A Sad Day

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 13 Comments

We have to say good-bye to two of our family today.  Two of our cats–whom we welcomed into our home about three years ago–are not adjusting well to the second addition to our family.  They have stopped using their litter boxes and have made it impossible for us to keep them.  We are sad to see them go.  I am more sad, because I know that the chances of them finding a home a slim–they are close to four years old and lets be honest there is a pet-over population problem.  I feel horrible knowing that there is a real chance that I am sending them to their death and I am sick knowing that.  But I have to look out for the health and safety of my children and it isn’t good or healthy for safe for that matter for them to be around cat excrement and I am tired of washing and cleaning places I shouldn’t have to.  I have a hard enough time keeping the places I need to clean. 

The vet whom we adopted them from has agreed to take them back and made sure I knew that they couldn’t promise placement.  I wish I didn’t have to do this and it is so so sad. 

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This is them as kittens.  They are still just as cute.  Damnit!

Tossing and Turning

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 7 Comments

Peepers wants to sleep.  She tries to sleep.  She gets whiny in her sleep.  But….She tosses and turns all night.  She has the hardest time finding a comfortable position.  She is sleeping in our bed with us.  She will sometimes get lucky and find a spot and fall asleep and stay asleep for 3+ hours but other times every 45 minutes or so she is tossing and turning and moving trying to find a comfortable spot.  I wonder if she wouldn’t sleep better by herself?  It’s been a while (our second night home) since we have tried to have her sleep on her own–in the pack-n-play in our room.  I am wondering if she would be better off in her own bed? 

She doesn’t wake up much at night to eat anymore and more often than not–she rejects a bottle to settle her down in the middle of the night.  She just can’t find that way she wants to sleep.  We have wanted to wait to put her up in her room until she sleeps a little better, as we don’t want Minnow to wake up every time Peepers does.  Minnow is a pretty sound sleeper, but his hyper-aware sometimes of what his sister is doing.  I just want her to be able to get a good night sleep and for me to be able to help her.  We are past, it seems, the long crying jags at nighttime and she has settled into a bedtime and is pretty easy to put down, but keeping her down is hard because she just can’t find that right spot. 

Maybe she needs more room.  Maybe she has too much room?  I just wish I had the answer.  Anyone out there have any suggestions or profound expertise they would like to share with me?  I am open to just about any suggestion. 

Thanks.  

Friday Weigh In and A Sleep Update

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

First we’ll start with the weigh in.  I must absolutely recommend adding more children to help with weight loss.  I am really hard pressed to find time to eat and to prepare food.  I know this isn’t ideal, but I have been lucky enough to prepare leftovers of healthy food to be eaten.  I have not been as diligent in counting points, etc., but I know that I haven’t been going over on points.  I am down another 1.4 lbs this week for a 7 week total of 10.8lbs.  I am happy and content with the rate of weight loss.  I have come to accept that fast is not good and that slow and steady really does win the race.  I have 14.2lbs to lose before September 27th–which is 10 weeks away.  At my current rate, I should make it by then.  Yay!  I just to have to stay committed and on track.  Thanks for all the support.

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Peepers is sleeping more/better.  There are touch and go moments and still bouts of crying for an hour or so because she is so tired but can’t fall asleep–but she is now managing 3+ hour stretches at a time.  It is amazing how little sleep you can get by with it you get to have your 90 minute cycles of sleep.  She is still gaing weight at a fast pace she is .2lbs away from 15lbs–which puts her at nearly 3lbs gained in 3 weeks.  She is growing and changing and is relatively happy–but boy does this girl want to get in on the action.  She gets so mad that she can’t crawl and even more mad that she can’t stand and walk.  She’ll be walking too soon for my liking.  

Because I Need To Write About Something Other Than My Children

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

I love learning new things and try very hard to not just buy the line that the media and political machine try to feed me. Sometimes, I just don’t have the knowledge to reject the propaganda and therefore, I tend to ignore it as I am pretty confident they aren’t telling me the whole truth or even a part of it sometimes. 

This post is about oil.  Not the kind you cook with, although that might be an interesting topic.  I have always been anti-more drilling especially up in Alaska where the land is untouched and should stay that way.  I also wish we would take the money that it costs to drill a well (50-100 million bucks each) and invest in alternative energy sources and technology.  But we are a country controlled by money and by big oil so we continue to plug along “in love” with big oil. 

I have never understood the whole “lets gets more oil here in the U.S. and not have to be dependent on foreign oil.”  I knew this was not how it worked, but I never really understood the complexities of the industry and this global economy.  Well, I am now enlightened.  Not completely enlightened, but more so than I was before.  I was listening to talk radio the other day and they were talking about the oil industry and how it really works.  I was fascinated as I had no real idea about it at all. 

Drilling for more oil in the U.S. will in no way lessen our dependence on foreign oil.  Why not you ask?  Good question.  Oil is sold on a global market which means that oil pumped from the U.S. doesn’t ensure sale to the U.S.  Because oil isn’t a government operation here in the U.S. like in other countries (Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iraq) we don’t keep it for ourselves it goes onto the global market and then the U.S. buys oils from this market at a price decided on by the traders who determine the price.  I think that this is so interesting and really cements for me the amount of propaganda the comes out of the GOP.  More oil in America does not mean more oil for America.  This reinforces my disgust for big oil and my desire to own one of Honda’s new hydrogen cars.  If only I still lived in California. 

We need to educate ourselves as consumers and make sure we understand the economy and how it works the best we can so that we can make informed decisions about whom and what we support.