random heidiness

New Blog Address!

2009-06-13T18:07:00.001-04:00

Dreamhost was having a killer sale this past week! A WHOLE year of hosting for less than $10.00. HOW could someone pass that up? So i decided to take my blog off blogger and move it to my own domain and use WordPress.

I am working out the kinks, but I hope to have things up and running as I want them very soon.

I may also move Topaz’s blog here, but I’m not sure yet. Depends on how this move goes. All the archives are moved…and I will be putting a link at the blogger site today.

I’ve just been playing around with the settings. I don’t know CSS very well, but can generally flub my way through it.

I hope also, that I will blog a bit more. We’ll see about that.

So anyways…if you’re a follower of mine, please update your bookmarks to

http://www.peargirly.com/blog/

Thanks!

Twilight Saga ~ New Moon Trailer!

2009-06-01T01:03:00.001-04:00

Stolen off YouTube…but I saw it first on MTV tonight!

Looks freaking AWESOME!!!! November cannot get here quick enough!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Right now I’m re-listening to Twilight at work on my iPod. I think I’ll listen to the entire series again. Such great books and such a great story!!!

Hmm…I may even get inspired to change my blog theme!

A lot of artists have put out Twilight kits…but Flergs’ is my absolute FAVE! I have her Edward *swoon* background as my desktop on my laptop…and my background on Twitter is twlighty too!

Ahhh Edward….why can’t you be REAL?? haha

Monday Pears from DeviantART

2009-05-25T17:00:00.001-04:00

Look at how SWEET this picture is! LOL it makes absolutely no sense, but I LOVE it! heh I especially love it because it’s got a lot of purple in it…Purple and pears….how can it go wrong? LOL

Frilly Pear by ~dimespin on deviant ART

I think this next one is beautiful! I’d hang this print on my wall in my office in a heartbeat!

Beautiful Pear by ~oupelay on deviant ART

And I always think this next one is Hilarious!!! LOL WUT!

The Biting Pear of Salamanca by `ursulav on deviant ART

And I always think droplets just make a pear look EXTRA juicy!

The Pear by ~loopeh on deviant ART

Oooh and I found this next one after I found the others. Too funny!

Pearaphim by `ursulav on deviant ART

Nutro Cat Food Voluntary Recall

2009-05-21T21:42:00.000-04:00

Nutro Products Announces Voluntary Recall of Limited Range of Dry Cat Food Products

Franklin, Tennessee (May 21, 2009) -- Today, Nutro Products announced a voluntary recall of select varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. The cat food is being voluntarily recalled in the United States and ten additional countries. This recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in our finished product resulting from a production error by a US-based premix supplier.

Two mineral premixes were affected. One premix contained excessive levels of zinc and under-supplemented potassium. The second premix under-supplemented potassium. Both zinc and potassium are essential nutrients for cats and are added as nutritional supplements to NUTRO® dry cat food.

This issue was identified during an audit of our documentation from the supplier. An extensive review confirmed that only these two premixes were affected. This recall does not affect any NUTRO® dog food products, wet dog or cat food, or dog and cat treats.

Affected product was distributed to retail customers in all 50 states, as well as to customers in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Israel. We are working with all of our distributors and retail customers, in both the US and internationally, to ensure that the recalled products are not on store shelves. These products should not be sold or distributed further.

Consumers who have purchased affected product should immediately discontinue feeding the product to their cats, and switch to another product with a balanced nutritional profile. While we have received no consumer complaints related to this issue, cat owners should monitor their cat for symptoms, including a reduction in appetite or refusal of food, weight loss, vomiting or diarrhea. If your cat is experiencing health issues or is pregnant, please contact your veterinarian.

Consumers who have purchased product affected by this voluntary recall should return it to their retailer for a full refund or exchange for another NUTRO® dry cat food product. Cat owners who have more questions about the recall should call 1-800-833-5330 between the hours 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM CST

Information came from: http://www.nutroproducts.com/

Happy Mother’s Day & Morel Mushrooms!!

2009-05-10T02:28:00.001-04:00

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1863210503125&source=jl999

Well, actually it’s tomorrow…but in some places in the world, it’s today!

Tomorrow we’re having my parents over for dinner. We’re going to BBQ some chicken and some salmon and have roasted potatoes, green beans and Asparagus. My husband is going to check out some dessert too…so not sure what he’ll pick for that, if anything.

I invited my parents over not even thinking that it was mother’s day, which is funny…but my mom called me today and said, “you know, I didn’t even realize that Sunday was Mother’s Day!” haha. Oh well…dinner will be nice.

So we’ve been cleaning the house to prepare for company. Good thing it’s not horribly messy. The kitchen, of course, was a pit…but that’s just because I LOATHE doing the dishes. They will all be done though! And I am really going to try to keep up with them and the rest of the house as well. Enough lazy ass stuff…time to get in gear here!

On to the Morels….

We had about 3 or 4 morel mushrooms growing on the side of our house and our neighbor asked that we don’t mow over there so he could pick them when they got a bit bigger. His son wanted them.

I’ve heard of morel mushrooms before, but I always thought that they grew in the woods, not in the suburbs! Kind of weird!

Anyway, because they are kind of cool looking and because I just think it’s bizarre that they were growing there, I took a couple pictures of them.

See them in the center of the photo?

Here’s a close-up of the bigger one.

Pretty cool, huh?

Our neighbor put pots over them and I guess it really helped them grow! My husband said they were huge when he picked them today. I wish he would have gotten a picture…oh well. Maybe I can get one next year. This is the 2nd year he’s picked them there.

I have to get back to cleaning…hope you all have a great Mother’s Day!

May Desktop, Lupus Diagnosis & A Few More Pix

2009-05-03T14:05:00.001-04:00

First, I’d like to show off my May desktop that I just made!! My birthday is in May (16!) and so I wanted to make it birthday themed. It’s hard to come by a nice birthday kit for some reason, but as I was searching through my scrappy kits…which, let me say I have WAY too many of…I found a CUTE birthday kit by Ellie Lash! I don’t even remember buying it! It’s perfect though.

I usually “feature” one or more of our animals in the desktops and this month I am featuring Malcolm, or Mooshy as he’s better known. It’s kind of a joke because he’s the cat that gives me the most trouble. I call him “Malcolm J” also…the J is for jackass. LOL And I usually don’t cut the animal out like I did here either, but I wanted to put a silly little hat on him!

Anyway, I think it turned out great! I love purple, and it can’t get much more purple than it is. All the main elements and papers are from a kit called “Birthday Joy” by Ellie Lash and the two wedding (anniversary) graphics are from a freebie kit called “Summer Wedding” by Bon Scrapatit Designs. The yellow flower and leaf are from a kit called “Wildflower” that I got on the My Scrapbook Art forum. I believe it was also a freebie for NSD.

I was really tempted to make a Twilight themed desktop with Flergs’ new kit, but my laptop desktop is of Edward Cullen already, and I thought my husband may not want to stare at Edward like I would heh, so I spared him an Edward background…for now. hehe

On to other things…

My husband was recently diagnosed with Lupus on top of everything else he has going on. In all honestly, nothing much will change…but it’s just yet another diagnosis to add to his long list.

He has not been having the greatest time with the diagnosis. I think it’s because we’ve been dealing with APS now for 4 years and this is something new. Plus for whatever reason even though Lupus and APS are similar…sister diseases even…Lupus, to me, is much scarier than APS. And it really probably isn’t. But Lupus has a huge spectrum, I don’t know…I guess it’s just another thing to deal with. Hard for me to explain.

It’s almost like, I know APS. I basically know what to expect with it. Lupus…I have no clue. Guess I’ll need to learn about it just like I did with the APS.

The other thing that is bothering me is the whole kid thing. We probably won’t have kids for sure now. I have Lupus on my side of the family. My dad’s sister had it. And now, Todd has it…the poor kids will be doomed! I don’t want to do that!! And no, I’m really not ok with that. It really bothers me. But, there are alternatives…like adoption and I actually think I’d like to foster and then adopt, or just adopt. Babies make me really nervous, so maybe we could find an older child who needs loving parents. Maybe in the future. Who knows…

The only good thing about this dx being added is that he may be able to get on some other meds that might help him. Plus, it will help when it’s time to review his disability. I just hope he gets used to it, or is able to cope with it all. He’s had a hard time with that overall. I know he tries though.

Ok enough of that Lupus stuff for now. I’m sure we will revisit this at another time.

I’m gonna wrap up with some pictures I took of our Crab Apple tree that’s out front. It’s so pretty with little white flowers on it! Plus, I was trying to practice my Macro skills! I think these ones turned out pretty well!

I like that you can see the tulips in the background of this one below…oh, and my car in the upper right! LOL

This next one is my favorite, I think! I love the shadowing and the way the sun hits the leaves! So pretty!

I may have to scrap some of these pretty pictures!

Nutro, the FDA & Swine Flu

2009-04-30T00:25:00.001-04:00

First of all, the FDA has put a statement out about Nutro.

FDA is clarifying that Nutro Products, Inc. is not currently under investigation. FDA does not typically confirm or deny the existence of an FDA investigation. It has recently come to our attention, however, that a media report incorrectly concluded and reported that Nutro Products, Inc. was the subject of an investigation.

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/CVM_Updates/NutroProducts.htm

I am not going to retract my previous blog, but it does seem that the information online about Nutro was false. Which is great for ppl who feed their dogs Nutro!

My statements in my previous blog were just me being frustrated to read about yet another investigation or recall. I hate the pet food industry sometimes, I really do!!

Ok…and onto the Swine Flu.

nataliedee.com

This is pertaining to our pets getting it, and passing it on to us.

According to this blog post on the Holistic Pet Food Blog, it looks like our pets can’t get it…or so far that’s what they think anyways. Check it out, they have a few good sources there and some links. (that’s also where the Nutro info came from too, and they also have GREAT info on pet food!)

Here’s what MSNBC says:

Is there any possibility of this strain crossing into dogs, cats or other pets? If so, are small animals (puppies, kittens) more at risk than adult animals?
—Anonymous

There is no evidence whatsoever of any risk for animals that has come up. The main problem with this is that it’s a virus that seems to have originated in pigs and became capable of infecting human beings. There are flu viruses that preferentially affect cats and dogs, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30460823/

So…good news tonight…No Nutro investigation and it looks like we won’t be getting the Swine Flu from our furry childrens.

Some Random Photos

2009-04-27T23:07:00.001-04:00

Spring has definitely sprung around here!! It’s been raining on and off, mostly on for the past week or so and our tulips have finally come up! Our little crabapple tree has little leaves and the beginnings of some white flowers as well.

It was super windy today, so this next one is a little blurrier than I’d like…but it’s still pretty!

Here’s our whole little front garden area…it needs some work and some bushes. We’ll be working on it soon!

And finally…just a fun picture of Alex who thinks that a warm Costco pizza box is the perfect spot to sit and wait while we dish out his foods!

I used actions on all of these pictures from Pioneer Woman. Right now she’s got a couple sets of actions for PhotoShop free on her blog. Click the link above and go to the end of the post for the links. They’re really wonderful! I like them a lot!

That’s all for tonight…just wanted to share some of the beautiful things popping up in our lives here!

Nutro… The Next Big Pet Food Recall?

2009-04-23T00:58:00.001-04:00

FDA Confirms Probe of NUTRO Pet Food Deaths, Illnesses

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has confirmed that the agency is investigating NUTRO pet food, following a series of unexplained illnesses and deaths. Consumers have been complaining for more than two years that their pets have become ill after eating NUTRO products; many have recovered when they were switched to other foods. The company has steadfastly denied that its food is to blame.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/nutro_foia.html

I found this link in one of my dog forums, so I emailed it and posted it into other forums where I thought people could benefit from the information.

Almost immediately afterwards in one of the forums, the link below was posted:
http://www.wxyz.com/news/story/FDA-No-Investigation-into-NUTRO-Pet-Food/hOoE48nKOkORqDNodwN3EQ.cspx

In the comments on that page, this link was posted…which is Nutro’s response:
http://www.nutroproducts.com/quality_facts.html (it’s in the 2nd Q)

Of course, I got emails back from people who “have been feeding Nutro to their dogs for X amount of years and have never had a problem”. Good for them.

When we lost our cats in the Menu Foods recall of 2006, we had been feeding the same food for however many months and then – boom – the cat got sick and we lost him a month later.

That’s all it takes, folks.

When is the FDA going to get some control over pet food? When are they going to stop getting crappy ingrediants from God knows where and have us feeding them to our pets? When is this madness going to stop??? If real human food had killed the amount of animals that have been killed in the past few recalls, it would be ALL over the news…HUGE investigations, lawsuits would be going on. But because these are ANIMALS and NOT people…the reaction is much, much smaller and all of the hype dies down after a while.

It’s BULLSHIT! It really is.

People ask me why we feed raw…well, not only do we have a special needs pup, but I don’t think I could feed my dog commercial pet foods. I’m even leery of the natural foods anymore! I hate that we have to feed the cats commercial food. I hate worse that it’s a “grocery store” brand and not premium. But we have 4 stinking cats and it’s too much money to feed them premium foods. But I swear to God, let there be ONE recall of the brand we feed them and I’ll work something else out. I’ll make their food if I have to.

I’m not losing another animal to a pet food recall…not as long as I can afford to help it!

There’s a video on this page…check it out. it’s about half way down the page.
http://www.ilovemydogfood.com/

So back to Nutro…personally, we don’t feed it and we never will. I say buyer beware. But that’s really with any pet food anymore. Who knows what’s REALLY in the bags?

Easter Cheezeburger

2009-04-12T22:54:00.001-04:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

A little funny for Easter!! LOL

Happy Easter!!!

2009-04-11T23:46:00.001-04:00

I was going to make my own graphic, but I found this one on Photobucket and I thought it was pretty cute, plus I was going to use this kit for my graphic anyways. Isn’t the bunrab just the cutest!!

Anyways, this is just a quick note to say Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates and who reads my blog.

I will write more next week and hopefully be posting some Eastery scrappy pages!

Hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow and a great week!

Marley & Me

2009-04-04T11:01:00.001-04:00

Last night my husband and I watched Marley & Me. We had seen it in the theatre when it was there and I read the book in 2006 when it came out. I love the story, the book is great and so is the movie. But at the same time, I hate it!! It’s SO stinking sad and my husband and I were BOTH bawling by the end credits! Not exactly what I want to be doing all of the time.

Funny thing is while I was reading the book, I couldn’t help but think of our own “Marley”, Topaz. A lot of the things that Marley did in the book/movie, Topaz has done or done something similar. My husband agrees, which just makes this movie all the more sadder for us. Actually, I’m sure a lot of people can relate to it with some dog that they’ve owned or known in their lives.

Watching that movie makes me think that our furry friends can’t be with us forever, and that we will one day have to say good bye to them. Because of Topaz’s epilepsy, his day could come sooner than we want, and actually our Onyx is already 8, so although she’s still active and acts like a puppy, she’s coming to the twilight of her life as well.

These animals come into our lives and bring us unconditional love and such joy. Everyday is different with them and they make normal boring situations funny and exciting. It’s never a dull moment at our house with this zoo running around, let me tell ya!

Anyway, I won’t be watching Marley & Me again anytime soon, but it’s a VERY good movie and more than just a “dog” movie. Definitely worth a watch!

Twilight!!!!!! & The Latest Randomness

2009-04-01T23:08:00.001-04:00

So I just realized that I haven’t written about the release of Twilight on DVD!!!

Of course, I got it. We got our copy at Borders…the hubbs volunteered to venture out and brave the swarms of screaming girls at midnight to get me a copy. Then he hurried home so we could be up half the night watching it!

Because I’m a HUGE Twilight obsessed geek, I also pre-ordered it on iTunes so I could put the movie on my iPod and listen to it at work…hehe! AND…i got all the extras too!!! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Ugh, I make myself sick I’m so obsessed! LOL

So, I’ve watched the movie here at my desk at least 5 times and I’ve listened to it at work at least twice and watched the extras at work too…of course, on my lunch! haha I’m actually relistening to the books and am about halfway through Twilight. Whether I’ll move on to New Moon, I don’t know…I have a lot of other books to listen to.

Audible was having an AWESOME $4.95 sale not too long ago, so I bought a bunch of books. My iPod is now full of audiobookie goodness! Now to just listen to them all!

AND not ALL are even of the romantic/fantasy genre! Aren’t you proud of me? I do have a few that are of some substance! LOL I also have The Host by the same author who writes Twilight that I should actually listen to. It’s about aliens…

What else has been new in my world?

We had to start locking the Topaz up again when we leave the house. Last week he got into and ate an entire box of Quaker Raisins and Spice Oatmeal! Raisins!!! Ugh, scary stuff! Well, we took him to the vet and they induced vomiting and he wound up throwing all the raisins up. Thank God. He’s totally fine now. I swear, that dog has 9 lives! lol But, for his own safety and for our peace of mind…back to the cage he goes. He’s not thrilled about it, but it’s better this way all the way around!

He’s been seizure free for 44 days now too, which is a GREAT thing!! He bounced right back, which is awesome. Almost like the seizure never happened. And hey, if that’s how it’s gonna be, I’ll take it!

Hmm..what else…

Oh, I basically abandoned the 365 blog. I couldn’t keep up with it and I actually kept forgetting to take pictures and was spending more time “catching up” than I was actually enjoying the challenge. So I may try in May to take a photo a day the entire month…or rededicate myself to it starting in May. I want to learn how to use my camera better and spring is coming and there will be PLENTY of beautiful photo ops coming up!

And Scrapping…well, my PC wouldn’t really even let Photoshop work right for a long time, so scrapping was out of the picture. We’ve fixed that now though…so let the scrapping continue! LOL

I’ll try to update here more often as well!

Domokun cupcake army

2009-03-14T23:20:00.001-04:00

Domokun cupcake army
Originally uploaded by debbiedoescakes

How cool are these cupcakey Domos????

I want them! NOW!! hehe

HP Drama – Finally Overwith!!!

2009-03-14T15:43:00.001-04:00

After all the drama with HP, my new wireless adapter came in the mail as fast as lightening! I guess they didn’t want to deal with me anymore! LOL

However, it came without instructions! Ugh! So I emailed HP again and they sent me a link with the how-to’s. I freaked out at first because I was reading the wrong page and thought I needed to take the keyboard off and some other things off to get to the adapter, but when I reread I found it was pretty simple.

So I popped the old one out, popped the new one in and have been connecting ever since!!

YEAH!!!!!

The old, bunk wireless adapter is on its way via Fedex to HP and the shiny new one is in my laptop and I just love that little blue WLAN adapter light shining up at me!

More HP Customer Service Drama

2009-03-11T22:21:00.001-04:00

So after my whole ordeal yesterday with Costco and HP and being on the phone for hours over everything…

Our house phone rings at 12:30am…yes, that’s a half hour AFTER midnight!!!

Who is it?? HP!!!!?!?!

OMG…so I tell the guy on the phone that it’s after midnight and he asks me in a thick accent if I want him to call me tomorrow. Um, hello!!! It IS tomorrow!!!!

So I email HP again and let them know that one of their customer service reps called my house in the middle of the night and that their reps really need to review the customer’s location and find out which TIME ZONE they’re in and call them at a reasonable hour in the customer’s time zone and not whatever time zone the country the rep is in!

I was just out done!!

Of course I get an email back saying how thankful they are that I provided them with candid feedback…blah blah.

I just cannot wait to be done with this whole wireless issue. I don’t think I’ll ever buy an HP product again…and I’ve ALWAYS had luck with HP products. Ugh!

HP Customer Service, Costco, Code 10 and Atheros Wireless Adapter

2009-03-10T22:37:00.001-04:00

I got an HP laptop in October I think it was of last year. I could probably go back through my blogs and see when I actually got it, but I think it was October. Anyway, ever since I’ve opened the laptop, the wireless adapter in the laptop has not worked correctly. In order for it to work, I’ve needed to restart or turn off the computer a number of times. It will finally correct, but all of the starting and restarting takes time and battery life from the computer.

I wasn’t sure if this was how it was just supposed to be, or if it was router or what. I really thought I was doing something wrong. In hindsight, I should have taken it back to Costco and gotten a different one, but I didn’t.

Anyways, once I started to really use the laptop, I realized how annoying the starting and restarting was and looked into fixing it. I thought it was maybe the router. So, I sent the hubbs to Best Buy (yuck, I know!) to buy a different one. He went there and asked a few questions…ours should work fine…ok, so then I uninstalled and reinstalled the wireless router…same. So, it must be the computer. Great.

So, off to google I go…because when there’s an issue, Google it! LOL So I’m seeing on many websites that I’m not the only person having this problem with this specific wireless adapter! Great…so it’s a known problem. Wouldn’t u think there’d be some sort of recall or something then? Ugh.

So I tried a few things that the websites said…reinstall the driver, uninstall and reinstall the adapter, update the driver, update the BIOS…nothing works. Finally, I decide to chat with HP…did what the guy (who was probably from India) said, nada. That’s when I emailed HP technical support.

I explained the problem, what I had done as far as troubleshooting on my own and sent the email. I got a response quicker than expected. I was pretty shocked. I sent the original email in the middle of the night, so I couldn’t do anything to the laptop until after work…and while I was at work I even got a follow up email from HP…and even from the original person!

When I got home, I did what little of the steps that I could do…a lot of the things they wanted me to look for were not even an option! But, none of that helped anyway. So a couple emails later, they said they’d send me a new wireless adapter. I sent them my contact information and 3 days/times when they could call me for my CC information (they needed my cc info for collateral for the new adapter they were sending).

Then I start the waiting game. Day 1, no call…day 2, no call…day 3…No call!! WTF. Ok, so I email again and get a number of scripted emails saying they’ll forward the email, update the database, have someone call me at the “earliest” and “soon”. Whatever. I even got an email asking me to resend my contact information and a day/time to call. So I emailed back and told them that i expected a phone call that day (this again, was in the middle of the night) at 1pm.

Do you think they called…? NOPE!

I email again asking for a number to call, get back some scripted BS email and again, they’ve updated the database, put a high priority on it…whatever.

At 3:40 or so I get a phone call on my house phone that I don’t recognize. I don’t pick it up, don’t hear a message left. My husband comes home and listens to the machine…oh it was HP. And it was some foreign guy.* (see disclaimer at end)

Nice, so they finally call, but call the WRONG number. WTF

Anyway…in the meantime, my husband calls his dad and tells him of my woes with this damn laptop and HP. He says Costco has their own customer care. Great! Had I known that, I would have called them…again, hindsight…20/20.

So we call Costco and I’m talking to one lady…she’s walking me through a few things that I’ve already done and asks me to unplug my wireless router and cable modem. Sometime in all of this drama, I lost my head completely and unplugged the cable modem…lost the phone connection! DUH! THE PHONE IS THRU THE CABLE MODEM!!!

Ahh…so we call Costco again and I get some other woman who had an accent and she started to ask me about my virus protection and did I uninstall Norton. Of COURSE, I did. When I first got the computer. No way was I using Norton! Then she tells me the problem is probably in the registry and I need to restore the computer to factory.

What?

No way do I want to do that!!!!

So I pause, reflect. Decide to give calling Costco another try. I get a guy this time. I tell him that I don’t want to restore my computer if I don’t have to. I will, but I really don’t want to…and that HP was ready to give me a new wireless adapter, I just couldn’t get through to them to get my CC information. So this guy and I chat for a few and he puts me on hold. HP has HORRIBLE “on hold” music BTW….yikes! I think I heard a seagull in one of them!

Finally, the guy calls HP and patches the HP guy through to me. Wow! I’m actually talking to an HP rep and he speaks ENGLISH!! woo hoo!* (again, see disclaimer at end)

So, after 2 hours on the phone with Costco and HP today…numerous emails over the past week and months of trying to toubleshoot this adapter myself…I should FINALLY have a new wireless adapter by the end of the week!!!

What an ordeal!

I hope this new adapter works as intended and my life with my laptop can go on already!

* Disclaimer: I know that companies outsource their customer service to other countries. I know it’s cheaper for these people to do the job than people in the US. I wish this wasn’t true, but I know it is. However, the Indian accent (from India, not American Indian) is one that I just CANNOT understand. I’ve tried, I just can’t. And I hate dealing with tech people who speak with this accent because I don’t understand it and it’s so frustrating. So, I know this is how things are, but I just don’t find an accent that I cannot understand very helpful when I’m trying to fix my computer!!!

Home Alone

2009-03-01T13:35:00.001-05:00

My husband has been at a tattoo convention all weekend, so I’ve been able to be here in the house alone for a change.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband and all the time we’ve been spending together has been great, but I need a break sometimes! At least when he had a job I would have a few hours to myself…but now, with no job, it’s him and I morning, noon and night. It can get on one’s nerves. I probably get on his too.

I was actually able to get some things done yesterday. I think it’s because he wasn’t here. I really hate cleaning when he’s riding the couch. That’s my biggest pet peeve. Why should I be busting my ass while you’re sitting on yours? Ugh, i hate it and it makes me SO crabby!

So I got the kitchen cleaned yesterday and today I’m working on the APSFA newsletter.

It’s just me and the zoo and it’s lovely.

Medical Records

2009-02-11T22:19:00.001-05:00

So my husband switched his doctors from one hospital system to another. He was originally in the “new” hospital system when he got diagnosed, but we found that the doctors at the other hospital were more knowledgeable about the disease. He’s been going to those doctors for about 3 years, maybe a bit longer and really, there’s little else they can do for him…or I should say, no other doctor would do anything differently at this point…anyways, from what I know about the disease I believe this to be true.

So, driving to downtown Detroit for all of his doctor appointments has become an issue for him…as well as the availability of his PCP…the staff in his PCP’s office are rude, for the most part anyways…parking costs money…there are a lot of factors. So we decided to switch him back to the closer hospital.

He called multiple offices and talked to their nurses and some doctors to find one who knows about APS. He finally found one…made an appointment…and went to see him. He seems like a nice guy and also his father and brother are both hematologists, so he’ll also be seeing one of those two…and, he DOES know about APS! Which is good.

Only issue…he needs Todd’s medical records in order to fill his prescriptions, get him referrals to the specialists, etc.

You would think that these medical records contained the secrets of our country or the mysteries of life! OMG…

He was on the phone half the day dealing with this, and I made a few phone calls from work and we also enlisted the help of a friend to make a few phone calls and receive a fax for us. Thank God we have her to help us!

I think we have it all straightened out for the most part, but I’ve never gotten the run around like this…my goodness. Crazy!

Problem is, Todd’s running out of Lovenox shots…his own fault, but we need to get these records to his doctor so we can get the ball rolling and get him his meds before he has a stroke or some other kind of clotting event!

Valentine Surprise!

2009-02-09T22:01:00.001-05:00

My husband surprised me at work today and brought me up a beautious bouquet of red, pink, and white carnations and a Happy Valentine’s Day balloon! Wasn’t that sweet of him?

It’s been a super long time since he’s gotten me flowers so it was a really nice surprise.

I know I haven’t written in a while, but I will write this week!

Life is a Game

2009-01-28T22:30:00.001-05:00

How awesome is this?? My friend posted this in her MySpace blog.

New Doctor For the Hubbs!

2009-01-27T01:40:00.001-05:00

My husband has an autoimmune disease called Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome and we’ve been having issues with his PCP lately. She isn’t as available as we need her to be and she’s really wishy washy, plus the staff are rude and it’s hard to get a referral…and the office is in downtown Detroit.

Since the break in of my husband’s truck, he’s basically been afraid to drive and park downtown…not all of Detroit is bad, but it has a bad rep. Anyway, I didn’t know this really, until recently…so we decided to move his doctors all back to the more local (to us anyway) hospital.

He was originally at this hospital, but there were better specialists at the hospital downtown, so we switched him…well honestly, there’s not much more they can do for him at this point but treat symptoms as they come up, so we’re switching him back to the local hospital.

His appt with the new PCP is tomorrow. He needs either a new script for his Lovenox shots, or to be put back on Coumadin. One or the other.

I wish i could go with him, but he needs to do these things alone. Hopefully it goes well and we don’t have too many issues. We’re pretty educated on the disease and treatments and that’s not always the best thing.

I will update on how the appt went!

Some More Obama Love!

2009-01-23T14:52:00.001-05:00

First, I’m using the Windows Live editor to write this. I’m trying to check out and see if I like it. I have Scribefire, which is an add on for Firefox but I don’t really like to use it. So I downloaded this one to use. We’ll see how I like it.

Anyways…to the Obama love. I read in a few forums on a daily basis and in one of them they were talking about a letter that Obama wrote to his daughters.

CLICK HERE for the link to the article.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it…I don’t understand how anyone can hear this man speak or read his words in something like this and not just be filled with hope and possibilities for our country!! I know people are loyal to their party and beliefs, but our country is a MESS and even die hard republicans have to agree that we need a change.

From the letter:

I want all our children to go to schools worthy of their potential—schools that challenge them, inspire them, and instill in them a sense of wonder about the world around them. I want them to have the chance to go to college—even if their parents aren't rich. And I want them to get good jobs: jobs that pay well and give them benefits like health care, jobs that let them spend time with their own kids and retire with dignity.

I want us to push the boundaries of discovery so that you'll live to see new technologies and inventions that improve our lives and make our planet cleaner and safer. And I want us to push our own human boundaries to reach beyond the divides of race and region, gender and religion that keep us from seeing the best in each other.

Sometimes we have to send our young men and women into war and other dangerous situations to protect our country—but when we do, I want to make sure that it is only for a very good reason, that we try our best to settle our differences with others peacefully, and that we do everything possible to keep our servicemen and women safe. And I want every child to understand that the blessings these brave Americans fight for are not free—that with the great privilege of being a citizen of this nation comes great responsibility.

How can you read that and NOT be inspired??

Inauguration Day 2009

2009-01-20T00:38:00.001-05:00

What a day today was! Unfortunately, I had to work, but we were able to watch the Inauguration live on the internet.

What a feeling to be a part of this historical event! I can't even describe how proud I am to be an American on this day.

President Obama's acceptance speech was truly an inspiration! I honestly do not know how anyone can listen to him speak and NOT be inspired and just look forward to all that these next 4 years has in store.

It's an exciting time in our country. Yes we did, America. Yes we did!

BFF's - Tarra the Elephant & Bella the...dog?

2009-01-19T15:05:00.000-05:00

Check out this video! What a sweet story...seriously heartwarming!!

Awesome Sale at Live Out Loud Scraps

2009-01-18T16:15:00.002-05:00

Click HERE to go to Live Out Loud Scraps. They're changing servers and are retiring a lot of kits, so they're having a HUGE sale! Lots of kits are $1.00. I spent under 10.00 and got 7 kits! Too cool! So check it out, it's only till the end of the month! Hurry!

On to the randomness.

I've been neglecting my blog....Preoccupied with other things I guess.

I've been keeping up really well with my Project 365 blog. Some of the pictures are totally random, but that's what it's all about, right? It's WAYY too cold here to actually be doing anything and going anywhere. I have decided that, whenever possible, each week should contain a pear picture LOL So far, I've done that! hee

Other than that, nothing is really new...I haven't been scrapping very much lately. I haven't had time.

U of M Hospitals Using Dogs for Doctor Training

2009-01-17T23:54:00.000-05:00

I wish I could embed this video, but I can't and I hope the link stays active.

But CLICK HERE to watch this video...nothing bad, just a news segment and no sensitive pictures or anything, so it's ok to watch.

This makes me SICK!!! I understand that the dogs are headed to be put down anyways, but they're doing procedures on them LIVE, while the poor creatures are ALIVE.

Yeah, yeah...local anesthesia...whatever. The dogs are still ALIVE. Oh, but they put them humanely to sleep after they're done...yeah, because they are so messed up.

Ugh...I know doctors need training, I know that using bodies and real organs and that has to be better than a simulator, but shoot...use a cadaver body, or euthanize the animals first, if they were to be put down anyways.

Disgusting...I sure hope they do something about this!!! Those poor animals.

Scrappy Page - Christmas Eve Traditions

2009-01-10T18:07:00.000-05:00

Since today is such a snowy day, I decided it would be a great time to sit and make a scrappy page.

This is a page using picture of our traditional Christmas Eve hors'devours dinner. We've been doing this as long as I can remember. We used to go to the children's mass at church, come home, eat dinner, and then open gifts...the gifts were always from my immediate family...so from each of my sisters and one from my parents. Then we'd watch Holiday Inn and head to bed waiting for Santa's arrival.

Now that we're grown up and mostly all married we don't always start out at church, but the dinner menu remains the same. We had to sit around the table this year, which was kind of strange, but there wasn't enough room in the living room for all of us.

After dinner, we opened gifts and then my sister and her husband and son left because she has to play Santa. My husband left to feed the zoo and I stayed with my little sister and her, my mom and I watched White Christmas.

It's fun to keep these holiday traditions. We always look forward to them!

Credits:
Template by Andrea Gold
Papers and Elements from "Very Merry" kit by Britt-ish Designs & DeCrow Designs

Photo Actions by CoffeeShop Free PS/PSE Actions

I love the vintage colors in this kit, and along with the action I used on the photos, I thought they went together PERFECTLY!!

Project 365 - Week One Scrapped

2009-01-08T00:58:00.000-05:00

I am so proud of myself for keeping up with this project. I know it's only week one, but it's an acomplishment!

Here's week one:

I had some time waiting for laundry to finish...

Credits: Papers and Swirly Element - Freebie kit, "Chilly Willy" by Bren Boone Designs

Project 365 & 2009 Randomness

2009-01-04T14:51:00.009-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!!! I have been meaning to sit and write for a few days now, but every time I tried I got distracted.

My husband and I spent New Year's Eve alone at home this year. We ordered pizza and watched a movie and played a little Wii and then watched the ball drop. At midnight we kissed and then remembered some hardships from the past year. We've been through a lot and we really hope that 2009 is better! We'll work hard to make it that way!

I decided with this new year that I wanted to take part in the 365 photo project that so many people online are doing right now. It will definitely be a challenge and may actually encourage me to learn to use my new camera!

I made a new blog for my photos: http://365fotoheidi.blogspot.com/ It's really boring right now, but will be all prettied up soon...maybe later on today.

I haven't decided if I am going to scrap the photos or not. I assume I will, probably weekly...there are a lot of freebie templates out there right now for such things and I think it would be cool to make a book out of them. Ikea Goddess called her's a time capsule of sorts, and I really like that idea. So I probably will scrap them...to look back on our lives in 2009!

I'll post the layouts here as well as on my new blog where the pictures will be. I'll also post them on flickr. LOL Lots of places!

So what's been going on with us? Well today I had to break up the oddest animal fight at our house. The dogs were fighting with Razzle of all cats! He was so worked up I had to put him in a separate room and let him calm down. I don't know what the heck was going on! Don't know how it started, nothing. But Topaz has a scratch or a bite, I really hope it's a scratch and not a bit above one eye and now Beans really isn't interested in food. Don't know if it's the flavor or what, but she totally snubbed it. I'll have to try to feed her a bit later on.

The house is totally a mess. We really need to clean it up. I'm taking a couple days off this week so we can grocery shop and clean. I was supposed to do all that during my break from work, but well, that didn't work out obviously. *sigh* oh well.

Once the house is clean one of the things I will be striving for in 2009 is to keep it clean! To keep up on the dishes like I said before, to keep my office clean, everything. I think if we had more organization and the house was clean than the animals would be calmer and everything wouldn't be so chaotic...but I do enjoy the chaos from time to time. lol

I keep saying this, I realize. I'm going to really work on it this year though. I need to. No reason to live like this! LOL

I also am going to try to eat healthier this year as well. I actually joined Weight Watchers online, although I haven't started it yet, but I'm going to after we grocery shop. I may reopen my "Healthier Lifestyle" blog. Not really sure yet. I don't need 15 blogs, but I don't want this to turn into some weight loss blog either. So maybe I'll revisit that blog.

Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-25T22:06:00.000-05:00

Hoo! It's been a whirlwind of a couple weeks here!

I hope anyone reading my little blog has had a wonderful Christmas, or whatever you celebrate this time of the year. We had a really nice Christmas and were fortunate to get most things that we had asked for! Both of our families are very generous during the holidays.

We spent Christmas Eve afternoon at the hubbster's parents house and had a lovely meal with his parents and Grandmother. We opened presents and visited a little bit. We even got to talk to the hubbs' sister, who lives in Australia and our niece and nephew. Santa had already visited them, so they were telling us what they got for Christmas.

After visiting with them for a while, we went to my parents house for our traditional hors d'oeuvres dinner. We ate dinner and then opened gifts. It was also very nice. After gifts, we watched Sesame Street Christmas...which brought back a lot of old memories. My dad ALWAYS cracks up when Oscar the Grouch falls down the stairs and through the walls and everything. Last night was no different. he was cracking up!

After that, the hubby went home to feed the animals and I stayed and watched Holiday Inn with my mom and sister. When I got home, the hubbs and I opened the rest of our gifts from his parents - they sent us home with some.

Today, I woke up with a killer headache so I didn't go to the festivities at the hubbs' aunt's house. I missed all the fun and good food! But I felt horrible and didn't want to get anyone sick. I feel better now though.

Tomorrow we're heading out for the annual shopping excursion after Christmas to spend the money we got for Christmas and the gift cards. Will probably be crazy out there!!

Feeling of Violation and Christmas Cards

2008-12-07T00:28:00.001-05:00

And the titles keep getting worse! haha

On Thursday morning I got a call at work on my cell from the hubbs. He's all in a frenzy and I had to hurry him off the phone. I called him back and he proceeds to tell me that his car has been broken into - radio stolen. Nice.

The damn truck was not 10 ft from our front door and IN OUR DRIVEWAY!

Whoever did this, broke his lock to get in, tore the F out of his steering column...to the point where the car would not start....and then unscrewed the dash and carefully took the radio out. How asinine is that? Jackasses. I bet they were mad that they couldn't get the car to start so they took the radio.

And where were our fierce attack dogs when this happened. Hmm, sound asleep! haha...they must sleep like the DEAD! Well, I know Topaz does, he gets meds right before bed. But Onyx would have woke up (or I need to believe that anyways) had she heard them out there hacking away at the steering column. I actually am pretty sure one or more of the cats heard them and were probably watching from the window. Yes, I've had a talk with them!

So the truck needs to be fixed...again. Thank God for the inlaws.

And now the hubbs is all paranoid and worried..another thing to stress him out. Lovely.

Credits:

Paper and most embs by Lliella Designs

Sparkles in tree by Flergs...glitter by Flergs too

Christmas Bulbs by Bon Scrappitite

Here's our Christmas card for this year! Ok, so it's just a photo, but it's cute and it took me a long time. I usually print out cards for both sets of parents, our grandmothers and a few other relatives and friends, so I'll probably still do that. I have to get some black ink and get that going.

I got the photos printed at Costco and I'm picking them up tomorrow so some of our cards will be ready to go out very soon! We didn't send any last year, but I really wanted to do something this year.

Twilight...the movie. My Thoughts!

2008-11-30T17:02:00.001-05:00

Ok...so yesterday was FINALLY the day I went to see Twilight the movie! First let me say, it was AWESOME! I loved it!! And So did the hubbs and my nephew! Hubbs even wants to read the books! LOL...too bad we don't have them. We may have to get them for him though.

The movies was everything I thought it was going to be and now I cannot wait for the DVD to come out! Hopefully it will come out soon. I can't imagine them taking their time with this one. And I will definitely be sending the hubbster out at midnight to pick this dvd up for me and I truly HOPE they offer a digital copy, or else I'll be getting one on iTunes!

So my thoughts...well, I knew going in that to cram the entire Twilight book into a 2 hr movie wasn't happening. Kind of like the Harry Potter books...they left out some things from the book to the movie and added in a little bit to make it all flow better or to explain things that were kind of left unexplained or foggy. So the same thing happened with Twilight. Sometimes I think that reading (or listening to in my case) the books too many times before seeing a movie can make you focus on the differences or what was missing rather than the actual movie itself.

Like my husband, he's never read the books...and he loved the movie. Of course, he didn't know that they added in this part or left out that part, or these two parts were out of order. Which may be a good thing...

So, aside from how the movie and the book were different from each other, I thought it was done really well and really enjoyed it!

I don't understand why for most of the movie Edward looked so mad! And Jasper...omg he was kind of ridiculous, like a deer in headlights. LOL I'm sure there was a reason...maybe he was like that in the books and I missed it lol, I'm not sure. But it was kind of funny. And Rosalie...um, BITCH! lol But she really kind of was like that.

I give Twilight a definite two thumbs up...loved the book, loved the movie and cannot wait till New Moon!

Twilight...Tomorrow & Wasabi

2008-11-28T20:54:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is the day!! i FINALLY get to see Twilight!! I am SO excited! I cannot wait! I think my hubbs is going and we're taking my 11 yr old nephew. He's read the first book and is also pretty excited to see the movie. Hopefully we can find a matinee to see it at and it won't be too crowded.

I will update tomorrow and let you know if I loved it or not. I'm sure I will!! Now to just wait when it comes out on video. LOL and yes, i WILL be getting a digital copy! I am totally addicted.

Do you like the new look to the blog? I love these embellishments! I cannot believe Christmas is right around the corner!!

Thanksgiving was fun. We had dinner...with all the fixins, then looked at the sales papers while my mom and sister made their game plan for this morning. They went out at 4am! Good LORD!! Guess they got some great deals though, which is good! The hubbster also went out on a hunt for movies. He got me the full season of My So Called Life. I've been wanting it for a while! How exciting!

And I was able to get a few pictures of my sister's kitty, Wasabi...he's a beast...check him out!! He's not a year yet!

And here he is in April when she first got him....he'll be a year on January 18!

How cute is he??? He's a chicken kitty though...which is too bad. But he's SOO huge and floppy and has the softest fur ever! I just want to snuggle him! He's really beautiful too...and my sister says he's BAD!! But he's a kitten...and well, we like bad in our house.

Here, we're out numbered and they're taking over. heh

Thanksgiving & The Woe of Cat Poop LOL

2008-11-27T01:31:00.001-05:00

What a title!

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to anyone in the states who happens upon my little blog. I hope you have a safe one!

I have many things to be thankful for:

my husband is still doing fairly well, despite having his illness
i am surrounded by my family who loves and supports me
my animals
topaz has gone over 200 days without a seizure
we have a nice house in a nice neighborhood
i have a good job with good health insurance
i have my own health
my friends

I could go on, but those are the main ones. It's good to look at our lives and take a second to be thankful for the things we have. We're always complaining (we as people) about what we wish we had or what we don't have that sometimes we don't take the time to look at the things that we do have.

This is Beans...she's our little female kitty. She's really skiddish and shy. We rescued her, and before she was at the shelter, she was locked in a house or an attic with no food or water while a lady was hospitalized for a couple weeks. She had to have been eating something, or she wouldn't have made it. But anyways, she was kind of traumatized and she's now really just not so friendly...not like the boys.

Anyway, we've been having issues with her pooping under our bed. The litterboxes are in a room at the back of the house. We have 3 large ones. Problem is that every one of our animals, dogs included, pick on Beans...and before you feel sorry for her, she is nasty and she also picks back. I don't know who started it all, but they don't always get along. They have their moments though.

My husband and I are tired of cleaning diarrhea up under the bed...and behind the couches. What a yucky mess...all.the.time! In fact, I'm washing my blankets right now because they got poop on them...nice. Can't go to bed until the blankets are washed and dried.

She's been doing this a while. I am thinking that she maybe can't make it down to the boxes, or else is cornered. It would be different even if it was solid, but it's totally gross.

What we're going to do is get a couple or a few feliway diffusers and put one in our bedroom, one in the dining room and one in the literbox room. Take a sample of the poop to the vet, along with Beans and see if there's anything wrong that's causing the diarrhea. Maybe she can get the same meds that they gave Alex. And then we're going to give her a little time and see how it goes.

We don't want to have to get rid of her, but then again we don't want to clean up cat poop for the rest of our lives. So we'll see how she does. I hope we can nip this in the bud.

Tomorrow we're heading to my sister's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It's just going to be my parents, my husband, my sister and I. We're going to bring our Wii over and we'll have a traditional dinner...just downsized a little lol. Although, my sister said she got a lot of munchies! We're also eating at a traditional dinner time. (like 5pm) rather than 2 or 3 like we usually do.

We should have a good time! Maybe we'll bring over a couple movies too. My sister has this Maine Coon kitten, Wasabi, and he's a monster. He's HUGE! I will bring my camera and try to snap a picture or two of him! He's so fluffy and pretty!

Ok...enough babbling. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Check Out These Scrappy Kits ~ Wish List

2008-11-24T13:36:00.001-05:00

I saw these one of a kind and oh-so-cute kits on Flergs blog! I.must.have.them!

Check em, they're soooo cute! The kitty one is my favorite. I hope she does a dog one too!!!

They are hand drawn and painted too. Aren't they sweet? I seriously need all 3 of them. I don't really have much use for the robot one right now, but I'm SURE I could find some picture that would go GREAT with it. And omg, the robot eating watermelon??? too cute!!

These kits are available at Scrapbook Graphics and are by Alana. Go..hurry and check em out!

There are a couple other kits I just simply must have right now.

This one is by Lliella Designs...another of my mostest favorite designers! How cute is that reindeer!! I want to make our Christmas cards using this kit.

November Resolution & Other Weekendy Randomness

2008-11-23T20:58:00.001-05:00

If there is anyone out there who has read more than one of my blogs, you know I HATE doing dishes!!! I am against all forms of housework, but doing the dishes is the one thing that I DESPISE!! Yuck. I hate doing them! I even have a dishwasher, and have NO EXCUSE for letting them go and pile up and get so nasty.

Anyways...I am declaring right here and now that this will be the LAST time that I let the dishes pile up and I will make a conscience effort to stay on top of them!

There you have it world...I've got it down in black and white. I can't go back on it now.

Ugh, I've been doing the dam dishes all day...and have AT LEAST two more loads to do...We didn't have ONE piece of silverware clean, most of the bowls were dirty and there were various pots and pans and plasticy bowls and such dirty as well. I actually should be in the kitchen unloading the clean ones and putting in another load of dirty.

I have to do a load of laundry too actually. No clean socks or underware...and I think I will need some panties for tomorrow. LOL...well, and socks too! I could do a load after this next dish load. Dumb housework things.

I need to make some more goops for the dogs too. I have to mix in some meat with the one veg mix we bought and also mix in the supplements so there's something for the hubbs to feed the dogs in the mornings. I'll probably do that last, once the counter is all clean and sparkly, right before I go to bed.

Credits:
Coming soon!

I made the above scrappy page a few days ago and have been meaning to post it up. The hubbster and I recently got a Wii...and let me tell ya, best.fun.ever! We got Guitar Hero World Tour and we each have a guitar so we battle. It's pretty funny. Anyway, I found this cool font from Lettering Delights and when I heard hubby in the living room playing GH alone, I quick snuck in there and took a few pictures. He was so deep in concentration that he barely noticed! LOL He was doing a really hard song! (I also got some AWESOME Twilight fonts from there as well!)

Speaking of Twilight...who went to see the movie??? Not me, not yet anyways!! First problem is no one wants to go with me. The hubbs will go if i can't find anyone else. He says he's interested because it's vampires...but I don't think he really understands and will be waiting for "his" kind of vampires. Not these Cullens. So...on Saturday I'm taking my 11 yr old nephew to the show. The hubbs will probably come along too...just to not have to stay home, and we'll probably make him drive. We'll probably go to the good theater with the lover seats LOL so we can be all comfy while we get our movie on! So i am pretty excited for that!!!

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is this week!! Good LORD! Where did 2008 go?? It's flown right out the window!

Well the dishes are calling me...fun stuff. Not!

Oh...before I go, remember how I was stressing about my dr appt?? Well it was a piece of cake. I was in and out in 1/2 hour. WHEW!!! Of course, i need to go back in February...so I will be stressed again! LOL Oh well.

Wheel of Fortune + Dr Appt + Alex's Vet Appt

2008-11-17T22:48:00.001-05:00

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment after work. Anyone know how to lose like 50lbs overnight? LOL I just don't feel like hearing how I'm heavier now than I was at my last appointment. Yes, i know. I just want the refill for my meds so I don't feel crazy going off them and then I want to go about my merry way. Thankyouverymuch. heh

We'll see what happens tomorrow. *sigh*

Either way, the hubbs and I will be going grocery shopping on Thursday and we *will* be getting healthier foods!! I mean it...seriously! No more fast food, no more junk food... I need to give up the pop too...baby steps though. LOL babysteps.

Now on to my baby Fanna...or Alex, which is his "given" name. He's had diarrhea basically since we've adopted him. He's also had an eye that is periodically runny and shook his head whenever his ears were touched. We finally decided to take him to the vet for all of these things. We did so last week or the week before.

They gave us a liquid med for the diarrhea, and ear ointment and an eye ointment. We took him in on a Saturday...oh, and he got a full blood panel done and we brought in a stool sample too. he also got some shots and other tests.

On Saturday night he was kind of sleepy...I figured it was from the shots he got...no biggie. Well, he wasn't moving on Sunday morning. My husband took him to the table to eat breakfast and he didn't eat a bite...in fact he didn't move from the same spot and he kind of cried when my husband picked him up. We called the vet knowing that cats go downhill fast when they stop eating and got an appointment for later in the afternoon.

We took him back in and he had an allergic reaction to the leukemia shot I think it was...so they gave him a shot of something else and some fluids and sent us home with some predinosone. (sp) We noticed a difference by dinnertime! He actually ate his dinner...even though the vet said not to worry about it since he had the fluids...and he's been good ever since. Poor little guy! But he's on the mend.

Well I gotta get going. It's late, the dogs need meds and I need to get to bed!

Jennie O Turkey Wrestling Commercial

2008-11-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

I had to post this...it's the funniest thing I've seen in a while!!! Cracks my shit right up!!!

My Mom's Christmas Decorations

2008-11-16T23:41:00.000-05:00

We had a lovely dinner at my parents house with my sister, her new husband and her son! My other sister is in Tennessee with her fiance. (He asked her this past week!! woo hoo!) I took a lot of pictures of my mom's Christmas decorations. I am gonna share my favorites!

She also has this FABULOUS jewelry Christmas tree that she made. She's making me (well we will make it together) a pear shaped one for my living room or dining room. I CANNOT WAIT to get that baby home! Here are a couple pix of her tree:

Yeah, that's ALL Jewelry!! Very sparkly and cool. hers has these little lights in it too. It's just the sweetest thing!!

Snowy Sunday Babblings!

2008-11-16T15:26:00.001-05:00

It's SNOWING!!!! AHHHH yuck! I hate the snow! Well, I don't mind the snow or cold really, I just hate driving in snow and ice. Makes me hella nervous!

Today we're headed to my parents house to have dinner with my sister, her son, and her new hubby. Should be a good time. My mom has her house all decorated for Christmas already and I'll be taking my camera along to get some pictures. I'll probably put them on my flickr site this week...or maybe even tonight, depending on when we get home.

I'm going to try to get a decent picture of the hubbs in front of my mom's tree and I for Christmas cards too. I think we'll be sending them out this year! We didn't last year because we moved and things were kind of hectic!

Some big news!! My Topaz has made it to 200 days SEIZURE FREE!!! Actually today is day #202!! What an accomplishment! He's doing GREAT too!! I'm so happy for him...and I hope it continues! We seem to be on the right track right now!

I scrapped this little page to celebrate this joyous occasion!

Credits:

"T" Paper, Frame, Stars, Ribbon from Digitreats "Jump" kit

Bone from A Work In Progress "It's Raining Cats & Dogs" freebie kit

Blue paper and other embellys from Jump add on kits

I need to update about Alex too...actually, I don't think I ever wrote what's been going on with him...but I will soon...gotta jump a shower and get going!

2 Cats - Keep Them Inside Plz!

2008-11-12T12:13:00.001-05:00

Better to be inside and fat than outside and flat.

Sadly, this morning as I was driving to work there were 2 dead cats that had been hit by cars in the road. Well one was on the side of the road and one was in the road.

I can't help but wonder if there is a child pout there who's kitty has gone missing and won't ever be coming back.
I also can't help but think of the fab four felines we have living in our house. The hubbs and I would be devestated if anything were to happen to one of them. I can't imagine.

I can possible understanding having outdoor cats when you live in a rural area or have a barn or lots of acreage. But in the city? You're putting a death wish on your kitty!

Please...keep your beloveds inside! Dogs and cats alike!

Scrappy Twilight

2008-11-11T22:16:00.002-05:00

Credits:

All sparkles, including heart (recolored) by Ellie Lash

-heart from Edward freebie on Ellie's blog

Paper from "Star Crossed" freebie kit by Amber at Stolen Moments

Check out my newest scrappy layout!!! I decided to scrap my newest obsession...Twilight! Well, let's call it a "guilty pleasure". LOL Right now I'm relistening to Twilight at work to refamiliarize myself with the book for the movie. Can you tell that I am pretty excited about the movie? LOL You should see my myspace page!
Needless to say, I'm all in. hehe

All I really have time for right now is to post the scrappy page...will update tomorrow. Have to write about our baby fanna!

Simplehuman Trash Can, Sak Purse, Missy to Vet!

2008-11-08T19:34:00.001-05:00

We went shopping tonight for a new stinking garbage can because Topaz has figured out how to opn the can even when it's locked! We ended up getting another Simplehuman one. But this time it's metal and big. I'm hoping he won't be able to knock it over and get into it. The lid is flush to the top, so hopefully he won't be able to open it. I swear, this is the last kitchen trash can I am buying. If this doesn't work, we're getting one that goes under the sink!!!!

Why didn't we do that in the first place?? I hate those kind of trash cans...they're just too small for us and we'd be changing the bag constantly.

So, I'm really hoping this works! I like it too because it's bigger, will hold more, and because it's metal you can smash the trash into it. heh

We'll see...we have yet to really test it.

This is my new purse. I really like Sak purses. I wanted to get this one, but they didn't have it at Macy's. It was on the website though...but I couldn't see spending the shipping money and waiting for it and everything when I could just pop in there and buy one. It was a really good deal too, it was 40% off! It was kind of a late anniversary gift from the hubbs. And he was a trooper too and shopped for it with me. He even gave his opinion, which he never does!

My poor little missy miss, Onyx, Ony girl has some horrible sores on her that she's been chewing at for a while. For some reason, she always gets the itchies this time of year. When we got home from shopping, we noticed little tufts of black fur in the bed and when we checked her out, there was one spot that was pretty swollen and really raw. Poor baby!

So we took her to the vet. They said it's not hotspots, and gave her doggie Benadryl to take for the itchies. It's probably fall allergies or something. We also got a homeopathic spray for her. It's called FidoDerm. It seems to be helping a bit! They also did a blood panel and she got her shots.

Her blood came back perfect!! She's a little overweight, which we're working on...

Breaking Dawn

2008-11-05T20:35:00.000-05:00

Ahh...I forgot that I finished Breaking Dawn today!!!

What a good series that was! I wonder if she will be writing anymore books. I'll have to check the website.

So, I'm sad because I'm done listening to Bella and Edward, but I cannot wait for the movie!!

Update on my Puppa...and 4 Tasty Goops!

2008-11-05T20:30:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to make more "goops" for Topaz for a few days now. I was going to make them last night, but with the election excitement I didn't get around to it...so we've been improvising on his meals.

So I started as soon as I got home from work and I made 4 different goops. These ones have meat, veggie, fruit and supplement in them. well, all but one has meat and supplements. One is just veggies and fruit. I can always add meat to that one later.

The first one I made has canned pumpkin, carrot, celery, spinach, garlic, apple, and pork, plus the supplements. I gave them this one for dinner...it's a little thick, I added 1/4 cup water to the other ones...but they both LOVED it...I think the garlic makes the difference!!

The 2nd one I made has spinach, celery, broccoli, cabbage, canned pumpkin, garlic, 2 apples, pork and supplements.

The 3rd one is mostly cabbage and broccoli, but also has canned pumpkin, garlic, an apple and a pear in it. This one is strictly veggie/fruit...no meat. I had a lot of cabbage to get rid of so I just made this. I may add meat to it when we give it to them.

The 4th is cabbage, broccoli, a lot of canned pumpkin, 2 apples, garlic, pork and the supplements.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about food for epi dogs and a question asking what people feed and what they do differently than others do to keep the seizures at bay.

I know we're *very* lucky with Topaz right now. He's gone over 190 days seizure free, and that's amazing!! I hate to say that I feel blessed (just because I don't like that saying...another blog...) but I truly feel blessed right now by his progress and how long we've been able to keep the seizures at bay.

What to do we differently? Nothing that I know of. I just know we, like so many other people who are owned by epileptic dogs, have done and are doing everything we possibly can for Topaz.

Oh and he's been doing so well. I think that the pancreatitis was like a blessing (ack that word again) in disguise! He's turned completely around as far as how he's acting. He's our old, crazy, hyper, boofie Topaz! My husband drove me to work today and when he picked me up he brought the dogs and Topaz was in heaven! He was wagging his tail the whole time!! The last car ride he went on he barely moved!! And he was just SO happy today...chasing cars in the truck like he normally/used to do. It was amazing and I was so happy that he was happy!

I hope he continues to feel better and that we finally have control over the seizures. I know at any time he could have one, but he's just been doing SO WELL lately1!

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!

2008-11-04T23:42:00.003-05:00

OBAMA WON!!!!!!

That is all. hehe

I Voted Today, Twilight Soundtrack and Font Issues!!

2008-11-04T20:27:00.000-05:00

The hubbs and I went and voted around 3pm today. I wanted to get there after lunch, but before people were getting off work. We had little to no line and everything moved pretty quickly.

DH had a bit of an incident while we were voting though, it was really warm in the school and the table thing he was voting on was moving and I think the light was moving as well and he just started to not feel very good...vertigo I think...so he sat down and finished, but he still wasn't feeling well and took a little bit to get his ballot all filled out. Then he lost his sheet and was kind of wandering around like he didn't know what to do! I felt horrible for him!!! But once we got everything straight and were out of there and got some fresh air, he was much, much better.

We are all in watching the results and I am really hoping Obama wins! My husband is getting really worked up over it all and getting too upset too early...there's still hours left to go!!! I put this neat little widget up here for now. I'll probably remove it later.

I bought the Twilight Soundtrack tonight. I heard a few songs on it and they were ok, so I just bought it. I cannot wait for the movie!!!! 16 more days! I probably won't see it on opening night, but maybe that next week. I need to see if I can get the hubbs to come with me...or else, maybe my nephew, he read the books. I think my sister would go too. It's about Vampires...that's kind of her thing. LOL

Nothing new on the scrappy front. Haven't had the time and I have a TON of freebie kits and kits I bought to sort through on my external. I wish it was easier to connect the external to my laptop, it has more RAM and a faster processor and would be much better for scrappy things. Maybe I'll work it out or we can get a smaller external and I can copy some things there.

I'm having a problem with installing my fonts from the desktop onto the laptop. I've googled, I've tried about 3 different ways and I just cannot get them to install right. I guess I'll have to post on a forum and see if anyone there knows. Dumb!

I think this is all for tonight...Go Obama!!

Election Day & Spaghetti Dinner Recipe & Holiday Inn

2008-11-03T19:31:00.003-05:00

Well tomorrow is the day...All this election BS will finally be over...the news reports, the commercials, the phone calls...and we'll know who the next President of the United States will be. I am off work, so the hubbs and I will be voting fairly early I believe...since they are expecting long lines at the polls.

I honestly don't care who anyone is voting for, everyone has their own political view and opinions and that's great! Just do make sure that you go out and vote tomorrow. This is an important election and I'll probably be up half the night to see who the winner is.

Tonight I made a spaghetti for dinner. lol That's what I call it anyway..."a spaghetti". lol

I make it with turkey meat, italian is the best, but tonight we had regular...lean turkey...a can of sliced mushrooms...big can, the hubbs and I love the mushroom...a green pepper...fresh from the farmer's market!...garlic salt...and a bottle of Classico "Traditional Sweet Basil" pasta sauce. Oh, and wheat spaghetti noodles.

I break the noodles and get them going, or the water boiling for them anyways. I cut the pepper up and started cooking it, the mushrooms and some garlic salt in olive oil...added the meat and cooked that until the meat was all good and cooked. Then I dumped the bottle of sauce in and let it simmer...drain the noodles and then put the noodles into a large rectangle glass pan, dump the sauce on...mix and add mozz cheese to the top and bake in the oven for a bit. YUM!!

It's delish!! Tonight I also added a few leaves of spinach...just to see if it changed anything. I dunno if it did, but it was extra yummy tonight!! And it's one of the hubbs' favorite meals too. Plus being that it's turkey meat, has the extra veggies and all, and it's got wheat noodles...it's not all that bad for you.

Sometimes I make garlic bread from leftover hamburger/hotdog buns or something, but tonight I didn't. I could have though, because we did have some hotdog buns...but I didn't feel like it. We didn't need it anyway...the spaghetti was plenty!!

Tomorrow I have to make some veggie goop, and mix it with meat and get Topaz's food ready to go for him. We had bought some Veggies from our food girl that were by Oma's...VEGGIE 5 WAY( Olewo Carrot, Green bean, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, and Garlic) 2#bag...and the dogs really seem to like that. I think the garlic had the most to do with it, it was really smelly...not bad, just smelled like food.

I'm hoping to get a big batch of food ready for him and then freeze some individual packages that are already weighed out and everything. Easy for feeding and everything. I have 2 packages of pork chops ready to go into the mix as well as some chicken breasts for the next batch.

He's just been doing so well, I want him to continue to do so! So we're doing everything we can for him.

I just got the movie "Holiday Inn" on DVD...it's a new version in COLOR, which is so cool. I've been watching this movie for YEARS...it's our traditional Christmas Eve movie.

Yeah, I know it's old...1942! And the original is in black and white, but I like the songs (I may have the soundtrack on my iPod LOL) and I like to have musical type movies on in the background when I'm on the computer...especially when there's NOTHING on tv!

The hubbs keeps making fun of me because I've probably watched the movie 10 times since I got it, and I will watch it over and over again...but really it's just background.

Men...they don't get it! LOL

Solved the Ringtone Dilemma!

2008-11-02T20:10:00.001-05:00

I know you were all concerned about my ringtone dilemma with my new phone...well today, I finally figured out a way to get custom ringtones onto my blackberry. And...I am soooo excited about it!!

Now I can have any snippet of any song I want!

Unfortunately, I needed to download a program to rip the songs from the CD into MP3's...of course before that, I had to burn the songs from iTunes on a disk...and then I downloaded a program to MAKE the ringtones.

It was kind of funny when I did my first ringtone, it warned me while saving that it puts a voiceover...like a watermark onto the sound file. well I saved and listened and it cracked my shit up...so no way around paying for the program.

BUT....I can now make my own ringtones!! WOOO HOOO!!!

So I am pretty happy finally. I hate answering a phone blind...and yeah, I can look at who's calling, but it's so much better to know BEFORE even getting to the phone who's calling!! And now I can do that again!

The eBay plan this weekend ended up being bunk...our site was down and needed renewing. But we're all back up and running. I'll post a link after we get a few things listed.

Other than that, I didn't really do much this weekend...which is good and bad because i have a lot to do!! LOL

Oh well.

Ellie Lash and Flergs having GREAT Sales!

2008-11-01T00:58:00.002-04:00

Two of my FAVORITE scrappy designers, Ellie Lash and Flergs are having AWESOME sales at Scrapbook Graphics!

Both of them have 50% off right now!!! Hurry though, the sales are only valid until November 2nd! And they both have new kits available too! Click below to get to their stores.

More on Breaking Dawn & Halloween Randomness

2008-10-31T23:50:00.005-04:00

Imagine my surprise when I got to the end of part 2 of Breaking Dawn on my iPod just to hear that there's another part...and I hadn't downloaded it!!! UGH! I wasted a couple hours listening to something else when I COULD have been listening to Breaking Dawn! I'm kind of glad though, that there WAS another part, because it was going to have a really DUMB ending if it ended where the 2nd part did!

So i was back in today at work...and I don't know how many hours I have left but this book is now progressing nicely.

***SPOILER ALERT***

I was getting kind of tired of the endless talking from Jacob about Bella and her pregnancy. It was driving me crazy...and although it is the next logical step, it wasn't the next logical step, ya know? But I am glad that Bella is now a Vampire and it's moving along nicely. And omg, Jacob imprinted on Renesmee...please...that's kind of a mess....but sweet at the same time. LOL awww and she (renesmee) sounds ADORABLE!!! however, the name is HIT!! yeah yeah, it's just a book, I know.

I wonder if the author will continue the story or if she's done. I guess I'll have to see how Breaking Dawn ends. I will be sad though, when I'm done with this last book...just like I was with the Harry Potter books. Of course, I have the movie(s) to look forward to...I saw a trailer on TV today! Of course, I've seen them online, but it looks awesome. Not really how I pictured Bella and Edward, but I still cannot wait!

So it is Halloween today! My husband was so cute...it's his favorite holiday so he spent the whole afternoon getting the yard "ready" for the trick or treaters. He made a little grave yard and set up his fog machine and strobe light and everything and had it just set up right.

There were more tombstones than those too...it looked great! And it's a good start. Next year and probably every other year afterwards we'll add more to the collection, I'm sure. he did a good job. And he even passed out most of the candy! Yeah for the hubbs.

I'm watching GhostHunters Live right now. Not much activity this evening. One of the celebs this year is "The MIZ" from the real world...and I guess he's some wrestler now. UGH, he's a jerk. He just keeps RUNNING his mouth...how can you hear anything with that mouth running constantly...my name is the miz and i'm wonderful...bluck. He's a jerk. I hope they see how ridiculous he is!!

Tomorrow I'm going to my parents to do eBay with my mom. We used to sell a lot of things, but it got to be too stressful and we had things come up and we just stopped for the better part of this year. Well, we're going to try again. Hopefully this will go well. I think we have to do it differently. I don't think the software will work, so I'm bringing my laptop to do it on...we'll see.

I also have to make some more veggie and fruity goop and get some sort of order in the kitchen and with the dog's food. Plus, I have some foundation stuff to work on and also I'd LOVE to scrapbook a little if I can find time. I have TONS of new kits I want to use!

Breaking Dawn & Crackberry

2008-10-29T21:03:00.002-04:00

Well I have about 3 hours or so left to listen to Breaking Dawn. I like the book, but it's really different than the others. And listening to it is even weirder.

The book, so far, is broken up into 2 parts...there may be a 3rd, I'm not sure. But the 1st was "told" by Bella and the 2nd is "told" by Jacob. So it's a male voice reading it...which maybe is what is making it so odd.

It's good and I like it...I guess it's not what I expected. It's got a natural progression and it's interesting how the "problem" is presented. I'm hoping that it will have a good ending. I hate books with bad endings!! Hopefully I finish it tomorrow. I paused it at a really intense part today...generally I try not to do that, but it was time to go and I needed to shut it off. I may got back a little bit to start this part over so I get the whole effect tomorrow.

I got my Blackberry!!! I am addicted...but, NO RINGTONES!!! Ugh!!! I LOVE my ringtones!! I don't know why I can't have ringtones. I'm going to try an online site and see if I can get those to work, but I am totally bumming over the ringtones.

The phone is so complex. There's so much going on...it's distracting. OMG. And I have no games either. I'm a ringtone and game girl...had I known...well, I still would have gotten it...so I guess that doesn't really matter LOL DUMB though...

Found a Better Litter Box!

2008-10-27T00:26:00.002-04:00

Totally forgot to write about the new kitty boxes!

We've been having problems with our cats and the litterboxes. We have 4 cats and so it seems we can never have enough litterboxes. Plus, I'll admit that we're pretty lazy and we tend to forget about scooping the boxes and everything, so they get nasty...which makes kitties mad.

Well, we did what I had posted about here.

We got three 18 gallon tubs at Meijer...they were 5.00 each...and my husband so graciously cut the openings in them. We filled two of them with clay litter and one with The World's Best Cat Litter...and let me tell you, TWBCL is AWESOME!! I love it!!!

Now mind you, we've only been using it for a couple days and we only have it in ONE of the three boxes, but so far...it's really good.

Now to go and see if we can find the alternative...poultry crumbles. I think we have a store nearby that sells it. I'm not 100% sure though...maybe I'll send the hubbs on a road trip to see if he can find it. I'm sure he will be thrilled with that.

Eclipse, Update on Puppa, & BlackBerry Curve!!!

2008-10-26T22:54:00.004-04:00

Well, I am about an hour from finishing Eclipse...the 3rd of the Twilight books. I am so excited to get to the next book and see how the story progresses, and at the same time...I am dreading the end of the series. Although, I now have the movie to also look forward to!

I hope she continues to write about this. I also got her adult book, The Host. I don't know if I will listen to that next, or if I will take a Stephenie Meyer break and listen to another book.

We'll see how I feel at the end of Breaking Dawn.

This all reminds me that I need to get my iPod and actually put Breaking Dawn on there...or I will be one unhappy Heidi tomorrow!

Update on my Puppa!!! He's doing SOOO much better. I know I didn't write here how he's been doing, but I've been updating his blog with everything.

He was dx with pancreatitis. it was really scary, he had a really high temperature and he was not keeping anything down. We did take him to the vet and they gave him a couple meds...both we didn't end up giving him when we got home...and they did some blood tests.

Basically we have to change his diet a bit and try not to give him high fat foods. And keep his furry ass out of the trash!! We may need a heavy silver trashcan afterall!

But he is doing SO SO SO much better. He's almost a new puppa!

Tomorrow is the day! I am getting my new cell phone! I've decided on the BlackBerry Curve. I am really excited to get it too. I have a Razr now and I absolutely HATE it!!!! Ugh, the phone just sucks!!!! And it's so stupid too, because all I wanted was a Razr and then I got it and it was cool in the beginning...but now, I am so sick of it and it really is just a dumb phone.

Well tomorrow it's new phone day! Happy happy joy joy!!

What else has been going on...the hubbs and I went to the cider mill yesterday with my little sister. We got warm donuts and cider...so yummy! It was pretty busy there and cold, so there were no bees. Both my husband and sister are allergic...so, that was a good thing.

I'm going to upload some pictures to my flickr site either after I post this or early in the week. It's kind of late and I should get to bed...well after I update my iPod!!

I'll be dreaming of BlackBerry's tonight!!

New Look!!

2008-10-26T22:51:00.003-04:00

I think I'm satisfied with this look for now anyways...LOL I'm sure it will change before Christmas!!

Actually I have a sweet little kit in mind...there's even a glittery pear that is too stinking cute not to use!!

I need to post an update. I will probably do that tomorrow or in a few.

Nakkie

2008-10-25T20:24:00.001-04:00

Blog has gone Nakkie!! lol

I'm working on a new theme. Give me moment.

Can I Plz Has a Cheezeburger?

2008-10-19T23:35:00.000-04:00

Why are these silly cats so funny?

more animals

more animals

This one looks JUST like our RAZZLE!!!

more animals

more animals

see more puppies

Hehe...they are so funny!!

Yeah, I'm pretty bored. LOL

My Poor Puppa!!

2008-10-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

Topaz has been throwing up for the past 24 or so hours. He's going to the vet tomorrow.

The hubbs and I are both pretty worried about him.

Good thoughts for our boy, please!!

Sweetest Day & Butt Heaven!!

2008-10-18T22:51:00.001-04:00

Today is Sweeties day here in the states...or here in Michigan anyway, I don't know if it's a nationwide holiday or not. For sweeties day, the hubbs got me a new computer chair...and let me tell you...it's butt heaven!!

He got it at Office Depot and he really went shopping for it with my list of "needs". We bought one at Target last night and I put it together and really didn't like it...so we returned it and he went on the hunt for the perfect chair...and he found it too!! It's really lovely...butt heaven! lol

I finished New Moon and will start Eclipse on Monday. I could easily start it today, but I can't do anything else while I listen at home so I need to wait if I want to get things done LOL Funny, I have little problem listening at work...but my job is repetitious and I could do it in my sleep.

I listened a little last night and ended up falling asleep with it on...I woke up at like 3am and turned it off. Then I had to turn it back to when I remembered it last and lost like a whole hour. It's ok though, I needed to go back to get the gist of the story.

I have about 5 gazillion scrappy kits to sort through and move to their proper home on my external drive. I've been putting it off because it's time consuming and annoying lol But in a minute I'll have to start unzipping them elsewhere!! LOL

I finally go around to making a scrappy page with some of the pictures from my sister's wedding earlier this month.

Credits:
*will add later*

This page took me a long time...I was so undecided as to what to put on there. My sister is not traditional in the least and as you can see, neither was the wedding! It was a good time though and they are really happy and I'm happy for them both!

The journaling was part of their vows. I will make other pages using other parts of their vows as well as more/different pictures. I have a few pages in mind.

Anyways...it took me WAY too long to make the page, way too long to get photoshop to cooperate and let me shrink the jpg and I'm about to go watch a moovie with the hubs. Hopefully we can agree on something...we never do with movies though! LOL

I Am Giving In...New Moon

2008-10-17T23:15:00.001-04:00

Well, I got to the 2nd half of New Moon at work today...still excellent.

I am sitting here with my earbuds in my ears, iPod at the ready to go lay in my room and listen to some more of this book before I go to bed tonight.

I swear, if I had the paper version, I'd be finished by now....well maybe not, but I wouldn't sleep until I was.

I have 5 1/2 hours left of this audiobook and then it's on to the next. I know I won't finish it tonight...but maybe tomorrow and this weekend?? LOL

Then you know what will happen, I'll be done with the books and be mad because I miss the story and be waiting patiently for the next one to come out. Just like with Harry Potter...each book left me feeling empty with no closure and longing for the next book to continue the story.

*sigh* I can't help but want to rush though it...but I know the faster I listen, the sooner it will be over. I guess I could listen to them all over again...ask me how many times I've listened to Harry Potter books on audio. LOL A few of them I never actually "read".

Ok...off to medicate the pup and then back to Jacob and Bella...oh and this mysterious voice of Edward. I wish he'd show his face in this book again already!!!

New Moon...pass the kleenix plz!

2008-10-16T22:08:00.002-04:00

This may contain some spoilers, so if you haven't read the 2nd book in the Twilight series...don't read on.

I finished Twilight today...it was great. Of course I was right into the 2nd book, New Moon, as soon as I was done. I am not sure how far I got into the book (I am listening, mind you) but I know if I was reading I wouldn't have put it down till I was done.

Something was happening today while I was listening to the book...*spoiler alert*...when Edward was saying goodbye to Bella, I was devastated. I was this close to tears from that point on...omg when Bella was in the woods...I almost had to leave my desk because I just needed to go to the bathroom to cry. I didn't want to leave my iPod and stop listening to do so though!! LOL

To me, this is silly and crazy. I am not generally emotional when reading/listening. Sure, I read Marley and Me and cried at the end...and I've listened to other books and cried...and omg when Dumbledore died...forget it!! I was completely bawling then!!!

But I never thought this would effect me quite like it has. I said though, that I get into books when I listen to too many all at once with the same characters/story line. I mean even now if I really sit here and think about everything....I still get kind of weepy. How pathetic is that??

I have no clue how I'll get through tomorrow...omg and the weekend...without listening??? I may have to sneak a few hours in this weekend.

I'll try to be strong for tomorrow's listening.

Almost Finished with Twilight!!

2008-10-15T20:48:00.001-04:00

Well I am almost finished with listening to Twilight. I have about an hour left in it...and then I move on to the next one! I am so glad that I got that book. It's really great!

I bought the 2nd and 3rd book in the series and will buy the 4th as well as her adult novel, The Host once I finish the other two books...so probably next week.

One thing is for sure, it definitely helps me keep my butt in my seat at work when I have something good to listen to!

I can't wait for the movie in November. I sure hope I can find someone willing to go with me!! Maybe I'll drag the hubbs along. I've seen plenty of horror movies that have warped my brain...he owes me a movie! LOL

Only bad thing with listening to many books in a row with the same characters is that after a while I am thinking they're real. LOL totally crazy, I know...but I kind of get sucked in. I did that with the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich...I listened to like 5 or 6 of those books one after another and after a while I expected to see Ranger or Joe Morelli on the street LOL Crazy.

Oh well the first book is great and I can't wait to get more into the series.

Other random stuffs....

I have a very hurty cold sore on my lip. I hate it when I get those!!! First they are all puffy and then when the top falls off they get really hurty for a few days. Dumb herpe!!!! And my dh keeps making fun of me too!! *pout!* I cannot wait for this dumb thing to be gone!!

The fall colors around here are beautiful!! i really want to take the new camera out for a spin and take some pictures of the trees around. There's this HUGE cemetary by work that has some of the most lovely trees in it! I wish it wasn't so far away from the house or I'd go there and take the camera. maybe Friday I'll take it to work with me. I need a smaller bag for it so it's more portable. Right now I have this HUGE bag. I'll have to check out amazon or something for a new bag.

GH is on in a few...I am excited for the halloween show! I can actually stay up and watch it this year. I wasn't as into the show last year so I didn't really care, but I'm all in this year.

Jumped on the "Twilight" Bandwagon

2008-10-13T21:44:00.001-04:00

I finally ordered Twilight by Stephanie Meyer on audio. I mainly wanted to see what all the hype is about I guess. I'm about 4 chapters in and it's really pretty good. I'm glad I made the purchase. I'll have to see the movie when it comes out in November if I like the book and will definitely be getting the rest of them on audio.

I find it really interesting that the author is Mormon and she's writing about Vampires and everything. Kind of weird...but in a cool way. Even Christians can find that stuff interesting without falling into some dark whatever.

I don't have much to say besides that...and I have some HUGE herpe on my lip!! I HATE cold sores!! YUCK!

Of course I also didn't have anything to put on it, so I went out and had to buy a cold sore arsenol. Hopefully it won't last too long. It's huge and hurty though.

Lovely Laptop!

2008-10-12T19:11:00.001-04:00

I'm sitting on my back deck at our table on my laptop right now. The dogs are in the yard stalking and chasing the squirrels that are dumb enough to get on the fence...perhaps they didn't hear of the black squirrel's untimely demise a couple weeks ago...death by dog in our yard.

I'm listening to the soothing (yes, I honestly think it's soothing) sounds of the traffic going by. We live close to a busy intersection and I can actually see a CVS from our house...and a gas station. And I believe in one minute or so the clock on the corner will chime or play a song or something. If not then, then definitely in 15 minutes...on the 1/2 hour.

I really need to get used to these keys and everything.

I'm sitting here waiting for the APSFA website....ahhhh there goes the clock!!!.....to be pulled from the internet onto this computer via Adobe Dreamweaver. The site is pretty big, so it's taking some time...

Shoot, had I known how peaceful this was going to be I would have come out here a long time ago.

Wedding Recap, New Camera, Daytrip to Frankenmuth & Laptop!!

2008-10-12T11:02:00.008-04:00

I'm a bad blogger, I've been busy this week and have been neglecting my blog!!

The wedding was last weekend and it was a good time. The ceremony was a handfasting and was really unique. My sister's Wiccan and her husband is Scottish and she loves all things Celtic, so it was a very interesting mix. I'll post some scrappy layouts as soon as I make them!

His family is HUGE and they are very nice and were hospitable to us. The drive up north was pretty with the fall colors and the dogs did well in the car. We couldn't rent a minivan as we had planned...but that's ok. Everything worked out well! I am, however, VERY glad it's over. Not in a bad way or anything, but it was kind of stressful for me....and I wasn't even the one getting married!!

My bonus FINALLY came and we got the opportunity to pay off a few things, my car included! WHEW!!! No more car payment! I also got a couple toys to play with!!

This is my new camera! I got a Canon Rebel XSi and let me say, I LOVE IT!!! I know it's going to take me a long time to learn how to really use it, but the picture quality is outstanding! I feel like a grown up picture taker now! haha I am adding my Flickr widget or gadget on the side...check out some of my pictures. These won't be personal pix, I have another site for those...but just landscapey ones and ones of the animals.

I used it yesterday when my husband, my sister and I drove north for a couple hours to Frankenmuth, MI which is like a little German town. It's really cool there, they have horses and carriages and great food. We ate a late dinner at the Bavarian Inn after shopping all day.

They have this quilt store at the River Place that I've always walked into and drooled over the quilts that they have there. I really love quilts and always wanted one, but they're so much money. Well they were having an AWESOME sale and I was able to get a Queen sized quilt for 35.00! I can't wait to snuggle up with it!

They also have this HUGE Christmas Store called Bronners. It's really cool there, the store is massive and is definitely a daytrip in itself! We didn't have time to make it down there, but we did drive through the parking lot to see all of the cool Christmas decorations that are lit...probably all year round. They also sell alot of original glass ornaments in just about every shape/theme imaginable. And they have these cool personalized bulbs. My inlaws have a bulb for each of us with our names on it on their Christmas Tree. Check out their online catalog and you'll see what I mean!

Here are a few pictures.

I LOVE the last one with the fall colors...it was pretty up there and so pretty driving up! I would have stopped if we weren't with my sister and it wasn't so late in the day.

Ok moving along to....my laptop! woo hoo!! I got an HP. It's a 17 in, 4 gig RAM, 320 gig hard drive. Bigger than my desktop! LOL Took me a bit to figure out the wireless thing, but I got it and we're good to go. I need to get a case for it and I'll be all set. It's kind of weird to not use a mouse. I ended up getting one, but don't really plan on using it ALL the time.

Halloweenie is coming - Favorite Halloween Scrappy Kits!!!

2008-10-01T15:03:00.002-04:00

It's this time of year when I wish we had little ones to dress up in spooky and fun costumes and go trick or treating with through our neighborhood. The hubbs just LOVES Halloween! It's his favorite holiday. Me? I love Halloween as well, not the scary parts but the colors, the season, the candy. lol

I also really like Vintage halloween graphics.

And of course...it's also time for buying Halloweenie scrappy kits!!! Here are some of my favorites from my favorite stores. The previews are clickable, and unfortunately I don't own any of these...yet. it's my little Halloweenie wish list!

This one is by Ellie Lash. Who doesn't LOVE Ellie Lash's kits?? I sure do...the colors are great for girls or boys and its got sweet cartoonie type embellys. My favorite part is the black cat!

This one is an original by Julia Makotinsky at Little Dreamer Designs. I LOVE the beware sign with the little candy corns with faces on them!! TOO CUTE!

Gotta love a Sunshine Girl!! I think this kit is adorable. The trick or treaters are just too cute! I love the candy!! This one's by Denise Liemert. Go to Sunshine Studio Scraps to grab this one.

Ok, these are the Halloween colors I was talking about!! LOVE them!!! The pumpkins in this kit are GREAT! Lots of life in them. This one's by Melissa Bennett at the Sweet Shoppe!

Heh...with a name like "Googly Boo" how can you go wrong?? This one brings me back to my youth and googly eyed stickers and well...just about everything else! By Michelle at Studio Girls Scrapbook Graphics.

This one has those vintage graphics I just love. I will be buying this one for sure. It's available at Scrap Girls and it's by Syndee Nuckles.

This kit is another that I'll definitely be buying. I love the witch hat and the glasses. Too cool. It's available at Scrap Orchard and it's by Irene Alexeeva.

I promise you this is a Halloween kit. It's got such unique items in it. If you like "real" items then you'll like this kit. I think it's awesome. Totally original, and I'd buy it just to see all that's included!! It's another from Studio Girls Scrapbook Graphics and it's by Lorie Davison.

I have bought a couple Halloweenie kits already.

It's available at Plain Digital Wrapper by Donna Rafferty. I got it because it has more of a magic theme and I will use some of the Elements for my sister's pages. She's wiccan. Also, it has a vintage feel, and I love that.

I may have this one, I'll have to look. It's simple, funky,
grungy...has some bling and a super cool Candy Corn alpha. I LOVE candy
corn!! It's a Funky Halloween at the Funky Playground by Corina Nielson.

So, there you have it...my Halloween kit wish list and review of sorts I guess. Of course there are tons of them out there, and these are only from a few of my favorite stores, but I'll post more as I come by them. Christmas is another holiday that I love...and I'm sure the kits will be spectacular!

Is It Worth It? - x posted from Topaz's blog

2008-09-30T21:16:00.001-04:00

Someone at work today was telling me about their dog and how they think the dog has come to an end because of some recent behavior problems. The problems are pretty out-of-the-blue and are really pretty scary changes (I don't want to go into too much detail) so I can see where the person is coming from when they say that they're probably going to be putting the dog down soon.

What they said that really has been bothering me is that they aren't going to put their dog through all kinds of tests to just prolong their life. And that they don't know how or why we do what we do with Topaz because "what kind of a life is that for the dog" when the owners are keeping them alive for themselves.

It was almost judgemental without being judgemental...

When this person was saying it to me, I was really uncomfortable. They said that the dog, my dog I guess, is suffering by having the seizures and the medicine is just drugging him up.

Dogs aren't human and I hold humans higher than my animals, however, I also know that I wouldn't put my child "down" because they are sick or have seizures. Shoot, I have to deal with a sick husband every day of my life. Would I leave him, nope. Sorry.

I don't think we've made a mistake by putting Topaz on medication and I think overall he's a happy Puppa.

It just really bothered me that someone would say that. I know it's their opinion, but still...please don't judge me because I have chose to treat my dog for the disease he has. He's only 3 yrs old. It's not like he was 13 when the seizures started! He has so much life left to live!!!

I so wanted to tell this person to just MIND THEIR OWN!!! And deal with their own animals. Ugh...people. I hate them, I swear!

Hubbs' Cardiologist Appt and The Usual Manic Monday Madness

2008-09-29T21:30:00.004-04:00

The hubbs had a Cardio appt this morning at 11am for the follow up to the PCP appt, which was a follow up to the ER appt after the fainting and hitting of the head in the shower ordeal. Before the appt this morning, we needed to go to the hospital where we went to the ER at...not where his PCP or other doctors are out of, mind you...well we needed to go there BEFORE his cardio appt so we could pick up his medical records from the ER visit for today's visit.

Of course, we got up an hour and 15 minutes late. Totally slept through ALL the alarms (I set like 4)...so we rushed around all morning. But...we made it to the appt ON TIME!! and WHY?? Well, because I was driving. The hubbs drives like an old man. lol

Once we got to the appt, of course they didn't have his referral. So we spent about 20 minutes on the phone just trying to get through to his PCP...and OMG are they RUDE!!! Well, they aren't ALL rude, but the 2nd lady I spoke to sure was. So we finally got that all straight and he went into his appt.

His cardiologist is awesome. He totally jokes with you and shoots the shit. He obviously takes the time to talk to his patients. He checked him all out and decided to put him on a 48 hour holter monitor, which he gets on Wednesday and he also is going to have an echocardiogram Wednesday.

He's also off work until after my sister's wedding. But he's ok to drive. Which is good, because I was dreading the 4 hour drive (with ME driving) up north. But now he can help with the driving. We're renting a minivan and taking the pups with us. It should be a good time. I called on that today and made the reservation.

I have SO much to do before the wedding. We need to finish cleaning the house because we are hiring someone to come in and feed the kitties and I'd REALLY like the house to be as clean as possible. I'm almost done with the dishes...one more load to go.

We need to go find the hubbs a shirt to wear...or go through his closet and see what he's got. It's casual, so he could wear anything really.

I need to get the dog's food together, and froze into meals before we go. And then pack the humans all up...oh and make the Robusto!

It's going to be a busy week preparing for the trip and the wedding. But I am excited too, I'm going to take lots of pictures and make sure that I'm even in some of them!! I usually am not in any. I will post some pix when we get back.

Ok, time for me to get to bed. I CANNOT oversleep tomorrow!!

Building a Better Kitty Litter Box

2008-09-28T00:37:00.001-04:00

I hate to say I'm not a good person to have cats, I just am not a good person to keep up with a litterbox like it probably needs, or like I should. I'll admit it, I'm just not good at keeping up with the boxes, which is probably most of the reason why we have problems.

Right now we have 4 litterboxes in a small 3rd bedroom. 2 are large and 2 are small. All are hooded. We use non clumping, clay litter and we completely dump them once a week. We also use litterbags.

We have a problem with odor and with going outside the box.

I have been thinking about making our own litterboxes out of rubbermaid containers similar to these:

They come from this site. On that site there's also information about "The World's Best Cat Litter". In their findings, which are on this page of their site, they say that they did a side by side comparison of TWBCL and a certain kind of poultry feed. That the two products, to their nose and eyes, are very similar.

This is what they use for litter in their litterboxes. I've often looked at TWBCL and I always liked using clumping litter because the odor control was MUCH MUCH better, but like I said above...I am a lazy kitty owner when it comes to their potties.

So, what I plan to do is make 3 of those types of boxes. In one I want to put TWBCL, in another I'd like to put the clay litter we're using now and in the 3rd I want to put the poultry feed. Then I can do my own comparison and transition the kitties to the new "litter" at the same time...if we like it.

I also like the idea of homemade boxes, they are bigger...won't be covered...and no bags! i hate those damn bags...they're so expensive and the urine just pools to the bottom of them and makes the entire back of my house smell like cat urine after like a day of us changing the boxes. Which sucks!! Plus, if the boxes need replacing it's a quick trip to target or somewhere to pick up a new box.

Of course, I'll have to stop being a lazy kitty mom and actually scoop a box. I've done it before...so time to get back on it!

Canidae Complaints - Buyer Beware!

2008-09-27T19:58:00.000-04:00

Wow...there are pages and pages of them located at this link:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/canidae.html

Happy reading!

GingerScraps Grand Opening!

2008-09-26T15:12:00.001-04:00

If you're a digiscrapper and you are looking for freebies, I'm sure you've run across Ginger's site. Well this weekend she opened her own shop & forum! She has a couple really cool freebie kits and of course her for sale kits are awesome! Be sure to check out her forum as well because there are lots of fun challenges going on!

I got the freebies and a couple of new kits...one called Cool Off and one called Man oh Man. I love the squirt guns in the cool off kit and the duct tape alpha is too cool in the man oh man kit!

So, go now...check her store out!!! And join her forum!

Why haven't you clicked yet? lol

Great Christmas Idea! - 5x7 Calendar Templates!

2008-09-24T20:39:00.004-04:00

These templates are a freebie and they are by Lori. You can find them on her blog.

What an AWESOME idea! I know what everyone is going to get from my hubby and I this christmas. Especially his mom and mine, and my BIL in Australia, oooh and my sister too!

The good thing is that you can dress them up, put little "icons" like a heart for valentine's day, a cake for birthdays, etc. How cool is that? and original too! Who doesn't love a little personalized gift like that.

And it will cost probably less than 10.00 a piece! That will be at least 4 gifts out of the way. I'm sure as soon as people see them, more will want them too!

Here's one I did for October, 2009 just to show an example.

Credits:

Paper and small pumpkin, ric rac and bow from Stolen Moments (Amber) Fright Night Freebie Colab

Web and Spider (I recolored the spider) from Digi Designs by Nicole Fright Night Freebie Colab

Birthday emb from digitreats, digitreat add on and faith sisters bday colab

I know those credits aren't great...sorry. I was just searching for bday stuff through my files, so they came from where I said, but I don't know who made them. I'll go back and correct it later.

Anyways...that's my example, We have 3 birthdays in October and actually my wedding anniversary is in Oct too on the 28th, which is also my hubby's bday...so I usually put a cake or something. I should make it all about my anniversary though! LOL We've been married for 6 years...geez, and it will be 7 this year! Wow...I say wow because we had some really rough patches in the beginning. But things are great now.

So those little calendars will be presents this year. I'll have them printed at Costco and then get a frame. It will be great! I just KNOW they will love them!

I need to leave Lori a comment on her blog if I haven't already.

She also has some other great templates. I'm really a template girl. I'm so new to digi with Photoshop and the templates really help me. I definitely jumped right in though!

I'm still doing wedding things. I'm frantically printing the programs and then Friday, which is also my sister's birthday, we're going to dinner for her and then we are going back into the sweat shop to fold these programs and then tie little tubes of wedding bubbles on them. Fun stuff. lol

My last wedding task is to make "Robusto" lol...basically it's noodle salad. But I call it "Robusto!" lol I either need to make it Friday morning before we go up there or cut up the veggies and then make the noodlers there. Not sure which one I'm going to do. And I'm not sure how much I need to make. Enough for 150 or so people. I will be busy!!

Finally a scrappy page!!!

2008-09-21T21:21:00.000-04:00

Credits:

Elements and papers from Dusk till Dawn kit by Flergs

Template by Andrea Gold

Word Art by Kim's Scrappin'

Finally I got the creative bug and made a scrappy page. This is me and my two sisters from my sister's wedding shower earlier this month.

Update on The Hubbs plus Sunday Ramblings

2008-09-21T16:28:00.001-04:00

Well, my husband had a doctor appointment with his PCP on Thursday. She kept him on the restrictions from his ER visit...no driving, no work...until his cardiologist releases him. His PCP is worried about the hot flashes, dizziness, and racing heart. My husband is worried too, and actually so am I. His cardiologist appt is on the 29th. So, no work until then for him. Ugh...which means no money either. Good thing the disability payments *should* start this month and we didn't strike at work!!!! (insert happy dance here!!)

My sister's wedding is in 12 days! I cannot believe how quickly it snuck up on us!! Last night we had another wedding sweat shop. We did the favors and designed the programs. I still have to print all of the programs here and then we're going to get together again to fold and tie bubbles to the programs. I think that's all we have left to do.

Then of course, we have to get there. I'm not sure what the hubbs and I are going to do if he cannot drive. I can drive if needed, I guess, but I didn't want to. We'll have to wait and see what the doctor says.

I have totally been in a scrapping slump. I got a TON of cute freebie kits and even some that I bought, but I just can't seem to get inspired to scrap anything. I started a page of my nephew's birthday, but I don't really like how it's coming along and will probably start over. I need to look at other people's pages and sites for some inspiration or something. I have a zillion pictures, I don't know what the problem is!

Addicted to Sims 2 / Cat Bible

2008-09-18T18:24:00.005-04:00

My name is Heidi and I am addicted to the Sims 2.

I swear, I need a 12 step program for this game. I got the newest expansion pack, Apartment Life, which is AWESOME btw, and when I start playing it's like I'm stuck in a time warp or something. I can sit here for hours and it feels like minutes. It totally sucks me in!

I love this game. My computer slows up pretty bad when I play, but it's so much fun!!! If you haven't tried it, you really should. Be careful though, it's addicting. Consider yourself warned LOL

When I was listening to podcasts at work alot, I listened to one called "Dog Talk the radio show" with Tracie Hotchner. I really enjoyed it and still listen on and off. Tracie wrote two books, The Cat Bible and The Dog Bible and I had looked and looked in book stores for them for months. I finally found the Cat Bible at Borders! I was so excited.

The book is AWESOME!! I am going to get my sister one for Christmas or something. And I definitely want to get The Dog Bible as soon as we can.

The really cool thing is that if you email Tracie, she will send you a personalized bookplate and a package full of other goodies! How cool is that?? Information is on her site.

I would definitely recommend this book to any cat lover. It's really informative and practical.

Problems With 4Shared, Dead Squirrel, Monday Madness Ramblings

2008-09-15T19:15:00.005-04:00

LOL What a title!! I found out that the searches hit on the title more so I have been trying to squeeze more in there. LOL

First, 4Shared issues. Is anyone else having them? I can't seem to download some things, and others I need to try a few times. It's almost like the zip files are empty because when I download they're like zipping (haha pun not really intended) through them and then there's nothing to extract. I dumped my cookies thinking maybe that would help but it didn't. And so I finally downloaded an add on "Down them all" for firefox, which helps...at least when they are getting "caught up" I can pause and restart them...so for the first time in a few days I was able to download my scrappy things! woo hoo!

RIP Little Squirrel

Now on to the squirrel part. I was getting ready for work this morning when my husband went to let the dogs in and he yelled at me to come and see something. Onyx came bounding down the hallway and my heart sank...Topaz! I asked what was wrong, did he have a seizure...he said, no worse. OMG what is worse than that?? I said what and he said he couldn't explain and I needed to come see. He was on the phone at the time so he couldn't really say.

I go and look out the back door and there's a small black animal on the driveway. I was like...is that a rat? (We have a rat problem in our city) The hubbs said he didn't know.

I looked and no, it wasn't a rat...it was a squirrel!! My husband had just said before letting the dogs in that he saw them chasing a squirrel around the garage too.

Anyway, so my husband went into the garage to get a shovel to pick up the squirrel and I went to check his cell phone and when I came back, Topaz was walking through the yard with the squirrel in his mouth!!! GROSS!!

So I get him to drop it and the hubbs goes to pick it up...ew, it's limp...so it's pretty fresh. Gross.

So it seems one of our dogs has made its first kill. Nice way to start the Monday.

Paranormal State is on and it has been freaking me out lately. I get to where I can feel the fear in my body...it sucks and I cannot tell my husband, he gets off on that kind of thing. He thinks it's SOOO funny that I get scared. The jerk! lol...so then he tries to scare me for the rest of the night. Ugh. I hate that.

Politics Schmolitics and the Usual Random Thoughts

2008-09-14T01:10:00.004-04:00

I got a phone call this afternoon from my mom who was with my Aunt and my Grandmother. She wanted me to look up where the closest McCain headquarters was because they all want McCain stickers for their cars. I told her my computer may spontaneous combust if I have to look up such things! haha She wasn't too happy.

Personally, I'm tired of the election stuff. I'm not claiming either side...democrat or republican, although I think more democratically. All I know is that Bush has made a mess of things and we need a change.

Not that I think Obama is necessiarily the man for the job either. I don't know enough to make an educated decision actually. And this is totally my opinion, but I don't know if we're ready for an African American president. I think there are still too many people who are prejudice against African Americans in our country. Not that the color of the man's skin matters one bit to me, personally, but as a country...I just don't know if we're ready. Maybe I need more faith in the American people. lol

My mom sends my sister and I all kinds of pro-McCain/anti-Obama emails. She says she's just trying to give us a complete view...ok, by forwarding chain emails? Come on Mom. We're old enough to make our own decisions. And we may have different opinions than my parents, or how we were raised. She says she doesn't care, but she tries to get into political debates with my sister, who knows more than I do about it all. I usually just tell them both to shut up. lol I hate that argument. It's pointless. You're not going to change anyone's mind by arguing about things.

This is why I can't wait for the political drama to end. And I do hope Obama wins.

Ok moving along....

I've been in a scrappy slump...but I got some new kits this weekend, so maybe that will help bring out the creative juicies.

I'd been admiring these kits from Britt-ish Designs so I finally broke down and got them:

And Pam at Digitreats made 3 wonderful birthday kits to go with her Jump, Run & Skip ABC kits and of course, I needed to get those right away as well!!

Mars Pet Food Recall - Pedigree

2008-09-13T03:07:00.000-04:00

Source: http://www.petcare.mars.com/

Franklin, Tennessee (September 12, 2008)—Today, Mars Petcare US announced a voluntary recall of products manufactured at its Everson, Pennsylvania facility. The pet food is being voluntarily recalled because of potential contamination with Salmonella serotype Schwarzengrund. This voluntary recall only affects the United States.

Salmonella can cause serious infections in dogs and cats, and, if there is cross contamination caused by handling of the pet food, in people as well, especially children, the aged, and people with compromised immune systems. Healthy people potentially infected with Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. On rare occasions, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.

Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Animals can be carriers with no visible symptoms and can potentially infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.

The company stopped production at the Everson facility on July 29, 2008 when it was alerted of a possible link between dry pet food produced at the plant and two isolated cases of people infected with Salmonella Schwarzengrund.

Even though no direct link between product produced at Everson and human or pet illness has been made, Mars Petcare US is taking precautionary action to protect pets and their owners by announcing a voluntary recall of all products produced at the Everson facility beginning February 18, 2008 until July 29, 2008 when we stopped production.

The company is continuing to work collaboratively with the FDA to determine the nature and source of Salmonella Schwarzengrund at the Everson facility. Since it has not yet identified the source of the Salmonella Schwarzengrund at the Everson facility, Mars Petcare US does not plan to resume production out of a commitment to the safety of our pet owners and their pets, customers, and associates.

The top priority of Mars Petcare US has always been and continues to be the health and welfare of pets and their owners. Consumers can continue to have confidence in the quality and safety of the products produced at other Mars Petcare US facilities. Only those products which were produced at the Everson facility are impacted by the voluntary recall.

Many of the brands involved in the recall are national brands produced at multiple facilities. A chart for all products is below. For example, PEDIGREE® is manufactured in numerous facilities throughout the country, and Everson represents a very small portion of the manufacturing base – 2.7 percent of total PEDIGREE® production.

Mars Petcare US will work with retail customers to ensure that the recalled products are not on store shelves. These products should not be sold or fed to pets. In the event that consumers believe they have purchased products affected by this voluntary recall, they should return the product to the store where they purchased it for a full refund. Specific product details and other information can be found at www.petcare.mars.com

Husband Admitted = Worst Wife EVER???

2008-09-13T03:03:00.000-04:00

Yeah, it's 3:00am EST. and yeah, I just got home from the ER.

This is going to be a bitch-about-my-husband type blog that I just need to get out so I will feel better about it all. So...if you're sensitive to these types of things, please don't read on. If not...here goes.

Today was my nephew's 11th birthday and I'm sitting at dinner and get a phone call from the hubbs. He tells me he passed out, hit his head and was on the bottom of the shower when he came to. He goes on to tell me that he was not dizzy (rules out vertigo) and that he just put his hands up over his head, passed out and came to on his ass. I was like...wtf???

I tell him ok, I'll check back with you...called a friend who also has APS to have her call him and see how he's "really" doing...and then proceeded to eat. Then I get a text that says "I am scared". Ok...so he passed out, hit his head, and is scared. I decide to cut the night short and go home after my nephew opens his gifts.

When I get home, he has already printed (and updated, mind you) his illness/surgery/medication list...so basically, he KNOWS he's going to the ER. I walk in...oooh and the jackass didn't feed the animals...but that is another blog...and tell him we're going and if he wants to eat before we do then here's his dinner (I brought him dinner home)

So he eats dinner, changes and we're off.

We pulled into the ER and the more I think about it I'm like...it's stupid we go in, it happened too many hours ago, he feels fine and so we kind of turn around...but keep driving in this big circle around the hospital campus...we were talking and basically we talked ourselves back into going in because there could really be something wrong...he passed out, wasn't dizzy and his his head while on blood thinners...none of these are good. So better to be safe than sorry, right.

Well when 2 ambulances passed us going in and I had to park in the spill over ER lot...AND there was a helicopter landing at the hospital as I walked in...and omg for the first time EVER there was a LINE at the desk...I knew we were in for a long night.

We were sent straight back to triage and got a nurse who knew us, so she kind of pushed us through a bit. He had an EKG done and then we went in to see a doctor. We spoke to the doctor and she ordered a chest x-ray, CT scan of his head and blood work and he needed to be hooked up to a heart monitor...and then the doctor comes back and says that everything looks ok, but they don't know what is going on and want to admit him overnight for observation and do a chest CT with contrast.

There's where I become the worst wife in the world. Before we left Todd's words to me were, "I do not want to be admitted". But with everything he has going on, it's ALWAYS a possibility.

So then I'm basically being BLAMED for him being admitted. Like I fucking gave him APS and all of his other issues...no todd, blame your genes or your parents' genes hun, not me. I just married you. I didn't birth you.

He all but said, "It's your fault"...he might as well said that. He was so mad and his vitals and heart monitor were going nuts. Nice.

I know he's pissed and doesn't want to be there overnight and if I didn't have to get home to give Topaz his meds, I'd still be up there, but if the doctors think he needs to stay for observation, then why question that? Don't THEY know better than us...well, in theory anyways.

So, there in the ER room I was made to feel like I'm the worst wife in the world. How dare I bring my husband in...Like I wanted him to be admitted and PLANNED it.

Hell, if I could do that, wouldn't I have planned for a husband who wasn't sick...

Ugh...I am married to the most stubbornest man alive!!!!

And tomorrow I have to (hopefully, God willing) pick this crab up from the hospital and go through the mess again.

Someone hold me.

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho...It's back to the ER we go!

2008-09-12T20:34:00.000-04:00

Well...we're heading to the ER in a few minutes. Just giving the hubbs a few minutes to eat something, since they won't feed him there.

Seems he slipped in the shower earlier and hit his head. And well...blood thinners + hitting head = trip to ER.

He also said he "Passed out"...which is different and he doesn't claim to be dizzy.

He's also been just exhausted lately and that worries me a bit.

Praying folks, please say one for us. It's going to be a LONG night!

An Awesome Scrappy Giveaway!

2008-09-11T23:19:00.002-04:00

If you're a digiscrapper, I'm sure you've heard of Flergs from Studio Flergs and her Flergalicious blog. Well, she's one of my absolute favorite artists and she has a brand new kit "Dusk till Dawn" that has GORGEOUS color...PERFECT for fall layouts! She also has AWESOME glitters to match! I actually bought this kit and one of the glitters last week and plan to make a scrappy page with it this weekend...which I will post here once it's done...oooh and it's actually my desktop right now. I can show ya that!

Anyways, on to the giveaway info...Growing in Grace Magazine is giving away 2 super add on mini kits to the Dusk till Dawn kit. If you'd like to enter, you need to follow this link to Growing in Grace Magazine and read on how to enter!

Also, be sure to check out Flergs at Scrapbook Graphics.com...she has many awesome scrappy kits and items in her store, Studio Flergs.

My Sister's Bridal Shower is Tomorrow!

2008-09-06T15:17:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow is my sister's bridal shower and the theme is Frog Prince. It should be a fun time! I will take a zillion pictures and I'm sure have a few scrappy pages from the day!

I also made her a card...it's not frog prince, although, I may look through my kits and see if I have something that's frog prince in theme. I made her a card because all the bridal cards are mushy and cheesy and we're not about all of that...although, I didn't make it funny or anything, it's kind of mushy...LOL but it says what I want it to.

Credits:

Papers and Elements from Summer Wedding freebie kit by Bon Scrapatit Designs

I think it came out nice. On the inside it will say:

Wishing you and your prince nothing but the best and "Happily Ever After".

I have to print the "Frog Prince" story on paper for the favors. We maybe have taken this theme a bit too far! LOL Well, our motto is "Everything in Excess". I need to make a word art that says that! LOL Only people in my family will get it, but that's ok.

Ok...enough froggy things already!

Yesterday the hubbs and I went to Costco to order my sister's cake (ok, I lied...one last froggy thing) and then we went to Target and BK for dinner. We were gone maybe 2 hours. We came home to the BIGGEST mess!!! That damn dog got into the trash AGAIN!!! UGH! We need a better solution! I'm about to get a metal can that he cannot tip over...even with this one we have that has a LOCK, he's still managing to get into it. He's a stinker.

So we had a bit of cleaning to do prior to eating...prior to doing anything really.

The cutest thing happened in the midst of the mess. I see Razzle is ALL in one of the bags...well we picked up these "catnip sticks" at Target in the Halloween pet section and he had pulled them out of the bag and was playing with them! kicking it with his feet and biting at the packaging. It was so funny. There are 4 little sticks in the package and they have little skeletons on them. Below are a few pictures of Razzle and Malcolm playing with them today.

If you see these at Target, pick them up! Your kitties will LOVE them!! Ours went nuts when we gave them to them last night!!

Please Pray For My Cousin!

2008-09-05T22:15:00.000-04:00

My cousin is really sick right now. She has familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) which is a hereditary disease she got from her father. Her intestines are full of polyps, she's had her colon removed, she has a tumor that they cannot remove or even shrink and I just found out that she's back in the hospital for sepsis.

Here's a blurb on FAP from the NIH:

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an inherited disorder characterized by cancer of the large intestine (colon) and rectum. People with the classic type of familial adenomatous polyposis may begin to develop multiple noncancerous (benign) growths (polyps) in the colon as early as their teenage years. Unless the colon is removed, these polyps will become malignant (cancerous). The average age at which an individual develops colon cancer in classic familial adenomatous polyposis is 39 years. Some people have a variant of the disorder, called attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis, in which polyp growth is delayed. The average age of colorectal cancer onset for attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis is 55 years.

In people with classic familial adenomatous polyposis, the number of polyps increases with age, and hundreds to thousands of polyps can develop in the colon. Also of particular significance are noncancerous growths called desmoid tumors. These fibrous tumors usually occur in the tissue covering the intestines and may be provoked by surgery to remove the colon. Desmoid tumors tend to recur after they are surgically removed. In both classic familial adenomatous polyposis and its attenuated variant, benign and malignant tumors are sometimes found in other places in the body, including the duodenum (a section of the small intestine), stomach, bones, skin, and other tissues. People who have colon polyps as well as growths outside the colon are sometimes described as having Gardner syndrome.

She's my age and I'm worried about her. Her father and a half brother have died from this and she has another half brother and sister who have it. She's had numerous operations.

I hope she can pull through this, but I'm afraid she won't. She has a son and she's the sweetest person. She's been through so much.

Praying folks...please keep my cousin in your thoughts and prayers. She could really use them right now!
Thanks!

If No One Is Home To Listen Will A Man Still Yell At The TV?

2008-09-02T19:34:00.008-04:00

Kind of like...if no one's in the woods to hear, does a falling tree make a noise?

My husband was watching the news...yes, the NEWS and was screaming at the television like it was sports or something. I understand why though. Detroit's mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, has been in a lot of trouble. Lots of scandals...a party and a dead stripper at the Manoogian Mansion (I LOVE that word!)...text message scandals...cheating on his wife...assaulting an officer...the list goes on and on and on. He went to jail at one point and had a tether on for the most part of the last month and has had numerous court dates! Personally, I'm tired of it all...but the hubbs...oh he LOVES it! He's all in and gets really riled up. It's funny to see.

So I was just curious if men also yell at the tv when no one is home to listen to them...I almost think he yells for my benefit. LOL

I finished Amazing Grace today at work and my supervisor surprised me with by loading her old ipod with a ton of books!! So, now I'm listening to Sisters by Danielle Steele. With all of those books at my fingertips, I didn't know which one to start with!!! lol I almost needed someone to tell me which is good and what to listen to. I started a couple others before settling on Sisters. I spent way too much time sitting there flipping through the books. I wish I could read a little synopsis or else look them up on Amazon before hand to see what they're about. The title tells me very little. I still need to finish Dark Destiny which is on my iPod....oooh and the new Carpatheian book comes out today! I almost forgot...

Labor Day ~ Looking for a new dish wand brush thingie!

2008-09-01T12:43:00.007-04:00

It's Labor Day! And I'm off work, of course...praying and hoping that all goes well with our contract tomorrow and everything. I'm not worried about it, but I just want it to be over...either way. Let's just get on with it and move on...I hate this unknown and waiting bullshit. lol enough already!!

I'm finally trying to get the dishes done. Every time I've went to do them, I've done a load and that's all...so then they continue to pile up. Well I have one load in and when it's done, I'm going in for the next load. I would like to finish them if possible! They need to be done.

I'm having a problem with my dish wands though. Right now I have two that are like the one below on the left. One is a Scotch Brite one and the other is from Target I believe and may be an o-cel-o one or else it's Target's brand. They both leak soap. Now that I'm looking...they're both made by 3M.

I also have a different scrubbie wand like the one on the right that does not have a soap dispenser on it. I got it at Bed Bath and Beyond and I love it!! It's made by Casabella. They had one that had a replacable brush on it, but I don't think it had a soap wand.

I'm looking for a good soap dispensing wand that doesn't leak. I may try the oXo ones, they have a few different ones. They even have one that's metal! LOL

Does anyone have any suggestions?? I hate that these leak!!

Thrilling conversation, isn't it... Ok on to different and better things...how about scrappy type things??

I read on Vicki's blog that if you register for Scrap N' Art's eZine you will get three free full kits. She showed pictures of two of them and the other was a surprise. I registered and I'll be honest...it was originally for the freebies, but it's actually a really good magazine!! I loved reading it and seeing all of the digi layouts and hybrid projects. Plus, it has some how-to's in there too. I also downloaded the last issue (and got those freebies!) and that one was also awesome. They do a great job! If you haven't checked it out, make sure you do. Oh!, and there's also coupons to their store in there. LOTS of them! Like every artist has one. Check it out, you won't be sorry!

I've been saving this and adding to it inbetween doing the dishes. They're almost done. 2nd load is in...see, I told you they were ALL dirty!! lol...we are pigs, I know. I despise doing the dishes! But one more load and they will be finshed and the kitchen will be clean!! Woo Hoo!

The hubbs is on his way home...he worked a full day today, so he'll be really tired. He's got a full schedule this week...which is good moneywise, but not really good for his health. We're going to BBQ these yummy apple maple chicken sausages and have chips with them. I want to eat outside, but he probably won't go for it...lol not after working in a hot store all day!

I will try to make a scrappy page later on, since my shows are on tonight and I'll be in here most of the night.

Ugh!!!! Topaz Got Into The Garbage AGAIN!!!

2008-08-31T21:49:00.004-04:00

This stinking dog!! I swear he's gonna kill himself doing this! It's totally my fault, I left the can open. I thought about it when I got to my mom's, but I thought that dh was coming home shortly after I left...no a FEW HOURS after.

Which gave the dogs just enough time to get into the trash and pull it all from one end of the house to the other. There were even cat food cans IN THE BED!!!

Now, I have to keep an eye on Topaz and pray he doesn't have a seizure due to his garbage can escapades. I swear, he's SO bad.

On a good note, I did get an outfit for my sister's wedding shower next weekend and her wedding in October!! I'm excited because I had NO CLUE what I was going to wear. I also got a night gown that's SOO comfy and a shirt for work. I got my sister's shower gift too...and had it wrapped, but like a dummy, I dumped my thai food in and on the present bag so I will need to rewrap it this week. I'll have to get a big bag.

Here are the shirts I got...

I got this shirt in Purple...or Berry I think it's called for the shower. I'll wear it with black pants and shoes.

And I got this shirt for the wedding. It's casual and this is a bit dressier than the other one. I'll wear this with the same black pants and shoes.

Nice thing is, I can also wear either to work if I want to.

And speaking of shopping...here are a couple of the new kits I got this weekend!

I can't link the graphics so I'll post the links here...from the top clockwise:

Flourish kit by Designs by Krista...(1 of 3 that I bought of hers)

Dusk till Dawn by Flergs...(i bought another kit and some glitters too)

Bubble Bath by Kristen Aagard...(1 of many lol...i LOVE her alphas!)

Autism Speaks...I bought this because 100% of the proceeds go to Walk Now for Autism, I don't know anyone with an autistic child, but I'm willing to donate.

Ok, so I went a little buckwild. Well...my husband buys CD's, movies, hats and t-shirts. I buy scrappy kits.

Early Start

2008-08-31T09:35:00.002-04:00

I was fortunate enough to be up at the butt-crack of dawn this morning. Mostly because the hubbs had to work early this morning, but also because we have this grey kitty who likes to lick the blinds on the window above our bed. He also likes to lay on pillows, knead into necks and lick faces, hands, or fingers and eat hair. And he returns if you kick him off the bed. It's so annoying...I mean, sometimes it's ok...he's really a lovey kitty, but when I'm trying to sleep, leave me alone!!!!

And then as I'm sitting here, the little Razzle kitty keeps climbing up on my shoulders to sit there with his butt and tiny little hook tail on my face. I finally got the squirt bottle because I'm crabby and he's annoying me.

I'm only crabby because I'm tired and wide awake now and won't go back to sleep unless I take a nap later on...which I probably will because it's entirely too early to be up on a Sunday!

I've kind of been in a scrappy slump...although, I did whip up a little piratey page today!

Whenever we go to Disney World, we dress up like pirates near the pirate ride and take pictures. We also do "Crazy Hat Day" and take pictures of ourselves with all of the crazy big hats that are sold all over Disney World.

Credits:

Template by Yin (#51)

Elements & Papers by Britt-ish Designs

Word Art by Bethany

I'm going shopping with my mom and sister in a little bit. I should actually jump in the shower right now. We're going for clothes for my other sister's bridal shower that is next week. Hopefully I can find something decent. I hate shopping for clothes!!!

Picture credit.

House Fly Invasion! & Toos-day Random Babblings

2008-08-26T19:32:00.003-04:00

Our house has been infested by FLIES!! I have no clue where they are coming from either. DH managed to trap about 20...YES, 20!...in a window and closed it. Now to kill the little buggars. We need to find where they are coming from. I just don't get it.

I'm sitting here and there's a fly...or two...or more, who knows...flying circles around my head. How annoying is that?? Ugh...we need to get rid of these DAM flies!

I got a package today! At work I won an award so I got to pick a prize. Our pans are HORRIBLE. So i picked a set of 2 T-Fal frying pans and they came today! I love getting packages!

The hubbs said something that cracked me up today. I forget what we were talking about, but he was saying that I am a certain kind of way and I disagreed...he said, "Have you met yourself"...omg I about lost it!!! My saying is "Have you met (whoever)"...Like when my sister's man was saying how wonderful she is...I was like, Have you met her? hehe...so dh just comes out with that...it was too funny. I seriously laughed out loud.

Laundry Monday

2008-08-25T19:29:00.003-04:00

Today is laundry day for me. I think when I'm picking through a huge pile of dirty clothes on the ground in my room to see where my work pants are (they were on the hamper, btw) that it's time to do laundry.

When we lived in the apartments, I got into the habit of "living" in my loungewear and washing clothes when we had the money and/or when my clothes were so nasty that I had no choice! Gross, I know...but times were hard and we didn't always have money to do laundry and the machines weren't great. Now we have our own washer and dryer, and actually we have had our own since living with my sister...so like 2 houses ago. I still don't do laundry every week, but as needed. The hubbs does some of my laundry when he does his, which is just about daily....it's the OCD.

Tonight we BBQ'd some sausages for dinner and ate outside on the deck. We had Razzle out there wearing a harness and a lead that was tied to the table. He really enjoys it outside and often tries to escape, so we sometimes take him out there. Well tonight that little shit went under the deck and got out of the harness!!! AHH!! So then it was like a wild goose chase to get him. He doesn't have any claws and isn't wearing a tag or collar!!! Ugh, we cannot leave him out there and we live WAY too close to a really busy intersection to not find him when he gets away from us like that! We were finally able to corner him behind the garage and we promptly put him back in the house. No more outside for him for a long while!!

Here are a few pictures of Razzle outside. My husband decided to "edge" the backyard and part of the front by hand today, so that's the mess in the yard. And Onyx was on the other side of the stairs enjoying a nice marrow bone, that's what Razzle is checking out when he's on the stairs.

When he got out of the harness, my husband and I were joking that it was almost like he went under the deck a little bit to plan his escape. He's a smart kitty and he does have thumbs (polydactyl) so I wouldn't put it past him! LOL

Right now at work I'm listening to "Rogue" by Danielle Steele. I just started it today and it's ok...nothing special yet. I am about to check it out on Amazon and get a plot overview and see what it's all about. lol

Who Pooped? & Happy Birthday Dad! heh

2008-08-24T21:27:00.001-04:00

LOL...what a title!! And pretty fitting if you knew my family!!

After the sweatshop, dinner, and birthday apple pie I came home to the most horrific smell in the hallway. UGH, it was NASTY!!! and definitely poop. I would say dog poop, but they really go little nuggets since being on raw, so maybe one of them has a sick tummy. Anyways, there was NO way I could clean that up! I couldn't even go back into the hallway where it was, the smell was making me gag. I can still kind of smell it...let's just say we are unprepared for carpet cleaning emergencies. Resolve is going on our shopping list! So the hubs clean it up...thank God he was home, I would have had to gag through it. Guess he's good for some things...heh kidding of course!

We did the happy birthday thing for my dad. We ended up at Bahama Breeze. We were supposed to go to some new rib place, but my dad wanted to go to BB. It's always good there...but we go a little buck wild on the appetizers. Plus, my nephew has braces and his teeth were hurting him, so he didn't know what he could or should eat. So we got like 4 appetizers. lol Oh well, it was good. I got my usual, Chicken Jerk Pasta...so yummy!

Then we went to my parents and sang Happy Birthday to my dad and had apple pie. I am not a pie lover, so I skipped it...but I'm sure it was good!

Here's a scrappy page of my dad blowing his candles out!!

Credits:

Template: Moriginals

Papers and most Elements: Faith Sisters Birthday Bash Freebie Kits by Ana Flor
Present & Bow by Paula Phillips

Overlay on picture: Kirsty Wiseman

We have a very *unique* way of singing "Happy Birthday" so that's where the Haaaaapy came from! And I was SUPER excited to find some super birthday freebie kits at Faith Sisters! How fitting!! I'm always in need of some good gender neutral birthday kits!

1,000 Freed from West Virginia Puppy Mill - Please Donate

2008-08-24T19:50:00.001-04:00

To donate: http://www. hsus. org/

August 24, 2008

Yesterday morning in Parkersburg, W.Va., a cycle of animal abuse that lasted nearly two decades was finally broken. Local authorities raided the Whispering Oaks Kennel and found one of the most prolific puppy mills in the state's history.

By the end of the day nearly 1,000 neglected and abused dogs were freed from the horrendous industry that traps hundreds of thousands of dogs in a dismal cycle of suffering.

The Humane Society of the United States was there from the beginning, acting as the lead animal welfare organization for this mercy mission.

Cruelty Downstream
Local authorities had received complaints that the property owner was discharging pollution without a permit. When they arrived on the scene to investigate the claims, they found a grossly overrun breeding facility wrought with obvious animal neglect.

Once on site, the officials convinced the property owner to relinquish ownership of all 1,000 dogs at the facility. The owner also signed a document barring her from ever operating another breeding facility.


The W.Va. dogs were destined for a life in cages. © The HSUS/Milani

The HSUS had earlier been called by the Humane Society of Parkersburg.

The HSUS was appointed lead animal welfare agency on this case and had spent weeks preparing for for the complexities of caring for what was expected to be—and indeed became—a heart-breaking number of animals.

They were mostly dachshunds, but many Yorkies, King Charles Cavaliers, Poodles and Jack Russels bred on the facility.

Breeding dogs were housed in small rabbit hutches throughout the property—many with no access to water in the potentially deadly 95-degree heat.

Joint Effort
With the help of United Animal Nations, Best Friends Animal Society and the Humane Society of Missouri, we followed law enforcement onto the property. Together, we set up an emergency shelter and begin to rescue the dogs from the squalid cages where they would've spent their entire lives.


Dogs in puppy mills are turned into breeding machines. © The HSUS/Milani

Fragile young puppies and mothers were the first receive veterinary care and the safety of the shelter.
The rest of the dogs will be removed over the next few days.

From the shelter, the dogs will be transported to humane organizations across the nation where they will be evaluated and put up for adoption.
While the condition of the animals wasn't the very worst our team has witnessed in such raids, one person simply cannot properly care for 1,000 animals. More than that, one person should not.

Puppy mills are a source of unbearable cruelty with breeding animals kept in tiny, exposed cages without any socialization, for the sole purpose of supplying pet stores and the internet market with puppies—and of course, providing a stream of ill-gotten profits to their operators.


	Rescuers moved newborn pups to safety first. © The HSUS/Milani

They also contribute to tragic pet overpopulation.

Brighter Days
As a nation we cherish dogs as beloved family pets, but these breeding dogs spent years churning out puppies for profit.

Like all victims of the puppy mill industry, these dogs had never left their dank cages or feel the warm touch of a loving human hand.

But today they leave behind the abuses of their former lives to begin a new chapter. Their lives began in sadness and cruelty, but these once-neglected dogs now have the chance for far better—to be part of loving families.

Make It Public


The dogs at Whispering Oaks Kennell head toward loving homes, at last. © The HSUS/Milani

We urge everyone who cares about animals to spread the word about the great suffering associated with puppy mills.

People in the market for a companion animal should consider rescuing a homeless pet from a shelter or breed rescue organization—or at least to know the breeder and inspect the facility beforehand.

Original Article: http://www.hsus.org/hsus_field/hsus_disaster_center/disasters_press_room/a_thousand_dogs_freed_from_wv_082408.html

Sweat Shop Sunday!

2008-08-24T11:28:00.002-04:00

I probably shouldn't say "sweat shop", but that's what we call things in my family...cookie sweat shop, invitation sweat shop...ebay sweat shop...what have you.

So in a couple hours I am meeting my mom and sister to do some crafty things and put together the favor bags for my sister's shower. Then we're all going to dinner for my dad's birthday...which is Monday.

I should bring my camera...to document this blessed occasion. haha

Moving on...my cats are driving me batty!!!! They are total beggars, worse than the dogs. They have food in their bowls, but still they are begging for people food. We have two cats that will take it right from your plates/hands if you let them!! bad kitties!! I hate a begging dog...but I hate a beggin cat worse and we have the beggingest cats around!!!

And Malcolm, he's the worse...little shit gets into absolutely everything. And he knows he's being bad too, he all hunkers down if you say his name...but still he keeps coming back and doing what you just yelled at him and shooed him away for! Bad kitty!

Saturday Schmaturday's Randomness

2008-08-23T14:11:00.007-04:00

Today's blog post will be about a bunch of random things...but isn't it always? haha

I'm a member of the UAW and today we had a big meeting. Our contract is up and so we had a vote today. These meetings are always the same. I hate going to them, but I understand why we need them and everything. Generally my sister goes with me, but this time I went alone...and wouldn't you know it...in the middle of the dam meeting I start to feel a panic attack coming on!! Yikes! So I quick get a pill from my purse and plan my get away to the bathroom. I ended up calming down, so I didn't have to take the pill, but I really hate how those attacks just kind of sneak up on me for no apparent reason! Hopefully all of this union stuff works out. I don't want to strike...

I have been all over the internet downloading scrapbook freebie kits from many talented artists who share their creations with us. I am so thankful that people offer these kits and templates free of charge to us...however...I wish that people who make tagger sized kits would indicate that they are tagger sized. The difference between the regular sizes and the tagger sizes are HUGE...like 3600 for regular and 800 for tagger. So you can't even use some of the elements because they don't blow up well to scrapper size. It's unfortunate too, because some of these tagger sized kits come with some pretty adorable elements!!! I hate to complain...so maybe we'll call this "venting" but I really wish they'd say what size the kit is...or even the paper size. Some do, and I am so thankful...but I hate when I am so excited to use a cute kit and then come to find out it's so teenie tiny!!

I don't know if I'll have a scrappy page to post today. I've kind of been creatively challenged lately. I don't know what it is, but the last couple pages I've started I've just deleted. I can't seem to make anything that I really like. I'll have to try again.

I saved this entry and started working on a scrappy page and here's what I came up with.

Credits:

Template by Mommy Noffy

Elements and paper from Skip ABC kit by Digitreats or add ons by various

This is my niece in Australia. My SIL sends us pictures and unfortunately, they are really small files so they don't blow up too well for scrappy pages. (Probably should use some tagger sized kits for those! heh). I'm not too thrilled with how this came out, but I decided to finish it rather than scrap it. No pun intended.

Tomorrow we're having a wedding shower sweat shop to make favors and some crafty things for my sister's shower which is coming up so soon! I can't believe how this time just flew by!

Dangerous Dog Toy Alert! - Pimple Ball w/Bell

2008-08-21T18:42:00.000-04:00

Please pass this along to anyone who has a dog!

Please look through all of your dog toys and make sure that your dogs do NOT have access to a toy called the Pimple Ball with Bell (Item #20227-001, UPC Code 0 4566320227 9) manufactured by Four Paws Inc. (see picture)

This toy has been responsible for seriously injuring at least two dogs, one dog had to have its tongue amputated. Click here to read about Chai's ordeal after his tongue became stuck inside the ball, and the subsequent amputation of his tongue (please note, there are graphic pictures of the damage caused by this ball)

Click the link below for the whole article.

http://gimpydogblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/dangerous-toy-alert.html

The Hills and other Monday Madness

2008-08-18T20:45:00.004-04:00

The Hills starts tonight! woo hoo! This is my total guilty pleasure. I love the drama. I know it's like a high school show, but I've been watching it since these girls were on Laguna Beach.

Only problem with the premiere being tonight is that it interferes with Paranormal State. I think i will watch PS and then catch The Hills at 11:00 tonight. I'll be up all night, but it's no different than me trying to catch the Olympics all week.

I also have this weird swelling directly under my left eye. Just a little spot. I can feel it. It doesn't hurt or anything, and nothing else is wrong. It just kind of showed up out of no where. I guess I'll give it a couple days and see if it goes away. If not, I'll go to the dr. I hate the dr.

I joined Audible tonight. My supervisor has been bringing me in audible books on CD for a few months now. I've probably listened to 20 or so at work. Most are steamy romance novels, which I must admit that I am now addicted to. They are mindless listening, not too deep, have a plot and are usually pretty quick. I've also listened to a couple really good books by Jodi Picoult and also Nicholas Sparks classics. So, I joined to get my own account and my own books...not that I am not 100% thankful that she's been bringing them in for me, but just so that when I finish one of hers I can start one of mine and vice versa. I listen to them pretty quick. Especially if they are good.

I still did not clean up the kitchen or do laundry...I have an aversion to dishes. I hate them...I don't know why. And what a fool I was to think that just because I have a dishwasher, I'd not be this way about dishes...HA! I still hate to do them. I probably always will. I should have found a man who likes to do dishes or at least will get on me to do them. I think that's half the problem...Todd doesn't care whether they're done or not...so why bother doing them? So stupid, I know. BTW...that's not a picture of my dishes...similar, but not quite. LOL

I'm sitting here half watching PS, half making my lunch for tomorrow...half talking to my friend on Yahoo Instant Messenger. she has a laptop, so she can sit there and watch and talk...me, not so much. Oh well. It is a good PS though.

Lunch tomorrow will be a yummy chicken salad with berry dressing and blueberries and grapes in it. It's loosely based on this awesome salad my little sister makes. I love it, it's so yummy. I may get a couple things from the cafeteria at work to add to it...croutons or sunflower seeds...something like that. Should be good.

This is totally random babbling tonight lol. Todd is asleep in the living room, I'm sitting here waiting for lunch to be done and the hills to come back on at 11:00 lol

No scrappy pages lately. I haven't had time... :( Maybe Thursday I will!

Changed the way I list layout credits

2008-08-17T19:02:00.002-04:00

I changed things up a bit. I wasn't posting credits right away because it took me a while to search for the links to the kits...esp if they were freebies.

So, I'm going to just list the name of the designers and/or the store they come from...I'll also add the name of the kit if I know it.

If you'd like a link for the sites, please leave me a comment with your email address. I won't publish it, or will edit the address out...and I'll email you the link or post a reply comment.

I want to give credit, but right now I'm not organized enough to have the links handy.

We're Too Young For This!!!

2008-08-17T17:15:00.003-04:00

I had to go to the pharmacy to get my husband and my scripts. He had 6 for me to pick up, plus his Lovenox shots and I had my two. It was 66.00. Good Lord! I know we're lucky too, because we have fairly low copays for our scripts...but still. We're in our early to mid 30's and we're spending over 60 dollars on prescriptions?

This is not counting the pain meds my husband is on, or the 1500mg of calcium he takes everyday or the aspirin he takes or even the iron and multivitamin.

There are plenty of people with his disease who have to take more medications than he does, so we are thankful that he's only on what he's on and I know it's what's keeping him alive and relatively clot-free, but still I didn't think that I'd be sorting out my husband's medications at this age.

He keeps forgetting to take his morning shot too...sometimes he forgets both the morning and night ones. Which then leaves him at risk for a clot...which usually shows up in the form of a TIA or mini stroke.

This disease is no joke. People don't understand and they don't get that he looks perfectly fine...maybe a little tired, but he's really sick and it's life threatening. And it's also not going away, won't get better and we don't know if it's hereditary.

I'm running out of things to say when people ask why we haven't or when we're going to have kids. I want kids. I really do, but I'm so afraid of passing this mess on to a child. What this disease does to babies and little kids is just horrible. I don't want to risk that.

When I tell people that they look at me like I just landed from Mars. What part of babies having strokes scares the shit out of me don't people understand? I can only handle one sick person in my life and my husband's mind and memory are so bad that I don't think I could even trust him to care for a child alone.

I haven't put the idea out of my head completely. But right this moment, this is where we stand on the issue. I wish people understood my fears and the risks and would just mind their own business about it. We may change our minds later down the line. We still have some time. Who knows what the future holds.

So today I spent 66.00 at CVS and then spent 45 minutes getting the pills and shots ready for the week. Hopefully the new system will help him remember his shots. If nothing else, I will keep track of them myself and know exactly how many he's doing in a week.

And maybe, just maybe, now that he's back on all of his meds...he'll start feeling a little better.

The Hubs' Man Crush and other Randomness

2008-08-16T20:43:00.006-04:00

My husband has a huge man crush on Dale Earnhardt Jr...good ole, #88. It's his newest obsession. We must have all things with Amp, 88, or DEJ as I call him on it! And we need to get little toy cars, hats, shirts, jackets, bbq covers, license plates...etc!!! Good Lord!! I think he's more in love with this guy than he is me! heh... Geez, I hope not anyways. lol

Actually, this Nascar thing is not new to me. My dad is a big fan and his fave was Dale Earnhardt. So I know all about the male Nascar obsession.

I just think it's amusing and like to tease my dh about it. He went to an amp "Pit Pass" event at a Walmart in Flint, MI on Friday and he took my camera with him. He was hoping that a car would be there, but unfortunately, there wasn't. He had a good time anyways.

Of course because we tease like that, I HAD to make a layout using some of the pictures he took!

Credits:

Template by Andrea Gold

Alpha by Ellie Lash

Papers and Elements from ABC Jump Freebie kits and Add ons by Digitreats

hehe...he may not be too happy with me when he sees that!! oh well...it's SO true. He has a total man crush on DEJ.

On a similar note...today was the Woodward Dream Cruise. Basically, it's a HUGE classic car show on a road and it stretches for miles and miles. Cars go "crusin" and there are about a million people there. If you are into that thing you will know exactly what I'm talking about. If you're not...well it basically looks like this:

I took this photo last year on Friday, but it's the same on Saturday. Anyway...my Dad and any "real" car guy spends just about the whole week on Woodward with their cars. My dad got interviewed by the local newspaper on Tuesday!!

Here he is with my nephew, Elijah! His car is the one on the right. It's a 1948 Plymouth Convertible. He also has a 1947 Plymouth Coupe that's black.

We grew up with classic cars and car shows. My dad has those two cars now, but before that we had a dune buggy, a roadster that he built, and a 56 Chevy. I know some people wouldn't understand sitting and watching cars go by for hours and hours, but I could and have totally done that. We used to drive to the UP every year for a car show in St. Ignance, MI when we were younger. It was always a good time. I like looking at cars. It's the hot and the people I don't like. lol

So, needless to say, I did not spent my day walking around in the sun and heat, breathing in exhaust on Woodward like I have previous years. Nope, not this girl...not this year. I did ride on Woodward last night with my dad, sister and the hubs. We were out there for like 2 hours and drove like 3 miles if that tells you anything!! Oh, and we were in a van and not one of the classic cars. Those cars tend to overheat in bumper to bumper traffic. lol

No, today I went to Red Robin for lunch, had a YUMMY Harvest Apple Chicken Salad and then went to a produce store and went grocery shopping with my 2 sisters. It was a good time.

Of course, when I got home I had to look for those millions of megabytes of free scrappy things that people are so generous with...oh and I went hog wild on some $1.00 fonts at scrapnfonts. I just love fonts. I have some issues.

Tomorrow it's the dam dishes that I started last weekend...but never got around to finishing. Maybe I'll take a picture and do a before and after comparison...although, it's pretty embarassing. I HATE dishes. I also need to clean this room up a bit and maybe do some laundry tomorrow.

Oh, and I need to get food for the pups and also pick up the mess of scripts at the pharmacy. We got my husband's meds all worked out. I swear we will be spending close to 100.00 for scripts this month. Ugh. Oh well...they're keeping him sane and alive.

This got long fast...drank an amp tonight (part of the man crush is keeping amp in the house heh) and omg...never again. I'm all hopped up on the caffiene!!! haha

I should add picture credits for this post: Dale Earnhardt Caricature & Pict of my Dad and Elijah

Sunday's Insecurities and Dreamweaver Woes

2008-08-10T17:34:00.004-04:00

I really try to be who I am and be proud of that and everything - not worry about what people think about me because they don't matter. I try to be that way - always.

Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes I feel like a little girl who's so unsure of anything in this world and generally it's due to dumb dumb things.

Like today, my husband went for a walk in the early afternoon. He went alone and didn't ask me to come or didn't take a dog with him. He said he was going to go walk around the park we used to live by a couple times and then come home. Doesn't seem like a big deal, right?

Well my husband and I have been together for a LONG time and a lot has happened. There have been betrayals and lies told and all has been forgiven...but never forgotten. So when these oddities come up out of no where...like a walk out of the blue...I start to get all paranoid like he's lying to me and doing something behind my back or he's leaving to go talk to someone.

Do I really think these things are going on? Of course not. But I cannot keep these feelings from cropping up when incidents like this happen! I wish I could.

And yeah, I know that it's odd behavior and I should trust my gut and all of that...but I also know that if something is going on, I WILL find out sooner or later. Plus, i'm the type of gal who has always said..."if you don't want to be with me then there's the door." I'd rather be alone than with someone who doesn't want to also be with me.

So, I asked what was up when he got home and he said nothing. I hope he's telling the truth. I trust him about 99%...but there's still the lies from years ago that linger in my head.

Ahh well, all will reveal itself if there is something going on. It always does!

On to Dreamweaver. I love computers and everything, but when it comes to html, unfortunately, I am a hack and don't know enough html to not use a WYSIWYG website editor.

So I have used Microsoft Frontpage for years! Everything worked well with a few little snags here and there, but I've always been able to get around them.

For some reason Frontpage stopped working for the APSFA webmaster stuff that I do. I don't understand why either. I think it may have something to do with my new firewall but even when I disabled it, FP still would not work.

So I've been trying other WYSIWYG programs. I tried an Adobe program called "Contribute" which worked for a couple pages, but I couldn't get to the html to edit it. I didn't really play with that program for too long to look for it either. I kind of knew once I used it a couple times that it wasn't really what I was looking for.

Dreamweaver is closer to what I need. I got it to upload, but now I'm having a problem with one of my pages. I cannot see anything in the WYSIWYG part, but the html is all there. I need to figure out what is making me not see it. I've been playing with it for hours, with no avail.

That's been my Sunday so far...oh that and the dishes. YUCK...I seriously hate doing dishes so they always wait until we have so many and they are SO nasty...it's dumb, but I just hate doing them.

No layouts today unless I need a break from Dreamweaver - which I may later on...I'm stumped.