Buddy Pass

I had no idea what to name this post, but I don't want to keep trying to think of something else, hahaha.

Last week, I was really wanting to get out of the house and just go somewhere--anywhere. My parents, as well as Jeanie and Shawn, are in Hilton Head, South Carolina right now. My parents go down every year to enjoy nicer weather in the cold months of Michigan.

They've always wanted Jerry and I to go down there (with the kids of course) for a week or even a few days, but we're not "beach" people and it just isn't a place that we've had interest in visiting. (Noah and Eli have gone, though.) Last week, the idea just popped into my head to go down there (alone) and surprise my parents. Since Jeanie and Shawn are there now as well, I asked Jeanie if they could pick me up from the airport if I was able to go. She liked the idea too, so the next step was to ask Brian for a buddy pass to fly.

The cost of a ticket was insane--about $1000--so that was out of the question. Being a pilot, Brian has "buddy passes" that he can let friends/family use to fly for cheap (to go to Hilton Head is $187 with a buddy pass). The biggest problem with using a buddy pass is that you don't have a confirmed seat. The best part is that you don't have to plan ahead; you can literally decide right before the flight if you want to be listed for standby. It's kind of fun to use for last-minute trips! 

Unfortunately, Delta doesn't fly directly into Hilton Head anymore, so I'd have to fly into Savannah. And there aren't direct flights from Detroit to Savannah, so Brian said I'd have to go from Detroit to Atlanta, and then Atlanta to Savannah (where Jeanie would pick me up).

My credit card would only get charged after making the flight, so if I didn't make it on, then I wouldn't have to pay for it. I'd planned to head down on Thursday and the flight was looking more and more full. By Wednesday night, Brian said that he was very confident that I would *not* make it on the flight (meaning there weren't many open seats and the list of standby passengers was long).

On Thursday, Brian said everything was looking okay for the first flight (5:20 am) on Friday. The problem was that flights from Atlanta to Savannah were full for all of the flights except the first one (which would be my connection). That meant that if I didn't get on the first flight in Detroit (to Atlanta), even if I took a later flight, I would likely get stuck in Atlanta.

I realize this is all confusing, haha. Anyway, I decided to go for it--Brian said it would probably be *very* close whether I got on the flight or not, but I was really hoping I'd be able to go. So I left the house at 3:45 am for the airport (Jerry dropped me off and then went out for coffee to wait and hear from me whether I made the flight.

When I got to the gate, I nervously watched the app, seeing my name way at the bottom of the list. As the flight filled up, some of the standby passengers were given seat assignments. Based on the number of seats open and the number of people on the list, it started to look like I might not make it. Still, things change right up until the last second.

Eventually, I was third on the standby list. And there was only ONE seat open. I noticed that the two people ahead of me were likely traveling together (same last name) and I hoped that since there was only one seat left, they'd pass it up--and then it would be ME that got the last seat!

Then it got confusing for a moment. After checking with the couple, the gate agent actually gave me a seat assignment and then the second my name came from her mouth, a flight attendant came out and said that there was one more open seat... so there were actually TWO available. And naturally, the couple on the list ahead of me got the seats.

I was so bummed. Flying on a buddy pass is never a guarantee, so I knew I many not make it--still, it was disappointing to be *that* close to getting on the flight! It did get me to start thinking about going somewhere else, though. I may take a spontaneous trip soon :)

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Family Vacation to the Upper Peninsula

I'm finally working on getting my house back together after being gone for five days. It's kind of crazy how much laundry a family of four can come home with after only five days! (The boys do their own laundry, but I have to hound them to move it to keep the line going.) 

My mood hasn't been great lately--still feeling super overwhelmed and it's hard to pinpoint the exact sources. Everything that we've had to deal with over the last year just seems like we are due for a break! Not even a vacation could erase it from my mind.

However, we did have a good time and I'm so glad that we made the drive up there. Getting to spend time with Jeanie and Shawn--without feeling rushed or chaotic or having lots of people milling about--was really nice. Shawn and I are a lot alike and being able to talk to him always helps validate my feelings and give me some things to think about (he would make a great therapist, actually).

Shawn is still sober--over 14 months now!--and he's doing great. I'm not at all saying it's easy for him, but he's been doing all of the therapy and outpatient work to help him and he's learned a ton. Something that I didn't know until a few weeks ago is that Jeanie quit drinking when Shawn did, too. She didn't have a problem with alcohol, but she quit for Shawn, which I think is awesome. So, there was no drinking all weekend, which was refreshing. We all went to bed at a decent hour and woke up feeling good!

Anyway, I have a lot of photos and there is too much to really go through and describe the whole trip, so I'll just share a few highlights. Most of these, I'll just explain with a caption:

Shawn needed to tow this tractor with another tractor, so I volunteered to steer. I wish I could say I did a great job, but being towed backwards is kind of confusing, haha.

I couldn't believe it when Jeanie served Joey breakfast in bed. He is totally spoiled up there.

Speaking of dogs, this is Walter--he's the special needs dog that Jeanie and Shawn adopted probably a year ago or so. I had no idea just how attached Shawn was to him! Walter and Shawn are like Duck and me.

Remember I said I might get brave and post a picture of me in a bathing suit? Well, I'm doing it. This bathing suit cracked me up! Jeanie said it was a "disposable" suit, which I'd never heard of. I hadn't planned to go tubing down the river with everyone--usually Shawn and I hang back, because we don't like the water--but I wanted to make the most of my time with the kids.

Jeanie's suits would be a million times too big in the boob area, so I went with the disposable suit and a beach coverup over it. Jeanie thought the suit looked adorable (naturally, I could only focus on my body image issues when I saw the picture). But posting it here is a big step in trying to accept my flaws. (Jeanie took a photo in the sun of me, and it was much less flattering, if that tells you anything.)

The texture of the suit reminded me of one of those disposable tablecloths (not the plain thin plastic, but the one with some sort of felt underneath). It was surprisingly comfortable! The butt area was very baggy and a lot of times I felt like I wasn't wearing anything at all, haha.

So, I was a good sport and went tubing with everyone... and I'm so glad that I did! I still don't like the water, but it was something out of my comfort zone and I chose to do it anyway. This is a picture of our full group:

Jeanie, Shawn, Eli, Ava, Noah, me, and Jerry

We hooked our tubes in a big circle so we could see each other and chat. Somehow, I always wound up being the one traveling backwards down the river!

We talked and laughed a lot, and at one point, we even stopped to "bathe" in the river. The water was super shallow, but the current was moving faster than I thought and it was so hard to make my whole body go under water. I eventually learned to quickly sit on the bottom and lean backward... but that short second I went under pulled me several feet back toward the raft, which was funny. Jerry was laughing at me, of course, and I didn't realize it, but Jeanie took some pictures. I look like I was being baptized or something.

It was quite cold, for sure.

Later, we realized just how bad Jerry's skills are at applying sunscreen. His burn was so splotchy! I am always very liberal with sunscreen, so I didn't burn at all--but I got some in my eye, which would not stop burning and tearing up the entire time. Priorities, I guess!

I thought this was cute--Eli and Ava made "pigs in a blanket" one morning (if you're not familiar, you wrap breakfast sausages with crescent rolls and bake them).

This is the SECOND vegan chocolate cake I made while I was there! Shawn couldn't stop talking about how good the first one was (that I made for Noah's birthday) and kept asking for another. I had the ingredients, so Jeanie and I made another. I am so glad everyone liked it! (I get excited when people like vegan food.)

Jerry needed to do some work to take HIS mind off things as well, so he and Shawn cut wood and just played with the big "manly" toys.

Meanwhile, Jeanie taught me the basic concept of American football! Anyone who knows me knows that I loathe football. From the day I was born--which happened to be on the Super Bowl--I have just never understood what people like about it. It seems like that's all anyone wants to do during football season (watch the games) and I didn't know anything about the rules or even the basic concept.

Several years ago, I even read "Football for Dummies" and I didn't "get" it. Well, Jeanie explained everything SO much better in an hour than I learned in the entire book. She used Starbursts to stand in for the teams in order to explain. I actually found it pretty interesting!

She pulled up an old game from last year and we watched a quarter or so of it. She frequently paused it to "quiz" me on a situation and I did pretty good. I am definitely going to try watching a game this fall. I really *want* to like it, because it would be fun to get into it with everyone else. (Jeanie is very good at explaining things; I needed her to talk to me like a five year old, as if I'd never even heard the word "touchdown" before.)

And then finally, after the disaster false-start home we had on Sunday morning, we were on the road to head back home. The trip felt SO much longer, but we made it. (You can read the story about that on yesterday's post.)

It was nice to get away, but it feels good to be home!

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Home Sweet Home

Yesterday was a loooong travel day home from the upper peninsula. I do plan to write about our trip; I'm still trying to gather pictures from everyone. Hopefully I'll write about it tomorrow. Today, I'll just write about the "great" start to our trip home yesterday.

We were in the upper west peninsula (where Jerry's face is). When I took this screen shot, the kids had gone out for a few hours, which is why they are farther north on the map.

Since it's a long drive from Jeanie and Shawn's cabin to our house (anywhere from 8-1/2 to 10 hours, depending on construction, rest stops, and traffic), we wanted to get an early start. Ava had to be home for cheerleading by 6:00, which was plenty of time, and I wanted to get home and unpack, shower, eat dinner, and start laundry before bed. (Getting home from a trip and having so much to do is the worst!)

Surprisingly, all three of the teens were ready and packed in time to head out. I had been planning to bring Joey home with us, but he was having so much fun on his "vacation" that I felt bad. (Jeanie said his favorite thing is the doggie door--being able to go outside and come in over and over whenever he wants, haha. If we had a fenced in yard, I was definitely get one!) Shawn is coming out here next weekend, so he said he can bring Joey with him then.

Anyway, we all piled into the rental van (our cars were just too small to take essentially five adults and all our luggage). We barely got into the van before the kids were all asleep.

And then.

We turn onto Jeanie's road from the driveway and I noticed that the light for a tire being low on air came on. Whenever that happens (where I live, anyway), 99% of the time it's because of the change in air temperature and the pressure will go back up after a little driving. This time, though, the pressure of the left rear tire was at 7--it should have been at 35!

Jerry got out to look at it, and sure enough--it was a flat tire. FLAT flat. I immediately started to feel panicked. We were in the middle of nowhere (cell service is really sketchy there), with a rental van, and a nine-hour drive ahead of us. I called the roadside assistance number for the rental car company--since we were in a safe location (back in Jeanie's driveway) it wasn't considered an emergency.

The person I spoke with said that she couldn't find my location via my phone GPS or by my sister's address (which is new, now that they moved up there only a month or so ago). That took a while to straighten out. We confirmed that the van did not have a spare tire. Then she told me that because there was no emergency, we would have to wait for the nearest Enterprise to open, which was at 2:30 pm at some airport we'd never heard of. And we would need to get a ride there if we wanted to swap vehicles at 2:30, or we would have to wait for someone to drive out to us after they opened (she said it could be 9:30 pm).

At that point, I kind of lost it and I could feel a panic attack coming on (ever since I started my mood stabilizer, panic attacks don't happen nearly as often as they used to--maybe twice a year?). I handed the phone to Jeanie, who was trying to describe exactly where her house was located. Then I took a walk around her property, fighting off the panic attack.

If you've never had a panic attack, all I can say is that it's super scary. It feels like you're dying. My heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest, I got really dizzy, and I felt like I couldn't take a breath. The breathing part is the hardest for me--I can't take a deep breath, which causes more panic because I feel the need to, you know, BREATHE.

Meanwhile, Shawn and Jerry checked out the tire to see what the problem was. If they could fix it, we wouldn't have to wait until 2:30. There was a very small nail, basically the size of a trim nail, in the tire. They pulled it out and managed to patch the tire--I can't even describe the relief!

The panic attack may seem totally dramatic, but I could feel it coming for weeks and I just kept trying not to think about it. With so much piling on over the last year, my mountain of overwhelmedness just got to be too much. 

By this time, it's 7:30 or so, and we finally get on the road. I took my anxiety medication and just tried not to let the morning cause a damper on our trip home. Noah had mentioned previously that he wanted to try a coffee shop that was slightly out of the way on the way home (only 10 minutes or so) and I insisted that we still do that. The shop had the coolest little table set up with a bunch of clothing on it and this sign:

I thought that was such a great idea! Especially considering the cost of thrift store clothes now. Basically, you just bring in (gently used) clothes to leave and you can take clothes you see and like. Isn't that a cool idea?

And then we drove the rest of the way home without event (a good thing at that point). The kids slept almost the entire time and Jerry and I listened to the Stuff You Should Know podcast (a podcast that both of us actually really like--the rest of our podcasts are totally incompatible with each other's). The drive felt twice as long going home as it did driving up there, but we finally made it home.

Not even an hour after we got home, Jerry went to the store to get some sourdough bread because one of the episodes of SYSK was about toast--and it made us crave toast so badly! Hahahaha. However, while he was there and getting back into the car, he heard some tires squeal and he looked up in time to see a car pull out of a parking space (it had been backed in) and slam into the car across from it.

Suddenly, two young girls (Jerry guessed about 10 years old) jumped out, grabbed a baby from the back seat, and ran inside the store (to find their parent, one can only presume). Jerry ran over to the car, put it in park and turned off the engine. Then the mom came out, carrying a toddler, and was screaming at the girls for ruining the car. (Jerry felt bad for the girls, after what happened with Eli's accident.)

Long story short(er), Jerry called the police; and because Michigan is a "no-fault" insurance state (remember, I just wrote about how it sucks if you get in an accident in Michigan, even when it's not your fault?) and the accident was on private property (Kroger parking lot), the police wouldn't even come take a statement. Jerry explained the situation about the kids being alone in the car--it wasn't a normal fender bender--but they brushed it off. I couldn't believe it! Especially considering there was an infant in the car (Jerry said the baby was in a carseat, but the carseat was turned sideways in the car).

Anyway, by the time he got home, we were hungry and exhausted from the long day, so we made our toast (it was so good!) and went to bed early. Today, I've been working on laundry and all that fun stuff. I was SO happy to see Duck when we got home! (And the other cats, of course, but you know how close I am with Duck.) Our cat/house sitter is FANTASTIC and the cats (and squirrels) were all well-fed and happy.

Duck was probably just smelling my breath, but we'll pretend he's kissing me on the cheek.

I was really great to see Jeanie and Shawn without a ton of other people around because we got to catch up with them one-on-one. But I'll write more about that tomorrow. Today--it's cleaning and finishing up laundry before going to Jerry and Eli's softball game! (Did I mention Eli is playing softball all summer/fall with Jerry and his coworkers? They needed a player a couple of weeks ago, so Eli filled in. The guys asked if he wanted to play weekly, and he said yes. I love that he and Jerry are doing that together.)

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Friday Night Photos #124

It has been a whirlwind couple of days up north! I have a ton of pictures, but I'll wait to post some more later so it's not complete overload. These pictures are only from the last couple of days...

The ride to Jeanie and Shawn's is 9-10 hours, so we were in for a long car ride. Jerry and I listened to a good 90's playlist and some podcasts...

...meanwhile, in the backseats, the teens (Noah, Eli, and Eli's girlfriend Ava) slept pretty much the entire way ;)

 

This is the Mackinac Bridge that connects the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. It's actually five miles long! This is a little past the halfway point to Jeanie's.

Almost as soon as we arrived, Noah wanted to set up a hammock he'd just bought. His hammock is as easy to set up as mine, but his also has a mosquito net and a weather canopy. I was totally unfamiliar with those, but we worked on it. (Can I just say that I despise that some companies don't include instructions now, and only a link to a YouTube video?!)

This is what it looked like when we were done. He slept in it that night and said it was super comfy.

While we did that, Eli and Ava played corn hole.

Joey was SO excited to see us! We all missed him, but it's very clear how much fun he's been having. Jeanie's dogs are happy to have him visit, too. Jeanie and Shawn offered to let him stay longer, but I think we're going to bring him home with us. Hopefully he'll want to come! ;)

I took this picture of Noah because it made me laugh that he looked like an old man. Early in the morning (on his 19th birthday), he was sitting on the porch in a rocker, reading a book and drinking coffee in his pajamas.

I don't know why I got so emotional about his birthday (maybe because it's the first one since he graduated high school?) but I love this picture that Jerry took of us. Definitely more than Noah does, hahaha.

Since Noah loves Shrek, and he saw the picture I posted of him wearing the Shrek hat I made for him ages ago, I decided I wanted to knit him another one. Being in the middle of nowhere, Jerry and I drove an hour to a Walmart to get the ingredients for his cake as well as some green yarn. I had luck with the ingredients, but they didn't have a good green yarn for his hat (the shades were very off).

By some crazy miracle, on the way back to Jeanie's, we saw a sign that said, "Yarn Store, turn right and two blocks ahead." A yarn store in the middle of nowhere? It was perfect. I wanted vegan yarn (I won't buy wool) and the store owner (who definitely wasn't happy that I wanted "fake" yarn) said she only had one skein of that color that wasn't wool. So, I bought it and started knitting his hat while the boys were fishing.

Noah asked for that *amazing* chocolate cake that I'd baked and reviewed (you can find that here) for his birthday dessert. I was worried about messing it up and then Jeanie and Shawn might be turned off to vegan cake, but it turned out perfectly. So much so that Shawn requested I make another before I leave! I think Jeanie and I are going to do that tonight.

We forgot to buy birthday candles, so we used what Jeanie had--a 1 and a 2, plus 7 stick candles to add to the 2. So, 19 candles for 19 years. Or something like that.

Today, we went tubing down a river (I usually don't go with everyone when they do that, because I really don't like the water). I haven't bought a bathing suit in about a decade, so I didn't have one. Jeanie started laughing and told me that she had a disposable one! HAHAHA, I'd never heard of such a thing.

When she brought it out and I tried it on, I was cracking up. I may post the picture if I'm feeling brave next week; I don't even like to see *myself* in a bathing suit, let alone post a photo of it on the internet! But Shawn and I have talked a lot about stepping out of our comfort zones, so I'll try. Going tubing was a big step today.

Anyway, I'll write about it soon--right now, I think Jeanie and I are going to bake a cake ;)

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Dog-Sitting in Illinois

Jerry and I are finally home after a week at my sister's house to take care of her dogs. She and Shawn actually went to California to Shawn's treatment center for his one-year sobriety anniversary! He's been doing so great--he's had a lot of big changes recently and he's managed to get through all of it without drinking, and I'm super proud of him.

One big change is that Jeanie and Shawn are moving permanently up north to their cabin. Shawn was able to retire and they are excited to be able to be up north full-time. It sucks for us, because they'll now be ten hours away instead of six, but I'm happy for them.

Our week was long and uneventful, so unfortunately I don't have much to write about it! Jerry and I weren't sure until the last minute whether he was going to come with me and in the end, it worked out that he could. I was glad--I think it would be nice to have a few days completely by myself, but I would probably get lonely pretty quickly, especially since it was someone else's house and none of my usual stuff was there.

Joey did so good in the back of the car--I completely forgot he was there most of the time!

When we got there, the dogs naturally had to do the three way butt-sniffing greeting...

The weather was pretty bad the whole time we were there. There was actually a tornado warning at some point and we could hear the warning sirens. We were alerted to seek shelter, so we took the dogs in the basement. Joey and Bentley, who had been quiet and lazy all day, suddenly came to life in the basement and started chasing each other. (Not the best place to get wild.)

The first evening, we went grocery shopping (eating out is way too expensive, so we decided to eat out just one time--at a vegan brewery!). The grocery store was enormous and I'd never been to it before; it was fun to look around and see all of the things we don't have at home. We bought some healthy stuff--no junk at all, really--which was totally unlike any trip we've taken before, haha.

LOOK WHAT THEY HAD:

Asian pears, and they were beautiful-looking Asian pears! I was SO happy.

I knew I was eating way too much, however, and I was sure my weight was going up. We still decided to go out to dinner anyway. The brewery is called Pig Minds Brewing and it is 100% vegan (food and drinks). I ordered something that sounded delicious AND healthy--a Spicy Korean Tofu Bowl.  Jerry ordered a patty melt, which definitely wasn't healthy, but it was MIND-BLOWING delicious!

Patty melt with tots

He also ordered a flight of their on-tap beers. He was thrilled, to say the least.

I took a couple of bites of his patty melt and we both agreed it was the best burger we'd ever had, vegan or not. Jerry went as far as to say it was the best bar food he's ever had! The picture doesn't do it justice.

My meal was amazing, too--cauliflower "rice" (I know it's a fad thing, but I'd never tried it, so I figured it would be fun to try something different), with crispy tofu, sautéed Brussels sprouts, carrots, a mildly spicy Korean sauce topped with green onions and sesame seeds. I couldn't stop exclaiming how good it was!

Other than the grocery store and Pig Minds Brewing, we actually didn't go anywhere. We had several movie/TV marathons. And since Jeanie and Shawn are going to be selling their house, Jeanie asked if I would be interested in caulking. Haha! Only I would find that to be a fun project to work on while on a trip. I stripped the old caulk from the kitchen counters, the sink, the bathroom vanities, and the bathtub--then I applied new caulk to all of it. It was happy with how it turned out! Hopefully Jeanie and Shawn thought so, too.

We didn't get to see them because they left Wednesday morning (we didn't get there until around 1:00) and then we had to leave super early yesterday morning because Eli had his first baseball game (which ended up getting canceled due to lightening halfway through Eli's at-bat!). I was hoping to get to see Jeanie and Shawn, but I'm sure we'll go up north this summer sometime.

I've been ridiculously overwhelmed and stressed out since we got home--I didn't reply to texts, phone calls, emails, NOTHING for a week and now I don't even know where to start. I'm actually behind on all of those things anyways, but now it's just been a week with zero progress. I'm actually sitting in the bathtub while I write this--the tub is empty, because I don't like baths, but when I need quiet/alone time this is where I like to go. So weird, right?!

Anyway, the dogs got along great (we brought Joey with us). Joey and Bentley (one of Jeanie's bassets) are apparently getting old because they didn't play nearly as much as they used to. Jeanie recently adopted a senior/special needs basset named Walter and HE IS THE SWEETEST DOG EVER. I offered to trade Joey for him (kidding). He was so chill and followed me around and just wanted to snuggle all the time. When I was sitting down, he would bury his face as deep as he could into the crook of my elbow or knee.

When one dog got attention, the other two wanted attention, too, so this ended up happening a lot:

I don't have many pictures of the dogs because it was impossible to get them! Every time I would grab my phone for a picture, they followed me. When they started to play, the pictures turned out super blurry. So I didn't get many.

Sweet, cuddly Walter

Overall, I'm glad to be home (I can't even DESCRIBE how much I missed Duck!) but being home also means that all of my responsibilities are just waiting for me. On top of all of the stuff I have going on (causing me to be overwhelmed), Eli's baseball season started and he has about 40 games, many double-headers, this season (which is only two months long). I like to go to his games (he's excited to be starting catcher on varsity this year) but good grief--I don't know how I'm going to get anything else done! The timing is rough.

Well, it's back to the grind now and my posts will go back to normal. I'm probably not going to post a weigh-in tomorrow because I can *feel* the weight I gained while I was gone. Next week, I'll share what the number on the scale was this morning--it was scary! Haha.

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Photo Week, Day 7 of 7: New York (and maybe St. Louis?)

Jerry and I are going on vacation for a week (well, I say "vacation", but we're really just taking care of my sister's dogs at her house in Rockford, Illinois. This will be the longest we've been away since 2014 when we took a family vacation to Punta Cana!

To truly take a break from reality, I'm going to do something a little different this week. I've had a daily post streak going since January 1, 2020, and I really don't want to break that! So, I thought it might be fun to do a travel theme for each day and share some pictures from different trips I've been on. Each day will have a theme based on the location of the trip.

I'm preparing these posts ahead of time so I won't have to even open my computer while I'm gone. (I can still approve comments from my phone, though.) And hopefully when I get home, I'll have some good stuff to share :) 

I've been to New York a lot of times in my life (maybe eight?) and most of them were blog-related. I was there for The Dr. Oz Show, Purina's Better With Pets Summits, and as a speaker on a panel for BlogHer. (I also went to St. Louis for Better With Pets as well as The True Nature of Cats--it's hard to remember which is which when looking through the photos, and I'll have to figure it out another time. So, some of these may be in St. Louis.) But here goes... (in no particular order)

This was 1998 when I took a trip to New York with my friend Shannon's family. Here were are at Lake Placid, but we traveled to several different locations (including NYC)

This was actually in 2002, when I was a counselor at Camp Shane--a "fat camp".

Purina made Joey is own dog food

Making blankets for the animal shelter

The Twin Towers memorial--it was breathtaking

On the ferry to Staten Island

First time on a subway

My friend Mike who lives in NYC. He's getting married in October and we're hoping to save up the money to go!

Mike is a musician (super talented!) and he teaches piano lessons. The family in this (six-million dollar!) apartment was kind enough to let me sit in on their son's lesson.

Better With Pets had a kitten room. Yes, that's right. A room full of kittens!!

Recording the voiceover for my segment on The Dr. Oz Show

Arrival in NYC in 2011 for The Dr. Oz Show

This man did my make-up and I adored him

And this man did my hair--he was SO sweet!

And... the famous (or infamous?) Dr. Oz where I was a guest for his 400th episode

Arriving home from my Dr. Oz segment and the boys gave me flowers <3

My "friend group" during the Better with Pets Summits--fantastic people! I REALLY wish Purina would continue their summits--I learned so much at them and became a much better pet owner. Just ask my pets ;)

I have a full page of travel adventures--way too many to list this week--and they can be found here.

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