Where do i start...

It's been a zoo in the James' household to say the least. In the past week...

- We've been busted for having a dog in our apartment

- Chance and I have both gotten sick from the animals

- We found out that we need to postpone Hawaii for another 10 months, possibly longer

- Chance has been working franticly on building a new website for the business

- We've changed companies for our website, photography prints and slideshow videos

- We found out that all together the tab for our animals has been almost a thousand dollars

- I've gotten misdiagnosed by my doctor

- We can't find a house we like enough to buy yet and our lease is up in two months

- Between us and our animals i have spent WAY too much money on 12 different prescriptions

- Chance has been trying to finish editing 4 sets of pictures after his 10 hour day at work

- I have a staph infection

- I have ringworm now

- Chance has ringworm now

- We’ve been cleaning our cat and dog along with our apartment EVERY day to keep the infection away

- And the ONE class Chance needed to graduate, he can't take until the spring semester

Sooo, we've been pretty tied up, but we are still blessed and I totally see God working in all of this.

I stand corrected.

just want to let all you blog readers out there know, that i was wrong. And i can admit it.

I will NEVER come down hard on anyone that buys an animal from a breeder now, because if i ever get another animal again...i will for sure buy from a private party.

I used to get angry when people would say they were going to buy instead of adopt, but now i understand. I understand because Fresno S.P.C.A. is the dirtiest, saddest, most disappointing animal shelter in all California. Diseases in there are INSANE! Fresno animal shelter doesn't even TRRRRYYY to keep cages clean, and it results in rapid spreading of disease.

Don't get me wrong...i STILL believe in adopting, but i now understand another point of view. And hopefully the only logical reason you buy from a private party is to insure a healthy pet, not because you want a pure bread.

I was brought to this realization through EVERY pet i've adopted at the shelter. Our first cat Brighton had FIP, which is a fatal disease for cats. Our new cat, has some kind of disease that makes him poop water EVERYWHERE. And when we got our dog, she had fleas, and now she has ringworm and dog mites. SOOOOOO not knowing she was infected with ringworm, Chance and I both were infected with the fungus and I also have a staph infection because of it.

We have to bathe BOTH of our animals every other day, vacuum every night, and deep clean every morning. It's the worst.

I do really love my animals, but not only are they unhealthy, we have spent over a thousand dollars for treatment, doctors' visits and special food.

So to anyone who buys from a breeder...i don't blame you anymore.

I'm such a blogger

Chance always says,
"you're such a blogger, babe."

My whole blogging started when my job stopped. So i've been blogging for about 6 months now, and i love it...you could say that i'm a little overboard with it, but that's ok.

Anyways, my mom has this whole week off and i'm excited because we will be hanging out a lot. Today we are going to lunch with my nona and my great aunts. it should be fun. Annnnd thursday we are going to see mama mia. I can't wait. My mom took me to see the play a couple years back and it was super good, so hopefully the movie will be just as enjoyable.

Anyone who knows me knows that i wish my life was a musical. If that doesn't make sense to you, then allow me to explain.

you know the parts in musicals that everyone knows EXACTLY when to start singing and dancing, and it's always at the right time? Genius, i say. brilliant.
Well, i wish that was real life because so many times in my 23 years i have felt like there should be music playing in the background...
...and then someone should join me in a song as we dance. In my brain, that's how life really should be. so i'm hoping heaven is more like a musical because that would rock my brain out.

i've tried to fulfill my dream by breaking into song and dance every now and again. And i'm serious. Just ask Chance, or my cousins, or my parents...it's just what i do. And the reason i blog about it now, is because right after i watch a musical, i'm more prone to do random outbursts of song and dance. Just warning you. So if you see me somewhere and i'm singing to myself, or if you're talking to me and i get a glazed look in my eye and start to dance, blame it on the influence of mama mia.

I really hope it's good, because i've been DYING to see a good musical, because hair spray was crap.

It's ok if you don't want to be my friend anymore

Last night, (before i knew that i was going to be awake all night) i made a 'to do' list for Thursday (today). It consisted of fun things like driving by houses for sale, going to lunch with a friend and going to the craft store.

None of that happened. Instead, I never fell asleep last night. I was up all night itching things that look like this...




If you read my earlier blog, then you know that i was almost certain i had scabies. I don't. But my dog does. She also has ringworm. Awesome. You know what else is awesome? That i paid 230.00 for her meds.

So instead of my enjoyable Thursday, i had a horrible Thursday. I was too busy taking my infected dog to the vet, going and picking up her prescriptions, going to my doctor and then going to pick up my prescriptions. By the way, i was informed today that i have a nasty staph infection. All jokes aside, it spread super fast and is kinda serious...so if anyone wants to throw up a prayer that would be sweet.

Before i left for the vet, i decided to take more pictures of the rashes.



you can KINDDAAA see it under my nose here and a rash on the corner of my eye. My whole face is a rash now. you can see my face is really red in this picture.





and this is my lunch. i love veggie patties. yum.



oh, and introducing....
GERONIMO!!!!



we love him. I will post pictures of our little pups when she looks better.

no more big girl

there was a time i was called skinny, thin, in-shape. What the beep happened?

i could make excuses for myself, but i won't. Because they're meaningless. I eat healthy, then i eat like crap...back and fourth. I need to just stick with what i know is right, and it's not eating lucky charms at midnight. (i'm obsessed with cereal).

I want to fit back into my size one and two jeans. I have gained 20 pounds. I'm not certain that i've gained that much, because i never get on the scale, but it really feels and looks like i've gained 15 or 20 pounds and i've been too afraid to check.

BUUUUTTTT, guess what?! Yesterday, Chance and I got memberships to Centerpoint gym. My dad is a personal trainer there and he's totally yoked, and he loves helping people better their health. He really enjoys working at Centerpoint. It's on Maroa and Shields and it's a super nice gym. My favorite thing about it is that unlike Gold's gym or GB3, i don't feel like i have to drop 30 pounds before i join. I don't feel like i have to put on makeup and get a tan before i go work out. Isn't that funny how GB3 and Gold's gym are really just places for really good looking, in-shape people? At least those are the only people I see there. weird.

Anyway, Centerpoint gym is more laid back. I will actually feel comfortable gettin' my cardio on.

The best thing about joining this gym is that it was FREE. I guess Centerpoint is building a new website and needed some rad pictures, so they hired Chance. We did a trade for gym memberships and we are pretty excited about it.

The other day Chance took pictures of a Zumba class that's offered there. It was probably the best thing I’ve ever seen…for many reasons. Zumba is basically a class where you 'dance' calories away to Latin music. Only women were in there, and most of them were probably 40 or 40plus.

I will be joining that class. oooohh you bet i am. I will get my groove on in Zumba and it’s gonna be awesome.

Hopefully in a few months, i won't be such a big girl anymore.

I almost threw up

So it's late, and i'm not tired and i have a lot on my mind. I can't sleep, and i itch. yea, i itch A LOT.

Scabies.
um, i think i have it.
I think i have Scabies.

I don't know how, or what, or where i got it from, but i just self diagnosed myself.

I have these weird, itchy rashes all over my body. They started last week. I thought they were bug bites, but they aren't going away...and there's NO WAY that a bug would bite me this many times. it would have to be a hungry bug. I have like 15 bites or rashes or whatever you want to call them all over my body. EVERYWHERE. yea...everywhere. It’s foul.

I thought i might have chicken pox because i've never had them and they itch and stuff, but something tells me it's not chicken pox. I think it's something weirder and waaaaaaay more nasty than that. Because it looks really bad.

I'm trying to get into the doctor, but the soonest appointment isn't for another week, and i don't think i can last...so i am going to call tomorrow to see if they have any cancellations.

I always look stuff up on the internet. I'm always reading about things and going on 'web MD' all the time. I get waaaaaaay too into it sometimes. I’ll admit it. like i always think i have some kind of bizarre disease or something, BUT this time i REALLLLY think i have something weird going on. Something like SCABIES! how gross will i be if i have scabies?!

hahaha. Oh my gosh. Just saying scabies makes me sound like a smelly, dirty person. Or a hooker…almost the same thing. This is so sick to even think about. But you know what’s funny? The whole rash thing on me is soooo gross, I was like…what if I had a STD? Then I kinda laughed at the thought because that would be soooooo funny slash shady if Chance had an STD and didn’t tell me or something. Yikes.

ahhhhh siiiiicccckkk.

As soon as i realized that scabies might be a possibility, i almost threw up.


and i'm really sorry if this is too much to handle. I don't know why i'm so open about things that most people are repulsed by.

Taco Project '08 Continued

Taco Project '08

Today Chance called me in a panic.

"Babe, what are you doing?" He said.

"Nothing. Why?"

"Can you PLEASE bring the camera over? 3J is going to eat 25 Jack in the Box tacos at lunch. It's Taco Project '08. I want to film it."

"Gross. Ok."

Click.


10 of us went to Jack in the Box to watch 3J shove 25 tacos into his mouth. Yuck. Thankfully I brought Chipolte. 3J was convinced he could eat 25 tacos in less than 30 mintues.

He only ate 7 in 7 mintues. All of us were disappointed. Awesome job 3J. Not.

Everyone you can see in this picture was there to see the taco monster '08.

Without even trying, Paul ended up beating 3J. He ate 12 tacos for lunch.

Candid Camera

I'm almost absolutely positive I’ve been on Candid Camera my whole life because weird situations and dumb people gravitate towards me constantly. It's wild. There are too many instances to blog about, so ill just stick with the one that happened to me yesterday. It's wasn't anything that was extremely out of the ordinary, but still seemingly annoying.

I was meeting my friend Kelsey for lunch. We met at this place in Fig Garden. It's pretty well known, I’ve been there a few times. Well this place sucks. Bad service, bad food and mean rich people everywhere. I'm not going to be mean and tell you the name of the place because that would be a low blow. So I won't tell you it was La Boulangerie. Kelsey had already ordered because I was late, so I went up to the register to order. There were two cashiers taking orders. It was my turn, but suddenly a woman walked right in front of me. She was cutting. I looked around to see if anyone noticed her obvious cut, and of course no one did.

It was my turn again, I walked up to the register, and the cashier said "I’m not taking orders. "

Ummm...ok. I just figured maybe she was closing her register.

She wasn't. Right after she decided not to help me, she looked over at the other line and said, "I can help the next customer."

Again, I looked around. By this time the other line was about 5 people long. I waited there hoping my chances of ordering food would be greater. Then, the lady behind me pointed to the register I just left and said, "Look, that line is open, you can go over there."

I told her that the cashier refused to help me for some reason so I would stay right where I was. After I told her that, she went to the other line and ordered like it wasn’t a big deal.

Finally I’m to the front. I ask the girl at the register if I could have a turkey sandwich without the bacon.

"All sandwiches are pre-made, no special orders." she told me.

Wait, I thought, isn't this a restaurant? I could have gone to the gas station if I wanted a cold pre-made sandwich, but I didn't. I'm in preppy Fig Garden. I'm in la Boulangerie where everyone praises the food. I started to wonder if everyone praised this restaurant because they want to seem cool and sophisticated. You know what I’m talking about. The people that cling to nice places to look like they belong to some kind of high society. Give me a break.

"Ok." I said. "Well then, what does the chicken sandwich have in it?"

"uhhh, umm," She looked up at the menu hoping to get a clue. She pointed to the chicken sandwich on the menu and read what it said, "tomatoes and umm, lettuce."

She was a low talker which was even more aggravating. I wanted to know if anything else came on it; I knew lettuce and tomatoes were included. I can read. So I asked about the sauce.

'um, I don't know." she said.


I ended up just ordering it, and removing anything I didn't want. The sandwich was horrible, but I paid ten bucks for it and I was starving, so I ate it.

To top everything off, I didn't get a roll because they decided it didn't come with the kind of sandwich I got, and I had to wait forever for someone to grab some mustard for my sandwich.

I must have been on Candid Camera. Or are some people just that ridiculous?

New Additions

The James Family has two new additions. No, I am not pregnant.

Chance and I now have a cat and a puppy. It's been an adventure to say the least.

After Brighton left us we felt like we needed to save another cat from the S.P.C.A. Well, when we went looking, we found a cat...and a puppy. In fact, we found several, but decided that we couldn't take them all. We settled for two, which is still a lot considering we live in a 900 square foot apartment.

They are such a joy. Wait, to be honest, the cat has been harder to handle than the puppy. Our cat, likes to poop...everywhere. Sometimes he'll go in the littler box and other times it's in the kitchen, living room or office. He thinks he pretty much runs the place.

Chance and I are trying to get some pictures of our new family members so i can post them on here. You are going to DIE when you see how cute they are.

Mathieu Chantry James

So i truly feel blessed by so many people in my life. I mean like i truly feel it physically. i know that sounds gross or weird and maybe even a little creepy, but what i simply mean is that my heart is very sensitive. So sensitive to the point that my heart breaks easily, gets attached easily, feels empathy and compassion deeply and loves openly. I don’t think it's a bad thing, because it's me. And that's how i've always been. Some people might think this is really funny because they know i get annoyed waaay to easily; i know i can't figure it out either. ha...

Well today i was thinking about the people in my life and i wanted to start writing little tributes about them. Some might be super deep, others might be simple...it will just depend on how i feel. Anyways, today i am going to blog about my husband.

I love him. God knew EXACTLY what he was doing when he put us together. Haha, well God always knows exactly what he’s doing. Anyways, I'm not a wise married woman by any means, but i have learned a lot from being married. I have learned that in order to continue to love one another you need to continue to grow for each other. And even if one spouse stops growing, you need to continue to blossom for them.

Chance is a big 'grower.' He deals with me so perfect, it's like he has a manual on me or something. Wait, i don't want that to sound like we have the perfect marriage, because that's impossible...but we do enjoy it. When i'm a complete dillweed, Chance is there loving me with open arms. God has showed me so much of myself through Chance. It's wild.
For those of you that don't know Chance, you should meet him. Really. He is the sweetest man. He's crazy talented at painting, photography, and graphic design and basically anything artistic. His heart is so real and so genuine, that's what i love most about him. He lets me be real too, scary real. Like if i'm having issues that are completely weird and psycho...he listens and comforts me. He NEVER makes me feel inadequate, ugly or unloved. My heart truly delights in him.

I love you Mathieu Chantry James. Thank you for asking me to be your wife.

Intellectual Mess

I'm feeling very intellectual lately. I don't know how to really explain it. I've always been a very different person; my mind is always running. But for some reason, i feel like I'm thinking and creating now more than ever. And it's a little wild because i'm not doing anything that radical or significant. I don't work, i don't really contribute anything to society, but I’ve been discovering where my passions are. Just a little strange, but i'm enjoying it. I feel like i have so much to write about, but i can't type it fast enough...so i just figured i would blog about being in this ‘intellectual’ spot.

oh and guess what?! i might have a new friend or two in the next few days....EEEEEEEEEEE!!! I’m so thrilled!

Animal Shelter

So, obviously I've been depressed about my cat. She was the best and I will never forget her. It's so hard to come home and not see Brighton waiting at the door for me. It's been a week since she's been gone and in this past week i have thought a lot about getting another cat. When Chance and I found out Brighton had a fatal disease, Chance asked me if i would eventually want another cat. I said, "NO! There's NO way i will ever love another cat like i loved Brighton." Well, she was special and she will always be in my heart, but Chance knows me...and knew that i would need another animal.

And i do. it's sooooooo hard to be home and not have any kind of pet. i can't explain it, it's just foreign to me.

Today we went to the S.P.C.A. It's always bittersweet when you go to the animal shelter. On one hand you feel good about adopting an animal and saving it from its death, and on the other hand you realize that most of the animals you see will never make it out alive. I try not to think about that though or else i would constantly be crying.

Anyways, so while we were there today we saw hundreds of animals. Dogs, cats, puppies, kittens, oh my gosh...sooooooooooo many kittens, and we even saw some rabbits, rats and your occasional chicken. yea, chicken.

I was so happy, I wanted all of them, I would have taken 5 puppies if I could. We live in an apartment and we really aren't suppose to have animals so we thought a dog would be pushing it, plus we would always feel guilty for not having a backyard for it to play in. So, we decided no dog. Well, Chance decided no dog. Moving on, we were looking around at all the kittens and cats and we couldn't stop smiling. They are all so frickin' cute! it's like the were saying, "look! look! take me please! i'll be a good kitty! I won't make you mad, i'm too cute!"
if i had a house, i would for SURE take a handful home. I would adopt tons of kittens and puppies if i had the space, but i don't....sooo i can't. Anyways, there we were, looking and looking and then chance calls me over to look in the cage at the end of the isle.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY GOSH!" i said. i couldn't stop laughing and smiling and saying, "I want it, i want it."

chance said, "i didn't know if i should show you this one, because i knew the moment you saw him, you would want it, so i made sure i wanted him too."

ok, stop...let me give you a background story before i tell you about this cat. Before Chance and i got married, i always talked about the cats with the smashed faces. i told him that if we got a cat, it had to be the kind with the smashed face. Most people know these cats as Persian cats. They are generally pretty rare, and fairly expensive. If you still don't know what i'm talking about, they are the cats on the 'fancy feast' commercials. Well, Brighton was our first cat, and she wasn't a Persian, but we were obsessed with her anyway.

ok, back to my story. So i looked in the cage, and it was a beautiful Persian male. Chance and i couldn't stop laughing because, well, he was so funny looking. it really looks like he ran into a glass door and smashed his face in. We were petting him and he loooooved us. He wasn't available for adoption yet, but they said he should be available this Monday. He's already fixed and he's about a year old and it's practically free to adopt him. He would only be about 20$ for adoption fees. YAY! well, we don't have him yet...but if he's still there when i go on Monday, we might have a new cat! oh yea, we actually might have two new cats. We decided if we got him we would want a little kitty too. i'm so excited!!!! i love animals, and when i know i'm going to save them, it makes adopting them all the better.

Ok, so i wanted to write this blog not only to talk about my Persian cat, but to ask everyone to adopt from the animal shelter. I know it's tempting to buy from a breeder, but please don't. There are literally hundreds of dogs, cats, puppies and kittens at the shelter all year round. Here's a said statistic, in the month of May the S.P.C.A. took in 3300 cats and only 50 of them were adopted. The rest were euthanized.

Shocking.

Also, if you have a yard, or extra space and you could easily house an animal, please think about saving a dog or cat's life. They will bring you so much joy.

And last, but not least...please take care of your pet and always have them FIXED!