Some of Our Other Animals

My daughter with our very first rat, Romi. 

One of our hamsters had 5 babies and we had a lot of fun playing with them. lol 

Baby the dwarf hamster lived to be 4 years old, which is really old for a dwarf hamster. For the last few months of her life she would only eat soft human foods and even though I put a little portion for her on the table where I was sitting...she wanted to sit in my bowl and eat. You should have seen the look on my mom's face..LOL 

Romi, my first rat. She lived to be 4 years old and for the last few months could not bite through anything hard so I gave her soft human food and canned dog food. She loved her dog food.

Chance, the dwarf hamster. 

Onyx, the dwarf hamster. yes, he's sitting on my plate with a slice of my mom's pumpkin bread. LOL My mom got used to me letting the animals eat off my plates. 

Baby just a few days before she passed away, still enjoying her mashed potatoes. They were all very happy and completely spoiled little fuzzbutts.

The Flu

Yep, I've got it. Sorry if  haven't been around much lately or coming by to leave a comment on your blog. I've been down with the flu for the past few days but I'm hoping to be back up and chatting again soon. I've seen on Facebook that a lot of my friends also have the flu. Here's to hoping that we all start to feel better soon.

RIP Hades

R.I.P. Hades
November 14th 2010 - January 24th 2013
My 3 year old boy Hades, passed away this afternoon. He had been slowing down over the past few days so I had been checking on him often to make sure he was doing alright and when he came out of his house this afternoon, we picked him up and held him and within a couple of minutes he passed away.

It was like he knew his time was almost up and wanted to be with us...and he was.

Goodbye my sweet boy.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too.

I received both the free box of Kellogg's Crunchy Nut cereal and the coupon for a free box of Claritin D from BzzAgent. I also received coupons for .50 off the cereal and $3 off the Claritin D, so if you would like a coupon just let me know and I'll send you one until they run out. 

You can sign up for BzzAgent too and receive free products to try in your home.

I also won a tin filled with goodies in a blog hop from Capri Montgomery. There were candles, flashlight key chain, stress ball, calculator and refrigerator magnet from Capri Montgomery.

Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas

I thought I would share a few of the pictures we've taken on our trips to Red Rock Canyon here in Nevada. It's just a short drive from Las Vegas but once you get there it's totally different from all the lights and glitter here in Vegas. We've gone there quite a few times over the past 20 years. This is Ken and our daughter when she was younger. 

Since they have their jackets on you can tell it's in the winter, but it still was nice hiking weather. I actually prefer it in the winter months before the snow gets on everything. I don't have to deal with the bugs in the winter. lol 

My daughter and I. You just don't get mountainous views like that here in the Las Vegas Valley. It's great for hiking in Red Rock.  

On the way to Red Rock, we would stop and feed/pet the donkeys that are always waiting for food. People pull their cars over all the time and feed the donkeys and they just stand there and let you feed and pet them.

Ken and our daughter on another trip to Red Rock. 

When one of our hamsters passed away, we took him to Red rock and buried him under a really pretty tree. 

Man's Best Friend

As you probably know by now I don't have dogs or cats as pets, I have rats. But my brother has a dog and my mom had a dog. I wondered why a dog was considered man's best friend so I did some research and found out. If you'd like to know the story of How The Dog Became Man's Best Friend... just click the link.

Since it's right after Christmas I thought I would talk a little about pets and how they are a commitment, not just a "I'll take care of it until I get sick of it".

As with any pet, you should never ever adopt or accept an animal unless you plan on keeping them. I've seen it too many times. A family or person in the family decides that they want to adopt a pet and they don't think about the commitment it's going to take to care for the animal and after a while, they give the pet away, take it to a shelter without letting other family members know what they've done. 

Thinking that it will be easier on the rest of the family if you lie to them and tell them you gave the animal away to a neighbor, or it ran away when in actuality you took it to the animal shelter without telling the rest of the family because you just couldn't deal with it any longer is not the right thing to do. 

The very least you can do is make sure the animal you are getting rid of is going to a forever home and will be happy. 

Another thing to consider, especially since Easter is right around the corner is not to get pet bunnies for your niece or nephew without asking the parents. bringing home a cute pet for a family member may seem like a great idea and would make a great gift but if they are willing to take the time to care for the animal..it's a bad idea. 

Don't take on an animal without really thinking about the commitment you're going to have to put into this. Animals aren't disposable pets and should be treated with respect. 

You Could Score A Free Package Of Oscar Mayer Pulled Pork

Click their Facebook Page and 'like' their page and write a couple of words (Taste A Monial) about why you like their product and then fill out the form. If they get enough people to do this everyone who signs up will get a coupon for a free product.

It's a really easy sign up and you could score something for free!

Rainbows

It was raining in California a couple of weeks ago and my brother took a picture of a rainbow he saw while running errands. 

President Obama Is On Yahoo! Contributor Network

I just saw today that President Obama has an article published on YCN, the same place I write for. You can read President Obama's Article here.

And while you're there you can find my article's here.

Spirituality

My Thought For The Day...

Just because you say you are spiritual doesn't mean you are if your every action shows that you are actually a jerk. Just as getting whisker implants, and wearing a dog collar doesn't make you a dog. Just saying you are a spiritual person without having it backed up with the actions in your life doesn't make it so.

You can't have it both ways.

Rat Scratches

One of my rats, Bandit...decided he wanted to grab a hold of my hand and climb on it. The result was three little claw marks on my hand. lol 

I don't get a lot of scratches from them but when they dig their claws in to grab a hold..this can be the result. He tried giving me kissed later..Made it all better. 

Making Friends

If you've been reading my blog for the past couple of months you know that I adopted 4 rats a while back from a friend and one of those rats, Fang...would not let Ken pet him, especially through the bars of a cage. Fang bit Ken on more than one occasion. I told you about Ken getting bit in this blog post and he has been bitten by Fang, not once, not twice but 4 times. Once on the nose. 

Fang didn't want Ken touching him when I was holding him or petting him and when Ken would come over to pet him while I was holding him, he would turn away or nip him. I think Fang thought Ken was competition for my affection. So I would hold Fang and have Ken come over and pet him while I petted him too and after a while he stopped turning away from Ken and let him pet him. It took a while longer for Ken to be able to put him fingers through the bars of the cage like I could to pet him, even though he would come and sit over by the corner of the cage and look at him, if Ken put his fingers in there, he would get bit. 

So I sat in front of the cage while Ken was on the side like in the picture and I would pet Fang in the cage while Ken pet him through the bars of the cage and after a while he stopped trying to bite Ken. 

As you can see, fang likes coming over to the corner now and getting petted. Ken also gives him little bits of whatever he's eating, so that didn't hurt. LOL

Fang and Ken are now buddies. 

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too.

This week I received a sample bag of Purina Cat Chow from Costco and I found the link for that on Hey It's Free.

I also received two sample boxes of Align Probiotic from Vocal Point. 

You can sign up at Vocal Point and receive random freebies too. You have to contribute to discussions on the site and when they have free samples available you can also sign up for those. 

Favorite Books

Everyone has favorite books. Books that you either never give away and have re-read, or are a part of a series that you love and can't wait for the next book to come out. While other books have sentimental value because of the person that gave it to you, or how you got it.

Here are some of my favorite books.

I couldn't make this list without adding a book from this series. Anita kicks ass!

I have to say this is a book from one of my all time favorite series. I tell everyone who asks for a great series of books about these books because I haven't been let down by one of them. 

Can't say enough about Gena's books. I'm a huge fan and most of the people I talk to about PNR books, also love her books. 

Sara has a great series out and I impatiently await the next book from her. If you like shifters, you'll love her books. They are hot!

I love shifters and Jennifer Ashley has a great series that I love to read. I have read all the books in this series so far and can hardly wait for the next one.

This is by far the longest book on my bookshelf and it had to be to tell us Acheron's story. This is my favorite book in this series and every book in this series is an auto buy for me. 

So what are some of your favorite books?

My boys...

Finding A Lost Loved One Or Old School Friend

It may seem like a great idea to go and look for a long lost relative or someone you went to school with in this age of technology, but are you prepared for the consequences if things go bad?

A decade ago before I really knew what I was doing on the intenet, I went through a website to help me find a relative that had been put up for adoption and with their help I did find him. My family welcomed him into our family with open arms and it seemed like things were going well for a while but sooner or later the real person shows through, they really can't keep up the fake persona for too long and when they start feeling comfortable around you, all the fake falls away and all you have left is the real truth. Sometimes it's not so pretty.

So after years of dealing with the drama, the lies, and the weirdness we all parted ways with him and most of his extended family.

So my advice to anyone looking for old friends, relatives ect... Don't. Not unless you are emotionally prepared to deal with things you never though you'd have to deal with because you don't really know this person. Even if you knew them in high school and got along great with them, were best friends...if it's been a while, they have changed...hell, you have changed and you might not hit it off so well again.

It's something to think about. Do you really want to bring potential drama into your life? Into your families life? Most likely the answer is no.

I know it's easy to find people these days, all you really have to do is Google someones name and you'd most likely be able to find them. That happened to me a while back when an old friend from high school contacted me on FB. Imagine my surprise. After a few months though, things got weird and he got weird and I ended up having to unfriend and block him...people change over time and sometimes not for the better.

So be careful out there...

A Late Christmas Card

I received this in the mail last week. I found it funny. Happy Obamacare...LOL 

Easy Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

I have a bread machine that my mom gave me for my birthday years ago and I love using this thing. Not only does it make really good bread..but I can make fast dough for pizza, cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls. So that's what I did here. I put all the ingredients in my bread machine and let it do all the mixing, then I took it out, rolled it into a 12x12 sheet and put a thin layer of butter all over it. Then mixed 1 cup of sugar with 1Tablespoon of cinnamon and sprinkled that mixture over the butter. I rolled it up and cut into slices. Here's a picture of my first batch.

You have to grease the pan, cover it with plastic wrap and let them rise for about 3 hours or until they double in size.

3 hours later, they have doubled in size. Now I just bake them at 350 for 20 minutes. 

How easy is that? For a homemade icing I mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1 Tablespoon milk and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract and pour over cinnamon rolls. 

Now if these pictures aren't reason enough to buy a Bread Machine, you can also read my article on my top ten reasons like mine. 

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too.

This week I did pretty well and am so excited to read this book. 

I won Wild About You by Kerrelyn Sparks from a giveaway at SOS Aloha blog. *Thanks Kim!* She also sent me the Hawaiian tea. 

I found the links to get the free samples of Folgers coffee and Cream of Wheat at Hey it's Free.

I found the link to get the Jergens lotion sample at Freebie Shark. 

Today I also want to introduce you to another freebie site I found that has great freebie links. It's called Freebie Shark. They have links to great freebie samples too. 

Bagels and Cream Cheese

Bagels and Cream Cheese probably doesn't sound too terribly weird to you and the picture probably looks good to anyone who has ever eaten that. But what if I would you this was a cinnamon bagel and salmon cream cheese?

Still sound good?

Well, that's what it is and I loved it. lol 

No, I'm not pregnant. Ken got us both a bagel the other morning and I used some of the salmon cream cheese he bought for his onion bagel..because I like it.  I wasn't sure it would be good but Bam! Delicious. 

Now I usually have cereal for breakfast, in fact I've had cereal for breakfast pretty much every single day since I was a kid, with a few pancakes, eggs or toaster strudel thrown in every once in a while. But this is my new favorite breakfast. Who knew?

Books I'm Looking Forward To In The New Year

There were a lot of great books that came out in 2012 and I still have a few of them in my wish list yet to read. But I wanted to make sure to put some of the upcoming books that are not yet out in my wish list as well. There are some great books coming out this year that I'm really looking forward to.

I know there are more, and I'll probably have to make another list of them. So what am I missing in my list? What are you looking forward to?

Lucky The Three Legged Rat

My little guy decided to go under the blanket in his cage..he's so small he has no problem getting into the smallest of places. 

Look at that little face. We are going to try and introduce him to the boys in the big two level cage when he gets a little bigger. Right now he's the size of a mouse and the other boys are much bigger than he is.