Rocky Update

After a LONG week and even LONGER weekend Rocky is FINALLY starting to feel better! The doctor had called on Friday and said he had urinary tract disease and the beginning of crystals forming which isn't good but it was great that we caught it in time. He put Rocky on new food to prevent another episode and an antibiotic. Friday night I spent all night up with the poor guy, he couldn't stop getting sick. In the morning I started to freak out a bit because he started spitting up blood:-( So I rushed him to the vet and waited for them to get him in. He retested him and said he was fine he was probably just reacting badly to the antibiotic. They gave him a shot of the new antibiotic and told me not to feed him until Sunday morning. For those of you who know the little guy you know this is an impossible feat...he wants to eat all the time! He made it though and when I fed him Sunday morning he was like new. I tried to give him his new medicine and he literally spit it out at me!

He cuddled all night with me last night and was begging for food this morning so I think he is well on his way to recovery! Thank you all for your good thoughts! He is on a diet even more now so maybe the next time everyone sees him he will be a new slimmer version of himself! Also, his birthday is on Wednesday and the vet informed me that he will be a senior citizen....he now gets a senior discount!!!

Rocky

I had to take Rocky to the vet this morning because he has been having quite a few accidents and has been using his litter box A LOT. He HATES being in the car, but he behaved perfectly at the vet once again and purred a lot for them. He had to stay there though because they are doing some tests on him, he had to get x rays, and they had to do blood work. The doctor just called now and said his x rays came back clear (YIPPEE!) but we were too late with the blood work and samples that we won't have an answer on that until the morning. Please keep the poor little (he is down to 17lbs!) guy in your thoughts today. Here are some pictures of the purry guy!

About time....

Wow, it has been TWO months since I posted anything. :-( I asked Santa for a new camera for Christmas though so maybe in the new year I will post every week...maybe even every day! Here are just a few photos I stole from my friend Richard....whenever we are at a Jaycee event I make him take pictures so I can use them on my blog:-)

So here is some of what has been going on...starting with most recent because I posted the pics in the wrong order....leave it to me to do that!




Me acting VERY silly at the GA in St Louis. I had just won a HUGE award so I was very excited and decided to do something very Mindy like!

Me being amused at lunch at the St Louis GA.....

My friend Rachel and me at her 30th birthday celebration. Anyone who lives in this area HAS to try this restaurant. It is SO good. Don't remember the name but it is right next to Bob Chinn's.....

My friend Rachel and me at Octoberfest. It was in the 80's that day so my hair was reacting to humidity.....IN OCTOBER. Weird.

Jason took Dakota to his parents for the weekend and they turned her into a pumpkin! I decided to add another pumpkin to the picture.....

Richard and myself at the 1st annual Palatine Jaycees Hometown Haunt! I was in this room that was all black and had black lights and masks on the wall...I blended in and then followed people and scared them. It was fun:-)

Justine, myself, and Vanessa's mom painting pottery at Clairbear's Pottery.

I was very tempted to paint Justine in this picture:-)




So besides work that is what I have been doing! Thanksgiving was great, I am so happy I got to see my family and my little munchkin nephews! Now it is back to crazy crazy holiday time working at Old Navy. Hope everyone is doing well and until next time (whenever that will be!) enjoy!

Wow, it has almost been a month.....

I am not good with this blog thing! So this past month has been very hectic....trying to get acclimated with my new job, helping to build a haunted house, putting my speech together to run for a new position with the Jaycees, volunteering, and making new friends!!!!

NEW JOB- it is going GREAT! I absolutely love love love having a boss who tells me everyday how happy he is that he hired me and telling me over and over how smart I am. He lets me run things the way I want and is there to support me. I can't tell you how much I have spread my wings by having a boss who trusts me and believes in me! Today I did my 2nd orientation and had 10 new associates attend. It is so cool learning the HR side of the job! I don't even mind working a ton as long as I am learning!

HAUNTED HOUSE- I used POWER TOOLS! I helped to build walls which we are using for the Jaycee's haunted house. It was really pretty cool. I was there on day one cleaning this yucky place out (it hadn't been occupied for over 7 years) and it is really cool to see the transformation. We open in 12 days so I can't wait! I am going to mostly be at the membership table trying to recruit new members, but I am going to scare people too!

We had nominations last week for the 2008 boards and I was nominated to be Membership VP and I accepted. I can't believe how much I have changed since joining the Jaycees and I would love to share that with other people. I have made so many friends that I know will be around for a long time and I have grown so much. It will be a LOT of work, but I am excited to meet a ton of people!

New friends!!! I have started becoming very close with a few of the Jaycees so Friday night at the Donkey Inn have started to become a tradition! Rachel turned 30 last week (happy birthday!) so we went out to dinner and bowling for that....we had a Cosmos and Cleavage party last night (bra fitting party) and had a blast with that!

This weekend is bowling on Saturday night and WINGS 5k on Sunday. Have a great week everyone!

Cute stuff

So as I was cleaning out my closet today and going through all my bags I found a disposable camera from Oct/Nov that I forgot about. So I decided to see what I would find! There were a LOT of really bad pictures of me so this is all you get!


All the cat's on my aunt and uncle's farm! There were even more and out of all 12 I think only 2 let me pet them and only 1 let me pick him up:-(

My godson Trent enjoying a warm fall day!

More of the cute kitties!

Well, it is at least a post!

Another boring no pic post

So it has come very quickly, I am in my final days at Carsons! Tomorrow is my last closing and my last Senior Day...Thursday will be my last truck...Friday will be my last Friday and the cleaning of the desk. Weird. I am super excited though.
In fact, yesterday when I was at Starbucks (only the 2nd time of the day) the guy who always makes my drink commented on how I was the only one from my store smiling anymore. When I told him my last day was Friday he understood completely! My associates are being awesome and very supportive. They are sad but very happy for me, they know how stressed I have been. A lot of them have said they want to come with me and a lot of them are thinking about quitting so it is nice to know they respected me and will miss me:-)
My exit interview was last friday because my HR manager is on vacation this week...she didn't even say good luck or goodbye so that just completely confirmed my decision!

MY RUN DOWN FOR THE NEXT WEEK BEFORE MY NEW JOB.....

Friday night I am going out to celebrate with Lynn and Justine (don't worry girls you know you are right behind me!)
Saturday and Sunday will be spent in Naperville for the Jaycees big awards thingy. It will be a blast, there are 6 of us girls sharing a room so it should get interesting especially since Saturday night is formal....6 girls and one bathroom. YIKES.
Monday-Wednesday don't know yet but Jason says he has off so maybe we can find some fun stuff to do.
Friday I will go home and enjoy a weekend with the family before starting the new job!!!!!

Beat Jason to it....

I beat Jason to it...these pictures seen on my blog first!



Yes Dakota, I know Jason is yours!

Which of these guys is bigger?

Snowmen in Evanston and Des Plaines beware! Dakota might steal your nose!

Face off! I think Bullwinkle will win!

My Big News

Well, I have HUGE news! I was offered a new job today! I will be the new Customer Experience Manager at the Old Navy store in Gurnee. Basically I will be the HR/assistant store manager kind of thing. I will still get to merchandise and play with clothes, but my main focus is training the associates and keeping the store at the level it needs to be!
It comes with a very nice pay increase, way better benefits, and tons more vacation....which all start the FIRST day I start! The drive will be kind of annoying, but it will be worth it I am told. My friend works for Old Navy and LOVES it and I think my boss will be the best boss I have ever worked for!
I am putting in my 2 weeks tomorrow at work, but if they don't accept it I might start as soon as Monday. If they do accept it I will finish my 2 weeks and then take my planned vacation and start on 8/20.

Thank you to everyone who has listened to me complain and cry about Carson's and my job searching....it will all end now!

Boring post...no pic's

Jason has the camera in Vegas so in the mean time I will leave a pretty flower to look at:-)

So last weekend I had an event with the Jaycee's called Bahai and Thai...it was a TON of fun! We visited the Bahai temple in Wilmette and actually got a tour from a girl who knows a TON about the religion and the history of the place so we learned a lot. Then we went to Thai Sookdee in Evanston and ate a TON. I highly recommend this restaurant...lots of choices and it is very reasonably priced.

I have pictures of all of this but once again the camera is in Vegas (I can't believe the camera (well Jason) has been to Vegas so many times and I have yet to go...sad) (((Whitney I think if I can get time off in September I will take you and Rachel up on the offer to go!))))

Then on Sunday I had a softball game and we won! We are going to be in the playoff's now so that is pretty exciting! Lacy and Dakota came to watch me play so I was distracted and didn't do too hot, but I did catch a ball and that was a first so I am happy!

Then it was back to work:-( I get to work all this weekend too so I am excited (not really)

Upcoming posts....pic's from Bahai and Thai, my new hair, and pic's from the upcoming regional which is being held in Des Plaines!

My short trip home

On my short trip home the first thing I did was to find Tigger so I could get in one kiss before the growling started....I got my one kiss and then she took off. This is the view I see of her most often...running from me:-)

The tomato's!!! I was able to take 2 home and 3 little one's and they were tasty! These guys need to slow down so next time I come home they will be all mine!!!

My mom's little garden area where my favorite tree used to be:-(

A pretty flower by the new porch....

The new porch! Mom is waiting for the people to come and seal the porch so she took the railings down but it has been over 2 months now.....:-)

My FAVORITE! The gazing ball! I never got one of these when I was little (gee do you think I would have broken it???)

The new "gazebo" or "casino" as Cole calls it!

And Tiggy again.

Osage Beach trip....late but none the less...enjoy!

MY ROCK! Growing up my family and I would always go to MO and my favorite thing was always the rock...it is so pretty and I knew we were getting close to getting there so seeing the rock meant closer to swimming time!

Cole welcoming us to the "lake house"

The view from the main balcony (there was one on the first floor too!)

The view from the master suite

The view from the living room

Living room #1

View from balcony inside to living room #1

Kitchen!

Clayton, Cole, and me on an indoor roller coaster...Cole didn't want to go alone so he wanted an "adult" to go with him (not really, I just wanted to ride the roller coaster and I was too old so I used that as my exuse!)

I couldn't get our seatbelt undone!

All of Cole's tickets from the arcade!

Dad vacuuming....something I have NEVER seen in 29 years!

That was our trip in a nutshell. I left out the henna tattoo because it is gone already and makes me sad to see it and I left out the bad one's of me of course!

Hometown Fest!!

Every year the Palatine Jaycees throw this HUGE production called Hometown Fest. We have live music, a carnival, and all kinds of booths set up. This year was a blast! Here are some fun pictures from other people since I didn't bring Jason's camera knowing I would be covered in beer since I worked at the beer tent a lot over 3 days:-)


Here is me being silly. I waved to Jim when he came up so he told me to do that again so I had to exagerate a little! Didn't realize he had a camera!
This is President Janet driving the tractor at tractor training! We had to take a class to learn how to drive a tractor for Hometown Fest...it was quite fun! Sorry, no pictures of me driving the tractor yet...they are being held hostage:-)

This is Cynthia and Jeff and Jackie's cute dog. I don't think Cynthia like's dogs too much:-)

This is CRASH a Dave Matthews cover band that we had playing on Monday night...they were really GOOD! Almost like being at a DMB show except there were no HUGE crowds of mean people wanting to start fights!

BOTTLE OF JUSTUS- This is my all time favorite local band...I have watched these guys since ISU (they all live at ISU) and they are awesome!

Well those are all the pictures for now of fest. I will post more as I get them and coming up as soon as Jason will let me upload the camera----our BBQ last night with Codie the lab, Shaka the wiener dog/lab mix, Dakota, and Lacy! Well I am off to an interview now!!! Wish me luck!

Zoo addition

How could I forget the other HUMAN that lives in the zoo???? Well, this is the only picture I could find of Jason that I have on a computer so you get to meet his cousin Geoff too.

Introduction

I will start with Lacy....a frequent visitor to our zoo. She has been staying with us for 2 weeks already and will be with us for 3 more (I think) but she is definitely fitting in just fine!

Then there is Dakota and her best friend Rocky....they share everything (except bones of course) and they LOVE to chase each other and play.

Tigger doesn't live at the zoo but she was my first kitty that I had on my own. She got evicted from my first college apartment so my mom was kind enough to take her in. Tigger used to be sweet and cuddly...now she only really likes my dad and brother Todd (sometimes mom) but she HATES me. I am lucky to get one kiss from her while I visit home...ususally it is all hisses and growls. Don't let this cute kitty deceive you....she is a TIGER not a Tigger:-)

Dakota is the cutest pup you will EVER meet. My mom doesn't really care for dog's but she LOVES Dakota. She will just sit and gaze at you with those eyes and she always looks so concerned....and BOY does she have energy! This is a picture from my Jaycee's K9 3K event that raised money for the Buddy Foundation (a no-kill shelter) Dakota was definitely the talk of the town that day!

This is Mercedes....the quiet one. When Jason and I were at ISU we went to visit my bosses new kittens and I fell in love with this little one. The mom was a stray cat and Dylan (my bosses son) had never held a cat before and didn't know what it meant when they purred so he told his mom he was going to name here Porche because her engine was going:-) So when the kittens came along he named them Cadillac, Mercedes, Mitzu (his dad works at Mitsubishi), and Truck! His dad tried to get him to name Truck somethine else like Beamer or something but Dylan was insistant on Truck! So Mercedes came home with us and turned into quite the sweetie...she is rather skidish and scared of a lot of noise, but she sure isn't shy to tell you when she wants something!

This is Rocky...hard to believe he started off so small! On December 12, 2000 I was studying for my Spanish final and I got a call from my friend Jeannie to tell me I was the proud new mommy of a cute cuddly tiny gray cat. Rocky came home on Super Bowl Sunday and instantly made himself right at home. He was so playful and he cuddled with me EVERY night. Over the years he gained a *little* bit of weight (19lbs now) but is still as playful and cuddly as ever. This cat has more personality than any cat I have ever met!

And this is me....I think I was seeing if my parents new camera worked...it did:-)