Picture Pages

Simba was able to spend a Saturday afternoon with me at the office. He did really well, but was not very happy after a couple of hours. He must have thought he was going for a long walk and instead was tricked into going to the office. He is so cute with his new hair cut!


My husband and I had the pleasure of babysitting Mikey, while my friends went off to Vegas to get married. For the first twenty four hours, Mikey did not want to leave the pillows of our bed or the top of our couch. But he always brightened up when we went outside for a walk. His tail immediately went up and he had a major spring in his step.

Rommel and I fell in love with him, even to the point of renaming him our little monkey face because of his under bite. He loved to sleep between our heads and crawl beneath the covers, which was absolutely adorable. Unfortunately his sleeping habits also prevented us from getting much sleep because we were so afraid he would suffocate under the thick comforter that we would hold the comforter up to provide breathing room.


Now on to Bailey. I do not agree with buying dogs from breeders, but when my coworker brought her new English bull dog puppy to work, I could not help but snuggle her. Despite the snorting and farting, she is absolutely adorable.


Nothing special happened with Sunny lately, but I can't leave her out!

The Wonderful World of Green Smoothies

I have never tried many diets, but I have tried to change the way I eat overall. It's not that I wanted to lose weight necessarily, although that would be fabulous. I just wanted to treat my body better and give it what it needs. I went veg for eight months over a year ago and I have tried to give up processed foods before. I may be excited at first, but things get tough or I get bored and give up.

But I think I have finally found the answer and that my friends is something called a green smoothie.

I bought Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko because it caught my eye while I was browsing the raw foods books and ended up reading it in one sitting. She is a raw foodist who hit a plateau and wanted to find out what was missing from her diet, which happened to be greens. The research she has done is really interesting, but I could have done without the in depth information on blood acidity, etc. I loved reading the testimonials the most. People who did not know what else they could do to improve their health or were just to lazy to try anything too complicated were successful in keeping up with their green smoothies because it is so easy.

You do not have to change your diet if it is not that bad to begin with. You just add one quart of green smoothie to your daily intake, which is not hard because they are easy to make and not bad at all.

Today is my third day incorporating the smoothies into my diet. Each night I blend up enough for the next day so I don't have to mess with it in the morning. I have a reusable bottle that I can easily carry with me to work. I have substituted it for breakfast, but still eat regularly the rest of the day. I will say that I have been eating less though.

Today I am having a green smoothie made from mango, banana, and kale. I will admit that it looks like slime and most of the people around me keep reminding me of that fact, but it is actually good. You can't the kale at all!

It is so easy even my husband agreed to try it with me. I told him to give it a couple of weeks before making any judgements about it. If this does make me feel better and have more energy, I am buying a copy of this book for all my loved ones.

Sam the Man

I was twelve years old when my mom, my sister, my cousin and I took a trip to a friend's farm to look at a litter of kittens. The cats my parents brought with them to Illinois from Las Vegas before I was born had both passed away and our house felt empty without the unconditional love of a pet. I remember finding a tiny kitten that I wanted to bring home, but was too young to leave it's mother. I was so upset that my sister ended up picking out a kitten who we named Sammy.

Sammy was never a typical cat. He never meowed or hissed, but instead he would chatter at the squirrels he saw outside the window. One time my little sister grabbed him by the tail not knowing any better and he kept coming back for more. You could carry him around the house like that and he won't care.

We slowly adopted other cats who needed homes and Sammy took charge of the group. He would wonder around the house pulling on the cat food container to let us know we the food bowl was empty.

Last week my mom had to make the toughest decision of all. Sammy always hated the vet, but this trip was different. He curled up next to my mom, purring nonstop. And after seventeen years of ruling my parents house, Sammy left us.

He was the most lovable cat anyone ever had the pleasure of knowing and we will miss him desperately.