Just much to do, too little time

I have to admit that the blog has been the least of my priorities as of lately and my biggest guilt. I love to write this blog, I just haven't found the time. I go to bed each night with such guilt that I didn't have the time to add a new entry. I have been too busy catching cats, dealing with plumbers, wrangling a two year old and negotiating outfits with Princess. Then there is Christmas and Dear Husband's back surgery next week. I think my plate is full and spilling over. Oh, and because Dear Husband and my therapist told me I need to start going to the gym to burn off some stress, I am on my 5th week of my 9-week running program. It's kicking my butt yet the butt isn't disappearing.

Though we have been scrambling around trying to get all our Christmas shopping done before the surgery (Dec. 18th), I haven't grasped the holiday spirit just yet. As we get closer to the surgery, I am beginning to get stressed about the severity of the surgery along with the responsibilities that fall on me as of Dec. 18th. I am going to temporarily become a single mom with two small kids and a husband that is useless for the unforeseen future, while he recovers.

I need to find and bring the holiday cheer into our house along with playing Santa Claus on the 24th. You can call me bah-humbug but I did veto a big tree this year. Could you imagine me dealing with the two kids, husband is upstairs in bed after surgery and the two darn indoor cats have knocked over the tree ? (its a guarantee they would to) I had to make the tough decision to go without this year. We have an itty-bitty tree that I will put out instead. When the cats knock it over, at least I will be able to pick it up myself and I won't have water leaking into our laminate flooring.

To Catch a Cat....

We have been battling a feral cat issue in our yard and neighborhood for years. I have mentioned it before in past blog entries. I am ecstatic to announce that we think we have finally capped the issue. We have caught the last known female that was not fixed. She had two litters this past summer that we had to catch and find home for. A total of 5 kittens that we found. This cat, who we call Beauty, has been dodging us for well over one year and has caused a lot of stress in our house. We began trying to trap her last summer and were successful one time until Dear Husband took pity on her and 'dumped' her from the the cat trap to a dog crate so she would be more comfortable for the evening, while she waited to be taken to a spay clinic. Needless to say, Beauty got away and Dear Husband ended up in Urgent Care with a cat bite. Since that day, we have never been able to get her in the cat trap. We have caught everything else in our neighborhood, including a 20lb. possum just last week. In desperation a few days ago, I called Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County to get their advice. They suggested I use a 'Drop Cage' which they were willing to loan me. They said that if we screwed this up, the hopes of every catching her were slim.

Last night I left Dear Husband in charge of the trapping while I took Princess and Pirate out for a few hours. Dear Husband not only was able to trap Beauty but trapped two of the other ferals at the same time. We had been told this might happen and were given instructions on how to just get Beauty in the portable cat trap. I was sweating bullets and stressed out to the max! If this failed, we were screwed. I am happy to say that we successfully transferred Beauty and settled her down in our garage for the night while we figuered out what to do next. I hardly slept a wink last night, knowing that if we didn't find a vet today to spay her... we would most likely have to take her to the animal shelter. She is very wild so she has no chance of being adopted. I called our vet first thing this morning and they were happy to help. Beauty is currently being spayed as I type this email. She will be put back in her cat trap right after surgery so she awakes in the trap. I will pick her up tomorrow morning and release her back into our neighborhood. Whoo Hoo! I am a very happy camper today. Have we finally conquered the ever-expanding feral cat issue in our neighborhood? No thanks to our neighbors either. Nobody helped us financially or physically to resolve this issue.

Please Spay and Neuter your cats, no matter if they are indoors or outdoor cats.

Little room for air

Finally able to find a few minutes to blog tonight. It has been tough for me lately. I just don't find the time. Blogging has become a type of therapy and outlet for me. I love writing and reflecting on my day or a thought or a cute story. So, when I am not blogging you must know I am buried to my ears in life. The idea of not having 15 minutes to blog a day has really highlighted to me that I never take the time or am given the time to breath on my own, all by myself. I am smothered from the minute I wake up until the last person in my house has gone to sleep. Then I begin to emerge and regroup. This is typically at 10pm.

I can now say that I understand fully the issues that stay-at-home moms have with losing themselves into the people they love. I am trying to catch myself from that before it is too late. Let me tell you, it is tough and not nearly as easy as people say. I was told to go to the gym and burn off the stress. I do that now every weekday. It is nice and I am getting great exercise yet I am still not being given the chance to breath. Dropping Pirate off at the Kid's Gym and walking over to a cardio machine and exercising for an hour does not help me with the things in life that are burying me... keeping in touch with friends, looking for a job, paying my bills, peace and quiet at a decent hour, etc. It's actually setting me back on my available time.

I need to start getting on the bandwagon of finding a job now that the economy is starting to turn upward yet I am struggling with finding the time to do so. It is tough to hold a business conversation when a 2 year old is crying in the background or the 4 year old is wondering who I am talking to and when I will be off the phone. It is tough to go from wearing the mommy hat one minute to the professional hat the next minute and then back to the mommy hat at a moments notice.

In looking at the calendar today, I realized I have not been kid-free since Oct. 3rd. On that day I ran a few errands all on my own and then received a phone call after about two hours wondering if I was going to be home soon. I went from wearing the 'Me' hat to the 'Mommy' hat as quick as my phone can sing Kid Rock's All Summer Long. October 3rd. was 17 days ago. I have not been out of a 50 foot range of a child ever since. I need a little room for air!

Girl Power!

Princess & I caught the kittens. They are cute and we are mighty proud of ourselves.

First, the details on the twins... They are 7 weeks old if I tracked the gestation cycle of their Mama Cat correctly. Two boys. They are identical to the kitten we kept (Sake) earlier this summer from the last batch. It is deja vu. They litter boxed trained within minutes and love to play with the kitty toys Princess gave them. Currently they are shacking up in our downstairs bathroom [aka... the kitten room]. In case you think we are crazy.. we are not keeping them! We are hoping that the Humane Society has room in their adoption area for them. We will find out tomorrow. If not, we will be having to find these two little guys homes ourselves.

We have been trying to find these kittens for weeks but finally began seeing them in our yard this past week. Unfortunately we have a small gap in one section of our double-layer fence that we had never noticed. Well, the little kitties did and they used it as their hideout. We couldn't close up the gap because we never knew if the kittens were in between the fence boards or not. Dear Husband made an attempt earlier in the week to try pull a board off the fence. He wasn't much into the task and, as I was watching, about to destroy a board in the process. Minor issue but I knew I would have to be the one to go get another board cut to fix the fence. Also, we wanted to be able to close the fence up right away in case we didn't catch them.

I racked my brain for days trying to come up with some creative way to block the gap as soon as I saw the kittens in our yard. Each time I went outside, they ran into the gap in the fence. It was starting to stress me out. Dear Husband wasn't helping matters by telling me I was get obsessed. He was starting to bug me. We have such a feral cat problem and no one is doing anything about it other than me. If I didn't catch these little guys, that would be two more male cats to impregnate the one feral female I have not been able to catch and spay. Princess was the only one that seemed interested in my pursuits and tried to help me.

So, Dear Husband went to work on Saturday morning and I began my methodical process of catching them without the 'peanut gallery' criticizing me. I saw them playing in the yard and I went out outside to see them. They ran into the fence as usual. This time I got down and took a little twig and starting poking in the boards and realized they were right there behind a board. I got our my trusty screwdriver and hammer and slowly started trying to lift the nails delicately out of a fence board without damaging the board . It was damn hot! I picked the hottest day of the year in Santa Rosa to do this. Princess came outside to offer me encouragement and also confirmed that she could see the kittens between the fence boards. Finally I was able to pull a board off and, sure enough, the two little kitties were sitting on top of each other. I realized that I hadn't planned very well because they weren't cuddly little guys just yet and didn't want me messing with them. Princess came to the rescue and held the board for me while got the cat carrier and garden gloves.

As soon as we got them settled in our bathroom. Rylan came up to me, gave me a high five and said, "Mom, we did it! Daddy said we couldn't! Girl power!"

As a mother, there is nothing like sharing an experience like this with your daughter when someone had doubted you. She and I were so proud of ourselves and hopefully she will always remember that if something is important to you and you set your mind to it, you will achieve your goal.

Anybody interested in a really cute little kitten?