Today was less great...

Today was less great, but I'll admit that a lot of it was due to my attitude.

I woke up early because I heard Rose barking like she does when she needs to go out in the morning.  Hey, props to her for letting us know - we appreciate it.  I hate to admit that Shaun is usually the one to get up with them and let me sleep in.  I don't know how that became the norm, but I've been going to bed earlier lately and today I was like "Nah, he can sleep and I'll deal with the dogs."

I got up and let them out.  Made my normal breakfast of oatmeal and fog tea.  Took my meds and drank a bunch of water.  Let the dogs back in and watched Rose eat a whole bowl of food (thank goodness).  Then we settled in on the couch where I mindlessly and unhappily scrolled because I didn't know what to do with myself.  😂😂😂

I guess the mindless scrolling wasn't hitting the spot because later I woke up to the doorbell ringing and it was the electrician here to work on the sunroom.  Shaun woke up and came down in case the electrician had questions for him.  Shaun seemed frazzled because I'm sure he just stood up and threw on clothes when he heard the doorbell ring.  It also doesn't help his anxiety when people are working on the house.  Since we are both big into doing things ourselves it feels really awkward to be sitting here while someone else works.

Anyway, I sent Shaun to his game room and told him I'd keep and ear / eye out on the dogs.  Rose barked pretty constantly the whole day no matter what any of us did.  It wasn't super fun.  I managed to get a few things done on my Lappy that I'd been meaning to do so I guess that's something.

I got an alert on my phone that we're having some winter storm weather starting early tomorrow morning.  We might be getting some snow.  So... our sunroom might not be finished until later this week because the electrician left today without completing the job.  He left early yesterday having barely done anything.  I'm pretty frustrated and ready for this to be over with.

Look, the sunroom has places pre-made into it for the wires and conduit to run.  He just needed to put in some boxes and wire some switches and I'm failing to see how this should be a 3-day job.  No, I'm not an electrician or an expert in the field, but I've watched Shaun do some pretty intense electrical work (he learned from his dad) in far less time than this without even having all of the proper tools.

I'm not about to go all "Karen" on anyone, but my gosh I'm allowed to say that my patience is running thin.  I want to get this stupid dog adjusted to the sunroom and calm before she has surgery.  I want to put my plants on shelves and see who's gonna live.  We want to move the litterboxes out there, and I want to shampoo the carpeted area where they were once we move them.  We can't do any of that until the sunroom is completed and I'm not enjoying trying to psych myself up to do this work (especially because the dumb dog and the plants are going to mess with me emotionally) only to keep having the date I actually have to confront all of this moved on me.

Anyway, I suppose this turned into a vent / rant and I didn't mean for it to, but like I said - my attitude isn't the best today.  I don't know why.  It was cloudy and maybe I missed my sunbeams.  I don't really care for days without sunbeams, I've found.

Well, I'm going away.  Hopefully my bad attitude doesn't rub off on anyone else.  Be better than I am today.  You can do it!

Mish-Mash of updates.

Today has been pretty good.

The electrician came to run electricity in the sunroom today, but didn't finish.  He'll be back tomorrow.  I'm good with that.

I officially finished moving 11 Januarys worth of posts to my blog(s) using Facebook Memories.  I realized that I, uh... I really tell y'all just about everything.  I'm an open book and you don't even have to ask!  Haha.  Oh well.  After I get all of that moved I will need to find a better way to manage it all, but that's a problem for another day.

It was gorgeous out and I actually skated for the first time in a few weeks.  My booty butt hasn't hurt recently so I thought it was probably safe to go out.  I wore the butt-pads that my mom got me to be extra careful, though.  Thankfully, it was like I didn't miss any time at all.  I still need to work on transitions, but overall I'm happy with how I did today and I can turn a decently tight circle so I'm not mad about that!

After that Shaun and I had a late lunch and then watched our show with the kids.  Then I came upstairs and re-painted my nails and painted Shaun's toes while we watched something together.  I should really get photos of Shaun's paint before he messes his up.  Magnetic gel on his hands, regular polish on his feet.  I'm wearing a really pretty polish and want a picture of it, too.  But I also want to try some stamping because it's been AGES.  Maybe I'll get some pics of my nubs soon.  We'll see.

Also, I love that some of y'all trust me enough to ask me animal questions.  It makes me feel special and lately my struggle with Rose has had me feeling like a failure so I think I kind of needed to be reminded that I know other stuff sometimes.  And some of you have been super supportive of me as we try to figure out how to best care of this dog and I really, truly, from the bottom of my heart thank you.

Anyway, I've been up since early and I exercised my body and it's been a productive day and I'm tired now so I'm turning in.  I hope you all are doing well.  ❤

WELL, about those pods...

I'm still not 100%, but part of that is just because I have straight up felt like crap today.  Let me tell you what happened.

Last night Kira made some cookies.  Two batches:  a batch of sugar cookies and a batch of chocolate walnut cookies.

She used her silicon baking mat for the first batch of cookies and I heard her in the kitchen talking about "What's that smell?" but I thought nothing of it.

Later she asked me to try her sugar cookie and warned me that it tasted weird.  I tried it.  Kind of tasted floral, but not in a bad way.  I ended up eating two of them.

She decided to bake the other cookies on a regular baking sheet because a floral smell was coming from her silicon baking mat, which I had loaded into the dishwasher the day before.

We all pile dishes in the dishwasher until it's full and then when it's full one of us will put in the detergent pods and run it.

WELL, about those pods...

When we get them I like to put them in a glass jar because when you open a crinkly bag around here all of the animals come running.  And because it keeps the bag from being chewed when the cats go places that they shouldn't (as they all do).  And because it looks nice.  

Shaun was the person who ended up running the dishwasher and he used a weird, big pod that we've had for a while.  It was a sample that came with one of our Wal-Mart pickup orders.  I remember putting it in the jar of dishwasher pods because the cats tore up the packaging it came in.  It, uh... didn't cross my mind that it may not have been a dishwasher pod. 😬😳

Do y'all see where this is going?  Shaun washed the dishes with a Persil Laundry Disc.  It was the last pod-thing in the jar and it fit in the dishwasher so he was like "Okie dokie." and ran that shit. 😂😂😂 

The kids were smart enough not to finish a whole cookie.  I was not; I actually liked them.

But anyway, my stomach has been slightly off today and I've had a headache.  I can really only blame the two Laundry Disc Sugar Cookies I ate that were somehow still delicious. 😂😂😂 That should speak volumes about Kira's ability to make tasty treats. 

These are the chocolate walnut, btw, and they are delicious, also. Very buttery and soft, and not at all unexpectedly floral. 😂

I know that I've left some of y'all hanging...

I know that I've left some of y'all hanging as far as replies to comments go, but I don't have it in me today.  I'm sorry about that.

I'm stressed to death about this dog.  Rose seems to like one cat the most - Tobi.  She sniffed him this morning and then acted like she wanted to bite him.  I think she's just really excitable in the mornings because that's the only time she's going for the cats, but it still bothers us a lot.  It's not a thing that I feel safe about at all.  And the open floorplan here doesn't make for easy segregation of the pets, unfortunately.

Shaun brought my plants into the sunroom for me because it's warmer in there than the garage.  I told him that I wasn't emotionally able to deal with that yet and I'm not.  I've got another day or so (if the electrician doesn't reschedule again) before I have to really put any effort there so if I'm not updating much the next few days it's because I'm conserving my life force or recharging my batteries or something.  Or dealing with this dog.

Anyway, I gotta finish a couple of things before I head to bed and I'm already sleepy so I guess I'd better get to it.  Goodnight, friends.

My life force was depleted before I did anything meaningful.

I woke up feeling like I had energy and needed to get some things done.  Unfortunately, my life force was depleted before I did anything meaningful.

I heard a ruckus downstairs between a dog and a cat.  I knew Shaun was down there and I heard him break it up.  I found out later when I went down that Rose attacked Harley, one of our cats.  Harley is ok, (thank goodness), but I hate to think what could have happened had Shaun not been right there to intervene.  Rose doesn't usually bother the cats at all and instead is scared of them.  I'm guessing that her new medication could be to blame for her boldness because nothing else has changed - not even our sunroom since the electrician postponed the work until next week.

I'm feeling heavy in my heart.  I know she's only on day 2 of medication and that it can take time to work or that she might need something different, but that didn't feel like a good sign.  On top of that she still acts nervous about things.  When Shaun put together some chairs earlier she got in my lap.  Later when she wasn't on me and I reached to let her sniff my hand before I pet her she stopped in her tracks and ducked (which is typical for her).  So far the only change in her hasn't been a good one.  I desperately want to be patient and help this dog, but not at the expense of our other pets.  We're going to give it some time and possibly postpone her surgery if we need to.  We can't spend that kind of money on her and then have to turn around and put her to sleep.  I'm straight up not having a good time right now.

Not only that - I'm seeing so many posts from my friends and family in AL that they are sick.  Ugh, I hate that so much.  But then I also see pics and posts of people going out for unnecessary things and a lot of people not masking or vaccinating and it confuses me and gets my anxiety up.  Even if you don't give a shit about yourself you know that other people do, right?  And not only that you could be infecting other people because you can be asymptomatic for so long.  I don't know what else to say except that I care and I hope if you are sick that you end up ok.  This is some super scary shit to me.

I read articles about AL and I've read that superintendents and school nurses are having to sub for teachers in some areas because so many teachers are sick and no more subs are available.  Hospitals are severely understaffed which means that even if there are literal empty rooms there, there is no one to take care of you if you have to go to one.  Y'all understand that, right?  I don't see COVID news shared on here like when the pandemic started and I totally understand that we're all sick to death of it, but guess who doesn't care whether you're tired of it or not?  COVID.

Maybe I spent too much time doom-scrolling this morning and ruined my own day.  I don't know.  I probably did.  But I can't just turn off the fact that I care and it's all but impossible to bury my head in the sand and pretend that nothing is going on.  So today wasn't a good balance for me.  It happens, I guess.  I tried to do several things and just couldn't.  I wanted to move my plants and I looked at them and went "Nope."  I told myself that I needed to put away my laundry, but that didn't happen, either.  The only thing I did do was (unenthusiastically, which is WRONG) open some nail polish and leave it in a pile in the floor.

I guess I'm gonna go.  No one needs my Debbie-Downer bullshit.  I just needed to vent, I think.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  ❤

I've complained...

I've complained about how Facebook changed the way public groups work and I stand by that. They've tried to make it easier with this "auto-mod" thing you can set up, but the issue with that is that sometimes things that are harmless or even helpful to the group get denied by it. Then I have to go behind it and double check everything it does. This is a new way of doing things and I haven't yet remembered to check the auto-mod's work daily.

So this person is (understandably) upset that her comments and posts are being denied. She has chosen to speak to me by posting posts that I will deny even though I've tried messaging her and even responded in my "declined post" feedback letting her know that I've messaged her and where to find it.

If she read my message at all she would know that I'm trying to help. Instead, I believe it was ignored or that she blocked me because I can't respond to it. Also, this was the last post she tried to post in Happy Tails... Even though I never told her "Bye."

When I tell you the struggle to maintain this group is real... It's not a joke. And this was a relatively benign interaction because I wasn't verbally abused - just misunderstood with an attitude. So much fun.

Even with anxiety medication...

Even with anxiety medication she needs a lap while Shaun puts together some chairs.