TToT – The Last Long Weekend
Friday evenings hold something glorious and exciting.
But when Thursday is the new Friday and the weekend is four days long? That first evening of the weekend is even more thrilling. We’ve had quite a few long weekends since the Hub only had to go into work Tuesdays through Thursdays all summer. So here we are at the end of the first day of our last four day weekend – the last real hurrah before school and September hit full stride…
![20150828_194855[1]](http://www.themeaningofme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/20150828_1948551.jpg)
Speaking of school, Zilla’s first week of school went swimmingly. She’s falling into the school day routine nicely right out of the gate. She loves her new teacher, loves her new/old classmates, and is excited about school in general. This mommy is beyond thankful for all of that because our girl spent most of summer saying she didn’t like school and had no desire to return. So…whew! Prayers answered and we’re so happy to be off to a very positive start.
These guys…my three Rottens. When I return home after dropping Zilla off at school in the morning, all three are waiting at the top of the stairway for me.
I actually think they’re wondering where Zilla is, but it’s nice to have them waiting and to have them around for company. It’s nine kinds of quiet here now that everybody is back in school.
Speaking of the Rottens, we’re pretty thankful for our new veterinary office. We switched all three Rottens to a new clinic for a number of reasons. Several days ago I called out of sheer frustration because someone – and we really don’t know which one – can’t seem to figure out that poop outside the litter box does NOT make the people happy. We’ve tried everything. If you read here you know this is an ongoing drama. Anyway, when I called, the staff spoke with me for quite a while about what might be going on and gave me several options to try and resolve the problem instead of the get-more-litter-boxes-and-do-some-expensive-testing answer we’ve become accustomed to hearing elsewhere. So this alone is good. But there’s more….
Anyway, the most likely theory at the moment is that Cat One is constipated (I know, I know, TMI…) and the simplest answer is to try some wet cat food. Problem. Our Rotten Cats have never liked wet cat food – weirdest cats ever, right? But this is in their best interest. So I, the resident cat hater, am pleading and cajoling these boys into eating their wet cat food. Honestly. For several days, they still wanted nothing to do with it. But after about a week(ish), all three are participating in the wet cat food party and nobody has pooped outside of the box. Hooray. I shall still reserve the right to hold my breath and see how long this lasts…I’ve been fooled before.
Enough of that shit. Moving on.
I got some follow-up blood work done (WAY overdue because #inconvenient) and the numbers look good. Standard stuff, but when I had it done originally, it was 24 hours before I came down with flu-like symptoms. No good. All seems fine in the long run and aside from a summer cold, I feel pretty good, despite the horrible heat wave this week.
Several days ago, I got an offer for a home-based JOB I’ve been hoping would come through. I also have a couple of regular tutoring clients right now and have picked up some more freelance work that I really like. I have a couple of new things in process that may or may not turn out to be a little something extra as well. None of these is a full time income by itself, but that’s OK. This is precisely according to plan which is to have several avenues for home-based and freelance work so that I don’t need to depend solely on any one. This is all good.
I am thankful for all the friends who sent prayers, good thoughts, etc. about the aforementioned work scenario.
I am thankful for Kristi. She knows why.
I am thankful for my Mom and my Sister for being a part of our everyday lives and for being supportive of Zilla. My sister, especially, was wonderful for Zilla this week. Zilla adores my Sister and hearing her aunt’s story of a similar second grade incident was just what our girl needed.
I am so happy to be doing a bit of writing again, other than my TToT’s. Not much has appeared in this space (yet), but the words are flowing again. I hope to get more up here more regularly in the weeks to come. In the meantime, I linked-up with Ivy’s Six Sentence Stories again for the last two weeks and was quite pleased with the results here and here and I am quite grateful for the very positive feedback from everyone.
I am thankful for a surprise or two this week – can’t really elaborate on that, but it’s worth mentioning. Let’s just leave it at being thankful for a surprising possibility.
And I have to include that I’m very thankful that the scale has FINALLY moved back down to the new normal again. Yay. Thanks to Clark for his ever-encouraging early morning messages.
I am thankful for the Fab Hub. Still, the best coffee-maker in the world. And he’s unfailingly supportive and encouraging, most especially when I can’t seem to be supportive or encouraging for myself. When I get frustrated and let fear get in the way, his annoyingly logical brain always manages to point me back in the right direction.
Raptor sightings – close ones! Zilla and I encountered three turkey vultures in the parking lot behind church/school on Thursday afternoon. So. Cool. The picture, of course, doesn’t really do justice to the real experience. At one point, one of the vultures flew so low overhead that we could clearly see the white beak and red on his head. Here’s a half-decent shot of all three in a triangle above the trees in the lot…
![20150903_152214[1]](http://www.themeaningofme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150903_1522141.jpg)
OK, my eyes are done for the day – lots of reading this week and especially today. So I’m out.
Now it’s your turn – what are you thankful for this week?
Are you falling back into the school-year routine or fighting all the way? What’s the hardest part about transitioning back to the school year? Why do we see so many raptors around lately? Will the Rottens continue to poop in the litter box?
Let’s hear your thoughts and your thankfuls!
You know the drill – share ’em or link ’em!
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Frist, really?
Frist really.
Congrats on the freelance and tutoring work. Does the fact that turkey vultures are circling the church/school concern you in the least? LOL. We have turkey vultures in our area, I took a photo of one hiding in the tree waiting to pounce on the road kill. Yuck and that’s probably TMI. Wish I could come over and have a cup of Fab Hub’s delicious coffee with you. Have a good week.
Thanks, Val. I’ve been working so hard to get all these little things to come together and it looks like it’s finally starting to fall into place.
No, the vultures, do not concern me. They won’t go after live prey so it’s not like they’ll snatch up little children or anything. There could have been a dead squirrel or something in the soccer fields. Or they were just hanging around enjoying the thermals. They weren’t doing much flapping – just gliding around – so I suspect they were just enjoying the afternoon.
The Hub’s coffee is beyond compare. A steaming cup was just delivered to me this second… 🙂 You can come for coffee anytime!
WOOHOO! WORK…HEALTH….SCHOOL…AND PROER POOPING ALL IN ONE WEEK????? SHAZAM!!!!
It’s pretty big.
[…] I read the Ten Things of Thankful posts by Lisa over at The Meaning of Me , I think what a great idea, I should join in on that! This […]
Sounds like a great week! Congrats on the new job. I’m so glad your daughter likes school this year, always makes it so much easier. I’ve been down that “I don’t want to go to school” road and I’m glad you won’t have to travel it this year. Thankfully, both my kids seem happy with their school this year as well. Great picture of the turkey vultures!
Jean, I’m so glad you’re joining us this week!
Not having to fight a child to get up and get ready for school is a great thing. I was really worried this summer, but so far we’re doing great. Glad your two are happy as well!
The vultures were really cool – the camera is never quite as impressive in its telling as what we see in person. I’m hoping we might snag some good pics today – we’re heading out in a little bit to go to the raptor sanctuary for Vulture Awareness Day so at the very least, we’ll see one up close at the education program. But a fly-by would be amazing…
Good good good that the work situation is coming together! And I am so glad to hear that Zilla likes her teacher. Makes a world of difference.
Hi, May! Yes, many goods on that starting to take shape.
The student-teacher dynamic is so important and even if both parties are in a very positive place, not everybody fits with everybody else, you know? There has to be a particular chemistry for some real magic to happen. I’m delighted that she has taken to her new teacher so quickly because she was very negative about school all summer just in general. Loooooong story. But a good start is in the bag and we’re ready for week two!
very cool vultures! (we have them up here in RI as well)… just like in the old cowboy movies (squint, look discouraged and say, ‘don’t bother men, I don’t think he’ll be getting away’)
good news on the employment and blood work front (lol ain’t funny how people are always asking about them)
September, while not my favorite time of year is surely one of the most non-ignorable months in the calendar.
Good Graviteering!
The vultures are cool and we got even better film today at Vulture Awareness Day. Awesome. I dragged my butt up there with a horrible cold because I wanted to see vultures. Mission accomplished.
Employment and blood work – yes and yes. I find it a bit ludicrous that I have to do regular blood work, but so be it.
I’ve decided I’m re-vamping my exercise program starting after this weekend so I’d better see some more productive and steadily downward-trending Graviteering!
Glad your daughter is enjoying and settling back into school.
🙂
It can take some time
Me too, Kerry! 😀
Wow, Lisa, this was just a wonderful bounty of blessings in your life this week! Isn’t it fun when we don’t have to work hard at all to think of things that were good?! As a multi-cat mom who thinks your Rottens hi beautiful, I can appreciate how nice it is to find a cat poop only where it is supposed to be, not to mention finding some awesome new veterinary care that is helpful! I had to take Toby to the vet again this morning, and Was relieved to learn that he’s on going breathing problems are asthma and not heart issues. From now on we will be putting asthma meds in his food, and hopefully he will continue to thrive.
I am delighted beyond words that Zilla had such a positive start in school this week, the beginning makes all the difference for the rest of the year! Wonderful news about future directions of your home-based career too, I am a firm believer that good things come to us right when they are supposed to!
It really is, Josie. I definitely believe that things do fall into place in their own due time. I don’t always do well accepting that or being patient about it. I continue to work on that.
Poop where it belongs is a good thing – cat or otherwise, really, but around here it’s definitely a cat problem. Our new vet is amazing. Sorry Toby’s not breathing well but asthma is better than a heart problem. Hope he continues to do well. I’m sure you and Papa Bear will love the heck out of him, so that’s a huge help.
Zilla starting school so well is probably the happiest thing on my list. Truly. It’s a wonderful start. Prayers answered.
I’m thankful for the open communication I have with my girls. The toughest transition for school has to be balancing soccer and homework, dinner and bedtime. The afternoon and even fly by!
Open communication with our kids is huge, Eli. Huge. That’s worth a ton.
I’m with you on the balancing act – Zilla’s only seven, but her world is busy after school this year and making that fit with homework and a reasonable dinner and bedtime is definitely a new challenge. Someone please tell me why kids’ activities are at the stupidest possible hour of the evening??? 😀
So many wonderful thankfuls this week, Lisa! I’m so glad Zilla’s return to school went so well. Lily has another week off, and she’s going to enjoy it holed up in her room, reading, I suppose 🙂 Yay for no more kitty poop outside the litter box. I hope the kitties continue to behave. Family is always something to be thankful for!
Have a very wonderful week, Lisa!!
Definitely a good round of thankfuls, Stephanie.
I can’t tell you how happy we are that the school year is off to a good start. Is Lily a heavy reader? Zilla definitely is. We did several summer reading incentives – not because she needed the prompting, but because she was all about the prizes she could earn! 😀 We had to log minutes for most of them and she came in somewhere around 5,000 minutes from mid-June until this week. At least that’s what I remembered to log! I love that. I wonder if the girls would enjoy pen-pal-ing?
The Rottens are doing well so far…still crossing my fingers and holding my breath.
And yes, family always.
Have a wonderful week, too! Enjoy the last week off for Lily!
I thought about it, too, setting the girls up as pen-pals.. It would be a good way for Lily to practice her English in a year or so. Probably in the beginning, I could let her write a letter and translate it, if she’s not confident enough to write English right now 🙂 But I think it’d be a great idea. I had pen-pals as a child, and it was awesome!!!
Love love LOVE the idea – let’s do it! Talk to me when it’s convenient.
Let’s set up a Skype meeting for the girls and see how they get along 🙂 BTW: Do you know a book called “Alice in Blunderland” by Phyllis Raynolds Naylor? It’s part of a series. Lily read it and loved it! Maybe Zilla would like it, too!
Oh my gosh, how fun! 😀
I don’t know that one, but it sounds just from the title like it would be right up her alley…going to look it up.
So I know you said enough of that shit, and I will say Ms. Kitty being a single cat is really good about using her litter box. She’s actually so good that if the litter box cleaner (me) leaves it outside soaking for too long, she will poop where the litter box is supposed to be.
But, your pet parenting poop tale reminds me of an incident this week, where a certain canine (Louie) did not want to get his feet wet from walking in wet grass to take care of nature’s call, and pooped on the floor. Both dogs (even the innocent one) were so upset over breaking poop rules, that they both raced into my room and tried to hide under my desk. While I was on a work call. Did I mention the desk isn’t really big enough for even one of my dogs to hide under?
Heh – that doggie story is too funny, Vanessa! Animals are so silly.
Ms. Kitty is a very smart kitty pooping where the box belongs. This morning we caught the pooper red-handed so now we know for sure which of the three Rottens is the culprit. Although we kind of already knew… But now we’re back to the drawing board again…
We have a baby gate at the top of our stairs, and our baby is 16-1/2! We don’t latch it anymore, but we pull it closed as a reminder that the security system is armed and if you go down the stairs, you’d best turn it off first. We don’t latch it because Pete is too fat to go under it anymore, and he would be trapped on one side or the other and it wouldn’t be good.
Congrats on the home based job. I would love to find something like that but don’t know where to begin to look for something legit.
Cats who don’t like canned food?! I am so happy my cats (so far) don’t have to eat it, because I can’t stand the way it smells, and it also makes it harder to go away for extended periods. Hope it helps Rotten #1 and it’s the end of your poo probs!
Yay to a good first week of school for Zilla!!!
Yeah, we still have the gate because while Zilla is perfectly capable of the stairs, they are very steep and she likes to spin…easy to lose your bearings and down you go. I also admit I feel just a bit safer around it myself, just as a reminder.
We had to raise the gate a few inches for our fat boy because he couldn’t get on it.
Talk to me about the job thing – you have my number.
You must know by know that our cats are complete idiots. Weirdos. We do think they’re happy with it now, but did catch Rotten #1 pooping under the bed this morning. Seriously WTF is it with this cat???
I don’t think a day goes by that we don’t see a turkey vulture. Not my favorite bird, but they are impressive garbage men.
Congrats on the work coming through!
I’m glad school has started well for Zilla. A teacher she likes helps tremendously in that regard. Praying it keeps up all school year.
We see them so often where we are, Christine. They’re kind of amazing.
The work is good and school is running well so far – we’re pretty happy!
That is fantastic that Zilla is settling into school, AK starts tomorrow.
We have gone the multiple litterbox route. We tried special food for urinary tract infections, and while that may have been part of the problem I think our cats are just clean freaks.
So happy for you on the new job!!
Thanks.
Rotten Cat One is back to his “outside the box” thinking. The Hub took him on a chaperoned trip to the box and it seems he’s a bit blocked up. So tomorrow we call the vet and let them know the wet food isn’t quite solving the issue. The saga continues… It’s a good thing they’re cute and such a part of the family, right?
Yes, the work coming in is a good (and very relieved) feeling. Is it my ideal life? Yes and no. But it’s progress and it’s income and it will be good.
Wow–you’ve got quite a few big thankfuls this week! Congrats on the job! I’m so happy for you and Zilla that she’s enjoying school–that really makes all the difference. I hope the Rotten Cats get back to using the litter box all the time.
It’s been a big week for sure, Kristi. Another good day at school today – and excited about math! That’s a major piece of progress.
So glad things are moving along on the job front and that your health is good and that Zilla is liking school!!!
Me, too!
It really sucks when we find out that our kids are having a hard time at school! Glad Zilla is loving it now!
And, congrats on your job offer!! Keep us posted on how it’s going!!
Thanks, Roshni! Things are definitely unfolding well for all of us! Good to see you here!