Lately

Lately, around here I have:  

picked up a humane society dog from her spay and transported her back to the shelter.  (She's a sweetie and traveled so well in the car), 

had a bowl of yum--brown rice, broccoli, carrots, sprouted teriyaki tofu, and tamari, 

finished bottle feeding our last kittens for a while.  These three are still here but they are around 9 weeks and 2 pounds so they can be spayed/neutered whenever our next appointment is, 

been swimming a couple of times with this guy, who loves to jump in the pool and make a big splash, 

transported this cutie pie, Smudge, (a former foster), to Petsmart where she got herself adopted a few days later.  

made a couple batches of massaged kale salad with strawberries and coconut for Mr. GV, 

packed up this little one, Shirley, 

and her sister, Laverne, and wished them a happy life as they went off to one of our adoption partners, 

went with my mom, sister, and this guy to a local consignment sale, 

where I bought two things:  a stack of people magazines for $2 and a tuxedo T-shirt for my nephew.  Tacky as hell but he loved it and so do I, 

managed to accomplish some reading, of course with some help, 

took some more picture of Simon (the tiny trio is named Alvin, Simon, and Theodora) because of some interest in this sweet Siamese boy, 

made Happy Herbivore's Taco Soup (good but IMO needs more liquid to be more soup-like), 

and found that our local chain grocery store now carries vegan cookie dough.  Most of the time I make mine from scratch but I wanted to support their vegan choices so bought a container.  My nephew got to enjoy the first half here after an especially good day at school and the other half was taken to a board meeting for the humane society.  

In addition, we cancelled Hulu!  That's $7.99/month we won't be paying.  We can still see all the shows on Hulu that we want, they just won't be available until 8 days after the broadcast showing instead of the day after.  We are watching less and less TV so that suits us just fine.  

Frugal doings

We have had lots of expenses around here lately.  But it's no fun to focus on that, is it?  So let's just rejoice in the few frugal items, shall we?

*I made a trip to the big city recently to transport a cat to Petsmart.  While there I stopped at Moe's to pick up dinner for Mr. GV and myself.  On Monday's Moe's has $5 wraps.  Of course it is always cheaper to eat at home, but after having been on the road for a few hours and busy all day, this was a planned event.  So I will take the $5 wrap.

*I have discovered the joy of my sister having a pool at her apartment complex. I have red hair (well I did before the aging process made it look like I've dyed  it blonde!), blue eyes, the whitest white girl skin, AND a family history of melanoma. So I've never been a sun worshiper or one that is able to hang out at the pool all day. But now with my sister less than 10 minutes away I am able to go over and enjoy a dip for an hour or two at the time, for free. 

*I have been to very few yard sales this season, as I really don't need anything. However, on a whim I stopped at one this summer and found a large box full of Archie comic books. I loved this series growing up, and my nephew does too. He has been digging into the box each time he visits my house. I can't remember now exactly what I paid, but I want to say it was $20. That's a huge bargain for something that we both enjoy. 

*I made a visit to Goodwill and found 3 shirts and 2 sleep pants. I'm thrilled with them all. I have very few decent shirts. When you are in animal rescue you rarely have a call to get dressed up!  

*I've been getting through a few books lately and putting them in a bin to be sold at a large used bookstore. I also cleaned out underneath one of the cabinets in our built-ins. These were books that we had read and saved. I save very few books. Typically I read one and then out it goes to be sold or loaned out. Mr. GV has favorites that he does like to save, however. So I was pleasantly surprised when he agreed to get rid of several books!  

It's Been Forever

Life has been CRAZY BUSY these past few months. I have become even more involved with our local humane society and have fostered multiple kittens, several who have needed bottle feeding for a few weeks at the time. This means getting up every 2-4 hours throughout the night when they are small and you are also limited in how long you can be gone from the house.  Right at this moment I have three bottle feeders who are transitioning to wet food but still need a bottle 3-4 times a day. I am sitting on the bed typing this on my phone while a little grey tabby girl hangs out in my lap and a Siamese boy lays on my chest. Their little brother, all black, is in bed. 

I have a little more freedom now that they are a bit older and I am getting more uninterrupted sleep at night so I feel like doing things during the day. Things like, oh, cooking and cleaning. So my husband is a bit happier too. Ha!  

This week I have my nephew since we are in the week between kids' club (summer daycare) and the beginning of school.  Yes, here in the Southern U.S.  we send out kids back to school in the humidity of early August. Ugh. Yesterday I had some shopping to do, plus other errands: pick up scrub pants for Mr. GV that were altered at the dry cleaners, pick up his antibiotic because he got a bad dog bite Sunday while riding his bike that required stitches, and drive to my mom's town to check on her cat while she is on vacation. 

Today's plans involve going swimming with my nephew and them playing some Disney Infinity with him. I might actually get in some reading!   We need to take two other older kittens that my sister and nephew are adopting to get their rabies shots but I'm not sure if that will happen today or Thursday. 

I miss blogging and hope to get back to it. I need to remember that I have the Blogger app on my phone and perhaps I can get out a post every now and then! 

Here is Alvin, one of my current bottle feeders.  Excuse his cruddy eyes. They all have a very common kitten ailment right now where they get weepy eyes. They are getting ointment on them twice daily but it makes a crusty mess. 

Pile o' kittens