Our Dog

We have a lovely Labrador dog.  She is getting old, now 11 years old and most of the time very good.  She is a yard dog and spends her time outside, near the windows so we can talk to her. Christopher spends an hour or so with her in the afternoon, playing and chasing in the yard. She is a great guard dog, has a lovely deep bark but I don't think she would attack anyone as she is very friendly.  You would get licked rather than bitten.  In the evenings when it is getting cold she is in the bathroom, she has a blanket and is rather comfortable in there.  I would have her in the living room but with the cats that is now impossible.  For some unknown reason the past few weeks she has been
yapping and crying at night.  She gets a walk at about 7pm, for half an hour but she starts yapping at about 9pm, then again at 12 midnight.  I decided that maybe she needs to get out more, so the past few nights Christopher and I have walking her at midnight.  Not the best thing to do but it calms here down.

midnight walks

At least I am getting some exercise out of all this!  I am hoping that it is a phase that she is
going through and she will calm down soon!  I can hope!

What Happened to Octobber?

Here we are in the first week of November,  October passed me by so quickly that
I never got chance to write.  It was a busy month, with English tests and Halloween.
Also my eye operation, so a lot of hospital visits. 

The first week of October Hannah did an English test that is taken by all students attending
commercial high schools in the prefecture.  Out of all the students she placed 2nd.  She was
very pleased with herself, as was I.  She had studied hard for the test.  The following week
she had her half term tests, she did okay but as always she could of done a bit better.
Also a lot of our students took an English test and most passed,  we are really happy for
them as they had worked hard.

Our Halloween parties were fun and I think the kids had a good time, there was a lot
of laughing.  I tried out a few new cookies recipes, which went down well.

The last week was my eye operation,  I'm so glad to have that finished.  My eye sight
was getting really bad and I felt like I was straining my left eye.  I kept getting headaches.
The operation was only 15 minutes.  Almost no pain, just a bit of pulling.
When I got home I decided to rest for a bit.  After about half an hour I heard Mikey screaming David's name, over and over.  I raced downstairs to find David passed out on the living
room floor.  Mikey was doing CPR, I had flash backs to when my husband died!  We called
an ambulance which rushed us to the hospital in the next city, our local A&E was closed
because of too many people.  When we got to the hospital they took David to check him
out.  Christopher and I went to fill out forms.  We waited for about an hour then got called
back to talk to the doctor.  I was shocked at how young the doctor was!  They had a heart specialist
look at David and check his heart out but there was no problem.  The doctor thinks it was
low blood pressure.  He was discharged the same night and seems to be okay now. I keep asking
him if he's okay!
I know these things happen but I wish they wouldn't.  My stress level was already too high
and that drama really didn't help!
The kittens continue to grow.  Looks like we are keeping them!  It's just too difficult to
find somebody who would take them and take care of them.  Plus they have already
wormed their way into our hearts!

Aren't they lovely!!

Is this Autumn?

A few days of cooler weather and I am hoping that autumn is finally here!
The summers here are really hard for me.  The heat and humidity are exhausting. It feels like
living in a sauna, the humidity wraps around like cling film.  Clothes stick and my face is constantly covered in sweat!  So cool weather, especially at night, is very welcome! No need for air conditioners or fans.
One thing with the cooler  weather I have been able to get some jobs done.  During the summer I just keep the main rooms clean but things get dumped into the under stairs cupboard or the corridor that runs the back of the house.  The other day I spent a couple of hours, with David and Christopher's help, cleaning out those areas!  It feels so good to do that, just getting ready for the nice cold weather!
The kittens are growing and becoming very active.  I have to watch where I step.  They have a habit of getting under the sofa or between the sofa cushions, always check where the kittens are before sitting down!

One kitten under the sofa and one between the cushions!

Peek a boo, I see you!

Cute!

Friday The Thirteenth

I'm a little bit superstitious.  There are things I would never do, walk under a ladder, open an umbrella in the house, for example.  But I can't avoid Friday 13th.  Of course I could stay in bed all day but that wouldn't really help!
Yesterday, Friday 13th, was one disaster after another.  Morning started with the adult cats doing the mad chase around the living room.  They were driving me crazy as they crashed into things and raked their claws over the sofa.  So I put them in the corridor, which is nice and long and has nothing breakable.  As I was closing the door, I didn't notice one of the kittens.  Poor thing got swashed between the door and door frame.  I picked it up to check if it was alright, which it was.  When I looked I realized that it was the kitten with the sad eyes.  It looked so sad and pathetic that I felt totally guilty.
Next disaster was losing the car keys.  David takes Hannah to school.  She was waiting outside while David collected the things he needs, wallet, cell phone and glasses.  He then went to get the keys only to find that they weren't in any of the usual places.  We had a quick look but Hannah needed to get to school so he used the spare key.  We spent over an hour looking for these keys, during that time I smashed my head twice, looking under desks and fell over cats three times.  I even went through the trash, which was not nice!  We finally found the keys in a bag with the dog food David had bought the day before!
Then a bra I ordered came.  I'm desperate for new bras.  Tried it on, but it was about 2 sizes too small.  I can send it back.  Actually the service to return goods is very good.  The courier service will pick it up from the house.  Lot less hassle.
And the last disaster of the day was my printer not working.  What should of taken a few minutes to print some material for one of my classes turned into a 40 minutes fight with the computer and printer!

I am glad that Friday 13th is over and done with!  Hope  I don't have many more days like that!  But as Hannah says "It's something to put on the Blog!"

Eye Doctors

The past few weeks I've noticed that my vision in my right eye was getting blurred.
At first I thought that it was to do with my allergies as they have been bad this summer.
But the past couple of days my vision has been very bad.  I've been using my left eye more.
Today I decided that I should go to the doctors.  So I marched myself off.  Had a few tests done and saw the doctor.  I have a cataract.  I'll have the operation on October 29th.  One good thing is that day we will be doing Halloween parties for the kiddies, I get to wear an eye patch!

Our kittens are so cute.  One of them looks so sad, all the time!

This one has an M on it's forehead

this little one always has this expression!

Ants, Heat, Cats and Kittens

We have had an ant problems since we moved in here.  Every time we get heavy rain we end up with ants in the house. I think there is an ant nest under the house!  I usually buy a poison that comes in a
small green plastic box that the ants carry back to the nest and kills off at lot of the ants.  This stuff worked with these tiny ants that we got.  But a couple of weeks ago I saw these massive ants in the
entrance.  I think they came back with Mikey!!  At least that is one theory!  The plastic box poison doesn't seem to be affective on this species of ants.  So I bought a stronger powder to put down.  I then realized that I couldn't put it down because of the cats.  So it looks like I'll have to investigate and see if I can find where they are nesting.

In my last post I was saying how happy I was that it had cooled down.  I spoke too  soon!  It has gone hot again, very hot!  Today's high was 33C but feels like 38C.  This exhausts me.  I just went shopping and walking from the car to the store and back was awful.  I'm glad that my main rooms have air conditioning. It makes life so hard.  And it not just the heat but high humidity!  Sweating doesn't cool one down as it doesn't evaporate.  I take a small towel with me to wipe my face otherwise it would be constantly wet!  Also we have the most incredible thunderstorms.  Not nice at all!

The cats are driving me to distraction!  This morning I asked Hannah to feed them.  She went to the cupboard to get the food followed by Fred (the gray and white cat).  For some unknown reason he peed all over the place and soaked Hannah.  Poor girl was not impressed as she had to shower making the morning a bit of a rush.  We have litter boxes for the cats, 3 altogether but they all like the same one.  Some morning the cats are lining up to use the one litter!  Looks rather funny!

Our kittens are doing well.  They are rather big and are going on little adventures.  The older cats
are curious about them.  Yesterday, Steve (the white cat) was having a sniff at one of the kittens when it decided that enough was enough and gave Steve a swap on the nose.  Steve walked off looking rather offended!

Mama and kittens, with all the stuff she dragged into the box!

September

I love this time of year!  Especially when the weather is right.  This time last year it was still extremely hot, this year nice and cool with a lot of rain!
Last weeks rain storm was actually scary.  Over a months worth in 24 hours.  We are lucky that our
house is built higher than the road, by about 2 meters.  Only problem is that the car port is at road
level.  The road flooded a bit but not too bad.  Trains were stopped and a number of roads were closed.  Also schools closed, which made Hannah happy!  The big problem now is the threat of landslides as the ground is inundated with water, and the forecast is for constant rain through out the month!
Plans for this month are to get this house cleaned up.  I know I keep saying that but as much as I do there seems to be a lot more that needs to be done.  Spent the afternoon cleaning out the upstairs corridor. It becomes the dumping ground for things that nobody wants or knows what to do with.  Found a load of T shirts that been put in the wrong rooms just dumped, they need washing again then see what belongs to who!  I guess it's an on going struggle!

Our cats are cute.  The new kittens are massive, they are just over 2 weeks old now but look a lot older!  Mama cat is very protective of them.  She doesn't like thunder storms and usually hides but
last week she curled up round her kittens, shaking but wouldn't move from them!