The Callenders

for insanity. Seriously, I love shopping but can't stand being around other shoppers. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones who block the entire aisle with their cart and ignore all the "excuse me please" from other shoppers. The ones who drag their kids with them and either ignore them, letting them run rampant or scream. Thank you Amazon.com! You save my sanity!

Ahhhh, I love grooming day! John starts by getting a haircut himself, than when he gets home it is Callie and Adabee's turn!

Now, most cats I know would not tolerate the grooming ritual that takes place in my house. First up, The Nail Salon. Callie of course is the more difficult one to clip, usually takes two of us to do it while she hollers her displeasure. Adabee actually loves having her nails trimmed. She sits still and is very well behaved during it.

Next comes the Furminator! I totally reccomend this product for all pet owners. Really helps keep shedding and dander down to a minimum. Both girls love to be brushed. John even uses the vacuum on them which for the most part they don't seem to mind, Go figure. When he started this method, I was sure they would claw him up.

After the brushing, they get a dose of hairball remendy. They love it. Adabee is finished at this point but poor Callie and her long hair go next for what we have deemed The Booty Buzz. The groomers call it a sanitary trim to keep the nasty stuff from sticking to the fur back there. Callie is actually very well behaved during this. I hold her on her back and John does the buzzing.

During all of this, John talks to them. It is the sweetest thing to listen to. He is so gentle and loving! Can't wait to see how he will be when we have kids!

Tennessee was awesome! The fall colors this year were beautiful! I've never seen anything like it. We had a good time with John's mom. Our only hiccup was our time share. We had stayed at this resort before and it was really nice. The unit they gave us this year was just yucky. Dirty carpets, cracks in the wall, rust in the tub, you name it. We ended up finding a much nicer place to stay at closer to town and it all worked out well.

Greetings from the Smokey Mountains! We are on our annual fall trip to Gatlinburg, TN. Just a quick post to share a couple of photos and more details to come later.

Happy 43rd Birthday John!

I know it's been a while. Lets start with the car accident.

My sweet nephew Andrew and his mom planted a small garden this year. Andrew's must haves were pumpkins and watermelons. They started too late to actually get the melons really growing but the pumpkins are doing good.

O.k. People who were born and raised in Southeast Alaska just don't seem to aclimate to 90+ degree weather very well. It's been seriously hot lately. I flew up to Juneau for a couple of days to cool off!

This photo was taken in October of 2006. I love the fall colors!

I'm going to start uploading a photo of the day. Today's was taken in my friend Joan's garden yesterday.

We spent a fun two days up on the Olympic Penninsula tasting wine. As you can see Callie Bear wanted to come too! We visited 6 different wineries between Port Townsend and Port Angeles. It was fun! Check out http://www.olympicpeninsulawineries.org to read more about where we visited. Sorensen's Cellar and Fairwinds Winery were my favorites.

I've decided I need to be a better blogger if I'm gonna have a blog. Sorry so long since last updated.

John and I have now been married 1 year 1 month and 21 days. Not that I'm counting or anything :-) This last year has had some rough times but we got thru everything together. I ment it when I said for better or for worse. I look foward to the next year and what it might bring us.

In May, we had our Big Trip of the year. We started out in Missisippi at John's parents house and all of us went to Destin, Florida. John's brother Lee met us there as well as his other brother Bryan and Rebecca and little Sam. When we met them at the airport, Sam had on a t-shirt that said Big Brother. I caught that immediatly and asked Bryan and Rebecca if they had news to share. We will have another niece or nephew this November! I'm so excited! I need to start knitting a baby blanket for this one. I might actually finish one!

The whole family spent a really nice week in Florida together. The white sand beach was wonderful. Here is a photo from my chair on the beach (not the best quality, taken from my phone:

After our week was over, we headed back to Mississippi for a few days. I left before John did because I absolutely had to change out my suitcase contents for our next destination: Las Vegas!

My sister Laura and her now husband Shawn finally tied the knot! They had a beautiful wedding at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. I'd post a photo but Laura would kill me.

After Vegas we headed home. Back to work. yay.

That's all for now, I'll update more in a few days. John and I are headed over to the Olympic Penninsula for the Lavender Festival. We are doing a wine tour while we are there. Should be fun!