Quiet. Peaceful. Perfect.

We decided to go for a drive Sunday evening.

We ended up at the park as the sun was setting.

We were greeted at first by only two little turtle dudes.

...and then all of their buddies joined us. See the little specks? Turtle heads!

We could only stay until dark, so as the sun was setting we started walking lazily toward the park entrance.

The sky was perfect.

We heard a flock of geese approaching us from a distance...

...and we lingered just long enough to watch them fly overhead before getting into the Jeep and driving away.

Hey, remember that time we adopted a cat?

Ever since we got married, I've begged J for a pet. We talked cats, dogs, hedgehogs, and chinchillas over the last year, and finally, my sweet husband, despite his allergies, finally caved and said we could adopt an animal. If we're being completely honest here, I went a little crazy bouncing between shelter websites and Craigslist.

We attended an adoption event on April 6 and looked at an adorable little Manx kitten that I had seen on a local shelter's website. I picked her up and fell in love with her, nuzzled her, pouted a little, put her back in the cage, and squeezed J's hand and told him we needed to leave or I'd take her home. He nudged me in the direction of the adoption table and encouraged me to get her. I was over the moon. I went back (nay, ran back) to get her, handed her to J, signed all the papers, and cried all the way home because I was so excited.

Sittin' pretty on the couch, watching J come inside from grilling.

We named her Vera (after Jayne's very favorite gun) (my husband is a Browncoat and I love it). Vera was snuggly and adorable and bouncy just like any other kitten. She loved sitting on shoulders and head-booping. She made air-biscuits when you picked her up. She pounced on anything that moved.

But.

She also howled. Like, howled. I've owned many cats in my lifetime, but none have make noises even close to her howls. She howled every time she was alone, which was unfortunate for everyone involved because while hubs was attempting to adjust to her presence by eating Zyrtec like candy, we knew that allowing her to sleep in the same room as us would never be an option. Also, we have elderly neighbors who absolutely never ever ever make a sound and we didn't want to be rude to them by leaving our screaming kitten alone for them to hear while we worked 8-10 hour shifts.

Every single night we had her, right before we laid down to sleep, we put her in the guest bathroom with her food, litter, bed, and toys, and we laid down to sleep. Every single night we had her, she howled all. night. long.

The first night we had her, we figured it was because she was scared and in a new environment. The second night was more of the same. Every night after that got worse, not better, because she was more comfortable in her environment and she was less apprehensive about jumping onto the counter top and knocking every single thing off of it. One night she howled, figured out how to knock over the garbage can, and rolled around in it all night. Howwwwwwl rollrollrollthumpHOWWWWWLthumpTHUMP. Two rooms separate our bedroom and our spare bathroom -- and she was still loud enough to keep us awake. It was puppy behavior. I've never ever met a cat in my life (until Vera) who flipped out about being left alone. Incessantly. For hours on end.

To add to that grief, J's allergies immediately flared up within hours of bringing her home. He doubled up Zyrtec and Benedryl and still had itchy eyes and a stuffy-sneezy nose. Between being kept awake due to howling/thumps of destruction coming from the guest bathroom and being unable to sleep due to the guilt I felt for causing my poor husband's head to explode in an allergic reaction, I couldn't take it. I told him I wanted to re-home her, for his health and for our sanity.

We talked to a few people we knew, and luckily, one of them wanted to take her. The person who took her a) isn't allergic and b) has other cats, so she will be blissful and she will never have to go from a warm snuggly lap to a boxed bed in a lonely room at the end of the night. She'll even have friends to snuggle and play with when her owners are at work. It'll be a better environment for her since she's such a dependent cuddlebutt.  

Our last night with Vera. She likes for you to hold her paw or arm.

I'm not going to lie about it -- I'm bummed out. Truly. So is Hubs. We grew attached to her quickly -- it was impossible not to. When she wasn't wreaking havoc in our bathroom, she was a fantastic, picture-perfect kitten full of love... but her personality was exponentially more codependent than we were hoping for and we were not the right people to meet her needs, so we gave her up to someone who could. 

And now we know. Now we know J's allergies, even with medication, cannot withstand an indoor cat. Now we know we probably need to own a home with a yard before we consider another pet.  Now we know we value our morning snuggles over getting up and comforting a tiny thing that has been screaming for our attention all night (that one was especially eye-opening; I caught myself picking up my birth control pills two or three times all week to ensure I'd taken my daily dose). Now we know.

Couch-snuggles. She ALWAYS had to have her cheek against my cheek.

& she could never decide between us, so she hopped from me to J every few minutes.

Oh, Vera. We will miss you, but we are so thankful that you'll be happy in your new home. ♥ 

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's off to work he goes!

In an earlier post, I told you guys that J was working on borrowed time at his job and we were hoping it would last long enough for us to figure out a new plan without a gap his in employment.

The bad news is that it didn't quite last that long... but the good news is he was offered an amazing restaurant management opportunity less than 24 hours after the fish market closed. If that's not a best-case-possible unemployment scenario, I don't know what is.

The past couple of weeks consisted mainly of phone conversations with the regional manager, drug testing, and background checks; once all of that cleared, he received his schedule and assigned dress code.  He starts locally training tomorrow, he will travel to Florida in December for more training, and by January he will be fully trained. After two or three years, he'll be bumped up to a general manager and they'll relocate us so that he can run his own restaurant.

Things happen the way they are meant to happen. He missed a job opportunity earlier this year due to some pretty ridiculous circumstances. Now I am exceedingly grateful for the fact that he was spared that job in order to eventually acquire this one. Exponentially better pay, better benefits, and better opportunities for growth and relocation within the company since is a well-established corporation with several brands.

We've been giddy. We've been hunting for a new place (read: one that isn't directly above an enthusiastic insomniac of a musician with an electric guitar), looking into me finishing school, putting together a plan for paying off debt; it's all very exciting, really. I'm thankful for the forward motion, for the stability, for the chance for us to better ourselves. Planning the next stage of our lives makes me happy. ♥

...now I just need to work on him in regards to acquiring a furbaby. Haha. I miss having a pet so much! We've been considering hedgehogs or chinchillas for indoor pet options, but no decisions have been made just yet...

What do you guys think?

I hope you're all having a lovely Monday! :-)

They Love Each Other

Merry run around
sailing up and down
just looking for a shove
in some direction--
got it from the top
it's nothing you can stop
Lord, you know they
made a fine connection
They love each other
Lord, you can see it's true

He could pass his time

'round some other line

But you know he 

chose this place beside her.

Don't get in the way

there's nothing you can say,

Nothing that you need

to add or do

They love each other

Lord, you can see it's true...

[The Grateful Dead]

Scattered update

Things that have happened since the last time I updated....



We took a small road trip to attend J's cousin's cookout. I met more of his family and a good time was had by all. Meeting family in smaller increments has been fun, since it tends to be more personal than an enormous family get-together and it enables me to remember names and personalities more easily. Poor J, he's just going to be thrown into the Cabler clan this holiday season. Due to the fact that we still lived an hour and a half away from each other until December last year, and then when he moved here he was working 70 hours a week, neither of us were able to attend each other's Christmas gatherings. I've met a sizable chunk of his extended family, but he's only met a handful of mine. I'm not at all worried about him fitting in, though -- all he has to do is give a big "Roll Tide!" at Christmas and he'll be accepted and welcomed immediately.


J has been putting in some long hours lately, but that's all coming to a close. For those of you who aren't aware, he moved here last year to run the kitchen of a local restaurant that was in danger of closing. He took it by storm, lowering the food and labor costs, tweaking with recipes and the menu, and increasing the customer base.  He did every single thing the owner asked him to do, and he was proud that he had made such significant changes in such a short amount of time -- until three days before Christmas when the owner called him and said "the restaurant's closed, come get your last check."  Then he was out of work for five weeks until his current workplace (another locally-owned and operated restaurant, focused on seafood) picked him up.


He moved up the chain quickly there, he was given a big promotion and raised salary just three months after being hired, and then last week the restaurant announced its closure. Its last day of operation was Saturday. J hasn't even been in this town for a year and this has happened to him twice. He says that when you go into the restaurant business, that's just part of it and it's bound to happen eventually, but it's still disheartening to know that he's given 110% both times and he's done more than was ever asked of him and here we are for the second time in a year.  This particular restaurant had a fresh fish market attached to the front of it, which is thankfully being kept open for the time being, and as such, J is one of two people who got to keep their jobs despite the restaurant itself closing. I just hope that the fish market lasts long enough for us to figure out a new plan.

The town we live in is choked with restaurants -- there are so many restaurants to choose from that very few of them do well enough consistently enough to profit. That makes it dangerous for him to work here, especially in a Mom-and-Pop place instead of a corporate environment, and he would go corporate if it were his only option but he's told me more than once that going corporate is essentially the death of a serious chef's career.

I told him that no matter what happens, we'll figure something out. He and I have both been passing out applications and résumés like hot cakes, so something is bound to come up for us soon.


I had other things to write about, but I feel like this post is scattered enough, so perhaps I'll save them for another post.

One happy thing, though?  Fall weather is creeping in, slowly but surely. I'm so thankful for that... I truly do come to life in the fall.



Until next time, lovelies.

365 Days

Jeremy & I met a year ago today! ♥

Animal Crossing...

...is still awesome, by the way. Especially the original. Bad puns abound!

J bought a Gamecube controller just so I could start a new game! I've been so excited and I've been fishing nonstop (well, whenever J isn't playing Grand Theft Auto IV).

Nerds. We are nerds. And we are in nerd love.

It's the best.