Mr. Montique was jealous that the dogs were getting baths. He wanted his own cat sized one.

Pinterest Fails

I don't have much as far as what has been going on. I've been busy. I've been seeing horrible trainwreck cases at work. Ugh.

Anyway, I've been collecting some Pinterest things. Not all are fails but seriously some did not go as planned.

Craft wise-there was the wedding shadow box that I made. My instructions are at the link. I also made a googly eye picture frame for Halloween.  Now, this is the inspiration. I can't get the link to work but I found it originally on Pinterest. When I find my camera cord (one of a few things that were lost/misplaced on the move), I'll post step by step instructions. Its really cheap to make, probably like $7 for two or so.

Food wise-There are several things that I've made recently.
#1-White Chocolate Brownies Yum. They weren't great but they were pretty good. Definantely worth making again.

#2-Potates Au Gratin Yum. These were from The Pioneer Woman so you know they are rich and fantastic!

#3-Quick Chicken Pot Pie-Its good but I didn't follow the recipe making it more complicated than it should be.

#4-Rolo Turtle Brownies-Oh wow were these good! I'm considering putting them in the fair coming up but they might melt. These were really rich. The base brownie recipe was super good too.

#5-Lemon Loaf-This took some investigation to find the recipe. Follow the time closely. Mine got a little too brown. Likely to enter this in the fair.

#6-Chinese Napa Cabbage Salad-This is my one big fail. Its supposed to be like the filling of a spring roll. I'm not sure if I didn't follow the instructions well (I didn't) or if its just a bad recipe. The dressing is pretty good though.

I found this mushroom growing out from underneath the floorboard of one of the upstairs rooms. Probably not a good thing.

Kinder, my cat boyfriend, is so nice! He left a cat turd next to my desk. :( 
If I made a twitter account of veterinary pains, would anyone follow? Contribute?

The Never Ending Quest for Appropriately Fitting Pants

Yesterday, Joe and I went to Ohio so we could go to Target and return some pants I ordered off the internet.
That's right, we have to go to Ohio to go to Target. And not just Ohio-Ohio is about 10 minutes from my house-but like an hour away to Target.
Anyway, we got horribly lost and then eventually did find the shopping center. I returned the pants and we went to the mall since we were there. I bought some new shirts at Old Navy including a new plain t-shirt. I'm sort of obsessed with their t-shirts-both the crew neck and the vintage ones. They are comfortable and come in lots of cute colors. They have their faults though. The vintage ones are a little short and the crew neck ones are a little too tight. But overall I sort of love them. After Joe bought a few things as well, we went and ate at Hometown Buffet. I was super excited about the rolls. I ate like four of them but could have ate more if I wasn't already full of salad, chicken, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and ice cream. After dinner (ate at the appropriate time of like 4:45.) We went to Kohl's where I couldn't find any pants that fit either. Well, I found a pair I liked well enough but they were not boot cut so they were not going to work. I did buy a sweater and another shirt too.

We've recently finished up a series on Netflix called The Inbetweeners. Its a British comedy about four teenage boys and the troubles they face. Because its British, you can show a lot more and have a lot more swearing than you can in the US. The difficult part was figuring out the British slang. Once that was sorted out, the show was pretty awesome. We also recently started Breaking Bad. I'm not sure when the new season starts but I doubt we'll be caught up. Maybe. I guess I should research that.

Also, in case you were wondering, if you run over a full bag (1 L) of fluids, they will explode. The weak point is near the injection port on the front.

The modern pentathlon is on now! I watched the jumping and now its the combined-running and electronic pistol shooting. Its devastating. Its a true athletic event.

So while our house has been for sale the whole time (all two months of it) we've been renting it, it never had a sign. Until one sprouted up overnight last night. Now we have to work on keeping it clean.

Joe finally got a job! He's going to be working at a cheese factory.

I'm really happy with where the horses are living. So happy, I never want to visit them. It might have to do with the owners of the barn which are a little clingy.

Joe's car is in the repair shop getting a safety inspection as well as getting the check engine light checked out. But not the antifreeze leak that only I seem to be able to notice. The washing machine decided to stop working at this time too. It works but the rubber seal has finally completely given out. So to the laundromat we go this afternoon.
So I absolutely hate shopping.
There's about an 1000 little reasons that I hate it.
One of them is that I am cheap. For instance, when I returned the pants at Target, I got a gift card because that's how I had paid originally. So I had essentially $50 (actually $49.89 or something) of free money. There were no suitable pants options so I moved on to homewares. Its Target. There's like a 1000 things I want or like. For instance, there where some large purple jars/vases. Very cute. Good for decorating. There were some circus/carnival/fair pictures framed in red. These were on clearance. There were some random sit on table and do nothing pieces. Many things I liked. Many things I could spend my $50 on. And I didn't buy a single thing. Now I still have a $50 gift card to a store that is an hour away.
One of the issues too, is that I feel that I shouldn't be spending money for something to sit in a box until I have a place for it. I have end tables but not a well decorated house. I don't have any chairs. Or a couch. I'm sitting on a lawn chair. And now the house is really for sale, I feel like I shouldn't put up pictures. Not that I had a place for black and white pictures of a midway framed in red anyway. BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT! The point is that even though I'm deeply in debt (weddings are expensive, as is school and cars) I should feel comfortable enough with the money I'm earning to buy something if I see something I like. I shouldn't have to have arguments with myself. No one is going to go hungry because I bought a shirt to wear to work.
The other side of hating shopping is while I can eventually convince myself that the random piece of house decor is something I can buy and own for my very own, clothes are another demon entirely. Clothes have the issue of 1) costing money and 2) not fitting. The pants I returned fit well enough. They are just for work-wresting dogs and being peed on by cats. I'm not expected to walk down a Paris runway in them. Joe liked them but because when I sat there was a bulge in the crotch, because they didn't sit just so over my shoes because they nearly came up to my belly button, because the material was weird, I had to return them. (And get $50 gift card that I'll take forever to use.) And this is the same reason I don't have any pants to replace the ones that one day are going to have a hole in the butt.
I did buy some shirts. I tried on some clothes. One of the shirts I bought has a questionable fit-the problem with Kohl's clothes. I don't know who they are measuring when they make clothes. Some weirdo with strange proprotions.
Anyway, I want to look cute. Looking cute is correlated to both being thin and having money. Let me change that, not really having money (though you should) but being willing to spend it. Neither of these I am.
Spending money on food is not an issue I have.

A Bee in Your Bonnet (literally)

OR Stirring Up A Hornet's Nest

Friday night, Joe and I came home around 9pm after eating some bad Chinese food.
As we went into the house, I found a toad on the doorstep. I like toads as opposed to frogs which I find somewhat terrifying. I think it's the slick wet look, their large eyes and scary long legs. That and growing up, I didn't encounter many frogs while toads I did. The last time this toad (I'm only assuming it was the same one.) was on the doorstep the corgis enjoyed barking at it and nosing it. I moved the toad aside to the flower bed and we got the dogs.
Joe and I both pointed the toad out to the corgis. They carried on but Sadie got really excited. I ended up scooping the toad up in fear that he was going to get crushed. And then...there was an electric shock through my body. I couldn't make words to explain what was happening. I essentially threw the toad and hurried inside. There was something in my shirt!
After some frantic dancing and swatting I got the shirt off and there was a bee in it! Actually, it was a yellow jacket which is a small hornet but lets call them bees. It's quicker. I continued to dance around topless and now Joe joined in. There were bees, angry bees, swarming us. We danced the dogs into the other room of the lower level and slammed the door. While a couple dozen angry bees swarmed lights in the dog room and the porch light outside, we were being attacked by a small handful. I ultimately had two stings-one on my arm and one on my side. They hurt!
Joe got the few in with us killed with an over use of wasp spray and geared up. By geared up, I mean he put on a hoodie, zipped it to the chin and pulled up the hood. He armed himself with all the wasp spray he could find and then went back to fight the battle against angry wasps. I changed my shirt an took a position to watch. And then promptly started dancing again as somehow another bee found its way into this shirt. I danced around topless this time also removing my bra convinced that was where the bee had been hiding. I tried hunting down a few resistors with a rolled up comic book (future value be damned! This is a crisis!) and was dive bombed. The offending bee spent some time in my hair. Not cool before hiding someplace and hopefully dying.
Joe meanwhile was faring well enough and had emptied the remainders of like two cans of bug killer on the bees.
We hosed down dog crates and washed food bowls.
Saturday morning, Joe had two more cans of wasp spray and he armed me with a shovel handle. I was to pull away mulch from the suspected area of the nest and he would spray it. I did and was fairly stoic about the whole thing. Apparently the best warriors had died in battle the night before. We destroyed the hive complete with larva/pupae using TWO full cans of spray. Someone can't stop.
All is well. The carnage of our rampage has been cleaned up. My side still hurts from the sting though.


Bee outline after being sprayed to death.

The wal-mart sack was trying to blow away.

Good morning! We would like to share some of those donuts with you. Aren't we the cutest cats?

Weekend Catch Up

I was on call this weekend and it was surprisingly (and enjoyably) quiet.
Friday night, I had three small animal emergencies, which isn't unusual. It started with a cat euthanasia, then a sick kitten and finally a sick dog that we ended up euthanizing. I felt bad about that dog but only because I sort of pressured the owner for euthanasia. It wasn't uncalled for-the dog was super sick. He was an old golden that had collapsed suddenly. The owner had thrown a bucket of water on him to revive him and he was all matted. So he smelled awesome. I noted right away that his pupils were not the same size which is never good. He was having trouble breathing and then I went to take his temperature...his rectum and surrounding tissues were covered in maggots. I nearly vomited. He was in bad shape and had clearly been for awhile. The owner wanted to pursue treatment but had no money. Eventually she gave in and we euthanized the dog.
Saturday morning, I sutured the yearling colt out where we moved the horses to. He cut his ankle trying to jump a fence. Then a quick shower and to work for morning appointments.
That evening, I sewed up a calf's leg and then saw a dog that was dragging a leg.
Sunday morning, i rechecked a bandage and in afternoon, I sewed up a horse. In the evening, I euthanized a dog with Joe's help. A quiet weekend for this clinic.

We moved the ponies last week. They didn't want to get into the trailer but rode well once there. They seem happy in their new house. We're planning on seeing them tonight.

So work has been good but tiring. I'm constantly working and pretty stressed out. I've had some majorly difficult cases and surgeries. (Big dog spays, large mammary tumor removals-which healed awesome!) I really need a vacation! I'm worried about 'compassion fatique'.

DIY-Wedding Shadow Box

So when I was planning my wedding, I'd occasionally see shadow boxes full of wedding things on Pinterest. I liked them and thought that making my own would be a possible project.
Pinterest is full of wonderful shadowbox ideas-framing board games and storing the pieces in the back, framing puzzle box lids and storing the pieces in the. back, framing Christmas ornaments, framing toys that have been outgrown in addition to capturing those special moments in life.
Now I'm not into scrapbooking like my mom thinks she is but I wanted to display some of our wedding things because I doubted that they'd bee seen or remembered otherwise.
First you need to get a shadowbox. I got mine from target.com but Micheal's, Hobby Lobby or my new favorite craft store, Pat Canan's has them too. Generally reasonably priced if not on sale or a coupon can be used. Most of these places have custom framing too if you need something really special. My box is only about an inch deep so some of the things I wanted to put in there-such as the birdhouse number holders couldn't go. That and I discovered that I only had one the I had saved.
I lined my box with scrapbooking paper in royal blue which was one of our wedding colors. To get it to stay down I just used Elmer's school glue. The backing was this velvety material and rubber cement just wasn't cutting it. I'm sure there are some better adhesive suggestions out there. I was happy with the glue but going back I would let it cure over night under some heavy books. Specifically, my pathology and large animal medicine texts. That's what vet med texts are good for.
Then I laid out all my paper stuff-pictures which were hard to choose from, program, cake flavors, invitation, reception card, save the date. To attach these I used clear photo corners but I think I don't like how they worked. The pictures ended up sort of buckling. Maybe just glue again. Rubber cement this time.
After I has the paper stuff laid out, I could add my objects. I chose my garter, the flower I wore in my hair, the brooch from my bouquet, a bag of birdseed (which I still have tons left!), a reception favor (measuring spoons) and flowers from the trellis at the ceremony.
This is where I think I did a great job attaching these things. Instead of using tons of glue, I wired them on. I took the heaviest sewing needle I could find an with the assistance of a thimble pushed it through the backing and paper. I wiggled it in the hole to make it slightly larger and then repeated it for the other side. Then I threaded my wire, green floral wire through. You can't see it on most things and it's barely noticeable on the things you can see it on.
The hardest part was closing the thing. My flowers got in the way. That and after the first time, some pictures slipped and there was a massive amount of dog hair in there too. Take two was better but not entirely dog hair free.
So that's how I made my wedding shadow box. I'm thinking of the possibilities for other ones as we speak.