Weekend..

I've been busy working all the time and see it has been a few days since I blogged. My youngest is home this weekend so I am not working very much this weekend - time to visit! :) I asked her to bring home Twilight so that we can get warmed up for New Moon when it comes out next month. It looks like it is going to be a great movie!

Took one of the furkids, Shelby to the vet today. She is losing weight and has dropped nearly 4 pounds since a few months ago. Blood tests are being done. She may have the canine type of diabetes. She is 9+ years old which to me really isn't that old but she has been getting some ailments rather early including what looks like cataracts and some other issues. Hopefully this will be something that can be treated so that she isn't ready to leave me yet. Fingers crossed!

It is getting colder at night but so far we haven't turned the heat on. I'm trying to hold out until November. I don't know why, just seems like a challenge. :) We'll see how it goes. It has been getting up to the low 70's during the day so as long as I can wait until it warms up, it isn't too bad.

Off to have a good weekend!

Wet Wednesday...

Even though we are still officially in a drought it has been raining alot lately. It is coming down at a pretty steady clip right now. It sure is nice having a green back yard again as opposed to cracked earth!

Oh...I got the results of my mammo and bone density, both are normal. I got a call today from my doctor's office about the bone density test. I already got a letter from the radiologists office 2 days ago with the results though. I guess I should have been impressed that the doctors office called me also and normally I might be, but I asked them about my pap results (as they did not call me back last week when I asked). She put me on hold for what seems like forever, then came on and said she was having the results faxed to her. She'd call me back in 5 minutes. Guess what? No call. That's it. This is twice I've tried to get results of my pap and they don't call me. So I am done with that doctor. I don't need to think about finding another one for another year so I'll worry about that then.

Good news! My youngest is coming home this weekend. Yea!!! Looking forward to that. It will be nice seeing her again.

As I'm blogging I'm watching TV. I'm watching GLEE which I actually really like. I was in every singing group I could be in during high school, so I can relate ,and the music/singing/dancing in it is really entertaining to me. Hopefully the show will last more than one season. :)

Dog......gone...

Today I found out that my BIL's dog died last night. They noticed that she wasn't hungry in the evening and by 11:00PM not responding very much. They decided to just let nature take its course and then heard her making noise like she was in pain around 2:30AM at which point they brought her into their garage and there she stayed until her last breath a few hours later. It made me so very sad that they chose not to take her to a vet hospital to end her suffering. Dogs are not people. They cannot tell us they are in agonizing pain, but it doesn't lessen the fact that they are in pain!. Sure it would have been inconvenient and cost money, but we are talking about easing the pain of a loyal pet that has shared 13 years of its life with them with unconditional love!

Folks who do not really love dogs, really should not have them in my opinion. This dog of his lived to be 13 despite being confined to living out doors. Oh she was fed, and taken to the vet for normal appointments and such. But she was not allowed in their house, ever. I am not sure about whether she was allowed in the house before their new house was built several years ago, but she was not allowed in once that was built.

Many people think there is nothing wrong with leaving a dog out doors all the time. They stick a shelter or dog house out there if the dog is lucky and that's that. Of course a dog cannot complain to them, so they think this is fine.

Domesticated dogs are not meant to live outdoors. They are meant to be loved, treated like one of the family and share lives with their owners inside their house as well as out. They get bored, lonely, even can get depressed being confined to the back yard.

When I heard the news this morning I started tearing up and said out loud "Sasha, go find Reebok, Misty and Lady. They'll love to play with you". I also wanted to ask my BIL to not get another dog, please.

Having a dog live indoors does mean being prepared to have some things chewed up that you'd rather not have chewed; risking 'accidents' that need to be cleaned up on what used to be new carpet; giving up some space on your favorite couch; and depending on the breed, finding dog hair in places you never dreamed it could end up.

But at the same time, you have that loving face looking up at you when its feeding time, playing tug the sock....oops I mean the doggy toy, barking at strangers that are near the house as your own personal security alarm, and giving doggy kisses whenever you need them. I am one of those people. A true dog lover. I have 6 of them. Yes that is a lot and at times they raise a ruckus! But you know what?...I love each and every one of them and am so happy that I have a large family! :)

Daylight fading...

I miss the daylight!...That is one of the many things I love about the summer season, the fact that it stays light out until after 9:00PM. It is so nice being able to feed the dogs, make dinner, do the dishes, and still be able to sit on the back porch and watch the sun as it slowly sets below the horizon.

Now that it is October, it is nearly dark by the time I am starting the dishes. That's depressing. I'll deal with it as I do every year about this time and just be glad at least that I don't have to get even further depressed about a harsh winter coming, now that I'm no longer living in eastern Pennsylvania. I am so glad that I do not have to face a white-knuckling drive on ice anytime soon! :)

I did my grocery shopping today for the next 3 weeks again. I went ahead and purchased 2 more reusable grocery bags that are pink in honor of breast cancer awareness month. These bags have a plastic lining which makes it a lot easier to get the groceries in, rather than the canvas ones they first came out with. Even with these additional bags, they did have to use some plastic...it would have been a lot more if I had let the old man doing the bagging have his way. He was putting one or two things in a plastic bag and I insisted he put more in them. I didn't care what all went in what bag. It is very annoying. I am trying to not use any plastic bags, and to see one or two items get put in a bag! ARGH! Anyway, it is done for another 3 weeks and I saved over $12.00 in coupons. I've noticed too that shopping this way does save me quite a bit. When I compare it to what I spent each week before, it is saving me about $90-$100 total every 3 weeks. Now this maybe partly due to my youngest being at college, but I'll take it no matter what the reason.

Halloween is just around the corner and I got my bag of candy corn like I do every year. Oh not it is not to hand out, it is for me! I really don't each much candy in general anymore but on occasion I do indulge and when I see the candy corn out for Trick or Treat I decide to Treat myself. :)

Enough rambling for now...off to watch Miami Vice...

Sunday...the day of rest?

Here I am sitting at my desk like any other day, with a full work-load for the day. I know Sunday is suppose to be the 'day of rest' but perhaps that was meant for a simpler time. After all, this was handed down from biblical times when those who interpreted the meaning of this day, paid for things by trading and most or at least more than those today worked off the land, i.e., farmed or raised livestock to survive. So resting on Sunday was a rest for weary bones, muscles, and of course a time to worship for many religions.

Back then..there were no college tuition fees, car payment loans, credit cards, expensive weddings (even frugal weddings aren't cheap)...need I keep going? It is much harder today, at least for this mom, to ignore all that and just take the day off work, especially if it is available. I guess I am one of those that seek opportunities to have more money for any of these things, that I have a hard time not thinking about.

This was all brought about by a co-worker asking me how much work I was taking on this weekend. Well since none of the kids are coming home to visit, I'm of course working as much as I can. This response seemed to be met with surprise, but I look at it this way, I will do what I think is the best thing to do with my time, given the situation I am in. Am I a work-a-holic? I don't think so. If we won the lottery I would immediately work a lot less, nothing more than part-time. A work-a-holic's answer would be to absolutely keep working all the time! ;-)

I look toward the future and something that keeps me going is the fact that I may only have to 'work my butt off' for another 3 or 4 years...just to the point when my youngest is done college. By then, the car loans will be paid off and so will most of the other debt (fingers crossed). So...if I can afford NOT to work on the weekends, I intend to do so. After all there are things I would like to do. I still have a dream to be a singer and try to get some singing in every day so I don't totally lose my voice before I have time to give it a shot. I also want to volunteer to help with dogs more, perhaps at the local animal shelter. Maybe write some more mortgage ebooks or even a novel. Who knows? Until then...back to work.

..Oh so far I have 15 Yoplait yogurt lids saved for the cancer cure cause. Hope anyone reading this who eats yogurt is saving them too!

College and Challenges

I know when I was in college, it was hard for me to imagine that I could possibly approach a professor. I mean this person was all knowing. This person lectured year after year, sharing the wisdom that he obtained from years of schooling and years of teaching. Sorry to use the term 'he' but when I went to college thirty years ago most of the professors I had were men. I remember being particularly in awe of the science professors as they rapidly scrolled formulas on the overhead projector while I wrote down whatever they wrote in the hopes that it would all make more sense to me when I got back to my dorm. It usually didn't.

My youngest and I chatted today and she was disappointed in a grade she got on a test she took. It was her first test in that class and she said based on the information they got as to how many points each thing was worth, she should have gotten less points off than she did.

I suggested that she challenge it and politely ask her professor for a bit of his time so that she might ask him about her test. She said she will do it. I hope she does. One important thing I learned in college was to question things you do not understand, and challenge things that do not seem right to you. Most professors will welcome the question and be glad that you care enough to know if it is right or if not how he came up with the results he did. Even if my daughter finds out her grade score is accurate, she will get a better understanding of why and be better prepared the next time around.

It is funny how when we have kids in college, it can bring back so many memories...was it really 3o years ago that I graduated?...my mind says no, but my mirror says yes!

Mammogram Day

This morning, bright and early I had my appointment for a mammogram and my very first bone density test. I have been bugged by any physician I've seen the last few years about getting that test taken so I agreed to get it done today. I pray that some of all this medical testing is covered by my medical insurance.

The mammogram went as it usually does and it isn't nearly as painful to me as it was when I first started getting them about 10 years ago. I won't go into more details but suffice to say it went without a hitch. Now to hope that there is nothing there to contact me about. :)

The bone density test took longer than the mammogram. I told the lady that took it that it was my first time. She had me lay down on this table while a rectangular arm for lack of a better word moved slowly up toward my face and took X-rays. After getting up to nearly my chest the technician said "Ooops...". "What?", I asked. "I forgot to tell you to put your arms down at your side", she said. So when the machine got up to my hands it was picking up finger digits in the middle of my back X-ray since I folded my hands over my stomach, not knowing NOT to do that. It was okay, except that I had to then put my arms down at my side and she had to do that one over again, exposing me to that radiation all over again. Granted I know it isn't that much, but it was unnecessary.

It is no bid deal I guess, and at least it wasn't an MRI machine type of thing like I thought I would have to be in.

Needless to say, I'm glad all this is done and now I can get back to my normal life of generally 'never' going to the doctor again for hopefully at least another year.
I don't know how often the bone density tests are taken but I do not plan on having one again for at least 2-3 years.

Long work day since I didn't get started until later. Done now..off to watch some TV with hub and hit the sack.