Announcements

General Update for Everyone

November 01, 2023

WOW... how is it November already?! Time flies so fast, tomorrow will be Christmas it seems! If I take a little extra time to reply to your email through Fanta or my Scarlet emails, please know that it's not because I'm ignoring you. I promise I will get to it.

Life has been crazy busy these past 5-6 months. Quick recap:

We lost sweet Jasmine at the end of May.
4 days after Jasmine passed, I rescued a kitten in a parking lot, and we ended up keeping her and named her Pandora. We have never had a kitten this young (Marble and Jasmine were 8+ weeks old when we adopted them). Taking care of a 4-week old kitten is a lot of work, so a lot of things in general got put on the back burner.
Factor in meal planning, grocery shopping & errands, house chores, trying to cook more often, doing my Patreon content, random custom videos, video shoots with myself and other models, landscaping projects I needed to get done, other house projects in the works (some still on hold), and playing catch-up with my gardens outside - the summer went by way too fast!
During one of Shish's shoots in early July with Jane Domino & a friend of hers, Shish and Jane did a driving video to get us all dinner one evening and came back with another kitten, roughly the same age as Pandora, by a week or two. Because of her coloring and the fact that they found her in The Purple Onion drive-thru (restaurant here), her name is Vidalia. It is like having 2 toddlers in the house with these two 😳, but I'm glad they have each other to play with and grow up together. Vidalia gave us quite a scare back in September. That put our total cat count back up to 7. Seven cats. Yup, we're the crazy cat couple!
Lots of sleep has been lost this past summer (toddler-like kittens!), which makes me feel tired, unmotivated, and sleepy most of the days. Being out of shape doesn't help (no exercise), so it takes me 10 times as long now to do labor-intensive things (like outside stuff). I get so overwhelmed by my to-do list at times (everything, not just outside stuff or changing car batteries 😂), most of the time I don't even know where to start. 😭 Literally, I just sit and stare. 😳
At the end of July, a radiologist reviewed our eldest cat's chest x-rays and diagnosed the small mass at the base of his heart as a heart tumor. He had a recheck mid-August, and his heart had increased in size, and the mass had grown some. The vet said we probably have 4 months, at most. That's mid-December, but he's still doing really well. He will be 18 years old in January, if he makes it! 🤞
In August, I finally hunkered down and finished one of the home projects that desperately needed to be finished: remodeling my closet! It was so hard to find stuff I needed for pictures/videos, and I love the makeover! Check out this video blog tour of the new closet!
At the beginning of September, I fell twice in a 3-day period. The first was outside (yay for gardening on an embankment/incline!), and I am pretty sure that's how I hurt my elbow. From research, I guess this is what they call tennis elbow because it's right there at the pointy part of the elbow bone. It was so bad a one point, I couldn't use my right hand/arm to lift my purse off the ground. I still have issues lifting some things, and how do you 'rest' your elbow so it gets better? The 2nd fall was in a dark bedroom to retrieve a cat for his morning medication. I scrapped my toe in that fall, and it also left a nasty bruise on my leg for 10+ days, which I posted about here. Even after the bruise was gone, it was still sore to the touch for another good week or two.
Mid-September - my video card in my computer died. The morning of a shoot. So I couldn't open email to see the custom videos we had to do. I had to wake Shish up, and he had a spare video card to get it back up and running. After this, he decided it was time to build me a new computer as the old one was built in 2015. Pretty old. I have been slowly transitioning. My monitor is hooked to both, split screen, until I'm able to work off the new one without referencing the old one. I HATE WINDOWS 11! But, I am coming from Windows 7, so it's a huge learning curve (that I don't have time for!).
My allergies were pretty bad during the month of October, so much so that it was constant nose-itching and sneezing. During some of this time, I felt a little under the weather and was concerned I might actually be getting sick and started taking plenty f Vitamin C. Thankfully all is well there, and the allergies have calmed down to 'normal' now. I am still having fairly consistent sinus headaches though. 😞
Ever have a day where you start trying to do stuff, but something keeps interrupting you? That was pretty much my first half of October, and it was beyond frustrating. To be going wide-open (with not enough sleep), only to get nothing done because of interruptions and unexpected trips/visits/etc.
Friday the 13th (Oct): a stray gray tabby showed up at our house. Shish made the mistake of petting it, so it wouldn't leave. Took it to the vet where it stayed for a week to get shots, checked for diseases, and neutered at least. Brought him back Oct. 20th. He can't come inside. The 'new cat' balance with the 2 kittens was just returning to normal, and with Pandora having litter box issues, we can't start the cycle over again. Eight cats would just be too many. Shish gave him the temporary name "Timothy" the first night he showed up. Timothy is VERY vocal, even when you are in cars filming. We are currently trying to find this sweet boy a forever home where he can get the love and attention, indoors, that he craves. We have a heated outdoor cat house for him on cooler/colder nights. While I am not ready for another cat and would like to find him a home ASAP, I still feel guilty he's not getting more attention. He was obviously an indoor cat somewhere by the way he acts around house doors, and it breaks my heart that he was tossed out and abandoned. 😭 There is a special place in hell for people who do this and abuse animals.
Oct 23rd: I fell again, and this time it was pretty bad. It resulted in a bad foot sprain that I talk about here. I was limping around for a few days, but at least I could walk without severe pain. I am still being careful because the ankle is sore. Last Friday, I went to the doctor to get it x-rayed just to make sure it wasn't obviously fractured. It was bruised up pretty bad then.
There have been several vet visits over the past 2 months. We take Targét weekly for a pain medicine shot. We can't give it to him at home because it's a controlled substance. Vidalia had an upper respiratory issue and is better now after antibiotics. Pandora is having gastro issues right now and is on a 2nd antibiotic for it. It's actually supposed to get rid of a possible intestinal parasite, in case that's the issue. And she's on prescription food to see if it resolves the diarrhea. Because of her gastro issues, she occasionally pees where she's not supposed to (thank goodness for waterproof furniture covers we can put down over the carpet!). Cats tend to pee and poop outside the litter box when they are having issues, and my sweet little girl is still having some poop issues. I can tell she doesn't feel 100% at times. I am more worried about it being a possible non-treatable virus. Our vet said unless it's a virus they can't treat, it just about has to be diet or a parasites. I pray it's one of the 2 latter options. I can't lose my sweet little girl I rescued! 💔 (If you would like to donate to Pandora's vet bill, I would be forever grateful!)

That about wraps it up - what I can remember anyway. If I don't take pictures, I don't remember! 😂 It's been a hectic, stressful few months. I am limited in the customs I can do right now until my foot is better, though it's getting there. It's still swollen some, so tight shoes are a little uncomfortable. I have yet to try standing in a pair of heels but may attempt it sometime this weekend.

Today's agenda:

Call a lady about a possible foster place for Timothy (the cat). Already did this. It has literally taken me 2-3 hours with other things going on and stuff I have to do with cats, etc. to get this typed up!
Post a video update to Fanta (I'm going to really work on being consistent with this from now on!).
Grocery list and a few errands that I've been putting off.
Check on some plants in my unheated greenhouse. We haven't had our first frost yet, and instead of easing into cold weather, mother nature slaps us with a freeze warning last night, getting down to 30 F (-1 C). Tonight's low is 24 F (-4 C). WTF?? This is pretty low even during the winter here in the southeast, much less the first part of November.
Allergy shot, which, with drive time and required after-shot waiting, is a minimum of 2 solid hours. Blah. I have about 6 more shots (one per week) before I can go to every other week - FINALLY!
House chores I have neglected the past week: water houseplants, vacuum upstairs, put away some laundry.
Re-coat the printer stand with shellac that I made yesterday so I can spray paint it later today.
Cook dinner tonight!
I'm sure I'm forgetting something... 🤔

Sooooo, busy busy! If only I had about 3 of me right now. One day I am going to find that happy balance between all things I have to do and want to do. One day. I envision myself skipping through a giant field of flowers I've grown, no weeds in sight, plenty of time to spend with family and friends, all videos caught up and edited, consistent updates to Fanta and Patreon, consistent customs done the day of or next day and sent out, other computer work I have is up-to-date, and everything is in perfect harmony. 😂 A girl can dream right? Because I definitely won't be skipping in real life because I would probably twist my ankle and fall again! 😂 😂 You gotta laugh at yourself every once in a while, right?

I'm off to heat up some lasagna soup for lunch, and then it's time to get busy!