Funny, yet so true. I stole this off a blog my hubby shared with me. Not until after I read this did I realize I was reading a post of Kathy Mattea's blog (she's an old country star, in case you didn't know).

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATS & DOGS

The difference between cats and dogs...

My mother-in-law sent me this on the internet this week. I have a friend that says "dogs are prose, but cats are poetry." I think this proves her point. - K

EXCERPTS FROM A DOG'S DIARY

Day 180
8:00 am - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am - OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 pm - OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
4:00 pm - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 pm - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 pm - OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!

Day 181
8:00 am - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am - OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 pm - OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
4:00 pm - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 pm - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 pm - OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!

Day 182
8:00 am - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am - OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 pm - OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
1:30 pm - OOOOOOOH. BATH. BUMMER!
4:00 pm - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 pm - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 pm - OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!

EXCERPTS FROM A CAT'S DIARY

DAY 183
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture. Tomorrow I may eat another houseplant.

DAY 184
Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost succeeded, must try this at the top of the stairs. In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair ... must try this on their bed.

DAY 185
Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body, in attempt to make them aware of what I am capable of, and to try to strike fear into their hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was ... Hmmm. Not working according to plan.

DAY 186
I am finally aware of how sadistic they are. For no good reason I was chosen for the water torture. This time however it included a burning foamy chemical called "shampoo." What sick minds could invent such a liquid. My only consolation is the piece of thumb still stuck between my teeth.

DAY 187
There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed in solitary throughout the event. However, I could hear the noise and smell the foul odor of the glass tubes they call "beer". More importantly I overheard that my confinement was due to MY power of "allergies." Must learn what this is and how to use it to my advantage.

DAY 188
I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and maybe snitches. The dog is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is obviously a half-wit. The bird on the other hand has got to be an informant, and speaks with them regularly. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his current placement in the metal room, his safety is assured.

But I can wait, it is only a matter of time...

Definitely describes Little Bear & Kira!

Too much to do, but not feeling well enough to do it. I have a nice size sheet of paper with things written down on it that I'm supposed to get done today, but I'm really not feeling any better. We're having some friends over for supper tonight, friends that have never been to our house before, and I really don't want them to get the impression that I'm a slob or a packrat, so I have to double up on the ibuprofen today and get the house clean. I did some of the BIG cleaning yesterday, I just need to put away some cluttery things and touch up a few things. When I first woke up around 6:30 this morning, which has been a new thing for me this week for some unexplained reason, I was there in bed, feeling no pain. I swallowed, still no pain. I even felt of my neck with my hand and applied a little pressure. No pain then either. Was it true? Had this mysterious neck pain just vanished overnight? I sat up in bed. NOPE! Still there. I almost wanted to say that the pain wasn't as severe as it had been, but once I got good and awake, I realized it wasn't much different at all. I even started feeling a slight twinge of pain on the right side, too. I might just be taking a trip to the doctor next week, after I get Travis' dentist appointment out of the way. (You know, we just have this magical money tree growing in our backyard.) Which reminds me, Travis is NOT taking too well to the whole idea of going to the dentist for the first time. As soon as I even told him that I was on the phone making him a dentist appointment, he began crying hysterically, "I don't want to go to the dentist!!! WWWAAAAHHHH!" He's never been before, and he's 4 & 1/2 so it's like TIME, so next Monday morning is going to be not fun at all. Another thing about this whole visit, Medicaid does not cover preventative dental visits at any pediatric dentist within several counties around here. I could take him to a REGULAR dentist, yes, all the way down in Senatobia, but I think Travis might do better at a pediatric dentist....those places are just more kid-friendly. What really gets me, I found out that Medicaid will cover a pediatric dental visit if it's for SURGERY reasons. Like, okay, so yeah, Medicaid will not cover PREVENTATIVE treatment, but instead they will wait until the kids' teeth rot out and do major surgery? HELLO! If they would just cover the preventative stuff to begin with (much cheaper!), they wouldn't have as many surgeries to pay for! Oh, I forgot, that makes too much sense. Medicaid's sole purpose is to be the author of confusion.

So I'm not up QUITE so early this morning, but Jacob was. He crawled into our bed, already occupied by Michael, Travis and myself, around 6:30 this morning. Somehow I forgot to mention in my blog that Jacob is now in a "big boy bed", AKA toddler bed. He got one of those car beds for Christmas, and he LOVES it. Initially, Michael and I were worried that it would be a fight to get him to stay in his bed and go to sleep, but he LOVES it! He calls it a "Go Bed" (in his vocabulary, a car is a "go"), and when I say it's bed time, he hops right under the covers, hugs his Tigger, and goes right to sleep and stays there all night. Such a big boy!! The next leap from babyhood will be potty training. I'm almost not going to know what to do with myself, not buying diapers anymore. We've been buying diapers going on 5 years now. For a short time, we were buying diapers for 2...little bitty diapers for Jacob and Pull-Ups for Travis. Our goal was to have Travis pretty much fully trained by his 3rd birthday, which we reached that goal. Hard to believe he hasn't had to wear a diaper in almost 2 years!! I guess if I want to meet that same goal with Jacob though, I need to get started like YESTERDAY because his 3rd birthday is in June, less than 5 months away! It's just so hard, and somewhat frustrating, getting started. It seems to take forever to get them to go on the potty for the very first time. Once that happens, the training process goes really fast, because they realize they did something that mommy & daddy's proud of, and it doesn't hurt to throw in a little incentive, like say, a cookie for every time they use the potty. I guess now it's off to doing laundry and tax stuff. Such fun! TTFN!

I haven't done this in awhile...blogging twice in one day. It sort of feels good in a way.

I did some research on the internet about my neck/throat pain. BIG MISTAKE! Now I'm freaked out and REALLY wish I could go to the doctor. There is this thing in one's neck...we actually have 4 of them...called a parathyroid or something? And if you have a diseased one, it can cause high blood pressure and kidney stones! Like, I have BOTH those things. The doctors have never been able to figure out why I'm only 25 and have high BP. Well DUH! Maybe that's why? Other symptoms of this disease include tiredness and grouchiness. Some patients with this disease don't ever experience symptoms, but once they have this thing removed, these patients report feeling much better in general. If this pain doesn't subside by next week, I am seriously thinking about printing out the info I dug up and taking it to my doctor to read. I mean, I have to find a way to go to the doctor, right? I can't just like die from a tumor in my neck, ya know? Part of me wants to just brush this off and think that the pain and tenderness is just from some sinus drainage, but the other part of me keeps thinking about those symptoms I read about. For now, I will just keep living on ibuprofen. And doing A LOT of praying.

I was able to get out by myself for a little bit yesterday and do some shopping. I had an Old Navy gift card to spend, as well as one from Kohl's. I bought some cute clothes that look GREAT with my brown cowboy boots and my tall black spikey boots that Michael got me for Christmas. :-) I got some neat beaded jewelry, too. I'm really very much into the vintage look. I found a great steal at Old Navy. I've always been wanting one of those velvet jackets...you can dress them up or down, and they had some on their clearance rack. I picked one up that was my size, but there was no tag on it, so I took it up to the register along with my other stuff, and it rang up for $4.88, and it was regularly priced $38!!! Cha-ching! I must say though, the jewelry sale at Kohl's was quite confusing. They had these little SALE signs everywhere that said "Buy 1 namebrand jewelry and get 1 half off". And then there were some other little signs that said "Buy 2, get 1 free". Well the thing is, the brands were all so mixed up, and I was just going through there picking out what I liked and what went with my new outfits, and I thought to myself, "This is all namebrand jewelry, so maybe it's all buy 1, get 1 half off." Wrong! I got to the register, and I only ended up getting 1 item half off, and everything else I had to pay the full price for! I ended up putting a bracelet back, and just got 2 necklaces, and 3 earrings. I also bought a new black purse. I know, I have a million purses, but I had not bought a new black purse since 2001?? And black purses go with pretty much everything. At the register, the purse was not ringing up at the sale price (30% off), so I had to wait for someone to go check on it and call up to the register, all the while holding up the customers waiting in line. But you know, they should get their prices right in the register, dang it! All in all, I got some really cute tops, and Michael was highly impressed, mostly by the silky, lacy camis I picked up. :-)

Just wondering, but what is UP with our weather? Today I took the kids to the park. The PARK on January 4! The sun was shining and it felt pretty nice, but about 2 minutes after I unloaded the kids at the park, the sun went behind the clouds and the wind started blowing, so we really didn't get to stay for long in fear of the kids getting sick.

One last thing before I go...

Words to live by: "When your day is going like that, just hang up and start over." ~Michael

Believe me, I wish I wasn't up this early. I have been lying in bed awake for a little while, with a lot on my mind, and figured what they hey...I'll blog. Seems to be a good source of therapy. Yeah...instead of talking to a shrink, I talk to a computer? lol.

So first of all, I need to get all our tax junk together, you know, receipts for all the stuff we're going to claim. What really stinks though is that however much we get back, which who knows if it'll even be as much as last year, most of it will have to go to the credit card. Who knows if it'll even be enough to pay the dang thing off. I hate credit cards. They are of the devil. Last year was really nice. We got a fat check from Uncle Sam, bought a new kitchen table, a steam cleaner, clothes for the kids, our football season tickets of course, and I really can't exactly remember what else. We had thrown around the idea of several different vacation possibilities, but no big trip this year...AGAIN. I shouldn't really complain. I mean, we have a roof over our head, food to eat, clothes to wear, 2 vehicles in the driveway, plenty of stuff to keep us entertained, and the chance every great once in awhile to do something together, like a date, or out to eat. But it would be REALLY nice to have a little more peace of mind when it comes to our finances. I'll admit, over the last year or so, we haven't exactly done the BEST JOB with our money. We blow more money than we save. We both grew up so spoiled, never had to want for anything, and it's hard to re-train your brain to do without the things you want and make some sacrifices. We've been married going on 6 years, and we've never even had a savings account, which is almost scary considering me & Michael do not have health insurance. So if one of us gets sick, we have to either A) hope our parents will chip in and pay for the doctor visit, B) pay for it ourselves on the credit card, C) have it billed, not pay for it, and let it go into collections. The thing is, over the last couple years, we've exercised all 3 of those options at one time or another. If you have health insurance, consider yourself blessed. I can't remember who it was or when it was, but I was talking to someone that was complaining for having to pay a $20 co-pay to see the doctor for a cold! Try paying $75 for an office visit, not even including if any other tests have to be done, not to mention whatever prescriptions you have to get filled.

Since we're on the topic of doctors and stuff, another thing on my mind is this pain in my neck/throat on the left side. This pain makes my jaw hurt and my ear hurt as well. It hurts to turn my head to the left to look to the side or behind me. The pain started Saturday, and it hasn't gotten any better, maybe slightly worse. The odd thing is that I feel worse during the evening hours than during the day. I was thinking that maybe it is one of those things where you're fighting off an infection, and one of your glands in your neck is swelled a little due to drainage from your sinuses or something. I've had that before...like when I was much younger...but it didn't seem to last quite this long, maybe just a day or so. If it lasts a whole week, I'd really like to go to the doctor about it, but once again, no insurance, too many medical bills already, and trying to get the credit card paid down. HELP MOM!!

I'm not really trying to depress anyone (Michael), I just thought I'd feel better if I could get this off my chest. I didn't exactly officially make any New Year's resolutions this year, because I never keep them it seems like, but if I had to put one down for the year, I'd say it's to try and get our finances in a little better shape and to make some sacrifices to cut down on the expenses.

Well, I'm off to find the Advil bottle and the couch. The kids will probably be awake soon.

Somewhere along the way, all of these questions have built up in my mind, and I'm not sure why I'm so confused. It's like, I let all these people shape and mold my way of thinking, and when I really stop and search myself, I realize maybe I am wrong for letting that happen. Really. Who AM I? Sure, I'm married, I have two kids, I am a stay-at-home Mom by choice. I am smart enough to go back to college, finish my degree, maybe even graduate with honors, but I chose to stay home with my kids while they're small, and I DO NOT regret that decision AT ALL. There are others that may sneer at that decision. If I lived by example of most of the people I went to school with, I'd get like 4 degrees, then think about getting married and maybe have a kid after that. Okay, so we've established that in this particular aspect, I went against the grain and did what I truly believe to be the right thing to do for me. But on other fronts, there are decisions I've made and I've had to really stop and think super hard about why I made those decisions. It's really hard to go into here because there are very few people I know that would even remotely understand. Okay, so I can think of maybe 2 people that would understand my turmoil, and only one of those read this that I know of, and he already knows about my dilemma because we just got through talking about it. The biggest question is, did I make this decision by CHOICE, out of doing the RIGHT THING? Or did I make the decision because I felt pressured, backed into a corner, to follow some sort of rules? Some of the strongest people I know will say that the choice is completely up to me and would not poorly judge me, but to others, if I went back on my decision, would probably lose a lot of respect for me. These same people that would probably lose respect for me are ones that made this same decision I had made, but who's to say THEY made this same decision for the right reasons, or just because they felt equally as pressured as I do? Why this has to be so hard, so confusing, is beyond me. Sometimes I want to just do what I want on this, but it's not so easy when you have all these people looking up to you, believing that you have all this character. But I hate living a lie, too. To me, trying to be someone you're not is way worse than just taking off the mask.