A giveaway for a good cause

Hey, so my cool friend April, well she's hosting her first giveaway, and it's for a good cause. Did I say April was cool? Well she is.

Check it out here. :-)

To learn a bit about the cause, check out this.

A story....

First, my morning sickness has been out of control. Awful. Debilitating. For two weeks I’ve been under-eating, because of my lack of appetite combined with the 24/7 nausea. So my energy has been at zero. Poor Andy and the girls, they’ve been so great and patient. But, last night I filled a prescription for Zofran. A very powerful (and expensive!) anti-nausea drug. And I feel great. So great that I decided I better clean the rabbits’ cage. Poor rabbits haven’t had their cage cleaned for about 3 weeks.

Now we back up a bit…. Back in March of ’08 we adopted a beautiful albino Flemish giant rabbit from our local shelter. She’d been altered (aka fixed) and this poor thing needed a home. It was love at first sight. She came to live with us March 31st. We gave her as much love and attention as we could, but bunnies really like to be bonded to someone – usually another bunny, sometimes a pet cat, it varies.

Anyway, in the back of my head I was thinking about finding a buddy for Honey. Then, our neighbors adopted two new puppies. In October, maybe? Their bunny, a black dwarf male who has not been fixed, was seeking a buddy, too, and with the new puppies to take care of, we all thought maybe Honey and Binky should live together. It was a match made in heaven. They bonded immediately, and were quite the sight, a HUGE white bunny and an itty bitty black bunny. Oh, but the love was obvious. So was the lust. ;-)

Back to this morning….. so I’m using the shop-vac to vacuum up the bunny poop that inevitably misses the litter box. And out from their “cave” (bunnies, like most small animals like to have a darkish, quiet private space) hopes a little gray rat. Well, my first thought was rat, at least. But no, Honey and Binky are parents. To four adorable baby bunnies. How old are they? Umm, I’m not sure – but they all have fur – so they are more than a few days old.

So the shelter and I have been communicating as to what to do as far as getting Honey fixed – no word on what we’ll do with the babies yet. The woman on the phone was very nice but she kept saying, “No, but Honey was altered.” And I kept saying, “Yes, but she just had babies!” “Well are you sure she was the one to have them? The other bunny couldn’t possibly be a female and maybe she had them?” Umm, either way, the bunny that we thought had been fixed, hadn’t! But Honey is the mama – it’s obvious.

Alison thinks it’s hilarious that all this went down in our living room and we had no idea. I think it’s funny, too. I’m not sure Andy finds it so amusing. But that’s probably because he hasn’t had a chance to meet the little darlings. When he gets home tonight I bet he’ll fall in love quickly and then I’ll have to pry the little suckers out of his hands.

Can't.Stop.The.Tears.

So, every time, without fail, that Obama is on TV lately, or there is talk of his inauguration, I tear up. Good, happy, thankful tears. I'm watching Oprah right now, and the entire show today is about tomorrow, while also celebrating Dr. King. The tears started with the opening credits and "I have a dream...." and, well, they haven't yet stopped. I predict tomorrow will be a sob fest for me. :-)

One of my favorite things...

Home Run Inn Frozen Pizza

Specifically their "Cheese Plum Tomato."

It's my favorite even when I'm not pregnant, but I'm wanting it everyday lately.

Apparently they have a restaurant (or several) and that's where they started, branching out to frozen pizza later. I have never been to their restaurant (we are pretty much located 12 miles east of BFE as far as cool restaurants are concerned) and if I were to see one I wouldn't go for fear that either (1) I'd be disappointed or (2) I'd love it so much but would never be able to eat there again (ahem, the whole BFE thing).

(And, because I care, it can be found in Colorado,Utah,Texas and Ohio, but not in New Mexico. ;-) )

Baby it's cold outside

No school today, but not because of snow. Because of extreme cold. Yup. That's right. It's too cold to go to school. 9 below, but it feels like 29 below because of the windchill. And it's expected to get colder.


Have I told you that I don't like living in Wisconsin? Well I don't. I'm glad we had this opportunity, we've made some great lifelong friends. Lots of amazing folks. And I'll never forget my first winter, when the lake froze over and people drove their trucks across it. Freaked me out. But this place is not home to us, and we are never as convinced of that fact as when they have to cancel school because it's too cold.


So we are hunkered down inside today, afraid to even open the curtains as that will let even more of the cold in. Praying that our ancient furnace will keep cranking away. And fantasizing about our anticipated spring-time move south. New Mexico or Texas. There is actually a possibility in Seattle, too, but I don't know that I am that desperate to leave Wisconsin for Seattle. (I love to visit Seattle, but I am afraid that if we were to move there, even "temporarily" we would end up in that sun-less climate ~ still too far away from those we long to be near ~ for far longer than I can stand.)

I hope that you are staying warm today!

retreat

Friday night my church had a women's retreat at a nearby bible camp. This is the 2nd year in a row I've gone, and it is such a nice weekend.

No family pressures, no phone ringing, no computer calling my name to check my e-mail, no t.v., except the movie we all watched together - Steel Magnolias. I don't think I've ever watched that movie all the way through. I've seen it many times up until Shelby falls as she's picking up her son. Then I promptly turn the t.v. off or change the channel or something. But this time I watched the entire thing. Seriously, I cannot think of another movie that makes me cry that hard for that long. But I liked it. A lot. (And all my high school english teachers are cringing at my misuse of "a lot" but tough!)

Lots of great, deep conversations about Jesus' love for us, and lots of fun conversations about nothing much. Oh, and spa treatments. That was the theme - Heart Spa - so there were facials, hand treatments and foot treatments.

This year I invited Colleen to go with me. We roomed together, and then when we were split into small groups, by God's design we were in the same group. I had figured that we probably wouldn't be in the same group, but as it turns out, the lady dividing us put all names into a hat, prayed over the hat that we would each end up where we were supposed to be, and tada Colleen and I were in the same group. :-)

Really, it was such a nice time, and I left with my spiritual cup refilled. And some resolutions, if you will, of some things I need to be taking care of in my life.

Drum roll please.....

the winner is comment #9 - mayangelstar. My methods were entirely scientific, by the way. I asked my oldest daughter to pick a number between 1 and 11. :-)

Thank you, guys, for playing along. Hopefully you read of an idea or two that you think you can try.

So, mayangelstar, I need your address, please. Now I'm off to make your garland. I love playing with beads. :-)

Blond moments still happen around here!

So April so kindly pointed out that I said my giveaway was to end on Thursday, January 9th, and, well, since today is January 8th, umm, how about it end Friday, January 9th. And, so you know, I will be at a retreat tomorrow and most of Saturday, so the winner will be randomly drawn and posted late Saturday. :-)

And, I am sure there are more green things you do that you have forgotten you do... keep posting!

Completely unrelated, how pregnant should I be feeling at 6.5 weeks? Because I really feel like crap. My back hurts. My stomach hurts. Not like morning sickness hurts, but near-constant icky (unless I am eating - there's a plan, just eat ALL DAY LONG!). Oh, and my pants aren't fitting too comfortably. Maybe because I'm eating all day long. ;-)

Giveaway!!!

Want to enter my first giveaway? Okay, well here's what I am giving away:

1 string bag (here is a photo of the set I've got. You'd get one.) These bags are big, freakishly sturdy. I would bet they can hold more than I'm willing to carry.

1 itty bitty ditty bag. I've got a handful of them around, and they are great at holding all my ditties. No, seriously, I like these little bags, they're fun.

1 handmade photo garland, in miscellaneous colors. (Okay, I was trying to keep my giveaway green, but these things are fun, and I think you might like to have one!)

Now here's what you have to do. Tell me the things you are doing to help the earth, each in a seperate comment. For each thing you do/comment you provide, you have a shot at winning. (So, the more you are trying to do, the more chances to win!) Make sense?

Comment, comment and comment again until 9pm central time on Thursday, January 9th. Then, if I can figure out those online number generators, I'll use one of those. Or something.

Oh, and if someone else posts that they walk to work everyday and YOU, too, walk to work everyday, post it. Just so we're clear. ;-)