Weekend Happenings

Hello friends. Wow we have had three inches of rain today. This past week we had unseasonably high temps and then today was rainy and cool. I loved it!! How was your weekend?

My weekend extended into today. I have to work next weekend because it is Memorial weekend and it will be our first big weekend of the season. So I took today off.

I had a great weekend. I think everyone should have a three day weekend. It would be the perfect amount of time to get things done and get some rest and have fun!!!

I started my weekend with these blueberry muffins. Believe it or not the potassium in these are not that bad. I also do not believe in totally restricting myself from things I love. I think moderation is key in everything.

On Saturday I went with a friend to take photos. He likes taking pictures almost as much as I do. He had told me about some of the roads he traveled to work. Some of them are short cuts on the back farm roads with the most beautiful scenery. I have to say East Tennessee is beautiful. I say East Tennessee because Tennessee is divided into three grand divisions East which is Knoxville, Chattanooga, Gatlinburg area all the way into North Carolina. Middle Tennessee is Nashville, Murfreesboro area and West is Jackson and Memphis areas. Each area is so different it’s almost like a different state. That is why the state flag has three stars. One star for each division. Ok enough history.

This is the first photo I took on our trip and I love it. I love taking pictures of old barns. Especially the ones painted red.

So we took off early Saturday with our cameras and cell phones. I love taking pictures with my cell phone about as much as my big camera. Chuck had almost the same camera as me and he was able to show me a lot of new things I didn’t know. We took pictures for a few hours and then stopped in nearby Athens and had lunch and then walked downtown to get some shots of the old buildings in the downtown area. I am saving most of the shots I took for my Wordless Wednesday post so stay tuned for that.

Flags all around the courthouse. It was very windy and they were billowing and beautiful.
Isn’t the courthouse here beautiful. It is very old.

I picked up groceries on my way home. I took care of all the babies when I got home, we went on a long walk. I put the groceries away and started some laundry. It was a great day!!

This is our girl Sadie, she thinks she is a wild jungle cat.
Scruffy and Molly
Allie Cat, AKA Mama kitty. She is mama to all the kitties we had.
Sadie and Izzy. These babies love going on the walks with us. It is the funniest thing you have ever seen. They are all trailing behind me as I walk. I feel like we’re in a parade. HA!!!
Izzy

Sunday was quiet. Mark and I were both off and we just hung out at the house. I did more laundry and worked on the temperature blanket. I had about a billion ends to weave in. That is the only bad part about switching colors so many times. I cooked dinner and caught up on Working Moms on Netflix.

Monday I had to get my hair done really early and then I planned to continue cleaning my Mother in Law’s house. We are planning to rent it so a lot has to be done. A sweet friend came to help me. We worked for about three hours and then got some lunch and went back to her house to eat it. I had to pick up some things for my MIL and take to her. She was In good spirits and wasn’t even upset about her upcoming doctor visit. I went home to feed and walk the babies and get ready for work tomorrow. It will be a long week because I have to work on Saturday.

My eating is going well this week I am down about nine pounds. I want it to go faster but I know realistically this is the best way. I also am now on a low potassium diet. I had blood work a couple of weeks ago and my potassium was higher than it should be so I had to drink a liquid potassium binder, which was pretty yucky, and have the test repeated. The results were better but not quite where the doctor wants them to be so I had another of the delicious binders and will get rechecked on Thursday. We will see after that. All other blood work was great so it is a bit of a mystery. I would be concerned with only having one kidney and that could be causing a problem but all kidney related blood work was great!!! I’m trying to remain calm and optimistic that we will get to the bottom of it. However potassium does play a big role in your body. It is very important to keep it balanced.

The inside kitties, Gus and Kitty Kitty are getting along better every day.

This was the first time I have seen both of them on the bed at the same time. Gus’ fur is starting to come back in and it looks so weird. The places where there is the least hair is where the hair was the most matted.
I love this look I think it says I am here and I am King!!!!
More daisies blooming. I love them. They are my favorite. do you remember picking the petals and saying “he loves me he loves me not”? You always had a special person in mind while you were picking the petals and you just always had to make it end the way you wanted.
I love these. Weeds or flowers either way I think they’re beautiful.

So how was your weekend?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Friday Favorites 5-20-22

Hello and happy Friday. I hope your week is going well it’s hard to believe that Friday is here already but here we are. I wanted to share a few favorite things with you this week.

First this dog clipper set from oneisall. I ordered this set from Amazon and I love it. Scruffy has such anxiety when I have to get him groomed. I hate leaving him even though I know he is taken care of and trimmed up so nicely. It had been getting harder and harder to get him in with the groomers we had been using. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I ordered this set and watched some videos on YouTube and last week I trimmed him up. He had so much fur hanging off of his legs he was just a tick magnet whenever we went out. I used one of the clippers to trim up his legs and then another to cut the fur off of his body. I used the scissors to trim the hair around his eyes and face. He is so much cooler and no fur hanging on the ground. It is not a professional job by any means but that is o.k. with us. He is a good baby and is so still and patient when I trim him. Even when I cut his nails he is so good. You know your baby and if they would allow you to do this. But it does save time and money and if you are like me I just hate to see my Scruffy having so much anxiety.

I am loving these jeans form Kohl’s. They are pull on but fit nice and snug around the waist. I just got two pair in two different colors of denim, one light and one dark, and I just ordered a white and black pair. They are the Women’s Croft & Barrow Girlfriend Pull-On Jeans and they are on sale right now for $19.99.

I have been reading this book by Beverly Cleary. She wrote the young adult series, Ramona Quimby and Beezus Quimby books. I love all of her books but she was really an amazing woman. She was 105 years old when she died last year. She was an amazing woman and I am loving this book.

And you know I can’t read just one book at a time so I started The Hobbit. A fellow blogger had mentioned reading this. I can’t remember the last time I read it but I think I will enjoy a little out of this world reading.

Wednesday night we had a Girl’s night and went to see Downton Abbey’s second movie. Oh my goodness it was awesome!!! If you are a Downton Abbey fan or even if you are not I think you will enjoy this movie. I want to see it again already.

And you know I have to slip a kitty picture or two in. Kitty Kitty has been sleeping in this shoe box in my bedroom. She snuggles perfectly into it. It makes me wish I could snuggle up somewhere like that too. She especially likes it because it still has the tissue paper in the bottom of the box.

Just a few things I thought I would share with you. What have you been loving this week.

Always remember

Love your day your way

Weekly Happenings

I think that there is nothing that makes you realize your own mortality then the death of a sibling. I have lost three other siblings before my sister Pat passed away last month. But something about her death has hit me harder and made me take a long hard look at my own life and health. I guess it’s because I am older now. I have really been trying to clean up a lot of unhealthy habits in my life. With my weight being the main issue, as far as I know anyway, I have been working really hard on eating better and moving my body more. I am down about seven pounds so far and hope by this time next month it will be even more. I am not doing anything radical or taking diet pills or drinking shakes or anything like that. Just better eating and exercise that is what will have to do it for me. I have always been one to eat my feelings instead of feeling them. By numbing myself it is easier to avoid feeling bad. Well that is until all your clothes don’t fit and you can’t walk a short distance without being out of breath. There is a lot of life to live and I want to be the healthiest I can be to do it. I want to be better physically. I just felt the need to share all of that.

A busy weekend over here. On Saturday my sister and my nephew helped me clean out some things in my mother in law’s house. We know that realistically she will never be able to live at home again and the house has needed a good cleaning for several years. We worked for several hours and then I went to visit my mother in law at the assisted living village. Her short term memory is getting so bad and she asks me the same questions over and over or tells me the same story over and over. I just pretend it’s the first time I have heard it. She loves for me to show her pictures of the babies. I try to take several throughout the week so I will have plenty to show her. She has so many stories of when she was a young woman, newly married, riding a greyhound bus to Knoxville every day to business school. The trip was over an hour each way. She studied on the bus and the bus driver always flirted with her. She can still tell these stories like it was yesterday and I love to hear them. Sometimes I start asking her questions so she will tell me one of those. She has such a look on her face when she tells them like she is still seeing every memory and I am sure she is.

Look at this pollen. It’s been crazy!!!!

After our visit I bought groceries. I am amazed every week when I see the price of groceries. Of course having seven babies to buy for isn’t cheap. Scruffy and Molly have to have canned dog food because their teeth, or lack of them, makes it hard to chew hard food. Also dog food and cat food have become really hard to get. I know you have heard the horror stories about baby formula.

Sunday my sister had a cook-out at her house for my nephew Tyler, he graduated from college last week. I was lucky enough to get a ticket to go. He only got four tickets and his mom and dad of course went. My brother in law, his grandfather, couldn’t go so I was able to get his ticket. My sister and I went and sat on the bleachers in the gym for three hours. It was more than worth it. We all went out to eat afterwards and had a really good time.

I have been doing a lot of walks with the babies. It has been really hot here so we don’t go far. I have also been working on the temperature blanket. I am still a little behind but working on it when I can. I can’t wait to show you what I have.

I love daisies they are my favorite flower.

Work continues to be busy but manageable. I am trying to get my house de-cluttered, I think that is an ongoing process and that is o.k.

You knew I would have to sneak a kitty picture in somewhere.

That is what has been going on in my neck of the woods, how are you doing?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!!

Gus Moves In

Happy Friday friends. Sometimes on Friday I like to do a Friday Favorites. But I guess one of my favorite things from this week is that the big orange kitty Gus has moved permanently into our house.

Remember when we got Gus a few weeks ago he had been living in a nearby neighborhood, hiding during the day and only coming out at night. He would go around to different people’s houses’ and they would feed him. Poor baby was not in good health. He had a bad respiratory infection and his fur was so matted you could feel these huge bumps and bulges when you touched him.

We put him next door at my father in law’s house so we could visit him and feed him several times a day. We took him to our vet and they checked him out. He had not been neutered and was not chipped. He had been living near this neighborhood for weeks and no one had claimed him. One of the neighborhood ladies had posted his picture on Facebook and it was shared several times and no one came forward. So I guess we were not surprised that he was not chipped or that no one was looking for him.

After we got Gus neutered and got the upper respiratory cleared up and his hair shaved we decided he should be an inside cat. He did really well indoors and seemed to be a big chicken when we took him outside. There is no telling what the poor baby went through during his weeks out in the wild.

This was just after he had been neutered and a lot of his hair had been shaved off to get all the matted fur out.

We decided to do short visits to try and get him and Kitty Kitty and Molly and Scruffy all acquainted with each other. We did this for about a week. We would bring him over for several hours a day. Kitty Kitty absolutely hated him, Scruffy was intrigued and Molly couldn’t care less. The minute Kitty Kitty realized Gus was in the house she would run upstairs and get under a bed and that is where she would stay until he left. After about three days Kitty Kitty started wandering downstairs while Gus was in the house. She would dart around and run to her food bowl or the litter box. We got Gus his own litter box so that Kitty Kitty wouldn’t think he was totally taking over. But poor Kitty Kitty was miserable and I felt terrible. We decided to give it two weeks and then make a decision about whether we could keep Gus and still have harmony in the house. After all, Kitty Kitty was here first and we felt an obligation to her.

Last Friday was move in day. Mark and I both had a long weekend off and we decided this would be the time. We moved all of Gus’ things over. He ran around the house as he always did when he came for the visits. Kitty Kitty ran upstairs for a bit but it wasn’t long this time until she wandered back down. Her and Gus circled each other. Gus was very interested and tried to be friends but Kitty Kitty would have none of it.

This was the night they finally made friends. They stayed like this for about an hour looking at each other.

This went on most of the weekend although, Kitty Kitty started coming around and they even sniffed each other a couple of times. By Monday night they were sleeping in the same room together along with Scruffy. Kitty Kitty was still keeping her distance. On Tuesday they started hanging out around each other more and more and by bedtime they were just a few inches from each other and seemed to be fine with it.

And now one week later and they are around each other all the time. A little hissing every now and then but most of the time they are fine together. I haven’t seen them lying together anywhere snuggled up or anything crazy like that but I’m not convinced it won’t happen.

O.K. now let me tell you a little secret. I am absolutely in love with Gus. He is the sweetest, loving kitty we have ever had. The outside kitties have always been a little ferrel and they don’t want you to pick them up or even pet them very much. Kitty Kitty has her moments when she wants to be petted but it is totally on her terms and you are only allowed to pet her for a couple of minutes at a time. But Gus, Gus loves attention. Actually he demands attention. If you are sitting he will jump right up in your lap and press his forehead against yours and hold it there. It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen. I had Scruffy on my lap the other morning and Gus jumped up and made himself at home under my neck. It was quite a cozy scene. Gus loves to snuggle and you could probably carry him around all day and he would be fine with it. When you pick him up he tucks his head under your chin and settles in. It’s so funny how each one has their own little personality. I think Gus may have been raised around dogs. When he meows it almost sounds like a dog. Mark said he sounds like the Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz. That is a pretty accurate description because he also looks like him!!!!

Gus loves to lay on this blue furry throw. Poor baby had some shots yesterday and he was not feeling well this morning. You can see his hair has started to come back in. It still looks a little patchy in places.

That is our Gus. We love him and can barely remember what it was like without him around all the time. It’s funny how these babies wander into your life right when you need them. Scruffy came along when my brother Allen passed away in 2018 and then Gus appeared when my sister Pat got sick and passed away last month. God definitely knows where to put them.

Have a wonderful weekend

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!