March

 I graduated from therapy a few weeks ago. I'm feeling better, for the most part. Or at least not letting things overwhelm me as they did.  I still can't tolerate much political news.  But it is what it is. Aaron gets his new from fairly unbiased sources, and he tells me the bare minimum.  I'm at odds of being informed and being sane.

We added a new pet to our brood last week. It's name his Sneak. We don't know the sex. Bert said the snake's pronouns are 'im. I usually just say him/they, the snake doesn't mind, and neither does Bert. 

Bert had been asking for a reptile for probably 6 months. I'd been telling him once he keeps his desk clean we could get a small snake or lizard.  We started researching. And I found 2 different Facebook groups for bay area reptiles. I wasn't going to pull the trigger so soon, but a young corn snake came up on the group and came with all the accessories and tank, for free.  (The lady was given the snake by someone who didn't want it anymore, and she was trying to reduce her collection.). We met her in San Lorenzo (which was the halfway point) and now we have a snake. 'Im's name is Sneak. We haven't handled him yet, per advice. We tried the first feeding last night, but Sneak hasn't eaten yet. We may need to try again later in the week.

Both kids are doing well in school, we just got report cards. Bert is especially good at math, and Bron at reading.  Bron has been doing very well behaviourally for the last 3 weeks. Most days she is getting all, or almost all her stickers. She is still doing ABA and speech after school. Bert graduated from speech in January. 

Mom was here a week ago. We had a good visit. I was glad she didn't need a wheelchair this visit. Though, she did get caught in a plant and fell, and twisted her knee. But she got around pretty well, in spite of it.  We had fun, did a lot of shopping and cleaned out a few things.

Dogwalking is going well. Though there was an incident yesterday. I was walking Miso, and we passed a lady walking 4 Yorkies. I thought, cute, 4 Yorkies. (They live a few houses down from Miso).  I heard a commotion, and turned around to see the lady had tripped over the leashes and 2 of the dogs were off leash, running around. So I stopped walking to wait and see if the dogs would come up to us, and I could pick one up. Both dogs came running to Miso and me. One was barking, and other was trying to bite Miso (fortunately, the Yorkie was too small (or Miso too big) to do anything).  I picked up the bitey one, and they lady came. And I was able to pick up barky. So we started out again, and both dogs got away from the lady again. (I should note, this wasn't an old lady, she was probably late 40s or early 50s). Then a different lady heard all the barking and came to help. She held Miso, so I could grab barky and bite again. I secured bitey and the lady carried barky. And finally they were going back home. It was scary, because it's not my dog.  But Miso reacted well, and was a good girl. I checked her over and made sure she didn't have any bites or scrapes. She was fine. Phew.

We had Bert's birthday party at the trampoline park. All went well, until he jumped wrong and sprained his ankle. He went to the ER and everything.  It was towards the end, but it put a huge damper on the party. Fortunately, the injury was towards the end.

It's been a minute

 I didn't realize I hadn't blogged for 6 months!  Oops.

I guess I'll start with Curie, since I left off with her. Her birthday is next week!  She'll be one, still a big baby.  She still has a lot of energy.  She did 2 training classes: puppy and intermediate.  She passed the first, but not the other.  We'll retake it at some point, when she's calmed down a bit more.  She love running zoomies in the back yard.  And digging!  This is the diggingest dog we've ever had.  She loves Bronwyn, that's her person.  Bron will grab Curie and hug her, and her tail goes nuts.  In the fall, she cut her paw on something (we never figured out what) and needed stitches.  I think that was $1100 we weren't planning on.  Prior to that she got spayed, which was fine, and the adoption agency paid for it.  She's learned a few commands: sit, paw, down, go to bed.  She loves Monty and the cats. The feeling isn't mutual, except from Waffles.  She likes Curie.  The dog also love boxes!  Well, destroying boxes.  

Speaking of dogs, my dog walking gig is really taking off. I have 2 semi-regular "as needed" people, and 3 weeklies.  Miso is three days a week, Allie is three days, Eddie is 2 days (but his walks are an hour long), and Munch is once a week.  I'll be adding a new dog to the rotation called Enzo, they just live a few blocks away, and he'll have 4 days a week so it's a nice addition.  I had a few one-offs as well.  All in all, I made more that $2100 last year.  I feel really proud of that.  It's been so long since I earned any money.  (While my job, domestic engineer, has a high value, it's unpaid).  I was able to pay for Curie's stitches with my walk money.  I had 2 cat sitting jobs over Christmas as well.  They are the easiest, as they pay well, and they're quick.  Half the time, the cat never comes out.  

Another thing for my last 6 months was tattoos.  I got a matching on with Jessica in September (a silhouette of a cat sitting atop a book) and after that I added on to my flower arm piece (marigolds for dad, lilac for mom, gardenia for Grandma Street and a gerbera, just because I like them.  I got the lines done in one session.  And some of the colour (marigolds) done.  But then Curie got hurt, so I couldn't afford to finish.  After tax time, I'm going to make an appointment to get it finished. 

Last year I read/listened to 109 books. A new record!  If the kids are in school, I can finish the average audio book in about 2 days.  I like podcasts too, but I don't listen to them as often.

Bron just had her annual IEP meeting.  She's doing really well.  The goal, for never year, is to do gen-ed with RSP, and no SPed.  I think that will be a good fit, as she is getting irritated with some of the kids in SPed. And she's doing quite well in the mainstream class.  She is moving into 3rd and 4th grade math on the computer.  She's been in ABA since May, but I haven't seen really any progress.  I was hoping for a little, but it's not doing much for her at the moment.  And, also, we still haven't received a bill for any services.  So that will be a  heavy hitter, if it ever shows up.

Over the Christmas break with dealt with lice for hopefully the only time.  Bron likely brought them home from school.  And somehow, despite very often sharing a bed, I didn't get them.  No one else got them, but her.  We tried for a week, to get rid of them, but kept finding more.  We ended up going to a lice clinic, and $270 later we were lice free.  (fingers crossed)

I spent most of last week sick with a stomach bug.  I had to cancel a couple of dog walks, which I've never done before.  I was so tired.  I forgot how much is sucks to be sick.  And I lost 4lbs.  But I'm sure it's all back now.  Bert had the bug too.  I'm pretty close to well, but he's still not 100%