Saturday: still more kitties

There was some playing and some cuddling.  Joshua and I took a nap with the cats today after Isaac and Joshua wore the cats out.

In other news, the boys were gone for the morning and part of the afternoon, so I got a bunch of stuff done.  The loft frame is finally put together but we still need to move some things before Joshua can sleep in it.

On Friday Isaac's class did a STEM activity that was building a marshmallow and toothpick chimney.  Whoever had the tallest chimney and could hold a Santa chocolate won.  As Isaac's teacher wrote: "Isaac clearly knew what he was doing."  When I picked him up from class he said that he won because he used triangles, and those are the strongest shape (knowledge courtesy Hope College Science Camp!)

Friday: more kitties

First of all: names.  We're tentatively going with Tornado (grey) and Horizon (black).  (Both are disasters if you get caught in them, with Horizon being the event horizon of a Black Hole.)

Joshua had a great time playing with the cats, but didn't really like it when they got close to him.  In some ways this makes sense; Flurry pretty much ignored the kids and now they need to learn how cats act.  They also have their claws, and Joshua is deathly afraid of getting scratched.  Isaac had some good play time too, just not as much.

Ben and I both got quite a few cuddles and head-butts.  These cats really seem to like to butt your head with theirs.  A bit odd, but rather cute too.  Which one is more cuddly at a given time seems to go back and forth.

We cleaned up the office this evening to give them a larger area when we're around.  They lasted for about ten minutes before trying to go up somewhere we didn't want.  I really expected them to chew cords and have that be the reason they had to go back in the bathroom.  It's been a while since we've cleaned up, so it's nice to have at least one place in the house look decent.

Isaac and Joshua are at a sleepover tonight.  While we didn't go out (kitties!), we did order food, watch a movie, and weren't interrupted a gazillion times while trying to talk.  We also didn't have to deal with Joshua and his problems getting to sleep.  (Hopefully he didn't have problems today anyway because there wasn't a nap, but still.)

Thursday: grading, gingerbread, kitties

Today was a grading day.  I didn't finish grading.  :(  It was close, but I didn't quite make it.

We went to an event at the library that was building graham cracker houses.  It went pretty well.  We only had about fifty minutes, which was more than enough for Joshua and a tad bit short for Isaac.  We also used icing instead of frosting.  It was nice how quickly it hardened up...but I'll probably stick with frosting at home because I like frosting with graham crackers.

Surprise number 2 of the day was bringing home some new kitties.  Ben, Joshua, and I had visited some last night.  They were a bit younger (7 months) than we wanted, but they are brothers and handled being around Joshua's loudness well.  The name suggestions from the boys so far have been Tornado (for the Grey one) and Lightbulb (from Joshua).  I keep expecting him to want to call one Puppy since that's what he names everything, but that hasn't come up.

They get to hang out in the downstairs bathroom for a while.  It turns out this is a really good space for cats as there are lots of levels and it is big but not too big.

Tuesday: exam

I gave my second exam today.  I also got more grading done than I expected.  I had a really slow start with about two graded in 1.5 hours, but that was mainly due to interruptions and such.  After that I buckled down and it went more quickly.

I also took a nap.  I just turned the lights out and put my head on my desk.  It reminded me of grad school.  I probably could have finished the five exams that I was still able to grade at the time, but I think overall it was a good choice. :D  The exam will be there waiting for me on Thursday.

Monday: forgot to post

Well, I forgot to post over the weekend.  We had a good time with Dusty here. Lots of games were played and serious matters were discussed, like where old Warcraft players are now.

On Saturday we (the boys and I) went for a walk at DeGraaf.  We needed more Maple syrup, so I made an outing of it.  The boys were complaining so much you'd think I was about to make them live outside for the next day.  Then when we got home Joshua said he had super fun.

Although it might have been because we accidently discovered a new play place.  We went to Burger King and lo and behold, there was something to play on.  We probably don't more time here than at any of of the other activities I had planned for the day, but I'm ok with that.

Thursday: Puppy and present

Puppy wore his puppy tag all day today, even at school.  (It's hard to see, but it's a balloon held on by a small clothes pin.

For Ben's birthday I told him to take two days off of work.  Last night Dusty showed up and they have three-ish days to hang out and play video games.

Tuesday: Flurry

It is with great sadness that we decided to put Flurry to sleep today.  The lab results came back with stage 4 kidney disease and a severe urinary tract infection.  While we could have tried a few things to keep her with us a bit longer, they were really just stop gap measures as stage 4 is really to far advanced to be treatable.

Ben and I were expecting this since yesterday evening, but it still feels so fast.  I was expecting to have a bit more time with her at the end, but she wasn't feeling good.  Ben stayed home with her today and said that she couldn't lie down.  She wasn't eating or drinking anything except milk, so she got quite a bit of that today.

Isaac took the news as expected, with quite a few tears.  Joshua also took the news as expected and said good bye to Flurry but didn't give her a good-bye pet.  Isaac bounced back medium quickly thanks to Grandma Cheryl, but Flurry was on his mind throughout the night.

Flurry, who was with us for 13 years, was a wonderful pet.  She had some quirks and a few habits that we didn't like, but we were happy to have her around.  She will be missed.  A lot.

She kept us laughing even at the very end.  She was exploring the vet's office, found a hole in a cabinet door, and went right in.  There was a trash can behind the door, but luckily there was also a shelf.  I freed her, but she really wanted to go back in for the next minute.