I'm Back & Will Be Catching Up for a LONG Time!

I didn't fall off the face of the Earth, really.  I am back and I want to thank everyone for all the notes in the meantime.  Life has gotten in the way - yet again!  It will take me a VERY long time to get back into the swing of things are caught up so for the foreseeable future I'm sure to have a lot of mishmashy type posts.  Hope you don't mind!

One of the main reasons I have been avoiding a blog post is because we lost our dear Paco to his immune issues back in Early May.  He was just shy of his 7th birthday.  It all happened so fast and I'm not sure if I can fully explain everything that happened within the 12 hours of it actually happening.  Plus it was very graphic when it did happen because he was dealing with clotting issues.  Not only was he dealing with his ITP but he also had IHMA.  Up to this point he had dealt with 1 immune disease but that dreadful night he developed a 2nd one.  In addition, he was developing Cushing's again.  Because he was on a high dosage of long-term steroids he was losing muscle mass, too.  Since he was diagnosed at about 2 and a half we knew something like clotting could be in his future but NOTHING prepared us for what actually took place.

Eventho, I haven't been able to take down his pen area YET I was able to 'keep busy' and that seemed to help a little bit.  I know it sounds weird but I have to keep busy to deal with certain things.  It's not that I'm running away from my problems - it just helps me to focus on multiple things to help me heal in the meantime.   

I'm not sure if I blogged about this before my hiatus or not but back in March, I traveled to the Capitol Building.  It was my first time there.  It was a rainy day but I'm glad that I was part of it.  It was a Rally for Fair Districts and to stop Gerrymandering which is a HUGE problem in our state.  Over the past several months it's been a whirlwind and eventho we didn't get the results we had hoped we are still fighting for VOTING RIGHTS!

The county I live in doesn't have a large Refugee population but we neighbor a city that does.  Back in January and February our League of Women Voters invited the director of the Multicultural Resources Center to do a Refugee 101.  We wanted to do this because there is a lot of misinformation and incorrect assumption about how Refugees come to America and integrate into life in a new country.  The feedback was positive and a group of citizens decided to start hikes for Refugees locally since we are smack dab in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest and have other natural beauties in our area.  So...the middle of May we hosted our first of 2 hikes.  The first one was for Refugee Kids.  Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, Eritrea (a country bordering Somalia), and Nepal were the countries they fleed from.

A little over a month later we hosted another hike.  This time for a group of Senior Citizen Refugees.  Some of the participants were part of a sign language group, too.  Within this group were mostly people from Bhutan and Pakistan.

In the beginning of the Summer another outing we had was to Erie, PA, where we went to a Food Truck Festival in hopes to have one locally some day.  I was thrilled that there were vegan options!

Another thing that has been on my mind is a local tragedy.  K9 Choper - our local K9 Officer - passed away from his injuries during a training day.

During the end of June I was a committee member for the annual car and craft show at our fairgrounds and I was pleased to see more vendors that offered vegan friendly products.  One of them being these Vegan Lip Balms.

Of course we have been busy with work, too, an have had many live remotes lately including a few at local businesses and during fair week.  More on fair week in a future post but here is a neat snapshot from Employee Appreciation Day at a local business.

Another thing that has been keeping us busy has been trading in our vehicles on new ones!  Here is the new Fiat I traded my old one in for.  I LOVE it!

A few months ago I became a Zonta Member, too!  It's been fun so far and I'm looking forward to getting involved with more of the service and advocacy end of things.  Each summer they have a Summer Surprise and members don't know what it is until they get there.  This year we went to the Lucy-Desi Museum.  We had dinner in The Tropicana that they set up to look like the real TV set.  There were also recreations of the sets from I LOVE LUCY, too!  Since I'm in radio I found this tidbit extra interesting!

In other news...our local mall is going thru a major redesign and revamp.  They are turning it from a shopping mall to a strip/plaza type thing.  A co-worker has gotten me into indoor plants more the last year or more and she was upset when I told her that the indoor plants at the mall were going to be trashed.  We asked the project manager if we could take some and he said YES so we are trying to save some of them.  More on that in upcoming posts, too!

And before blogger gives up on me I think I will end this post right here.  But I will be regularly blogging again so please check back.  I really didn't scratch the surface of the stuff I have to share with you and I know I will be adding more to the list very soon!  Thanks again for staying with me the last couple months!  I appreciate you all!

Raw Vegan Tacos, Thrown Together Meals, & Furkid Updates

Yesterday I hinted at something that I have tried lately and LOVED and will be eating a lot of until I run out of the ingredients.  That is Raw Vegan Tacos.  I grabbed Romaine Hearts, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Guacamole (because it was cheaper than Avocados), and Cauliflower at a little mom and pop shop and I already had some Coconut Aminos at the office.

I marinated the Cauliflower in the Coconut Aminos and used it as the bottom layer along with the Sun Dried Tomatoes and topped it with Guac!  I have to say it was pretty awesome!

They are messy but I don't care.  The Guac sort of helps with the mess tho.

I will be doing variations of these in the near future - for sure!

I have been saying that my food efforts have been pretty weird as of late.  I either throw something together at the office, on the road, or in the camper.

We are having some issues with our house and I haven't been able to cook there.

This 2nd photo is something I threw together at my parents house.  They didn't have much that was vegan in their house and I didn't know prior to stopping by that I would be eating there.  I made up some Mac and added stewed tomatoes!  I threw some Earth Balance on there, too!  It wasn't too shabby!

There has been a LOT going on the last several months and I wasn't going to mention it on the blog but I feel like I should.

On of the MANY things we have been stressing about is the furkid situation.

In the past month ALL of our furkids have been at the vet as least once.  Charlie - our 17 year old feral cat - was acting weird and I thought he had a stroke but it was a really wicked double ear infection.  We also found out he has kidney failure.

After treating the ear infections we decided to switch his food to a Kidney Diet to help him with that as long as we can.  Since he's a really wild (feral-like) cat and always has been we don't want to stress him more than we have to by taking him to the vet PLUS there has to be 2 vets there to deal with him.

Moving on to the dogs - Cricket (pictured above) had to go in for a check-up and shots.  Riley had to go in for the same - and he had a double ear infection, too.  He has always had Chronic Ear Infections so we are used to it.  However, this time around they tried a new med on him and it seemed to work well.  He had to go in 3 times.  Then there is sweet Paco.  Oh...sweet Paco!  That poor guy!  He's had such a hard time with everything but he's a fighter!

I had to take Paco in for Kennel Cough - it's the only thing we give him - up the nose - we don't vaccinate him otherwise because of his immune issues.  Then a few weeks later we found out he caught something from the kennel so we treated that.  Then his nose started bleeding a little bit and we had him in twice for that.  After finding something on X-Rays we had to decide what to do moving forward.  We are still trying to decide.  He's be in about 4 times already.  They found something in his nasal passage.  It's either something that he sniffed up and got stuck or it's cancer.  Knowing how hard he has has it with other issues his whole life all I can think of is that it's cancer.  GOD!  I hope it isn't.  I think we have the choice made - and that is to have our vet go in and do exploratory surgery and see if she can remove the thing that showed up on the X-Rays.  But I;m afraid because of his immune issues.  Because he has ITP/IMHA that means he might not clot or might clot weird and it could kill him.  Also - if the vet can't remove it - we can't really do cancer treatments because of his immune issues.  From what I have seen about Nose Cancer in Dogs it will grow and morph his face and/or cause seizures.  It seems like a lose-lose situation.  Our vet was on vacation so I need to call her back to see how we are going to go about this.  In the meantime every couple of days he has a slight bloody nose.  We have been treating it with Epinephrine.   These vet bills have been a lot to handle all at once in addition to all of the other stuff we have been facing the last several months.  But those stories I will save for another day.

Life Has Been Moving Too Fast...

Life has been moving too fast the last month or more!  I wanted to check in before being offline again for another almost 2 weeks!  I have a LOT on tap over the next two weeks including the Warren County Fair.  

If you type in CONCERT in the search bar you will see that I not only enjoy going to concerts when I am able - I also help with the entertainment during our local county fair.  This year we have 3 solid acts!  Collin Raye on Tuesday, Home Free on Wednesday, and Little Texas on Thursday!  

After the fair is over I will surely update you on the shows and hopefully have some photos to go along with the stories.  Personally I am MOST excited about Home Free.  The first photo I posted was of Home Free, the Collin Raye, then Little Texas!

In other news - Paco is trucking along eventho he has ongoing health issues.  Once fair is over we will start tweaking his Predisone Meds because he's been on a high dosage for his ITP/IHMA Immune issues for close to 2 years it has now caused him to develop steroid induced Cushings. Next step is to do an extremely slow tappering of the steriods down to a lower mg per day.  The last time we did this it didn't work but that was nearly 2 years ago and it was an instant tweak in meds.  The vet - who has diagnosed him - and has been great since - has worked with us to make sure his blood levels are in check.  We will ALL be monitoring Paco's changes while trying to minimize the mg's of steroids per day over 6 month increments to make sure his immune system doesn't bottom out again while trying to also combat the Cushings issues.  I've said it before and I will say it again and again...Paco is more of a fighter than I will EVER be!  Every day we have him in our lives is a blessing!

Recap of the Week

TGIF!  I'll get the not-so-great-news out of the way, first!  This past week Paco (our Chihuahua who has immune issues) had a puffy nose and I took him to the vet and they are thinking it's tooth related so long story short...they are going to do dental surgery next Thursday.  Because of his immune issues and those issues having to do with clotting and NOT clotting properly they have to treat this a bit differently.  I'm hoping all goes well.  Please send positive thoughts, prayers, vibes our way!  In other crazy news...my Fiat needs 4 new tires!  Blah!  Plus...I'm still without a dishwasher!  AND...our gutter fell off the house...so...YEAH...it's been a rough go-around!

Anyways...on to more positive things...such as FOOD...First photo is part of my lunch from Monday.  It's a Red Cabbage Crunch Salad of sorts.  Raw...carrots, cabbage, onion, pumpkin seeds, parsley, sunflower seeds, etc...

Next photo is simply Oil Roasted Brussels Sprouts with herbs!

I got both of these at Wegman's which are clearly marked whether or not they are vegetarian, vegan, or otherwise.  Why can't every eating establishment be that obvious!?

I was able to meet up with my sister for lunch that day since I was in her neck-of-the-woods.

Not too long ago I made this Pimento Cheese.  It turned out super YUMMY!

Silly me...I didn't save the recipe!  I can tell you that it has Cashews, Pimentos, Nutritional Yeast, SeaClear, and more in it, tho!

I've been into more comfort and convenience foods as of late and need to throw in more grains.
I hope to do more casseroles, one-pot-meals, and thrown-together-bowls in the near future, too!

So  many vegan food combos - so little time, eh!?

Last night I did this Plant-Based Cheese and once again I don't have the recipe with me.  It is in need of some tweaking, first, so it might be for the best that I don't post it now but I will tell you that it had potatoes, carrots, cashews, almond milk, nutritional yeast, minced garlic and onion, and a few other little things thrown in.

It turned out ok but I felt it was missing that last little something-something.

Something else I should mention that was pretty awesome this week was that it reached 72 degrees the other day!  Yes...in mid-march...in the snow belt!

Last week I stopped in at a semi-local produce market.  I say semi-local because it it still about 40 minutes away from my house but since I am traveling up that way for work at least once a week now I am able to stop in and see what they have.  It's also one of the few places of its kind that is open year-round in this area.

I found these Honey Tangerines on sale 2 for $1.  I also found Honey Bell Oranges that you can see in the next photo.  The Honey Bell Oranges were 79 cents each.



This might not sound like a deal to some of you in sunny Florida or California where citrus is plentiful but here for this time of year the price was right for me.

So these 4 items made up my lunch that day!

I'm still waiting for a semi-local restaurant to re-open.  It's a vegetarian and vegan restaurant that has been under construction for well over a year.  The owner is doing all the renovations himself so I understand the delay but I won't lie...it's nearly killing me! LOL

I will leave you with this photo of Cricket.  She's doing well and still a crazy lady that is for sure!  Riley is doing good, too, and so is Charlie the feral cat we have!  Here's hoping all goes well with Paco's dental surgery on Thursday!

I will say I have been tempted to adopt another dog from a local shelter...his name is Tipper.  I think 3 dogs is maximum capacity for our house but I will tell you that this specific dog has been 'haunting me' for WEEKS.  I have been visiting him at the shelter and smuggling in treats for him.

Caturday, FurFamily, & Wine

I know I have been 'few and far between the last few weeks - but I think this week that will change.  The house has been a lot more quiet without Suzie and I still think it's all a bad dream.  Paco's next appointment will be Wednesday afternoon.  I hope we see some progress with him.  I want to thank you all again for all of the kind words...they mean a lot!

This past week or so I have taken a lot of photos and will share them with you the next several posts.  First up will mostly be a fur-friend post with a few other happenings as of late. 

In this first photo you will see Jeter, Charlie, and Bernie.  Charlie is our cat and Jeter and Bernie are my parents.  Charlie is our feral cat and we've had him since BEFORE Dale and I were even engaged.  He seems to be doing well even without his tail.  Some of you may remember that he had to have it amputated earlier this year.

Bernie and Jeter are brother and sister - eventho they don't look like it.  One is Calico and the other is Orange.  One is long hair and the other medium.  They are about 12 or 13 years old.  We think Bernie is having arthritis issues.

I mentioned Paco will have his next appointment on Wednesday.  I think the medication he's taking for his skin issues is working or at least starting to.

Wednesday we are hoping for progress on the skin issues as well as to see the white blood cells NOT adhering to the Platelets. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again...ITP SUCKS!  He's our fighter, tho, strong lil guy!  He's gained a few pounds because his main med is a steroid but I'd rather have a chunky-chi than no chi...you know what I mean?

Riley is doing ok...he misses his sister Suzie that is for sure!  He's doing a bit better than I thought he would, tho.

He's a lot more quiet...then again...Suzie was the loud one...she was the leader of the pack and the instigator. 

As you can see they LOVE the blankets and we have several of them around the house.

I have a lot of food related posts but I figured I would save those for separate and stand alone posts - I will start catching up on those starting tomorrow.

Saturday - my mom, dad, sister, and I had a table at 21 Brix Winery in Portland, NY.

Everyone was really nice.  The weather wasn't bad.  The sales weren't crazy-awesome but we did ok.  Our last customer did much of her Christmas Shopping with us which was awesome and made the whole day worth it.  We had a great chat with her as well.

The winery made a warm cider wine out of their Cherry flavored wine and spices.  It smelled amazing!  The winery was decorated nicely, too!  It was a FUN time!

Yesterday - my sister and I helped bottle wine at mom and dad's house.  They are getting ready to give the home made wine as Holiday Gifts to friends and co-workers.

It was fun and we were able to spend some Father/Daughter time.

We bottled a dry red wine as well as a semi-dry white.  I preferred the white over the red for a change...but both were good!

I'm glad I was able to spend time with my sister multiple times over the last week, too!

Paco ~ Update ~ ITP Sucks!

I know I have been hit and miss lately but things have been crazy at home with losing Suzie and a few other things as well as at work.  Today's post is an update about Paco who is still battling with ITP.  Yup!  ITP Sucks!  We lost Suzie on Saturday and Monday we had a scheduled vet appt for Paco and after his blood work the vet told us he was relapsing.  They wanted to see him again today.  After doing more blood tests - the results were still a little 'weird looking' but with his white blood cell and platelet counts being where they should be they said to keep doing what we have been doing.  This is technically GOOD NEWS at the moment that I am VERY grateful for as I don't think I could have dealt with the loss of 2 furkids in a matter of days.  We have to take him back AGAIN next Wednesday.  We we learned from all of this - this past week - is that he will have to be on some sort of medication for his immune system for the rest of his life.  However, because the steroid he's on right now causes him to have stomach/GI ulcers - we will probably have to change the med he is on at some point but because of the issues we will have to do that over time and carefully.  In addition to that med - he's been taking a med to coat his tummy to prevent ulcers - which apparently wasn't working on it's own.  We added over the counter Pepcid as well as a liquid twice/day - twice/week (Tuesday/Friday).  

Outside of the ITP issues he has developed what looks like small bruises in a few spots - near his hip - and now on his tummy - which I thought was part of the ITP - but his vet thinks its separate - and a skin issue.  So tomorrow he starts a pill for that, too.  This poor little guy is on SO MANY pills at the moment!  Eventho he's dealing with all of this - he's dealing with it VERY WELL.  His spirits are up, he's vocal, he's playing, etc.  Eventho we did get some GOOD NEWS today - it's going to be an ongoing struggle from here on out.  Some days better than others, I guess.  I'm just grateful to still have him in my life.

I was reading that "Chia" means "Strength".  Since he's a Chihuahua we've often called him "Chia" as one of his many nicknames.  Now that I know it means "strength" it just seems even more fitting.

Thank you for all of the kind words about my last post on Suzie.  It really means a lot.  Thanks again!  Ongoing positive vibes for Paco - always appreciated, too!

Household Updates

Last week was crazy.  I wanted to hold off on posting this until I knew more.  I'm happy with my choice to wait because I think there has been some improvement.  Here's what's up...Last week...Paco developed another spot near his hip.  He also stopped taking his meds - which was never a problem up to about Wednesday Night.  PLUS...Wednesday and Thursday he was getting sick.  Thursday Night even more so.  I called the vet that had been with him thru his whole ITP Diagnosis and she wanted me to bring him in again on Friday so I did.  They did all the blood work all over again and said the good news was that his levels and counts were the best they have been since this whole thing started.  The bad news was they are pretty sure that he has an ulcer somewhere in his body.

So we took him off of the steroids and added an additional medication to coat his stomach and help with this ulcers.  This seemed to help a LOT.  Because it was an intense steroid that he was on - they asked me to start giving it to him yesterday so I did. 

Time will tell what we will do next but I have a feeling they will have to adjust the steroid(s) that he IS on because that is the problem.  

Thankfully all else seems to be ok.  What I will say - without any hesitation is that ITP SUCKS!!!!  I wouldn't wish it on ANYONE...human or animal! 

In other news...Suzie has been rapidly aging.  We've had her for 12 years and she was 2 when we adopted her.  She's the Queen Bee - always has been - always will be - but - she's been making some noises the last few months that we are chalking up to arthritis.  She's always been a picky eater but the last week or so we've had to coax her to eat more than usual.  She's not in pain because she's still running around and playing.  I have been adding water to her food and yesterday I picked up some soft food to mix in with what she usually eats...I know she wasn't crazy about the food we just ran out of so that could be part of it too!  BUT...I have to say she is LOVING the wet food that we bought for her.  She's been eating it up without much nudging from us.  Disclaimer...our furkids are NOT vegetarian/vegan neither is my hubby.  Anyhow...I hope this new special mixture of wet and dry food will be the trick for her.


Aside from 'furkids' it was a weekend of CLEANING in our house!  WOWZA!  I started on Tuesday of last week going thru my clothes and ended up trashing a bag and donating 3 large garbage bags full of clothes.  THEN...this weekend I was able to toss 2 more bags and donate 4 more bags of clothes to Goodwill, too!  I still have more to go thru but this is a great start!  We went thru the upstairs hallway, the bathroom, the bedroom, the down stairs living room, and front room, and Paco's Palace (as we call it) and cleaned, too! 

Another thing we chatted about this past weekend was possibly opening up a YouTube Channel or two.  We thought it would be a good thing to do this winter since we tend to be hermits when the snow flies...which brings me to my next tidbit...SNOW...blah...YEAH...we saw our first snow fall of the season...a dusting...thankfully it didn't last the whole day on Saturday.