F the Flu Shot

I am not sure at what point in my life I decided I seriously hated/despised/dreaded shots... It may be one of these things or a combo:

• A long time ago, I was on the depo shot. I went every 90 days and it never bothered me. One time I realized I was sick of it, so I stopped going (see Bullet #2). Maybe the extreme burning of the injection tainted all future shot experiences for me?


• Psychologists say children learn fears from their parents. Maybe I have the opposite issue and learned the fear of shots from my little one? Her hatred for needles runs deep (no pun intended...and just kidding about the correlation between Bullet #1 and Bullet #2).


• I had a melanoma issue when I was 25 years old (scary!) that caused me to be pricked and prodded by about 10,000 needles in a matter of three months. I thought at the time I was used to it but maybe it totally traumatized me?

In any case, our work offered flu shots yesterday. I was not planning to go but told a group of girls I would go with them at 2:00 pm. Okay, fine, sure. I committed to this plan around 10:00 am. As 1:30 pm approached, I was trying to get out of it. I IM'd a friend to whine about not liking needles. His reply? "No one does. Except heroin addicts." LOL. So true, so true...

This group of flu shotters stopped by my desk at 1:50, just when I was getting ready to think of a good excuse to not go. While in line at Occ Health, I was still wanting to weasel out of it. To my dismay, a manager in my department was in front of us and our director was behind us.

Finally, it was my turn; I was ready to get the damn thing over and done. I was just getting more used to the idea when the scary nurse made me scoot my chair back. Upon doing so, I had to turn my head and caught a glimpse of the monstrous needle!!!!

Needless to say, the humongous needed hurt like hell and I am never getting one again! I have a new take on it: I actually kind of like having the flu. It's sort of like a near death experience but you bounce back relatively quickly with no lasting effects. It's a way to appreciate life and being healthy??? Anyway, this is what I'm telling myself from now on. Feel free to steal my idea or suffer the wrath of Occ Health!

THE ZILLAS ARE WED

K so planning a wedding at age 30ish is fun and all but let's be honest: at this point in life, most of your friends don't give a damn about the details. Happy for you? Yes. Want to go to the florist with you? No. Discuss centerpieces? Another NO. Analyze color combinations? They just stop answering the phone at this point.

I was fortunate enough to have two awesome 'zilla friends, Gretchen and Heather. We were all engaged and planned our weddings at the same time. :) It saved our other friends a lot of conversations about program fonts, drink menus, etc, and we had so much fun in the process.

Kurt and I were married on July 12, Gretchen and Zach on August 2, and now Heather and Mark on October 25.

Cheers to my lovely 'zillas. Our weddings are over but our 'zilla lunches will live on.

My Crew

As promised...welcome to "Why The Hell I Have Five Dogs," by Ann! When I first tell people I have five dogs, they immediately look shocked, and sometimes shout, "Why?!?" As soon as I start telling the story, their eyes glaze over as they begin to contemplate how dirty my house must be and start inspecting my clothing for dog hair. This post is for all of you that don't want to admit you did those things, but actually did.

Two Christmases ago, I thought it would be "nice" to buy a Bearded Collie puppy for Belle. I found a "wonderful" kennel in the Atlanta area. Since the kennel was actually in dog books and has won the most awards for bearded collies EVER, I assumed it would be somewhat acceptable. Georgia is a horrible dog, by the way, but through no fault of the kennel. She's just BAD. Anyone who has met her can attest to her severely sub-par behavior. She is no show dog.



Six months after "Santa brought Georgia," the kennel called and asked if we wanted Georgia's grandma, McKinsey. She had just weened her last litter and they were looking for a good home. We drove to East Tennessee and picked her up. She was not ver well taken care of and she had been de-barked :( I was totally traumatized. This prompted me to get involved in bearded collie rescue.

A shelter in Missouri, M'Shoogy's Famous Animal Rescue, called me about a wonderful beardie mix named Thomas. A volunteer asked if I could foster him. There were so many dogs at M'Shoogy's so Thomas kept getting passed over because his long hair was matted. A volunteer brought him to me to "foster." Whoops...that was a year and a half ago. Oops. :) Kurt can't help but love Thomas. He's a wonderful dog that has manners and knows lots of cute tricks. http://www.mshoogys.com/

Then, last summer, my aunt called about a beagle from the shelter. She had been brought back by the owners who lied and said she wasn't potty trained, so they were going to put her down. I said hell no to that, and welcome Dog #4, Lola. She's so cute and sweet. Yea, Kurt was slightly annoyed but Lola is hard not to love. Lola seems happy now, as she's gained 25 lbs. Not cool. However, she's on a strict diet. So far it's been 4 months and she's gained 0.5 lbs. I think it's better than gaining 1.5, don't you? So see, it's working!

I will save the poodle stories for a different day, KATE. Awww beanties. Suffice it to say I rescued a poodle and ended up finding her a home. Yay for fostering!

We were down to four dogs when I was driving down the highway and a super cute black lab was trotting up the highway. Of course I'm not going to leave a dog stranded when I could easily "foster it." Loving the lab, DAFFODIL. Belle and I love Daffodil! So loyal, etc, so I ended up keeping her. Welcome Dog #5. Yea, Kurt is not impressed!!! Whoops!

I forgot to mention Kurt is clean obsessed. He cleans the floor 95 times per day. I totally appreciate it. :) He's the best husband in the world. :) So yes, it's a challenge for him to keep up with five hounds. The many, many, many, many floor cleaning utensils we have seem to help with the task. This includes, but not limited to, every make and model of Swiffer brand products (Original, Wet Jet, Max, etc), "The Shark" steam mop, random brooms and dustpans, random cordless vacuums. Recently I heard him mention it's payback for his family having a hog operation when he was younger. As a vegetarian, I agree and I'm going to stick with this explanation when I bring home Dog #6. Just kidding, honey!!! :)

About Moi, etc

For starters, I have no idea how to blog. I've been inspired by my friend Brian's baby blog. I'm hoping to figure it out (yawn...)....

In general

I am 30 (yikes!). I am a wife to a hottie farmboy and mother of a Princess (she's 7). I became involved in animal rescue two years ago and quickly ended up with five dogs, one indoor rescue cat and several outside farmcats. :)

School

I went to Davenport West (Go Falcons!) and St. Ambrose University for my B.A. in Accounting, M.B.A. and M.Acc (still working on the last one).

Work

I am an accountant at a local tractor shack. (FYI - I use being an accountant as an excuse for not being very creative. If you are incredibly bored already, I would certainly recommend coming back. It may get worse, which would be somewhat funny-ish.)

Hobbies, Obsessions & Randomness

Shopping, hello. I heart Von Maur. I like for the princess to be able to be in things, so I cart her to ballet school and gymnastics on a weekly basis. I love all of my friends and family dearly, so I like to chat with all of them. I am very close to almost all of my high school friends, and I've been fortunate enough to make many new friends along the way, through friends, work and the MBA program. I'm obsessed with Nashville. I absolutely love to travel. I freaking hate the freaking winter. I love country music, old and new. I have a strange obsession with buying expensive jeans. I like to walk the dogs at Rock Island County Humane Society and I do the Petfinder work for M'Shoogy's Famous Animal Rescue in Savannah, MO. Chanel makeup rules. I started doing yoga (ommmmm....) six weeks ago and I've been totally obsessed. It's so frustrating to not be able to do things that look like they should be SOOOO EASY! I will never be able to break my diet pop addiction. I like to throw random French and Spanish words into everyday conversation. I ONLY watch chick flicks (e.g. Dirty Dancing, Shag, Legally Blonde). I want to marry the show "The Golden Girls". I'm not a big tv watcher but I do like John & Kate Plus 8 or anything on HGTV. I used to think MySpace and Facebook were soooo stupid (note the "used to"). I cannot wait to get home everyday and read wwtdd.com.

My next topic

Why the hell I have five dogs. :) More interestingly, how my neat freak (but super wonderful) husband deals with them.