Midnight + Some Relief

This is a cat post. If you don't care, leave now!

Midnight is my kitty that was pooping on the stairs and just all outside of the litter box. I took her to the vet, they ran blood work, a thyroid test and did the general exam. Everything came back normal. She even weighed 6-7lbs less than her heaviest weight at 17-18lbs. They gave me some meds for her to take (that she refuses to injest - she throws it up immediately) to firm up her poops but I don't think that's the real issue anyway.

So then I thought I was going to have to give up Aries (my male cat) because he's the one causing more stress to everyone in the household, including (I'm sure) Midnight. He attacks her all the time and if he's not attacking her, she is being a good kitty. He likes to do his cat call/meow thing when he's spazzing out and he loves doing it early in the morning or right before/after bed time. But even with all his flaws, I still love him and I've been with him for his 6 years of life. Well, like 5.5 years together, realistically. But still.

I had made the hardest decision of my life (so far) and asked my mom if she would consider taking Aries into her home so that Kevin and I could have a happy home-life again. I explained that it wasn't an easy thing for me to ask her for, and she said that she wouldn't say no right then, but that I should ask my grandma if she would want to take Aries into her home.

I asked Grandma today and she said no, she wasn't interested in having a cat in her life again. She was throwing out suggestions but I didn't really want to hear them. Talking about giving up a pet you love as your child to an orphanage (I'm being dramatic, it would be a pet shelter), not because I couldn't afford him, but because he was affecting my future husband's happiness - I mean it still breaks my heart to think about it being a reality.

I texted my mom and told her the bad news about Grandma not wanting him. I wasn't sure what to expect back as a return. But my mom surprised me and made me cry a little, saying that she would be willing to do a cat swap. She has my oldest cat, Angel, at her house because Aries and Midnight were attacking her and Angel was so stressed out being in their presence without me there all the time. She suggested she would take Aries for Angel. I asked about Midnight attacking Angel and if she thought that it would happen with Aries out of the picture. She didn't really answer, but now that I'm thinking about it, I think Midnight may have just been ganging up with Aries so he would attack her less, you know? I agreed and am really relieved about this whole thing.

Angel is an amazing kitty. She's 11 years old, and the only thing she does that's "bad" is she meows a lot when you're cooking chicken. Otherwise she's amazing. I love her and miss her so much. Midnight is a good kitty, too, and maybe with Aries gone, she will be less stressed out and won't poop outside the litter box or on the stairs. It may be wishful thinking, but I'm a dreamer. And I'm crossing my fingers that this works out, because Aries would still be with my family and I'd be able to visit him PLUS Ben loves him, and Daisy (mom's dog) and Black Jack (Ben's male cat) always keep him in his place, which will be good for him.

I'm hoping Fiance sees the potential awesomeness with this whole situation. And I'm also hoping that our house will be a happier place for both of us because of that.

OOTD: June 2013

So it's hot and I'm wearing a sweater. Why you may ask? I didn't feel like wearing tons of sunscreen today. 

Let me know if you like OOTD's or reviews or if you'd like to see something I haven't done yet! I'm very open for suggestions! 

Review: Montagne Jeunesse Glacial Clay Mask (WalMart)

Since my blog has been a little angry lately, I thought I'd post a review of this product I picked up and tried on a whim. Now usually I don't justify buying things like this because my money could be spent or saved elsewhere. However, I was feeling a bit impulsive the other day and decided to try it. I bought two, this Glacial Clay mask and a Dead Sea Clay mask that I haven't tried yet.

The Glacial Clay mask was supposed to clear out my pores and feel rejuvenating. I didn't hold high hopes for this, since I'd never tried something like this and didn't want to be disappointed. Well, I wasn't.

This is the item description from walmart.com

Give your skin the ride of its life as the natural rush of a cooling Montagne Jeunesse Glacial Clay Spa Face Mask cleanses your pores to the core. Anti-oxidant rich red grape and Arctic cloudberry juices from the glacial heights of Scandinavia work their magic to help maintain skin's natural barrier.

Montagne Jeunesse Glacial Clay Spa Face Mask:

• Sensational skin clean
• Crushed Arctic cloudberries
• So refreshing, you have to feel it to believe it!

I didn't have to forethought to take a before picture, but know that my pores are large (good old genetics!) and get dirty easily. But here is my after picture. Please excuse my wonky-looking eyes!

I noticed most of the differences on my nose. It looks like clean skin and all those nasty dirty particles clogging my pores were lifted with this mask. The rest of my skin looked and felt very nice as well, but I can't get over how clear my nose got! I will definitely be repurchasing this as a treat for my face, and at $2.47 it isn't the most expensive thing I've treated myself to. :) 

Here is a link to purchase this mask from walmart.com if you are interested. I really recommend this mask and will be updating when I try out my other one. If you have a Walmart near you, I found mine by the skincare aisle on one of those end cap things. 

Thanks for reading! 

It's been a while...

Well, a few things have changed since I last wrote. BFF had her wedding and it was simple but awesome, Fiance and I changed our date to suit our warmer weather tastes, and I'm just sitting here feeling like a dump truck.

Let me explain. I've been off birth control for 3 months now* and obviously the pills affected my hormone levels significantly because I'm just so "bummed out" all the time. Not really all the time, but enough that Fiance notices and says it bums him out as well.

*The story behind this is - my physicians checked me over and prescribed a new monophasic birth control to keep my mood basically one level throughout the entire 28 day cycle. The pills I got were acctually a 3-month sample of BeYaz. A few weeks after being given these new pills, my physicians moved due to our town hospital being crazy. So they're now located a couple hours away. When my 3 months were running up, I called and explained the situation and asked for an official prescription. They obliged that night. I got an automated call from my pharmacy saying something about my insurance needing to be contacted.... I went to the pharmacy, asked what was up, and the lady told me my insurance didn't cover BeYaz so they had faxed this information to my doctors along with a request to prescribe the generic version of this pill to me. They hadn't heard anything, so the lady told me I might need to call my doctor on my own. It was mildly annoying, but I did. That was 3 months ago. I've called at least 30 times trying to get this damned birth control prescribed to me, explaining all this over and over to the nurses. The most recent time, I decided to ask for the actual pill name of the generic version of BeYaz and you know what I found out? There isn't one. There f***ing isn't a generic version! All this time I've been calling and explaining, the nurses have taken my name, number and request down in writing, no one bothered to call me back saying this doesn't exist! No one! So I'm very pissed because I used up my one OBGYN visit a year on these losers who are treating me, still their patient, like crap. My insurance will allow me to see a doctor more than once, or see more than one doctor, but I have to front the money - which I don't have.

So a lot has been bringing me down. My lack of pills, the reason behind it, Fiance acting like his bad mood is my fault (I don't buy that), lack of money, and I think my cat, Midnight, is sick because she is pooping on the [carpeted] stairs and outside the litter boxes when she does go down stairs. Another thing I need to take care of, but I don't have the money for it. Yay...

I'm reserving some money for her, though. This month I'm going to call this other vet who is closer to where Fiance and I live. I heard he does payment plans for vet visits, so that would help a lot. I just need to see what's wrong with my baby girl... She's been losing weight and I thought it was due to the diet changes and her getting stairs to run up and down on, but maybe it's not like that.

She's always had issues pooping outside of the litter boxes, but it's always been like right outside. My mom told me that she remembers Midnight pooping on stairs just a couple times when she was younger, though. Now she's doing it every week on the stairs and rarely poops in the litter box, even though she'll pee in there with no hesitation. So I feel like she's trying to tell me something is wrong.

I've been feeding both cats Purina Indoor Advantage every day, twice a day. And I feed them 1/4 can each of Purina wet cat food sparingly. At least 1 time a week, sometimes 2. I noticed that the beefy flavors of wet food make Midnight poop something awful. :S The chicken seems to be okay, as well as the salmon flavors. But I don't know. Hopefully I can get her in to see a vet and he/she can tell me what's wrong with her.

The Wedding: BFF Edition

I forgot to update on this as well.

As you may remember, D wasn't sending money and BFF was cancelling the wedding. The thought crossed her mind many times to just forget the entire thing - what, with the flooding all over the place. She wasn't going to have anything done and kind of just accepted her defeat, so to speak.

Another bridesmaid, C, decided (with her husband, J) to gift BFF and her hubs a hall for $200. If D came through with this new amount of money ($300), C wasn't expecting anything back and BFF was allowed to use it elsewhere.

Well, surprised as we were, D came through with the $300! So, BFF [I'm just calling her F from now on, lol] spent the extra $100 on the bar with the hall, some on a DJ (who's engaged to another bridesmaid), and the rest on outfits and stuff like that. I let her borrow mine and fiance's wedding decorations on the condition she didn't dispose of them or give them away as favors, and bought some tablecloths and candles and miscellaneous decorations she needed.

The most fantastic gesture in all this (I think, anyway) was the seamstress who was altering F's dress; she felt so bad for F (F told her all about the D fiasco) that she altered the dress for free, gave F free shoes and 1/2 off her jewelry and veil! I mean, that's incredible and I know F appreciated it so much!

And as "tacky" as it may sound to have a wedding at a hall with a potluck style reception, it was beautiful and so much fun! F looked gorgeous, her hubs looked great, too, her bridesmaids all looked fantastic and the groomsmen had these funny tux-tee shirts. But it all looked awesome, and with a DJ - it was so fun! My mom took all the bridal pictures and we gave F the SD card as part of her wedding gift so she has ALL THE PICTURES to choose from! :)

Now I'm a lot less worried how our wedding/reception is going to go down. We're having food potluck style and the same basic decorations, but no DJ and a pro photographer. I'm kind of thinking that maybe, if we can convince him to do it for us, too, that F's DJ would be good and I think she said he was $100. If we can scrounge up that somewhere, that would be so great and less to worry about. Although, my laptop, iTunes playlist and someone manning the mic for announcements would probably go off well, too.

Free Stuff Is Good

Who am I kidding? It's great!

I was talking with my ladies at CJP and one's friend was trying to get rid of this treadmill she had no use for. I half jokingly raised my hand and said, "I'll take it!" She looked at me and asked if I was serious and I got serious real quick with a "yeah!" and the deal was done.

I called this lady with the treadmill and left a message telling her how I heard about it and that I'm interested. I wasn't expecting much, since when someone's actively looking to give something (so awesome) away for free, usually they will pick up the phone or call back right away. Well, a few hours went by and my hopes were dwindling downward. I was starting to accept that I wouldn't get a free treadmill, and she called!

So Sunday, my brother and fiance are going to help me move it into our bedroom. I'm really happy! I'm just crossing my fingers that it'll work - because I'll want to test it before we bring it home, of course. It would be a pain if we got it all set up just to have it not work. The lady says it works fine, but I still want to make sure.

Yay! I'll get to have something I've been wanting for a few years, I didn't have to pay a dime and I will have no excuse not to work out!

And you may be asking, why are you putting a treadmill in your bedroom? Well, I'll tell ya! 1) The convenience of watching TV while working out attracts me & 2) there isn't a much better place anywhere else. I know it will fit in our room and the downstairs is sub-ground-level so there's no questions on weight distribution.

And I think the only thing left is to consider buying a house with 3 bedrooms and/or a basement to put it in the future. :) I've got this all worked out in my head, so hopefully the world won't throw me a huge curve ball anytime soon.

I Don't Like My Showers Early in the Morning

This morning I came home from work. I knew it had rained all night and it was still raining while I was working my key into the lock. I got inside, kicked off my shoes, fed the cats and went downstairs. I was greeted by a flooded basement. NOT. COOL.

Actually, the water was freezing, but who's keeping temperature?

I woke Kevin up because I didn't know what to do! He called his Grandpa, borrowed his Shop Vac and we started sucking up water. The vacuum holds 12 gallons of water and we emptied it 5 times before deciding this just wasn't working. Water was still coming in our house.

Our landlord wasn't answering his phone, and we're freaking because it's 7am and I can't go to sleep, Kevin's computer is possibly damaged, and there's just water everywhere! Luckily, nothing of value was damaged, but still. I had to move the one litter box by the stairs and that freaked out my cats so someone pooped in my closet on my pants.

Overall, we were really lucky as tenants without renters insurance. None of our stuff (that's worth anything -- hopefully) was ruined. My cats and fish are fine. The floor was drying up when I left to come to work again and now our landlords know that this happens and will likely do something when the weather isn't so rainy all the time.

Someone's In Trouble...

Basically, my best friend (BFF) is already married, has a nearly 2-year-old and another on the way. They got married in the courthouse and her parents, B&D, offered to gift her and her hubs a dream wedding ceremony and reception. They never asked for this from B&D, but graciously accepted the offer. This was 2 years ago.

Today, a month away from the previously decided wedding date, BFF has cancelled the wedding. Her mom, D, is SO BAD with money, that she hasn't paid for ANYTHING! B was to pay $5,000 for the ceremony/reception site and food and all the included things whereas D was supposed to fund the other $5,000 or whatever for the dress, the invites, the everything else! D took B's $5,000 for the site and only gave them $3,800. So there's $1200 missing off the bat. Then, D was to send BFF money for her dress and shoes and invites and the vendors. That never happened. BFF and her hubs were funding their own deposits for vendors and all that stuff when they should have been given the money from D. D constantly called and said "the money's in the mail" or "I can send $X this week and $X next week" blah blah blah. Now that the wedding is month away, D has made off with $1,200 and sent BFF and her hubs $0. $0! And it was 2 years away when they decided all this!!!!

Now, I have to hear my best friend being angry at her mother and developing this serious bitterness that isn't laughable in the slightest because D couldn't come through. She even told BFF that she could just postpone the date a couple months! LOL, no.

BFF isn't happy, understandably. I don't think her bridesmaids will be too happy, either, since we all spent about $200 on our dresses and now we're stuck with them because they're coming in all dyed and ready. So, instead of this beautiful ceremony, she is thinking about having everything at another state park in a shelter. Since they're already married, they can just say their vows again or whatever and they don't need a pastor. She thinks it'll be tacky, but I'm convinced we can work with it. It's $20 to rent and decorations don't cost a whole lot. I mean, I can probably afford a couple streamer rolls, balloons, fake flowers and some off-beat centerpieces.

I mean, their wedding is more for the party aspect, so party decorations will be fine! I know they have grills at the shelter and a fireplace will provide a nice backdrop. It sucks that she can't afford a photographer, but we have good cameras among our families, so there's always that! I just hope that, in the end, she can see what the real point is behind her marriage ceremony/reception. It doesn't have to be fancy, and it can be casual so there's no need for her to worry! Her M.O.H. has her back! ;)

The Power of a Physical Diary

That title sounds a little more perverted than I would like... Oh well.

It's true. I've been blogging for a while as well as typing in a computer-set diary. Nothing was helping, and I started to lose control of my life. The two things that I absolutely want to keep in my control at all times are my happiness and my weight.

Happiness has always been pretty easy for me to come by... I guess I'm a naturally happy/positive person. But recently, with the wedding planning, the stress of living with a slob (sorry, dear) and feeling like I'm screaming but no one will listen to me was breaking me down. Everything was negative, I got extra moody and nothing was worth being happy over. Even my fish-keeping was lacking in the joy department.

That's when I decided I needed to start writing again. Not typing or blogging, but actually writing. And it didn't have to be creative, just my thoughts and feelings. I needed to have a physical memento of my inner most thoughts, what I am really feeling and how it's affecting my life. Today was the first day in a long time that I had a happy dream. Usually my dreams are filled with anxiety or stress or anger or fear. But today, I remember being happy and smiling throughout the whole dream. That felt good.

I also decided to get into physically keeping track of the calories/foods I'm eating throughout the day. It worked once, and for whatever reason, an app on my phone wasn't helping me keep my goals in mind. Something about writing the food down makes it more believable than just typing in a phone application that I can turn off if I don't want to think about it. Writing it on paper makes it real and forever. Also, I think my lazy gene gets turned on high when I'm done for the day calorie-wise. "Do I really want to eat this? I'd have to write it down, calculate the calories, add it to my total... Maybe I'll just have some water." 

New Aquarium, New Problems

I don't know how many of you know about keeping fish as a hobby or tank maintenance and all that stuff. I've been a member of www.myaquariumclub.com for while and have learned so many new things about how best to keep different types of fish. Awesome, right?

For a few months, I've been wanting to acquire a hospital tank. A hospital tank is basically what it sounds like. You keep an empty tank cycled and healthy and whenever a fish gets sick and needs treatment, but you don't want to treat your entire tank, you move the sick fish to the hospital tank and treat it separately. This keeps diseases contained and lessens the risk of treating the entire tank and other fish being harmed by medicine/salt/what-have-you. 

My cousin has a 10 gallon tank which would serve my purposes well. I only have a 29 gallon and a 10 gallon tank with fish in it, so 10 gallons for a hospital tank is what I needed. I messaged her and she said I could definitely have her tank and her fish. 

She has 2 fancy goldfish. One is a bubble-eyed goldfish and the other is black. I assume the black one is a goldfish as well, since she didn't really say. The thing about goldfish is they're messy and misunderstood. The fact that they're messy alone is enough to warrant them a larger tank, but they can grow to much larger lengths than most people imagine, if kept in a healthy environment. 

A 10 gallon tank doesn't suit 2 goldfish. 

So, being that I am going to take her fish and tank (I can't live with myself knowing that she isn't cleaning the tank or caring for the fish), I went on PetSmart's website and found that they're still having a tank sale in store. There's a 40 gallon tank/hood/light combo that is a little over $100. I found a good filter for about $40, and I already have an air pump and a bubble wand. I'd just need decoration and some substrate (a 20lb bag of sand is about $26, decoration can come later). So we're looking at me spending about $200 on 2 fish for their tank to be closer to an ideal level. I have a dresser that is long enough to put the tank on, and it would be downstairs with all my other tanks. 

The problem is that I'm not entirely aware of my tax refund. Plus, my fiance isn't fond of me keeping 2 tanks, let alone 4. Add that to me having to spend over $200 to keep some random fish happy and I don't think he's going to be happy about it at all. 

I texted him the details of everything I found, told him I have the space for it all and that I would never ask him to let me get another tank again. I mean, 40 gallons is pretty huge to me. My 29 gallon is huge to me... I hope he responds well... And I hope that he let's me do it. I mean, it's selfish of me to say, but I promise to him and everyone else that this will be the last tank I buy. 4 tanks is a lot of maintenance and I think about as much as I'm capable of handling.

I'm back!!!

Recently, my computer went ka-put! I was so sad, but luckily Fiance and I have a friend who's dad is excellent at repairing computers. He took my Lappers and fixed it up good! Although, I'm kind of bummed that Fiance says it'll never be the same, it still works and does what it used to do... Just in a different way.

So, that being said, so much has happened. I've started working out with Amanda Russel on YouTube. She's a bride-to-be as well, so she has quick bridal workouts that I'm happy to say I can do! I've been trying to stick to my diet, and today is the first day that I'm actually under my allotted calories. Yay! We have a caterer (family friend, so discounts, woot!) coming over on Saturday to discuss what we can and can't afford. We got our contract in the mail for our reception venue and BFF's wedding is in like 3 months!

I'm so excited to start planning her bridal shower/bachelorette party! Like, start getting things together and thinking about games and activities to do while trying to get her to relax. Ugh, her family is so dramatic I feel so bad for her.

Anyway, I'm so happy to be back! Now I have my computer 24/7 and basically have internet access during that time as well. YAY!

I Almost Died

Well, that's a stretch. I was pretty sick, though, for the last couple weeks.

My fiance got sick shortly after Christmas, got me sick by association, we were both better for all of 3 days until he got sick again, which got me sick... Again. Now, I'm feeling better - though the mucus can leave any time now!

I purchased a bunch of samples for my Avon business and, being the curious customer I am, I tried a few. I tried the day and night cream for ages 30+ and the Moroccan oil treatment. The day/night creams are pretty cool and they say they will diminish the look of pores on the face. I have pretty nice skin, but my nose has huge pores that always show up with close-up photography. With a wedding on the way, why not try something that will diminish them? I'm on day 2 and the creams feel really nice on my skin. You don't have to use a lot, which will be nice if I end up purchasing the actual $30 bottle... Times 2 and that's $60 that better work and last a long time!!! I'm supposed to see these smoother results by the end of Day 3, so we'll see.

As for the Morrocan oil, WOW! I took a shower the other night JUST so I could use it (your hair is advised to be damp/towel dried) and I'm glad I did. Normally, this oil comes in a spray bottle, but a sample is just in a sealed envelope type thing and so the oil just spilled into my hand. I have pretty long hair and a lot of it, so I probably doubled the actual amount suggested, but goodness, this stuff is amazing! I have basically accepted that my hair will never be model hair - it will always be frizzy, annoying, unmanageable most days, but not anymore! I know it sounds like a commercial, and I know that Morrocan oil has been popular for a long time and I know I've been in denial that oil would actually do something for MY hair. But I can't believe how soft and non-frizzy my hair is after one use! My hair doesn't look greasy or unnatural either. I'm definitely purchasing that for myself once my little sample runs out!

I think I'm going to start an Avon blog or a beauty blog about product reviews and the like. :)