St. Petersburg, Russia, Part One

What a blessing this trip was!! It always amazes me how a group of women from the states goes to another country to host a renewal for women involved in missions and we return renewed ourselves!!

Here are some pictures to enjoy... I will get to all the details when I have some extra time. All I can tell you is it was AMAZING!!!!!


The Czar's winter palace, now where The Hermitage is, on the square where Bloody Sunday occured


walking up the stairs of The Hermitage


The square where Bloody Sunday occured; looking at the Military Headquarters and barracks


The Church of the Blood


A side view of The Church of the Blood with a view of the canal


Peterhoff front entrance


part of the gardens


In the courtyard of the Stables where we stayed at Peterhoff


Jayne, Suzanne, Kelliann, Georgia, Catherine, Jamie, Shelly at the Gulf of Finland


on the grounds at Peterhoff where Peter the Great lived


The church of Peter and Paul


The stable grounds where we stayed


The stable grounds where we stayed


Fall was gorgeous!!!!!!! The trees where so huge and the leaves were beautiful!!!


The chapel at Peterhoff

Back from Russia

Hi friends! I wanted to let you know I have made it back to Tucson safely from St. Petersburg, Russia. This trip was such a blessing in so many ways. I will post about it and include pictures later on this week. I just wanted to let you know I am back, safe, already back to work and will update you soon and very soon!!

Love,
Catherine


PS: Here is a sneak peak of what is to come...

This is a picture of The Church of the Blood.

On my way to Russia...

In about 3 and a half hours I will be boarding a plane and heading to St. Petersburg, Russia. Myself and 13 other women from around TX will be hosting a renewal for 38 of the most wonderful women in Eastern Europe. We will be spending a week offering these women time of prayer, praise, solitude and silence and help encourage them through the week. This is my fourth trip with Come before Winter. What an honor it is for me to spend a week with the most amazing women in the world; getting to focus on the love that Jesus has given all of us and the joys we have to spend together in the Lord's presense.

Please be praying for all of us and the travels that will be occuring over the next 48 hours.

Blessings!

more of Charlie, Pouncer, Trinity or whatever you decide to name her... kitten

Here are some more pictures of the precious playful kitten. I never can get good pictures of the little stinker because she can't stay still. She seems to be gaining more energy and joy by the minute. It's so exciting to watch!

But first enjoy the beautiful sunset over the mountains from our back yard...

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