An October List

Hi Guys! It is full on fall up here in The Mitten! Very beautiful and a little nippy. We went from high 80s on a Monday to low 30s a few days later. Pure Michigan.

Since I have been working hard on getting the November 30 Days of Thankfulness project ready to fly, I will offer a little list of the doings around here.

Honey is smack dab in the middle of a 2 week layoff. Can I tell you how much we are loving the layoffs? This could be the third/fourth one this year and we are calling them retirement practice. He has had a very long mental list of things to accomplish, and I’m happy to say has mentally crossed off a lot of it! Sprinkler lines blown out, garage cleaned, painted the front door and frame and shined up the brass, put all the outside stuff away and last but not least, we took the dang bottles back! BAM!!!!! I’m sure there was more but it’s all locked away in his mind on the mental list.

My list seems more subdued in comparison. I ripped out all the pots, cut back the day lillies and hostas, trimmed some unruly branches, and painted many walls and many doors. That could go on my resume, Capri Kel, Door Painter. I am down to my last 8!! And then I will clean up my paint supply storage area in the dining room, wash my brushes and paint no more this year. I will have some pictures for you next month, I weaseled them into the Thankfulness project 🙂

I miss wearing nail polish. One of the many reasons I will be glad to be finished with all the painting.

I have been on and off with the keto way of eating lately. I blame the doughnuts at our BSF fellowship last Thursday for knocking me out of the wagon. It led to a weekend of reckless carb consuming that included a Sanders bumpy cake, vanilla bean ice cream AND chocolate chip bars. And I want to tell you that my body is telling me in NO uncertain terms that it does not like it! You would think all the aches and pains and inflammation would keep me from eating contraband. You would be wrong. But it has made me very ready to haul my hurting self back into the wagon to try again. I feel so much better without all the carbs and sugar, seems like it should be easier to forgo. I am a slow learner. Or forgetful. Or D.U.M.B.

The Boy had been in talks with a church near us for a youth pastor position. He did not get the job but he said the interview process made him realize that he is excited about working in ministry! He has sent out some more resumes but it is pretty unlikely they will be moving back to The Mitten before the end of the year. So we are fairly certain the Little Dipper will be born in Washington State like his big sister Moonpie.

Honey has still not decided when he is retiring. Next subject please.

Mousey and her buddy Chip drove down to Columbus, Ohio to visit their other friend Katie, whose blob name I cannot recall and do not have time to scroll through blog posts from many years ago to find. They went to a Halloween party and had an all around fun weekend! Here’s our girl.

Workout Barbie!!!

With her best pal Chip, who was a pop art cartoon.

And their good friend Katie, or culturally appropriated Pocahontas. Her boyfriend was John Smith, so cute!

Actually it’s all good, Katie does have Native American blood, she’s allowed! Old friends are the best! 🙂

I should get this Monday moving. Will be back on Thursday, November 1 with the first days prompt of Person!

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Coming Your Way in November

Y’All, I need an intervention. I miss blogging and the only real reason I have for not doing it is I have gotten out of the habit. And that is just sad. And a little pathetic. I have heard that it takes 30-31 days to break a habit (or restart!) and I found this nifty November challenge to help me reset my blogging mojo!

When I look in my drafts folder and see that I have not even posted about my trip out to Washington State, our visit to Canada to see Honey’s People, how I have spent the majority of the last month painting our house, and all the other nonsense that has happened around here all summer! And it’s now FALL, and nigh onto WINTER!!!! Heck, I have a whole slew of pictures from our BSF Leaders Retreat, already placed and cropped, from last MARCH!!! I hang my head!

I am going to shoehorn some of those topics in here the coming month or die trying 🙂 It’s not really such a stretch, because I am thankful for them all. Onward HO!

Halle Berry, Survivor

Before Mousey and I left on our trip to Washington state at the end of July we nearly had a tragedy. Our sweet Halle Berry required an intervention. All of the sudden she became socially unacceptable in the tail end and we noticed she had lost quite a bit of weight. I blame the in and outs of summer for my lack of observation. This all happened days before we left for Washington.. Mousey and I took her in to the vet, where they x-rayed her and determined she had a serious blockage. They sent us home with a stool softener, a mineral oil enema, and strict warnings to keep her in a small room because evidently that stuff is explosive and stains. YIKES. insert a horrified face emoji right here!

Here she is on her car ride in, she would have used the horrified emoji here.

For the most part she was such a calm, good girl, even throughout her humiliating exam. She still didn’t know what was going to happen when she got home!!!

Our plan of action was to remove the litter boxes from our coat room to the next door laundry room for the other 3 felines, so we could then put some old sheets and towels on the coat room floor before we began the “procedure”. At this point all of the other nosey parker cats came out of the woodwork to see what was going on because Halle was still contained in the cat carrier and suggesting regularly that she would like to be RELEASED. I found a small litter box in the garage for her to use because we were going to need to check that to see if there were any… deliveries. Then we shooed the gawkers out of the coat room and let Halle out. Her one and only desire then became to get OUT of the coat room. Mousey helped hold her while I squirted the stool softener down her throat and gave her the enema, which I have to say I did not feel qualified to do. We left her alone with some food and water and an old bed, all of which she never touched out of spite. Or fear.

The poor thing was starting to look like a hot mess, sticky stuff all down her chest from the stool softener, some other stuff on her paws that the directions assured she would lick off. She never did. And because she thought she was being punished by being left in the coatroom under mortifying circumstances, she was a very sad kitty. She never ate or drank at all. We did have a little success in the toileting area, but it didn’t seem like it was enough to solve her problem.

I was really getting concerned with the lack of eating and drinking, so the day before I left, Abby and I hauled her back to the vet to check on her progression. Was she dying? Do we need to put her down? Has my massaging her belly helped one iota? They took another x-ray and sure enough she had unplugged!!!! Thank you LORD!!! We brought her home and released her back into free reign of the house!

Mousey and I left the next morning. The day after Honey sent Mousey and I a video of her at the water bowl, delicately dipping her paw in the water and licking it off!! We about cried in relief! Thank you Lord again!!! She has been right as rain since. But I’m pretty sure she used one of her 9 lives.

On a hilarious side note, and not to be gross, but we were having to help Halle through this debacle with some bathing. We call this a bum wash and it requires a tail holder, so it is a two person job.

During this time I was making plans with my good friend Shari, who was going to be in town from her home in Texas the day after I returned home from Washington. On accident Shari received my text to Mousey, making plans around her work schedule!

OH.MY.WORD. I laughed SO hard when I figured it out!!!!!!!! Every time I read it I laugh all over again!!! I can only imagine Shari reading, then rereading the text!!!

So we are thankful for Halle Berry, the Survivor!

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