I May Be Deleting This Blog

So today a friend of mine sent me a link to another blog where I read it can get me in trouble if I post pictures without getting permission from the owner first..Ok, so my blog is heavy heavy with pictures and that's what my blog is like most posts. I have a picture and either make fun of it or love it.

But if I can get in trouble even sued for posting the pictures, I'll have to take them down. That's a lot of posts and a lot of pictures. I just don't know if it would be worth it to me to keep the blog if I have to do that.

Anyway, here's a link to the blog post I am talking about. Post Pictures and Get Sued...

So what do you guys think? should I just delete a bunch of posts and it would be hundreds or just delete my blog and start over?

Freebie Friday

So after a couple of weeks with no freebies to share I got these two things in the mail this week. Milk Bone Trail mix dog snacks. 

Prilosec OTC sample. 

My rats liked the doggie trail mix and the tiny Milk Bones are just the right size for them. Tiny rat sized dog bones..lol 

I Won Second place in The Kick Butt First Line contest!

This year Jaime Rush held a contest called The Kick Butt First Line Contest, and when I heard about it I thought it would be a lot of fun to think up a great first line for a book and throw my hand in the pot to win...I didn't expect to place in the top three at all. But I won 2nd place! You can see the other entries by clicking this link.
The Kick Butt First Line Contest!

I won a signed book and a $25 gift card. I'm a pretty happy camper right now.

Presidio Social Club Still Serving foie gras

I read recently that The Presidio Social Club in San Francisco has found a way to serve foie gras even though there's a ban on the stuff where this restaurant is located.
The article is located on Yahoo..

I have a real problem with this and am in support of the ban on foie gras. I thought it didn't happen soon enough and more states should really take this stand as well. The reason for the ban is that the ducks and geese that the foie gras comes from are treated inhumanely and abused, force fed and most times hurt or damaged in the force feeding process.

Just go to you tube and look up any videos on foie gras force feeding. I'm not going to post any of those vile videos here because they are sickening, but they are there for those who don't believe this is happening.

The owner of the Presidio Social Club has said that he found a loop hole in the law and ban and plans on serving foie gras...because he can. He doesn't care that there is a ban for a reason, that animals are being mistreated and abused just so he can serve duck liver and make a little more money.

It's all about greed with him.

So I say, let's him in where it will hurt the most. In his wallet.

Stop going to his restaurant. Tell others to stop going there. Tweet it, post bad reviews on Yelp, blog about it, send him emails, write to him and tell him how he lost more customers. Overwhelm their email, fb, twitter and phone with people calling and writing to them and maybe he will think twice about this. This establishment already had a lot of bad 1 star reviews on yelp. Lets write more.

You can reach him any of these ways, and I've supplied links to where you can write to him below. Please don't let this go on. Let him know that you don't approve of this and let's stop the abuse and inhumane treatment of these innocent animals.

Presidio Social Club
563 Ruger St, (near Lombard Gate, in the Presidio)
San Francisco, CA 94129
(415) 885-1888

Yelp- Write a 1 star review if you have an account here.

Facebook

Twitter

Marla McLaughlin / Account Supervisor
Wagstaff Worldwide, Inc.
p. 415.274.2510 | f. 415.274.2515
e: marla@wagstaffworldwide.com

R.I.P. Brodie

My little rat Brodie passed away at 4:30 this morning. Elizabeth came in and woke Ken and I up this morning and said he was acting strange. I went and sat over by the cage and Brodie walked over to me, layed down, took and couple of breaths while I petted him and then just gently passed away. I don't know if he had a heart attack or what but it happened so fast. Rest well my little guy.

Brodie sharing my yogurt with me.

Play hard at the Rainbow Bridge and give Jasper a snuggle from Mommy.

How Things Used To Be

How Things Used To Be

Hi friends, I don't know who wrote this article and some of it may not be accurate but it is still interesting...

Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children - last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, rats, and bugs) lived in the roof.

When it rained it became slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (the straw left over after threshing grain) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more and more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. To prevent this, a piece of wood was placed in the entrance way - hence a "thresh hold."

They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite awhile, -- hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach on to the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers (a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl). Often trenchers were made from stale bread that was so old and hard that they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, "the upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up hence, the custom of holding a "wake."

England is old and small and they started out running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell.

Thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered "a dead ringer." And that's the truth.

Who said that History is boring!?

Medical Marijuana Use

When I get upset about something I usually write it out, that's how I deal with things. Well right now I am dealing with a family member who obviously needs more mental help that he is getting and is using "Medical Marijuana" as his crutch, which even by his own words and actions isn't helping him to live the life he wants.

He says he has PTSD, TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and Anxiety disorder and is using marijuana as a way to deal with these things and the symptoms that go along with them.

I will tell you before anything else that I have been dealing with PTSD, depression and anxiety disorder since I was 12 years old. I had something happen to me when I was 12 where for a few minutes I thought someone with a gun was going to kill me, but instead he turned the gun on himself and shot himself in the head...right in front of me but not before telling me what he was about to do was all my fault.

I am telling you this not to shock you but so you see I have been dealing with a real PTSD issue for a very long time, I spent years in therapy and years on antidepressants and anxiety medications before things got even a little better. Things aren't going to get better as fast as you want them to but that doesn't mean you give up and start medicating yourself to numb the pain instead of dealing with the problem.

PTSD is an anxiety disorder with many symptoms including chronic pain, nausea, tremors, palpitations, mood swings, sleep problems, confusion, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome. Smoking, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, depression and suicide attempts all contribute to serious mental and physical health consequences for individuals with PTSD.  Common mental health symptoms include Major Depressive Disorder, anxiety disorders and can lead to substance abuse.

There's actually some research that suggests that marijuana exacerbates and heightens trauma symptoms making treatment even more difficult. Use of marijuana for PTSD would be like drinking to numb the symptoms. Marijuana is not a treatment because it does not result in improvement over time where the person using it could recover and stop using it like one would see with therapy and use of antidepressants and anxiety medicines.

Instead, the use of marijuana only delays or avoids all together the healing for the reason that the person has the mental problems to begin with. People with PTSD, anxiety and other mental problems need medical and psychological treatment that deals with the core of the problems. The feelings you get from marijuana, the high and the feeling of relaxation and distracted does nothing to correct the problem, it only prolongs it.  In my opinion instead of using marijuana to deal with their mental disorders, what a person would benefit from is extensive trauma therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and Somatic Experience (Which is reliving and then resolving the the trauma that has caused the PTSD)

Anything else is just creating more addicts over time with their trauma problems still there for them to deal with.

I believe we should leave marijuana where it is..a Class l controlled narcotic as indicated and regulated by the DEA. The long term effects of chronic use are as follows: Chronic marijuana users remain impaired even after when they are not actually intoxicated. Some of the impairments include: attention deficits, memory and ability to process complex information and can last for months after someone stops using marijuana. Whether there is permanent cognitive impairment has not been documented but the withdrawal effects have been and is very similar to that of alcohol withdrawal, clearly demonstrated in controlled studies in both animal and human. Withdrawal symptoms include, body tremors, restlessness , insomnia, anxiety, increased aggression and anorexia.

The high after smoking comes on within minutes and can last for up to 2 hours. It's not surprising that the overwhelming reason given by marijuana users is 'pleasure' for their use of it. However, marijuana use can also produce other reactions like, anxiety, paranoia, psychosis, panic, severe anxiety and is seen more in people suffering from mental health problems such as panic disorders and the psychologically vulnerable.

The person who uses this in my family says he forgets things and can't think clearly because of his TBI, but marijuana use can cause all the symptoms he is referring to including impairing cognitive functions from basic motor skill coordination to more complex executive function tasks such as the ability to plan, organize, solve problems, make decisions, remember, and control emotions and behavior. Understanding how marijuana use impairs executive function is important. People with marijuana related impairment in executive functions have been found to have difficulty learning and applying the skills required for successful recovery, putting them at increased risk for relapse to more marijuana use and never getting the help they need to deal with the core problems they have.

PTSD is a serious illness but being 'High' isn't a cure and never will be.

The reason I wrote this is because I have a family member who had a stroke and is in the hospital, my other family member-her husband... isn't able to go and see her in the hospital for days on end because he says he is having panic attacks, cannot drive because he is not in a good way (non specific) but he was fine enough to make a video on youtube about his marijuana smoking and even show himself smoking marijuana from a bong on youtube for everyone to see. He says in the video that the VA doctors wanted him on 13 different medications but with the marijuana he has dropped that number down to 5 and he smokes marijuana everyday.

My thoughts on this are, if he cannot pull it together long enough to go see his wife in the hospital after a stroke for several days at a time, he should have nothing to do with her rehab and after care. If he's having anxiety attacks and cannot drive and needs to think of himself first and is not in a good enough place mentally to help his wife by just being there in the hospital room with her a few hours each day...then how in the world is he going to care for her needs during rehabilitation therapy, going to and from doctors, having to deal with home health care people, and everything for the foreseeable future that is going to have to be dealt with for his wifes care? He cannot.

Maybe if he were taking the antidepressants, anxiety medications and other meds that the doctors want him to take he wouldn't be having so many anxiety problems. He says the marijuana is helping but how is it helping? He isn't even able to drive himself to the hospital to visit someone, let alone trust himself to care for that person when they get out. Obviously the marijuana isn't helping as much as he thinks it is. But that's an addict for you.

Like I said, I have PTSD, I have a severe anxiety disorder so much so that for months on end I don't go outside..at all. Before my mom passed away it had been a year since I had stepped outside my front door. But let me tell you something. When my mom fell and broke her hip...I went to the hospital. I was there with my younger brother when she woke up from surgery and I went every damn day after that. I took my anxiety medications and after the visit if I had too, I threw up in the parking lot before coming home. I had panic attacks, I had to vomit several times while visiting my mom in the hospital for those days, I had headaches and the shakes...but I did the right thing and went up there. You pull on your big girl panties and deal with it.

And I did the same the time before that when my mom fell down and broke her knee. I was at the hospital and afterwards when she went to a rehab place I went up there at least 4 times a week. I was taking care of her dog at her house, paying her bills, picking up her mail, cleaning her house, and stayed with her for 2 weeks after she got home. Yes, I was anxious, had problems but like I said...you find a way to deal with it when you have to. I made myself go to my mom's funeral last year because it was the right thing to do even though I was shaky and anxious.

I don't go outside right now but if an emergency came up, I would find a way to deal with it until the emergency was over and then cry for an hour, have a massive headache, deal with the shakes after it was over, and probably have to vomit a few times while dealing with the emergency but I would deal with it because that's the right thing to do.

Oh and before you jump me for stating some of the things I have..I didn't pull all this information out of my ass, I actually looked it up on websites and stuff. You can find my sources down below.
You can also find an article I wrote here: How I Live With Clinical Depression

Sources:
Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine.

National Institute of Mental Health (2012)

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Statistics. Retrieved from the National Institute of Mental Health Website: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/1ad_ptsd_adult.shtml

http://www.emdr.com/general-information/what-is-emdr.html

http://www.traumahealing.com/somatic-experiencing/index.html

Heather C. Ashton, FRCP, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psycho pharmacology

The British Journal of Psychiatiatry (2001) Actions of Cannabis in Humans

I'm Gonna Be A Grandma!

I had to wait until certain family members knew the news before I could tell others but now that everyone knows..I can tell you that I'm gonna be a grandmother! My daughter is about 7 weeks pregnant and we are thinking she will be due sometime in February. My birthday is in February so that could be interesting. lol 

I'm already bookmarking baby things and putting baby things in my wishlist on Amazon. lol 

Oh and my nephew who has a 17 year old girlfriend and they are having a baby...we all just found out that on saturday night they went to the Justice of the Peace and got married in secret. his parents (My brother and his ex wife) found out later that night after they did it. They are not happy to say the least. 

So my brother and I are going to be grandparents around the same time next year...oh boy. 

Freebie Friday

I did get a couple of samples this week.


This week I received:
Shampoo and Conditioner from Clear Scalp and Hair Therapy.

Tresemme Shampoo and Conditioner.

Both samples were found on Hey It's Free.

To Post or Not To Post...

I've got a little rant today because even though I posted something about it on fb last week, I still see it going on and it's still bothering me.

I just love how some people will post all their lives intimate details on the Internet and then get mad...when someone has the nerve to comment on it. The nerve! If you don't want the things you do in your life to be scrutinized and commented on...don't put it on the Internet. You whiny asshats are the drooling goobers of the Internet world and should have your Internet privileges taken away permanently.

If for instance you don't want people telling you that you are doing something wrong after you post pictures of yourself passed out that your kids took of you after you have fun binging on alcohol, then maybe you shouldn't post those pictures.

You cannot say something controversial about your life, the way you live it or what you've done or plan to do and think that no one is the whole wide Internet is going to have a problem with it and maybe even voice a concern or call you an idiot. If you can't handle being called out for your dumb-assed sharing then please feel free not to post those types of things.

Most times I think these types of people post controversial things to see how many comments they can get telling them they are idiots just so they feel righteous in playing the victim and I for one won't fall for it. You are not a victim, you are an idiot.

Finding An Adopted Loved One

These two brothers and I have the same mother. The one on the right making the face is the older brother who had been adopted and I found a few years ago. 

I found out I had another older brother when I was 12 years old. My mom was talking to her boyfriend about him and I overheard and asked her about it later. When I got older I wanted to find him and even though I really had no idea where to start, I started calling people with his name in the phone book for the state we thought he lived in.

It didn't pan out and I dropped trying to find him for a few years until I got my first computer and started searching online. Even then it was hard and I wasn't having much luck until I started finding websites that you and the adopted person can register at and when they see a match they contact you. That's what happened to me.

In 2004 I registered at a site called The International Soundex Reunion Registry (ISRR) and I had a whole bunch on info on my brother so it was fairly easy to make a match with him since he had registered years before with his information.

I knew his adopted parents names, where and when he was born and his birth mom's name. I didn't know that he had spent many years searching for us as well.

I got a call from a lady at ISRR telling me she thought she had found him and was going to be sending letters to the last known address she had on file. They came back because he had moved. So she looked him up on the computer and found some of the other addresses he had lived at and sent out more letters. They all came back undeliverable because he had either not left a forwarding address or had moved from the address more than a year before and they only forward mail for a year.

One day she called me and told me we had one more chance to find him but I would have to send this letter myself. If you have a person's date of birth, parents names their full name and $10, back then you could send a letter to DMV and they would see if that person had a drivers license in their state and forward the letter to them. I don't know if California DMV does this anymore, I couldn't find a link for it. The lady at ISRR sent me the link way back when I did this.

I was warned that the letter I wrote to him had to be very benign. I couldn't say Hi, I'm your long lost sister. For whatever reason if the DMV reads the letter and thinks it would be upsetting... or anything but Hey, I'm trying to get in touch with you, here's my number...call me...   they won't forward it.

So I wrote the letter saying Hi, What my name was. My mother's name and that we were trying to get a hold of him would he please give me a call. And I left my phone number.

It was about 2 weeks later that I started to think that I wasn't going to get a response. The lady at ISRR was calling me just about everyday asking me if I had heard anything yet, she was so nice and supportive.  All this time, I hadn't told my mother that I was looking for my brother. I wasn't sure what I was going to do if I found out he was in jail, had died or was a dead beat. I'm not sure I would have told her if he had died, I think that might have been too much for her. So I kept it a secret until one day about 17 days after I had sent the letter to DMV..I got a call. It was my brother's wife. She asked me why I had sent such a strange letter to her husband. The funny thing was, she thought I was an old girlfriend trying to get a hold of him. lol

I explained to her who I was and why I had worded the letter the way I had and once she realized who she was talking to, she got all excited and told me that my brother was active Army and was in Iraq. She told me she usually just put all his mail in a box for him to open in a few months when he got home, but my letter was so unusual she had to call and find out who the heck I was. So I was very happy I had worded it so mysteriously.

Just then she got another call and told me it was my brother. She put me on hold gave him my number and he called me a few minutes later. We didn't talk for very long but we exchanged email addresses so we could email each other later. After I got off the phone I took a deep breath and called my mom. I just said, "I found him." She knew exactly who I was talking about and she started crying. She asked me all kinds of questions but when she found out he was in the Army and deployed in Iraq, she got scared thinking he could be killed before she had a chance to meet him.

We emailed back and forth for a while and my mom came over and I showed her all his pictures he had on the computer and printed out some for her, let her read all the emails we had shared and dictated an email from her while she was here to him and sent it. It was mostly emails because phone time wasn't available too often.

He was sent home in 2004 after being injured and a little while later he and his wife made the trip out here from California and we all got to meet for the first time. He's nuts, just like the rest of my family, so he fit right in really well. lol Like I've always said...crazy runs in my family. He and his wife divorced soon after but a few years later he met another lady and married her.

I'm just glad that I was able to find him before our mom passed away last year. 8 years isn't a lot of time to get to know someone, but they got a lot of memories in those 8 years and I'm glad about that. I know that finding him really mended a hole that was left in my mom's heart. 

So if you're looking for an adopted family member, there are places out there that can help and ISRR is just one of them. Good luck in your search.

Fine Art

My mom used to tell me and my brothers that when she died she had specific pictures that she wanted each of us to have. My younger brother got a picture of a man and woman on a beach at sunset, my older brother got a pretty picture with the "Foot Prints" poem on it...and I got this.


This painting by Bernard Wynne has been in my family since I was a little kid and both my brother's were happy that I got it and wanted it, because they hate it. lol It was at my grandma's house for years and then my mom got it and now I have it. My husband hates it, he says it's ugly as heck, which is why it's hanging up in our bedroom where he doesn't have to look at it. lol


But for some odd reason I've always liked this painting. I remember telling my mom when I was real little that I thought it was her in the green dress and later I used to call it the Celery dress picture because it kinda looks like she's wearing a bunch of celery. lol


It's old, faded and so many shades of an ugly green that it's hard to find a place it would look good, but I like it. I've looked online for other painting by Bernard Wynn and found a few and found out he painted quite a few paintings and some have gone for a lot of money, but I can't find anything on this one.

I wonder if my daughter will want it when I pass on...

It's funny the different things that get passed on from one generation to another. I have a few other things that have been passed down to me like some jewelry from my grandma and mom.

It's Been One Year

It's been one year ago today that my mom passed away. 

This was taken at my daughter's 19th birthday party. My mom is in the white shirt, my step mother is behind her and my daughter is wearing the dark longer shirt. 

It's been a tough year, a very hard year. I miss having her here to talk to and chat about everyday things that come up. I miss having her come over for the holidays and birthday's. 

I don't know what moving on looks like. I know that's what everyone says, we must move on. I miss her everyday, so I can only hope that moving on means missing her but not hurting quite so bad as time goes on. 

My Week In Review

So this week *month* has been interesting to say the least. Hubby was gone for an entire week, helping my baby brother remodel his bathroom. It was nice to have the place to myself. I read an entire book in one sitting, cleaned out my computer drawer, had cereal for dinner a couple of times...lol and cleaned my apartment.



This is my nephew. He graduated high school this month. My brother couldn't be happier. A few days after graduation he told my brother that his girlfriend was pregnant and he was going to be a dad. My brother is not ready to be a grandpa but things always have a way of working themselves out.



Brodie, my tiny sickly rat has started eating a bit more. Here he is eating some yogurt off a spoon. The downside to all this eating is that he no longer wants to eat it off the spoon...he wants to eat it off my finger. Oh and if I don't hand feed him 6 times a day...he won't eat at all. Yeah he's spoiled but he's doing better so that's all that matters.




I had to share these pictures. My hubby drew the top one and painted it with water colors, for me. The skull on the bottom, Ken took an existing picture that someone drew for him and blacked out the back ground and then painted it with water colors.

I call the top one The Mushroom Planet. I love it, it's so pretty.

Freebie Friday

Here's the free samples I received from Bzzagent.com  If you visit the site and sign up to become a Bzzagent you may get samples like these. Frizz-Ease® Sheer Solution™ Lightweight Frizz Control works great.


And another freebie from Bzzagent.com is the Lawrys season salt and marinades and apron..

It was a pretty good freebie week. Here's what else I got.

Taste Me by Tamara Hogan. I won this over at Aloha On My Mind.

Cutex Nail Polish Remover cloth.
Tully's Coffee sample.
Quaker Oatmeal Squares Cereal...all three of these samples I found on Hey It's Free.

Reach Dental Floss- This full size free sample came right from their website. I signed up for it a loooong time ago and for some reason it just came this week. They probably had thousands of sample requests and were back logged.

So have you received any free samples lately?

Disclosure: I received some samples and full sized bottle in exchange for my truthful review and/or feedback but all opinions and feedback remain my own.

Happy 21st Birthday To My Baby

This is Ken and I when I was 3 months pregnant with our daughter. It's hard to believe that was 22 years ago.

21 years ago tomorrow I was on my way to the hospital because the little alien inside me was trying to work her way out. This isn't about a horror movie or another of those crazy posts I've made about monsters, no this post is about my greatest achievement to date. My little girl. 

Most babies are cute, just look at Ken when he was a baby. Yep that's my hubby.

And take a look at me. Dang, but I was adorable. 

And then the alien who took up residence in my belly for 9 months and 2 weeks. (She was 2 weeks late..this kid started making me wait even before she was born)

And then after 2 days of labor and an emergency C-section my little angel was born on June 22nd. 

Poor kid had 2 seizures right after she was born and went through some tests to make sure she was alright. The tests were harder on Ken and I than they were on her. She slept right through the EEG and hardly cried at all the 9 days we spent in the hospital. 

I think she kinda looks like both of our baby pictures put together. 

Sure there were many sleepless nights, many trips to the doctors office when her fever would get really high. (First time parents are always neurotic about sick babies) But Elizabeth was a wonderful baby. She started sleeping through the night when she was 3 months old, wasn't a fussy eater and always laughed at the silly faces Ken made. Just look at her staring at Ken in the picture below. I wonder if she was trying to figure out why he was always making funny faces at her? It didn't matter to her how silly her daddy was, she always giggled at him. She still does on occasion. 

I remember her playing with dolls, writing on the walls with crayons, making her teachers crazy because she had so much energy and wanted to talk to her friends all the time. I remember the skinned knee's, the broken arms, (yes she broke both arms at different times) the playing in dirt and the imaginary friends. 

I sometimes wonder where my shy little girl went. The little girl who cried when she started first grade because the days were longer and she didn't want to be away from me that long. The little girl who believed in Santa, the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny and ran around the apartment so full of excitement when she received a present from one of them. 

And then I look into her eyes, I see her smile or hear her laugh and know she's still in there. I see flashes of that little girl every once in a while in my adult daughter. She's no longer a baby and tomorrow she becomes an adult. 

Tomorrow my little girl is an adult. 

Happy 21st Birthday, Elizabeth.

Breeding Rats

People who don't have rats don't realize that there are arguments about people who breed rats. These breeders usually call what they have, rattery's. Like a nursery, but for rats.

Now this is actually a controversial subject for a lot of rat owners because there are so many unwanted rats out there in pet shops, shelters and people who need to give away their 'oops litters'. Oops litters happen when a person who has no rat eduction let's their male and female rat get together and make babies either on purpose or by accident. The Doe gets pregnant and then they need to find homes for the up to 14 babies.

I had an oops litter of hamsters a long time ago when I bought a dwarf hamster from a pet shop, brought her home and a few days later I had 5 tiny pink babies in the cage with her. I never once thought about giving those babies away. Once they were born in my care, they were my responsibility and I took care of all of them.

I understand that a lot of people want to make sure they are adopting rats that have been raised in a good environment and not abused, because sometimes abused rats will have health and social problems. Rats that have been left in shelters may be old, in bad health and you have no idea who the parents are of the rat you are adopting, you have no way of telling if the rat is a product of incest or what their pedigree is like. If you want to breed the rat you adopt and don't know if there are any genetic abnormalities in his line, you should not breed them, which is why a lot of people adopt their rats from rattery's because they keep records of the rats genetic line and you'll know what breed, colors, coats and abnormalities are in their genetic line.

The thing is, I don't support ratteries at all. There are too many rats in shelters and being given away so that even if you don't want to support pet shop and I don't..that you could adopt a rat or rats from people who have oops litters or shelter pets who are looking for a nice home.

So anyone looking to adopt a rat..think twice about adopting from breeders or ratteries and instead adopt from your local shelter or rescue group. There's a rat waiting for you that needs a good home.

Frizz-Ease® Sheer Solution™ Lightweight Frizz Control

I'm a Bzzagent and get free samples and samples to hand out to my friends to try new products. This time I received this Frizz-Ease product shown below in my pictures. I tried it and it works to well at controlling Frizz. My hair is long, down to my butt and I love a product that can tame the little frizzies and fly away hairs. And don't forget to visit this How To Video, to learn more about this product.



Here's a picture of the full size bottle and samples for my friends I received from Bzzagent.


Here's a close up picture of the full size bottle I get to keep. All you have to do is shake it to activate it and you can see the shiny particles floating around inside the bottle after shaking it. Not only did it work great are taming the frizz, but it smells really good too. It didn't leave my hair sticky or weighed down, my hair felt smooth and looked shiny and with Long black straight hair, I really like that.

Disclosure: I am a bzzagent and received free samples in exchange for a truthful review. All feedback and opinions remain my own.

Freebie Friday

I'm always talking about the freebies and free samples I get so I thought I would start a weekly Freebie Friday and show you all what I got each week for free and how I got it.



The Pink pouch filled with Tampons, pads and liners are from Vocalpoint on behalf of the Radiant collection

Biore cleanser, scrub and a nose strip.
Coupon for a one FREE Gillette Fusion Shave Gel with any purchase of the new Gillette Fusion ProGlide Styler. I was sent this coupon by Vocal Point.
Book : Taste Me by Tamara Hogan. I won by visiting Aloha On My Mind.

Happy Freebie Hunting.

Top Ten Things I hate To Do

There are some things that I just hate doing and though your list may be a little different than mine but I have a feeling there's at least one of these things most woman hate doing. 

1. The Annual Pap Smear- you know I had to put this at the top of my list..it's probably one of the most dreaded days a woman has..

2. Cleaning The Bathroom- Seriously if I could hire a cleaning crew...I would. 

3. Taking The Kids To The Doctor- Is there anything worst than taking the kids to a doctors office especially when they aren't sick? They just need their immunizations or a check up for school but you know as soon as you get there they are going to pick up some snot nosed brats super bug that's going to get them, you, and your entire family super sick for the next month. Not only that the kids at school are going to get sick and it's going to be all your fault. 

4. Cleaning Out the Closet- That closet you have put all the junk from the past 5 years in and now don't know why you kept it in the first place. 

5. Taking the Car To The Mechanic- if you are a woman and are alone when you take the car in..they look at you with a smirk like you don't have an idea in your damn head worth listening to. 

6. Taking A Pet To The Vet's Office- After taking a dog or cat to the vet's office the first time they know you are taking them and will fight you to the death before you get them back there. Ever try and get a 100lb dog in the back seat of a car to come out when he doesn't want to? My dad's dog is like that and will whine the entire time we are in the waiting room, after spending an hour getting him out of the car. 

7. Going On A Car Ride With Young Kids- I did it once...only once and will never do it again. Especially if the little one's have to be in car seats and don't like being strapped in. The crying, screaming, fighting if there are two of them and the throwing of food in the back seat. 

8. Vacuuming- I hate it. I have long hair so there always seems to be hair balls on my floor that get stuck in my vacuum...lol 

9. Laundry- nuff' said. 

10. Giving Birth- It hurts!