I don't think I'll ever understand why bad things happen to such good people.
I have a whirlwind of emotions going through me right now because of this:
Supporting Kati
This blog belongs to a friend of mine from college. He was a fellow history major and a great guy. He got married around the same time that I did, and while I have never met his wife personally, from everything I know about her, she seems like an amazing person.
Sadly, his wife is fighting a rare type of cancer and the latest prognosis wasn't good. I knew that she had been fighting cancer for a few years now, but I actually didn't know what type of cancer she had. After reading her blog I found out that she has cancer in her sinuses.
I now feel like a horrible, horrible person. As someone who has struggled with ear, nose and throat problems for my entire life, I thought I know what it was like to have sinus issues. I thought that it was horrible that I've had 3 sinus surgeries and yet I still get sinus infections. I have complained about my sinus issues so much, and now I just feel awful, because when I look at the bigger picture, my problems really aren't problems. In fact, I now realize that I should be grateful for what I do have. I should be grateful that while the surgeries haven't cured me, they've helped me a lot. I can't even begin to imagine what she has gone through and what she is continuing to go through.
David is a great guy and it breaks my heart that he is going through this with the woman he loves. I am also amazed at Kati. Through this blog and pictures on Facebook, I am absolutely amazed that she has kept a smile on her face through this all. I know for a fact that I could never be as strong as she seems to be, and I admire her so much for that.
I know not everyone reading this is religious, but if you are, please say a prayer for them. If you're not religious, please just keep them in your thoughts. A few prayers and good thoughts can't hurt right? I wish there was more that I could do for them :-(.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Happy Washington Thoughts
I never thought I'd be writing a post called "Happy Washington Thoughts" but alas...I am.
Yesterday I realized that I have successfully survived my second Washington winter! Ok...granted winter isn't technically over yet, and the temperatures up here right now are far from being typical winter weather, but as I learned last winter, it has nothing to do with the temperature. Its the light, or I should probably say, the lack of light. I'm still a little bit amazed when I look at a map and I see just how far north Washington state is. The one thing I never expected when I moved out here was the lack of sunlight in the winter time. I had always heard about Alaska having all day sunlight in the summer and all day darkness in the winter, but I never heard anyone say that Washington was lacking sunlight in winter too. If anything, I just thought that the lack of sunlight was due to the constant rain and fog and gray skies. Boy was I mistaken about that! 18 hours of light in the summer, followed by 6 hours of dark was wonderful! Of course, that reverses in the winter time and last winter was miserable. By 3:30pm, it felt like 8pm. The sun never actually rose to the center of the sky. Instead it just sort of hovered around on the horizon and then disappeared early in the day. I started thinking that the people who jump off the Deception Pass Bridge really aren't all that crazy. Last winter was depressing and I was thankful that Mr. V would be deploying during the summer so I wouldn't have to spend my second winter here alone and depressed. However, every person that I ran into last winter assured me over and over, that for everyone, the first winter was the hardest and if you can make it through the first, then the following winters would never be as bad. Honestly? I thought that was a load of crap! I was dreading my second winter here like you wouldn't believe.
Yesterday I went to help out a friend and watch her little boy for about an hour. As I was leaving her house and driving back towards mine I was looking at the sunset. My first thought was that the sky had cleared up and it was a pretty sunset. Then I looked at the clock in my car and saw that it was 5:02 pm. I guess that's when it hit me. It was after 5pm and it was still light outside! I know that we already passed by the shortest day of the year, so logically I know that means that the days will start getting longer again, but I didn't really notice that until last night. I guess it hit me then that I made it through my second winter, and people were right (and I really hate admitting that!), I DID make it through the second winter with no problems, which means that I can now vouch for it and tell people new to this area that the first winter really is the hardest.
This probably all sounds like something minor but if anyone remembers me last winter, I was miserable, absolutely miserable, and I wanted to shoot every single person who cheerfully said to me "Don't worry. The first winter is always the hardest!"
Now does this mean that I have learned to love Washington as much as Mr. V does? Nope. But it does mean that this summer, when I wake up at 4am because there is sunlight streaming in through my windows, I won't complain about it! I may have dealt with the darkness better this year, but that doesn't mean I want it like that forever. Last summer I hated the early morning sunlight. This year I think I'll finally invest in blackout curtains and enjoy the long days while they last. It also means that if all goes as planned I should only live through one more winter up here, at least until the Navy decides to move us back here again. I guess I have to admit that while this is still not my favorite place to be, I adapted to life up here much better than I ever expected to :-).
Yesterday I realized that I have successfully survived my second Washington winter! Ok...granted winter isn't technically over yet, and the temperatures up here right now are far from being typical winter weather, but as I learned last winter, it has nothing to do with the temperature. Its the light, or I should probably say, the lack of light. I'm still a little bit amazed when I look at a map and I see just how far north Washington state is. The one thing I never expected when I moved out here was the lack of sunlight in the winter time. I had always heard about Alaska having all day sunlight in the summer and all day darkness in the winter, but I never heard anyone say that Washington was lacking sunlight in winter too. If anything, I just thought that the lack of sunlight was due to the constant rain and fog and gray skies. Boy was I mistaken about that! 18 hours of light in the summer, followed by 6 hours of dark was wonderful! Of course, that reverses in the winter time and last winter was miserable. By 3:30pm, it felt like 8pm. The sun never actually rose to the center of the sky. Instead it just sort of hovered around on the horizon and then disappeared early in the day. I started thinking that the people who jump off the Deception Pass Bridge really aren't all that crazy. Last winter was depressing and I was thankful that Mr. V would be deploying during the summer so I wouldn't have to spend my second winter here alone and depressed. However, every person that I ran into last winter assured me over and over, that for everyone, the first winter was the hardest and if you can make it through the first, then the following winters would never be as bad. Honestly? I thought that was a load of crap! I was dreading my second winter here like you wouldn't believe.
Yesterday I went to help out a friend and watch her little boy for about an hour. As I was leaving her house and driving back towards mine I was looking at the sunset. My first thought was that the sky had cleared up and it was a pretty sunset. Then I looked at the clock in my car and saw that it was 5:02 pm. I guess that's when it hit me. It was after 5pm and it was still light outside! I know that we already passed by the shortest day of the year, so logically I know that means that the days will start getting longer again, but I didn't really notice that until last night. I guess it hit me then that I made it through my second winter, and people were right (and I really hate admitting that!), I DID make it through the second winter with no problems, which means that I can now vouch for it and tell people new to this area that the first winter really is the hardest.
This probably all sounds like something minor but if anyone remembers me last winter, I was miserable, absolutely miserable, and I wanted to shoot every single person who cheerfully said to me "Don't worry. The first winter is always the hardest!"
Now does this mean that I have learned to love Washington as much as Mr. V does? Nope. But it does mean that this summer, when I wake up at 4am because there is sunlight streaming in through my windows, I won't complain about it! I may have dealt with the darkness better this year, but that doesn't mean I want it like that forever. Last summer I hated the early morning sunlight. This year I think I'll finally invest in blackout curtains and enjoy the long days while they last. It also means that if all goes as planned I should only live through one more winter up here, at least until the Navy decides to move us back here again. I guess I have to admit that while this is still not my favorite place to be, I adapted to life up here much better than I ever expected to :-).
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
10 and counting...Meet Samantha
Well we did it. We caved and added one more feline to our household. We're now at 10 cats and have decided thats a nice even number and there won't be any more!
Our new little girl is adorable though. Mr. V went to the vet a few days ago to pick up Moses' prescription food and in the waiting room was a small kitten in a cage with a sign saying "I need a loving home". We've seen this before and we'll often look at the kittens but we never talk about taking one of them home with us. This time though, Mr. V went over to the cage and he claims that the kitten bounced right up to him and stuck her paw out at him. He came home and took me back with him just to "visit" the kitten. Needless to say, that visit turned into us walking out of there with an 8 week old kitten. He says that she "claimed" him and I would have to agree. We've only had her for a few days, and while she's very loving and cuddly, she will go right to him if he is in the room. There have already been 2 days where she has fallen asleep on me, only to wake up and go right to him as soon as he comes home and sits down. So I guess she really did claim him :-).
Here are some pictures of our new little girl:
Our new little girl is adorable though. Mr. V went to the vet a few days ago to pick up Moses' prescription food and in the waiting room was a small kitten in a cage with a sign saying "I need a loving home". We've seen this before and we'll often look at the kittens but we never talk about taking one of them home with us. This time though, Mr. V went over to the cage and he claims that the kitten bounced right up to him and stuck her paw out at him. He came home and took me back with him just to "visit" the kitten. Needless to say, that visit turned into us walking out of there with an 8 week old kitten. He says that she "claimed" him and I would have to agree. We've only had her for a few days, and while she's very loving and cuddly, she will go right to him if he is in the room. There have already been 2 days where she has fallen asleep on me, only to wake up and go right to him as soon as he comes home and sits down. So I guess she really did claim him :-).
Here are some pictures of our new little girl:
Monday, January 25, 2010
Murphy is GONE...at least for now...
So backing up a few months again (maybe one day I'll be able to keep this updated as things actually happen instead of posting about things 2 months after they happen), I had my final battle wih Murphy's Law...at least my final battle until Mr. V deploys again. A 7 month deployment isn't so bad right? Some military wives have to endure 15 month deployments so I figured that while it would suck, I could easily handle a 7 month deployment. Well...I handled it, but not without wanting to shoot myself, or shoot Murphy.
Just when I thought that it couldn't get any worse, it did. You would have thought that by this point I would know to never think "it can't get any worse!" Well, about 2 weeks before Mr. V came home, one of my cats got really, really sick. This wasn't just any cat either. This was Moses, my "replacement" cat for the one that I lost to leukemia 2 years ago. While I know that he could never completely replace the one that I lost, he still means so much to me because he filled the hole in my heart when little Cledus died. So out of all of my cats, this was the 2nd worst one that it could happen to (the first being my original Wendy :-)). I woke up one day and noticed that he seemed a little lethargic. This was weird, but since they sleep almost all day anyway I just waited to see what happened later on that day. That evening when I fed them all, Moses didn't come running to the food. This was odd, very odd. He always comes running when he hears the food. I searched him out and found him sleeping on my bed. I picked him up and brought him to the food where he proceeded to fall asleep with his head in the food bowl. Thats when I realized that some was REALLY wrong. I was actually talking to Mr. V online at the time so I told him I was going to take Moses to the emergency vet. I called a friend of mine who is a vet tech, and she offered to go with me. The Pet Emergency Center is 45 minutes away so I welcomed the company.
It turned out that Moses had a common problem in male cats - he had crystals in his urine, which had caused a blockage, and he needed to have his bladder drained. This was bad, but curable. The only problem was that Moses was acting completely fine until the day I noticed that something was wrong. By that point he had progressed to a stage where the problem was more severe. He stayed overnight at the PEC, and then was brought to the local vet in the morning where he spent another week. An ultrasound showed that not only did he have crystals, but he also had bladder stones, so emergency bladder surgery was preformed. During the surgery, they found urine in his abdomen, which indicated that he had a tear in his urethra. This was bad, very bad, because if that tear didn't heal, there was no chance of him surviving. There was just no way. He also had kidney levels that were off the charts and a horrible bladder infection which I guess goes without saying.
At that point the vet called me and told me that he had less than a 1% chance of survival and asked if I wanted to have him euthanized right then, since he was already out under anesthesia. Well I panicked. I freaked out. I could barely even process what she had told me because I thought that crystals were a routine problem! I never even dreamed that it could be as bad as it was! I told her no, I didn't want him put to sleep yet. I had to talk to my husband. I had to process everything she just told me and I was babysitting at the time which meant that I couldn't even be there to say goodbye to him. He wasn't even guaranteed to live past the few hours it took for me to finally get everything straightened out. But...thankfully, I DID say no. And thankfully, the vet that had taken his case was a vet who specialized in critical care. She personally didn't have the ability/knowledge to save him, but I am so thankful that she called a specialist and read some case studies. In the time it took for me to track down Mr. V in Iraq and for the lady I was babysitting for to come home, she had increased his chances of survival to 20%. I am so thankful for a good friend of mine who dropped everything she was doing to come to the vet with me at this point. I didn't know what was going to happen and I didn't want to be alone.
At this point the vet told me his chances of survival had increased but he was far, far away from being out of the woods yet. I didn't want to have him put to sleep when I wasn't there to say goodbye earlier, but I also didn't want him to suffer, so I asked her to tell me the truth and if she thought that I just needed to have it done. She said that while things were still really, really bad, she didn't think it was time to give up hope yet. That was all it took for me to say "do whatever needs to be done."
So to make a long story short, after a week in the hospital hooked up to a catheter and IVs, his urethra tear healed. His bladder cleared up and the crystals disappeared. Unfortunately, he now had a nasty infection to fight off. Between his kidneys and his bladder he was a mess. Once the urethra tear healed (which in itself is apparently something close to a miracle!), his biggest problem was the infection. If it didn't go away, it would kill him.. 2 months, 4 rounds of antibiotics and several thousands of dollars later, I took Moses in for his final checkup. That was 2 weeks ago. He recovered like a champ!! He's truly my miracle cat and I am so thankful that I said no when they asked if I wanted him euthanized right then and there. I am also so thankful for the vet who took the time to really research his case and to go out of her way to help him. Moses will have to eat a prescription food for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, due to the severity of what happened to him, I was told that he isn't likely to survive this if it happens again. Thankfully, the food should prevent it from happening again. As much as I wanted to deny that he was really sick, I also have to admit that I wasn't sure that this day would come. Each re-check that he had made me so nervous because it took so long to get completely good news. But the last one was good. My Moses is a fighter and hopefully he'll be around for many, many more years :-).
So let's recap:
In the 7 months that Mr. V was gone:
~A shelf fell down in the closet. And of course it was the type of shelf that can't just be replaced easily, it needs to be reinstalled. Needless to say, the closet held all of Mr. V's clothes so I decided to completely ignore that one until he got home.
~Our lawnmower didn't work, which led to 2 foot high grass (call me stupid but I wouldn't even begin to know how to buy a lawnmower), so finally a neighbor took pity on me and mowed half of my front lawn. He sent his son over to mow the rest, and a friend's husband spent 3 days untangling the jungle in my backyard. Needless to say, this was the perfect time for Washington to have a drought. I know a lot of people were freaking out about the lack of rain. But for me, that meant dead grass. Dead grass doesn't grow so after the neighbor and the friend's husband took pity on me, my lawn stayed dead until about a month ago. Thankfully, Mr. V is now home to deal with it.
~I had one cat peeing all over the house, but with 9 it was impossible to figure out which one it was. Feliway diffusers are a great invention. They give off pheromones that are supposed to calm cats down. I already had 2 plugged in, but I resorted to plugging one in in every single room of the house. Thankfully, that seemed to work. It turns out that I found the cat doing the damage and he apparently suffers from separation anxiety and wasn't ok with Mr. V being gone. I can't WAIT to deal with that again!
~The system failure light came on in my car, followed by the maintenance required light. My car wasn't scheduled for any maintenance so this was confusing. 2 months later my car battery died as I was getting onto a ferry. It didn't just run out and need to be jump started. It died. Thankfully, the ferry workers were able to get it started to at least get me back home. I still have no idea if thats why my maintenance required light came on, but I do know that your battery dying right as the ferry is starting to load, isn't a good thing.
~Our dishwasher died. I don't think I need to explain the annoyance about that! I didn't get a new one until Mr. V came home because to save money, he wanted to be the one to install it. So I spent 6 months washing dishes by hand. I realize this isn't an extreme tragedy, but I hate washing dishes, so this really sucked for me.
~My dryer started making a screeching sound but it appeared that it was going to hold out for me. Then 3 weeks before Mr. V came home, it died. Not a huge deal right? I can line dry things. However, try line drying something in a state like Washington. Even hanging in my garage, which is dry, my clothes wouldn't dry because of all the humidity and moisture in the air. Then after Mr. V came home and we bought a new one, it wasn't delivered to us until 3 weeks later (all of their dryers were out of stock). Towels and jeans get awfully crunchy when you can't dry them in a dryer or hang them in the nice spring air!
~The cat that I was babysitting for a friend of mine for the length of the deployment developed a hernia.
~I started driving Mr. V's car because by the time my battery died I felt so drained that I just didn't want to deal with it. I decided to drive his car until he came home only to have it start making an obnoxious clanking sound underneath it. When I took it to a mechanic he informed me that I was absolutely NOT going to drive out of his parking lot without a complete set of new tires because apparently the tires that I had were so worn that they were dangerous. When I told Mr. V this he said "Oh yeah, I've known since Jacksonville that I needed new tires." Thanks Mr. V! By that point we had only been out of Jacksonville for a YEAR!! That would have been helpful to know. Needless to say, I got new tires, but the source of the clanking sound was never found. Amazingly, once Mr. V came home, the sound disappeared. Grrrr.
~2 lights burnt out in the living room. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but these lights are the ONLY lights in the house that aren't standard sized. When we first moved here it took Mr. V 2 months to finally find the correct size light bulb. It took me a few tries too.
~The hose broke. I didn't even know that could happen, but apparently a hose left in the heat can form bubbles that create a thin spot, which creates a pinprick sized hole. Several of these pin prick holes make for a useless hose. This is a big deal when I need to hose out and scrub down litter boxes once a week. Thankfully, buying a new hose is an easy task.
~Our sink clogged and it took hours and lots and lots of draino to unclog it. It took a lot of self control to not throw up while that was going on. Its also hard to prevent cats from drinking the standing water, but I wasn't about to deal with draino poisoning. I think that was the night that I finally broke down and cried my eyes out.
~We got termites. I don't think I need to explain why thats a bad thing!
~And finally, there was Moses.
I can't wait to see what goes wrong the next time he deploys!
Edited to add: My grandma also died. I don't even know how I managed to forget that when I was writing this.
Just when I thought that it couldn't get any worse, it did. You would have thought that by this point I would know to never think "it can't get any worse!" Well, about 2 weeks before Mr. V came home, one of my cats got really, really sick. This wasn't just any cat either. This was Moses, my "replacement" cat for the one that I lost to leukemia 2 years ago. While I know that he could never completely replace the one that I lost, he still means so much to me because he filled the hole in my heart when little Cledus died. So out of all of my cats, this was the 2nd worst one that it could happen to (the first being my original Wendy :-)). I woke up one day and noticed that he seemed a little lethargic. This was weird, but since they sleep almost all day anyway I just waited to see what happened later on that day. That evening when I fed them all, Moses didn't come running to the food. This was odd, very odd. He always comes running when he hears the food. I searched him out and found him sleeping on my bed. I picked him up and brought him to the food where he proceeded to fall asleep with his head in the food bowl. Thats when I realized that some was REALLY wrong. I was actually talking to Mr. V online at the time so I told him I was going to take Moses to the emergency vet. I called a friend of mine who is a vet tech, and she offered to go with me. The Pet Emergency Center is 45 minutes away so I welcomed the company.
It turned out that Moses had a common problem in male cats - he had crystals in his urine, which had caused a blockage, and he needed to have his bladder drained. This was bad, but curable. The only problem was that Moses was acting completely fine until the day I noticed that something was wrong. By that point he had progressed to a stage where the problem was more severe. He stayed overnight at the PEC, and then was brought to the local vet in the morning where he spent another week. An ultrasound showed that not only did he have crystals, but he also had bladder stones, so emergency bladder surgery was preformed. During the surgery, they found urine in his abdomen, which indicated that he had a tear in his urethra. This was bad, very bad, because if that tear didn't heal, there was no chance of him surviving. There was just no way. He also had kidney levels that were off the charts and a horrible bladder infection which I guess goes without saying.
At that point the vet called me and told me that he had less than a 1% chance of survival and asked if I wanted to have him euthanized right then, since he was already out under anesthesia. Well I panicked. I freaked out. I could barely even process what she had told me because I thought that crystals were a routine problem! I never even dreamed that it could be as bad as it was! I told her no, I didn't want him put to sleep yet. I had to talk to my husband. I had to process everything she just told me and I was babysitting at the time which meant that I couldn't even be there to say goodbye to him. He wasn't even guaranteed to live past the few hours it took for me to finally get everything straightened out. But...thankfully, I DID say no. And thankfully, the vet that had taken his case was a vet who specialized in critical care. She personally didn't have the ability/knowledge to save him, but I am so thankful that she called a specialist and read some case studies. In the time it took for me to track down Mr. V in Iraq and for the lady I was babysitting for to come home, she had increased his chances of survival to 20%. I am so thankful for a good friend of mine who dropped everything she was doing to come to the vet with me at this point. I didn't know what was going to happen and I didn't want to be alone.
At this point the vet told me his chances of survival had increased but he was far, far away from being out of the woods yet. I didn't want to have him put to sleep when I wasn't there to say goodbye earlier, but I also didn't want him to suffer, so I asked her to tell me the truth and if she thought that I just needed to have it done. She said that while things were still really, really bad, she didn't think it was time to give up hope yet. That was all it took for me to say "do whatever needs to be done."
So to make a long story short, after a week in the hospital hooked up to a catheter and IVs, his urethra tear healed. His bladder cleared up and the crystals disappeared. Unfortunately, he now had a nasty infection to fight off. Between his kidneys and his bladder he was a mess. Once the urethra tear healed (which in itself is apparently something close to a miracle!), his biggest problem was the infection. If it didn't go away, it would kill him.. 2 months, 4 rounds of antibiotics and several thousands of dollars later, I took Moses in for his final checkup. That was 2 weeks ago. He recovered like a champ!! He's truly my miracle cat and I am so thankful that I said no when they asked if I wanted him euthanized right then and there. I am also so thankful for the vet who took the time to really research his case and to go out of her way to help him. Moses will have to eat a prescription food for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, due to the severity of what happened to him, I was told that he isn't likely to survive this if it happens again. Thankfully, the food should prevent it from happening again. As much as I wanted to deny that he was really sick, I also have to admit that I wasn't sure that this day would come. Each re-check that he had made me so nervous because it took so long to get completely good news. But the last one was good. My Moses is a fighter and hopefully he'll be around for many, many more years :-).
So let's recap:
In the 7 months that Mr. V was gone:
~A shelf fell down in the closet. And of course it was the type of shelf that can't just be replaced easily, it needs to be reinstalled. Needless to say, the closet held all of Mr. V's clothes so I decided to completely ignore that one until he got home.
~Our lawnmower didn't work, which led to 2 foot high grass (call me stupid but I wouldn't even begin to know how to buy a lawnmower), so finally a neighbor took pity on me and mowed half of my front lawn. He sent his son over to mow the rest, and a friend's husband spent 3 days untangling the jungle in my backyard. Needless to say, this was the perfect time for Washington to have a drought. I know a lot of people were freaking out about the lack of rain. But for me, that meant dead grass. Dead grass doesn't grow so after the neighbor and the friend's husband took pity on me, my lawn stayed dead until about a month ago. Thankfully, Mr. V is now home to deal with it.
~I had one cat peeing all over the house, but with 9 it was impossible to figure out which one it was. Feliway diffusers are a great invention. They give off pheromones that are supposed to calm cats down. I already had 2 plugged in, but I resorted to plugging one in in every single room of the house. Thankfully, that seemed to work. It turns out that I found the cat doing the damage and he apparently suffers from separation anxiety and wasn't ok with Mr. V being gone. I can't WAIT to deal with that again!
~The system failure light came on in my car, followed by the maintenance required light. My car wasn't scheduled for any maintenance so this was confusing. 2 months later my car battery died as I was getting onto a ferry. It didn't just run out and need to be jump started. It died. Thankfully, the ferry workers were able to get it started to at least get me back home. I still have no idea if thats why my maintenance required light came on, but I do know that your battery dying right as the ferry is starting to load, isn't a good thing.
~Our dishwasher died. I don't think I need to explain the annoyance about that! I didn't get a new one until Mr. V came home because to save money, he wanted to be the one to install it. So I spent 6 months washing dishes by hand. I realize this isn't an extreme tragedy, but I hate washing dishes, so this really sucked for me.
~My dryer started making a screeching sound but it appeared that it was going to hold out for me. Then 3 weeks before Mr. V came home, it died. Not a huge deal right? I can line dry things. However, try line drying something in a state like Washington. Even hanging in my garage, which is dry, my clothes wouldn't dry because of all the humidity and moisture in the air. Then after Mr. V came home and we bought a new one, it wasn't delivered to us until 3 weeks later (all of their dryers were out of stock). Towels and jeans get awfully crunchy when you can't dry them in a dryer or hang them in the nice spring air!
~The cat that I was babysitting for a friend of mine for the length of the deployment developed a hernia.
~I started driving Mr. V's car because by the time my battery died I felt so drained that I just didn't want to deal with it. I decided to drive his car until he came home only to have it start making an obnoxious clanking sound underneath it. When I took it to a mechanic he informed me that I was absolutely NOT going to drive out of his parking lot without a complete set of new tires because apparently the tires that I had were so worn that they were dangerous. When I told Mr. V this he said "Oh yeah, I've known since Jacksonville that I needed new tires." Thanks Mr. V! By that point we had only been out of Jacksonville for a YEAR!! That would have been helpful to know. Needless to say, I got new tires, but the source of the clanking sound was never found. Amazingly, once Mr. V came home, the sound disappeared. Grrrr.
~2 lights burnt out in the living room. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but these lights are the ONLY lights in the house that aren't standard sized. When we first moved here it took Mr. V 2 months to finally find the correct size light bulb. It took me a few tries too.
~The hose broke. I didn't even know that could happen, but apparently a hose left in the heat can form bubbles that create a thin spot, which creates a pinprick sized hole. Several of these pin prick holes make for a useless hose. This is a big deal when I need to hose out and scrub down litter boxes once a week. Thankfully, buying a new hose is an easy task.
~Our sink clogged and it took hours and lots and lots of draino to unclog it. It took a lot of self control to not throw up while that was going on. Its also hard to prevent cats from drinking the standing water, but I wasn't about to deal with draino poisoning. I think that was the night that I finally broke down and cried my eyes out.
~We got termites. I don't think I need to explain why thats a bad thing!
~And finally, there was Moses.
I can't wait to see what goes wrong the next time he deploys!
Edited to add: My grandma also died. I don't even know how I managed to forget that when I was writing this.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
New Year's Resolution
I was once an organized person. I was always a pack rat but I was organized. Then I met and married someone who is an even larger pack rat than I am. Then he went to Iraq for 7 months and all hell broke loose around the house. Aside from the previous blogs that I wrote about everything going wrong while he was gone, the deployment came to an end with even more things going wrong! Needless to say, my once wonderful organizational skills sort of disappeared.
My lack of organization has been stressing me out to no end, so while I don't usually make New Year's resolution's (because let's face it, I would never stick with them), this year I did and I vow that I will stick with it!
While browsing a military wives message board, I came across a post that someone wrote about a website called Motivated Moms. The post had been responded to by many, many people and the entire thread went on for 3 pages. Every single response to the post was about how wonderful this website it, and how it helped them keep their house clean and organized.
Basically, what it is, is a chore list. You do have to pay for it - $8 to download and save it, but people were raving about this site, claiming it was the best $8 they ever spent. Since the site is obviously directed towards moms, some people asked whether or not someone without children would benefit from it and the answer was yes. So I checked out the site and found out that I agree with everyone who loves this site.
The Motivated Moms Chore Planner is a day by day list of chores that takes you through the entire year. It gives you tasks so that you accomplish something every day, but you aren't overworking yourself either. If done correctly, it leaves plenty of time to have to yourself. It also seems to work well for people who work full time.
So I bought it. And I love it. Not only does it have "normal" chores on it (vacuuming, mopping, cleaning toilets) but it also has things on it like "clean outdoor garbage cans". Now thats something that I may have thought about doing in passing, but let's be honest, I never would have done it. (and even now, I still didn't do it. I gave that chore to Mr. V.) It also splits up the chores so that you clean the toilets one day, and the bathtub on another day. The point is that you will be doing something every day, but your house should never be disorganized or dirty if you follow the list correctly (and you can switch days around - for instance, it said to clean the garbage can on Wednesday, but our trash goes out on Thursday so it was cleaned on Thursday instead). It even includes things such as "prepare gifts and cards for February". And as for my lack of children, I do have pets so I change anything that says "child" to "pet". For example, each week it says "clip children's nails" so to me that translates into "clip cat's nails".
My reason for this blog is just to share this with anyone who is in desperate need of organization. I am thrilled that someone posted it on a message board so now I feel compelled to share it too. Heck, even if you're already organized, this would still be a huge destressor for me because I hate feeling like I haven't finished doing everything. By following the list, I don't feel that way because even though I know I haven't cleaned the stove, thats ok, because its on the list for tomorrow.
So check it out! I was very surprised at how useful and wonderful this was and I now have to agree with everyone who has said its the best $8 they ever spent.
Motivated Moms Chore Planner
My lack of organization has been stressing me out to no end, so while I don't usually make New Year's resolution's (because let's face it, I would never stick with them), this year I did and I vow that I will stick with it!
While browsing a military wives message board, I came across a post that someone wrote about a website called Motivated Moms. The post had been responded to by many, many people and the entire thread went on for 3 pages. Every single response to the post was about how wonderful this website it, and how it helped them keep their house clean and organized.
Basically, what it is, is a chore list. You do have to pay for it - $8 to download and save it, but people were raving about this site, claiming it was the best $8 they ever spent. Since the site is obviously directed towards moms, some people asked whether or not someone without children would benefit from it and the answer was yes. So I checked out the site and found out that I agree with everyone who loves this site.
The Motivated Moms Chore Planner is a day by day list of chores that takes you through the entire year. It gives you tasks so that you accomplish something every day, but you aren't overworking yourself either. If done correctly, it leaves plenty of time to have to yourself. It also seems to work well for people who work full time.
So I bought it. And I love it. Not only does it have "normal" chores on it (vacuuming, mopping, cleaning toilets) but it also has things on it like "clean outdoor garbage cans". Now thats something that I may have thought about doing in passing, but let's be honest, I never would have done it. (and even now, I still didn't do it. I gave that chore to Mr. V.) It also splits up the chores so that you clean the toilets one day, and the bathtub on another day. The point is that you will be doing something every day, but your house should never be disorganized or dirty if you follow the list correctly (and you can switch days around - for instance, it said to clean the garbage can on Wednesday, but our trash goes out on Thursday so it was cleaned on Thursday instead). It even includes things such as "prepare gifts and cards for February". And as for my lack of children, I do have pets so I change anything that says "child" to "pet". For example, each week it says "clip children's nails" so to me that translates into "clip cat's nails".
My reason for this blog is just to share this with anyone who is in desperate need of organization. I am thrilled that someone posted it on a message board so now I feel compelled to share it too. Heck, even if you're already organized, this would still be a huge destressor for me because I hate feeling like I haven't finished doing everything. By following the list, I don't feel that way because even though I know I haven't cleaned the stove, thats ok, because its on the list for tomorrow.
So check it out! I was very surprised at how useful and wonderful this was and I now have to agree with everyone who has said its the best $8 they ever spent.
Motivated Moms Chore Planner
Monday, December 28, 2009
Homecoming!
As my good friend Alice pointed out to me this morning, its been a REALLY long time since I updated this blog. Life has been pretty hectic lately, but its finally hectic in a good way.
After 7 months of things breaking and going wrong, while I suffered through the wrath of Murphy by myself, Mr. V is FINALLY home from Iraq!!! He actually got home at the beginning of the month and life has been a whirlwind since then.
After his return date and time changing several times, homecoming ended up being wonderful. I had all these plans to decorate the house and have "Welcome Home" signs hung up for him, but I'm sad to say that didn't happen. He was originally supposed to arrive home on a Thursday morning. Then it chanegd to Wednesday at 8:30pm. I babysat on Wednesday morning and assumed that I had several hours after I got home to decorate the house, but nope! That morning, while I was babysitting I got several phone calls from the CO's wife. The first one changed his arrival time to 6:30pm. The next one changed it to 5:00pm. The finally one changed it to 4:30pm. At this point I realized that by the time I was done babysitting I had just enough time to take a shower and rush off to the hanger where his plane would be arriving. I had just enough time to throw a wooden P3 with his name and squadron on it, that I bought at a recent OSCWI boutique, on a nail on the outside of our house. Flags and "Welcome Home" signs will have to be stored to use after the next deployment.
So after a quick shower, some primping and some panic because he hadn't seen me in 7 months, I rushed out of the house. Halfway to base I realized I wasn't wearing my wedding rings (I take them off when I shower) so I had to turn around and race back home because I wasn't about to great my husband after 7 months, with no wedding rings on my finger.
Homecoming was great! The only thing that sucked was that even though the plane arrived at 4:30, it was already completely dark outside. It would have been nice to get some nicer pictures of the plane he arrived on, and everyone walking off the plane, and some nicer outdoor pictures, but I have to just be happy with the nighttime pictures that I got.
(Opening the hanger doors)
(the plane they arrived home on)
(He's back!)
(he gave me some chocolate that he bought in Germany because it had cute kittens on the box)
(I loved my box of kitten chocolate :-))
After 7 months of things breaking and going wrong, while I suffered through the wrath of Murphy by myself, Mr. V is FINALLY home from Iraq!!! He actually got home at the beginning of the month and life has been a whirlwind since then.
After his return date and time changing several times, homecoming ended up being wonderful. I had all these plans to decorate the house and have "Welcome Home" signs hung up for him, but I'm sad to say that didn't happen. He was originally supposed to arrive home on a Thursday morning. Then it chanegd to Wednesday at 8:30pm. I babysat on Wednesday morning and assumed that I had several hours after I got home to decorate the house, but nope! That morning, while I was babysitting I got several phone calls from the CO's wife. The first one changed his arrival time to 6:30pm. The next one changed it to 5:00pm. The finally one changed it to 4:30pm. At this point I realized that by the time I was done babysitting I had just enough time to take a shower and rush off to the hanger where his plane would be arriving. I had just enough time to throw a wooden P3 with his name and squadron on it, that I bought at a recent OSCWI boutique, on a nail on the outside of our house. Flags and "Welcome Home" signs will have to be stored to use after the next deployment.
So after a quick shower, some primping and some panic because he hadn't seen me in 7 months, I rushed out of the house. Halfway to base I realized I wasn't wearing my wedding rings (I take them off when I shower) so I had to turn around and race back home because I wasn't about to great my husband after 7 months, with no wedding rings on my finger.
Homecoming was great! The only thing that sucked was that even though the plane arrived at 4:30, it was already completely dark outside. It would have been nice to get some nicer pictures of the plane he arrived on, and everyone walking off the plane, and some nicer outdoor pictures, but I have to just be happy with the nighttime pictures that I got.
(Opening the hanger doors)
(the plane they arrived home on)
(He's back!)
(he gave me some chocolate that he bought in Germany because it had cute kittens on the box)
(I loved my box of kitten chocolate :-))
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
I spoke too soon...
Remember the 3 cats that I wrote about in the post directly beneath this one? Yep. I spoke too soon. I don't have 3 more cats. I have 6 more cats. I'm hoping that number stops at 6, and as of right now, I'm 99% sure that it does. Last night I decided to try to figure out what the heck is going on in my backyard. My yard is completely fenced in by the way, which makes it a little more interesting to me because they guys (or their mother) had to find their way over the fence to find my shed in the first place. While jumping over a fence isn't exactly hard for the average cat, I still don't completely understand why they chose MY fence to jump over.
So last night was observation time for me. I turned on a light in the backyard and turned off the lights in my living room. Then I sat at the window like a crazy cat lady, for almost 2 hours, watching the show outside. In this time, the 3 original cats appeared. Then a brown and white tabby appeared. Then another black and white one appeared, and then another black and white one. All of them were eating the food I left out for them and all of them were playing with each other. The little tabby is the only one who looks a little different. They all have different distinct markings, but they are all black and white, so I'm not sure where the brown tabby came from. I know he could easily be from the same litter, but I just always think its cute and amusing when there is that one odd one out (like my little calico from the litter I fostered).
So as I watched, this is what I figured out:
First, they know my backyard. They were way too comfortable running around, jumping on things, and falling asleep in the middle of the yard to NOT know the yard. I guess the reality is, I never looked at my backyard in the dark, and that seems to be when they come out and play.
Second, most of them are young, so while they could easily be feral, I've managed to tame a few young ferals already. Its hard and it requires a lot of work and patience, but I am thinking that if I can work with them, I MIGHT be able to get them friendly enough for people to want to adopt them. That might be wishful thinking on my part, but one of my ferals is a total snuggly attention whore now and she was just plain mean and nasty when I first brought her in the house.
From what I can tell, it appears that there are 4 young ones, maybe 5 or 6 months old, and 2 full grown ones. However, the larger ones can easily be the same age, just bigger cats. But it was the 2 large ones that sat in front of my shed and watched the 4 young ones play, so thats what makes me think they might be a little older. They weren't acting like kittens, but who knows, maybe they just weren't in the mood to play.
On a positive note, I also solved a scary mystery last night. For several months now I have laid in bed listening to what sounded like someone trying to break into my house through the roof. Actually, thats just what my wandering mind thought it sounded like when I was alone and scared. What it actually sounded like was raccoons running on the roof. If you're wondering how I know what raccoons on the roof sound like, they used to run on the roof of my house all the time in New Jersey. I know that there are raccoons on Whidbey Island, but I've never seen them anywhere near my house, so that explanation wasn't sitting completely right with me. I spent several nights completely freaked out by the noises on my roof. Well...as of yesterday I now know what the sounds are. There aren't raccoons running on my roof. There are CATS running on my roof!!! We have a tree with great climbing branches that sits pretty close to the house, and as I watched last night, the cats would run up in to this tree, jump from branch to branch, and then occasionally jump from the branch to the roof!! So it was quite a relief to hear the scary sound immediately after I saw a cat jump on the roof, so thankfully that mystery is solved. I guess no one is trying to break in, and I'm not being stalked by rabid raccoons. I am, however, being stalked by every stray cat in the world.
So the conclusion I reached? Perhaps I should make a better effort to pay attention to my backyard after the sun goes down. Maybe then I would have noticed an entire family of cats living in my backyard for the past few months.
So last night was observation time for me. I turned on a light in the backyard and turned off the lights in my living room. Then I sat at the window like a crazy cat lady, for almost 2 hours, watching the show outside. In this time, the 3 original cats appeared. Then a brown and white tabby appeared. Then another black and white one appeared, and then another black and white one. All of them were eating the food I left out for them and all of them were playing with each other. The little tabby is the only one who looks a little different. They all have different distinct markings, but they are all black and white, so I'm not sure where the brown tabby came from. I know he could easily be from the same litter, but I just always think its cute and amusing when there is that one odd one out (like my little calico from the litter I fostered).
So as I watched, this is what I figured out:
First, they know my backyard. They were way too comfortable running around, jumping on things, and falling asleep in the middle of the yard to NOT know the yard. I guess the reality is, I never looked at my backyard in the dark, and that seems to be when they come out and play.
Second, most of them are young, so while they could easily be feral, I've managed to tame a few young ferals already. Its hard and it requires a lot of work and patience, but I am thinking that if I can work with them, I MIGHT be able to get them friendly enough for people to want to adopt them. That might be wishful thinking on my part, but one of my ferals is a total snuggly attention whore now and she was just plain mean and nasty when I first brought her in the house.
From what I can tell, it appears that there are 4 young ones, maybe 5 or 6 months old, and 2 full grown ones. However, the larger ones can easily be the same age, just bigger cats. But it was the 2 large ones that sat in front of my shed and watched the 4 young ones play, so thats what makes me think they might be a little older. They weren't acting like kittens, but who knows, maybe they just weren't in the mood to play.
On a positive note, I also solved a scary mystery last night. For several months now I have laid in bed listening to what sounded like someone trying to break into my house through the roof. Actually, thats just what my wandering mind thought it sounded like when I was alone and scared. What it actually sounded like was raccoons running on the roof. If you're wondering how I know what raccoons on the roof sound like, they used to run on the roof of my house all the time in New Jersey. I know that there are raccoons on Whidbey Island, but I've never seen them anywhere near my house, so that explanation wasn't sitting completely right with me. I spent several nights completely freaked out by the noises on my roof. Well...as of yesterday I now know what the sounds are. There aren't raccoons running on my roof. There are CATS running on my roof!!! We have a tree with great climbing branches that sits pretty close to the house, and as I watched last night, the cats would run up in to this tree, jump from branch to branch, and then occasionally jump from the branch to the roof!! So it was quite a relief to hear the scary sound immediately after I saw a cat jump on the roof, so thankfully that mystery is solved. I guess no one is trying to break in, and I'm not being stalked by rabid raccoons. I am, however, being stalked by every stray cat in the world.
So the conclusion I reached? Perhaps I should make a better effort to pay attention to my backyard after the sun goes down. Maybe then I would have noticed an entire family of cats living in my backyard for the past few months.
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