A To Z Blogging Challenge: K Is For Kangaroo Mouse

The Kangaroo Mouse is a small rodent that you can find in places like Nevada, especially if you plan an overnight fishing trip anywhere along Lake Mead. It is small like a mouse and has large back feet and a tail. So I'm going to tell you a story about an encounter my husband and brother had with these Kangaroo Mice when they went fishing one day/night.

My husband and brother both love going fishing and since we live so close to Lake Mead, that's where they usually go and for the most part their stays are quiet and uneventful...except for this time. 

They go to their spot early in the day, hauling in all their gear and munchies. Set up their poles, built a fire and sat back talking and eating. As the sun set Ken, my husband said he heard some skittering around the camp site but they only had a small lantern lit and couldn't see very well around them, they just assumed it was some squirrels, birds or lizards running around. 

My brother Billy, said a little while later he heard something jump into the paper bag that they had brought their bags of potato chips in and then scurry back out again. He figured it was a squirrel or something and went to light another lantern. 

A little while later they said they saw something small running past them just out of view and while they were looking for it, they saw not one, not two but three more small furred creatures scurry around them and while they were trying to figure out what they were...one jumped into the potato chip bag...snagged a chip and ran off with it. 

So Ken lit another lantern so they could see what it was that was running and jumping around them. He got his first good look at the little creatures when one of them jumped on his leg, stopped, looked at him and took off. 

Now because Ken has been in a house with hamsters, rats and gerbils ...he didn't freak out when a small furry rodent stopped on his leg to check him out. Instead, he reached into the potato chip bag, pulled out a couple, threw a couple of them in front of him and held one in his fingers, waiting to see if anything would come and take a bite. 

He didn't have to wait long until several Kangaroo Mice were running all over their camp site, picking up chips, taking a bite of the chip he held and running off only to come back and get another bite and run and run and jump all over everything...including Ken and Billy. 

They said there must have been at least 25 Kangaroo Mice running around checking them out, jumping on their legs and taking potato chips. Ken kept putting potato chips and cheetos out for them and they kept coming back while my brother just watched, more interested in what fish he might catch. 

Ken said this went on for most of the night until they caught their fish and started to pack up in the morning. My brother told me that when they were all packed up Ken took some chips and stuck them into small cracks and crevices that he had seen the Kangaroo Mice running in and out of and leaving some scattered around the camp site for them to find later. My brother got a real kick out of Ken doing this. Ken liked the interaction with the little rodents and I have a great story to tell. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge: J Is For Jerboa

There are several types of Jerboa's. This is an Egyptian Jerboa. If you've never seen these little creatures you are in for a treat.



When I first saw this video I thought it was fake. I thought, how in the world did I not know about this tiny cute animal? He just doesn't look real, does he? This is the Pygmy Jerboa, the smallest rodent in the world. Of course when I found out about this tiny cutie I had to tell others about this little animal so I wrote an article that you can find here.



There's also the Long Eared Jerboa. Their long ears are so cute. In this video he eats a live meal worm, so if that bothers you, don't watch the video.

I don't know anyone who has a Jerboa as a pet, but I think they are pretty cute and if I had a home big enough with enough room for them to run around, I would probably adopt one. They are pretty cute.

A To Z Blogging Challenge: I Is For Insects of Las Vegas

While there are many insects here in Las Vegas, I haven't seen many of them and would much rather look at this gopher that my daughter found when she and my brother went fishing. She fed him chips and peanuts. 

Of the few insects here in Las Vegas that I have seen, I think the worst one I've seen is the scorpion and thankfully it wasn't in my house, is was at my brother's place when he lived in Pahrump, Nevada. 

I woke up, took my bag in the bathroom, turned on the light and it was sitting right on top of my bag. Good thing I didn't reach inside with the lights off. o.o

I put it under glass so when everyone else woke up they could see my find. Yuck! Nasty little buggers. 

I've also seen many, many spiders. I even found and caught a Black Widow spider a few years ago so I could look at her and get over my fear of spiders. Yeah, great idea, I don't recommend doing that. But I looked at her and then put her back outside. Now I can pick up spiders and most other insects without being afraid. Most other insects..just not bee's. 

I don't like bee's. No, that's not right. I have a full blown bee phobia. Bee's, wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, bumble bee's, ...doesn't matter, they all scare the bejuju's outta me.

There are any number of insects that irritate me..the ants drove me nuts last year. I tried all sorts of things and they just kept coming in. Then when I caulked up the entire bathroom...they grew wings and started flying down the vent. I kid you not!

My younger brother thought I was insane when I told him that I thought the huge red and black ants with pinchers on their face were fighting near my bathroom vent and throwing their enemies eviscerated and headless bodies down the vent and into my sink. I kid you not, I kept finding ant body parts in my bathroom sink because it's right underneath the vent and so if an ant tossed a headless ant body over the ledge into the vent, it fell into the sink. Nice...

 I had to put window screening material under the vent so bugs couldn't fall into my bathroom if they got into the vent. If it were up to me, I would just nail a piece of wood to the ceiling and cover the whole vent. lol 

I took the caulking gun to every nook and cranny in that bathroom last year and then when my husband saw my bad caulking job...O.o...he asked our daughter to caulk around the baseboards so I didn't do that too. lol 

Hey, I got the job done, no more ants!

Oh and on a side note...the ants started coming in through the vent again about a week ago, so I badgered and nagged my husband until he took some really sticky tape and permanently taped up the bathroom vent. Problem solved, I haven't seen an ant since. LOL 

Personal Rant, Sorry

I don't normally like to use my blog as a means of airing my dirty laundry but the fact is my younger brother and I have a stalker. Our older half brother whom we stopped talking to over a year ago for good reason. The sad fact is he just won't leave us alone even though we've asked him to. Several times. I have personally told him if he doesn't leave us alone I will make public what he has done to make us stop talking to him and I did so in this blog post.. An Open Letter To My Stalker.

He did not heed my warning and so I made this blog post. Using PTSD As An Excuse For Psychotic Behavior, where I explained what he did and linked a news report of his arrest.

Even holding to my word did not deter this man from bothering us which made my younger brother really angry and so he made a blog page. It's called Convict John Radell AKA Bear Whitebow

My younger brother made it, posted a couple of things on it and then left it alone for almost two months...and then older brother John started making comments on one particular blog post. This one.. Fake Indians

He has now made 19 comments on that post, each one a little crazier than the next. Then last night my younger brother received emails from several porn sites saying, "Thanks you for registering with blah blah and blah..." The only problem with that is he didn't sign up for them. Now we can't prove that older brother did this, but it's a pretty good bet that he did.

I can only hope that older brother gets sent to prison for a while where he can detox from the medical marijuana he is so fond of telling everyone he is taking. I really think that stuff has freaked his brain out to the point he can't control himself anymore.

End of rant...

A To Z Blogging Challenge: H Is For help

At some point in our lives we all need to ask for or accept help from another person. Knowing when to accept help is another thing all together. I remember being a very stubborn 21 year old with a newborn baby and when my mom asked me if I wanted her to come and stay with us to help out...I said, "No, I'm fine, I got this."

I didn't have it, not at all. But was too stubborn to accept help from her. So when my own 21 year old daughter had a baby and I saw she was getting stressed out and had postpartum depression like I did, I offered to watch our grandson so they could go out and get away for a while, over night so they could get a full nights sleep or when ever they needed it just for a little time away.

Me with my grandson, Logan. 

Babies are great but they are also stressful, a lot of work and sometimes you need to be willing to accept help from those around you when they offer it. I learned that the hard way and wanted to make sure my daughter and her boyfriend knew they had help if they wanted or needed it. 

We've watched Logan over night so they could get some sleep and during the day so they could go see a movie and just get out for a little while. 

It's easy to help others so why is it so hard to accept help from someone? Pride? You want to prove you can do it yourself? You don't want to look weak? 

There are a lot of reasons but remember when the help is offered, take it. Most times the people offering are genuinely wanting to help out. 

I changed my Avatar

In case anyone is wondering, yes, I did change my avatar. I had a couple of people think I was a guy because I had Nick Knight from Forever Knight as my avatar and they said it didn't make sense to them that I didn't have a female avatar to represent me. So I thought ok, I've had the same avatar for many years. It might be time to change things up a little.

My my avatar, the picture that gets left behind on some comments used to be this..

And is now this.. I happen to love this picture and saved it to use as an avatar in a forum but I'm gonna use it here. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge: G Is For Gone With The Mail

No More Mail Delivery on Saturdays happening soon. Gone With The Mail...

So I heard recently that the post office is going to stop delivering mail on Saturday's starting in August. They will still deliver packages and medicine but letters, cards, bills, catalogs ect..will no longer be delivered on Saturday. They said it's because they are losing money because people pay their bills online, keep in touch online and they aren't making as much money anymore.

You know what? I started paying my bills online when my mail started going missing. I thought that maybe it was my mail carrier getting the mail out of the out going mail box in my apartment complexes mail box and losing it so I started going to the post office, dropping it off and thinking that it would be much safer that way...Wrong!

I sent checks in the mail to pay my bills and I would get calls from the companies like my credit card, my electric company and telephone company asking me if I knew I hadn't paid my bills yet. But I had...so I would have to pay EXTRA money to pay it over the phone, cancel the check I sent and hope that next month they actually got the check..and sometimes they didn't.

I had to stop getting the Netflix movie dvd's because 7 of them went missing over the two years I was getting the Netflix deliveries. I would get the red envelopes but the discs would be gone. Now I'm not saying the mail carrier stole them..ok maybe I was thinking that...Ok, that's exactly that I was thinking and when I got no satisfactory answers from the post office when I called them, I had to cancel my Netflix membership because they were going to start charging me for the discs if anymore went missing.

The post office said it was Netflix's fault because the envelopes were always ripping open.

BS.

My mail was delivered and is still sometimes delivered to the wrong address, I still get other people's mail in my mail box and I am nice enough to take it to them. I don't think it's too much to ask for the mail carriers to do their job and do it right. There are many days that I watch the mail truck drive right by my apartment complex and the mail carrier never even delivers mail to my side of the street. Now there's no way that out of the 62 apartments here, that no one got mail that day? They were just too lazy to deliver it.

If they are losing money it's because people got sick and tired of having misdirected mail, non delivered mail, stolen mail and mail that never makes it to its destination. They can't ask for more money for stamps every year and complain about how they are losing money when they aren't doing their jobs right. People might not have found another way to pay bills and keep in touch as much if they weren't worried that their mail was never going to be delivered.

End of rant...

A To Z Blogging Challenge: F Is For Free Samples

These are the freebies I received this week.

This week I received a coupon for a free box of Simply Made Bread Mix. (I went to the store and picked the Country while bread)

A 2 in 1 duo tube of Olay Regenerist for eyes
A bag of sugar cookie mix

A coupon for a free box of General Mills Cereal

I received the free tube of Olay Regenerist from Vocal Point.
The other freebies I found the links to sign up for them at Freebie Shark and Hey It's Free. The links to those sites are below. 

My family is always asking me how I get so many small boxes of free samples in my mail box each week. I tell them the same thing each time they ask. I find websites that give you links to the free samples and I sign up for them or I belong to a site that has you test products at home.

I've shared some of the sites that I like, but I thought this was a great time to do it again.

Great Freebie Sites
Freebie Shark
Hey it's Free
Free Grabber
Target Samples
Walmart Samples

Websites That Let You Sign Up For Free Full Size Products
Bzzagent
House Party
Smiley 360

All of these websites are pretty self explanatory. The Freebie sites have links to the different free samples and you just put in your information and hit submit. Target and Walmart both have samples up for grabs at various times and they go fast. I get most of my free samples from checking the freebie websites like, Hey it's Free and Freebie Shark several times a day.

The websites like BzzAgent, House Party and Smiley360 are really great because they usually send you full sized products or coupons for full sized products and all you have to do is qualify and write reviews and tell your friends about the products you get. It's so easy and they send out great products.

If you've been following my Friday Freebie blog posts for the past few months, you know I receive a lot of free products and samples because I started posting pictures of everything. Some of my friends didn't believe me when I told them how many free products I get, so I posted pictures and links to where everyone can sign up for free stuff.

So are you a Freebie Junkie like me?

A To Z Blogging Challenge: E is For Eating

So what's my favorite thing to eat? Pretty much anything sweet. I have a horrible sweet tooth. Apple pie doesn't last long around here. And no, that's not a hole from a finger in my pie, I actually took a spoon to taste it..hey, I had to make sure it was done..and good before serving it to the family, right?

Cake, especially cake that I didn't have to make myself. It's always better when someone else makes the food, right? It just tastes better, doesn't it? Of course chocolate cake is my favorite with red velvet and spice cake coming in second. 

You know what I don't like to eat? Frosting. 

That's right, I scrape all the frosting off my cake and throw it away. I've never liked frosting. It's usually just too rich and I want to be able to taste the cake without all that gooey frosting covering it up. 

I'm not that picky, I'll eat or at least try anything once. The one thing I won't eat is liver. That stuff is just nasty. I don't care how it's made..it tastes like cow manure. *Not that I know what cow manure tastes like, but still* yuck. 

There are things that others find gross that I like. For instance I like to eat...

Fried chicken hearts and gizzards.
Pickled Pigs Feet.
Pickled Cauliflower.
Marinated Artichoke Hearts.
Cooked Artichokes.
Fried Green Tomatoes

Do you have a food you like to eat that isn't something others like?

Happy World Rat Day

Yes it's true, a day to celebrate the rat. Now in its eighth year the aim of World rat Day is to recognize the rat as a wonderful pet and companion animal for people of all ages.

It's a popular day amongst the rat owning community and apparently for rats themselves. Organizers claim that many rat fanciers will choose to celebrate World Rat Day by planning private parties, with friends and family attending and possibly bearing gifts and treats to unsuspecting and surprised rats.

For me though, It's a time to reflect on the boys I have and the rats I've lost. 

Fang here was a sweet little guy who I lost much too early.

Rats do make great pets and I hope with all the rats pictures and stories I've been telling my readers for years that some non rat lovers see that they aren't vermin or pests like some tend to believe.

They are sweet, loving pets.

A To Z Blogging Challenge: D is For Dreams

I've had nightmares since I was a little kid, it used to drive my parents nuts because I'd always go to bed scared and sometimes wake up screaming. As I got older the nightmares got worst and at times even morphed into Night Terrors where I would wake up kicking and fighting. Or wake up so scared from something in a dream that I actually couldn't move for a few seconds.

I'm 43 years old and the nightmares have never gone away. I've tried anti anxiety meds, sleep meds like Ambien, relaxation techniques as I'm falling asleep, even tried having lucid dreams thinking I would be able to take over the dreams as they got bad and turn them around into something good, but I've never been able to have a lucid dream.

After so many years I've gotten used to the nightmares and they no longer bother me. I have nightmares at least 6 nights a week, every week and have since I was a kid. But I figured if that's what's gonna happen I might as well try to steer them into some sort of theme each night. While I can't have lucid dreams I can sometimes steer them into a certain direction if I think of certain things as I'm falling asleep.

So One night I thought about vampires, vampire movies, vampire books...ect. Sometimes it will actually work and I'll have dreams centered around vampires.

If I've seen a particularly good movie earlier that day I'll think of the movie as I'm falling asleep and sometimes the theme of the movie, the characters or an actor will appear in my dreams. So I can look at my dreams as horror movies in my head and I rarely get really scared from them anymore.

And yes, before you ask...I have tried thinking of fun movies, comedies, something good that makes me feel safe and each time I do it turns into something bad or scary in my dream.

I still scream in my sleep, I still kick, punch and yell curse words...which used to really make my daughter laugh when she would hear me screaming obscenities out in the middle of the night. She would come to me in the morning and say, "Do you know what you said last night?"

It's funny because Ken and my daughter both say that I sound mean sometimes when I'm screaming obscene words in my sleep. One time they both told me I said, "You're mine now. I'm gonna split you open like a ripe banana." They both told me that I sounded really menacing as I said it. lol

I saw a psychologist about 15 years ago to see if there was anything I could do about these nightmares. She told me she thought I had unresolved anger issues and that's what was causing all these bad dreams. That very well could be the case but if I have unresolved anger issues...they are probably going to stay unresolved because they would be with my parents. While my brother and I were growing up they were both mean alcoholics and my dad beat my mother on a regular basis until they divorced when I was 12 years old.

I think I resolved my issues with my mom before she passed away 2 years ago. She quit drinking and we had a good relationship. My dad on the other hand is now 80 years old and takes no responsibility for anything that happened. He won't even talk about it, but he stopped drinking a few years ago and we get along alright now. He and my mom were even friends as they got older and family get togethers were a lot easier. My anger issues may never get resolved and the nightmares may never go away but I've found a way to deal with them.

Do you have nightmares or good dreams most of the time?

A To Z Blogging Challenge: C is For Caring For Older Pets

This is Ares and Hades. At the time this was taken they were both 3 years old and just a couple of months later, Hades passed away. I knew it was going to happen because most rats don't make it to 4 years old. You're lucky if they make it to 3 years old, that's old for a rat. Ares made it to the 3 1/2 mark which I am very happy about. I've had several rats live to be very old boys but when animals get to be this elderly, there are things you have to do to make them more comfortable.

Make sure they are in single level cages so they don't fall off of the second floor of their cage. Elderly animals may also need help cleaning themselves and may be incontinent. Check them each day for dried feces and urine and bath them if needed. I sometimes had to wash my Ares off because he has hind leg degeneration and cannot clean his private parts or belly.

Check their bed in case they have accidents on it, you may need to keep a supply of towels, fleece blankets or beds that you can easily wash and replace each day.

They may need extra help eating. My Ares started eating baby foods and softer human foods as he got older. The harder rat foods he wouldn't eat anymore. Sometimes you have to change their diets, their cages, bedding, beds, surroundings ect..just to make them more comfortable when they get older.

When my mom's dog got older she had to pick him up, take him out let him do his business and pick him back up and carry him back in her home. He wasn't into walking much when he got really old. As animals get older you have to care for them more, just as you would an elderly parent. You want to make sure they are as comfortable as possible.

A To Z Blogging Challenge: B is For Bed Bugs

That's right, I said Bed Bugs. I know it's not something most people want to read about or talk about but if you watch the news reports or read articles about it, then you know it's getting really bad and they are sprouting up in more places than just Hotels and Motels.

After hearing all the doom and gloom on the subject I started reading around the internet about how many people were getting ripped off big time by having pest control companies come out and spray. The thing is, they have to keep coming back and spraying because one time doesn't get them all. That's where they get you in the pocket book. They charge you for each time they come out and spray. I'm talking into the thousands of dollars.

So I read and searched and came across a few forums where people were talking about getting rid of the little buggers yourself and it not costing an arm and a leg. I figure I want to be proactive and either make sure I know how to get rid of them if I get them because they seem to be everywhere, or at the very least prevent the little beasts from taking up residence if one or two happen to hitch a ride on a shoe or pant leg. *This stuff is scary*

I started reading people saying they got rid of bad infestations by using Fresh Step Crystals Kitty Litter. It sounds crazy but according to them it will kill most insects because it dries them out from the inside out...it's a desiccant and dries their little ugly buggy butts out.

Save your money for things that work and don't give money to pest control companies that use chemicals that don't work. Bed bugs are immune to so many of the chemicals that are used by pest control but they keep using them and charging you hundreds of dollars.

Using Kitty Litter or diatomaceous earth which is a desiccant and dries bed bugs out, some tape and vaseline...you can rid your house of these pests yourself, but you have to be vigilant and get the kitty litter into all the little spots in your home. It really does work and it's easy and cheap, what do you have to lose before you spend hundred's or even thousands of dollars on a pest control company?

I got a bag of the Fresh Step Crystals and a coffee grinder. I ground up some of the crystals and sprinkled it around where I usually get ants and crickets coming in along my living room wall. It killed the ants and they stopped coming in. I didn't have half as many crickets as I'd had the year before and...now get this, I actually found dead bugs in the kitty litter lines along my walls. Bugs like beetles, water bugs and rolly polly's. Did you know that bed bugs even attack pets? I didn't either so here's how to get rid of them.

I also read on some forums that if you spread vaseline on the feet of your beds and furniture, you can prevent a lot of bugs from getting on them because they get stuck in it and can't walk through it, makes sense to me.

I now buy bags of diatomaceous earth because it's already in a powder form and easier to use than grinding up the kitty litter and it gets rid of all the bugs. I just sprinkle it everywhere, along the walls, in the cabinets, along the window sills, under my bed, in the closets..everywhere. Then every 6 months I vacuum it up and sprinkle some more. I find dead bugs in the powder, ants, beetles ect. You will need to sprinkle the diatomaceous earth on your hanging pictures, drapes, inside of electrical outlets, inside all cabinets, and on all furniture. Turn furniture over and sprinkle the underside as well. Then check each week to see if there are any bed bugs on the furniture.

If you already have bed bugs you may need to throw away some of your furniture because they can hide in the small areas that you can't get to. On your bed take strips of duct tape, place it on the bed and pull it off, Any bed bugs that are there will be ripped up with the duct tape. After doing that, sprinkle the diatomaceous earth on your bed and rub it in. Then replace your sheets with new clean ones. Rub vaseline all over the feet of your bed so that more bugs can't climb up the feet. You can kill bed bugs on your clothes by putting your clothes in a hot dryer for 30 minutes.

You'll have to check your bed, couch, chairs ect for bed bugs and use the duct tape to get them off if you see them. A mixture of 2 parts rubbing alcohol 1 part water if sprayed on them will also kill them.

It can take up to 6 months to totally irradiate them.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: A is For All About Me!

Me, holding my newborn grandson, Logan.

Since this is my very first post in the A To Z Blogging Challenge, I thought I would take this opportunity to let the other bloggers in this challenge who might visit my blog know a little more about me.

So this post is all about me!

Hi, My name is Mary and I live in Las Vegas with my hubby Ken and our 4 rats. I have a 21 year old daughter who recently had a baby, so we are grandparents! If you scroll back through some of my posts you'll see pictures of both my rats and my grandson, Logan.

I was born and raised in Redondo Beach, California where I acquired a taste for seafood. I like pretty much all seafood. But some of it doesn't like me. I have a weird allergy to raw shrimp. I can eat it after it's been cooked but if I touch it to peel it while it's still raw, I break out in blisters where it touched my skin. Weird right?

I am a Freelance Writer and most of my articles have been written for Yahoo! Contributor Network and you can find my profile here. I mostly write about small animal care but also write about other things.

I am an avid reader and can read 2 books a day if I have time. My favorite genre right now is Paranormal Romance. My wallet can't keep up with my voracious reading appetite so I am a member of Swagbucks where I can earn Amazon gift cards just for using their search engine and using their referral links when I shop on websites that I would have already been shopping on. If you have checked out Swagbucks yet, now is a great time to do so.

I am also a member of several survey sites where I earn points for doing surveys and cash them in for prizes as well as gift cards.

I also frequently enter giveaways, blog contests, fb giveaways, and I do pretty well winning free books.

You can find me on the freebie sites, entering for free samples and I post all the free products I've gotten each Friday and the sites where you can sign up for freebies too.

I love to cook, bake, write, read and listen to music. But I think I chat mostly about my rats and other small animals I've had. I write articles that I hope will help others care for their small animals. I think back to the first mouse I adopted when I was 12 and I knew nothing about them. I know I made mistakes and it would have been great to have the resources we have now. We have information at the touch of our finger tips and I can only hope that my articles help new pet parents care for their small furbabies.

You can also find me on Twitter and feel free to follow me, I'm @scarymary66

So, that's me in a nut shell. Thanks for visiting.

I would also like to make a special shout out to Arlee Bird, who is the A to Z Challenge founder.

Happy Easter!

Easter Rat...says Happy Easter

Ato Z Blogging Challenge: Schedule

As some of you may know, I'll be participating in the A to Z blogging Challenge starting on April 1st with the letter A. Each day except for Sunday, I'll be posting a blog post with the next letter of the alphabet.

While I'm doing this challenge the Twitter Wednesday and Freebie Friday posts will be on hold unless I can work on in with a letter on the alphabet.

This month you'll probably learn more about me than you ever wanted to because a few of my posts are going to be personal, a few will be funny and of course I'll have a few rat posts in there as well.

I hope you'll come back each day and find my posts interesting. I just looked and there are over 1500 blogs participating in this challenge this year. It should be fun.

Freebie Friday!

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

This week I received a good amount of free samples. I got a coupon for a free box of Fleischman's bread when they held a giveaway on their fb page. 

All of the other samples came in one box from Proctor and Gamble, you can request what ever freebies they have on their site every 3 months. 

What I received from them was samples of:

Tide Pods
Tide Boost Vivid
Crest White strips
Pantene shampoo and Conditioner
Downy Infusions
Crest Toothpaste
Downy Unstoppables

I found the link to all of these freebies from Freebie Shark. Just go to their Freebie Shark site by clicking on the link and see what free samples are available and sign up for them. It's that easy. 

This week I also wanted to share samples of baby products From the Honest Company, I got for just $5.95 shipping and handling. 

Disclosure: This was not completely free, you have to pay a small shipping and handling fee and call and cancel your membership within 7 days of getting your free trail box in order not to be charged for a full box. 

If you have a baby or are a grandmother like me, this was a great little sample pack to get for just $5.95

I received 7 diapers, 10 baby wipes and 5 samples size bottles of Baby balm, Hand soap, Hand sanitizer, Laundry detergent and Body lotion. 

Your bundle could be different products. I got both bundles, the diaper and family essentials bundle. If you want to keep getting each one it is $35.95 a month for each bundle. 

My Ratties!

Everyone knows I have rats so I thought if you haven't seen them by now I would introduce you to the 4 boys I have. This is my little guy, Patches. He has gained a little weight and loves his yogis. He doesn't like to be picked up too much, but if we sit by the cage and pet him, he loves that. He's a half hairless rat, meaning one of his parents was a hairless rat and one wasn't. 

This is Bandit. We named him Bandit because he's a food thief. He will stash any treats we give him and then he'll run around the cage, stealing treats right from the other rat's mouths. They usually prevent him from getting their treats but sometimes he's too fast and I have to keep him out while they eat their treat or just make sure there's enough to keep him occupied so he leaves the others alone while they are eating their treat. 

This is Lucky. He's my three legged rat. His right front paw is missing but that doesn't stop this little guy from running all over the place and causing havok when he's out on the couch with us. It seems he likes to chew..on my shirts, my couch, my hair, Ken's eye brows, the hammocks, the fleece blankets..lol He's such a sweetheart though.

This is Marbles, he's from the same litter as Patches and they are both half hairless. He loves to come out and play on the couch but he still has a slight problem with me picking him up and being handled, but he is getting much better. 

Well, there you have it. All my boys. Don't you just love those little faces?

Current and Ex- Military Faking or Exaggerating TBI To Get More Benefits

I don't know about any of you but a while back I watched a show called America's Got Talent and was moved by the story of Timothy Poe and how he had been injured while in the army and now had TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury)..

I later found out that he made the entire story up. He was never injured. Heck, he wasn't even in the Army as long as he said he was.

Here's his story.

I was shocked to see this guy on an episode of Dr. Phil and how Dr. Phil called him out on every single one of his lies and even got military records showing the guy was a liar. I mean, who does this? Who makes up a traumatic brain injury and why? For sympathy? For more benefits?

So I went looked and found a couple more stories..
Matt Farmer, an American Idol Contestant also lied about his TBI.

I think it may be time for shows like these to make sure they do background checks and get facts before airing them on tv. But why do they lie about things like this?

Maybe these two articles will shed some light on those questions.

Tide of New PTSD Cases Raise Fears of Fraud

Are Soldiers Faking Their Injuries to get More Benefits?

If you read those articles, it seems that a few doctors think that some soldiers are actually faking their aliments including PTSD and TBI in order to get more benefits after they retire from service. Since there isn't a true test for PTSD or TBI and symptoms can be exaggerated or even faked outright, it seems that there's probably a good chance that some of the people saying they have these ailments are probably faking it to get disability.

That's a really dirty thing to do because in essence they are taking money from those who really have suffered an injury and are really suffering from these things.

Dealing With Neuropathy Caused by HIV-AIDS

My husband, Ken has been dealing with neuropathy in his feet for a few years now and when it first started it was just a little tingling, pin pricks of pain. Now though, even though he's taking medicine that's supposed to help with the pain, the pain has gotten worst and he is thinking about taking more drastic measures...like a nerve block.

What is Neuropathy?
Taken from.. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/147963.php  - Medical News Today

"Neuropathy is a collection of disorders that occurs when nerves of the peripheral nervous system (the part of the nervous system outside of the brain and spinal cord) are damaged. The condition is generally referred to as peripheral neuropathy, and it is most commonly due to damage to nerve axons. Neuropathy usually causes pain and numbness in the hands and feet. It can result from traumatic injuries, infections, metabolic disorders, and exposure to toxins. One of the most common causes of neuropathy is diabetes.

Neuropathy can affect nerves that control muscle movement (motor nerves) and those that detect sensations such as coldness or pain (sensory nerves). In some cases - autonomic neuropathy - it can affect internal organs, such as the heart, blood vessels, bladder, or intestines.

Pain from peripheral neuropathy is often described as a tingling or burning sensation. There is no specific length of time that the pain exists, but symptoms often improve with time - especially if the neuropathy has an underlying condition that can be cured. The condition is often associated with poor nutrition, a number of diseases, and pressure or trauma, but many cases have no known reason (called idiopathic neuropathy).

 In the United States, about 20 million people suffer from neuropathy. Over half of diabetes patients also suffer from the condition."

Ken doesn't have diabetes, he wasn't in an accident that caused damage to his nerves and he wasn't exposed to toxins. What my husband does have is AIDS and his doctors informed him that because of the disease he has, he can get all sorts of different diseases and conditions like neuropathy. Ken found out he was HIV positive back in 1992, when our daughter was just a year old. Thankfully neither our daughter or myself were exposed and we are both HIV negative.

When the pains in his feet first started, the doctors told us that they could treat it with different medicines and so they tried Gabapentin first and he's still on that because it works a little bit. I looked around online and found something called Neuragen gel, so I bought some of that and while it works on some of the minor pain, the scent of this stuff is so bad that Ken hates using it. It gets on his socks, shoes and won't wash off easily and since it doesn't work really well, he only uses it when the pain gets really bad just to mute some of the really bad pain.

Ken's doctor didn't know what else to do because nothing has been working, so he sent him to pain management but they just want to throw pain pills at you..which is exactly what they did. The Lortab didn't do a thing to lessen the pain and he told them he didn't want anymore and asked if there was something else they could try. The doc said they could try a nerve block, where they give you a series of shots in your spine.

o.0

This sounds kinda risky to me. I haven't done my research online about it yet, but I'm wondering how much feeling he would have in his feet after a nerve block? Would he be able to walk? I still need to find these things out before he goes in and says yes to something like this. If they could just target the nerves that are causing the pain and shut those off and he still had feeling enough in his feet to be able to walk, that would be wonderful but I have no idea if they can do something like that.

While we are waiting to see what else they decide to try, I decided to try some massage oil on his feet because he said that sometimes if I rub his feet, it lessens the pain for a while. Now I don't know if you've ever had one of those sharp shooting, stabby type pains in one place where it feels like someone is taking a needle and poking you with it? Yeah, I have and Ken said that's the kind of pain he feels in his feet all the time. I know from experience that rubbing that pain does sometimes make it go away, so I figured massage oil and a foot rub might help.

I was right!

Although, the foot rubs don't make the pain go away for very long, Ken said that when I do it at night right before bed that the pain is so much less that he can actually fall asleep and is able to stay asleep for a while because the pain isn't keeping him awake.

He's still talking to the doctors about other alternatives but at least this is working to give him a little relief for a while.

Do you know anyone with neuropathy? If you do, what do they take for the pain?