Finally Getting to Even

What are you still doing over here ???

finallygettingtoeven — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:38:30 +0000

Well hi there…

I guess you hadn’t heard that we moved. But not to worry, we WANT to take you with us.

We are now at a (.com) and while we love wordpress we felt that we could better serve you out there on our own.

We still have all the great content but now there is so much more for you to enjoy. Won’t you please come on over and check us out. To make it easy for you all you have to do is click here:

http://www.finallygettingtoeven.com

Well, why are you still here ???

Okay, you don’t want to leave wordpress just yet, that’s alright. We have another blog here ready and waiting for your company. Here’s another easy click for you:

http://www.themotivationlocation.wordpress.com

What….what now…?

Look, I can’t do this for you. You are going to have to push the keys on your own keyboard because I just cannot reach them from here.

What do I have to do to convince you to drop by…

I got cookies….

FinallyGettingToEven moving to a .com

finallygettingtoeven — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:07:11 +0000

Please make a special note that we have now moved to a .com

our new address is:

http://www.finallygettingtoeven.com

Please jump over to see us and bookmark the new site….

Thanks for visiting FinallyGettingtoEven.com

Please visit our sister site: http://www.themotivationlocation.wordpress.com

finallygettingtoeven — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:57:21 +0000

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.
- Ashleigh Brilliant

The Starfish Story

finallygettingtoeven — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:08:16 +0000

This story was shared with me many years ago when i became a vegan. A dear friend knew that i may need to use it a time or two when it came time to defend my choices. I loved it the first time i heard it and i still continue to smile everytime i hear it repeated. Enjoy!

**Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf’s edge and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was struck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached, the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the young man he said, “You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The young man looked at him. He then stooped down and picked up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

-unknown

Cree Indian Prophecy

finallygettingtoeven — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:57:49 +0000

“After the last tree has been cut down, after the last river has been poisoned, after the last fish has been caught Only then will you find that money can’t be eaten.”
~ Cree Indian Prophecy

the story of Nibbons & Qumar

finallygettingtoeven — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:10:33 +0000

This is the story of my 2 shelter cats, Nibbons & Qumar. Quite a couple of names, yes…? Well that’s not their REAL names, although in actuality, it is. What? You, my reader are really confused now i am sure. Let me back up.

The year was 2006. I had just lost my beloved 18 year old best feline friend and had sworn off ever loving again.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, however one chooses to look at it I found I was ready and NEEDING to love again after only a few short months. The truth of the matter was i NEEDED fur in my life. I missed the sound of the pitter-patter of little paws running across the floor. I missed the furry mass that would hop up into my lap and cuddle usually at the most inconvenient opportunities and the wet slimy nose rubbing against my own at 4am because that just sounded like a great time for b-fast to him. Yes, it was time to bring some more sunshine into my life.

I started by checking the local shelter internet sites. I wanted an adult cat, i knew that. I wanted to give them a chance for a great place to live out the rest of their life. Everyone wants kittens…who will take the grown-ups?
I will. But after continually looking locally I was just not finding the right connection. So i reached farther and farther, to the tune of 3 hrs away, and i found HER! A beautiful adult cat 6 yrs old that had been given to the shelter when her owner had to be placed in a nursing home. Perfect!

After much persuading to Dave, “Why on earth do we need to drive 3 hrs one way to get a CAT” he persisted. “What is wrong with the cats that live in this town”?…”No, no, this is the ONE….” i stood my ground. So one saturday afternoon Dave and I loaded into the car and set off to get my ‘new baby’.

3 hours later we where there. And as we pulled into the parking lot my heart swelled with joy. In a short time i would be walking out of the place with my new ‘adoptee’ ready to spoil and pamper her to a degree that she had never seen before up to this point.

Into the shelter we go. The director leads us to the catroom and THERE SHE IS… yes, she’s a real beauty, perched up top a kitty tree her regal heiness looking down upon all the less fortunate cat souls around her. I slowly approached her talking softly and calling her name as the director and Dave observe from afar. Then I reached my hand out to give her a soft gentle stroke and tell her everything was going to be ok now. Well, in all her assumed gratitude she stood, arched her back, hissed and promptly bit me on the wrist.
WOW….i recoiled and grabbed my throbbing wound. And this was a nice soft gentle cat just wishing to be loved… yea, right! I would love to see what they considered to be their ‘troubled’ cats, or maybe i wouldn’t.

Now some might be thinking about now that maybe she just didn’t LIKE me, but i will have you know that in all of my years i have been bitten by, oh– say, ZERO animals. Animals DON’T bite me, period! I can’t explain it. I like to tell people that it is because me being a vegan they know that no matter how hungry i get…i would never eat THEM!

By now i am sad and depressed. It looks as if i won’t be taking anyone home today and it’s going to be another night of a quiet empty house. Dave is also sad and depressed. He just drove 3 hours under total duress and we have no cat. What’s next…? Where will the next one be…10 hours away.?

The director is telling me that this has never happened and i am half listening at this point, too wrapped up in my own grief to care. Then she suggests we go to the kitten room. “Kitten Room” Dave repeats happily. “But i don’t WANT a KITTEN!” i wail. “Please just look” dave pleads back. So the next thing i know i am following the director and Dave down a long hall into a room full of cages of kittens. They are crying and scrambling to get our attention. Great, now i want them ALL.

We peruse up and down the room peering into the cages watching the kittens tumbling over one another to get to the front of the line. I am so confused, and saddened at the same time. So many kitties, so little homes.

And then, then i see him. A little grey tabby cat sitting in the corner of the cage, his brother happily playing by himself with a toy at the other end. And he looks at me. No, he looks into me. And that is it, it’s over, he wins.

All the while this is going on Dave has wandered to the end of the room and the next thing i know he is back beside me with the most adorable black tuxedo kitten i have ever seen. The cat is ‘draped’ over his wrist and just lying there like a limp little rag. He completely melts my heart. Well great, now we have 2 kitties that i can’t leave without. “I want this one” Dave announces….”and i want this one” i shoot back. The director pipes up and says “get both” to which Dave’s beaming face quickly turns to a quiet look of panic. “Both, oh no way” he says. And suddenly he finds himself outnumbered by two women explaining to him how TWO are better than ONE. And somehow that day i convince him that to be true, (which it is…i wasn’t lying to get my way, ok, maybe a LITTLE bit).

Well i won that battle and the next thing you know we are walking out with Nibbons & Qumar. How on earth did they get those names i asked the director to which she replied, “Unfortunately when you see the sheer number of animals that come through these doors needing names we have to start digging deep to come up with something, some days we do better than others”.

So that is how Nibbons & Qumar came to be honorary members of my household. It was touch and go in the beginning as their own beginnings were less than desireable. Nibbons, my shy grey tabby has been renamed to Harley as it was appropriate at the time, listening to his purr was like the sound of a rumbling harley motorcycle. Poor Harley, he came to be at the shelter after someone put him in a bag, tied it up and threw it in the trash. Thankfully someone walking by heard his screams and rescued him before it was too late. He was 3 months old when we adopted.

Qumar my black tuxedo was born at the shelter, he has appropriately been named Baxter, because, well he just acts like a Baxter. He is wired most of the time and keeps us in stitches. I have even caught Harley shaking his head at times. Baxter was just 2 months old when he joined our little family.

And here they are, the real Harley & Baxter…..

So if you need some love in your life consider a shelter kitty. There are so many needing good homes. Do you have any pets in your life and how did they come to be members of your family?

My lack of all things technology related…

finallygettingtoeven — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:19:37 +0000

I have a little confession to make…I am a bona fide technological idiot. Yea, that’s me alright.

Scary you say coming from someone sitting here writing a blog at that. Well I have to admit to you (since we are being honest and sharing here)…I had HELP setting this whole thing up. Okay, okay…. someone else did it for me completely, my 25 yr old son to be exact. I know, it’s pretty sad when my ‘kid’ knows more than I do (but isn’t that the way the world works anyway). I just never got into the ‘movement’.

My cell phone is not the latest gadget. In fact if it was, I would be helpless and it would be useless. As long as it rings and I push one of the two buttons that I understand (green means go, red stop) and I can hear the person on the other end, all is fine. No ‘apps’ for me…I can’t e-mail, text or do any of the 100 other things cell phones are now capable of doing.

My computer skills are limited to turning it on and off and if anything out of the ordinary should happen in between, well, there goes my whole darn day. I have learned how to operate my e-mail, search the internet and make a document or two, but that is the extent of my ‘computer skills’. And of course, now i am learning the ins and outs of creating and running this blog.

As for the whole big screen, cable, dvr mess we have set up in the living room. Forget it. I guess that probably explains why i am never allowed to hold the remote

But I can tell you I understand the microwave and the toaster so I guess all is not lost….at least we won’t go hungry in the process.

How about you…? Have you mastered all the latest ‘gadgets’ out there ? What have you decided you can just live without and gave up trying to learn ?

You can’t even get good homeless these days….

finallygettingtoeven — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:10:27 +0000

Last night during a rainstorm my 2 cats were huddled against the window looking out intently into the night. Something was out there and they were intrigued. So I went to the window and looked out, and there it was. A smallish wet cat nosing around on the back patio. A stray, maybe. But I was not going to take any chances and miss the opportunity to give the possibly ‘homeless little guy’ a good meal.

I quickly ran to the kitchen and grabbed a plastic bowl leftover from when the butter ran out last, filled it to the brim with dry kitty morsels (a flavor well-endorsed by my own two picky eaters) and topped the whole thing off with nice creamy fresh milk.

In spite of slowly opening the back patio door, unfortunately the cat quickly skittered off. I repeatedly called out to him but he was not returning. So I left the meal out on the patio and went back into the house hoping he would return of his own accord. This however was not to be and after a few hours I went to bed with no sign of my new little friend, but I hoped he would return in the night and fill his little tummy. However, I also knew the odds were likely that a raccoon, possum or the little fox that visits would be the more likely recipient of this gift.

This morning when I looked out all was as expected. The food was gone, but…..so was the whole bowl. I looked around the immediate area just to see if it had ‘blown’ but that was not to be the case. My little visitor not only stole the meal…he stole the whole bowl…. Just goes to show you….you can’t even get good homeless these days…..

so do you feed the stray animals that wander down your path?

Good day everyone….anyone….???

finallygettingtoeven — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:52:04 +0000

While yesterday was the ‘official’ start of FinallyGettingtoEven I prefer to consider this day 1.…

we were only breaking the ice as they say….now that we have gotten to know one another (ok, you got to know a little about me, however, I still have a long way to go before I get to know you) anyways, now that I am here and you are here (well how else could you be reading this then)…I know you are out there and I hope you comment to let me know that I am not just ‘hearing the voices in my head’….

I thought we would could start the day off with me explaining why I have chosen to write this blog, what makes me the ’special one’. Well here’s a little secret…I’m not all that special. But the transformation that I have gone through in the past 2 years I can call no less than remarkable. It started a year ago January. Not January 1^st, this was no New Years Resolution in any manner, quite the contrary.

I had just returned from a Caribbean cruise with 3 girlfriends. After driving from Indiana to New Orleans we jumped on a cruise ship and sailed the open waters for 4 days. During that time nothing much out of the ordinary happened. Just 4 friends on a much-needed vacation. I ate and slept much more than I would have desired but I guess I needed them both. (ok, you got me on the food part…I did NOT need all the extra food but what’s a girl on vacation to do, huh)?

Upon returning from the trip I jumped back easily into my current lifestyle but something did not quite feel right. I could not put my finger on it at the time. I just felt out of ‘place’ somehow.

One afternoon while searching around on the internet (hey-it’s winter…I am like a bear that hibernates inside till spring so the internet gets a little burned up all winter long). Anyway, I stumbled across ‘frugal’ sites and landed on a site that had a pretty extensive forum. As I read the content and the posts by all the members I became intrigued, then hooked, then obsessed if you will, and i signed right up.

Now I have always been more frugal than most people I knew but I realized after finding this site, which in turn led to many other sites and onto frugal blogs, that I was just landing on the tip of the iceberg. The individuals that I had discovered fascinated me. They were living or working towards living the life that I had always envisioned myself living, and I wanted to be a part of that world.

So I read, digested, embraced and I began to get a greater understanding of this other lifestyle and I knew what I had to do. I needed to live this life, and so it began. my frugal existence. Which in turn I hope to share with you if you will let me. And while I have not mastered this life by any means, I continue to evolve and learn and I hope you all will go with me for the ride. While I have not quite reached utopia, the trip so far has been, for me, pretty darn blissful and I plan to continue this road less traveled for as far as it will take me.

Won’t you climb aboard….? So until tomorrow….

Welcome to my blog!

finallygettingtoeven — Mon, 17 May 2010 02:12:24 +0000

…Hello and welcome.

I am a 40′s something married gal who has spent the last 39+ years just trying to survive in a dog-eat-dog world full of hyped-up commercialism and over consumption. Now i think i have finally ‘gotten-it’ and want to share my knowledge of years of ‘trial and error’ with you, my dear readers. And all the while hopefully i can keep the content a little more exciting to you than reading your washing machine manual.

But trust me, i don’t have all the answers and that is why i am hoping that you will jump in when necessary. Your thoughts and opinions are important to me and hopefully to all the other readers (if i can find any….). So that is my call to you….Please read my blog, critique it, become a member of my family, (which by the way have no problem whatsoever in telling me what i am doing right or wrong)…you will fit right in. I want this to be ‘OUR’ blog. Therefore, it is my goal to have guest posts and readers in the spotlight as much as possible, and i would appreciate your feedback on topics that you wish to see discussed.

So please bookmark this blog, email to your friends or add our RSS feed. Do it today…do it NOW…before your day to day life gets interrupted and you forget about me and my ‘little blog’….

And until we talk again…..

jan…..