Public Service Announcement For Cat Owners

If you own a cat, you may already know this, but just in case you don't tuck this nugget of information away for future reference.

If your cat suddenly starts peeing all over your house, there's a problem, and I'm not just talking about the smell and cleaning you're going to have to do with a pet odor eliminator. Your cat isn't being spiteful; cats have an innate desire to cover their urine, et al, so if they're doing their thing outside of the box it's because "somethin' ain't right". Usually it's something as easily treated as a UTI. Neutered males are more prone to them, but females get them too. I had two females (one for 15 years, the other for 17 years), and only once did one of them get a UTI, so while a common thing for a cat, not all cats get them. So besides urinating outside of their box, some other symptoms of a UTI are that the cat will sometimes start crying out in pain, spend a lot of time in and out of their box, and lick their genital region. It's just as painful for a cat as it is for a human to have a UTI, and if left untreated, can create all kinds of problems for your feline.



That being said, our cat Keats didn't pee all over the house. To his credit he just camped out right outside the litter box to save himself the trouble of having to keep walking back to it. When I saw that on Friday night, I knew something was up; no cat hangs out right by their litter box when they have a whole house in which to roam. When he didn't move after I put food in his bowl, I knew there was trouble. This is a cat that never misses a meal. Ever. When I picked him up and placed him on his feet, he started walking funny, started licking himself, and was hanging out in the box quite frequently. I figured he had a UTI, so I called the vet first thing Saturday morning. I was able to bring him in immediately, and a good thing too. Turns out he had a blocked urethra (not so common) and couldn't pee at all......toxic and deadly if left alone for more than a day or two.

Poor Keats. He had to be sedated and catheterized for a couple days, received fluid therapy and meds. And humiliation of all humiliations, a cone was placed upon his head so he couldn't chew off the cath. He still managed to disconnect the thing on Sunday, cone head and all. Since he recovered fairly quickly, he was able to come home a day early on Monday, and seems to be piddling just fine in his box. But I also have to give him meds twice daily for the next 7 days, we're scheduled to go out of town before the end of his meds, and he doesn't travel well (he'd have to be tranquilized; trips to the vet are traumatic enough, let alone a 7 hour drive....and then what happens if he has a relapse while we're there...blablabla) ....UNLESS I can find a trustworthy person who can either house/cat sit OR come check on him at least twice a day over a holiday weekend, scoop his box daily to make sure he's peeing, give him four pills a day, and rush him to the vet any time of day or night if he gets another blockage. Know anyone like that? Cause I don't think I do. If you're the praying kind, please pray for an answer to show up. I really don't want to stay behind while my family goes off for the weekend without me.

Anyway, nugget of information: Cats don't pee outside of the box for no reason at all. It's surprising how many people surrender their cats to the shelter where I volunteer because their cat isn't using the box. In almost every case I've heard of, the surrendered cat has an untreated UTI, which the shelter treats, and the UTI and litter box problem are gone. If only people would think to seek medical attention when their pets start acting oddly. If only....

The Best Time To Plant A Tree Was 20 Years Ago

The second best time is now.

I hadn't thought to post any progress photos on our front yard landscaping project till next spring. However, my overzealousness has gotten the better of me, and while Mike slept off the fatigue of a 3rd shift job on Monday, Charlotte and I went out and bought a tree.....a lovely Heritage River Birch.......a rather mature one, as a matter of fact. It was 50% off, and I couldn't pass up a deal like that! And for those interested, I've been busy since my last post working on a design plan. I created some graph paper in Excel so that when I took measurements of the front of the house, side walk, window placement, water and sewage lines, et al, I could plot it all out on my graph paper (and in my humor, I used blue for the water line and brown for the sewage line, heheh). Then I cut out little pieces of paper that represented the tree and various plants so I could move them around and see what would go where. I suppose some people might call that OCD, but I prefer detail-oriented.

The tree was delivered around noon Friday, but because our neighbors have jobs, we weren't able to install till they got home from work. I suspect they'll be a bit scarce as our landscaping project continues, since that was one heeeeeeavy tree.....and then there was me saying, "Uh a little counter-clockwise....no, too much, back the other way....." Hey, ya get one chance to plant it right, know what I mean? Anyway, here's a photo of our newly installed tree:


To see what the yard looked like before, click here.

Please note the blue flags - that's the water line cutting diagonally across our yard and enters the house in between the windows....and the sewage enters right next to it. We're really unsure where the sewage cuts across the lawn, and so is the Village since apparently 20 years ago they didn't keep records of such unimportant things like where a person's sewage line runs [eye roll]. We had to guess that they might employ some intelligence and not cut it across the water line but would run it parallel to it, so this really limited our choices on where to put this tree and still have it add to the "curb appeal" of the house and offer some shade on OUR lawn and not our neighbor's driveway. So in case you were wondering on the placement of the tree, we really did our homework and think it's in the best spot, considering. If the water and sewage hadn't been installed in a totally stupid way, we would've moved the tree over towards the center and away from the house a bit. We cut it pretty close to the water/sewage lines as it was.

Anyway, here's another photo of some spray paint (yes, the spray-painted line is on my graph paper.) This is the area that will be landscaped with a few shrubs and many perennials; most of them need to be shade loving. Any dirt outside of the white spray paint will be planted with grass, and will create a nice, easy line for Mike to mow(ya gotta think about these things!) We haven't decided how to define the area (big rocks, retaining wall, etc.) I'm sure price will be a huge factor in our decision. And Mike wants to do away with the split rail fence later this fall. This was my Mother's Day present back in 2003 (?), so I'm kind of reluctant to see it go, but Mike assures me it'll look better without it. I have my doubts.

"He who plants a tree plants hope."
~ Lucy Larcom

Back to School

It seems insanely early, even to me, that Eric has returned to school as a second grader. Doesn't August 18th seem early?? And the soonest these kids (and teachers) can hope for summer break to begin is May 27th, 2009, assuming there are zero snow days....in Illinois. I'm so not feeling any guilt about pulling him out of school for 4 days in October for our trip to Florida! In my mind he got ripped off, so we're just giving him back a week of the summer vacation he got shorted! Yeah, that's it.....delivering justice for my kid.

Al Gore Would Be Disappointed

Sorry, Al, but it had to be done. The only question is why it took Mike and I over ten years to do it. We had this horrible landscaping in the front of the house which was probably planted back in the late 80's by the person who built the house (green bushes under the windows and this circle of red bushes in front of the green ones.) Can someone answer why on earth you would plant bushes that have nasty little thorns all over them? Bushes that need to be trimmed regularly and whose thorny clippings need to be raked up and thrown away? Ugh....I can not count how many times I've been stabbed (through gloves, mind you) by this troublesome specimen of horticulture. And yews.....they seem to be the standard in most people's yards, but I fail to see the appeal of them. Ewww to the yews. And where are the trees?? Our grass scorches every year because it gets no afternoon shade (don't be fooled by the green lawn in the photo. I took this photo in spring time when it rains every other day.)

So last weekend Mike and I got out in the front yard, and wielding our handy loppers, we hacked and pulled and piled-up branches till those bushes were nothing but stumps. Mike dug out all the stumps with the use of some rope and a little ole John Deere. I told him I'm going to get a bumper sticker for his mower that says, "She thinks my tractor's sexy." (You gotta listen to country music to get that.) The funny thing is that there is this pathetic looking sunflower that still remains. Did I plant it? Heck no. It was a sunflower seed that spilled out from the bird feeder on the shepherd's hook and it planted itself. I didn't have the heart to yank it out of the ground, so we worked around it. I'm silly that way - rip out a dozen bushes but keep the sunflower that'll be dead in another week.

I'll grant you it doesn't look like much of an improvement just now. Join me in envisioning one unhappy pink (or blue depending on soil acidity) Hydrangea bush from out back getting too much sun who will get all happy out front in the shade (plus it'll hide the electric outlet quite nicely!) I've also got an abundance of various perennials in the back of the house that will be thinned out and finding themselves a new home in front this fall. And hey, if you've got some variegated hostas you want to get rid of, let me know! My plan is to give the house foundation some multi-season blooming color, a free form look, and maybe some shade for the front lawn (a River Birch or Red Maple, perhaps?). So stay tuned for the improvement photos.....sometime next spring. Sorry to leave you in suspense, but our budget only allows for short bursts of improvements.

These Boots Are Made for Walking

Grandma Candace went to Texas, and Charlotte is thrilled with her souvenir. Give ya one guess what she got.








I also had some fun playing around with this photo in PSE6. A year from now when I have a better handle on the program I'll probably cringe when I look back on these early photos! For now, let me enjoy the bliss of my ignorance.

So do you like the color or black and white best??

What's an Appetiz'n?

As we walked across the parking lot towards the tent, Charlotte asked, "What's an appetiz'n?"

"Well, darlin', an appetiz'n is a baptiz'n......"

For those who don't know, Mike made a decision to be baptized Sunday! How amazing it is to see the changes God has brought about in his life! I pray that God would continue to work in and through Mike's life in a powerful way.

How To Make A Difference

During small group the other night, the discussion turned to how there is so much need in the world and how it can be overwhelming. Not only is it difficult to know where to jump in to help out, but we often wonder if what we're doing even makes a dent in a world that is broken and hurting. While I was sitting there listening to this discussion, a story sent to me this summer popped into my head. I wasn't confident in my ability to retell it and have it still retain the same impact as when you read it, so I didn't share it. But here I am a couple days later, still thinking that maybe the story is somewhat relevant to the discussion we had, so maybe I should do a blog entry. (And by the way, I'm still finding it amazing that a couple of you in small group are actually reading my blog! I'm thrilled you find it interesting enough to have visited more than once! :-D )


I hope everyone who reads this little story is as encouraged by it as I was the first time I read it.

THE STARFISH STORY
Author Unknown





Once upon a time there was an old man

who used to go to the ocean

to do his writing.

He had a habit of walking on the beach

before he began his work.

One day he was walking along the shore.

As he looked down the beach,

he saw a human figure moving like a dancer.

He smiled to himself to think of someone

who would dance to the day.

As he walked closer,

he saw that it was a young boy,

and the young boy wasn't dancing;

instead he was reaching down to the shore,

picking up something, and very gently

throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out,

"Good morning! What are you doing?"

The young boy paused, looked up and replied,

"Throwing starfish in the ocean."

The old man was intrigued, so he inquired,

"Why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"

The young boy replied,

"The sun is up and the tide is going out.

And if I don't throw them in, they'll die."

The old man pondered on

that and replied, "But, young man,

don't you realize that there are miles

and miles of beach and starfish all along it?

You can't possibly make a difference!"

The young boy listened politely.

He then bent down, picked up another starfish,

and threw it into the sea past the breaking waves and said,

"It made a difference for that one."

A Favorite Website

In an effort to keep things fresh and moderately interesting around here, some friends and I are going to occasionally challenge each other with blog ideas. Feel free to jump on in if you have your own blog and let me know so I can go read about your favorite website!

A favorite website that I frequent at least a couple times a week is All Recipes . Half of the dinners and desserts I make come from that website! It's so user friendly; you can search based on ingredients you have on hand or for a particular dish. It's easy to create your online recipe box, so when you find something that looks interesting, you can add it to your box for future use. Before you print the recipe, you can alter the serving size, and it will adjust the ingredient amounts for you; also, you can print it as a 3x5, 4x6 or full page recipe. And as if that's not enough for ya, you can rate the recipe, as well as read other cooks' reviews. Very cool site.

Sure, there have been some recipes I've tried that haven't been great, but overall, I've gotten some real winners off that website. Here are a few to get your recipe box started:


Marinara (I no longer buy it in a jar!)


Calzones


Chicken Marinade


Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup


Grilled Mahi Mahi

Nine Years Ago

It's hard to believe that 9 years ago today Mike and I got married! We've been through a lot both individually and as a couple in our nearly 14 years together, having our share of fabulous (and not so fabulous) moments. Most miraculously, we've managed to hang on to each other even when things weren't going so great. And I guess that's what makes a good and lasting marriage. Anyone can make a go of things when it's all lovely and "going according to plan"; it's when times are tough that builds the character....the endurance of a relationship. And while we're far from the perfect couple, I know that I look forward to the time we have ahead of us as being The Best Yet. And that's not too bad, considering we've had some great times already.

Our Wedding Day

A champagne girl married to a beer guy.
Some things haven't changed a bit.

A photo from our honeymoon. If you look closely, you'll see evidence of our smokin' days. We're sitting in swings at the bar drinking one of our favorite vacation fru-fru drinks: a Miami Vice - a layered drink of strawberry daiquiri and pina colada. I want one now... ...well OK, now as in almost 9 p.m., as I put together this message, not now as in 6 a.m. when this message is scheduled to post on my blog.

And that's all the photos there are for now (aren't scanned photos awful??). If you want to hear the first song we danced to on our wedding day, turn on your speakers. :-D It's a pretty little song by John Berry.

Turn On Your Speakers!

Cheryl has a play list on her blog! Scroll on down to the bottom of the page if you want to change the song or see what I've got on there (subject to change when I get more time to fiddle around with it!)

I guess I'm like most people in that some music speaks to me, some doesn't. One song that I love is by Fleetwood Mac. I've known this song for a couple decades, and it wasn't until I was listening to it recently that it took on a new meaning for me. Water is used in a symbolic way in the Bible, and it dawned on me that this secular song speaks to me in a religious way. And while it may not speak to you in the same way, it still remains a beautiful song. So flip on your speakers and give it a listen.



Crystal
Written by Stevie Nicks.


Do you always trust your first initial feeling
Special knowledge holds true, bears believing

I turned around
And the water was closing all around like a glove
Like the love that had finally, finally found me
Then I knew in the crystaline knowledge of you
Drove me through the mountain
Through the crystal-like and clear water fountain
Drove me like a magnet
To the sea
To the sea
To the sea, yeah


How the faces of love have changed, turning the pages
And I have changed, oh, but you, you remain ageless


I turned around
And the water was closing all around like a glove
Like the love that had finally, finally found me
Then I knew in the crystaline knowledge of you
Drove me through the mountain
Through the crystal-like and clear water fountain
Drove me like a magnet
To the sea
To the sea

The VCR Ate My Tae Bo Tape

I started doing Tae Bo last year, and I actually enjoy doing it. I can do it early in the morning while the kids are sleeping, and most importantly, I don't have to leave the house to do it. I started out with Tae Bo Basic, a 25 minute workout. After a couple months of doing that, I added on the 8 minute work out(like 8 minutes of the advanced workout) to give my basic workout a boost. I knew I was avoiding the advanced workout (like the plague). A couple months ago I thought I was finally "up for it" because even the basic plus 8 minute work out was starting to get old; even though I'd be sweating, I felt like I could work out longer. So I popped in the advanced tape to just take a peek at what it was all about. Oh. My. It's 55+ minutes of bodily punishment is what it is. I quickly popped that baby out of the VCR and returned it to it's place on the shelf, and continued on with my Basic plus 8, thank you very much.

Well about 10 days ago I got up early to do my work out and popped the tape into the VCR like I always do while I'm busily putting on my MP3 player (I mute these videos and listen to my own music. The music in exercise tapes is lame at best.) The VCR started making some interesting noises, and I thought that maybe I had forgotten to rewind it, so I went to pop it out to check, but it wouldn't come out. The VCR was eating the tape! It wouldn't give it up, so I unplugged it and did weights instead. Not the work out I had prepared myself for, but it was better than nothing.

Fortunately Mike was able to extract the tape from the VCR, and the VCR is fine; it was just the tape that had finally wore out. Last night I finally got around to ordering a new Tae Bo workout (DVD, lol), but meanwhile, I need to still get in some exercise. It's in the 90's right now with a heat index over a 100, so outside activities are a no-go for this woman. I'm a wimp; pool or lake is the only thing I'll consider doing outside in this heat. So I looked over at the entertainment center and saw that Advanced Tae Bo tape staring me down, daring me to try it. Well, what have I got to lose while I wait on the new work outs to arrive, I thought? For anyone who's done the Advanced workout, you'll know what I mean when I ask, "Where's the warm-up?" Good grief, the man takes about 30 seconds to give me whip-lash, and BAM! You're doing kick boxing with all your might! I told myself before starting that I would hang in there for at least 20 minutes. I'm proud to say I made it 28 minutes. I was dripping sweat (perspiring is not an adequate adjective here), thighs were burning (they're still feeling it 4+ hours later), but I made it half way through! And I guess I'll keep trying to beat that time till my Get Ripped DVDs show up in the mail.

If you're patient (and interested) enough, wait to see what the 8 minute workout is all about (the 8 minute workout is like doing 8 minutes of the ADVANCED workout, so you can understand that making it 28 minutes is no easy feat and why I'm thoroughly impressed with my sorry self.)