My Kitty is Home

I was out with a friend of mine when I got a call from "Home" on my cell phone. Expecting to hear James' voice what I heard was my baby yowling! I instantly knew it was him (he's a Siamese, no other cat makes those sounds) and I burst into tears. I was on my way to a movie but I raced home to see him. It turns out he wandered quite a way and ended up with an older couple. They had to get one of their cats put down and when they were at the SPCA they saw our poster. They called us and James went to pick him up. He had lost a lot of weight and is covered in little cuts (which James thinks make him look tuff) but he is home and he is perfect. He apparently hadn't eaten much while he was away so he made up for it when he got home. His first night he ate an entire chicken breast, 3 bowls of cream and a whole bunch of crunchies. He's back following James around the house and sleeping on me and we are as happy as can be. xo

Halloween Baby Invites

I'm co-hosting a Halloween themed baby shower for one of my best friends. It's going to be so much fun. Here are the invites:







I'm in charge of all the pretty stuff. I'm bringing the decorations, favours, organizing the blessing beads and will be making a scrapbook for her after the baby is born.

kittehs

Sorry for the ramble. I just needed to get out my feelings. xo

Still no Spike. it has been 2 weeks today since my baby ran away. I'm still looking and I absolutely refuse to give up hope. James wakes up with nightmares all through the night and has not been able to write anything since Spike took off. I think I've become addicted to Attivan. It's the only thing that will settle me down enough at night so that I can actually get some sleep. Our bedroom is on the second floor and I keep my window open in case I hear him. Of course I hear 'him' every 10 minutes of so because there are about 2 dozen cats that live in our complex (we all share a courtyard/playground) not to mention all the crying babies that sound an awful lot like a kitty crying for his mum. I performed a spell last week and light a candle every night and ask Bast (the Egyptian goddess of cats among other things) to bring my baby back. I hear she likes offerings of catnip so I give her that too.

The Friday before last (Aug 7) was my birthday. I already knew it was going to suck because my baby was missing. Then I got a phone call that someone had seen him. I had put up a poster near the park where the junkies hang out and the hookers ply their wares because it was half way between our old house and our new house. Also, one of my co-workers said she saw a Siamese cat in the parking lot there at McDonalds. I wasn't very hopeful until I got there. There he was in all of his un-neutered Siamese beauty (In case yr the type to read ahead, don't bother, it wasn't him). there he was running down the lane. i followed him and freaked him out because I was practically screaming out "Spike" and sobbing the whole time thinking it was my baby. But he didn't seem to know who I was and kept running away. After about an hour of searching for him I found him again under a house. yes, I was actually lying on my chest under a house where the ground had been dug up. Did I mention that this house was on the corner of what is well known to be the worst corner in all of nanaimo? So I chased this cat around for about an hour and ended my moment of glory by sitting down and sobbing on a broken chair in an alley. my mum brought james down who convinced me that it wasn't Spike. A neighbour of the house I was under came out and told me he had been around for about 3 months and that she had been feeding him whenever he came around. I think I knew by then that it wasn't Spike. he was bigger, and had a darker face and a slight crossed eye. After collecting me from my alley, we went home where I cried some more over my missing baby.

We have met a lovely Bermese kitty who we have named Lady Gaga due to her obnoxious white blonde hair and fabulously spunky personality. I have had numerous phone calls from people who has seen "a furry siamese" out in the marsh behind out complex. I used to get hopeful but now I know it's her and ask people whether it's a short or long haired cat and they always say long. She's nice company when we're out hunting for our boy, along with Paulie and Shadow (the other marsh cats). They all certainly are in need of some love.

Today I got a call from the SPCA that a Siamese had been brough in who had been hit by a car and was in bad shape. They had my poster so they called me. James wasn't home so I called my mum to come to the Vet with me. I went in and he was all broken and hooked up to machines. He looked darker than my boy and didn't show any sort of recognition towards me at all. He looked just like the other kitty (Doppleganger kitty) but I couldn't be sure because he was so broken and drugged and out of it. I cried a bunch for my baby and for this one (still not being sure if he was mine) but I couldn't be sure until James came. James finally got home and came with me to check and said it definitely wasn't him. Spike has one white toe and a crook in his tail (from when he used to chew it). I felt such relief that it wasn't Spike but then I felt horrible for feeling that relief. James and I had talked about going back and getting the street kitty if we could ever catch him (we drove by about once a day) and in the back of our minds we had claimed him as ours. James stayed with him and pet him and talked to him and made him purr. He wanted to take him and tell the vets we would pay for his surgeries but the vet said he was better off just to be put down. They said he wouldn't be able to walk and had suffered so much internal damage that he might not make it even after having his legs amputated. So then we cried some more for the kitty who could have been. We cried because we wanted to give him love and he had been a street cat in a trashy neighbourhood and never got a chance. If we had taken him home last week when I found him, this would not have happened. I feel horribly guilty for that even though there's nothing we could have done.

So now I am back at home and I am exhausted. I am missing my boy and mourning the other one. I will light two candles to Bast tonight and ask her to protect Doppleganger Kitty and to watch after my Spike and bring him home. xo

Witches and Babies and Other Fun Stuff (but still no Spike)

Yesterday was Nanaimo Pagan Pride day down at Kin Hut Park, hosted by The Temple of the Green Cauldron. I got there for the 7AM set up and didn't get home until almost 10PM. Long, wonderful day.
I went to a drumming workshop but realized half way through that having slammed my finger in a car door a few days earlier, banging said thumb on a tight piece of leather was not a good idea. I missed the Druid workshop because I was busy getting a veggie burger. There was lots of fabulous music, some belly dancing, great shopping (I bought a beautiful besom! and some other trinkets), and an hour-long Druid ritual. I wasn't really enjoying the Druid ritual (different energy from what I'm used to, not for me) but my mum showed up around that time so we hung out and looked at jewelery and crafts and chatted.
The thing I was most looking forward to was the Doula & Childbirth information session but it was canceled! I mentioned to my friend Roxie how disappointed I was and she said that the lady who was supposed to host it was there so I went and talked to her. I had thought that the only training I could do to become a Doula was at Douglas College in New West which was pretty expensive and totally not convenient to get to (3 hours travel each way including a ferry and the need to find accommodations in New West). Well....... fabulous news is that I can train through Childbirthing International!!! At home!!! For less money!!!!!! yeah!!!!! I am so excited. She also gave me some information on books to read and different websites and mummy/baby/blessingway goodies sellers. I decided when i was about 15 or 16 that I wanted to be a midwife but after a lot of considering, I realized I am more interested in the emotional and support aspect that the actual physical birth itself (although I'm of course interested in that too!). Then I learned about Doulas and it seemed as though a career/life/dream had been designed just for me. I am so excited I could explode.
Another great aspect of the day was making a new friend. Her name is Ivania and she's a member of the Temple. We had met before but never had the chance to chat. She has a boy who is almost a year old so I took the opportunity to grill her about pregnancy, childbirth, and hippie parenting. She gave me her email and phone number and told me I could call her with any questions I ever have. Awesome.
Bad news is that Spike is still not home. I miss him so much. James and I are having a hard time with our daily tasks (eating, sleeping, working) and have both missed work this week. I have put up hundreds of posters and searched numerous neighbourhoods, shelters, and vets but still no Spike. It has been almost 2 weeks and my heart is breaking. I am not giving up though. He will come home. He has to. xo

whatever

I feel like I have been searching for ever for Spike. I put up another round of posters today (about 50) and walked all over my neighborhood. Every night I run downstairs at the slightest noise and I look out my window every five minutes or so. My heart hurts so much it is hard to breathe sometimes. My head hurts from crying. I don't feel like he's been hurt, I feel like someone has him. My mum had a dream that he was in the subdivision behind us so I plastered their telephone poles with posters. I suppose we shall see this evening when folks get home from work if anyone has seen him.
My job interview was postponed until Monday which is just as well since I woke up at 5 this morning and didn't get to bed until 2 the night before so I'm not so great with people right now. Apparently my interview will last an hour and a half or so and they were crazy busy today so now I'll be meeting her on Monday.
Tomorrow is Nanaimo Pagan Pride. It's the first year that I will be attending. I have been "out of the broomcloset" forever but I never really had much of an interest in practicing with others until I met the ladies from The Temple of the Green Cauldron when they performed our handfasting. I foolishly volunteered to work the set-up shift so I have to be there at 7 AM and set tents/booths/whatever up until the event opens at 11. It should be a fun day. There will be an opening and closing ritual done by the Temple as well as a 90 minute ritual performed by a local Druid group. I'm really looking forward to some shopping as well and to the doula information session. I'll have pix to post later. xo

Still Missing

My baby is still missing. I have no energy to do anything at all. Then I slammed my finger in my car door. And James' auntee has ovarian/uterine cancer. I just want to crawl into a hole or at the very least back into my bed where I seem to be spending an awful lot of time lately.
On a sort of good note, I have a job interview at Urban Planet on Friday. It's for a key-holder position (full time). I wasn't seeking out full time but I'll certainly take it if it's offered. xo

My Missing Baby Kitty

My baby is missing and I am absolutely distraught. He has been gone for a week and I am out of my mind. We have searched and searched, put up posters, gone to the SPCA, and put an ad in the paper. Tonight James and I are going to do a spell together to bring him home. For now, here's so pix of my baby.

New Beginnings

A lot of new stuff going on in my life, none of it huge, but most of it amounting to something good.
First off, we moved into a new place. The catalyst for moving was that we could no longer afford our rent and bills at our old place. So we had a month to pack up a house-full of stuff and find a place. I was pretty nervous about the house-hunting situation. There seemed to be nothing in our price range that would allow cats. We eventually found a 2-bedroom townhouse that we were approved to move into. It is much smaller than our old place so we had to get rid of a lot of stuff. Trashing and purging was great but somehow a bunch of crap made it to our new place. I'm still working on getting rid of stuff and toss out or donate something every day. We have nice new laminate floors and tile downstairs so it's a whole lot easier to keep clean than carpet and run-down linoleum. I decided that when we moved into the new place we would be a cleaner, improved version of the Mountain Clan and so far I think I have been living up to my end of the deal. My family is a whole other story though that I don't want to get into right now (trying to focus on the positive right now). Our new place has a little patio and a tiny yard connected to the big yard/playground that the complex shares. I spent the afternoon out there today with my girlfriend and her toddler and it was wonderful. I never once spent time outside at my old house because the yard was just so much work and I never wanted to pay attention to it. Our new place only has 2 bedrooms which is a little hard but the bedrooms are upstairs and the living area is downstairs which leads to a nice divide and you can still get some peace from each other. The stair topic is a little touchy though which you will hear about soon.
The second piece of news is that James is working for my dad! I didn't mean to marry an iron worker but apparently I did and I have to say it's kind of sexy. I'm so proud of him that he's getting out of the house every day and making some money. He has been working from home but the pay is so scattered that he refers to it as "volunteer work". Unfortunately he fell down our new stairs last weekend and has been in a lot of pain since. He's done something to the ligaments in his ankle and has an appointment with a specialist tomorrow so he missed today's work and he'll be missing tomorrow as well. Tomorrow he's doing something else though which leads me to my next piece of news:
We are actively trying to figure out why we haven't conceived yet. I had my first blood tests last week and James is going in to get his little buddies analyzed. My first tests came back good (meaning I am in fact ovulating) so I'll go for my next round of blood tests some time next week. If those tests don't show anything and James' doesn't either then I have to go get my tubes checked out. I'm not really very excited about that since it is apparently quite uncomfortable but if it helps us figure out what is wrong, then it is definitely worth it. We have names picked out so the next step is just to insert baby right? If it is a girl she will be "Lyric Maggie" and if it is a boy he will be "Finn". The catch is that they will not be Mountains though!
Our final piece of news is that we are changing our last name. Our new last name is O'Callaghan which I think is pretty damn fabulous. O'Callaghan is a family name of James' so it's not like we just picked one out of the air. We no longer want to have ties to James' father so we are getting rid of his name. Not sure what James' kids will do with their names but our future children will definitely be O'Callaghans.
That's all the news in the Mountain/O'Callaghan house. Maybe someone will eventually read this. Maybe I'll just keep tying for myself. xo

To my Baby

Dear As-Yet-Not Conceived Baby,
Hi baby. It's your mum here. Or at least I hope to be your mum soon. Daddy and I are waiting for you. Nana is waiting for you. Your two brothers are waiting for you as well. I talk about you and think about you all the time. I am ready for you and am just waiting for you to make your appearance.
Daddy and I have trying for you for the past 8 or 9 months since just before we got married. A couple times I though you were on your way but you tricked me!
Mummy cast a spell a couple of months ago during the waxing moon. We even got a belly blessing from one of the lovely priestesses at the Temple (they're all waiting for you there too!). Mummy has been carrying around carnelian and rose quartz with hopes that it might entice you. Nana even bought mummy a fertility statue for my altar.
Little baby, I know you will come when the time is right for you but I just want you to know that we are ready for you to make your appearance. Please know that I love you already and will am ready for you to come into my life. See you soon, Mum. xo

Wedding Re-Cap

This is re-posted from my Offbeat Bride Tribe blog. I figured I'd post it here for posterity's sake.

The night before our wedding our bridal/groom's party came over to our house for pizza and beer. This included my best friend from Ontario (Jenny) who I hadn't seen in years so that was pretty exciting. Everyone hung out, relaxed, got a bit drunk and had a great time. It was pretty awesome.

The next morning I woke up with my new quilt (a wedding gift from my favorite aunt who couldn't make it to the wedding) covered in little bits of toilet paper. Either Spike (my kitten) was super stressed about the weird energy and extra people in our house or else he knew it was mummy's special day and wanted to decorate her (I like to think this was his reason). When I say covered I mean every 3 inches had an inch square of toilet paper on it – what a clever little kitty!

James and I had planned to go for breakfast the morning of our wedding but we were dirt poor (big screw up with his payroll department) and we didn't seem to have enough time. So I headed over to my mum's house with the ladies from my bridal party and the boys all stayed at our house with James.

I got to my mum's and my friend was there to do my makeup. I have huge anxiety and stage fright so I was starting to feel like I was going to hyperventilate. My wonderful MOH went to the liquor store and picked up a few bottles of Baby Duck (a super cheap BC sparkling wine that tastes like pop) and I took an Ativan to calm myself down. I was clever enough to have one of my bridesmaids curling my hair while I had my makeup done because once my makeup was done the photographer showed up to do the “getting ready” shots which are actually taken when almost completely ready and totally for show. So I asked her to give me 5 minutes and I took off to the bathroom with a handful of bobby pins and managed to come up with something resembling “wedding hair”. It was also at this point that I realized that while I had painted my toes (which would not be seen due to closed toe shoes) I had completely forgotten to paint my finger nails. Oh well!

Mum walked me out to the photographer's car, carrying my train and my bouquet. The photographer and I arrived down town at the top of the China Steps where my H2B was waiting at the bottom. They had to get some stuff ready so I impatiently waited for him at the top. It turns out that the whole time he was waiting he was driving the photographers crazy with “where's my girlfriend” “is my girlfriend here?” and “I get to marry my girlfriend today”. Finally I got to come around the corner and there was my handsome H2B waiting for me looking so absolutely fabulous in his suit with the happiest face I've ever seen in my life. Of course this is when the tears started. James held me and calmed me down and then we took some awesome photos in the back alleys and then drove to a beach and took some more photos.

We were running a bit behind so we hurried back to my dad's house for the wedding (me with the photographers and James by himself). I arrived at my dad's house and started to panic about being the centre of attention and just the major stress of it all. Worst of all was that my H2B was nowhere to be seen. Finally he jumped out of some strange car and it turned out he had ran out of gas on the way there!!! He tried hitching a ride but none of our guests recognized him (who's going to assume the guy hitchhiking is the groom in the wedding you are on yr way to?) but finally some guy picked him up and drove him right to my dad's house.

I was pretty freaked out so James took me into the bathroom and talked to me and calmed me down and reminded me that it was just about us and all I had to think about was that it was OUR wedding and no one else mattered and that it was going to be the two of us together for the rest of our lives. My mum overheard this conversation and says it is her happiest memory of the fantastic day. Not that she had any doubts about me marrying James but once she heard him saying this, and the way he was saying it, she knew that she would never have to worry about my heart being broken again and that he would take care of me forever.

Once it was time for the ceremony to start we realized that the boys in my bridal party had set up the music to be heard in the backyard but hadn't thought about the ceremony in the front yard. Oops! So the music could only be faintly heard while we were doing the aisle walk but no one really seemed to care. It was a fabulous ceremony, not too long, wonderful words, totally interactive and awesome. At some point a spider landed on my left boob (I'm totally arachnophobic!) and James' best man reached over and grabbed it. Pretty funny to have the BM grabbing at the brides' boob right in the middle of the ceremony.

After the ceremony we did the bridal party/family photos which was pretty boring but it was over pretty quick. Once that was over, we headed into the backyard where the party was already in full swing. James was pretty relaxed and was having a great time. My only regret from my wedding was that I didn't relax for about half of the reception and was stressed about pleasing everyone. I wish I had just sat down and let everyone come to me but I felt like I had to make the rounds and play hostess and make sure everyone was having a good time. It wasn't until some of our guests (mostly the older people and some of my friends with babies) started to leave that I actually began to enjoy myself.

The food was great although it turns out we didn't have enough. Oops! We didn't have any sort of official game plan so people just ate and drank and socialized. Before the cake time my mum did a toast to me and James that she had spent many hours perfecting. After that we had cake time which was pretty cool because everyone thought our Buffy & Angel cake toppers were the coolest things ever.

Eventually my guests decided it was time for some dancing so they cleared away all the chairs & tables at the top of the yard and turned the music up. James and I had our “first dance” to “I Can't Help Falling in Love” by Lick the Tins (a beautiful Celtic version of the song). Having had no sort of practice dancing we kinda just wung it and ended up with some awesome pictures. After that, everyone ended up on the “dance floor” and had a great time. I actually found myself dancing which is something I rarely do (by this time I had taken off my crinoline and veil and had thrown my hair up in a high ponytail) At some point, either before or after our first dance (I don't really remember!!) my dad decided I needed to have pictures taken on his motorbike so that's what we did.

Eventually we realized we had to go check into the hotel my mum had gotten for us as a wedding gift so we left. James' groomsmen had gotten a jerry can and put some gas in the car and brought it back to the wedding so we didn't have to hitch a ride! We stopped at our house on the way to the hotel because we were missing out little kitty so badly! We were totally tempted to take him to the hotel with us but we knew that if he wrecked anything that it would end up on my mum's credit card!

We arrived at the hotel and it was beautiful. My mum had gotten us a “bridal suite” and the “bridal package” so there was a big king sized bed, a soaker tub with jets right in the middle of the room, and champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries waiting for us. One of our favorite things ever it bath time so we filled up the tub and hopped in. We had kind of already accepted that we wouldn't have the energy to have any “sexy times” so we just really had a wonderful time together, re-living the day. We ate our strawberries and drank our champagne and stared out the window an the beautiful harbour and had a wonderful evening.

In the morning we called up for room service and had breakfast in bed. I didn't want my “wedding night lingerie” to go to waste so I put that on after breakfast and pranced around and then finally we had sex as a married couple. It was great!

Eventually we headed back to our house, got changed and went back to dad's house to open prezzies and hang out with my family and drink champagne and eat wedding cake leftovers.

Altogether it was an absolutely perfect wedding. I really wish I could remember all the details but it was just so surreal that I've ended up piecing it all together from photos!

Finally here are a few more of my favorite pictures:

xo