My Constant

He is lazy

when the sunshine spreads on the floor.

He's relaxed

in that way, a cat is more.

The cat that was frantic

chasing shadows up the wall

has conformed to every ripple

in the blankets by the door.

All the muscles that were tensing

now in slumber is relieved.

All the movement that was fury

is tamed to a bore.

He is lazy

when the sunshine spreads on the floor.

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Earth Hour

EARTH HOUR

SATURDAY MARCH 28TH

8:30-9:30 PM

Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights (and all electricity) as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

For more information check out http://www.earthhour.org/

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Passion

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines passion as the emotions as distinguished from reason, intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction ; an outbreak of anger; ardent affection : a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept; an object of desire or deep interest.

Looking back on my life so far, there are certain things that I have attached myself to. Things that have gotten my attention and had me fixated. I find myself doing things to the fullest when my mind is made up. Whether it is loosing weight, running, being more green or being the best June Clever...I don't half ass it. So my latest, probably most deepest passion (as if you didn't see this coming) is volunteering with the local animal rescue group. My heart has always been softened to furry friends and I have a deep devotion to teaching my children of the love and care we should always show these friends. A great quote that I saw recently says " I don`t hold animals superior or even equal to humans. The whole case for behaving decently to animals rests on the fact that we are the superior species. We are the species uniquely capable of imagination, rationality, and moral choice - and that is precisely why we are under an obligation to recognize and respect the rights of animals. ~Brigid Brophy~

To continue with my story, I have been volunteering for Take My Paw rescue (http://www.takemypaw.org/) and have been helping with fostering animals before they are adopted to loving homes. Most of you know this story, but for those that don't, a few weeks ago our rescue picked up a stray that was feeding on a dead carcase in a ditch. We were called and picked the dog up to foster him until his owners were found or until he was placed. When we saw the dog it was love at first sight. We were staring into the big brown love able eyes of a male German shepherd. He had been obviously wandering for a while as he was wormy, full of fleas, skin and bones but that didn't stop him from falling right into the flow of our family. I made the necessary phone calls to Animal Control and the humane society to report a found dog and within 30 minutes I received the first phone call of a supposed owner. The man could not identify the animal but assured me it was his dog. I told him that if he could send me pictures we could discuss further. He called back and then said the dog was his sisters dog and got out Saturday (the day he was found) and that angered me. I told him again that he needed to send me photos. Then a woman called, demanding her dog back. To skip about two hours of nonstop phone calls from these lunatics, I finally called Animal control to find out what I could do since I was not returning this dog back to "supposed" owners that have neglected him to the point of worms and skin and bones. Animal Control told me to bring the dog in and they assured me they would do a health eval and if there would be steep fines to pay to release the dog, if in fact the people claiming him were the owners. To avoid further harassment, I decided this would be the best thing and told AC that I would bring the dog to them. A few hours later I received a phone call from the director of AC (who had an attitude with me from saying hello-which is not a good thing) who stated that I was holding another persons dog and he needed to be released to them. Again, to shorten this story, I explained my earlier conversation with her office and the situation and she said that she would send someone out right away to pick the dog up. After tears were shed, AC drove a way with the dog. That was on a Monday. I then filed a neglect complaint on line and called and email everyday with no correspondence back from AC. I finally decided to just go to animal control and find out myself what was going on. I walked in and stated my name and was beginning to state my reason for being there and the receptionist said "Oh yes.....Tirzah Sirken". The director came forward then and with her mean lady attitude began to tell me that the owners were there to pick the dog up before the truck even got back with him. I asked about the health eval and what identifying papers they brought and she looked me in the eye and told me the dog was fine. I was appalled. Anger set in and I stated that I could go home and scoop up dry poop that was full of dead worms and that I had taken pictures. It didn't seem to matter. She just said over and over again that the dog was fine and he was released to the owners. I left with only one last remark that I was glad that she was in charge of the lost and strayed animals of our county. So- if passion is a fire, what fuels passion?

A deep sense of caring and anger fuels that fire within me. I am still so pissed! I have seen the sheriffs department, the police department, all of who have no idea who is over animal control. I am in the works of contacting the county commissioners office and am drafting an editorial for the local newspaper. My passion is now a bon-fire.

I hope that in reading this you to will have a passion for this and help our rescue or a rescue in your area. You can locate local rescues by going to http://www.petfinder.com/ and searching in your area. If you are from my neck of the woods, you can go to my rescue website: http://www.takemypaw.org/ or contact me personally at tearzsirken@yahoo.com.

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New Addition

Let me introduce you to

Lyric V Sirken

The newest addition to the Sirken pack!

She comes to us from Eko-Lan Shepherds (http://jmadesign.com/eko-lan/). She is AKC registered and from a fantastic bloodline of pure breds. She has been with us since Saturday and we are thrilled to invite her into our family. She has been a little nervous about steps and the tile, but loves the boys and has fallen right into her place in our pack. She even gave Mooch a bit wet kiss and the king of the castle, Moochie, has instantly taken a liking to her.

We are so happy, excited and love her so much! We can't wait for you to meet her!

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Victory (Garden) at the White House!!!!!

Did you see that Michelle Obama selectively picked up a peice of earth on a shovel to start the begining of an organic vegetable garden? The new White House Victory Garden. As a first time gardener, Michelle Obama's victory garden will be an inspiration to all who struggle to feed their families healthy, local and organic food. While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern. “My hope,” the first lady said in an interview in her East Wing office, “is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

High Five Michelle!!!!!! You rock!

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AI

Grand Ole' Opry night- Yippee. Sorry ya'll but I grew up on country music and have actually been to the grand ole' Opry with my pops and loved Opryland even more.

So it was Randy Travis as the mentor. Lets see how it worked out for him tonight. (of course according to me!!!)

1. Michael-He did really well on the Garth song and all those words, but he got boring at the end of the song. Just kinda stood there. On a positive, he should stick to country. He sounded good singing country.
2. Allison- Man, this rocker chic can even sing country. I love her! She is so cute and her I agree with Randy...it was "Dope" (haha)
3. Kris- My favorite hippie guy took it slow tonight. He sounded awesome! Even his high notes were right on. Goosebumps baby!
4. Lil- I was real excited to see what song Lil picked. I figured she would do a Martina song. She is about the only one that could pull off Martina's vocal range (You all know my love or Martina) but it was hard for me to not compare her. I didn't care for her spin on the song, plus Lil looked VERY uncomfortable. There is no doubt that Lil has an awesome voice, but I was not liking her performance tonight. Sorry Dawg!
5. Adam-Utoh! Changing up a Johnny Cash song.....I sure hope my Daddy didn't watch AI tonight. That being said, I thought Adam's spin was exactly true to his style and although I'm a true rocker at heart, I'm a little nervous at his Johnny Cash take over. He was very brave to do that. I'm predicting the blogs are gonna roll with this tomorrow. However, I love Adam's Jim Morrison and Robert Plant kind of style. He's still number one (but what he did to the Cash song was not cool!)
6. Scott-This guy has mad piano skills. In fact, made me want me to sit at piano and play for a few hours. I think Scott will go far in life with his talent, but I don't think he did as good tonight as he has in the past. He got a lot of applause, but it just wasn't that good to me. Maybe, just maybe I agree with Simon in that Scott's song picks were not great.
7. Alexis- I like Alexis but I sure didn't like her poofy hair and her arrangement of a classic Dolly song. She did alright and her voice is so smooth and cute. I'm going to start calling her "Tink" because I realized tonight that she reminds me of Tinkerbell. Next!
8. Danny- I liked seeing Danny messing up and being real during his practice sessions. Then I smiled even bigger when he tore the heck out of the song and was in my opinion the best one of the night. I love his new glasses that make his face seem brighter and I thought he looked so handsome wearing white. He is way ahead of Adam tonight. By a loonnnggg shot.
9. Anoop- Anoop sure surprised me tonight. He can sing really good. I think he has an amazing voice and his eyes are so beautiful and remind me of Z's big brown eyes. His parents must be so proud of him. He did an excellent job tonight.
10. Meghan- Patsy....She sang Patsy and I loved it. I'm not too fond of Meghans "shake" and weird dancing, but she has a crazy cool voice. I LOVE it! She reminds me of a modern mix of Ella Fitzgerald, Patsy and Joss Stone. All my female favs. I can't wait to see what she does next week.
11. Matt- Give it up for my MI guy and for his awesome talent. He took a country song and made it sound so his. I am always impressed with him and he did so good. The guys are definitely tearing it up this season

I'm predicting Michael, Alexis, & Scott to be in the bottom 3. Maybe even my Morrison Man, Adam, since a lot of other folks may not have liked his Cash song. What did you think?

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Parades

Sunshine, firetrucks, horses, bagpipes and Shamrock cookies!

A very happy St. Patrick's Day parade!!!!

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Love thy Neighbor??

So we have a new neighbor.....

He made his home here..........

Thats right, directly next to the pool.....

So Animal Rescuers to the rescue and the trap was set

Less than 24 hours later, Mr. Groundhog was trapped

and taken to a new home a few miles away!

Always love thy neighbor, no matter how smelly and furry!

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AI

I am dating myself when I say that I like MJ. I like the old school stuff and I love to groove to Thriller (maybe because its all about spooky, Halloween stuff). I have to say that up to this point, I was a little bored with American Idol. The weeks of bad singing great songs churned my stomach, but tonight inpressed me. On to the singers

1. Lil- The way you make me feel-Lil is good. She was really controlling the stage and her voice is so smooth. Its like she's been doing this for years. She doesn't need AI to be big. She's already there
2. Scott- His family looked so supportive and tight knit. I loved that! and anyone that plays the piano melts my heart and Scott sounded great and behind the piano is where he belongs. Not to mention the song choice "Keep the faith" and the lyrics were about believing in yourself and I thought that was so awesome. The only bad thing about Scott, is the fro has got to go.
3. Danny- Sounds like an Osmond family, but a family that sings together stays together. His song didn't start out great, but once started, it was so cool. Danny is one of my favorites and he really shook it up. "Loved Simon's comment about him being a white guy with soul. LOVED IT~
4. Michael-Its weird for me to see such a tough redneck Texan so be soft and sensitive. I really didn't like the song he sang. I'm sure its because I see MJ singing it with Priscilla and that makes me ill. Maybe its because he came after Danny that made it sound so bad to me. I really didn't like it- Sorry Dawg
5. Jasmine- What a beautiful girl and I was diggin her dress. She did so good tonight. It was good that she came after Michael. I think Jasmine had some off notes, but she did good and for being so young....Go girl!
6. Jake..Opps...I mean Kris-Hmmm.......last time he sang was just ok for me, but this week had me smiling. You all know how much I love acoustic guitar, Jack Johnson style and this is the hippie guy of the season and I love it. I loved his rendition of the song. SO cool. Move over ladies....I think the guys are dominating this season and Kris is in the top!
7. Allison-She's so cool. I wish I could pull off the red hair. She is soo the rocker chick and she's better than any other rocker that AI's had on. Her personal spin on a MJ song was amazing. Staying true to her rocker roots. Wow!
8. Anut- Boy do I love Chapel Hill. Anut sang Beat it. Another fav song that is frequently sang in the shower or to the boys. He did ok, but it was more of a cover song. Where was the moon walking and white glove. That would have really stepped it up a few notches for me.
9. Jorge- What a big family. I bet they can cook some yummy food. So my thoughts on Jorge is that he is a great singer, I just wish he would put more of a latin spin on his songs. Just ok for me.
10. Megan- I think she is adorable. Her voice is amazing and so unique. Her song choice was pretty neat. She reminds me of a 50's girl with her dancing. I half expect her to break out in the Charleston, but even that may be too much for her. I like her but was embarrassed for her. (especially with her bird call at the end???)
11. Adam (YAY!)- This boy is gonna win. I'm just saying it right now. If he doesn't win, he will be on the billboard charts right away! I LOVED IT & I LOVE HIM!!!!!! Awesome and I can't wait to buy his cd!
12. Matt- Poor guy had to go after Adam. I've like Matt especially since he rocks the piano and is from Michigan. He did awesome too. He does look like Justin Timberlake, hugh?
13. Alexis- This girl should have tried out for the part of Alice in Twilight. She's such a little pixie. I think she did a fantastic job. I can't believe she has such a big strong voice out of such a little body. In my top females for sure.

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We won!!!!

Well, I didn't....but little Mr. J did. He won the all day-every day lottery for Kindergarten. J will be attending Southeast in the fall and going all day every day. We are sooo excited for him and this oppurtunity to learn and grow!

Yippee!!!!!!

Here is a recent pic of J with his preschool teacher in music and movement class.

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Bowl-A-Rama

Our preschool recently went on a feild trip to the local bowling alley. What fun! Bowling is suppose to really help children understand individual success, help with control of your body, and group socialization. It was seriously a riot watching 20 little 3 and 4 year olds bowl. 10 frames later, the kids were loosing interest in pushing the ball down the lane and more interested in the arcade and snacks. It was a ton of fun, and if you haven't taken your preschooler bowling, you need to soon (and bring your camera along!)

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Disapointing AI

Last night was very disapointing for me. There wasn't really anyone that blew me away and most of the show consisted of good songs gone bad. Just wasn't feeling it Dawg.....but here is my two cents worth anyway. Tonights result show should be interesting.

1-Von- Not bad- but so broadway for me. Cute kid but I think AI is a little too big for him.
2-Taylor- Badsong and bad vocals.
3-Alex- I was embarassed for him. I know nerves can work a number on a person, but what in the world was he doing and how did he make it into the top 36. Jez'
4-Arianna- Ugh! Next
5-Ju-Not- Double Ugh!
6-I thought this rendition was horrible. I'm fan of the original song and this girl just slaughtered it. Ugh! I hate when that happens. It sounded like she had a few too many and stepped up to sing karokoe at the local bar. Can you tell that I didn't like it
7-Nathaniel: He labeled himself as a drama queen and I was nervous. His peircings are a little wild. I've neer been a fan of the lip rings/studs. And what the heck.....he sang a Meatloaf song? With a headband? Its almost as if he tried to take Meatloaf and make it into a Dancing Queen song (which by the way, Shaka would have been a better song choice for him). Next!
8-Felica: A Stay at home Mom! Yay for me already! And signing an Alecia Keys song is tough, but I think she did good! Great in fact. Good job fellow SAHM!
9-Scott: The blind guy is a fav before I even see him preform. His voice is so soothing, and I could hear him signing a hippie favorite (I'm thinking Hermans Hermits) but his performance was not that great. Unfortunatly I don't think he nailed it but he does have the want and passion to be on the show. We'll see
10-Kendall: Cute girl and country is definately her mantra. I love Martina and she did a great job with the song and personally I'm going to vote for her just to see her Dad do that silly alligator dance.
11- Jorge-First of all, why is the latin guy signing Elton? Why not a rump shaker, Ricky Martin song? He did good with the vocals. Probably the best guy for the evening. I sure would have liked to see him sing a latin, fun, get up and dance song.
12-Lil Rounds- I liked this girl from her audition. She's so down to earth and her voice is so rich. Her song choice of Mary J. Blige is perfect and she looked soooo nice. She was on fire and we will see her next week!

Honestly, I think I'm just bummed that I didn't get to see my Adam. He and Danny have really spoiled the show for me. Here is another reminder of who I want to win. Vote for Adam!!!!

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Aldi-licious

I've talked about Aldi before and I'm going to again because I'm just amazed at te savings. It was a great weekend here in Howell because a new Aldi opened up less than 6 miles away from my house. I was so happy and so was our budget. I have talked before about monthly meal planning and since moving it has been somewhat difficult since the only stores close are Mejeir and Walmart and I was use to the prices at Aldi. I still ventured the 60 miles round trip to go to Aldi about once a month, but it was getting old- quick! My monthly meal planning has saved us so much money. I simply go through my pantry and see what I've got on hand. I then go through recipes and make a list of meals. From that I decide what is needed from the store and head out to Aldi and get whats on my list.

Here is a crappy pic of my monthly plan (which is taped to my spice cabinet door). This one was made on 2/18 and goes through 3/18 but since going to Aldi this past weekend, I will need to add to the list since I picked up some extra stuff. Up until last weekend, I hadn't needed to go grocery shopping except for constant stuff like soymilk, milk and bagels, etc. Monthly planning keeps me out of the stores and buying extra stuff that I don't need (i.e. that cute scarf that was on sale, hitting the clearance racks,magazines that I don't need, etc.) and saves us mucho money! My last trip to Aldi came to $130 and that was in February. I spent some money this weekend at Aldi's grand opening but I stocked up and should be all set till the end of March.

Monthly planning is really a great way to shrink your grocery bill and its amazing to see your budget grow for other things (like a new wood floor, paint for the barn, and flowers/plants). You can see where my priorities lay.

Happy planning!

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