Almost half way through Autumn

It’s currently 25°C in Sydney and it feels like summer, the historical maximum average for today is 22°C with a minimum average of 13°C. On the day we’re getting married in Bathurst, the historical maximum average is 19°C and the minimum average is 9°C, it’s also 29.3°C in Bathurst today. I’m excited regardless of the weather! Actually as long as it’s not windy, any other weather I can deal with; rain, hail and shine.

By the way, I’m getting married this year, haha I don’t think I ever blogged about it; Brandon proposed last year and we’re getting married this year!

We’re mostly likely spending more money than we need to, but we really want everyone to have fun and to have a weekend of wonderful memories.

Before Brandon proposed I always said to him that I didn’t need us to get married, but if he did want to get married he’d better do it soon cause it was going to interrupted our baby making plans. So he did, interrupt our baby making plans that is by propsing haha.

Originally we were planning to start a family by end of last year and now it’s been moved to end of this year. We discussed it thoroughly after our baby scare 2 years ago and decided we were going to start trying at the end of 2017. We actually tried to see if we could stay on track and get married last year August, but we crunched the numbers and decided that it wasn’t financially possible. So here’s to a 2018 wedding and a 2019 baby =).

Excitedly,
Helen ♥

Getting back into it

It’s been over a year since I last post. 2016 was our most intense year, we adopted sweet Ivy and then we adopted beautiful Tommy who we sadly lost not long after. I didn’t even get a chance to write about him and I was so very excited to. That was the point where I stopped, because I didn’t know what to write about anymore or what to say. We were sad for a really long time, but we’ve chosen to embrace the good memories no matter how few we have.

Instagram: Tommy giving kisses https://www.instagram.com/p/BFu1vf4nzFD/

A while after Tommy, we decided to adopt another cat. We wanted to give a home to another cat so that other cats could be rescued, we were both still working through our grief but we knew we were both capable and wanted to help. We were lucky enough to find our fluffy Chicago. Both he and Ivy still occasionally fight, I still can’t tell if they’re play fighting, but they also mutually groom each other which is always a good sign.

Instagram: Chicago and Ivy https://www.instagram.com/p/BMjRUQ9BLfD/

There’s other news but I’ll leave it for another post =).

Till next time,
Helen ♥

Ivy Small Paws

So I’ve done it, I’ve made a Instagram account for Ivy. It’s mostly for me, I enjoy scrolling through her photos and just looking at her and missing her haha. It also helps me cut down the cats that I’m following on my Instagram and follow them on her Instagram instead.

She’s definitely warmed up to us a lot more. She sleeps with us at the end of the bed, occasionally gives us little licks in the morning when it’s close her breakfast and gives us a little nose kiss every so often =).

Our current plan is to do a little bit of clicker training with her teach her to sit, follow the pencil end (which she occasionally does), get off items, get on items, get in her carrier, leash train her and maybe teach her to high five. Right now she follows the pencil, but she gets pretty lazy about it sometimes haha.

She’s a smart little kitty, she’s worked out how to open the built in wardrobe in her room (which we’ve now blocked) and she’s currently trying to work out how to open the kitchen cabinets.

We bought a little shark cave for her which she looks adorable in.

Instagram: Ivy in her Shark Cave https://www.instagram.com/p/BEV_hUFj5jQ/

In other non Ivy news, we recently had a pregnacy scare. We did the whole pregnacy tests, blood tests and ultrasound, no I was not pregnant but we found out that I may have POCs, we see the fertility doctor next week. The pregnancy scare really helped us work through some of Brandon’s worries about kids and our relationship is much stronger for it.
So no littlies running around yet, but who knows in the near future =).

See you next time,
Helen ♥

That Long Easter Break

So last post I said I was going to upload a photo of Ivy room, here it is! A bit late but still good.

Actually Ivy’s room looks a little different now, she had a little accident a.k.a she stepped and spread her poo everywhere during Easter, which we then cleaned up that night and had to chuck out a whole bunch of stuff, mostly the paper and some of her toys. She was quite grumpy at us while we were doing it too, as we had to put her in her carrier so she wouldn’t lick any of the floor cleaner.

Other than Ivy’s little accident, we mostly spent our Easter with our family and saw Yaya and Kirk, so it was a pretty relaxing long weekend sans the clean up.

Seeing as this post has been sitting in my local draft quite a while now. I’m going to post it and start a new post and talk all about Ivy haha.

Cat-ch you later,
Helen ♥

Introducing Ivy

Brandon and I recently drove all the way to Albury to adopt a beautiful Domestic Medium Hair, It was a pretty grueling trip; 5 1/2 hours drive one way that we did in about 6 to 7 hours with breaks included.

Brandon had a release the night before too and got home at 4:30am, we left at 6:00am haha. So it was only my Dad and I switching on the way down and Brandon and my Dad switching on the way up.

I saw Ivy two weeks ago on http://www.adoptapet.com.au and told Brandon about her along with several other cats, it usually helps when there more cats to compare to, that way you that she’s the best =P. We talked it her for a week and he finally agreed. I was super excited and emailed Albury RSPCA straight away, that was Wednesday last week. Several emails were sent and we made an appointment to meet her that Saturday, with no guarantee that we would be able to adopt her the same day, so it was a gamble, 12 hour trip with possibly no Ivy for it. But I’m an all in kind of gambler (this is why I don’t gamble with money, otherwise we’d have no assets XD), so off we went on our adventure.

It was a long trip, but we finally got to Albury. I’ve never been to America, but Albury looked like the image I had in my head of California or somewhere city-like but relaxing. 

We stopped off to get some cash for the adoption and then we waited till 15mins before the appintment and walked it. Ivy and her Foster Carer arrived just before us. They let her out as she was so beautiful! I got to hold her a few times and didn’t want to let go, I also wanted her to love me more haha. 
The RSPCA Centre Coordinator pretty much saw how happy we were, mainly me XD and she asked the Foster Carer if she was happy with us to adopt Ivy, and she readily agreed yay!!!! Even Brandon was happy, the look on his face was a bag of mixed emotions; he was happy, wowed by her and also a little apprehensive =P.

Once we filled out the paper work and paid, Ivy was put into our carrier and off we went. We were lucky she was a pretty calm traveller, she pretty much laid there and napped occasionally.

When we got home, we let her out into her room to explore (yep she gets the whole spare room to herself) and we pretty much stayed up with her till 3am. By the end of the night, she occasionally rubbed up against us and would let us rub her head a little and she even wanted to explore beyond her room. She was meowing at us to open doors for her, which we were overwhelmed with because we were told she couldn’t meow as she was rescued with a fish hook in the roof of her mouth. Her meow’s a little raspy and she only does it occasionally, she meowed at the iPad cat fishing game XD.

We cleaned the spare in preparation for Ivy

I already love her and Brandon’s definitely falling for her, he was missing her when we were at work yesterday and says “she’s so cute” in wonderment and with love.

The first few days were pretty stressful because she wasn’t really eating, which the vet said was normal, so every time she did eat a little bit we were relieved. She ate most of her food this morning, but she only ate it when we were in the room, so we had to stand and watch her. I’m guessing because she didn’t want to miss out on anything.

She’s using most of her stuff, her little lounge bed, cat tower, tunnel, scratcher and litter box (we’re going to upgrade it to double the size XD).

Can’t wait to share more exciting Ivy stories.

Ivy in Bed

Cat-ch you later,
Helen ♥

P.S. Kmart has been awesome, we’ve gotten most of Ivy’s stuff from there, I’ll take a photo of her room tonight and post it =D.

I’ve Still Got Energy

I’ve just left one birthday drinks and I’m on my way to a Hens, and I’ll end my night at karaoke for another friend’s birthday celebrations (hopefully!). This it’s probably the busiest Saturday I’ve had so far, I’ve been up since 8am, and I only had a break because we had to eat lunch.

I’ve actually got three posts in draft about our Oyster Degustation Adventure, right now it’s just words vomit because I didn’t want to forget anything, but once I clean it up, I’ll post it with fun photos =).

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Excitedly
Helen ♥