Thankful To Be Back!

How do you start blogging again when you haven't done it in, oh, six months? I guess you jump in with a Ten Things of Thankful, so here goes:

1. The College Boy is no longer a College Boy and now a Med School Student. University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Class of 2021. Boomer Sooner!

Moving day!

White Coat Ceremony

2. My daughter is halfway through her freshman year at University of Arkansas and, as those follow her on social media can attest, is loving it. LOVING it. She's in a sorority, involved with student government, volunteers, has made oodles of friends, goes to many, many Greek functions (MANY), and still managed to get a 4.0 her first semester. Woo Pig!

Moving day. It rained....

Bid Day! She's a Zeta!

3. We are Empty Nesters. Empty nests aren't always a bad thing.

4. As nice as that Empty Nest can be, i.e., we eat when we want, we eat WHAT we want, we go where we want whenever we want, having one of the little birds fly back for a few days is SUCH a good feeling!

5. Smart phones. Both of my kids text me pretty much every day, and Emma calls me several times a week (occasionally several times a day), especially when she's walking on campus alone, and we Facetime sometimes (usually when she's homesick and wants to see the kitties). When I was in college and living in a dorm, I had to use the pay phone down the hall to call home, collect, of course. Now there's a phone that shoots a signal to outer space or something and back to the person you are trying to reach in an instant. How 'bout dat?

6. Power steering. Not that there has been anything wrong with the power steering in our cars, but remembering the dorm payphone reminded me of the car I drove in college and how much effort it entailed to turn a corner (unless you were going at a pretty good clip, not that I ever did that...).

7. There's an entirely new kitty dynamic at our house. Our 14 year old cat, Fletcher, went to kitty heaven this past summer, leaving 12 year old Pete (the asshole of the family) and our one year old ball of fire, Nora. Pete has HAAAAATED Nora since we got her, but after a couple of weeks of it being just the two of them, he stopped hissing and/or growling every time (and I do mean EVERY time) they crossed paths. They have progressed to playing chasing games and sleeping on the bed together, and while they don't quite spoon each other, they can be close enough that they're alllllmost touching. Pete can still be an asshole, but it happens less and less often, and Nora can still be a complete pill, booping him on top of the head when he passes by and now brave enough to grab him around the neck in a chokehold periodically, but for the most part they are harmonious. 

Her feet are barely touching him.

8. Our veterinarian. Some of Pete's assholiness stemmed from a puncture wound (a gift from Fletcher) that he had in his upper arm. He had had it since some time in the early summer, and it just wouldn't heal. It started getting worse in the fall (I'll spare you the details, but there was oozing), and I finally admitted it wasn't going to heal on its own, and it was time to go to the vet. She tried stapling it closed, giving him an antibiotic, and making him wear a lampshade, but after two weeks, it was no better. He had to have real surgery at this point, and afterwards, she said he was all kinds of messed up inside that arm and it was more involved than she thought it would be. Back in the lampshade for two more weeks (which he figured out how to ditch, so we made him wear a t-shirt), and he's finally healed. And is a nicer cat, which makes me feel really badly that he was in pain and I didn't even know it (cats are masters at hiding illness and pain). 

When you ditch your lampshade, you gotta wear a shirt.

9. My husband and I (you know, the Empty Nesters), joined a gym. We have one here in town that costs less per month the more you use it, (I know, right?!), so we hustle our fannies there 4-5 times a week. My only complaint about the place is that they keep the temperature set on "poach," and I'm a little worried about how that's going to feel come summer. Wait, I have one more complaint: there is a row of televisions hanging from the ceiling in the cardio area, and one of them is always set on Fox News. I listen to music when I work out, but you can't help but notice all those tvs, and my eyes seem to be drawn to the one airing Fox, which can get me all kinds of worked up. I guess if it gets my heart rate up without giving me a stroke, I can deal. For now.

10. The Greatest Showman. Hugh Jackman. Zac Efron. Sigh.

I did it! I did it, I did it, I did it! And I'm thankful for that! And for the shout out on Facebook by Clark that I needed to get myself back to the TToT - here I am!

Linking up with Josie Two-Shoes and her Ten Things of Thankful blog hop.