BOY OH BOY!

Are things ever exciting around here! First of all... I must apologize for having to put the word verification feature on my blog. I really didn't want to, but a post about "transexual dating" left me no choice. BLECH!! What kind of creep goes around posting these things? Anyway... I hope that weeds out the undesirables, otherwise I'll have to utilize the comment approval feature and I'm not really wanting to have to do that and jump through hoops just to share with my friends and family in bloggerland! The only kind of "dating" I want mentioned on my blog is the kind of date where my sweetykins took me out on Valentine's Day. Here's a picture of us that Brandon took before our date. I doctored it up just a bit in the picnik program. Isn't my man handsome!!?? :)

So... Things have been interesting around here lately. Most importantly, Brandon has changed high schools. I know, I know!!! It's big, I told you. :) He has attended small town schools most of his life. This is his 5th year here. After all this time, he's still not found a place to fit in. With there being only 2 social groups (the jocks and the druggies) - he's had a really rough go of it. It's not that he DOESN'T get along with people, he just doesn't really have anyone that he spends time with outside of school. He's not playing sports and doesn't go to drinking parties, so mostly stays home with his amazing parents on the weekends - EVERY weekend. Unless it's school related, he doesn't have anything to do. He came home from school recently and said he "hated his life". RED FLAG! We had a good long discussion about it and I suggested he consider and pray about making a change. So we toured the new school which is about equal distance from our house as the old one, maybe a mile or 2 further - and he was really excited. It's the first time since I don't know when that I saw a sparkle in my boy's eyes. There is so much more going on there...their band has over 70 kids, the one at his old school has 12. There were 100 kids total in his old school, and I believe 780 in his new school - the awesome thing about that is... there are that many more kids for him to possibly become friends with. So he made a new friend on his first day of school - which was this last tuesday. The kid seems nice and invited Brandon to youth group last night. He went and had a blast. They're already making plans for the next 2 weekends to hang out together and with some other friends. The first day at his new school - he had 6 new facebook friends! Wow, I think this was really encouraging to him. It's no surprise to me, that not 1 kid from his old school has said anything to him about changing schools. The move was a good one - POINT IN CASE. So as a mom, I'm overjoyed that my son is smiling again. He is loving school instead of dreading it. God is just so darn good!!!! What an answer to prayer - I hope that as time goes on he'll love it even more.

Me and MICHE!

I began a new venture - selling MICHE BAGS. They are so awesome! If you haven't heard of them... they are a genius invention. It's a base purse (either brown or black - classic size or big) with earth magnets that hold on a variety of different "shells". The shells are magnetic and attach to the base purse in a matter of a few seconds. So you can change the look of your handbag as often as you like. GENIUS! I only wish I had thought of this! But I can still get a piece of the action as an independent sales representative. Here's a little video that demonstrates how the Miche Bag works:

I'm hosting a launch party at my house this Saturday and am really excited to show off my new fabulous designer handbags. It's so much fun! I am booking parties and will be doing them here in the area as well as in McPherson and Wichita - so if you're anywhere nearby and would like to have a Miche Bag party to earn yourself a free purse and some shells... just let me know! I'd love to Miche party with you. :) If you'd like more info or would like to see what we're currently offering, you can go to my distributor's website and take a look! http://www.michebagmidwest.com/   Oh, and here's the purse I'm currently carrying, I LOVE IT!! This is the "Jade" shell , but I've switched out these handles for the black chain handles.  I should really take my own photo with the chain handles so you can see how cool it looks.

I'd be most delighted to ship a Miche Bag to you if you're interested in joining the Miche fun! Feel free to email me any time with questions or an order, I'd love to hear from you and/or get you all set up!

Luke's work has been insane. Hire people, fire people - drive and fly all over the countryside. UGH. Man, this gets old, but as everyone well knows, the economy is such that you just keep trying to convince yourself that you're glad you have a job at all. If you've got room for one more on your prayer list - my husband could sure use some prayer. He's mentally and physically exhausted and there's no end in sight. He is an amazing man... I honestly have no idea how he does what he does. He must really love his family to subject himself to all this. So thankful for him!!

College girl is doin' alright. Keeping some long hours working for the campus newspaper, plus working her job on campus and going to class and staying on top of homework. She's doing well... made Dean's honor roll first semester! GO CIARA! We're so proud of her and her accomplishments. I think I mentioned that she's living on campus in the dorms, and will be moving to the newer campus apartments this summer and then stay there her sophomore year. She's excited about that!! To my surprise things are going well with her living on her own. I still see her a few times a week so... it's all good!

Shoogie is fantastic. What a sweet little puppy. Something kinda funny going on with her is that her "roots" seem to be coming out a caramel color. It's the funniest thing eve!. It looks like she had her hair colored and it grew out and the roots are about 2 inches grown out. ha ha. She gets prettier and sweeter by the day! I'll post a photo soon.

Still loving my new Canon SX20 camera!! Here are a few pix I took with it recently, it was after one of our many snow/ice sessions here in Kansas - the couple is my cousin, Raleen and her fiance' Chris who will be married this summer- I did their engagement photos out in the snow - thought they turned out pretty awesome, if I say so myself. :) I really do enjoy photography, it's nice to have a hobby. :)

Did I mention that I LOVE LOVE LOVE how Blogger has changed the way you add photos? Suh-weet!!! :) Wishing you all a happy Thursday... one more day and the weekend begins, YES!

Pet Therapy

Animals have a way of accepting without qualification. They don't care how a person looks or what they say. An animal's acceptance is nonjudgmental, forgiving, and uncomplicated by the psychological games people often play. They accept you the way you are. Their love is unconditional.

Dollia, the chubby cream colored cat (referred to by the Kraft family as "Fat Louie" ha ha) was my daughter's best friend. She told Dollia all her secrets... about how hard it was to grow up, about how mean the girls at school were, about how hard it was to be one of the only sweet Christian girls in junior high, while the others were going to drinking parties and being promiscuous. She loved that cat, and was devastated when we had to have her put to sleep in 2005. As a momma, it broke my heart to watch my daughter grieve for her best friend, which happened to be a cat. At that moment I didn't truly think that we could ever have another indoor pet. Losing Dollia was too hard, emotionally... and while I was sad, I was tired of my house not being my own. If my husband bought me flowers... I'd catch the cat on the table chewing on the leaves, if I had something pretty on the coffee table- the cat would knock it down. It just seemed like having a pet in the house was a total hassle.

My feelings about all this changed last year when I started thinking about getting a puppy. Normally I wouldn't have even had these thoughts... but my kids were growing up and it was becoming glaringly evident that they didn't need their momma as much as she needed them. I knew I had no choice but to accept that, since it's part of the normal progression of raising children - they're gonna leave the nest eventually! Well, the thought of this started to cause me no small amount of stress. I NEED my kids. I love to care for them, nurture them, love on them... only problem is - a 15 year old boy (man-child) doesn't exactly appreciate these things from his momma at this point in his life. When my son was a little guy, he gave me the best hugs and always told me he loved me. Even up to 5th grade he hugged me when I dropped him off for school. My heart soaaared! Well times have changed... and I'll take whatever hugs I can force out of him and the grunts I get in response to my "I love you's." That's where my precious fuzzy baby comes in.

March 2008 I began looking at puppies online. I thought I wanted a tea cup Yorkie, but a friend of my daughter's advised me to consider a YorkiePoo (Yorkshire Terrier/Poodle). Coincidentally, there was an ad in the paper for a litter of YorkiePoos from a local breeder. I called and drove about 30 miles to take a look at the only girl in the litter. She was precious!! Goodness, my heart just melted when I picked up the round, fuzzy little 2 pound bundle of love with the shiny brown eyes. Could you resist this?

Well I couldn't either... so I put a down payment on her and waited very impatiently for her to turn 8 weeks old so I could bring her home. Everyone loved her. Even her big sister, Trixie (who became a prison dog as a puppy- it's said that pets cut down aggression in the inmates ~ they taught her not to bark, to sit, to shake, etc. She was adopted from an animal shelter when she was 2 years old, we adopted her when she was about 3)

Having Sugar in the house seemed to bring our family closer together, I was especially fond of my fuzzy pup... I never expected to get so much love from such a tiny creature, we spent lots of time together, even though I was still actively running my soap business. Shoogie helped:

She went to softball games

And track meets

She even went on our Rocky Mountain vacation with us

Ah, yes... she was quite popular wherever we went and everyone wanted to know about our little YorkiePoo


When we first brought her home and she cried all night, and during the potty training process I wondered if I had made a mistake... but once we got through those adjustments, I realized that this precious pup was exactly what I needed. She snuggles with me at night when my husband's away on business, She always has hugs and kisses for me, she always loves me. In the midst of raising teenagers, often being the only parent home, running a business and dealing with the every day struggles of life ... something strange happened. I felt LESS stressed and more relaxed. Unbelievable! This tiny puppy gave me a new purpose in life... something to focus my attention on... but more than that - she gave me unconditional love.

I know people that aren't animal lovers can never comprehend how deep human/pet relationships can go, but I say they're missing out. Maybe one day those people will find themselves in need of a companion and they'll change their minds about pets. I know I did and I just can't imagine how I ever lived without this little doll. She has such personality, and so much love. It's so sweet how she comforts me when I'm sad and even how she drops her toys on my face trying to get me to play with her when I'm on the floor trying to exercise. She always likes my attention. She needs me and I need her. Win win. Now that's what I call pet therapy!

It turns out that having a pet is even good for your health! Here are some facts about the benefits of owning a pet, I found this to be really interesting:

• Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels than non-owners
• Companionship of pets (particularly dogs) helps children in families adjust better to the serious illness and death of a parent
• Pet owners feel less afraid of being a victim of crime when walking with a dog or sharing a residence with a dog.
• Pet owners have fewer minor health problems
• Pet owners have better psychological well-being
• Contact with pets develops nurturing behavior in children who may grow to be more nurturing adults
• Pet owners have a higher on-year survival rates following coronary heart disease
• Medication costs dropped from an average of $3.80 per patient per day to just $1.18 per patient per day in new nursing home facilities in New York, Missouri and Texas that have animals and plants as an integral part of the environment.
• Pet owners have better physical health due to exercise with their pets.
• Having a pet may decrease heart attack mortality by 3%. This translates into 30,000 lives saved annually
• Dogs are preventive and therapeutic measures against everyday stress
• Pets decrease feeling of loneliness and isolation
• Positive self-esteem of children is enhanced by owning a pet.
• Children's cognitive development can be enhanced by owning a pet.
• 70% of families surveyed reported an increase in family happiness and fun subsequent to pet acquisition.
• Children owning pets are more involved in activities such as sports, hobbies, clubs or chores.
  

Ok... go hug your pet, it's good for your health! :)