Heart Care for Daddy: This One is for My Dad

A few weeks ago life as my family knew it changed. I was once again reminded that the month of October was no longer my friend or even really a month I still enjoy. On Halloween my dad was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure (C.H.F.). Up until this point life was moving as it had for many years. Dad had just been laid off from his seasonal job, had gotten his unemployment started, and was planning a winter at home resting up from what he thought was pulled muscles. The shock for all of us however was the swelling was not going down, it was simply moving from parts of his lower body to parts of his upper body. We suggested he see a doctor but daddy was never one who wanted to go to a doctor. Within weeks the swelling was so bad daddy could not breathe, he could hardly walk, and he was unable to sleep. Finally we convinced him he had to see a doctor. My eyes filled with tears as I saw the condition that my daddy was now in. Even I did not know the extent this swelling had reached. My heart sank, fear gripped me, and I knew my daddy, the man I thought could never falter, was on his way to the hospital for a stay not just a visit. The local health department suggested he travel by ambulance to the local hospital ER, which we did. We were expecting him to be admitted but after around an hour or so we got the news that they suspected he had had a heart attack, he had Congestive Heart Failure, and he needed a cardiologist, not just a doctor. He was admitted to Cookeville Regional Medical Center where he would spend a week and two days, where at least five of those days were spent in ICU.

My dad is now home after being released from the hospital but he is far from better. He is unable to work with only 20% of his heart working and must wait months to have the test ran to completely understand what must be done to repair his heart. Daddy was denied TennCare and Medicare unless he can get his disability started. Everyone knows that will take months at the least. In an effort to help my daddy cover his medical expenses and be able to continue to receive the care and medicines he needs I have formed a Heart Care for Daddy campaign.

I ask if you can please donate to help with my daddy's medical expenses. Even small donations help so please do not think that you can not make a difference because you can. If you are unable to help with funding please consider sharing this link with those you know in hopes that maybe some of them will be able to help and further spread the word about this campaign.Click here to help with donations or spread the word Heart Care for Daddy.

 

Kylie Minogue Album Review: The Abbey Road Sessions

First things first, I received the brand new Kylie Minogue album on behalf of One2OneNetwork for review. The opinions you are about to read are my own and have not been influenced by the One2OneNetwork in any form or fashion.

Now with this statement made lets move on to the album introduction. The Abbey Road Sessions album contains sixteen reworked tracks which span 25- years of Minogue's career. The tracks were recorded in Abbey Road Studios located in London with Minogue's band and a full orchestra. On this CD you will find many earlier track releases from Minogue and some new ones as well. Flower track 13 on the album is Kylie's latest single written a few years ago to the child she wishes to one day still have after her battle with breast cancer.

The Abbey Road Sessions tracks are as follows:

1. All The Lovers

2. On A Night Like This

3. Better The Devil You Know

4. Hand On Your Heart

5. I Believe In You

6. Come Into My World

7. Finer Feelings

8. Confide In Me

9. Slow

10. The Locomotion

11. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head

12. Where The Wild Roses Grow

13. Flower

14. I Should Be So Lucky

15. Love At First Sight

16. Never Too Late

Now on to the review. The album is filled with emotional feeling, the beat slow and deep. If you are into this type of "sound" the album is one you will sure want to pick up. For me most of the songs were not my true style. This being said the songs were not bad just not tailored to my tastes. I did enjoy Hand On Your Heart, the remake to the Locomotion and Can't Get You Out Of My Head.  Where the Wild Roses Grow and Flower are songs that touch the heart if you allow them to. I believe if your expectations are not set to hear the fast paced songs Kylie is often recognized for but instead a slower pace of heart bearing sound you will be thrilled with the songs on this album. My expectations for the normal sounds of Kylie did affect how I first felt about the album. I believe it to be one of those that will eventually grow on you even if your expectations are not first met.

Kylie fans can catch her during her upcoming TV appearances on Dancing with the Stars on November 13th and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on November 14th where she will be performing "The Locomotion."

Follow Kylie on  Twitter and/or
Facebook.

For a Sample preview of The Abbey Roads Session   
 on YouTube
or to see the music video for "Flower"







    

                                                                                                         

To purchase your copy of The Abbey Roads Session:
ITunes
Amazon Deluxe
Amazon Standard

I hope you find this review and the provided links useful and that you enjoy the album.

Creepy Crafts for a Howling Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Not only do I get to spend a night with my son trick-or-treating and reminiscing of my own childhood, but I also get to decorate my rarely seen yard. It is a good thing I do it as a family tradition and enjoyment for my family and not so much as to be seen by others because when you live in the middle of nowhere, few see your efforts! This year, like those in the past, I have decorated with my props but in addition I found some awesome ideas that I have used to make my own decorations, which are in my humble opinion, much cooler than those you can buy in stores now days. If you are interested in my creations just read on and see them in all their creepy awesomeness!






The first decoration I decided to make was my own ground breaker hands. These decorations are expensive in stores but this year my pocketbook breathed a sigh of relief. This craft is simple, inexpensive, requires little time, and very neat when complete. Interested yet???  Here's how to make your own!
 
You will need:

* Cheap pair /pairs of white or clear gloves

* Sand

* Rubber bands or hair ties

* Black nail polish


Once you have all the necessary supplies stretch the glove over your hand to stretch it so that you can fill it with sand. Make it look as realistic as possible in size to an actual human hand with the sand. Make sure the sand fills the fingers of the gloves well or you will not be able to pose the glove as the photos show. Once the glove is a comparable hand size and the fingers are full tie it off with a rubber band or hair tie. You are ready to practice your manicurist skills. Press on the ends of the fingers to make a nail impression in the glove. I traced the impression with a cheap black nail polish and then went back and colored it in so as to not make a huge mess of the fingers. According to coverage you may want to let the polish completely dry and then recoat. I let mine sit for a few hours before I began trying to pose them. The awesome thing is as you pose them the gloves will form lines and wrinkles making the hand look as if it is real. Once the hand has the appeal you are seeking place it somewhere spooky. I placed mine in the front yard in my "Rest Your Bones Cemetary." To secure the gloves in their location I used large nails ran through the gloves below the tie and then shoved into the ground. To amp up the scary effect for your hands  you can also add fake blood. Be creative and make your hands an original work, I read that you can add fake fur and have werewolf hands, or you might want to paint them green to represent monster, witch, or alien hands. You could create female looking hands by changing polish color or securing press on nails with a hot glue gun. Just be careful not to melt the glove!

Next I found a cool looking, evidently controversial, body bag idea. Maybe it is better that I have off-road privacy, I sure would not want anyone to be upset at my creativity as many were in cities where this idea originated! I must warn you this craft requires more time, patience, and effort than the first one but from my experience is definately worth the extra effort.

Materials for this one will include:
 * Black trash bags, I picked up an inexpensive box of 7 at the Family Dollar for a buck
 * I have read many people use crumpled up newspaper for stuffing but I opted to use old clothing     from storage to make a dummy body.
 * Rope or twine
 * Plastic grocery bags

I began by making a human looking torso with an old shirt and my child's old outgrown life jacket from this past summer. I then used an old pair of my husbands jeans for the bottom half of the body. Stuff these considerably because you will need them to form a realistic human form inside the trash bags. Next, create a head shape for the body by stuffing a plastic grocery bag.  Though a balloon would have been a much easier option, I did not figure it would stay inflated and it would not have offered such wonderful shaping opportunities. The plastic bags conveniently tied to the life jacket closures which saved repositioning time during dead weight placement in "Rest Your Bones Cemetary." Note do not waste your time trying to use a pumpkin or trick or treat bucket for the head, these are much too large to look realistic.  Once I had the body I began covering it with the trash bags. I put the actual torso and head along with the  bottom of the body inside two of the bags. I would like to mention that a few extra bucks spent for 30 gallon bags would have likely been worth the investment as this fella ended up being taller than me! On the flip side,  13 gallon will work if you have the time, patience, and dedication the deathly wrestling match will require. Once I got the body inside the bags I quickly noticed the life jacket held it own with form but made the bottom half of the body look extra small and the arms vanish. Never fear, I am a creative soul who enjoys a good challenge, a few old pairs of my husbands unmatched and worn out socks later this guy had perfect arms. A bit more stuffing and the bottom was proportioned and I was ready to begin tying. Once all body parts were attached and tucked in a trash bag  I began to wrap trash bags around any naked or light areas in the body and shape the form. It was not too long and I have an exceptionally creepy looking body laying in my floor. The thing looked so realistic that I honestly hoped no one came visiting or else I might be explaining to an officer that the thing lying in my den floor was in fact not a human carcass. To set off the cemetary scene I placed my son's shovel in the ground by the body bag and tied a grim reaper to the handle, to look as if the poor person was awaiting a shallow grave. 

Awe yourself with more of my creepy creative decorating prepare yourself and click here!

 

Comments or your own creative ideas,please leave a comment. I am always up for a new craft, especially for Halloween! 

Halloween Full Skull Outdoor Prop (Google Affiliate Ad)

Halloween Lifesize Red Reaper Decoration (Google Affiliate AD)

 

 Halloween Wall Creature Decoration (Google Affiliate Ad)

Take Control of...You

                 

     WHO AM I?

 I will be the first to say I am not usually big on religious programs on TV but I heard part of a very good sermon today. The preacher was talking about how we have lost who we are in the rat race of our society and it really made sense to me. When asked who we are how many of us reply with a profession or a quick reply of so and so mother, daughter, sister, brother, etc? Almost all of us use our profession or family to describe who we are. We are not just a title or family name. We are so much more than that! I take pride in being a wife, mother, daughter, niece, cousin, grand daughter and even a student but these things just tell my role in life they do not describe who I am. We work hard many years of our life trying to change something in this world that we have no control over when what we should be focusing on to be happy is to change and find our own selves. If we worried more about what we thought or how we felt and less about how society believes we should think and feel the world would be a much better place with a ton less stress. Why? Because we can control our own beings and how we think and feel about things but we can not change how the world views them. If you are not happy with something in your life stop waiting on times to change or  circumstance to give you an out. Make a plan and change your own problems or life.

Change is not easy for anyone. From an infant age until adult we are conditioned and taught how we should act, speak, and live. We allow others to influence and even sometimes make our decisions for us. We do so willingly because we are either scared of what may happen or afraid we will be frowned upon by our society. The sad thing is if you take a good hard look at our society it is not teaching us good respectable values. We have leaders stealing large sums of money from our country and businesses, we have false hopes being spoken at every turn, we have riots over who should live how, we have a government that is taking more and more of our rights away, and to top it all off God is allowed in a prison but not in a classroom, courtroom, or business, God is all but disappearing in the daily open lives of everyone. The things we are allowing ourselves to be taught and to influence us is to cheat, steal, lie, and to lay down and accept defeat! We the people, caught up in this mess of a rat race, are agreeing to these acts because we have lost our own hope, values, and will to fight.

The next time you are asked who you are think long and hard about what response you will give. Are you more than just a tired, worn out mom working at a minimum wage job, or is that all there is left of you to find? Find happiness in your self and learn to be happy in a rat race world. You can change your views and actions but I am sorry to say you can not change the actions or views of anyone else and you can not change the world. You can however act and react in an honest upstanding manner to be a better role model to those who know you best such as your children, family, friends, and religious groups.

"If you want to change something in your life or in this world start with an area where you can make a difference: YOU."

With the above departing thought I will end my rant, sermon, etc, contemplate who you "really" are, until next time on Life is Worth Living: Encounter, Experience, and Live it.

Clip art and photography made possible by http://www.gospelgifs.com,  http://www.watton.org, and www.facebook.com/RhondaMeadowsWorksofWritingandPhotography.