Cat's out of the bag... or rather, the cage.

A few days ago, we decided to stop putting Chiyo in her cage at night. The decision seems to have worked out well. All three cats are still alive, and there are no noticeable battle wounds aside from random tufts of Chiyo's fur that Tifa has always been good at snagging. And those are sparse enough occurences to not be alarmed or concerned.

Hissing and the occasional yowl still happen, but not as frequently. Tifa still doesn't know how to back off, despite her earlier injury. However, Chiyo is now chasing back instead of simply cowering and hissing and yowling from her scrunch up position in a corner.

So it's very encouraging to us that one of these days, everyone will be able to get along peacefully.

One funny thing that has come out of this is Chiyo has learned to close the bathroom door to avoid Ellie and Tifa. Unfortunately, she has yet to learn how to open the door to let herself out.

I was out to Karen's for a few hours and came home to find the bathroom door closed.

To avoid that, we try to remember to close the door. She loses a hiding/play area, but she won't get trapped while we're not home.

Most likely due to Chiyo's newfound freedom, Tifa has grown in her angst and neediness. I try my best to give her more attention and affection, but there are times when that simply isn't enough for her. Unfortunately, our sofa has gotten the brunt of her angst, and I have contacted someone to get an estimate to get rid of her urine.

With these three, I feel I won't want a child until all three pass, or until by some miracle I feel comfortable enough to have a child with an overly-needy cat and a cat that scratches and bites (Ellie saves us from insanity, I think). Considering that they're only about 4 or 5 now, I wonder if children will ever come back into the picture. Well, we'll see.

Dirty Mouth.

Yes, we swap spit and share other bodily fluids, but there are some things that I simply do not want to share.

Like my toothbrush.

There have been times when Yubo would mistakenly use my toothbrush, despite having a perfectly good one of his own. Yes, honey. Yours is the blue one, your favorite color, not the pink or green one. So when I find that he has used my toothbrush instead of his own, I get immensely grossed out, and have to get myself a new one.

I'm the same about our water pik and Sonicare toothbrushes. Mine is the green one. His is the blue one. If I happen to have left my green one on, he'll simply use it instead of switching it out for his blue one. And then I have to rinse it in hot water and Listerine. Well, not the Sonicare brushes. Thankfully we have that UV cleaner thing.

On a side know, I'm sure you're wondering, If we have super cool Sonicare toothbrushes, why am I going off on regular toothbrushes? Because sometimes I just want to brush my teeth in a normal fashion, sans vibrations.

Anyhow, there's just something about morning germs that really turn me off, and for whatever reason, Yubo refuses to accomodate me on that. He would still want a morning kiss (before brushing) if I didn't fight him so hard about it. My own morning breath grosses me out, so you can imagine how disgusted I would be about someone else's. Yes, he's my husband. Yes, I love him no matter what. But loving him as close to unconditionally as I humanly can does not mean I have to lick up the bacteria that accumulated in his mouth overnight during his open-mouth snoring.

I know I'm not the only one that hates morning breath. Look at that scene from Pretty Woman.

Well then, that concludes my rant for the morning. Now I will add a new toothbrush to my shopping list for the week.

Mmm... Finances.

As with many couples out there, we have found ourselves in a tight financial situation. Perhaps one of our worst to date. I haven't scheduled our mortgage payment yet because I'm scared to see our bank account empty. Yubo says we should actually be ok for this month, but he's quite concerned about next month.

Despite plumbing being a seemingly recession-proof business, Yubo's job is hurting pretty bad. :(

My job hunt has been fruitless so far. I am quite hopeful for these last two positions I interviewed for, but I won't hear any news until the end of this week, perhaps. But I continue to apply to places. If nothing comes of this week, I will start applying to fast food places and other very entry-level positions. My fear is that even these places won't want me, though.

The upside to our situation is that I've finally been able to sit down with Yubo to discuss seriously financial matters. I listed out our monthly bills with their balances and monthly payments in an Excel sheet, and we figured out what we can cut if we really need to.... which unfortunately, wasn't much.

At this point, our next order of business is to cancel our television and land line. Then we're taking a more serious look at our eating habits.

Last night, I made a dinner plan for this coming week, and we were able to purchase what we needed to fulfill the plan for under $20. I'm hoping to be able to keep this up each week, and if we can stay under $20 for the week for dinners, that will help us save a lot. The other big thing, though, is how Yubo eats when he's working. At some point I will have to figure into the grocery shopping things to pack for him for snacks and lunch, and hopefully he will be content with that and not go off to fast food instead. I'm just concerned about food safety, so I'll have to find things that can be eaten cold or just don't have to be refrigerated or something. Too bad Yubo can't have peanut butter. :/

We're scared to get to a point to have to ask for help. Well, not that we're scared. There are just some things keeping us from wanting to. For myself, I don't really want to have to sit through, "If you just took your school seriously like I told you, and got your degree by now, you wouldn't be in this situation." Yubo also doesn't want me to have to endure that, especially since I tell him that if we went to my parents, the blame would be on me because they know just how hard he works. I'm probably just a lazy mooch to everyone in the world at this point. And Yubo, being the awesome son that he is, simply doesn't want to go to his parents because they've already given us so much, and I agree with that.

So we're just doing our best right now to cut down on monthly costs; I'm continuing to job hunt and try to be a better housewife; Yubo's working as hard as he can as usual. I'm thankful that we don't argue about what's going on. There's been some tension, but we both recognize the situation and are doing what we can to get through it together. That's probably what's really keeping me from curling up into a ball in the corner and crying every day. Yubo continues to love me and support us during this difficult time, and even though I am so unworthy of him, he still wants to be with me.

Kissing Report.

Well, we're about 1.5 weeks into the kissing challenge. I suppose it's not accurate to say it's a challenge, though.

There have been times when we forgot, but we were always happy to make up for it the next day.

It hasn't worked any miracles, but I do find myself more willing to make up with him after a misunderstanding or frustration, or simply to not hold onto any negative feelings as long as I used to. At the very least, I would have to let go of bad feelings before bed, as that's the latest we would share a kiss.

And yes, there have been upsets even though it's only been a bit over a week. :P

There are also times when I've thought, Ok, we've already had our kiss for today, before realizing that we didn't limit it to one kiss a day. It was at least one kiss per day, and then I'd feel a little bad for feeling that I wanted to limit it to just the single one.

I think we need to change it up a bit, though. It's become more of a "good night" kiss, which has mostly just been a peck rather than a good kiss. And the thing about it is he's been the one initiating the kiss right before sleeping. So I'm going to have to take the initiative more often if I think we need something earlier in the day. It's just been so difficult because he doesn't usually present himself in a way that I would want to kiss him.

He's either stinking of morning breath, or he's covered in who knows what when he comes home from work, or a fabulous combination of both. So do I ask him to make himself more kiss-friendly? Or do I get over my morning hygiene issues?

The thing about morning breath, though, is that I see it as being just as disgusting as cigarette breath. It's nothing I want to have to taste and endure just to have a kiss, and it certainly doesn't help me enjoy a kiss, which then makes a kiss more of a chore than anything else.

....ok. I think I've come to my conclusion. ^^;;