Goodbye, Mr. Mittens

Goodbye, Mr. Mittens.

I am heartbroken to have to write this post.

It's taken me about six weeks to come up with the words.

We very unexpectedly lost Mr Mittens at the end of May.

I thought I was ready to write this post.

Why am I still crying about a cat??

Because we loved him so much.

Many of you remember back in January when he had to have life saving surgery because he ate a Nerf bullet and it got lodged in his intestines.  We survived.  We barely survived that incedent so you can imagine our alarm when he started throwing up again on a Sunday night in May.  We said some family prayers that it was no big deal, but it was a big deal.  I asked our cat loving friends to pray for him.  We were all navigating the craziness of the last week of school plus a really sick cat at home.

Mr. Mittens got very sick very fast.  We consulted the vet, scheduled an appointment and he said he'd either eaten something again that was lodged in his intestines or that he had a tumor in his abdomen.  Either way he wasn't going to survive.  We were devastated.  

We went through our whole house and removed every single Nerf bullet and we have been very careful about putting any choking hazards away.  I do not know what he could have eaten.  We made the awful decision to have him put to sleep in the middle of the day on a Wednesday just three days after he got sick.  Kevin took him in and he passed away peacefully in his arms.

We sure do miss our favorite rascal.  He was BUSY and was always causing his own special chaos.  He climbed everything, landed himself in the washer, took a spin in the dryer, tight rope walked the garage door tracks and he always made his presence known.  Olive was his favorite.  I think I was a close second.  He loved us both a ton.

I know that we did everything we could do to make sure he had the best two years possible with our family.  He was wild and crazy and so handsome.  I adored his big personality and his polka-dot paw.  We all grieved in our own ways and have found ways to remember Mr. Mittens.  I'll share those another time.  Olive says he was one of a kind and no more tuxedo cats.  We'll see.

Here's a recap of some of my favorite pictues of him.

Love you LOTS, Mr. Mittens!

Trader Joe's June Haul

We stopped in Trader Joe's for a stock up.  We grabbed our favorites + some new items.  Let me show you what we got.  Have any of you snagged the striped TJs mini totes?  Olive was hoping to find one, but the store in Louisville was sold out.  They had a sign that sign "Limit 12" which was shocking.  I wish people would just buy what they will personally use and not buy tons to resell.  End rant.

The boys LOVED the TJ's uncrustables.  I bought two boxes and should have gotten ten.  Olive can'tw ait to try the festive 4th macarons later this week.  I realize they are french, but they feel very on brand for all the USA festivities this week.

$5 Key Lime Pie looks so authentic and came highly recommended from our cashier.  I'm hoping she is right because I have never been able to make a good key lime pie at home.  Have you tried it?

I stocked up on chocolate croissants for the freezer.  We tried the acai bowls and weren't a big fan.  They were fine.  I think we just prefer to make them at home customized to our favorite flavors.

World's best pizza dough!!  I took advice from one of you and bought extra for the freezer this time.

We have a new favorite item - Party size mini meatballs!!  They were so good.  We ate them with spaghetti and thought they'd also be so good with teriyaki sauce or bbq sauce.  I'll be stocking up big time on these next time we go.

We bought several bagged salads - Caesar is our favorite.

Stocked up on their frozen rice.  The Spanish style tastes just like Mexican restaurant style rice and the Jasmine is yummy, too.  It's the perfect quick side for dinner.

We got all the pasta.  It's so good and I think it was all $0.99/bag.  I should have gotten more.

I've already got a list started for out next Trader Joe's run!

Happy Friday!

Summer has been good to us so far!  We're having a blast and not quite ready to say goodbye to June.

The best parts of our week were:

We saw Toy Story 5 and loved it!  I appreciated the theme of the movie - people and toys over devices.  And the kids enjoyed it, too.

It made me nostalgic for 2019 when Olive was Bo Peep and Fletcher was Buzz Lightyear for Halloween.  They both wore those costumes so much that they had holes in them.

Have you tried this key lime pie from Trader Joes?  The checkout lady said it was amazing so I'm hoping she's right.  I've never been able to make a good one from scratch so hopefully this $5 one will hit the spot.

We hosted Olive's friends for a sprinkle party and then we did a little shopping afterwards.  Their mini cakes turned out so cute.

Sweet Pumpkin turned 1 yesterday!  He's the sweetest, fluffiest, king of the house.  We joke that all of his fluff gives him boss status around the other cats.  I made pumpkin cookies to celebrate.

We got Summer Passes to Urban Air and the boys are thrilled.  We met friends there to play.  The kids had a blast and I got to catch up with a good friend.  Win-win.

I had several work days this week.  Luckily they were all fun and I even got some new items from the school spirit shop for helping.

My flower pots are filling in so nicely.  My Marigolds are going crazy.  Sweet potato vines are so happy.  Lantana and petunias.  I just love checking on them eery morning.

The boys have deemed themselves the neighborhood clean up crew.  We have several new houses going up.  They go out several times a day to clean up the street from "tire killers".  We have a whole jar full of really sharp things that they find.  It's been a fun way for them to help out the neighbors.

I had a lunch meeting at my favorite spot - Chicken Salad Chick!  I could eat this meal on repeat every single day.

We had a great Father's Day weekend!  Kevin is still talking about his water taste test challenge.  He swears they all taste different so it was fun to put him to the test.  He surprised himself by liking VOSS water the most.  Fiji held the previous title of his favorite bottled water.  We capped them all up after his taste test and he enjoyed fancy waters all week long.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  See you back here on Monday :)

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