The Talk

I just told HG that we needed to have "the talk" about our older cat, who's name is Mufasa, but we call Fussy.

This picture ws taken 6 years ago.  Four times in the past week (the last being this morning) he has peed in the dog's bed in our bedroom, necessitating its washing.  He had never done this at all until a couple weeks ago.  He also pukes with regularity...and is on thyroid medication for under active thyroid, which he's been on for a month now.  So this can't be a side effect of the medication.  For now we're shutting the cats out of our room.

HG just emailed me a link to what to do concerning old cat litter box problems...maybe we'll try that first.  I told him that he needed to tell Red to prepare him, as he had just lost a dog he and his bio mom had.  I've also told the girls that Fussy may soon be in heaven like Momma Kitty, and LK asked if he was gonna be her pet, and I said sure...she seemed to accept that.

HG has had Fussy for over 10 years, and got him when Red's bio mom was looking for someone to take her friend's cat, so we have no way of knowing how old he is.  We recently had his teeth cleaned, and he had to have 2 teeth pulled, as they were destroying themselves.  HG and Red are really attached to him.  As far as I'm concerned, I don't think I'll miss him when he goes.  Sounds heartless, I know...but Ive never forgiven him for something he did.  When I moved in here, I had a beautiful calico cat, named Belle.

This is a picture of her the day after I got her, and I loved her to death.  I don't know if Fussy never accepted her, or he was just being a typical clown cat.  Whatever the reason, he wasn't giving her the space she needed, and she was extremely unhappy here.  She was losing weight, and for her sake I decided the best thing was to re home her, even though I'd gotten her only a year before.  Ive been in contact with her new owner, and she is really happy where she is now.  I searched through my email for pictures of her now...I know her new owner had sent me some...but they've disappeared into cyberspace, apparently.  She's much heavier than she was even in this picture, and she was acting like a queen of her domain (which of course she is).  So even though she's happier, I've never forgiven Fussy for causing her the distress that led to her re homing.

After looking at the email HG sent, I asked if we were going to be doing one of the things it talked about, and he's replied that there are options.  We'll see what happens.

A Conundrum

I just dont get it.  For either Meme or Grandpa (my parents) or HG Minime goes right to bed with no- or little- fuss.  (Grandpa's here tonight.)  But she normally wants me to put her down (which of course breaks my heart...NOT!), its a different story entirely.  She plays around and giggles; when I tell her its time to lay down and go to sleep, she says "No Mommy lay down"; when I start the lullaby music and start to go out of the room, she screams "No!" and clings...I have to do this like 3 or 4 times sometimes.
HG says its because she knows she can play me, which doesn't make sense.  Other times in the day she KNOWS that I dont take anything, and she is more often than not good about taking her nap in the afternoon.  So I'm at a loss.  Does anyone have any insight?

Mom's Night Out

So HG has this big project at work thats coming to a head.  (We have had to reschedule our vacation to Cedar Point because of said project.)  Last Sunday he worked on it.  Monday night he worked late on it (didnt get home until after 10PM).  Ditto Tuesday and Wednesday...only Wednesday he got home even later, as he missed the last bus going to the stop he parks his Jeep at.  So he took another bus to a different stop and caught a cab to the Jeep, and got home close to midnight.  His coming home at a normal time yesterday felt like a short day for him, he said.  Last week one of my friends I used to work with had posted on Facebook about Ladies night at a bar nearby every Thursday night.  After the 3 nights dealing with the girls solo, especially with them asking for their Daddy, and whining that they couldn't see him, I decided I needed a break.  So after the girls had had their dinner, were changed for bed, and had been read to, he took over and I left.

When I got to where the bar was, of course the spaces right in front of it were all full, so I drove around the block looking to see if I could find anything, then I just parked in the parking garage nearby and walked over.  At first I was looking for my friend, but upon learning she wouldn't be there for another couple hours, I just settled at a bar in front of a Paw Sox game on tv.  It took a wee bit to figure out how to get the special prices ($3 martinis, wine and drafts, $5 cocktails, and half price appetizers), but once that was done and I was sitting there with my chocolate martini and a plate of chicken fingers, life was good.  I talked to a couple who were there next to me.  We got talking about our kids (their son, 4 next Monday, and our 2 girls)...then they moved around the corner.  So I sat there watching the game, munching and sipping, and looking over my facebook feed.  Came upon another posting by the same friend about getting a free drink, so I inquired and after the martini, had that.  In the midst of that another woman came over and sat down, and we struck up a conversation.  How she was there visiting a friend who was working that night, was from Pittsburg, PA but was relocating to Boston for graduate studies  in the fall,  and on and on.  We had a nice talk...I showed off all 3 kids, bragged on HG, we talked about Boston...and in the midst of it my friend came in for work early.  She was sooo psyched to see me!    (Somewhere in the midst of all that I got an espresso martini too.)  So my new friend and I kept talking until I had finished that, and decided it was probably time to be heading home.  (5:15 comes pretty early!)  So I settled up my tab...after 2 martinis and chicken fingers, even with tip it came to less than $15! I'd say this is a place worth remembering!

When I got home, Bill was not impressed with my state..."You're staggering...you gotta watch that" but it was a good night....and just what I needed.

Losing weight...NOT!

Well, I THOUGHT that not fitting into the dress I'd wanted to wear would give me the motivation to get up early and work out...for the past 2 mornings the alarm has gone off, and I've just laid there.  This morning HG asked me :I thought you were getting up?"....my reply...."My get up and go got up and went."  So I'm asking, how do you get motivated?  What works for you?

Unlikely Photo Ops

We (all 5 of us) went to a wedding a couple weeks ago, and since we were together and all dressed up, I made an appointment for us to have family portraits done.  We left the house about 9:30 in the morning, and the appointment was for 4:30 in the afternoon.  If I'd thought more about it, I might have canceled...thinking SURELY there would be no way to get decent pictures after the girls were awake for soo long.  Fortunately, I didn't...and the results were AWESOME.  We had the best photographer, who got the girls to behave enough to get some really incredible pictures.  She took ones of each girl, the 2 girls together, the girls and Red, Red alone (and some of them looked like they belonged in GQ), HG and I, and all 5 of us.  I sent an email to family with a link to the proofs, asking them which ones they wanted...and my mother-in-law said there were too many great ones...she was having a hard time choosing just a few!  I'm sooo glad we did them...I'd been wanting family pictures for a long time...this was the first time Red was with us and we were all dressed up.  There was even some color coordination going on...both girls had the same color families on (though LK's dress was bright and Mini-me's was muted), Red had a monochrome thing going on with a lavender shirt and purple tie (lavender was an accent color in LK's dress), and HG wore a cream top with a purple plaid tie.  I, unfortunately, had to wear a turquoise dress, and that was the only one I could get into.  (I'd hoped to be in an abstract print dress that had purples in it, but I've not lost enough in my bust yet to be able to get that on.)  Good motivation to get back to my early morning workouts...I get up when HG does and do a workout while he's getting ready for work.  (Normally he gets up at 5:15, so usually by 6 I'm done and can get my shower in and have a little time before the girls get up.)  More to come on the workout, but I will say this...before I met HG, I'd lost 40 pounds and was down to like 14% body fat following this workout and their diet plan.  Cant as easily do the diet plan now with a family, but I can do the workout...and I cant wait to start seeing results.

Vacationing

Last week we had an awesome time at the beach at my parent's house, and my cousin was in town then too, so we got to spend time with her.  Of course, HG didnt have vacation, just Red, Little Kitty, Mini-me and I.  He took the train into town to work every day.  Then Friday we came home, I took Mini-me to get her stitches out, we packed up the motorhome and went to VT to a friend's campground for the long weekend.

Sunday morning I woke with my right eye swollen...apparently I got a spider bite in my sleep....it got to the point that if it hadn't gotten better, I would not have been able to drive.  Thankfully, it did...but it looked pretty bad in the meantime.  I didnt take a picture of it at its worst, but this is how it looked Monday night:

On Monday before we headed home, HG, Red, and I went tubing down the river next to the campground while the girls stayed with our friends and did crafts.  This was the first time I'd done anything like this...not being a strong swimmer, I borrowed a life jacket and had HG tie my tube to his.  It was really enjoyable...even the occasional ice cold splashes/washes we got, as well as the occasional bumps from rocks too close to the bottom of our butts.  Getting out at the end though was another story....I must have looked like an invalid, clinging to HG's hand and stumbling slowly out of the water, and I only fell once.

When we got home it looked like the sky was going to open up at an moment, but since the lawn was a mini-jungle, HG got right to mowing it, in case he didnt get the whole of it done, leaving me to manage the girls and start unpacking.  So I get a movie playing in the motorhome, but when I bring the first load in Mini-me was all "I come" and when inside wanted to change into a long sleeved top and jeans (and it was at least 90 out).  Little Kitty stayed put (as she usually does when a movie is on), but with Mini-me's antics there was no way I could get any unpacking done, and trying to think of what to make for dinner was making my head hurt.

Upon conferring with HG, I tried, repeatedly, to call in a pizza to be delivered, but at both places there was no one answering the phone.  (By now it was 6:30, and the girls were making noises about how hungry they were.)  HG was almost done with the lawn, so I called in a take out order at a chinese place nearby, and after he was done with the lawn, he went for it.  By the time dinner was done and the girls were both changed for bed it was almost 9, and as I was sitting down on the sofa to read them both one story, HG said to me, "I just want to tell you, you're doing really good....we've all had a long day, but you've kept your cool through all of it."  To get just how big this is, you have to understand...., HG has never given me a compliment like that...and as little as 6 months ago my doing as well as I had that day wouldn't have phased him at all...he just thought I should be doing it, and would only b*tch when I wasn't.

Our garden was in desperate need of being harvested....the broccoli, spinach, and lettuce all had lots on them, and our rose garden was so full of deadheads it took me over 30 minutes to get them all, and cut the roses to take in the house.  I finally have just one load of laundry left to wash from the trip (and what was in the hamper from before we left), and its full again, and we haven't yet mixed Mini-me's laundry in with it yet!