I haven't been on FA for quite a while now, so I thought I'd drop a line as to why, in case anyone's actually interested. I do still go through my submission inbox, but rarely post.

About the time I made my previous journal, my Kitty & I got pregnant with our 2nd child. Quite by accident, but not undesired I assure you. People had been asking us for a long time if we were going to have another, so the answer became yes by default. We have since discovered that it's another boy, which thrills our little Nikky to no end, & even though there were some problems in the 2nd trimester, they have corrected themselves & I will be able to deliver naturally & not have to worry about a C-section. He's due mid Dec.

Because of the impending child, we have been rather focused on finding an actual house to move into before the end of March 2016. Our apartment has us locked into a term until then, & although we can leave any time we choose, we're still liable for the remaining balance through March. We'd rather not pay on 2 living spaces at the same time if we're only actually in 1 of them. But if we can manage to get a house with a move-in date for Feb. 2016, then we can do a slow move for Feb. & March, & make sure everything's clean & all that w/o having to rush through it all with a new-born.

So I've been having to get all kinds of financials organized & ready to take to the bank to get the pre-approval, & also go & see some houses physically to try & make a determination. Fortunately, our Nikky started Kindergarten this past Aug. so we have a couple of days each week where we can just drive around & look at places we're interested in w/o having to keep an eye on him.

On top of that, we're now down to 2 ferrets (Tika & Shuto) & 1 cat (Precious). We lost our ferret Bella on May 23rd to an unknown internal problem the Vet couldn't figure out, & Bandit on the 1st of Sept. to Insulinoma & adrenal failure. She passed in her sleep peacefully on our couch after having a wonderful morning of play with Shuto & myself. They were 2 of our 3 rescues, & all 3 are buried together now, with markers on 2 of them. We're going to make a personalized one ourselves for the 3rd. However, because of their passing, Nikky knows about & understands what death is at age 5. That's good & bad I supposed, but he knows now why we tell him not to play at killing things/people.

We do plan to acquire more ferrets, but not until after we get moved into a house & have made sure it's properly ferret-proofed. Shuto has made it into the neighbor's apartment twice, & Bandit actually got outside & went wandering for 3 days before she came back home. We'd rather not go through something like that again if possible.

I think that catches you up on what's been keeping me from writing any more stories, although I have a few stored in my mind for when I get the chance to actually sit & type them up. Until next we meet, later critters!