Darkness & Light

Tuesday afternoon my step-dad finally passed away due to cancer. I'd went to see him a few days before & he looked so horrible, I've never seen anything like it & I hope to never have to again. He was totally out of it due to being on so many pain meds & he looked like a barely living skeleton with saggy skin. It was the most horrible thing I think I've ever seen. I was so upset about it, that I kept having to run to the bathroom & just cry & cry. Guess it's a good thing I'm 8 months pregnant because everyone just thought I kept having to go potty. I'm happy that he's no longer suffering & I suppose that's why I'm not nearly as upset about his passing. The funeral was Thursday & afterwards I ended up just going back to my aunts with my mom & sister & staying there until Saturday after my baby shower.

My baby shower was nice, granted pretty unorganized & odd, but still nice. It was just more or less a family gathering with finger foods & gifts, lol. My little Frost got tons upon tons of clothes. My mother said "I've NEVER EVER been to a baby shower & seen someone walk away with so many new outfits & other stuff for their baby!!" So I think my little Frosty will be set for her first few months anyway.

Also last week I was informed via email that I won two more blog contests, wow that's now 4 contests I've won in less than two months!! I've never won any kind of contest until recently, lol, I should play the lottery or something!! Granted I'm winning small things here & there but it makes me happy & gives me hope that things will get better for myself, the hubby & our families.

The first contest I won was for a book called Year of the Cock: The Remarkable True Account of a Married Man Who Left His Wife and Paid the Price. I won this from http://www.luxuryreading.com
The second contest that I won was from http://www.anutinanutshell.com I got really lucky & managed to snag myself a Tend-A-Tot 6 in 1 tote!! I did get a diaper bag at my shower yesterday but it's kinda small so This one that I picked out will come in super handy I'm sure!!

A Little Bit Of Light

Even though things seem to just keep going horribly wrong for me & hubby these past few weeks there is a tiny bit of light shining down in this dark hole right now.

It doesn't take much to make me happy really...

I won my 2nd blog contest, wow two in less than a month, I'm speechless, lol. I entered a contest over at beagametester.com. I'm soon going to be the proud owner of the new Ghostbusters: The Video Game for Xbox 360! Whoo hoo! I'm really excited about winning this contest because the hubby & I haven't been able to spend any money in the past 9 months on video games. I'm a huge fan of nearly anything from the 80s & this is no exception! I might dig out my copy of the Ghostbusters Gift Set & watch both of the movies tonight to celebrate!

~*~

I'll also be doing another product review & giveaway within the next month so be sure to keep your eyes peeled!!

~*~

Also I thought I'd share this with you guys...
If you like yogurt you can get coupon for a free sample of Yoplait Whips just for signing up for the Betty Crocker email newsletter! I've already signed up! I love yogurt but never eat enough of it, lol, hopefully this will help change that.

Quietly Still Here

I know that I have not posted in a few weeks & I apologize for that. I just have not really had anything to blog about of interest lately. Things in the real world haven't been going so smoothly the past month or so & I'd rather not blog than blog about depressing things.

The only bit of good news I really have is that the baby's due (thank god!) in a little over a month & everything still seems to be going great!!

The hubby & I are going to spend the weekend with some of his family at a beach house for his birthday tomorrow, maybe i'll get some nifty pics or come back with a funny story to share!

A Few New Things

So I haven't really updated in a while. I apologize. There's been a few things going on & I haven't really had much time to do so.

I have finally found a way to work from home, online that pays really well, compared to everything else that I've tried over the last 6yrs. I've been doing that for the past week & have made $210 thus far.

I also started a new blog that will be updated on occasion. It's an adult oriented blog for all of you sexual mamma's out there. Hey just cause we're mommy doesn't mean we're dead!!

So if you're not shy about adult subjects then please go take a peek at my other blog, Erotic Mommy. My first post is where I talk about my new job also.

Made In The USA

I snagged this little email forward from over at J n J Designs/ because I thought that it rang pretty true & just wanted to share.

I know that it's not common practice for most people to stop & see where a product was made before they purchase it, but maybe we should start. I also understand that it's not realistic to expect us to toss everything we own that wasn't made in the USA & start over with all new stuff that was made here. I also understand that not everything we need or want may have a "made in America" alternative, but would it kill us to stop & check before we buy? Buying American made products when we are able to is one way we can start helping this country get back on it's feet. So no matter where you came from, if you're living in the USA I think you should be attempting to support this country as much as possible. Buy American made whenever you have the choice, who knows you may be helping save your neighbors job.


~*~

John Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN ) for 6am. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA ) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG ). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA ), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE ) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA ).


After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA ) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO ) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN ) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA ) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY ) filled it with gas (FROM SAUDI ARABIA ) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.


At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his computer (Made In Malaysia ), Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL ), poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE ) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA ), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA ...

Everything & Nothing

So much I could write about but nothing really worth mentioning, except for one thing at the moment...

I got some samples from an Etsy shop & have been testing them out the past few days. I'll write up a review in the next day or so. Right now I can barely think! My Ambien has been out for the past 5 days & I can most certainly tell. I'm suffering from serious lack of sleep. I can barely focus my eyes on what I'm typing, I'm that damn exhausted.

Hubby's supposed to be picking up my Rx on the way home though so hopefully I'll be all rested & better tomorrow & able to function normally again, lol.

A Not-So-Great Start

So this week has started off on a rather unpleasant note. Yesterday hubby was sick & stayed out of work only to be called my his mom to help her move. She's getting a divorce & decided that yesterday was the day to move. Also yesterday I found out that my mom is no longer going to be living right across the street within a 1mn walking distance from my house, which greatly upsets me. She's been jobless since January & hasn't been able to pay rent. So now she's getting the boot & has no where to go & my little sister (18yr old) has no where to go either.

I just get so upset about crappy things always happening to my mom. She's put up with so much throughout my life, and I don't even know what she went through before I was born. I just don't understand why horrible things have to constantly (it seems) happen to her when she does not deserve it at all. She's a wonderful mom, the best ever. She's always putting me & Lindsay before herself no matter what.

I just feel so helpless right now. I would give anything to be able to help her out but there's nothing I can do. :-(

Then about an hour ago Hubby called saying his work is sending him home, but he's gotta go to the doctor first. He thinks it's some kind of chest/lung thing. He's been coughing really bad the past few days. I hope it's nothing serious.

A Little Randomness

I love Apple Butter! I've been eating it on buttered toast & blueberry bagels w/ cheesecake cream cheese nearly every day for the past couple of weeks. It's so yummy.

~*~

I'm DLing a free 14 day trial of City Of Heroes. I'm excited! I've never really had much interest in comics or super heroes, except for Batman. But I saw an ad saying that they've now added a new expansion pack to the game that lets the players create & edit the missions/quests. A MMO that has player created content has alot of potential so I decided to check it out.

~*~

I applied at Arise.com but I failed their little tutorial test so now I have to wait 3 months to retake the damn thing. What a load of poop! I felt pretty confident & was sure that I'd done pretty good on that thing too. GRR!!

So I've found a few other ways to make a tiny bit of cash online... well hopefully...
I've got my fingers crossed anyway.

~*~

Speaking of making money...
I really hope I can make enough within the next month or so to purchase myself a
Cricut Expression!!
I'm not really crafty & have never seemed to be, which makes me sad, lol. I saw an infomercial a few years ago about the Original Cricut Personal Die Cut Machine. I thought it was a really cool gadget but I had no use for it. (( Oh did I mention I'm a total infomercialholic? ))
So anywho...
I was flipping through the TV a few nights ago trying to get my infomercial fix when I saw one on for the Cricut & thought "what the heck". I found out after tuning in that it was a new & VASTLY improved Cricut Expressions. I WANT ONE! OMG I WANT ONE!!

I want to start scrapbooking ASAP because I want to make books for every year or two of my daughters life & then give them to her when she graduates high school. The C-EX would make that little idea into an awesome reality!! This sucker can do all kinds of cool stuff. I checked out the reviews for it on amazon & there were some negative ones, so I decided to check out the actual http://www.cricut.com website. Glad I did because they have a very huge, very active forum. People are very friendly on there & are constantly posting pics of all the nifty stuff they've made using their Cricut.

It's a personal die cutting machine. It does not require hooking up to a computer at all, it's a stand alone machine. It uses a cartridge system to cut the images & words you choose. There are tons of carts to pick from. They can get abit pricey from what I've seen though, about $30-$50 a pop, but each one has 100s of images on it. You can also choose to hook any of the Cricut machines up to your computer if you wish & use a program called Sure Cuts A Lot that lets you use your Cricut to cut out all kinds of images, fonts & wingdings right from your computer, that you can download for free from all over the net. I plan on starting off doing that most likely because it'll be cheaper. Then every month or so I can purchase one cartridge & start building a library.

So anyway...where was I?...I lost my train of thought...

Oh yeah, the Cricut will cut images & text from a variety of materials including cardstock, vinyl, fabric, chipboard, magnets & a whole lot more. You can also use it to do glass etching! It will cut in a variety of sizes also. The Cricut-EX cuts the largest though, 12x12 & you can buy a mat that will allow you to cut up to 24 inches.
I thought this would be really great for when my little girl comes home with a school project she needs done!

Ok enough raving about how awesome this tool is. I'll get one soon enough & then can start being all crafty like & selling stuff on Etsy like everyone else, lol.

Tired

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I did. Nothing went as planned but I still enjoyed it. The hubby & I spent way to much time playing WoW.

I never got the kittens posted up on Craigslist.

The adorable lil' black N white kitten that Jason brought home last week died Saturday night while we were away at walmart. :-(
Poor Bowser was so upset, that was his kitten.

Anywho just wanted to give a quick update before bed. I'll post some recipes & such this week.

But for now I must head to bed, have to be up early to have more bloodwork done, yay...

Stressed

Why do things never go as smoothly as planned? LOL

Today's our friend Angela's birthday party & we're supposed to be there in 3 hours.
It's nearly 45mns just to get there. Hubby & I still have to shower & get ready. However I can't get ready until my sister gets home to color my hair. I'm also supposed to be baking a cake to take over there. Can't even start the cake till my sis get back either because I need the zester from over there. I don't even have a freeakin' cheese grater or I'd just use that, grrr.

There's no way I can get my hair colored, bake & frost a cake, shower & get ready & be there in 3 hours!!

Inspiration From The Unexpected

I sometimes tend to draw inspiration from the weirdest places... like songs that I really shouldn't, lol.

This song "Sour Grapes" by Puscifer is perhaps one of those places. Maynard James Keenan's not exactly known for his Pro-Christian songs... Yet this song touches me in a way that I can't explain. And I'm not simply taking it at "face value". My hubby who is not religious is the slightest even says this song is "very powerful, touching & gave him chills" He's certainly not one to take any song at face value, he is always looking deeper than what's on the surface.

The song has a very electic & gnostic vibe to it, perhaps that's why it touches me so much.

Arise To The Opportunity

Like alot of people the past few years I've been trying to make a little extra income online working from home. It hasn't really been that successful so far, lol.

My husband's friend told him about a site called http://arise.com yesterday & said that I should check it out. Robbie told Jason that a couple of his friends are working for them & making $7-$10 an hour. So I went earlier today to check it out. It seems legit. I signed up & am in the process of doing the "systems check" which scans your computer to make sure you will be able to work properly... I'm currently having trouble with it for some reason however. They require you to use IE (which I DESPISE) instead of any other browser. Well for some reason my IE doesn't want to work today so it looks like I'll have to wait for the hubby to get home to help me figure it out.

I don't really know enough about this company to go into any details about it. I just thought I'd share the link in case anyone might be interested in checking it out also!

Am I A Horrible Person?

I attended school in Hutto TX at Triple Crown Academy for dog training back in January. It was a 4 month long "dog training boot camp" that's supposed to be the best in this country. I'd been dreaming about attending for nearly 2 years. I fought tooth N nail to get someone to co-sign for my student loan with me. This is what I wanted to do with my life, it's what I thought I was supposed to do with my life...

After only being there for a month I just didn't "feel right" about it. I was not nearly as excited as I KNEW I should have been. Something was off. So I came back home in the middle of Feb to regroup, with plans to return in June to finish up the last 3 months. Upon returning home that's when I discovered that I was pregnant. So much for returning to school in June.

About a week before I found out I was with child however, I got a puppy. I needed a dog to take back to school with me in June to train. So the Monday before Valentine's Day (Friday the 13th is when I found out I was preggy) we got a Pit Bull puppy from a guy on Craigslist who had lost his job & couldn't take care of him.

I didn't learn everything I needed to know about being a great trainer in that first month but I learned enough. I learned enough that I could have a well trained dog.

I don't have a well trained dog. Not at all. At school they taught that you shouldn't start doing any sort of formal training (sit, stay, down etc...) until the puppy is at least 6 months of age. Bowser is not at that age yet. He is however at the age where he should be mostly house trained, which he is far from. It's my own fault, I know this & accept it. I have not been working with him properly.

Today I realized that I don't care to work with him. I don't have the Patience right now to deal with him & his puppy antics. I don't want a puppy. It's not fair to Bowser to not be trained. I really feel like I want to find him another home, one that will love him & train him properly & make him into the wonderful dog that I know he can be. The wonderful dog that I should be molding him into but lack the drive to even begin...

I want to re-home this precious dog who I love & who loves me to death. This dog who thinks I'm the greatest thing since milk bones. This dog who is very loving & who would be a wonderful companion & protector of me, my husband, our home & my daughter.

Does that make me a bad person?

If I decide to find him another home it will truly break my heart & I don't know that I'll ever be able to forgive myself for it. But at the same time I don't care. I don't care that I have not been working with him & that I don't even want to attempt to.

I don't understand it at all. I don't understand myself sometimes. I don't know if this is because of me being pregnant or what. It really bothers me. I don't know what to do, I feel so helpless...

I'm sorry for the downer post, I want to try & keep my blog upbeat & interesting but I guess I just needed to get this out...

How Do They Do It?

You always seem to hear pregnant women say "Oh it's cool, I'm eating for two now!" as they scarf down tons of food. (I know it's really a myth but whatever)

My point is this...

Since I've gotten pregnant I seem to be eating more but in reality I'm really not. I'm eating alot more often but I'm eating ALOT smaller portions of food. Mainly because my tummy can't handle it. I get full soooo fast. And then I get miserable for hours after wards.

I don't know about the human body & stuff but my hubby brought up a good point. Since the baby is growing underneath the stomach area wouldn't your stomach then get pushed up or something. Causing you to possibly feel fuller, eat less, have more gastric troubles while pregnant etc?...

Makes sense to me. LOL

All I know is that today I've been totally MISERABLE all day long. MY back has been hurting me more & my ribs on the upper right side are killing me. I wish I could figure out how to lessen the discomfort. I asked my doc & she just said that it's all normal. :-/

Nothing Was Done

Today nothing that was supposed to get done was actually done. Instead there was late sleeping in, some bedroom activities followed by a nap. Then we ate leftovers & started playing WoW.

The house didn't get cleaned & none of the stuff got unpacked.

That's why I'm a domestic demi-goddess, because I just don';t care. Stuff didnt get cleaned & organized but I got to relax & spend time with the hubby, so it's all good.

I'm happy

Wet Weekend & Other Stuff

I'm so sick of the rain. I hate the rainy "season" here in Savannah.

We were supposed to have friends over to grill out tonight but it's supposed to be storming all weekend. What a shame because this morning it's really nice out & pretty.

~*~

Yesterday the hubby brought home an adorable lil' black N white kitten! He saw it not far from his work, trotting in the road right towards his truck. So he got out & moved it to the side of the road where it's mother was following along in the grass, but before he could get back in the truck the kitten had resumed it's stance in front of his truck. Obviously no one ever told Mamma Cat not to let her babies play in the road!! So then Jason decided to play DFACS & just brought the kitten home.

The kitten is sooooo cute & has the coolest facial markings I think I've ever seen & he's got whishers for days! OMG they are so lovely!!

I really want to keep this kitten but I know we don't need to. When we found out that I was pregnant we gave away most of our pets: 2 snakes, 2 ferrets & one kitty. We planned on simply keeping the Pit, "Bowser", kitty "Sage" & the 10ft Burmese Python "Rico Suave". We still have 2 of Sage's kittens that we are trying to give away...So we really don't need another kitten...but it's sooooo CUTE!!!

Going Shopping

Today my mom & I are going shopping for me some maternity clothes. I've now gotten a nice belly & can't really fit into any of my old clothes anymore. Hopefully I'll be able to find something cute. Although I really only need to get a few pair of preggy shorts & some capris. Maternity shirts I don't think I'll really need, I'm just buying cute shirts in sizes that are bigger that what I normally wear.


We also have to stop by the craft store & look for some smaller stencils. The ones we got from Wal-Mart lastnight were cute but I think some of them might be too big for what we need them for.

If our little craft projects take off & turn out nifty then I'll be doing some giveaways soon hopefully. I actually need to go ahead & do one this week for one of my handpoured soy candles, so check back!!

Sometimes

Sometimes I forget that I'm pregnant. Maybe I just think I'm craving ice cream & getting a bigger belly for no real reason...

And then I hear a screaming kid & I'm reminded...

And Nothing...

Today has been filled with lots of ideas & no action.
I just can't seem to get motivated at all. I'm totally exhausted & have zero energy. This pregnancy thing is kicking my butt. Man I don't know what all those women are talking about who say "Oh being pregnant was the BEST time of my life!"
Either they're insane or I'm just having a rough go of it, this sucks.

My back kills me all the time, doesn't matter if I'm walking, sitting or laying, it just HURTS. My feet, mostly my heels, kill me for hours on end if I have to be on them for more than 15mns at a time.

So did anyone out there in my reader land have this happen to you?
Do you have any suggestions on what I can do to increase my energy? I seriously have none. I know that exercising would help but I'm tired I can't get motivated to do anything, blah.

Someone give some earth shattering advice will ya? :P

Pitazza - It's What's For Dinner

After a long day filled with baking my mom goodies, washing dishes & tired/aching pregnant feet N back I was in no shape to cook dinner...Well OK I just didn't feel like it.

So Jason decided to eat leftovers, none of which I wanted. But I was hungry & didn't feel like making a big meal & we didn't really have any quick N easy food to cook.

So I grabbed myself 2 whole wheat pitas & tossed them into the oven on broil until they were crispy. Then I put a little alfredo sauce on them, topped them with spinach, red peppers, cheese, italian seasoning, pizza seasoning & a little bit of roast beef. I then put them back into the oven on 325 for about 10 minutes. So I had a quick N easy, very yummy & not overly filling dinner. I might make some for lunch tomorrow!!




PS- the pics, recipes & a review for the donut pan I used to bake today will get posted tomorrow, promise. I'm just to damned tired right now to bother.