Polokwane

Yet another rescue. To keep with the city name theme for the cats we find on campus, we named him after one of the South African cities that hosted World Cup games. Meet Polokwane (Polo) aka Little Dude.

Jonny and I found him a few weeks ago on BYU campus. They have a serious cat problem. He was completely abandoned. His eyes were sealed shut with gunk and his mouth was filled with dirt. So we took him home and cleaned him up. It was amazing how quickly he got better. He was full of energy and attacked anything that moved and even things that didn't move.

As much as we hated to give him up, we knew we needed to find him a home. We put up an ad on Craigslist but that didn't really work so we decided we would go out to WalMart with a sign and hope that would work. We went out today, Jonny was putting up the sign when a mother and daughter pulled up and asked to see him. Less than five minutes later we were saying bye to little Polo and handing him over to his new family. We were sad to see him go but we were happy to find him a home.

+3

Many of you know Jonny and I have a habit of finding abandoned animals. Well, we have added 3 more to our rescue list. Jonny was on campus today to do homework and found these three adorable babies.

They were found about 20 feet from where we found Boston and Tokyo. So we decided to keep up the name theme, Olympic cities to be more specific. So meet...

Athens (female)

Torino (female)

And Rio (male)

We think they were probably about 3-4 weeks old. They still had trouble walking and couldn't retract their claws yet. They were adorable. We found a shelter in Murray that was able to take them in so we dropped them off. So that is +3 to our rescue tally. I think we are sitting around 15-20 now.

Also, a side note...

I found a red umbrella! The color here doesn't do it justice. It is much brighter and I love it.

DHS Graduation and California

Jonny and I went home this weekend for his sister Kirstin's graduation. It was a surprise for his whole family so that was fun. It was a really good graduation, Kirstin sang so that was fun. We left Thursday evening and so we got in at about 5 am so that was tiring and it was annoying because there was tons of construction everywhere. So most of our trip looked like the picture below, orange cones lining the freeway.I had a surprise when I got home. Karleigh and my mom had redone my room without telling me. (Taryn this pictures are for you! Sorry they aren't the best but you get the idea.) I love it, I think it looks great. I was also surprised at how dark little Tokyo had gotten, I thought she was Boston!On Friday before the graduation Kars, Mom and I got pedicures. Always fun. I also got to have lunch with Darcey at Dos, so that was fun especially since I couldn't stay for her graduation party.

The graduation was nice, and it was cool outside so that was nice. I think my high school graduation was well into the 90s.After graduation I kinda just went to bed because I was exhausted.
Saturday was a nice relaxing day went to lunch Jonny and Cale. Took a nap. Went to a play put on by the Young Men and Young Women in out home ward. It was a parody on the story of Esther from the Bible. It was a musical and all the songs were from other musicals but they changed the words to fit the story. I actually liked it a lot. Then I went to UP, again, with Jonny's family and then went home and watched Fired Up with my family.

I had a little stowaway.

We headed back to Utah around 1ish. Sadly we left all of our cats with Jonny's parents so he can find a place to live and then we will bring them back. We made the trip back in good time which was nice. At one point I was not happy not only were we leaving California behind but the sun was behind us and a big storm cloud was in front of us. And it didn't even give us any cool lightening. That was pretty much my weekend. I loved being home and being with my family. The trip was too short but I had to get back for work.

Marley and Me

Ok, I have to do a quick post about this book/movie. I read the book over the summer, I think it was this summer and I liked it a lot.

There were some parts that were a little slow but overall I really enjoyed it. Now I am not normally a crier in books and movies, I'll tear up slightly and feel like crying but I never do, A Walk to Remember made me cry for the first time last year and I only teared up in P.S. I Love You. But for some reason this book really got to me. At the end I was bawling and had tears pouring down my face and I was crying out loud. I don't know what it is but something about animals always gets me. When they announced that the movie was coming out and Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston were playing the leads I was a little worried. I love both of them but they belong in comedies and I didn't know that I would like them in the movie. Well I was wrong, I think that this is one of my favorite roles of Jennifer Aniston, and I LOVE Friends so that is saying something. I thought she did amazing she got all the emotions rights and just played it well, as did Owen Wilson. I saw it on Friday night with Jonny and I have NEVER cried like that in a movie, it took everything I had not to cry out loud I had tears down my face for probably a good half hour. It was amazing. Jonny cried a bit as did the guy next to me and the girl next to him and really most of the people in the theater. Saturday we went to dinner for Karleigh's b-day since it is on a Sunday and then Jonny and I wanted to take her to a movie, we were going to see Valkyrie we went 2 hours early to get tickets and it was sold out so we went to see Marley and Me again because Kars wanted to see it and I really didn't mind seeing it again, it was good. You'd think I would be ok the second time, apparently not, I didn't cry as long and didn't feel the urge to cry out loud but I still cried more than in any other movie. Katie (my roommate) came too and was crying along with me. Well the point is it is a really good movie and book, but if you cry a lot in movies then you might want to watch this one from the comfort of your own home because you will likely be bawling by the end. Also, here are a few reasons I think I'm so touched by animals, my babies! Sorry this was a bit longer than I was planning!

Also, a post to come sometime soon, the Polar Swim, as soon as I get the pictures from my roommate, but here is a teaser diving into an unheated pool in Utah in February (I'll get it up soon so you can see the pictures Taryn!)

I'm done!

In some ways this semester went so fast but at the same time the beginning of the school year seems so long ago! Either way I can't believe the semester is over and the Christmas is less than a week away. I haven't posted in awhile, I had too much to do at the end of the semester, I don't think I have gone to bed before 2 for over two weeks, but that is done now, I can sleep again, I'm so excited! I also get to go home tomorrow, and then I head down to San Diego on Saturday and Taryn and Grant get to come! I'm pretty excited for all of it and then I have my last semester of college, now that is hard to believe it doesn't feel like four years have gone by! I went sledding last night with Jonny, some of my roommates, Karleigh and Lexi, it was fun, I have a fear of sledding but I did it anyway. Also an interesting note, since the last time I posted Jonny has caught more kittens to take to get fixed and then to a place to be adopted so there are currently 8 cats in the house (that includes the 3 that are his.) All of the strays are named after Disney characters we have Meeko, Thumper, Bagheera, Nala and Hades (who is the really mean dad cat, I call him cow Hades because he looks a lot like a cow) There is one more kitten to catch and its name will be Koda (from Brother Bear). So yeah that is a run down of the cats most of them are really sweet Bagheera is kinda mean and obviously so is Hades. Now I'm going to start catching up on some sleep and the California here I come!

Halloween Happenings

Halloween has come and gone, it's always amazing how that happens. Originally I thought this year was going to be kind of boring, I didn't have any plans and I didn't have a costume idea. In fact, I flirted with the idea of not dressing up at all, terrible I know. But at the last minute everything came together, I decided to be a ballet dancer warming up before a show. So all the make up and everything but not in the full costume. Jonny was my handsome pilot. We decided to have a Halloween party at his house so we threw it together at the last minute and it turned out pretty well. We had the chocolate fountain going, music and, of course, scary movies! We watched I Am Legend, not super scary but jumpy, and What Lies Beneath, that one is scary! We went to WalMart before to get everything that we needed for the party food and all that and we got a hay bale and corn stocks for $2 each, so that helped with decorations, and Jonny did an excellent job. We also got lots of candy for trick-or-treaters we were really excited but not many people came it kinda sucked but oh well. One of the best parts though was the little outfits we got for Roxy, Trixie and Houdini. We found little Halloween preemie onesies and they fit pretty well it was SO cute! and they didn't seem to mind too much, the cats looked funny when we first put the costumes on, they kinda waddled around and took really high steps. We also carved pumkins a few nights before Halloween, they were huge, Jonny's was 26 lbs. We just did faces Jonny's is goofy scary and mine is supposed to be a WAY simplified version of Jekyll and Hyde. Well that was pretty much my Halloween, now I just have to recover!

Trixie, Roxy and Houdini

It took less than a week of Jonny being out in Utah before he realized their were kittens living in his backyard and in the empty lot behind it. He spent the next few days trying to catch them. In the process he met his neighbor whose wife is able to pickup all these little kittens and would be happy to catch a few for us. Well now Jonny lives in a house and Austin said he would be happy to have cats. So now Jonny and Austin have three adorable new roommates. Trixie, Roxy and Houdini. It is kind of hard to tell the girls apart in my picture but Roxy is thee all gray one on the left and Trixie has some stripes. Houdini is the black and white boy with a moustache. They are all pretty sweet most of the time. They are definitely warming up to us. Roxy is funny because one minute she will be super sweet and purring and the next minute she is hissing at you, we think she may be bipolar. Trixie is sweet but I have to say that Houdini is the most relaxed he doesn't really get riled up about anything. Well they are about 8 weeks old and they are SUPER soft. We love them but I of course still miss my babies Boston and Tokyo, no cat will ever replace them. Now Taryn can't be mad that I didn't blog about the cats!

Playing Catch Up

So since I just started the blog I figured I'd catch up on the interesting stuff that happened to me over the summer and stuff. To start right before we went home to California for the summer Jonny and I found two newborn kittens, they were abandoned on campus so we rescued them and brought them home. Boston is the boy, the dark one, and Tokyo is the girl, the light one. Since they were so little we had to feed them with bottles for the first month and take them everywhere. Now they are living with my parents and I miss them a ton. They are really healthy and happy so that is good. Boston is definitely the big brother but Tokyo can hold her own. They are both little trouble makers but I love them. These are pictures from when we first found them and now.