Recent Artwork

Marcel

Family and Friends, meet Marcel - our fur-nephew. We are his foster parents until we deliver him to his new parents - Will and Lauren. He has a great temperament. Gary and Ruby have been showing him the ropes of living in a home, and he's been a trooper. He's already gone potty outside twice (and not once inside). Of course my favorite Marcel moment today was nap time - he snuggled up for a 2 hour nap and didn't budge the entire time.

This Marcel when we went to go pick him up at the lab. He's a stinky little fellow!

Here he is after his bath! All clean, shiny, and silky smooth!

Chase and Marcel are already pals :)

However, it's been a busy day for Marcel - experiencing the outdoors for the first time - meeting new dogs...

Dog-aholic

So what sort of trouble can I get into now? Last summer we found 3 puppies and the momma dog abandoned in an Arkansas forest. This summer, my mission is to find homes for these adorable little guys! Now, you are probably wondering "what the heck is a creagle?" Well it's a Chinese Crested crossed with a beagle. Why was this odd combo created? The sire of these dogs is a Powder Puff Chinese Crested owned by one of my professors. He carries a gene that causes a Parkinson's like disease. This dog is bred to a beagle in hopes that some of the pups will have and express the gene. Anyway, the normal puppies are vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and adopted out to new owners. I don't think it's ever come to this, but if they aren't adopted they are euthanized. Here's an update on who needs homes still:

Cocoa - Unfortunately died during her spay.
Tootsie - Adopted!
Hershey - Adoption pending
Reeses - adopted
Snickers - Adopted
Nestle - Needs a home!


Chase and I are willing to foster until you can come pick it up should you decide you want one!


Love and peace to all of you!

Beer Butt Chicken

First I prepared the chickens. I trimmed the fat, rinsed the birds off, and spread poultry seasoning (I bought at a store in St. Charles) all over the birds. Then I went to heat up the coals (well actually I called Chase, whined until he came home, and watched while he lit the coals). Notice the two beers on the counter - an integral part of beer butt chicken :)

Now that the coals are nice and grey, open the beer cans, "discard" about a quarter of the beer from each can, and shove them up the rears of the birds. Then sit the birds up on the can and put them on the grill.

I let them cook for about 2 hours (internal temperature of 170) and they turned out just magnificently tender and juicy!

The meal: beer butt chicken, baked beans, peas, corn on the cob, pasta salad, bbq chips, and brownies.

All in all, it was a delicious meal, and I was happy to put to use many of the platters and such that we recieved as wedding presents.

Found a Pony! (Can I keep it?)

And now for something strange...



Last weekend, Chase and I went to Eagle Bluffs to look for birds. Instead of our feathered friends, we found this little guy wandering the street. Of course, I wanted to put my Equine Science minor to work (and perhaps save an animal) so I caught the little fellow. Chase walked through the neighborhood and asked folks if they new someone missing a miniature horse. Finally he located the owners, and I walked the little guy home. How bizarre!

Sometime during the week, my over-excited-"I'm so glad you're finally home"-greyhound, Gary wagged his nearly 3 foot long tail too vigorously. I came home to discover my bland apartment walls had been redecorated Gary-style to resemble a red and white Dalmation. Yikes.... So I bandaged up his clearly broken, bloody tail. We went to the vet, and she shaved it for me, and we discussed amputation. We got home, and her bandaging fell off within 15 minutes. The poor guy had a couple of more bleeds, but as of today he's doing a lot better. It looks like Gary might get to keep his tail after all!

Our porch garden

Chase and I planted many flowers in pots on our porch.

This is citronella :) It's supposed to repel mosquitos!

The tomato is doing quite well! We should have a nice harvest this summer :)

July can't come fast enough...

Here are some random layouts. Credits in my Sweet Shoppe Gallery.

School is school right now... I'm so ready for break! Because of my studies, I've had to miss a handful of weddings I wanted to go to. What a drag! Classes are going pretty well so far - I think I have my sterile techiniqe mostly mastered (although my technical surgery skills and suturing need improvement). I have a test in Equine medicine this Friday that I'm a bit worried about. Hind limb lameness still looks like a normal gait to me... or even worse I consistently choose the wrong leg!


Peace and love to all! Congrates to Leah and Gabes and also to Jonathon and Kristen! It's wonderful to have another girl in the family to help balance it out :) I miss everyone and I'm ready to come home for a visit!

Cria - new life

Latest Layouts

I've been working on scrapping our honeymoon. Oh, did you notice the new layout and title? This is now OUR blog instead of just my blog :) Credits for the layouts are over at Sweet Shoppe or just ask!

Birding Adventures - Eagle Bluffs

Chase bought me a new camera lens so we went out to play with it this weekend. :)



I know they are common birds, but I really like the red winged black birds.

We ended up joining 2 moer vet students and two "Steves" One of which is the uncle to one of my high school buddies!

Favorite shot of the evening!

Honeymoon Scrapbooking

I've started scrapbooking again ^_^ Ask me if you want credits...most of the stuff came from Scrap girls

How to Trade Your Dragon and other musings

"How to TRADE your Dragon" is my lastest swap. It's only my second swap to host so it's limited to 20 participants. But it's already got a waiting list! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!


Chase and I are currently reading a book on marriage called Love and Respect. Although it might be one of the most redundant books I've ever tried to read, he has a lot of observations that I think are very true. It's centered around Ephesians 5:33:

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Men need respect. Women need love. Of course that's not to say that men don't need love or women don't need respect, but respect and love are the primary needs of husbands and wives (respectively). For most couples, it appears to be a lack of these that cause conflict. The husband doesn't feel respected so he reacts poorly to his wife. The wife feels unloved so she disrespects her husband...and etc etc into what Dr. Eggerichs calls the "Crazy Cycle." Anyway, it's been interesting. I've been sure to tell Chase how much (and in what ways) I really respect him. Ladies, if you have a significant other, try telling him in what ways you respect him ^_^ It'll really brighten his day!


I hope everyone is well! Haha, school has been tough lately, but I'll saving the whining for another day! Love and blessings <3>

Hope on the Horizon

Good news! 2 of my 4 exams next week have been moved to the following week! That will make next so much more manageable. I think my blood pressure went down just thinking about it (it was a bit high today when we measured it - that could have been the shots and blood draw).

I had blood work for my rabies titer drawn today. Apparently my veins are tiny - the lady was really embarrassed she had to stick me twice! Haha - the vet students that went before had no problems. I also got my tetanus and H1N1 vaccines today for a grand total of 2 pokes per arm!


Anyway, I'm hosting another swap at ATCsforAll called "How to Trade Your Dragon" It's full already and has a bunch of talented artists signed up! Yay! My first swap went really well - only 2 people (international folks) haven't received their returns yet, but those that have really love the cards they got!


Hopefully I'll have some pictures soon.