Life

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PhotoFail

I failed miserably at the 365 photo challenge thing. MISERABLY. LeSigh. Maybe I’ll try for a photo a week?? Here’s one of Wicket. This is a before and after. Before: The day we found him running in the street. After: I groomed him a few weeks later. Apparently I still got skillz. 😉
Wicket, Before and After

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St. Francis in the news (and Mia too)

Remember my long rants about St. Francis? And the update here?

Their killing of innocent animals and horrible business practices made it to the local news. KOIN contacted me via my complaint at the BBB. The BBB called me about a month ago and told me KOIN wanted to talk to me and got my permission for them to give KOIN my contact info. So that’s how I got involved. I find it funny that the one and ONLY time I’ve ever filed a complaint about a business at the BBB … it makes the news. Sure it’s two years later, but still. 🙂

St Francis Animal Hospital has an F rating at the BBB. You have to work really hard at SUCKING to get and maintain an F at the BBB. They have killed people’s pets and will nickel and dime people for every cent they can get while mistreating animals. They KILLED Jack’s co-worker’s dog! He’s in the news piece as well. 😦

If you love your animal, you won’t take it to St. Francis 24 Hour Animal Hospital!

Here’s the news link: Vancouver vet called out by pet owners, board of health

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I am participating in The Komen Portland Race for the Cure(R)! Please support me with a donation.

Friends and Family Ask Banner

Dear Friends & Family,

This September 18, 2011, I will join more than 40,000 runners, walkers and volunteers for the 20th Annual Komen Portland Race for the Cure. As one person in a crowd of thousands, I am accepting a challenge to make a difference.

One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. My mom and my sister are both breast cancer SURVIVORS!

When I stop to think of the friends, aunts, neighbors, mothers and grandmothers in my life, I can easily think of eight women. And I do not want to see another one suffer from this terrible disease.

Ask_2011_race_donate_button.jpg

I want to make a difference for our children, so they may have the promise of a full life.
It’s clear that Komen has made a difference in the last 20 years. 20 years ago, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer diagnosed at its earliest stage was 74%. Now we celebrate that it is 98%. But, until no one fears a diagnosis of breast cancer, we still have a lot of work to do.

Will you help me? If you have only $5 to give, I will be as grateful as if you have $500. The size of your gift is not important, because every dollar counts in the fight against breast cancer.

Gratefully yours,

.:Tracie:.

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Facebook killed this blog…

I don’t blame Facebook entirely. It’s just that I post anything of significance there, where I know who’s reading and who cares. And then conversations ensue, or they don’t. Either way, I don’t post here because I don’t want to be redundant. I’m pretty sure anyone who still reads this is on my Facebook. Right?

Well, in case not, and at the risk of being redundant, here’s what’s new:

Work: I got a new job. I resigned from the web hosting field, and got a job that will benefit my career and family in the long run. I still work from home but I’m no longer working as a contractor. I’m an employee for the first time in over a decade.

Kids: Kevin is home from college until he figures out where and how he wants to proceed with his education. We tried to tell him that pursuing a musical teaching degree in this economy might not be the wisest choice, but did he listen? Not till he got there and realized we were right. Musical programs are being cut all over; teachers, assistant teachers, you name it. He even experienced it first hand when the award winning choir program lost their assistant choir teacher his senior year due to budget cuts. That didn’t phase him.. but watching the cost of college rack up and seeing how many students would be his future competition opened his eyes. He’s currently working part time, while trying to find full time work somewhere to help with the cost of school once he figures it all out. It’s really tough for his age group right now..

The rest of the kids are doing great!

Grandkids: That’s not a typo… We’re going to be grandparents. Soon. VERY soon! Kat is due early August but I’m guessing she won’t make it till the end of July. 🙂 We can’t wait to meet our little grandson!

Home: We’re still happy with the rental. We’re ecstatic with the central A/C. Until it breaks. So far that’s only happened once and the landlord paid to fix it. Happy about THAT! 🙂 The old house is no longer our concern. And that’s all that needs to be said about THAT! Well, maybe a bit more needs to be said: Banks suck. They are the root of all evil. I’ll never use a bank again and I’m quite happy with my local credit union. OK. I’m done.

Health: Well, there’s a can of worms. I’ll start with Jack. He’s always had breathing issues at night (sleep apnea) as long as I’ve known him. But it used to be occasional. It’s progressively gotten worse over the years. Now, it’s so bad he keeps ME up at night because I’m worrying and poking him so he’ll breathe. He struggles physically all night to breathe. When he starts struggling (the second he falls asleep) his arm shoots up in the air and he holds it there for a while (this seems to allow him to breathe), then it falls back down. Occasionally on me! Rinse and repeat. All. Night. Long. He can no longer stay awake for… well, anything. So he saw a sleep specialist today and they’ll be calling us back soon for his overnight sleep study. I have a feeling it will be a split study.

Normally they monitor you all night, then go over the results, decide what to do, and call you back in a few days. However; if your apnea is bad enough, they’ll stop the monitoring that night to treat you right away. Since Jack’s apnea starts the second he falls asleep and he struggles the whole night, I don’t think they’ll let him go all night like that. We both can’t wait to get a good night’s sleep! 🙂

As for me: I’ve started a new Diabetes medication. Remember that Lizard Spit I was all “wtf??” about? Here’s an updated link to an article about it since the one in my old post doesn’t work anymore.) Well, guess who’s on it! Moi! Never thought I’d see the day! Although, it IS really fun to tell people I inject Gila monster venom twice a day. 🙂 It’s done wonders for my BG levels. And I’m one of the lucky ones that have lost weight on it. Twenty pounds since October. Basically for some it has a side effect of loss of appetite. I never really lost my appetite, BUT… If I overeat, even by a bite, the results aren’t pretty. I get very ill. So, I eat smaller portions. Eating less = weight loss. Who knew??? 😉

The weight loss also made me rethink the exercise thing.. again. Remember how I ranted here, and then pondered here about the whole exercise and weight loss thing? Well, I can tell you from my own personal experience that just by eating less and controlling your portions, while not exercising one bit, you can still lose weight. I’ve never tried that before and didn’t plan to when going on this new medication. It just happened all because I physically could NOT overeat. I still can’t, but also have no desire to. I’m now acutely aware when I get full.

But I still don’t get enough exercise. And exercise is good for you… There is NO denying that. So, since we can afford a few extras now, we joined a gym this week. We tried Aqua Zumba last night and had a blast! As soon as I publish this I’m heading out for a Yoga class. Which means I got to go!

I posted this last night right before the Yoga class, but wordpress was doing maintenance so it didn’t post. FYI: yoga is harder than it looks!