Hello! I'm Jenn, and this is my blog. I'm 25 years old, I'm a wife, lover, mother, friend, freelance writer, blogger, photographer, and so much 
I apologize in advance for the fact that this blog entry is going to be all over the place, but I am freaking excited about an awesome job opportunity that was presented to me today. I’ll definitely blog about it once I know that I have the job, and when I get the go-ahead to. *squee*
So let’s see. Dan made awesome, awesome shrimp tonight. He took the time to behead, skin, de-vein and de-poop jumbo shrimp, flay them, dip them in a homemade batter and fry them. I managed to eat — and keep down — exactly 2.5 of them, one French fry, and a few green beans. Dessert? A melted-chocolate-center Hershey kiss. *nom*
I ♥ my son and his silly antics. This evening he kept asking for kisses, then going, “Ew, yuck!” and wiping them off his face whenever we’d give them to him. He has the most infectious laugh, I swear.
I ♥ my dog. She’s a pain in the ass in terms of how attached she is to me, and the fact that we need to crate her even if I leave the house for the two minutes it takes to walk Ryan to the school bus, put him on the bus, say hi to the bus driver and walk back in, but I still love her. She’s loyal, friendly, great with the kids, and a nice watch dog. Her obedience and quick response to commands are nice perks, too.
My brothers are coming over for lunch & a home visit tomorrow afternoon. It’ll be a full house, what with the parent trainer (she’s totally cool though, so I don’t mind her being here), my mom, my two brothers, Dan, Alyssa, Ryan, me, and the zoo of animals that our home houses, but we’ll find space for everyone, so it’s all good.
Speaking of the parent trainer… my mom told me today that the parent trainer’s son, who lives just a few houses down from us, was feeding a stray cat for several months. Maybe not coincidentally, said stray cat recently stopped coming around. Interesting, no? The PT is going to check with her son to see if the stray cat he was feeding happened to be an orange tabby. And… still no phone calls received since I put up the sign yesterday morning, by the way. *shrug* I’m telling you people, strays are very common around here. It’s sad but true. It’s especially bad in the spring and summer; we have to be careful driving at night, because they’re frequently near or on the roads.
And did I mention the super fantastically awesome job opportunity? *bounce*
Signs announcing that we found a stray cat went up in our neighborhood yesterday morning, but so far, nobody has called to claim Ares. Alyssa is getting really attached to him, especially after he slept next to her on Sunday night, so I explained to her that he might belong to someone else, and if he does, we’ll have to give him back. She seemed sort-of-okay with that, but then asked if that happened, could we visit him? Poor girl. She has Fritzy all over her 24/7 (that cat seriously mopes when she’s spending the night with my mom or one of Dan’s sisters), and the other three cats and Leah, but she quickly attached herself to Ares, too. She takes after me in that regard. I remember being eight or nine years old, and finding a lost dog in the local park. It was a bitterly cold late afternoon in January, and since the dog was both friendly and injured (his tail was bleeding; that’s all I really remembered), I led him home to my mom and begged her to find his owner. If I remember correctly, he had a collar, but no tags, so we took him to the local animal shelter. If I also remember correctly, his owner did eventually claim him, and the animal shelter called us to pass along his thanks.
This isn’t the first time I’ve taken in a stray cat, either. In April of 2003 I found Goliath on the side of a road in Pittsburgh. I brought him home, cleaned him up, got him neutered and vaccinated, and then we gave him to my brother-in-law the following September. Goliath grew into his name; he is a MASSIVE cat. He’s at least seven years old now, and spoiled rotten.
Anyway. On Sunday afternoon I bathed Ares, clipped his claws, and put a flea collar on him. I called our veterinarian, and the soonest appointment available is on Friday. I’ll take him in then to be scanned and vaccinated. I’ll wait another week, and if I don’t hear anything from anyone, he’s most definitely ours, and I’ll get him neutered. (Another thought just occurred to me: our back yard borders a field that is adjacent to an Amish farm. It’s entirely possible that Ares was a barn cat that wandered off. Hmm. I might stop by there this afternoon to ask if they’re missing a cat. And if they are, if they want him back, LOL. The Amish are pretty notorious for having barn cats and dogs that aren’t really pets, you know?)
Right now I’m at Panera Bread. I haven’t been here in almost three weeks, and I have to admit, I missed it. Even before surgery, I didn’t come for the food (though their broccoli cheddar soup is positively amazing!) so much as I came for the kid-free, distraction-free atmosphere. And since having surgery, I definitely don’t come for the food. I order something each time I’m here, obviously, but more often than not most of it comes home with me, or hits the trash can. This morning I ordered a muffie (perfect size!) and a bottle of water, so I’m good to go with being able to finish what’s on my plate. Keeping it down, of course, is another matter altogether. Heh. Speaking of which, I need to call my doctor’s office and schedule a follow-up appointment to make sure the pneumonia is gone and my lungs are clear. With that confirmed, I can re-schedule my stricture fix. I’ll be able to eat normally at some point, LOL.
I have two large (and by large I mean 4000 words each) writing assignments, but I have some blogging and miscellaneous work I want to get out of the way first. I have until 11:45am to tie up all the loose ends, and then I’ll be catching a ride with my mom out to the agency that oversees my brothers’ placement in foster homes, and their community and home visits with my mom. Speaking of which, on February 4th it was court-ordered that the boys be transitioned home. Thank god, no more fucking around. Weekly home visits were also ordered, in addition to increasing the community visits (visits at a local agency office) to every week, instead of every two weeks. My brothers had their first home visit last week, and they were ecstatic. I brought Alyssa and Ryan over to my mom’s house, and they paired off — my fourteen year old brother and Alyssa; my twelve year old brother and Ryan — just as they did before my brothers were taken by CPS. It was really cute to see and hear them interact together, especially my twelve year old brother and Ryan. He (my brother) is autistic, and he and Ryan have very similar personalities and autistic “quirks” (though my brother never head-banged). Both my fourteen year old brother and Alyssa are also alike in personalities; both are chatter boxes and drama queens, too. Haha.
I can’t wait to get home later today. I have an important phone call (read: job opportunity with an awesome company, whee!) scheduled for 5:00pm, and I also want to play on my desktop. Go figure that between the five year old desktop and the nine month old laptop, it’s the desktop that I can install Mac OS X on (my laptop’s graphic card isn’t yet supported). I copied my music over and installed Google Chrome, iTunes, AIM, MSN, and Twhirl. Now I need to figure out how to get my saved passwords off of the laptop so I can put them on the desktop; I also need to figure out something with email. Currently I use Outlook for email, and sync it between my desktop (Windows 7 installation) and laptop using SynchPst. Obviously, that’s not going to work with Mac OS X. So yeah, I need to work on that. I need to be able to access my email at all times. I can go the webmail route if I have to, but that’s icky and boring, so I’d obviously rather not. 
Suggestions, anyone?
So Dan and I took in a stray cat. Or should I say, I took in a stray cat, and Dan agreed to us keeping him. But he was the one who initially found him, last night. He went to take some trash out the front door (rather than the back, because of all of the damn snow) and found the cat on the other side, standing on his hind legs, front legs outstretched, paws on the screen door, meowing to get in. He called me over and I tried to coax him inside, but Leah and Max kept coming over, and he wound up running off (even though he was definitely interested in coming inside!). Well, this afternoon I was in my kitchen when I heard some incessant meowing. I opened up the back door, and there he was, standing on the railing behind the door. I did the standard “psst, psst, here kitty” coo, and right over to me he came. He let me pick him up, and I brought him inside and put him in the bathroom with some food and water.
Anyway, his name is Ares. Dan chose the name, based on something-something-something with the god of war and the planet Mars and the fact that the cat is an orange tabby… I forget. I’ll ask Dan to repeat his story of inspiration tomorrow, and then let you know. Heh. I’m not sure how old he is, but based on the length of his legs and general gawkiness, and the fact that he’s alive (most strays don’t live beyond three years of age), I’m guessing around a year, maybe a little younger? He’s relatively clean, though he has some flea debris in his fur (I’m going to bathe him after I get him vaccinated), and Dan found a thorn in the bathroom sink, where he spent most of the afternoon sleeping. He’s not neutered, so that’s definitely something I’ll be taking care of ASAP. He’s very friendly, and took to myself and the kidlets right away. When Dan came home from work he was more than happy to receive several pets and a chin rub from him, too. And wow, can he purr!
I’m going to take him to our veterinarian this week for a quick microchip scan (even though I’m 99% certain he’s a stray, and not someone’s pet), vaccinations, and neutering. I’ll then bathe him, so he’ll be nice and clean and smelling like the other cats and the house.
So we’re up to five cats (all boys), one dog (female; when it comes to cats I highly prefer males, but with dogs I’m all about the girls), three hermit crabs, two water frogs and a snail. Throw in the four of us, and it’s seriously like a zoo on some days!
I weighed in this morning at 231 lbs., which is exactly 100 lbs. less than the 331 lbs. I started at last April. To say I’m feeling good is an understatement. I feel like I’m floating on cloud nine. I’m still a “fat ass”, as someone recently called me in a comment on That Fat Chick, but definitely not as big of a fat ass as I was this time a year ago!
CRAP. So I was sitting here eating a gummi bear, and was just about to start writing out a blog entry when I noticed something crunchy in my mouth. As it turns out, it was a part of a tooth. To be specific, one of the molars on the top left side of my mouth. The same one that chipped on the outside four and a half years ago. At that time it was cleaned out (the filling from a cavity that was repaired when I was nine years old had dropped out, which caused both an infection and the chipping of the tooth) and re-filled. I’m not sure what made the tooth weaken and chip on the inside, but it did. It doesn’t hurt, but I’m seriously freaking out here. 
I’m calling my dentist first thing Monday morning so I can get this fixed, ASAP.
Anyway, tooth drama aside, I am seriously tired. It has been a LONG week, and me and my polarized sunglasses have been on the run every single day of it. On Monday I picked up Jason and took him to the hospital for his surgery, and spent about seven hours waiting until he was out of surgery and recovery, and conscious enough to see his family and I. Later that evening I ran around and did a few errands with my mom. On Tuesday I did some more errands with my mom, picked up my contact lenses from my optometrist, and then Dan and I went over to the hospital to spend some time with Jason. Wednesday: more errands, and several more hours spent with Jason. Thursday: went over to my mom’s house to enjoy a 2-hour “home visit” with my brothers, was then asked to take them back to their foster parents — an hour away (grr). Did another quick errand, met up with my youngest brother’s foster mom to drop off a toy car he had forgotten in my car, and then dragged my tired self home — at 8:30pm. Friday: bank, lunch with Dan and the kids, a quick trip to the mall and to the grocery store, over to the hospital to pick up Jason and take him home, home with the kids for dinner, then back out to pick up Dan from work (I dropped him off today so I could have the car; my car went from perfectly-functioning-brakes to you’re-braking-against-the-rotors-stupid), over to Jason’s apartment to pick him up (it’ll be better if he spends a few days with us while he’s recovering), a quick run into Giant for the necessary ingredients for tacos (for tomorrow night), a quick stop at McDonalds, and then home.
Whew. So yes, it has been a long, long week. I apologize if you have emailed, DMed or IMed me and I haven’t yet gotten back to you. Needless to say, I haven’t spent a lot of time on my laptop this week!
And with that said, goodnight! I look forward to waking up tomorrow morning, since it’ll be the start of a weekend that I fully intend on spending at home! 
