike was fabulous views of the NW part of Tucson. I didn't bring my camera but I will make an effort to bring it along next time. There were four storms that had already developed over parts of the land that we could see (I don't know if those areas were still Tucson or not so I am not going to say they were) and then it started to sprinkle on us as soon as we got to the peak of where we were headed. The Lord blessed us with cloud cover the entire hike until right when we got to the top, then it became sunny but started to sprikle which kept us cool... it was 104 degrees when I left the office at 1 pm.... so the rain was a BLESSING!! :)

I will try my hardest to always have a camera on me so you can all get to visualize what I get to live every day!!

On a side note, please continue to pray for Brian. He is running into some major headaches with this land-split. We have been praying so much about this opportunity and feel like now is not the time to just give up, pack up and leave. We just really hoped :) it would be easier... doesn't everyone! :) He is working like crazy during his normal work day, then has to come over and try to fix a toilet, and then deal with neighbors who feel like threatening him will get him to stop what we are trying to do.

Either way, please pray that the Lord continue to make clear which steps to follow and there will be clarity in ALL of our decisions!!

Love you guys!!!

a wildlife adventure

Last night Brian had come over to my house after work to try to fix my toilet... this toilet has not been working since I moved in a couple weeks ago and has become a big pain! That is neither here nor there in this story... so, around 7 pm I walked him out front to his car. We were chatting and saying good night when Brian stopped talking and gasped... we looked over toward the shed (maybe 50 feet away) and there were two adult coyotes just walking by. My roommate Megan had mentioned last week that she has seen coyotes on our property some mornings as she is getting ready for work but I had not seen them yet. Then a third coyote followed not too far behind. They stopped and looked at us for just a moment... then went on their way. However, it was fun because all the bunnies came leaping in our direction. So, I got to enjoy more cute cotton-tail sightings!!

SO COOL!

nothing new

So... there really isn't anything new to share but I wanted to share these two pictures from right outside my front window. Isn't it gorgeous!!

Here you are looking at the Catalinas...

notice the full moon on the right hand side... it is so vibrant from my view...

Enjoy!

My beautiful smile...

...as most of you remember it...

...is no longer beautiful. :(

((PS: This is the closest thing to a sad face I could find in all of my pictures... it just turns out I am just too happy too much of the time!))


Anyway, today I went to the dentist to get two teeth filled. That is right my friends... two cavities; ie: no longer a beautiful mouth.
I have prided myself on 25 years of strong healthy teeth. And just like with everything else, I move to AZ and things just start to fall apart! :)

Apparently, it has nothing to do with the fluride in the water as I tried to blame it on. The dental hygenist said that if I have been going through a lot of stress lately that could have something to do with. Ironic... I think not. Same findings with my doctors visit last week. I had felt sickly for a while and couldn't figure out what was really wrong. I thought allergies might have something to do with it. It turns out the cause... stress.

So, now I am really focusing on the positives of everything I can. I am trying to find the joy in Tucson, the joy in work, the joy in a new roommate, the joy in a swamp cooler (be thankful for air conditioning, those of you who have it... that's all I can say about that), a new home and the fabulous most wonderful boyfriend in the whole stinkin' entire world!!!

I still have to go in on September 7th to have a wisdom tooth extracted but I am figuring that won't be completely awful. How in the world is that, you wonder... because I am trying to look at the positives of everything, silly!! Don't you remember the last paragraph! :)

Love... even with no-longer-perfect-teeth
The cath

An yet another update...

PRAISE THE LORD!!! I am finally completely 100% moved out (and moved on) of the place I have called home for the last year. This past weekend I was able to move the last of my belongings from the apartment to Megan and my house!! (**Actually this is Brian's house that he is graciously allowing us to live in... as long as we keep it clean... I don't think he has anything to worry about!**) Megan and I have pretty much made the house a home. We have cable/Internet up and running. The swamp cooler is pumping cool air as much as it can (not much) and we have every single fan up and running 24/7. It is over 100 degrees out side and inside it has to at least be 85... there isn't much we can do without AC... another thing to be thankful for. Over the last year I have become SO appreciative of running water, cold water, clean water, air conditioning in cars, and now AC in homes. :)

It has been monsoon-ing a lot lately which means more humidity in the air which means swamp coolers don't work as well. However, with the monsoons abounding at this time of year this means fabulous weather to watch. Here are a couple of pretty pictures... and please allow me to preface... these pictures do not do justice to visual seeing the storms rolling in. You look out your windows to gorgeous mountains... five minutes later they are complete covered with the fluffiest clouds you have ever seen... 10 minutes later everything is gray and it becomes very windy outside.

Here is a sunset view from my front yard.

another pretty view with the cactus (also in the front yard)

A storm beginning to come in.



On to another topic.
I live in the desert. I think everyone is aware of this fact. Desert life means lots of desert wildlife. I don't mind admiring most of these animals/reptiles from a far however I have absolutely no desire AT ALL to see any up close or touch a single one of them.
Another reminder... Brian's house sits on 2 1/2 acres which means we have a lot of desert plant life and dirt surrounding every inch of our home.

Saturday afternoon my friend Shannon and I were going to run some errands and grab lunch. We were walking from the carport to her car. This is what that looks like.

Just a bunch of gravel... nothing to exciting.
Then Shannon stops.... looks down at the gravel and notices this...

This is a baby rattle snake... can you see it.
Here is a closer view.



There is a hole right by the car port that I cover up with dirt ever evening and every morning it is there again. I figured that it was a snake hole but this proves I ain't too crazy!

God bless the desert... as long as I don't find one of the suckers in the house or by a door I think I'll be okay.

Later! :)

Vegas fun

Brian and I had a wonderful time in Las Vegas visiting with some of his wonderful college friends Pete and Nina. Nina and I did a lot of shopping and a WHOLE lot of walking! Brian and Pete gambled a little and enjoyed each others company so much. Here are some pictures... though I did not get near as many as I would have liked... alas.

The best boyfriend in the whole wide world!!

and another...

Nina and Pete doing the Chicken Dance at the Hoffbrau(?) House



And in a recent blog I was talking about the weather. These pictures do not do it justice but this is just a little look of the clouds coming in while driving...

...you can see the cloud coverage coming over my apartment (middle to top right) and the crystal clear blue sky that is being covered (middle left)

same thing here... the weather was beautiful outside my door at my apartment but you can see the dark clouds moving in from a distance over the mountains!

God bless the monsoons!

Harry

So, I finally finished the final chapter of Harry Potter yesterday evening. As soon as I finished the last page I processed for about 3 minutes and then called my parents house hoping that either mom or Veeves would answer... you can always count on Valerie to follow through with your hopes and wishes. We discussed the book for about 15 minutes and then went our separate ways.

Around 11:30 am today I called my mom to process through the book with her. I know it may sound slightly tacky to use the word "process" with a children's fiction novel... but man, there is so much detail and 7 years worth of storyline to finally see how it all comes together.
My mom and I both shed tears over parts of the book that really broke our hearts and discussed topics that we found to be quite interesting.

I recognize that many Christians have very strong opinions against these novels and I recognize where most are coming from on the basis of witchcraft and wizardry. I humbly respect your decision not to read these books. However, I find these books to be so much for than just an enjoyable fiction novel. Throughout the 7 years these books take place there is a constant battle between good vs. evil, between dark and light.

As my mom and I discussed, once you get to the end of the book, though I would never compare Harry to Jesus in any sort of literal sense, you really do recognize that this book really does have some pretty heavy take-aways from it... I do not want to say too much because I know a certain sister of mine has still not had the chance to read it.

Moral of the story... I am so glad I have been able to be a part of the growth (mentally, emotionally and physically) of these characters... who they once where to who they have become.

That is really all I have to say on this topic at the moment... I am sure I will read it again within the next month to find more things I missed out on the first time.

Blessings to you and yours... I'm off to Las Vegas for the weekend to meet up with one of Brian's college buddy's and his wife. Yeah Pete & Nina!!

Love,
Cath

An update

I am very sorry it has been a while since I have updated my blog. I enjoy getting to keep everyone up to date but the days just get a way from me every once in a while. I have spent the last two weeks house sitting for a co-worker who lives about 30 minutes away, packing up my apartment, moving into the home I will begin living in within the month, continuing to work diligently on the Kenya Come before Winter video and now trying to read some Harry Potter. Work has been quite nice over the last week since my boss has been on vacation as well as the other two guys I work a lot with. I have been able to finish up with the morning show at 9 am every morning and just bang out all of my work without any interruptions! I have loved that!

Today I took my car into get my brakes checked... nearly $400 later all is good to go. They had been squealing for a while but this weekend they began to grind so I knew I needed to get them fixed. I decided to get a tune up as well since I hadn't done that since moving to Tucson over a year ago.

With the Monsoon beginning it has been overcast on and off over the past week. One of the things that I will miss about Tucson is being able to watch the storms come in. There are no large buildings blocking your view and you can see so far out. Storms move gracefully into town; clouds maneuvering around one another until the perfect lite storm hits. Since it doesn't rain but during the monsoon there is no efficient storm drainage or run offs so when it rains... everything floods... similar to what a lot of TX has been going through lately. It is quite amazing to see washes bone dry 10.5 to 11 months out of the year, in one day, become 1 to 8 feet high. Between the rain in town and all the run off from the mountains, water just pours into town... it's slightly dangerous but cool to watch happen. I am always reminded of God's glory during this time. You can't help but look up into the heavens, watch the clouds roll in and not be thankful for the beauty the power and the awe that He provided... man it's cool! :)

However, speaking of dangerous... Tucson has implemented a newer law in town... it's call the Stupid Driver law. It now holds (stupid) drivers liable for getting stuck in washes, washed up roads, under or over passes, etc. when driving in an unsafe area during monsoon. The driver will have to be pay charges that occur if a person has to be rescued... pretty interesting.

Here is a recent picture of Brian and I. We had a dinner party with some of my co-workers from Starbucks. It was so much fun!!
And for my little Veevesy...
Here are pictures from the house that I am moving into.
Obviously, this is the front of the house.
Here is the round about...
Another round about view... we have a front large entry way.
Here a two views from the front door...
This is the back porch. We have a big back yard... it would be perfect for a BBQ or for dogs... we have neither.

This is our pool. It needs a good cleaning job but it will be wonderful to have once it is all up and running!
This is Brian's storage spot for the hobbie cat. The house is on 2 and 1/2 acres so we have more than enough room to store the boat!
Here is the car port. Two cars can fit nicely in there. The door you see to the left is the entry into the tool shed, work space, laundry room. We have a washer and dryer already!! :) The door behind my car leads into the kitchen and living area.
The kitchen is still under construction but should hopefully be done this week...
And here is the living area... used also as storage until the kitchen is complete. Then we will begin making the living area a little more livable! :)
This is my bathroom and if we get a third roommate, hers as well.

So I apparently didn't take any pictures of my bedroom... however there is nothing in it right now so it doesn't really matter. I take more pictures once the house is put together.

And last but not least... for the mom... we have bunnies all over the place. Every day when I pull up to the front door they go scattering. Brian and I were over at the house last Saturday morning trying to get some handy work done and I glanced out to the back... there were 4 bunnies playing in the back yard and three very large hawks sitting on the ledge of the pool. It was so cool!
And for your enjoyment...