Another pet blog

Zelda:
She was our first dog (as in neither of us had ever had a dog before).  We had wanted a greyhound for sometime, and where matched up with her.  She has lived with us for nearly 6 years.  Zelda is the sweetest dog.  She loves all people, and cats!  And she is an easy dog, she sleeps all day.  She has deep brown eyes with Egyptian-looking eyeliner.  She loves walks, holding hands, zoomies, sleeping on the couch and treats.  She will be 11 in October.  Her full name is Zelda Belle.  Aliases: Zelly Belly, Zoody, Zooby, Zelby, Zella, Noodles, Big Dog, Dogzilla, Belly, and Zoo.

Fiona:
Thinking all dogs were awesome, like Zelda, we got Fiona at a chihuahua sale, at the local shelter. She is not full chihuahua, but possibly has dachshund, or terrier as well. She tricked us, she acted very quiet and friendly.  Neither of these things have been true.  When she first came home, she peed on the floor a lot.  That, fortunately, has stopped.  But she barks all. the. time.  And she hates all dogs that aren't Zelda, and is not fond of many people either.  But she is a snuggly little idiot, and we love her.  The age estimate from the shelter puts her about the same age as Zelly.  She still acts like a much younger dog.  Her full name is Fiona Josephine.  Her aliases are: Yoie, Yoie Joey, and Small Dog,

Julius:
Juli is possibly the most handsome, and troublesome cat we've ever had.  He is friendly, and loves to be a lap cat.  But he also sprays whenever he is in the house, and after trying many things, he had to be an outside/garage cat.  Juli got along with our previous cat (Moss) but doesn't like any other cats.  He gets along with the dogs without any issues. He is a jerk, but we still love him.  He is likely about 7 years old.  Neither cat has a middle name.  Aliases: Juli, Jules, Juli-Booli, Julius-Boolius, and Juli-Cat.

Priya:
Priya has only been with us since January.  She is a shy cat, but likes snuggling once she knows you.  She is missing one of her rear feet, so she hops a bit.  Her name was Tinsley when we adopted her.  She doesn't like dogs, but likes hissing and swiping at them.  Priya has Bertie get along fairly well; she likes to sit by him in the big recliner.  She doesn't have many aliases: Pree, Pree-Cat.

Julius

 

Don't let his cuteness fool you.  He's an asshole.

I've had it with this cat.  He is the worst cat I've ever had.

I was rocking Bertie, getting him ready for bed.  I watched Juli get up from where he was laying, walk over to the door that had shopping bags hanging on it.  He sprayed them, and then walked away.  I threw him outside and said you're not in the house anymore!  

I thought this problem was solved when he became indoor outdoor.  But he peed (or sprayed) in Bertie's carseat a week or so ago.  And I've been struggling to get the stink out ever since.  If it was just a stinky seat I could deal, but Bertie smells every time he gets out.  Arrgggh!  

I little time out.

My sister, Jessica, has come for her annual visit.  So we've been doing a lot of day trips with dad.  We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium last week.  Today we went to the San Francisco Zoo.  Thursday we're going back to the city to go to the California Academy of Sciences, and Sutro Baths.  It's been a lot of fun.  Bertie's come with us, of course, but he's too young to notice any of it.  I keep hoping something will catch his eye.  Mostly it's my dad and me hanging out, since Jess ventures out on her own.  I've been enjoying the one-on-one time, since we don't hang out a lot, for whatever reason.

I've been trying to work harder at trying to get back into shape.  Counting calories, exercising and getting all my steps in.  I'm still eating over 2000 calories a day, but I'm burning more than I'm taking in.  I started the Bikini Body Mommy Challenge this week.  It's a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout.  It's hard, but it's good, since it's only 20 minutes a day.  It alternates cardio days and strength days.  And I'm making sure I'm getting in 10k+ steps every day (except Sundays, I usually don't get all the steps).  Most days I get 12k-ish.

Julius has become a bad cat as of late.  He's been spraying/peeing in the house.  So he's going to be a mostly outside cat.  We're tried all sorts of other solutions.  But the final straw was him peeing in Bertie's crib.  He seems to like being outside.  And Aaron talked to the vet about it, as long as we keep up his shots and flea meds, he should be ok.

Bertie has been doing well lately.  He's been doing well at sleeping, and even slept through the night one night last week. He hasn't done it since, but he usually will sleep in two sets of 5 hours each.  He's still great at nursing.  He's started smiling a little bit more, which is really fun.  And some cooing sounds are starting.  Aaron and I take turns bathing with him.  Bertram loves baths, and he's surprisingly buoyant.   We're still cloth diapering, but at night he wears paper.  He was starting to get rashy from being wet for so long.

I really love staying at home (which I knew I would).  It's a great balance of work and fun, routine and free time.  The house is pretty clean (most days), I stay on top of the laundry, and there is less stress.  I don't need to be in bed by any specific time, if I'm up more in the night (which hasn't been an issue lately) it's not a big deal.  If he's having a fussy day we can snuggle.  (Though, those days are stressful, because having a baby cry non-stop is so hard).

Bertie and I (and Aaron) have our plane tickets to go to Virginia.  Bertie and I are flying out by ourselves, Aaron comes part way through the trip, and we all fly home together.  I made sure we had very long layovers, and we're sitting in the late row on every flight.  Plus my mom is borrowing a car seat, so we don't need to lug one through the airport.  I'm excited, and a little nervous about how he'll handle the flights.

I need to pump and go to bed.

Another catch up...

The great escape:
Last Sunday Julius made a break for it.  He's become a door darter.  When Aaron was letting the dogs back in, Juli slipped out.  We chased him around (think something out of Benny Hill), until he leapt over a fence and disappeared.  We called for him, put food out, I walked around the block looking for him.  And I cried and cried.  I know cats are good at coming back, but the fact that we got him from a shelter gave me pause.  Maybe he wasn't good at finding his way back?  We kept watching for him.  Then around 5 (two hours later) I saw him sauntering across the yard.  I yelled to Aaron and he went out to lure the cat.  The neighbour dog, Guinness, barked, and Juli took off again.  Aaron yell at me to go around to the front.  So I dashed out there, and Aaron had Julius cornered under the truck.  I told him to grab him by any means, so he hooked the collar.  I crawled around and got a good hold on his scruff and pulled him out.  Then I couldn't stand up, because I'm too pregnant to stand up while holding a cat.
Later in the week, Aaron's folks accidentally let him out too.  But they managed to chase him back into the house.
Illness:
On Wednesday, I wasn't feeling well, and ended up only working a half day.  I had sore throat and some kind of head cold.  Plus I had the feeling I was getting a UTI too.  Not my normal "Holy God! this is the most painful pee ever!" UTI, but the less common "I need to always pee" UTI.  I emailed my ObGYN, and she called in some antibiotics for me, and asked me to go to the lab for a urine culture too.  I left work after working four hours, and drove South to Kaiser.  By the time I got there I needed to pee really bad.  I was glad there was no line at the lab (since there often is).  Then I went down to the pharmacy, which was full of sick, screaming children.  And my Rx wasn't ready, so I had to wait.
The UTI is feeling better.  And after 2 more days off work, I'm finally starting to get over this cold/sinus thing.  I'm draining a little, and my throat is ok.  But I'm still tired. I was going to try to walk today, but a short trip to the grocery store wore me out.
On being alone:
Another reason I'm worn out, is because Aaron's been gone more of the week.  I have no clue how single moms, or Army moms do it.  I do not function well on my own.  He was gone Monday morning through Wednesday afternoon.  Then he had a long meeting on Thursday night.  And now he has a short camp out  tonight into tomorrow.  Bleh.  It's hard for me to take care of four animals, and my sick self.  And try to keep the house in somewhat clean shape.  Even when I'm not sick, I'm tired pretty easily.
Pregnancy:
I'm 31 weeks today.  That means in a couple of days, I'll be 8 months pregnant.  Holy Moly!  That's kind of scary.  Mojo's room isn't ready.  We don't have a car seat or crib (we do have a borrowed bassinet and lots of cloth diapers).  And I really need to get the insurance stuff straightened out.  Ugh, I'll be glad once I have that done.
I've been having a lot of indigestion lately.  Bleh, I hate that.  But I'm still sleeping well, except for waking up to pee.  I can still get comfortable.
Mojo is still dancing around a lot.  I love it.  We're still reading to him nightly.  Aaron was kind of joking around saying we were going to confuse him by reading him The Hobbit one night and Dr Seuss the next.
My baby shower is next week!  Actually, my first one is on Sunday in Virginia.  My relatives are having one for me, even though I can't go, which is really nice.  Then the shower that Sophie is throwing me is next Saturday.  And that means my marmie will be here on Wednesday night!!!  Eee!  And I'm getting an updo done before my shower so I look pretty, since I'm sure there will be lots of pictures.  And I'm excited to see people and eat and have presents.
Marmie:
I'm trying to get the house ready for Marmie's visit.  The guest room is almost ready, it needs a little more cleaning, and some fresh linens.  Aaron is hopefully going to get Mojo's room painted on Sunday and Monday.I'm not sure what she'll do while she's here, since I'm still working when she's here.  I think Sophie wants some help with shower stuff.
It'll be better once I'm on leave and then she'll be back.  Then I can hang with her.

At this time

I opened my Discover Card bill and found I owed $0 this month.  I love when that happens!  We never carry credit card debt.  I think we've done it once it all of our married life, and then it was for only a month.  In terms of debt, we have $3700 left on my car to pay off, and all of Aaron's school loan.  As for the car, I'm making double (or triple) payments; I'm going to have it paid off before the year is through.  The student loan is hefty.  And we're hoping Aaron can stay in a non-profit or government job for the next 9 years so he qualifies for loan forgiveness.  But we're only making small payments on that, since they're income based, and it's going on my income from last year.
We're actually doing really well financially.  So I'm putting quite a bit into our two savings accounts (one for actual savings, one large unexpected bills eg: vet).  Right now, while our expenses are still low, we're going to save save $ave.
My dad bought a new Prius today, a red one.  He has two cars (well, three right now): a 92 Dodge Caravan, and a 99 Toyota Corolla.  He selling the van this weekend.  Then he wants to replace the Corolla with a new Corolla in a year or so.
We got a new cat on Tuesday.  We named him Julius.  He's a three year old grey and white tabby.  He's still afraid of Fiona, but he's getting a little braver each day.  And he a big snuggle cat, which is nice.
I've made a new weight loss plan.  These are the rules for the next month:

1. Track all calories every day.  (I was doing this but not being very strict about it)
2. Maximum of 24 oz of diet soda a day.  (I am really addicted to diet coke, so setting a two can limit is a good start).
3. No sweets except on Sundays and special occasions.  (I'm also really addicted to sugar.  So this has been tough, but I know it's healthier to do without it)
4. If not running errands, walk or jog on lunch break.  (I'm lucky enough that I can eat lunch at my desk, then use my lunch hour as I please.  Sometimes I need to buy groceries, but most days I'm free.  And since I work alone most of the time, I can come back to work all sweaty and red-faced).
5. Ride the bike 4-5 times a week, aiming for 45-60 minutes at a time.  (I have my bike on a trainer, in the living room.  I can watch tv and petal away.)
6. Weigh in Sunday morning.

I'm hovering around 150, I think I'm currently 148 or 149.  I'm going to get back to 140.  Then I'll see what to do from there.  I would like to sign up for a 10k or half marathon.  But I think I might be healthy enough to get pregnant in the next few months.  I don't want to sign up and pay for something I might not be able to do.