Last week I was MIA in the blogosphere. Why? Because we took a spontaneous trip to Charleston, SC. It's the closest beach to us.

We were supposed to go in July. I was so excited because we were going to have a "real" vacation. But, as always, the real world trickled its way into my fairy-tale planning and I kept realizing that we just weren't going to be able to do it. The morning after Clark and I had this discussion, we loaded up the car and drove down.

Yeah. We're not good at paying attention to the real world much. Oops.

We had SO. MUCH. FUN.

The best part? Michael loved it. He wasn't exactly happy with the long car rides or the car rides around town, but whenever we got to our destination-- he was beyond thrilled. The pictures speak for themselves.

BTW, just so you are aware-- this is barely a glimpse at all the fun we had.
DAY ONE




DAY TWO










DAY THREE

Remember how in Crazy for Coconut I mentioned we were in for a roller coaster with our cat?

Well, this was the first incident.

Our second Christmas together we spent at home. But just the day after, we hit the road for Fayetteville, and then Germany. A sorority sister of mine was going to be in town (at school) after Christmas, so she said she'd take care of Coconut for us.

Never having a kitten before, I didn't see a dilemma. My cats had never been high maintenance when it came to care when we were gone. I told her just to check in on him every day. Clean the littler box. Feed him. You know, the basics. She mentioned she would be gone for a day or two around New Year's, and I really didn't think Coconut would mind.

Never mind that he was only about 2.5 months old. Never mind that our apartment complex didn't allow pets. Never mind that I had been there since we got him following him around and loving on him. It would be fine.

Can you see where this is going?

While we were in Germany it was easy to go a few days without getting on the computer. Especially when we were traveling. Our second trip to Germany we went to Rhotenburg; one of the prettiest places I've been to date.



When we got back to my parents place and I logged in to my Facebook... it was disaster.

There were several messages from our sitter. She had locked the key to our apartment inside the apartment and had no idea what to do. On the first day she contacted us. And the second. Finally on the third she went back and had to get help. Coconut was taken to the shelter.

I freaked out and burst into tears.

Not only had we had our kitty for less than a month, but in that time frame he had been almost starved to death and taken away to a strange place.

Clark was calm. First we called the girl and she explained how difficult taking care of him had been. Never mind that she locked the key in the apartment, but before that every time she left he would cry. She was certain the entire complex could hear him (I have no doubt of that).

Poor dear.

Next Clark called the shelter. They said they'd keep him there for the duration of our trip for a $25 fee. That doesn't sound bad, but at the time we budgeted things to the very last penny. I had to log on our bank account online and figure out just how we were going to pay that $25, especially since Clark had just left Walgreens before we flew out of the country.

When returning home, I was anxious about our kitty. What I wasn't thrilled about was having to meet with our RA (or whatever he was called) about the incident. We were forced to sign a paper saying we had a "mature discussion" about why we shouldn't have pets in the apartment, and then we told him we were wanted to move out of the apartments. It was possible to simply withdraw at that time, which was nice. Living in campus apartments meant no technical lease. So... we then had thirty days to find a new place to live.

Great.

It was our fault. Had we waited (like responsible adults) to get a pet once we had an apartment that allowed pets, we wouldn't have been crunched into a deadline. However, we jumped the gun (as was and is a trend with us) and got Coconut. So, we had to pay the consequences.

We were faced with another situation that reinforced the fact that God truly was looking out for us.

In December of 2008 I was craving something. Perhaps it was the fact that my own cat (that had been stationed in Germany with my parents) had passed away. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I always had animals around when I was younger. Perhaps it was simply because I wanted one.

By the way, it you didn't figure it out, I'm referring to a cat.

What I didn't think of, is that there is definitely a difference between a cat and a kitten.

One day after exams had ended and we truly had nothing to do (Clark was off work but we still had to wait out leaving for our vacation because he had to work Christmas day), we started driving around. We started looking at other apartments because we were rather bored with living on campus. We went out for Chinese food. We went to the pound. We adopted a kitten.

You know, the usual stuff.

The fact that our apartment didn't allow pets and that we were leaving for Germany in a matter of days didn't seem to phase us.

Rather, it didn't seem to phase me. And Clark wanted to please me. (I'm so blessed.)

When we went to the pound there was a shy little thing hiding in the back of the cage. Her name was Beth. I picked her out since she was the only one in the bunch that wasn't black and white.

Clark said no. If we were going to get a cat, the least the cat could do was be male. (Clark "doesn't like cats"... like all men "don't like cats". OK, some legitimately don't... but... ya know.)

So, there was one male kitten in the bunch. When I picked him up, he clawed his way up to my shoulder and snuggled under my chin.


He won.

When we found out his name was Coconut, Clark decided it was fine. I personally, actually, wanted to name him Figaro (after the cat in Pinocchio)... but now I can't imagine Coconut being Figaro at all.

We brought him back to the apartment and followed him around like two parents watching their baby first learn to crawl or walk. Seriously. When Coconut found something new to play with, we were so excited for him. When he curled up and went to sleep somewhere, we were "oooooh"-ing and "ahhhhh"-ing at how adorable he was. When he curled up and decided to sleep on Clark's shoulder... Clark declared, "he was ok."


The fact that I have an entire Facebook photo album dedicated to Coconut still astounds me. When that happened, Clark (even then) said, "What are you going to do when we have children?"

Heh. Heh. Heh.

I'd say it's "worse" with Michael than it was with Coconut.

Coconut kept me company, busy, and entertained while Clark was working and I was just sitting around the house. When I put up our Christmas decorations, Coconut successfully climbed up our (fake) Christmas tree and just about tipped it over. He got into the trash can, the sink, the bathtub... everything.



And I loved him all the more for it.

Little did we know that Coconut was going to cause us a lot more trouble in the year(s) to come.