Messy Meow Monday

North Texas is covered in one big sheet of ice.  On Sunday, we picked up about 3/4" of rain, which was great.  Overnight into Monday morning, we picked up about 1/2" of sleet, which is not so nice.  All the roads are frozen solid, even though the Texas Department of Transportation pre-treated the roads with a brine mixture and have been applying sand.  Today's temperatures are not expected to get out of the 20s.  I know for many of you, this might be considered warm, but for us, this is COLD!!  Also, driving on ice is impossible while driving on snow is manageable.  Truth be told, I'd rather it had snowed.

Enough of the "messy" part. Onto the "meow" part.  The kitties are taking the cold weather in stride.

Emmie's enjoying life on the top of the cat tree...in the path of the heating vent.

Daisy wonders what all that white stuff is on the roads.

Hannah's snug in her bed.

Tumbles found the pet bed warmer in the comforter and is snoozing the day away.

Have a terrific Monday wherever you are!  Head on over to my food blog for a new recipe! 

Meow Monday

Hannah

Tumbles

Daisy

Emmie

 

 

 

 

And because he's riding out the rain and cold weather in our sunroom, Mew.

There's a New Bug on the Block

Meet Emmie, the newest bug in our cat clan.  Technically, I think a group of cats is called a clowder, but that just sounds weird.  We now have the Fab 4 made up of Hannah, Tumbles, Daisy, and now Emmie. Emmie showed up in our yard in early November, 2014.  She was starving and almost emaciated.  I don't know how long she'd been living in our yard as the day she showed up was the first time I'd seen her.  After capturing her, which wasn't difficult considering I was bribing her with baked chicken that she was taking from my hand, we brought her inside and set her up in our spare bedroom.  We have a large dog crate that we use for new kitties and post-op kitties, so in she went until we figure out what to do with her.  Our initial intent was not to keep her, but to find her a loving home.  Who knew that the loving home would be ours??

 Surprisingly, she was a lovebug, so she'd obviously had some positive human interaction.  We looked for her owners to no avail.  I contacted a rescue group about fostering her until she was ready for adoption, but that didn't go as planned.  Hubby took her to the vet to have her tested for the nasties and to be dewormed.  Two weeks later, we'd decided to keep her and started her on her kitten shots.  At her final shot appointment in early December when she also got her rabies shot, we set up her spay appointment.  After going through a heat cycle with her because she went into heat about 2 or so weeks prior to her spay, that spay date couldn't come soon enough!  She's now spayed and microchipped and doing great with the other kitties.  She even gets Hannah to play with her sometimes!

 We estimate she was 6-7 months old when she arrived as she already had her adult canines and some tartar build up on her teeth.  She's an absolute delight and full of kitten energy!  She's definitely brightened up our home.  Her favorite activities are running through the house like a crazy kitty and jumping up on the cat tree and then quickly jumping off again, playing with her purple floofy, playing with the kitchen rugs, playing with the sheers on the front window, pestering Tumbles and playing with him, playing with the sheets on the bed, and chattering at the birds outside the window.  She loves sunny windowsills and sleeping on her fleece blankie in the warm afternoon sunshine on our bed.  She loves to snuggle on my chest in the morning while I'm sitting on the potty, and she loves laying in Mark's lap in the evenings.  At night, she likes to snuggle with us on the bed.  She's usually on top of me or on top of the pillows I sleep with between my legs (to help my back).  Everything's a toy and she's loving life. 

What to Do? What to Do?

As you can see, I took a break from blogging.  There are many reasons, the main one being that I started this blog to showcase my stitching, but I've not picked up my needle or crochet hook in almost a year.  Almost 10 months later, I still find myself in a quandry.  I'm still not stitching.  Still haven't really done any crochet recently.  However, I don't want to give up blogging.  So, I've decided to just write about life and see what happens.  We'll talk about thyroid health, adrenal health, gardening, kitties, LIFE, food, crochet, cross stitching (hopefully one day!) and God, not necessarily in that order.

One big thing going on in my life right now is my health.  I know I've written about his previously, but it's time to get serious about it.  I'm tired of feeling tired all the time and I'm tired of feeling like I'm 100 years old when I'm not even 50.  I was diagnosed at age 16 with hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) and now, more than 30 years later, I'm starting to see some of the negative side effects of thyroid problems.  I'm also of the age where mentalpause menopause is setting in and  my hormones seem to have disappeared .  Since the thyroid controls all the hormones in your body, it's a double whammy for me.  Additionally, I have been tentatively been diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome (by my eye doctor no less!) which is a chronic autoimmune disease in which a person’s white blood cells attack their moisture-producing glands.  As a result, I have dry skin, dry eyes, and dry mouth, along with a few other dry places.  Thyroid patients suffer from many auto-immune problems since the auto-immune system is controlled by the thyroid.  (Go figure!)  My life is not all doom and gloom.  I have been referred to a new doctor who works with thyroid patients to get them optimal in all levels and get them back on track with life.  I should be on a new path to health by the end of March.  Yippee skippy!

If you're one of the millions that suffer from hypothyroidism, I highly suggest checking out the Stop the Thyroid Madness page.  There's a TON of excellent information on that page.  If you're on Facebook, there are several Stop the Thyroid Madness pages and groups. I encourage you to check it out and get serious about getting your thyroid optimal. 

So! There it is in a nutshell.  I'm glad to be back and I hope you stay along for the journey.