Imagination...

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
―Albert Einstein

'The Breakfast Club' Quotes
"Could you describe the ruckus, sir?" -- Brian Johnson, The Breakfast Club
"Screws fall out all the time. The world's an imperfect place."
"Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong, but we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain ... and an athlete ... and a basket case ... a princess ... and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club."
"That's impossible, sir. It's in Johnson's underwear."
Don't mess with the bull, young man. You'll get the horns.


'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' Quotes
"Save Ferris"
"Bueller? ... Bueller? ... Bueller?"
"Not that I condone fascism, or any 'ism' for that matter. Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon: 'I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.' Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus, I'd still have to bum rides off of people. "
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
"They think he's a righteous dude."

'Sixteen Candles' Quotes
"They f***ing forgot my birthday."
"I can't believe I gave my panties to a geek."
"By night's end, I predict me and her will interface."

'National Lampoon's Vacation' Quotes

"The Wagon Queen Family Truckster. You think you hate it now, but wait till you drive it."

'Pretty in Pink' Quotes
"God, Andie, I'd've died for you!"
"Love's a bitch, Duck. Love's a bitch. "
"Well, that's very nice. I'm glad. Well here's... here's the point, Andie. I'm not particularly concerned with whether or not you like me, because I live to like you and... and I can't like you anymore. So... so when you're feeling real low and... and dirty, and your heart is splattered all over hell, don't look to me to pump you back up 'cause... 'cause... 'cause maybe for the first time in your life I won't be there!"
"You said you couldn't be with someone who didn't believe in you. Well I believed in you. I just didn't believe in myself. I love you. Always."

At the homestead

I finally got to see the farm where my grandfather grew up. It was about a two hour ride into the country. His sister still lives at the farm, but about a year ago the house burned and a new house was built. The barn and other out buildings were there and there were few neighbors as far as you could see.
I miss the quiet of the country. If there was any sort of economy there I could be persuaded into moving... tomorrow.

Weird Dreams

Normally I can't remember my dreams once I have woke up and am going through my day. But this one is in my head...

In a nutshell, I was going along and saw someone selling two lawnmowers for $20 each. I ended up buying both.

So, according to Dream Moods -

Lawn Mower
To see a lawn mower in your dream, suggests that you need to channel those negative thinking into positive energy. You need to keep your temper and attitude under control.
Money
To give or spend money in you dream, is analogous to giving love.

Now, what that means for me... I'm not quite sure.

Loving this song

Love this song and the video is great. Love what Kiefer is doing

I miss my kitty friend

As time goes on, I thought I would start missing him less, having the memories to look back upon. So far, I only miss him more and more. At night, I look for him nestled above my head sleeping on my pillow. Or, as he thought, me sleeping on the corner of his kitty throne.

A Xenon update

Xenon had another check-up on Monday and his creatinine didn't go down any further down. It may not go down any further due to his age. So now he is going on a prescription diet kitty kibble to help the kidneys and as long as he doesn't stop eating we don't have to force feed him anymore.
We were worried about whether or not he was going to eat the new food (there was no way he was going to touch soft food, he hates that stuff) but as soon as we got home and put it out he parked in front of it and dug in. If I could, I would have done cartwheels!
Now we are doing the fluids every other day and may go down even further in the future depending on how his health is doing. He absolutely hates that part, but he'll just have to deal with it since it's for his own good.
We will have to wait to see, but overall, things were promising for now. His doctor thinks we have about two years left with him if all goes well. I'm glad we know that so we can prepare ourselves mentally. If he would have left us all of a sudden I would have been devastated. I'm glad we have a little extra lovin' time so spend with our special guy.

Still recovering

Xenon is starting to eat on his own. Not as much as he used to, but I don't think he has been eating normally for over a month. We are still force feeding him (good times) but at least he is showing interest in his kitty kibble. He definately wants to cuddle anytime you lie down, nestling in to get super comfy. Ever the big James Bond fan that he is, we finally got to see Casino Royale and he gives it two paws up.

Finally some good news!

The vet thinks he is doing quite well. She is very happy he is looking good and is very attentive. His creatinine level was 3.8 today, which is down from 7 last Thursday and down from 18 on last week. It's amazing that the levels have gone so low in such a short amount of time. This is such a good sign! Since he's still not eating, we still need to force feed him and she gave him an appetite enhancer and hopefully he will start eating like normal. He only needs the fluids every other day now which is another promising sign. We couldn't be happier with the news. We are hoping for continued improvement for our little guy!

Looking better

Xenon is starting to look better as time goes by. He is still not eating on his own so we have to feed him. We also have to give him subcutaneous fluids once a day. That's the easy part. He hates the force feeding of the food so much! He still seems a little weak, but he's getting back to his normal personality; he's very demanding of petting, wants attention, and cuddles more now. We'll find out more later at his appointment.

[This photo is from 4.4.08]

Xenon is home!!

And he is looking much better. Still not sure how things are going to pan out, but it is good to have him here. He needs 200mL of fluids everyday yet and we have to go back on Monday for a recheck on his kidney function.
I set up a kitty buffet of sorts with different cat foods to see if I could entice him to eat something. He sniffed them, but he didn't eat anything yet. If he doesn't eat anything tonight I will have to force feed him. Not something I want to do, but if I must, then force feed I will. I think he's happy to be home - 5 days at the vet is not fun. I'm sure it's just like when people are sick... who wants to eat when they feel miserable. His other favorite foods include chips, turkey, string cheese, and french fries. So far he has only shown interest... no nibbles.
I can't thank our vet enough either. We normally go to the "cats only" part of the clinic and had to go to the other half on Monday when his regular vet was gone. It turned out to be a blessing because the care he received there was amazing. I don't think I have ever met a more caring, compassionate, and generous staff (and with all the pets, jobs, and volunteering we have had over the years, we have met many people in that field.. We really think that without them we would be picking up his ashes, and not our lovey kitty. Yes, there is a lot to be thankful of today!

[This photo is from 8.23.07]

Homecoming

Xenon is coming home from the hospital today!

They have done everything they can for him to this point and feel it would be best for him to be in his own surroundings. He is still not out of the woods yet, but he has improved quite a bit so we will just need to wait and see what happens. All we can do is hope for the best. We do have some challenges; we need to make sure he is eating (which he hasn't done on his own while there) and we will have to give him subqtaneous fluids to make sure to keep his kidneys functioning. I just hope he cooperates with us. Then on Monday or Tuesday he'll need to go back in to see how his kidneys are. Kidney function was up to 18, and have gotten down to 7 (should be 2) so we will see what happens over the weekend. I can't wait to go get him... it will be a long five hours. I have missed him so much!! He went in on Monday, and it has been a very long week.

He is such a goofball.

[This photo is from 9.12.07]

Baby Update

No baby pictures today since he wan't cooperating during the ultrasound, maybe we'll get some next time. But he is 4 pounds 12 ounces so far. Babies usually grow about a pound every two weeks from now on out, so that means this might be another 9 pound baby. We'll have to see!! Only another 62 days left to go (31 weeks/1 day pregnant).

Update

Just got an update on Xenon. After a half bag of the IV overnight, he's appearing more alert and he is urinating which is good news for the kidneys. He had not thrown up once, another good sign. He still has not felt like eating.

They are going to test his electrolytes and creatine function this afternoon, which will tell us if his kidneys have bounced back. If the numbers show an improvement we will hope for the best. If there is no change, we have a really tough decision to make. We don't want him to suffer, and when it's apparent there is no hope for recover or he starts to go downhill I don't want to prolong the inevitable.

He's a fighter, so we are hoping for the best, but have really braced ourselves for the worst. I don't expect people to understand our love for our cat. He has been with us for 12 1/2 years and way before we had children. He was our child for so long, and to be given this news has been very difficult. Some people don't look at pets the way we do and would never ever spend the money on something like this. I don't care if they don't understand. We are the ones who were blessed with his love for so long.

It's just that 12 years wasn't enough.

[This photo is from 1.13.07]

Xenon hospitalized

Xenon took a turn for the worse this weekend. I brought him to the vet this morning and after checking his levels, his kidneys are failing.

[This photo is from 4.8.07]

New baby pics

This is at 85 days (2 months, 24 days) left to go.

My 11 year old cat is just not acting himself lately. He's not his happy go lucky, pushy for attention self. I took him to the vet and the bloodwork came back OK and they can't find anything wrong, just that he was a little dehydrated. I don't see any evidence that he got into anything either. Nevertheless, I am VERY worried about him. He's resting today and hopefully will be back to normal soon.

[This photo is from 2.26.08]

A word on style

I guess that about explains it. I'm not a big fan of the new layouts I have been seeing in the layout galleries. I guess I don't like the wasted spaces in layouts, perhaps because I love doing paper layouts and know that look doesn't transfer well, and the missing journaling bugs me. I think of it as an undated photo, and that really bugs me.
We all have our favorites, and those aren't mine. There is such a wide variety of taste and style out there... why do magazines and websites keep glorifying the same, and more of the same. If one is good, then are a million even better? I doubt it. There is no way you can cater to every scrapbooking taste but why would you cater to only one.

New baby pics

It's excitimg to see pictures of the new baby-before they get here!! Only four months and 17 days till he arrives.

Hate rejection

This is why I typically don't enter contests. Apparently my layouts aren't "good enough" and layouts with three elements were what they were looking for. Nevertheless, I like my style think my layouts are great and serve as wonderful memories for my family.