School Night Sleepover

Shane and I went to Grandma and Grandpa's to start the week! If virtual school can be done anywhere, why not travel?

Plus, they have great wifi.

We got a chance to see Bucket when we arrived. I think she spent the rest of our visit sleeping!

We arrived late Sunday and spent the night. One of the biggest differences at Grandma and Grandpa's is they like to leave the TV on for background noise. Fox news was discussing the weather.

Flashing lights? Noise? Storms? 

Hypnotized.

I turned the TV off after a little bit and Shane came to.

Shane let slip he hadn't finished some multiplication flash cards, so I helped get him started.

Grandma saw that he finished while I went upstairs to do my own work. 

Shane attended his classes from the floor of the kitchen. 

I disappeared upstairs in his bedroom. The LEGO rocket Grandpa and Shane made was way bigger than I'd thought! I showed it to all of my classes!

Grandpa and Grandma also did their work. "We had four offices running at once!" Grandma said.

My classes went well (save for one kid saying a bad word). I told the kids we'd driven to the in-laws to try and get some better internet! And I used it, too. I uploaded the first two weeks of class recordings to the server. That was gigs of data we couldn't spare at our house! 

Shane's class went well enough from what I saw....which was admittedly not much (5-10 minutes). His new teacher, Mrs. Taylor, was shadowing Mr. Bahn. She's supposed to take take the reigns Tuesday and fly solo from Wednesday on. 

Grandma was happy with Shane, but vocal about "We need to send everybody back!" I know our school district is getting ready to vote on sending back kids in PK-3rd grade for the next quarter (Nov-Jan). If they do (and it goes well), they could vote to have kids back in high schools part time by the end of January. 

Meanwhile, Grandpa pulled a frozen pizza from the fridge and they sent us on our way full. Shane and I left around 6:40 PM and got back home well after dark. 

It'd be an easier trip if not for barn care. If the whole family went I'd be willing to stay for days, but who will take care of the horses? Carrie stayed behind, so we only stayed for the day. She tends to get stressed more easily when I'm not home (and she likes to snuggle up with Shane for TV time too when he's not bouncing, hyper wild and making the dog bark like mad!). 

Anyway, it was a successful experiment. We'll try it again with Grandma and Grandpa and I plan to ship Shane off to SC at some point, too!

Kitten Update

I've got a lot of kitten pictures.

Lots.

If you're allergic to internet cat pictures, this is not the post for you.

Carrie started to let the kittens into the barn proper. It was supervised while the horses ate.

Her goal was to leave them in the tack room long enough that it became "safe" and "home."

They were timid at first.

And figuring out the door took some work! 

If one slid out, she had trouble getting back in because of her sister pushing the other way!

But they did start to poke around.

They slowly ventured further and further out.

Shane showed up and was blissfully unaware at first. He sat down next to me and started to talk. I didn't say anything and waited for him to notice the kittens on his own.

Loki's herding attempts helped draw his attention.

Shane was excited when he realized he was ground zero for a happening!

Loki was excited for.....butts. He loves cat butts.

I was excited to, so I guess everyone was excited all the way around. I like creating memories.

And I've grown to really enjoy catching a good photo.

Which the kittens helped provide many!

The kittens didn't change the routine at all, but they added a new flavor. Carrie and the boarders fawned over the new cuteness. I took pictures when the poop was scooped. Shane came down to the barn more often those first few days and even helped out some.

Loki loved it.

He loved hanging out in the barn as is and now there were new animals to play with.

Not that they'd let him in their room.

Both kittens ventured out from their safe room, but Aria tended to venture farther and more frequently. Tsuki was more people driven.

There will be more on that later!

If you know the layout of the barn, the cat that's farthest from the tack room in any pic is probably Aria.

Both cats tolerate Loki and will even play with him to a certain point.

One day, Aria ran around in the heat until she was panting just like Loki!

In the beginning, we made sure to always return the cats to their room before we left. We took it as a good sign that they'd run right back to the room whenever they were scared.

I didn't always let them out when I did chores solo and the kittens sang their displeasure. I heard a noise behind me stuffing hay once and peeked in on them.

Pop went the Aria! She'd been waiting for the opportunity I provided. 

I got her back in, but she avoided being in focus!

Carrie's confidence in the kittens increased to the point she decided to leave the cat door open during the day.

I was a little worried the cats would crap in the hay. It was cute to watch them play in it, but I didn't think the horses would appreciate the added flavor.

Carrie pointed out the arena was a more likely location. "It's a giant litterbox."

So the cats played!

Aria was the first to go for height. We may find her walking through the rafters one of these days.

Tsuki tried it a few days later.

I reached up and she bunked, licked, and then nibbled on my hand. It was the first time she's done it to me, but not Carrie.

Aria has been more likely to run off and chase butterflies while Tsuki's been the people person. She walks up to Carrie and puts her head right into Carrie's hand (and she'd done it to me, as well).

"I love her personality!" Carrie said.

"Barn cat," I said. "Not house cat."

That got a little pout, but the kittens have stayed outside so far!

I've still got to be careful, though. Tsuki has cuddled herself into Carrie's heart.

I'm still waiting for them to catch their first mouse. Aria's chased bugs, but they've eating more horse feed than rodents.

They're not supposed to like it, but both cats were crunching away while Laura prepped meals.

So our barn is an animal haven. Everyone's adjusting to everyone else. Loki and Aria ran around underfoot when Pockets got a chiropractic tune up.

Carrie hasn't allowed g the kittens to come and go as they please, yet. She's cautious after Lester disappeared and Happy scared her the one time.

It'll happen at some point. Will the kittens wander up to the house and say hello to Max and Happy through the windows? We'll have to wait and see.

Bucketfull of Relations

Bucket has not adjusted well to all of the other animals around. She had an infamous stress poop episode and likes to hide to avoid Loki and noise. She tolerates Max and likes people, but she wants to be an only pet in a quiet place (which Shane and Loki are not).

A lot of it is self-inflicted. Bucket growls at Happy. Happy will growl back some times, but Bucket is normally the initiator. I've seen her try to sneak up on Happy to attack, but Happy is the more dominant cat. She turns around and send Bucket running.

So then Bucket hides in her normal haunts and avoids coming out when other cats and dogs are around.

It worked, but it wasn't ideal.

It turned for the worse a couple weeks ago. Bucket started hiding in an open shelf when we closed off her cabinet (She was really noisy at night). Carrie had stashed some plates there that Bucket used: to make a poo-poo platter.

Day 1 - Poop plate went in the sink.

Day 2 -  Poop plate #2 went in the sink.

Day 3 - Yellow pool in plate #3 sloshed as we took it outside.

So Bucket went into quarantine. She had her own litter box in the guest bedroom and bathroom. There were no other cats or dogs and she got to chill out. The 'accidents' stopped, but Bucket would still beg for some attention.

Carrie talked Grandma into letting Bucket visit. Then they both spent the next week talking Grandpa into it! When Grandpa's resolved weakened, it was time for a trip before he changed his mind.

Which was the perfect timing to deliver a grandchild, too. Carrie was a little worried about letting Shane spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa' after they had people over for dinner earlier in the week. I was more pragmatic. "They won't be contagious yet. Stuff needs time to incubate. It'll be good for Shane and we'll get some time off!"

Shane tried to 'help' Bucket calm down by humming and poking at her the whole trip. After a certain point, I gave up telling him to knock it off.

Bucket mewed the whole way. We might have made it a little quicker, but Carrie forgot to clip Bucket's nails before we left (a clear condition from Grandpa and Grandma!).

Carrie skipped breakfast, so the stop gave us a chance to hit a drive through (I had a $10 and a $0.15 gift card!).

There wasn't a ton of pee when we got to Grandma's, but I swear I smelled something.

Carrie gave Bucket a quick trim and then set her loose.

She saw her litter bin and then cautiously started to look around. This wasn't her first time at Grandma's.

She acclimated quickly and wanted attention. The plan is to leave her locked up in the office for a few days before she has the run of the house.

Why wasn't Shane in any of the pictures? He was busy talking to his cousin, Noah!

Noah was spending some time with Grandma and Grandpa to give his parents a break (from one kid, at least). Shane was going to be grandkid #2 and make a party of it.

Carrie and I came out to say hi once Bucket was situation. Noah was ready to play!

I could see the question in Carrie's eyes as I took the shot. "Are you really taking a picture of this?"

What Carrie couldn't see was what was coming up in the next few shots!

No Carries were harmed while the boys had fun.

Grandma cooked grilled cheeses for lunch. I got one with pastrami! Noah wanted to eat his sandwich by the layer which offended Grandma's sensibilities, but he eventually finished and the boys were off again.

"Feel free to use the TV when you need Shane to calm down and zone out," I said. "He loves Mythbusters." I suggested that one based on Grandma and Grandpa's tastes. They said they'd been watching Top Shot (and there was an archery episode!).

We left as Grandma tried to organize a game of cards and Grandpa left to buy cat food (Carrie handed our bag to Shane to carry while she had Bucket. He promptly put it down and got in the car without it!).

A storm hit on the way home, but we made it. It was a lot quieter at the house and I got to catch up on some posts Friday morning.

I met Grandma and Grandpa around 2:45 PM at Zion's crossroads to reclaim the child. They were about to turn north to take Noah back to Chris and Rachel.

There was a big hug goodbye! Shane said he had a lot of fun playing with Noah.

"We had a plan to set our alarm clock for midnight," Shane told me. "Then we were going to go downstairs get a snack and talk at night!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, but the alarm clock didn't go off."

Ha! A fun kid plot if I ever heard one. Probably wasn't the smartest thing for Shane to tell me about it, but I let him bask in the limelight for the moment.

Hopefully, Bucket will be happy with her grandparents and we'll get another chance to visit all of them before school starts. Bucket drifted to the background for the last half of the post, but that's how she likes it: Quiet.