Happy New Year!

For anyone who plans on going out tonight - PLEASE have a designated driver, or just stay where you are if you can. :-)

I hope that everyone has a good time tonight and is very safe. See ya next year!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Ring Tones and The Mall

I've been saving up 2 items I wanted to blog (actually 3 but I'll do the 3rd one later) so I figured I'd combine them together.

Since Mr. M and I have been rather broke we didn't celebrate Christmas this year. I didn't even put up Christmas at the house, although I did a little decorating at the office. And since we didn't do Christmas there was no need to go to any of the malls or stores during that crazy period of time. But yesterday we finally went to the mall, why do you ask? I needed to get my supply of 2008 calendars.

I've finally learned that if you wait till after Christmas that they cut the prices to 50% off so I got 3 for about the price of 1 1/2. It was great. I have a Bev Doolittle to put in the study at home. Then I have to have my daily cat calendar for work and then a wall calendar for my office that has those 3D images that you stare at to see. Sorry don't know how to explaine that one very well. Oh well.

My 2nd topic... Ring Tones. So Mr. M and I went out today to a store and I was reading a book on iPods - mainly to see how I can score free music... I'm still looking into that. ;-) And I hear the famous ditty from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" with Clint Eastwood. You know the song I'm talking about... Now I'm in a store that sells music and movies and stuff so I really don't think much about it and then I hear the famous "hello?" and realize it's someone's ring tone. And I kind of chuckle to myself thinking that one is kind of cool. Then not a few minutes later I hear what I believe is a Kelly Clarkson song and turn in that direction and laugh for a different reason. Not because of the song but because it's a guy who has the song on his phone... ok whatever you like.

However hearing at least 2 phones go off in the store does bring me to another little gripe. You're in the store... either turn off the phone or turn it to vibrate. When I go anywhere I turn it to vibrate, no one wants to hear my phone ring. If I believe that someone might actually want to get a hold of me then I'll put my phone in my pocket so I'll actually notice the vibration. Otherwise, I have voicemail and I know how to call you back.

OH... which just now brought me to another gripe (sorry this one was not planned when I first started this post!). I do love that movie theaters now post the 50 million requests for you to turn off your cell phone while you watch the movie. But I guess people think that texting is okay. Well you know what? That bright light that has now blinded me is not! We went to a movie recently and there were a few empty seats next to me. A couple came and asked if they could sit there and we said sure. Then Ms. Thang texts right in the middle of the movie. I make the obvious noises of disgust while looking at them. Finally they got the hint cause Mr. boyfriend was kind of trying to get her to stop. Now she did actually have it on vibrate because I could actually hear it every time she got a new message it. So she gets another message and she whispers to her boyfriend, "do I even dare?" he evidently told her no because she finally stopped.

Okay now I'll get down off my soap box. :-)

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Welcome 2 New Blog Friends

I'd like to welcome 2 new bloggy friends to my links located over there on the right...

1. Mike with Ozark Photos
2. Salty with Country Captures

I found Mike through Lara's blog and have really enjoyed all the great pictures he posts. Then I found Salty off of Mike's blog and am enjoying all of his pictures as well. So I decided to add them as a link to mine as well. So welcome guys!!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Merry Christmas!

Well another Christmas has come and gone. I had my sis and mom over for food and games. We really did a non-traditional celebration this year. We didn't do the normal turkey or ham and fixings thing. We had fried pork chops, fried potatoes and onions (yummy!) and a few other things.

Unfortunately we had a small accident right as we sat down to eat. My sister spilled her kool-aid on the floor, and yes it was red! M&M was laying under the table and it spilled right in front of her. Evidently she likes red kool-aid cause here she is helping us clean it up. I couldn't resist I had to run and get the camera. If you look closely you'll see a little got on her little head.

Afterwards we had naps... gotta love naps!

Then we got up and played Clue and then we showed mom how to play Gin Rummy. She did fairly well.

All in all it ended up being a good day. So for those of you who celebrate it... Merry Christmas!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Update on Mom

Well mom finally got the results back from the test for the mass on her back. And it's as we expected, it's cancer from the breast cancer she had many, many years ago. There still is no word on "how long"....

She seems to be doing relatively well though. Her appetite seems to be decent, better than it was before she went to the hospital. She ate well while she was here for Christmas so that's a good sign.

She's scheduled for surgery on Thursday, January 3rd to remove the mass that's sitting on her stomach. So this should also help her appetite. We'll see if they give us any other updates as it seems hard to get any news from anyone. So much so that at this time we still don't know what time on Thursday she'll have her surgery. I'm sure she needs to be there right in the middle of rush hour traffic. Yeah! ;-)

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Christmas Lights to Music

Although we haven't decorated I still love to look at the houses around me and in neighborhoods I go through. I received this video last year and I swear I've posted about it before but I can't find it. So if I did and you've seen this... well enjoy it again! :-)

This is a video of a guy who synchronized his lights to music. I think it's just outstanding and fun to watch.

I also found this link on snopes.com that gives all the facts of the guy who put it together and there are a few other videos listed on there you can check out if you enjoyed the first one.

Merry Christmas!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Christmas Meme

My best friend sent this to me via e-Mail so I thought this would be fun to share with my bloggy friends. If you play just let me know. I won't actually "assign" this one! :-)

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping, with lots of tape!
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually after Thanksgiving, but I haven’t even gotten it out yet this year. :-(
4. When do you take the tree down? Usually the day after New Years
5. Do you like egg nog? Yummy, and I’ve been craving some I must go to the store.
6. Favorite gift received as a child. Hmmm… my Barbie horse, house and remote control car (not received at the same time) and my unicorn blanket, which I still have and take with me on all road trips.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, I have a small one that I purchased when I lived by myself, and now I have a large one that we got from hubby’s mom when she passed away
8. Hardest person to buy for? Sometimes everyone!
9. Easiest person to buy for? Hubby… he tells me “exactly” what he wants
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Sweaters from my aunts or grandma
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Grinch who stole Christmas
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Sometimes I pick up stuff through out the year.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, but I want to recycle a wedding gift! :-)
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Limited to just one? Turkey, dressing, noodles and “green stuff”
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? On tree, clear
17. Favorite Christmas song? Adam Sandler’s “Happy Hanukkah” – truthfully I’ve never thought about what is my favorite Christmas song
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Usually stay home
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? That’s funny you ask this one, I was just quizzing hubby the other day. But yes, I do.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? I like morning, but hubby can’t wait so it’s usually Christmas Eve
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Everyone asking for money (bell ringers at stores, work… )
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Well my tree is purple and silver, does that count?
24. Favorite at Christmas dinner? See #15.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Lots and lots of money! :-)

Merry Christmas everyone!
~ Wolf Lover Girl

Make A Snow Flake

A little holiday fun and a happier post than the last two.

My brother sent me the following link where you can make your own snowflake! I've done 5 already! And I've viewed the gallery of other snowflakes and man there are some good ones out there.

Hope you enjoy!

~ Wolf Lover Girl

One Item Down...

Well long story short... we found a temporary home for mom's dog. A friend of mom's wants to take him but doesn't have a fence yet. So until then she has a friend who's willing to take him. She houses animals all the time and didn't want us to stick him in a kennel at the vet (which mom kept suggesting to us) or to put him in the SPCA (which was unfortunately an option).

She got to my mom's just a minute before I got there after leaving the hospital. She was very nice. I rounded up all the dog toys and took his new toy out of his doggie stocking for him to take with him.

We (Mr. M) and I helped get all the stuff in her car and that's when I finally lost it. I know that my mom really loves that dog. And I guess it's finally a realization of what's really happening. Although I know its the best thing it's still not that easy to deal with.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

It's Not Looking Well...

So mom called me on Friday (well technically it was Saturday) morning at about 3:30am saying she was in a lot of pain again and could I take her to the ER. So I got dressed and drove out to pick her up. Took her to the ER and luckily we didn't even have to sit in the waiting room, we went immediately to the back.

Evidently she hadn't been eating in about 2-3 days and she'd been nautious but of course there was nothing to come up. And then she was in pain but she couldn't take any of her medicine because she had nothing on her stomach and even if she took something she would just throw it up anyway.

Everyone we were in contact with at the ER was extremely nice and helpful. They gave her some medicine (found out later it was Morphine) for the pain and some medicine to settle her stomach. It went into effect immediatly! Boy was she loopy!

She finally got admitted to a room around 3pm. When they finally got her all set up with IV's to help with her dehydration I finally went to call my sister and brother. I didn't immediatly get a hold of my brother but I did my sister.

I had to give them the other news that my mom had given to me while we were waiting in the ER. She finally got some of her test results back from previous appointments. She has 3 big masses and 2 are for sure cancerous. There's another in her back that they aren't for sure yet but they pretty much think that it is as well and they think that it's a result of her breast cancer she had many years ago.

She's not really wanting to fight it. She said that she fought it back when we were kids because we were still kids. But now she's ready to go. When it's time she wants to go to a hospice to live out her days. There's a leasion (or something) on her liver or kidney, I can't remember which, and she kept telling the nurses last night that if that was for sure going to kill her that she didn't want any other tests ect done on the rest of the stuff... there's no reason. I did ask her if they've given her a timeframe and they haven't.

Sis did come out last night and stayed with her for a while. I finally went home after stopping first at moms to walk her dog. Her neighbors came out to ask for an update. They got worried about her when they hadn't heard or seen her all day. So they called the police and had them go in and check out her place. Then they had the police call around to see if they could find her and that's how they got the number to her room to call and check on her. Mom has a friend that will hopefully take the dog. I would offer it up but I don't think that M&M would take it well. Sis lives in an apt so that won't work. I finally got home about 10pm or so. Ate, took a shower and went to bed. Oh and did get a hold of my brother and filled him in as well.

We went back out for a few more hours today. She was doing and looking really well. The medicine really helped her. She was able to eat and they gave her some medicine last night to help her sleep. she said she slept so good, they woke her up about 5am to take some blood and she was able to go back to sleep.

She's supposed to have an Onocologist and Eurologist (Dr's) come see her tomorrow. I'd like to be here but they (nurses) dont' know what time they'll actually be there. so tomorrow will be played by ear. I already had the day off because mom had a scheduled appt to see a Dr. and I was taking her in to see them.

And how am I about all this? Surprisingly I'm doing ok. I am upset about the fact that I will loose my mother, but I also know how much pain she has been in lately and I know it won't get any better. Of course I sit back and wish that I'd spent more time with her doing stuff... I assume that as the time really comes near it will be harder for me, but for now I guess maybe I'm just numb.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

My New Heading!

I've been wanting an array of wolf pictures as part of my heading so I've been working on it the past 2 nights. I think it turned out pretty cool, what do you think?

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Pet Peeve - School Zones

Not that we have them, but that idiots don't know how to abide by them....

This has been irritating me more and more that past few weeks. I know that many people speed but can't you just slow down for these few little feet? Whatever you're in such a big hurry to get to will survive you watching out for kids. Once you get past the school zone you can speed all you want and if you hurt or kill yourself in the process that's fine but at least the kids have a chance to grow up and make their own mistakes or make it big!

There are 2 zones that I have to go through to and from work every day and I've been making mental notes of what I've noticed.

1. Most people tend to speed through these zones more in the afternoon than in the morning.
2. Most of the people who are speeding are on their cell phone.

I'm sure it doesn't help that there is a traffic light right in the middle of these zones. I think after sitting at a red light some of these people forget they're sitting in a school zone and just take off. Then some of them have that lightbulb go off and they slow down again... some just keep going.

Now it's funny that I've been thinking about this the past few weeks because I was watching on the news last night and they mentioned that one of the local cities has passed a law against cell phone use while in a school zone and it's on (so weekends speed away). And another local city is working to get their law passed.

So people... please slow down... whatever it is it will still be there...

~ Wolf Lover Girl

Finally! I'm finished

For the last several months I've been reading the Little House on the Prairie series of books. I have to tell you I thought they were outstanding! I really enjoyed reading how things were done back then. And well it made me realize just how "lazy" we are and how we have it made.

To see what their work ethics were from morning to night is just incredible. I would often think as I read them that I wished I grew up in those times. How dedicated they were. And for the most part, what a great community and hospitality they offer their neighbors and town folk.

Now I'm sure most of you have watched the Little House tv show and I was so expecting to see some of those stories in there. Well of course it's tv so most of that was made up. However several things were true. Mary was blind, Nellie did exist and she was a b*tch as portrayed in the show. It's amazing that she was a schoolteacher at the same time she was still in school. However she only taught like 6 months total and then when she got married she was a house wife.

My favorite book of the series was, "The Long Winter". The Ingalls family had moved to a new town that was being built, De Smet, South Dakota; and the longest winter storm had hit and not only was the Ingalls family not really ready, neither was the rest of the town. But they got through it, obviously, but wow!

My second favorite was, "These Golden Years". These are the years when Laura was teaching and Almanzo Wilder was courting her. And of course Nellie tried to get in on that.

My least favorite two, "The First Four Years" - these are the first four years after Laura and Almanzo got married. I was excited to read this but evidently when the information was found for this book it was still as a draft that Laura had hand written. It hadn't gone through all the stages that I'm sure a written book goes through. The second least favorite was "On the Way Home", here Laura writes her daily log of their wagon covered trip with Almanzo and their daughter, Rose, from DeSmet to Mansfield, Missouri. It wasn't really a story, but more of a diary so not that interesting to me as the others.

I know there are others out there and I'll eventually read them. I'm starting to research on the website that is dedicated to Laura and Rose because I'm now all interested. It didn't really say when she wrote the books so I'd like to get an idea of when they were actually done.

But now that I'm done with these I had nothing else to read. Mr. M had finally purchased a book and now he was sitting up in bed reading and I had nothing! He had bought the "I am Legend" book, you know the one starring Will Smith (yum)? He says it's been very good. Now the funny thing is it was written many, many years ago... so of course he wasn't driving around in a nice Mustang Cobra as depicted in the commercials ;-). But I understand they wanted to make it more this century. Well I thought I would also like to read this before I watched it on the big screen, and well I didn't want to wait till Mr. M was done with his because I didn't know if I would have time. So I bought my own book... and it is good so far.

~ Wolf Lover Girl