y.o.l.o.

I'm officially declaring our phrase of the year "yolo".  So the story goes...one day as we were planning our upcoming vacation, Don and I were discussing the cost of extending our trip for a couple days.  After some conversation, the plans remained undecided.  A little later on in the day, I got a text from Don that simply read, "YOLO" in all caps.  I just started laughing!  I texted him back, and then pretty immediately extended our flights.  Since then, we've been talking a lot about how important it is to live life to the fullest every single day.  Life is too short (but mostly too unpredictable!) to be unhappy.  After all...you only live once!

I meant to just blog about our Summer, but I kind of got off topic with the "yolo" thing.  As I was combing through our photos to begin writing, I guess I felt like we did have quite the summer...and perhaps we succeeded in finding fulfillment in #allthethings.  Looking back, i'm proud of the opportunities we've taken, the adventures we've been on, and the unexpected moments we've embraced. 

So, here's to yolo-ing!

Early on in the summer, we went to a Mumford & Sons Concert at Keybank Pavilion.  The quality of the pictures does not match the quality of the evening...it was so much fun!

We stained our fence!  This is still one of my favorite summer memories.  It was a lot of work (it's still not quite done), and Don did most of it...but we had a great time.  Don put on some music, and we just stained away the day in the sunshine.

Every year, Pittsburgh hosts an Arts Festival downtown.  Don couldn't believe it when he saw that Dawes was playing a free concert at Point State Park.  Dawes is one of Don's all-time favorite bands!  We've come to realize that live music is something we both really enjoy.  We're quickly becoming "concert-goers".

While Don was at work one Sunday, I went on a bike ride from the river trail ---> bridge ---> downtown ---> home.  I love this picture with the bridge.  It's so quintessential Pittsburgh!

For our 7th Anniversary, we took a trip to Mt. Washington!  Mt. Washington is the mountain (i.e. hill) just across the river that overlooks the city.  

We rode the Duquesne Incline, one of two remaining trams that goes up the side of the mountain.  

We got up to the top just as the sun was setting.  The view was beautiful, as promised!

The timing was great, because we got to see views of the city in both the daylight and at night.  By the time we headed back down, the sun had set, and we had this amazing night time view!  And seriously, that fountain!

In case you didn't already know...the PENS WON THE STANLEY CUP, again!  Per tradition, the city hosted a parade downtown, which was a sea of black and yellow.

Because Don works for UPMC (they are contracted to read for the Pens), we got a very unexpected and very exciting invitation to the Stanley Cup viewing party!  It was pretty unreal.  I still can't believe that we just got to walk up and take a picture with it.  Don works with the doctor for the Pens, so he knows the Pens medical staff.  Who knew that Don's job would equal backstage passes to the Stanley Cup?!

There are even more things to blog about, but this is enough for now.  Happy Sunday!

Mimi gets sick.

This post is dedicated to our sweet and sassy Mimi, whose health issues have been an unexpected battle over the last year.

Way back in October, Mimi randomly got reeeeally sick (like, wouldn't move, eat, or open her eyes kind of sick).  When we took her to the vet, they found that her red blood cell count was extremely low.  They pretty quickly ruled out any major diseases, but they still couldn't figure out what was causing her body to destroy her own blood cells.

To make a very long story short,  Mimi was in and out of the vet regularly until about February.  The full course of her treatment included a long term steroid prescription, two different rounds of antibiotics, and a blood draw every two weeks for about five months!  By February, her blood cell count finally started to stabilize.  

This was all such wonderful news, and I only wish it was the end of her problems.  But, no such luck.  Somewhere in the midst of all of this, she developed an extremely bad habit of biting out her own fur. Whether it was a reaction to the steroids or the stress of bi-weekly vet visits, nobody really knows.  It got so bad that she was actually bald on an entire section of her belly, and up along the sides of both legs!

When we took her back into the vet to find out why she was doing this, the vet very seriously diagnosed her with an Anxiety Disorder.  Anxiety Disorder?!  Cats have mental health issues?  The vet started off by suggesting the typical post-surgery cone solution, but then continued on to suggest that we try either kitty Prozac, or a professional cat behavioralist.  I almost laughed in the room, but contained myself long enough to call Don.

Yep.  Our cat is legitimately, medically diagnosed crazy.

So again, to make a long story shorter...After immediately laughing the cat behavioralist idea off the list, we went through the whole gamut of suggestions to avoid trying Prozac.  Nothing worked.  The cone was a fail, the Suitical was a fail (except for the cutest photos and videos ever!!!), and the "composure" treats were an epic fail.  It wasn't until she ripped through the pack unsupervised and ate the entire bag of them that they had any effect at all.

The instructions on the bag should read:  One, two, or even three treats will have zero effect on a cat such as yours.  Kitty will not feel calm until she has eaten at least 15 treats.  Only then will you finally see a change in her behavior.  Kitty will suddenly act extremely groggy.  Eyelids will droop, meows will become slurred, and kitty will not be able to walk straight for several hours.  Hyper and erratic behavior will be curbed for this short period of time.  Side effects may include a lot of vomiting.

{The Cone}

{The Suitical}

After so many incidents of negative experiences with all of these options, we finally decided to give Prozac a try.  She's now been on the medication for about 3 weeks, and she is doing so well!  It hasn't seemed to affect her personality, but she has indeed stopped biting her fur out!  It's finally starting to grow back, and I think we might be in the clear.

We love this little nugget SO much.  And even though she's a handful, we wouldn't trade her spunk for anything.  The only question now is how long to keep crazy cat on the meds?  Ugh...you tell me.

#Pennsylvacay

About a month ago, Don and I took some time off to explore our new home state of Pennsylvania!  Because I am perpetually enchanted by the idea of road trips, we mapped out a route and drove off!  Our list of stops included:

-  The Heinz History Museum
-  Fallingwater
-  Amish Country
-  The Quebe Farm

As fairly new Pittsburghers, the Heinz History Museum was a must!  We learned so much about the history of the city, (fun fact....apparently, Lawrenceville used to flood quite regularly and was under water every Spring for years) and left feeling even more proud of our new roots.

Next on our list was Fallingwater!  I had heard so much about this house from so many people, that I was a little skeptical of how it could live up to its hype.  But wow...after walking through, it really didn't disappoint!  It has the most beautifully simple design, but somehow, it feels elegant and grand at the same time.  

It was only as we were driving away that we realized there is another Frank Lloyd Wright house in the same area called Kentuck Knob.  We will surely be back to visit!

The next day, we headed East towards Lancaster, PA.  Amish country had been on my bucket list since moving to the East Coast, so I was really excited to see what it was all about.  Despite the terribly rainy weather and intermittent downpours, we managed to go on a horse and buggy ride!  We also made it to the Amish markets where we tasted lots of pickled things, and ate lunch at a traditional Amish Buffet.  To our dismay, we discovered that our "authentic" buffet was just an outrageously priced Cracker Barrel in disguise.  BUT, the pie was excellent.

This is a special sewing machine used to sew the leather on the buggies, which I thought this was insanely cool.

And last but not least, we drove South to the Quebe Farm!  This was our first visit!  I can't believe Philip and Aubrey own a farm.  It's just so picturesque sounding..."the Quebe Farm".  We met the chickens, helped out with some renovations, and went into town for homemade ice cream.  

It was so fun to hang out with all the little people, and it was especially wonderful to meet baby William for the first time!  He is such a happy little guy and made no trouble at all.