Merlin, our 11 month old kitten, who happens to look more like a five year old cat than a baby and acts more like a dog than a kitten, is probably the most destructive animal you will ever meet. But when he’s sleeping, well he’s just darn cute. And photogenic.

While he tends to act like a dog, he sits like a person. Yeah, we have a cat with an identity problem. But still. He’s just darn cute.

When he’s sleeping.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Today is the day to honor moms everywhere (or, on this particular day, in the states at least).  And let me just tell you, I have the greatest mother ever.  Not only has she put up with my crap for twenty-three years, but she she put up with the crap of my middle sister for sixteen years, and the ever-growing crap of my youngest sister for eight and a half years.  She has her hands full.

You’re my hero, Mom.  I love you.  Thank you for everything.

Love,
Your (favorite) daughter,
Me.

This weekend was absolutely beautiful. It was like the clouds had finally given up keeping the sun back and Spring dropped down on us with warm weather in tow. I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. Saturday, Ash and I (well really it was my idea and I got Ash to go along with it) decided to take the pups to Cumberland Mountain State Park and have a picnic and do some hiking. And by picnic I mean pick up some Taco Bell on the way, and by hiking I mean wandering slowly through the woods making our own trails and taking lots of pictures. Either way, we had a lot of fun and the dogs had a blast.

Ash took advantage of the sunlight and tried out her new macro lens on her camera and took a lot of beautiful pictures to add to her portfolio. A few times, I thought for sure she was going to fall into the river we were walking next to in her unstoppable effort to get that great shot. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

And while I’m not that great of a photographer, I did have some fun getting pictures of one of the tiny creeks we jumped over while creating our own path through the woods.

While I didn’t fall in, I did come out of the whole thing with a few scratches because the dogs pulled me into a thicket of thorny brambles. I forgive them. They were having fun. Of course, Ash decided to take matters into her own hand and decided the dogs needed to be punished.

Poor Rufus. Don’t worry, he’s a good swimmer. *

On Sunday, the Spring weather continued to grace us with her presence and we spent the day outside playing basketball, gardening, and cleaning up the backyard while the dogs barked incessantly at the geese that hang out on our lake. On Monday, we woke up to snow.

That’s right. Snow.

Thank goodness it only last two days and today shot back up the 60s and we continued where we had left off on Sunday, by going outside, playing basketball, gardening some more, and chasing down the dogs as they tore up the grass in the front yard. It was gorgeous. The night is cooler, but the house is warm from the day’s sun and we’re in the middle of making a good dinner of fresh broccoli and cranberries. Tomorrow, I’m going to work on some design projects and continue our search for a house and jobs in Austin. I’ve been submitting my resume to several places but I think it would help if I could go in person. Maybe we’ll take a trip down there before we actually have to move. I hope so.

In either case, at least we’ll be in Austin eventually, where warm weather is more constant than in Tennessee. Though that reminds me… why is it so expensive to move? U-Hauls should not cost so much.

*No puppies were harmed in the making of this post.

One of the things I love about Ash is her endless amount of talent in everything and the copious amounts of compassion she has for all living creatures. She currently runs her own pet care business here in Crossville, Tennessee and she’s now pulling together ideas and links and pictures for a new Rescue Animal site. Some day, we’ve decided, when we have a big enough yard, we want to become foster parents for dogs. It’s a good dream and I can’t wait until it comes true.

This is getting slightly off topic. What I wanted to point out is that Ash took home another Honorable Mention (it’s her second) over at Pamperd Puppy‘s Monthly Photo contest. It’s her second time and I think it’s a great start to her pet photography business. Here was her entry:

Spunky is just the most photogenic dog, and he’s lucky that his mama is such a great photographer. I’m so proud of both of them. At the moment, we’re brainstorming names for her rescue site. We’ll figure something out. We wanted to just call it “I Love Rescue Animals” but that just seems like it crosses the line in how long your URL address should be. It’ll come to us (and if you have suggestions, I’m all ears).

On a completely different note, Pixar’s new movie Up looks pretty good.