Riley . . . AKA the Starving Kitty

We put Riley on a diet about a year ago. The vet told David that if Riley didn't lose weight soon, he'd be diabetic and require insulin shots. So now, Riley gets 1/3 cup of food twice a day, instead of 1/2 cup of food twice a day. And I swear, you'd think we were starving the poor cat. Riley gets fed at 6:30am and at 6:30pm. And you better believe that starting around 5:30pm (sometimes earlier), he's meowing like crazy and pacing back and forth in front of the pantry. As soon as the food hits his bowl, it's gone. I don't even think he chews his food. We usually feed Riley first and then go back into the pantry to fill Casey's bowl, and by the time we come out of the pantry with Casey's food, Riley's done eating (and trying to find a way to sneak some of the dog's food)!

Anyway, when David and I are both out of town, we fill Riley's food bowl with as much food as he would get if we were there. It's up to him whether or not he portions out his food correctly or not. For all we know, he eats all his food the first day and he starves for the next three, five, or seven days. But it's his food, he can do whatever he wants.

So on Friday morning before David left for the airport, he filled Riley's food dish with enough food that *should* last him until Monday when we got back. Hard to say how long that food lasted in the bowl. We came home to this...

Suffice it to say, Riley wasn't very happy when there wasn't anymore food left in his bowl. Either that, or he was so excited to have more than 1/3 cup of food in his bowl, he knocked it off the ledge...and he spent the rest of the weekend eating all the food off the ground. Either way, he was meowing and begging for more food as soon as we got home Monday afternoon.

DFW to DCA to DTW to DFW

Last Sunday, I flew to Washington, DC for a training class at the FDIC student center. The class itself was pretty darn boring (as expected), but lucky for me, it was over by Friday. When the class ended on Friday, I flew from DC to Detroit for David's cousin's wedding!! I was exhausted after all my flights. I flew from DC (eastern time zone) to Chicago (central time zone) to Detroit (back to eastern time zone). By the time I landed, I wasn't sure if I was in the air or on the ground, much less what time it was supposed to be. I've never gotten sick, or even felt remotely sick from flying, but Friday was horrible!! 

Saturday morning, we met with my Uncle Mike and Aunt Margaret for dim sum. I meant to take a picture of all the delicious food, but I was so hungry I forgot!! I'd been craving dim sum for a while, so I was glad to finally satisfy that craving! Now I want to go to San Francisco to have dim sum with my sister... :)

Saturday evening, we drove out to MacRay Harbor in Harrison Township for Kim and Adam's wedding! It was absolutely beautiful. 

Kim's sister-in-law giving one of the readings...

The sand ceremony...

Kim's mom (David's aunt) made their wedding cakes!! Don't they look great?!?

She also made the centerpieces...

And I'm guessing she made the name cards, too! :)

Us!

And finally....Mr. & Mrs. Adam Pokowski!!

We had such a good time at their wedding!! Congrats to the happy couple!

Summer Vacation Project No. 2 : Hallway Collage

We've been married for almost 10 months and I realized a few weeks ago that we don't have any wedding pictures displayed in our house! Zip, zero, nada! So, one of my summer vacation projects was to take my lazy butt up to Michael's and get new frames. Our entry hallway is 18 feet long and has looked like this pretty much since we moved in two years ago.

I love these pictures. My sister took them all during her trip to Morocco. I picked these six out and she printed them and gave them to me. But since we had paid so much for our photographer, we really needed to display our beautiful wedding pictures! Not to worry - the old photos will be moved to the study and displayed there!

So after about an hour of putting all the pictures in their frames, and another hour of David and his dad trying to figure out the template and anchors and screws......our hallway now looks like THIS!

I love it!! And there's ample space on both sides to keep adding pictures as our family grows!

Summer Vacation Project No. 1 : Herb Garden

David and I took a week off from work...we needed a BREAK! His parents came to visit Tuesday through Friday, and while they were here, we put them to work! Ever since we moved into our house, I've been wanting an herb garden in the backyard. So David's dad brought up all his saws and building supplies to help us (David) build it!

Before...

Our supplies...

We used untreated cedar - David's dad said that termites stay away from cedar and I wanted untreated wood because I read somewhere that if you use treated wood, the chemicals can seep into the soil.

Sawing away...

All done!!! Now all we need to do is clear out the grass and fill the flower bed with soil and herbs!! YAY!! Doesn't it look great?!?

Casey Turns 1!

Our sweet little puppy turned one last Thursday.

In celebration, I took Casey to Three Dog Bakery in Plano! April, Tux, and Ryder joined us.

We'd never been, but it was so neat! They had the most delicious looking dog treats in the display cases. April got Casey a "pupcake" and I got her a bunch of tasty treats, including a snickerdoodle cookie, mini-donuts, and a s'mores! If you've never been to Three Dog Bakery, I highly recommend it!!

Yard of the Month

After two long years of blood, sweat, and tears (on David's part, not mine...), we won our HOA's Yard of the Month!!!  Our landscaping has gone from this.....taken the day we signed the contract to buy the house in mid-June 2008....

To this....taken soon after we moved into the house in late-June 2008...

To this....after we got the masonry work done in March 2009...

To this....after we planted geraniums in the front bed and tore out the two crepe myrtles that were planted right-up-next-to-the-house (you know, so close that they would someday cause us foundation problems) and replaced them with azaleas.

To THIS........YARD OF THE MONTH JULY 2010!!!!

Of course bragging rights are the most important part of the yard-of-the-month designation, but we also got a $25 gift certificate to Home Depot (to be spent on landscaping supplies, I'm sure).  David's pretty excited. He works really hard in the yard each week and deserves the recognition!!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!!

We hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday weekend!!