Thursday, October 17, 2013

MEET NUISANCE...

Do you remember the little tortoiseshell calico kitten, the VERY SICK little kitten, that came to stay with us a little while back?  I guess you have probably been wondering what happened to her.

Well, it's kinda a long story and lucky you, you get to hear all about it.

If you will remember, when this little kitty mysteriously found her way onto our screened porch her bowels were coming out.  Yes it was very UGLY and GROSS, if I do say so myself.  Come to find out she had what they call a "prolapsed bowel".  We took her to the vet and he said he could fix her right up and fix her right up he did.  He stuffed her bowels back up inside of her and then put a few stitches in to keep everything in place.  However, her little problem that was supposed to be an easy and inexpensive fix turned out to be a real ordeal.




























A week later we took her back to the vet to have the stitches removed as scheduled.  The nice little vet took the stitches out and her bowels came right back out with them. So the nice little vet put them back in and stitched her up again. Of course not without charging us his standard fee.

This time the stitches were in for three weeks to give the area plenty of time to heal.  After the three weeks was up we took her back to have the stitches removed and you'll never guess what happened.  Yep, her bowels came back out...all of them.  It was TERRIBLE!  I felt so bad for the poor little thing.  She had been through so much.  Our only solution....or so we thought...was to put this little kitty out of her kitty misery, but the vet insisted that there was still hope in the form of major surgery, one that would cost about $200.




Well, my husband said a firm NO. We will NOT pay for this tiny little kitten to have major surgery.  We had already spent around $150 on her through this whole fiasco and let's just face it, my husband tends to be a tight wad. The fact that he spent money on a kitten at all to him was just preposterous!

He said, It's cheaper just to put her out of her misery and be done with it....but...the kids and I cried, 'nuff said.  She had the surgery and it was a success!!



























She had to stay at the vet's office for four days but I visited her every day.  Yes, I love her. She's my precious little bundle of joy.  She thinks I'm her mother, which is only fair, since I was the one who nursed her, fed her and went to visit her in the little vet hospital on my lunch break every.single.day.

We all love her (even the hubs, though he don't want to admit it) and she was very much worth the more than $300 we spent to get her better.  AND, in case you have been wondering if we ever decided on a name for her.  Yes, we did.  Her name is NUISANCE. Yes, you read that right, Nuisance.   She has been quite the little nuisance since the day we found her, but she really touched our hearts.  She has such a loving little personality and took right up to us. We are her family.  The only family she has and we just couldn't let her go no matter how much of a nuisance she's been.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

THE EXTENT OF MY FALL DECORATING...



Happy Wednesday everyone!

Okay so this post is a little weak but I just wanted to give you all a glimpse of my fall decor this year.  You all have shown me such beautiful vignettes full of lovely autumn delights and I have shown you nothing in the way of my fall decor.

Now last year I did what I thought was a beautiful mantel with my homemade sunburst mirror...




We also enjoyed a candy buffet and other fall delights in the dining room...






The year before I went all out with several fall vignettes with fairly traditional flare...









Pretty wasn't it?  Even in spite of my horrible picture taking skills! Ha

This year I have gone really simple...I mean REALLY simple.  And so now without further ado, I show you the extent of my fall decor for 2013...





























A nice cozy chenille throw and if you squint you can see a vase of branches on the dining room table.  That's it!  So very sophisticated huh?  Yeah I thought so.  LOL!!!!  There's not a pumpkin in sight.  No brilliantly colored fall leaves, nothing.  Can I say that I have just been plain ol' lazy this year.  I totally have not been in the MOOD to decorate.  Do you ever get that way?  I'm just tired and all I want to do when I come home from work is sit with my feet up, wrap up in my soft chenille throw, sip on some warm cider (or in my case an ice cold Diet Pepsi) and relax. Well now, isn't that what fall is all about?



Friday, October 11, 2013

A TASTY FALL TREAT...

Hey and Happy Friday...TGIF.  For reals!

So what do you have planned for this beautiful fall weekend?  Are you thinking about taking a trip to the PUMPKIN PATCH?  Ooooh, I just love the pumpkin patch.  It's one of my favorite things about fall. Another of my favorite things about fall is all the yummy things I get to make out of those little pumpkins we bring home.  Things like crispy, crunchy toasted PUMPKINS SEEDS.  Mmmm!

I toasted my first batch of the year last night. Only this time instead of just seasoning them with salt, I added a sweet little spin to my recipe in the form of some Cinnamon and Brown Sugar.   Nummmmm, they were sooooo good that I may never go back to just plain ol' salty pumpkin seeds again.  Seriously!!

Here's the recipe just in case you bring a few pumpkins back from the patch this weekend and are in the mood for a sweet (healthy and vitamin packed) treat...


INGREDIENTS:

1 Whole Pumpkin
1/2-1 Tbsp. Cooking oil
2 Tbsp. Brown sugar
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
Dash of salt

DIRECTIONS:
  • Scoop all the seeds and innards from your pumpkin.
  • Separate the seeds from the innards and rinse in warm water.
  • Pat dry with a few paper towels.
  • Preheat oven to 300 degrees...
  • Place seeds in a small bowl with cooking oil.  Toss seeds to mix well.
  • Add Brown Sugar, Cinnamon and salt to the bowl and mix.
  • Spread seeds in an even layer on a cookie sheet and place in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.  Give the pan a shake to toss the seeds every 10-15 minutes to make sure they toast evenly.
  • Remove from oven and let cool a few minutes, then ENJOY! 
It's that EASY!!!  

I hope you will make it a point this season to toast and enjoy some of these Brown Sugar & Cinnamon pumpkin seeds.  They really are tasty and they are good for you.  Pumpkin seeds have a ton of essential vitamins and minerals that are good for your eyes, skin and hair...and get this, they are LOW FAT too. 

Happy Fall Y'all!!



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

JUST LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE...SO FAR

Hello everybody, how is your week going?  My week has been pretty quite so far except for decorating for tonight's ladies meeting.  Perhaps I will share that with you at a later date.

Today I want to share with you something way more amazing.  The "before" and the not quite "after" of the exterior of our home.  I had been kind of down since we put the new roof and shutters on the house because we didn't have enough money to do any of the other projects I had scheduled for this year.  I would look around and see all the things that are still left undone and was starting to believe that we haven't even made a dent in our list of things to do around here.

Then the other day I was looking through some pictures and something amazing happened.  I saw the "before" picture of our house! Then I looked a current picture of our home.  Wow!  I could hardly believe the difference.  We actually have made a HUGE difference in the appearance of our home and I am feeling so much better about things now.  Though we still have so much more to do and this is not considered a "reveal" per say, I thought you might like to see the difference too.

Here's the before...



Sorry for the blurry, poor quality photo.  This is a photo from from the real estate listing..

and here's the not quite "after"...



See the difference?


Now check out this side by side view....







Amazing isn't it?  We took down all the old shutters and window awnings the summer after we moved in.  Then we prepped and painted the exterior, highlighting the beautiful trim and architectural details in a different color.  Notice that with the house all white you couldn't see any of that.  This past summer we had a new roof installed, added new doors and shutters.  We have many things left to do, including landscaping, but I think I am finally starting to see my vision for this little old house coming to life.   I love it!  It is so amazing to look back and see where we started and where we are today and now I am more excited than ever to see what changes another two or three years will bring.




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