Attention dog and people lovers alike!

My dear friend Mariah and her pup Sweet Potato are going through a terribly rough time right now, and need YOUR help. Sweet Potato is a Boxer rescue and much more than just a pet but the heart and soul of my dear sweet friend. She is one of the most precious pups I have ever met and has brought so much joy into the life of everyone she meets, because she is a survivor.
Potato in Mariah's words; "Sweet Potato is a six year old Legacy Boxer Rescue pup. She was pulled from the shelter three years ago with her three sharpei-boxer pups and had obvious signs of neglect and abuse. What was once an anxious, fearful shell of a boxer is now a playful, independent fur ball of love. In the last 10 days, her happy-puppy personality has declined and she now has trouble walking, lifting herself, and moving around. I have been carrying her up and down three flights of stairs to potty. She is a suffering pup in need of relief or a miracle... Whichever comes first."
Potato has recently been diagnosed with either a herniated disc on her spinal cord, or a tumor. This is terrible news for any doggy mom to hear, especially when the testing alone will cost around $3,000.
Most everyone has a rainy day fund, and Mariah is sure to be drawing from hers, but she in no way has that amount of money right now. That is where we come in, ladies and gentleman, friends and family. It's time to pull out our pocket books and show this wonderful woman and precious pup that we are rooting for them. Any amount will help; all proceeds will go directly to Sweet Potato's vet bills. In the worst-case scenario, all of the money will be donated lovingly in Sweet Potato's name to the Legacy Boxer Rescue. Let's show them some love.
After YOU donate, please pass this along so others can pay it forward also.

Go here and help my dear friend, just cut and paste this and shell out!

http://apps.facebook.com/fundrazr/activity/c1df3670448d4e5294b6d745dd85f070?post=c1df3670448d4e5294b6d745dd85f070_40f784a70f9b4d229e34c49a88fd38bf_8e98f53d12f647c88c0a4d65e849274b&post_sig=7c8b0311607122eb40ba3148ca802d5efc84c093&post_id=1845519953_168027079942124#_

Back to school.....

It's that time of the year again, back to school! (Enter Billy Madison song here)

Due to this time of year I feel like I should provide a short summary about what I do, as to give my stories some context.

I am an ABA therapist (Applied Behavior Analysis), meaning that I practice behavior modification on kiddos with Autism and other learning differences. Is this the best career in the world you ask? Yes, it absolutely is.

Lucky for you, it also happens to provide a bounty of ridiculous stories, stories that I have chosen to share with you, dear readers...all 2 of you.

Today, I was working with one of my most favorite kids in the entire world, it was the end of our day and I was driving to drop him off with his parents. They were running a little behind so we were just chit chatting in the car when I noticed he wasn't really talking too much, I turned around and noticed he was casually stuffing a breadbox sized clock (I use to show lapsed time for my kids with autism) up his shirt.

Really? Okay, another day at the office.

I asked him if he could please try and not steal my clock that I use for work ...he said "oh sure, sorry". ..Then was silent for another minute or so clearly contemplating something potentially mischievous .....and out of the blue spoke up "Chelsie, I think you stole my mom's clock”.

What.....?

Hahaha, his mom has the same clock.... it is actually a really is an awesome tool and unbeknownst to my dear friend, not a one of a kind. I told him, that I in fact did NOT steal his mom's clock (that he was so gallantly stealing back for her) but that we both have one. This answer seemed to satisfy and he packed up the clock in my workbag that he had retrieved it from.... then handed the entire bag to me. "Oh buddy, that bag stays back there,” I told him. "No, it's too much of a temptation, please keep it up there with you" He replied. hahahahaha. Okay then, fair enough.

P.s. He's only 10 years old

Chels

Internet has no downside.

No internet still, super sad face. Will someone please remember to feed my fish (at the bottom of the page) whilst I am away. Thanks.

-Chels

My family has skills....

I need more allowance

Yodelahewho ....

The beets, obviously.... a band from Doug (one of the best cartoons ever) and that song is still so poignant I sing it every time I am on the job hunt....which I am! Positive vibes, crossed fingers and prayers are all welcome...equal opportunity and all that.

Anyway, As I am in the presence of the Internet I thought I should take this opportunity to post a new one on this thing, not that thousands are waiting with baited breathe of course.

Onward and Blogward: This past weekend I went to San Antonio on business and my Charming and lovely cousin Sara (Etsy site here http://www.etsy.com/shop/RedBirdLane?ref=ss_profile) let me stay with her in her wonderfully Anthro-esque casa.

Not only is she under 25 and owns her own home (because she just really has her stuff together), but in all of her spare time (aside from her very full time job) she makes some AWESOME things, I have a special affinity for her light fixtures (shown above) ! The ones in the photo's are in my apartment that she sent me for my big bad 25th birthday....and I absolutely adore it!

That's all for now, go check it out!

Chels

Mulligan and then some....

When you start off the day picking a fight with the sweetest most gentle human on the planet, it is not a very strong sign for a good day.

So that's my day today. Lovely.

This sounds like a totally roll your eyes typical excuse, because it is...but I have been super stressed lately. The ever growing need for more money than I have is really starting to take a toll on me and clearly I am not a grown up enough to keep it to myself. Why in the world when I get stressed am I compelled to share this unwanted burden on anyone and everyone who crosses my path....well maybe that isn't correct... maybe it's not anyone and everyone but those who are closest to me, the ones who I know love me...why is it they who end up with the big emotional wallop?

Probably because most of us generally believe that these people will forgive and love us anyway, and most of the time they do...accidentally reinforcing that nasty behavior and unfortunately increasing the likelihood of its repeated occurrence (dropping some behavior modification on your ass there).

So I started to realize that I seem to really screw things up whenever I attempt to handle them myself. Whenever I tell God that he has done a pretty good job, but I can take it from here...without fail, I always fall smack dab on my mug. Fail.

Faith, such a difficult thing for me....the Bible describes faith like this ....Hebrews 11: 1 "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. " Sounds easy, no? No.

Assurance in what we do not see, is to me one of the most difficult things I can do and even worse than that, the mere thought of attempting to try and have faith is difficult for me. So naturally I being the geek that I am turned to Google for comfort, here is what I came up with:

"I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns."
— Anne Lamott

What a gem.

Whenever I get sad, or worried or stressed I inevitably get down on myself for not trusting in God but maybe Ms. Lamott really hit the nail on the head, maybe noticing the mess and LETTING IT BE until some light returns is the essence of this whole trusting in God thing.

Food for thought.

I can haz internet?

Sad news everyone, my very nice .....ambiguously gay neighbor, who let me have free Internet has moved :( I request a moment of silence for my loss.

Now then.....

While I am in the process of acquiring my own Internet connection my blogs will be few and far between, first world problem for sure.

Meanwhile, whilst on the interbewz hiatus of sorts, I picked up a book from the library (something I do fairly often) this particular book is GONE by Lisa McMann. It's the last book in a very short trilogy called the WAKE Trilogy ....To be totally honest, my first impression was that I couldn't believe I was ever interested enough to read the first two.... however around the middle of the book I became once again enraptured (probably due to the fact that I have no Internet ).
This is a short series of no great literary value, but "candy" for sure....It's written in a very lyrical way and the story is interesting enough that you want to know what happens at the end.

So blogland I'm in the market for book suggestions currently, if you have read something FABULOUS recently let me know!