Let's try this again

I started this really long post about how my grandpa is in the hospital and it really sucks because he's not doing well but at the same time it's been really awesome to see the outpouring of love and support and be surrounded by my family and have several of my coworkers step up so I could take yesterday off to be at the hospital but every time I started writing again I started crying again so instead I'm going to leave you with this super blurry picture of the second best snuggler I know.  Yes, Man is the first best.  And yes I'm aware that was the worst run-on sentence I've ever written.  But I got through it without a tear, so deal with it.

I am my own one-piece band

I was trying to figure out where the weird whistling noise was coming from so I held my breath and sat really still to make the room really quiet so I could listen.  But the sound stopped.  I started breathing again and thought I heard it again, so I stopped breathing and the sounds stopped.  Turns out that weird whistling sound was coming from me.  Remember when I said that my allergies aren't that bad any more?  Yeah, scratch that.

My boss gave me a weird look when he saw me pull a pink chocolate heart out of my desk.

Why yes, boss, those are Valentine's Day candies I'm munching on.  In my defense, I didn't buy them until after Valentine's Day, so I'm not really a chocolate hoarder!

Bad doggy mommy/blogger!

I just realized I never gave an update on Lolly's kidney issues.  The original issue was discovered in October and we began treatment immediately.  We returned to have Lolly's kidneys rechecked in December and it turned out that things were improving quickly.  Lolly was already up to 50% kidney function in that short of a time.  The vet asked a ton of questions about Lolly's food and water intake and requested another urine sample, just to make sure that her output was more concentrated (her first sample was really diluted, which meant that she was drinking way too much, which was why she was having so many accidents) and the test came back good.  Now that the weather is warming up and she's spending more time outside, she is once again drinking more, but she doesn't seem to be peeing more (yeah, I went there) so I think it's just because of being more active.  While Lolly is having to continue on the supplements, and will have to be checked regularly, it looks like we've found the answer and not only is she no longer having accidents, she really is healthier!

Why dogs are better than cats

It's interesting to me that cat people are all like, "oh, my cat's plotting to kill me.  It's so cute!" when I'm all like, "I love my dogs.  They love me.  Sometimes they give a few too many kisses, but sometimes they snuggle me."  Really, cat people?  Why?

Alright, internets, work your magic!

I follow a few other blogs and they're always talking about the benefits of social media and some of the awesome things they've been able to do because of the contacts they've made through their blogs.  Rebecca over at Fosterhood in NYC has created a college fund for her foster kids, as well as found much needed baby items and gained support and child care through her blog, Jen at Cake Wrecks organizes a Christmas charity drive every year and Jenny Lawson, better known as The Bloggess (and my current addiction), has put out countless requests for her many readers to donate $0.11 here or $1.00 there, generally for something ridiculously funny, but she always ends up using the funds to support charitable organizations.  Jenny even went so far as to perform a Christmas miracle one year, raising over $42,000.00 to help get Christmas presents for children who would otherwise have gone without.

So now it's my turn to ask for your help.  I try not to talk about my foster kids much, mostly to respect their right to confidentiality, but also because, since they don't live with my anymore, there's not as much to talk about.  Well, now there is something.  And it's BIG.  The Girl has had a really rough go of things and has changed placements more than 14 times in the past 3 years.  Each time she moves she not only loses connections she made at each place, but she never fails to leave something behind.  Of course, when she has left the two foster homes she has been in (mine and one other) we have ensured that her items were eventually returned to her, but the things left at facilities are just gone.  This includes a stereo I bought her, a brand new winter coat my aunt gave her and tons of clothes and toiletries her other foster mom and I have bought for her over the course of the past two years.  We (her other foster mom) and I went to visit her last night and learned that she is scheduled for yet another transfer next week, and that she has just about no clothing to take with her (her current placement provides clothes but the new placement will not).  I promised her a shirt or two before she goes, but I just can't afford to buy her yet another complete wardrobe.  This is where you, my fabulous readers, come in.  Though I hate to ask for help, and feel like I'm accepting charity, I know I can't get The Girl everything she needs on my own.  I'm trying to figure out how to set something up on PayPal for anyone who wants to contribute to a fund to buy The Girl the clothes, toiletries and supplies she will need for her new placement.  Although I haven't figured it out just yet (if anyone is computer savvy enough to know, please help!), I would happily accept donations sent to my post office box:
Karen Pope
PO Box 22
Moores Hill, Indiana 47032

Please know that The Girl and I, as well as everyone involved in her case, greatly appreciate any donation, no matter how large or small.

13 months and still going strong

Remember my letter to my "new girl" (don't get all icky there, I just happen to almost always have female employees!)?  Well, she's no longer new (she celebrated her first anniversary last month), but she continues to be one of the best employees I've ever had.  Not only did she do an amazing job this past week, covering my store while I worked two other stores for our big sale, but she trained our newest new girl during that time and together, they left the store looking just about spotless.  I was thrilled!  Unfortunately my other awesome employee from last season has moved on and last year's "new girl" is on vacation this week and I had to have someone from a different store cover my day off yesterday.  I was a little worried about how the store was going to look when I came in this morning but had been assured that he could handle everything.  Add one more reason to the list of why I love my employees: she not only let me vent to her about the complete chaos that was my store when I came in while she's on vacation, she did it with a smile on her face (or so it sounded, over the phone) and even made sure I was laughing by the time we got off the phone.  I really am lucky to have such an amazing staff and to have built relationships with such awesome people through my job!

BBS, you have a fan! Or a creeper. Actually, I'm not really sure it's a positive thing.

I check my stats every now and then (though not in a while) to see how many page views I have, who's reading (currently nearly half of my page views are in Russia, interestingly enough.  Hello, over there!) and how people have found me.  To do this, I use Blogspot's "traffic sources" feature where it will tell you what people have typed in to get to your blog.  I just checked and someone is actually searching "bbs archive lolly" and found my blog.  Out of curiosity I did the same search, and I think it's safe to say they probably weren't actually looking for my blog, but they found it, none the less.  And when I did the search, I found it too!  Right there, at the bottom of page 1 on Google!  So maybe this person was looking for the other icky things that came up from that search, or maybe they really like BBS and Lolly, but either way, this blog is getting more attention, so I'm choosing to see the positive side!

Coincidence?

I have found that my seasonal allergies just aren't that bad any more.  I'm wondering if it has anything to do with cutting my food allergens out of my diet.  Any doctors out there reading this (yeah, because I think I'm that special!) feel free to weigh in!  I'd love to know!

Why is it that on days I have to be somewhere I can't drag myself out of bed, but on days like today when I don't have anything scheduled I'm up before 7:00am? I need sleep!

Our "fights"

Man and I have the same conversation on a near-daily basis:

Me: Play fighting with Man, "Stop!  You're upsetting Wolfey.  He thinks you're hurting his momma."

Man: Continuing to tickle or otherwise torture me, "He's a dog."

Me: "Poor baby was abused as a puppy and he gets scared easily.  Cut it out!"

Man: "He's a dog."

Me: Comforting Wolfey, "But he doesn't like it when you do that.  Stop it." 

Man: "He's a dog"

Me: Cuddling Wolfey, "Why do you have to be so mean?"

Man: "He does things I don't like."

Me: Picking Wolfey up to snuggle him, "And you yell at him, which is just mean!"

Man: "So if I do something he doesn't like I get in trouble but if he does something I don't like and I yell at him, I get in trouble?"

Me: Loving on Wolfey, "You've got to be nice to him!  Poor baby doesn't understand."

Man: "He's a dog."

Me: "But you tell him to shut up and that's not nice.  You shouldn't ever tell anyone to shut up."

Man: After an awkward pause, "Shut up."

And we both crack up laughing.  Yes, we're weird, but we sure to have fun.  There's nothing better than loving someone who makes you laugh daily!

Super Man

It's been one of those weeks where you run and run and get nowhere.  Thankfully I had all of last weekend off, because I am currently on day 6 of work, 3 of which were 12 hour days and still have one more day to go before I get my one day off and am back at it again.  My new boss (I think his title is regional manager?) stopped in today to check out my store and as he left, I said, "Have a good...umm...weekend?  I don't know, what day is it?" and we actually both had to think about it to remember that it's Saturday!

Thankfully, I have an amazing Man who has kept everything going for me while I'm at work.  He has made me breakfast, packed me lunch and dinner, fed the dogs their dinner, done the dishes and taken care of all the housework this week, and somehow he has still managed to greet me with a smile each night when I finally make it home.  Yesterday he drove 6+ hours to bring the girls home for the weekend and still managed to go to the grocery store and have a delicious dinner ready for when I got home.

The girls are happy to be with us, the dogs are happy to have the girls around and get some attention, Man is happy to spend time with the girls while I'm working all this overtime and I'm just happy that I can be away so much and know things are still taken care of!  I am so lucky to love a Man who not only encourages me to be an independent woman, but also understands and supports me when I just can't do it all!

I'm talking to BBS on the phone

She's baby-sitting a friend's kids and the two year old kept repeating the same thing in the background.  Again and again, the same word.

BBS: "What's she saying?"

Me: "Alpaca."

Turns out the kid wants to color.  No clue where she got color from alpaca.

One of those days (warning, slightly inappropriate. i.e. don't let Miss Thing read!)

Yesterday was the last day of our big sale and I knew it was going to be a long day so I had prepared myself for a few things to go wrong from being so tired (I had worked 12 hour days for the past 3 days) but it was just a comedy of errors.  I arrived at the store I was covering (we often help each other out during these extra busy weeks), got everything prepared for the day then went to use the restroom before opening the doors to what I hoped was going to be a flood of customers...and realized I was wearing black underwear with very thin khaki shorts.  Oops!  No big deal, I can roll with it.  I'll just wear my shirt untucked.  The shorts had big pockets, so I figured between my shirt covering my hips and my pockets covering most of my rear end, hopefully no one would be staring at my crotch long enough to notice my black undies.  Problem solved, right?  Wrong.  Because as I was checking my rear to make sure I was mostly covered I saw a big dark spot on the leg of my shorts.  I had eaten granola in the car on my way to work and apparently had smashed some dried fruit into my shorts.  Awesome.  Now I not only look like a slob with my shirt untucked, but a dirty slob, at that!  Okay, Karen, roll with it.  Clean your shorts the best you can and move on with your day.  Done and done.  Things were going pretty smoothly until a bit later when I couldn't figure out why my belly kept itching.  Finally, when I didn't have any customers, I reached inside my shirt, thinking maybe the weird fabric of my work shirt was keeping me from getting a good scratch...only to find granola stuck to my stomach.  Oh, the joys of eating breakfast in the car, but I just couldn't bring myself to get up early enough to eat breakfast at home.  So, on with my day.  Things calmed down again until I arrived at our main store to help out with the end of the sale and my shorts just seemed to be a magnet for dirt.  I picked up a box to carry it out to a customer's car and something started leaking all over me.  Between the dark spot on my leg and the wet spot... *ahem* I looked like I needed to find a restroom.  Quite a bit of dirt and yuck later, I finally got in the car to head home.  While many of my coworkers stopped off for a beer to celebrate the end of the sale, I hit the drive through for a shake, which I promptly spilled on my leg.  Thankfully not the entire thing, but just enough to make a nice little sticky spot.  I didn't want it to melt and run down onto my upholstery so I tried to wet a napkin with my water bottle so I could clean it up...and dumped about half my water in my lap. Sticky spot crisis averted, I drove the rest of the way home feeling as if I'd wet myself.  Oh, I'm so thankful today is a new day and I'm wearing different pants!

Cookie-gasm

I have found The. Most. Amazing. Cookies!  Advertised as wheat-free and gluten-free, I half expected them to be flavor-free, but I'm pretty sure they're better than any store-bought cookie I've ever had.  And with my monster sweet tooth, I've had a LOT of store-bought cookies!  I've mentioned before that I love Pamela's Products but these cookies are seriously awesome.  If you remember the Land O'Lakes butter cookies that were only around a few years but were the most deliciously buttery and yummy cookies you've ever had, imagine those but with pecans inside and no icing.  A-MA-ZING!  And they're wheat free.  And they only have six ingredients, all of which I can pronounce.  I mean, they're almost health food!  And the best part is, I found them at my friendly, neighborhood Kroger store, which means I no longer have to go to some specialty store to get my cookie fix!  I am a seriously happy girl!

In case anyone was wondering, none of the companies mentioned are paying me anything for this, I just think they're great companies.  That being said, if any of the aforementioned companies want to help me out, I'd be happy to continue to sing their praises for the mere fee of a lifetime supply of these amazing cookies!  Okay, let's be honest, I'll continue to sing their praises either way, but I'd still take those free cookies if they're offering!

Happy day after Easter!

I wrote this weeks ago (obviously!) and somehow it got lost in my "drafts" folder.  Oops!  Anyway, it's still a nice reminder of an awesome end to a great week with the girls and a sweet little reminder of what I'll be missing when I'm working all weekend while Man gets to hang out with the girls.  I hope you all had as great of an Easter as we did!

Yesterday was a non-stop candy fest.  The girls woke up around 8:00 and found that the Easter bunny had left them three baskets each.  They oohed and ahhed over each little thing (including each candy-filled plastic egg) and were super excited when I told them I needed them to empty their eggs so I could refill them for the Easter egg hunt at Mema and Papa's house later.  Then everyone scrambled to get ready and get to my parents' house on time for breakfast.  For the record, it was worth the rush!  The most delicious ham ever, scrambled eggs, fruit salad and five different kinds of coffee cake!  After breakfast the kids found their baskets and started in on their second round of candy.  We distracted them for a while by doing an Easter egg hunt but there weren't many kids there at that point, we didn't have a ton of eggs and we had to keep it inside because it had just finished raining.  So back to the candy they went.  BBS, hubby and the monkeys arrived early afternoon and we had a second Easter egg hunt, this time outside (though all the eggs could be accessed from the driveway and sidewalks to avoid the mud) and the kids played together so well.  Our middle child did end up with a bit of a tummy ache from too much sugar and running around with a candy-filled belly but all in all it was an awesome day.  We got the girls home and snuggled in to bed relatively early and Man and I had a quiet evening to ourselves.  I really am lucky to love this amazing little family!

What did I do to deserve this?

Often times that question is asked in such a negative way, but it's pretty awesome to be able to say it happily!  Man packed my lunch today.  And yesterday.  And the day before that.  Yes, it's because I worked 12 hour days the past two days and will most likely work an even longer day today, but still, a girl could get used to this kind of treatment!

Even worse

My last post was an apology for not writing in a while, but now I've gone even longer.  It's not that I haven't had anything to write about.  I could tell you stories that would have laughing so hard you cried (i.e. my foster friend unintentionally speed dating [she met a guy for a blind date and he was so awful she left after less than an hour and didn't even get dinner or a drink out of the deal!], Schmo getting all excited over a gift when he had no clue what it was or Brady learning to bark [yes, he's a cat.  Yes, it's freaking hilarious to watch!]).  Unfortunately, I could also bore you to tears with the list of reasons why I haven't written (i.e. having no computer, having my smart phone that's smarter than me and refuse to let me on blogger or even facebook, etc.).  Instead, I'll promise to do my best to be better about writing regularly.  Note, I said I'll do my best.  That doesn't mean I'll be successful!  What I will be successful at, though, is keeping a smile on my face while working 36 hours in the next 3 days.  It won't be easy, but I've made it through this before, and this year I have an amazing Man who woke up early this morning to send me off to work with a lunch he packed, homemade juice he made for me this morning and a smile.  It's going to be a long week, but I sure am lucky I love such a supportive Man!

My apologies...

...to those who check in daily.  I know I've kind of been MIA lately.  I promise I have a good excuse!  We've been busy, busy, busy.  Work is picking up and I've been keeping busy with getting the store ready for the summer and hiring and training my staff.  With the weather warming up, we've been keeping busy at home, too, trimming back the attack bushes (my roses tend to grow out over the sidewalk), spending quality family time outside and away from the computers and starting on our Spring cleaning.  I promise I'll be back here daily soon, so please bear with me!  In the mean time, I'll leave you with this mental image: Brady, on top of the ductwork in the basement, covered in dust and cobwebs.  I think our Ragdoll has become a rag mop!

Fantastic frustration

It's funny how you can be so frustrated and so thankful at the same time. Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day and we spent a lot of it outside. While the girls and I were doing some yardwork, Man clean out both of our cars, vacuuming them and cleaning the windows. In the process, he took everything out of the car...and nothing made its way back in. I got to my meeting tonight to find that I didn't have half of my supplies. In Man's defense, he did tell me that he left everything in the garage, but it was infuriating to arrive unprepared, especially since I had been prepared yesterday. Thankfully, the meeting went fairly smoothly anyway and it wasn't a big deal but I hope next time we can work together a little better!

Delicious homemade breakfast, really good chiropractor appointment, fun at the park, yummy lunch, housework and yardwork done and the first bonfire of the season with Man and the girls, Mom and Dad and my foster friend. It really doesn't get much better than today!

Abuse is in the eye of the beholder

Man has been absolutely amazing while my back has been out. He has catered to my every need and done everything in his power to protect me from any possibility of being caused any additional pain. Unfortunately, this has also meant that on occasion he has had to protect me from the dogs jumping on me. The worst was when I was trying to get out of bed and Lolly knocked me down. I screamed in pain and Man came running to the rescue. He grabbed her by the scruff and pulled her off of me and Lolly started yelping. I think it was more from shock than from pain, but it was still a heartbreaking sound. Once I was settled back down I thought things were fine, but Lolly has been acting like an abused pup ever since. It really makes you wonder what she went through before coming to our home that one incident is causing her so much anxiety. My poor pup is really stressing, but I also feel bad for Man, who now looks like the bad guy to Lolly when he was just trying to take care of me. I wish I could reason with my dog!

With my back being screwed up I've been doing a lot of stuff just for convenience and then not cleaning up after myself. I'm not sire there's a single room in the house that doesn't have discarded shoes or socks. I'm so thankful my usually-neat-freak Man has been understanding! Today I'm feeling a bit better, so I'm about to embark on a sock hunt. For the record, not nearly as fun as an Easter egg hunt!