I Hate Going To The Doctor

I really do hate going to the doctor. The poking, the prodding, the touching, the cold hands, cold steel on the stethoscope, the crinkly paper on the exam bed and that smell! Disinfectant everywhere you go. 

So when I think I can do something myself..I do. 

For about 6 months I had a small lump on my eye lid. I didn't know what it was, only that it was getting a little bigger and bugging the hell out of me. So me with my big bright ideas. I thought instead of going to the doctor and getting it taken off by them, I would just take it off myself. 

Now before all the oohs and aahhhs and people telling me I could have lost an eye, caused an infection ect...let me tell you, this is not the first time I've done something like this. I disinfected the area, used new, clean razors and if I hadn't thought I could do it myself, I wouldn't have. 

So I got a brand new disposable razor from the package and broke it open, I was just going to use the sharp razor part anyway. I got the razor out and set it aside. I got out a pair of tweezers, boiled them and disinfected them with rubbing alcohol. Put aside a few paper towels and went into the bathroom to do this in the mirror. 

The lump was about as big as (*) that little star. Not very big but it was on my eye lid and bothering me, right in the corner of my eye next to my nose. So I pinched my skin with the tweezers right underneath the lump so the skin was tight on top of it and took the razor and cut a little hole right over top of the lump. Out popped a little hard white thing. And it was hard, like a piece of bone...hard. Weird, right? O.o

I put a tiny bit of neosporin on the now bleeding hole in my eye lid and after a few days the swelling went down. 

It's now been about a month and the lump is completely gone and you can't even tell there was anything there. 

Who needs Dr. House.  lol 

Superpoints Has Closed Its Doors

I just came from their site and read their message, saying they have shut down their site. You can read the message here.

Unfortunately if you had Superpoints on the site and didn't cash out before 3pm today...your points are now gone.

That really is unfair to a lot of people I've heard from that had what amounts to $90, $100, $150 or really any amount. Thankfully I cashed out my last $5 Amazon gift card last week, but I feel bad for those who had hundreads even thousands of points on the site and now have lost them all.

CVS Being Sued Over Ready Fill

I have a CVS Pharmacy within walking distance from my apartment complex so that's the pharmacy we usually use. It's like right next door to my complex, so it's close and close is good for someone without a car for the past few years. 

We have lived in this neighborhood for 14 years and the CVS pharmacy has been there the whole time and while living here and going to CVS we started using their pharmacy to fill our prescriptions. We had been using Smith's Pharmacy up the street but they were slow and half the time not there, would ignore you or just plain rude, I don't like the employee's at the Smith's up the street from me. So we used CVS to fill our prescriptions...that is until they started enrolling us in their ready fill program. 

Now let me tell you about this program and how it affected us. When you go to CVS to have a prescription filled, they automatically enroll you into their ready fill program where they automatically fill your prescriptions each month on the day you first got it filled, call you and let you know they are ready to be picked up. 

Now for most people that might be alright, but for someone like me who has a co pay of up to $6 per prescription and at the time I was on 6-9 prescriptions per month...that comes to around $40 a month. I have to wait until I get paid before I can get my prescriptions so I like to call them in myself when I have the money, it doesn't make sense to me for them to fill it if I won't have the money to pay for them for a whole week or two and sometimes that happened. 

So they would fill them, call me and tell me to come pick them up because they were ready and I would tell the lady that I didn't call and ask for them to be filled, that I wouldn't have the money to get them for another week. She would say ok and I thought that would be the end of it...but no, another person would call the next day and the next and the next until I came the next week to finally get them. And when I asked to be taken off the Ready Fill, I was told it was an automatic courtesy service and I could NOT be unrolled in it. That it was an automatic thing their computer system did for their customers. 

After a few months of this non-sense..I took my business elsewhere to a pharmacy that waited for me to call them and let them know I wanted my prescriptions filled, they even mail them to me for free since I don't have a car to pick them up. 

So imagine my surprise when I saw on the news last night that people are suing CVS pharmacy over this ready fill business. Former pharmacists are coming forward to say that there were quotas for the ready fill and if people didn't come and pick their prescriptions up when they were ready the store was docked pay. How crazy is that? I'm glad I took my business elsewhere more than a year ago now.

Ebooks Vs Traditional Books: My Thoughts

I don't have an ereader at all and have no plans on getting one. I hardly ever read ebooks since I have to read them on my computer and see no reason to buy an ebook when I can get a paper back book. I guess I'm old school and will most likely stay that way. I have won a few ebooks in contests but after trying to read so many of them and finding so many errors or just finding them lacking in substance, I don't even bother anymore. I'm sure not all ebooks are like that but I'd rather have a paperback or hard cover book that I can then put on my bookshelf. But that's just me. I wrote an article comparing ebooks vs print books and you can read it here.

Nooooo, don’t do it! Slowly back away from the computer screen and pick up a print book. Feel those pages? Smell that booky scent? Look at your bookshelves, do you really want to see Nook’s, Kindle’s and other ereaders sitting there instead of paper backs? Well, do you?

Don’t go to the dark side, they might have cookies, but they’ve already eaten all the chocolate chips…so all you're stuck with are chocolate chipless cookies!

I’m a traditionalist and I make no excuses for it. I don’t own an ereader and have no plans on buying one. While I know my position on ebooks isn’t a popular one right now, I think in the long run ebooks will go the way of Count Chocula Cereal and only be available in limited quantities after readers start getting fed up with not having the choice of sharing, trading and selling the ebooks they've paid money for like they could have with traditional books.

I like my bookshelves and the feel of real books in my hands too much to buy ebooks and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. I've won a few ebooks and read them on my computer and in just the few that I’ve won and read I’ve seen that not all of them are written as well a traditional book would have been. I don’t know who to blame for that. The publisher, the author or the beta readers for not saying..Hey wait a minute this really isn't ready to be published.

I don’t have any plans on getting an ereader. I like my print books too much. I like to be able to share my books, trade, sell and loan them to my family and friends. See them on my book shelves.

No, I won’t be getting an ereader anytime soon.

How To Make A Dreamcatcher

This is a Dreamcatcher I made a few years ago for myself. I ended up making one for my mom, my neighbor and a friend online. Once you get the directions down, you can make it into any colors you want, using any beads and buttons you'd like on the web as well. 

If you'd like the full instructions, I posted them here. 

Ya didn't know I was also crafty, now did ya. lol 

I Won!

I'm A Winner!

So yesterday I received several emails letting me know that I had won a few of the blog hops I had entered. Over the past couple of weeks I think I may have entered about 200 different blog contests and it has paid off nicely. 

I would like to thank the following blog owners for their generosity. 

Lila Shaw Erotic Romance With Humor- I won a $10 Amazon gc on one of her blog contests. 

Book Lovin' Mamas- I won Kissed by a Vampire by Caridad Pineiro on one of her blog contests. 

Lindsay Avalon- I won a $10 Amazon gift card from one of her blog contests. 

Bitten By Paranormal Romance- I won Violet Midnight by Lynne Rush, from one of their blog contests. I won this last week. 

So a big Thank You, to everyone who held blog contests this month. I am looking forward to reading the books I won and buying more books with the gc's I won. 

So if any of you reading haven't been entering all those blog hops, contests and giveaways available, you are really missing out. Visit these great blogs. 

Freebie Friday

Each friday I share pictures with you of the free samples and full sized products I've gotten that week. This week I won a 2013 Hawaiian calendar from a blog contest. 

Thank you Kim from SOS Aloha.

If you'd like to win things like books, gift cards and sometimes calendars...all you have to do is visit blogs who offer contests and giveaways like SOS Aloha. 

Where You Can Find My Articles

Since I have a few new readers I thought I wanted to share something you might not know about me. I'm a Freelance Writer. I mostly write about small animals and how to care for them. Animals like rats, mice, hamsters, gerbils ect. 

But I also write about other subjects like depression, depression medicines and what it was like visiting my brother in the psychiatric hospital. 

You can find all of my articles, more than 200 of them at this link. This is my author profile, just scroll down to see the different articles I've written. 

I would love to hear what you think if you read one. 

Happy Halloween

Do You Keep Old Halloween Costumes?

This past week was strange for me because I gave my daughter the 3 boxes that I had been saving for her, they were filled with her baby stuff. Things like her first blanket, toothbrush, brush, onesie, all the things that she came home from the hospital with including the outfit she came home in and her first halloween costumes.

My daughter is 21 years old and 6 months pregnant with her first child. So I thought it would be a good time to give her these boxes I had saved for her for the past 20 years. I had forgotten about some of the things I had put in these boxes. Things like the tiny Tiger costume and tiny cowgirl costume I bought for her. she is having a boy so I don't think she'll be using the cowgirl costume but the Tiger costume could be for a boy. I thought it was funny the different things I put in this box and I put a letter detailing each of the things in the box, who bought them for her and when and a little letter to her. I was so sappy back then. lol

I remember when I was a kid about 7 years old, my mom bought me one of those plastic costumes that smelled like plastic and had a mask that was held on your head by a rubber band. It was too big  so it fit me for a few years. I wore the heck out of that costume each year. It's the only costume I ever remember having as a kid. I kinda wish I had it...

I Have A New Article Published

Have you ever wondered why rats sleep in some of the positions they do. Take for instance the picture of Hades in the above picture. He sleeps on his side or on his back because he feels safe and comfortable. 

If you'd like to read my article about why rats sleep in different positions, you can read it here. 

Make Your Own Rats Toys

When I first adopted my 4 rats three years ago I bought some fleece houses, hammocks, and beds. They didn't chew the hammocks but the 2 houses I bought had some stuffing in them and as you can see from the picture above they completely shredded it. 

I paid $20 for this fleece house so I wasn't all that thrilled that they tore it to shreds. But they seemed to have fun doing it and I left it in the cage for a while, even after the entire bottom half was gone because they shredded it the way they wanted and slept in it. Crazy rats. 

But this brings up a really good question. What should you buy for your rat cage and what can you just make yourself. 

I found that when I bought cases of soda and put the empty cardboard boxes in their cage with a few holes cut in the sides so they could get in and out, they loved it! They slept in it, played in it and jumped on it until it was flat and I had to take it out. When they were babies I could put cereal boxes in their cage and they still fit in them, they are too big for that now but now all rats get as big as mine have gotten. I have 3lb rats. lol 

As you can also see from the picture above I had cheap hard plastic food bowls to put their seed mix in. They love to spread that seed mix all over the cage but you can save money by putting in just enough of the seed mix each day that they will eat. 

Also instead of buying chew toys, just boil beef bones and give to your rats. They will love the little bits of meat left on it and the bones themselves with be great for chewing on. Do not give chicken or pork bones...just beef bones.

If you would like to read about other ways to stretch your rat budget, read my article. 

Have You Been Ghosted?

I recently heard of getting Ghosted and had no idea what it was. So I looked it up and found this info. When you get Ghosted or you want to Ghost someone else all you do is get two paper lunch sacks, fill them with halloween goodies like candy, window clings, a card, toys...pretty much anything for Halloween and add either the poem and picture above or the picture and poem below. 

Then they are supposed to do the same thing to two of their neighbors and pretty soon the entire neighborhood has been ghosted! How cool is that?

If you can't read what this picture says, just click on it for a larger image. 

Small Rants and Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway!

This contest is now closed. The winner has been contacted and responded. 

So here's the giveaway. I am giving away a $25 Starbucks gift card to one lucky commenter. All you have to do to be entered is comment on this post and leave your email address. On November 13th, I will draw a name and contact them through the email address they leave. You will have 24 hours to respond to my email or I will draw another name. 

Now for my little rant. 

3 months ago I was asked to be a guest blogger on a blog and I agreed to do it. I wrote a lengthy blog post, linked to some books and sent it to her. After several days of not hearing anything from her I emailed her to make sure she got my email...2 more days and she finally responds to tell me yes she did that it will be up soon. 

So I wait for a month and nothing... It was supposed to go up sometime that month, it never did. I emailed her again and asked when it would be up, because I had already bought the gift card that I was going to be giving away in my guest post. She said she had things going on and she was busy and didn't know when it would go up...all the while other people's posts are going up on her blog, she's posting all over twitter and playing on fb all the time. She was not too busy to do all that. 

So I waited another 2 weeks and emailed her again...and again...to ask about my post...she never responded to me. So by now it's been 3 damn months since it was supposed to go up and I have had it. If she decides to post it now, I will not respond to her and not honor our agreement to give away this gift card. I think I gave her more than enough time and sent more than enough emails. 

So now you all get a shot at winning this gift card. 

Freebie Friday

Each week I share with you the free samples and products I've received and tell you where you can sign up to get free samples too. This week I received two free samples. 

Dove Deodorant sample.

John Freida Root Awakening Sample.

I found the link for the free Dove deodorant at Target Sample Spot.

I found the link for the free John Freida Root Awakening sample at Hey It's Free.

Squirrels and Pumpkins

You have to watch this...it's the cutest thing ever.

Bullying

The other day my mom's friend told me that her granddaughter's best friend committed suicide because she had been bullied for a long time. It was then that I thought about making a post about my own experiences as a teen and being bullied, but it took me a few days to think of what to say. I mean did I really want to relive that time in my life?

In that picture above I am with my younger brother, I was 16 and he was 14. I picked this picture and this age because by the time I reached 16, I had had enough of being bullied, being made fun of, being picked on and put down that I started standing up for myself. I pretty much woke up one day and said enough, I'm not living like this anymore. 

In Elementary school I was chubby, shy and awkward. I was made fun of because I was shy, was chubby and had long hair. I was called tubby, fatty, rapunzel, and geek. 

I spent most of my free time in the girls bathroom, crying...during recess and lunch time. I didn't have a lot of friends and the friends I did have were also picked on for being chubby and awkward. 

By the time I got to high school I was used to being picked on, but Freshman year instead of taking a regular PE class I opted for ROTC and Weight Lifting class. I dropped a few pounds, had a sense of confidence I hadn't had before and when I realized I was able to press 200lbs with my legs...I became more confident and less awkward. 

After that first year of high school, things changed a little for me. I was no longer the short fat, gawky kid I had been and I wasn't going to let anyone push me around anymore. I stood up for myself and for the most part..that's all I had to do. Bully's don't like to be make fun of someone who will fight back. They are weak in that way. They pick on the weak, awkward and those who won't fight back. Once you start standing up for yourself, bully's are less likely to make you their target. 

Then one day, I was walking around in the courtyard during Lunch break and one of the girls who used to mercilessly pick on me in Middle school saw me and came over to me with her friends. She started calling me all the names she used to and even went to far as to put her hands on me and push me when I got up to walk away. She was at least 4 inches taller than I was. I'm still only 5'6" but I knew if I didn't stop her from thinking she could push me around..it was just going to start up again. 

So I threw down my backpack and pushed her back. Now don't get me wrong, I don't advocate violence..but sometimes you have to stand up for yourself. 

Her friends egged her on and she came at me again. She was mad because I made her look bad in front of her girls. She hit me right in the face. I wasn't expecting that really, but I figured if she was going to go that route..so was I. I punched her, broke her nose, gave her a black eye and she lashed out..grabbed my dangling earrings and pulled. Ripping out the second piercing in each ear. The teachers came and broke us up right then. We both went to the hospital. She had a broken nose and a big black eye and I got a few stitches in each ear to close the wounds left by her pulling out my earrings. I ended up with a black eye as well from her punching me. 

We both got 2 weeks suspension for fighting,,,but when I got back to school...funny thing happened..I was never picked on again. I think it was because the bully's knew I would fight back. 

When I had a daughter and she started getting picked on in Middle school, I told her to stand up for herself. When that didn't work with one girl, I stopped her outside and told her to leave my daughter alone or I would pay her another visit and next time wouldn't be as pleasant. Yeah, probably not the smartest thing to do but she didn't bully my daughter again. 

Kids have always bullied, they probably always will. That saying about how things get better...it does. If it's not looking like it will anytime soon, find a way to make sure it does. Take a karate class, go to the gym and learn to defend yourself. Don't take the bullying lying down. I know this is not what most people would tell those being bullied to do, but I know from first hand experience that bully's don't pick on people who defend themselves. They pick on the weak, the shy and those who sit and take it. 

This bully situation needs to be dealt with. if you see someone being bullied, stop it. Don't let someone being pushed into a corner and do nothing about it just because you don't know the kid. The more bully's are pushed back and stopped the more there will be less bully's. 

Too many kids are committing suicide because they don't see any other way of getting away from the bully's...try this method and see if it works. Stand up to the bully's.

Horror Movies

Recently someone asked me if I had seen a particular movie, it was a comedy and when I said I really don't care for comedies, he looked at me like I was crazy. But the fact is, if I'm going to watch a movie it's going to be something I like...which most times would be a Horror movie. This..the original Fright Night is my favorite movie of all time.

There are other movies that I like and for the most part they are either psychological thrillers, horror or slasher type movies. There are certain movies that I like and ones that I don't like. I don't like comedies because I don't find them funny, for the most part I find them ridiculous.

I like a lot of the old or older Horror movies and some of the newer ones as well. Movies like ...

Carrie
Nightmare On Elm Street
Halloween
Dracula
The Fly
Poltergeist
Candyman
Gingersnaps
Saw
Queen of the Damned
Near dark
Dracula 2000
Alien
Silence Of The Lambs


Those are just a few off the top of my head. So the month of October has to be my favorite because Horror movies are shown all month on so many channels. My DVr has been working over time this month.

Caring For Our Older Furbabies

These are three of my furbabies. The black and white one is Hades and peeking out right under him is Ares and on the left was Jasper. I lost Jasper earlier this year and I still miss him. I have two old rats right now, Hades and Ares are both 3 years old and the average life span of a rat is between 3-4 years, so my boys are old men. 

I wrote an article on caring for older rats that you can find here. So many of my friends who have rats have lost their pets to old age here recently and it makes me sad to realize that my boys are getting older and probably won't be around to many more years. Both Hades and Ares are in good health and are spoiled rotten. Healthy rats are always good when they start getting older. 

Of course they have slowed down quite a bit, but that's to be expected in older male rats because male rats are known to be much lazier than female rats. Male rats are known as lap rats or cuddle rats because they usually love cuddles and just laying around on you, in your lap or next to you on the couch. 

Hades likes to come out and sit with us but Ares has always been a bit more stand offish. Ares would rather you give him a little pet while he's inside his cage, then give him a treat and be on your way. lol 

Taking care of an older rat or any animal is pretty much the same. You make sure they are comfortable, healthy as possible, not in pain, and that they can get to their beds, food, water with ease. 

My boys cage is a two story and they have to walk up a ramp in order to get to the second story and while they do it more slowly than they did when they were younger, they can still make it up the ramp when they want to, so for now It'll stay in the cage. If at anytime they become wobbly while walking, I will take the ramp out and make sure everything is on the bottom. Right now I have two water bottles in the cage so they can get a drink whether they are on the top or the bottom and a soft bed on both floors. 

As pet parents it's our job to make sure our fur babies are comfortable when they get older.

Sharing Rat Pictures

I was looking through some old pictures of my boys and decided even though I know I shared some of these pictures with you all before, I wanted to share them again. 

This is Hades, this boy sleeps really easily and soundly and so my daughter took a couple of pictures of him while he was holding a little toy duck. 

This was Brodie. The face he is making is this picture just makes me smile. This guy was such a character. 

Hades has his foot on Jaspers face. Jasper could not have cared less, he just layed there like that. 

Jasper and hades always slept together before Jasper passed away. They curled up with each other like this all the time. 

hades fell asleep like this in my daughter's hand. As long as you pet him, he's a happy boy. 

Jasper and Ares. Jasper is on the right, he was the biggest rat I've ever had. 

And Jasper posing with bunny ears for Easter. I gave him a little treat and he happily sat there eating it. 

Hades with bunny ears. They didn't even care as long as they were getting a treat or being petted. 

My daughter made those bunny ears and he sat there looking at her like, "Ok, I posed, where's my treat." 

This was one of my first rats, Oreo. This was his favorite place to sleep. 

Hades and Jasper. I swear Hades can sleep anywhere.