Few days ago I gave all the little animals a bath, washing four dogs is no small task and I almost broke my back but now everyone is very good smelling and super soft.  Uggie used to suffer from food allergies but since I switched him to Nulo salmon kibble, all the skin and eye irritations disappeared, his ears have cleared up completely as well.  He still gets a good amount of homemade food mixed in but for the most part, the kibble seems to be keeping him in good health.

I had half a day off Sunday morning so I made myself breakfast and coffee and each pup got a tiny bite piece of cooked bacon as a treat.  It was nice to enjoy a little bit of relaxing morning but then it was time to hustle again.  It's been a peculiar year, a friend of mine and I were just talking about how odd it was that we were both going through a stressful time and everything seems to be breaking down at the same time.  Kelly's health scare definitely threw my budget off balance, it was $700 to ran the initial tests and plus $2300 for surgery, so $3000 was gone within the first few hours at the emergency clinic, and then the continuous treatments ran anywhere between $800-$900 a day at my regular vet to $600-$700 a night at the after hour clinic.  The total cost came out to over $7000 by the time she was done with her hospital stay.  The more scary thing was that had I not have the money on hand in the middle of night, she would have died because the vet wouldn't treat your pet unless you pay for the whole procedure upfront.

It just got me thinking how important it is to have an emergency fund for your pet in case there's a medical emergency, because when it comes down to the nitty gritty, having money truly made the difference between life and death, and with four pets and most of them getting older in age, I really have to be prepared.

Recently I've had friends and family that encourage me to get back into playing the piano, and honestly, after so many years of not playing it, it is kind of refreshing to go through a piece and see what new things I have discovered.  I've been finding half an hour or an hour here or there everyday to practice, and slowly my technique is getting back to me again.  The best way to get back into playing the piano is starting with scales, and I almost spend all the time going through them before trying out small part in a piece.  There were times in my life when I hated playing the piano, it seemed like a trivial thing to do when there are real life events out there like finding a boyfriend or getting married!  Now that I've been through a marriage and a divorce, having some individuality and be in touch with music and arts actually feel so amazing.  It took me years to be able to find myself again and I'm really looking forward to getting back into piano and perhaps developing some more hobbies that I truly enjoy.  

I also can't wait for the summer to be here so I can relax a little and maybe go on a road trip or two, going on camping at the beach and just relax a little, it's definitely been a while since I've gone on a vacation and I really miss traveling!