I'm thrilled to have a few transformations to post for Transformation Tuesday!
This first one is actually one that I wanted to share myself (with Eli's permission, of course). In the summer, Eli asked me if he could go to the rec center (the gym at the school) to start lifting weights. He'd tried it once before and really didn't like it. I didn't want to pay for a membership if he only went a few times and then quit, but he insisted that he really wanted to do it.
Well, it turned into a favorite hobby of his--he LOVES lifting weights. This is a progress photo of him. I think he started lifting in early September. He said that for his first bench press when he started, he lifted 85 pounds; and his most recent one was 195 pounds! He gets really excited when he sets a new personal record.
I'm so happy that he found a healthy hobby that he loves. He's gotten more social (meeting up with people at the weight room) and he's built a ton of self-confidence. Not to mention that he looks fantastic! (Eli will be 16 on January 7th.)
And here are a couple of readers' submissions...
I installed cedar shingles on the outside of my house (on the exterior walls of the three season room) where the previous homeowner didn’t (not sure why) and I wish I would have done this sooner. It was so easy and I think it looks more cohesive with the rest of the house. I already had the materials (shingles and paint) on hand and it took me a few weekends to complete because of the weather.
- Sarah
Sarah, I'm so impressed that you did that yourself! You're right, it seems odd that the previous owner wouldn't have included shingles there--but it looks fantastic. You did such a great job--you matched it up so well that it looks like it was always there! - Katie
This is my first ever attempt at painting furniture and I’m thrilled with the results. My mother bought these dressers in the late 1940s and they’re super solid but they were pretty ugly. I ordered glass tops for them to protect the tops.
(There was no name on this email, so I'm not sure who it's from)
These look STUNNING--I absolutely love the new drawer pulls and they make such a big difference. I love furniture makeovers like this! There are so many great, solid pieces out there that just need some updating. You've definitely found a new talent! - Katie
Thank you SO much for sharing your transformations! I always love seeing what you all come up with. Please please keep them coming so I can keep posting Transformation Tuesday. To submit a transformation (of anything--get creative!) just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Don't forget to include your name and a description of your transformation!
I'm pretty sure that I've made it clear by now that December has been an incredibly stressful month for me. I have been trying to sound positive to the best of my ability, but in truth, I've been miserable. It's not been a typical bipolar depressive episode; I'm not depressed. But I have cried many, many tears of frustration, of being totally overwhelmed, of stress and anxiety, and just feeling like I have so many decisions to make but not being able to make decisions in this state of mind. Or making the wrong ones.
The little trouble maker that started this whole thing! ;)
Today is the first day that I really feel like things are looking up! It started this morning when Phoebe paid attention to me while I was feeding the other cats. Since she's been sick, she does nothing but sleep; I have to "force feed" her several times a day (I have a disgusting purée of salmon that I blended with kitten formula--then fed her by using a syringe to squirt it in her mouth). She hated when I had to feed her, but she refused to eat or drink on her own. She's a tiny cat as it is--only 6.5 pounds--and she can't afford to get any thinner.
I put some wet food in front of her this morning and she sniffed it. I dabbed a little on her nose (so she'd lick it off and hopefully discover she liked it). She showed no interest. I put her in front of her water bowl, hoping she'd drink from it. She sat there for a little while staring, but she finally drank some water! It was such a small thing, but I felt SO relieved from it. That's the first I've seen her drink water on her own since she got sick (11 days ago? 12? I don't even remember.).
I gave the cats dry treats and put a couple in front of Phoebe, just in case, and she actually ate a few of them. I was shocked. She wanted dry treats but no wet food?! I then put a pile in front of her, but she was no longer interested. A little while later, I tried these little squeeze packets (it's essentially puréed wet food in a packet that you squeeze slowly while the cat licks it). I was stunned when she actually ate the entire thing. It's not much (the packets are very small) but it was a big start. I've been trying to get her to eat those every day but she's never interested.
I gave her another one a little while later, and again, she ate it. So, as long as things keep going like this, I'm done feeding her with the syringe! The syringe doesn't sound so bad, but it was awful--she would spit it out, getting fish-smelling clumps all over my clothes, it would get on her and make her fur all crusty, and it made her just plain hate me. She was avoiding me and when I would just go over to pet her, she cringed because she probably expected me to pull out the syringe to feed her.
Today, she actually went over to the couch and jumped up on Jerry's lap. She laid there and slept for a long time (she used to do that before getting sick). Each time I saw some of the "old Phoebe" showing, I felt lighter and lighter. The stress is starting to lift.
As far as the other cats: Chick and Duck are 100% back to normal. Duck is back to jumping on the bathroom counter until I brush him, getting into mischief everywhere he can find it, playing fetch, climbing the Christmas tree, "talking" to me all day, and just plain begging for attention. Chick is as curious as ever, always looking for a box to climb in or something to attack. He also does everything he possibly can to sneak and get Phoebe's or Estelle's food (in addition to his own).
Estelle is not back to normal yet, but she's doing much, much better. I don't hear any congestion when she breathes anymore. She's back to climbing on my lap anytime she sees me sit down (if she even suspects that I'm going to sit, she's there before I am, waiting to lie on my lap). She's eating and drinking--not as much as she used to, but I don't have to push her to eat.
So, as far as the cats go, I am feeling a million times less stressed. Seeing Phoebe perk up a bit today was just what I needed. The worst is over.
I missed getting together with my family for Christmas. Brian and Becky invited us to their house for Christmas Eve brunch (along with my parents and Nathan) and I had been planning to go. However, when Becky asked me if we were going because she wanted to plan the food situation, it was a really, really bad moment for me to have to make that decision.
I was super emotional that morning--the cats weren't doing good; my sister had just told me about how I really need to be cautious about the new COVID variant (she works with COVID patients at the hospital); I hadn't been able to work on the gifts I was making for Luke and Riley, and I knew I wouldn't finish them in time; I still needed to buy a few Christmas gifts; I had zero groceries in the house and the kids were asking me what we were doing for dinner; my house was completely neglected because I'd been so busy with the cats; and I was mentally exhausted to the point where I just couldn't concentrate on anything at all.
So I told Becky I was sorry, but we wouldn't be there. Later, when I wasn't as emotional, I wished I'd said yes; but I didn't want to make things more stressful for her if she'd already bought the stuff for brunch. I know she wouldn't have minded, but I also know that it's frustrating when people change their minds after you have things planned.
On Christmas, it was about 50 degrees outside!! It was PERFECT for going out to the garage and working on something to de-stress. I decided to make something much quicker for Luke and Riley for Christmas--a backyard slingshot. (The other project I'd been working on was very meticulous; I'll post about it here later, when I start working on it again.) Here is a picture of the backyard slingshot that inspired me (from Rogue Engineer):
I'm not making it to those exact plans, but it's very similar. After opening gifts with Jerry and the kids in the morning, I spent some time working on the slingshot. I got it all built; now I just need to paint it and add the actual sling part. The good news is that I already had all of the materials to build it. Then I spent the rest of the day with the family. We got Chinese take-out for dinner and watched Christmas movies.
I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of this nightmare tunnel, and I am so glad that I can (hopefully) go into 2022 with a much better attitude and emotional state (albeit about five pounds heavier than last month). I have been thinking about some goals (my favorite part about starting a new year!) and I am feeling more optimistic. It's been really nice having Jerry home from work, too. We haven't really done anything significant, but just having his company has been helpful.
Yesterday, my sister told me that she's taking a short mental health break for herself, so she was only going to be looking at her phone once a day (in case I needed to get in touch with her). Today, she sent me the start of a guest post about her job right now dealing with COVID patients. It's fascinating and it's exactly what I've been really wanting to hear about--I want to read first-hand accounts from people who work closely with COVID patients so I can truly understand what that's like from their perspective.
I told her I can't wait to share it, so she's going to continue to work on it and I'll post it soon as part of the COVID Diaries series I was working on. (And I'd still love to hear from others as well!)
I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and is looking forward to the new year :)
In May, I shared a heritage recipe for Tourtière (a.k.a. French-Canadian Meat Pie). I used my grandma's recipe for the crust and another woman's recipe for the filling. My family wasn't crazy about the filling at all--we just really didn't like the spices in it. I only found out later that my grandma ("Gobby") had both her crust and filling recipes in a cookbook filled with her recipes.
When I learned that Gobby made this every year for Christmas Eve--not just for the family, but also for the priest at church and close friends--I decided I really wanted to make it for Christmas Eve. Using her recipe.
I asked my Aunt Mickey about this recipe and she believes it came from my grandpa's grandmother. So that would make her my great-great-grandmother...? When I had a free trial of ancestry.com, I went as far a back as my great-great-great-grandmother. Interestingly, all of my grandparents back to that point lived within a 10-mile radius of where I live now. Mary Baron, who we believe this recipe came from, was born in 1856. I actually have a picture of her! (Which I found on Ancestry before my trial ended.)
I don't know any more about why the meat pie became "a thing" for my grandma to make every Christmas Eve, but it made me want to do the same.
I was completely unprepared to make it, however. I have had such a stressful month and nothing went as I hoped or planned. However, we had zero groceries in the house on Christmas Eve, so I braved the grocery store and went grocery shopping for a week's worth of food. Fun! (If you don't know by now, I despise grocery shopping, so I planned that terribly.) Anyway, I bought the ingredients for Gobby's Tourtière recipe.
I've already written about her a few times, but I figured I'd write something about Christmas with Gobby. Every year on the Sunday before Christmas, Gobby had a Christmas party for the whole family: her six children and all of the grandchildren and then great-grandchildren. My mom was the youngest of six kids, so my brother Nathan and I are the two youngest of our generation in the family. We were actually the same age as some of the great-grandchildren! We weren't part of the "cool cousins" because we were so much younger, haha ;)
Anyway, we gathered annually at Gobby's house for the Christmas party until it got too big and then we started doing it at the town firehall. My uncle was the fire chief and the whole volunteer fire department was basically family (literally and figuratively) in such a small town anyways, so it wasn't uncommon for parties in there. (I was young, but I do remember that there was a Playboy pinball machine in there! Hahaha).
The annual Christmas party was basically like a family reunion, even though most of my extended family lived pretty close to home. I loved going to Gobby's parties because I got to see my cool older cousins. Gobby gave everyone in the family a gift and later, we did white elephant gift exchanges, which were always fun.
Gobby got sick with Alzheimer's disease when I was in my teens (which you can read about on this post about my biggest fear) and ironically, she passed away on the Sunday before Christmas in 1999--the same day that her Christmas party/family reunion would have taken place. I can remember a moment that weekend where a lot of my aunts, uncles, and cousins packed into her bedroom and sang Christmas carols around her bed. For some reason, when they started singing Silent Night, I had to go sit on the front porch to get away. I still can't listen to that song and it's been 22 years.)
We kept the tradition of Gobby's Christmas Party going on for a several years after that, but fewer and fewer of the family members would show up, and eventually we just didn't do it anymore. It never felt the same. I really wish it was still a tradition because I rarely see my extended family anymore!
I can't remember the last time I was excited about Christmastime, but the loss of Gobby's Christmas parties definitely played a roll in it. Back then, Christmas was all about family; I loved getting to see all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins! Now that everything has become more modern, Christmas seems to be so commercialized and much more busy and stressful than simple family get-togethers. At some point, I turned into a Christmas Grinch and just wished I could go to sleep from Thanksgiving until the New Year.
Since I felt EXTRA Grinch-y this Christmas (between the issues with the cats and getting even less sleep than usual and my pain being really bad and just being completely unprepared and stressed out), I decided to try to make up for it on Christmas Eve (well, after a particularly bad morning). I spent quite a bit of time working on this Tourtière and I tried to be pleasant about Christmas music and wrapping gifts and all that. Jerry, the kids, and I all watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation that evening which was fun (I really do love that movie).
It was funny--when Clark Griswold starts losing it and grabs a chainsaw to take downstairs and cut down a tree, he notices that the knob on the top of the banister is loose. He just calmly uses the chainsaw to cut it off and move along. At that point in the movie, both of my kids said simultaneously, "That's totally you, Mama!" Hahaha!! I was thinking the same thing ;)
Here is the scene, in case you haven't seen it:
Anyways! Moving on to the meat pie...
I didn't turn this into an elaborate dinner or anything; I just made the meat pie. My Aunt Mickey told me that my grandma always served it with cranberry sauce, and I wish I had known earlier so I could have bought some to go with it. Instead, I just served it as-is.
Okay, as always, I copied and followed this recipe exactly as written by my grandma--no substitutions or alterations. Check my notes after the recipe for any clarifications. The printer-friendly version was rewritten by me with the clarifications included.
Barely cover ground pork with water. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 1 hour. With slotted spoon, put meat into unbaked pie shell. Spoon a small amount of water over top. Sprinkle with 1 or 2 Tbs. water. Bake at 350 F 45 to 50 min. or until crust is browned.
My Notes:
These are obviously two different recipes; one for the crust and one for the filling.
I thought the amount of meat seemed like a LOT for one pie. Considering I'd made the crust before for another meat pie, I knew that the crust was enough for just one pie. I couldn't be sure, but I ended up making two batches of the pie crust just in case the filling was meant for two pies. (In the end, it turned out to be correct--there is absolutely NO way that the filling could fit in one pie. It is plenty for two!)
It's hard to tell in the photos, but this is the amount of pork and onions. My face was streaming with tears after cutting all those onions!
The crust recipe was pretty straight-forward. I made one ball of dough and then after realizing how much filling there would be, I made a second ball and put them both in the fridge to chill.
You'll need a very large skillet for the filling. I laid all of the pork out along the bottom and then after adding the water, I just layered the ingredients in order on top. It didn't say to stir it, so I didn't do that.
(After it cooked for a little while, though, I did break up the meat and give it a stir once in a while.)
After bringing it to a boil, I simmered it at a very low heat--my stove reads 1-10 and I had it on 2. It was cooked perfectly after an hour.
I pulled out a ball of the pie crust dough and broke it in half. I rolled out a bottom crust to line the plate and then a top crust to cover everything.
I was right about the filling; I could only fit half of it in the crust. So I pulled out the other ball of dough and made a second pie at the same time.
It said to spoon a small amount of water over the top--I had no idea how much that was! I probably spooned about 3 Tbsp. of water. Then it said to sprinkle with 1-2 Tbsp. flour, so I did 1-1/2.
Topped it with the top crust and pinched the edges closed (I can't do fancy edges; I can barely roll out a crust!). Brushed with the egg wash.
I baked them individually because I didn't want to mess up the baking times by doing both at the same time. I pulled each of them out after 50 minutes.
The verdict: Jerry and I loved this! (The kids ate it without complaint, but when I asked, they said, "yeah, it was okay".) My only complaint would be how loose the filling is. There is no binder; in the other recipes I've seen, most of them use mashed potatoes to bind the meat together. I thought maybe the flour sprinkled on top of the filling would do this, but it didn't.
Also, the bottom (of the pie plate) had a lot of liquid in it after I cut the first piece. When I pulled the piece of pie out of the plate, it was fine--the liquid stayed in the pie plate. But next time, I might add a mashed potato--just enough to bind the meat and keep it from falling out of the crust.
Other than that, though, it was REALLY good. Jerry and I each went back for a second piece. (I like these seasonings much better than the ones I tried in the previous heritage recipe post.) My only regret is that I didn't have cranberry sauce to go with it!
Maybe I'll turn this into a Christmas Eve thing at my own house. It was fun making something that I knew was a tradition of my grandma's.
This will be rather short, because I just don't have many photos to post that I haven't already.
A quick update on the cats: I took Phoebe to the vet yesterday and I was happy that they didn't want to keep her overnight. They said it's a textbook upper respiratory infection but they wanted to do a culture to find out exactly what virus it is so they know how to treat it. They said she was dehydrated so they gave her subcutaneous fluids (where they inject fluid--I'm assuming saline?--under her skin). They started her on an antibiotic, which I didn't really understand if it's viral, but I just want her to get better ASAP, so I went with it.
Naturally, after an expensive trip to the vet, they all seem to be doing better today (except Phoebe--she perked up quite a bit yesterday after the fluids, but she's back to sleeping constantly today.) I still have to feed Phoebe with a syringe because she won't eat on her own. Chick and Duck aren't showing symptoms at all anymore and Estelle is still a little congested and sneezy, but definitely better.
Anyway, here are the few photos I have this week... (warning: most of them are cat photos)
Yesterday when Jerry and I were watching a show, he noticed Duck staring him down with the creepiest look on his face. Jerry started laughing and Duck didn't even flinch. We both laughed and then we were calling his name, but he was like a statue. Finally, he blinked out of the trance, but the look on his face was hilarious. (Although I guess if you don't see Duck everyday, he just looks like an ordinary cat in this photo)
I didn't even notice that Chick was lying in this box! I went to pick the box up off of my bed and it was heavy--then I noticed Chick was in there!
Chick is pretty fascinated with TV. Jerry took this picture when he was watching The Walking Dead one night.
Duck knows he's not allowed on the island, but I walked in and found him in this box. I'm sure he saw it and just couldn't resist!
It's funny--right after I realized he'd swallowed the yarn and I knew he had to go to the vet (he was acting very lethargic and sick) he went under the Christmas tree. I tried to grab him quickly before he got under there because I didn't want to have to crawl under and try to drag him out and put him in his carrier when he wasn't feeling good. Then I thought, "Waaaait a SECOND!" and I opened his carrier and placed it next to the tree. Not even 30 seconds later, I'd caught a cat who sat in there patiently until it was time to go, haha. (You can't really see in the picture, but he's already inside of it.)
I LOVE this photo of Luke, Riley, Eli's girlfriend, Eli, and Noah! (I blurred her face because I haven't asked her yet about sharing a photo.) They all went to my parents' house to decorate Christmas cookies. It's hard to get Luke and Riley to smile for a photo, so this one is the best!
And poor Joey was looking really neglected when he was in desperate need of being brushed. We've been so focused on the cats that Joey hasn't gotten the attention he craves. Anyway, Jerry brushed him really well and he looks like a new dog ;) You can see on his face that he LOVES being brushed! (And also that he's getting gray hairs! Doesn't it seem like just yesterday that we adopted him? It'll be seven years ago in February!)
This meme just made me laugh because it is 100% me. Sometimes I wonder if I'll have permanent markings on my back from my heating pad. I swear I get colder and colder each year I get older.
This was on Estelle's sickest day--I felt so bad for her because she was really congested and I could hear her breathing (it was louder than Jerry's). She'd been sleeping next to the heat register on the floor, but when I went back in the room, she was curled up next to him.
This was one rough night when I was up late with the cats. I had just fed Phoebe (who is sleeping on the far left). And then Chick and Estelle were BOTH lying on my lap. Estelle likes my shins and Chick likes my thighs. If Duck was in there, he'd want to be on my chest. It'd be interesting to see if all three would lie there at the same time! (The 2x4 on the wall is from where I had our headboard hanging. I moved our bedroom around and I still have to move the headboard.)
Haha! I was cutting Jerry's hair and I started with the top (I just use clippers, starting with a #8 and then doing the sides with a #2). But after I did the top, he looked so funny that I had to stop and take a picture.
Poor Duck. He was sitting on the counter today and you could see where the vet had shaved him for his surgery--on his belly and then for the IV in his arm. (Okay, this is a debate between Jerry and me... do you think cats have arms and legs? Or just legs? I say arms and legs, but Jerry thinks that's ridiculous. He's probably right, but it sounds weird saying that Duck had an IV in his leg.)
Finally, here's Chick in a box. We were wrapping presents and Chick sat in that box the ENTIRE time just watching us. When we were done, he laid down in it and went to sleep. It's so funny how cats are drawn to boxes like bees to honey!
Okay, we're going to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation now as a fam. Have a fantastic Christmas! xo
I almost didn't write a post today because I just don't have anything to write about right now--taking care of the cats (first Duck and now all of them) has been my life for nearly three weeks! But Jerry and I were going to sit down and watch a show together and I had the idea to make a post of our Top 10 Favorite Shows We Watched Together.
It was interesting how easy it was to come up with this list together. It practically wrote itself. We each have favorite shows as individuals that differ from each other's list, but this list is just the shows we've agreed are our favorites we watched together.
(There are NO SPOILERS for the shows on this list). And these are in no particular order at all...
'Friends'
This one is a given for sure. Considering our pets are named Joey, Phoebe, Estelle, Duck, and Chick, it's pretty obvious we're into Friends. We can quote pretty much every line and we play it as "background TV" when we're cleaning. This show will never get old for us!
'24'
This is one of the first TV shows that we binge-watched together. I remember when we had a "staycation" several years ago, and our kids went to Florida with my sister and parents, Jerry and I watched '24' almost non-stop. The cool thing about '24' is that an entire season is made up of 24 one-hour episodes and each episode takes place in one hour of "real time". So all of the events from an entire season take place in 24 hours' time on the show.
'Shameless'
This is probably *my* most favorite show of all time (or at least in the last decade). We started watching it from the day the first episode was aired and it was SO hard to wait until the next week. "Shameless" is the PERFECT name for this show. If you've seen it, then you know why. And William H. Macy is the perfect actor to play Frank. The show just wouldn't be the same without him!
'The Shield'
I would say that this one probably tops our list as far as our very favorite (if we take 'Friends' out of the running). We watched this every Tuesday at 10:00 PM (I remember it well, because a new episode was airing while I was in active/pushing labor with Noah, who was born at 10:46 PM on a Tuesday night). I still get goosebumps when I think of the series finale of this show; it was the most memorable finale I've ever seen.
'House'
Good ol' Dr. House! This is a medical drama, but we loved Dr. House's character (that Hugh Laurie played *perfectly*)--his sarcastic, unapologetic, selfish, blunt, tell-it-like-it-is, take-it-or-leave-it attitude. I totally wish Dr. House was a real doctor!
'This Is Us'
This one is pretty recent, so a lot of you may have been into as well. The first episode was very confusing at first with the back-and-forth timeline, but at the end of that episode, when you finally GET IT, you have that, "Ohhhhhhhh, that's awesome!" feeling. And the first few seasons (if I remember correctly) you want to find out something very specific (I won't write any spoilers); so waiting for the next show was hard!
'Dexter'
I kind of like vigilantes, and Dexter was extremely likable as a vigilante murderer. I think what drew us to the show was the light-hearted vibe of such a serious subject. We haven't watched the new episodes yet only because we want to binge-watch them once the whole season has aired. Being able to stream shows on demand has totally spoiled us in that we don't like waiting in between episodes.
'The Walking Dead'
I hesitated to put this on the list because we really loved it up until about Season 8(?). I usually HATE watching anything that is supernatural/can't-really-happen and because this is about zombies, I really didn't expect to like it. However, Jerry and I were totally hooked on it. We really liked the survival aspect of it, so when it got to the point that it was a bunch of people fighting over turf, we stopped watching.
'Desperate Housewives'
Yes, Jerry watched this with me. He was the one who actually said I need to include it on the list! This was a fun, light-hearted show with an underlying mystery that you really want to find out from the very first episode. We always looked forward to watching it!
'Prison Break'
This show was impossible to stop watching once we started! We watched this with the kids and they were super into it, too. They would ask me if we could watch an episode without Jerry if he was working, haha (we never did!). I loved how clever the whole first episode was and it had us hooked immediately.
And there you have it! These are shows we've considered favorites TOGETHER; there are shows he loves but I don't (like Game of Thrones) and shows that I like and he wasn't into (like Breaking Bad). This whole post shows that we watch entirely too much TV, hahaha!
I held Chick to wipe his eyes and nose and then he just sprawled out like this. So we got cozy for a little while ;)
I totally forgot that today was Wednesday Weigh-In. When I got up this morning, I probably couldn't even tell you what month it is--I feel like a zombie!
I went to bed on the early side but couldn't sleep at all because of the cats. Each time I heard one of them walking around, I wanted to see what they were doing (they usually sleep all night). I have to make sure they are eating so whenever I heard them awake, I tried to get them to eat. (Cats can't go very long without food; their livers can start to fail in just a couple of days.)
Then at 3:30, Estelle's noisy breathing woke me up. She was very congested so I decided it was time to get up for the day. I took the hottest shower I could stand to steam up the bathroom while Estelle was in there with me (the bathroom, not the shower). I was really surprised at just how well that worked for her. After the steam treatment, she ate a whole plate of food. I immediately went on Amazon and bought a humidifier with same-day delivery (let's hope it actually arrives today). I'm going to crank the humidifier up and see if that helps.
I called the vet today to see if I could get Phoebe in. She's really not doing well. I've been having to hand-feed her with a syringe (cat formula and pureed salmon--blech!) but I'm sure she's still not getting enough. She just doesn't want to eat or drink anything.
So, she has an appointment tomorrow. I'm guessing they'll want to keep her overnight--a feeding tube and an IV for fluids--which really sucks. Remember when I brought Duck in on a Friday for his emergency surgery? I wasn't able to pick him up until Monday because they were closed on Sunday. So, because of the holidays, I am not sure how long she'd have to stay.
I feel terrible taking her in because I know she's going to hate me for it, but she really needs to be seen. And she pretty much hates me right now anyways--when she sees me bring food and a syringe over to her, she visibly cringes away from me. I am constantly worried about her.
The good news is that Jerry is off for a whole week! And since he's on a night shift schedule, he'll still be staying up at night and sleeping until early afternoon. So, he can take care of the cats during the night and maybe I'll be able to sleep. It feels like we have newborn infants again.
Anyway, even though I didn't do an "official" Wednesday Weigh-In, I know that I haven't lost anything. I've really learned quite a bit about my eating habits over the past few weeks--I definitely don't deal with stress well and when I'm super stressed like this, I simply don't care about my food choices. I clearly need to work on stress management, but now isn't the time to even think about that.
I also started taking my anti-anxiety med twice daily (I usually just take them as needed, but I saw my psychiatrist last week--in person for the first time since the pandemic!--and we switched it up for now. It either makes me retain some serious water or I just plain gain weight when taking it daily. Or maybe both, I don't know. Either way, I'm hoping that the cats get better fast and I can go back to the norm.
I really need to start making myself a priority again--eating better and running, specifically. Everything was going so great until about a month ago. I really don't want to lose the progress I've made. You know how when you're worried about something, it's the only thing you can think about? Well, that's how I've been ever since Duck swallowed that yarn. I've been constantly worried--first him and now all of the cats. This all started from a stupid piece of yarn!
I promise I will stop complaining about the cats soon. It's just my life right now! I've never had a cat with an upper respiratory infection before and it's nerve wracking (especially considering all four of them have it). I think I'll feel better after talking to the vet tomorrow.
I can't believe it's nearly the end of December already. Remember how everyone complained about 2020 being the worst year ever and being so excited for 2021? Well, now 2021 is almost over!! It's so crazy how fast this year has gone by.
I didn't get any transformations in my email for Transformation Tuesday (bummer!) and I REALLY need a stress reliever. Looking at my shirt right now, I have about 15 different stains on it and I couldn't tell you which are tuna juice, puréed salmon, kitten formula, or the coffee I threw in my own face when I mistook it for the tumbler of ice I'd been chewing.
(Also, I've done that last one more times than I can count on one hand.)
(Also, I should mention that if you're not caught up, I was not eating those things; my cats are all sick and I've been doing everything I can to get them to eat. Well, Chick and Duck are eating just fine--their symptoms are mild. Phoebe and Estelle are old and it's harder.)
There is nothing like a good laugh to make you forget about life--or four sick cats--for a moment. Memes are my very favorite cure for a bad mood (even though my kids tell me that memes are for old people).
I know I post some memes here and there, but I tried to pick some today that I don't remember sharing before. So, here are some things that made me laugh, and hopefully they will give you a chuckle too!
My friend John made this meme about him and his husband, Ric, but I thought it was hilarious and totally applied to my kids. So I asked him to change the wording for me:
On Friday, when I didn't have any pictures on my camera roll to share, I asked Jerry if I could look through the pics on his phone and maybe do a Friday Night Photos from JERRY post. (It would have been very boring--he doesn't take many pictures, as it turns out!) But I did find some memes he saved and they made me laugh:
The dad jokes one made me laugh and then made me feel bad that he actually saved it--I'll try to laugh at his dad jokes more often ;)
Well, something smells bad and it's most likely ME, so I'm going to take a shower and put on some clean pajamas. It's been another long day!
(Several people suggested that perhaps the cats have COVID; that maybe Duck got it while at the vet. I am almost positive they tested him for it and it was negative, but come to think of it, they did that blood work the first moment I brought him in--before his surgery. So it's definitely possible. Right now, I'm just trying to keep them all comfortable and make sure they eat/drink, and I'm hoping this will pass soon.)
