A Cats Day Out!

Simba and Isabelle had an appointment with Dr. Ellenberg at Happistance Veterinary Clinic in Townville, South Carolina.  Simba needed his updated rabies shot and I just brought Isabelle for a general check-up.  They both got their nails trimmed which was a great relief because they needed it desperately.  I'm very adamant when it comes to bringing Isabelle and Simba to the vet.  I always make sure that they are well taken care of!  They always get all their shots when they are suppose to and they will always go for their annual check-up.  If I sense that anything is wrong with my fur babies, off to the doctor they go!  I can't stand people who say, "I've had so many animals and we never took them to the vet..."  So, what exactly are you implying -- that you didn't take care of them properly?  Those kinds of people think that I'm basically nuts for properly taking care of an animal.  Here is a tip, if you can't afford to properly take care of an animal then you probably just shouldn't have one.

This is Happistance.  They have two highly educated and very caring veterinarians.  Their staff is super friendly as well as their veterinarians.  Dr. Ellenberg is just simply the best!  She is very thorough with every visit and makes sure that she answers all of your questions and concerns.  Dr. Ellenberg isn't about rushing you out the door and charging you for every little thing.  She is patient and reasonably priced.  If anyone around the Townville/Anderson area needs a vet, I highly recommend Dr. Ellenberg all the way!

I was concerned about Simba because he has been rubbing his mouth against our furniture and we have probable reason to believe that he is chewing the end table legs.  Jason noticed that his gums, the other day, were very red.  We were concerned that he could possibly have an infection.  I brought it up to Dr. Ellenberg and she said that it looks like gingivitis.  She told us that in some cases, cats have to end up having teeth out if it gets bad enough which could run about $500 assuming they need all their teeth out.  Would I pay it?  Absolutely.  Am I a little crazy?  Perhaps.  But, I just can't let a living, breathing being suffer or have the condition worsen his health and potentially shorten his lifespan.  She said that we are the furthest thing away from that point right now and she put him on a antibiotic 2x a day and gave me some kitty toothpaste to massage onto his gums once, everyday. 

Simba has an increased problem with allergies this time of year, so she gave me some more allergy medicine to give him.  Isabelle is on it as well.  They get that medication once, every other day.  Other than that, they are both healthy little kitties.  Simba has to go back in about 2 weeks for a re-check on his gums.  Isabelle goes back in March for her shots.

They have a VIP section for cats.  How cool is that?

This will be the exact look (no exaggeration) on Isabelle's face in March.

Very clean and professional!

Their backroom.

Front reception desk.

They weren't too mad at us when we brought them back home.  It was a nice car ride home.  I can only fit one cat with me in the front seat with the carrier and all, so Simba rode up front with me.  On the way home he was wining like a little baby, so I took him out of his carrier and let him sit on my lap the rest of the way home.  He enjoyed looking out the window.  They both got some treats when they got home for being a good boy and girl.  I love my fur babies with all of my heart.  I may sound like a complete cat crazy, nut job for some of the things that I do for my fur babies, but there is no denying that I love them inevitably and unconditionally. 

We Had A Wonderful Christmas This Year

I have to say that Christmas this year wasn't that bad.  Our Christmas's are never really that bad, but sometimes the past year was better than the last.  It actually turned out a lot better than I had anticipated.  Jason and I started our Christmas day off by putting the presents under the tree because good Lord only knows that if we put them under the tree any sooner than when we had intentions of opening them, the cats would have had themselves a field day.  As soon as I finished putting all the presents under the tree, they were already trying to get into them.  So, it wasn't that much later that we found ourselves opening presents.

Of course we started with our fur babies because as any pet owner should know, pets don't tend to have a very long attention span.  They can't speak of course, but I'd like to think that they had a pretty rad Christmas -- they got SPOILED to the hill!  Don't tell my mother-in-law, but I actually let them leave the house a mess for one whole day.  I didn't get many pictures of Christmas mostly because all the people we know hate having their picture taken.

Please excuse the hanger strap from my sweater.  I kind of just threw on my sweater so that we could hurry up and open presents.  I wasn't really worried about pleasing anyone at the time.

Simba is not allowed on our coffee table and Christmas is no exception to that rule.  So, Jason thought it would scare him if he fake shot him with his candy filled plastic looking candy canes.  Obviously he failed.

Seeing what is in my stocking if my favorite part of Christmas!

I thought the reindeer was cute, so I had to take a selfie with it.  On that note, I haven't really had much hot cocoa this winter.  Shame on me!

I wore these earrings all day on Christmas and got so many compliments on them.  I must admit, they really did look nice on me.

Isabelle is one of the most photogenic cats.

She didn't want to wait!

My house was quite a mess with all their cat toys all over the damn place, but they needed to enjoy their holiday as well.  I also bought them the as seen on t.v "The Perfect Arch".

They both love to rub up against things, so I knew that this would be the perfect gift for them!  It also helps them brush their fur where they can't reach.  It came with catnip as well to attract them to it even more.

Fast forward to about noon time.

We finally made it over Jason's parents house.  We originally intended to be over there about a whole hour earlier, but we were dragging ass.  I never really cared for planning out Christmas that much anyway, especially when people try to force an hourly itinerary on you.  You worked really hard to get Christmas ready, so why rush it and it all be over in a matter of minutes?

We all exchanged our presents and enjoyed a light lunch because we were going for dinner at their friends house around 4 p.m.

Fast forward to 4 p.m.

We arrived at Jason's parents friends house.  They had one of their son's over with his wife and kid.  I was a bit shy at first, at least the whole time we were stuffing our faces.  No one probably noticed that I was shy in the first place because we were all too worried about stuffing our faces and respectfully, I'm not one to chew with my mouth open.  So, I refrain from talking while I'm eating.

I later found out that I had a lot in common with their son's wife, Lori.  She is significantly older than me, has children, married, and probably has a house over an apartment which are things that we don't have in common.  However, we both have a love for purses and a significant other that complains on how we have too many, we both went to college, and while she has experienced a divorce (though she is remarried obviously), I'm a child of divorced parents.  So, she totally understood what I went through when we briefly talked about that topic.

Since my injury, I haven't really got out of the house much, so I don't currently have that many contacts to help me get extended resources on advice on how to better my life as far as being a college student goes and trying to find opportunities.  She is an accountant for a water company and she told me that she is only two levels down from the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) and that she works really close with the CFO of her company.  Being a CFO was my first aspiration when I could just barely call myself a college student.

I really enjoyed talking to her because she really did ease some of my fears of being a graduate and of course the fear of the unknown when it comes to trying to learn a new job and not knowing whether or not you're going to be good at it or if it's really even going to be for you as far as enjoying it goes.

We enjoyed a little bit of strawberry shortcake Arbor Mist which was absolutely delicious!

All in all, it was a great holiday.  

Now, I mostly get to enjoy having Jason home for another eight days with the exception of his forklift certification class on the 31st which is usually a full day (eight hours).  It's nice to spend quality time with him.  When I tell people that, they are always so quick to say, "You live with him for crying out loud!  You always spend time with him".  NO!  There is a BIG difference from spending time and then spending quality time with someone.

Usually Jason sleeps during the day and I sleep at night because I'm out of work still for my injury and he continues to work third shift which isn't going to change much when I find a first shift job anyway.  So, the only time we really speak during the week and on most weekends is when he wakes up to eat dinner before he goes to work.  Right now, I actually get to spend time with him where he sleeps at night the same time I do and we get to spend time together during the day where he isn't tired and we can go do things together.

There is a difference.

The only thing that I really have left to comment on is the fact that after looking at myself in the pictures above from Christmas, all I can say is that I gained a lot of weight in the past couple of years.  I really do have to work on losing weight in the upcoming year.  I'm tired of being tired and not feeling good all the time.  I shouldn't feel this way at 23 years old, especially if I ever have plans of becoming pregnant someday which is a soft subject right now in our house.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Let me start this post off by saying, happy December!  Jason and I are very excited because this is our first Christmas on our own.  I decorated heavily for Autumn, but taking present buying into consideration, we only did what was absolutely necessary for Christmas decorating this year.  Besides, all the things that people have weren't accumulated in a year.  It takes time to collect that much junk -- even years!  Haha.  I got all my Christmas shopping done in two trips with my mother-in-law about a week before Thanksgiving which was easy because I only had three people to buy for.  I feel bad, but people have to understand that I can't afford to buy everyone's gifts and then pay a usually hefty shipping fee on top of it.  Everyone will (in the very least) get a Christmas card from me anyway.

Jason only got what he needed for Christmas as money is tight around this time of year.  I brought my mother-in-law and father-in-law a little something.  I do have to admit that I absolutely spoiled my in-laws cat's and ours as well.

Here is our beautiful tree that we put up about a week before Thanksgiving.  I was just a bit excited to get into the Christmas spirit considering once you do all the work that Thanksgiving consists of, it's literally all over in about an hour.  I love nothing more than to wake up, have a nice hot coffee, and sit by my nicely lit Christmas tree.  As you will notice in the picture, we started our decorations about a foot or so up from the bottom of the tree to keep the decorations away from cat eye level.  We've already caught Simba trying to climb the tree a few times.  Actually, one day I found him half way up the tree and when I yelled at him to get out, I guess I scared him because he fell out of the tree and knocked all the garland, ornaments, and lights down on that side along with him.  My mother-in-law sent me a picture on Facebook that really defines what Simba puts me through.

Simba is the same color and breed, so this was just perfect!  I really, truly believe that he will find a way to make it to the top of the tree before Christmas is over.  However, when that happens, I really believe this next picture will be the next scene I'll experience, replacing the dog with Simba.

I wrapped our portion of the railing outside of our apartment with red garland that has little candy canes hanging off of it.  I also put those sticky, gel things in both of our front windows.  They look cute.  It says 'Let it Snow' in our window, but I accidentally placed the 'S' and the 'N' backwards when I looked at it from the outside.  Oh well, I always did like to be different.  We also have a giant light up penguin guy that we place right outside our door, but we haven't really put it out a lot lately.  I really wanted to put lights up on the gutter or around the door and get a Christmas flag, but unfortunately, it's not in our budget this year.

I brought stockings for Jason, Isabelle, Simba and I.  We don't have a fireplace or anything to really hang the stockings from, but I have a little DIY project that I want to do, but again, it will have to wait until next year.

I want to get a section of a fence and paint the different sections like the one above and add some hooks for the stockings.  It's a neat idea for people who live in an apartment and want to hang their stockings.  Putting our financial tightness aside, I also picked the wrong time of the year to come up with this idea, surprisingly.  If you want to paint, the winter time is the worst time of the year to do that!  Paint takes forever to dry in the dampness and you also risk the quality of the paint job as well.

These are one of the few traditions from my side of the family that I think I will definitely keep.  My grandmother buys these around Christmas time each year and I love them.  They really help when you have a dry, scratchy throat!

This past week we watched 'Grumpy Cats Worst Christmas Ever'.  I was kind of disappointed to say the least.  I mean, I probably shouldn't have expected much to begin with considering a real cat can't really talk in real life anyway.

I love the month of December because ABC Family has the 25 day count down to Christmas list of Christmas shows that they air.  So, I'll be occupied for awhile.

What do you like most about Christmas?  What do you like least about Christmas?