Vacation - Take 2

Last week I took 3 days off with the intent to move. But, thanks to my wonderful mom, I was already moved in and had 3 days to do not much. But this week - is the real vacation. For the last 2 days I've been shopping and cleaning and laundry. So that tomorrow morning we can leave to go to OKLAHOMA CITY. 4 days in the city that is going to be crammed full of this and this and this. Plus seeing friends and family. And eating, Ted's, Stables, County Line BBQ. And shopping, Tener's anyone? 4 days of horse events, I am so excited. Buying extra batteris for the camera. See ya when I get back...

Plan: To give up coffee while on vacation.

Day 1: Feeling pretty good, had a coke and donuts for breakfast while finishing up the move. Hello! Stress central right there, but not feeling a difference from the zero coffee.

Day 2: No headache, no problems. 10 am massage contributed to the sleeping feeling though. Good thing I'm on vacation and don't have to be productive.

Day 3: Coffee pot found, had a cup while changing addresses online.

3 days isn't failure, right?!?

The past month has been a whirlwind of work and work and more work. Seriously, like 65 hours a week. Summer has hit Belton, Texas, 3 days so far with the temp already reaching in to the 100's. That 100 degree weather is about 3 weeks early, and no relief in sight, (and no pool). What else have we been up to? Making life and career changing decisions, finding out we have to move, AGAIN! The place we are renting sold and so we have to move by July 1. Found a place 2 days ago, nothing like waiting until the last minute. Having horrible allergy problems and having to get steroid injections to be comfortable, with a nice cause of pleuritis on top of everything else. Yay, allergy induced asthma at 29, woohoo! A little vacation time coming up, 3 days spent moving and 4 days going to OKC to the battle in the saddle, check it out. I am excited! This week happens corresponds with my birthday (and 4th of July). OKC means some Teners shopping and Ted's food. That's about it in our world. Oh yeah, also had to buy new truck tires.

You'll notice I've added 2 buttons to the side of my profile. One is to money saving mom - I realize I'm not a mom, this isn't some subliminal preannouncement, promise! But money saving mom has great hints for menu planning, grocery shopping, couponing and more importantly, saving money! I've always been a couponer and menu planner, this just takes it up a notch. The second button is for EMealz, which is a great menu planning service. Every week a new menu is posted with suggestions for the week's menu. They also provide a grocery list. It so easy to adjust if there is a food you don't like or want to switch the order of dinners. Plus with having the grocery list printed, all you do is add what you need for breakfast or lunch and cross off what you have. Viola - time and money saved. Click that link for more info. This week has pecan crusted tilipia on the menu, yummy! And if you use coupon code savemoney, the 3 month subscription is only $13.00, not $15.00..

During the height of bluebonnet bloom here in Central Texas, I made my super sweet boyfriend drive around with me to look at flowers, for four hours. This is one of the many pictures we took.

Emergency call night - part deux

I started posting about my on call Monday night, but was interrupted by "emergencies" and never finished my final count. Finally home at 3:00 am, just in time to get up at 6:00 am by our monthly doctor meeting at 7am.

In addition to the above phone calls and emergency room visits, I also had...
1. Dauschund kicked in the head by a horse and now its eye is hanging out. (real emergency - took the eye out)
2. Bulldog in labor - need a C-Section (at midnight). More about this one in a minute
3. My miniature schnauser is shivering (at 2 am)
4. I have a question about my cats medicine that was prescribed today (at 1:30 am).

Dog breeders are a special group of people, as a general rule. Bulldog breeders multiply the specialness exponentially. These bulldog "breeders" were no exception. A little background first, they are new to the bulldog business but have jumped on the bandwagon to "try to make a little money" (haha!). They have visited earlier that done because their beloved pet sounded "congested" and was always snoring, even when awake. They had also called one of our other vets 2 times that afternoon thinking she was in labor, but alas, she was only breathing hard because its May in Texas and she's a bulldog. Well, around 9:00 pm, I get the call that she's in labor and needs a C-Section. Oh yeah, did we mention we're in South Austin (about an hour and a half away). While trying to get a feel for the situation over the phone, I began asking probing questions, such as, "Is she having contractions?" They of course didn't know how to tell if she was having contractions. I suggested that they should just come on up and I'll check her out, after agreeing to come up, we hang up the phone. I calculate their arrival time to be approximately 10:30 pm and anticipate meeting them there about that time. Of course possible parvo puppy is on its way in (see previous post) so it'll work out great in timing. Around 10:30 pm, parvo puppy has gone home sans the actual diagnosis of parvo and I'm waiting around. At 10:45 pm I get a call from them saying now they really think she's in labor and are about to leave their house. HUH!?!?! YOU AREN'T ALREADY ON YOUR WAY? is my livid response. They reply, oh no we talked to D, she's been doing this for 10 years and knows way more about bulldog breeding than you do, HUH!?!?! But she thinks we should wait until her cervix is open fully, then give her 4 more hours. WHAT ?!?!?I calmly explain at that point, that every hour from here on out, the emergency fee will increase by $50.00, starting at the $75.00 it would be right now. They finally arrived at 12:30 am for their C-Section. Moral of the story, pissing off the one who makes you bill because you are incredibly rude and inconsiderate of my sleep, will cause your C-section to be twice what it would have been if you had arrived at 10:30 like originally planned.

Once again on call, waiting for yet another "emergency". On my facebook wall, I posted what my 7:00 pm emergency was, a dog with bad gas. Really, you can't make this stuff up. The complaint was the dog was stinking up the house, they thought their septic system had overflowed. Can that wait until tomorrow? Apparently now, because they paid their $55 emergency fee and merrily came through the door. I on the other hand was not so merrily waiting for them to show up (45 mintues later than they told me, hrmf). So I sit here, waiting for another "emergency" to come through the door, this time "within the hour" with the self diagnosed parvo patient. Now in this area, its a very likely diagnosis, but the "I'm a former vet tech and can diagnose by sight and smell so you don't need to actually test the dog" tells me over the phone.

Here's the list of phone calls for tonight:
1. Puppy broke its leg - but I have no money, do you take foodstamps or treat for free?
2. My dog is having a seizure, do you think the abscess on his hip is causing it? I don't want to bring it in right now. Do you think its an emergency?
3. My dog has gas (see above).
4. My dog caught a bat and I think the bat is rapid. Does my kids need shots? Can you do them instead of going to the Dr.?
5. My dog was spayed today and now it looks like there is a string on her belly.
(duh!)
6. My puppy has parvo (also see above)

And its only 9 pm.

Sigh

Day 3 of the (more) Natural Diet

I paranthesized the more because my diet isn't technically 100% all natural, just cutting out most processed foods and as much wheat as I can (trying for all but I may miss some here and there). Not a weight loss diet by the way.

Breakfast: Banana, coffee
Lunch: Hamburger patty (no bun) with cheese, baked beans queso dip and cheesecake
Snack: Tangeolo
Dinner: Spinch/spring greens salad with dried cranberries, walnut pieces and vinegrette
Snack: Mango Fruit Bar

Once again I have shirked on my commitment to stay current on my blogging. To anyone remaining, I apologize.

In the past few weeks, I have been busy becoming a team roper. Before I start explaing the how, I suppose I should begin with a why or a how, as in how have you not been committed for losing your mind. You see, I am dating a team roper, and have been for over a year now. In fact, this nice young man even moved from Arizona to Texas after my internship. He is apparently quite smitten (coughgigglesnort). But he is a team roper and I love roping events (and my team roper), and after watching him rope many times, I decided it can't be that hard, right? I mean all you're doing is throwing a rope at a steers's head, or feet depending on which end you're facing. So I found a rope (Omega 3 if you're keeping up) and started swinging. Apparently this whole roping this is a little harder than I thought. With some coaching I got pretty darn good roping the dummy steer, from the ground. He got the bright idea to add a horse to the equation, and a moving animal. This changed everything, I now have to coordinate making a horse move forward, staying in my saddle, not falling off the horse, keeping her straight, not droping the reins and twirling my lasso. The final step is actually throwing the loop at the moving steer (or burro in my case) without falling off as the horse stops. Whew! It's a lot of work, and coordination. Did I previously mention I have no coordination or grace, well I don't, not even a small fragment buried somewhere deep inside. As a person who rides cutting horses, roping is hard. But to get back to the beginning, how did I become a roper? Since I haven't actually caught my prey with my rope, the only claim I have to being a roper is my roping glove. At least with my roping glove on and my Omega coiled up in my hand, I at least look like I know what I'm doing, giggle giggle snort.

Finally spring weather has made its way to Central Texas and we've had weather in the 80's. Of course the wind has been blowing like crazy, but spending so much time in west Texas and Oklahoma, I don't seem to mind.

Interestingly, I read another blog and had 2 emails yesterday (I don't normally get "junk" emails) about gluten free diets. This is of sudden interest because I'm seriously considering a major diet change, that may possibly include gluten free. You see, since the fall, I have been chronically fatigued, to the point of not being able to function on less than 8-10 hours of sleep a night and very little activity other than work. I've never been one to sleep this much. I was diagnosed with acute Mononucleosis in the fall which explained the sudden decline in my health. I was told 4-6 weeks and I should be "back to normal." I was cleared to continue working as long as there was no fever. Well, fast forward to March and I'm still not much better, work is about all I can handle, which means nothing in the evening or weekends without being completely exhausted. It's taking a toll on lots of things, as many can imagine. I recently returned to my doctor for full diagnostics, including repeat bloodwork for a multitude of obscure and common diseases. I continue to test positive for Epstein-Barr virus with very high titers (which is similar to chronic mononucleosis). Based on the online questionnaires I can find during my "research" (not self diagnosing here), I fit all the criteria that the CDC publishes for chronic fatigue syndrome. I have not been diagnosed with this (and hope I don't), but am reading about natural remedies and diet modifications.

So all that being said, if anyone has any tips of the diet change trade, I'd love to hear them.

So much for my pledge to post more often.. Oops! Life has been super busy. We're entering our "busy" season right now, which means I'm working 8 am - 7 pm 6 days a week.. Talk about tiring.. Not really anything exciting happening around here, work and thats it.. The budget got sidetracked and out of wack due to the move, but is back on track for April, and the number disclosure will return. Scentsy has been a huge blessing and help with the debt paydown plan. It has been an awesome way to supplement my income with not a whole lot of extra work. Someone who actually had time to put in to it, could really do well. My warmer sitting at my clinic has done the most sells for me the past few weeks. That's about it for now, hopefully will update a little more frequently. Promise!

I mentioned its been a busy couple of weeks.. Well, it started with Dally's truck breaking down permentantly and needing to get a new(to us) truck for him. So on my Saturday off (2 weeks ag), we packed up and headed to Ft. Worth to truck shop. He had been doing a good job searching online and in our area for a truck that meets our needs. First stop, Mansfield, Tx. They had sold the truck we wanted an hour earlier, oops! Next stop, Arlington, Texas. Shady looking dealership/lot, didn't even stop. They we decide to head to Weatherford, TX (other side of Ft. Worth) since they have heavy truck lots. Found a truck we liked, price was right, financing was right, and ended up buying a 03 Dodge 2500 Diesel truck, exactly what we wanted. Since I'm a Dave Ramsy follower, I had a $1000.00 emergency fund saved up that I used as a down payment on the truck. Now I know that he wouldn't consider that an emergency, but it was a very used truck for $13,900 and I only financed it for 3 years. So, now back to builiding that emergency fund. After buying the truck, we visit a friend in Weatherford and get home around 11:00 pm.

On Sunday, we get up for church and then come home. We have been trying to get out of our rental house for a while, because it costs too much money (plus some problems with the property managment company). They found a renter who wants us out by the next weekend, i.e. 7 days! So my mom and dad come up to help us (Dally!). They managed to move us completely out of that house in 3 days total. AMAZING! We're still fighting with the PM company, but that' s a whole 'nother story. I'll post pictures about this amazing place we've moved to next time. But my money savings tip of the month, moving to this place will save us $1000.00 a month, an entire $1000.00 (if not more).

Scentsy is doing well - about to place another order, if anyone is interested February is 10% off the old catalog. I have the Spring/Summer catalog I can email for a sneak preview. Lots of cute stuff!

I know its been a while (so much for my pledge to keep up better).. January and February was a whirlwind of activity that included no internet for about 10 days.

But first.. I have a friend and Kojie sister from college named Jenny Bizaillion that is in the hospital in Dallas literally fighting for her life. She was diagnosed with the flu about 10-12 days ago that rapidly progressed to pneumonia to a life threatening septic shock and MODS with DIC. She is on a ventilator and has been on the brink of death a couple of times. The doctors and nurses are attributing a lot of her so far survival on prayer alone, they have no medical explanation for why she hasn't passed away several times now. They are the most wonderful people, her brother and sis -in -law are also good friends from my ACU days. Thousands of people are praying for them, and a few more prayers sure wouldn't hurt. If you want to follow her story, here's the link, its free to sign up for care pages to read her story.

My beautiful (and super talented) friend Jenni, nominated me for a blog award - its my first. Thanks Jenni! Seriously folks, she's super talented, check out her site or her design site at Swell Mail, she's going to design/coordinate/plan my wedding (if it ever occurs).

But anyway, my blog award..

Here's the rules:

To accept this award I must list 10 things that make me happy and then pass this award along to 10 fabulous blogs!

10 things that bring a smile to my face are (in no particular order):

1. A day off from work. Especially if I get to sleep in, then enjoy a hot cup of coffee and read the newspaper.

2. The boyfriend - he's pretty amazing

3. All my animals - the dogs, the horses, the burros, the cows and the cat

4. New cowboy boots

5. Bluebonnets

6. Summer days at the lake, or summer days in general

7. Opening non- bill mail. Hand written note cards always make me smile

8. Pumpkin Pie or Banana Pudding or Peach Cobbler or most any dessert

9. Did I mention the boyfriend. Ok, so how about all my family and friends (that I never see enough anymore :( )

10. Peanut butter M&M's

11. Looking out my window and seeing an arena, roping chutes, cows and my horses/dogs/critters

I nominate:

- Amy, I love hearing about your mixed animal stories, makes my own day not seem quite so crazy sometimes.

- Heather - Here's to hoping you get to move to Austin soon, that' s a long drive to make so much :)

- Kayce - will 4 kids, you deserve a bloggie award

-Amalia - my beautiful Physician friend, who does amazing things to help people every single day.

If you read my blog and I haven't nominated you, well, you are nominated too (and please comment so I know who else is reading)

Scentsy has some really exciting new warmers and promotions coming up. The January warmer is in preparation for Valentines day. The heart shaped lid, red color and XOXO design along the side are reminiscent of romance, but not too over the top for every day decor. The January scent is Berry Blush.

Alumni of many universities across the country can show their school support while leading a warm, homey scent to any room. You can bet that I have my OSU warmer proudly displayed in my exam room at work. As the only Cowboy (Go Pokes!) amongst an office of Aggies, it stands out in the sea of maroon.

There is still time to take advantage of January's hostess bonus. An extra 1/2 price credit for any show or party booked and ordered during January. Hurry and we can still get your order in now.

And finally! The February warmer will be getting a prominent place in my reception area. As a veterinarian, animal owner and lover. The Paws warmer is perfect for my clients and (hopefully) new Scentsy customers. February scent will be Vanilla Suede.

So update on my last post.. I ended up only making it to the public library to get a library card. Didn't make it to the DPS office, will have to wait until another game I suppose. I also found out this morning, that as of today (boy I got lucky that my day was yesterday), we are no longer taking days off. So its Monday through Friday 8 am - 6pm and Saturday 8 am to 1 pm for everyone, plus your scheduled on call duty. And an update on the weather - tonight 16 degrees F, and not above 30 until monday. (Still roll your eyes if you are experienceing 0 or negative degrees, I'm still a pansy:)

I now remember why moving to Arizona sounded so appealing that December 5, 2007, afternoon. The week forecast for my area of Central Texas does not include temperatures above freezing until Saturday. I work outside guys. Outdoors, unprotected from the wind/sleet/snow/rain/elements that mother nature will combine and throw at me, outside! And I'm on callt his weekend, when it finally becomes a balmy 40 degrees all weekend. EEK! All of you in Oklahoma where it is expected to be in the 0's - feel free to roll your eyes at my pansiness. Is that even a work, pansiness?

Today is an off day - all day no work. So of course I promptly slept in until 8 am. Drinking my cup of coffee right now, typing this. I'm going to get another cup of coffee and read out of my current reading book. Then I have a few errands to run today, such as changing my license address. Shh, don't tell TxDPS that I've lived here 8 months and haven't done that yet. And finally go get my public library card so I can check out books again, to read more (see Resolutions of the year). After that, who knows, the world is my oyster, or something like that.

What I'm doing to boost my debt payoff for this week:

1. Coupon clipping. Some tips I've learned... Family dollar often has laundry detergent, basic toiletries, etc for cheaper than grocery stores or Wal Mart and they take manufacturer coupons. Wal Greens also has their own coupons this week. Deal of the week: Sun Detergent buy 2 for 4.99

2. I've taken up selling Scentsy candle warmers for extra money. I can put as much time or as little time as I have available. So far, I've made my money back.
January goal: $1000 total in sales = $250 in commissions. Interested in being a consultant - email or call me - info can be found on my website (click link)

You would think that 9 years of college education, with several courses in personal finance, accounting and general business management, that I would maybe be a little smarter with money. During my early 20's, I poorly handled my financial life and now, in my later 20's, I'm having to clean up some of the debt I incurred while pursuing my doctoral degree. 2009 found me graduating from graduate school and beginning an internship position (read: cheap labor), but I was determined to knock out debt and have an emergency account in place, a la Dave Ramsey. Grade for this effort (remember, I've been a perpetual student, everything is graded) was a B-, I did okay. 2010, is going to be full force. So, in the interest of accountability to all 5 of my readers (I'm still semi private for multiple reasons), here is the beginning stats and my goals. I plan to also list out what I'm doing to reach my goals and any money saving tips you've got are welcome. (While I also pay for much of the boy's expenses, I'm leaving his debt out for now. I may add his in later as my debts are paid.)

January beginning worth:
Emergency fund: $450.00 cash
Savings Account: $127.50

Total Debt:
Wells Fargo Credit Card: $3453.85
Compass Credit Card: $5219.33
Citi Credit Card: $20,395.82
Student Loans: $207,416.30
Total: $ 236,485.30

If anyone knows how to add a running total ticker to the sidebar, I'd love to have the instructions. Thanks!

2009 in review...
What a year its been. A lot of "I'll never do..." has actually occured. I never thought I'd end up where I'm at, doing what I"m doing, but life has turned out better than I could have ever picked for myself. It's been a pretty good year.

2010 promises to be an even better year.
I'm going to continue to get a handle on our financial picture and keep paying off debt. I'm happy to report that the end of 2009 found me writing 2 checks (or actually online paying) to completely pay off almost $1500 in debt at one time. WooHoo! I'm going to be more transparent in our debt recovery process. I'm going to actually post more often, especially to have better accountability with our debt recovery efforts. We've both pledged to become more active in our church here, not just going every Sunday (except when I'm on call - it doesn't work out for me) but do more to be involved and study deeper. We want to live more simply and not be so rushed (that's mostly me, crazy job I have). Play more games together and watch less TV.

What about you? What are you going to do with 2010?