Ok, so I decided I've fucked off enough and want to get back to journalling regularly. Honestly I missed doing it but between work, home and pure laziness I've managed to stop writing all together. At first I had a good excuse though- I had sketchy internet connections and writing days of private and friends-only entries from scratch was a real bitch. I couldn't leave them on text documents on my computer because of suspicions of snooping. BLAH. Life.
So the short of what's been going on since I wrote regularly? I'm certain I will forget a lot and some will be out of order but here goes a checklist:
One of my female rats, Juliette (my first in this house and my first female) has a tumor. It's on her left shoulder and over the past 8 months it has grown to be almost 2/3 her body size. The vet says that it would have been more dangerous to put her under anesthesia to remove it than to just let it stay, and that she may just get another one where she removed the alst. As long as it doesnt impede her eating and breathing and take away from her quality of life, it's ok to leave. I hate to do so but Juliette is getting old and she still to this day frolicks and plays, gives tons of kisses and enjoys being held.... There's just more of her to love. I do feel sorry for the poor girl though. And angry at the breeder that assured me that tumors did not run in her bloodline.
My big boy, Donnie, passed away the day of Emily's surgery. I came to the conclusion that James was right once again (he's always right, damnit) and Donnie was much older than I guessed him to be. He slowed down in his last few days and lost some weight so we saw it coming and most of us were able to say our goodbyes. Donnie now resides in a large pot of daffodils on our front porch, his name painted on the pot.
So Emily had her surgery, that was an aventure. I talked a lot about it in my last entry though so I won't get too into it. The highlight for me was her waking up from anesthesia, pointing to me with a dopey smile and saying "Rita!" She repeated with James and Laura. Poor Laura thought that they fucked her brain up and cried, scared for her big sis. I explained that she was just really really high and we wanted her that way. Kids, don't do drugs, it scares the shit out of your loved ones. Emily is prescribed truth.
What else? Emily's recovery was longer than she'd like and she still can't do everything she wants to physically but she can breathe better and the pressure is off her heart and lungs. That's all that really matters. Oh and she's taller. She loves that.
About a month ago, my other original female rattie, Annika started growing a tumor on her right hind leg. It's growing quickly but again the vet says she should be fine without surgery. Annika is Juliette's sister and is mother to Balthier, Jacob, Duck and Ophelia, along with other babies that found new homes last year. I now worry for the babies. I am trying to contact everyone that took one, but i have deleted most of their information unfortunately. If any of you read this, please email me.
I got a fish tank this summer, something I picked up off Freecycle.org. It seems we saved the one fish that was living in it, the conditions were just awful. We now have a few happy swimmers in the living room.
School is due to start August 25th. Almost everyone is mentall ready although we have yet to scramble for school supplies at the last minute... it costs a lot to get stuff for 5 kids. Laura will be joining Emily in HS this year and is going to be in ROTC. I worry that she will not stick with it long but we will see. I hope for the best, I think the structure would do her some good. Either way, it should be interesting.
So yeah, Em and Laura have gone to and come back from TN. It was rather uneventful from what I hear. To be expected. Emily and James texted eachother a lot during the time they were gone so we didn't talk on the phone as much as I would have liked. And I wrote them a letter but neither of them wrote back. Poo. Emily did mention that her mother, who claimed "Don't get baptised, I'll spend the summer reading the Book of Mormon with you and discussing it with you, then you can decide whether or not to get baptised." did absolutely dick with Emily on that subject. Emily said that every time it even began to possibly come up, her mom would tense up and get a look in her eye, obviously angered by the subject being even thought of. So they didn't talk about it. They didn't read. And Em didn't tell her mom she already did get baptised. I knew this was going to be the outcome of that situation, and I am ashamed for her mother, who calls herself and open minded person acting the way she has about this. It's not as though Emily was going to be a porn star or wanted a baby, or does drugs. It's religion! Something a 16 year old should have the right to choose for themselves. Heaven forbid Emily or Laura have something that is really worth getting upset over come up in their lives, they have no reason to believe that their own mother would support them and their right to decide for themselves. I am so happy that I am so supportive of them growing into lovely young ladies, making wise choices for themselves. Even James, who is totally not into "this church thing" is silently supportive, rather than blatantly opposed. According to James, Kristen (their mom, his ex) gave him the evil eye when he picked them up. So much for being civil. Aparently Mike (stepdad) was friendlier than Kristen, which is saying a lot since he hates us with a firey passion.
In work news, I am about to hit my one year anniversary at my job. Woo! On the bad side of the coin, due to a fuckup by one of James' coworkers, he has lost 65%+ of his workload permenantly. Sometimes they couldn't keep him busy anyway so this royally sucks. We are re-budgeting currently.
In my personal life, things have gotten a bit complicated but are really good. More about that in another entry.
I can't think of anything else right now but I hope that I stick with this a little better this time.
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satisfied
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silly
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chipper
tired
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excited
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happy
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ditzy
content
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