Updates

Goodness gracious! It has been a looooooooong time since I have posted anything to my blog and I wanted to give you some updates on what I have been doing. Fun: In late July/early August I went to Los Angeles for a book writers conference. I will post more about it later, but I wanted to let you know that I marked off THREE bucket list items (Hollywood sign, meet Richard Simmons, and watch a TV show being taped).

I also took my nephew to the Texans game! It was super fun! I better be the best aunt ever since I took him to the game and bought him Chick-fil-A AND ice cream.

My sister bought a Groupon awhile ago for a Murder By Chocolate mystery tea party. It was super cute, you walk in and there is a secret wall that swings out!! Love it. They serve you food, tea, and dessert while you figure out 'who did it'.

Moving: I am moving sometime in November, but the location is still undetermined. I am the process of buying a house (maybe a townhouse) and I need your prayers it will be a fabulous location and a great price. I put an offer on one in Kingwood, but the seller is a crazy lady and didn't accept our reasonable offer. Rude! That's ok though because it will all work out. God will show me the place where I should move. I might have to live in an apartment until I find something that is perfect for me, but we shall see. It will all work out.

If I only had a doggie door

I sort of wish I had a doggie door if I did, I imagine it to look something like this when Jabba is going through it. I have been laughing all morning thinking about it. LOL. #poorjabba #diet #crazycatlady

Random

This post will be a super random compilation of things that have been going through my head over the last few days.  I am telling you now, super random. 

Random Thought #1-If someone gives you a business lead, call the lead!  Especially if they are the person who is the lead.  If you want more business, follow up and follow through.  Don’t wait for your customers to call you back or contact you.  I had someone talk about their business with me (at an event through a mutual friend) and I said I would be interested and gave them my card so they could send a proposal, three weeks later they have still yet to contact me.  Come on!  I basically just handed you business and you did nothing with it.

Random Thought #2-Elevators should have an “unpush” button.  We have 15 floors in our office building and randomly sometimes I choose the wrong button.  I would like the option of unchoosing that button please.  Elevator operators, take note of my request.  I can see how people would ‘unpush’ a button if they were rude and didn’t want to stop, but honestly, not many people would do that.

Random Thought #3-I wish I was a smooth toothpaste tube person.  I tend to squeeze the toothpaste tube randomly and it is a weird shape.  I want to be one of those people who squeeze from the bottom of the tube and the tube perfectly rolls up or has one of those devices that brings the toothpaste up
.

Random Thought #4-It’s HOT in Houston.  I almost melted away yesterday when I was walking back to my car from the Astros game (btw, I went to the Astros vs. Angels game last night…Astros lost).  Seriously, how am I supposed to run outside in this heat?  (side note:  I am still retired from running and my foot is still hurt, but sometimes I just want to run!).  Just walking almost does me in, I am so glad I work in a nice, air conditioned building all day.  #scorcher

Random Thought #5-Instagram ‘selfies’ make you look stupid.  I have never uploaded any picture to my Instagram account because I see what other people upload.  There is on lady (who shall remain nameless) who is all about herself.  She posts pictures of herself ALL THE TIME.  Seriously, out of 10 pictures 6 of them are of her.  RIDICILOUS!  She is a beautiful woman, but seriously, how into yourself can you be?  She is dating someone who has a lot of money and let me tell you…#golddigger.  There are others on Instagram too that take stupid pictures, but she takes the cake.  I need to delete her but it’s a train wreck and I can’t stop watching.  If you take lots of ‘selfies’ or pictures of your shoe collection or something else that ‘you’ bought, you seem materialistic and shallow.  STOP TAKING THEM!  

Random Though #6-If you are 6'3 don't get a Mini Cooper, you look stupid.  What can you do with that small of a car? You have to bend really weird to get out of the thing. #thechef (now called #theexchef)

Random Thought #7-Why don't I have big fluffy bubbles in my bathtub?  I use bubble bath but my bubbles are never as big as they write in books or show in movies.  Sigh.  Maybe I should keep looking for new bubble mixes, the perfect bubble consistency is out there waiting for me, I just know it.

Taking a Break

Friends, 

I will start by saying that I am truly so happy for you when you get married, dating someone new, have a baby, get engaged, buy a house, etc.  I just can’t take reading about it or hearing about it anymore.  I am 30 freaking 1 and I don’t have any of that stuff.  Yes, I have a great job that I make great money at, but I want all the other stuff.  When my friends in their early 20’s are getting engaged it makes me really sad.  Really sad.  I am so happy for them, but when will it be my turn?  Will I get a turn?  I do date and I do go out to meet guys, but it doesn’t happen for me.  Where the hell is he?!  Every time I see someone on FB have a happy moment, I truly am very happy for them, but it doesn’t make me feel good for myself.  I love seeing cute baby photos or family photos with baby daddies being good parents, but I want all that and then some.  When you walk around a public place and start counting people with babies or that are pregnant, you sort of think you lost it.

When your sisters who are 10 years younger than you start having babies, you wonder if it will ever happen for you.  Maybe I am not ready, maybe he isn’t, but seriously, what do I do to get ready!  I am tired of this.  When your parents say that you are the ‘good child’ for having a career instead of marriage, but you know that you want those things, it sort of kills you inside.  At Christmas we were walking around the neighborhood and I was pushing my nephew on his scooter thing.  We all stopped to look at something and then started walking again.  My nephew didn’t quite start going and he fell off and said ‘whoa’ (he wasn’t hurt, don’t worry) and my mother pats me on the back and says “this is why you don’t have children” and laughs.    That didn’t feel good. I know they don’t mean to make me feel bad, but it does.  

I have been trying this new thing for reading my Facebook newsfeed, but it hasn't worked very well.  If I see 3 things regarding a happy family, an engagement, a wedding, a pregnancy, etc I stop looking at Facebook for the day.  I know it sounds selfish, but it’s what I have to do not to break down and cry.  These thoughts have been in my head for awhile now, but in the last few months they have really gotten me down.  So, effective today I am going to take a break from Facebook.  I am not sure how long I will be boycotting it, but I will be uninstalling the apps and refusing to go to the website anymore.  

I will keep posting on here, but I did want to say (er, type?) my thoughts.  Apparently my blog has become my diary. :)

-Stephanie

River Weekend

This past weekend I brought a big group of friends to my parent’s river house in Concan, TX, which is close to Garner State Park (about 3 miles away).  I am still friends with some people in my old church’s single’s group so I invited them along.  Some of my friends were trying to make it, but they couldn’t get off of work at the last minute. :/  It was still fun though.

Every other Friday at work is a ½ day so I got off at 12 pm and headed to my house to pack my car.  I had to stop to get cash out and pick up something for lunch.  Everyone was in charge of bringing their own food for the weekend, so when I stopped to get lunch on Friday, I also picked up lunch for Saturday.  A woman named Robin was carpooling with me and she got to my house around 1 pm.  I didn’t know her very well-I had only met her once-so we talked about random stuff the entire trip up there.

We stopped at Buc-ee’s on the way (of course!) and got to Concan about 5:30 pm.  My aunt and uncle were at the cabin when we got there and stayed the night too.  I was glad they were there because we had to set up the hammocks and stuff.  So much easier with help!  They left early on Saturday to go hiking in Lost Maples park.

Everyone else got there between 7 and 11 pm.  We originally were going to have some people stay in tents, but we had just enough beds and blow up mattress to sleep all 14 of us inside without a problem.  I <3 air conditioners! :)    The next morning we had breakfast tacos and set out for Garner State Park to hike up Old Baldy.  

On the way we stopped at the sign at the entrance and took pictures.  It is a tradition that we take at least one jumping picture by the sign each time I go.  #fun

We started our hike around 10 am and made it to the top in about an hour and a half.  On the way we stopped at a cave and everyone got a blast of cool air.  We had three teenagers with us so we stopped a few times to rest.

We got to the top of the mountain (hill?) and took pictures.  We are strong!

After we got back from hiking we ate lunch and they got ready to go tubing down the river.  I didn’t go tubing with them because I have been there, done that so many times.  I knew that the river would be really low and I always hated having to walk most of the way.  I was not interested in doing that so I stayed behind with a float and some wine.  Everyone got back all sunburned and tired around 5 pm and we started cooking dinner.   

We had tons and tons of BBQ and watermelon before we got ready for the dance inside the park.

We set up our lawn chairs at the edge of the dance floor and just watched everyone dance.  The teenagers in the group loved the dance, but as an adult it’s kind of lame.  LOL. I remember thinking it was so cool when I was a kid.  Oh well, next time we will stay at the house and eat s’mores or hang by the river.

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, packed up the cars, cleaned the house and headed to by some souvenirs.  My favorite place to get souvenirs in Concan is a store called Frio’s Dry Fifty.  The store has so many cute souvenirs and yard items that you want to buy them all.  Plus, there are tons of flamingo items for sale.  <-- I can’t wait til I buy a house to put flamingo stuff in the backyard, I will have to go shopping there when the time comes.

While we were waiting for everyone to finish shopping, I got an iced coffee and sat outside under the coolest set of chairs!  I want one of these!!

We headed home and stopped in a few little shops on the way home, plus Buc-ee’s of course!  I got home to an adorable cat that needed lots of attention.  It was a super fun weekend!

Jabba’s New Diet

Everyone knows Jabba is a bit ‘fluffy’.  Obviously Jabba likes to eat, a lot.  Well last weekend Jabba started eating about half of his normal food.  When I would get home for the day, he would still have tons of kibbles in his bowl that he didn’t eat.  My kid is an eater so I knew he was getting sick.  About two weeks before I left for Africa, the same thing happened and I had to take him to the emergency vet.  

(New diet Day 1 and not in a good mood)

So on Saturday or Sunday when he stopped eating, I just hoped and prayed that he would get better and not throw up like last time.  On Tuesday though he threw up about 10 pm and I knew it was time to go back to the vet.  The next morning I took him to the vet’s office at 7:30 am before I headed in to work. I was hoping that they would see him right away, but it turns out that even though the vet’s office opens right at 7 am, he actual vet does not get there until 9 am.  I was debating whether or not I should just go home until 9 am and then take him, but I made the decision to leave him there and just call to check on him when the vet got there.  It was so heartbreaking to leave him there in a cage; I just knew that he was having flashbacks to when he was left at the shelter by his last owner. :/  Luckily there was a large (double) cage that he could rest in, instead of being cramped up in a small (regular) cage.  He refused to look at me the entire time I was there, I hoped he didn’t think he was being given up!  Heartbreaking! I think the nurses thought I was crazy. LOL.

So I called back around 9:30 am and they said that the doctor was just now checking up on him.  The doctor told me that they needed to run some blood work on him and also give him fluids so he wouldn’t get dehydrated.   Let me tell you, vet bills are expensive!  Jabba is worth it though, I don’t know what I would do without him.  

The next day she called me back to say that Jabba’ triglycerides were in the 300’s (normal is 100-150 for cats) and he has IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).  The triglyceride problem will hopefully be fixed with his weight loss, but the IBS will be a reoccurring problem.  The vet said that the IBS might be lessened with weight loss, but we will have to wait and see. 

When I picked up Jabba from the vet that afternoon around 1:30 pm, she had told me to stay and watch him for a few hours to make sure he didn’t throw up again.  He got home and I let him out of the cage, but he didn’t want anything to do with me.  I tried to sit by him once and all he did was get up and walk away.  Then I layed down by him, but he just looked at me and ‘meowed’ and walked away again.  He was not happy with me. Oh and he was also limping from where they took the blood out.  <--That was sad but I am hoping that he just has a flair for the dramatic and wanted to make me feel bad about getting tests done.

So, Jabba’s new diet.  They gave me a new food (dry and wet) to give him each day with very strict instructions on how much he is allowed to eat.  Normally he is my 5:11 am alarm clock each morning and he eats wet/dry food, and then at night he gets  a few kibbles.  That is his routine, and you don’t mess with Jabba’s routine.  He is allowed one scoop of wet food a day and 1 cup of dry food a day, so I give him ¾ cup in the morning with the wet food and ¼ at night.  I am already seeing a difference in his weight.  We have an appointment to see how well the new diet is working in a few weeks.

I was afraid that he wouldn't like his new food or treats since he is so picky.  He will only eat fish flavored wet food and catnip flavored treats.  I don't know if it tastes good or if he is just super hungry, but he is eating all of it!  Fingers crossed it will work.  I love having a big fluffy cat, but I want Jabba around for awhile so his health is my main concern.  He will still be super cute at 20 lbs.  <--The vet said that 20 lbs will be his weight loss max, he will be a boney cat at 20 lbs!

Look!  The treats are in the shape of little hearts!!  So cute.