Checking in – on new routines and kitties

Gets me every time I see it

So yeah, it’s been rather hectic around here. I greatly appreciate all of you who have reached out to check on us.  We have gotten settled into a third floor apartment (without an elevator) and have been waiting for school to finally begin.  It starts today!!!

It’s truly been awesome to watch the community come together to take a brand new building and create a school from it.  Almost everything inside is donated. There have been fundraisers and items donated from all over the country (and other countries too). The care for our little school has been amazing.

Not much has become routine yet. From the time we wake up in our new bed to new surroundings, to getting dressed and out the door, through the day, almost everything is a first.  First time to find the mail room. First time to use the oven. First time to talk with FEMA. First meeting with a builder. First time to order dinner to the apartment. It all requires a lot of brain function. Where are the tools and the stamps and our shoes?

I know it will settle down to a routine now that school has started.  Sweet Girl seemed super excited about it this morning. Her teachers are really great and we got to see the classroom too. I have no doubt it’ll be a good year.

A couple weeks before the storm, we got a kitten from the Humane Society. Probably not the best time to do that! After the first couple of days, we discovered she had ringworm and had to give her medicine and baths and wear protective clothing and gloves when we visited her in a bathroom area.  We had to keep her apart from our other cat.

They finally got thrown together in our garage office area when we quickly had to flee up there because water was coming in the house.  Our 15-year-old did not particularly care for the kitten, not surprisingly.  She likes to play and he likes to sleep.  There was a lot of hissing. She is into everything too. I’d forgotten what having a kitten is like.

When we were staying at a friend’s parents’ apartment for a week or so, the kitties stayed with some (super awesome and nice and especially understanding) friends. Finally, we moved into the apartment and we STILL weren’t able to take them back because it was a mess.  It took us a few days to assemble furniture and unpack and get a bed delivered and finally it was ok for us to sleep there. The next day we picked up the cats and they have been fantastic since.  Maybe they bonded while they were together. We are teaching the kitten what NOT to do and she’s very smart. I think she can even read! When I’m typing on the computer, she is sitting here looking at the screen like she’s following what I write. She even plays fetch.

I have started reading novels again, which feels wonderful. We are trying to decide what the right thing is to do with the house.  We still have a gigantic pile of our belongings on the front lawn, but most everything else looks normal when I drive over to pick up our mail. The pool is back to normal and we should probably go use it.

Mostly, I wish we could just drive up and go inside and resume life as it was. It’s all the effort and decision-making of this new routine that is the hard part.

I somehow don’t have any art supplies in the apartment or any books. So much got packed up for storage and it all happened in 2 days. Of course I have everything we need and the rest will figure itself out.

So that’s the latest here. I hope to get back to a regular post schedule soon.

P.S. This kitten is a snuggler. We haven’t had that before and it’s pretty awesome. 🙂