well, I had a very nice birthday this year. first I stopped by my old employer to say hi to everyone after they woke me up with a happy birthday call :)

After that stop I went down to see my mom. She showered me with gifts and then we went out and got some yummy mexican food. After I left her I went home to study for my last final, which I took at 4:30. After I got home from that I did this :)

This is a different day, but that is what I did. Hank was on my belly and then jealous Bella came up to snuggle too. You can't really tell but Bella was actually sitting on Hank's lower half.

My mom was nice enough to hold a birthday party for me at her house :) These are all the pictures I was able to take before everybody was gone. I'm still getting used to having a camera and I often forget to use it :(






One of my gifts was this cute cute elf costume for Hank :) He totally hates it, but these are the two best pictures I was able to get.
Merry Christmas everyone!

happy birthday to mee!

so, I may be jumping the gun on this post by about an hour and a half, but I have such a great occasion that I simply can't wait! 

below is a picture that i took of myself tonight on my new birthday present from blake!

he surprized me with a camera yesterday and I am super excited about it. the thing has a really cool setting that will automatically photograph when it detects smiles. the following three pictures are the result of my experimenting.


Blake gave me the gift in the cute bag . Everyone in our family had representation but hank, so blake drew him in for me :)
(notice the clipped ear, haha)
this is the camera that i now have.

this is the mixer that blake and i got for christmas from blake's mother :)
these are the gifts that i've wrapped. 
and what entry would be complete without little hank and bella :)

Hank is getting very big. As you can see from this picture, he is almost the size of a full grown boxer! (just kidding, it's just the perspective. could you imagine?)
and this is a typical pose for bella :)

a kitten lost, a kitten found, and a sister in the hospital

Every night when it gets dark Hank likes to sit by the back door and meow until we let him into the backyard. He likes to explore in the jungly grass I suppose. He usually comes back to the door meowing to be let back in around 10 pm because he's either cold or hungry or wants water, but last night at about 11 i realized that Hank was still outside. Blake and I got a flashlight and searched all over our backyard, which is incredibly small. We even tried to jingle his favorite toy and shake up his cat food to see if he'd come running. I was in a crumby mood because earlier when I was taking out the trash the lid on the dumpster came down and smacked me on the bridge of my nose really hard. It still hurts a lot but no bruising. It was also past my bed time, so I called it quits on the cat and headed for bed. After not being able to fall asleep for about a half hour I decided to walk around the block and see if Hank was anywhere that I could see him. Just two houses over was probably the funniest sight I've seen in the pet world lately. It was Hank and two of the neighborhood cats sitting in a circle like a bunch of cool kids at recess or something. It was particularly funny because the neighborhood cats are fully grown, fat, super fluffy things and hank was about half as tall and stick skinny compared to those two. I guess cats need to socialize sometimes. When hank saw me he tried to creep under a bush, but he didn't run so I brought him inside and gave him a treat. My cat is a good boy, he just wanted to hang out with the older kids. hahha, I really wish I had a picture of it. Also, Michele is havin a baby today!

Somehow my blog got suspended and I couldn't use it until someone from blogger could review it and verify that it's not a spam blog. weird, huh? Anyway, here are just a few pictures of my pets. Bella is the boxer and Hank is the kitten.

Hank and Bella are actually great friends! Boxers and known for being very good and loving with other small animals and human babies. Sometimes Bella does try to show her love for Hank a little too strong and ends up smashing or smothering him somehow, but that's usually when their harmless "chasing game" starts. It's good fun and it keeps them in shape!
Here's hank just a few days after we got him. He has grown a lot in the past couple months, but he's still pretty cute :)

This is how Bella looks at you when you ask her a question and she doesn't recognize any of the words you used. Bella will be 3 years old in December.
Blake took this picture of Hank and me napping, or "hankin out" 
Putting clothes on Bella is one of our favorite pastimes at home. Bella is usually a good sport about it.
I don't know what it is about a dog in a t-shirt that is so hysterical to me.

My sister Michele provided me with enough pictures to make a second post. Unfortunately the picture upload program quit cooperating with me and I didn't get to put all the pictures I wanted in here. This is definitely most of them though. Aaron and Charlotte took these pictures, pretty good huh?

This is my boyfriend, Blake. We just ate hot dogs :)

This is the nicer version picture of the three of us.

This is the one where aaron successfully "jumped in" right before the flash.

This me and my cute cute niece Elsie.

And here's just a picture of me...

And just a picture of Blake.  Mid-sentence.

I don't have a digital camera, and i am usually reluctant to photograph, so it's nice to see a picture that i look decent in that i didn't take of myself in the bathroom mirror. (Seriously though, I've done that plenty of times) Even though I'm not the only one in this picture, it really feels like just a picture of me because both Nick and Desi's faces are covered by their hair. Plus I'm the only one that's not playing an instrument or texting someone. I started my new job about two weeks ago. It is great and I love it! I don't have as much money (booh) but I do have loads of free time and I get to be outside before the sun sets every day; that is until the sun starts setting before 6:00 pm. I live with my boyfriend, Blake and we have a dog (Bella) and a cat (Hank) who are very cute and entertaining. I'll post pictures of them when I can get them from Blake's iphone. I crashed my Integra a few weeks ago, which was a huge bummer, but now I'm driving a Ford Expedition. It's a big shift in car size, but I'm definitely getting used to it and I'm loving the perks of the Expedition that the Integra didn't offer such as air conditioning, radio, cd player, working power windows, etc. I know that it's not great on gas, but luckily i don't do a lot of driving on account of living so close to work and school. I guess that's all for now, but I will try to get back with those pictures!