Happy Labor Day!

Since we are out of school today, she doesn't have an outfit to share. So, I thought I would share with you what we did this holiday weekend instead! We were supposed to go to the beach, but unfortunately, circumstances beyond our control kept us home. One of my greatest pet loves of my life died on June 22 and took a little piece of me with her on that day. Have you ever had a pet that you loved more than most people? I adopted my beautiful Siamese cat, Sam, in 1996 from the Humane Society. She was in the local weekly newspaper classified in the Pet of the Week column. She was described as 'delicate little Samantha who had been brought into the Humane Society with her kittens. All of her kittens were adopted. Won't you consider taking Samantha home?' I was 19 years old and I thought she was the most beautiful cat I had ever seen. I could not fathom why she would be at a shelter. Sam went through law school with me and then graduate school. She then joined me and my husband as our first child. She slept in the crook of my arm every night, sat with me as I ate breakfast every day, and was right by my foot as I sewed. She was my very own pattern weight if I laid any fabric out on the floor. Sam was 18 years old and she passed away while we were on our trip this summer. My parents found her curled up right next to my side of the bed on the floor, like she was just waiting for me to come home and I didn't make it. It has forever broken my heart. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty well bawling writing this.

After we grieved, my kids really wanted to get a new kitten. Our vet recommended a local lady who fostered a lot for one of the local rescues, so we went over to visit. Of course when we get there, she has a handsome blue point siamese boy kitten that just steals my heart. And then my son fell in love with a crazy orange striped boy with a bobbed tail, so we adopted two kittens. Well, it turned out once we got them home, we had them vet checked and they had 2 types of parasite. The first was relatively common and is called giardia. They also have a more rare and more difficult to treat parasite called tritrichomonas. We have to wear gloves and protective garments around the kittens while they are undergoing treatment to avoid spreading the parasites to our other cats, Lilly and Posey. We had the choice to return them to the rescue, but we already had fallen in love with our little guys. So, we committed to keeping them in isolation and treating them for the parasites.

This one is Lilly. Isn't she beautiful? We adopted her from a shelter in Americus, GA when she was 3 weeks old.

This one is Posey. She is ALL my husband's cat.

I don't have great pictures of the kittens yet since they have been in isolation in the bathroom since we got them :( 

So, as contagious as they are, we couldn't board them at the vet and my parents didnt feel comfortable taking care of them, which I understand, we ended up just cancelling our beach trip. The good thing is they just finished the Giardia treatment and they start their 2 week treatment for the tritrichomonas Wednesday. Say a little prayer that the treatment is successful.

Put the tissues away, I'm done making you sad for now. 

That being said - we still had a fun weekend. We live relatively close to a large Garden/Park/Lake destination called Callaway Gardens. This weekend, they had a Hot Air Balloon Festival, so we spent a lot of the weekend up there. Friday, we went up for the balloon glow where they had all of the balloons along the beach and lit them up at night. And as you can see SOME of us REALLY enjoyed our ribs!

You see Saige had to come with us. Saige is our latest American Girl. Grandma and Paw Paw got that for her birthday last week. And since Saige loves hot air balloons, she had to come.

Saturday evening we went back and ended up riding up in a tethered balloon. That was pretty cool.

Sunday morning we went up and ran in the 5k. It was SOOOOO hot and humid but we got to go to the Callaway Gardens Country Store for breakfast and they have AMAZING french toast.

If you ever get down south, you should check out Callaway. They have a butterfly center, laser tag, zip lining. Fantasy in Lights at Christmas. Its pretty nice. You can see more about it here http://www.callawaygardens.com/. Again, no sponsors, just like recommending things we like!

The hubs was also experimenting this weekend with some fun new photography techniques. Check out this cool picture of our son he got (since my son gets relatively little exposure on Mom's blog :) )

This week is a short week, but I think you will enjoy the offerings. We have a guest Mommy outfit this week from our SIG Creations swap, a super cute Jocole mix and match, and a *gasp* self drafted pattern that if I can make it work may end up being a FREE tween tutorial for you by the weekend. How many of those are out there? Not many and it makes me SAD! So, I am going to make sure my tweens and teens have some free tutorials too!

I hope to see you tomorrow and hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend! 

Till then,

Christie