A Christmas Present... and more about snow.

My brother and sister in law sent me a 25$ gift certificate to help the poor. I was really looking forward to that 100$ certificate to Target, dammit. I.AM.THE.POOR. why couldn't you send money to ME! Oh the selfishness of me, but I digress..

A gift certificate to help the poor, they mean poorer than me. They are all into that stuff right now, hopefully that'll change next year... err umm.. yeah, they are all into that stuff, which is a good thing really. I think it comes from the fact that they recently adopted an adorable little girl from Ethiopia, Averie Lyn, *rummaging through emails.. I think I have a picture of her in here somewhere* oh, ok, there it is.

That's my nephew Austin with her. I have another niece too, she's not in this picture. They are 4,(Austin)3(Allison) and 2(Averie Lyn) kudo's to my brother and SIL, not just for adopting Averie, but for having 3 kids so close to the same age... Me? I waited 6 years in between all 3 of mine. I mean come on, they needed to be older in order to help feed, change and push the stroller, cause I'm too lazy.. err I believe that everyone helps out in the house one way or another...

So, back to my Christmas present. It was actually pretty cool. I went to the website OptiNow. It's for Entrepreneurs in impoverished countries. I wanted to find a mother, married or not, didn't matter. As long as she was a mother. That narrowed it down a little bit. From there, I wasn't really sure what else I wanted other than a very poor country, more so than others.

I choose Ghana. Which really narrowed it down more. At first I decided to find an artist, but in Ghana there weren't any, so I looked around a bit. For some reason I wanted to stay away from retailers of clothing and toys, preferring to find someone that was starting/running a business that people actually need. (I know, people need clothing and kids should have toys, but wrap a sheet around you and play in the dirt.. see you CAN live without either of those two things)

So that narrowed it down even more. What CAN'T you live without... Food. Ahh, a grocery store or mini mart, which in Ghana they don't have mini marts, nor does it seem that they have actual grocery stores, at least not what we are use to here in America. Outdoor veggie stands, small one room markets... that's what they seem to have.

I looked around a bit, didn't take long since I'd narrowed it down to about 8 people. And then, I found her.

Comfort Dufie. (more info on her can be found here Comfort Dufie) Don't you just LOVE her name? That's what first attracted me to her. She's my age, married and has 4 children. Her name caught my eye and it was just icing on the cake that she was in Ghana and had 4 children. I know she was married and there was probably some single mothers out there that needed that 25$ and picking someone because of their name is silly, but hey it was my Christmas gift and I got to do with it what I wanted and she is the one I wanted to help out. So I did and felt good about it. I might have felt better if I'd had that 100$ gift certificate to Target (I KNOW, I am selfish you don't have to point that out to me, although I had intended on buying presents for the kids with my gift certificate, so that balances it out, no?), but nevertheless I felt good helping someone else..She still needs 675$ to complete the "loan" she wants. (check out the website to see how all that works) I think if I can, every few months I might send her a little bit to get her closer to her goal.
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Snow. There is no school today because of the snow. For those of you who have never heard of such a thing, it's called a "snow day". The boy has had snow days before, from living back east for 4 years. The girl, never has had a snow day in her life, but then she has lived in Vegas since she was 8 weeks old. Yes, I know that doesn't make sense, another time I'll explain why she didn't live back east with us too. Long story and this is already a long post, plus I'd like to go back to bed, being that it's 6am and I don't have to take her to school today...

So, yeah, they have a "snow day" even though the snow appeared to have stopped sometime during the night, but Vegas shuts down during storms like this (even big rain storms cause Vegas to become semi immobilized. So imagine what happens when we get snow!). It looks like I got about 4-5 inches here, Henderson got about 8 inches. Mt. Charleston got 11 inches. We definitely set records here yesterday and through the night.

According to the news, it looks like we may get some snow or rain on Christmas, which would be way cool! Right now, there are still roads closed down. IF I had wanted to or needed to get out of Vegas last night, I couldn't have, unless I was going to Utah. The roads were shut down at Stateline, so you couldn't get to California (or come into Vegas for that matter)Railroad Pass was shut down, which meant you couldn't get to Laughlin or in my case, to Phoenix should they have called me letting me know that Dad was getting a new heart. (I couldn't have gone anyways, since I'm flat freaking broke) You could BARELY get from one side of town to another.

Ok, well, I better get some more sleep in, a few more hours. The kids won't be up for a couple more hours and won't wake me up any how.. one of the benefits of having kids old enough to take care of themselves. Yay, kids! And if you are wondering, it's 34 degrees here, cold cold cold. Rio doesn't like it much at all. Shylo was loving it last night, we'll see how she reacts today, with snow still on the ground. And gazeline, my daughters dog, liked the snow too, but being so little (she's 4 pounds and will not get any bigger) she was shivering each time we took her out. Cold, but enjoying it. The cats? They are indoor cats, but occasionally will sneak outside (mostly America does this, but Tiger and Blizzard have been known to run out every once in a while) all of them were making noise till late at night...not sure why though, they are usually pretty quiet.

One last thing. My olive tree in the front yard, lost 4 branches from the snow. Now I need to find someone that has a chainsaw or ax. The trash people won't take the branches as big as they are. (I know this because one branch broke off Monday from the 50+mph winds and they didn't take it yesterday)I just hope that I can get it taken care of before my landlady sees it AND I'm still hoping that one branch that is right over my living room doesn't snap off. I'm nervous that if it does, it'll come through the house. Hope with me that it doesn't do that!!

Off to get a few more hours of sleep!

Animal House...

I really should live on a farm. At one point we had 2 dogs, 6 ferrets, 7 cats (including kittens) a couple of hamsters and lets not forget the black widows that keep making their webs near my front door, no matter how many times I set it on fire....

We are now owned by 3 dogs and 6 cats (2 are kittens). I thought I would share a couple of pictures and their bio's with you all, whoever you are all.. I only have pictures of the dogs and my cat, Blizzard.

I don't seem to have a picture of Rio on this computer, I'll have to take a few at a later date. Rio is a Border collie/Australian husky mix. Black with white boots, a white stripe down her nose that has black freckles,with icy blue eyes. Rio is the best behaved dog in the world. In the 2 years we have had her, I've heard her bark, one time. Occasionally she will talk to me and she's an attention hog. She paws you to pet her and if your petting another dog, she'll bud in to get petted also. She sits, lays down, gets down, shakes and high fives. She also goes into her cage on her own when she's been bad. She guards her rawhide bone, even though she doesn't chew on it. Lately she's been taken to growling at Shylo when she gets close to the bone, something I've never seen her do before. (picture of Rio to follow in a few days)

Shylo is a purebred Australian Husky. (don't let the picture of her fool you) She's wild as can be. I've had her for about 7 months. She'll be a year old in Dec. She talks to me all the time and barks outside at people too close to the house. She growls at Rio when Rio goes near the food bowl, if Shylo is there first. If a rawhide bone is left unattended, she will grab it and run into the boys room, usually leaving it on his bed. There has been up to 8 bones at one time on his bed. I've only been able to teach her to sit and get the hell off my bed.She also has those icy blue eyes.

Then we have my cat Blizzard, who's just a year old. When he was born his back legs looked like frog legs and I figured no one would want him, so I made him mine or rather, he made me his. He jumps on the bed, puts his paws on my chest, rubs the top of his head on my chin. If I am laying down, he likes the top of his head kissed. (I have very strange animals)If that rare ocassion that I have a man over, Blizzard gets pissed. He sleeps with me every night, so in his mind, he punishes me by not being around for a few days, sleeping somewhere else other than with me. He's also a life saver. More than once I've woken up to him in my face, scratching me, while I'm gasping for air. I've stopped breathing a few times at night and he wakes me up. You can't tell in this picture, but he has the icy blue color eyes that Rio and Shylo have.

Then we have gazelin, our newest addition to the house. She is 5 months old. Chihauhau/shi tzu mix. She weighs 4 pounds and won't be getting any bigger. She is the girls dog. I paid 100$ for her. The day after we brought her home, we left for Phx. We took her with us, since I found a hotel that allowed dogs. The day we came home, I received a phone call from the woman who I bought gazelin from, telling me that a few of her puppies had come down with parvo. Gazelin had been lethargic for a couple of days and my gut feeling before the phone call was that she had parvo. We took her to the vet who didn't give us much hope, but did give us 200$ in medication for us to give her at home. Was either that or she stays at the vets for 300$ a night..Ummm.. no, I don't think so! We got lucky, she pulled through. She's not trained, just barely housebroken, but she goes in her cage at night and doesn't whine about it. She loves to give kisses and follows the girl around everywhere. Personally, I think she looks like gizmo the gremlin...you be the judge..

My other cats are Tiger, who's an 8 year old orange tabby.. that's what we get for letting a 7 year old girl name him. (we've had him since birth), he weighs about 30 pounds and is going bald. America, he's also an orange tabby, the boy wanted to name him red white and blue, thus the name America. He's 7 years old and we've had him since he was a few months old. Baby is a girl and keeps having kittens. (yes, I know, if I got her fixed that wouldn't happen, but I can't afford it just yet)I don't like baby much, well, no one in the house really likes her. The only time she is friendly is when she is in heat. Bah. Noodle is 8 months old, one of baby's kittens, she's a very dark calico.. truth be told, I'm trying to find a home for both baby and noodle (my daughter names all the cats, except Blizzard and America)and then there is Salt. A completely black kitten from babys last litter. Salt is the only animal in the house that is smaller than gazelin, so gazelin thinks salt is her very own personal toy.

So there you have it...

Life, in the animal house.