Gabby's Journey

Last night when I asked you all to pray for Gabby, I was serious but on a light note. This morning when I was getting the kids ready to go to daycare, I told Grant that we would go pick up Gibber Gabbers at the vet after I was done with work. Then around 9:30 am I received a call from my vet saying that in the last half hour, Gabby had taken a turn for the worse. He believed she was in complete kidney failure and suggested the best alternative at that point be putting her to sleep. I immediately lost it since I was convinced that I was taking her home today...even joking with a coworker about what the vet bill was going to be. Well, the joke ended with that phone call. I left work to go say good bye to my sweet Gabby Girl. When I got there she looked terrible and wouldn't even move. It broke my heart, but after seeing how much pain she was in I knew in my heart that it was time to let her go. Gabby entered Heavens gates at 10:30 am this morning. I am a complete wreck today but in her memory, I wanted to share Gabby's journey. I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I am using this as a form of healing.
This was tiny little Gabby on the day I brought her home from the Humane Society. She was about 8 weeks old...born in the beginning of April 2002...she would have been 7 years old this April. Her name at the Humane Society was "Uno" but for some reason that name didn't fit.

This pictures shows exactly why we decided to name her "Gabby"...she ALWAYS had something to say.

Look at how cute and tiny she was. I fell in love with her the minute I set eyes on her and she fit so well into our family.

Here she is on her first encounter with a mud turtle.

And ever since she was little, her favorite place to hide was in the flower garden.

She was quite the little helper...

And really looked up to her Daddy.

Here she is playing with Duke and his popsicle stick.

And nothing is better than an empty paper bag.

All ready to pounce!

Enjoying some marti gras beads...

This is Gabby as a "teenager". You know, that akward in-between stage.

When she was younger, she loved this rug. She would roll around on it and bury herself underneath it.

Posing like the queen she was.

And getting a little snuggle in with her Mama!

Naptime...there are a lot of these type of pictures. She always knew how to make herself comfortable.

She was even around back when we built the addition on to our house.

This was another one of her "hang outs"

As was this comfy spot.

Oh, and this one too!

This is the bed that was supposed to be Grant's toddler bed. We bought it before he was even born and used it as a decoration in the porch before it got filled with other 'stuff'.

I had a fountain in the porch for a while too. Gibbers was a sucker for running water.

And then came Grant...ruining all of her special time with Duke and I. Here he was torturing her a little.

As he grew, they became very good friend, which I never even imagined. She was always a sassy cat, but she had a soft spot for the kids.

Here are the two good buddies plotting an attack on a poor unsuspecting turtle.

Once she got used to Grant, along came...

The puppy! Roxy always wanted to "play" with Gabby, but Gabby wasn't as thrilled with the idea as you can see.

She tried hiding over here...

And finally jumped up where Roxy couldn't bug her! My little flower girl.

Here she is getting into some mischief...trying to get into the basket on the table. Usually she gets in trouble for getting up on the table or counter (Duke will probably freak when he sees this one) but I thought it was kind of cute so I took a picture before I removed her from forbidden territory.

What is it with cats always having to get inside everything???

And on top of everything!

Here is some nap time with Duke. I love the silly ways she used to sleep.

And this is her all snuggled up in her favorite blanket.

Silly kitty!

I wonder if she ever got sick of me taking her picture?

I have so many fond memories of her and I am so glad that I was able to capture so many of them in pictures...Funny thing...we have had Gabby so long that the pictures when she was little had to be scanned in because I didn't even have a digital camera then.

The kids loved her so much also.

I am really dreading having to tell Grant that Gibbers won't be coming home again. He is at that age where he is beginning to understand what death is. I really don't want to have to break his little heart today.

Audrey loved the kitty too. Here she is all sweet with her kitten kat.

Then she would torture her a little...

And then give the kitty some loves!

Gabby really did love the kids. When Grant was a baby she used to run over to him whenever he would cry to check on him. She was also a great hunter and a loving family member. This last picture was taken a week ago and is the last picture I have of my sweet kitten kat.

Gabby, I am going to miss you so very much. I know you are in a better place and are now pain free. Hopefully you find a nice warm lap to curl up on for eternity. I love you Gabby.

"Mama, I love when we go to Home Depot!"

I'm ba-aaaak! So sorry for the hiatus, but the last two weeks just flew by. Busy, busy...go, go, go! The pictures in this post are from the end of January when we were all getting spring fever REALLY bad due to the long cold snap we had. The kids were going stir crazy so I called my Aunt Kala to see if her and Evan wanted to meet us at Bounce Depot. Bounce Depot is a place with a bunch of big inflatables that you can play and bounce in. It is really fun for little and big kids alike! We have gone there once before so Grant knew what it was all about, but this was Tootie's first time being big enough to enjoy a little excitement!

First, she had to get acclimated to the new scenery. She found the toddler area and had to try out each of the toys. First, the blue dog rocker...

Then the police rocker. Oh, and check out her crazy hair! I put a little mousse in her locks to attempt a curly look, but after the winter hat had it's way with her hair, it looked a little more like I forgot to even brush it!

Next, she tackled the little slide.

This is Queenie at the top of her castle. She thought she was pretty cool hanging out on the top of that little slide.

After a little toddler play time, it was on to bigger and better things...with Mom of course! I love getting down and actually playing with my kids so I had a blast going through the maze and bouncing with my Little Bity!

Then it was off to join the 'big' kids in another bouncer.

Sorry about the dark pictures. The lighting was terrible and I kept getting bounced while I was inside trying to take pictures so my camera had trouble trying to focus. I missed some pretty good actions shots!

I love this one because you can see the little monster coming out in Grant. And then there was Tootie. She was having fun simply falling down.

You can almost hear her squealing with delight in this picture.

This is my cousin, Evan. He is Kala's youngest and is two weeks younger then Grant so they love to get together to play.

Grant was playing like a wild hog! I barely saw him the entire time we were there because he was cruising around playing so hard. We did have a couple of obstacle course races and he beat me every time (or at least he insisted he did!)

I just love spending "fun" time with my kids. I don't ever want to get too busy to be able to do stuff like this with my kiddos.

Our little Champer-Champers!

THEN, there is the BIG daddy-of-all-daddy double slide Grant and I were racing and as you can see I kicked his little booty!

Here is Kala and Evan tackling the bid slide. Isn't Evan's expression priceless!

I think this picture is adorable too. It looks like Kala and Toots are having a little conversation about her funk-a-licious hair! Or, maybe she was asking Tootie if she wanted to do this...

YEP! The BIG slide! And she LOVED it!!!

She had Olivia take her. Olivia is Kala's oldest daughter - by the way...Happy Belated 18th Birthday, Olivia!!!! I took her about 10 times also, but the pictures were dark or blurry so I'll spare you and not post any of them.

And then I saw this....PLEEEESE! Again?...No, honey. Mama is tired.

FINE! I'll do it myself!

And then there was this...a tantrum when I told her it was time to go! Oh no, not already!!!!!

I know, I am a meanie. How could anyone say "no" to this face?????

When we were leaving, I was buckling Grant into his car seat and he said, "Mama, I love when we go to Home Depot." I just smiled and said, "Me too, Bubba!"

One more thing before I go...please pray for our kitty Gabby. She at the vet AGAIN with another kidney/bladder infection. She has been "inpatient" since Monday morning and they have her on 3 antibiotics, fluids, appetite stimulants, something to help her retain protein and special cat food. Wonder how much this one is gonna cost??? So please pray that she gets better so that I don't go broke paying vet bills!!! Now I know how my vet can afford to buy and renovate a new building...I think I am going to own about half of it (or at least all of the light fixtures!) by the time this is all over. Seriously, I am a softy when it comes to animals, especially my own. When I adopted her I made a promise to take good care of her and I feel like I have to live up to my end of the bargain. I just hope she is feeling better and back to her sassy old self very soon!

Nighty-night and blessings to all!

Ever seen a snowman quite like this????

First off...some people have way too much time on their hands. When I make a snow man, it takes about 15 min and he's lucky to end up with some rock eyes and a couple of twigs for arms. Check out this snowman that I found in Avon...

At first glance, it really doesn't look that tall.

But a little closer look and you can tell that it was probably (and this only is a guesstimate) about 12' tall.

Funny thing was that I was actually looking for a snowman to take a picture of with my new camera because there is a photography store in St. Cloud called Central Camera (where I bought my new lens) and they have a monthly photo contest. January's theme was "Snowmen" so I thought I would give it a whirl. These were the pictures I took in hopes of entering one of them. Well, I was a little late because the picture apparently has to be in by the 21st of the month so I guess I will just have to try another time. Either way, I got some pretty cool pictures to share with you!

Grant was with me "scouting" for snowmen and he thought this fella was super cool. That is until...

...we found this doozy!

Closer look...he is almost as tall as that silo!

This is the famous snowman on Co. Rd. 9 between Avon and St. Anna in case you ever want to drive by and check it out. Can you believe the family that lives at this farm builds this EVERY year! Not sure how long it takes, but I do not like the cold enough to help sculpt something this big. How do you suppose they get it so big anyhow?

Can you believe that I'm not even sharing any pictures of the kids tonight? Audrey has been sick since Sun so she hasn't been in the picture taking mood if you know what I mean. More like the "Hold me, Mommy" kinda mood. Grant has a cough but is still going strong. Well...he's a "big kid" you know and he now thinks he can skip his daily nap. The majority of nights he does this, he falls asleep on the way home from daycare and I don't see him until morning. That is like 13 hours of sleep. I WISH!

Oh, and I keep forgetting to mention...a couple of posts back I posted two video clips of the kids. There is sound with them, but if the music was blaring you probably couldn't hear it very good. To solve the problem, scroll ALL the way to the bottom (or hit ctrl end) and in the upper left hand corner of the black "music box" you can pause the music. Hope that helps!

I'm gonna hit the hay because I have a cold and could use some rest after tending to my poor little baby the past 3 nights. Hopefully she will sleep through the night tonight. Crossing my fingers.

Sweet Dreams!