Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

I will be going on vacation May 29th through June 5th to Portland. As you may know from a previous post, my Mom has cancer and has a poor prognosis. The vacation was originally for me to go to the West Coast Haunters Convention, and it still is, but we have turned it also into a Mother/Daughter vacation. My Mom took care of my Da when he had cancer and eventually passed this last August, and she needs some time off just as much as I do.

Now to the Panhandling… I am not desperate for money and very thankful that I can keep my own head above water. I had the idea of setting up a Fundraiser, otherwise known as a ‘give me money for no other reason than you have it to spare‘ raiser. I want to be able to pay for dinner and other misc. things when we go down to Portland and not struggle when I come home.
Yes, I am throwing my pride and ID to the wind and shamelessly asking for monetary assistance. Will I cry if I don’t get any…no. Will I go to the nearest Pet Store in Portland to buy Wicket goodies if there is some money donated…you friggen betcha!!
If you donate, with stipulations that I use the money for Wicket, dinner, whatever, I promise that I will do just that and take photo’s of what I buy. Keep in mind, I do not drink so if you say I must go out and party with it, my style of partying may be different than your style of partying.

Here is Wicket’s Cardboard sign. I tried to get him to say something about Vacation money but he refused. He stated something about snow and cold and he is fed up with not being able to play outside, at least I think that is what he was saying, he did have a toy in his mouth at the time.

Clicking on the picture will take you to the Fun-raiser site 

Wow! I am always amazed by how long it has been since I posted last. Once life calms down, again, I should be able to post more. This year has been an whirlwind where family events are concerned.

In a nut shell I will sum up the lack of posting and ask for some prayers and warm wishes to add to the mix.
As some of you know my Da passed last August, a month or so ago we found out my Fama (Mom) has cancer as well and was given 2-6 months to live. We don’t know the type of cancer yet, but should find out with the second liver biopsy that she had to do. The cancer is in numerous locations including, Lung, Liver, Lymph-nodes, Thyroid and Adrenal Gland.
But wait folks, that’s not all! My brother ended up in the ER with severe back pain and it ended up being Kidney Stones. During the Ultrasound or CT Scan, I don’t remember which, they found he had some sort of mass on his Kidney. He had an MRI, which they are waiting to see the Doc for, but reading the results says it is a Renal Cyst. That could be a really good thing or a bad thing.

In a previous post I explained by Carpal Tunnel surgery. I was still having pain at 3 months of healing so I spoke to the hand Doc at my last checkup. He poked around, did some x-rays and found that I have CMC Joint arthritis. Basically it is arthritis at the thumb joint, the joint that is connect to the palm of your hand. Kinda sucks and since it is early in the onset, there is nothing to do but support the joint when I’m going to over use it.
I also went to a Dermatologist and got a whole body check for all the moles and various spots I have. I had one on my upper wrist that would worry some Docs when I saw them for other things and it was starting to worry me a bit. Had it cut out and biopsied, turned out to be pre-cancerous so they let it heal for 4 weeks and I went back to have it frozen with Liquid Nitrogen. Since I have numerous other spots that are starting out the same way I have to wear 30 SPF when I go outside and I have to cover up, including a hat. AWESOME!! BUT, at least I caught it in time!

I’m trying to think if there is anything else…. Not like all of that isn’t enough! I pray that Wicket stays healthy, not sure how much more I can shoulder if I don’t have my little man to bring me out of it.

In good news… I have my airline tickets, hotel and admittance tickets for West Coast Haunters Convention that is coming up in June. The plan is for Mom to go down with me but if she is too sick or has passed, I will go alone. I will be down in Portland, Oregon for a week and while I’m there I’m going to look around Vancouver, Washington for locations to move to.

Other than that, I haven’t been in the craftroom since December.  I need to make stuff to sell, I need the extra money for the trip, but I am so tired when I get home from work I don’t feel like doing anything other than staring at the computer and TV.

Enough of all the drama… go get your Spooky on!!

I had the Carpal Tunnel surgery on the 18th of January, had the stitches removed the 30th of January and started Physical Therapy, which I was already going to for Tennis Elbow. The hand is much better than before but it is still healing so I get a twinge of numbness zingers and dull pain with certain movements or when weight bearing a certain way, which is normal. It takes roughly 3 months for one to be completely back to normal, but you get use back in your hand at four weeks.
The Physical Therapist gave me the go ahead to get back in the Craft room!! Wooooo Hooooo!! She wants me to start out slow and not over do it. We are working on the strength building in my arms so that I don’t have the Tennis Elbow problem any longer, man am I out of shape!
I’ve been meaning to ask her for a copy of the stretches she gave me to do so that I can post for all the Crafters out there who tend to do a lot of work with their hands and sit bent elbowed. Matter o’fact I just emailed her on Facebook asking if there is anything I can post to help out the Artisty friends.
So I’m on my way to healing up… YAY!!

In other importantay news: I’m fostering a pup for Polar Pug Rescue & Friends. Her name is Charlotte and she has a 98% chance of being related to my Wicket man. She is a Brussels Griffon/Italian Greyhound mix and boy is she a handful! She has been in rescue for roughly a year, mainly due to her fear issues. She is very fearful of men, since she was abused by two men for possibly her whole life, she is roughly 2-3 years old, she also doesn’t do well around new people.
She LOVES toys and is food motivated, she is learning Potty Training, which she really didn’t have much concept of. She doesn’t do well to harsh vocal punishment but does do well with a well timed AhAh instead of NO. She is very smart and it doesn’t do her much good at times. Every noise she hears she believes she must listen intently to, because after all Zombies can be sneaky. The only time I have heard her bark is when she see’s someone outside the house and once when I put on a big puffy coat in a different room, than she was in, and when she saw me she didn’t recognize me until I spoke to her. She kennels well, once you catch her, she is Italian Greyhound FAST and can bob and weave like you can’t believe. I typically have to corner her in a kennel and reach in and pick her up, to get her to wherever it is she thought she didn’t want to go. Luckily she isn’t fear aggressive and doesn’t try to fight back, at least from what I have seen.  I’m sure if you were a male Zombie she might try to take your arm off, but that would be totally acceptable behavior and awarded with yummy treats.

My Wicket man was not impressed with having her at the house and wanted her to leave. He would plead with me, by way of pouty Griffon face and sad teary eyes, but I explain to him that she is family and needs help to overcome being scared so she can find a loving home like he has. Honestly though, if I see it affecting him too much I will return her to the Rescue. I won’t risk him going backwards in his own ‘finding himself’ that he still seems to be doing.

**Update** I took Charlotte back to the Rescue. She is too energetic for Wicket and keeps hurting him on accident, trying to play. He started shutting down around her so I won’t risk him getting hurt worse, especially with a back problem.

Here are a few pictures of Miss Charlotte, or Lady Charlotte:

Well the crafting has come to a screeching halt. I over did it when I was creating Jack and Zero for the Christmas contest and pissed off my Carpal Tunnel. The pain wasn’t going away and in fact was worse than it had ever been so I figured it was time to go back to the Doctor to get it checked out again.
I asked my family Doc to send me to a local Hand Doctor specialist to see what was going on. They sent me to get a Nerve Study done and to Physical Therapy for my Tennis Elbow. The study showed that I have mild Carpal Tunnel in my left hand and moderate to severe CT in my right that will require surgery. Two years ago I had mild CT in my right only and no nerve involvement. I go back on Monday to the hand specialist to see when we are going to do the surgery. Yes, I am right handed so it will be a bit of a struggle for the first few days and then we will see if we are going to do the left after I heal up, but it isn’t needed at this point.

I was back in the crafting groove too!! Now I have to keep telling myself that I will get back to it, just have to dot the i’s and cross the t’s to be back in the saddle as fast as I can without causing permanent damage.

Happy Halloween all!!

We aren’t doing anything special around here. In fact I’m getting my furnace replaced today so it’s going to be a cold one!

The house remodel came to a stand still. Have many little projects to work on and just haven’t had the mind to want to do any of them. We are thinking about just selling the house ‘As is’ instead of futzing over it. With a new roof, new furnace, new windows, two new baths and a remodeled Master bedroom and kitchen, it actually would be a wash in the price with what is left to do.

We will see, much to discuss before we throw a sign out front, even though with the fast approaching winter that sign may come much sooner than anyone expects!

I had entered Wicket in our local Animal Care and Controls Poster Contest. The Posters are a Public Service announcement for the Municipal Tags that are required here in the city. Yes, my intentions were purely to get Wickets picture plastered all over the city, heh!

He didn’t win 1st place but he did come in 3rd! Woooo Hoooo! Third place gets a $50 gift certificate to Alaska Mill and Feed which is a local farm’ish type store that dotes on dogs. He will also get his poster on the website and at ACC within the building. He was rather excited when I told him the news last night. Ok… he was actually just happy to see me and goes crazy dog when I get home from work, but we can anthropomorphise a bit right?

Here is the website and Facebook link to the announcement with his picture:

http://www.muni.org/Departments/health/animal_control/News/Pages/2013PosterDogWinner.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151228342078395.492117.22776413394&type=1

Wicket has been back home since mid August and has been doing wonderfully! We are still gradually introducing exercise to him, even though he does get to play full out at Puppy Daycare, he doesn’t get to run in a large open area just yet. I have taken him to our Little Dog Meetup group at a dog park a couple of times but he has been kept on lead so he can’t run. We don’t need a re-occurrence of his back injury, so it’s slow and steady.

But… this does not mean I cannot torture him with Halloween dressup!! Yes, I want to dress him as a Flying Monkey for Halloween and have yet to make the costume. I’m still contemplating the colors I want to use, will probably go with the original blue and red even though I dislike that color combo. While shopping yesterday at Walmart, ugh, I stopped in the pet section… actually the pet section stopped me, due to having an endcap of Halloween Pet sweaters and whatnots. I had to buy two sweaters, which I’ve been meaning to do since the weather is turning cold.

I let Wicket model his own sweaters and here is the little darling along with a picture of the endcap at Walmart…

Lots of things happening in my world. Da passed on August 28th, peacefully and pain free. We had the funeral on Sept. 4th, it was a lovely service with many attending.
Life or the Universe, not sure which, has decided to throw life problems at me, but I’m still standing so far. Besides the passing of my Da, I had a truck repair that took $1500 to fix. My Wicket, is getting better from his back injury but we still have to keep him from running and jumping too much, have a $1300 bill remaining from that. My washing machine decided to spring a leak, the repair guy comes today… no telling what that will cost.
The remodel has been put on hold for now. I would rather not have people in my house and I needed to to get what has been done back in order. I still have to paint the kitchen cabinets and the doors and door trim upstairs in the master bedroom. I’ve had to dip into the remodel money to pay for the truck and the washing machine. Somehow I have to put the money back.

So that is my life at the moment. I bit hectic and stressing. I’m attempting to overcome and get back to one thing that makes me happy. Crafting…

My little man is back home with me. I can’t tell you how much of a weight is off my shoulders having him back in the house.
His Rescuer Vickie Young of Polar Pug Rescue and Friends, is the classiest, most awesome, biggest hearted woman I have met. Not only did she have Wickets best interest at heart, she kept in consideration my own massive love of the little man and she came to the conclusion that Wicket and I would both benefit from having him come home at night, while they cared for his medical needs during the day. This not only lets me spend time with Da while not worrying about Wicket, it lets Wicket and I de-stress and snuggle at night.

We have a doctors appointment on the 22nd with a Neurologist to find out more about what may be wrong with his back. It doesn’t look to be structural due to nothing showing on the Xrays, which have been taken several times.  A few guesses are, herniated disk, slip disk, or some type of nerve impingement… but I can’t say anything definite yet.  Surgery may be the only option, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

I can’t say enough good things about Vickie and her rescue organization. I have had the displeasure of witnessing bad rescuers or rescuers that were actually hoarders in disguise.

Polar Pug Rescue and Friends is having a Fundraiser called Pupsino Royale here in Anchorage on September 15th. The tickets are $50 pre-event and $60 at the door.  The night will include:

• An amazing buffet dinner from The Hotel Captain Cook
• Live music
• Dancing
• A Silent Auction
• Door prizes
• Blackjack
• Roulette
• Guest appearance from Kobe the Pug
• A night out without the kids
• A Wine Wall

If you can’t attend and would like to donate instead you can go to the PayPal donation site or go to their Website to donate via snail mail.

While Wickie was with Vickie they filmed the Commercial for the event and shot some photos for promo. Wickie got to play poker, he is the second from the left.

You may not hear from me for a long period. I have a few life emergencies going on that have thrown me for a loop. My Da is succumbing to cancer and my recent adoption of Wicket had to be reversed due to him having a back injury that I can’t manage while taking care of my family.
My Da isn’t doing well and any and all prayers are invited. If prayers aren’t your thing, send good energy, light some candles, dance naked under the pale moon light…whatever it takes to have my Da not be in pain. I am a realist and don’t expect a miracle but would be delightful thrilled if Da got better and Wicket could come back to me.
Anyone that is friends with me on Facebook knows that I’m devastated by having to give Wicket back to his rescuer.  I’ve decided to setup a Fundraiser account to help pay for his medical bills that I have obtained and depending on the amount raised I will donate to his rescuer for any bills that are still in the works. It’s the only thing I can do right now to still feel like I’m part of Wicket’s life.

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