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. 

Book Review: Untamed by Sara Humphreys

*I received this book as part of a blog hop contest win*

This third book in The Amoveo Legend series by Sara Humphreys is set in a small town, where everyone knows everyone else and everything that's going go with everyone. Layla knows what she is but is determined not to end up like her mother. Layla isn't going to drop her life and become everything she fears just because her mate has found her and may want her too.

William has found his mate and has tried to connect with her in the dream realm but she isn't cooperating. William, also know as The Ice Man or Mr. Freeze by some of his friends doesn't show his emotions all that often but this petite redhead is going to make him do things he never thought he would do...and like it.

This story proves that opposites really do attract but she's not ready for the emotions and feelings he brings out in her. But when someone hurts Rosie, the woman that has raised Layla and she ends up in the hospital, all bets are off and William calls in his friends for help. Layla meets two other hybrids and sees how much in love they are with their husbands and that seems to make her feel a little bit better about the whole William situation...for a while at least. The twists and turns in this book really had my heart thumping and made it extremely hard to put the book down until the end.

If you're looking for a book with action, backstabbing, shifters of all kinds, twists and turns and a love story you won't soon forget, then this is the book you've been looking for.

I love the whole series and can only hope that there are more books to come. This book can be read as a stand alone but with all the different characters showing up in the different books it's best to read this series from the beginning.

eBook Curmudgeon

Yes, I was just called an eBook curmudgeon by a fan of my blog, in a personal email to me. Now while I might even agree with this, I had to reply and tell her why I am an eBook curmudgeon.

When it comes to books, ebooks, kindles, nooks whatever...I am not very forward thinking. I'm just not, I know it's a personality flaw and I'm ok with that.

Ereaders don't have that new book smell, nor will they ever have that old book smell. You know what I'm talking about. I paperback book that's been sitting on your shelf for 20 years, and yes, I do have books sitting on my shelf that are that old, have a certain old book smell to them. You aren't going to get that with an ebook.

But some of you are probably thinking that's a good thing. Ok, let me ask you something else. What about first edition, signed books that I have? I would much rather have a hard Cover first edition and signed book than a ebook edition that while it can be signed I hear...on Kindles I think...what happens if your Kindle breaks...all your books are lost, no?

I am 42 years old, while I'm not a senior I do think I fall into that 'older generation' slot that isn't adjusting to the new technology. I know it happens because my dad is amazed by the things I can do on my laptop. he has no concept of what a computer is or can do even though I've tried to show him when he comes over. But he's 80 years old and says he's too old to learn something like this. So am I falling into that sorta of mind set? Maybe I am, but I'm sure that when my grandkids are my age their children will have the newest technology craze and it will driving my daughter nuts and she might even be complaining about it like I seem to be doing about ereaders all the time. But who knows.

Times, they are a changing, I'm just not changing with them. Printed books will always have a place in our culture long after the new car smell of those Kindles have worn off. Does an ebook give you the same olfactory and tactile experience that a 20 year old first edition, signed Hard Cover limited edition book will, I don't think so.