Who sux now, huh? Ha!

Since Eric keeps trying to give me a bad rap about my blogging skills (pfft), I figured I should stop by and say what's up.

Life has been decidedly pissy for me this year (no question about it) and because it has, it's made it harder for me to want to come here and talk about it. You feel me?

Anyway, on with the show.

The company I work for is busting hump to keep the doors open and with the economy such as it is, it's not easy so my employment is in a precarious position right now. Drew, on the other hand, is currently unemployed--I'm not going to explain why or what happened for various reasons but needless to say, his unemployment has put a serious strain on us financially. Drew is pounding the pavement trying to get whatever work he can but the pickings are extremely slim, again the economy makes it damn near impossible to live these days. Sigh. And my Cameron, of course, is too young to work (LOL).

Cameron is doing exceptionally well in school thus far. He really likes his teacher, she teaches in a positive way that he seems to really enjoy. And, from the notes on his papers, etc., she seems to like him too. Considering the trouble we've had since he started elementary school, this is a very good thing. He's still in counseling but we did take the summer off because I put him in a local camp and for now I'm only scheduling sessions once a month as opposed to two like we did last year. There are still a few things we need to work on, mainly issues involving his responsibilities at home, but things have gotten so much better over the last few months. I'm trying to save up enough money (easier said than done) so I can get him enrolled for the next quarter at Fort Lauderdale Childrens Theater, it's something I was able to do as a child and he's recently expressed interest in going so I'd like to be able to let him. Keep your fingers crossed that I'm able to pull it off.

My health has been alright. But, the bills from the procedures that I've had to have done this year are causing a bit of stress. It's a sticky situation because two of the doctors I owe money are doctors that are important to my health (one is already threatening to take further collection action--sigh) but you know that saying, "you can't get blood from a stone", well, it's true. I'm trying to send what I can but I owe over $2,000.00 (that alone is my deductible) and I can barely afford my everyday living expenses so it's not as much as they want. C'est la vie, ya know? I have started a new infusion therapy for my CVID because my immunologist thinks she can get my IGg levels more consistent this way and that'll hopefully decrease the secondary illnesses that cause all this extra expense. I don't like it AT ALL! It's subcutaneous and because of the dosage I get, I have to infuse it into five sites (my poor, poor belly) and it has to be done twice a week as opposed to once a week (like most folks on the subq) but dislike aside, I'm going to stick with it (even though it's no longer 4 but 16 hours of my month) to see if my immunologist gets the results she's looking to get.

There have been a couple deaths since the last time I posted here. First, there was my sweet, sweet Hulk who became suddenly (and I do mean suddenly) ill on July 23rd and after spending close to $400.00 we didn't have at the emergency animal hospital, he passed away before we could get him into his regular vet the next day. While I do understand the necessity of places like the emergency animal hospital I took him to, in my case they were next to useless, ridiculously overpriced and not nearly as concerned about the sick animal as they were about collecting their money. Sigh. We're still not completely sure what caused him to become so ill so fast but after speaking to someone who's very knowledgeable, she believes that with the symptoms he presented it was more than likely kidney failure due to how he was treated before he was rescued. Knowing that doesn't really do all that much to make me feel better about what happened because though Hulk was a rescue and we only had him for a little while, he managed to capture our hearts very quickly and it was very, very hard on me losing him like that.

And then there is Uncle Vaugh who passed away three weeks ago due to complications from lymphoma. I love him so very much and he took a little piece of my heart with him when he left us. It's still surreal for me knowing that he's not down the road at the farm with his beloved tractors. I'm going to miss him so very much.

Rest in Peace
Uncle Vaughn "Great" Porter
1952 to 2008
"Now cracks a noble heart. Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." Shakespeare's Hamlet

My reptile rescue is going swimmingly (LOL). Handsome Jack, the iguana, is doing great, all healed up, growing like a weed and feisty as ever, he's an ornery monster but I love him to pieces. Harley, the baby bearded dragon, is also doing great, he's about 5.5 months old and has gone from 6" to 13.5" since we brought him home plus he's a little piggie, our Harley, and has the belly to prove it, he's got quite a character too, he won't go to bed at night until I take him out and let him cuddle up with me. Mushu, our baby water dragon, is doing alright but he's a daredevil, our Mushu, and he hurt his little leg but it is looking a lot better, now we need to work on his appetite. Remy, our adult bearded dragon and our newest addition, he has a mild case of Yellow Fungus and was starting to lose weight because he was very sad and our local reptile store who he was surrendered to was treating the YF but his depression wasn't getting better and they wanted to give him to people who would give him a forever home, continue treating his boo boos and give him the love he needs to get better so they gave him to us. And he's doing wonderfully, he's shed a couple of the areas where the YF is and it's looking much better but will still need treatment for a bit, he's eating great and getting plumper everyday and he's a snuggler--he'll crawl up, push his head into the crook of my neck and snuggle in--it's very sweet.

Handsome Jack

Harlequinn b.k.a. Harley

Mushu

Remi

And that's basically it. How's everyone else doing?