SO HOW ARE THE 2 HUMANS IN THE HOUSE OF ANIMALS??

we are good. it seems that hubby will be off on wed and thursday all the time and i am off sat and sunday. so we just try to spend as much time as we can together when we are at home in the evenings. i miss having a whole day with him but he is working so i will just deal. the good thing is that now that he is working we are trying for a baby again. at this point we will try for a bit and then decide what step to take from there.
i am gearing up for the fall and christmas baking and christmas shopping. yes i am one of those people who shops early. i have 2 very good reasons for this 1 is that i worked retail for 20 years and never had time to shop after thanksgiving so it is now habit and 2 i hate the mall at christmas. there are too many angry, rotten, tired and nasty people who just make everyone around them miserable to enjoy shopping after thanksgiving. plus i get to spend my weekends happily baking in my pj's while everyone else fights traffic and crowds. after thanksgiving if i need to buy it i better be able to find it online or it doesn't happen.

chickie chickie baby

she is such a handful. she eats everyone's food including mine if we allow her and gets away with it. it is great to be the baby in my house i guess. she has already won over jack and tigger. chickie and tigger chase each other through the house and wrestle at least until tigger has to put chickie in her place since she doesn't understand time out yet. tigger though is thrilled with having a playmate that will run and play with her without pinning her to the floor. jack who has had kittens before mothers chickie and guards her while she is eating so tigger doesn't steall her food it is to cute. both dogs are even good with her but get a bit to aggressive once and a while but mostly because chickie is so bold.

and the winner is...

the new kitten. we named her chickie and she is the new queen of the house. winnie who up til now has never willingly let any other pet on the bed with us calmly lets the little stinker up with us and never bothers her. gracie is still in the oh no what did you let in the house now mode but is slowly coming around and jack and tigger have started to play with chickie a bit. vet said she is healthy and gave her shots. we still don't know how old she is but she only weighs a little over 3 pounds right now and has tried to suckle our fingers so we are guess barely weaned. it has definately been one of the weeks when i ask myself how did i end up here but i am loving my life.

the new old cat and meowing in the night

a few weeks ago we ended up getting a new old cat. jack is new to me and an old friend for my hubby. she started out as his cat then he was in a bad accident and spent months in the hospital and more in rehab and his uncle took in his cat. his uncle took a job in china for the next few years and could not take jack. she went to my mother in laws but jack hid out from her dog and needed a better home so she moved in with us. after adjusting to the move and declaring peace with our other cat tigger things have been good. last night that changed. after going to bed we were ready to go to sleep and heard meowing. loud and scared. we checked our 2 cats everyone was ok then we realised it was coming from outside. hubby went out and found a kitten in our yard. small starving and with ticks. she ran right over to hubby who brought her inside. at first we took her to the basement but that upset jack. then we decided that until she is checked out by a vet and we know the ticks are gone and she is healthy and flealess she will stay in our extra bedroom. hubby will take her this week to be checked out and make sure she is healthy then we will let her take on winnie. ps. i think the kitten will win

where did summer go ??

my favorite time of year is summer. i love the heat and even the humidity. i am never cold, layered in clothing or miserable. this summer as always went by to fast. july was so lovely and warm and august nice if a bit wet. the last few weeks of summer are fast aproaching and i am ready to start the spring count down. sniff sniff bye summer i will miss you

back to the grind

well vacation is over and i am back to the daily drive to work. it is really getting old and there are no jobs to be found so i suck it up and drive away. unfortunatly september is coming fast and the end of my easy commute for the summer is winding down. oh how i love when there are no school buses and am school traffic to deal with oh well it was great while it lasted.

stacation 11 was wonderful. while i took off from my main job my part time one i still went to last week. why you ask because i got to go to the pool i grew up going to with my niece and nephew both days having mom make me dinner and celebrating my birthday and my brothers the nights i was there for dinner. then the rest of the week i didn't have to go anywhere. omg so awesome to not have to drive for 7 days yeah! i even got to spend one whole day last week with the hubby. while we hung out at home and had an early dinner with his mom it was so great to have him around all day.

all that is left now is to keep looking for a job closer to home.

missing hubby and 4 days til vacation

hubby and i don't see a great deal of each other during the week. i leave for work at 6:45am and 3 nights a week get home at 6pm and the other 2 nights at 10:30 pm. i love being home with the hubby on the weekends. at hubby's new job however he is working weekends. i am slowly adjusting to seeing even less of him. this will be a long and difficult process since i already feel like we don't get enough time together even when he is home on the weekends. the only bright spot is that i am on vacation next week and hopefully will have a day off with him during the week next week.

he got a job round 2

well hubby spent 2 days working as a sub contrator to prove he was worth the money he was asking for at the new job. he did more than 3 days work in less than 2 and was hired yesterday. so now there is a small light at the end of the tunnel again. here's hoping it continues to grow and i can finally get a job for myself closer to home.

2 years

hubby and i have been married for 2 years today. of course with it being a monday and start of the work week we forgot. yeah both of us forgot i realised when i got to work and started filling out paperwork for the day. i was hoping hubby would call and tell me they offered him the job from sat interview but finally called this afternoon since this is my long day and will not see him until bed time. we wished each other happy anniversary then i lost him. don't know why but i will call again after work when i have a bit more time to talk.

an interview

hubby has an interview on sat. keeping my fingers crossed. he needs a job asap.

back to the drawing board

the old morning routine is back. sad but true. they let hubby go after less than 3 weeks. why for no good reason. me floundering to get my legs back under me. hoping for a miracal and a quick turn around to a new job. only good thing right now 4 day weekend coming. boy do i need it.

re-arranging our mornings

now that hubby is back to work our morning routine has changed. he used to get up and feed the critters while i showered and got dressed for work. now he leaves earlier than i do and he needs to shower first. we get up a bit earlier and he gets in the shower and dresses while i feed the critters and pack our lunches. then he makes his coffe and i shower and get ready for work. we even have a few minutes to sit and talk or watch the news before we leave. i am loving mornings again. it was so hard to get up and go to work while he was at home all day. this is so much better.

1 week

so hubby started the week of a heatwave here in the good ole delaware valley. extreme heat and humidity and lots of work including overtime the first week. one day getting home at 10 of 7 and the other getting in at 6pm. we are both tired and ready for the weekend. beer is in my car and work is almost done. see you monday

he started

hubby started work on monday. i am so happy and relieved. no more worries about paying the mortgage. no more walking a fine line every month and barely paying the bills. come july hubby is back to paying the electric bill and groceries and at least 1 other bill. not sure which one but an extra one. once that starts i go into pay all the credit cards off mode. i have a plan and hopefully things will go smoothly and we will have even more savings in case this happens again.

waiting on pins and needles

hubby got a job. 2-1/2 years of not working is coming to an end. all he needs now is a start date. that is the toughest thing right now i want to celebrate but i am afraid until he starts his first day of work. then the last of the weight holding me down in fear will finally leave. i can't wait to be free. to not pay every bill and worry about having money for groceries and gas. to be able to pay off my credit cards not just the minimum. to go to the store and buy something without needing it to be the cheapest price i can find and stocking up when i see good sales with coupon deals. just to loosen my budget and breathe again. maybe even go out to dinner. so for now i wait sitting on pins and needles trying to find the last of my patience.

spring is here where is the heat???

well spring is here. if the calander didn't say it 3 others signs would for me. what are they?? 1 my parents nieghbor's yard turned purple a few weeks ago from what must be hundreds of crocuses. 2 the face painting company called and ordered more acrylic mirrors at my full time job. 3 the "we don't swim in winter" ladies returned to the water areobics class i teach. now if the temps would get above 50 for more than 1 day in a row and the april showers would be showers not down pours i would be even happier. my favorite time of year is slowly creeping up. summer, t-shirts, shorts long warm days, swimming and vacation. i can't wait i am tired of sweaters, and socks, heavy coats and being cold for months at a time. so summer bring on the heat and humidity i will take it all. just please get here soon!!

19 days until spring

spring is trying so hard to arrive here in pa. i am wildly cheering it on. most of the snow has finally melted. the temps are rising and i am a happy lady. this means no more cranky driver. the roads are still backed up but no snow or ice to fight makes it less stressful for me. we have 4 birthdays out of the way and 1 more to go then no more until summer. bring on the sun!!

the fireplace and recycling

hubby and i use our woodstove to keep our house warm. this is really great with all the snow and power outages we have had this winter. we get the sunday newspaper and after reading use it as kindling. the best though for starting fires are fire starters. the first winter we bought them. little flat wax cover blocks that burn slow and really help getting a new load started when the coals are low. however those little blocks are expensive. hubby's solution lets make our own. we use egg crates (cardbaord of course ) old candles and sawdust and woodchips from splitting our wood. hubby fills the egg crate with sawdust then we melt down old candles and pour over the top. instant fire startes. best part free. my parents help us out as well they save egg crates and my mom has been finding all kinds of decorative candles and old taper candles she only uses for decorating and has given them to us. so far we have not even had to buy candles to make them.

how many days until winter ends???

there is less than a month until pitchers and catchers report for spring training. once that arrives there will only be a month left of winter. i can't wait. it has snowed at least once a week since christmas. have i told you how much i hate driving in the snow. my car is horrible in the snow. up hill is a battle and down hill is just plane scary. we won't even talk about curves and corners. worst of all my drive way uphill and curvy. hubby has to get my car up and down the hill for me most days. i am so ready for spring fatigue and sleeplessness is better than this.

the dogs and i survived

the little terror was in rare form. happily destroying everything in her path then the next second tired and cranky. when she finally falls asleep putting her in the crib is murder she wakes up and screams more. love her but she is a tough kid. m and b were a breeze compared to s. finally got her down watched the ball drop and went to bed. nice evening with the hubby though kind of makes up for some of christmas. after she left i finally got to sit down for more than 5 minutes at a time. spent sunday recovering. we had to separate her from both dogs with the baby gate. she runs right for them and kisses and grabs. the dogs well they are not happy with that. they are getting better with her but they still growl. when she is bigger they will be much better with her.

now i just need to get through the next 2 or 3 months of horrible winter weather and i will be happy. long comute + snow = miserable driver (me)