One wedding, four dresses, three sleeping spots, two sick cats, a hole in my ceiling, and one exhausted mama.
Hey y’all. I’ve missed you.
If you’ve been wondering where I disappeared to, just know — I didn’t actually fall off the earth. I just got swallowed whole by real life. My son got married!! My ceiling caved in (literally). My cats got sick. And I stopped sleeping in one room like a normal human.
Let’s just say it’s been a season.
💃 The Great Dress Debacle
Let’s talk about the dress — or, more accurately… the dress situation.
The first one I ordered actually fit beautifully. But the jacket that came with it? Way too small. The company wouldn’t just replace the jacket — they said they had to replace the whole set. So in order to get a larger jacket, I would’ve had to get a larger dress that was going to be too big.
So I ordered two different jackets from another company, and a backup dress from Amazon. This was the week of the wedding, and I was stressed out of my mind. I just wanted to look nice for my son’s big day. I wasn’t worried about embarrassing myself — I was worried about embarrassing him. I didn’t want to be the awkward mom in the corner of every photo. I wanted to do this right. For him.
The two jackets I ordered actually fit beautifully — but they were totally the wrong color for the original dress.
The Amazon dress fit, with a little room to spare — but not enough to worry about. The length was perfect. But there was a big black smudge right down the front of the cape-like overlay. I tried to clean it… and made it worse.
So I ordered the same exact dress again — hoping the replacement (of the replacement) would show up clean. And I threw one more dress into the cart, because I needed options. These dresses were arriving the day before the wedding. I had to have a backup plan in case something else went wrong.
Both dresses showed up just in time.
- The new version of the smudged dress? Clean, beautiful, and ready to go.
- The extra dress? Absolutely stunning — I loved it. But it was about a foot too long, and there just wasn’t time.
So I wore the replacement (of the replacement) Amazon dress. And after weeks of stress — and everything else going on (see: furry soap opera below) — I felt amazing. It wasn’t just about how the dress looked… it was about showing up for one of the most important days of my son’s life feeling confident and proud. Mission accomplished!
Pictures will be coming… as soon as I get them.
🐾 The Furry Soap Opera
As if wedding prep wasn’t enough, my house turned into a full-blown chaos zone. And not just because of the cats — although they definitely had starring roles.
Right in the middle of it all, I was having roof work done. One of the contractors actually stepped through my ceiling, and they temporarily patched the hole with a black trash bag and duct tape. I made them use hot pink duct tape — because at that point? I needed to feel like something was under my control.
If I had to have a black trash bag taped to my ceiling, I wanted it to be pretty.
Zazu was absolutely mortified. The banging, the noise, the hole in the ceiling — it stressed him out so badly he got sick. And when Zazu gets sick, I panic. I got him to the vet quickly and thankfully we caught it early. He got meds and started to feel better.
But then Zuri got it… and it hit her so much worse.
I took her to an emergency hospital. They kept her overnight, gave her IV fluids, and syringe-fed her. Every time I called for an update, I got a different doctor — four total — and every one of them said, “I don’t know, I’m just getting to know her.” No one could tell me if she was improving or not, and I was furious.
She didn’t get better. In fact, she got worse. So I took her to a different emergency vet for another opinion. They suspected FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis), which is hard to diagnose and extremely serious. They gave me a prescription for custom-compounded medication. I had to syringe it into her mouth twice a day.
It was awful. Zuri is my quiet, fearful girl. In the four years I’ve had her, she never let me touch her. And now, I had to catch her, hold her, and give her meds. I was also syringing water and food because she wasn’t eating or drinking. I even ran hot showers just to steam her sinuses — I had frizzy hair for days.
Meanwhile… sleep?
I didn’t even know her.
Every night, I rotated between two or three rooms. I’d start in Jarod’s room with Zeus, my newest rescue, who was recovering and separated from the others. Around 2 AM, I’d get up, go to the living room to love on Zazu and Zephyr, and then move to my room with Zuri. Some nights, I even napped on the couch in between. I was exhausted. Mentally and physically. It was a nightmare.
But we made it. Somehow.
Zazu recovered.
Zuri recovered. And she looks part poodle now thanks to her little shaved arm where they had the IV — it’s kind of cute.
Zephyr, for his part, had no idea what was going on. He was still new to the family — just recently let out of Jarod’s room before all of this started — and was walking around like a goofy big brother trying to figure out the house rules. And then I brought in Zeus.
Zeus was never meant to be a permanent part of the family — just a rescue I was helping after he got kicked out of his colony, badly injured, and clearly confused about where he belonged. He had a wound across his nose and didn’t seem to know how to protect himself. I took him to the vet, got him treated and neutered, and gave him a safe place to heal while trying to find him a home.
But Zephyr wouldn’t accept him. And after weeks of rotating rooms, constant stress, and everyone’s routines falling apart, I hit my limit. I had to take Zeus to PAWS to find him a new home — somewhere safe where he could be loved and not feared. It broke my heart, but I couldn’t do it anymore.
So here we are.
The chaos has quieted. The cats are healing. I’m back to sleeping in one bed again.
Stay tuned for part two of the ceiling saga — because the contractor still has to come back and fix the terrible patch. I’m just hoping Zazu doesn’t get sick again when he does.
Also, my other son is getting married in June! Stay tuned for that adventure!
A Stitchin’ Hot Mess 