Weirdness

School is weird

School is good, though. I have really enjoyed being back in-person with the labs. My biggest issue is that my 2 classes have each been split into 2, so now I have 4 classes of 111 and I had 2 classes of 112. I begged out of the 2nd 112, though I am sure they might be a bit crabby about it. But I just couldn't do 6 classes...

Life is weird

Life is good, though. 

We are going a lot. Yard sale was successful (yay). Most of the rest was sent to thrift stores. Now, we need to find more things to pack so that we can move them more easily when Mitchell is here to do some renovations. 

• All floors replaced with "Life Proof" lighter flooring, even what is now carpet
  
• Kitchen
• all cabinets
• lights
• counters
• paint
• backsplash
  
• pantry...
• Katie bathroom
• plan is to convert the shower to a "roll-in" (curbless)
• tile on floors
• tile on walls
• detail on wall
• "soap dish"
  
• change 36" to 30" vanity
• move toilet
• tile floor 
• fold down bench
  
• heated floor (yum)
• paint
• Fonda bathroom
• change out the tub
• tile walls
• tile floors (no heat - bummer)
• change vanity
• paint

And if that isn't enough...full-time work concurrent with all this. And Mitchell will be living on the property (in his Camper, on the driveway). We'll see how it goes. Phoebee may be sent to the vet's office for a few days...💗

one day at a time. 

Peace, K

 Dang! it has been more than 4 years (almost 5!!) since my last posing...a lot has happened since then.

Summary:

1. Both Fonda and I had WLS in May 2018...
1. I have lost 140 pounds, and regained 30...holding steady and I am HAPPY with where I am and how I am doing. I will let you go to Fonda's blog to see her progress
2. I have stopped some medications and also fixed my biggest problem (right hip injury)
   
3. Fonda had some complications that lead to some long-term hospitalizations. She is out now and doing well and has been doing well for 1+years
2. I have celebrated 5 years at BCC and I am still (mostly) enjoying my job (see below/COVID)
   
3. COVID sucks
1. I taught remotely from March 2020 through May 2021
2. I have learned that I can do online...asynchronously, but I REALLY prefer in-person over online teaching. I miss my students. 
   
3. Mom-Cathy died of COVID in January 2021. She came down with COVID about 2 weeks before the facility where she was living was to start receiving the vaccine. 
4. Fonda and I got vaccinated ASAP, with different vaccines...hopefully this will protect us when I go back to school in 6 weeks.
   
5. We are still wearing masks when we have to be inside or close to people - I was the only person wearing a mask at an art-gathering on Thursday...What part of infectious disease with up to 2 week incubation/infection do they not understand?
6. The College plans to start in-person teaching in August. We cannot ask for vaccination status, etc. I am planning to request people to still wear masks, as there is an incredible amount of evidence that it works to slow transmission of viruses. I do not really see this to be a successful request as I cannot get them to keep their stupid goggles on when we are working with chemicals that could potentially blind them. Sigh.
4. The cat-population in the house has changed...
1. Wren, Webster, Sera (HBD today), Spot, and Franklynn have died
2. Tulip, Bjorn (AKA Mr. Jingles), and Tangerine (Tangy) - the 3 cats from our former neighbor - are still around, Tangy has become a bit less feral, but he still keeps us on our toes (even with meds!)
3. While Fonda was recovering from her 2nd surgery (~4 months in the hospital), I ran over a kitten on a very remote section of highway on the way to the hospital in Wilmington...I pulled over and went back to find her and then the rest is history - she is a foster fail/win. Her name is Phobee Anne. She is a brat. And I love her.
4. We are going for attrition, without hurry. When we are down to 1-2, we might find another one, but until then NO MORE CATS...(fingers crossed) :P
5. My plan is to take in less-adoptable kitties and help them have the best life they can. We'll see if that works.
5. I have been sewing and making tops and starting to quilt the small ones. I am trying not to buy more fabric that will sit in the boxes... I am trying to use what I have and finish ALL of my UFOs (UnFinished Objects). I just finished one this afternoon...except for hand-sewing the binding. That will happen soon. 
6.  I had a total hip replacement on the right hip in December 2020 - I decided that I was over it and even if I was "young" for it, it needed to happen because I was really hurting too much. 
1. I am now off the medication that caused me to not have the same surgery as Fonda. And I am at about 95% - mostly in flexibility and movement that I haven't done/been able to do without pain for YEARS. 
2. Right after the surgery, I was a bit iffy...What had I done? But the hip-pain was gone, at that point it was only the surgery pain that needed to stop. 
3. After some complications (superficial infection) I am doing well and even started doing yoga again! Though with some modifications (see 1, above). Every day is a little better.
   
7. We've had some Dad health scares that are scary in the moment, but everything has been OK so far.

Other than ^^^, all is OK. I had some other personal stress/issues this spring, but I survived the experience and I am grateful that I have insurance and supportive people in my life. This COVID-thing... No fun! 

OK...enough for now and I'm not even posting some pictures yet. Pictures will follow later. :) 

Peace.

Vacation - post the first...

So...we went on vacation.  A real vacation. Not just going back to Ohio and visiting family or traveling to a job interview that can also double as a sight-seeing tour.  This hasn't happened since we went to The Campbell Folk School way back when (at least 7 years ago!)...This time we went to Aikin, South Carolina.  I know it sounds fancy, right? Well, it is a very cool town...A lot of horse-type-people and a small college-town (USC-Aikin is in town, as well as Aikin Technical College).  

On the way, we stopped at 2 fabric stores and bought a little fabric (really!, not much).  The first was in Sumter, SC called Treadle Pushers... they had, like, 4 big "long-arm" quilting machines!  You could rent time on the machines...something to look into, though it is ~2.5 hours away...we shall see.

 

I loved the  No Soliciting sign - LOL...Except, I really don't care for thin mints (anathema, I know!)

Fonda had managed to find a yard-sale, too...it was amazing that we were able to get there on a Thursday and we actually found some fabric there, too...I bought the equivalent of  3.5 yards of fabric for $14...a very good deal...though I have no photos of the yard sale, you will see: It was HOT!!

 

 After that, we had lunch at a place the quilting women suggested - good, Baker's Sweets - I would recommend it if you find yourself in Sumter, SC - on Alice Street.

After lunch, we continued on to Lexington, SC just west of Columbia...There was a much bigger quilting store there and we bought some more fabric, and of course, found somethings we couldn't leave without photographing...a beautiful tuffet...I wish my mom had made one or found one she couldn't live without before she died... She loved the idea of the tuffet and now we see them everywhere...this one was especially nice, and I think Fonda's Mom will enjoy it, too...we did not buy it, just took a photo - we really can't afford one, or to even make one...they are a bit cost prohibitive.

Sigh.

Then on the final leg, we passed our obligatory SWIFT truck - on almost all our trips, we see these trucks and try to be the first to whisper: "swift" LOL.  

 

After a good night's sleep, we got up early to go to an estate sale that we found just around the corner from our hotel (everything in Aikin is just around the corner, I swear)... While there, I found these "peacock" stirrups and thought that my sister, Meg, might find them useful (I know I would have the last time I rode! ha, ha!  And maybe the next time, too - if there is a next time).  I didn't know what they were called and I called her...Fonda said: "Its 3:30 in the morning there!" I had to do some fast figuring and then decided it was 5:30 and she was already up and probably mucking out stalls or feeding...turns out she forgot to turn the ringer on and she *was* outside feeding :)  She also suggested they would be a good addition for our niece, Abigail (Elizabeth's daughter), who is learning to ride.  I hope they come in handy for her :)  

I guess that is all for now...that just takes us to the morning of the first full-day of our vacation!  More later :)

Peace

...and then there were two

We are back down to two and the kitties are feeling better.  Wren has stopped licking her belly naked (I think it took her a reality-check that things weren't as bad as she thought - Ha, ha!).  This only issue seems to be that Tulip has begun stalking Sera and Sera has not been using the litter boxes appropriately...sigh.  We just took Sera to the vet and found out that she has a UTI - that might be contributing to the issue.  Antibiotics and L-Lysine for her...sigh.  We hope she feels better soon.

We are seeing the household come back into normality, or as normal as it gets around here.  

It was just announced that we will be having the membership fees waived for the next year at the gym on campus!  What a treat!  They have aerobic machines, a walking track, and two pools - one shallow/warm and one deeper/lap.  I will be taking advantage of that again starting on August 8th, when we go back to school - Classes start on August 15th.  I will be teaching 3 sections of the exact same class - I don't know if I should be excited or scared - LOL!  I made a "class diary" last semester when I taught 2 sections of another class, but this will be a new experience - I think it will be good.  I am not sure about the exams...2 classes on M/W, and 1 on T/Th...How do test them without them talking to each other and spilling the beans on what is covered?  I guess I just have to be patient and do my best and suggest that they might not find it adventitious to blab.

We have had some neat weather around here lately. But most of it seems to miss us - we are not getting the quantity that we expect - most of it goes north and east of us - I guess that is because of the winds coming off the ocean - though we are ~10 miles inland.  

some really cool mammary clouds - though I thought they usually came *after* a storm, they came before the rain here...(we were at Lowe's Home Improvement, of course - we always seem to go when it is raining!) 

a bit better/closer view of the clouds.  I have only seen this type of cloud in-person one other time - In Columbus, with Mom - we were driving back from one of her treatments and we saw these over Riverside Hospital.

 

The next day brought more threatening weather... ^^ the view from the front porch... 

 

^^ the view from the back porch.  Neat.

I have also been working on a quilt for the youngest that was here - a monster quilt from a pattern in "Happy Quilts" a new quilt book by Antonie Alexander at Red Boot Quilts.  I love this woman's sense of whimsy and joy.  She has a TON of patterns for quilts and softies - the book has 10 quilts and a softie that goes with each - I do plan to make a softie that goes with the monsters, too :) ... Fonda has been helping me with balance and more...

First, we had to pick out the backgrounds and the associated borders (all black-on-black, white-on-white, black and white, and two grays) - You don't know how hard it is to balance this until you try!  Apparently we are not big on grays - it was a struggle to find some in our stash!  

so...I had to trace all the pieces onto fusible-web, then cut them out...then pick fabrics for each monster - thank you Fonda for helping: 1) choose colors, and 2) getting those that kinda matched! and then, 3) helping me to kinda put the right monster in each block.  I wasn't sure about the pupils - if they would be buttons or sewn on...the monsters don't look as cute without pupils (as seen above)...I decided that because it is for a 3yo I should not use buttons...so...

 

a bit *more* tracing and then a bit *more* fusing and cutting...and now the monsters have pupils and are starting to look kinda cute...now...to actually sew everything together...each piece got sewn around each edge with a coordinating color of thread...I thought I was finished, Fonda recommended I double check everything...so: horns, eyes, body, teeth...horns, eyes, body, teeth...ten more times (at midnight, when I need to be at school at 9am)...I forgot ONE SET OF HORNS!!!!!!!!!  Luckily, I had not put that thread away yet...done around 1am with all the sewing, pulling threads to the back, and tying off and trimming...

eventually - I got them put back together in the right order and then sewn together (as seen above) - I skipped the photo of how I threw them up there at 1am...it was a mess - ha, ha.  I am not sure how we got two green-guys together, but it works out OK.

 

 then on to the borders - again, trying to make the b&w/gray borders appear random - harder than it should be - ha, ha.  Gotta try to make the pieces not match the one next to them or the square inside!  Anyway - Fonda and I got it together and then I had to pick some colors for the inner border...

And *finally* the top is done (YAY!)...now, all I have to to is 1) layer it, 2) baste it some way, 3) quilt it, 4) do the binding, and 5) put the label on it...and then do the final 5 steps with three more quilts for the other grandchildren! This has to be a labor of love...If not, it wouldn't be worth it.  

I am officially on vacation (minus going to help with registration tomorrow [Monday])...I get to sleep in for the next few days and I am totally looking forward to it :)  

There are plants to plant and water and there are hummingbirds to feed...so I guess I am off for now...One more photo - of Wren the 2nd oldest of our clan...She is 17 yo and has recently taken to the basket on the table between our computers.  She is my original sweet-tart-girl.  

Peace.

...and then there were 9...

The grandkids are visiting.  In reality, there are five kids and two additional adults...Added to our seven cats and two adults, there is a bit of chaos happening here...

The children range from age 2.9 years to 16.01 years...four out of the five are biological children of Fonda's daughter.  One is a family friend that is basically a 9th child for them.  The oldest four did not come down this time.  

They have been here for nine days and will be leaving in three...We are having a (mostly) good time - there is some drama/trauma because things are Not Normal, but things are not normal and will not return to normal until everyone is in their own space again...and even then, it will take more time.  It is amazing how much seven additional people eat and make a mess...

The 16yo has been very insistent about going for a drive (with her driving, of course) - to the point where she will pass up playing with the family to go out and drive...

first day:

We went to Ocean Isle Beach and it was an absolutely gorgeous day!  Kids got soaked and Mom and Dad had a good time, too.

The baby got soaked and then the decided that he was fine without his swim trunks - I love his hair!

This is Miss. 16 with her baby brother looking out at the waves.  Very sweet.

Day two: a "aerial" course that ranged from "baby" to "military" 

The photo is from after - the baby did not go on the ropes - it was for 4+

I didn't go on the ropes because I am a) too fat; and b) too fond of my own parts - ha, ha!

After dinner, we went out to the Fuzzy Peach (frozen yogurt) - we had a good time! 

 Day something: BINGO with Grandmas!

 

Yesterday: Playing in the sprinkler - these are the middle three...

Now the youngest four...

Tomorrow they are going to the Medieval/Pirate Show and dinner (without us - can't see spending $40 per adult and though, so we will stay home and eat leftovers) - I really hope they have a good time!  And come back and tell us all about it - I think they will enjoy it, I do not think we would. 

OK - enough for now - more later - maybe after the kids go home - ha, ha!!

I am a bad blogger...

I has been a long time since I last blogged.  All is well...sort of.

About two weeks ago, my aunt decided that Fonda and I were unacceptable people to know.  We have been unfriended and blocked by her on Facebook...stupid.  I have returned the favor, and I have also had to unfriend her awesome husband because she hacked into his account and continued her vitriol.  What a waste...I had just recently (from her) found out that her dad (my grandfather) had served in the military. He died when I was around 10(?) and I never knew that.  Now I am unlikely to get that information. 

Two days later, we had to euthanize Webster a week and an half ago.  He had chronic renal failure.  Everyone wanted us to support him with subQ fluids...It was one of the hardest decisions to make to not do that.  He was a very active kitty that didn't like to be held and he would not have put up with sitting still (being held still) for 5-10 minutes, even if it was better for him.  Everyone we talked to said "he would get used to it."  We decided that if he was willing to put up with that, then he was too far gone for it.  We are pretty sure he didn't know he was sick until last-week Tuesday.  I am 100% grateful to my sister, Meg (she is a registered vet-tech) who talked to us plainly about getting a plan together so it would not be an emergency for all of us.  With Meg's encouragement, we made a plan with our vet that we hoped to not use.  It turns out that our vet makes house calls for euthanasia. 

He liked to "help" with things like quilting...

He and Fonda would have long conversations...this photo taken March, 2009. He was about 10.

When I got up our normal routine was for him to come and get a drink at the sink while I did my morning things...he didn't come to the sink.  I did find him trying to hide under a shelf that we had set up in the craft room.  I was worried, but he seemed OK a bit later, napping on the sofa.  When I called later, Fonda said he was (still?) napping on the sofa in the living room, like normal.  I was still worried, and when I got home from work he came to do his normal routine and get a drink from the sink, but he couldn't figure it out.  He put his head into the stream of water that he normally would drink from.  He just couldn't get it.  He tried to drink from the pool in the sink. He tried a variety of ways...I started crying and told Fonda that I thought it was time...she came in and saw what I meant.

Such the regal boy, even near the end.

Thanks to Meg, we were able to call the vet and implement our (dreaded) plan.  The vet and one assistant came to our house and were very respectful and kind. We were able to hold him and Franklynn came up and hung out with us for a little while, purring up a storm.  It was all very kind and very sad.  I found the girls (except Spot, who thinks she is an only-cat, and was hiding behind the sofa, anyway) and just brought them to him and then let them go.  They both sniffed him and then left.  I am sure it was harder on us then them.

Always curious...

He came back to us on Friday in a plain and simple box, with his name engraved on it.  The vet also made a plaster-of-Paris imprint of his front paws and wrote his name...they shaved some fur and cut some whiskers for us.  The crematory sent the Rainbow Bridge poem with an inking of his paw.  It was all very nice.  He is currently sitting on the craft table waiting for us to do something...I have no idea what. He was a very patient boy when he wanted to be - ha, ha!

With is butterfly on his head...

And his angel on his back...the "body" on his left side, head near his head, with hands clasped and the "wing" on his right side, spanning his whole sweetness.

He is missed by all of us here, and the other kitties have been coming around for more pats, and just generally checking in with us more.  It is really kinda quiet since he died...I am 99% sure he was deaf and had been for a few months - he would stand right next to us and yell in our ears and he hasn't been afraid of the vacuum for a few months, and has not responded to us calling for him, but that is not 100% out of the norm for any cat.

He will be missed...sweet boy.

RIP Webster

Almost -8- 9 years...

It's been almost 8 9 (thanks Meg!) years since my mom died...I think it gets better every year and then I get hit with something else...

Mom, circa 1975 (Thank you Dad for scanning all of those photos for us!)
 
This year our cat, Webster is having a hard time.  He has chronic renal failure and has lot a lot of weight and is drinking a lot of water...apparently he can't catch up with his thirst and we hate it.  And he has an infected tooth (and really bad breath).  We are pretty sure that it would not be a good idea to put him under anesthesia...so, now what do we do.  I talked to the vet a few days ago and she said "he is 16..." and I said something like, "he is only 16" and she was trying to tell me that he is old and he has had a good life.  He doesn't know he is sick and still runs around like a crazy cat at times - we are also pretty sure that he is deaf, or at least, has had some dramatic hearing loss - He YELLS around the house and doesn't come when we call him... We are sad.

School is going smoothly, finally.  We bought the house and then had both cars die at about the same time...we have made our first house payment and are gearing up for our first (new) car payment.  We bought a 2016 Hyundai Elantra GT and I LOVE IT, but there has been quite a bit of stress around how it was all going to come together...It finally did and things are going smoothly...our first car payment is at the end of the month.

I am still really having a good time working full-time and I have more responsibility and it is really pretty neat, I just wish I had a bit more support - that I didn't have to ask for...I don't know the questions to ask until they are right in front of me and I feel a bit like an idiot.  There are things that I feel like I am finding under layers and not quite knowing what I am doing.  I am afraid that I will do something that will be permanent and I won't know what to do to fix it.  I guess I will figure it out, but I wish I had some hand-holding with this particular program...Not that anyone calls it by the same name - it took me DAYS to finally ask what the difference was for the program only to be told that they were the same thing! And then my boss asked me if I had the icon on my desktop...I ended up contacting the IT people who told me that it is actually a website and gave me the link (yeah, it is like that)...I played around today with the program because we were dropped some names of currently-registered students to contact (cold-call) about registering for classes for Spring semester.  I finally asked someone what would be a good idea to do and I got some great info and, used that to make most of my calls...PIA, but I guess it was worth it.  I didn't blow anything up and actually got some things done (and got a missing-bit fixed [yay me!])...At least I am 99% sure that I didn't blow up anything or permanently delete anything - ha, ha!

 

This photo is from when Mom and I got to go on a ME cruise on the Schooner Heritage.  It was a cold morning and she hadn't had coffee yet - ha, ha!  Sigh.

Life is going and going well.