August 4, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Saw my oncologist, Dr. Failing, on Monday.  The official CT scan reports weren't ready yet, but he had gone over to look at them and said he didn't see anything obvious.  This happened one other time where they were so backlogged that the official report wasn't done in a week.  Believe it or not...still not in another week later.  But I am not expecting bad results and too busy to think about it much--lol!  Hopefully I'll get the official report this week.

The good news--I see him in 6 months, it will be once a year for 2 years after that, and then I am free!  Halfway there!  Was glad to hear that.  Fingers crossed all goes well, of course.

Was a week of more packing, the usual laundry & cooking, the end of the month stuff--banking, bullet ready for August, and rent check to office.  BUT--this time the rent check went with my written 2-month notice!!  FINALLY!  TaDa!!  Allie and I will be actually moving in about two weeks!

Allie figured out the little glass folding table.  Such a creature of habit.  She doesn't like to come up on to the table from the other side after using my clothes bins on that side ever since I took her home as a rescue from Cat's Cradle (who rescued her from the pound).  She was estimated by a vet to be 8 years old...so now she's 11, do you believe it!

Allie's still stressed with the packing and moving things around.  Not that you'd know it from this picture--lol!

Looks so bare here next to the pantry door where my two black rollie carts have been.

I packed away the two black ones (writing supplies)...

...and the two rust colored ones (art & craft supplies) that are in the studio closet.

Allie still follows me around...and she cries at night wandering the apartment when I turn the lights out.

I even emptied the first of four lazy susans.  Was going to fold the bigger glass table away...but Allie has claimed it as a new spot to relax.  (Don't tell her I took a pic that makes her look twice as fluffy--lol!)

There's a third row of boxes started.  And Allie still wants to use the little glass folding table to get up on to the table even if it is a little farther away.

Dagan and Leah are working on my apartment today (Sunday) while I am packing some more.  I got all the bins down from the top shelf over the washer and dryer.

The five of them waiting in the bedroom to be packed.  I had already downsized three years ago, but I think I will likely be able to do some more. ;)

Finished in the living room.  Just essentials on the end of the tables.

Got through the light-colored bins and started on the plastic bins from the bathroom shelves.

More than halfway done on the shelves!

Been a busy week.  Have gotten a lot done.  Hope to finish all the packing I can do and have a few days of rest with Allie before we move.  So far so good.  :)

Some pictures from Leah this week.  Blink parked on her new big bag of dry cat food--lol!

Ian ringing the bell at Haley's Hope (for his dyslexia) at celebrating reaching another level.

Liam.  How kids can fall asleep even sitting up is always amazing.  

The family was out at the driving range.  Leah, too, but she took the picture.

The boys helping at the school supply drive.

I am not sure I understand what the boys were playing with in the yard. 

 Leah said it was oobleck slime made with cornstarch and water.  It makes a non-Newtonian fluid which is liquid if you move very slowly through it or let it drip through your fingers...but if you squeeze it or pound it then it becomes hard!?  Relax your hand and it will slowly drip through your fingers.  ??  Have any of your heard of this?  Leah said they can make it again when I am moved in so I can play with it, too.  Great idea!

If I get some pictures before I go to bed of what Dagan and Leah got done today I will add them.  As you probably know, I write the blog on Sundays to post on Monday mornings.  The weekend Allie and I move...well, not sure if I will have the blog up on Monday.  Doubtful!  Could maybe do one before we move or as soon after as I can.  I am not sure of the exact day, but you will get a post at some point--with pictures!  :) :)

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Okay--got some pictures from Leah, but most of what they did was putting up hooks and power strips and bunch of stuff like that she didn't take pictures of.  They did get the shower curtain rod up and my new shower curtain and liner, though.  Summery flowers.  :)

And she tried out my new washing machine by washing the liner that was very creased from being stored.  Good excuse to check that the washer and dryer were actually working--lol!  All went well and my colored dryer balls are waiting for me.  :)

Was a very busy week for them, too.  They went to Home Depot for the first Saturday monthly kids' craft event.

This time it was some kind of space diorama...like you are looking through a porthole at three layers on strings.  Do spaceships have portholes?  I suppose they could.

There was also the before going back to school event they have every year.  They could get school supplies if they wanted them.  Had a bouncy house...with basketball in it!

Another blowup ball game.

Had a dunk tank where a lady got dunked many times this year.  (No photo)  Last year it was a man, Leah said.

Volunteer face painters.

The "M" is for the Mario Brothers game.

They were invited to go with their friends Chris, Robyn, and their boys to the rock climbing place.  Payton, Isaac, Ian and Liam climbed those walls for about 90 minutes!  Nice!  Haven't seen pictures of them being there for quite a while.  :)

And I always enjoy seeing the fire pit on their back patio!  Even in the summer on a fairly hot day--lol!

I shall be continuing to pack the bathroom.  And--yes--I am also purging some more things as I go--lol!  Then I have kitchen and pantry left.  I hope to be done packing by the time I post next time.  Down to the essentials.  That would be nice.  Have several days to relax...and that is needed even more so for Miss Allie--lol!  Till then...I hope our smoke haze lets up and the tropical days could stay away, too.  It has been cooler the past couple days but the humidity is 94%.  More rain would be nice.  Anyways, I hope your weather is tolerable and you are doing well.  Till next week, my friends...

July 28, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Another post with lots of packing pictures...but also pictures of the chaos at the new place!  Finally made it over there Sunday!

Monday Leah brought me over to the hospital for my CT scans.

I forgot to tell you that Miss Allie had a melt down when the clothes bins got moved over on to the folding table.  They were like her stairs to get up on the table from that right side.  She can't jump that high and while I was washing clothes that week she was crying and pacing to get up on the table.  I  showed her the little chair on the other side.  Picked her up and set her on the chair.  Had to practically lift her up on to the table.  Allie does not like change.  She did lay in the bed there while I sorted and folded, but when she left she jumped from full height on her usual side where she used the bin-steps...and she shouldn't be jumping from that high.  She a fluffy girl.  But she's a stubborn one!  She would not go back up there by using the chair.  BUT--it occured to me that she does use this glass folding table next to the TV cabinet to lay in front of the screen.  I have two of them!  So I moved one in there on the right and proper side...

...and she was happy as a clam to nap all afternoon in there.   

I guess there is enough change in her home lately that losing her bin steps was the last straw--lol!  Wait till she finds out we are moving.

Tuesday Keanna came.  I had the feeling it was going to be her last day for some reason...even if she told me two more times.  I even wrote on my blackboard a couple things I rarely ask her to do that are hard for me with no gripping/scrubbing strength in my hands (scrub the sinks really good was the main one).  Turned out that feeling was correct.  That did turn out to be her last day because of some circumstance changes.  While she was arriving the tornado sirens were going.  Nothing happened...but it did spark telling her my 1965 Fridley tornado story while she cleaned.  So, on her last day she got to hear another of my crazy life stories--lol!  Big hugs goodby.  

No cleaner anymore.  I did tell her that since Dagan will clean my bathroom and they've had such trouble finding me a cleaner ever since covid...I'm going to tell them I don't need one anymore since I'm moving.  I've only been doing spot cleaning for 20 years or so I'll have to get in the habit of vacuuming and sweeping the whole place and more often.  I've done the dusting anyways since Keanna came two years ago and they cut the amount of time she had to clean compared to Caroline.  I'll be okay.  But it was nice.  How am I going to remember when to change the shower curtain?  ROFL! 

Allie is like my shadow since I started packing and moving things around all the time.  She knows something is up.  

She keeps me company when I am on my many breaks.  Always nearby, if not in my lap.

It got hot.  Closed up with the AC all week.  Heat warnings the past few days.

Does she look stressed to you?  Dragging toys out to beat up.  Always one eye on me.

She relaxes more whenever I'm on breaks--lol!

She wanders around for a while every night after I turn out the lights...crying.  She does it sometimes during the day, too.

It won't be long now!  In fact--while Leah and I were at the hospital for the CT scans we decided on a plan.  I had been milling this over and Leah was all for it.  Allie and I will move over the weekend before the moving day with the movers.  Like the 16th or 17th!  That will give us most of a week for Allie to settle in, for us to have some quiet time in the new place, and for me to get all my clothes organized, too.  Oh, and figure out the new TV remote.

That way Allie will be used to where her food, water, litter box, and carrier/hidey-hole are before the movers are doing their thing.  I can shut her in the maintenance/laundry room and bathroom (remember there's a cat door behind the toilet so she can go back and forth between the laundry room and bathroom).  Then she won't have to be locked in her carrier for hours and hours...scared and very likely singing the song of her people.  I can shut the laundry room door and the bathroom doors--nothing needs to go in either room from the movers--and she can hide in her carrier in the corner.  She'll have her food and water and litter box right in the laundry room.  Much easier on her.

Meanwhile--all week--I was packing off and on...and punching those address labels off and on.  Got much more done with the packing that I expected...again!  Got all three little dressers emptied in the studio.  The two that fit under the die-cutting table...

...and the tall skinny one by the door.

The box wall has been gradually thickening!

Allie had some warm spa time.  Being a typical feline sun worshiper, she's not a big fan of air conditioning.

But she vanished for safer places when I started packing the folding tables behind the chairs.

My trusty little cart has made many trips down the hallway.  Here we have one box waiting in line for a table spot...to be sealed, labeled, and stacked.

When Allie climbs up on the one taller glass folding table next to my chair the lazy Susan forces her to perch on the one end.  She looks like she's floating in the air--lol!

Took down my Tibetan cloth from the wall above the TV.  Been hanging there for 11 years and was quite dusty.  I figured I'd spray some water on it in the shower...and OMG!  Looked like a murder scene!  Red dye all over the place!  I was afraid I had ruined it!  I didn't want to try to squeeze water out of it and wrinkle it up, so I folded it and hung it over the bar on the back wall of the shower till it stopped dripping.  Got my two craft/painting/haircut/everything & anything towels--put a plastic bag down first and then the towels.  Laid the cloth down on the towels to dry.  The front looked pretty good.  The backing is red and I hoped it wouldn't bleed through to the front, right?

Obviously I needed a break.  Sat down to check emails...looked up and who was sitting on the wet cloth!!!

I chased her off.  She didn't want to go but didn't look like she got any dye on her, amazingly.  Sat down again at my laptop.....yup!

This is why I was worried about Allie sitting on it.  

Apparently was just the backing that bled.  The front looks fine and nothing came through on to the rug because I had put the plastic bag underneath.  :)  Whew!  Disaster avoided!  I didn't want to ruin it!  Those monks were the kindest human beings I have ever met.  They came to Concordia College while I was there and worked on a beautiful sand mandala for days...and then destroyed it.  I have some of the sand they gave away.  Packed away, of course.

Anyways, currently I have two small book boxes half full on the table.  Am filling the gray bin with essentials that have to stay until I move and the cactus has already made the trip over to the house.  :)  

Sunday Leah came to pick me up.  I had two big boxes that I couldn't lift (floor and table).  Leah stacked them for me.

She carried in more boxes from the garage.  A lot of them. :) Enough that they got stacked in the hallway!  (And this picture was taken after she put a bunch of boxes together for me, too!)

The ones that are taped together are all over in the box wall--lol!  I think she made about 10 of them for me.  And Allie's glass folding table got moved forward.  I don't know if Allie has noticed yet--lol! ;)

I totally forgot to take pictures until right before I was going to get my ride home...so I grabbed some to show you the chaos.  But we got a lot done.  Decided exactly where all the furniture will be spaced.  Measured for that new table...and it will fit!!  But no point in putting it together before the movers because they have to walk through to the studio with endless boxes, a couple tables broken down, and the three dressers from the studio here.  The pathway would be right through the kitchenette.  The new table won't be put together until after everything is moved.  So, we  brought over the tiny glass table with the red screw-on legs to be a temporary table I can use after Allie and I pre-move.  It is easy to take apart and get out of the way.  

But all this is what needs to be cleaned up and sorted soon.  Tons of packaging, tools, instructions...well, you can see!  This is right at the bottom of the stairs.  That door straight ahead is the long narrow storage room that is empty right now.  I am going to have them fill it with studio stuff.  Every box that has an "S" on it will be piled in there.  They will be the last I will unpack.

My kitchen.

All the furniture is in place.  We checked out the TV and Dagan connected it to the internet.  Have to set up the smartness later--lol!

The studio.  Oh, all those odd black rectangular and square pieces here and there are extensions that go on top of the billy bookcases to make them taller!  Whoohoo!

The boys got a gift of a foosball table and it has been down here.  That will have to be moved upstairs.  The long rolled up rug in the center on the floor there is one I had in the studio here for a few years.  I took it out because a rug on a rug and rollie chairs do not mix very well.  I want to try it in here before I decide whether to donate it.  

The bathroom.  Still needs those shower shelves put up, towel hooks, towel holder, and shower curtain rod.  I had such a shocking surprise when I had to use the toilet--it was warm!!  Oh my goodness!  I could get used to that quickly.  Talk about luxury!  I need to learn the instructions on how to use a bidet, too.

The bathroom countertop.  You see what I mean...construction stuff and packaging everywhere. :)

Got a quick pic of the boys playing games before I left.  Liam says he now wants to grow his hair out like Ian.  We'll see.  He tried it once a few ago and it annoyed him.  Too much work to comb and wash and such--lol!  But he's older now.

So, it was another busy week.  I am still amazed at how much I have been getting done!  I'm very sore right now, but one reason is from climbing stairs.  I haven't had to climb stairs for years.  Having to do that almost every day will be good for me.  :)  But right now my legs are saying--what the hell were you doing to us?  ROFL!  Get used to it, I say!
 

So, this week.  Oncologist on Monday...and more packing.  I have the bathroom/laundry room and the pantry left.  Not much I can pack in the kitchen.  I can probably pack a good portion of the bathroom and pantry, though.  Making lists...on paper...in my head at night.  Not sleeping very long--lol!  I am very happy Allie and I will pre-move.  All the back and forth car loads will go on all that weekend, I think.  

Dagan and Leah will be gone for a long weekend the weekend before that to Minneapolis for Dagan's annual cardiologist appointment (8-11th).  Going to be a busy, exhausting month.  Went from stagnation to busy, busy bee.  I am also sooo grateful for LubriSyn...a good AC in this apartment...and friends like you.  Praying for many of you going through rough times.  Stay warm or cool as the case may be.  Hug your loved ones and tell people how you feel about them and appreciate them.  You are appreciated and special to me.  Till next week...