Tuesday, June 30, 2015

And Then There Were Cats

Early on in our marriage, Andrew knew we were going to end up with a cat. He wasn't really sold on the whole plural cats thing, but he was willing to get A cat, at least. He's not a big animal person in general, but since I grew up with animals and was set on at least getting a cat, he conceded. We just had to wait until we were in a pet-friendly place.

When we were getting to the point where we were getting ready to graduate and get a house, I was finally able to start kitten shopping.

My mom & step-dad's cat "Mama Kitty" gave birth to Ayah on April 17th and I immediately made it known that she was going to be my kitten. Due to an accident before her birth, all of the kittens were stillborn except for her. I named her Ayah, which is Arabic for miracle, to commemorate her special story. 
Baby Ayah - April 26, 9 days old

I had teased Andrew about having two cats long before we chose to get Ayah, but he was never big on the idea.  The conversation had ended there. However, the idea was still stuck in my head. I had been browsing for fun at the pet store while waiting to hand over the keys to our apartment when I saw Meg and her sister. I LOVE Calico cats and immediately decided I had to get one. I started pestering Andrew more persistently about getting another kitten to help Ayah when she came home to us. Andrew still wasn't really sold on it but I finally talked him into it. (He's glad we have two cats now, because they play with each other and demand less of his attention than when we had just one).

Baby Meg - May 22, Almost 5 Weeks Old
We brought Meg home on May 23rd after Andrew had some time to sleep on the idea. Because it cost money to adopt her from the pet store, Andrew basically told me that she was counting as my birthday present. Happy birthday to me (two months early)! After a few days, Andrew came up with the name of Megara for her - we call her Meg for short.


Bonus for Meg: we brought her home the day before she turned 5 weeks old, and she was already super litter trained! This made me very happy.

According to Meg's approximate date of birth that the pet store gave me (they found her and her siblings abandoned when she was about a week old), Ayah is two days older than Meg is. She's smaller, though, which I think has a lot to do with who their parents are. Mama Kitty is a petite, small cat.

On May 30th, I picked Ayah up from my mom's house and we brought her home. She and Meg hissed and spat at each other and threw their own little fits about each other. However, they also followed each other around because they were curious and Meg wanted a playmate.
Ayah & Meg following each other around & fighting

After a few days of sleeping in separate rooms and only seeing each other when they were supervised, they finally got over the strangeness of the other and became friends.

Ayah grooming Meg

Also, in case you were wondering, kittens get big fast!! These pictures show Ayah at 3 weeks old and at 11 weeks old. Basically, this is how much she grew in just 8 weeks!

Ayah at 11 weeks old
Ayah at 3 Weeks Old

Side Note: My cats are my pets, not my fur babies. I am not their mom, I am their owner/human. I love them, but not in the same way - they don't fill the role of a baby, nor will they ever. I respect your opinion if you think of your pets as your fur babies; I hope you respect mine.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

An Update on Our Lives

So it's been a while since we've really given people an update on what's going on in our lives. This is mostly because life has been very full and busy with school for both of us. But here's a brief update on how things are going in our lives:



Andrew and I have started working as ordinance workers at the Mt. Timpanogos temple! We are both out of training now and serve as full-fledged ordinance workers. It's been a wonderful experience for us!






Andrew got a full-time salary job working for the Church at Family Search located in Orem! :) It's been a huge blessing for us.






We got to attend my little sister's mission call opening! She will be serving in Chile in the ViƱa del Mar mission and will be speaking Spanish. I am super excited for her!





We are both in our last semesters of college! We will be graduating May 1st. Both of us will be graduating with our Bachelor degrees with Magna Cum Laude honors. Andrew is registered to walk with me so that we only have to attend one graduation convocation. We went with him walking with me because it was at a better time and we assume it's the smaller of the two schools (meaning, hopefully, a shorter ceremony!)



After graduation, Andrew will be continuing to work for the Church at Family Search. I am planning to stay at home and not really seek employment so that I'll be ready to be a stay-at-home mom and home keeper. We are planning on finally meeting with an infertility specialist in May when we can both give it our full attention and each other our full support without being distracted and/or stressed by school. We are also hoping to start the process to buy our first home and then, once it's finally furnished and ready, we plan on starting our journey as Foster Care parents.

Other than that, life has just been plugging along one day at a time! :) Marriage and life have both been treating us really well, and aside from being very disenchanted from school right now, we are very happy.