A Little Catch Up

 Its been way too long since I posted.  Life took me by storm and my writing took a back seat.  I hope all my readers had a wonderful Christmas.  I've had so many ideas of things to write about, but time passed until I lost the spirit for them.  So, I guess I'll just do a "quick" synopsis of our life the last few weeks with a promise of more faithful posts to come.

Mr. Blueberry Eyes finally felt like he had studied parakeets long enough and took the big step of bringing home Butterscotch, a blue bundle of songs.  Scotch is a young bird and doesn't mimic yet, but he is learning to love Mr. Blueberry Eyes.  Lately, he has made violin practice a lot more fun!  Mr. Blueberry Eyes is fastidious about his care and amused the Christmas caregiver by his multitudinous and opinionated directions.  He even wrote down the bird's bedtime and posted it on its cage!

About three weeks ago, our kitty, Leo, got a blood clot that lodged in the sadle of the veins branching to his back legs.  I don't remember the name of the condition.  Our wonderful vet thought that there was a possibility of his recovery and we started a regimen of shots, pills, hot water bottles, massages and crating.  He improved slightly and then came down with a bladder infection and began urnating blood.  Since he still couldn't go to the bathroom properly, he started to get awful sores from urinating on his legs.  I bathed him frequently, but the sores got worse.  On Monday, last week, we decided that his quality of life was just too poor and that his prognosis was not a promising one.  We made the difficult decision to put him down.  It was hard on all of us.  I was comforted by the gentleness by which it was done and the peace he was in.  We had a graveside ceremony.

 The next day, my brother "Schnicklefritz" was married in a beautiful ceremony.  Our whole immediate family was in the attendants' entourage.  This fulfilled Laughing Water's dream, for certain!  The bride put me in charge of flowers, too.  I don't have much experience in flower arranging and virtually none in wedding finery.  Here is a picture of the bride's bouquet.  I was relieved that it seemed to work. 

I'll have to get permission before I post pictures of the happy couple as my brother is a little shy about notoriety.  But, I must say, I am incredibly happy for him and I adore my new sister.  She is intelligent, so pretty, and, she brings a lovely little man into the family, too! My brothers have done a good job picking life partners! 

Wednesday and Thursday were filled with frenetic preparations for the holidays!  I made most of our gifts this year.  (More on that in another post.)  Thursday night found us arriving at the grandparents' house and now I've just crashed and am enjoying being pampered!

This is so long I'll be surprised if anyone is still reading it!  A belated Merry Christmas to each of you!  - Nanette