Hello there!
I was going to give a life update in the June playlist like I usually do in those posts, but the longer I thought about it, the more I realized I was away for TWO MONTHS. As you may know, a lot can happen in 60+ days, so ultimately, I decided to have a separate post for this.
The month of April was good. We were supposed to go visit family up north for my nana’s birthday, but again, plans changed like always. My little niece Kimber is a little terror at night according to my sister. She also cries and screams quite a bit, and before anybody freaks out, they’ve tried various ways to stop these things, but nothing has worked. Now they believe she could be teething, but so far we haven’t seen anything along her gums.
Other than that, she’s a very happy girl and thoroughly enjoys causing a bit of trouble. When she was about two or three months old, she discovered rolling over on every surface, including her parents. After she conquered this, she moved onto crawling and she is a big crawler, but recently she decided to stand up on her own, so she continues to find ways to freak everybody out–honestly, I’m very proud of her for it.
We have done a lot of gardening lately. In early April, my dad asked me if I wanted to help him plant the seeds of our tomatoes (my dad has a LOT of them!) and at first the only job I could do was put the dates on the Styrofoam cups and I was content with that, but within a day or two, my dad gave me an even bigger job, which was to actually plant the seeds into our little nursery containers. I’ve worked on tomatoes and radishes, plus our zinnias and sunflowers. I loved having a chance to get my toes dirty with the soil and see whether or not my toes would be too large to grab them; if this happened, I used the tweezers.
I was going to get me some raised beds this year, but we just don’t have the room – between our dog Rumer and then the cats, I just don’t think it would have been something I’d be able to keep up with like my parents do in the gardens. So, I really cherished the opportunity to help dad with his stuff, and we even built our new deck furniture, and I helped holding things in place for him as it was a pain in the ass to screw together. We made it through, and they do look nice, but mom and dad haven’t had a chance to enjoy them.
As the month was ending, we had a sad moment.
Technically, we have five cats: Midge, Grumpy, Stormy, Felix (Fifi) and Nelson (Linus, as my dad calls him!) and we feed them and being around us has made them less feral in a way. They enjoy pets, some cuddles here and there, etc. Out of the five, I personally claimed Stormy and he has always struggled with allergies, it didn’t matter if it was winter or summer, he had nose issues like hard sneezing, nose bleeds, and his eyes were goopy and gross, poor dude was an absolute mess!
When I went to stay in the nursing home back in October, he was in a bad shape. He holed himself up in his favorite Styrofoam box house and slept in there, only to come out for eat and go to the bathroom. I hated seeing him like that, and it was around this time where I came to accept him passing away before I came home. However, by the time I did come home, he had regained his energy and strength and would jump up onto the deck with the other cats. Everybody was thrilled to see him do all of this again.
And once we made it to spring, his allergies were starting to come raging back and we kept the same routine my parents did last time, but one day he just decided to roam around the neighborhood, which wasn’t like him at all. We hollered and searched for him, but he was gone. I thought it was odd because Stormy rarely leaves the property. He’ll go visit my sister every once in a while, but he would always come out of a familiar haunt, but this time he didn’t. One morning while my mom was doing some cleaning outside, she found him in his house. He had passed away in his favorite place.
I am still grieving over my Stormy Eugene. Yes, he had a middle name. The majority of our cats have middle names actually! Anyways, I don’t think I’m the only one. I truly believe Fifi is also coming to terms with the loss. Stormy and Fifi were basically attached at the hip, so I figured if any of the cats actually mourn for him, it would be him. He wasn’t in the mood of loving in the beginning, until recently. Oddly enough, when I came home from the nursing home, Stormy had recovered but Fifi was the one with health issues. He’s doing much better now, and enjoying the one-on-one time with me again. While I was trying to gain Stormy’s trust, I had already developed an relationship with Fifi but once I spent most of my time with Stormy, he kind of took a backseat.
Honestly, since Stormy’s passing, Grumpy, Fifi and Nelson have become snuggle bugs. Grumpy and Fifi have always been like this, but Nelson has been eerie of people, including us, but he has been enjoying the morning loves. He runs up against my feet and we chat about our morning so far. I’ve been calling him “chatterbox” lately because he is constantly meowing at us.
Now, let’s discuss the things that happened in May.
I was able to help do some of the planting again. This time I did more than put dates on the cups. I had the job of filling the trays for our nursery, and this was something that brought me back to my childhood,
One time my sister and I were digging around their huge trees, and we had found something very white and tough, we were slightly confused in our discovery but otherwise very happy with ourselves too! After a few seconds, our mom came out to see what we had dug up and she squashed our dreams and told us it was part of the sewer/water pipes and we needed to find another spot to dig to China. We were pretty sad but put the dirt back and moved to the other side of the sidewalk.
Anyways, as I was filling each hole, I was also told that I needed to make a two-inch hole with this wooden stick that was just the perfect width for me to grip in between my toes. Once I was finished with that, he gave me a packet of seeds and I began to drop those into their fresh beds.
Speaking of plants, I do have some bad but good news to share. My first little plant my mom got me at the start of 2021, it was a bonsai or money tree I named Yuri Lilliekoi, well unfortunately, it sort of died sometime last year. It was very odd, but it had looked like crap for a couple of months so, we knew something was up with it. I was very sad to let it go, but then this past May, it was Nurse’s Week and my mom and all of the other nurses were given a goodie bag and succulent plants, and she was so happy she ended up giving it to me. Once she showed it to me, I fell in love with it and of course like my other plants, it was given a name.
Succulents are native to desert areas in Africa and Mexico. I already have a plant named for the Mexican region, she is a spider plant but looks like a spot of very long grass, and she was named Paulina Sylvia or PS as they mean “little forest” in Spanish. So, I knew I would have to find her name within the African culture. I found out the Aken people tend to name their children the day of the week they were born, which I thought was pretty cool, and since mom gave me this plant on a Thursday, I went with “Yaba” (Yaa-Ba) and I really like it. As for the middle name, I wanted a way to honor all nurses, so I decided to go with “Florence” dedicated to Florence Nightingale herself. My mom giggled at my explanation of the plant’s name, but she approved of it though.
Our dog Rumer was out most times while we were working on the flowers, and when I was done with everything, I would go into the living room and hang out with her. She and I are becoming best friends. She is starting to understand the word “cuddle” now. I have my own spot in the living room. It’s next to our sofa and opposite of our bathroom. I literally sit in front of two vents, so I’m usually always cold, but I lean over onto the armrest of the couch, and she’s lie down on the other side, and we’ll cuddle. She sniffs my hair and cleans my face and ears. She is in love with ears, and it can get a bit weird, but whenever this happens, she is as close to me she can be and I know that’s when I can hug her freely. For the most part, she really gentle with me and we know she enjoys it just as much because she’ll stay there for quite a while.
Last month was actually her birthday month. We are certain that she had to have been born around Memorial Day weekend, since we got her in the middle of August. We celebrate both days since figuring out the math there. So, she is in face two years old now. I still consider her a “puppy” though because she is so goofy. I don’t know about other dogs, but Rumer has learned to clean her face. When she is done eating, she’ll jump up on the couch and plop her nose right into the edges of the couch and rubs her face all around the back of the sofa. I’ve never seen a dog do that before, but it cracks us up everytime.
My little nephew just had his birthday, and I was going to blog about it, but there were quite a few people and children in the photos, so I decided against it to protect their privacy. However, I wanted to share something about Nolan today.
We have a large collection of different blocks. We still have a bag he’s had since he was about two years old, but over Christmas, he got two more packages of blocks–technically, it was one, because the other is actually a set of Jenga blocks! I’ve tried to teach him on how the game works but he’s fine with using them as the base of ALL of his buildings. I love to see his mind at work, so I just lie down in my bed and watch him do it all on his own. Honestly, if I try to help, he gets mad because it wasn’t what he was looking for in the first place!
He loves to create houses, fountains, zoos, fireplaces, trains, etc. His mind is everchanging and it is amazing to see him work out the different designs. For his birthday, I found a Lego build of a penguin, because they are one of his favorite birds. I thought it would be cool to see him build something more complex. The kid managed to do a Rubik’s cube twice, so I know he will enjoy the challenging experience.
I think I am officially finished with this post. I need to make a warning for myself for later to not wait two months to write about everything that happened. I know I’ve forgotten things, but I think you’ll be fine with what I was able to remember, right? I enjoy writing these posts, but I can never condense things, and I’ve always been this way. It takes me a good hour o finish a story, so feel bad for my parents who are told the majority of my stories…I do hope you have enjoyed everything though.
How was you? What were you up to in April to June? Let me know in the comments below!
Got Meghan's Blog 