The money pit that is our dog..

Our dog, Missy, has been having some problems with her girl parts.. she's been itchy and the fur around there has been coated with her urine and has become all gunky.. eww.. so we took her to the vet and got her looked at and also to have her nails trimmed.. $75.00 later we found out that she has an infection down there.. also her breath is really bad so we have to take her in to get her teeth cleaned again.. That can be really expensive because she has to be put to sleep to do it.. when she's out we want to have some moles removed from her ear, and legs (Poodles are prone to those type of growths) so I would imagine we won't get away from that particular appointment for less than $200. or so.. but she's our baby and we can't let her get sick with gum infections.

Also we are still trying to get some weight off of her.. so we decided to increase her dry diet food a bit and cut out her evening wet food and drastically cut back the amount of wet food we give her in the AM.. just giving her enough to put her glucosamine tablets in. I was surprised and how quickly she realised that she wasn't getting any table scraps from me any more.. she's a pretty sharp cookie.

Deleted My Other Two Blogs

I decided to give my other two blogs the old heave ho.. gotta get lean and mean..

Money..

They say money can't buy happiness and money is the root of all evil.. but I'd like to try and prove them wrong.. anyone have any money that I can use for this very important experiment?..

Our mortgage is opening up again and we have the option to borrow some money against the value of the house to consolidate some of our bills.. but we are unsure on whether to do that or not.. granted the interest is lower overall but we would be spreading it over a longer period of time and there are costs to getting the money (around $750.00) and we would only be able to get enough to pay off some of our bills, not all of them.. so we are on the fence about the whole thing.. On one hand it would ease some of the money stress but would be be trading it off for a long term debt, say for 10 years.. but then again we aren't making too big a dent in the debt but are slowly paying it down so I don't know.. We have a few weeks to decide because our mortgage opens up the end of March.

The Definition of Love...

With Valentines day come and gone I've been contemplating the meaning of love.. I would say that I'm in a loving relationship.. me and my partner, R., have been together for what will be 7 years in July.. that's longer than a lot of marriages.. so the day of St. Valentine got me thinking.. Why does R. love me?.. and he obviously does because he puts up with my whining which has become more frequent and loud since my various health problems have put me in a snarky, whiny, moaning frame of mind of late.. what's the attraction?.. I had gained over 25 pounds since we met (and so had he come to think of it).. we've, since this time last year, managed to take off the 6 years of blubber we had accumulated due to showing our love through our stomaches.. I guess if my love for him hadn't diminished because of his growing waste line then why should his for me?.. but I have observed that men are more visually stimulated then women.. but I guess my limited knowledge of the opposite sex is just that .. limited.. and the meaning of love is beyond my grasp.. but not the love itself.. so I guess I shouldn't over analyse it or I might miss out on the actual experiencing of it..

Took a storm day...

Was supposed to go back to work today for at least half a day.. but it was storming and they closed the schools and some of the Gov't offices (not ours but since I live in the country I thought.. ain't gonna happen)... I figured that the drive in would tense up my hip and set me back so I took a storm day.. so I've been off of work for two weeks and a day.. and I realised something.. I could retire tomorrow and not look back.. I'm beginning to hate my job again... this happens every few years.. I have a love/hate relationship with my place of employment.. and presently I'm deeply in hate..

Was talking to one of my sisters today and was informed that I have cancer... hmmm... that one slipped past me completely.. apparently another one of my sisters heard from one of my nieces who heard it from her mother (who I was talking to) who I apparently told that I was full of sores all over my body and this final sister at the bottom of the chain figured out that I had cancer... ever play that game when you were kids where you whisper a sentence in someone's ear and have them whisper it in another's ear down the line and then get the last person to repeat what they were told out loud and laugh about how much the story had changed?.. well I ain't laughin'.

Our family loves to gossip.. I have honestly been trying to break myself of that habit but old habits die hard. Sometimes I hear myself telling someone something I overheard and feel that old adrenaline rush of "the secret". Then afterwards shake my head and feel ashamed of myself. Why do I do that? Spilled secrets have a way of returning to you and biting you in the butt.. hey.. maybe that's what's wrong with my hip.. my karma turned around and bit me.

People do this willingly?

The doctor gave me some "good" drugs for my hip... I say good because they are so powerful that they make me deathly sick.. I was so sick that I thought that I would die.. and then I was so sick that I was afraid that I WOULDN'T die... and some people take narcotics on purpose??... but being that I'm afraid to take another one I guess that it forces me to heal myself.. lol..

I went to physiotherapy yesterday afternoon.. they laid me on a hot pad and put electrodes on my back and zapped me for half an hour.. it wasn't too bad and I could regulate that strenth of the current myself.. the only problem was that the heating pad got too hot on my butt.. and that was even after she put a second folded towel between me and the heating pad... but I found a huge difference once I finished with the session and my bum cooled down... I go back on Friday and perhaps back to work on Monday.. we'll see on that one..

I take back everything I've ever said....

I take back everything I've ever said.... about my brother's sore back. My youngest brother M has a bad back and my sisters and I have been known to poohoo his pain thinking it's all in his head.. well.. now that I have a sore hip it's a different story.. I can relate to his pain.. I've had an excruciatingly painful hip for the last week and have even taken to using a cane to get along.. so M if you're reading this, I take back the snicker, the "oh sure's" and the head shakes... do you forgive me?

Is Planning Necessary?

Do you think planning in life is necessary? It seems the more we plan and structure our lives the more likely we are to have the rug pulled out from under us and tumble our well constructed house of cards down around our ears. But it seems that the people who just take life as it comes and ramble along day to day sail on calm, unruffled waters. Why do you think that is? Are you better off climbing the ladder higher and higher only to have a further fall when everything goes astray? Or are you better off taking small steps and not risk the chance of failure. They say that people who have never had wealth or fame don't miss it because it's out of their realm of experience. So therefore people who have experience wealth, etc, are going to really miss it once it's gone. What do you think?

It's An Ill Wind.....

It's an ill wind that doesn't blow someone some good.. the "benefit" of being sick is that I've lost another 2 pounds so this morning I got on the scales and I weighed 168.4 pounds ( broke the 170 bracket.. yeah).... I'll take it any way I can get it. My mouth is feeling a lot better today and most of the redness is gone and just the tip of my tongue and right behind my front teeth on the bottom is still a bit irritated. I still have to eat soft food and I'm getting tired of bread and eggs and mushy stuff but it looks like I'll be able to put my bottom partials back in by Monday. I still have a weird taste in my mouth which has curbed my appetite quite a bit but I think I'm on the mend.. Thank you God.. I don't ask for much but it looks like you came through this time.. Now if only my hip would improve.. hmmmm I guess it's back to the praying board..