Pucky

Sunday night around 9:30 pm we headed upstairs to get ready for bed. Puck was doing his normal "hungry routine" of running back and forth between the laundry room (where they get fed) and our bedroom (to tell us he's hungry.) Almost every night I close him in our room for a couple minutes so I don't have to hear him constantly meowing. Well this time when I slammed the door to keep him in our room, he decided to try and run out. His tail got caught in the door, but he kept running. I can't even explain the feeling that I had when I opened the door and saw the pile of fur with a little piece of his tail in it...

We rushed to the emergency vet clinic about a mile away from our house and they took Puck back immediately to check his vitals. (What's crazy is that Puck didn't even get that his tail was hurt, he kept running back upstairs to beg for his dinner). We waited in the vet for over 2.5 hours before the doctor came to talk to us. She finally came in and told us that Puck needed surgery to cut off the exposed vertebrae, which in essence would make his tail about 2 inches shorter than it normally was. We gave her the green light, then headed home to get about 2 hours of sleep before we could pick him up.
Kyle let me sleep (I have a cold and took NyQuil before everything happened) while he picked up Puck around 2:15 am. The surgery went very well. When they got home I sat in our bathroom with Puck for a while. He was so drugged he kept running into everything, and those Elizabethan collars are just terrible. I finally couldn't fight the NyQuil anymore and went back to sleep for 30 minutes. The next 4 hours were spent getting out of bed every 30 minutes or so-- trying to calm down Puck and putting his Elizabethan collar back on.
I ended up staying home on Monday to make sure Puck was okay and didn't try to take off the bandage (I have completely given up on making him wear the collar). We go back to the vet Tuesday afternoon to get his bandage changed, and then in 10 days to get the stitches out. After everything he has been through and now this, he definitely wins the award for 'toughest cat'. You can't imagine how terrible I feel that this happened, just one of those freak accidents that we'll be sure never happens again...

Hashbrown Casserole!

This is one of the casseroles my family has been making every holiday for years! It's delicious, so I definitely have to share! Kyle and I made this for our Easter dinner this year.

Ingredients:
1 (32 oz) package frozen southern hash browns
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 small chopped onion
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup melted butter
10 oz melted Velveeta
1 small carton of sour cream
2 cup crushed corn flakes

Instructions:
Defrost potatoes. Mix all ingredients together (except 1/4 of the butter).
Put into 13x9 pan. Top with corn flakes and 1/4 cup melted margarine drizzled over-top. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Delicious!

Girls Night!

I just realized my friend Amy has never made it on our blog... so I needed to change that ASAP! We met Amy & her husband Matt at nweds a couple months ago. Since then we have started a smaller bible study with them as well, and we've been so blessed by their friendship.

Matt is in the same industry as Kyle, so they always have a lot to talk about. Amy and I are exactly alike, and she seriously makes me laugh more than anyone I know. Oh man her stories are like pee-in-your-pants hilarious. Matt travels a lot too, so it's comforting to have a girlfriend who knows what I go through when Kyle travels. Anyways Amy, and I have been getting together weekly to go on walks, watch movies or eat dinner. She's a nurse at the hospital right next to our house so it works out perfectly.

I also posted a picture of her so my family could finally "meet" her! Amy and Matt sent my parents the sweetest note and gift a couple of weeks ago. They have never even met my parents, and our whole family was in tears that one of my friends would do that. I can't say enough about them. The Lord sure knows when to bring certain people into your life at the perfect time!

Top 3 Thursday: Fears

This Thursday is all about our Top 3 Fears! I'm going to combine Kyles and mine as we really only have 3 total!

1) GHOSTS. We really can't watch any movies that are about ghosts or even talk about them in general. They freak Kyle out, in every way.... and NO we have never seen one! I purposely only put a cartoon ghost up here to make it less scary :) (This is called Phasmophobia)
2) GETTING ATTACKED. This is by far my worst fear. I am so cautious about everything I do by myself because I know as a girl it is always a possibility. It scares me to even talk about it... getting attacked, taken, abused, killed.... name it and I've thought about. (I think I can blame CSI and NCIS for putting ideas in my head.) By far my worst fear of that happening to me in life. (This is called Contreltophobia or Virginitiphobia)
3) FIRES. Not really fires in general but just getting stuck inside of a fire and not being able to get out. The thought of that really does scare Kyle and I. (This is called Arsonphobia)

SO those are our Top 3 Fears! What would yours be?

Wordless Wednesday: Making up for lost cuddle time

Monkey Bread!

For our Easter breakfast, Kyle and I decided to make Monkey Bread! This recipe is used at least once a month in my family... Birthdays, Holidays, Saturdays, whatever! OK let's get started!

Ingredients:
For biscuit mixture:
3 tubes refrigerated biscuits (Grands buttermilk flaky, green can)
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional... Kyle and I do not like nuts so we leave them out!)

For liquid mixture:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter

Instructions:
Separate biscuits and cut into quarters. Mix cinnamon and sugar. Grease 10 inch tube pan or bundt pan. Roll each piece of quartered biscuit in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place in pan. Layer nuts and biscuits alternately.

Bring to boil the sugar, evaporated milk, brown sugar and butter. Pour boiled mixture over layered biscuits.

Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Turn out of pan onto plate. Enjoy!

Easter Weekend

Our weekend was awesome. Not only was it beautiful in GA all weekend but Kyle came home and our family is complete again :)

His plane coming from Tokyo was delayed two hours so he didn't get to our house until around 5:30 on Saturday. We immediately went for a 3 hour walk in the neighborhoods around the square... lots to catch up on!

Sunday morning Kyle woke up at 4:45 raring to go but graciously let me sleep until 7 when he couldn't take it anymore haha. We made monkey bread together, put it in the oven and got ready for church. It was a very relaxing way to spend Sunday morning for sure. After church while I was getting a casserole ready Kyle said he was going to read some Jeep magazines. Well this is how I found him:
Too cute. His sleeping schedule is so off, but we are getting there! Luckily he doesn't have to work today (Monday) so that will help!

After a little nap we took Tyson for a 3 mile hike & swim at the battlefield then came home and dropped him off so we could go play some tennis. Kyle played tennis on the roof of one of his hotels in China and had the best time, so he wanted me to try it. (Lauren I just kept having flashbacks to our tennis camp at Bayleaf where they made us do sprints... terrible!)

We had a great time getting some sun and a ton of exercise this weekend. I took LOTS of pictures of everything we made this weekend, so get ready for some food posts coming your way this week! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend as well!

We made it!!

Kyle comes home tomorrow afternoon from China! He has taken lots of pictures so I'm sure he'll do a blog post next week about all of his experiences. Thank you all for your prayers for his safety, we appreciate it more than you know! His 2 month traveling spree is over and he should be home for a while, which we both are SO looking forward to!

Thank you also for your sweet notes, emails and phone calls checking on me and my family. There has been a lot going on over the past couple weeks and I have my girlfriends in NC and GA to thank for keeping me going with a smile on my face. What ever would I do without y'all?

We hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend, and may you never forget the miracle of His resurrection that gives us the reason to celebrate this day!!

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." Matthew 28:1-10

Top 3 Thursday: Things I can't live without!

So this Thursday's topic are the Top 3 (Materialistic) Things that I cannot live without. Here we go!

1) Music. I just can't get enough, ESPECIALLY when I'm by myself I never last 2 minutes of silence before I turn on something. I love the fact that it can change your mood so drastically and also have so many memories attached to different songs. Ohhh the power of music :)

2) My iphone. I never thought I would love a cell phone as much as I do the iphone. Not only is it a phone but I have music on the go 24-7, a gps in my hand all the time, games at my fingertips, ways to check my email and check blogs. T.R.O.U.B.L.E!! Love love love mac stuff :)

3) Camera/Computer. Okay so I kind of cheated on this one and put two :) I really think both serve the same purpose for me which is helping document our life. I am not even close to knowing what I'm doing with my camera, but I love it because we can capture any experience we have and keep it forever. That's the whole reason why we have this blog-- I am just so excited to look back in 20 years at the books I've made from our posts and say "Oh yeah remember when we did this?!". Very very cool :)

So those are my top 3! What would yours be?