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December 15, 2007 If you've been wondering what is up with my "sewing room" then you're in for a treat because I'm going to tell you all about it. My sewing room is where I house all my Quilting Bee fun. The Quilting Bee is a pixel club where people with websites make and trade "patches". These patches are used as links for fellow bee's sites. It's fun to collect many patches, making a beautiful quilt. I personally love seeing all the talent and creativity my fellow bees have. For more pixeling fun the Q*Bee hosts a special event every other month or so. This August we had an aquarium activity where we made fish and other aquarium objects to trade. For October we had a Halloween trading activity and we have a Christmas activity going on now. It's tons of fun seeing what everyone comes up with! I'm relatively new to the Q*Bee. I first saw it back in 2001/2002 but was new to webdesign and got distracted by life (graduating high school and starting college) so I never tried to join. I thought it was super cute though so when I got back into webdesign I knew I wanted to join. I became an official bee August 9, 2007! I've never pixeled before I made my first member patch. I had to download a free gif program to create the transparency sometimes needed. I make all my patches, activity submissions, and quilt decorations with paint. I understand the basics of making an animated gif, but I haven't gotten into that yet. I've been a bee for a little over four months and I've so far traded with 91 bees! I'm a very busy bee, sometimes I worry I annoy bees (I hope I don't though!) Everyone is very nice. Ashley #267 was the first bee to message me. She actually helped me get accepted. I applied for the Q*Bee in early July and I had a very different layout that featured my sister's art and scrolled left/right instead of up/down. Ashley said it was a very close vote whether my site was Q*Bee material or not. Some bees really liked my weird layout, other's not so much. If you're super curious now you can see it here. Ashley gave me some of the bee's feedback, I changed my layout because 1)I'd had that layout for a very long time and needed a change, and 2)I really wanted to be part of the Q*Bee! Then the rest is history. Another bee I really like is Hev. Hev is super sweet. She is totally jealous that I have been lucky enough to work with big cats. She's linked me from her site and she's made me lots of really cute signature tags, including the little dragon up at the top of this Christmas layout! The Q*Bee is such a great source of friendship. There is a message board where we talk about the club, pixeling, the internet in general, movies, or anything that's on our minds! I really love this part of the club. Through the board some bees have arranged to exchange Christmas cards and ornaments in real life. That particurarly is tons of fun! I made a few bees some ornaments (I'll post pictures of them soon). I've got some cute ornaments and cards from some great bees (Miranda and Michelle). Thanks you guys! I could go on and on about how much fun the Quilting Bee is. If what I've already said sounds like fun to you then you should check it out!                                                                                          - Meghan December 5, 2007 As you can see, I've made a special holiday season layout. This layout is inspired by that cute little dragon at the top. Hev made it for me and I like it sooooo much that I decided to make a whole layout around it. Thanks Hev! I made the new layout November 20th but have neglected to write about it until now because I went up to my gramma J's house that same day for Thanksgiving. I didn't get back home until December 1st. I had a great time with my family, lot's of food and cards. :) I went up to Apple Hill with my dad, Rene', and some family friends on the 2nd to get Christmas trees. It's a family tradition. We go up there to cut our own trees, then we enjoy some apple cider and apple turnovers. This year, sadly, there was no snow, but it was still a ton of fun. On the way back we stopped by another farm on the hill that we've never been to before, it had lots of shops. The farm makes it's own wine and I got fixins for spiced apple wine. To make the spiced apple wine I mix equal parts of this year's dessert wine from the farm and apple juice. Then steep a mulling spice teabag until I get it to the right spicyness. It is sooooo yummy! I'll have pics of our trip up soon. One bad thing about December 2nd was that some idiot backed into the side of my parked car with a moving truck. I was with my family getting trees when my dad get's a call from his neighbor that my car (parked in front of my dad's house) was hit. I'm so mad because the guy didn't leave a note so we filed a hit and run before we knew what happened. Then we found another neighbor that witnessed everything so we talked to the guy that was moving. He said a family member of his was driving the moving truck and he had no idea what happened. He's being very hostile and won't tell us the name of the guy that drove the truck. I trully hope that we eventually get to that guy and that he has insurance. If he doesn't have insurance it's going to be a MAJOR pain in the a** to go to court and all that to get money to fix my car. Until my car is fixed I'm dependent on other people to get to the zoo and other places I need/want to go and I really dislike that. Grrrrrrrr. Blah. I'm done ranting now. I ranted on the Q*Bee as everything was unfolding and it made me feel a lot better. I love being a bee, I've made many friends and I LOVE all the activities. This month we're trading pixeled Christmas ornament. Here's what I made for the activity. I'm really proud of my ornament. Anyone in the Q*Bee that wants my ornament for their tree should email me. :) Also, members of the Q*Bee are trading Christmas cards and ornaments in real life! I have no idea what I'm going to make for the bee I'm trading ornaments with but I know I'm going to have fun making it and I'm super excited about receiving an ornament in the mail. :)                                                                              - Meghan November 18, 2007 I was tagged by Hev! She was so sneaky too, the email first looked like a nice, friendly email about cross-stitching patterns, then before I knew what was happening I was tagged. Heehee. The Rules     1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.     2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.     3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names and link to         them.     4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their         blog. Or emailing them if they don't have blog comments. Facts About Me     1. I've been completely deaf in my right ear since I was 4 months old. I         survived meningitis, but it blew out the nerve in that ear. My left ear,         however, has better than perfect hearing. I just can't enjoy         surround sound or play marco polo.     2. I was one month shy of 20 years old when I got my first kiss and now (4         years later) I'm still with the guy I had it with.     3. I am the third woman in my family to play the trombone, the other two         being my mom and my great grandma.     4. At the grown up age of 23 I still get really really scared by scary         movies and will sometimes even sleep with the light on.     5. At one point in my life I had 8 grandmothers: one from my mom, three         from my dad, one from my stepmom, and three from my (now ex)         stepdad. Today, I have 5: one from my mom, three from my dad, and         one from my (new) stepdad.     6. I was born in Okinawa, Japan. Both parents were in the US army.     7. The tattoo on my back was designed by my sister, Julie, when she was         16 years old. It features a dragon (symbolizing Julie) and a phoenix         (symbolizing Me). She came into the parlor with me to instruct the         tattoo artist just exactly how to color it in. Took two hours! She's now         a beginning tattoo artist herself. My Tags Chans     Lisa     Oriana     Louise     Synergy     Marie     Lori I don't have any online friends except the Bees. :P                                                                              - Meghan October 29, 2007 My mom sent me this video in an email. I LOVE IT! Anyone who has cats will totally understand, lol.                                                                              - Meghan October 28, 2007 I'm sick. :( I had tons of fun working Boo At The Zoo yesterday and meant to work it again today but my cough has worsened and I can barely talk. :( Boo At The Zoo was tons of fun though. I wore my new outfit from the Ren. Faire and welcomed people to the zoo. The kids were sooooooo cute in their costumes! I am so sad that I couldn't go back today. Tomorrow is my first day working in the Animal Management program, actual animal work instead of zoo public work. I'm so excited about it and really hoping I feel better in time. I FINALLY scanned in, edited, and posted the photos from my trip to Raging Waters - Sacramento last month. I went with Sierra, Dani, and Anna. It was lots of fun. Here are some of my favorites. :)                                                                              - Meghan October 15, 2007 My zoo work is going well so far. I'm having tons of fun. I've never seen bats in a zoo before and the new children's zoo area has Malaysian Flying Foxes, they're the largest bats in the world with a wingspan of 6 feet. They are SOOOOO cool!!!! A fun fact about the exhibit is that it's funded by the family that runs Bacardi Rum. You know the bat on the bottle? The family decided to open a bat reserve program that funds all sorts of bat benefitting projects around the contry because the bat has always helped them. :) Yesterday I went to the local Renaissance Faire yesterday. It was tons of fun. I got a new outfit as an early christmas/birthday present. I've added all the pics from the even in my family section. Here a couple.                                                                              - Meghan October 2, 2007 Last weekend was tons of fun! I went to Yosemite with Matt and his parents. It was such a beautiful day. It was late in the season though, so there wasn't much water coming down the falls, but that means it also wasn't too crowded. We went to Yosemite Falls first and they were completely dry. Matt's dad had ankle sugery recently so he couldn't do very much hiking. Matt and I hiked up to Vernal Fall. It was so beautiful up there. On the way back to our car we saw some deer and they let us get pretty close. I have lots of pictures of the trip in my friends section. Here are my favs.         If you want to see all of them including some really pretty scenery and some wildlife (bird, squirrel, snake, and deer) shots they can be found in my friends section. Right now I'm working on making Halloween gifs for this month's Quilting Bee activity and I'm putting together a website for my dad's square dance club. Plus school and volunteer work at the Oakland Zoo. Busy busy busy.                                                                              - Meghan September 28, 2007 I added all the professional wedding photos I got from sierra and some of the bachlorette party photos a couple days ago. I was lazy about making a hournal post. A couple weeks ago I went to Raging Waters, Sacramento with Sierra, Danny, and Annie and I got a waterproof camera to take fun underwater shots. I still have 6 more pictures to take on the camera before I can develope it and get them up here. I can't wait to see how they turned out! I've also added some fun stuff I've been doing around dad's house into my family section. Square dancing and family visits. Oh, I also won some prizes in the Quilting Bee Aquarium Activity! I was so excited when I saw that. I'm a new bee and am soooo not skilled at pixelling yet and I've already won some awards. Check out my sewing room if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about. lol.                                                                              - Meghan September 5, 2007, Hello all, I'm all moved into my dad's house. I'm in Hayward now and am currently concentrating on school. I miss working with animals am looking to volunteer with the Oakland Zoo. I'll keep you posted on that. I'm living with my dad temporarily while my sister, Julie, and I look for a place to get together. I have added some pictures of Sierra's wedding and the festivities surrounding it. I didn't bring my camera to anything (doi) so I am dependent on other people for pictures. I'll be adding more pictures as I get them.                                                                              - Meghan August 21, 2007 Sierra's bachlorette party on the 17th was TONS of fun. Everyone got sloshed. There was porn playing in the backround, sex themed songs going (ADIDAS by Korn, Ain't Nothing But Mammals by Bloodhound Gang, etc), condoms and dildos, etc, etc. No strippers of any kind though. We were good. Sierra, Anna, and I were dancing and hanging out together. Some girls wrestled in a pool filled with baby oil. Before the pool was filled with the oil, when it was just water...Sierra and I can-canned in it and I fell on my butt and got thouroughly wet, lol. The men came over to our party because apparently their bachlor party was a bust. That's when the oil was added to the pool and some of the wilder girls even wrestled topless. Sierra, Anna, Danny, and me so weren't going there. By then anyway Sierra had drank too much and was a little sick. It was fun though. I slept over that night and drove home Saturday morning. I was a little sick Saturday but it got worse and sadly I was too sick to attend Sierra's wedding on Sunday. At her party we made plans to hang out before she moves to New York at the end of next month so I'm really looking forward to that and I have her wedding present to give to her then. School started Monday, ugh. I'm taking online classes because I'm moving (tomorrow or Thursday actually) and I didn't want to lose a semester of school. I'm halfway through my first week's calculus video lessons and have two quizes to take by the end of the week. I haven't even gotten my other classes textbook yet. I ordered it and am expecting it in the mail anyday. I need to read some of it and take two quizzes by the end of the week. Yay. :P                                                                              - Meghan August 14, 2007 My mom just got back from Maui and has sent me pictures. I'll be putting them all up in my family section soon. I have added the aquarium pictures she sent plus my Monterey Bay aquarium pictures to a special photo gallery on my Quilting Bee aquarium in my sewing room. I'm very proud of my aquarium. I've made lots of fish trades with a lot of friendly people. :)                                                                              - Meghan August 13, 2007 I was accepted into the Quilting Bee! I was first introduced to it back in 2001 or 2002 but was too busy with graduating high school, starting college, and getting into the animal field to make a decent website. When I put this site up I remembered the Quilting Bee and was so happy to see it's still thriving. It's lots of fun and I'm glad I'm a bee now. :) On other news...Lindsay and I went to Suzie's Adult Store to get stuff for Sierra's bachlorette party. The invitation said to bring a condom (the weirder the better) and our favorite drink. I'm bringing 151 because I don't like the taste of alcohol but I like the buzzed effect and 151 works best for that. At Suzie's I looked and looked for a REALLY weird condom but the best I could find was a glow in the dark one, oh well. I won't tell you what else Lindsay and I bought for Sierra's party in case she eyes this page before Friday. I love you Sierra!                                                                              - Meghan August 7, 2007 Sierra's bridal shower was just a couple days ago and it was so much fun. Sierra is so happy and I'm so happy for her. The bachlorette party is coming up soon and I'm looking forward to all the debauchery!! I added yet ANOTHER section to my site, Art. I found a totally wonderful artist and wanted to display her work the way I display my sister's work so I made the art section. There are other artists I really like and I'll be adding them to the new section in the next few days.                                                                              - Meghan August 1, 2007 Great news with my friend Sierra. She finally set a wedding date, August 19th, 2007. It took her awhile to set the date because she didn't know exactly when her husband to be, Matt, would be on leave from the military. So now that the date is set I'm going to her bridal shower August 5th, her bachlorette party August 17th, and then the wedding on August 19th. Busy and fun times ahead! Julie is busy with work so we haven't had much progress house hunting, but that's ok because I'm now enjoying my free time now that summer school is over. Fall starts in three weeks and I plan to enjoy the free time while I have it. I'm rereadng some old favorite books, working on my latest cross-stitching project, and adding things to my site. Speaking of, I just finished adding "My Astrology" in the "Me" section. I have four different astrologies there: the well known Zodic, the Chinese, the Egyptian, and the African. Each link takes you to my sign, but at the bottom I made links to the rest of the signs if your interested in your astrologies. Oh, and did you notice a completely new section? I added an animal section to share animal care sheets and other important pet care information. I've quickly transfered content from my other website and I will constantly be adding more stuff. Enjoy!                                                                              - Meghan July 25, 2007 Ok, I've put up the couple things that I hadn't finished yet. In case you noticed what was missing, I now have added the Monterey 2006 trip pics, the Dominoe's Angels comic, and my sister's art. I've finished the 'Made For Me' Julie's Art page, but I will be adding more art to Julie's 'Old Sketches' page. Enjoy!                                                                              - Meghan July 24, 2007 I just finished putting up a new layout, hope you like it. I'm not completely finished, you'll notice a couple items that aren't linked to anything yet, but I'll get them up very soon. I took "Old Family Photos" completely down because I won't get to putting that section back up for a long time. I found a box full of tons of old family photos that I'm currently scanning into my computer. Once I finish that I want to try to organize them in some way because I'll have several hundred photos. It's quite a feat. Other news. Julie and I are buying a house in the Vallejo area. It's all very exciting but I worry if she'll be able to really leave her boyfriend. *sigh* I won't get into that. I was called back for a second interview at Six Flags: Discovery Kingdom!!! If I get the job I'll be working with 4 girraffes, 2 two-hump camels, 1 one-hump camel, 1 zebra, 2 donkeys, 2 goats, 2 pot belly pigs, 2 porcupines, 1 rabbit, and 1 chinchilla. I'm kinda sad that the tiger people didn't call me back but I'm still hella excited to be able to work with such a wide variety of animals. Basically I'd do cleaning duties, I'll learn how to train (the porcupines are new and need to be trained to be held so that visitors can pet them), and the most fun thing I'd do would be to take animals out into the park to meet visitors!!! I love teaching people about animals! I'm so excited!!! Cross your fingers for me.                                                                              - Meghan July 3, 2007 Matt and I have decided to break up for good after nearly 4 years. We had our ups and downs, and though we both love each other so much things don't always work out. We've decided it'll be better for both of us if we let each other go. I'm not ready to take down my pictures of him and of us together so they're still around. I'm not ready to date again yet so I don't mind them being around. I'm looking forward to being just me for awhile. I'm moving into a new place with my sister, Julie, in Vallejo, CA. She's also breaking up with her man so we're going to be all 'Girl power! We don't need stupid men!' for awhile. I'm really excited about moving in with her. I've already been enrolled at the local college (can't stop school just because of a breakup) and I've applied at the former Marine World now Six Flags: Discovery Kingdom (I don't want to stop working with tigers and such). I will always love Matt, I know we will always be friends, and I wish him well in is life.                                                                              - Meghan June 26, 2007 I just added some old family photos, ranging from before I was born until now. They're mostly pics of Me, Julie, and my dad's side of the family because I already had all of them scanned in to my computer from making a family yearbook for Father's Day. I didn't scan any new pics in today because as it is I have 177 pictures and it took awhile to edit them and code the pages. I'll add more pictures with my mom's side of the family soon. :)                                                                              - Meghan June 25, 2007 Well, I finished my mom's Mother's Day gift and went up to my gramma's house with my mom and two sisters for Mother's Day. It was tons of fun. Fishing up on Mt. Shasta is way better than fishing down here. I brought home 7 trout (my 5 fish limit plus two of Aunt Connie's fish because she already had some in her freezer). Father's Day has also come and gone. I made my dad a sort of family year book at Shutterfly. It had pictures of my sister and me from birth until now. It also had some pictures of him before we were born, some pictures of my stepmom Rene', and some pictures of his canine daughter Molly. He LOVED it! He said that it was, "VERY COOL." Rene' said that she's never gotten a "very cool" before and that I should be proud. She was right because Dad bragged about the book wherever we went that day. :) I'm going to add all those old family photos to this site after I finish my paper that I'm currently procrastinateing on. :P I'm taking two summer school classes right now. One 4-week internet bio class and one 6-week chemistry class on campus. This is the last week of my very fast paced bio class and assuming I finish the paper that's due today by midnight then I am DEFINATELY getting an A. This is my 3rd week of chemistry and I am counting the days until it's over. It's 7 hours a day/4 days a week. The teacher does a good job of mixing things up so we don't all fall asleep, but I'll still be glad when I can relax and enjoy summer, for a whole two weeks before Fall starts...yay. :P I was turned down for the hearing surgery I want/need. It's FDA approved for people just like me but Kaiser Northern California doesn't cover it. I'm SOOOOO mad at them. Dad and Rene' have offered to foot the bill themselves if it's not extremely expensive so I'm currently in the proccess of getting together all the necessary information. I am planning on applying to be a member of the Quilting Bee which is a fun looking friend clique. I say it a couple years ago but didn't have a decent website at the time. I hope I get accepted! *crosses fingers* I have lots and lots of content I want to add to this site (mostly pictures), I'll start plugging away at it piece by piece. Until next time....                                                                              - Meghan May 5, 2007 Like I predicted I haven't been on here much. I just added the photo stories that were on my old layout, they were already coded and only needed a little tweeking to fit this layout. I'll add new photo stories after Mother's Day, I'm spending most of my free time (after classes and work) cross stitching a fever to get Mom's present done by this weekend. My trip to Disneyland was a blast, I went pirate crazy. I'm waiting until Val sends me her pics before I make a photo story because I don't want to make one and then have to go back and add in her pics, ugh. Cool news, I'm recently back in contact with my ex-stepdad, Mark. I thought of him from time to time over the last couple years but my contact info for him was dated so I couldn't reach out. Then I finally googled him and ta-da!! It's cool. :) Today I had an evaluation for a new implant that would allow me to hear sounds on my deaf side. It's called the baha, here's a link if you want to learn more about it. I'm waiting to hear if I've been approved, then I'm off to get a hole drilled into my head!! lol. Wish me luck!!!                                                                              - Meghan April 11, 2007 I've left the really cool clinic as a full-time employee in favor of being a full-time student. I still get called in to help with the large exotics. I work the weekends at the emergency clinic managed by my boss, Dr. Turner. I miss working with the every-day exotics (birds, reptiles,rabbits, & rodents) but I get to be more hands on on stuff Turner usually does himself at the other clinic so it's fun. Matt and I are still together. He's in the middle of his last semester at Delta and we'll be moving to Turlock this summer for his nursing program. I'm so jealous he's almost done with his schooling, I feel like mine will never end. My friend, Valerie, and I are going to Disneyland this weekend. She works for Disneyworld and has three younger brothers so is really into the Disney thing. I'm just down for a girls weekend away, plus Disneyland is fun! I can't wait!                                                                              - Meghan