Itty Bitty Hooves

Caring For Elderly Parents

My mother-in-law has been living with us, most of the time anyway, when she’s not in the hospital, as she goes through chemotherapy, and I’ve gained a renewed appreciation for anyone who is a healthcare provider for an elderly person. It can be exhausting, and challenging. It would be much worse if financial aspects weren’t in place. She has the medicare advantage along with her regular insurance and that at least has helped to keep us from sinking in debt along with her to provide for her care. I can’t imagine the drain of having to deal with the physical, and emotional aspects of someone you love who is struggling with a devestating disease like cancer while having to worry about the bills too. I’m thankful she has that under control. Even with that we often have to pick up the slack for her in areas that aren’t medical bill related, and that’s draining enough.

One thing I know is true, when someone who is caring for an elderly parent says they need a vacation, they aren’t kidding!

There’s Always Something

Seeing all the videos again of the massive tornado that ripped through the area made me seriously contemplate checking out vegas hotels. Time for a vacation. Do they have tornados in Nevada? I don’t think so. There’s always something though, I suppose. Every area of the country has something to fear from Mother Nature, but at least it would be fun while we were there. What can you do here stuck in bad weather? You don’t even get satalite, or wireless internet signal. In Vegas I could be gambling away the family fortune, betting the farm, doing something while I was scared out of my pants. My luck would be to hit the jackpot just as whatever disaster the devin Ms. M (mother nature) could throw at me hit.

Tornado Warning

Have you seen the video footage that’s been on the news and several places online of the tornado that swept by us the other day? Wow. That’s all I can say. It felt like watching the movie ‘Twister’.

The scarier part of it is I SAW it forming. Yes, with my very own eyes. I had to go into town Saturday morning–boy talk about picking a bad day to run out of cigarettes. There’s a little commentary for you–not even a Twister can make you stop smoking–don’t start kids. Anyway, I was driving down US 52 and heading west toward route 1 and in the west in the sky I saw the clouds swirling. I mean FAST. I spent more time looking at the sky than the road. (Not a good thing, I know, but you can’t help but watch–and pray.)

All I could do was hope and pray that it didn’t head in my direction. It was hard to judge how far away it was, but the size of the swirling mass was enormous. Turns out the tornado that was created by that was about a 1/2 mile wide at the start according to the reports.

I got home and online I told a friend of mine how scared I was, and how I was sure I saw the start of a tornado… sure enough, heard all about the devestation on the evening news, and how the action started in Livingston county around Peoria (just west of us here).

It’s kind of freaky to know you were right about something like that. I, like my daughter, can be a little reactionary about seeing clouds like that, and sometimes think I’m overreacting. Nothing like my daughter who can convince you the little field dust devils are ‘invisible tornados’. Girl should have been a lawyer, because she can convince you of ANYTHING when she gets it in her mind.

This time wasn’t reactionary though, it was real, and the videos were terrifying. Here are just a few that were on YouTube:

Oh I had to edit this to add this one I found… this one is even more awesome. On the news Saturday they showed how the tornado ripped a semi-truck in half, this is footage of that part of the tornado and how it looked around that time.

Another Get Rich Quick Method

Watch the video for a very unique way to get rich working from home! We all want it. A way to make money by ‘using the system’ so here ya go.

Okay, it was good for a laugh wasn’t it?

New Old Website

I’ve re-vamped my old writer’s website http://www.tparrington.com Stop by and check it out. I’d really love to have you visit. Of course it has my available books linked up to it, but I also added some free reads, and am planning some other fun things for it, so stop in and check it out often.

Back In The Saddle

No matter how often the horse throws you, you have to get back on…

After a very long hiatus, and a lot of soul searching, I’ve gotten back to my true love and finally gotten two of my last novels in print… or in the case of Big Money, BACK in print. It had been published only to have the publisher close up shop a few weeks after it went live. So now it’s happily back in print and I’m happy to be back in the swing of things once more.

Click on their names to visit the websites for BIG MONEY, and HELL’S OWN and read a sample chapter, or click on the links beneath the covers below to get your very own copies either in print, or ebook download.

Click here for BIG MONEY

Click here for HELL’S OWN

I’m so happy to be ‘back in the saddle again’.

Kitty Heaven

My cats would just love it if I got them a cat tree. I want to get them one too. It would be a lot of fun to watch them play on it. They love the small scratching post I have for them, and as you can see from the picture I posted below, Baby just LOVES places to hide in like boxes, and those big ‘trees’ always have little cubby holes. Most of all they like to climb, and that will give them an outlet to do that besides my window curtain rods where I always find Spooky perched. I like the cat trees that anchor to the ceiling and floor with suspension rods. They seem more stable, but there are plenty that only go halfway up to the ceiling. There’s also one I’ve seen that has a little hammock between two ‘towers’ with scratching posts and hidy holes. That would be kind of cool since both cats seem to enjoy laying on things like that. I could position it so the hammock part was right in front of the living room window and they’d have a ball. I know I’d have a ball watching them.

Glasses Ugh

Did you see those old pictures of me below? Which ones looked best? The one WITHOUT the glasses right? I used to wear contacts, but that is so hard for me. One thing’s for sure, I HATE glasses. I know someone who had Lasik surgery and it went really well for her. I’m seriously thinking about doing that. It’s a little scary but they have come a long way in that field of medicine now and it’s pretty well tried and successful. How nice it would be to walk outside when it’s raining out and not feel like you need windshield wipers on your face.

Memories, remembering the old, making the new

Man, I am having fun today. First off, my high-speed came back yesterday afternoon… yahoo! Then this morning I took a couple of pictures of my cat Spooky that I haven’t taken any pictures of since she was an itty bitty baby we found on the road that could fit in the palm of Bob’s hand. Then now, I’m searching for the old pic I have of her in his hand and found a ton of old pictures. Some of my friend that she sent me I think about 5 years ago, one of me from a long time ago, here that one is:

and I found the baby pic of Spooky, although I thought I had one of her in the palm of bob’s hands, this was a few weeks later

and here a few months later (forgot about this one)

and finally here are today’s pics of Spooky as she is as an adult

I also found this picture of Baby taken about a year ago, she loves her boxes

And one of Baby just being silly

I also found an old picture of my wedding, talk about REALLY old, lol

That’s my ‘little’ niece next to me, she is in her 30’s now… and not so little. haha

And here’s a recent pic from today of Bob taking a breather lol