Seriously…?

Miss Sophie Reinsch (Miss Piggie) has passed away today at 1:45 pm due to complications from a respiratory infection.

Miss Sophie

In lieu of flowers, please donate to your local Humane Society.

Sophie Reinsch
Born Dec 2009
Death, July 7, 2010

She was the best damn piggie, and will be greatly missed by all.

I invite you all to share in acknowledging the passing of the tiniest member of our family, Sophie. As a Guinea Pig, Sophie led a simple life, but one marked by good humor and love for those around her. Always quick to taunt the cat from behind her bars, or to call out for her fair share of the vegetables, Sophie showed us all a little place in our hearts that was still full of childlike wonder.
The staff of the Calgary North Veterinary Hospital went above and beyond in making her final moments in this life comfortable and even got her energetic enough for a last bit of a run before her tiny body gave out and released her enormous spirit to join her creators.
Sophie will be sorely missed by those who survive her. Any prayers or words of healing for us or to speed her on her way are graciously and thankfully accepted.

Its been AGES since I have done a proper update, mostly dumping photos and such.

But…

I had good reasons for it… Sorta…

March was the Month of Appointments. And wasnt just a few throughout the month, oh no, there were 2-3 times per week that month. Plus a LOT of very early mornings for us not happy with dawn hours.

April was thankfully fairly calm. We had the kiddo focusing on his school stuff, and we working on just lowering our stress levels to something that didnt have me manic and sleep deprived.

May was sort of calm, at least for the first week. Then I began the Great House Cleaning to prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Mom. That coupled with my Burly classes AND eye appointments made me more stressed than I really needed to be.

On the eyeball front, I am sorta happy to report that surgery for either eye is not in my immediate future. I DO however have Coat’s Diease in my left eye, but its localized to the already damaged area, so as long as it doesnt spread, or cause me serious discomfort, we’re just going to leave it alone. The mystery mass under my right has been identified as a BENIGN fatty tumor, and again, no surgery needed at this point. I named it Mildread…

The THREE WEEK visit with Mom went as expected, lots of bonding with the kiddo. Which is the main reason for the visits, she and I have bonded as much as we are going to already lol. Plus we FINALLY got my Mom to meet and hang with Jelly Bean’s Mom and Step-Dad… I think they hit it off. I’m not sure.

June saw Jelly Bean and I at Calgary Tower to see Dr. Horrible live via Broadway West, which was spectacular and awesome. It was followed by dinner at Moxie’s, where we drank too much and had a lot of fun. We dont get to go out just us very much, so it was nice.

Mid-June had a week where everyday was SOMETHING. Eye test, blood work, Mom departing, our consult with the Fertility Clinic… Which made for a very tired Cupcake, who just wanted to sleep and eat a cookie.

So I have about two weeks currently that are hopefully going to be nice and relaxing, followed by mass insanity with the kiddo’s FIFTH birthday on the 18th, followed by two weeks of swimming lessons and a week of day camp.

And at some point my Sis-in-Law is going pop out another baby (my NINTH niece/nephew to date), and of course I must being corrupting it early on.

Oh, and my mother is returning at the end of Aug for another 2 weeks, courtesy of me. I might be a glutton for clutter or something. But hey, shes my mom. Its worth it.

Does it?

As a couple who adore technology in all forms. Our computers are a large part of lives, its how we survived the 2000 mile distance between us, and how I manage to stay connected to all of my friends in Texas.

Jelly Bean got a new pc a few weeks ago, built with his own hands, and the first one in our house to sport Windows 7.

Win7 is so… so pretty.

Sure hes had his, endless, problems with it, mostly compatibility issues, but overall, its a wonderful OS.

I was jealous.

Jealousy doesnt become me one bit. I am sad to say, I do enjoy having the newest, coolest toy on the block. Its a matter of pride with me. No I dont understand it, but there it is.

I wanted Win7, wanted it bad.

So, we decided that he would upgrade to Win7 Pro, and I would get a nice shiny copy of Win7.

Ran the CD, and went through the motions of upgrading, with the same glee of a kid on christmas.

Expect for one thing…

My lovely motherboard, thats worked so well all this time, was a half a notch below the requirement. Technically, and by that I mean Microsoft’s website, claimed that it was compatible.

But it still wouldnt work.

We were up most of the night trying to find work arounds, and fixes, but nothing worked.

Finally, we had to admit defeat. XP would be for me, no pretty OS for me.

Then, some googling resulted in some hope. I could get a new motherboard, more than able to run Win7, for the nice price of 70 bucks.

One problem…

I needed a new CPU chip as well.

More searching for me then.

And lo and behold, a new chip was nicely priced at 80 dollars.

Internet, how I love you.

So, order placed, now I just have to wait for the parts to come in.

Expect, in putting XP back on my machine, it decided that my big monitor (I run dual screens), was not something it liked anymore. So most of the day has been spent trying to fix that.

Currently, its not fixed, but Jelly Bean and I switched screens, and that seems to be working just fine.

I just miss my old screen…

My computer makes me want to cry right now. That could be the sleep deprivation talking though.

No really, theres like a million things I HAVE to do before this weekend, and I just havent gotten to it.

Working through depression is a bitch, but I am trying, so thats something, right?

Though I have been spending time using the new Wii Fit, I think its going to help with some of my problems, mostly with the getting active bit. Thats the hope anyway.

I still need to wrap up the last holiday gifts before we head over to my MIL’s place next week.

Exciting.

But Jelly Bean has asked me to try my hand at comic work again.

I’m more than a little apprehensive about this, my recent work isnt up to par with what I was doing, and while most people dont notice the small imperfections. I do.

I notice my shakey ink-work, and less then perfect coloring skills.

Its all of those little things, and my own horribly shaken confidence that makes me a bit scared to work on the comic again.

What if it isnt as good, or the eye strain is too much.

My biggest worry is that I will become too frustrated with my sight to continue. And I know its a stupid worry, but its what I am dealing with. Its my sight, and if its ruined, what do I have left that is me?

I was an artist long before I was a mom, and I share being a parent with several people. Art was the only thing in my life that was solely mine, I didnt HAVE to share my work with anyone. It was mine.

Now, I dont know if I can keep doing it.

I am kinda stuck in this horrible cycle of self-doubt, and despite medication, it still affects me day-to-day.