New pictures of us

We went over to my friend Amy's today, to see "the heathen". And while there, we decided to do a couple practice engagement pictures. This one was the best, in my opinion.

This is the second one. I don't know how I really feel about it, only that I really need to go to the gym more. Charlie's smile is cute, though.

This is the third one. Its okay, but I have a forced smile on my face. The bugs were eating us alive and the sun was in our eyes.

This is the last picture and the worst. The sun is in our eyes and ants were biting my feet. Charlie doesn't look happy either. I think we will go out and try a few more times. We are making our own invitations, and we wanted them to reflect our own styles, including our pictures.

What do you all think?

Meet our Fur baby Raven

We are also the owners of a 9 month old black kitten named Raven. She was a stray at my friend Amy's house for the past couple months. She showed up at Amy's pregnant, and stayed there with her other 4 black males. Raven went into labor a few weeks after she showed up and had only one little kitten. The little calico female was born dead. By the next day, she was still in labor but had not had any other kittens. Amy could not afford to take her to the vet, and neither could Charlie and I, but I couldn't let her die.

So, I rushed to our vets office that night and they did an emergency cesarean section surgery, where they removed six other kittens, all dead. She weighted only 1 lbs 7 oz. when we took her in. The vet said she was about 6 months old. Too young and too under weight to be preggers. The poor baby!

The vet charged us for a spay, which is significantly cheaper. And they let us post-date the check until the first. Score!!!

So, we named her Raven and told the vet we would keep her. We were told we could take her home at the end of the week. So we showed up there and the techs had a hard time getting her out of her kennel, and she dumped over her water dish. And the techs decided to blow-dry her. If you have ever attempted this, you know how bad of an idea this is. She freaked out, and ripped out most of her stitches. So we had to wait while they fixed her up. Then we went through the post surgery consolation. She just laid on the exam table and purred as I pet her while the tech talked.

Then we tried to leave. She was pretty calm in my arms as we were leaving, then while we were unlocking the car, she got freaked out by the cars driving by. She peed all over me. When I held her away from my body, I saw that she had started bleeding again. Back inside we went. I had pee and blood all over me. Wisely, they decided to keep her for the night.

Back at Amy's house, we built Raven a enclosure to recuperate in. We went back to get her the next day, and actually made it out the door. We bought a cardboard kitty carrier to take her home in. The techs described her as "feisty" and "spirited", so we knew she was feeling better. We got her to Amy's and put her in her new home and she recovered great. She gained 8 lbs. while she was recovering at Aunt Amy's house. The vet was thrilled!


Now, Charlie and I have to look into getting allergy shots, because we are both very allergic to cats. For now, Raven has taken up permanent residence at Amy's. And we come to visit her on the weekends, when we can. When we have a house, we will try bringing her home. We already love Raven or as I have come to call her "our little heathen" and after $206, she is ours.

Meet our Fur baby Hunter

This is the first ever picture of Hunter. He was about 3 weeks old when we took him home. He is our "special little guy". He is mostly blind, and has Cerebellar Hypoplasia. Isn't he adorable?

This is Hunter at about 3 months old. His name fits him, see how he blends into his environment to avoid detection?

Hunter at 5 months. What a big baby.

Hunter posing like his big brother Jack.

One of Hunter's many goofy faces. My brother, Travis has a picture of himself making this same exact face. (Travie, don't hate cause you know it's true!!)

This dog will sleep anywhere. He has his nose tucked under the rug. Cute, huh?

Oh look, a ball!!

The most current picture of Hunter and Jack together. Hunter is about 8 months old here. I love this picture!!

Meet our Fur baby Jack

This is Jack at 17 days old. We fell in love with him at first sight. The red coloring on his paw is finger nail polish, so we could tell him apart from his 9 siblings.

This is Jack at 8 weeks old, when we brought him home. So cute!!

This was Jack's First bath. He loved it, you can see it in his eyes. After this day, we had to hold him in the shower with us and bathe him until he got too big to hold.

Nap-time.

What a ham. He loves posing for the camera.

This is Jack's first time having Peanut Butter. He was about 3 months old.

Jack at 5 months. I told you he loves to pose.

This is the most current picture of Jack, at 1 1/2 years old. We have about a hundred other pictures of him growing up, but we don't want people to get bored looking at our baby pictures.

Current pictures of Us

The one above was taken at the McKenzie Masonic Lodge building, where Charlie and his brother Tim, are members. This was right before I cut my hair. Aren't we cute? If your wondering, I am not short, Charlie is 6'4".

The one below was taken by me, on the day the stylist hacked 4 inches off my hair. I was crying right before the picture was taken. I guess it didn't look too bad. Charlie, as usual, is as cute as ever!

The Proposal

Charlie proposed to me on November 21st, 2006 while he was in Phoenix for Thanksgiving with my family. We went on a walk in the park the night he got there. We stopped to sit on a bench and the next thing I know, Charlie in down on one knee. He had typed up this full page proposal and had his father Bruce make my engagement ring (See above photo, he is a VERY talented silversmith). Charlie had to switch knees while reading, but I hardly noticed. Me being the idiot I am, started crying.

I knew he was going to propose, we had talked about it, even talked about rings and other wedding plans, but still I cried. Of course I said YES. We told the families, His already knew of course, and mine knew because Charlie had called my Step-father Wayne and asked for my hand. Wayne was thrilled and gave his blessing. He also told me "Don't screw this up." Thanks for the support. :-P Just Kidding!

We decided that we would live in Texas together until Charlie finished college so Charlie flew back out to Phoenix one more time on January 20th, 2007, to help me load my stuff into a U-haul and drive to Lubbock. We had quite the experience. We did the trip in about 16 hours I think. We spent the first night in a dive motel on a back road off the highway somewhere in Texas, where the walls were paper thin and the residents lived there. We saw several scary guys sitting on chairs in front of their rooms watching T.V. and the place was crawling with stray cats. The room was nasty, but the sheets were clean and the door had three dead-blots, so we showered and went to bed.

Then the second day, the keys got locked in the cab of the truck at a small general gas station in the middle of BFE. We waited about an hour before a lady truck driver and her teenage son pulled up to the fuel pumps. Twenty minutes later and one metal coat hanger sacrificed to the cause, the boy was able to unlock the door with the hanger from the inside. As payment, he only wanted two small cans of Red Bull. In the end, we totally got lucky. The kid saved us hours of time waiting for the tow-truck driver to come jimmie the lock, and at least $50.00 in fees. Not a bad deal.

We arrived in Lubbock about 9:30 that night. Charlies twin Brother Tim, and their brother -in-law Red, and a friend Chewy, helped us move Charlies stuff from their house into the U-haul and then from the U-haul into our new apartment. We had dinner at about 11:30 that night and were in bed around 2:00a.m. We still live in that same apartment, two years later.

My trip to Texas

This picture was taken by Charlie's Mother Diana. This was in October of 2006, when I flew out to Texas to meet his family. We were standing on a large rock with the sun in our eyes. I found Lubbock to be very windy and dusty, but exciting and energetic. I really enjoyed this trip, and getting to meet Charlie's family.

And on a side note, my hair color is starting to resemble a shade found in nature now.

Our First Photo Together

This is the very first picture of Charles and I, when he flew out to see me. It was taken by my Sister Jessica, in Phoenix, AZ September 24, 2006. This was the first time that Charlie and I had met in person. For those who don't know. Charlie picked me up in a online game chat room. We were online friends for years before we decided to meet. This picture was taken moments before we took him to the airport to fly back to Texas. I was so sad.

Note: I don't know what I was thinking dying my hair that color. Thank you Jessica, for talking me into it 0.o


Anywho, I wanted to post pre-relationship teen pics of both of us, so theses are the ones we are sharing.

This is Charles and his Twin bother Tim in their first year at Texas Tech I think, (Charlie is the one on the Right). And the next picture was taken when I was 17 I think, at one of the home-coming dances I went to.