Family is forever...gods I hope I'm not lying to him about this.

....ah, Amber. I love to hate this damned cat! Here we are, a month later and we are still dealing with her nasty fits. We've done everything from get a pheromone plug-in for Nixon's room to keeping his door closed at all times to adding extra food and water dishes and most recently, adding a new litter box. Nothing seems to help!
   We'll get a break, where it'll seem like she's moved past it all, and then like tonight I'll walk into Nixon's bedroom and find a pile of cat shit on his bed waiting for us. The thing of it is, today, his bedroom door was closed! I had to open the door to get in! So now she's closing doors behind herself?!?! That doesn't make sense, right?
   Of course, I lose my damn cool! I'm so tired of washing Nixon's sheets, blankets, comforters.

*sigh* Not my best or brightest moment as a mom.

   Nixon was already upset that he didn't get a shower tonight. He was told it was shower time, he decided to tell me he wanted to wait. SO I let him wait...until it was bedtime. Then I told him it was bedtime and he flipped his shit because he suddenly wanted a shower. I'm picking my battles with him and he's not liking that I'm not on his ass 15,000 times to get in the shower. I told him once, twice and then when he still said "No, mommy, later" I decided that was cool. He can not take one tonight. He's going to learn.

   So, when I lost my shit over Amber's pile of shit on the bed Nixon lost his mind because he thought I was so mad I really meant all the mean and angry things I was saying about Amber.
 *deep breath*
  It took about fifteen minutes to get him calmed down and in bed. Our bed. Once he was calm, I talked to him. I told him that, even though I say mean things about Amber and even though she's still pooping on his bed, she's family and family is forever. We're not getting rid of Amber. The relief in his eyes, paired with his whimpering "Really?" said it all. I went too far and he really thought he'd wake up and Amber would be gone.
   I explained to him that just like him and Mac, Arwen and Amber are very important to me and part of our family. I told him my top loves went like this: Nixon & Mac, then Arwen, than Amber...no Bebe's after Arwen, then Amber. Nixon chuckled and asked me "Mommy, you love me and Daddy more than Arwen?" I told him "I do now." And I meant it.

   Family, this family I've made for myself, really is forever. I'm not always going to be madly in love with Mac or Nixon every minute of every day, but I don't see myself ever not loving either of them. Nixon is a no-brainer. He's my son, a piece of me, I'll always love him. Mac is more complicated. Our cats have been to Japan and back with us, they are our family. As much as Nixon and Mac can drive me nuts, Amber and Arwen can do the same thing just different ways, but they're in this family until they're no longer on this earth.
 Apparently Amber has decided to really test this motto.

  I don't know what else I can do to "fix" Amber's issues. I do know flipping out when Nixon is around isn't going to help any of us.

*UPDATED*...because I'm a mommy to fur-kids (cats) too

My name is Amber and I'm fur-kid #2

    For those of you not in-the-know, we have 2 cats. Arwen has been with me since she was 5 weeks old. She turned 10 in October. Amber we got after my sister adopted her from a shelter. She wasn't super fond of my niece. Since we were childless at the time, we gave her a try. We've had her for 6 years in March and she is perfect!

   Well, kind of. 

   The past week she's been pissing and shitting on Nixon's bed. Only his bed, and if the door is closed she will use the litter box. I took her to the vet yesterday, concerned that she's sick. The vet was impressed by how sweet and low-key she is, of course. (Arwen is the high-strung diva in the house)

   We got blood test and urinalysis results this morning. But before I tell you, can I just say I am LOVING the new vet we found. It's a cat only vet office, which is awesome by itself. The vet called with the results and spent over 20 minutes on the phone with me talking about Amber and possible solutions to the problem. That's an awesome doctor, in my opinion.

   Results. Nothing medical causing this. Amber's had anxiety issues in the past, and prozac helped those, so that's an option but not our first choice. For now we're going to set up a new litter box, with the usual litter not the new stuff we've got, and look into a pheromone plug-in for Nixon's room, to discourage her from going in there. 

   So, while there's no real reason for this and there's no quick-fix, I do have a vet I trust. That's kind of a big deal since I have major trust issues. 

   It's not about Nixon but it's about our other "kids".

*On a more serious note: I've flipped my shit about this fucking pissing and shitting on the bed thing! I'm so over Amber and this bullshit. I flipped on Nixon last night because he kept his door open and Amber shit on his bed (again!). I'm just so annoyed that this keeps happening. Multiple times a day even,and now there's no reason for it. If she was sick I'd understand, but she's stupid healthy!
  I felt bad for flipping my shit on Nixon, but I can't bring myself to kick the cat, no matter how badly I want too! I'm tired of walking into Nixon's room and finding a pile of shit on his bed. I'm over washing the sheets and blankets EVERY NIGHT!
   I feel like I can't do anything correctly. I can't keep a cat from not using the litter box and I can't get my 4-year old to close his fucking bedroom door! And the result of those to failures piss me off!

   I suppose none of this is improved by Nixon's sudden turn to the dark side. NO, not Star Wars, he's just been a total mouthy little shit lately. Mouthing off, talking back, refusing to do simple thing (like pull-up his pants!) and just a real pain-in-my-ass in general. It's stressing me out to the point I've asked for an appointment to get back on my meds, because I keep flipping my shit when he's pissing me off. It's not a good situation and since I don't see him out-growing this shitty little phase anytime soon, I'm doing the best that I can do to take my anger and short-temper out of the equation.
   Gods I hate being such a fucking mess of a person. A mental mess, but a mess none-the-less.

*UPDATE*
    Since the vet called, we've had no messes on Nixon's bed, Amber's being more social with us and I haven't flipped my shit! It could all be coincidence since she can't get into Nixon's room (we've closed the door and angled a gate across the door, so there's no way for Amber to get in without scaring herself first). We'll more-then-likely get the new litter box today, so fingers crossed that helps as well.
   She's snuggled up on the back of the sofa, as I type this, behind where both Mac and Nixon are sitting. I'm still not her favorite person, but the feeling is still pretty mutual, so we're all good.
   

Why I'm jealous of my cat & Our house is trying to kill all electronics in it!

Wow...you are some very lucky, lucky readers today!! First I gave you a ranty, cuss-free blog this morning addressing the less than military friendly practices of HP. Now, tonight I'm giving you a twofer...that's right a two-in-one blog tonight only!

Why I'm jealous of my Cat!!

(you'll need Amber's history of how she came to be a member of our family for this to make sense, so I'll keep it as short as possible) 
Amber was originally named Bella and was once a stray with a litter of kittens. She was taken to a shelter, spayed, put up for adoption at the same time as her kittens and watched her kittens leave before she did. My sister went to that shelter, saw Bella, adopted her and took her home. Sadly, Bella was not a fan of infants and my sister had my niece to think of. Snotface (my sister) called me and asked if I could take Bella, instead of her having to return her to the shelter and say she's not good with children (Mac and I didn't have Nixon at this point). Mac and I discussed it, I made the 8 hour drive home, picked her up brought her back to Virginia and eventually we renamed her Amber (because I can't stand the name Bella...sorry, but it's just not a name anything in my house/family will ever be damned by).

Now the reasons why I'm jealous of Amber. Amber was spayed after having one litter of kittens, which she barely had to raise. Hell she never had to go through a toddler phase with her kittens! Lucky cat! Not only that, but being a cat, it would've been totally okay if she ATE one of her kittens!! She could've walked away and not taken care of any of them and we "caring" humans would've done all the hard work for her!! I mean, c'mon how fucking awesome is that?!?? Plus, cats don't pay for college, or diapers, or food. And cats don't have to potty train or deal with screeching, indepandant toddlers.
Yeah, I'm really jealous of Amber some days. 


Our house is slowly murdering all our electronics!!
We've had a rash of recent electronic deaths and near deaths this week. First we had Nixon, popping off the keys from Mac's laptop. Then we had the watery death of Mac's laptop (and the rebirth of the Zombie Laptop!! complete with missing parts). Next came the close call of my coffee maker in the Flood of the Kitchen...it was saved (thank you Coffee Gods!!). I started to realize, some houses are cursed with ghosts and spirits, ours seems to have bad electronic mojo!
My worse fears were confirmed when tonight, in a brief moment of a flash blackout, my netbook's charger was fried! Yes, I am stupid enough to NOT have it plugged into a surge protector. So, I call Mac, trying to remain calm because I just purchased a 9 cell battery for my netbook yesterday!! While I called him, Nixon stood beside me saying "Momma, what is wrong? Are you okay, Momma? Momma, what happened?" Probably because I wasn't yelling at him and he didn't cause the broken shit, he felt like he did something wrong haha
After about 20 minutes, I tried to plug in my charger again....and it was working again.
So why wouldn't the power flicker again....within a minute of me plugging the fucking thing back in and charging my netbook again?!?!? (The reason for the new battery?? My old one holds a charge for less than an hour now...a freaking hour!! Yeah....I killed it, I realize that now.)  So, of course, I think my charger got fried...again! I unplugged it, let it cool off, and tried not to freak out. Mac had already said we'd go and try to buy a new charger tomorrow for me. So, if it's dead, it's dead. But damn this house for trying to force me back into the stone age without my permission!!! I know where to find the Amish, I could go there if I wanted too, but I like running water and gas powered vehicles, computers, iPods and Internet too damned much to just live that way. PLUS....I like setting the preset timer on my coffee marker so that it's ready for me when I wake up in the morning. I also like the tv in the bedroom, that helps me eek out an extra 30-45 minutes of sleep in the morning (thanks to dvds and Nixon's ever changing taste in shows). I like microwaves (dear house....don't even think about that one, you've been warned!). And I like air conditioning and heat, depending on the time of year. Plus, my hair straightener.....I love the time I live in and I will not go quietly backwards. Yes, I'm refusing to accept another lifestyle...because I quite like mine just fine.
Fuck you house I will NOT yield!!!!  

My charger is still working, at this time.