Meet Bob

Brian and I never expected to own a cat. Not that we dislike cats. It's just that we both love dogs, we grew up in families that had dogs, and here is the kicker...we are both (mildly) allergic to cats. We had happily owned a dog until a few weeks ago. Annie, our sweet golden retriever mix, was a wonderful dog for us. However, when Daniel was about nine months old he tested positive for a dog allergy. No problem. We built a fence around the back yard, and Annie became an outdoor dog. Then, Daniel grew older and came to love Annie too, and it was virtually impossible to keep him from petting, cuddling, laying on, and even riding Annie. At first Daniel's reactions were fairly mild...a little itching, a few hives. We always washed him thoroughly after he had been around Annie and figured no harm was being done. But, then his reactions got worse...lots and lots of hives, swollen eyes, continual itchy nose. So, Brian and I made the very difficult decision to give Annie to my parents. We still see her, and Annie is very happy living in the country. We adjusted to being a petless (except for the fish) family. After the initial sadness, it was kind of a relief.

Then along came Bob.

One morning, we found this pretty black and white cat peering in the window. He lived under our deck for days. He was such a sweet, gentle cat, and we quickly began petting him and eventually, feeding him. And then one evening Brian and Daniel came inside, and I found out they had named the cat. Bob. Very fitting since this guy has a short tail, like a bobcat. So, he has pretty much become part of the family. He lives under the deck. We feed him twice a day. And he endures such things as this...


And this....

And even this...

He has never clawed Daniel, never hissed at Daniel, nothing. He even follows Daniel around the yard. Daniel calls him, "Come, Bob! Come!" And by golly, Bob comes. We would consider this a happily ever after story, but yesterday Daniel got hives after holding Bob. Ugh. Can he seriously be allergic to cats too? Stay tuned for more updates on Bob!

How our garden grows

This year we almost did not plant a garden since Brian had some health problems in April/May and since we had some summer remodeling projects planned. But, alas, we just couldn't give it up, so here are some pictures of our garden's progress. We planted three rows of okra, which you can see in the forefront of the photo below. Behind that are about a dozen tomato plants.

Our tomatoes are doing well, and though we have had several ripe cherry tomatoes, the regular sized ones are still green.

Here is our lone pepper plant.

Daniel desperately wants to pick the green tomatoes. Here he is eyeballinging them.

And here he is just plain cute!
We are hoping for enough produce to can salsa again this year, and perhaps some pickled okra. Yum!

Sara's birthday

Last Saturday we had such fun celebrating a very special birthday with Brian's sister, Sara. We swam, we ate, we opened present, and then we ate some more! Here are some photos of the day.

In the photo below, we are at Fritz's, a really neat burger joint where your food is delivered by train. See the train at the top of the photo. Daniel LOVED it!

Below is the clue cake that Brian's mom made for Sara. There were 30 clues to help Sara find 30 presents that were hidden around their apartment. What fun! Melissia, you are so creative!


We hope you had a wonderful birthday, dear Sara. You are an awesome sister, sister-in-law, friend, and aunt to us! We love you.