18 Months

On the 12th Zackary turned 18 months old. There are so many things that I want to write about this but I can't seem to find the words.

He is the most AMAZING child I have ever met. He says more words than I can even count including knowing how to tell me no like a big boy. Something that I thought I had at least a few more months before I had to worry about.

He is loving and sweet and LOVES his animals but at the same time will not hesitate to tell you when something is not right in his world.

He has in own thoughts and opinions on how things should go and if you do not do it his way the punishment can be severe!! :-)

He is absolutely in LOVE with his daddy and makes sure he finds him EVERY day as soon as we get home.

He is now in full blown copy cat mode and will copy not only your actions but pretty much EVERYTHING you say including words, phrases and some things you wish he would miss.
He loves swimming in his pool, playing in his sandbox and has a two stuffed animal minimum in his crib at all times.

Every day he turns into more of a big boy and less of my baby.

I am constantly amazed by all of the new things he is doing and seeing him makes my heart hurt because I love him SOO much.

I love you to the moon and back Mr. Zacky Zack. Don't grow up too quickly!!

Dr Appointment Today:

31 lbs. 9 oz.

32 3/4 Inches Tall

Head size is off the charts. (He got his mama's brains!! :-)

Gone, but Not Forgotten... I hope...

Although since I haven't posted in a week and no one has seemed to notice perhaps I am forgotten!! :-(

Either way, I'm just checking in to let you know things are crazy. My work got nuts and so I am working , working, working and when I get home I'm just playing with Zack and then vedging on the couch. I had 110 feeds on my bloglines so I have LOTS of catching up to do.

Things in the alcoholic side of my life have also been crazy. Jake has not relapsed but the farther we get into this recovery the more times old garbage will make it's way to the surface. This has happened recently and we are dealing with it and I'm working on my program, which I have not been so good at doing.

Hopefully, things at work will get better and things at home will calm down and then I will be back, full time. Until then there will be a slight lack of pictures too because all we have at home is dial up and well, I think that speaks for its self.

See you on the flip side!! :-)

One Year

{{This picture has been moved to Zack's personal site}}

July 2007


{{This picture has been moved to Zack's personal site}}

July 2008

Trouble

Notice the look on his face... the look of I know I'm not supposed to but it's SOO much fun?
{{This picture has been moved to Zack's personal site}}

See the dad in the background jumping from his seat
Notice how even though he's SUPPOSED to be in trouble he looks more like he thinks this is a game...
Yeah, WE ARE in trouble!!

New Curtians

God said "let there be light" and there was light

And the small child saw that the light was good and promptly woke up at 6:15 am every morning and refused to go to bed until 8:45.

And so the parents, with their still half open eyes on Friday morning the 4th of July said that this just will not do!!

So the mom went to T*rget to procure curtains. And the curtains were hung.

And then mom and dad pulled the curtains and separated the light into darkness

And the small child saw that the darkness was good and he napped and slept late and all was right with the world again.

----------------------------

Curtains for Zack's room: $200

Trips to Target: 3

Time out of my day: 2 hours

Cutting the crying and talking at nap time from 50 minutes to 5 minutes: Priceless

One day

I miss one day, one little rotten day to stay home with my son, who has pink eye for the second time this year, (Something more to add to my list) and when I get back today there are 72 items in my bloglines account.

Really? Seventy-two?? Could you guys give a girl a break and NOT post for a day... just one little day so I can get caught up? It would be much appreciated... at this rate I might be caught up by the second Tuesday of next week!!

Crossing Over

About two months ago I made a change in this site. Did you notice? For the first 15 months of Zack's life I didn't really talk about him on here much. I wrote a post about it in honor of his 15 month birthday. If you would like to read it you can go here....

Anyway, when I wrote that post and when I sort of changed directions I was unsure if I would loose my faithful readers or not. As of right now the answer seems to be not. I'm grateful that all of you decided to stay with me and I'm glad that so many of you are enjoying the pictures and the stories. I love writing about my kid and sharing him with all of you.

However, after today... I'm not sure how many of you will continue to come back. Today I'm am truly crossing over to the mommy blogger dark side...

After all, who else but a mommy blogger could come here and tell you that on Saturday my son will be 18 months old and this morning.

.
.
.
.

He woke up DRY!!

And then...

.
.
.
.

He went potty on the big boy potty!!!

Oh yes, I did just write that on my website, and I did just put three exclamation points behind it!!

I..

can't...

help...

myself...

It's official, I'm now a mommy blogger. May God help us all!! :-)

(Wait, before I go may I get one more WOOO HOOO for my big boy!!)

Ok, I'm really going this time...

Childlike Confusion

On Thursday we took Zack to the park. At the park there was a drinking fountain. So we taught him how to drink out of the drinking fountain.

On Friday he used his new found skills to attempt to drink from the spout of the kitty fountain.

In his defense it is sort of a drinking fountain.....

Sick to my Stomach

I have been cleaning my office the last couple of weeks. Every night I do a little bit. Last night I was looking through some old paperwork deciding what to shred and I came upon a gas receipt. In 2003 it cost me $28.00 to fill up my vehicle!!

$28.00!!!

Just the other day I filled up and it cost me close to $75.00. That is more than double the price in just 5 years!! Let me just give you a little history lesson here...

1986 - $1.00 per gallon
1993 - $1.30 per gallon
2003 - $1.50 per gallon
2008 - $3.90 per gallon

So we've got a 30% jump in 8 years, a 15 % jump in 10 years and then a 260% jump in the last 5 years??

260%!!

You have got to be F#$king KIDDING ME!! Someone PLEASE, PLEASE drag George Bush and his oil friends (who have been making record profits by the way) out of power so perhaps we can get back to spending our money on things we need like groceries and utilities instead of GAS for our cars!!

Seriously??

Re: HOBBY LOBBY-MC-30-CKS

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Please contact us to resolve this issue.

We have reason to believe the above referenced check(s) have been stolen or forged. (No SH*T Sherlock could that be because I told you this... a YEAR AND A HALF AGO!!) However, we are requesting more information. (What more could you want? I sent you a police report, and a letter from the bank showing I canceled the account as soon as I knew the checks were stolen. Did I mention that I did this a YEAR AND A HALF AGO!! Ok... just checking) If this item is related to a forgery, theft or identity theft (I think we've established this), we must have copies of your completed forgery affidavit and/or police report to clear this matter from our system. (Um yeah... got that. Faxed them to you... YEAR AND A HALF AGO!!)

Sincerely,

MasterCheck

All I can say is it's a good DAMN thing I keep things, and also that I am in the process of cleaning my office. So I find the information and call the company.

Helpful Associate (HA): Oh, I see here that there were two checks written to Hobby Lobby.

H: Yes, and I talked to someone regarding both checks and faxed you a copy of the police report back in 2006.

HA: Yes, it shows here that we have a police report on file and we have cleared one of the checks.

H: So do I need to fax you another copy to clear the other check. (Come on idiot... get with the program....)

HA: No, I will go ahead and clear the second check now.

H: Thank you. (Did I really just have to waste 15 minutes of my day having that conversation?)

The odd part of this whole thing is that this letter arrived on Friday June 20th. The same day that this happened.

Uninspired

I have been sitting here most of the day trying to come up with something to write... ANYTHING really and I've got NOTHING. A big fat Zero.

It's Monday. And Monday in the worst kind of way. I was up at 5:00 to pick up the house for the cleaning lady. I didn't get Jake up to help me because his idea of picking up is to put the dirty pans in the oven. Grrr... so I just did it. And then I regretted it because secretly I was a little angry that I did it all myself. So when I asked him to do the litter boxes and he gave me flack I sort of snapped on him, a little...

Oh, and our basement flooded AGAIN this weekend. So there are wet kitty litter footprints all over our house that I didn't have time to wipe up....

And our cat is still missing. She has been gone for a little over a week now and we miss her. When we go out side Zack still yells Eeek Ahhh (Squeeker). It breaks my heart every time. I know he is probably doing it because I have been yelling it for a week not because he knows that she's missing but still...

Oh, on Friday we did have a somewhat humorous incident regarding missing cat. I got a phone call about 1:30 from someone who had gotten my flyer (I sent out 61....) he said he thought he had found my cat and then he proceeded to tell me he thought she was dead on the road. So I say thank you and then I try to continue working. I made it to 2:15.

Then I went home, changed clothes, got an old towel and went to the place on the road where he said I could find my cat. I pulled up and was immediately like that's not her. But then I went and gathered said smooshed cat and upon further investigation I couldn't tell. I looked at the pictures on the flyer and at this cat and I was stumped. All that kept running through my head was I don't want to bury someone else's cat.

So... I call Jake and he is short with me because he's at work and then I begin to cry and leave said cat on the side of the road. I drive home a blubbering mess. He calls me back about 5 minutes later and I tell him I just can't tell. So he says he will leave work at 5:00 and come look for himself. So home I go.

I get out the digital camera and I look through all the pictures I have and find all the ones with her and then I study her markings. After about 45 minutes I'm convinced it's my cat. I cry some more and get back in the car to "bring her home." Only, when I get there, I'm not so sure again. I examine the smooshed cat once again and just can't tell so back home I go.

Finally Jake gets off work and I drive over there for the third time. Now said cat is missing. We don't see it. So we both park and we walk up and down the side of the road. We find it, he says yes, it is definitely her. I go to get the towel and by the time I get back he's not so sure. So in the back of his truck she goes and he is off to the rescue league to have them check said smoosed cat for a microchip.

25 minutes later he calls me. This cat is only 1 - 2 years old and has no microchip. So now I have spent all afternoon being distraught about someone else's smooshed cat. I'm relieved but also still very sad. At least if it was her we would have had closure. Now, we keep looking....

Other than that, we are in the process of trying to renovate our dog pen so we can put our escape artists back in it. They learned to jump the fence so we have to buy a jump guard. More money... fantastic. So while we are at it we are also tilling up the pen and planting grass. It has been mostly weeds since we built it.

Oh and speaking of purchases, we now are looking into new shades for Zack's room too. Now that it's light he has began a sleeping boycott. If it is light he will not sleep. This is all fine and dandy during the week when he is up at 6:15 but not nearly so great on the weekends and not nearly so great at night either. He has cut his sleeping by a good one to two hours and his attitude is showing it.

I went to Men@rds to buy some darker shades yesterday and came home defeated when I realized that anything above a one cell shade would have to be special ordered and those things are EXPENSIVE!! Do you think I could get away with hanging blankets on his windows or is that too getto?? Yeah... I thought so too... Uggg!!

Is it Tuesday yet?

Public Service Announcement

Before I write anything for the day I usually go onto my bloglines and read all of the updates. I do this 1) to see what everyone is up to and 2) to possibly get some ideas of what to write about.

Today, I'm going to take a moment to re-iterate something I saw on Kristi's blog this morning. Yesterday she was in a car accident. A minor accident but it reminded her that her daughter had outgrown her car seat and that she had not yet made time to purchase a new one. Luckily, her daughter was not hurt and they immediately purchased her a new car seat. A seat with a 5 point harness up to 65 lbs.

And that, dear friends, is the message of my public service announcement today. There have been some new studies out that have shown that it is NOT as safe to move smaller children up to booster seats as was once thought. Adult seat belts can hurt children under five and even children over five who are small for their age.

I know a lot of parents who move smaller children up thinking the age restriction is all they need to follow or they move the younger child up sooner because they throw a fit and want to be like their older sibling. Please don't do this. The booster seat we got for Zack allows him to be in a five point harness until he is 65 lbs. I plan to leave him in that seat until he is 65 lbs. (Which at this rate might be next year!! LOL)

I also plan to reposition his seat this weekend to tether him into the car. I have not done this and noticed when I got into a friend's car this weekend she had her seats tethered in. That is one more safety measure that I need to take to protect my son. After watching the video's below I realized that one inconvenience for me is NOT worth risking his life.

If you have the time, watch the videos below (possibly with some Kleenex). Seriously what's a little crying and fit throwing about being in a "baby" seat when you are trying to save your child's life?

This has been the end of your public service announcement. We will return you to your regularly scheduled programing next week.

5 Year Old Kyle Miller


3 Year Old Isabelle

Making Dinner

Last night we made dinner and ate as a family. Let me clarify, we made something that didn't come out of a box OR a frozen bag. We cooked people!! I'm gitty all over just thinking about it.

I was reading a blog yesterday and I came upon this GREAT recipe for Parmesan Crusted Pork Tenderloin Chops.

I'll put the recipe here, but I HIGHLY suggest you pop on over there because she has pictures to go with the recipe and everything is easier with pictures.

2 pork tenderloins (they usually come two to a package)
We just used precut pork loins. They were on sale and it made it so we didn't have to do the pounding of the meat because they were already only about 1/2 inch thick
2 large eggs
5 ounces Parmesan cheese (We bought the pre-shredded stuff because I couldn't' find a block of Parmesan at the store)
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
2 teaspoons Garlic powder
Olive oil (We used vegetable oil)

Combine the flour, salt, pepper and cheese in one bowl and mix well

Whisk eggs in another bowl

Get out a non-stick frying pan and put the oil in the bottom and then heat it to medium high.

Then bread the pork putting it in the egg and making sure it is coated and then in the cheese mixture and then into a non-stick frying pan.

Heat about 5 -7 minutes on each side until golden brown and the serve. It is VERY nummy... and good... AND.... it DIDN'T come from a box!! Aren't you proud??

Eeek!!

Two weeks ago we de-binkied my son. Things have been going really well. He asks for it once and awhile and we just tell him it is all gone.

However, last night we had our usual babysitter, who hadn't been there in two weeks, and we forgot to tell her about the whole binkie thing. So he asked, and she found the spare one under the changing table and gave it to him.

SO... my question to any of you who have ever been through this, how long will the screaming last this evening?

He asked for it over and over again this morning (we took it away as soon as we got home) and we just told him all gone. He seemed ok with that but I'm not sure he's going to be so ok with it when it comes to bed time tonight.

Should I hunker down for another two hour screaming fest? I'm not sure my ears can handle it. Please tell me one of you had this happen and it was no big deal..... please..... :-)

Counting My Blessings...

This weekend a man that Jake's sister graduated with, a man that Jake used to run around with was murdered. When I saw his picture on the news my heart just sank. That all too easily could have been Jake.

This man had a three year old and no matter what he had done to anyone he did NOT deserve to but gunned down in the street. And gunned down not just by anyone but by someone we know.

That's right. Remember back in October of 2006 when Jon and Jane broke into our safe and stole our checks and then decided to go on a random spending spree??

If you've forgotten you can read Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four to get caught up.... (You might want to take a coffee and a bagel... it's a long read)

So on Sunday morning I got on the Internet to see who was charged with the murder of this man and I felt like I had been hit over the head when I saw Jane's name come up. That's right, the woman who was IN MY HOUSE, is now charged with murder.

All I could think was oh my G*d that could have been us....

No matter where you are in your life and no matter what you think of the situation that fact of the matter is that a young man lost his life this weekend. A family lost a son and a brother and a little boy lost his daddy. It could have been us, and I'm counting my blessings that Jake was able to get his act together when he was but at the same time my heart is hurting for the family who wasn't so lucky.

Is it too quiet??

What do you get when you leave my husband and my son alone too long with some sidewalk chalk??

{{This picture has been moved to Zack's Personal Site}}

War Paint Mom... DUH!!!

I forget... do I have one child or two? :-)

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow...

(Said as we were leaving the driveway this morning)

Bye Bye daddies....

Bye Bye Puppies...

I ove ooo....

mmmmmmmhhhhhh.... (hand to mouth blowing kiss...)

Things Heard Round Our House This Weekend...

"You are looking at the new co-manager of Random Mobile Home Park."

Yes, Jake got a promotion. A pretty big one actually. He is now the co-manager of the mobile home park which comes with a whole new set of duties and hopefully (cross your fingers) a whole new set of pay too!! :-) YEAH for JAKE!!

"No, No, NO!! DON'T dig in the litter box. That's icky!!"

The basement flooded last week so the litter boxes had to be moved upstairs. I forget how much I HATE having them in our living space until they are back again.

"Can we just fill in the basement with dirt? Really... never venture down there again? I think it would be easier."

After the water receded I had to scrub the floor in the basement. Here is your exercise for the day. Take a bucket and fill it with water. Now dump in some kitty litter and mix until it is a nice pasty consistency. Now spread it on your floor in a nice thick goopy wet paste. Next take a mop and a bucket and try to clean said mess. THAT is what I did yesterday. Happy to get the litter boxes back to the basement. Not so happy to clean it first....

And So it Begins...

Right now downtown Des Moines is beginning to take on water.

It is coming up from the storm drains right now and is already knee to waist high for about a block. Later this afternoon they expect the river to leave it's banks and create additional flooding.

The news is saying this could be as bad as the Floods of '93. I live on the OTHER side of this river... hmmm....

If I'm not here for a couple of days assuming I'm staying dry on my side of the lake.... :-)

Huh... what??

I'm sorry... you will have to speak louder. I can't quite hear you. I think I am temporarily deaf from all of the screaming.

Here is my advice to all of you. If your child ever has the displeasure to contract hand, foot and mouth disease promptly pack them up and ship them off to Grandma's for a couple of days. No really... TRUST ME!!

Here is my last night in a nutshell.

5:27 pm: Arrive at daycare and notice that he is crying in his room

5:28 pm: Notice that the little dear only took a 20 minute nap, briefly consider if it would be possible to pawn him off on someone this evening. Decide against it and suck it up for the long night ahead.

5:32 pm: Get him into the car seat and decide that I'm going to try to get him to take a small nap on the way to get him some ice cream to make his mouth feel better

5:33 pm: The screaming continues. I try to give him a binkie but it is the blue binkie NOT the green binkie and it just will not due. He hands it back to me and continues to scream.

5:35 pm: Decide there is NO way I can go to get him anything as I will not be able to hear in the drive through. Turn around and take him home.

5:37 pm: The screaming ceases for 2.5 seconds until he sees daddy and melts down again at the injustice of being inside and not outside

5:38 pm: Daddy takes him outside, the screaming stops. THANK GOD...

5:40 pm: Oh wait, it was just a fluke. The sand box is not behaving it's self and the screaming begins again in earnest. I take this as my opportunity to escape to acquire the ice cream

6:17 pm: Arrive back home, Zack is no longer screaming and is instead sitting on the couch waiting for daddy to get 101 Dalmatians started so he can watch PUPPIEEEEEEES!!

6:24 pm: Apparently french fries and PUPPIEEEEEESS (yes.. it must be said with much enthusiasm) make everything better

{This Picture Has Been Moved to Zack's Site}

6:27 pm: Oh yes, and Ice Cream... mussent forget the ice cream

{This Picture Has Been Moved to Zack's Site}

7:02 pm: The calm is short lived so daddy takes him upstairs to bed. The screaming begins.

7:05 pm: It is quiet, they are reading a book

7:07 pm: He puts him in his crib and the screaming begins in earnest. If I didn't know better I would think someone was trying to kill him.

7:15 pm: I head upstairs to try to calm him down. He stops crying when I get in the room but doesn't want to lay down. I read him a book trying to get him to calm down and sit in my lap. He squirms and wriggles so I put him back in his crib. The screaming starts again.

7:22 pm: Mommy.... mommy... (I think that is playing dirty)

7:30 pm: I go back up to check on my screaming child. I try to give him his binkie but the blisters on his tongue make it impossible for him to suck on it so he just screams and cries. I hold him, rock him, try walking with him, nothing works

7:38 pm: I decide to load him in the car and drive him around until he falls asleep before I pull all my hair out

7:39 pm: I step outside and the screaming stops immediately. His head pops up off my shoulder and he points to the field. "Moo...." (Well I'm glad to see he hasn't lost sense of the important things in life)

7:39 1/2 pm: I get him in the car seat and the screaming begins again

7:42 pm: The screaming has stopped. I can still hear the whimpers from the back seat but his eyes are closed.

7:44 pm: I put him in bed and fall defeated onto the couch

8:22 pm: He begins to cough... oh sh*t, oh sh*t please don't let him wake up, no such luck. It begins with a mild whimper

8:24 pm: The screaming is back again along with the flailing. I take him downstairs and try to give him baby ambesol on his tongue. It doesn't work.

8:26 pm: I try starting the puppies movie, he's still screaming, he wants no part of it

8:34 pm: I put him back in bed, not knowing what else to do with him

8:43 pm: Can't stand to hear him cry, not knowing if he's just overly tired or in pain, take him downstairs

8:44 pm: Screaming

8:50 pm: More Screaming....

8:58 pm: Oh yeah... still crying.....

9:08 pm: "HEATHER...." "WHAT?" "Why don't you take him in the car again?" He stops to listen and is suddenly overwhelmed with how tired he is. His eyes begin to droop and I sit as still as possible trying not to move so he won't start again.

9:12 pm: His eyes droop for the last time. I find the foot rest on the recliner, put it up and sit motionless hoping, please dear god don't let him start again....

9:28 pm: Finally find the courage to move and I take him up and put him in his bed

On the upside I think we have taken away the binkie? After all we've already survived the first two hour night of crying right?? :-)

New Look

On Friday I will celebrate the 3 year anniversary of this blog. In three years I have written 508 posts (509 when I press publish) and my blog has ALWAYS looked the same.

I have changed the wording a little from time to time but for the most part, same colors, same layout... BORING.

So in honor of the three year blog-o-versary the great and wonderful Calliope has given me a new look and a gorgeous new header.

To say I'm excited is a bit of an understatement. I'm THRILLED beyond belief to have this new look.

And if you too would like your very own header or re-design pop on over and give her a shout out and I'm sure she could do a wonderful job with your blog too!!

Mid Year Review...

Ear Tubes... check

Bronchilitus.... check

Strep Throat.... check

Tonsillitis... check

Trip to the Emergency room... check

Conjunctivitis... check

And new this weekend, making it debut appearance....

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

Is it December yet?

Bloglines

Bloglines... Bloglines... how do I love thee... let me count the ways....

Do any of you use this? I just started yesterday and I tell you, it is revolutionizing my blog following. Instead of having all of my blogs in my favorites and having to visit each one separately to see if they've updated I just go to my bloglines. If anyone has new content it tells me and I click and link and boyola, I'm at that blog.

Right now, after two days of work, I have all 66 of my blogs in there. Yes, you read that right, I read 66 blogs. Whew... no wonder I only get to most people's like once a week. But now... now, no longer. Now I don't have to visit 60 blogs just to have the page load and see that the same content is there that was there 2 days ago. Now I can just click on my bloglines account and see in a mater of moments who has updated and who has not. Visit the few blogs that are updated and move on with my day.

This could become a problem. I've gained so much time now that I'm not trying to visit all of those blogs I might have time to read just a few more. Any you can recommend?? ;-)

Recipe Suggestions

In reference to my post below I need suggestions...

What do you make at your house for dinner? Something that takes less than an hour (preferably half and hour) and will feed 3 people. We get home at about 5:30 - 5:45 and the latest I can usually hold Zack off from eating is 6:30. Especially because depending on what kind of day he has had sometimes he is in bed at 7:00.

Here's what to keep in mind... I am the PICKIEST person on the planet.

Ok... go....

Work Out Woes

As many of you know I started working out about a month or so ago. And lately it has been going.... well... so... so....

As much as I really don't care about the weight issue it is hard not to become a little discouraged when the scale has not shown even one pound of improvement. In fact it seems that my weight has fluctuated between the same 5 pounds. Base weight, five pounds up, back to base weight. Never dipping BELOW the line.

However, that is not my most serious hurdle at this point. My problem now becomes that I'm TIRED!! REALLY TIRED!! So I need some advice from you work out goo roos. What am I doing wrong?

When I started working out my appetite changed. I'm eating less but not necessarily better. If I eat veggies and salads I feel like I'm starving and I tend to splurge so I have generally just been eating less of things that I like. (Which is not much... think eats like a three year old) Is it possible that I'm not eating enough calories? I would guess in a typical day when I bring my lunch and breakfast I probably only eat 1,500 calories.

As for sleep I generally go to bed between 9 - 10 and I get up at 5:00 so I'm getting between 7 -8 hours of sleep which I think should be sufficient. Still, every morning when my alarm goes off I have a hell of a time getting out of bed and most days I'm DRAGGING by the time I get home. I am getting discouraged because I thought working out was supposed to make me feel better but I feel worse.

So, there you have it. Any suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Seeing the Other Side...

As most of you know I attend Al-anon meetings twice a week. I have learned a lot at these meetings and enjoy them immensely. Recently there has been a woman who has attended my Friday night meeting who has really gotten me thinking.

For a couple of years now I have read a great blog about an adoptive/foster parent. She has adopted one child from foster care and also has anywhere from 1 - 5 other foster children at any given time. I love her blog and try to read it every day.

Recently she has been having some issues with the bio mom of two of her foster children. They have been to court a couple of times to try to get to the point of terminating parental rights because the bio mom is not doing what she is supposed to be doing. As I have read her side of the story I have found myself rooting for her, in a sense. I know how much she cares for these kids and I know nothing about the bio mom so I was almost hoping that they would terminate rights so that she could possibly adopt them.

Then I met this woman in my Al-anon meeting. Let's call her A. A has four children who are in foster care. A loves her children very much and becomes very emotional when she talks about them. She has made some mistakes but she is trying to turn her life around and regain custody of her children.

On Monday there was to be a hearing to possibly terminate A's parental rights. Suddenly things are looking a whole lot different to me. I don't know A well enough to know exactly what she has or has not done to regain custody of her children. I know her story, as she has told it to me and a part of me aches for her.

I know she has made mistakes but from where I sit it looks like she is trying. Shouldn't she at least get the chance to be in her children's lives? It breaks my heart to think that there is a possibility that they could terminate her rights and she might never be able to see her children again.

It is amazing to me how your perspective on a situation can be so different when you only hear it from one side. Perhaps in all we do we should take the time to consider that there could always be another side to every story.

What did you drive to work today?

Yesterday as I was pulling into the parking garage I noticed a hearse. I didn't think much about it until I realized that the hearse was pulling into the parking garage with me. (No, I'm really not making this up)

The hearse drove around the parking garage found a spot (well actually two spots since it was a little too long for one) and parked. Then a man got out, gathered his belongings, stepped away from the hearse and took a picture on his camera phone and then was off... I assume to work because it was still parked there when I went home.

All I could think was do you think he lost a bet? Because seriously who looks through the classifieds for a cheep car and decides on THAT? Then , of course, I took a picture for all of you because seriously... were you really going to believe me without proof? I'm not even sure I believe myself....

Makes you want to start snapping your fingers and singing the Adam's Family song... doesn't it? Oh go on admit it.... you know you want to....

What I Did on My Memorial Day Weekend.....

By: Zackary


On Friday night I went to my Grandpa Ted and Grandma Carol's house. When Mommy and Daddy told me where we were going I was SO excited. I kept saying "gam pa, tack tor" the whole way there and then when we pulled into the driveway there was the tractor. It took a little bit of "peese gam pa, tack tor" but he gave in and I got to ride in the tractor and then I even got to drive it a little bit. It was SOO much fun!!

On Saturday I stayed home with Daddy because it was REALLY windy and "ucky" outside and Mommy said that she had to go to lots of different stores and I wouldn't like it. So I played with Daddy and took a nap and I was so excited when I woke up and found these on the coffee table:

Mommy says it's a good thing that I slept for a LONG time because it took her like three episodes of Elmo's World to get them out of the box and she might have said some naughty words in the process. I was SO excited that I played with my "tack tor" for a long time.


After a little while Daddy left and when he came back he went outside so I went outside with him and noticed that he was doing something in the tree in the front yard. I wanted to help but Mommy said I couldn't climb the ladder because I might fall down and bonk my head. So I just watched and boy was I surprised when he finished and I saw my very own swing in the front yard!!
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I wasn't quite sure about it at first but by the end of the weekend I was asking to "wing" every time we went outside. After we played outside for awhile Mommy & Daddy said it was time to go back inside. I wasn't very happy about this. Mommy says if I could I would live in a tent outside. Ya know, I think she might be right.

So, after we went inside I was trying to get the door open to the outside when suddenly I discovered that there was this little flap on the door and if I pushed on it I could get to the outside.

(Ha Ha!! Just watch them try to keep me inside NOW!!) I thought that was LOTS of fun and I went in and out of that flap for quite a while until Mommy and Daddy told me that we had to go to Grandma Julie's. I was a little upset to go but then I was really excited when I got to see "ki kat" and "puppieeee" and "orse" and Grandma's barn. Of course Grandma had to watch me pretty closely because I'm not afraid of anything and I would have run into the stall with the horse if I could have.

On Sunday some of my family came over and I got to see Aunt "Innie" (Lindsay) again and some other relatives. Grandma Carol made a cake and she gave me this thing covered in chocolate called a beater. When she first gave it to me I tried to blow on it because it looked like the wand for bubbles. But I quickly discovered that it was MUCH, MUCH better than bubbles!!

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After we ate dinner I spent the rest of my evening going around to all of the relatives seeing which ones I could con into taking me outside. I convinced my Uncle Tim, my Grandma Carol and my Aunt Sue. It was a lot of fun!!

On Monday I got up and was surprised that I got to spend another day with Mommy & Daddy. We played with my tractors and I took a nap. When I got up Daddy said something about a boat and then he put me in this blue fluffy thing. I was just excited to get to go outside and kept trying to get him to open the door.

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Finally he took off the blue fluffy thing and we all got in his truck. It was really fun to ride in Daddy's work truck because I sit up really high and I could see out the front window really well.

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We drove for a little while and then we all got back out of the truck. Mommy put the blue fluffy thing (she called it a life jacket) back on me and we got in the boat.

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It was fun for a little while. I liked to stick my hand in the water but Mommy kept grabbing the back of my life vest saying something about me having no fear and that I was going to fall into the water.

After a little while I was bored and wanted to go home so we got back into the truck to drive home. On the way home we stopped at this place where Daddy talked into this box and then this woman handed us an ice cream cone. I had never had one before and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Mommy had to show me how to stick my tongue out to lick it but I really wanted to hold it myself.



So when we got home mommy took my shirt and pants off and let me have the ice cream cone.

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It was kind of messy but I liked it A LOT!!

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After I was "aaahh daaa" (all done) Daddy brought the hose up to wash off the back steps. I was pretty sure that he needed my help to do it so Mommy just threw her hands up in the air and took off my diaper and let me help.

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I was such a good helper that I even made a little swimming pool for the cats in case they were hot and wanted to cool off.

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After I got done playing in the water Mommy & Daddy tried to make me take a nap but I didn't want any part of that. I just played in my crib and talked to the cats for 45 minutes. So then they decided that we were going to go on a walk and they put a hat on my head. Mommy says all my little boy hats are too small so they had to put a big boy hat on.

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I didn't mind the hat that much but about half way into the walk I decided my long day was over. I started to cry because I couldn't push the stroller and I continued to wail at the top of my lungs the entire mile back to the car. Daddy said he thought his ear drums were going to explode but I think he exaggerates.



Either way, I was VERY tired and I went to bed at 6:30.



The End.

Parkersburg Tornado

A good friend of mine, Katie, has in-laws that live in the town that you are seeing on all of the news shows. Please head on over to her blog and give her your love would you?? It is going to be a long road ahead for her family and I'm sure they could use all the support they could get.

The color will go away... evetually....

What do you get when you take one newly stained front porch railing (it's amazing how much motivation company coming provides):

Add some dirt from a broken flower pot.. (It was less broken before he started playing with it. Now... it's a lost cause)


And sprinkle in a little bit of Zackary....

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He is now the proud owner of two parallel marks down his face.

And some wonderfully colored hands.

Apparently he thought it would be really fun to go up on the porch and grab two newly stained rails and stick his head in between them to say hi to daddy on the other side. We tried wiping the stain off without much success. So he might just be stripped for awhile!! :-)

When do You Give Up?

I recently did some cleaning up of my blog rolls and took off some people who were not posting any more. As I was deleting their information I felt rather guilty about it. Some of these people were regular readers of my blog as was I of theirs and then suddenly something happened.

They got busy, had a baby or life just got in the way and one day they didn't post. Then it was a week, a month and before you know it nothing new was on their blog in a year. I left these people on the list because I kept thinking they might come back.

And, I have a confession to make, even though I took them off of the blog roll they're still on my favorites list in case they make a dramatic come back....

So what about you? When do you give up on a blog and take it off of your favorites list? Is it only when the person stops posting for a certain amount of time or do you also have people that you have stopped reading because the content of their blog changes? (i.e. they were a fun single blogger talking about all their nightclub stories and then they got married and suddenly it becomes all about how to properly clean out closets)

Monkey Man

As a reward for all of your wonderful suggestions regarding Zack's daycare problems a video sure to make you smile:

I present to you... What Does A Monkey Do?


I tell ya... this kid just gets smarter ever day!!

Housekeeping

I have FINALLY taken the time to go through the list of blogs I read and add some new ones as well as remove some people who have stopped blogging or have not blogged in such a long time that I may have to send a search party after them.

If I have left you off and you would like to be on the blog roll please let me know. If I have put you on and you would rather not be on there please let me know that too!!

Biting

Help!! My son is being bitten at daycare. This is the 5th time he has been bitten in a month. I don't know what to do. I love... let me reiterate, L-O-V-E his daycare. They are aware that there is a problem and they said they are trying to fix it but he is in a room with 7 boys and three girls and that's A LOT of pint sized testosterone.

They oldest kid in his room is two and the youngest is my baby and his best friend who is a month younger. So, I'm torn. If it was Zack that was biting and I was doing everything I knew how at home I would not want to be threatened with kicking him out of daycare for an age appropriate action that I was trying to control.

At the same time, there is the mother bear part of me that wants to take the other little kid outside and leave teeth marks on his little arm. (Perhaps that's why they won't tell me which little kid it is, although I have been told that it's not the same one every time)

So, what do you guys suggest? I've talked to the director, Zack loves his room and his teachers and I'm afraid moving him could be MUCH harder on him than this is. Right now he still runs into his room and right up to all of the kids in his room and he has not even attempted biting at home so know he's not picking it up. Is this just something that is normal in a daycare setting and it will end? (Hopefully sooner rather than later)

Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have!!

Setting a Goal

Today I met with the personal trainer at the gym we joined. They give you one free session with the trainer to ask them whatever you want or have them show you whatever you need shown.

Usually they weigh you, test your body fat, make you run on the treadmill, etc. I was fully prepared for this but not looking forward to it in the slightest. Luckily I had to do none of that. When I started talking to him it was obvious that he was going to just show me what I needed to be shown and that was not the cardio stuff. The treadmill and the elliptical (oh how I hate you...) I know how to use. It was the other equipment in the gym that baffled me.

So he walked me through the weight machines and showed me how do work each one. How many repetitions I should be doing, how much weight I should be lifting etc. He gave me a lot of good ideas to tone my midsection which is really the only area I'm focused on right now.

So I have set myself a goal. By my five year wedding anniversary in September I want to have my waist back. I know that seems like a long time out but he agreed with me, better I set my goal reasonable and reach it earlier than set it too high and get discouraged.

So... September here I come. We might just have to check into a hotel for our five year just so I can have an excuse to wear a bathing suit!! :-)

Terrible Two's??

Here is the scene:

I'm at Zack's daycare. There is a mom. She is on the playground with her son. She picks him up off of the toy he is ridding and tells him it is time to go. He begins to cry and tries to climb back on the toy. So she picks him up.

It doesn't go well. She has a diaper bag in one hand and the child is screaming bloody murder and squirming and flailing. Finally she has him in sort of a football hold as she is trying to get him to the car.

To get to said car, she has to carry him through the daycare and out the front door. The entire time he is screaming as if he is being tortured and flailing about. Finally she makes it to the front door. By this point all the other parents are staring and shaking their heads. Glad it isn't them. That today they don't have "that child."

At the front door he wiggles free and she almost drops him. She sets him down to open the door and juggle the diaper bag. He bolts back towards the play ground. She grabs him again and he is still screaming and flailing about. FINALLY she gets to her car.

She puts him in the car seat and practically has to sit on him to get him buckled in. He is still screaming and has his back arched so that every time she gets one arm in a strap he turns the opposite way and it comes out. Finally, she gets both arms in and he is buckled in.

As the back door to her jeep slams I am jolted from my trance watching her into the realization that I'm not watching this. I'm living this.

Hi, my name is Heather and I am now the mother of "that child."

Yet they wonder why I laughed when the nurse asked me at his 15 month appointment if he had started with the temper tantrums yet.

Do you think it's too early to call it the terrible two's??

Tractor

Boy sees tractor.

Boy gets to sit in tractor.

Boy tells mom to make tractor go.

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Mom tells him she can't make it go.

Is disappointed in her lack of agricultural skills but still gets to sit in tractor so all is right in the world just the same.
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Boy sees tractor.

Mom says we can't play in tractor we must go to daycare.

World ends.
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Dear Grandpa Ted-

Thanks for leaving the tractor in our driveway. We will be sure to appropriately thank you at a later date. :-)

Reading my Mind...

A little over a week ago Julie from A Little Pregnant wrote the following paragraph on her blog:

It's hard to know what to write these days. I don't write much about Charlie. In fact, I'm finding it hard even to write about why I don't write about Charlie. The responsible claim to make is that I respect his privacy and am trying to be careful about sharing his life with the world at large. But that's not it, not really. It's almost entirely out of stupefaction: I don't know how. I don't have words....... — see that I find him utterly captivating. See the problem? Watching a three-year-old dance at a wedding is a relatively common experience, not worthy of hyperbole to anyone but his family. But for his awestruck mother, whom words otherwise seldom fail, "captivating" doesn't cover it.

As I read that paragraph I felt like she must have been inside my head for the last couple of months, following me around and writing down how I have been feeling. Today my baby turns 16 months old. When he was first born I didn't put up pictures of him because my dad had asked me not to, he was afraid some weirdo would come and steal him. I respected that and I tried very hard not to keep images up for too long.


Then after awhile even without the pictures I stopped putting up the stories. It wasn't because I didn't want to share him with you. Quite the opposite actually. I have been quite afraid that if I write how I really feel about him on a daily basis it would make you all vomit a little into your mouths. And we just don't need that do we??

Also, I have some readers who do not have children, who are still trying to have children, or who are over the children phase and don't really want to come to just another mommy blog. So since I also don't want to isolate them I have kept Zack to a somewhat minimum.

However, in honor of yesterday being mother's day and him turning 16 months today, excuse me while I wipe away a tear, I am making an exception. On my last post someone mentioned the feeling of being a mother and whether it was comparable to any other feeling I've ever had and I must say, 100% absolutely not.

Really, there are no words to express to you how amazing I find this child. I am absolutely in awe of everything he does. Even now, as I'm trying to write I'm looking at what pictures to put up and I just stop and stare. This child... I created this child....

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There is not a day that goes by that I don't try to stop him from growing up so fast. I have never been one of those mom's that couldn't wait for the next milestone. I can wait... really I can... because once he gets there he will be less of my baby and more of a big boy.
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On Friday night when we got done with our meeting we went to pick Zack up from my mom & dad's house. He woke up in the car and so when we got up stairs rather than just put him back to bed I sat down in the chair with him and rocked him. There are so many days that he will just fight me on this wanting to get down and play but not Friday night. Friday night he just laid his head on my shoulder and let me rock him back to sleep. I couldn't have asked for anything more on this mother's day weekend than that.
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Every day he finds something new and different in life and I feel SOO blessed to be able to witness that. I get such joy out of being able to be there for his firsts. The first time he walked, the first time he saw snow,

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felt grass on his bare feet, all of those things I get to be there to see and it is the most amazing feeling I could ever imagine.
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I am, in fact, one of those parents who are not bothered in the slightest when their child cries. I don't like for him to be upset, but on Sunday as we were wrestling him out of the dog kennel and he was screaming bloody murder I was excited to see the person he had become. My heart was filled with pride that he felt comfortable enough with us to express himself and know that he was safe with us. It has been amazing to me to see him develop opinions and ideas of his own about how things should work and what he wants to do with his time.
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Every day I drop him off at daycare and we have conversations about things he sees. Most of which I can't understand but I do catch a few. Like car and go (when I am stopped at a stop light.). And every day I get off of work and can't wait to get to daycare and pick him up to hear what new words he has learned and what new tricks he has picked up.
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Last weekend as I watched him play with bubbles
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And dance at his very first wedding
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All I could think was how I just wanted to keep him this small for ever. I kept wanting to pick him up and squeeze him and he kept pushing me away because he had places too go and people to see.

This feeling is unlike anything I have EVER felt before. I am utterly amazed at every little thing that he does and I couldn't love anything more!!

(Sorry it's sideways... I thought I had it flipped but blogger doesn't like it...)

Before I was a Mom

I put this up last year and I'm going to put it up again in honor of Mother's Day. Perhaps I'll make it a yearly tradition. I like it that much.

Before I was a mom-

I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom-

I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom-

I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom-

I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put them down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom -

I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom -

I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much

Before I was a Mom.

Braces??

Do you think they make headgear for cattle?

This little guy is out in our pasture and as I was looking the other day I was trying to figure out what was making him look so strange and then it dawned on me. He has an under bite.... For some reason I don't think braces are in his future.

Do you look?

In honor of me turning another year older, and another pound heavier I'm sure, Jake and I joined the gym. So far I have done really good at getting myself up early and huffing my ass over there to walk on the treadmill. I told myself that I didn't want to get discouraged so I would start slow. I know if I start out doing too much I will just give up.

So I walk. Walking I know I can do. When I started I was lucky to walk for 20 minutes without wanting to die. Now I'm up to 1/2 an hour and I go 1.5 miles. I know it's not much but for me it's a GREAT start. Really, I'm not looking for weight loss, although I wouldn't miss the extra 15 - 20 extra pounds I've been carrying around. For me it's about being able to run with Zack and play with him without being winded.

So, for those of you who go to the gym I have a question. Do you look? I've already said that I'm not doing it to be a super star and I know that I'm starting out slow but for me, that first day I couldn't help but look around and see people leisurely strolling at 3.7 miles per hour when I was barely staying upright at 2.9 miles per hour.

Even today, I tried really hard just to focus on what I was doing and the improvements I was making but I couldn't help it. I still looked around at how people looked, were they sweating? How far had they gone, how long had they been walking like that. Are they really going 5 miles an hour? Is that possible without dying?

So that's my question of the day. For those of you who work out or have ever worked out, do you look? Do you compare yourself to others or do you just focus on what you came there to do and then leave?


******************
Cute Zack Moment:

We are leaving the house today and I am carrying him to the car. He looks out into the field and points at the cows.

"Coooo"

(He tends to leave off the last syllable of words)

"Yes, that's good buddy. That's a cow..."

"Mmmmm"

"Yup... cow's say moo"

I swear to you this kid gets more adorable every day!!

Failing to age...

Today is my 28th birthday. As is customary in female culture today is the day in which I stop aging. For the rest of my life whenever anyone asks me how old I am I will forever be 28. So you better remember this year so you can do the math yourself!! :-)

Actually, this custom has got me wondering? Why do so many women hate their age? It is what it is right? Even if you lie about it you are still the age you are so why not just be proud of it? (Of course I might feel differently in a few years...)



Cute Zack Moment:

He is eating a sandwich and the bottom part falls off.

"Oh No..."

I could just eat him up... In daycare they call him the entertainment. :-)

Update on Jake

Ok, because someone asked.... I guess I haven't given an update on how we told Jake about the trip or about how he's doing now.

First the trip. I was really discrete about the travel thing. In the hospital I went out into the hallway and talked to the doctor. At the neurologist's office I just said flat out what about travel? We have two weddings this summer that are out of town, is he limited in any way? Luckily he just said no and didn't put a qualifier on number of miles or anything so we were off the hook there.

Unfortunately, his boss sort of let the cat out of the bag a little early. When I took Jake back to work on that Tuesday his boss looked and me and said so is the thing still on. "Yes..." And Jake knows right? "NO"

So it was at that point that Jake knew something was up, he just didn't know what. Then later on that day he called me to ask me when he would be missing work. I told him I didn't know what he was talking about. So he said that his boss told him he might be missing work soon and that he needed to have a list of things for his helper to do.

I could have just reached through the phone and slapped his boss. Two weeks earlier I had called to specifically address this issue. I had mentioned that maybe we could tell him there was a big inspection coming up or something so he would have all of his work done. His boss said not to worry about it. Then the week before they went and hired Jake a helper for the summer and apparently his boss forgot all about being discrete.

So then Jake knew something was up and that he might be missing a day or more of work for this something. But he still didn't know what. It was sort of fun to dangle it in front of him for the rest of the day. We were going out to dinner with Jess and Shane and he kept making comments like do I need to dress up for where we are going? Do I need to take anything to dinner? Are we coming back. I just laughed and told him I don't know what he thought we were doing but we were JUST going to dinner and then we were going back home.

Once we got to the restaurant we all ordered and then we ate and I thought perhaps we were NEVER going to tell him. Finally Jess pulled a card out of her purse that she had made with pictures of AR on it and pictures of stripper bass.

He read the card but still didn't fully understand where we were going until we told him those were pictures of AR. Then he was excited. He kept talking about needing to get this and do this and how many poles could he take because you know there is one pole for this and one pole for that and then he might need another one for this. I think Jess about fell over dead right then and there thinking OMG what did I do??

Luckily he had a bag to put his poles in so they didn't take up too much room or get tangled up with everything else in the back of the truck. All the way home he kept telling me that I should have waited until Wednesday morning to tell him because now there was NO WAY he was going to be able to sleep.

As you might have guessed, he was pretty excited and he really enjoyed the trip. Even two weeks later he is still talking about it and showing people the pictures of the fish. He can't wait to be able to go down there again.

Now on to the rest of the update. As I already mentioned when we were in the hospital they did a CT scan and a full tox and blood workup. It all came back clear. Then on Tuesday April 15th he had an appointment with the neurologist. He said that there are a million reasons that people have seizures and we may never know the exact cause. However, his gut feeling was that Jake's brain was healing from all of the drugs he did. He said he saw some changes on the CT scan that seemed to support that theory. None the less he still wanted to get a few more tests to rule everything else out.

That day they did some more blood screens including ones for Lead poisoning, Lyme disease and West Nile. His lead level was 0.5 which is fairly low, he was negative for Lyme disease and they said he had been exposed to West Nile. I'm not sure what that means, if he had it or just was around it, but either way they said that all the tests looked normal and didn't give them any other reasons that he would have had the siezure.

Then on Tuesday the 22nd he had an EEG and an MRI. We got the results of both of those tests last Friday and both of them were normal. Leading the doctor to stick by his original theory that Jake brain just might be healing from all of the drug use and he may never have another seizure.

However, upon my request they are going to do one final test. A sleep study. Jake has snored off and on for some time and before he had the seizure I had mentioned to him having him tested for sleep apnea since his aunt has it. However, after the seizure his snoring got MUCH worse and he started making these twitching leg movements in his sleep. So they are going to do the sleep study to make sure he does not have apnea and also to make sure he's not having little seizures in his sleep.

Today he goes in to be evaluated and then they will set up the time for the sleep study. As we talked about it last Friday with a group we go out with after the meeting two of the four other guys had had sleep studies also and said they were no big deal. They just hook him up to electrodes and then he goes to sleep. Hopefully he can sleep there. I think I would have troubles.

So for now, that is all we know. I'll update you with more news after the sleep study if they find anything.

Lions & Tigers & Bears... oh my...

We have now come to my absolute favorite part of our trip down south. When we arrived on Wednesday night I was flipping through a magazine for Eureka Springs and I stumbled upon an advertisement for a big cat rescue center. I was hooked right then. I told Jess that I didn't care what else we did on the entire trip but wanted to visit the cats.

Unfortunately Jess wasn't all that jazzed about it so when I called and found out that it was $15 per person I figured that I was probably SOL. However, as it turns out she likes me... she really, really likes me, so when our shopping trip was kind of a bust she agreed to accompany me on the trip to Turpentine Creek.

As soon as we walked through the doors I was hooked. There were Lions:
And Tigers:
And even three bears:
(Sorry about the metal in all of the pictures but these are large, wild animals and so there were two layers of fences around everything to make sure no one got hurt.)

Oh, and before you think to your self, oh how cruel the animals are in cement cages, let me give you a little history on this place. This is a big cat rescue center, they advertise themselves as the biggest in the world. They are a 100% non-profit agency that takes on abused, neglected, unwanted animals as well as animals that the owners are no longer able to care for. Most of these animals were kept in conditions FAR worse than this and about 80% - 90% of them have never even seen grass. To them, where they are now is what they are used to, if not much better than what they are used to. However, as was told to us right away, the idea is not for them to stay there forever. The idea is to move them into habitats. But habitats cost money.

Ok... back to the story, when we arrived we were just in time to make the 3:00 walking tour. They took us out of the main area which they call the compound and into the back area where there are animals that have already had habitats built. They build the habitats on a first come basis and also on a money basis. It costs $15,000 - $20,000 to build a habitat that will hold anywhere from 1 - 3 cats depending on how well they get along. (The bears are getting their habitat next week because someone donated the money for them.)

As we walked around the back I learned more about big cats in one hour then I have in a life time of reading about them. In Iowa it is illegal to own a wild animal so it was never an option even though I always thought I wanted one.

It was easy to see how someone could be drawn in by the cuteness of a baby cub or even the majestic beauty of an older tiger.
But once they started talking about the stories of how they got some of the animals it quickly became clear that these are not house cats.
That ball, weighs 30 lbs.

Take for instance the story of one big cat who was the owners best friend. He took him to the ocean and they swam together and he fed him well and cared for him just like a family pet. Then one day while they were swimming he held the guys head under water just a tad too long. He did eventually let him up but the next day while playing the tiger showed him a new trick. That he could fit the guys whole head in his mouth. It was at that point that he realized that the tiger was a wild animal and even if it wasn't trying to hurt him a 700 lb kitty kitty was just a bit much to be in his home. (In the tigers defence if it hadn't been playing he would be dead.)

This tiger, was one of the lucky ones. There are several more there that were neglected or abused. Some of the breeders tell people that if they don't feed the cats meat and they have them declawed that will make them not be wild. That is not true. All that does is serve to deform their legs and make them malnourished.

Actually I could go on and on about what I learned but I will stop here. I put a ticker on my sidebar for them. They are not giving me any money but I really think it is a good cause so I'm willing to advertise for them. And when I win the lottery (Perhaps I need to buy a ticket first) this will be the first place I give my winnings.

Go to their site, snoop around a bit. I promise you won't be disappointed!!

Calling All Creative Minds!

I have a friend who would like you guys to give some suggestions about a party they are throwing. Since I'm SUPER busy working on a project right now I figured it would be fine if they hijacked the blog. At least for a day or so... :-)

Calling all Party Planners, Idea Holders, Fun Lover’s, Celebration Goers’….and anyone else who has an idea please….PLEASE….come forth.

We are planning a milestone surprise party. The theme…Beach and/or Hawaiian.

We began with the decorations which are 14 inch chunky black lanterns with candles inside. Then we have glass cylinders to use and decorate as well; possible with sand and candles. The tables will have black table cloths with khaki or aqua runners. There will also be about ten black and white photo’s blown up to poster size to be propped around the floor or ledge above.

We hired a one man guitarist/singer who is AWESOME!

Food is undecided as of now only because we are unsure if we will attempt it ourselves or hire a caterer.

Drinks: We will have some galvanized tubs with ice and bottled beer. Then I am going to buy old-fashioned clear glass “lemonade” pitchers with the “spickets” and put different kinds of drinks in them like margarita’s or something of the sort. They will be labeled with little labels, and colorful - a décor in itself.

Here is where I need you all to come in (hopefully)…..the invitation wording. We would like to welcome everyone to wear their luau/beach cloths so I need to cleverly phrase that on the invite.

Also…the reason we have chosen this theme is very significant. It was some of the party goers’ ideas to get a glass container and label it Hawaii Trip. Everyone at the party can contribute and with any luck we can send the birthday person back to Hawaii (most of the money coming from family I am sure). I dislike it when people send you an invite and tell you what to buy or where to buy it. However in this occasion we would really like to state no gifts but if you feel you must, there will be a chance to gift at the party. My first question is: Do you think that can be said on an invitation? Second question: How would one say that without it sounding like bring money, give a gift. I want it to be fun and lighthearted as we REALLY don’t expect anything but do not want or need gifts and this would be a remarkable gift which 80% of the party goers will know the significance of.

Well…what do you think? Do you think you can help? I sure hope so!