Blog to help the animals... Count me in!

As you all know Riley is my little rescue and my heart. Hallie is also a rescue that belongs to my parents. Both of these dogs have given so much without even trying. They have mended hearts and taught love. To read both there stories click here and right here. This week bloggers every where will participate in a blog hop that will hopefully help homeless and abused pets everywhere.  So join in! Blog about why adoption and spay/neuter is so important. Blog about your success as an adopted mommy or daddy. Blog about volunteering. We can band together. We can make this change. Even if we just get one dog adopted, or open one persons eyes. Blog for love... blog for the animals.  Stay tuned for my post July 23rd.

 Click here to join in!

B is for Beauty

I have read a few of the other "B" blogs and it seems that this one is the one that is the most honest. "A" seemed to be a gate to more open blogs to come. Mine is no exception. This is going to be a very honest post, that will be very hard to write.

B is for beauty. I see beauty in the small things. My husband says its part of my charm. Give me anything and I will find beauty. However, there is one thing that I sometimes have a hard time finding beauty in, and that is myself.

I was never the skinny girl. In elementary school it didnt really bother me, but when I hit middle school kids got mean. Appearance was everything. I went to school in the rich part of town and everyone wore designer clothes. It's hard to wear designer clothes, when the designers think that everyone is a size 00. I still managed to win people over with my sense of humor and charm. My group of friends grew, but my confidence was still lacking.

Then came highschool, I was terrified the first day. My best friend and I walked in and this really cute guy was stnding there with like ten girls around him. Em described him as eye candy. I thought to myself, she may be able to hang with these guys but not me. I felt 2 inches tall. Three months later I was dating Mr. Eye-candy. It was awful. We dated on and off for 18 months, but never went out with his friends. I felt like he was ashamed of me, so I threw myself into riding 6 horses a day, instead of just my one and ate the bare minimum. I got down to a size 6. It wasnt worth it, he still didnt make it publicly known that I was his.  Then came the major blow... I over heard from some of the popular girls that when he told me he was at his grandmothers for the weekend he was actually with another girl. I found out about her, she found out about me and we both dumped him. I had low enough self-esteem to take him back though. I got thrown from one of the horses and broke my elbow. He went on Spring Break without me. He came back and dumped me for a girl a year younger than us, that he had spent spring break with.

After that I gained weight steadily. I felt awful about myself, so I turned to food. That made me feel worse and it was a vicious cycle. I needed a boost. I met Nerd my junior year of highschool (read our story here).  He made me feel beautiful. My confidence soared with him, but I still never lost the weight. We got married and I actually gained more. I guess because I was so comfortable with him. I am really lucky. No matter what he, tells me I am beautiful or sexy or hot at least a dozen times a day. I am thankful that I have him and that he loves me for me. At the same time, I need to get healthy. I want to think I am beautiful too. There are some days I wake up and think, My hair looks great or I have great emerald green eyes, but I want to wake up and think, I am healthy and that is sexy.

 Today I started a weight loss blog. You can check it out at this location. I hope it helps me stay motivated. I think if I know the public is watching me, I will try harder not to fail.

 I am beautiful. Time to get healthy.

This week in a list

I have decided that on Fridays, I am going to start re-capping my week in list form. I love lists! They are short and to the point. These lists will include accomplishments, trials, and neat things I have found throughout the week. So here it is.... the first "Friday - week in a list recap"

1) Revival was at church this week. It is the first Revival in that I haven't been able to attend in a long time. Work has been insane, but I do plan on going tomorrow morning and night. I really missed everyone there. 

2) It rained this week! We needed it so bad. 106 degrees sucks. Plus, I love summer thunderstorms. Last night I went to Suz's house and we sat around and talked and listened to the storm with her awesome little beagle, Natty. When I got home I took my dogs out. It was pouring so I took them to the barn. Lacey promptly broke out of her collar and took off! I spent 15 minutes in the thunder and lightning chasing a min pin. At that moment I wasn't so enthused with the storm. 

3) I am on a vintage kick! I have always love antiques and vintage things but this week I have had the urge to throw out everything new and replace it with vintage models. My sister found a vintage fan ( like this one ) and kicked her modern one to the curb... I am super jealous. I must find one. 

4) Thursday was a bad day. Duke, my aunts beloved black lab, had to be put to sleep. They found a tumor and his organs were shutting down. It was heart breaking, but what had to be done. Duke has been the family since my cousin and I were 12 and 8, so he was part of the family. Everyone took turns saying goodbye before the vet showed up. He wagged his tail at each goodbye. I am convinced that dogs get to go first because they understand how to love unconditionally before we do. 

5) As you can all see, I am new to this whole blogging thing. I started this thing awhile ago but I have never had enough to say set enough time aside for me. Now I am doing that and I am addicted! The stress that goes away with each post is amazing. I want to thank ya'll for taking time to check in this week. Watching my views go up has really helped me stay on track. You guys are making me feel like what I have to say is actually worth listening to!

small annoyances. . .

I love my husband. Most days I adore him. He works 100 hours every other week and 40 hours on his short weeks to provide for me. On his weekends off he heads to my family's farm to work to keep the place self sustaining, because he knows it's the house that built me. But even with all of this love and admiration there comes small annoyances. One fear, I noticed today, is his fear of the trashcan. The man is terrified of it. Taking out the trash is his only chore around here! Yet, he will pile trash all the way up the wall to keep from taking it out. It takes more time to balance and play Jenga with the trash then it does to take it out. This morning I turned to throw out my q-tip from putting on my make-up and the trash was piled up. So I went to the kitchen to toss the bathroom in the trash so it could all be taken out. It was piled so high that there was no way to even fit a q-tip. UGH!!! I shook my head and took it out myself, growling the whole way of course. 


We get to work, yes we work together and yes it's stressful, and I notice that the trash there is overflowing too.  I work with fifteen men and they would rather watch me take out the trash then get near the scary contraption. Then it hit me... Oscar the Grouch did this. Every grown man around me watched Sesame Street as a child and still believes that Oscar is in the trashcans. This is the only logical explanation as to why their eye get wide with fear when I suggest they help out and take out the trash. So if anyone knows of an Oscar the Grouch exterminator I would appreciate it. I am sick of being the clean up crew every where I go. 

I am lazy.

Photo by: Captured Moments- Anna
My Wreck the Dress photos in the hay field at the farm. 

So I am not really lazy but after a weekend at the farm I am so bad! My first thought this morning was " why cant I be the farmer's wife today too?" Seriously, not to brag... okay I am bragging... My weekend was amazing! What does a girl do at the farm all day, you ask? Here's what ya do when playing the hobby farmer's wife. Well,  technically since dad owns it and is there too I am also playing the farmer's daughter. anyways here's the schedule....

8:00- Wake up, make my way to the front porch and watch the fish and turtles play in the river. 

8:30- Shower- throw on my most comfy jeans and tank top, those almost unacceptable for public wear.

8:45- Make the hubby yummy breakfast or just let him pick up yummy biscuits from the lady in town who makes the biscuits that I am convinced will be served in Heaven. 

9:00- Eat breakfast while watching my favorite scenery. I usually choose the river but the cows aren't bad to watch either. 

10-1ish - Drive around on the gator or 4 wheeler and check fence lines and cows. If I find any issues I tell the hubby and dad because fixing fences is hard and I am sure I would just mess things up.  

1-2ish- Attempt to pet and love on all the cows that will let me touch them. Run from the ones that look angry. 

2-3ish- NAP- I like choose the back of a four wheeler under the huge oak or pecan trees but in the hammock over the river is not bad. Getting into the hammock is a challenge though. It hangs over a cliff so you basically have to jump and pray you don't land in the river below.  

3-5ish- Find the men and watch them work while discussing all the stuff  I've accomplished today. 

6-10ish make dinner find a movie, book or campfire

Then I sleep and do it all again the next day!!! I love the farm!!! That is why on Monday I am pretty much worthless and every customer who comes in contact me must think they have stumbled into the DMV. I can feel myself shooting daggers for asking me to work. I am not mean to them, just a little slow checking them out. Oh well, people around here need to slow the heck down anyways! Maybe they all need a farm weekend, just not at our farm... that's my haven. 

Water = insant grace.. NOT!

      I am not a graceful human being. At all. I think its because I have huge boobs and never participated in typical hand/eye coordination sports. I started an equestrian- tried gymnastics (fail. they expect you to be balanced and poised. HA)- and today I am still an equestrian. The horse makes me seem graceful, and that makes me love them that much more. But I thought everyone was graceful in water. Am I mistaken? We are supposed to float about and appear graceful, right? Well apparently not me.
      You see we have some new Yankee friends, straight from New York. I thought we would show them a Georgia summer the right way. You know, Lakes, pontoons, tubing down the 'Hooch and all that jazz. Well Mr. Yankee ( we call him no- pants- Lance, Lance for short) hates water. He is very cat-like. Ms. Yankee, however, is like me... part fish. She is much more graceful than me. She can dive off the boat, I pretty much belly flop or fall into the water. Anyways, we forced Lance into a lake day. He actually enjoyed it and even jumped in! Although mid jump he kinda panicked and grabbed for the boat, slicing his finger open on the ladder in the process. He survived though!
      Ms. Yankee and I decided since our first lake outing was so successful, we would plan another water filled outing. This time, we would go tubing. The morning of our adventure Ms. Yankee text me to say that we are not going because Lance decided to work on the basement. I talked her into going without him and then promptly texted him and told him we absolutely needed him for this group outing. My hubs (we call him the nerd because he researches everything!!!) had this all figured out and he was going! I even told him Nerd was going to cry, in the end Ms. Yankee told to the old faithful trick and turned on the water works. Lance had to go at that point.
     We drove the hour and a half to Helen and rented our tubes. We loaded the bus with about a hundred other people and away we went. When we got to the drop off point there was a huge debate over whether to get a tube with a hole or without. We all chose without, except Lance. I think he was still nervous. We go to get into the tubes and wouldnt you know, everyone else gets in no problem. I fall in flat on my ass and my tube goes floating away. I catch it, get back in and we start our leisure float down the river.
Well we quickly decide we should have got those nifty little straps that would hold us all together. The four of us grabbing one another's hands, tubes and ankles just didn't work. We eventually just drifted apart. The river was so low Nerd spent a lot of his time stuck and walking with one guy while I floated with his wife. I got stuck with a group of really fun drunks and then some not so fun drunks. I found two snakes, one poisonous, one that was not... Thank God I didn't bite. Towards the end we finally got all connected, thanks to ms. Yankee, who got some straps. We were then able to help one another off rocks and we had a blast. Next time we will take sticks and straps to make navigating easier. Lance even said he was up for white water rafting next... I don't know if he ever will though.

"A" is for Animal Lover

I was visiting a Friend's blog  and found that she was participating in a bloggers challenge. I need inspiration some days, so this is perfect! Plus it will force me to maybe actually think about who I am and what makes me who I am. Win-Win.  She found her inspiration at a fellow blogger named Kate . Kate is the mastermid of this and I read through her blog. She is great. Her letter "A" was autism. Her story made me cry. I was proud of her for her strength and I don't even know her. Seriously, yall should read it. It inspired me and that's what this is all about.

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I spent all week thinking about what my "A" blog could be. Annoying, academic, A.L.S, Anna, Awkward,  Aspire, Awesome. In the end I asked my co-worker, let's call her Buzz ( she is addicted to caffeine!). She looked at me like I was an idiot. I thought I must have my shirt inside out or something in my teeth. Nope, to her, who had not been thinking on this for days, the answer was obvious...

I am an animal lover. I know, a lot of people are, but my love for animals is returned  ten  make that a hundred times over. There is a running joke among everyone around me that if an animal is lost, injured or homeless it will find me. Everywhere I go I find an animal. In the middle of Atlanta at a museum, I found a kitten. I cannot even count the emails that come in weekly filled with animals that people think I can find homes for. People I don't even know. I have never even advertised as a rescuer. I have nursed a wild hummingbird, as well as a wild dove back to health. I have taken in dogs, helped people nurse theirs back to health and I have had some amazing encounters.

One of my greatest opportunities ever, was a chance to volunteer at Chestatee Wildlife Preserve. My husband (then boyfriend) and I went on a cute date there. At that time a severe drought in Georgia had caused a water shortage. Nerd and I went to the local store and bought as much water as we could and took it back to them. We were talking to the owner and he mentioned that everyone there volunteered. I knew I had found my place. 2 weeks later I was in a Chestatee Volunteer t-shirt being told I was about to help a fellow volunteer, R, feed the lions, tigers and cougars. Adrenaline rush! I gladly dug in up to my elbows into raw chicken and special vitamins. It smelt awful,but the instant love for those cats numbs you to all the gross poop and smells you encounter. I was feeding three lion juveniles and in that moment I knew my life changed.

Me with Utah the wolf. 

The next couple years, the fellow volunteers became my family. I needed my weekends with them. It was comic relief. We laughed, got frustrated and worked along side of one another every weekend. I trusted these people with my life. Literally. I worked with bears, lemurs, lions, alligators and birds. I have walked a bear, wolf and tiger on leash. I nursed leopard babies. I got over my fear of snakes and actually found a love for them. I prepared elaborate food spreads for monkeys and made a bond with a ringtail lemur that can not be broken. I also spent some time with some rescue chimps that taught me to look past aggresive behavior, be patient and the reward is great. One of those chimps still remembers me when I go back. Even after 3 years. I have met some of the most amazing people through the Preserve. We worked with children with cancer, that taught me to embrace everyday, as I taught them to love animals as you would a fellow human. More importantly I gained a family. One that I love as if we were blood related. They taught me a ton, listened when I needed to vent or cry, and knew when I needed to spend some times with some of my favorite furry buddies with no interruptions. I miss them all so much. 

Sadly, the preserve got put on the back burner because of my show horses. I have made several attempts to go back, but things just never go right. I get injured, money gets tight. It never fails. I hope that one day soon things go right so I can get my butt back up there. That is if they will have me. In the mean time I am helping any animal I can, when ever they cross my path.