In love......

Washington in the summer has to be the prettiest place on Earth!  I've been to a lot of places in this world, but Washington has summer in the bag.  Washington is every shade of green, cool in the mornings and evenings, warm in the middle of the day, has wonderful beaches, and has the most gorgeous mountains.  Washington might be gray from October to June but I've heard it makes up for it in July, August and September.   

These pictures are proof that Tyler knew what he was doing when he conveniently found a job that started in July.   He knew that if Maggie and I had to move in say January, we would have taken one look at the grey state and took the next flight back to Texas.  But since it summer now, I fell in love with the Emerald City, and I am committed to making it my home away from home.  (I'll always consider Denton my real home!)

 Until Next Time! Love!

Nicole

That's one fat ravioli eating cat!

Stage 1: Tyler and Marble move to Washington State! 

Moving a 25 pound cat is no small feat, it requires a lot of planning, heavy lifting, sweating, a few swear words and a little bit of fibbing.   

Here is the not so small story of how a cat on death row got moved across county.  

If you don't know him, this is Marble. 

A little over a year ago, I rescued Marble when he was just hours away from being put down.  I looked at his fat little face and couldn't allow him to be killed just because he did not have a home.  $60 bucks later, Marble was a DeLaCerda!   Marble is not your average cat, he weights 25 pounds

on a skinny day. 

I am not exaggerating, Marble is one fat ravioli eating cat!

Exhibit 1

(Those are 12x12 titles and he is bigger than the tiles)

Exhibit 2

(That is an average size cat next to the fat cat.)

The fat cat and I had our issues and I am not his favorite parent.  I have nick named him "Newman" because well like Jerry, I do not get along with Newman.  But regardless of any issue we have (which there are a lot), we still love the fat cat.   Who wouldn't.... he is an anomaly.  

Since we love our fatty cat, we had to figure out how to send Marble to Washington. 

American Airlines policy is that the temperature in either departing or arriving city has to be under 80 degrees for a animal to travel in the belly of the plane.  Since it is hotter than hell in Texas right now riding in the belly of the plane was out of the question. Our next thought was for Marble to fly in cabin like a baby since he is the same size as the average 6 month old.     American Airlines policy is that animals have to be under 20 pounds to fly in the cabin of the plane and need to be certified in good health.

In comes our hero, Dr. Dean (the best vet in Denton) who certified Marble as a health cat for the State of Washington and called Marble a health 18 pounds.  He conveniently forgot to add the other 10 pounds of "water weight" that Marble has packed on. 

So off Marble goes in a dog carrier to the airport with Tyler in tow.   No one questioned him on his weight and Tyler carried him through security with no problem.  Marble did not like the whole flying experience and he was annoyed the whole flight! 

4 hours later....Marble is now a fat cat living in a much cooler climate.  

Stage 2 will happen on Thursday when Maybe baby moves to Washington State.  

 

Until Later,

Nicole

A Texas Sized Adventure!

We have 37 days before Maggie and I move to Seattle.   This thought is a little scary (okay a lot scary) so we are not going to focus on that right now.  

We are making the most of our Texas time and spending every minute we can with our favorite Texans!  

Last weekend, we drove to College Station to see our extended family, Andy, Angela, Owen and Grady, and the rest of the Phillips and Throne families.   Tyler and Andy have been best friends for 22 years!  Since Tyler is an only child, Andy and his not so little brother Matt, are the closest things to brothers that he has!   Needless to say, we love the whole Throne and Phillips families a lot!

We had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed being there for Grady's 1st birthday party.   Grady is such a happy boy!  He loves his Aunt Nicole and thinks she is pretty funny.  

We did not want to leave our family on Sunday so we decided that we would kidnap, Owen Roy, to ensure that his parents visited us again in a few days.   We put sunglasses on Owen in hopes his parents would not recognize him.   And it worked, we borrowed Owen for 4 days.   

This is where our Texas sized adventure began.  

Owen, Maggie and I started out on 5 city adventure in 4 days!  

 First, we toured the Denton Fire Department!

We shook hands with some very high level officials! 

This is Maggie and Owen with Baltic, Denton's 1st K-9 Arson Investigator!

Next, we went to visit Tyler and see how Tyler spends his day at Recaro.  Owen and Maggie soon discovered that working at Recaro is not as hard as Tyler says it is.   

  

The next day we received the best tour ever of a Cedar Hill Fire Station! Owen's Pa Pa Jack is a Italian Chief, I mean Battalion Chief in Cedar Hill. :)  We got to see all the wonderful fire trucks and look around the whole station.   We had a blast!!   We even got to bring along my sister and two more nephews!   It was an amazing day at the fire station.   We love Chief Throne and his whole staff!  

After the station we took a quick run through the sprinklers in Cedar Hill!  

After all that we were exhausted but who wouldn't be with that Texas sized Adventure!  

Now, I am going to take a nap!

Love,

Nicole



Surprise! I am a blogger now...

I am jumping on the band wagon, I have started my own blog!

I love reading about my favorite people, laughing at their super cute kids and keeping up with their lives even when they live far away.   I figured, I am funny, I have a super cute kid, and I know some people who want to keep up with my life.....   Ah ha moment... I should blog!!

Why now? Good Question....

We are getting ready for a new adventure.

No, we are not getting a pet whale.

No, I have not been attacked by an octopus.

No, Maggie has not officially made the transformation to a cat. 

We have made the tough decision, to pack our bags and move to Seattle Washington!  (No, Angela is not coming with us.)



We have called Denton Texas our home for the last 12 years.  We have grown wings in Denton and now it is time to fly.   I never thought I would be flying 2000 miles away but you never know where life will take you.  

This Texas sunshine girl is moving to the northwest.  I guess, I will be storing my vitamin D until we make the move to raining cool Seattle.   

Life is an adventure and I am ready to start my next one. 

Nicole