YIKES!!! And other adventures....

Once upon a time there were two individuals with big goals of work, school, callings, and having time to do things like go to the movies or complete a Pinterest craft.... Alas these two people live in reality and so as time wore on in the months of October - December some things gave way. Such as having time to go to the movies or complete a Pinterest craft... or heck, updating a blog! 

So yes, as you may be able to tell Casey and I have been crazy busy. I understand EVERYONE is crazy busy but OY! this has been nuts! 

Hmmm... Where to start? Alright with Casey:

Casey is halfway through his junior year of college. Sadly he will probably be a super senior because of the way classes get planned out but at any rate this has been his busiest and most demanding semester thus far. Not only is he doing higher level courses for his major but he is Spanish tutor. He has also been approached about being a tutor in the Math lab as well as the Computer lab. He might if he had time because the scholarships attached would be wonderful but on top of school he is also working full time. I'm sure he can't wait until the end of next week when he takes his last final and can breath a little more.

Work is good. Christmas time is Artbeat's craziest time of year. We get more sales than even the summer months in a shorter amount of time. Artbeat has also opened a sister store up in Moscow, Idaho. So Casey, the manger. and the owner all alternate who commutes up the hill to run the store. It can make for really long days for him. His job is titled as a sales rep but more and more he is doing artwork for the customers and that can be very time consuming. He is also in charge of the web development of the store and in the near future Artbeat hopes to expand into selling web templates which Casey would be in charge of also. Phew *wipes brow* um, what else?

Oh calling: Casey's church calling is going great. He's the Sunday School President and he loves it. The only time it's really stressful is if one of his teachers doesn't show up without telling him. But he and his counselors seem to have a good grip on things if that happens. 

That has pretty much been his world the last few months. School, work, calling, rinse repeat. 

The same goes for me. I decided not to stop working while doing my clinicals so my time has been running around between work, school/clinicals, and calling. Happily as a Sunday School Teacher I don't have a demanding calling. I prepare to teach for an hour a week, and I teach the 16-18 year olds so that's awesome. 

I have two more classes. One a practicum class where we will wrap up the last of our pokes. I have 5 finger pokes left. Any volunteers? And the last one is our test to certify as phlebotomists. I am also down to only needing 20 hours left in my clinical work. So far I've worked in three different facilities. 2 hospitals and a medical center. I enjoy it but clinical phlebotomy isn't where my heart is at. I really wish I could work more in the donation phlebotomy department. Both give great experience but they are also very different ball games. Today I had my first near fainter... Interesting experience. But all was well. Poor fella. 

Work is okay. Although I'm not working the hours Casey is I try to get a lot done while I'm there because I don't have much cushion as far as due dates go. It will be much easier when I am working more full time and not splitting my time up between my day job and my clinical work! 

I had an interview this week at one of the hospitals. It didn't go as well as I thought it would. It was one of those situations though were you think, "maybe this isn't a good fit, it doesn't feel like one." So who knows what will happen. I have other applications out there but jobs are a bit limited because the valley has so many phlebotomist student and pros already. I am excited that in January I will start my volunteer work at the blood bank. My hope is that by working there in any capacity they will think of me as soon as an opening comes up. There is in fact an opening right now on their web site but sadly it's in Spokane. Casey and I are willing to relocate to an extent but it has to work for both our jobs not just one or the other. 

In family news we have a new addition. I know I know we sound like creepy cat people but it was not our intention to make her a member or our family. 

This kitty used to live next door to my in-laws house and this summer she had kittens. She and her babies liked to hang out under the side porch at Todd and Linda's because it was quite and fenced in so no dogs or other mean critters could get to her. Her owners next door weren't really interested in finding the kittens homes (more to follow on that) so as a family we took it upon ourselves to find good homes for the babies. Todd and Linda then asked their neighbor if they fixed the kitty yet and she told them she had. (That was the first of many shady lies.) The neighbor was so not interested in her "pet" or the consequences of not fixing her that she decided she would just stop feeding the cat and her kittens in hopes they would go away. Todd found not one but two nearly dead kittens on his lawn because of dehydration on malnutrition. The mama cat was skin and bones because even though her kittens were mostly weaned she was still feeding them what she could through nursing because they needed food. So it was depleting her.  So very sad. Well my in-laws have never loved cats really. They like them more because Casey and I have cats but they are not "cat folk." you know? Well they went and got food for the mama and babies and went to work caring for them as best they could. After each of the babies found homes they continued to feed the mama cat (whom they nicknamed Nelli) because the neighbor had abandoned responsibility. There was discussion of surrendering the cat to the animal shelter but they were to full. There's also a rescue group in town for animals but they too were booked full in their foster homes so Todd and Linda decided Nellie was just fine where she was.

Then the weather took a nasty turn. It was a weekend when the temp got down to 25 or so and poor Nellie was just huddled  in a blanket Linda had laid out for her. They tried bringing her inside and things would have been okay but one dog of their three was NOT having a cat in his house. So they asked us if we could foster her until they found a new home. They didn't want her to freeze out there until they found a place. We agreed but we needed to take her to the vet to make sure she was fixed and had her shots. Coincidentally the day I went over to get the then called Nelli the neighbor happened to be home. I stopped her and asked what her plans for her cat was. She didn't have any. She was moving in a hurry and couldn't take care of the cat anymore. She said she never really liked her anyway. She also needed to find a place for her mangy dog too. (her words not mine but yes that poor beast was mangy and shy and in a bad way) So I said I was going to take care of her cat and I would find a new home for her. And by the way what was the cats name. "Hiccup" is what her son had called the cat. Hmph. Okay whatever.

So we took "Nelli/Hiccup/MamaCat" to the vet. Nope the neighbor never fixed her, shocker, and nope she has no vaccines, shocker, and yep her ears were bad and she was very underweight....shocker. Some people deserve a high five.... to the face.... with a chair. Anyway we got her home after her little surgery. Introductions were going well with our three kitties. She was being cared for and warm for the first time probably EVER. (the vet figured she was pretty young because of her teeth...about Cuzco's age.) 

We had an ad on craigslist and petfinder. We had a potential person who maybe might consider taking her in possibly it just depended. (sounds really reliable right? lol) Then one fateful day Casey was sitting in the office and doing some work when "Nelli/Hiccup/MamaCat" decided his lap looked nice. She snuggled down and feel asleep and started to purr. She hadn't really purred up to that point. On occasion she would be not much. Anyway he later told me, she woke up and looked at him and he was done. He didn't want anyone else to take care of her because she was finally happy. 

So this poor little soul has joined our home and hearth. She is getting along with the other kitties better and better each day. There is a bit of a power struggle between her and Blitzen because they are both used to being alphas. But anyway she is ours. 

We would like to introduce you to:

HAZELNUT

Now don't be fooled, she does look at LOT like Cuzco but she is a totally different cat. Who knows maybe she is his long lost sister. They are the same age and look a lot alike. lol 

So we now have two adorable black kitties or our "Pocket Panthers" and two grey stripped kitties that might be considered "Nondescript Mini Jungle Cats" 

The End. 

Now your are ALLLLLL caught up! 

Sorry it was so long,

Big love,

H