crystal211

This idea is too cool - I'm jealous. The Cat's House

I've got a group on Facebook - Getting Fit & Staying Healthy - and I've decided to host a 2 month long Challenge (and if it goes well and everyone likes it, there will be more to come).

It's going to be run on a message board because the discussion boards on Facebook are a bit lacking.

Here's the basic rules:


"Welcome to our first Challenge of 2010. This Challenge will run from February 1 - March 31.

All participants will set a goal for themselves that they'd like to meet during the duration of the Challenge. That goal can be to lose weight, to maintain the weight they're at, to meet a certain goal, or to alter something about their lifestyle to make it healthier.

We will also have a weekly challenge for everyone to meet. Everyone will earn points for their progress.

A message board is being created (I'll post the link on the wall here in the next few days) for us to run the challenge, track points, and to chat about our progress and get/give support.

Winners will get the satisfaction of knowing that you have really challenged yourself to lead a healthier lifestyle and the opportunity to make some great friends and get the support you need along the way!

This event is open to everyone, so pass it along to any of your friends that may be interested."


If you're interested in joining, you can join up at our Facebook Event Page and on the forum - and feel free to invite anyone else who may benefit from it as well.

It was a great 7 months. I was so happy to hear he was taking over, and I can honestly say I watched EVERY episode of his Tonight Show (thank god for Hulu!). I can't express my giddiness watching the opening of his first episode to "Surrender" in which he ran from NYC to California. I loved having him and Andy back together, it was a great show.

Screw NBC. This isn't the first thing I've bitched about regarding them, they need to get their heads out of their asses.

Conan Thanks Fans, NBC on Final 'Tonight' Show

NEW YORK (AP) -- Conan O'Brien said on his final "Tonight" show that walking away is the hardest thing he's ever had to do.

He ended his tenure on the storied late-night show Friday, seven months after he started. He is set to be replaced by the man he initially took over for -- Jay Leno.

Before ending his show, O'Brien thanked his fans, the viewers and even NBC. He worked at the network for two decades before leaving in lieu of accepting a demotion.

Despite his sense of loss, O'Brien says the end should be a happy moment. O'Brien says "every comedian dreams of hosting the 'Tonight' show and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second."

He says, "If our next gig is doing a show in a 7-Eleven parking lot, we'll find a way to make it fun."


Source

I watched 'Paranormal Activity' tonight and really enjoyed it. I went into it not knowing what the expect because it's 50/50 all over the place, you either love it or hate it.

I did enjoy the alt ending to the one they chose, I felt it was more believable (and actually halfway through I was hoping that's how it would end, lol!) - the ending they went with was a bit corny but definitely a more "hollywood scary movie" ending.

I had experiences with the Ouija board as a kid and there's still things to this day that remain unexplained...so I'm a believer. I would like to find out how that works out between those who like it and those that hate it - do they believe in ghosts or not?

Definitely worth the money IMO....I'm hard to scare and I had the chills throughout most of the movie.

This is bullshit, I'm so angry about NBC's stupid moves concerning the whole stupid 'Jay Leno Show.' His show is sucking because he's a moron, not because of his time slot.

Conan will prevail

Time for a random post from me - I spend a few minutes from time to time catching up on my friends page, but feel bad because I haven't really *been here.* Facebook much better suits me because I'm able to pop in and out and still get the whole story...here I have to sit and read, and I've had no time for that.

Life is busy. I thought it would die down by now but the design end has really taken off, and the pool service end has lasted longer than normal. Today I finally finished getting out all of the "please send us what you owe us" statements - more than usual, which is good because it will help us get through the winter, but bad because we could use it now. At least money keeps trickling in, I guess that's okay.

2009 was by far the most stressful year I've had in a while. However, it was a learning year and we're going into 2010 strong. We're changing the way we do business concerning the pool service and the store, and it's going to be better for us, and with fewer headaches. I've started my organization of the off-season (aka, catching up on everything I haven't had time to do during the actual season) and I feel much more in control.

( More about everything... )

I did this on Facebook a few weeks back and thought I'd post it here, too. It's amazing how it covers so much.

Tonight Aries (my sister's cat) passed on.

I had posted about her about two weeks ago - she suddenly got really sick and jaundice and we knew she had liver issues. Our vet put her on daily fluid treatments and meds, and she wasn't eating so my sister had to feed her baby food with a syringe every day.

She's gotten worse over the past two weeks, and tonight my sister called me crying, telling me she had just had two seizures. I raced over there (she lives 2 minutes from me) and we went to the emergency clinic. I held her as my sister drove, she was very uncomfortable and she had big, scared eyes with tears in them...I just kept begging for her to make it.

We got there and talked everything over with the vet...and after a lot of discussion, we decided it was time to let her go. The vet gave her less than a 10% chance of making it, even after treatment, and she has been so miserable it just wasn't worth it. Luckily my sister was very prepared for it, she has been for two weeks now, and she was ready. They brought Aries in all curled up in blankets and we sat with her for a while, and she went to sleep. She was just suffering so much...when the vet came in and took care of everything, she was ready to go.

This is how she'll always be remembered...

It's finally snowing!! We got over a foot overnight...so happy!!

I bought the Pledge Fabric Sweeper at Target to try it out...and it's AWESOME!

I have the Dyson Animal vacuum and this little product cleans the furniture just as well.

It says it's a single-use thing (you're supposed to throw it away after it fills up) but I was able to pop one of the ends of one roller off and empty it, and now it's multi-use for me. ;)

It wasn't that expensive - don't quote me, but I think it was about $5.00 (I'll double-check next time I'm at the store) and I thought I'd try it out...and I'm so glad I did!

I had a really sad dream about Matt (our Best Man that died a few months back) last night - it was amazing at the time, but sad afterwards. In it he met me somewhere and I couldn't stop hugging and kissing him and telling him how much I loved him and missed him. At that point in the dream I didn't realize he was dead, but then later my dad made me realize it and the fact that he had come back to see me and I was so happy. I half woke up out of sleep and I tried so hard to get back into my dream. It's been bugging me all day...I miss him.

I just finished packing tins of cookies and writing cards for a few guys overseas now, and I should be sending him a card and a tin, too.

Our little Nala fluffikins calico turns 6 today, and she's doing better than ever, even with her CRF.

This was posted by a friend on Facebook and I had to pass along...

I can only go back like 3 pages on my friends page here on LJ...does anyone know if you're able to read more with a paid account? Mine expired a few months back and I never renewed.

Today has been a wonderful day for me. I'm working on all the end-of-year stuff for the businesses and now have the pool service bookwork done, the rental bookwork pretty much done (just waiting on a fax from the bank on Monday, and putting a few finishing touches on it), and thanks to Erik's help, the store bookwork is just about finished, too. Then I can be DONE with this stuff for a while and just concentrate on designing!

I've been SO tied down to all this bookwork for the past few weeks, this is such a relief, I can't even express it. Yesterday I worked from 10:00 - 8:00, with stops for lunch and dinner, literally until my eyes were so dry I couldn't see right. Ugh!

Then today we had another recheck for Nala's kidneys - I've been so bummed because the past few times her numbers kept going up. Well we started pills twice a day and fluid treatments daily. We went from a BUN of 101 to 86 in a month!! Back in the right direction for sure! So we'll do a recheck again at the end of January and see where we are, but our little baby is doing good.

And Shelly (the girl I did the UPS invites for) called me yesterday. They were going to have a UPS truck for the cake, but the woman doing the cake is having issues with it. So she liked my invitation so much that they're scanning it and PUTTING IT ON THE CAKE! She's going to take a bunch of pictures for me and they're SO going on my website!!

She also asked for a bunch of business cards, too - I gave her 25 and 25 coupons for my Hot List special ($25 off any order), so we'll see what that brings. She bought a frame and framed the invites all nice for her dad and the spread looks beautiful...it's just so nice that I was part of something so special.

I start designing for two of my wedding clients this weekend - the other girl will be paying her deposit next week and then I'll start on her stuff.

My sister's classmate is pregnant and questioned her about me doing her baby shower invites, so that's a possibility in the next few weeks, too.

Busy busy busy, but looooving it!!

Princess Nala Calico was sitting in the sun one morning and she was too pretty...I snapped a bunch of shots. Here are my favorites.



( **WARNING: There is A LOT of calico cuteness under this cut!** )

So yesterday they announced the winners in my category (wedding invitations) on Cleveland's Fox 8 Hot List.

I made Top 5!!

I'm so excited because yes, I asked for votes on Facebook, but there's no way EVERYONE on there voted for me, and if they did they could only vote once (you have to register). Erik, my family and I each voted once...and when I voted, I was way towards the bottom, I remember it saying like 11%. That means that people were coming, looking at my site, and voting for me. I was getting like 50-100 hits a day, so they obviously liked what they saw. And this is in my first year of business!

In the past two weeks, I've gotten 3 projects approved, all weddings - 2 were from the Hot List, 1 was a guy that's friends with one of my sister's friends.

I've already got it posted up on my website, and I can use it on all of my advertisements. My goal is to do at least one wedding show next fall, and this will be a great thing to mention and put on my literature there. Even though I only have a few examples on my site, it really gives me credibility, and that's what I need.