Shamrock's Day at the Dentist

Shamrock has settled in nicely to our little family. Other than waking us up in the morning with his cries for attention, he is an awesome cat. So this morning he was completely unaware of his fate for the rest of the day- a trip to the pet dentist.

He was already for another lazy day ruling the couch but as soon as put him in the cat carrier, he knew something was up. Driving him to the vet was no fun because all he did was cry the whole way there. I took him to the vet that is in the shelter that we got him from. I'm pretty sure he knew where he was because as soon as he was in the office he got really quite and sad looking. It kind of made me feel like bad pet mommy.

Being that I worked as a dental assistant for a while, I do understand how important good oral health is for your over all health. And that is true for animals as well. When filling out the paperwork, I told the vet to contact me if they had to do anything more then just the cleaning. Well, it wasn't too much of a surprise when I got a call while I was at work.

Shamrock has stage 3 periodontal disease. For the non-dental people- he had pretty nasty teeth and gums. So when the vet called, she let me know that she recommended that I have 3 of his teeth pulled that were infected and probably giving him discomfort. So now Shamrock has 3 less teeth and some meds to help him start healing and feeling better.

When he got home he was still really drugged up, and they recommended we leave he in his carrier until he was a little more coherent. This was him right when I got home. I thought it was kind of funny, but currently I have a cat that is acting more like a very hungry drunken toddler- it not as fun as it sounds. I have to keep an eye on him to makes sure he doesn't hurt himself or eat anything he's not suppose to. 

Oh the life of a pet parent- it is exciting stuff.

My lil Brother is Growing Up!

Considering I have known Jimmy since he was 4 years old, I think he is about as close to being my real brother as you can get. And this year is a big year- he turned 16 today!

 

For boys a 16th birthday isn't as big a deal. Pizza, football, cake, and friends- that's all they need. However, you'll really start feeling older once you get those car keys in your hand!

Now that your taller than me, I'm not sure if can lil is the right word but-
Happy Birthday lil Bro!

It's December!?!

I have finally given in and have come to terms that this year has flown bye in what it feels like a blink of an eye. So I decided that I need to start getting into the holiday spirit being that it is December 1st.

I don't like to wait till the last minute to do my holiday shopping so I hit a few stores to see what I could find. Most of my family doesn't want anything specifically so I tried to find some things they may like and use. I did find gifts for many of my family members, so it was a good start.

 

Soon after returning from my shopping trip, my dad stopped by my house for a visit. Being that Sam is not much of a decorator, I put my dad to work. I love our tree because it's pre-lit and pre-decorated. All you really have to do is take it out of its box and plug it in, but I do have a few personal ornaments and garland that gets added.

 

While my dad worked on the finishing touches to my little tree, I started hanging lights around the front windows. I have no intentions on get on a ladder and hanging lights outside my house, but I figure having the lights around the windows is kind of festive. I think it turned out alright.

Once the light were hung my dad went home and then Sam and I went out for dinner. We met up our friends Mike and Ashley at a local OTB (off track betting) place just down the road from our house.

 

 I have never been to a OTB place before, but it was pretty fun and they had good food. Sam and Mike did some betting, while Ashley & I kept an eye on our husbands spending. The boys got really into looking at all the different stats and comparing all the horses.

 

 Ashley and I both commented that we hadn't ever seen them study something so hard, even when they were in school. No one won, but not too much money was spent- so I'll take that as a win for our wallet.

December has started off on the right foot and I'm excited for the rest of the month has in store!

Wanting to be Superwoman

Every so often I get this “itch” that I need to be very productive. It doesn’t happen that often because I like to think of myself as a laid back person (even if the husband would disagree). However, last night I got it in my head that I needed to get a lot of things done before I went to work today.

Thursdays are my late night at work, so I don’t have to be at the office until 11:00am. Having one morning free during the week is nice because I can get some stuff done (or not- and just sleep in). Most Thursday mornings I’ll get a few things done, but today I think I was trying for some kind of record. Let’s recap my morning from 7:30am to 10:30am-

Get up.
Shower.
Get dress.
Dry hair.
Eat breakfest.
Start a load of laundry.

 

Go to bank- deposit Sam's money.
Go grocery shopping at Dominck's
Go grocery shopping at Aldi's. 

 

Go to another bank- deposit our money.

Come home. Load groceries and put them away.

Move laundry to dryer.

Load dishwasher.

Make lunch.

Go to work.

All that in just a 3 hour span- I call that pretty good. 

However, since I came home I've only ate dinner, sat my butt on the couch, and finished writing this post. And I don't have plans to do much other then watch TV and go to bed.

All and all today was a great day. Even if I am not Superwoman, at least I can be productive for a part of my day.

Got to Love 4 Day Weekends!

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a good Turkey Day! So I was one of those lucky people who got a 4 day weekend out of the holiday. I have to say it was a much needed break. It was a great break because everyone knows that our office is closed and that meant I didn't come into a overly full email and voicemail boxes. Win!

This weekend consisted of many things and nothing all at the same time. It was great. Here a some shots of my extend weekend.

 

I started the weekend off by doing some laundry, catching up on my reality TV, and spending time with the "Dude".  I moved for one minute and he stole my prefect folding laundry/ watching TV seat.

I also did some decorating around the house. I just hung up some the wall art that I've been putting off since we moved in. I'm hoping to get everything up by the end of the holidays. 

I also was able to get in two movies over the weekend. I'm not sure when I saw a movie in the theaters last, but see two movies within two days is very unheard of in my life. Yes, I saw Twilight and I'm not ashamed, but I held out till I knew the mega fans weren't going to be there. 

We also can't talk about Thanksgiving weekend and not talk about the food. My camera was home on Thanksgiving, but on Sunday we went to Sam's parents house and we had his mom's homemade red sauce. Both days were filled with the 3 F's- family, food and football.

All and all it was a great weekend! However, I was ready to go back to work. I'm lucky enough to say the weekend didn't fly by, but I just really got to enjoy all the time off. 

Question: Did you do anything fun or exciting over the Thanksgiving weekend?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I know that November hasn't been my month when it comes to blogging, but now that the holiday season is here I have a feeling life & blogging will start picking up.

Currently I'm writing this blog post while watching the McDonald's (Chicago) & Macy's (New York) Thanksgiving Parade. I remember this being a tradition grown up and I still do enjoy in.

For the rest of the day... Sam & I hope to get to the gym before it closes. We have been doing pretty good again when it comes to getting into the gym and getting good workouts completed. Currently, the scale hasn't reflected our work but these things take time.

Later this afternoon, we'll be heading to Sam's aunt's house to undo all the work we are going to do in the gym today by enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner. I'm not sure who is all going, but it will be nice to visit with his family.

Then- who knows what the rest of our night will include. I'm not a big "Black Friday" shopper, so I have no plans on fighting the lines and dealing with the traffic. Plus I still can't believe that it's already time to think about holiday shopping, so this a way I can stay in denial a little longer.

I hope you all have a happy & safe Thanksgiving!

Hello November!

Hi Everyone! I can't believe we are almost halfway through November already. After my anniversary marathon of blog posting, I needed to take little bit of a break from the blog. But I'm back! Here are some ramblings of what's going on my life.

Life is going well. Shamrock has settled in nicely to our little family.

We still haven't decided if we are going to change his name (probably not, but we'll see). Currently Sam has been calling him "The Dude" like from the "The Big Lebowski". Even though I haven't seen the movie, it seem like it's a pretty good nickname.

In other news- we finally have a washer & dryer!

Yesterday afternoon was spent with Mike & Sam in truck going into the city to pick up the washer and dryer for Sam's great uncle's house.  I'm excited that I won't have to keep trucking my clothes across town to our parents to wash them. Now, I just have to wait another day until they are hooked up and I can use them. Being that it's been over two weeks since I last washed any clothes, I see a lot of laundry in my near future.

Tonight Sam flexed his cooking muscles and he made us duck for dinner.

Sam is a good cook, but he always makes "fancy" food. And by "fancy" I mean he uses a lot of pots and pans to make our meal.

Sam made a glaze and a sauce to go along with the duck. We never had duck before at home but it was good, so it's was worth the mound of dishes I have waiting for me.

All and all things have been good around here. I have found a good balance right now in my life (work, family, friends, etc.) and I hope to keep it that way.

Have a good week!