*taps mic* is this thing on?
wow, it's been a hot sec. i posted my 2022 books on New Year's day, and the post before that was my LJ'versary in May of 2022.
so first, last spring, we made a choice to move from the house we'd lived in since 2008. expenses were still insane, even though we tetrised and manipulated costs, got our grocery bills lower despite the inflation, even refinanced the big things... and still our mortgage and house bills weren't going the right direction.
since younger daughter was in college (yes, she's a senior in college! eep!), we weren't bound by school districts, so our first thought was find a house that cost less in our county in southeastern PA (not Philly, but close). turns out, it's expensive to live where we were living. and then hubby had a thought. since about 2011, we'd been going out west, Pittsburgh, for various events and things (leadership conferences, baseball games), and he knew that housing was less expensive out there.
so we looked out there. and found somewhere! by the time we had a buyer for our house, it was now August. and when we finally moved, it was near the end of October.
I know way in the past i've posted about our cats. we still have Blackie, he'll be 18 at the end of march! i posted about Max: when we first got him he was called KittyRoo, so i'd asked for names, and Max was the name we picked. he had some issues in 2020, and we had to say goodbye to him at the beginning of March of 2020; he was three months shy of 18.
from April of 2020 through November of 2021, we welcomed to our home:
Rocky (floofy void) in April 2020, Ash (grey & white tuxie) and his brother Oreo (b&w tuxie) in August 2020, Harvey (grey tabby in December 2020, Luna (floofy void) in December 2020, Angel (calico) in January, 2021, Arthur (orange) and his bonded mate Molly (floofy orange) in June 2021, Nicholas (o&w tuxie) and his brother Aemon (b&w tuxie) in November 2021. and if you counted, that's 10. yes, we have 11 cats.
we hired a pet mover to bring them to our new house, the night that we moved in. our stuff left the house on a wednesday (10/19), and was to stay with the movers until saturday. We took the cats to a local boarding place thursday (10/20) morning; we left eastern PA thursday afternoon with cars loaded with more stuff, stayed the night in Pittsburgh, sold the old house the friday morning, 10/21 (and to say there were things happening at the last minute still, i'm glad that house was sold!), and finally (yaay) made settlement on the new house in western PA in the late afternoon on friday (10/21). turns out, they were able to get our furniture, boxes, and whatnot to us friday night, AND the cats came out friday night too! (the pet movers picked them up from the boarding place friday and they were at their new house that night.)
whew!
i was the last holdout in my immediate family for testing positive for covid... until:
back last month, on a Sunday (1/22) hubby went back to eastern PA to visit. Him and older daughter went to a hockey game sunday, he had dinner with sister-inlaw and nephew monday (1/23), and had dinner with older daughter and my mom on tuesday (1/24).... and mom was feeling 'off' on tuesday, but had dinner with them anyway. hubby came home wednesday (1/25). mom calls thursday (1/26) and says she tested positive for covid. eep! saturday (*1/28), hubby tested positive, but i was still negative. but.....Feb 1 i tested positive. by 2/12 (and 2/14) i was testing negative again (yaay!) and as i'd said the entire time, it was like annoying allergies run amok. i'm SO glad it was mild.
how's life been treating y'all?
-
so first, last spring, we made a choice to move from the house we'd lived in since 2008. expenses were still insane, even though we tetrised and manipulated costs, got our grocery bills lower despite the inflation, even refinanced the big things... and still our mortgage and house bills weren't going the right direction.
since younger daughter was in college (yes, she's a senior in college! eep!), we weren't bound by school districts, so our first thought was find a house that cost less in our county in southeastern PA (not Philly, but close). turns out, it's expensive to live where we were living. and then hubby had a thought. since about 2011, we'd been going out west, Pittsburgh, for various events and things (leadership conferences, baseball games), and he knew that housing was less expensive out there.
so we looked out there. and found somewhere! by the time we had a buyer for our house, it was now August. and when we finally moved, it was near the end of October.
I know way in the past i've posted about our cats. we still have Blackie, he'll be 18 at the end of march! i posted about Max: when we first got him he was called KittyRoo, so i'd asked for names, and Max was the name we picked. he had some issues in 2020, and we had to say goodbye to him at the beginning of March of 2020; he was three months shy of 18.
from April of 2020 through November of 2021, we welcomed to our home:
Rocky (floofy void) in April 2020, Ash (grey & white tuxie) and his brother Oreo (b&w tuxie) in August 2020, Harvey (grey tabby in December 2020, Luna (floofy void) in December 2020, Angel (calico) in January, 2021, Arthur (orange) and his bonded mate Molly (floofy orange) in June 2021, Nicholas (o&w tuxie) and his brother Aemon (b&w tuxie) in November 2021. and if you counted, that's 10. yes, we have 11 cats.
we hired a pet mover to bring them to our new house, the night that we moved in. our stuff left the house on a wednesday (10/19), and was to stay with the movers until saturday. We took the cats to a local boarding place thursday (10/20) morning; we left eastern PA thursday afternoon with cars loaded with more stuff, stayed the night in Pittsburgh, sold the old house the friday morning, 10/21 (and to say there were things happening at the last minute still, i'm glad that house was sold!), and finally (yaay) made settlement on the new house in western PA in the late afternoon on friday (10/21). turns out, they were able to get our furniture, boxes, and whatnot to us friday night, AND the cats came out friday night too! (the pet movers picked them up from the boarding place friday and they were at their new house that night.)
whew!
i was the last holdout in my immediate family for testing positive for covid... until:
back last month, on a Sunday (1/22) hubby went back to eastern PA to visit. Him and older daughter went to a hockey game sunday, he had dinner with sister-inlaw and nephew monday (1/23), and had dinner with older daughter and my mom on tuesday (1/24).... and mom was feeling 'off' on tuesday, but had dinner with them anyway. hubby came home wednesday (1/25). mom calls thursday (1/26) and says she tested positive for covid. eep! saturday (*1/28), hubby tested positive, but i was still negative. but.....Feb 1 i tested positive. by 2/12 (and 2/14) i was testing negative again (yaay!) and as i'd said the entire time, it was like annoying allergies run amok. i'm SO glad it was mild.
how's life been treating y'all?
-