Long, Hot, Happy, Sad Summer

 

Well that was a long summer with many goings on, maybe too many to mention! I could probably write an entire post about each of these things, but in the interest of time, I'll try to keep it concise. And because I'm OCD organized, I'll go in chronological order. You're welcome.

First, the house. Believe it or not, we never took any good pictures and now the grass is not really green after this super dry summer, so all you get is the tiny picture we were sent when we first heard about the house. We moved in June 1st, a very hot day indeed, and the house is truly wonderful but it did not have AC. So we melted the first few days with just fans and cold showers, but otherwise it was great. My parents came up to help which was much appreciated. In true Mel fashion, we had everything unpacked and setup pretty damn quick, probably within the first week. Quick enough, the kids started begging for us to go get kittens immediately (since we'd told them we could get kittens after we were moved in and settled). So we got these adorable little munchkins. The calico is Princess Buttercup and the cream colored one was Fluffy Tuna.

Then that crazy record-breaking heat wave hit. Growing up in the middle of the desert, I saw my fair share of 110 degree days. But it hit 116 here! Not sure I'd ever been in that temperature but I hope I never have to feel that again. Ugh. Thankfully, we'd bought a portable AC to get us through until we could get a central one installed but since those only work to cool off one room, it meant we hung out a lot in our bedroom and the boys camped out on our floor for several nights. But we survived and it was actually a good experience as we are now acclimated to much warmer temperatures in the house. So even though the new furnace and AC were installed a couple weeks ago, we've barely used it.

Not long after that, the kids left for Nevada to spend the WHOLE month of July with their grandparents. They had a ton of fun and we were super grateful that our parents are all able and willing to spend so much time with their grandkids. Brian and I used the time to do a lot of hiking and some serious relation-shit (that's relationship shit) work. It was time very well-spent, especially as we celebrated 20 years together (18 married) on July 12th. That's a long time peeps, and lemme tell you, it doesn't get easier. It's totally worth it, but you gotta put in the work if you want it to be good.

Right before the kids came home, we realized the kittens had ringworm (annoying, itchy, fungal skin thing, not worms thankfully!) and they had passed it to us. We've spent the last month and a half obsessively cleaning our house, clothes, furniture, towels, sheets, you name it, we've cleaned it. We even isolated the kittens on the catio (that's a fully, cat-friendly screened in patio...this house is awesome) for most of the time to cut down on everyone's exposure. It has been a HUGE pain in the ass, even if my house is cleaner than ever. That on top of the respiratory infection, ear mites and possibly parasites they had when we first got them, I feel obligated for a friendly little PSA....don't get cats off of Craigslist unless you're prepared for all of that mess.

A few days after the kids came home, Sebastian had his first easy check-up of just an ultrasound and labs and passed with flying colors yet again. All of his check-up results have been so steady, his oncologist finally changed them to every 6 months from now on instead of every 3. I can't even find the words to express my joy and gratitude. Seriously, just wow, big, huge, yay!

It was good we had that dose of happiness, because life being what it is, always throws some fucked up shit our way. Two weeks ago, our adorable little Mr. Tuna was taken from us. He was ran over by a car, right in front of Brian and the kids. I saw the aftermath, which was poor Tuna retching, screeching, and dying. It happened so fast and was probably the most terrible thing I've ever seen in-person. The person driving didn't even slow down or anything! Brian even spoke with them the next day (it was one of our neighbors) and they insisted it couldn't have been them but since Brian saw the whole thing, he knew what car it was. We've seen that person driving by many times since then and they are always going too fast and not paying attention.

So now we're traumatized from witnessing that and losing a pet so soon and so young, he was only 4 months old. We didn't feel ready for another loss, not that you ever are really. It's been a bit over 2 years since we lost our dear Greyhound, Ginger, and it took that long to even feel ready for another pet of any kind. And getting cats, we thought, hey they can live a long time, we should get at least 10 years before we have to deal with that kind of loss again. Pshh wrong, wrong, wrong. Fuck you, universe. 

RIP Fluffy Tuna. You were the coolest cat ever and we will always miss you dearly.

But life plows on forward, clumsily and painfully at times, but constantly moving on whether we're ready for it or not. So here we are, dealing, and hoping for happier days. Which the current state of the world isn't wanting to grant us easily! I'll just keep trying to find happiness in my own little corner of the world. Which isn't too hard really with this bunch of goofs I live with.

Huge thanks to everyone who donated to the NF walk this year. So appreciate you all!

Oh yeah and school finally started. After an entire year and a half of remote learning, our children are finally back to in-person school and they are loving every minute of it! Oscar started 2nd grade at Elmonica Elementary and Sebastian started 6th grade at Five Oaks Middle School.

Well that was a little bit of information about a lot of different things so if you're interested in hearing more, just reach out to chat. We'd love to hear from you. Hope your summer was a bit smoother than ours was and that you're happy and healthy.

Hugs and Love,