The Real facts On Marijuana

Taken from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/opinion/a-bad-trip-for-democrats.html?_r=0


TUESDAY’S election was a victory for the marijuana lobby: Colorado and Washington State voted to legalize recreational use, while Massachusetts will now allow doctors to recommend it as medicine.

It’s a movement around which many Democrats have coalesced. In Colorado, legalization was part of the state party’s platform. And last year, in Montana, Republicans voted to overturn the state’s medical marijuana law, but the Democratic governor saved it with a veto.

But Democrats should think twice about becoming the party of pot. I’m a lifelong partisan Democrat, but I’ve also spent 25 years as a doctor treating drug abusers, and I know their games. They’re excellent con artists.

Take, for example, medical marijuana laws. They were sold to more than a dozen states with promises that they’re only for serious illnesses like cancer.

But that’s not how they work in practice. Almost all marijuana cardholders claim they need it for various kinds of pain, but pain is easy to fake and almost impossible to disprove. In Oregon and Colorado, 94 percent of cardholders get their pot for pain. In Arizona, it’s 90 percent. Serious illnesses barely register.

It’s possible that they all really do need pot to help them. But consider this: pain patients are mostly female, whereas a recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that adult cannabis abusers were 74 percent male.

So which one do marijuana patients resemble? Though only two states release data on gender, a vast majority of medical-marijuana cardholders are male. In Arizona, it’s 73 percent, and in Colorado, it’s 68 percent. The best explanation for such skewed numbers is that most medical marijuana recipients are drug abusers who are either faking or exaggerating their problems. No one should support this subterfuge, but especially not Democrats. It turns us into hypocrites. We fumed when President George W. Bush proposed gutting the Clean Air Act and called it the Clear Skies Initiative. That’s no more dishonest than calling pot “medical” when it almost all goes to recreational use.

Indeed, marijuana activists use phony science, just as global warming deniers do. For years they claimed pot was good for glaucoma and never apologized when research found it could actually make glaucoma worse. They still insist weed isn’t addictive, despite every addiction medicine society saying it is.

They’ve even produced their own flawed scientific studies supposedly proving that medical marijuana laws don’t increase use among teenagers, when almost all the evidence says just the opposite. How can Democrats criticize Republicans for disregarding science and making up facts when people on our side do the same?

Democrats know we need government regulation to protect the public from unhealthy products. But the marijuana lobby wants us to distrust two centerpieces of the regulatory state, the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The whole purpose of medical marijuana laws is to evade the regulatory power of these agencies. We’re the political party that got the F.D.A. to regulate tobacco. How can we now say it shouldn’t regulate pot?

Legalization also runs counter to the Democrats’ commitment to education. States with medical marijuana laws have always had much higher rates of teenage marijuana use, but now the effect is nationwide. Since 2008, teenage use has increased 40 percent, and heavy use (at least 20 times a month) is up 80 percent.

Blame the drive to legalize pot. It sends the message that weed is harmless, even though research shows that teenagers who use it regularly do worse in school, are twice as likely to drop out and earn less as adults. Teenage use has been shown to permanently lower I.Q.

No other drug, not even alcohol, affects academic performance like marijuana. How can we make education a focus, and then support laws that will blunt the next generation’s ability to compete?

Legalization would also undermine a successful Democratic program: drug courts, which were written into the 1994 crime bill by Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. They use coercion, the threat of jail, to keep addicts in treatment.

But the marijuana lobby opposes coercion. That’s not surprising. Drug users just want to be left alone to get high. If we side with them, we’re undercutting the Democratic answer to substance abuse.

In effect, America now has two tea parties: on the left they smoke their tea; on the right they throw it in Boston Harbor. Both distrust government, disregard science and make selfish demands that would undermine the public good. But while Republicans have completely caved in to their Tea Party, several Democrats, including the president, are standing up to ours.

Ed Gogek is an addiction psychiatrist and board member of Keep AZ Drug Free, which opposes medical marijuana laws.

__________________

I found this article and had to share it because it says a lot of the things that marijuana users don't want you to know or to think about. I made bold and underlined many of the statements that pot heads don't want you to know about so they would stand out for you.

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone has a great and happy new year. 

I've had good and bad days this year. 

The good... I found out that I'm going to be a grandma.
I adopted 4 new ratty's.
I passed the half a million mark on views on my articles.
I found some great new books.
Made some great new friends.  

The Bad...Had to cut ties with several trouble makers.
Our health isn't as good as it used to be.
Lost my Heart Rat, Jasper.
Also lost my little rat, Brodie. 

I can only hope this next year is better than this year for me and for everyone else.

When Do You Take Down Your Christmas Decorations?

So it's almost Jan.1st and my tree and decorations are still up, the decorations are still up and they'll probably stay up until after New Years Day. Some of my friends took all their decorations down right after Christmas, but I always wait until after New Years Day. It just seems like the festive thing to do, to leave it up. Plus I don't feel like pulling out the boxes and putting everything away yet. lol 

Do you take your down the day after Christmas or are you like me and leave them up for a few days?

$25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed, I will be emailing the winner shortly.

I thought it was time for another giveaway. So this time I am giving away a $25 Amazon gift card. All you have to do to be entered is leave a comment on this post with your email address so I can contact you if you win. I will be mailing this gift card to you, so you'll have to give me your address if you are the winner. This giveaway ends January 8th and I will email the winner on the 9th. The winner will have 24 hours to respond to my email or another will be picked. 

Good luck!

Review: Vons.com Delivery

But that's what I've received twice from Vons.com delivery in the past year. 

Let me explain.

2 years ago we lost out car when the brakes stopped working and a whole host of other reasons. The car was 15 years old and it did last us a really long time, but it just stopped working and it was going to take a lot of money to fix, money we don't have. So to the scrap yard it went. I'm disabled and don't walk well any longer and Ken is terminally ill and is sick quite often, so walking 4 blocks up to the grocery store especially in the 117 F heat of the summer just isn't going to happen.

So we use delivery from Vons.com a couple of times a month. Most of the time what we get is fresh, in reasonably good shape and nothing is wrong with it. But on 3 occasions over the last year I have had problems with some of the groceries I've gotten from them. Recently 3 packages of the meat I bought turned out to be rotten. I knew right away just by looking at it that something wasn't quite right with a package of the steaks. The edges were all a weird gray color and so I opened the package to see if it smelled and you could have killed a maggot with the rank smell coming from those steaks.

I looked at the other packages of meat and saw that two other packages of steaks had the same grey egdes and when I opened those, they smelled as well. 

Now I will say, when I called Vons.com to let them know, they issued a refund for that meat right away. So they did take care of my problem. The only problem with that is now I was down 3 days of dinner and in order to order from vons.com you have to spend at least $50 and then there's the delivery fee but if you spend at least $150.00 you get free delivery. So I could either order another large amount or a smaller amount and pay a delivery free which can be anywhere from $6-$12 depending on if you want it same day, one hour window or buy participating products that lower the delivery charge or get it free if you buy enough from them in one order. 

Two days later I went in the refrigerator and got out the XLNT Tamales that I had just bought, opened the package and put two in a bowl. That's when I noticed a blue tint to one of them. I thought to myself.."No damn way." So I opened the package back up and took out a couple more and sure enough there was mold on 3 of the XLNT Tamales I had just bought 2 days earlier from Vons.com. 

I didn't even bother to call and complain this time, I was just so disgusted I just threw them away.

The very first time I ordered from Vons.com a while back I had my order delivered and checked to see if everything was there. On my receipt there was a large pack of chicken legs that I was charged for, but never got delivered. I called the phone number to complain and they refunded my money right then and there. But that didn't help with the fact that I didn't have the package of chicken legs now. 

There have been other things like giving me a substitution of a product when I mark no substitutions and I end up getting a smaller size that costs more than the product I had picked out. 

For the most part I think they do a really good job getting the orders filled right and when you have a problem they do give you a refund, but from now on I won't be buying any beef from them. For some reason the beef is usually not fresh, it's brown or just plain rotten. I will buy more bulk frozen packs of meat from them. At least that way I know they won't be rotten and when Ken does go to the store he's going to focus more on the meats and I can get the non-perishables from Vons.com. Maybe that way we won't be getting any more rotten meat. 

My New Bathtub Shelf

Ken put my new shelf up in the bathtub and i love it. It holds all of the things that I had crammed in the bathroom closet and it's sturdy. I had tried one of those smaller shelfs that stick to the wall using suction cups...yeah it fell down like every other day. Not nice when you're in the tub and a bottle of body wash falls on your foot. 

And yes before you ask, that is a ratty bed on the bottom shelf. I have to hand wash this bed because it's almost 3 years old and has a couple of holes in it but it's holding up really well. A friend I met on FB made it for my boys and sent it to me all the way from Australia. The boys love it so I hand wash it so it doesn't fall apart. 

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.

Now this is where I usually tell you how many free samples I received and where I got them from, but this week was a slow week and I didn't receive any free samples. *insert sad face here*

But

I do have a funny story to tell you. 

My brother sent Ken and I a 1lb box of See's candy for Christmas. When the box arrived I called him and thanked him, but he said I was supposed to have gotten a 2lb box, but only a 1lb box arrived. So he called See's candy and let them know he was charged for a 2lb box but they only sent out a 1lb box. They said they would fix the order right away and 2 days later I received another box. 

I knew something was different as soon as I opened the box..it was heavier than the first box was. Instead of sending another 1lb box of candy...they sent the original 2lb box they were supposed to have originally sent. So essentially I got a 1lb box of See's candy...for FREE!

*actually my brother got it for free since he paid for it...but it came to me, so it counts as my freebie this week..lol I would have taken a picture of the 1lb box too, but by the time the second box came...the first box was already gone.LOL*

More Ratty Pictures

Fang

Fang came out and wanted some cuddles.

He loves to crawl out onto my arm and lay there getting petted whenever I open the cage door. He's very cuddly for me. I've tried getting him and Ken to be friends but Fang turns away from Ken when he tries to pet him and he bit Ken on the nose a few days ago. 

A friend of mine said that Fang probably sees ken as competition for my affection and that's why he's being aggressive. Makes sense. 

Once he's had enough cuddles, he let me know he wants to get down by reaching for him cage. Smart ratty. 

But for the most part, Fang sits in my arms and cuddles with me. I may need to get a shirt with a large pocket so I can wear him when he wants cuddles. 

Bandit

Bandit is my little goofball. I'm surprised he sat still long enough for me to get even one picture. 

But just look at that little face! He's so full of energy. 

It looks like he's cuddling with me but he's actually digging under my arm, trying to get down. lol 

Ok mom, I sat still and let you take my picture..where's my treat?

Let's go look at the christmas Tree. 

An Open Letter To My Stalker

Dear Sociopath,

I really never wanted this drama, not in a million years did I think it would come to this...but it has. About 6 months ago I stopped communicating with you. I cut you off completely.

I deleted you from my Twitter friends
I deleted you from my Face Book Friends
I deleted you from LinkedIn friends
I did not respond to emails from you
I did not respond to the threatening emails from your uncle
I even deleted anyone associating with you on FB from my friends list

As recent as last month you sent me yet another email that I did not respond to and so did your uncle. Then you added me to your circles on Google+ and I blocked you. Now you are leaving comments on my blog.

Be a man and stop lurking in shadows like some twisted jealous psycho. Only a Jealous, psychotic, malicious narcissist would behave this way.

I can't figure out why you don't get the hint and leave me and my family alone. Why are you bothering me? Are you so unhappy with your own life that you have to try and make everyone around you just as unhappy? Or are you just jealous that I have moved on with my life and you can't seem to do the same? What a sad, sad person you are.

You have been trying to get my attention by email and by spreading half truths to your family in an attempt to get them to send me nasty emails and your uncle has done this. I have not engaged in direct contact with you what so ever. I have not responded to emails and this passive aggressive comment and delete system you have of writing things is ridiculous. But ignoring you isn't working obviously, so let me make it crystal clear for you. Leave me and my family alone. Forget we ever met..I already have. It's been 6 months since I have acknowledged your existence and you are still trying to cause drama with me. It's getting pathological. You need help.

Let me make this very publicly clear to you, since I know you obsessively check my blog...

- do not contact me.
- do not respond to this post to try and defend yourself; no point.
- do not email me
- do not email my family
- do not follow me around and try to see what I am posting online

This blog is public, as is my twitter account… I can’t stop you from reading them. But, I challenge you to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, Why are you here reading this now?

 Cyber stalking is a crime. You might not consider your behavior as “stalking”, but I do. For your sake, I hope you get some professional help.

Merry Christmas!

Fang and I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. 

*He's the only one who would sit still long enough to get a picture with* lol 

Christmas Gifts For Hamster Lovers

*An ornament I bought a few years ago for my Christmas Tree*

Years ago I used to have hamsters as pets instead of rats and wanted to decorate my tree with something to show how much I loved the little guys, so I bought the ornament shown and hung it on my tree each year, I still do. 

Knowing someone that likes hamsters and wanting to get them a gift that shows you understand the love they share for their little pets might seem easy but actually finding a suitable gift can sometimes be hard. So I came up with a few gifts that you can get the hamster owner in your life. 

Christmas Gifts For The Hamster Lover In Your Life

A Funny For You

What Is A Hero

Let me start off by saying I am really sick of all the PC BS (politically correct bull sh*t). I don't rant very often but this has been bothering me so if you aren't ready for a rant that's going to piss a few people off...don't read beyond this point.

I heard the other day on tv that a woman lost her brother and because he was a cop..he was a hero. I felt bad that she lost her brother, I really do but just because he was a cop..he was a hero? really? I don't think so.

I hear it all the time.
Cops are heroes.
Firefighters are heroes.
Soldiers are heroes.

I don't think so. First of all these people volunteer to do these jobs, they sign up, they get trained and they get paid...to do a job. Yes, it might be a more dangerous job but it's a job.

To me a real hero is someone who has no training, doesn't get paid to do it and it isn't there job but they put their own lives on the line to do something for someone else. Like the lady who knows there's a family in the apartment across the street and she goes in the apartment and pulls out an unconscious person from the burning building. She is a hero. She didn't have safety gear on, she wasn't trained to do this, she wasn't getting paid to do her job, she didn't volunteer to take care of situations like this..she did it because she knew if she didn't no one else was going to be able to do it in time to save that person.

So think about that the next time someone calls another person a hero. Were they really a hero...or were they just getting paid to do a job they were trained for and new was dangerous.

Rat Redecorating

So the big cube I bought for the boys has been...redecorated. 

More like shredded. lol 

As you can see the boys have decided they didn't like it the way it was. 

So they made changes to it. This is the bottom back of the cube. There's now a huge hole in it. 

And another hole on the side bottom. I guess they wanted more doors. 

And they have chewed around all four corners. 

It's barely hanging together. Good thing I have several more hammocks to put up when this finally falls apart. 

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's freebies are all brought to you from Hey It's Free. They had links to these freebies on their site.

This week I received a sample of Aveeno shampoo and Conditioner and a 4 pack sample of Cepacol Sore Throat Relief. 

While these free samples are probably not available any longer because the free samples go fast and they take anywhere from 6-8 weeks to get them after filling out the request form, there are other free samples still available. 

We're Still Here

Well looks like the Mayan calendar was wrong. Maybe now people will stop freaking the hell out and shut up about the mayan calendar of doom. The aliens coming back to earth to reclaim us, the zombie apocalypse, the comets hitting us , the world tilting on its axis, the meteor shower that the government isn't telling us about, the super volcano sending us into a new ice age. I'm just sick of hearing about all this doom and gloom. Just wait, they'll be another 'end of the world' day soon enough and everyone can freak out over nothing once again.

Grandma Got Molested At The Airport

Would be funnier if it wasn't so true....

I have a new Hot 500 badge on my Yahoo Contributor profile

    
I just got a notification that I have a Hot 500 badge on my Contributor profile again. There are over 20,000 Freelance Writers on this site so to be in the top 500 is pretty awesome. The Hot 500 and Hot 100 badges are based upon the page views you receive on your articles for that month.

Please visit my profile page to read my articles and see my new Hot 500 badge. isn't it pretty?

Santa Is A UPS Man

I found this youtube video while playing around and thought it was too funny not to share. My UPS guy knows me by name and always knocks and waits for me me to answer the door to give me my package. He's such a nice guy.

Gun Control, Crazies and Mental Illness

Two posts in one day, ridiculous right? I could have saved this post for another day but this has been on my mind for a few days, ever since that psycho went on a shooting spree and people starting raising their voices about harsher gun control.

Yes, this does happen every single time there's a tragedy like this one. But is gun control or harsher gun laws really a bad idea? I don't think so.

Those countries that have gun control laws, less guns available to their citizens have seen less killings by guns. It's a simple fact. Just look up the statistics, they are right there for anyone to see. They exist and are fact, not something someone is making up.

Do I think that it should be darn hard to get a gun? Yes, I do. The 2nd amendment needs to be changed because not everyone should be able to have a gun.

If you have a mental illness...you should not have a gun.
If you have someone in your home who has a mental illness...you should not have a gun.
If you have ever threatened someone with a gun...you should not be able to have a gun.
If you drink alcohol...you should not be able to have a gun.
If you smoke pot, I don't care if it's medical pot...you should not be able to have a gun.
If you have kids in your home under the age of 18, you should not be able to have a gun.
If you have EVER threatened suicide or homicide...you don't get a gun even if you aren't under a psychiatrists care.

It does not matter to me if you are a Veteran and want a gun. If you have any mental problems at all, you should not have one.

In order to have a gun you should have to pass a psychological test. If you are found to have weird thoughts and can't pass it..you don't get to take the test again, you don't pass go, you don't collect $200, you don't ever get a gun.

You should have to take a class on gun safety and pass the test. If you can't pass the test...you don't get a gun.

You should have to have gun locks, a gun safe and there should be random inspections where the police come to inspect how you are storing your guns. If you are found to have them out where someone else can get at them, they aren't locked up or are accessible to children...you should lose your guns for good.

 The federal government could close the gun-show loophole, which allows unlicensed dealers to sell used guns without conducting background checks on buyers. It could enhance the background-check system to search more thoroughly for evidence of mental illness. It could ban assault weapons, or weapons with large magazines that are only useful if one intends to kill a lot of human beings very quickly.

You should have to have a reason to have a gun...work for instance. They should not be given out to just anyone.

Yes, I realize that guns don't kill people...people kill people but some of those people were holding guns to do it. Why not make it harder for the bad guys. Get rid of the guns. Change the 2nd amendment.

I also want to say that not all people with mental illness are going to go off the deep end and go off on a killing spree. It's not fair to lump everyone who has any kind of mental illness in with people like that guy who killed all those kids. It takes a special kind of scumbag to be able to do something like that.

I have my own reasons for feeling the way I do. One reason is when I was 12 years old my mom's boyfriend shot himself in the head, right in front of me. But not before I thought he was going to kill me and he told me that it was all my fault. I was told by my grandparents not to tell anyone what I had seen, so I lived with that until I was 18 and finally had a mental breakdown.

About a year later my mom took the same gun that her boyfriend had killed himself with, got drunk and shot a bullet into the adjoining wall between our bedrooms. The bullet landed 6 inches above my head in the wall I was leaning on in my bedroom. The gun was taken away from her when I called the police but no charges were filed against her.

I have a mentally ill, pot smoking, alcoholic family member that last year got drunk and high and went on a bit of a rampage. He pistol whipped a person in a store, threatened another person at a bar and then turned the gun on his own wife and shot the wall near her. He's out of jail and awaiting trial.

There's the argument that if guns aren't available the bad guys will find something else to use. Fine, let them find something else. More people are afraid of guns, but if they see someone trying to stab others with a knife, someone might stop the person and not as many people might die.

I've also heard the argument that if gun laws are made more stricter that only the bad guys will have the guns. I don't believe that to be true. Once the gun laws are there, anyone found to be in possession of a gun who doesn't have a permit to have one, should have it taken away. A lot of the guns will eventually get off the streets.

But this is just my opinion....

It's a Christmas Tree...not a Holiday Tree

I think the politically correct BS has got to stop. Our tree's were called Christmas Tree's for a very long time and even people who didn't celebrate the holiday let their kids be in the school productions and sing Christmas songs, have Christmas parties, decorate their classrooms for Christmas and do Christmas crafts...because it was fun for the kids. 

Now because of a few and I do mean few people none of those things happen for kids anymore in most school's and that's damn sad. 

The funny thing is I'm not even Christian. For a very long time I considered myself to be Wiccan but after my mom passed away, things just didn't make sense anymore and I lost what little bit of faith I had for anything and now consider myself Agnostic and have for the past year. 

But I don't think it matters what faith you are when it comes to this type of thing. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Just because a few people have a problem with what some of the religious holidays stand for, especially Christmas..they have made it their mission to make sure the rest of us have a hard time celebrating in the way we always have. 

I even know a few Athiests and other Agnostics that celebrate Christmas because their kids want to. Their kids would feel bad if their family didn't have a tree like everyone else did and they didn't hand out presents like their friends did, so their parents have the Christmas tree, the decorations and presents because it makes their kids happy. 

So what's wrong with that? Nothing...that's what.

I'm not changing the way I celebrate Christmas or say Merry Christmas to people just because a few idiots have it in their minds to make everyone feel bad because they do so. You know you can't go into some stores and wish the employee's a Merry Christmas because if they say it back to you they can get fired. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. 

No matter what your religion/faith is...if it's a holiday just wish everyone a merry day. 

If it's Christmas, wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

If it's Kwanzaa, just wish everyone a Happy Kwanzaa. 

If it's Hanukkah, wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah.

If it's Yule, wish everyone a Happy Yule. 

If it's the Winter Solstice, just wish everyone a Happy Winter Solstice. 

How hard is that? 

Yahoo Contributor Network

*My rat Ares*

Most of you already know I'm a Freelance writer and write for the Yahoo Contributor Network. I mainly write about small animal care, but did you know that you could write for them too?

My profile.

I don't have any specialized training or anything like that, I just have a passion for the subjects that I write about. If you are like me and also have a passion for a certain subject and wanted to write articles about it, all you have to do is sign up for an account and start writing. Of course not everyone is going to be accepted and there are guidelines, rules ect. But once you learn what they are looking for, you might be able to get paid for writing about subjects you like. 

Want to check it out? 

Yahoo Contributor Network 

And here's the FAQ's page. 

Do Hamsters Hibernate?

*My hamster Chance eating some pumpkin pie.*

I was thinking back on all the animals I've had over the years because I was trying to come up with an idea for an article and nothing was coming to me. So I started looking through old pictures and remembered that back when I was a teenager I had hamsters that I didn't have photos of and one particular hamster gave me the scare of my life. 

I had a Syrian hamster named Crystal when I was 14 years old. We lived in California and when the fog rolled in, it could get quite cool in the mornings. Well, I didn't know that if a hamster gets cold sometimes they will go into hibernation mode and Crystal did. So I thought I would share what happened with Crystal.

Why Do Some Hamster Hibernate

I was 14 years old and my brother and I had 2 Syrian hamsters. My very first hamsters. I named mine Crystal and found out much later that Crystal was actually a boy...but I kept his name Crystal because I was 14 and it didn't make any sense to me to change his name. We got the hamsters from a neighbor who no longer wanted them and after a while I was the one to take care of both hamsters because my brother lost interest, but I didn't. 

One cold morning, I went over to Crystals cage and he wasn't moving, I tried to share my cereal with him like I did most mornings, but he had passed away...at least I thought he had. Imagine my surprise while I was sitting there holding his limp body in my hands, crying my eyes out...he moved!

It was really slowly at first and I had no idea what was going on and neither did my mom. So I wrapped him in a little dish towel and warmed him up because that's the only thing I could think to do and after about an hour, he was up walking around again. He was slowly walking around but he was walking. I put him back in his cage with the dish towel and he slept for a while and when I got home from school and went to his cage I saw he was breathing and sleeping so I waited until that night when he usually woke up to see if he would come out to play, which he did and he seemed fine. 

I didn't find out until recently that hamsters will sometimes go into a hibernation mode if the the temperatures drop suddenly and that's what must have happened with him. 

Pictures of the new rats

Bandit and Fang wondering where the yogi's are. 

Fang eating a bit of rice.

Marbles getting up close and personal with the camera.

Marbles cleaning his face.

Patches playing tug of war with my camera strap. 

Bandit eating some rice. 

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's freebies are all brought to you from Swagbucks. I turned in some of my Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards and bought these books with it.

So this week I got Hard Mated and Mate Claimed by Jennifer Ashley and Heart of Atlantis by Alyssa Day. 

I've been reading both of these series since the first books and if you aren't reading them you are missing out...seriously missing out because these series are awesome!

Pregnancy Complications

*A picture of my daughter the day she was born*

WARNING!
This post is very graphic and contains information of a surgical procedure and medical aftercare. If this type of information makes you queasy, you might not want to read this post. 

After Kate Middleton made headline news because of her pregnancy complications, the site I write for Yahoo Contributor Network, asked some mom's to write about their pregnancy complications...so I did. 

My Personal Pregnancy Complication Story

In my article I had to cut a lot of things out because of the word count requirements for this article, things like me having morning noon and night sickness for a full 9 months and not being able to stand for more than 5 minutes the entire 9 months without either fainting or vomiting and being 2 weeks over due and given a Pitocin IV to make me go into labor, which didn't work for me and they sent me home. They talked about scheduling a C-section if I didn't go into labor within the next few days but the next day I did go into labor. 

For 12 hours I had contractions on and off every 30 minutes and then every hour and finally every 10 minutes. When my husband go off of work we took our bag and headed for the hospital but made a detour on the way and stopped at 7-11 so he could get a pack of cigarettes *yeah I never let him live that down* and that's when the really hard contractions hit me and started coming every 5 minutes apart. 

When we got to the hospital I could barely make it up to Labor and Delivery because every couple of minutes I was bent over in pain and when a hard contraction hits you, you can hardly breathe, let alone walk. 

Once I got up to my room and was set up in bed, they had to break my water because it hadn't broken and that's when things went from bad to worst. The fluid when your water breaks it supposed to be clear...mine wasn't it was dark brown because of the Meconium. 

Meconium is the earliest stools of a mammalian infant. Unlike later feces, meconium is composed of materials ingested during the time the infant spends in the uterus and is the first thing to end up in their diapers after they are born. My daughter's first Meconium ended up in the placenta with her and she aspirated it, which sent the bells and whistles off on the machines as her oxygen dropped dramatically and I was told I needed to have a Cesarean. 

I was prepped for the surgery and was given a Spinal shot of anesthetic instead of the usual Epidural. With an epidural the tube is left in your back much like an IV and they slowly give you the medicine, but they wanted me numb right away so I was give a Spinal anesthetic where nothing is left in your back, that took effect right away and lasted for hours. I think the anesthetic they gave me to numb the area before the Spinal hurt way more than the Spinal itself. Lidocaine burns as it goes in and that's what they inject you with most time for stitches or if you're having a biopsy. 

The one thing I didn't like was when I was laid down on the table, they strapped my hands out on the bars of the table. They said so I didn't move or try to pull anything during the surgery, but it was still scary. 

After they got my daughter out, she had two seizures because of lack of oxygen due to aspirating meconium, but after several tests they told me she was fine..and she was. 

But because of the meconium, my cesarean incision became infected and my husband had to learn how to pack it with gauze and rip it out three times a day until it healed...which took a month. The procedure is to wet several pieces of gauze, enough to fully pack the incision *mine was deep enough for Ken to put his entire hand down into* dip the gauze into sterile water and pack the incision then put a large piece of gauze over the opening and secure it with surgical tape. Then three times a day after the gauze has dried on the infected areas, you slowly rip it off the exposed flesh, the infected flesh gets ripped off with the gauze. 

This hurts like you can't even imagine. 

Imagine you have a deep cut and you have to let a piece of gauze dry to the red, fleshy, exposed flesh under the skin and rip it out several times a day until it heals. Yeah, not fun. 

I wasn't sure if I would have as hard a time with another pregnancy and I didn't want to chance it, so I only had the one child and once the terrible two's started..I knew I had made the right choice. LOL 

Now my daughter is pregnant and her pregnancy was the total opposite of mine, she didn't hardly even have any morning sickness. Glad she's having such an easy pregnancy. 

My Christmas Tree

We finally put the Christmas Tree up the other day. Yes, I have a fake white tree. I like it though. 

It's been years since we had a real tree, but I've always wanted a white tree and now we have one. If I want that real tree smell...I'll get a candle. lol 

My Santa, he's 2 ft' tall. 

My little snowman candles. 

So do you have a real or fake tree? How do you get that real tree smell if you have a fake one? I love some of the candles that smell like real tree's, there's also the air freshener. 

Pressure Cooker

Pressure Cooker lid. It has a safety valve and emergency release valve. 

I bought a large pressure cooker so I can cook even really big roasts. 

I bought a pressure cooker a while back because I watch Iron Chef America and see them using pressure cookers on that show all the time. I figured I could buy those tough, cheap, hard to cook and get done and still be able to chew it roasts-done and able to eat. I was right. I bought a couple of those cheap as hell and tough to chew when cooked chuck roasts and put those suckers in the pressure cooker for 45 minutes.

To the pressure cooker pot I added:
1 cup of chunky salsa
salt and pepper
4 carrots, cut in half
1/2 yellow onion cut into large pieces
1 tsp liquid smoke
3 cups water

Cook on med/high for 45 minutes so that the pressure cooker steam valve is making a little noise and slightly swaying back and forth. Take off of burner and let sit for 15 minutes until safety valve releases and you can open the lid. I served mine over steamed rice.

I know some people are still scared to buy a pressure cooker because of the horror stories they've heard from their mothers and grandmothers. But these new pressure cookers are not going to blow up on you. They have several safety features built in and an emergency release valve. I love mine.

Photobomb!

I was snapping pictures of my new boys and while I was trying to take one of Patches in the background...Fang stuck his head in front there. Too funny not to make a poster from the picture. 

Why I don't Go To The Theatre

I know there are some good movies out right now and I do want to see the latest Twilight movie but I will be waiting until it comes out On Demand so I can watch it in the comfort of my own living room.

Why?

Because I don't like sitting in a theater with a bunch of rude people and that's what usually ends up happening. Some teenager or kid will be kicking the back of my chair, while others are crunching and munching open mouth style on their popcorn and nachos. And there will invariable be a few people who have their cell phones on and the lights will be visible throughout the theater.

Yeah, so I'll wait until it comes out On Demand and I can order it for $5.99 and not have to pay another $8.00 for a popcorn and $4.00 for a small coke. I'll have some coffee and a donut and watch my sparkly vampires and anyone who doesn't like the movie can bite me. lol

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. 

I won a book from a blog contest. I won Untamed By Sara Humphreys from a blog contest at The Qwillery. 

I received a sample of BB cream and Pantene mousse for hair and I found the link for these free samples at Hey it's Free. 

I received a full sized box of Advil Congestion Relief from Smiley360. All you have to do to get free samples like this is sign up for an account.

I received a full sized bottle of Afrin from BzzAgent. If you sign up for an account you may be able to get free products too. 

Rats Form Bonds

These are two of my new boys, this is Patches and Fang and they are bonded to one another. Where you find one, the other is always very close. They always sleep together and are almost always lying on top or right next to one another. If one jumps down to get something to eat, the other follows. They groom each other, share food from the same area and keep each other company. If you ever wondered if rats feel love or affection...now you know they do. They feel affection for each other and can show their human that they care when they groom you, lick you and cuddle with you. 

These are just some of the reasons I feel rats make great pets. 

Great Christmas Gifts For Rat Lovers

Ever since getting that $25 gift card to Zazzle.com and picking out the little rat mug pictured above, I've been thinking about what would make great Christmas gifts for people who like rats. There are many cute and thoughtful gifts that have a ratty theme to them but people who don't often look for such things might have a hard time finding them, so I wrote an article that you can find here to help you with your shopping this year. 

I will tell you that I got one of the ideas from a fellow blogger, Confession of The Hockman Girl and her blog post, Making a Memory Ornament. 

I think making a memory ornament of your pets paw print is a wonderful idea and the kits available to do this are inexpensive, and easy to make. So thank you for the great idea :)

The Funny Things That Rats Do

One of my new boys, Fang...likes to hang on the bars of his cage...by his teeth. I didn't know what he was doing actually until I stopped to watch him and saw him hook his top front teeth over a bar, relax his body and go to sleep. That's right, Fang fell asleep hanging from the bar of the cage from his teeth. And he does this all the time. 

He doesn't bite the bars, it's more like he moves his mouth a little bit on the bars until he finds the right spot, then he stops and his little body relaxes and he hangs there...sleeping. Now this is something new to me, I've never seen a rat so this before so I looked at his teeth wondering if something was wrong with them and they were bothering him. Nope, they look fine...nice and yellow, strong and long. 

His eyes are almost closed in this picture and he's just resting his teeth on the bars. I'm finding this fascinating. 

It must be relaxing and comfortable for him to do this, I can't think of another reason why he would do it. He sure is cute though.