Accomplishments & New Goals for 2012

My biggest accomplishment of 2011 was passing the CPA exam!  In the words of my niece Lilly, I won my test!  I do feel like I've won my life back, I'm not going to know what to do with all this free time. I have a few things I have to do before it becomes official but the hardest part is out of the way.

Another accomplishment I'm proud of is I stopped talking on my phone while driving.  After AB almost killed us a few times by pulling into traffic while on his cell phone I decided I needed to lead by example.  I can't say that I NEVER do it but the majority of the time I let the call go to voicemail and return the call when I get to my destination.  I've even pulled over before if I thought it was important and couldn't wait.  I'm happy to say AB has followed suit except for those darn work calls - he probably would have taken a work call during our wedding ceremony had he gotten one.

I definitely have some goals for 2012 and hopefully putting them out here will force me to stick to them:

1) Get organized - we have several closets and drawers that need to be cleaned out and then organized.  Ashley's post really inspired me and my new found free time should help me to accomplish this goal.

2) Run a race - whether it's a 5K, 10 mile or 1/2 marathon I'd really want to get back into running and I think signing up for a race will force me to do it.

3) Get back into cooking - this is something I enjoy but gave up while studying for the exam.  I'd like to eat in more and cook more as opposed to heating frozen meals in the oven.

4) Go on a spending freeze - eek!  this is going to be a tough one but my goal is to give up buying things for myself for the first three months of the year.  Things include clothes, shoes and decorative items for the house.  I will still buy gifts for others, food and toiletries.  I feel like I have everything I need so this shouldn't be hard but I imagine it will be a lot like giving up Facebook - I will have withdrawals at first but after awhile it will feel good.

Speaking of Facebook I'm thinking of getting back on (this is not a 2012 goal by the way).  I have some hesitation but I miss seeing everyone's kids and the fact is, it's just how people communicate these days.  I've enjoyed being unconnected and I would recommend everyone try a detox from social media even if it's for a week...it's pretty liberating!

I hope 2012 is a good year, especially for my husband.  2011 wasn't the greatest year for him for multiple reasons so I really hope 2012 holds great things for him!!  Cheers!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!

How did you ring in the New Year?  We started the evening at Duke's Southern Kitchen.  AB and I had never been but had heard good things about it.  I liked the ambiance and everyone liked their dinner.

Our side of the the table: Me, AB and Jocelyn

The other side of the table: Jackson, Tommy & Katie

After dinner we headed over to Katie & Tommy's to hang out and play a game.  All of Katie's decorations were so cute!

A low key night with friends sure beats the days of standing in line in cold weather with no coat to pay money in order to get in and pay more money for drinks ;)

Star Struck

Yesterday I had a little brush with fame...right here in Tulsa!  Daisi and I went to a late lunch at Mi Cocina and as we were headed in to the restaurant Kristin Chenoweth was heading out...EEEE!

Daisi and I did what any respectable thirty somethings would do - we FROZE!  After coming to our senses we were disappointed in ourselves for not at least saying hi.  She seems like the nicest most bubbly person ever so she probably would have said hi back and might have even let us reach out and touch her. 

Kristin is even more beautiful in person and tiny, tiny, tiny!!  Did I mention tiny?  I don't think I've ever been star struck but then again I haven't seen that many celebrities up close and personal.  My celeb sightings include Mike Tyson, Kirstie Alley, Ted Kennedy and Hoda Kotb.  Daisi on the other hand is a celebrity magnet...I think she saw three in 2011 alone!

What celebs have you seen?  Did you play it cool or freeze?

She's Back

I am happy to report that this little bit is back to her normal wild self.

Yes, that is my kitchen counter.  It's called failed pet parenting but the fact is, she was unfazed by any form of punishment we tried to dole out...

• Sprayed her with water - Phoebe loves water and welcomed the refreshing spritzer
• Put muffin tins and other objects on the edge of the counter - this resulted in the loud bang it was supposed to when they fell to the floor but the noise only seem to startle us and our other cat...Phoebe not so much
• Blow dryer - this is one thing she doesn't like but a solid 30 seconds later she's back for more
• Foil - most cats do not like the sound of walking on foil but Phoebe not only didn't mind the sound, she ate some of it and threw up
• Physically removing her after every jump - this resulted in 30 minute TV shows turning into 60 minute TV shows because I had to get up every 2 minutes.  Something had to give and it wasn't going to be TV!

Needless to say we sort of gave up but not to worry - I thoroughly clean before cooking, etc!  I hate admitting it but I'm happy to see her jumping on the counter again, she wasn't up to doing much for a couple of weeks there.  I'll tell you someone that is not happy about this new development and that is poor Tavia.

The week that Phoebe was at the vet, Tavia was the happiest I've ever seen her!  She was like a little kitten again, playing and loving on everyone.  She's really having a hard time acclimating to the reintroduction of Phoebe.  She's been much more aggressive this time around than when we first got Phoebe.  I just hope it doesn't take several months like it did the first time. 

I'm not sure where I left off with Phoebe other than mentioned my belief that the snow flocked tree had something to do with her sickness.  I still don't think it was a coincidence.  After a week at the vet partaking in IVs and force feedings her biopsy results came back.  The results weren't as conclusive as they had hoped but the vets were still leaning toward inflammatory bowel disease and decided to move forward with that treatment.  After her first steroid shot she started eating and was doing ok so they sent her home but when we would give her a prednisone pill at home she became sick again.  After a couple of goes at that, it was determined Phoebe was having negative side effects to the prednisone.  They wanted to put her on a different steroid but before switching, the vet consulted with a colleague at the Oklahoma State Vet School.  After reviewing her information OSU didn't think she had inflammatory bowel disease but rather had developed an aversion to eating.  They also said they had received several calls regarding fake snow.  I knew it!  Of course, the manufacturers claim it is not toxic and it may not be, but it is definitely an irritant to animals.  They thought the snow could have caused the inflammation and recommended we give Phoebe an appetite stimulant to get her to eat.  She instantly responded to the stimulant but the first night we gave it to her she became very lethargic, uncoordinated and disoriented.  The vet said 1 in 10 cats have that reaction so she said of course Phoebe would be the 1 - ha!  All it took was decreasing the dose and she was eating like Takeru Kobayashi.  Christmas Day she was really acting back to herself and eating well so we decreased the dose to once a day and today the vet told us we could stop giving it to her all together :)

It is such a relief to have Phoebe feeling good again!  Sorry to make a short story long!  Having a sick pet can be stressful at times due to the fact they can't communicate with you.  The cause of the illness can become a guessing game of sorts but we love our vet and know our four legged friends are always in good hands there. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!  I will blog more about my Holiday happenings and subsequent Holiday hangover later this week....

Copy Cat Chic - Shoes Addition

Who doesn't love the copy cat chic blog?  Lately I've been doing my own copy catting but in the shoes department.  For some reason I'm really digging faux fur this season and I say some reason because fur has never really been my thing.  I've always associated fur with women who start drinking scotch and water at four o'clock in the afternoon.  Who knows, maybe I'm maturing?  I should point out real fur is still not my thing.  I'm not going to go all PETA on you and I do think Tavia would make a pretty coat...

 but I just can't get into it! I don't see any harm in the faux look and in my search for a pair of black non-heeled boots I was really drawn to the faux fur pairs.  Particularly this pair.

While I've never really been into Uggs, I was digging these!  Of course they came with the $250 Ugg price tag which is kind of ridiculous and I came to my senses AB said absolutely not.  In hind sight he was right, they are trendy and as soon as they go out of style I will no longer wear them.  Lucky for me I was able to find a similar pair at Express for 1/5 the cost!  I love them and I especially love that I didn't pay a fortune for them!

The story of these boots reminded me of a similar copy cat shoe experience I had last year so I just had to share!  Everyday I walk one or two blocks to my office building from the parking lot which is absolutely no big deal, I enjoy the exercise.  Although, when it rains small streams and ponds seem to pop up everywhere on that small journey and I'm always soaking my shoes and the bottom of my jeans.  As you know, denim does not dry!  So I decided to break down and buy a pair of the ever so trendy rain boots.  Of course I fell in love with these Sperry's, the most expensive pair I could find (my standard M.O.)

Even AB didn't have to tell me it was crazy to spend $80 on a pair of shoes I was only going to wear in the rain.  After some Internet scouring I came across these very similar boots from Walmart - yes! Walmart!  And again I only paid a fraction of the cost.

What girl doesn't love a good deal on a pair of shoes? 

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

This year we embarked on getting our first Christmas Tree, or I should say our first full size tree.  In years past we've used this little guy as our main tree.

I'm still using him but I decided after 4.5 years of marriage combined with the fact that we are hosting Christmas, we should have a full size tree in our living room.  I set out online to do some browsing and came across this beauty from the Martha Stewart Living collection at Home Depot.

My head was swimming with visions of how beautiful she would look in my living room.  It was love at first sight!  Unfortunately for me love can be a little blind and those beautiful snow flocked branches...

...were a disaster!  Putting the tree up and fluffing the branches caused snowpocolypse 2011 right in our living room.  Not to mention I'm married to a neat freak so the messiness of the snow was not going over well with him.  But it just looked so beautiful, I was determined to make it work even if that meant vacuuming every day!

That is until this Lil' Bit started chewing on said snow flocked branches and ingesting all the fake snow.

Within a day of the tree being up she started acting very lethargic which is not like her at all!  She is usually into everything and getting into places she should not be (ahem)...

We knew something was up and after a couple of trips to the vet it was determined Phoebe had an obstruction in her stomach that would require exploratory surgery.  She had the surgery on Thursday and they pulled out a very large, congealed hair ball (gross!) from her stomach.  This was the best case scenario of what could have been in there but while they had her open they noticed some of her bowels and pancreas were inflamed which could actually be the cause of her sickness.  They did a biopsy and we should have the results this week.  Either of the inflammatory diseases she possibly has are very treatable which is good news, the bad news is she hasn't been doing so well since the surgery :(  She's had a fever and refuses to eat which puts her at risk for some sort of liver disease.  Lucky for us she is in good hands!  The vet's office has been keeping her on an IV of fluids and antibiotics and they have also been force feeding her (something we would have a hard time doing).  She's been keeping her food down which is good and this afternoon we found out her temp is down a degree!  This is the first day we have not been able to visit her which has been hard because we miss her!

I have a hard time believing the fake snow ingestion is a coincidence although it very well could be.  The vet agreed that the snow could have helped the hair stick together in her stomach and I'm thinking it could cause some inflammation issues.  Needless to say I didn't want to always wonder if it was just a coincidence so the tree in all it's snow flocked glory came down!  A big thank you to my BIL for coming over, taking it apart and boxing it up for me!  AB was out of town and I couldn't even get the top part off by myself!

Maybe we'll find one next year, maybe not, after all Christmas isn't about the tree!

Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I think Thanksgiving is a great Holiday, one that makes you sit back and think about all the things you have to be thankful for.  My life is not perfect but I have nothing to complain about; my husband and I both have good jobs, good health and a roof over our heads.  Sometimes I think we take these things for granted because so many people in this world have none of those things! 

I've been studying nonstop this past week but the little part of Thanksgiving I got to participate in was very enjoyable!  I was very thankful that my BIL & SIL hosted this year because A) they live in town which meant I could go and B) I didn't have to do anything.  I know that is terrible but I'm very stressed so it was nice just to show up.  I did contribute a jello and it seemed to be a big hit so I'm not a total loser!  Thursday also happened to be our niece Lilly's birthday.  After we ate our delicious meal, she opened presents and had cake which was fun.  Her cute little boy cousins from my SIL's family were there, the oldest one just cracks me up! 

Today my brain feels like a fried Turkey!  I went to warm up my coffee and stuck it in the refrigerator.  Oy!  I'm very nervous about tomorrow which is weird because I'm usually not nervous but I've passed the other three parts and so this could potentially be my last one!  I got very close the first time  I took it (72, you need a 75) so I'm hoping I've done enough to push me to a passing score.  The part I'm taking covers a lot of material.  Some of it comes very easy to me because I do it every day but most of it just makes my brain hurt!  The test is 4 hours long so if you happen to think of me tomorrow between 1:00pm-5:00pm I would really appreciate you sending some positive vibes my way :)

I want to finish this post by telling you what I am most thankful for this year and that is my husband!  He has been so supportive of me and very encouraging.  He puts up with me when I am an irrational crazy person stressed and pretty much caters to my every need :)  I like giving him a hard time about being super frugal and a Ba-Hum-Bug when it comes to the Holidays but he really is the best!