Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Our old man, a new Kindle & light my way! {Weekly Check in}

Sorry I missed last week - we've been sort of in a frenzy with Harvey Dent lately.  Our poor boy.... we're not sure whats going on. I know I mentioned this in the last, or maybe post before that.  We got him into his vet's office & explained what was going on.  

After he plays, he gets in these episodes that last about 15 minutes where he paces... & stumbles & falls. Gets back up, paces & does it all over again.  He falls about 10 times in that 15 minute span. I took a video of him doing it to show the vet.

Telling the vet what's been going on, he initially said it sounded like seizures.... but when he saw the video, he said no, he thinks its something else, because he said that seizures are more intense - the body tenses up, the shaking a little more.... he thought it could be his heart.  They did a chest xray & the vet was shocked.... everything looked fantastic. No enlargement. No fluid anywhere around the heart.  So - Harvey is scheduled for an EKG this Friday.

Also - they went ahead & took blood & they called me later & told me his liver enzymes are high.  The Friday he goes for the EKG, he's going in fasted & they'll take his blood - keep him for a bit & feed him - & redraw the blood to check his liver enzyme levels.

I'm still not fully convinced its not the arthritis supplements we've been giving him.  That is when it all seemed to start.  I showed the vet the container & he said that's just a coincidence.... but, if you read up, high doses of glucosamine can cause elevated livery enzymes as well as liver damage (OMG!) & these are a super high dose of glucosamine! I obviously took him off of these nearly 2 weeks ago so I'm hoping when they retest his liver, there is a difference.   & liver issues can cause the same stumbling & unbalancing issues.  Maybe its our imagination but we just think he seems to feel better since we took him off of these too. He hasn't seemed as lethargic.

The vet even said Harvey could be having VERTIGO .... who knew! & of course it would make sense that MY baby would have Vertigo, right?

Hoping for some GOOD answers after these tests this week.  Life up some good vibes, prayers, thoughts for my boy. I know he's 10 years old but we want at least another 4 years out of him - minimum!

Look at the white coming out of my old man's ears now....still my baby though!


So what else has been going on lately

NIGHT LIGHTS
I got these in this week & am LOVING these night lights! They are automatic but a soft glow to them - not severe bright. I've put one in each bathroom & in our hallway & in all the walk ways. No more tripping over dogs in the dark! They're really thin & flat too so not a bulky one that sticks out from the wall. If you're looking for good nightlights - check this 6 pack out!

Click pic for link


VANDERPUMP RULES
I finally did it - I'm caught up. 11 Seasons. It was a ride but now I'm up to the LIVE episodes. I feel like I've accomplished something! What? ...... ...... ...... who knows. But that was fun. I need some recommendations for what else I need to binge.

WINTER?
I know we've finally hit Spring, but lately, we've been on a cool streak. The air has just felt so crips & chilly.  I saw a meme that said, If it gets cold one more time, I'm putting my Christmas tree back up - that's about how I feel right now.

BOOKS
March has been on a roll for me lately. I think having Kindle Unlimited has made a big difference! I'm finding that a lot of book on there, the audio, if its not available as well on KU - its on Hoopla - so its been helping me knock some books out in 2 or 3 days. 

These are the two books I've read recently & both are thriller/mysteries... kept me on the edge of my seat.  The Teacher - the ending, I'm usually pretty up on how Freida McFadden's books work but even the very end of this one stunned me a bit.  


KINDLE
Look at that pic above... notice anything? I opened up my new Kindle. Well - the Kindle I bought on Prime Day in 2019!!!!! I bought it thinking my old Kindle that Ricky got me in 2014 would die soon. It didnt. LOL - it just kept lasting. The past year, the battery hasn't held out as long. I'd have to charge it every 4 or 5 days - that's fine. But it got to the point where I'd tap the screen & it would take a few second to switch to the next page. It was becoming VERY irritating so I went ahead & opened up my "new" Kindle - especially because I figured this will be outdated soon enough & I didnt even get to use it.

I'm loving the paper white though. The screen is so much more crips & clear & easy on the eyes as my other one.  It feels funny how its flat all across the board too. My old one has a dip on the screen & I constantly had to blow out dust & crumbs in the corner.  Let's see how long this baby lasts for me.



AUTOGRAHED BOOK
Look at this surprise I got in the mail! A friend of mine I went to high school with, we've stayed in touch over the years - especially over the love of reading/books. She told me about her neighbor who is the mother of an author - I may have mentioned this a few weeks ago when I read one of her books.  (An Enchantment of Ravens).... well, my friend Shannon ended up telling her neighbor how much we're enjoying her daughter's books & lookie here.  The author BROUGHT the books down herself to Shannon! How fun & nice is that??? & autographed them.  I just think its the coolest thing!!! This is going on my "Special book shelf".  Shannon & I decided to do a buddy read for this too so I'm super excited about it.


LIGHT MY WAY
Speaking of awesome friends... my coworker recently got a Cricut & she's coming up with the coolest things she's making... & I've got to reap the benefits here.  Look at this little lantern she made for me.

Put a little battery powered candle in there & it just glows so beautifully!
& look at the characters on the top!!!! All the enchanted friends!!!  I've got this sitting at the top of my cubicle to light the way to my castle... or home away from home anyways! LOL

WINNER WINNER
Some exciting news - I won a YEARS worth of stickers from a planner account I follow! I was shocked. According to Ali is the store & I had entered an Instagram contest & when she reached out to me to let me know I would be winning a sticker package for each month for a year - I mean, it doesnt get any better than that for me!!!!

LOSER LOSER
Yep... NCAA tournament started & yeppppp - UK lost in the first round. We shall not talk any further than that. Yikes!  This is the first year in a long time I didnt do a bracket.  

How has your week (or two) been?

Do you use a Kindle? What version is yours?

Do you have a Cricut? What do you like to make with yours?

Is your NCAA bracket a bust yet?  Who did you pick for the winner?

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Cookie Time, Twilight feels & poor hips! {Weekly Update}

It was actually a really slow week this past week - nothing too exciting going on - which NO COMPLAINTS on that.  But here's the highlights...

STILL COUGHING
OMG. I'm so over the thing where you INHALE & every breath makes you need to cough. The good thing is its not in my lungs. Its like a dry cough. Which I looked up & is common for "many weeks" following COVID.  I just hate I cant get a big inhale. & it gets worse as the day goes on, which I read that the more things go down the throat, air/dust/food, the most it irritates the cough. I'm trying to do more deep breaths to try & train my throat to GET OVER IT.

VET VISIT
We have an appointment coming up with Harvey Dent.  The past few months, we've noticed a decline in his mobility & those famous aussie hips.  But it got REALLY bad one day. The dogs were playing & he fell. Just PLOP - & couldnt get up - but when he did, he just paced. Acted so strange. It lasted about 15 minutes... & then he was ready to play again. He did it again 5 days later. OK - we're getting an appointment. But geez - when did vets become like human doctor's offices & you cant get in? Couldnt get an appointment for 2 weeks out. Sigh.  I did get him some WUFFLES hoping that would help. He's just about 1.5 months trying them out  & I read it can take up to 3 months to see a difference. But if the vet can give us some good stuff, we'll take that.


We always say when one dog passes on, the next in line is immediately needing attention.... I need my babies to give us a break & be healthy for awhile.  


 BUYING
I am a sucker for a sale - & Happy Planner had an extra 20% off their sale prices... & of course, you have to spend $75.00 to get free shipping. That was an easy reach for me. I love taking advantage of these sales.  I ended up getting 5 full sticker books & An accessory book, a Disney Large Icon sticker book & a Floral 5 Sticker Sheet - all for what 3 regular priced sticker books would cost.  This should last me awhile.... "should" being the key word there.


READING
Look at me - got 2 books in this week.  Both of them, pretty enjoyable. 

Bride is about a Vampyre that is forced to marry the Alpha of a Werewolf tribe in order to keep peace between the two... & I love that sort of stuff after being a Vampire Diaries fan... the only downside, this one got a little WEIRD. If you read it -you know.  You may want to read some spoilers if you go into it - WEIRDDDDD

& The Coworker was good enough - not great - I gave it 3 Stars. Some fun twists & turns but not a must read.


WATCHING - or tried
I love Emma Stone so when I saw her new movie was streaming on Hulu, I thought I'd give it a try. ...................WHAT..... in ...... the ..... WORLD? ......
I couldnt.  I got through about 30 minutes one time. Had to turn it off - tried again. Nope. Tried a 3rd time & never made it past an hour & a half of the movie. I thought, why am I doing this to myself. I found zero parts of it entertaining so I gave up. Saw she won the Oscar for it too, which good for her - I think Emma Stone is just all things adorbs.  M'kay.... I'll stick with my sophisticated palate of Grease 2 & Xanadu. LOL


HORSEY DAY
All last week was cloudy, rainy & gloomy.  But Monday, we had a gorgeous taste of Spring. It worked out perfectly because Ricky was beat from a days work so I handled the horses on my own. It was such a lovely day, I took my time over there - got to love on the horses - took extra time to do some stall work. Just being out in fresh air - if you call horse manure fresh? - was just getting my Spring loving heart excited.  The horses loved all the extra attention too.


COOKIE TIME
Have you gotten your girl scout cookies yet for the year? We have a little Girl Scout that lives next to us so of course I'm going to support this awesome gal! Ricky isn't a big fan of Lemon cookies so that whole thing was mine (YUM!) & I got him all the chocolate things - only for him to tell me he's not a fan of Thin Mints. WHAT? I have literally had Thin Mints in my freezer in bulk buying so he could have them for months after the cookies were gone from the front of groceries.  I'm so confused. Guess more for me!


NAILED IT
Of course, the State of the Union was last week & I know everyone has their thoughts on that but can we all agree the rebuttal afterwards was sort of .... insane? ... creepy? .... my jaw watching this was literally open the entire time.  We all knew that SNL was going to do a parody of it - but man, bringing in the big guns with Scarlett Johansson - it was CHEF'S KISS hilarious



What was the highlight of your week?

Do you love supernatural books - or used to watch Vampire Diaries?

Do you have a trick for a dry cough?

What's your favorite Girl Scout cookie?

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

Iced Coffee, crazy movie & oat milk butter! {Weekly check in}

 This past week in my life:

INSTAGRAM MADE ME BUY IT
I follow some coffee making accounts (how do they make homemade coffee look so delicious & beautiful?) - but I kept seeing the HyperChiller & I knew I had to try it.  This is a thing if you love some iced coffee - which I do year round & especially with Spring & Summer coming up.

You fill the different parts up with water & put this in your freezer & then when you make coffee, you just put this under your Keurig, or pour coffee in it & let it sit for like 60 seconds & VIOLA - cold coffee.  Which, you think, why is that a need? Well, when you make hot coffee & pour over ice, it melts the ice, making your coffee very watery.... science! ... but this is cold - so pour over your ice & nothing is melting - just good delicious coffee.

Click Pic for link
As of this posting - it was on sale for 49% off!
Totally the cost of like 1.5 Starbucks iced coffees

Different tests shows how it drops the temp over 100 degrees in 60 seconds. That's pretty cool. - LITERALLY!

I'll be putting this baby to work a LOT!!!


READING
I finally got around to finishing this book. I know its been everywhere for the longest & book 2 of this duology is already out (I already have it too) but this is a great mix of fantasy & drama & war & romance... its sweet too & enchanting.  I'm excited to read the next book - especially because this one sort of leaves you on a cliff hanger! If you use Kindle Unlimited - its available on there too - I saw that - AFTER I bought the kindle version. Because yes, I usually like to have at least 2 versions.  I'm bad.


VISITING
We got to visit our friends who had a baby recently.  Their 4th child. That's a busy household for sure. They had the baby right when we got COVID so we made sure we were in the clear before going over &meeting the new little Princess.  I havent held a newborn in awhile & you forget how tiny they are. & that baby smell.  So precious.

WATCHING
OK... i gotta know - HOW.... HOWWWWW did this movie win all the awards last year? Everything Everywhere All at Once. Oh my goodness.... I got parts of it & the big picture of generational issues being passed down - but hot dog fingers? & Raccontoni? LOL - What in the world did I just watch?  I always tend to think the winner of Best Picture at the Oscars are not something I'm usually going to really enjoy.


MAKING
Finished up February for my Temperature Blanket.  I'm excited that there was a lot of ups & downs in temps for the month giving me some variation in the colors.  I think I'm going to be putting that dark blue & light blue away now for awhile... it'll be fun to see it close out the blanket at the end of the year.  



If anyone is curious - THIS is where I got the colors from - the Schitt's Creek line of yarn. EXCEPT - they were sold out of the Hide Your Diamonds color & I couldnt find a color to go with - white? Cream? - but that matches the Rose Apothecary - so I went with the baby blue - & I actually like it even better!


EATING
Here's my HungryRoot Haul for the week.... I am LOVING that Oat Milk Butter from last week! That's the brand that is on the Netflix show about the Twins eating different diets - one plant based - one meat based.  I've been on the lookout for it. I found their cream cheese at Target.... mehhhh.... its not terrible but its not great. The butter though? I'm all for!!!

But we're excited for another order of those black bean burgers.... DELISH!  & give me all the mushrooms please... & thank you!



CELEBRATING
We got to celebrate a coworkers birthday this last week - which means DONUTS! Look at how pretty this rose donut looks. I'm not sure how YUMMY it is - got mixed reviews by the tasters... I imagined a hint of potporri in your mouth & that was confirmed - but it sure is purrty.  Happy Birthday Lilah!


SPORTING
Speaking of coworkers - look what one of them made me. I'm so excited about this. I actually love the yellow too with my blue car - TOTAL Beauty & the Beast vibes!!!!


How was your week?

Have you watched that crazy movie?

What's the best book you've read so far this year?

Do you have a decal on your car window? What is it of?