Praying for those affected

I feel like an even bigger POS now than I did last week when I made that post about being fascinated by tornados.

Ugh, the devastation that was caused Wednesday night has had me in tears multiple times. So many peoples lives were turned upside down in a matter of minutes. Lives were lost so quickly. My heart breaks for every single person affected by those storms.

We were so fortunate to not get the brunt of the storm. We just had your normal run of the mill thunderstorms in Marietta. But realizing I was watching the lighting, from my front porch, of the storms passing just north of us filled with tornados didnt really hit me until the next day.

A guy I work with lives up in Jasper. As soon as I realized they were headed that way I sent him a few text messages telling him to be safe and that it was close. I didnt hear anything more from or about him until the next day when I got to work. His home was destroyed. The tornado passed right over his home. The home that he has been working so hard on fixing up. The home he goes to every night. Where he helps raise his daughter. Trees fell on it. The tornado uprooted some gigantic trees. Destroyed his barn. His carport is gone. Probably in someone elses yard. He has pieces of his neighbors houses laying right in front of his house. When he was in the office this morning showing us his pictures, before and after, it took everything I had to keep from crying. Who am I to cry?! Im not the one who lost so much. Who's life was just turned upside down. I dont know how he is so strong. I'd be a complete mess if I were in his shoes.

He had enough time to put a shirt on before it hit. Wow. So quickly these things come and leave such a mark. All that is left of his next door neighbors house is a single room! Happens to be the room the family was in. Thank God they picked the right room to seek shelter. One family in Georgia had their daughter, along with her bed, ripped out of her bedroom by a tornado and thrown into the yard. Thank God she ended up ok, minor injuries. But, holy moly. Cant imagine the fear in that mamas heart realizing what just happened but then realizing how lucky that girl was.

I pray for all of those who lost family members, their homes, their jobs. Anything. That they can find some sort of peace from this. Im sure it is so so difficult to look at this and try and see any "the glass is half full" kind of moments. I just hope they are able to handle all the things that they are going to have to deal with in the coming days, weeks, months, even possible years. Good luck to everyone.

Ill be helping out however I can this weekend. Im trying to think of something to do to raise money. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated :-)

stories/links

God bless them

This is too funny.

Yay for the military :-)

Love it.

We're off to see the wizard

The wonderful wizard of oz. No? We aren't? Shoot. OH well.

I have a confession to make.......

Its that time of year again folks. Weather. There is A LOT of front/back porch sitting and watching the storms. And I love it. We have nothing compared to some of the other stuff that has been rolling through the country though. There has been so much devastation caused and it makes me so sad. I feel so guilty and awful saying this, but I am so fascinated my tornados. I watch youtube videos of them all the time. It always makes me so sad for the peoples lives they change. I will admit that something I want to do is see a tornado in real life, but from a safe distance. I don't know exactly what it is about them, but it draws me in. I should've been a tornado chaser I think. Im telling you, the movie Twister changed my life! Thats what did it to me. It is one of my favorite movies and I've seen it a hundred times. I remember the first time I watched it. I was so nervous watching it I sat on the arm of my parents couch and nawed the crap out of my finger nails. But I was hooked from that moment on.  I wonder what my boss would do if I went to him and told him I wanted to be a legit storm chaser, not just work in an industry that follows hail storms?!

Please don't think I'm a bad person for admitting this :-) As much as I am fascinated by them I wish they could go away all together or only happen in areas where no one is affected :-)

Isn't that sad? The movie Twister "changed my life" sheesh.

How do people blog every day? Sometimes multiple times. I've got a lot to say and a lot I'm doing but I just can't find the time or energy. I give mad props to you constant bloggers. hats off to ya.

Free People...your breaking my heart.

Dear designers of Free People,
You are amazing. I love the clothes you come up with. I wish oh so very badly I could win the lottery just so I could buy EVERY SINGLE ITEM you have. Obviously thats not the only reason I'd want to win the lottery, but its a big reason :-) Im drooling over here because of these clothes. Stylish, yet still have that hippy relaxed flair to them. Oh my doodness (yes I said doodness and no that is not a typo!)



<3





<3



Would love to own these come next fall/winter



I would have no problem wearing this outfit everyday this summer. the accesories and shoes make it.

 I know these clothes are not for everyone.

Honestly, how many people do you see walking around with sheer skirts on?!
I DONT CARE. :-) My day of birth celebration is only 4 months away ;-)
oh Zaaaaccchhhh...........

all pictures can be found Here

Wanting to cook more

I've been saying for awhile that I not only want to cook at home more, but learn more recipes and get more creative with my cooking. Its hard for me though. This is going to sound so childish but 9 out of 10 times if there is no picture I have zero interest in whipping up that dish. Well im starting to feel the pinch of my pocket book (pocket book? who even calls it that anymore?!) from us starting to eat out A LOT again. I need to get my lazy butt up from what ever I'm doing and start preparing dinner. It doesn't have to be anything extravagant, just something!

Not only do I need to be cooking our meals more, but I love making desserts (even though I'm not a huge sweets person) and fun little snack things also. Savannah always wants to help me make desserts so Im always on the hunt for not so hard recipes.

Im not sure how I came across THIS BLOG, but all I can say is she has inspired me to want to step into the kitchen. Not only are some of her meals so stinkin creative (she has young kiddos, they have to be) but I havne't come across one of her recipes yet that I wouldn't eat, or "alter" a bit. I am a super picky eater but I want to make and try everything she has a recipe for. And on the PLUS side, she has so nicely included pictures. Multiple pictures of each thing! YAY for visual learners :-)

Check out these fun a creative things she came up with for April's fools day food!



Thats Jello in the middle instead of the fruit!





Meatloaf  "cupcakes" with mashed potatoes on top!





Looks like an egg. Its yoguert and a peach. So clever

 They are obviously aimed a little more towards children than adults but I think Savannah will love these things.  I'm going to be trying my hand at the meatloaf cupcakes very soon :-)

Here are some oh so yummy looking things I've already sent Zach the links to asking when he'd like me to cook these:

Pomegranate pork chops with garlicky green beans. Heaven infront of me :-)

I have a good feeling this would put McDonalds snack wraps to shame ;-)



She also has something called Fun Food Fridays that would make it impossible for a kid not to want to eat their meal! The ways she comes up with to present the food is so cute. I wonder what Zach would do if i started preparing our meals in pictures?! Also check out all of her crafts and cool things she finds and comes up with to do with her kiddos.

Here kitty kitty...

Im still in shock.
I can not believe the hubs finally said yes.
I've been trying to convince him a cat would be a great addition to our family since we started dating 3 years ago. Somehow we managed to get a German Shephard 2 years ago instead of a cat. I think cats are easier but what do I know, Ive only been around lot o' cats my whole life!

Last week my sister in law Cassie got a new cute adorable kitten. So I knew it was time to bring up the whole "so in so let their wife get a cat. Loooooook how cute it is!" I tried and tried and finally something happened one day while we were texting. On Wednesday of this week I decided to just email him some kitties I was finding at shelters around here. Next thing I know I get a text from him that says "We need a boy cat. Theyre more loving"  excuse me? We need? Not IF we get a cat. So to try and hide my excitment exploding out of me I said "ok :-)" followed by him saying "pick him out :-)" Are you shitting me??!! I screamed and told the lady I work with. She was happy for me because she's an animal lover like me. I didn't have much luck finding anything Wednesday. I emailed a few places but got no response. When I came into the office thursday morning I had an email waiting for me. It was sad because the kitty I had emailed about was sold :-( BUT they had 3 more of his litter mates available. SCORE. So the lovely lady I work with let me leave an hour early yesterday to head to the shelter to check out those babies. There were 4. I wanted them all. There was one I was really leaning towards because she kept climbing up the door of her cage until the guy that works there said "She's a complete nut. That cat is going to be the biggest nut when it gets older" AANNNDDD moving on. I need no more nutty animals.

When they were micro chipping him they noticed he had a lot of ,ummm, poop dried on his but. I figured once I got him home and gave him a bath hed be fine. Driving home he wanted to crawl all over me, in turn getting his nasty ass all over me and my hoody I was holding him in :-x barf :-x . He smelled. I wasn't far from the office so I stoped by to show Mary and clean off his but. Thats when I saw it. The issue. Of course there was an issue. I picked this animal out didnt I?!

 **Side note: 1st Chihuahua I bought (now my parents, Rocco) super friendly but so so fat and a part of his eyeball pops out. 2nd animal I bought, Titten (now my "parents") no other word but seriously crazy. We've had a lot cats, we know crazy ones....shes it! 3rd animal. My now chihuahua Jasmine: SOOOO fat and allergic to EVERYTHING. What dog do you know thats allergic to rabies shots??!! She has cronic ear infections and asthma. 4th animal the german shepherd Dexter: Hes not very bright for a shepherd. Has possible German Shepherd disease (i say possible b/c they dont know whats wrong with him yet) and has parianal fistulas!**

Luckily theres a vet right across the street so I took kitty over there to have him looked at. While they were cleaning him up they came in and said it looks like he has a torn butthole (I'm sure they used a more proper word) SERIOUSLY? New record for me. Being at the vet with in 30 minutes of purchasing an animal. After cleaning him up and inspecting him turns out thats NOT what was wrong. He has something pretty common with kittens. His butthole pokes out, not in(that sounds so vulger, sorry!). Its just slightly infected right now so he's got medicine I have to put on it (YAY more butt problems with animals!) They said keep an eye on it but it should "poke in" as he gets a bit older(again sorry if that stirs up mental images).

First thoughts? Honestly? Im returning this little bastard. But I quickly decided against that. I picked him out for a reason. Right?
And are cats born with it already in there "systems'' to HATE water and HATE car rides? He's a quiet cat for the most part until he gets in the car. And giving him baths? Oh my goodness. He tried to slit my wrists AND amputate my pinky yesterday. NO joke

Dexter and Jasmine were doing way better with him than I thought they would. Jasmine is so pertective of him. Anytime Dexter gets to close Jasmine attacks Dexter! Shes crazy. But poor Jasmine. Dexter got in the kitties face lastnight and Jas went to bite and be mean to Dexter when the cat attacked Dexters face and he cute Jasmines tongue instead. Poor baby was bleeding pretty good. But suprisingly that did not deter her from him at all. It made Dexter scared of him now tho! They will all be BFF very soon. I can tell , or I can hope ;-)

**Update from when I started this post Friday**
The kitty finally has a name. After it being Masuka for a whole 3 hours, we tried a few diffrent ones but none of them really clicked. We settle on Sprocket yesterday afternoon :-) Seems to fit. But its always weird calling a new animal by its name for the first few days. It justs sounds weird.

Sprocket went to the vet this morning because he's been having bathroom problems and he needed his checkup from when I bought him. He has Ghiardia but is now on medicine and will be doing better soon! I love this little guy and the dogs really do to. Its precious.

I'd get 10 more cats and dogs if Zach would let me. I have a very strong feeling this will be the last pet we add for a looon time!

SORRY for the im obssesed with my new cat post. Most people hate cats...I do NOT.