we're doing freaking amazing around here! my daughter and I graduated from college back in June 2023 (can't remember if that is before or after i saw you around here last.) i run the maintenance department for a vacation rental company, covering just about 100 properties with 9 more in the works in the near future. she is taking care of our house and we joke that she is my "housewife". with her autism, this was a HUGE step for her as she had never been home alone more than an hour or two prior to me starting work. she's about to turn 26 next week and is thriving in her new role. to us, what she does is just as much a job as what i do. it takes us both to make our household work. SUPER PROUD MOMMA HERE!!!
i also am on the scholarship foundation board for our local AAUW branch. (American Association of University Women). as the treasurer, i get to write the checks to help send young women and girls to college. this year we awarded 9 scholarships for a total of $13,000. 6 are the first generation in their family to ever go to college. gotta love the feeling of that!!!
sir henry of scales continues to be a salad whore and still hardly eats any bugs. he broke 600g the other day. the vet doesn't like his weight that high, but i won't starve him. it's just about slow down time and he always bulks up, then loses again by spring. he's following his trend lines so i'm not worried at all, the vet can bite me! he just finished shedding with the exception of one spot on the base of his tail. that spot is usually pretty think and takes the longest.
taela the parakeet is doing great too. we're trying to get him to eat a bigger variety of foods, but he's having none of it! the stink eye we get as he picks whatever out of his broccoli and drops it on the bottom of his cage is hilarious! he'll pick something up, look you dead in the face, and drop it. right now we're seeing if broccoli sprouts might work. after a couple weeks he is at least digging through them to get to his broccoli instead of flinging them all over the place.
I was myself first-generation college student (and nobody else from my family went since then) and female (and @your daughter, autistic too), so I know very much how much that means.
