New direction

So, lately I've really been thinking about a new direction for my blog. What is it that I want to really talk about? What is it that I love? I really love sewing, and gardening, and my animals, and cooking! Would people really read a blog about my boring life? Obviously at one time lots of people did, but not so much any more. Is that because I'm boring? Or because I don't blog hardly at all any more? Or maybe everyone just figured out that I really AM a boring person?

There are several things that I'm thinking of doing here. One is buying my own .com. I've come up with a good name, but of COURSE I would keep my Life Along The Way, even though the .com for that is already taken. :( One of the other things that I've thought of doing is moving to Wordpress. As much as I hate to think of moving, it might be necessary. It's easier to really get things "nailed down" in WP versus Blogger. As much as I LOVE Blogger (I published my very first blog 7/30/04 on a blog I no longer write on, but still have in archives)

I will let everyone know what my final decision in when I've made it.

Thank you all for being loyal blog followers!

Why Greyhounds are AWESOME!

     Let me first start off by telling you a little bit about Greyhounds. These amazing creatures are the only dog that are mentioned in the Bible, at least the King James Version. They can reach speeds up to 45 miles per hour in three strides! Greyhounds are originally from either Ireland or Egypt, depending on which side of the debate you are on. They also make great pets for those in apartments, or in big houses, and I'm going to tell you why!

     We adopted our first Greyhound, Doc's Whipper, in 2009, at the begrudging of my husband. He actually wanted a Black Lab puppy, but, I was not wanting to take on the challenge of a puppy with both of us working full time and having 2 kids as well. That's when I thought about the beautiful Greyhounds that I had seen at the Mile High Kennel Club when I lived in Colorado. They were just stunning creatures! I had always thought that these majestic creatures would be so high strung, that they would absolutely need a immense area to run in. When I found our adoption group, Greyhound Crossroads, I started reading more about these wonderful animals. It turns out, that they spend most of their days sleeping! We ended up falling in love with Doc, a beautiful red brindle male who had just turned 2.

How could you resist this face?!

     When we first brought Doc home, we were a little nervous that we would do something wrong. It was almost immediate that he laid down on the floor and "roached," where he turned over and stuck his legs up in the air like a dead cockroach (at least that's how they describe it!). He had found his forever home, and we had found our heart dog!He quickly became our other dog, Lilly's, best friend. We learned so much about Greyhounds in that first few months that you would never learn in a book. For example, did you know that Greyhounds usually don't bark? Doc does, which makes him not the normals. They also LOVE to squish into tiny beds, or at leas ours do. Greyhounds are also considered the cat of the dog world as they do like to clean themselves. They don't really have a smell to them, so only need baths every few months or less. (We give our Greyhounds a bath about once a quarter, sometimes only twice a year!) Greyhounds are also low shedding, and are usually very good for people that have dog allergies because they don't have very much dander. The down side to Greyhounds are that, sometimes when they come straight from the track, they don't know house manners. Things like walking up stairs, and not grabbing something from the kitchen counter are foreign concepts to them so they do need to be taught house rules, and given encouragement to try new things. They are also prone to bone cancer called Osteosarcoma. Some larger vets may offer cancer treatments for this type of cancer, while smaller vets may not offer these treatments. Greyhounds also need dental care, and need an experienced anesthesiologist as they are prone to complications with anesthesia.

     There are quite a few Greyhound adoption groups around the country, and if you need help finding a group, I would be more than happy to help you find a group in your area! Overall, these retired racers really just want to find a couch to curl up on and call their own. They don't call them the 45 mile per hour couch potato for nothing!

What would you do with an extra hundred smackers?

Since we are on a military retirements pay for our main income these days, we have to make our money stretch as far as it will go. We do frugal things like make our own laundry soap, grow some of our own food, and reuse things whenever possible.

One thing that we all use that is hard to save on. 

Great quality razors!

Living in a military town, lots of our husbands go through razors like it's cool! Since retirement, I think Sam has been growing the same scruffy beard! I keep getting annoyed with it and make him cut it off, and it doesn't take too long before he starts growing it out again... much to my complaining!

Then we found out about Dollar Shave Club razors! Seriously! How could life get ANY easier than having razors delivered to your front door for as little as $3 a month?! Now let me tell you, when you've got a pre-teen girl that thinks that she needs to shave her legs EVERY DAY, and myself who shaves every other day, and a teen boy who WANTS to shave every day (poor fella has blonde hair like his momma.. you can't even see it!! LOL) you go through a lot of razors!!!! By getting a subscription to DSC, you could save $100 a year! Who wouldn't want more jingle in the pocket?

So, I was thinking, what would *I* do with an extra $100?

• I would buy these lovely Qupid knee high boots for $32.99
• Or I would buy these tag collars for all my hound dogs $45
• Or this beautiful collar for my beautiful Annie-dog $46
• Or maybe just buy a bunch of supplies for one of the craft ventures that I'm working on! (More on this at a later date!)
  
  

As you can see, you could do a lot of things with $100! If YOU would like an extra $100, check out the Dollar Shave Club, and buy yourself something nice with all the money you save!

Are you friends with Dollar Shave Club?
Are you following Dollar Shave Club?

Scary Friday

So, I didn't write yesterday. I was too busy spending time with my daughter after a very scary day at school.

Yesterday, while Sam and I were out doing things that we needed to do for the house, namely grocery shopping when it all started... I got a call that the school was on lockdown and that we would get a call when they had gotten the all clear. I immediately go into momma bear mode! Since we were in the middle of the commissary, Sam didn't want me to say anything too loud so I didn't start a panic or anything.

It was a long couple of hours while I waited for the all clear call.  Of course, facebook was NO help at all! The gambit run from they had a guy with a gun, to it was a guy with a bomb! We did finally get a call that everything was all clear after a police dog had went through the school.

When Buggy got home, she said that they were all stuck in the bathroom for 3 hours because there were windows in the trailers that they were in! How freakin scary!!! I asked her why she didn't send me a text to let me know that she was okay, and she said that her teacher couldn't find her phone in her bag to bring it to her.

One of my friends said that her sons teacher put them in a closet because someone jiggled the door handle and kicked the bottom of the door. I asked Buggy about it and she said that the resource officer was supposed to be doing that to all the doors to make sure that nobody could get into the rooms. I absolutely do not blame that teacher for putting her students in the closet. Not even a little bit! I was told that she was crying trying to keep all the kids calm. Poor thing.

That prompted us to have a conversation about what to do in a situation like that. Buggy said that she would try to talk him down. LOL I told her that this wasn't Criminal Minds and she wasn't a member of the BAU, so she better just find herself somewhere to hide and stay there! LOL Crazy kid.

Overall, I think that, unfortunately, this is going to become more and more common. I just pray that we can retake this country and become again like the once great nation that we once were.

Victoria's Secret Sport

So, I got the opportunity to test out Victoria's Secret Sports workout capris and sports bra.

Everybody knows how Victoria's Secret works. It makes your boobs look bigger, and your butt look smaller... or at least it's SUPPOSED to! ;-)

I absolutely LOVE the capris!!!! If I could wear nothing but these capris, I would probably live out the rest of my life as a happy lady. They are snug, but not too tight. They are form fitting, but I don't feel self conscious. They hold things together, and surprisingly, there is no jiggle! (That's important to us that don't look like VS models.) I've worn them to lounge around, I've worn them to bed, I've even worn them out of the house! I did some yoga in them, and they were like a 2nd skin, tight in all the right places. Ahhh comfort!

The Capris I got were these:

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 They are simply amazing! I absolutely advocate the purchase of mass quantities of these pants.

The bra they sent me on the other hand... it was a bit awkward. It was comfortable once I finally got it on, just getting it on was a bit crazy! Well, first let me show you the sports bra I was sent to test.

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You see that bottom clasp right there? Yeah, it was a little awkward to get together. You would think after wearing a bra for the past 20+ years, I would be an expert on clasping those little buggers. NOPE! It actually did REALLY great holding everything up/together so I had very minimal bounce going on. I wish I would have gotten the zipper front sports bra, but, beggars can't be choosy! I do recommend this sports bra though! It did a wonderful job, even if I felt like an idiot trying to get it on.

You can find all of these products on the Victoria's Secret website here.


*** This is a sponsored blog post. Influenster provided me with complimentary Victoria's Secret products to test and review as part of a contest. The opinions are my own and I did not receive any monetary compensation for any of this review. ***

I'm becoming a local! *gasp*

So, not too far from where I live, there is a town called Richlands. If you're like me, you read that all as one word sounding something like this "richlunds" but NO! That is NOT how you pronounce the name of the town!!! If you DO encounter a local and pronounce it like that, you will properly schooled and rightly told off! It's pronounced like two separate words Rich-Lands, like... the land was rich, just flip it around.

This is no different than a few towns that I grew up close too. Russia and Houston. Both of those were pronounced differently (Roo-she and House-ton respectively) and you got an earful if you pronounced them like the rest of the world does. Another less known one was Lima... (Lie-muh, not like the one in Peru) and they don't get AS offended, but, they WILL correct you.

This morning as I was driving Monkey to school, I almost turned towards Richlands instead of turning towards the school and I said "Oops! Almost went to Richlands!" I caught myself saying Rich-Lands again. It's happening more often than not these days. How long do you have to live in a place to be considered a "local?" That's a really hard question for a lot of military families. Are you a local when you buy a house? When you retire? When you change your drivers license to the state? What does it take?

I have no doubt that if I were to move home back to my little small town, that I would still be considered a "local" even though I haven't lived there in almost 17 years. They would still all know me as "Rons Stepdaughter", even though my mom hasn't been married to him for just as long. I grew up there though. I'm sure LOTS of people have moved out, moved in, died, got marred, got divorced.... but when we went back there the beginning of September, it was honestly like we'd never left. We went to the local bar and had a couple drinks, and we knew the people there. Same people, just older I guess. It was honestly like stepping back in time. They were setting up for the "country fair." It's a tradition that I they have done for as long as I can remember. They close down downtown (all 2 streets LOL) and set up rides, booths, and food vendors and the whole town comes and enjoys some festivities. I grew up in a village. Yes, a village! There weren't even enough people that inhabited my hometown to even be considered a TOWN! The village (yes another village.. LOL) that was closest to us also used to do something similar, but they called it the Firemans Festival. As far as I know, they no longer have the Firemans Festival, which was a lot like our Country Fair.

There are a few things that I miss about my hometown, and some that I don't. I miss feeling like part of a community, where it seemed like the entire town was at the football field on Friday nights to root on the HS team, and if you needed some sugar, your neighbor would be more than happy to lend you a cup or two. I miss going to the grocery store and running into people I know, and chatting about seemingly an important nothing. I miss knowing more people that I don't. I DON'T miss everybody knowing your business, even if you didn't want anyone to know. I DON'T miss that there honestly was not anything to do but get in trouble or do drugs as a kid. I complain about there not being anything to do here unless I want to drive an hour to do something, but there ARE things to do, I'm just too lazy not motivated to look for them. Overall, my hometown was great. I'm surprised that I moved away really. Some days I think maybe we should move back, but then I would feel bad for moving to my hometown and not Sams. (Even tho Sam lives in the frozen tundra that is northern Minnesota!!)

Someday maybe we will be considered "locals" here and it won't matter. Even though I will ALWAYS miss that small town feel from when I was growing up.

Ortho appt

So, today I had my appointment with Ortho. I've been having back pain since the end of June/beginning of July, so my family doctor sent me to Ortho.

My doctor was very nice. He's from London. I told him that Buggy was an Anglophile and he laughed. We talked about Dr Who, Sherlock, and Downton Abbey. Very nice man. He told me that, basically, I have a bone spur on my spine, but, it's not pressing on my spinal column, so he's not all that worried about it. He wants me to do some PT, and use some gel stuff on my back and see me back in 6 weeks.

He then asked me if anyone had read me the report, and I said that my Dr had told me that they had found "something" but that it was not conclusive on what it was. He told me about the bone spur, obviously, but then he told me about a "spot" on my right lung that they suggested be looked at again in 6 months. That was something that my Dr had NOT told me about. When I left the office, I IMMEDIATELY called my doctors office and made an appointment. Not only to discuss this "spot" but because of my migraines as well. They do not seem to be getting better with the Imitrex, which is not good.

Other than that, everything is just peachy!! :-)

I'm making Cuban Pork Loin for dinner tonight. It's Bugs FAVORITE meal. :-) It's quite delicious. I might have to put the recipe up here.