Still On Break

Happy happy Friday! I cannot believe it’s Friday already. I also cannot believe that school prep starts next week. It’s been a wonderful and relaxing break. I’ve spent a whole Lotta time catching up on new Netflix shows and also a whole lot of time painting.

Here is a cute paint by numbers that I got in one of my subscription boxes… I think it was from the fab fit fun subscription box - but don’t quote me on that. Ha!

Here’s a close-up so you can see how tiny the numbers are…


And here is the picture zoomed out. I’m almost done and it was so much fun! I wanted to read a few books for fun but I thought it was best if I give my reading eyes a break.


Here’s all the things the kids come with. A bunch of different colored paints that obviously are numbered and also multiple brushes to use depending on the size of the area you’re painting.

The paint by number said it would take 12 hours. Mine took way longer than that… This could be one of the reasons. Every time I’m doing something at the kitchen table one by one all the cats come to visit. The last thing I need is a cat paw in my paint and then have them running all over my house. Lol!

Thanks again for all the supportive comments on my post on Nermal. He’s doing really great with the shots and he’s eating the food he supposed to so fingers crossed I think we’re on the upswing. In the picture above is Trouble. 

Have y’all ever done a paint by number? How did it turn out? What other arts and crafts do you enjoy? Do your pets have to get involved in everything you’re doing also?

Have a happy happy Friday! Love you all - hugs!!

Big Bens Final Home Game

So guys… I got to tell you Monday night was pretty exciting for me and a whole lot of other people here in Pittsburgh. We’ve had the same quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for over 15 years now. He’s pretty amazing and he’s went a whole lot of games for us. Well Monday night was to be his last game here in Pittsburgh at the stadium. Fingers crossed we will make the playoffs at all but even if we do he will never play another home game here in Pittsburgh. Needless to say we were pretty psyched for the game. I went down with my sister my brother-in-law and my nephew. 

The entire crowd was so fired up! I honestly have never seen the stadium so for this entire year. There’s always empty seats but this game there was very few. The crowd was also so so electric! Here’s a picture of the guy that was sitting in front of us… He was a riot! He said he owns a Restaurant in Braddock, PA. But I’m not sure if that’s true or if that was the beer talking. Lol! Ben Roethlisberger is number seven… As you can see he shaved a tribute to the quarterback in his chest hair… Lol! I have to add… It was 20° out that night… Super cold!


Here’s a little selfie of my sister and I. Together we really get into the games and have such a blast screaming and yelling during the game! We probably get into it way more than we should ha ha!


We won the game and kicked the Browns butts. (No disrespect to the Browns fans out there) This was a picture I stole from the news. This is after the game. I’ve never seen a football game where the crowd stuck around after it was over. We won the game and the crowd stayed for at least 20 minutes and watched Ben walk around and highfive the crowd in the stadium. His eyes were full of tears… It had to be super emotional for him.


There he is… The amazing quarterback that he has been for the past 15 years. I hope he enjoys his retirement as I’m sure they will give him some kind of announcing role in the Steelers establishment. He really is a great guy and all I can say is thank you Ben!


Thank you Ben!!!

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!!!