A to Z Blogging Challenge: R is For Raturday!

Welcome to a new weekly blog post I'm calling, Raturday! I've seen Caturday and while that's really cute, I think the rats needs some photo time so everyone can see how cute these little animals are. I've gotten permission from Rat Logic's fb page to share their pictures on my blog. So get ready to smile because these are cute. 

*click on pictures to enlarge*

Vampire Trouble by Sara Humphreys Releases on July 1st!

Have you read Sara Humphreys?

Vampire Trouble by Sara Humphreys is going to be available July 1st. Have you pre- ordered it? Have you read any of her other books?

Disclaimer: I'm a member of Sara Humphreys street team and help spread the word about her books.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: Q is For Quite Cute

Lucky and I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter.

*click picture to enlarge*

Lucky is my 1 year old rat and he loves to pose for pictures *as long as I give him a treat*. Hope everyone has a great Easter. 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: P is For Pictures *of rats*

Welcome to a new weekly blog post I'm calling, Raturday! I've seen Caturday and while that's really cute, I think the rats needs some photo time so everyone can see how cute these little animals are. I've gotten permission from Rat Logic's fb page to share their pictures on my blog. So get ready to smile because these are cute. 

*click on pictures to enlarge*

A to Z Blogging Challenge: O is For Onions and Peppers

It's funny to me now but when Ken and I first met, I did not like sauteed peppers and onions. I don't know what it was about onions that I hated but I really did hate them. Now I make this with just about anything and Ken loves to eat the left overs with eggs in the morning. So Just start with a green bell pepper and a sweet yellow onion.

Add some butter *not margarine* to your sauté pan. 

Slice the peppers and onions into chunks and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently so it doesn't burn. 

In about 20 minutes they will be browned really nicely and the onions take on a really sweet flavor which is something I was not expecting at all. I love them now.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: N is For Naughty Neighbors

Some of you who frequent my blog probably have seen this video I took of my neighbors yelling at each other. Yes, you can't see really well what is going on but it doesn't matter because if you turn the sound up, you can sure hear what is going on. Yes, the fun never stops around my neighborhood. I've had more neighbors like these people than I ever thought possible. I have neighbors right now that love to come out of their apartments and cuss at each other, yell and scream and cry. I really should take more video. lol

A to Z Blogging Challenge: M is For Mental Health in Las Vegas

The whole Mental Health agenda seems to have been dumped and not given any real thought here in Las Vegas. The amount of people who need help because of mental illness here in Las Vegas is staggering and the facilities just aren't here, the doctors are not here and it seems the help is not here. 

We have 1 state hospital for the mentally ill and then a smaller psychiatric hospital that only has a small number of beds, not nearly enough to house all the people who need help. When someone here in Vegas gets arrested for trying to kill themselves or is acting strange and says they are suicidal they are first taken to the ER because in most cases you need a doctors note in order to get a bed at the psychiatric hospital. After going to the ER and being evaluated you are usually admitted into a room in the ER while the staff waits for a bed to open up in one of the psychiatric hospitals. Now if you have insurance you might be able to go to a facility other than the state run hospital if they have a bed open which most times they do not, so mentally ill patients wait in rooms in the medical hospitals for days, sometimes a week or more and if they are on suicide watch they could be drugged and strapped to the bed so they cannot leave. 

Now if that isn't bad enough, the state psychiatric hospital is being accused of 'patient dumping'. What they say happened is the facility bought greyhound bus tickets and bussed patients out of state with no medication and no family to meet them when they got to their destination and were told to call 911 once they arrived. 

If you'd like to read my article about this just click here. 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: L is For Love of Candy!

Hello, my name is Mary and I'm a candyholic. lol I don't think there's a 12 step program for what I have. I don't actually eat a whole lot of it, I leave that to others..I just like looking at the pretty candy colors in the glass jars. I mean, who wouldn't smile after seeing a huge canister of pretty candy colors?

Candy jars on my living room shelf...

The right one is just half full because I do like my gumballs. I really like the way gumballs smell. Yes, I need help, I'm sniffing my gumballs.

More candy on the Living room coffee table. One is hard candies and the other is Pastel Buttercream mints. Some people call these mints butter mints and others call them after dinner mints. I call them melt in your mouth mints. 

My grandson came over and he saw the bowl of mints on the coffee table and grabbed one...then grabbed another one before anyone could stop him. He's just a year old and it was pretty funny the way he just grabbed one at a time when I thought for sure he would be throwing handfuls of them all over the place if he got his hand in the bowl. 

And let's not forget my gumballs. They might be in a jelly bean dispenser but they are definitely gumballs. lol Oh the pretty colors..

A to Z Blogging Challenge: K is For Kangaroo Rat

If you've never seen one of these little guys, they kind of remind me of the gerbils I had a few years ago. The are small rodents, with large back feet that they use for jumping around and pounding the ground to scare away other animals. Gerbils also have large back feet and pound their feet to get attention and when they are happy or irritated. I found this out when I had two of them a few years ago.

I think they are pretty cute little critters.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: J is For Jumping Baby Rat

Have you ever seen a hairless rat? This is a video of my hairless rat, Flower. She is 6 months old and when I took this video I'd only had her for about 2 weeks. When I first adopted her she was shy and ran away from our hands. She still isn't sure about being picked up but as you can see, she has no problem coming out and jumping all over me and letting me pet her now. She is very playful and likes to come out. I take her entire cage out and set it on the couch so she can come and go from her cage herself, until she gets comfortable with letting us pick her up and hold her.

So what do you think of hairless rats now?

A to Z Blogging Challenge: I is For Ingredients for One Pot Chicken Cacciatore

I have a really easy one pot recipe for a great chicken cacciatore recipe. First add a few chicken thighs to a deep baking dish. 

Add chopped onions, bell peppers and baby carrots to the pan.

It'll look something like this.

Now add a can of diced tomatoes and bakes at 350F for 2 hours.

It will come out looking something like this. I served this with steamed white rice. The chicken falls right off the bones cooking it this way.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: H is For Headdress

This picture was posted publicly on Twitter earlier this month. 

Is it wrong to wear a native american headdress?

For those of you that didn't head about this, this is Christina Fallin, the daughter of Oklahoma's governor. She posed for pictures wearing a Native American headdress and got a lot of backlash for it. 

Daughter of Okla. governor defends headdress photo

So some people *who have nothing better to do* got really upset that she wore this headdress and posed for pictures. I don't see the big deal. When did it become taboo to dress like people from another culture? The native americans sure do seem to be getting butthurt over the smallest things these days. First it was calling a sports team "Redskins" and now you can't wear some feathers on your head?

I know, I know..I've read the opposition that says these are sacred ceremonial headdresses for ceremonies but what about wearing a replica headdress that is never worn or going to be worn in a ceremony?

Now why did they have to apologize? It's a replica of a headdress, not even a real one. 

So now we can't dress our kids up as Indian Princesses for Halloween, wear a headdress for cute pictures or name out sports teams things like "Chiefs or Redskins". My dad bought my a pair of moccasins when I was a kid and I liked them, should we not be able to wear those either? Maybe the native american dolls that I inherited from my mom should not be shown out in public? 

When did we become a nation of people that bow down to every angry word thrown at us and stop standing up for ourselves. I think I might buy a huge native american headdress and wear it on Halloween to give out candy. 

I found one on Amazon for $45.00

And if I was a size 0 I could dress as a slutty Indian Princess. Or as Amazon calls it, Tribal Princess Native costume.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: G is For Great Smelling Lip Balm

Yes, it seems I've discovered I have a slight obsession with great smelling lip balm. It started out simple enough with a Chapstick cherry flavored but soon I was buying Chocolate Hazelnut Cappuccino, White Chocolate Raspberry Confection, Chocolate Mint, Milk Chocolate Orange Truffle and Bubble Gum flavored lip balms. 

That one in the back is one I got in a swag pack from Leah Braemel and it smells a little like bubble gum. Now when I see an interesting flavor, I want to get it. 

And my newest acquisition is from one of my favorite blogs, Herding Cats & Burning Soup.  This smells like vanilla to me. 

Any new obsessions for you lately?

A to Z Blogging Challenge: F is For Fridge.

What's on your fridge?

On mine, of course I have rats. They are cute little magnets that come in several different colors.

*click pictures to enlarge*

Here are two more of the rat magnets and a rat sticker. I have about 15 of these rat magnets all over my refrigerator.

I also have some pictures in magnet frames. Mostly of my daughter, me and Ken. 

So what's on Your fridge?

A to Z Blogging Challenge: E is For Exciting Freebies!

if you're a long time follower of my blog, you know that each Friday I post a picture of all the free samples and full size products that I've gotten that week. So I had to write this into one of my A-Z posts and here it is.  

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to samples like these at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week  received: 

A package from Smiley360

In my box was a canister of Nature's Bounty Hair, Skin and Nails Gummies. 

Samples of the gummies to give away. 

A nail file. 

A compact mirror. 

2 keychain ribbons. 

I was pleasantly surprised by these gummies because I don't usually like 'healthy' vitamins or gummies but these taste good. 

Did you get any freebies this week?

World Rat Day!

What is World Rat Day?
It's the day that rat owners get together either in person or on social media to raise awareness of rats as pets. April 4th is the day of the year that rat owners around the world spread the joy of rats, trying to teach people that rats make great pets and raise awareness that they are much more than pests or vermin as some see them.

Some rat lovers meet up and give each other gifts or cards but mostly rat owners give their rats treats on this day and share pictures of their rats. So if you know someone with a rat, April 4th is a great day to send them an email or letter and say, Happy World Rat Day. <: p="">

Lucky

Marbles

Flower

Scribbles

A to Z Blogging Challenge: D is For Drink *What's Your Favorite Drink?*

I don't drink alcohol at all and no, I am not a recovering alcoholic. lol I just think the stuff tastes like medicine. Ack!

My two favorite drinks are Maxwell House International Chai Latte and Hills Bros Double Mocha Cappuccino. 

This stuff is like crack for me...seriously. I could drink it all the time. But I don't. The thing is, the only place I can find the Chai Latte is on Amazon. A while back they changed their formula, people didn't like it so they changed it back and now none of the stores near me sell it. Grrr

But that's ok because I can order pretty much anything on Amazon and I do. 

So what's your favorite non alcoholic drink?

A to Z Blogging Challenge: C is For Cake

With easter right around the corner I wanted to show you the Easter Basket cake I made a few years ago. It was actually pretty easy. Just make a standard size round cake and scoop out a small depression in the center. Frost it, add jelly beans or other Easter candy eggs and some coconut I colored with green food dye. I just wrapped a wire with some ribbon and inserted it in the cake as the handle. 

*we have since gotten rid of that stove that would never come clean* lol