I always feel a little bad for the kittens as there is often medication involved (dewormers, etc).  I guess on one hand it gets them used to being picked up/held.  On the other hand - quite literally on my hands - ouch.  They don't mean to as everyone needs their first nail trim but my hands are a bit tender at the moment.  One little guy has been getting medication since his vet visit last Wednesday, 2x a day icky liquid and for the first few days a booty soak and wash with topical ointment.  All three were due for a second dose of dewormer on Saturday and now all three have to take another medication since the one's poo indicated a protozoal infection.

The other good news is that these needs force me to weigh them a little more religiously (time gets away from me otherwise) and I can see how quickly they're gaining weight.  The guy that went to the vet last week was 1#6oz and he was up to 2#2oz yesterday.  It's mind blowing.  The other male is the same size and our girl is a bit more petite weighing in at 1#11oz yesterday.

Hopefully they will all be at a weight and ready for spay/neuter when I return from vacation.

On another topic, who ordered more cold/rainy weather?  How was it so warm over a month ago and now we're cold and considering turning the heat back on.

Who needs a drink?

I  just wrote the check for more summer camp activities.  I already sent the one at our church.  This one for 2 weeks at Camp Splash is another $380 out the door.  Admittedly, these things are not necessary expenses and I'm just feeling sensitive to the check-writing.  I'm blessed, we can do it, she loves it -- all the things, but I need somewhere to complain for a hot moment.

Then I opened the mail box. Your gal forgot that my car insurance comes in June.  OUCH!  At least it didn't go flying up in price.  I'm trying to be content with that fact.  At least my insurance does a three month split w/o charging a fee to do so.  That helps reduce the immediate  impact - but that will take me to when the payment for school and my school taxes are due.

I shouldn't be feeling this way having paid off the house. What the literal heck?

How do people with lower incomes (and more kids) do it?

 I woke up to a notification that my internet bill went through (over $100) and my email saying that I'll get two bills in the mail, one of which is medical (also over $100).  C'mon.

I gave up Church's appt to get the foster baby in, so Church will go in a few weeks.  We have a plan and meds.  Tonight I intentionally put a cat into water and it went surprisingly well.  Thank goodness he is only 1.6#.

Zero's bordatella needs another dose in 3 weeks - when did this become a thing?  That mat cause me some challenges but they are saying he didn't get it last year and it didn't create a problem... so?

Obvi a vet trip adds up with shots and hw preventative.  Garage door, landscaping, hotel booking, vet... oh and the kid even lost another tooth (at least that's a minor expense).  This has been one heck of an expensive week and it is only Wednesday.  Can I stay in bed tomorrow and Friday to prevent other expenditures?

Aaaaand ants - the little ones in the kitchen are gone.  The stray carpenter here and there in the house every couple of days continues.  Today we found larger black ants that found Avery's lollis.  When the landscaping was done he did the perimeter.  I have now deployed liquid to that cabinet.  I really don't want to need pest control bills too.

My room finally assigned for our first cruise- that is a win.  We got a hump cabin, so a larger balcony - score!

I am happy to report that the garage repair guy called later on Monday and was back with the fix for my garage door, so we're back in working order.

On Tuesday my favorite egg's Dad, aka my favorite landscaper, made his yearly visit.  There is nothing like a yard with fresh crisp mulch.  There are new plants and split plants everywhere.  With the salvia in full bloom (note they were even growing throughout the yard) the front of the house looks quite spiffy.  He also gave me an ant treatment which seems very necessary.  As an added bonus it was raining overnight, reducing my work tending to the new plantings a wee bit.

I am also proud of myself as I finally made a decision and booked a hotel for the night before our upcoming cruise.  I typically stay near the Newark airport and it is stressful every time.  My thoughts this time were, if I stay a bit further "away" from Bayonne, but right on the routes I would be taking on the way there I would still have a 40 minute drive to get to the pier in the morning, but hopefully w/ less twists, turns, and NJ headed toward NY exits.  There isn't an area anywhere near that comes up on crime and safety maps w/ "green" but this place isn't bad.  Hopefully I'll come out of this with a keeper.

On the foster kittie front, they are playing and eating, and most of them are pooing.  I do need to call the vet for the one little boy who has had a very sore rear since arriving.  He's now straining to go.  He'll look at me and cry - he defn wants some help.  Hopefully the vet can get him in with Zero and Church today, who have their yearly visits scheduled.

As you can guess from this post it has been a rather expensive week so far.  This year so far has been financial adjustments.  I felt like I was going to be able to pack money away faster than I am thanks to finishing the mortgage, but having a milestone birthday this year and wanting to contribute the max possible into retirement has me about in the same place as I was before the mortgage ended.  I mean, my deductions did jump $1500 each check from Dec, $700 when compared to earlier in 2024 (since I try to get it done early so I have a built in Christmas fund), so that more than makes sense.  All that to say I haven't leapt on the flooring at all.  I'm starting to think I might go for the carpet first.  Advice was to address that other flooring first -- was that to install it or just to pick it, hence allowing me to make a matching carpet selection?

Garage door guy rolled up right at noon - took him longer to walk through the house and into the garage than it did to look up and say "yeeeep".

He's going to see if he has the part and let me know or will get it ordered.  The good news is -- it theoretically can be in and handled this week.

Meow!  We have three new foster babies here (as of Friday afternoon), and I mean babies - younger than I have ever had - eyes still blue.  They are very reminiscent of the last set:  an all black boy that is super unsure of me, a tabby male, and  tabby female with a sassy little look on her face.

No names just yet - standby!

Dang it.  This afternoon we decided to head out for a walk/bike ride.  On the way out we put the garage door down and from across the street we could hear a loud BANG-TWANG noise.  Yep, that'd be one of the springs.  The good news is I did have a great experience w/ the garage door company I previously used to replace my opener to one with a battery backup.

I knew things in the 10-11 year old house would start to go, but I wasn't guessing garage door.

I earnestly tried to drink water yesterday.  I got 60 out of the 118.9 fl oz the app was telling me I should have daily.  I also had to step away from meetings repeatedly and got up 3 times overnight to use the facilities.  I might need diapers to achieve my goal.

This year's blood work shows that I'm getting to some of the upper limits on "normal" on a few items.  This is definitely the final warning to start to make some changes.  This morning I reactivated a few apps.  First goals are to start getting more water and get going with intermittent fasting.  I am hoping that both of these, in their own way will help cut back on my intake - but yes, I also activated my app to track what I eat and how much I exercise.

With vacations coming up I'm being realistic - I will be eating onboard.  That can be dangerous, but I usually come back not wanting to eat or cook for a while.  I can also try to use that as a 'goal', making improvements right now a small step leading up to that goal.

I also realized that when school ends I won't have as much rush in the morning.  I really should reclaim that time for me.  A younger me would have wanted the extra sleep.  I still do, but I know that my eyes will just open, so why not take that time and go for a walk?

I need these test results to be my trigger.

Another evening deferring the things on my to do list.  Tonight we had plans w/ Avery's bestie to go see the Washington Wild Things!  I've never been and it was kind of nice (even though Baseball isn't my go to sport) -- it makes me want to make the drive to Wheeling next hockey season, it's only 45 minutes away.

I also want to note that I ordered a replacement cable modem tonight.  Pray that it's an easy switch.  I tried to upgrade years back and ended up returning it as it just didn't function for me.  May as well try to get more of what I'm paying for since my current modem doesn't even support those speeds - and I gotta admit, the current one, when I look back, was purchased in 2015.  Don't judge me.

The month is getting away from me.  When someone commented that Avery only had 13 days of school left that hit hard. I still didn't book a pre-cruise hotel.  I didn't get her signed up for Camp Splash yet either.  The first weekend of swim lessons went well - she even swam the full 25independantly (w/ a few flip overs to breathe), which opens up the option for her to sign up for Kraken swim team if we wanted to.

I also had some turmoil with lawn mowing services that I think is resolved at this point.  I hope so, because needing to charge the batteries and taking a lunch hour every week to go mow isn't on my to do list.  It's hard enough to get away for a quick bite to eat much less for sweaty manual labor tasks.

Our local hardware store got the Sweet 100s in, so I planted 4 of those and 4 romas.  My main gap right now are pepper plants, which I may need to go back for.  The potatoes are looking good, same with the onions -- including two I planted from a pantry onion that decided to get growing.  I hurriedly filled several other pots with seeds the other night as late as I am with things.  The lettuce, basil and chives didn't start from my last attempt, so I tried to start more lettuce and basil.  The deeply discounted basil plants I got from the grocery store were too far gone and didn't make it.  I also tossed in some turnip, more beets and beans. I should prb start another container of carrots.

I had bought flowers earlier this month in order to send a flower in per suggestions for teacher appreciation week.  From that I filled the three hanging baskets out back, which are starting to fill out already and a pot on the deck.  I had also snagged some lavender and poppies to put in the small decorative area at the bottom of the deck stairs.  They too look pretty good and I'm hoping they'll do well there.  Out front I made a feeble attempt to add a few snapdragons.  Hopefully when the mulch gets added next week I can reinforce the need to not kill those off.  I would love to see them take hold -- they're definitely a fond memory from my childhood home.

I also managed to squeeze a little time to start readying the spare bedroom for new foster kitties.  It's the first time I've rearranged a bit in there, so it was nice to get to vacuum behind the moved larger pieces of furniture.  It also helped to open up a bit more of the footprint to interact with kitties.

The storms just keep rolling through, but that one last week that I posted about was bad.  There are still people w/o power and some roads are still a bit of a mess.  There are broken trees everywhere.  We were blessed.

We are staying busy around here running to Jiu Jitsu/Muay Thai, and now another round of swim lessons (likely her last), homework/spelling words, and trying to find spots of nice weather and free time to hang out with our neighbor friends.  Life is pretty good, but it's going too fast.

I still haven't leapt with regard to the flooring.  If one place had what I want and did all the things (e.g., didn't mean I had to buy/stain trim etc) I may have gotten the non-carpeting done at this point.  I need to get someone back in here to help me keep up with cleaning but I hate the thought of spending that money when I should be doing it my darned self.

I'm coming up on a very much needed vacation (cruise).  I'm so far behind through that I haven't booked a hotel for the night before yet.  Fortunately, I didn't find good deals on a flight either (I can drive to NJ), as I hear there is some chaos at Newark airport w/ air traffic control causing major delays and cancellations, and more than that - whistleblowers saying it isn't safe to fly into Newark.  While I don't look forward to that long drive, the goal is worth it.