Happy Ash Wednesday!!

Well, Mardi Gras is over so I have taken down the beautiful purple Mardi Gras background and refound my lovely other day-to-day background! I like to keep up with the times and seeing how today (Ash Wednesday) begins a kind of holy time for many, I am just keeping up with it.

I know it's ridiculous to complain about it, but I am surrounded by Pugs and they make it difficult for me to type on here. Emma, my oldest, (dare I say sweetest?) Pug insists on wedging herself next to me and the couch arm, or just plain stepping all the heck over the laptop and doing nutty things with my computer, all by mistake of course. How kin I be mad at her? So's Blossom is peering to the left of me like 'How come's the other one gets the special spot, I wanna lay on you too??? Now she has decided to curl up next to me and they shall take naps. :):)

Must bring attention to: The Snuggles Project

If you love animals and making things (crochet, knit, quilt or sew) then you will probably be interested in The Snuggles Project. It's making and donating blankets for animals that are in shelters, where the floor can be cement or other harsh, cold environments. Check it out!

http://www.snugglesproject.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

Snow in the Jungle!

Here in the land of this JungleTart we are experiencing Massive Snow. Two feet is on the ground already and 10 to 20 more inches expected in the next day or so.

Please let that sink in.

This is a place that just doesn't experience things like this. This is not Wisconsin. As a matter of fact, my husband's 91-year-young Grandma has been calling us to gloat and frankly laugh at us!

We are exceptionally lucky and blessed as a large evergreen tree went down in our backyard and went in the best possible direction - away from the shed, all other trees and best of all - away from from our house. We also have our power, knock on wood that it continues, our electricity has not gone out at this time.

***
How have I handled the snowstorm and impending snowstorm as a bipolar? Well, to be honest I was kind of looking forward to it this weekend. It was the Laura Ingalls Wilder in me - have you read those books? I ate them up as a child and still imagine a day where I could farm, albeit I want to farm Alpacas, and live the simple life. I imagined being cozy in the house, maybe with some cocoa, covered in Pugs and knitting a slipper, all concepts that very well could have come true except for one thing I believe.

Antibiotics.

I officially have bronchitis, I was diagnosed last week, and have been taking my antibiotic as prescribed since then. I'm telling you it dilutes my psychotropics (medications for my bipolar). I'm telling you this not to say it's true for anyone else, as I would never want to presume for anyone else. But for me it feels that this is the second time that this has occurred. And because of it, it feels to me like I am less medicated and frankly this weekend was H*ll.

I couldn't sit still. I NEEDED to sit still and sleep and recover and Stop feeling Revved up. No doing. I was not fun to live with, I understand, since my husband pretty much ahem told me so.

I have a prn pill (that's a take as needed pill) that I take as a last resort to stop the madness. It pretty much knocks me out. I had to take it once a day, each day of the weekend. I hate to do that, but there was no peace without it. Without it were crying jags, practically running around the house (I was stuck in it, there was no going anywhere) one way or the other, feeling like I had to get a million things done yet a sense of complete ineffectiveness and a general sense of massive anxiety. Perhaps non-bipolars do not relate, I do not know. Maybe plenty of people do relate, I still don't know. But it was awful.

I had sincerely hoped it would be a good experience. I get excited about snow. It is utterly beautiful when it is coming down, especially if you don't have to go anywhere.

I survived this last one and I will survive.

If snow is in your life or in your forecast, I wish you all the beauty of it. I hope all are well. Sincerely.:)

Good day.

Had a good day. My friend is here. I made a batch of Hot & Sour soup for her. She liked it okay, except for the mushrooms. It made a nice lunch.

I did our nails and we got to talk a lot. It was a nice day.

Emma's eye is healing and she gets hopefully her last vet check for a while on Wednesday. It really was nasty for a while but is doing better because of the drops we've putting in.

I wish happiness for my blogger friends.:)

Emma's eye situation is very serious.

Emma, my oldest Pug (age 6), had eye surgery last Friday. Today she went into the vet to have a stitch taken out. She is back home. Emma-dog has a corneal ulcer and it is very serious. Someone very kind at the vet donated opthamalgic drops to us for use on Emma. It is really very kind of them because they are expensive drops. We have to give them to her every four hours, even getting up in the middle of the night to do so. It is an attempt to save her eye.

Please think good thoughts for Emma-Pug.

I have not mentioned our recent saga with Emma-Pug's eye. We are pretty sure that Blossom, our nine-month-old Pug accidentally scratched Emma's eye. It is a bad scratch. Emma is 6-years-old. I have been dutifully taking her to the vet to check on it for the last four weeks. I thought it was getting better.

This morning I took Emma for her eye check and my wonderful vet, who I know I can trust, said it was not getting better as a matter of fact, Emma needs eye surgery, NOW. Today. This was at 11 am today and I had to hand over my Baby and they are performing surgery today and we are to pick her up this afternoon/evening.

It is now 3:32 p.m. and I have not heard if Emma has woken up from anesthesia. I admit that I am worried.

I felt so bad that this happened in the first place because Emma is such a sweet girl and does not deserve this (well no dog does). It was an accident and we have been keeping Emma and Blossom apart, trying to feed them apart, let them outside apart.

Dear Blogland, please send good thoughts out that Sweet Emma will have a successful surgery, that she will heal up lickety split and that all will be well. Thank you.
JungleTart

***PS It is now 9pm and Emma is home with us with an Elizabethan collar (a little vinyl one, she looks like a morning glory:). She has one stitch that will be taken out on Wednesday. This is an important time for her healing. I keep praying for her recovery from this awful eye thing.***

Back from Vacation

I had a wonderful week, visiting my Mom. I went fishing, caught a Spanish Mackeral (a very weird fish with teeth!), saw dolphins, boated, saw beautiful beaches, ate the best shrimp ever, swam in the pool nearly every day (and got a rooster red sunburn mostly on my back!), had long talks with my Mom, and even played pool with my Mom. It was a very special time and she looks great. She is very healthy right now and happy.

I also visited my inlaws. It is always a bit of trial for me to go there. I am not sure what it is but I feel squashed there. The moods come up and there is strong encouragement, just by weird osmosis, for me to suppress who I am and what I feel. As long as I make everything look normal, they are happy. Wanda talked about 'undamaged wealthy people' on her blog, and I am sure that these must be them. The thing is that they are damaged people too, its just about suppression of their own selves and others, in this case anyway.

But when I get on the road and start coming home and listen to some music and talk to my husband eventually I shake off those bad feelings. I am so glad to be home and have the Jungle all together again. We brought the dogs with us and pet-moteled the cat. I know Reese kitty is glad to be home too (it's too loud for Princely kitties in the pet motel!)

The sunburn is bad, but the sunburn spray is Cold and icky so I am just handling it. It's good to be back and I will visit you all as I can.:)
Good times to you,
Tart

I have some pictures of my Spanish Mackeral catch that I can put up on the 'Good Stuff' blog. Give me a couple of days to get my pics loaded on the computer.:)

Happy Mother's Day from the Jungle.

Ah, a fresh post. A beautiful Sunday. Again, Happy Mother's Day.

I went with a friend today to check out possible new digs for her. A very nice complex and enjoyed lunch with her and hanging out and talking.

I also spent a few hours with Auctiva figuring out profiles and how to list and problem-solving. That Auctiva is really neat, because its the free site that has a constant slideshow of everything you are listing on each listing on Ebay, plus free nice templates too.

I am proud of myself because I saw it on another site and then checked it out and downloaded it myself and figured it out. That really did make me feel good. I would not let it be a mystery.

My friend and I stopped at a flea market today, which gave me the idea - what if we were to sell some of the books at a flea market? She has so many and will be moving soon, it would be nice to reduce the inventory.

She thinks this is a great idea and somehow when things involve her, she gets me moving and I actually follow through and get stuff done. Like the fundraiser we did at a dollar store, or even getting my angel pins done so I could donate and sell them for the Center. It makes me feel good to be part of something larger and I give what I can.

The Jungle is doing well. They are all healthy and have passed their respective exams by the vet. Well, Emma Pug is next for a wellness exam, to keep up with her shots, but Reese the Siamese did just fine for the Doc.

He was so manic when I brought him in, he got into every door they had and I had to pry him out from under their sink (it had doors - oh goody, he says!) and once I blocked that off he went for the doors on the wall that hides all the vet equipment.

All this between the time the tech left (after taking his temperature, How Undignified) and the doctor walked in! He does not act like this at home because it's not a new place with neat smelling stuff everywhere. He's a very smart, vocal kitty, too.

I know some people don't understand, but the Jungle are easily like kids for me.

I hope Mom's everywhere had a good day.

Go-in's ons in the Jungle:)

I haven't been in blogland for a bit.

I started walking with the Weight Watcher's Momentum Challenge. The goal (for some people) is to walk or even run a 5k race - I just want to go from couch potato to...being more fit.

But we meet each Monday evening to walk and have 'homework' - this week it is to walk 15 minutes a day for 5 days.

I have also been involved with my Ebay project. We sold a book! Yaaay! And I just downloaded Turbo Lister and have been trying to figure that out all morning.

Then there's the baking thing which I go to today, shortly. We have a new person which threw a wrench in it for me, as he talks NON stop but I am hoping that he will calm down, maybe he is just nervous. Hope so, because I promised I wouldn't quit over anything, not even annoying, stupid co-workers.

The A.C. is out and wouldn't you know it, it got hot around here. But a fan to cool me off, and I am feeling okay.

Blossom, (that is new puppy's name!) has started puppy school at the local pet place, and she will be getting spayed in early May. She is still learning to potty train, but doing so well for a four-month-old!! (Almost 5 months). She loves being around her mommy!

I have an appointment with a new therapist on Thursday. She sounds nice on the phone. We'll see how it goes, but I feel pretty positive about it.

New label: exercise! I haven't had that one on my blogs before because I haven't been trying consistently. Wow! New stuff.

Angel food cake for angels.

My vet hospital made a donation to the the county SPCA in Mia's name and I am so touched by this.

I don't have much to give, so I am baking an angel food cake for them to take to the new puppy's booster shot appointment on Tuesday. They also sent me a heartfelt card expressing sympathy for our loss. They really are caring people and its wonderful to be associated with them.

I got to buy an angel food cake pan yesterday. I've made angel food cake in baking class. It uses a lot of egg whites, which you can buy straight from the store now, that way you don't waste all the yolks (I thought that was a cool innovation).

It's because of the baking class that I thought to make a cake. I can't wait to tell my supervisor and her Mom (who helps out) at the bakery opportunity about it. I know that will make them happy.

Putty in the Paws.

I've been going through a med change, changing from Atenenol to Propanenol to help better with the shakes of Abilify. There have been a few days of jittery, anxious miserableness with that.

In the bigger picture, I finally left the puppy at home today, and went grocery shopping. It has been hard for me, because the two of us are attached at the hip ~ in a nutshell, I hate to see or hear her cry. I'm a softie for it. But it's got to happen sometimes and I want her to not have separation anxiety so she's got to be separated from me for short spurts. She recovered from all that just fine and she's back sleeping in my lap again.:) I AM PUTTY!!

The Puppy

So's I get a little sleep deprivation from the puppy but each night she sleeps a little longer and I am getting more used to her and she to me.

She is also having a blast playing with kitty and he with her. They have spurts of rabble-rousing play then they both crash and sleep (the puppy on me, the kitty in one of the pet beds around here - they're not sleeping together YET!!:)

This pug girl seems ahead of her time, at least developmentally ahead than our other Pugs at this age. She got up to the second step on of the stairs and was able to get down a step which is developmentally difficult for them at this young age (almost 9 weeks), but obviously not impo-ss-ib-le.

Sometimes she goes after things she shouldn't (like the edge of bottom of the stairs, or tries to pull apart a dog bed) but some Bitter Apple sprayed on the bottom of the stairs was a Big Deterrant and giving her a toy to chew on instead of the bed helped with that.

There's no replacement, only new love.

Thank you so much to all that commented on my last post.

I am much more at peace now. The thing that has made me feel better about losing Mia is the planning for getting another puppy. I know there are some that would say that seems sudden, or sheesh you must not care about Mia, but I so do. It is soo empty in the house without her around and the only thing that has finally made me feel better is finding a place where I can find my new puppy. That's been my burning desire and where I've been for the past few days.

No one else is going to be Mia. I know that. I hope to find a fun, mischevious doggie, a happy dog just like anyone would.

I am sure that most people understand why I would want to get another. Maybe I am nuts for wanting another dog, like I am nuts for wanting to have two dogs in the first place, but I know its not unheard of. Enough of that.

I also considered rescue, let's be clear on that, as rescuing a dog is a beautiful thing. I've rescued all of my cats really, and I'm glad for it. But I really want to take care of a baby dog, make sure she will get along with the critters that are already there and have no previous abuse on my animal to contend with. I'm sorry to those that might be disappointed that I have chosen not to go the rescue route with my dog.

I take care of my babies (pets) for life. I think about how they will fit in with each other. And if you haven't noticed, I have the time to take care of a puppy.

On happier notes I am really looking forward to this. It has given me something to look forward to and be happy about after the pain of losing my little Mia girl.

So on that note, I am going to be going to see puppies tonight! Wish me luck in finding my furever girl, for her new home.:)

I am in shock since yesterday. Something horrible has happened.

My little black pug, Mia, died unexpectantly and quickly in my living room. She just curved her body to the right and fell over and died.

This dog was so sweet, rambunctious, mischevious, fun, and so loving, she followed her Mommy everywhere and had the sweetest disposition.

We rushed her to the emergency vet, they tried to revive her to no avail. We had them perform a necropsy, which is to find out what she died of, but it was very inconclusive, except to say that she had an enlarged heart and the vet thinks it was vascular death - a heart problem that no one knew about.

Her heart was too big.

We are just so sad. I am crying this minute and the house is horribly quiet without her. I almost can't stand it. I am heartbroken.

Got bored & THis is what happened!!:)

I have taken this quiz on lets101.com:

Proof: Everyone is an animal lover!

My quiz result:

The truth about you

You are an animal activist. Now drop that KFC drum-stick. The chicken will love you too.

November 2nd 2008

Who knew?!

Where'd I go?

Turns out taking care of a 8.5 pound puppy can put your back out.

'Specially if you've been sleeping for the the past 3 years and only recently started putting in 12+ hours a day in life.

Do you hear me? I dropped out of life and only since mid-December with Abilify turning me back into the Wonder Woman I subliminally knew I always was, have I been able to get up in the morning, go to bed at night, you know, be my semblance of Normal.

So now I'm on pain relievers and muscle relaxants to help. And if that don't help, I will request physical therapy.

And the puppy is cute as a button, smart as can be, learns fast and is needy. Oh, those puppies.:)

I may work at home, too, and if that happens, I may not blog ALL the time. Don't freak! We'll see.

And it's good to see you, too.:):)

I had to lau-ah-augh....

It snowed today in certain parts of the area. My area. I come outside to get in my car to go see Husband to do lunch and it's starting to snow.

But I got into car anyway, had lunch and returned just fine.

Around 5 I'm asleep with two Pugs on me :) and wake up to the news.

There was a 25 car pile up in the opposite direction of the road I took. A semi jack-knifed. All sorts of hullabloo with no extreme injuries or death.

And, like John Lennon, all I can do is laugh.

They said it, "Came out of nowhere!!!!!!!" and they didn't know 'what to to do!'

Didn't know how to drive in what turned out to be less than 1.5 inches of snow. How did they get a driver's license? Seriously?

And THAT is how I know people are stupid.
:)

Can't Sleep

It's 4 a.m. and I don't want to be awake.

Was watching 'Corinna, Corinna' (a great movie) and left it, in attempt to find some Tylenol P.M.

I never found it.

It's difficult because Husband was awake, slightly, a little while ago but went back fast asleep. It's irritating and frustrating to be left to scrouge extra Lunestas, and sit here typing crap.

I have always found it a disturbing 'side effect' of the illness that if I'm not drugged, I'm not going to sleep.

I'm thinking about getting another pug, a black one. This is more likely to happen than me getting pregnant any time soon and having a human baby. My furbabies have it made, I treat them well.

Pugs AND drugs, Pugs AND drugs: to get me thru.

Update: Out of pure boredom I finally hit the 'Next Blog' button for the first time.

There is a lot of crap out there!

A lot of people who have no clue, and don't care for that matter, how to make a coherent sentence, or that it wouldn't kill them to put a picture up.

Then there's the sex sites (I must have come across 3 out of 10 or so hits - um Blogger you disappoint me), which confuse me because they're all women and I think they're looking for women, but I'm not sure.

Then there's the site which looked to be in English, but was the typical bitch that I often mention that's REALLY into her kids. Had a post about her friend who quote "treats her dog like family" end quote - as though that were odd, crazy, or nuts.

I vow that when/if I have children I will continue to share my patience with my animals, who indeed have brought me great joy.

I already have to be patient in ways that defy understanding, just to get through the day, and just to keep from killing myself.

Not understanding why a normie who thinks she's the shit for getting up early every morning AND potty training a kid doesn't have the inner capacity to truly 'get it.' Every year more and more Americans are spending butt-loads of moulah on their pets and a SIGNIFicant portion of people say they're family without blinking an eye.

I believe that the 2 million or so non-diagnosed bipolars are gonna find out the truth, hopefully soon, which will right there make significant gains in out numbering the normies.

And I believe that all the bitchy 'mommies' that in fact would have NOTHING to do if they hadn't gotten pregnant in most cases at too young an age, will be drowned out by sense and sensibility, or simply go the 'Mommy Chat Room in Hell' which is still, conveniently located in Hell, after their nagging asses, thankfully, finally die.

I can't tell express how much I can't stand that mentality. Want to hear more? Wrote 500 other posts about it.:)

Bizarrely (sp? I feel like I've lost my mojo!) this Turtle thing has even MORE significance!

Yeah, so I was looking for happiness last evening, hopefully in all the right places, and I came across the story of 'Brother John' and his 'turtle,' his pet name for his depression! Too weird, because this story is printed way before this (my) site's turtle fetish. See fo' yoself!!

http://www.bipolarplanet.com/turtlestory.html