storytime

I don't know if I have formally introduced our little booger,rodent,villain,peanut,messer. His name is Riggs. Formally named after Walter Riggs of Clemson University who was the former coach of the football team and president of the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina (thank you Wikipedia). Also Hunky Husband had all of his engineering classes in Riggs Hall. We pay homage to you Sir Walter Riggsie for giving a place for Hunky Hubster to call home and receive a formal edumecation that has allowed us to wander the country aimlessly. This blog would not be possible without you. OK. Now that that ceremony is over. Here is a picture of our hell-raiser.

This little guy has captured my heart and as soon as I laid eyes on the little sweet-pea that fateful day in Connecticut at the Humane Society I was a goner. He has brought nothing but laughter and more poo into our lives that we could have ever imagined. When we arrived in Crystal River, Hunky Husband had to work the next day. So Riggs and I were left to drive the U-Haul that carried all our worldly possessions and that was towing the hott red car to our new apartment. We get here and of course to both our dismay we find the air conditioning and power has not been turned on yet. Its ok, its just 95 degrees and BLAZING down here! But whatever...just got to deal. So being a pro at moving by now, I turn on my muscles and start unloading while Riggs scopes out the new apartment to let me know of any problems that I may need to tell the Real Estate Agent. We leave the door open to try and let a little circulation through because you know Im sweatin up a storm and Riggs is panting his face off by now. As Im going in and out, I make sure to be a good mom and check on the little booger to make sure he is behaving and staying inside. All of the sudden (sorry had trouble transitioning into what happened next, writing is hard) I couldn't find him ANYWHERE. I looked everywhere in our apartment and I had no idea where he could have gone. Nothing was in the apt yet so where could he be hiding. This is when panic started to set in. I called and called. No. Where. Ok how to react like a mom would. What to do first. Don't cry. Keep it together. What if he had scrambled outside and ran into the deeply forested woods all around us. Ok, its not that deeply forested, but there is a lot of foliage around us. It didn't help either that they were mowing right out front and that could have scared him and caused him to run far far away. AND he couldn't hear me calling him because of all the unnecessary mowing going on! Don't panic. Just keep looking. Riggs! Riggs! Riggs! nowhere. Ok panic. Call hunky husband on first day of work crying hysterically telling him you lost our amazing,innocent,little kitten-poo. "Well just keep looking, ill be home soon". So wonderful and sympathetic. So as I keep walking up and down the street with huge globs of mascara running down my face, meeting our new neighbors in the process who so kindly say they will keep and eye out for him. Right. It's a dumb cat lady. Get it together. Thats what they were really thinking. I continue to press on. He's so good about coming when we call his name, he doesn't know what cars are and that they are very unforgiving, what will he do if it gets dark, he doesn't know his way home because we just moved here!! Uhhhhh. more tears. I don't know what to do, I can't keep moving stuff in with him so helplessly out in the wild world! Its been an exhausting hour of tearful, hopeless looking when I go back up to the apartment and give up. Im sitting on the floor, tears running down my face when I hear something that sounds like a little bell. I think its all in my head because cute little riggsy was wearing a collar with a little bell. I start to cry more. I'm a horrible mom. As I pull my head up, I see a grey little furball come around the corner of the room. He looks at me, yawns, stretches his legs, and then "meow". Was I dreaming or is that my annoying, pesky little trickster that decided to traumatize my life. Im so mad but so happy. Know I really know how a mom feels. "Where were you!!??" boo-hoo, tears as I scoop him up and nearly hug the life out of him. He aimlessly walks back into the bathroom and into the closet where there was only a dryer machine and crawls back behind it. UHHHGG!! fuming, but elated. No power means no electricity to turn on lights so I could see behind the dryer when frantically looking for him. And of course he was to busy sleeping to even acknowledge my desperate cries. Yep, the whole time he was soundly sleeping and trying to stay cool in a dark cool place. right. why didn't I think of that! Oh right, I was to busy CRYING! This is one of many stories about Riggs and the chaos and love he brings into our lives. Hunky Husband laughed when I called him back and told him not to leave work early and rush home to the ever present danger that our cat ran off. ;) He continue to laughs to this day. I think secretly Riggs does too.

JCH

Buckle Down

Because this blog is not only for "keeping up with our lives" purposes, it is also to seal our stories in cyberspace for our future kido's. Therefore, all your readers out there, I am going to catch you up on a few of our tales from Crystal River so far.

Lets begin by us moving down here. Chris begins by telling me that I need to go and pick up the U-Haul truck his company so kindly pays for. hahahah is what I said back. riiiiighhhht....ME, go pick up the truck? That's Dads job. wait. I don't live with a Dad anymore. wait. Then thats the husbands job. wait. He's the one that works during the day and got us into this lifestyle that requires me to, you know, drive large trucks, pay our bills, fix cars, and carry large heavy objects like couches down 2 flights of stairs. HA! No problem honey! I can do this. So I arrive to pick up our 15ft U-haul truck that will carry us and all our worldly possessions to the opposite end of the United States. No problem, yet again. The U-haul man was so nice and I totally had everything under control. Its like riding a bike, right? He puts little stickers on the outside of the truck to indicate the dents and marks that people had previously done driving it so when we would turn it in, they would know that we didn't make those dents and marks. How kind of him! Ok so I climb on in, put my foot on the gas petal thinking it was the break and roar the ingine "VVVVRRRROOOOMMM!". oops. I totally know what I'm doing. As I drive away I shout out the window, "sorry!" to the kind U-Haul man that was probably shaking his head saying, "This girl needs a Dad". Ok so Im going, going, going down the road and I know I have 3 turn to make. Just remember Jennigray this thing is tall and long. 1 down, 2 to go. No problem. 2 down, 1 to go. I see the house. As I look down the road at the house, I think, 'this thing is fun! maybe i'll go whip it around the block'. No problem, right? No, jennigray just get it home. Ok so I decided to just pull it up on the other side of the street (without hitting the curb) and that would be that. No problem. Chris will be so proud. As I pull to a stop. BOOM! My face turns red, "Oh crap" (sorry mom, at least i didn't say the real word) comes out of my mouth. I get out and to my horrified eyes I see above me, the tree that I so confidently went under had this branch that was ever so slightly jutting out had made a huge gaping dent in the top of the truck. Don't freak out, don't freak out. Ok you can handle this. what to do, what to do. First climb on top of the truck and pull out the large chuck of tree in the dent that came from the brach that decided to every so slightly stick out! UHHH!! Ok, check. That looks better. Now go inside the back of the truck and attempt to kick out with foot the large gaping dent left there by tree that ever so slightly stuck out. UUHH!! Ok, check. That looks better. Now the next thought in my mind is...my newlywed spirt comes out..."to tell amazing husband that would have never done this in a million years, or NOT to tell amazing husband that would have never done this in a million years." No, he'll never notice! Yes, of course he'll notice! Ok what can i do...man I wish I had just one more of those stickers that that kind U-Haul man put on the bad spots of the truck....WAIT....yessss...mmmuuuhahahah. Now that sticker right there doesn't need to cover that teeny-weenie little scratch. That sticker belongs on a much laRGER STRACH or DENT that was created by a TREE. There we go! That will fix that! They will never know when we turn it in that we (I) did that! HA! Take that U-Haul! Chris won't even know! So I decided to let things just play out when he got home. Guess what the first thing out of my mouth was when he got home. yep. marriage, it'll do that to you. "I didn't see it! I promise! It was just sticking out! BOOM! I didn't mean to! I was doing so good! BOOM! Stupid tree! Stupid me! Im sorry! BOOM!" The most beautiful sound came out of his mouth when he saw it. Laughter. Good ole fashioned laughter. I almost cried, I was so relieved. I mean I couldn't really see him getting raging mad at me in the first place, but for peets sake we had only been married 3 months and I had know idea what the kid would do! All he said was "I don't care, I'm not paying for it." HA! Take that tree! yeaaa, were not paying for it anyways! He also thought it was hilarious that I so cleverly moved a sticker to try and make it seem like I didn't do it. I didn't think it was funny, I thought it was good ole common sense my mama gave me! As it turns out, when we got down here, we just turned it in. Ha, it worked! They didn't say anything! I think they felt sorry for me because I looked a little rough and was half-conscience due to exhaustion from moving and unloading. But this is one of many stories that we have, of me mostly, doing something dumb. There's many more to come.

JCH

p.s. my amazing husband that wouldn't have done that in a million years said the he would have probably hit the brach too. :)