Crazy Sophie

Sophie is a little um...different than Nixon. Actually, other than the fact that they're both cats and share the same parents, they're basically different as night and day! Sophie has always had a little attitude-even since we picked her up and put her in a box to bring her home. Her hair was poofed out and she was hissing at us. In fact, the reason that we got Nixon was because she was just crying and squalling and we decided that she needed a partner. So we went back to where the kittens were and picked up Nixon. He was the smallest little kitten.

Some of Sophie's eccentricities include her phase of putting everything in her water bowl-just to fish it out again (she still does that with some toys). She pulls the water bowl to the middle of the floor if it doesn't have enough water in it-spilling water as she goes. If she feels that I am not giving her enough attention, I'll hear bowls clinking together and sure enough I go to the kitchen and she's splashing water out of her water bowl. She likes to find her favorite toy (a stuffed snake on a string) and then come into the room that were in, holding it in her mouth and meowing all the way. Like "Look what I found for you." I am glad that it's a toy snake and not a mouse or something. She is a bit of a control freak. She likes everything to be exactly the same all the time. If Nixon or she has to go somewhere like the vet or groomers or anywhere, she has a fit for three or four days and punishes Nixon by hissing, growling, and clawing him. (we were told that female cats take out their 'frustrations' on male cats. :-)

Sophie can be sweet sometimes...she likes to get on my lap or come sleep with me if I take a nap or something like that. One thing she does that I think is her motherly side is that she takes her little toys and puts them by her food bowl, it's like she wants them to eat too.

She is a little on the chunky side...she likes to eat all of her food and Nixon's leftover food, too.

Overall, she's a good little cat.

Funny Nixon

Nixon has been sleeping this way all the time recently. It's really funny because he'll just walk into the room, roll on his back, and relax! What's even more interesting is that his eyes come open a good bit of the time.

Charleston Pics

A Weekend in Charleston

Last weekend we took a short "vacation" and went to Charleston Thursday-Saturday. We like Charleston a lot. It's only 3 hours from home and there are so many things to do! We've been there four times now and we've done different things everytime and we still haven't even come close to doing everything!

This time we went to Charles Towne Landing, which is where the settlers first landed in the area and settled, but had to move inland. Today, it's a state park and where there has been a lot of excavating and a lot of artifacts from the time of the settlers have been found. There is a historic trail that shows where the fort was and where some other buildings were and then there is an animal trail that has animals that were in the area when the settlers came over: bobcats, puma, bears, bison, deer, elk, turkeys, otters, wolves, and many different kinds of shore birds. There is also an alligator!

While we were in Charleston, we also went to Isle of Palms, the nicer beach part of the Charleston area. It was very nice. It would have been a bit better had we been "prepared" to go to the beach, but it was great anyway!
We also went antique shopping (we didn't buy any) and strolled through the market while we were there.
We had an interesting trip home because though it should only take us 3 hours to get home, it took us about 7! We took a couple of detours, stopping in Springfield, SC where Jonathan's dad was born, and then since it was "only" 45 miles away, we went to August, GA. It was interesting to me because I had never been to the parts of SC that we drove through and I had never been to Augusta. It was a great weekend and and the only thing that could have made it better was for it to have been longer. :-)

Speer Family Reunion



Last weekend was the sixth annual Speer family reunion at Jonathan's parents' house in Marietta, SC. All of the siblings and their families were there, a total of 22 people: 13 adults and 9 children.

Needless to say, the house was full. Above is a picture of the front porch swing. Jonathan and I spent many Sunday afternoons on that porch swing before we got married. :-) But for the family reunion, it was used as a place for many pictures.
In the picture of all the siblings, the girls are portraying hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil using the boys as the "monkeys". :-)

On Monday we took a picnic and went to Jones Gap State Park and did a small hike (very small). McKaylah, Luke and Hannah, the oldest of the grandchildren look like they have conquered Mt. Everest! They did a great job keeping up, and sometimes got ahead of the adults!! On Monday, everyone traveled back to their respective homes...we'll be back next year!