Not the best quality here; I'm zoomed wayyy in.

Not the best quality here; I'm zoomed wayyy in. But this dog, I swear. I'm glad his life jacket has a handle. 😂

Friday mood. 😂

Friday mood. 😂

(Ignore my carpet. We vacuum on the weekends and this area is where Bear likes to lay.  It's peak furry right now.)

Pool update:

Pool update:

We have most of our equipment installed, but it's not running yet. The muddy, mucky mess was power-washed and cleaned out this week. We have most of the electric done. It's full of fresh water, but also has dirt and leaves and 3 giant, rusty metal bars across it. It also has what I suppose my mom would call "no-see-em's" in it. I don't know what they actually are (besides a type of bug), but I was sitting here with my feet in and they are barely perceptible, but are climbing up my legs and biting me. So. We have a ways to go.

(Shaun Googled and they are thrips. And they were probing me to see if I was food, not biting me. I stand corrected.)

We have a lot more work to do in the yard after the pool is finished. We want our grass back down because the dust blows all over when the wind blows. If y'all didn't already know:  It's windy as fuck here, but not in a dangerous way, so I like it. Usually. Just not in my back yard right now. 😂

On top of that, we have a small storage building to build and other landscaping to do.

The house is also not presentable right now. We have carpet we want remove and flooring to put down, and carpet that needs cleaning. Since Bear hasn't been able to go outside when he wants (due to his surgery AND the yard construction), he's had a few accidents indoors. We've spot-cleaned, but the whole carpet needs a good wash. Also, Ash had diarrhea in it this morning. I guess we'll be taking her to the vet soon.

Needless to say, we're not having visitors for a while. We need to get our projects done and ourselves settled again. Bear will be cleared for normal activity Wednesday (hopefully!) and I really need our pool cover to be installed by then so the dogs can have some freedom and it won't be a waste of time shampooing the carpet.

Everything has felt so upside-down for the last 2 months. I've been so sad about the state of the back yard that I've been avoiding going out there. My plants are all dusty and gross and I know it's fine, but I don't like it. 😂 All I know is that change is hard. Hopefully, the worst of it is over with and we can enjoy the space again soon.

Bear this morning...

Bear this morning after getting his tongue shook by Shaun. Yes, the same Shaun who hates being licked and getting his hands dirty. I don't know what he was thinking. 😂 Bear isn't sure about it, either.

Also, look at my grinning Cub. So damn adorable!

I've been trying to make a conscious effort...

I've been trying to make a conscious effort to eat less sugar. But if you have a Crumbl Cookies near you, try this damn cake. It's similar to a Gooey Butter Bar (like you can get from the bakery section in Wal-Mart [if you live in the south, anyway], but the sugar crystal crunch is SO. DAMN. SATISFYING. I like the icing, too. It's very light.

Look at this Toebean.

Look at this Toebean. He's crashed out. 😂

Bear had bloodwork today and Balthazar was checked to see how he was recovering from surgery. His incisions looked great, but he probably still has pain in his lower teeth, so he's back on pain meds.

We scheduled some re-check appointments and a surgery today. Feels like it's always something around here. We're doing our best we can for these kids, though.

Look, I am not a loser, ok?

Look, I am not a loser, ok? I'm not just out here losing stuff. Even as a kid I don't recall it happening much. I was brought up to appreciate what I had. If I lost something, it was not getting replaced.

So anyway, we were out last year and Kira wanted this bracelet. It was sometime before Christmas, so I told her we'd get it and it could be part of her holiday gifts. It came from a local Hispanic grocer. The person at the checkout handed it back to me after we paid, so when I got back to the car I dropped it in a Walgreens bag that was going in the house.

We got home and I was aware that we needed to put the bracelet up somewhere safe. I told Shaun that it was still in the bag and to hide it (because he is the gift-hider). Then, I assumed that he did.

Y'all, he DIDN'T. 😂

So anyway, Christmas came and went and we couldn't find this bracelet. Kira was like "Find it for my birthday, then." Fair enough, but if we couldn't find it for Christmas then we really had no idea where to look, though we tried. So her birthday (in March) came and went and STILL no bracelet. We eventually just took her back to the market and replaced it since that was definitely on us.

So today - this morning - I found it. Completely by accident.

Guess where it was.

You can't. 😂

It was still in the Walgreens bag, which was now under my bathroom sink.

The bag was under my sink upstairs because it was going to be used as a trash bag. I grabbed a handful of them recently from our bag drawer in the kitchen and I guess it was in that bunch. So last year someone crammed that "empty" bag in the bag drawer without checking and lost Kira's bracelet. I don't have any idea who did that. But we finally found it.

Happy June 24th, Kira. 😂