Nermie update

Hi everyone! I wanted to do a quick post and explain to everyone how things went at the vet today. 

I talked to two people last night that really helped me. The first was a cat rescue lady in my area. You might remember when we rescued the kittens we found in the woods here; and she was the one who helped us with that. Her name is Margo and she is phenomenal with cat rescue! I also talked to a friend from high school who dealt with a cat with diabetes. She explained how she was able to manage everything and made me feel much better about the situation. They both gave me fantastic tips and tricks to use as well. Also, thank you everyone that commented with their experiences and prayers!! They were soo appreciated!!!

So back to the update…the vet was fantastic… Not that I didn’t always know he was… But they were so amazing today!

I got to my appointment with a huge list of questions… How do I manage this with other cats in the house, do I have to put everyone on only wet food, how many times a day do I do the shots, what if he runs and hides from me every time it’s shot time, how can I afford this while going to school with no income, etc. - I just had so many questions swirling in my head. 

They gave me all the information necessary to make a decision. He explained how simple and doable it is going to be and at this point I believe him. They are going to be available at all times for any questions and issues. They gave him 3 units of insulin before we left the vet and my instructions are to start tomorrow morning and give him 2 units in the morning and 2 units at night (along with his special diabetic food) for the next two weeks. Hopefully this will bring down his level. He was close to 800 when his blood work came back so the vet believes it will be at least two weeks before it can get down to a more manageable level. 

I have an appointment scheduled in two weeks to do a glucose check and make sure his numbers are back near normal or at least heading that way. At that time we’re going to add in something for the infection he has (he has elevated white blood cell counts) but the vet doesn’t even wanna touch that until his glucose numbers come down.

Here is what we went home with…

Special diabetic food from the vet. My vet charged about $2.25 per can and when I checked chewy it was $2.17 so no much savings to get elsewhere. He will get hopefully two cans of his a day and start gaining weight back.

Here are the syringes…I am in nursing school and these are the tiniest needles I have ever seen. When they gave him the shot at the vets he didn’t even flinch. Hopefully that keeps up!

Here is the insulin … super pricy but it lasts a long time refrigerated. It is about $135 and it should be enough for the next three months if his dose of 2 units / 2 times a day remains the same.

And here is my sweet little boy Nermal!!! This is his second major heath scare in his 6 years of life and hopefully he can improve and continue to live a long and happy life!! Love that sweet face!!!!


Thank you again for being so supportive and helpful on my last post! Prayers are still welcome!!!

As with the previous post- any experience with diabetic pets is welcome!! 

So many hugs to all of you!!!

Please help…experience wanted

Serious pose here and really looking for some words of advice.

My cat had been sick with what I thought was a cat cold for a few months now. I took him to the vet and he gave him an antibiotic and some eyedrops. I thought it cleared up but then it appeared to come back again. 

I took him to the vet today and the vet ran a ton of tests. He was super concerned because Nermal lost 4 pounds in the past three months. The vet just called me and it turns out he is a diabetic. The vet said his numbers were so high over 800 that had I not brought him in he may have passed away within a few weeks. I had no idea he was even that sick… He wasn’t acting sick at all - he was eating and drinking and playing like normal.

I’m taking him back to the vet tomorrow to find out what to do to get his numbers under control. This is overwhelming and terrifying! I currently have no income because I’m going to nursing school and I’m petrified of how much this is going to cost me. I also feel like I’m torturing my cat giving him shots twice a day.

I’m hoping anyone out there has advice on this. If you have dealt with it or have a friend that has dealt with it or have any advice at all. Right now I’m just petrified and I don’t know what all this is going to entail. I don’t wanna torture my cat to keep him alive for another year if he’s suffering. 

If you know me at all you know I absolutely love my cats and they are my world!!!

Any help or experience is so welcome right now! Also, any prayers would be lovely because for some strange reason I am super scared and super sad!

Hugs!

Merry Christmas Day

Happy birthday Jesus!!!

Here is a recap of the past few days with my sister and her family hanging out with my parents for Christmas!

A few days before Christmas me and my mom went to visit my aunt Kathy at her home. She is now staying in a memory home because she has what appears to be the beginning of Alzheimer’s. She still knows who we are so that is a big blessing! We went to visit and I got cute picture my mom, my Aunt Kathy and myself. My Aunt Kathy’s in the middle. My aunt Kathy is amazing! She’s one of my Aunts that stayed single my whole life so she would come on vacation with our family every year when we were kids. I absolutely love her to death.

Christmas Eve night we played this really fun game with a bottle of saran wrap. They giant ball that you try to unwrap with oven mitts on. The person in front of you keeps trying to roll doubles, your turn it over as soon as they get doubles. The goal is to unwrap as much cellophane as you can and you get any goods that fall out of the ball. It was filled with lottery tickets, gift cards, gum, hi-chews, baby Nutella‘s… You get the idea! The picture below is two of my nieces…

More fun…that’s my Dad to the right and niece and nephew…


And there’s Mom… my sister, Mom and myself decided we would all share our loot there in the middle… Lol! The children were not sharing their loot… Ha ha


Then we played another game I saw on TickTock called reindeer ears. The first team to fill their pantyhose with five balloons and put the hose on their head one. We were the losing team but our ears look awful cute - this picture is my Mom and niece.


After we played a few games we decided to drive around the lake and look at everybody’s lights. This is the house that won the award for the best decorated. They actually have an outhouse with Santa sitting in it… The kids were quite amused!


Christmas day we were all entertained, even the dog, by my nieces guitar playing. She’s taking lessons and loves it… She’s getting really good! I can’t wait till summer comes around again and we can do sing-along‘s at the campfire


My sisters family had to leave to go to her husband side of the family later in the evening on Christmas day. It was just my Mom, Dad and myself for the rest of Christmas Day so we just kind of hung out, talked, and did some puzzles.


Here’s the picture we got before we left for church… This is in front of my parents tree.


And this is the picture we got in church… Everybody looks really bright! I think the birth of baby Jesus was shining through!


I will leave you with one final picture…

My nieces and nephew got a picture of mini years ago with who they thought was Santa. It really was my dad dressed up like Santa. My niece Kyleigh was four and the twins, Aly and Ryan were three. Aly hated Santa! She was terrified and cried the entire time… She had no idea it was my father. We asked the kids to re-create the picture this year and this is what they came up with…

Seriously!?? Melt my heart!!

Merry Christmas, happy holidays!!! No matter what or how you celebrate…I hope your heart is full and you show others love today!!

Hugs everyone!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas…

I hope you all have a blessed and safe holiday season!

Happy birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas everyone-hugs!!!!

No dissing the Tic Toc

I’ve heard so many people commenting on social media being the downfall of polite society. The funniest part is, I actually had a psych class last semester and we actually did a study of social media effects on children. It wasn’t good. 

However, I have to say I find social media so helpful. I have gotten close with blogging land for the past 10+ years… You guys are amazing friends that are always there and always commenting so supportively throughout the years! But also, when Covid hit, I started getting into TikTok. Me and the kids would do TikTok‘s to pass the time. They’re really cute short dances set to music and you just copy someone else’s dance moves.

But that’s not all that TickTock‘s good for… It’s taught me how to clean, how to cook, how to bake bread, how to dance and now finally how to wrap presents! I learn some of the cutest present wrapping from TikTok this year. Let me just show you a few…

How to wrap a shampoo or lotion bottle that is large at the bottom and smaller at the top…

You create a flat bottom and slide the present in…then just fold over the top and tie a string through!! So simple and cute…


How to wrap a circle without it being a total mess…ha


And lastly, my favorite, how to wrap with pockets on the outside!!! You can slide a pretty flower or candy cane in the pocket, or a card or face masks like I did for my cat sitter.






Sooo cute!!!! Right!?!?!?  I don’t want to post steps here because it is not my creation but I promise if you Google “wrap with pockets” or TikTok wrapping presents you will find it. It is everywhere now!

I’m going to end this post saying that I am so happy to be on a break from nursing school. I have time to come online and read your blogs and comments and also to write my own blog entries. Next semester is going to be crazy… I’m probably not gonna be able to Blog at all… So I’m going to get my fill during this break. You will probably all be sick of me in a matter of two weeks! Lol!

Happy Thursday!!!

Christmas at Tuesday 4

I am so excited to be joining in my first group blog post in so long! Thank you so much for allowing new people to join - I look forward to meeting many of you and making even more blog friends.

Here we go…

1. Is your tree up? Absolutely! As soon as my finals were over in nursing school I put my tree up. As I was studying for finals the three weeks before I swore I was not even going to decorate for Christmas. I was super overwhelmed with finals and kept thinking I just wanted to be done with this semester and have a break. Once I finish that last final… It was all about getting the decorations up! Here is my tree. It is fake and about 7 feet tall. My absolute favorite part of putting up the tree is looking at all the ornaments and all the wonderful memories I have from whoever gave me that particular ornament. My ornaments are either gifts or they were purchased as memories from different trips that I took.  Here it is…

2. Got a menu for Christmas Eve and Day? I will be at my parents house with my sister and her husband and children. My other sister and brother will not be there this year which will be a little sad. I believe we are going to have fillets wrapped in bacon and probably asparagus, brussels sprouts, and green beans. 

3. When does it go up and how long does it stay up? So like I said above it went up as soon as my finals were over. It was a lot of work so I think it will come down to days before I start the next semester. We have a dosage calculations test the week before we return to classes so actually it will probably come down right before that test.

4. What is your favorite Christmas memory. My favorite Christmas memory is just when I was a child then we would all get up Christmas morning and run downstairs and open our gifts. It wasn’t even about the gifts it was just because back then I still believed. I think once you know there is no Santa Claus and the magic is gone… Christmas is never the same.  I do believe in Jesus and I do believe that is truly what Christmas is about but somehow a little bit of the magic is gone once you are old enough to know there is no Santa.  These days Christmas is about spending a lot of quality time with my family being grateful that Jesus was born.  When do you open your gifts? We still open presents Christmas morning… But we don’t get up at the crack of dawn anymore. We open them when everyone is up and has had their breakfast.

Sauerkraut and sausage balls

Every holiday my dad loves to make these sauerkraut sausage balls for the family. They are delicious and everybody loves them! There are a lot of work but he has it down to a science. This year the kids are older and they asked if they could help make them as well. It was so cute seen them all in together. They mix everything together and then they have to roll it into balls and then bread them and fry them.

Here is the adorable assembly line…

My Dad takes this process very seriously…


Such cuties…


Here is what they look like prior to breading them and frying them.


I forgot a final picture but when I get to my parents for Christmas I plan to eat them so I will get pictures then.

If they sound good and you are interested, comment below and I will get the recipe from them over Christmas.

Steelers win!!!

We attended the second to the last Steeler game of the season this past Sunday. It was Steelers vs Titans.  I found these amazing fake lashes at Target of all places for three dollars!!!! Sooo awesome!!!!

My family meets before the game and I had a very early lunch at Southern Tier Brewery right near the stadium. Below is myself, my parents, sister, niece and brother in law. 


This is my niece posing with Steeley McBeam…


And this is my sister and brother-in-law posing with their favorite player!!! Some of us are ready to see him retire but these two are his biggest fans!!!!


I will leave you with a video of my very favorite part of the game!!!! I absolutely LOVE the Steelers and when you are at the games, the feeling is electric!!! The best moment is when they play renegade!!! The stands go crazy and the terrible towels fly!!!!

Watch HERE

Best gadget ever

I found this awesome little scooper on one of the deals and steals a few Christmases ago. I use it to get the most out of every product! It is the best invention ever. Anytime I finish a lotion or serum I use this to clean out what’s left in the bottle.

I just cut the lotion so that I can access the inside of a container. This is a semi-pricey Mary Kay hand lotion that I could squeeze no more out of. Watch how much more comes out…


You just cut it in sections and scoop it out with this great little tool! For hand lotions I usually put them in a snack baggie so they don’t dry out since they’re no longer in the container.


Here are the leftovers I was able to get out of the container.





If you’re looking to save money this tall is a fantastic little gadget! I got it on a deals and steals a few years ago but you can probably find one on Amazon or at Ulta or Sephora.

Happy Tuesday everyone!!! Hugs to everyone!!!

Thanksgiving recap

Hey yinz!!

I hope everyone had a phenomenal Thanksgiving. 

This post just shows you how behind the times I am that my Thanksgiving post is at least two weeks late… Lol! But I guess it is massive progress that I’m posting at least monthly now. Ha!

I just finished ALL my finals for this semester of nursing school! I finished this semester with 2 A’s and a B.  One more year left and then I am a nurse!!

Here is the picture of my clinical group on our last day of Hospital Clinical. Our instructor is on the end on the right and I am three from the right! I scribbled our badges and school identifiers so apologies for that. I got so lucky - it was such an amazing group of women and we all jumped in and helped each other soo much!!

Thanksgiving was spent the traditional way for my family… Good food, laughter and a wonderful time spent together. We did our usual cookie baking fiasco and as usual it was great! Here are a bunch of photos from the long weekend.

Below is my my brother in laws mom and step-father, my parents, my brother in law and sister and their children and grandchild (minus her older daughter who was working this day). The little tot in the picture is my first great-niece, Leighton! We all love her soo much!!

This is my sister and brother in law with their first grandchild. Soo adorable, right??


This is an impromptu pic of the beginning of cookie baking. Those are both of my sisters and my dad.


This is our side of the family. We do two dinners and this was the second one. This is my sister and brother-in-law their children, grandchild, and one of the kids girlfriend. Also, my other sister and brother in law and their kids. The kids are all so grown up! If you have followed my blog for a while you will probably be amazed… Three of the children in this picture are those three little tiny kids that I played in the lake with for so many years. They’re all grown up now.

Many evenings we have game time. It’s a great time for everyone to just laugh and decompress. I can’t even tell you the numbers of different games we played this year.


More candid baking photos…


The kids and I fought over who got to hang out with this little cutie. She was definitely the hit of the weekend. She’s so much fun to be around and all the kids took turns watching her while we baked.


Sugar cookies…


Candy cane rolling…the worst cookie job that excreting hates-ha!!


A little relaxation - football and screen time!!


Snuggles between batches!!!


My adorable niece entertained us all with her guitar playing throughout the weekend!! Love listening to her play!


My sister started selling Beauty Counter products so of course we all had to mask up and rejuvenate Our skin in the evenings.  If you need a product hookup, let me know. I’ll get you her information!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope everyone is happy, safe and well!!!

Thank you all of you for all your words of support!

Love you guys - so many hugs to everyone!!