Farewell Kitty... Farewell

So this week has been slightly stressful for me. Monday morning as I scurried out of the front door for work - running late as usual - I locked the door behind me and headed down the sidewalk to the car, when my path was disrupted by the loud mewing of what sounded like a fairly young kitty hiding in our Mexican Heathers. So I spent about 5 minutes attempting to coax it out of the plants, all the while it was just mewing and mewing and mewing. Finally, I caught a glimpse and thought - oh no, it's a kitten. At that moment, I had to make a decision... get the cat out and feed it or go to work. So, I ran to the car, dropped off my things, darted back to the house, unlocked the front door, and grabbed all I could find that would help out the cat - a bowl of warm milk and some dry dog food that I thought would soften enough for kitty to eat. I dropped off the bowl outside by the plants and kitty sprinted out and immediately began lapping the milk. With a sigh of relief, I headed to work - 10 minutes after my already late morning.

That morning at work, I sat at my desk thinking... hmmmm... I don't think kittens are supposed to drink cow milk. So I did some googling and everything I saw read, "Don't give kittens cow milk." Great... So at lunch, after I had a few hours to process the homeless kitten hiding in my plants, I scurried home and gave it some of Karly's canned dog food. It didn't seem to be too picky at this point. For the rest of the week - up until last night - I fed kitty 3 - 4 times a day. It was so skinny when I first found it Monday morning and by last night it looked to be semi-healthy. I would feed it warm kitten formula mixed with delicious cat food (I'm just assuming it's delicious - I didn't taste it) like oceanfish with salmon and chicken/lamb.

So, the most stressful part of the entire week... as I'm sure many are aware... pregnant women aren't supposed to be around cat feces/litter, especially stray cats, and even more especially, stray kittens as most are still carrying parasites and haven't been vaccinated appropriately. So everyday this week, I've been haunted with the thought of toxoplasmosis... the parasite that is carried in cat feces. ugh... I know, gross. I did play with the kitten - a lot - probably at least an hour a day. And it used our flower garden as a litter box. ...it does smell a little funky by our front door. (Again, gross, I know.) All week, Toby and I tried to find kitty a home and FINALLY... FINALLY... an engineering manager he works with said his mom and dad wanted a new kitty and he would come get it. And he did!! That's the best part. After an exhausting search for kitty last night - it had gone off exploring when it started to get dark - I finally found it. This search involved me crawling around the yard 4 houses down on my hands and knees saying, here kitty kitty, while people drove by and walked... very interesting I'm sure. Kitty is now on its way to Brenham where it will be a country cat with a good home. YAAAYYY!!

So, now, my only thoughts are... certainly, my tender animal heart could not have caused me to contract toxoplasmosis, thus putting the health of our unborn baby in danger. Dear God, please keep baby safe and healthy...

So long sweet kitty, so long... I hope you live a long and prosperous life and catch lots of mice, birds, and snakes.

Port Aransas

For a mini-family vacation, we spent this past weekend in Port Aransas celebrating a couple exciting events and spending time together. Toby and I, my mom and dad, Paul, Jamie, and Maddie as well as Toby’s mom and step-dad, and a couple added friends, had a wonderful time! The weather didn’t entirely cooperate with us as the cool front blew in while preparing for Maddie’s 2nd birthday party Friday afternoon. Yes, she turned 2 already!!

She had a really cute barn cake complete with farm animal cupcakes.

But she was more into the cookies than the cake...

Our other celebration was Lord of Life’s 20th anniversary. For those of you who don’t know, that’s the church where Paul and I pretty much grew up. Our family has made lifelong friends there, who we don’t get to see very often unfortunately; but when we do, it’s always a great time.

We spent as much time as we could down by the water - which Maddie loved.

Maddie and Grammy...

One benefit of that silly cool front blowing in was the added wind it brought, which provided Toby and my dad the perfect opportunity to take on a new hobby… kites. Oh yes, I said flying kites. The course of events was somewhat entertaining. Toby and I decided we’d run into town and buy a kite because it was so windy, so we found one that we thought would suffice for $3.99. After all, it’s just a kite and all it has to do is stay in the air. After much heckling from my dad, we learned that kites don’t just have to stay in one spot in the sky, but rather… they can actually do tricks, care of the person flying the kite. So somehow, the three of us (my dad, Toby, and I) ended up at an actual kite store – I had no idea those existed. An hour and some change later, we walked out with two “stunt” kites and a lesson on how to fly them. Back at the beach, dad was so excited about these kites, he realized he needed a bigger one. Oh yes… a bigger one. So the next day, back we went… to the kite store… with my brother this time who was about to get suckered into this new hobby… and out we came – with a kite the store owner actually said was not recommended for beginners (uh huh… dad). Pshhhh… there are no beginner kite flyers in our party – we’ve been flying kites since we were kids - just not the ginormous ones that pull you through the sand.

They pulled their kites with Maddie's red wagon... boys... so cute.

The first set of kites... for the beginners...

And round #2 with dad's 2nd kite... the big daddy kite... for the master kiter - or my dad.

So as we celebrated Maddie’s 2nd birthday party, Lord of Life’s 20th anniversary, and developed a newfound hobby… the weekend came to an end and here we are – back in reality. It was just too short… but ever so exciting, nonetheless.

Surprise! (For those who don't know yet)

So for my very first blog ever, I thought I should go really big. What a better way to do it than by saying... "We're having a baby!!" Mark your calendar for April 14th, 2010! I have been patiently waiting until the (near) end of the first trimester to spread the news and I'm very excited to finally be able to tell everyone. It's been a pretty exciting 6 or so weeks since we found out. We've been fortunate enough to hear the baby's heartbeat at our first 2 appts. It was absolutely amazing. I had no idea that at merely 6 weeks old, it's little heart would be beating so fast. Aside from learning all the amazing things about how life begins... I've found myself visualizing the nursery in my mind and I've been daydreaming about how in the world we're going to fit our office into our guest room when it's all of 10x10 sq ft. But, sooner or later, we'll figure it out. I've scoped out nursery bedding and even surfed the web for some exciting names. However, Toby already has his mind set on a boy's name... it's non-negotiable he says. Unfortunately for him, it's going to be a girl. :) Of course, we don't know yet, but as this little girl's mother, I already know. (Okay, not really.)

So far we've been to 3 appts. I know, I know... We're only 11 weeks (and some change) along, why so many appointments. With a little medicinal intervention and the help of an amazing specialist with super powers (okay, that's an inside joke between the doctor, Toby, and myself) we've finally got this little stinker to stick. Praise God!!

I hope to keep everyone informed of our progress with regular posts. (I'm very excited to be a blogger!) While I know this is kind of a lame way to "talk" to people, unfortunately, God hasn't blessed me with unlimited cell phone minutes or an excessive amount of hours in my day to contact everyone... SO, this will have to do. Plus, I really needed to catch up with my blogger friends - I'm way behind.

Here's our little peanut at 6 weeks 3 days.

Our sweet little baby at 8 weeks 5 days - a trip to the ER which landed me on strict bedrest for a loooong 4 days. However, this is definitely my favorite ultrasound pic to date. The baby is on its back (head to the right) and if I look close enough, I'm pretty sure I can see its little nose.

The baby at 9 weeks 2 days... This one's kind of weird, but it's head is at the bottom and the bright spot in the middle is where its little heart is beating. And in the upper right is its little feet and for those who are REALLY interested, the umbilical is there too. It was the first time we could see that, so we thought it was pretty neat.

And for the most recent... this is today's appt at 11 weeks 2 days. Good luck deciphering this one. :) All I know is that the head is at the top and the feet are at the bottom.