Latest crochet creations!

I learned to crochet when I was 18. Since then, I must say I've made some pretty amazing stuff! This past weekend I made the following hats for two of my cousins.

Each of those took about an hour, I'd wager. These are just little side projects. Here is the big project I've been working on for the little bun in my oven:

It will literally be a big blanket of flowers! Isn't it wonderful? :-)

Not for the squeamish!

This morning there were two fresh piles of cat vomit waiting for me. One upstairs in my room, and one in the living room. I know this will (when he sees the pile in our room) upset the love of my life. Yesterday, in fact, he kept closing the door so the cats couldn't even get up to our room. I kept opening it, because it is not a rule that they can't go up there.

So anyway, I left him a note on the white board on the fridge. It reads "Two piles of cat vomit this morning! One in our room, one in the living room. Good thing the door to our room was open or there would be TWO down here! Gives the clean-up crew a little variety. :-) "

How's that for a positive spin? He he... *sigh* I sure love my cats.

Speaking of multiple piles of cat vomit....

A few years ago, I came home from work only to be accosted by SEVEN piles of cat vomit throughout the house. They went from solid to complete liquid. I assumed it was my female cat, because she plays the bulimia card to keep her girlish figure. Well, it was none other than Mr. Woozel. (Daxter is his given name, but you know how that goes.) He puked again right in front of me and something came up with it. A long stringy object. I immediately started gagging and had to look away as he choked it back down. Unfortunately my gag reflex kept me from identifying the object.

I assumed it was a tape worm or something equally atrocious. I took him to the emergency vet, where they did some x-rays. His intestines were all bunched up awkwardly. The vet asked me, "is there any string lying around your house?" Well, gosh, did I mention I crochet like a mad woman? Oy vey..... yes, there is lots and lots of string/yarn all over the place!!!

Poor Mr. Woozel had to spend the night in the hospital. The next morning, I picked him up from the ER vet and took him to his regular vet so he could be hospitalized there until they figured out the problem. Meanwhile, I looked around to see if there were any obvious signs that Daxter had chewed off some yarn. Then I remembered something...... I had recently made a blanket for my BFF and his wife, and there was a long strand of yarn left over at the end of a skein. This was long... 8 to 10 feet. I had put it next to my big bag of yarn in the living room. This long strand was missing.

I was living with my mother at the time. I asked her if she had thrown it out. Nope. Oh crap.

I called the vet and told him of my discovery. They scheduled surgery for poor Mr. Woozel. Yes, he had in fact slurped down over 8 feet of beautiful green yarn. They surgically extracted it from his intestines. Poor baby!!!!

Here are a couple pictures. One is, obviously, the yarn. The other is a picture of him when I visited after the surgery. I apologize if it makes you sick. :-)

Isn't he chubby and cute?????

25 Weeks!

Today I am 25 weeks pregnant with a feisty little lady. :-) Here's what Baby Center has to say about it:

http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-25-weeks_1114.bc?intcmp=timeline

1.5 lbs already! Woo! :-)

Now that's something to be thankful for!!!!

Taking personal responsibility

"It's not what happens to you, it's what you do about it." -W. Mitchell

Every Thursday at work, the topic I cover with my trainees is "Taking Personal Responsibility." This is a rather huge concept that really expanded my universe once it clicked.

When you think of "taking responsibility," what comes to mind? It's usually about something negative, right? Your answers may include "owning up to your actions," or "admitting what you did was wrong," etc. Well, yes, but it goes way, way beyond that.

Whose job is it to make sure you have a good day today? .....yours.
Whose job is it to make sure you don't get upset by someone else's actions? ......yours.
Whose job is it to make sure you go down the right career path? ......yours.

Yours, yours, yours. Whose job is it to make you happy, successful, financially stable, sane? YOURS!!! Isn't that amazing? YOU have control here.

Shifting gears a bit... How do you feel when someone controls you? "It sucks," is what I hear. "I feel powerless" is what I hear. "Like a victim" is what I liken it to. Well *guess what*!?! YOU are always in control of YOU. Do you see a trend here? Let's say there is someone holding a gun to your noggin, demanding that you open up that vault "or else...". YOU are actually choosing to open the vault because YOU are logical and aware of the possible consequences. You could choose not to open it, and in that case you would know that you had some responsibility in what was ultimately manifest as a result of that choice that YOU made.

Doesn't that feel better? Doesn't it feel great to know that you are always in control of you? My goodness, we have so much power, it is unbelievable!

Shift gears again... I went to a Robin Rose training for work a few months ago and she said something absolutely profound. While the training was about brain function, stress hormones, etc., the following is what made the biggest impact on me and my own curriculum. In a nutshell, she said that we actually have no control over what happens to us as a child, but as adults we DO have control over what we do about it. It goes hand in hand with the W. Mitchell quote above.

You had no control over what family you were born into, whether or not your parents had good parenting skills, what kind of environment you lived in, who your neighbors were, whether or not you had your basic human needs met, etc. You were just tossed in there and had to live with it. But at some point in your life it becomes your responsibility to choose how it impacts the rest of your life. I hate to break it to you, but you can't blame your parents anymore! If you treat people poorly, that is 100% your own fault. If you have a positive attitude, that is also 100% your own fault. No excuses! None of that "well I am this way because I was abused as a child" junk. It just doesn't fly.

I'm still struggling with finding a way to really crack into people's skulls and plant this seed. I just don't know how to put the awesomeness that is Taking Personal Responsibility into the right words!

And so it begins

Today I got the idea to start blogging. I've done it before, and it was a sort of therapy--a place for me to vent my bottled-up frustrations. Things have changed and I have come a long way. My life is so full of joy and positivity... and I want to share it with the internets!

No, I didn't find "god." Except Thor, in the form of Chris Hemsworth. That's a worthy god, for sure. And Loki. Wait, that's beside the point.

It has come to my attention that my isolation and abrupt abandonment of my old life (yay, divorce!!!) may have left those who knew me thinking that I am still miserable, tortured daily by the things I chose to endure for a decade. Maybe those who start to randomly wonder will stumble upon this little nook on the net and get the update that my life is *awesome*.

Notice I used the wording "chose to endure." Sounds insane, doesn't it? Who would choose to stay in a horribly negative, painful living situation for a decade??? Well, I have learned the secret to a happy life... Personal responsibility! Once you realize you are in control of your entire life and the way you experience things, you gain complete control over everything. And that, my friends, is a powerful feeling!!