Welcome, 2023!

Well, I just kind of disappeared there, didn’t I?

The holidays started to kick into full gear, and I just rode that crazy tidal wave into 2023. Sorry for the total absence but it did me some good to step away for a bit.

Ridley loved his first Christmas! To be honest, that is the thing that I cared about the most this year. The poor boy has known nothing but torture before 6 months ago and I intend to spoil him absolutely rotten for the rest of his life. He was showered in toys and treats and now he really wishes Christmas was every week.

On the 30th, Melanie and her husband Nick came to town to engage in various shenanigans. She got to meet Moth in person for the first time and the boys all met each other. They ran off without us immediately to try some craft beers. We ate good food, bowled terribly (except Nick), and laughed a LOT. It was great time and I’m so thankful to count Melanie and Nick in our friend circle. ❤

On NYE, we hung out with Mr. and Mrs. Moth and their fur child (and BFF to Ridley) Noi. It was a very chill evening, just the way we like to ring in the new year. The fur children wrestled endlessly but we also forced them to wear pajamas for pictures. I would like to think we embarrassed them, but they seemed to enjoy themselves.

I for one, am ready for a new year. 2022 sucked for our household and I have hope that things turn around in 2023. I’m not sure whether or not I’m even going to try for any resolutions this go around. I might to see where the wind takes us.

How as your New Year’s Eve? What was your favorite part?

August 2022

The second half of 2022 wasn’t shaping up to be any better than the first half, then two things happened. First, my new anti-anxiety meds kicked in. Two, we adopted Ridley.

While things are far from perfect, they don’t seem so bleak anymore either.

Besides work, my time has been consumed with our new family member. My mornings are not my own anymore. I get up, take two dogs out, take two dogs for a walk, feed two dogs and THEN have my coffee to help wake up.

Strutters.

Mornings before work were when I would typically catch up on all my online related activities. No more. I’m pretty much doing things right up until I walk out of the door for work. But walking a mile every morning has felt great for the most part.

My dad has sold my childhood home. I’m not sad about this in the slightest. He received an incredible offer on the house and an amazing opportunity for his future residence. We’re heading there to help him move stuff this weekend. Being the exceptional planner that I am, I didn’t even realize it was Labor Day weekend and traveling is probably going to suck. *gulps*

I haven’t even been reading anything as of late. Partly because the meds cause me to be scatter brained but also because Ridley puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. So, I decided that the Kindle would be my safest bet to attempt reading when he calms down and I cannot find the damn thing. *sad face* It has to be in this house somewhere though.

School starts tomorrow. I’m excited for this semester as I do not have any classes that I am dreading. In fact, I’m very much looking forward to one of them. Now the trick is to juggle my time to get things done. My last semester I only had Samus, and she just slept in my bed while I did work. Now I have a rambunctious ‘toddler’ to manage too. With all of this going on, don’t be too surprised if I’m scarce for a bit. I have to become an excellent time manager and I don’t know what that looks like yet.

I realize both of these pictures make him look calm and manageable but let me tell you, a lot of raising Hell goes on before he chills out for these serene pics.

Speaking of, he’s had his after-dinner nap and it’s time to see if we can get some snuggling in tonight.

How was your August? What was the best part?

Potted

The quest this summer is maximum living. I’m on a never-ending quest of fun. (Outside of work because I can’t escape that currently.) Photography, dog training, hiking, disc golf, hanging out with friends, volunteering, traveling, etc.

See? That’s quite a bit of stuff planned.

Why not add one more thing to that list?!

While I’ve been planning to transplant some lilies and eventually pop some annuals in for easy color, I wasn’t planning on going gardening crazy. Then, I was at the store for something completely unrelated, I began flicking through their seeds for sale. They were cheap and here we are:

Mr. C&M requested the cherry tomato plants. So, for our first ever veggie garden (I had them when I was little, before I met my husband. My grandparents were big gardeners) we’re attempting to grow tomatoes and a variety of peppers. As food prices continue to grow, I thought it an advantageous venture. We’ll see what happens!

This past weekend was great. We spent a lot of time with friends, but it all started with going out to a super fancy restaurant as a belated birthday gift. It’s been a minute since we had a date night, and the food was beyond amazing. The desserts were absolutely to die for and we’re planning a dessert and drinks night with Mr. and Mrs. Moth sometime in the future.

Behold! My chocolate berry cake. That’s a chocolate cake with a citrus ganache and mixed berry sorbet. In the background, Mr. C&M’s super fancy pineapple upside cake.

What is the best dessert you’ve had recently??

Coffee & a Chat – Snowpocalypse 2022

It wasn’t quite the snowpocalypse that everyone was making it out to be. At least for us but, it is the most snow we’ve seen in a long time in our area. We got about 8″-10″, probably closer to 10. (I’m bad at estimating and I never watch the local news.) There was plenty of shoveling but we didn’t have to actually leave our property for two days, which was awesome. We watched the snow fall, made chili, played video games and snuggled up with the fur babies in blankets.

Luckily, we never lost power. I prepped like a crazy woman in case we did but we didn’t. Years of growing up in Northern Michigan makes prepping feel like an essential. During Y2K, (I was 13) my dad wasn’t worried about it, but he let me prep to feel better. I filled our root cellar with water, canned food, dog food and make sure the dog was inside when midnight hit. Obviously, nothing happened but I felt better being ready for it.

Apparently, 22 years later, that still makes me feel better.

Instead of getting in a TON of reading, I became absorbed in Pokemon Shield. I am having a great time and my Dreadnaw can kick almost anyone’s ass.

This isn’t actually my character but they look alike.

When I do get a little reading in, I am still working on Goblet of Fire. It’s slow going but I am enjoying it when I do read.

The snowstorm and subsequent roads have made it a quiet return to work, which is a nice change of pace. I still don’t like being a pharmacy tech anymore.

School on the flipside, has been very enjoyable for a change. I’m doing great in Strategic Business Management (easy when you’ve helped run a small business for 10 years) and I have been working hard in Intro to Probability and Statistics. Despite being a math class, I am having fun learning it.

What is making you happy these days??

Coffee & a Chat – Prepping for Chaos

You have been welcomed with a BLEP.

My dad came to visit for a few days. He was going to watch the dogs while we were in California after all, so why not get away from home for a bit since he already had the time off? We worked on a small bathroom project (NO MELANIE IT’S STILL NOT DONE), and then mostly we hung out and watched movies and some TV. Where my dad lives, he doesn’t get cable or internet so he’s been through his movie collection multiple times. It’s funny watching someone’s mind being blown by all the options presented by streaming.

This has mostly been a lazy vacation. Lots of rest and relaxation. A bit of gutting and organizing parts of the house. Plenty of time to get schoolwork done before its due. It’s been great.

AND NOW

They are calling for 12-18 inches of snow to hit us.

To be honest, I am totally okay with this. I welcome the snow chaos. As long as I don’t lose power.

So that means, we’re spending today prepping for the incoming storm. Unfun activities like grocery shopping and hitting the pet store for food for the animals as well. Gotta bust out all the winter gear because there is going to be a lot of shoveling in our future.

It’s funny because a few months ago Mr. C&M and I agreed that we would like to be snowed in for a week. We’re not getting a full week but I will take the couple of days before returning to work.

Hot cocoa, coffee, soup, books, puzzles, video games, locked and loaded.

Are you getting hit with the storm? If so, what do you plan to do during it?

Vacation Incoming!

We were supposed to be running off to California in a few days however Covid-19 had other plans and the gaming competition we were supposed to go to has been postponed until April, right around my birthday.

Despite that, we’re still taking the time off because work sucks and we need time to get our lives back under some form of control.

Usually, my vacation post is to mention that I will be MIA for a little bit, but I actually think I will try to blog more while I’m off. I haven’t posted in almost 10 days because the workload for school has been heavier this semester but I’m actually enjoying the classes so I’m not pulling my hair out. Yet, anyway.

I’m currently working on rereading The Goblet of Fire with Ms. Moth for our annual Harry Potter reread. By annual, I mean we read about 1 book in the series a year but it’s usually around this time.

For now, I leave you with my snow boy doing snow boy things. ❤

Thanksgiving 2021

I’m not going to lie, that sounds like a really rad Thanksgiving morning right now. Except, I ain’t got no pie!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you choose to visit relatives, I hope you have played it safe and help stop the spread of this virus. This time next year, I don’t want to be looking down the barrel of three years of this shit.

Have fun, make memories, get fat on delicious food!

Coffee & a Chat – Still Here

Good morning creeps. Your ghoul is still undead and kicking. Quite frankly, that’s very much what everything feels like right now. Haha. I think the past 3 weeks have just reeked havoc on me, physically and mentally.

First, there was Ozzy’s crisis. He’s doing splendid now but there was a full 2 weeks dedicated to not much besides his care. We did get a little break away up north but that carried it’s own stressors that I will post about when I get time to upload some lovely pictures.

Second, I came down with some type of stomach bug? Not sure what exactly but it wasn’t Covid. I tested out of paranoia.

Third, when I finally started to feel better, I got my third Pfizer shot. The side effects kicked in about 24 hours later. So, I didn’t do much this past week except lay around feeling like hell and binge watching Grace and Frankie, plugging in a couple of horror movies here and there.

Now, I just feel altogether run down. Work has been chaos so that hasn’t helped anything. I haven’t even decorated for Halloween yet! Perhaps once I get past the Accounting midterm this week, I can stress a little less.

Until then, I hope everyone is having all kinds of Halloween fun!

Coffee & a Chat – Cystotomy

Whew. It’s been a week.

The weekend before this past one, Ozzy began acting funny. Crying constantly, needing to go outside constantly, dribbling pee but not much coming out. He was so uncomfortable. I know this because this is the most stoic dog I’ve ever met and he never whines about anything except boredom. We stayed up almost that entire Saturday night. I think we may have got about 3 hours of sleep collectively.

Sunday morning, I took him to the emergency vet. They took him back (you’re not allowed to go in still) and proceeded to keep him for 4 hours and did nothing for him. I know they have to triage critical cases, however, how do you determine who is critical when you do not even examine them for hours? I had to make the decision that if he was going to die due to lack of medical care, that he might as well do it at home where he is comfortable. They handed him back wordlessly to me, he was dribbling pee everywhere and went back inside. No apologies.

Thankfully, he made it through the night and his regular vet got him in immediately the next day. After examining him, she was furious at the ER vet. He had a urinary blockage and his bladder was distended 4-5 times its normal size. It took her 30 seconds to palpitate his bladder and find the problem. A x-ray revealed a bladder full of stones and one was blocking his urethra. He went into emergency surgery and she saved his life.

He is almost 13 but we were not ready to let him go over something so stupid as bladder/kidney stones (still waiting on the labs results). He is that once in a lifetime dog. One night without him practically crushed us because we got a taste of life without him.

We’re just over a week into recovery now and he’s finally feeling a little spunky again. He gets to go to work with me this week so I can keep him from jumping and licking his incision. He’s enjoying all the attention and treats.

• 

• 

He gets his staples and stitches out this Thursday and then we head up north for bow hunting season this weekend. We’ll hang out at my dad’s, continuing his recovery while the boys go hunt things. I have so much schoolwork to catch up on, I’ll be hitting cafes while he sleeps since my dad doesn’t have internet.

Look at that cute face. LOOK AT IT.

July Hiatus

Samus helps fold blankets.

July overall is going to prove a very busy month for me. I barely have time to read for enjoyment thanks to school. It’s leaving me with little creativity currently so I thought I would take a month to recharge my blog batteries. Vacation should help with that and I will be very hard pressed not to pop on here and post about it but I’m going to try. August should see school done for a couple of weeks and then I shall return to posting.

I WILL be hopping on to read everyone else’s blogs though. You guys post a lot of fun things and I don’t want to miss out on the fun.

I hope July is fantastic for all of you and I come back in August with a blogging vengeance. ❤

Sugar and Scream will remain active.