The Case of the Missing Squeaky Toy!

My dog’s absolute favorite chew toy would have to be this little blue loofah dog (Shaped like a dachshund of course!) with a squeaker right in the center. He proudly carried this loofah dog all over the house and buried it under the most special of couch cushions. I know this is my dog’s favorite chew toy because one day he had torn off the head… and I threw it away.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time. He has tons of toys, some even like his loofah dog, but that toy was special. I didn’t notice at first, but he started wandering around the house over the next couple days; sniffing and digging as if he were looking for something.

He searched under the couch cushions… He searched in the closet… He searched in the laundry pile…

But what was he searching for? Finally he flopped down onto the couch with the most distraught look on his face… that’s when it dawned on me. That was days ago though, and that little loofah dog was long gone in trash land somewhere. You can’t tell a dog that though, so I had to come up with a plan.

It was simple really… just go to the store and buy him a new one. Except when I returned to Walmart the next day, they had a completely different set of dog toys out for sale.

I asked one of the saleswomen if she knew when that toy would be returning or if there were some in the back but she only shrugged her shoulders. “Products come and go… for all we know it could be a discontinued toy.” Well I was a mommy on a mission and I had a sad puppy dog to go home too if I failed.

I set out then, checking all the local retail and pet stores in the area to ask if they had a little blue loofah dog in stock. My friends thought I was nuts when they texted me later that day to ask what I was up to, but they didn’t know the power of the puppy eyes. Finally one of my friends texted me a link to an Amazon.com listing… Ta Da! She had found it!

Within a couple days my dachshund was bouncing around happily with his BRAND NEW loofah dog! (Which makes it so much better) Hooray for happy endings J

Strangers Again

When was the last time you felt in love with your husband? I'm not talking about the "I love you" he sends in a text after you've finished discussing what to make for dinner or the "Love you!" that you say to him right before he leaves for work. I mean that deep happiness that one feels when they realize they wouldn't want to be with anyone else at that moment.

The answer for my husband and I? Well... I can't remember.

When was the last time you fought with your husband? Well we all know that one.

It was last night - He had come home late from work and the first thing he did when he walked thru the door was make some snide comment about the dishes. (Which the sink was only about 1/3rd of the way full)

It grew from there into a screaming match about how he had to work all day while I was probably at home doing my nails or playing on a Facebook game like Farmville.

Of course he would have known, had he been home, that I spent 5 hours on the phone with the internet company's customer service, took the dog to the vet, went grocery shopping and still managed to finish my many other house duties... with the exception of the four plates and one pan that sat in our sink.

Our night ended with him sleeping on the couch and myself viciously finishing the dishes.

In fact, it seemed most of our night's ended that way now. Sure we tried to watch a movie together now and then (if we can even agree on one.) But it wasn't the same.

We had both sunk into a routine of stress and blame... lashing out at eachother as we only had eachother to lash out at.

Its going to be tough getting out of this cycle but I'm hoping that recognizing it is the first step. Our marriage of three years already seemed to be winding its way back to where it started... strangers.

Maybe one day I'll be able to remember the last time we were truly in love... and hopefully it'll help me remember how to get back to that.

How To Make Italian Cream Soda "Books-A-Million Style"

Yesterday I found myself browsing the wares of a Books-A-Million in another city an hour away from home. Why is this important? Well the Books-A-Million close to my home doesn't feature a Joe Mugs Cafe with such a wide selection of drinks.

Now the reason I found myself so far from home in the first place is that I had agreed to take my younger brother on a date at the mall. Mother had been booked up at work and he offered gas money, so how could I say no to love?

So I sat in the nearby Books-A-Million, staring up at the drink selection, as I tried to kill time until he called for a pickup. I finally decided on what would soon be my most favorite drink ever - Italian Cream Soda with Irish Cream as my flavoring.

Delicious! Creamy and yet refreshing at the same time. I quickly found myself finishing it and ordering another. How had I not heard of this before?

Lucky for me, the cafe prepared its drinks in an open bar so I could memorize her methods to attempt making this drink at home.

Ingredients:

2 Cups
Cream
Irish Cream (Alcoholic or Non-Alcoholic)
Shasta Club Soda
ICE

Take your cup and fill it with ice.

Then take your Irish cream and fill up the cup until the fill line would be equal to the first digit of your right hand if it were pressed against the cup. (These were complex measurements that she performed.)

Next fill the cup with cream about double the amount of Irish cream.

Then take your Shasta Club Soda and fill your cup up the rest of the way. (Hope you grabbed a tall glass)

Finally take your second cup and pour the drink mixture back and forth until it turns a champagne color, sort of a creamy white.

Now I think I'll go have a glass! Enjoy!

Staircase to Success

A Leap of Faith... that's what most people use as a definition for the most terrifying decision of your life; one that could be a huge payout or a disastrous mistake. This decision could make the difference between chaos or success.

As I found myself at this decision in my life, I tried to picture what my leap of faith would actually look like if I were physically there. A dark pit, that's where I'd find myself, seemingly bottomless as I stand hopelessly on the edge of what could quite possibly be suicide.

No... to me success is nothing like a leap of faith, at least not in my situation. Its hard to picture anything good coming out of leaping blind into an endless hole with no destination in sight. What sort of message does that send?

Metaphorically, I imagine it to be more like a staircase and I'm standing at the bottom looking up. In fact, its nearly exhausting to try and view myself at the top. That is how I could see my risky choice laid out in front of me.

As I reached this epiphany, other questions began to surface. If success is a staircase, what if one of the floor boards are loose? What if I trip and fall? What if I don't have the strength to climb all those stairs?

In the end the questions came down to, what if I fail? I would have to climb all the way back down those stairs to where I started, nursing my injuries, left to sit in anger and frustration about all the time I had wasted even attempting it in the first place. That time could cost me my relationship or my job... I could end up in an even worse position than I had started.

Failing was not an option so why even begin climbing those stairs in the first place? Stay with your comfortable lifestyle of safety away from the unknown. It's what you've spent all your life doing anyways.

So I did. I sat there at the bottom of those stairs, looking up at success with frustrated tears in my eyes until my mother came along and answered my questions.

What if one of the floor boards are loose? You nail it back down.

What if I trip and fall? You stand back up.

What if I don't have the strength to climb all those stairs? You rest until you've caught your breath.

What if I fail? You try again.

Time to climb those stairs.

"The Rep laughed and hung up on me." - My HORRIBLE AT&T Experience

I'm not even sure how to start this one... honestly I never thought service with such a well known company could ever be so terrible.

I called on the 25th of July to get internet service for our new apartment. Hold times were a bit annoying but that's the usual with any service. After getting to speak with a representative I was put into a no-contract plan (Trust me, she tried really hard to put me into that contract.) for DSL internet.

She gave me little to no information over the phone, saying it would be emailed to me and said I'd get my internet modem sent to me on the 30th and my service would start on the 31st.

I was excited at first, thinking previously that the only internet provider in my area was the infamous mediacom and it's 1.2 online star rating, but that enthusiasm began to fizzle out when I checked the front office for a package on the 30th... nothing.

I waited and checked again on the 31st before I finally called the AT&T customer service line. After a string of holds and transfers taking around 2 hours, (Apparently the order number that was emailed to me didn't exist) I was told that there was a small mixup with my order and my internet boxes would be here on the 2nd.

No big deal, right? Until on the second when my boxes had yet to arrive and I found myself calling AT&T's customer support AGAIN. More transfers, holds and promises of callbacks with one representative actually laughing and hanging up on me (Yeah! SERIOUSLY?)

When I finally got through to a person who spoke English, I was told that there were no boxes coming at all. My order had been put on hold to wait for a technician to come out and run a line - BUT no technician had ever gotten an order to be sent out. Both the representative and I were completely baffled and I was told to call back on Monday to get a technician sent out there since they were now closing. (Since the many transfers and holds had pushed me past their business hours.)

Monday comes and I still have a shred of hope that the problem will resolve itself. That shred was squashed after the first person their customer service line put me in touch with said that my bill started on the 31st and my service was completely fine. She didn't seem to be able to understand that I had NO AT&T MODEM to use MY INTERNET.

And so began the transfers and holds while we attempted to get to an English speaking representative who might understand what the word "internet" means.

I was on my final straw when the last woman told me that in order to fix my service I would have to start the whole process over again and re-run my credit. She asked for my social and after how unprofessionally they had handled everything else I told her just to cancel the order completely.

Another transfer to a woman who tried to con me into keeping my service but I was done talking. I told her you better wipe your systems clean of my name because if I get a bill in the mail from AT&T I'm going to flip. Within seconds she told me my service was cancelled and the nightmare was over... I hope.

Now I think I will call Mediacom and admit defeat - 1.2 star service is better than .5 star service which is what I'd rate AT&T at.

The Biggest (Furry) Loser

A few months ago, my husband and I adopted an adorable Dachshund that we named Tobi from a local shelter. He was sweet, energetic and loved to pin you down to lick your face. Our only concern was his weight. Miniature Dachshunds usually have a max weight of 7-8 lbs and our new baby was a whopping 25!

Due to their hotdog like nature, that particular breed of dog is at an increased risk of back injuries... being 17 pounds overweight definitely wasn't helping those odds. It was time to play the biggest loser!

His past history, the shelter told us, consisted of lots of human food with little exercise... sometimes being abandoned inside the house for days on end. First thing to cut - human food!

Yep, our poor abused Tobi would give us the saddest eyes while peering down from under our glass table. How could we love him and not share?

Next I began measuring his food portions instead of leaving a giant bowl of food others 24/7 like we had for our previous dogs. This seemed to help a little but our biggest challenge was exercise.

Now Tobi was a dog who couldn't even hop up onto the couch by himself, continuously smacking into the side overtime he tried and then rolling over with that tearful look he gave us so often. You can imagine just getting him down the stairs of our third floor apartment was a task!

We started out carrying him up and down the stairs and starting the morning with a log walk followed by four shorter walks throughout the day. This also helped keep him from using any particular part of the house as his personal toilet.

Eventually he got to the point here he was able to walk up and down the stairs himself with a lot of encouraging and before we knew it, he could even hop up onto the couch with only a few piggy grunting sounds.

A few months later and we just took him to the vet... 8 pounds less!! (That's a lot of weight for a dog that small) our fat little bratwurst had shaped up into a muscled workout machine. Besides his chub slimming down, he's also acting a lot happier as well. Booting around the house, playing with toys and springing from couch to recliner and back again.

He's such a motivating little guy... if he can do it - so can you and I! Here's to a happy, healthy life! :)

New Redbox Code - Rent One + Get One Free!

New Redbox Code - Rent One + Get One Free! (Good for today only)

"Redbox: Deal alert! Rent any DVD, get a 2nd free today w/code KZHNDVZR. 1 use, online/in-app/at the box. Exp 7/10/14@11:59pm CT."