Merry Christmas (from July)

This is probably the only GOOD family photo I have because I'm usually taking the pictures. If my kids ever get amnesia, they are going to think I abandoned them; I was never around... it was ALL Daddy. This one my sister, Paris, took in July...hence the tans. Now there will be family photos from Christmas morning, but I'm not about to publish publicly my beautiful 'morning face' and how happy I look before my first cup of coffee. Especially Christmas, because I will be up late on the Eve helping the kids get to sleep (benadryl), wrapping presents (horribly), putting together those God-awful Hot Wheels' toys(cussing), prepping for the next day's feast(more than a greenbean casserole) and double checking MY list (wine, sleep, sparkly things).Happy Holidays to all we know and love!!!

Photos

Do you love eachother?

Canon says, "I love my sister"

Skye says, "Hmmm, let me think..."

I wish it was just a photo of the Kids and Santa, but Skye wasn't liking the dude in the Red Suit.

For the 10th time, "Get down Skye!!"

Wow, I realized more than a month has gone by and I hadn't updated the blog. We all get caught up in a time-warp sometimes and then when you are faced with the unbelievable fact (is that an oxymoron?) of looking at a time-stamp and seeing how many hours, days and it's now a month that has gone by and you didn't feel the time slipping by?

So since my last post: I've had a 357 Magnum gun stolen from our store to do God only knows, but let's hope in the the river now; the cats have been switched from canned catfood to home-made catfood because Katina was slowly starving herself to death and I'm not going back to dry; we've spent a week/Thanksgiving in Texas, and the leaves have fallen off most of the trees while we were gone.

The Gun: we had really nice renovations at the store with completely new carpet, tile and paint. A Before and After fit for HGTV. We had Americans, Latinos, Iranians and one Afro-American working on the project. Guess who the cops are looking into and for taking the gun? He is also the guy who wouldn't provide a social security number to the police. Hint: The guys with green-cards provided their SS#. The gun was reported in detail to the police and let me say that the officer was surprised after all these years I had the receipt. He said "many, if not most guns, that are reported are listed as simply "a gun". My response was more women should own guns because they keep the receipts for their shoes and their guns. He admitted he doesn't keep his receipts, and his wife likes shoes.

Raw Catfood: Katina made me work to get her to eat any substantial amount of canned catfood. Her fur was looking good, but she was getting TOO thin. No muscle tone. Beruse would chew through the can if he could and wishes he had thumbs so he can use the can opener. So after a visit to the vet (who tried to push on me a sample bag of Poisonous DRY kitten food to see if she's not feeling well because she not eating [misses dry food having ate it for more than 12 years] or is she not eating because she doesn't feel well test)...he tried really hard to get me to be a dry feeder again. Thanks to a new-found friend in Charlottesville, Steph Givler, she gave me a sample of her home-made raw cat food and Keeta devoured it. I'm really glad Keeta pushed me into grinding my own catfood at home. It is really easy, but don't go just feeding your cat raw meat. The raw has to be supplemented with vitamins (especially taurine). http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm Let me say, it was costing about $1.50 a day on canned, now with homemade it's .92 cents and I didn't even buy the chicken on sale. I know what my cat's are eating now and it ain't no melanine wheat gluten acid from China.

Texas for Thanksgiving. I don't think I ever missed a Thanksgiving in VA, but that was when the family had my grandparents, my Mom, and my Uncle Nels. They were the real glue to my family: the ones that were unequivocally true-hearted and knew what FAMILY meant. So off to Texas we went to have a Turkey cooking contest against Sam's brother Mazen. Better luck next year, Mazen. My sister, Paris and her Jug-O-Wine, and her family came for Thanksgiving from San Antonio and we had a Great Time as they stayed with us in Houston for several days!!!

We toured the Moody Gardens http://www.moodygardens.org/ with their Louve-esque pyramids and took breaks, down the street, at Mazen's Restaurant on the Strand for choice selections of beer for the adults and great Middle Eastern food. Mazen has a big a$$ boat called the 'Amazen'. It's sleek and in the 30+ foot range. We look forward to February's Mardi Gra; if it's warm enough then, to taking the boat out for a cruise. The weather was strangely cold during our visit. It was much warmer in Richmond. Damn.

Upon returning to Virginia, I realized that in a week's time, the beautifully colored leaves on the trees had shrivelled up and fallen. Time had visually passed in a way I had never seen before. It made me think about how things used to be, how people and relationships have changed in my life, in more ways than one.

Monkey Do

I am in the mist of the

"Climbing" crazies of toddlerhood. I can understand our Neanderthal evolutionary need to stand up-right and thus the drive of babies to get up off their inefficiently grimy hands and scuffed knees means of locomotion. But where does that deep-seated desire for climbing come into play? If we evolved from ape-like creatures...we evolved and came DOWN out of the trees. But our little loved ones sure do give us a picture of our simian great, great, great times a 100,000 plus years of relatives. For instance: Skye loves loves bananas and has that short legged long upper body orangutanian like gait; she speaks many words, but much is still inaudible jibber-jabber and I swear sometimes I hear those oooh-ooh ahh-ahhs. No.... we aren't throwing shit here at home, but there is alot of animated "pee-pee and poo-poo"conversations (and given the chance, who knows, I might get smacked in the eye with a handful of shit yet one day).

Maybe the climbing aspect came from when it was safer for us to sleep in the trees (the enduring allure of bunk beds and lofts) away from the saber-toothed tigers that wanted to eat us that have since evolved into our pampered housemates. It makes sense that since our domesticated felines still retain many of their ancestral traits; I must assume we hold onto, particularly as children, our monkey-like antics. So as I did before with Canon at this stage, I am the freakishly indulgent parent that allows this dangerous behavior (supervised, if possible because I have to admit I sometimes catch the behavior in the mid or highest point of the climb) Do I rescue her from the height? Normally not. She needs to learn how to climb back down to earth in case she finds herself without assistance one day. Yes, there will come a day when climbing onto the grill, up the 2-story ladder in the garage, or onto the step stool she put on top of the coffee table will seem to her inappropriate and possibly mundane. Or maybe not. Skye might be, as is Canon, an adventurer at heart. One day looking down at earth from the canopy of the Costa Rican rain forest while looking eye to eye with a monkey on the next branch. Then, my hope will be (as I've taught them) that she and Canon can get down before the monkey throws the shit.

Missing...Baby Doll

Have you seen this Baby Doll? She's been missing now for a couple weeks........last seen leaving with a 5 year old boy running with her in the vicinity of the backyard, possibly our garage area, but most likely toward our trash cans.

Beautiful warm Fall weather gave me two nice photo opportunities.

Aww, isn't it nice to see the wild beasts getting along? All four of them.

Much nicer to see than THIS!

Beruse Is Off The Juice

"Unbeknownst to me I was making him ill with all my love" by feeding my Beruse dry cat food; a diet more appropriate for a cow than a cat who is a true carnivore. For 14 years, I knew no better. I've found that sometimes life hands you something that initially appears to be an unfortunate event; so that when you can see the bigger picture, you'll find that it was a disguised blessing. When I wrote about Beruse's diabetes a few weeks ago, I never imagined that after only 12 days of diligently following a strict insulin protocol and forever ditching dry cat food that I could say so soon: Beruse is off the Juice. Today is his 16th day of NO INSULIN and counting.

My sweet, affectionate, most tolerant friend never complained through more than a 100 blood tests and I don't want to mention the number of "bloodless" pokes he endured due my incompetency and not wanting to poke a hole clear through his ear (I've done that). His health and my other cat, Katina, are forever changed by this experience: they are healthy young cats again at 14 years old. Their coats look and feel great, they have started grooming themselves again, no more dandruff. They are energetic and social and you won't believe the lack of $hit and Stink in the litter box. Their bodies use what they eat now, so their crap/piss has cut down 75%!! A disgusting, yet nice benefit of wet food.

Since his Diabetes began, I have obviously become more educated about the total inappropriateness of dry cat food. If you are like me, I thought dry had lots of protein and it helps to clean their teeth: Big lie/myth number one and two. Dry is mostly composed of carbohydrates because of the process to make it a dry kibble. Depending on the brand from 20-50%. There is no such thing as a low carb dry. Impossible to create. Cat's lack certain amino acids and enzymes needed to digest the huge amounts of carbs: their diet should have LESS than 10% carbs. Think mouse in a can, as a friend described ideal food. Lie/myth #2 that dry cleans their teeth. Cats mostly eat their food whole. Any crunching is simply cleaning the points of their teeth, not the sides. Next time Fluffy barfs notice the food is almost entirely intact kibble. Those Prescription Dry Diets (includes some canned too) at the vets are not exempt...they are expensive bags/cans of utter carbohydrate money-making crap. Feeding your cat dry is like smoking. It's not good for you at all, yet some people will get severe smoke related illness and some won't. It doesn't change the fact that it's bad...you just never know to whom or when it going to happen.

I took Beruse Monday to his vet to show him off as a poster-child for Tight Regulation of Diabetes and the effects of eliminating dry kittie crack. Apparently he had not read the info articles I have left him because his attitude was at first cynical, but kind, reluctance. He said, "There's a lot of quackery out there." After I explained how TR works and why, the light-bulb went off in his head because it's just common sense to adapt a human diabetic regulation for controlling cats. So he was going to try the protocol on his resident clinic diabetic-we're in the South remember, Bubba the fat cat. The other resident cat has three legs and his name is not Tripod. He pulled out the info articles from Moose's chart, asked me for the list of low carb canned foods since the canned prescription Hill's he sells is too high (16%) in carbs. He was muttering to that he needs to change his cats' at home to wet. Had I choosen to follow my Vet's advice, Beruse would Diabetic for the rest of his shortened life, going to the emergency room because of life threatening low blood sugars, costing a ton of money in vet tests and still dieing a slow debilatating death.

The End of Summer

The last couple weeks have been intense. Beruse was diagnosed with Diabetes and has been undergoing tight regulation of his glucose (more about him in his own post), Canon started school again, and we visited Paris and Carl's beach condo in Duck, NC.

As is the case, it seems every year we visit their condo, there was a tropical storm hitting NC while we are visiting the beach. On the day were we leaving it was just a little rain and wind. Let me say, that many years when the damage isn't beach side, it's effected home 3 hours away in Virginia. Hmmm...let me count the ways: 1996 honeymooning and with my father Hurricane Fran Cat 3 hit just South of Duck with not even a drop of rain at our beach but it clobbered Richmond and no power at home for a week. AAhhh.... Gaston on Aug. 29, 2004. Watching CNN at Duck and on the phone with Mitzi...who can forget the floating cars in downtown Richmond when our flood wall kept the water IN the down town area from Hurricane Gaston. One unique beach experience was last year with my family Kristin, Andrew and their 3 kids, Tropical Storm Ernesto dumped 20 inches of rain overnight causing flooding around the condo. It didn't spawn any Tornadoes, but it did cause the rather large in size and population of toads to start mating. Hundreds and Hundreds of mating frogs. The kids, Juliet and Austin got two for one deals when they started collecting the fist sized frogs refusing to let go of their lovers.

There is always the typical beach fun: sunning, swimming, drinking, eating, boating, fishing, drinking, eating, jet skiing, seashell collecting, sand in your crevices, drinking and eating. But I also love the inevitable weather factor that adds that something special.

What a Week

Our week started out really fun with Sunday at Lake Anna jet skiing and boating. Canon is a speed junkie and Skye loves boating too. For those who may not know, Lake Anna is a man-made lake (dammed river) to cool the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant. The water, as you can imagine, is surprisingly warm and that's not even the "hot" side of the dam. We really like the lake because you can jump in and not be taken away by the tide/currents as we usually experience boating on the Rappahanock River. We basically can life-vest Skye and toss her over.

Now Monday began with a trip to the vet for one of my two cats, Beruse or Moose as we call him (14 yrs old) because I had begun noticing he was drinking a lot of water, peeing buckets and not always making it to the litter box. Nothing more fun than almost busting your a$$ slipping-up on cat piss. Or having to smell the "water" to see if it's a melted ice-cube or what?

While peeking on the Internet to check urinary tract infection symptoms, diabetes popped up as a possible cause for his symptoms. That afternoon at the vet's, the tech took Moose back to get some urine. I told her while she was at it, get some blood, I think he might be diabetic. Mooses sugar was 485... a cat's sugar should be under 100. With a $300 bill and some directions to shoot him 2 times a day with insulin, he was sent home the next day.

Now, my Mom had diabetes and eventually died from losing her kidney function from uncontrolled diabetes and heart disease to put it simply. Mom had to test her sugar several times a day and dose her insulin accordingly. How come my cat gets insulin prescribed like an aspirin? "Take two and call me if ..."

Fortunately, the Internet is an amazing source of information and I have found a website http://yourdiabeticcat.com/ byveterinarian Elizabeth Hodgkins for treating, possibly curing my cat of diabetes with proper dosing of insulin and just as importantly Diet. They are having an 80% success rate. This has me testing Mooose's sugar with a Human Glucometer at least 4 times a day and giving insulin up to 4 times a day based on the numbers.

No Vet has ever told/warned me about dry cat food because they are ignorant about nutrition, paid spokespeople for their "prescription" dry food, and/or simply don't care. Had I known how utterly and completely horrible ANY dry cat food is we might not be in the position we're in now. Dry food will slowly kill your cat because it is so loaded with carbohydrates and low in protein. Cats are truly carnivores and I have been feeding my cats like they were cows. Now they are on the "Catkins Diet". Please read up a little and throw away dry and NEVER buy again. It's just that bad.

Shaken or Stirred, I'll take it

To My Friends and Family who sent me emails and comments about the blog, thanks for the nice words and the updates on what "ya'llve" been doing. You've been on my mind too! I feel like I've been hibernating for the last year...without the sleep part. So recently (a whole two weeks ago) I decided to "get a life" and make time to do fun, not always productive, adult stuff at least once a week. Sam is really supportive and when I'm not around, Skye doesn't have the "need" to nurse because Daddy's dry. Sam sometimes tries to pretend nurse Skye just to see her laugh. Oh yea, Big Hairy Nipple. Yum, Yum!! I must admit, with my 40 year old hormones, I've been getting hair popping up in weird places.

My inspiration came from Kim (thanks again) a friend who loaned me the book, "The Three Martini PlayDate, A Practical Guide to Happy Parenting." It's a light, tongue in cheek read but makes it points. It covers such topics as the Childproof House: How To Know If You've Gone Too Far (I never locked the toilet seat down, thankfully); Screaming: Is It Necessary?; Child Labor: Not Just for the Third World; Karate, Little League, and Ballet: Your Child's Eighty-Hour Work Week; Television: Is Six Hours a Day Too Much? If you are not familiar with the book, it has helpful hints: On Having your Cooking Appreciated; Fiscal Planning and Your Tooth Fairy; Do-It-Yourself After-School Enrichment Program and Recipes: Our Little Tot's First Martini and Lemonade for Grown-ups. All kidding aside she writes: One day, when the kids are grown, you will need friends, a social life, and perhaps a hobby. You will not have these things if you have spent the last seventeen years alienating your friends and neglecting your social life. Do not make your children your only hobby or you might begin collecting porcelain frogs (my mom did) and feeding stray cats (could be me) when they are grown and gone.

So with my wake-up attitude I've been to a Shakespearean play and then a bar, wine tasting with one child in tow (there was a scavenger hunt for kids) at our botanical gardens, and my best friends progressive church on a SATURDAY night http://www.theroc.com/. I'm looking into weekly horseback riding lessons and open to suggestions . Not a lot yet, but the new mindset does improve my mood and the kids might appreciate a happier mom. This week's heat has melted my enthusiasm for fun a bit. When it's 104 degrees and equal humidity, our pool is more like a hot springs. I think I burned my hand on the mailbox.

A Few Photos

Al-Qaeda Baby doll

Meet "Baby Doll". Baby Doll is supposed to be Skye's security/lovey item since she does not use a pacifier or blanket. We're still breastfeeding and at 16 mos/almost 30 pounds, holding-her-all-the-time or nursing-her-all-the-time gets heavy and old. I've got crumbs to vacuum. Baby Doll is supposed to be helping, but most of the time I am finding her stashed under stuff and exiled to hiding placing such as out of the way cabinets. Skye loves and cuddles Baby Doll. The hiding places are too sophisticated for a toddler who loves their Baby Doll. Apparently, Baby Doll is Canon's arch nemesis and he's not falling for her cuteness. I asked him, why don't you like Baby Doll? "She freaks me out." She's a BABY doll. "Mom, she's gonna come alive and take over the world." Damn those cartoons. She's a BABY doll. What could a BABY doll do if it could come to life other than poop and cry? "Giggle" on Canon's part. She'll never come alive I remind him. She's a Baby Doll. Canon then layed scheme that he would trade Skye his beloved Nintendo for Baby Doll so that he could banish Baby Doll forever. Skye wouldn't give up her grip on Baby Doll even for the elusive and alluring Nintendo. So we headed up to bed. After several minutes of quiet, almost sleep upon us, Canon tells me, "Mom, if she comes alive...you've got to call the government. Call The Government."

Bubbles and Building

We've made the mistake in the past and added like a 1/2 cup of bubble bath to the tub, because for the most part, bubbles are kind of piddly in a regular bath. That is unless you've got a jacuzzi tub and then never add a 1/2 cup of Mr. Bubbles with the jets on. We had bubbles three feet high and climbing. Honestly, we had to bail them out the bathroom window. Now, we are responsible bubblers and add the requisite capful which under jacuzzi jet conditions provides, as seen in the accompanying photo, loads of bubbles.

Here we have the notorious Champion Dixie Cup Builder. He began his career at a young age balancing empty glass bottles lip to lip.

Creep On My Street

This is going to be a lengthy post. In my most horrible dreams, I would never imagine that I would have to share my neighborhood with a convicted child molester. But that is just what's living 8 houses down from us and even more unbelievable...he has a woman with 2 young girls (maybe 10 yrs and 5 yrs old) living in the house with HIM!!! My best friend, Mitzi, checked the VA sex convict website for family and friend zip codes and up popped this freak living on my street from Georgia. Apparently, he moved in about 3 mos. ago into a rental and oddly enough, that's about the time I started noticing his truck. Not a creepy feeling, just aware of a new vehicle coming and going regularly. My first post was "Inviting All Freaks" and I naively thought I might have to deal with the Internet Kind with this blog. At least I have the ability to "block" those from my computer. What to do when a real one moves in? Well, I called Georgia to find out more details about his crime, thinking that might alleviate some worry. Sorry, he's a real pervert. 7 x-rated and graphically vile charges in 2001. Sentenced to 15 years probation. What, no jail time? Come on!!!

His sex offender photo has what's called the pedophile smile. Part grin and Part smile. So Evil. I don't think I would smile in my mug shot. It has to be legally wrong for him to be living with children. Right??? Wrong. After only 5 years of probation he was released from probation, according to the State Police, and he is apparently FREE to live as he wishes. I can't believe he doesn't have to answer to someone. Georgia's a big state. It's suspicious that GA has a 2 strikes your out (life in prison) if you are convicted twice of child molestation and he doesn't want to live in GA. Is VA laws pedophile friendly? I wonder too if the woman he's living with is aware of his convictions and she's OK with "it".

I've talked many times with Canon about Stranger Danger. He's knows he can scream, poke eyes, punch balls, bite and every physical thing he's NOT suppose to do to people he loves if he is faced with an abductor. It was a sad day when I had tell him about that particular house and who and what appropriate touching is about. At this point, it seems nothing more can be done but to send out the warning letters and hope that he moves. My other hope is our neighborhood children will be safe and the two little girls in that home will be safe too.

Photos for the Family Overseas

Canon as "Shaggy" for Halloween I'm adding a variety of photos for the Family in Lebanon. I wish the current political situation was such that we could travel as a family for Mouin (Sam's youngest brother) and Dahlia's wedding July 1st in Lebanon. We want the family to meet Skye, see Canon again and share in the celebration. Although the family lives in a beautiful and peaceful part of Lebanon (some photos included), it has been a tearful decision not to go right now. We wish Mouin and Dahlia a beatiful day and life together!! Family home in Lebanon View from the Home's balcony over the Village View from Kitchen window Telefreak in Beirut

Canon and Skye with a little crayon in her teeth

"Inviting all Freaks"

OK everyone, I'm testing a new medium for family and friend communication because of the demands of being a Domestic Goddess. My miniature bosses tend to interrupt the timeliness of email correspondence. Honestly, I was inspired to try this by a friend, named Kim, whose daughter was born with a life threatening heart condition (the arteries were reversed and her body couldn't receive adequate oxygen) and she used blogging as a way to let family and friends stay informed during their months of hospitalization. Even with successful surgery, Kim still maintains the site and I enjoy checking in regularly to see how the girls are doing and read her often funny, sometimes poignant stories.

Now I realize I titled this "Inviting All Freaks" and I don't mean our family and friends are the Freaks (but you know who you are); it's in regard to the risks of posting for the whole Freaking world to see and the implications that has. ie: My Head transposed onto a hopefully voluptuously young body at www.xxHot Domestic Goddess.com. I am not going to joke about the kids. So this will be a learning experience (and I'll let you know). Hopefully, this will be a means for all the people we love to see into the cyber-window of our lives.