Murphy and Moving

Since we don't have kids to blog about, I will be blogging today about our feline child. Now, whenever there is commotion going on in the house Murphy has a hard time dealing with it. For example, the Friday before our wedding, Tracy and I were running around the apartment packing two cars full of stuff we needed for the rehearsal that night and the wedding the next day. We wouldn't be coming back until Sunday afternoon so we wanted to make sure we got everything. With all the running back and forth and the hurry we still needed to get changed, and the 20 million reviews of the checklist, it was all too much for our little Murphy to handle. So, she puked. Twice. I'm standing there in heels, make-up, hair all done and in a beautiful rehearsal dress cleaning up cat puke. Lovely. So based on that experience I was not looking forward to the move that was about to be happening in a month. She actually handled the packing and the moving better than I expected. She didn't puke, but I mean really. Why would she? I wasn't all dressed up! While I was going through my drawers and purging things I didn't need anymore, Murphy decided she was going to go exploring.....into the hole where the drawer went.

I couldn't believe she jumped in there. It's not a very big hole and it was 4 drawers up! And Murphy is not exactly a spring chicken anymore! Crazy kitty for sure!

When we got to our new place we were very excited to see how she was going to like the stairs. Murphy has never climbed any stairs in her 11 years so this was going to be a new experience. We let her out of her cat carrier upstairs and she immediately took refuge in our closet. Which, as Cat learned when she kitty sat Murphy when we were on our honeymoon, is exactly the place she goes to hide. She spent all of Saturday rolled up like a ball in the closet deciding if she was going to come out or not. Finally Saturday night she did. As a proud mama, I took a picture of her first stair climb!

All these pictures were taken off my cell phone so sorry for the not so great quality! But these were her first stair steps and I was glad I got to take a picture of them. Now that we've been here almost a week, she loves running up and down them and playing on them. Who would have thunk it?!?!?!

So, maybe because this place is new or something she has really been exploring some pretty unusual spots. The other day I was putting some things away in the linen closet and she walked right up to it and went right in and sat down. Behind the towels.

She normally comes out once she realized you are closing the door on her!

She has also decided she is going to inspect any open box.

She used to sleep through the night. Not anymore. Too many places to explore and things to do. She really enjoys jumping on us early in the morning to see if we are awake. Is this what having children is going to be like??? We maybe reconsidering! =)

Love,

Suzanne

Moving

No, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth.....we've just been moving! We moved into our new place this weekend and we are so excited to be there! We are slightly overwhelmed with where to begin unpacking, but slowly it's getting done!

We don't have any Internet yet, so when we do I will update with stories and pictures of our new place.

Oh, for any of you who like wedding shows, our friends Jared and Bindi got married in November and "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway" filmed their wedding! It is airing tonight (sorry for the late notice) on the Style Network. Their show episode is called Double Trouble. It's called that because they had two weddings in one day. One Hindu and one traditional. We went to both and they were both absolutely beautiful! I can't wait to watch it! They normally reply those shows a lot over the summer so I'm sure if you miss it tonight, you'll be able to catch again in the next week or so.

Have a great night!
Love,
Suzanne

Lightning and Thunder

Dear Lightning and Thunder,

Was it really necessary to come rolling through at 2 o'clock in the morning? I was still up at 11pm. If you wanted to show us your fantastic light show you could have done it then. Or how about 5:30am when my alarm went off? I would have enjoyed the thunder then. But 2am, no, I really didn't enjoy it too much then!

Lightning and thunder, you don't come and visit us often here in So Cal, and the next time you do, can you please keep the visiting hours to when I'm awake. Your little middle of the night wake up call has left me extremely tired this morning!

I hear you are supposed to be visiting us again on Friday. Twice in one week. How did we get so lucky? Keep in mind, Friday's visiting hours are only between the hours of 9am and 5pm.

Love,
Suzanne

Heartbroken

This is my 100th blog post and as I type this I am heartbroken. This is not the witty, funny, cute post I had anticipated writing, instead I am grieving. Grieving for my friend, and American hero, Blue Rowe. Army 1st Sgt. Blue Rowe was with the 426th Civil Affairs Battalion and a co-worker of mine here at Northrop. Blue was killed Tuesday while on his way home for a two week leave to see his family. An i.e.d. exploded near his vehicle killing him.

Blue had been in Afghanistan since July 2008 and was rebuilding schools and hospitals in Afghanistan. We would get emails from him periodically talking about all the good he was doing there. I know he would rather be home, but if he had to be there, helping the people of Afghanistan is what he wanted to be doing. Every email he sent to us detailed all the positive things going on there. He last emailed us on April 28th to tell us he was coming home! He wrote, "I am due to take Rest and Recuperation (R&R) leave in June. I will only be home 15 days until I have to come back to Afghanistan. The good news is I am the last one to go on leave and will be redeploying to the US in late July!"

I can't believe he is not coming home.

Our management team pulled us all together and told us the news last Wednesday. I've been trying to write this blog unsuccessfully since then. Trying to type while crying is pretty pointless. I've been keeping pretty busy with packing up the apartment getting ready for the move. I found a box on the kitchen table that was all ready to go to be sent out to Blue. I had planed on doing it on our upcoming off Friday. I had been sending him care packages since he left for the Middle East. The day of my wedding shower, I arrived back home and there was a package sitting on my door step. It was sent from Afghanistan from Blue. It was a thank you/wedding gift for me and Lance. He was grateful for the care packages and his note read "may all your hopes and dreams come true." He was such a great, caring amazing man. I am so angry his life was cut so short. He had already done so much good in the world, but I know he had so much good to give!

There have been a few articles posted about Blue that you can read here and here.

I've decided I'm still going to send my care packages to the area Blue was serving. I'll just address it to "soldier". I know that they will still appreciate the things that are coming their way. It's the least I can do to honor a true American hero, and a friend who will be greatly missed.

Love,
Suzanne