Animal House 101

Sunday greetings. When I left you on Friday, during the Friday Favorites blog post, I mentioned that I was a little worried about how I was going to corral all four kittens together and get them to the vet. It was time for all of the kitty babies to get their first series of shots and get weighed and determine when we could get them spayed and neutered. I took Friday off so I had a long weekend. We were also celebrating Mark’s birthday over the weekend and I decided to take an extra day. As it turned out Friday was a crazy, rewarding, busy, exhausting, fun day. It all started on Monday.

The entire week was filled with appointments for the babies. Scruffy had developed some kind of skin rash on his lower belly. It was driving him crazy and poor baby was pulling hair out it was so itchy. I called the vet on Monday morning and they said they could get him in on Wednesday. I had to work on Wednesday and so did Mark. The next available was Friday which I was planning to take off anyway. I agreed to Friday and then knew I couldn’t make the poor baby wait until Friday. I called back and said I would do the Wednesday, it was at 1:30. I told them I would also take the Friday and use that for Molly to get an allergy shot. They said “oh you can bring Molly anytime for an allergy shot because she doesn’t have to see the doctor for that” So I quickly made the decision to keep the Friday and take all the kittens for their vaccines and Mark could take Molly the following day on Tuesday to get her allergy shot. I would take off during lunch on Wednesday to take Scruffy for his skin problem. Are you with me so far? I know!!!!

Mark took Molly on Tuesday for her shot, I took off an extra hour at lunch on Wednesday to run home and get Scruffy and take him to get checked out. I am about twenty five minutes from my work but the Vet is just down the road from us. I knew I could do it if everything fell into place. Turns out Scruffy has a bacterial infection on his tummy and has to be on antibiotics. We were in and out of the vet in about twenty minutes. I was making great time. Of course Molly had to get in on the action. When I returned Scruffy to the house I took Molly out to use the bathroom. Molly loves to wander off in the woods when I am in a hurry. I grabbed the leash and put it on her, smugly thinking to myself she’s not getting away from me this time. As she was using the bathroom I noticed the leash was twisted and I bent down to untangle it. The leash popped off and before I could get it back on her she took off. She may be old and arthritic but she can move when she wants to. Off she went into the woods. I went back in the house and waited for her to come back. In the meantime the kitties had started to climb all over and under my car. Let me just say by the time I headed back to work I was a bit frazzled and contemplating the sanity of having eight fur babies to take care of.

Early Thursday morning before work I got a much needed hair cut. Work was not bad I just had a lot of stuff to do to make up for the three day weekend I was taking.

On Friday I was very nervous about getting the kittens together. Buster and Sadie are still a little wild. Their appointment was at 9:00 AM. I got up at 5:00 AM I drank some coffee and tried to devise a plan. I was nervous, I was sweating. I drank more coffee. I paced a little. I decided to start gathering them early. I hated to trick them but I didn’t know how else to do it. I gave them just a small amount of food and while they were eating I walked over and Picked up Milo, Buster and Izzy one by one and just placed them in the crate and shut the door. Wow!!! I couldn’t believe how easy it was I only had Sadie, the solid black kitty, left and she is the most nervous of all. We have only been able to pet her a couple of times and she darts away from us whenever we get close to her. I decided to put her in a different smaller crate. I put the crate in the garage and put some tuna inside the crate and went back inside. When I looked out she was in the crate and I hurried and shut the door and loaded both crates in the back of my car. WHEW!!!! I zoomed off to the vet listening to Sadie squall her displeasure all the way there. Once I was there the techs came out and got all the babies. They got their shots and their first series of flea meds. The largest of the kitties was Buster and he weighed in at 5.5 pounds, Milo was next at 5.2 pounds, then Izzy and Sadie each at 3.5 pounds. Buster and Milo will go back in three weeks to be neutered and Sadie and Izzy will be spayed when they get a little bigger.

After I got home from the vet I met my friend Lorie in Sweetwater and we drove to Athens for lunch and a little bit of shopping. We didn’t have a lot of time because Lorie had a Doctor appointment and I had to walk my sister’s dog for her. We did find some time to go to Hobby Lobby and Cato’s. We had such a fun time. After I dropped Lorie off I went to my sister’s house to walk my little nephew dog Maxx. I picked up groceries on the way home. Mark wanted a Butterfinger Cake for his birthday. They are very easy to make but of course I had forgotten one of the ingredients and I had to drive back to Madisonville to get it. Mark went with me and we decided to just grab a pizza on the way home. I made the Butterfinger cake, gathered some laundry to start on the next day and crashed into bed. Friday was a bit of an exhausting day.

These are so easy to make. Mark claims he has seen them many times when I have delivered them to other people but he had never gotten one. He normally asks for pie or white cake with chocolate icing. **I am sure I will wind up taking what’s left of this to work with me** ***for the employees.***

Oh what a beautiful day Saturday was. The temps here have been really chilly in the morning but warming up nicely in the afternoon. Mark and I drove to Tellico Plains and had dinner at Iron Works Grill. They were packed as they always are on Saturdays but we snagged a prime table right at the window overlooking the river. We had the trout and it was excellent. If you are ever in this area stop and get lunch or dinner. They also have a killer cheeseburger and amazing barbecue.

I took Molly and Scruffy for a walk on Saturday and when we were almost at the top of the driveway I looked back and saw the Kitty Parade behind me. That’s Mama, and Buster in the front followed by Milo and then Sadie and little Izzy in the back. I guess they wanted to go on the walk too.

***Molly hanging out in the yard with a few of the kitties.***

***I think Scruffy is having some kind of heart to heart with Buster.***

***All four kittens and mama cat. You can only see Sadie’s eyes.***

***There is still some beautiful colors happening.***

And then Sunday, lovely, quiet, extra hour of sleep Sunday. A wonderful way to finish up this crazy, blessed, Birthday celebrating, week. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

How was your week???

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Painting Pumpkins And An Estate Sale

Cool mornings, leaves falling, wood smoke in the air. Fall is my favorite time of year. I may have mentioned that a few hundred times. I want to grab every day and cling to it and savor it. The colors here are changing but not as quickly as they have in past years. We have had really warm weather so we still have a lot of green on the trees. This week the temps are supposed to be cooler so maybe some color changes are coming.

***That’s actually Scruffy going through the woods looking like a wombat or something.***

Saturday I went to an estate sale in Madisonville. I love these sales. The location of the sale is in the same place each time. The items from the estate are brought in and the sale starts on Thursday with everything being full price. On Friday everything is 25% off, Saturday 50% off and on Sunday some items are 75% off. I usually go on Saturday because I am off from work. Although I have gone a few times on Thursday just to scope it out and see what treasures might be available.

I saw lots of things that I was interested in. I always walk through the entire building several times. There are several rooms within the building. There is also a bid box. If you see something you want but don’t want to pay the asking price you place a bid in the box along with your phone number. If the item is not sold the highest bidder will get the item. Of course when you do this you are taking a chance on losing out altogether.

***I just loved this painting of the girl with her cat. I really love the red color of her dress. I think it will stand out anywhere I hang it. And it was half off of the price listed!!!! Score!!!***

I loved this little teapot. I just had to get it. I am thinking I may give it to a friend. It’s adorable.

Look at these wooden stockings. They spell Merry Christmas. They are hand painted By the man this estate belonged to. They were priced at $65.00, well half of that, and that was a little high for me. I was talking to the man who conducts the sale and I told him I was going to place a bid in the bid box. He asked how much I was going to bid and I said $25.00. He told me I could have them for that. Yay!!! He said that he had put them out and taken them back a few times for himself but he just didn’t know if he would actually get around to hanging them. I promised him that I would and I would bring him a picture. I love them. They are really old.

***I added this wooden Santa for my Santa collection. His arms move. I don’t have one like him.***

I try to reason with myself that bringing items in only creates more clutter. But I also promise myself to continue with my decluttering that I have been working on. Yes I know not bringing it in to start with would technically kill two birds with one stone but what is the fun of that. I also got a couple of old books. One of them has a stamp on the inside with a date of 1916.

Sunday was the usual laundry, cleaning and taking care of all the fur babies. Molly and Scruffy both needed a bath. I made banana bread and cooked dinner both Saturday and Sunday. Spaghetti on Saturday night and then a rice and grilled chicken bowl on Sunday night. It was delish. I also got a little knitting in and finished painting my pumpkins.

I gathered these rocks out of the flower bed last week. As I saw one that I thought would make a good pumpkin I would add it to the collection I had on the entry table near the front door. Mark kept asking what I was going to use all the rocks for. I said they’re not rocks they’re pumpkins. I had to put numerous coats of the orange paint on them and let them dry in between. I think they turned out pretty well, just time consuming.

So I gathered the rocks:

I put the first coat of paint on them and I was pretty discouraged.

So I added SEVERAL more coats of paint. Letting each coat dry in between applications. Luckily they dried fast.
They were starting to look a little better.

And this is the way they turned out.

So back to work today and a busy week ahead. How are you? How was your weekend?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Weekly Catch-Up

Happy Monday!! It was a chilly 45 degrees F here this morning and I am loving it. The leaves are turning colors more and more every day.

How was your week and weekend? It was pretty busy here at the zoo, which is what I am now calling our house, because of all the animals.

Last Monday it was back to work for me after the Sister Trip so I had a bit of catching up to do. It was also Fall Break for several of the schools around our area so we were slammed at work. It reminded me of our summer attendance.

I started to notice that when Molly walked across the floor she was starting to make quite a clackety clack sound. I checked her nails and they were getting really long. I don’t think Molly has ever had her nails trimmed. She has always been an outside dog, until a few months ago, and her nails were always short. Not anymore, they were starting to get really long. Scruffy has to have his cut regularly. My nephew’s wife Amy, is a vet tech and she has cut Scruffy’s nails before. I asked if she could come over and do Scruffy and Molly. I also offered to make dinner for them when they came over. she said they were getting ready to go on vacation but could come the next night.

I had to work late the next night and knew I couldn’t do dinner for them so I ran by the grocery store at lunch and bought a cheesecake and some dip and hummus so we could at least have some snacks. The babies did great when Amy cut their nails I was so proud of them. Scruffy acted better than usual and Molly didn’t even flinch. Amy is very good and the babies love her.

Of course Wednesday morning I had to leave out early and take Allie cat to the vet to be spayed. She was very sore and not herself for a couple of days. I had to run by the vet clinic and pick up some extra pain meds for her on Thursday but she is doing fine now.

Thursday was Sister Lunch. We pushed it back a day so my nephew Tyler could join us. We also had Birthday cake for his brother, Caleb, who turned 18 on Sunday. I gave Caleb a Birthday Card with money. Which is what I usually do. I noticed he had a bit of a sad look on his face. He thanked me for the money and then we started discussing presents. It was still a few days away from his Birthday and his mom and grandmother was asking him what he wanted for his Birthday. He said he would like presents to open. He said money was great but it was always nice having presents to open. He does have a job now and makes his own money so I guess money in a Birthday card doesn’t hold quite the same appeal. But it really got me to thinking. I myself love presents. Giving money is easy but there is not a lot of thought that goes into it. So I think from now on I will do presents. I picked out a few things for him so he would have presents on his Birthday. And you know what? I had the most fun picking out those gifts. I think maybe in the past I have always been busy and just didn’t take the time and thought into getting gifts for him and his brother. Special occasions deserve gifts!! I also made him chocolate cupcakes and am now committed to making cupcakes for several of his friends’ Birthdays. LOL.

On Saturday I picked up my mother in law at the Assisted Living Village and took her to get a hamburger and go for a drive. It has become increasingly hard to do this. She has a really hard time getting into the car. I always use her car which is a small Toyota Corolla. She can’t get into mine at all. She no longer seems comfortable in the car and she constantly complains about everything. She almost seems relieved when we get back to the village. It’s sad, I certainly don’t want her going out if she doesn’t want to. I think she just feels more secure now being at the village. It’s funny how time can really sneak up on you and change things so quickly.

I picked up groceries on the way home and did a little laundry so I could savor most of my Sunday. I had big plans for Sunday big plans I tell you. Mark had to work so I had the day alone with just the babies. My plan was binge watching Gilmore Girls, knitting and making some cute pumpkins and bats for Halloween, more on those later, and just chilling with all the babies. And that is just what I did. I loved every second of it.

It was back to work this morning. Why do weekends go by so fast? I ran across some very strong words of wisdom this morning when I was scrolling the Gram or TikTok. So it”s not always a waste of time. This is what I read: You need three things to be happy in life.
1. Find someone to love, this could be a person or animal. (Hopefully it’s a whole lot of people or animals.)
2. Have something do do.
3. Have something to look forward to.

I will leave you with that for your week ahead and challenge you to have all of those and everything else you may want.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

In The Blink of an Eye

Hello friends and happy Sunday. In the blink of an eye is how fast last week went flying by. I wonder if there will ever be a time when I say “wow, this week has lasted forever”. Probably not. I secretly hope not because what would that mean? I don’t really even want to go there.

I am preparing for a meeting with our Southern Highlands group. We try to meet three times a year and this time it is our attraction’s time to host. We have a lot of fun things planned for them. The meeting will start tomorrow and go through Wednesday. I have been stressed making sure that all of the places we will visit will be something that everyone will like. Plus making food arrangements for three days. We will have about twenty five to thirty people at the meeting.I know it will all go fine but I will breath a lot easier when it is all over. This is a great group of people and I have become good friends with many of them so it will also be great to see them again.

I had to work late Tuesday night and once I got home Mark was very worried that Molly wasn’t getting around very well. When I got home I gave her a pain pill. Her arthritis is so bad and it makes her old legs really stiff and weak. By the next day she was back up and going on the walks with us and back to her old self. I know there will be a time when she doesn’t rally back. She is such an old girl with a lot of problems. We refuse to let her suffer. For now she has a bad day here and there but then she is back to her old self. For that I am thankful.

On Wednesday I had to go to nearby Townsend for a quick meeting to make food arrangements for our upcoming meeting. I went to work, went to Sister Lunch and then ran by my house to feed babies because I wasn’t sure how long I would be in Townsend and it was Mark’s late night. I will have more on the restaurants after all the festivities so that I can add pictures. Townsend is about an hour drive for me and it was at the worst possible time of day for traffic. After the meeting I decided a quick trip to Hobby Lobby was needed. I did buy a little yarn and have already started a soft squishy scarf. Knitting therapy is the best.

***Look at that big size 18 circular needle. I can’t wait to try that out on some chunky yarn.***

***This is some of they yarn I got at Hobby Lobby and the needles. I didn’t really need another set of size 8 bamboo needles but look at those adorable green ends.***

Thursday, another long work day then going to the assisted living center with the hearing aid tech to adjust my mother in law’s hearing aid, home, taking care of the babies and then crashing in front of the T.V. with Scruffy by my side and knitting on my lap. I am currently re-watching Grey’s Anatomy. I am on season seven. I am pretty sure I can now diagnose just about any medical issue that comes up. I am also watching a new season on Netflix called On The Verge. It is about four women who are good friends but lead different and sometimes strange lives. So far there is only one season of that.

Friday was a day full of details. Fortunately I had slept well on Thursday night and I was ready for it. I think that was the night I dreamed that we hired Jason Aldean at work. I don’t know why Jason Aldean would leave his multi million dollar country singing career to work with me but hey!!! a girl can dream. I can tell such a difference when I don’t get good sleep the night before a big day. Like I said the day was full of details for our upcoming meeting. Lots of things had to be finalized with about a million phone calls, messages and emails.

Saturday was grocery day and cleaning house. I wanted to go to a nearby quilt show but I just didn’t make it. I also did some work in my flower beds. With all the rain we have had the weeds are going crazy. I cooked spaghetti for dinner. I think my husband could eat spaghetti every day of the week.

The kitties continue to be a source of great entertainment. They are the funniest things. We are so worried that mama cat will get pregnant again. We are going to have her spayed very soon. If you have ever seen the production of CATS you know just how well the performers imitate real cats. They are such interesting animals. They have very special personalities. I have had Kitty Kitty for three years and she was actually my first experience ever owning a cat. I have always had dogs. It is hard to believe we now have six cats and two dogs. I told Mark we need a few more dogs to even things up. He does not agree. We are still planning to give two of the kitties away but we would like for them to go together.

Today was a quieter day. Scruffy and I did spend some time out on the deck this morning. I took my knitting and coffee and it was quite nice. I did laundry and I will pack for the meeting we have this week. It is being held about thirty minutes from where I live but, because I will be spending a lot of time both night and day with our group I will stay at the hotel with them. So it is always hectic getting ready to be gone for a few days. Mark will be in charge of all the babies, lord help us. Just kidding, he is very good with them but he can’t always make Molly take her meds like I do and he can’t seem to get her to eat as much.

So yes a busy full week. I don’t think it will slow down for me for a couple of weeks but that is o.k. I am off to pack and then get some sleep. Who knows maybe Jason Aldean will make another appearance.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!