Buddy, on a rock climbing trip with Eric & Andy.
He's off the leash and off the hook! 
 

He was shivering even in his little coat and his Patagonia dog bed, so Eric 
zipped up the coat and wrestled him inside it.  Then he got the drift and got warm.
   T

To celebrate the warm weather we were having, 
I took Buddy for a long walk at Lake Arcadia

A surprise hail storm arrived one day while 
we were enjoying a visit from our friend Rusty.  

I had to get a picture of our spring flowers while 
the dwarf flowering peach tree was in bloom. It is beautiful!

I needed a photo for setting up a profile on some
app, so I had Eric take this.  I actually don't hate it.
High praise from me for a picture of myself.

Lily, she finally wore me down about
the whole, "stay off the table" thing.
 

One of the ELS students adopted this cuddly, puffy,
little ball of sweetness.  All the kids took turns loving
on him at the last ELS lunch.

Feisty & Buddy

Feisty can be pretty intense sometimes...

Like when I make her a paper tube out of Amazon packing material.

 The cats take turns sleeping in this cat cave all day long.

Here Buddy romps with a new toy my Mom gave him for Christmas.
He loves it! 

Eric Sports his Necklace

Eric wasn't there to open his gifts 
in person, so we sent this photo to
Brodie to let him see how stylin'
it looks on Eric.  Brodie did a great job!

We had dinner at The Parlor before the event, and admired the
beautiful sunset behind the skyline.  My cell phone photo did not capture it.

Yuki, ready for a new and exciting bull riding experience.  

They usually start the event with a firey batch of hoopla, this one also included fireworks.

Showing some of the bullfighters in action.

Here I was trying to show the info board for Matt Tripplett,
a Eureka boy.  His dad and Eric's dad were friends. 

It was also the final season for Ryan Dirteater, as he is retiring.
He is a fellow Cherokee and Oklahoman who was always a class act.

We had a great time having friends over
for dinner in January 2019.

Here we are with Yen, Eric, me, Linh, and Mavis.

 We followed dinner with a rousing game of Oodles of Doodles.
Yen & Linh were a freakishly good team, as she was the only
one who could interpret his rather unique artwork. 

The funniest birthday card I received this 
year was from Eric.  This totally cracks me up! 

This is how you can tell that Buddy is at day care - 
totally relaxed cats!  (We have to put fur on the chair
because the leather is too cold for proper napping.) 

We call this pet bed his, "Muffin Cup"
He spends quite a lot of time in there.

Buddy - fresh from the groomer, rockin' the bandana

And this is how Feisty keeps getting herself locked in the
coat closet.  The black cat hides in the basket of scarves and
 becomes completely invisible, so we accidentally shut her inside.

Rocket uses this cranky face most of the time.
Either we aren't feeding him enough or petting
him enough or we're paying too much attention
to that darn dog.

Mom & Dad with Mom's family at a post-Christmas gathering in December 2018

We attended two Dirty Santa parties this year, both 
were huge - over 50 people in each game.  It was fun though.

Here we are at our church party, where JR shows off the purse he got.

My boys on a fun climbing trip in December 2018.
Buddy looks stylish in his jacket.
 

Eric had an ugly Christmas sweater contest at work this year.
He loved this BAAAAA Humbug shirt, with an authentic, 3D sheep.

My Mom had this professional photo taken 
for her work.  Isn't she beautiful?! 

Here I will try to link to a video of Buddy howling.
We get this show every Saturday at noon for 3 minutes
while the city of OKC tests the tornado sirens. 

We were blessed to visit our Chinese Nieces,
Isabel, Melody, and Charlotte in December.
It was also fun to see our dear friend Jiayi and her parents.
We missed Wei, he works as much or more than Eric does! 

Baby Charlotte went right to Eric and never wanted to leave!

Isabel giving Charlotte her new stuffed elephant

Melody, looking so pretty with her new giraffe

In December, I had a fun outing with my friends
Natalie & Linh.  We went to the Myriad Gardens
for their Northern Lights Experience.

Me at the Myriad Gardens, with the Devon Tower behind me.
 

Eric wanted to get a real tree this year
so we did, and it is lovely!  

For many years, this neighborhood in OKC worked together
to put on a huge light display with coordinated music.
We heard this was their last year so we made sure to see it.  Awesome! 

I picked Buddy up from the groomer after a nice bath.
He smelled like a million bucks and looked so cute in
his bandana.  I decided to give him a treat so we went
for a walk at Lake Hefner.  

Within the first 2 minutes, he found a pile of goose poop
and rolled in it.  So much for his nice smell, AND the bandana! 

Crazy Brain, comin' right atcha!  

  Just to make sure we didn't get too fond of the 
  unusually warm weather this November, we had 
  this one day of snow.  It lasted a couple of hours.

My friend Natalie from New Zealand 
tries out her hand at a shooting game 
on an outing with me to Bricktown. 

(Baby Edison's father went by the name Edison for
about 10 years, but now has given up this name to
his son and will go back to his Chinese name of 
MengRui.) 

In mid-September, my parents came to town so that my Mom
could participate in the Oklahoma Senior Olympics.  She did the 5K
on this day, and the 10K two weeks later in Tulsa.  She placed!
She will be participating in the National Senior Olympics in 2019.

My parents, showing me how to stay in shape and live healthy into their 60's. 

I went to Tahlequah and Gore over Labor Day for a visit with my family.
Labor Day is Cherokee Holiday time, so we started with a few hours at 
the Cherokee Heritage Center.  These first two pictures are on the tour
of the historic traditional Cherokee Village.

Looking up at the roof of the meeting house.

These two pictures were taken as we walked around the NSU campus
one beautiful morning, getting some exercise before church. 

 One day while Eric was in OKC and I was in Montana 
I sent this picture to Eric as a joke, teasing him about how
I was sure his dishwasher looked about the same as mine.

 

 
He sent me this in return.  Do not imagine that he messed it up
just to be funny, he truly does load a dishwasher this way!  

We were blessed to have this eagle perched just past our yard 
fence one evening.  I wasn't able to get a very good shot, but 
he sure was a sight to behold up that close.

In May, we took a weekend trip to Dallas to attend a show
and a trip to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.
This was a fossilized dinosaur egg we saw at the museum.

Here are some views of our new house with the spring flowers in full bloom.

In April, Eric finally decided to buy himself a new vehicle.  
It had been 17 years since he had a new car, so I guess that was the magic number.
He got this beautiful, "Blazing Blue" Toyota Tundra and he loves it.  Woo hoo!

Part of enjoying our new house is enjoying the lovely flowers we get to see out our window.
We also have "cat TV", which is a bird feeder located beside a window which is very popular 
with both birds and the cats who are riveted by the winged action.

In February, Casazza brother #6, Lucas was in a very serious wreck while driving from North Dakota to Eureka, MT.
He was Life-Flighted to a hospital many hours from any relatives where he had to stay for weeks of surgery and rehab on his legs, 
which were pinned in the truck. He is doing much better now, and we all praise the Lord for that.
 

Maybe it's just me, but I think these cats are adorable.

One sunny Sunday in February, we got Buddy and Sammi 
together while we visited with Dick

I made a quick visit to see my family on Valentine's Day and Dad
treated us to a lovely steak meal and roses. We are spoiled!  
I also got in quite a bit of play time with Brodie, so it was a win all the way around.

Date night - out at the Adam Trent magic show.
Wish we could have had Brodie with us, he loves magic.

Lily, getting her dibs on two toys at once.  Sharing is not her thing.
 

Our friend Bill sent us this chilly-looking picture of our Montana barn in snow, January 2018.

Mom took a photography class in January 2018.
We all got the benefits, as she got some great shots of the elusive Brodie.
Usually he's moving so fast, all you get is a blur!