Stickers, pencils, glow sticks, jumpy things, activity books - they should like them! (If I wasn't such a ding dong and realized latex balloons were no-nos in hospitals, they would have gotten those too.) I can't help but think of little lads that have to spend holidays in hospitals. (The worse place in the world as far as I'm concerned.) Making those bags was so fulfilling and - you know how I love the power of numbers - inexpensive when eight people contribute to the cause. My request is for all of us to make the holidays - any holidays - happier for those that need it. The girls and I have sorted cans at the food bank and (unbeknownst to them :)...) we've adopted a family in-need from the YWCA Omaha for Christmas. It's not that we're money bags and have a lot to give. It's not that at all. But we all are very fortunate for what we have, and realize we do have the power to make someone's holiday a little brighter.
Of course, you've by now figured out I weigh more than five pounds and I'm obviously talking about widdle Macers. She's not here tonight and it's lonely! I'm heading to Yucktucky tomorrow morning (work + T Fitch) so she's at her foster grandparents' for a few nights. (My parents are in NYC and yes, I'm jealous.) After I dropped her off I went to the gym, and it was so weird to walk into a completely quiet house! (For a few minutes I miiiiiiigggghhhhtt have reveled in it.) But now I want my furry friend, my security system, my snuggle buddy, back!
They were super comfy and cute, and I remembered Brooke endorsing them. I had looked at a lot of shoes and decided I just wanted to get these and be done with it. However, they didn't have my size and I was slightly gun shy about spending $90 on them. That evening, I decided to give Zappos.com a whirl. I found a 6.5 and just decided to purchase. Shipping was free and no sales tax - so it was almost a bargain.
Insert this sturdy, lightweight, well-ventilated jogging stroller that holds up to a 45 pound dog. (That means Macy could being 39.9 pounds of toys along with her.) It's even got a Maltese model!
In the next few days, I will post photos from past get togethers. In the meantime, party on party people.
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- It was supposed to be a pleasant surprise, but turned into the shock of a lifetime.
A woman scours a garbage heap in Tel Aviv for her mother's missing mattress.
A woman in Tel Aviv, Israel, gave her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise gift, throwing out the old tattered bed her mother had slept on for decades. The gesture ended up bankrupting Annat's mother, who had stuffed her savings of nearly $1 million inside her old bed for decades, Annat told Israel Army Radio.
A massive search is under way at the city dump, where security has been beefed up to keep out treasure-seekers who have heard Annat's story in Israeli media.
Annat, who did not want to reveal the rest of her name, told Israel Army Radio that she woke up early Sunday to get a good deal on a new mattress as a surprise for her mother.
She fell asleep that night, exhausted after lugging up the new mattress and hauling down the old one to be taken out with the trash.
When her mother realized the next day what her daughter had done, she told her that she had been using the mattress to stash away her life savings and had nearly $1 million padding the inside of the worn-out mattress.
Annat ran downstairs, but it was too late. The garbage truck had already taken away the money-stuffed mattress.
Annat alerted the two major dump sites in the Israeli city in an effort to locate the bed, but so far she has had no luck. Yitchak Burba, one of the dump site managers, told Army Radio that he and his men are working relentlessly to try to help Annat find the million-dollar mattress among the tons of garbage at the landfill.
The publicity has triggered a wave of people also trying to find the mattress and its contents for themselves. Burba has increased security around the dump to keep them out.
Annat told Army Radio that when her mother realized her queen-sized bank had been tossed, she told her to "'leave it.'"
"'The heart is crying but you know we could have been in a car accident or had a terminal disease,'" Annat said her mother told her.
Annat is also taking the situation in stride.
"It's a very, very sad story but I've been through worse," she told Army Radio. "It's a matter of proportions in life ... people need to know how to accept the good and the bad in life."
This picture doesn't even truly do the house justice. It was awful. My Habitat contact told me there are 400 homes on the condemn list (I got nervous I wrote condem list for a second but then realized condom is really spelled that way, not condem. Wow. You know you need to wrap up a blog post when you work in the word condom) around Omaha. Imagine a family living in that. Imagine living across from that. It was just really eye-opening for me. Normally I'd drive by and tell Trevor to look at that "piece" but today it hit me. That is/was someone's home. And Pavlov says a home is non-negotiable. HELLO COLLEGE PSYCH CLASS! See mom - I paid attention in school!
And that's a wrap!
I also had a birthday at the beginning of the month, which I see my mom neglected to blog about. Yup, I'm two. My mom is pretty rad though. She made treats for the pups and cupcakes for the humans to take to Bark Avenue that day. Everyone thought I was pretty cool. The owner of Bark Avenue asked my mom if I was turning one and my mom said "no - TWO!" and then I think she might have got teary eyed. She said I'm growing up too fast. I don't see why she's complaining. Next year when I am three, or 21 in human years, she says all the adults are going on a bark crawl in my honor. Anyway, I did get some pretty cool shit for my birthday, including this shirt my mom keeps saying "fits me extremely well."
What else to blog about? Well, she said I'm supposed to give a shout out to Emilie and Eric. He finally got around to pawping the question. So that's pretty cool. My mom said it's been fun to hear all about the wedding planning. 
We fed giraffes Thursday and it was the coolest. I'm talking they ate sweet potatoes, new potatoes and carrots right from the palms of our hands with their long, black tongues. They are my new favorite animals (besides Macy of course).
Emilie, Shannon and I and a bunch of other cool ladies are on the silent auction committee for Zoofari, an awesome biannual fundraiser for the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo. Zoofari is a big deal - in 2007, more than 1,000 people attended, raising more than $2 million. It draws some of the biggest names from Omaha, including that billionaire guy. Getting a close-up look at these fascinating animals made me realize how awesome the Omaha Zoo is and why what we are doing is so important. It's about raising money to bring captivating exhibits - polar bears, penguins, sea lions and more - to Omaha. Not only is the Zoo important to the local economy (in 2007 it's overall economic impact on Omaha was $86.3 million), it's also the state's largest classroom. Each year more than 85,000 students and teachers participate in the Zoo's school group program and educator training. We're lucky one of the country's top dog Zoos (animal pun intended) is right in our own backyard.
Fast forward to 9:33 a.m.
If this picture had a time stamp it would probably say 10:23 a.m. This is at the point when I tweeted "Damn, I love Vegas" because it was around this time when we exited the MGM Studio Cafe with our Bloody Mary's and red beers. Drinks to go = more reason to love Las Vegas.
It's probably 11:14 a.m. at this point. By now we've migrated from NY NY to MGM to Walgreens for Alka Seltzer Morning Relief and to Planet Hollywood for Wheel of Fortune slots which paid out the opposite of a fortune.
And this is post gambling-run at Paris - here we're on our way to a 4 p.m. lunch at Caesars.
And this, well this is just proof of what happens after a long day of drinking.
After our day-drinking stint, we retired to the room for a little three hour catnap (detoxing). We rallied and went downstairs around 10 p.m. It was a rough start - coffee and Baileys for the girls and RBVs for the boys. We wandered the NY NY floor for a while because it was so packed. We ended up venturing to Excalibur for some gambling and a great time with a cover band at Dick's Last Resort. Then it was off to Luxor for some more gambling (stupid popcorn slots!), more "CRAAAANNNDDYYY drinks" (Cranberry Vodkas) and RBVs and then we wandered to Mandalay Bay. That place is so gorgeous. At Mandalay Bay we played a Wizard of Oz slot (especially for Rachel) and the guy sitting at the Wizard slot machine next to us was from Omaha. RANDOM! After losing our asses even more we cabbed it back to NY NY, had breakfast and called it a day. At 7:35 a.m. That my friends, is what I call a rally.
And now we're back from Vegas and it totally sucks. Vacation went too fast, can't stop thinking about Kalin and it's 38 degrees. WTF? Oh, and just a little something else going on - Trevor's moving to Kentucky for a year. We're really calling it extended travel. He will come home every other weekend which is good. All in all, it's a good career move for him and things could always be worse. Plus, once I train Macy to take the trash out it won't be a big deal at all. Hardy har har. Like I said - things could ALWAYS be worse - but a little good news would be more than welcomed right about now.
