Monthly Archives: December 2015

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Coming out of the closet

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imageAllyson has wanted a bearded dragon for about three years now. This year I decided to look on Craigslist to see what i could find. The first person I contacted had already gotten rid of theirs but the second one still had his. He wanted 150 for the entire set up including a brand new 50 basking light, the dragon, a cricket keeper, cricket food, calcium, bearded dragon food and sand scooper. Due to Furfest it was two weeks before I could go pick him up in Collinsville. The guy said the cage was too heavy and I would have to come to his residence to pick him up. My mother in law told me not to go by myself because I would be killed for the cash. So I talked my friend Holly into coming since she was out on medical leave and on home oxygen. I figured if he tried anything, I would just pop him with Holly’s tank. The guy actually ended up being very nice and very helpful. When he lifted the hiding thing up and I saw the size of this guy I said oh my God, he’s huge. Then I said I mean that’s fine, I just thought he was much smaller from the picture. My in-laws agreed to keep him but I didn’t want to burden them with him so I decided to hide him in my closet for two weeks. And yes I ran an extension cord into the closet so that I could run the basking light 14 hours a day like I was supposed to. I was putting his hiding hut back in when a piece broke off and the thing hit him. He super stuck out his beard and if he could hiss, he would have hissed at me. It would be four days before I could get him to eat anything. He won’t touch his bearded dragon food. I finally got him to eat some Kale. I know you are all thinking that Allyson would find him before Christmas. However, my kids know the Christmas presents are always hidden in my closet and they don’t want to ruin Christmas so they never go in there. Emily yelled at me this year for telling her what Kayla’s ornament was and told me I was ruining Christmas. So Christmas afternoon came with the Moehlmann side of the family and after all the presents were opened and Allyson didn’t get anything from grandma and papa or Jeff and Teresa we told her to go look in my room. She finally found him and she was excited but mad at me for keeping him in the closet for two weeks. She told me he was touchy and in a bad mood. We moved him into her room and she informed me he had to be off of the floor. So I said you mean like a TV stand or something and she said yes. He didn’t like people towering over him. So this morning we went to Wal-Mart with no luck so I got the grand idea to go to IKEA. I had never been there and the store was really cool. We found a dresser that would fit the tank on top of it. This worked out perfectly as Allyson has never had a dresser but has shared Kayla’s triple dresser in Kayla’s room. Brian worked extra today so when he got home he got to assemble the dresser. Allyson also did not like the sand that the previous owner used so I bought reptile carpet to put in the bottom. It can be washed and reused. I bought one for a 50 gallon tank and wouldn’t you know it was too long and too skinny so I whipped out my sewing machine and pieced it together. imageDuring this time Allyson had to get him out of the tank so that i could vacuum the remaining sand out of it. He was kind of being a bully so I texted the previous owner to find out how old the dragon is. He’s a year and he said that the dragon acted all tough with him and just ignore that behavior. He was fine after Allyson got him out and as you can see he was quite interested in the dog and kept moving closer and closer to her. She managed to lick his face. Allyson had fed him five crickets before we got him out, so she was rushing me to finish the carpet so that he could digest his food. She said he needed the lights to do this. No pressure or anything. She had no problem picking up a cricket and putting it in his cage. Yeah I thought it was fairly gross but not as gross as at the pet store. We asked the guy about meal worms and he said he had to get them out of the fridge for us. He then informed us that if they stay room temperature, they will turn into beatles. I think I puked in my mouth just a little. Of course Allyson held one of the worms and was not afraid of it at all.

Because Allyson got a dresser, we had to rearrange part of her room. The girl is a pack rat and I bet I spent two hours working on it so that I could vacuum. I made her go through all her drawing papers and recycle those that she no longer wanted. The recycle people will love us this week. We moved her bookshelf and put the dresser where the bookshelf was. As soon as we got him up there, she announced he was much happier. He watched Brian put the dresser together and was very interested. I have already moved Allyson’s socks into her dresser.image I had been keeping them on my dresser because she wants hers to match and Kayla never does so she didn’t want Kayla wearing hers. So now my room is less messy. Score!

 

Mole Moral~The simplest projects turn into big projects. Who would have guessed a bearded dragon would lead to a new dresser and a trip to IKEA.

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It’s just hair

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imageAllyson has been asking me for at least a month to let her get her hair cut. She sent me a picture of what she wanted and I almost had a heart attack. I had to tell myself it’s only hair and it’s her hair and it grows back. So when I shared with Hollie (who does my hair) what she wanted, she almost had a stroke as well. Hollie does not like cutting long hair to short much less super long to super short. So Hollie and I talked and she decided to do a short bob and then have Allyson come back in a week to finish.

So five days later we arrive and Hollie asks Allyson a lot of questions and they look at pictures. Hollie then announces she’s just doing it all now and forget the two step process. Allyson is thrilled and I’m a bit freaked out. Hollie is having a nervous heart attack. She cut off to shoulders first and the whole shop about had a stroke. When Hollie broke out the clippers they all freaked. The haircut took an hour and by the end Hollie needed a shot and a bottle of wine but Allyson loved it and that’s all that mattered. Before Hollie started she said, “it’s only hair and it will grow back”

Brian really liked it and wanted to know why her hair was so soft. I said because she doesn’t use head and shoulders shampoo. Smoking grandma had a bit of a hard time. Kayla hated it and Brian’s mom said it looked like mine. Emily announced that the mole girls can really pull off the lesbian hair cut. After all my girls have called me Lizzie for four years. They are as funny as their father.

Mole moral ~ Allyson is amazing as she does not feel compelled to conform to society and is her own person, comfortable in her own skin.

Merry Christmas! The best gifts do not always come in wrapping paper and fancy bows!

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A Christmas Miracle (sort of)

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My brother-in-law Chris was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma almost two years ago. It was bad enough that conventional chemo wouldn’t do any good (or they may have tried it, I can’t remember) so they offered him experimental chemo without much hope. He was in the Army stationed in WA at the time. He was home last Thanksgiving and in my usual CR self I told him not to die until after he retired from the army (which was a year later) so Brian’s sister and my nephew would have military benefits for life.

He came home to Missouri last week for good. I think he is officially retired at the beginning of January but is using vacation time until then. He went out to Siteman for a treatment and they told him he is in remission. Yes, remission from stage four lymphoma. I am not going to lie, if someone told me this would be the result I would have told them to go take a toke off of their crack pipe! I was so shocked when I heard the news today that I had to share on my blog. God certainly works in crazy ways!

 

Mole moral ~ It’s so nice when negative Nelly (me with medical stuff) is wrong and God surprises me. I am praying for remission to last a long time! Continue reading →

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Midwest Furfest 2015 Chicago IL

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IMG_0261Last January or February Allyson asked me to buy her some plastic canvas, foam and fur because she wanted to make a fursuit. I had no idea what she was talking about but since she is the artist in the family, I took her to purchase the supplies she needed. She then disappeared in the basement for several works working on her latest creation. I asked her the other day what gave her the idea and she has no clue. She swears she can’t remember how she became interested in it. I am thinking she saw it on YouTube. So she made the head and feet all by herself. The tail and the sleeves she cut out and had me sew them together. I watched how she did the head and after she got the shape together she took masking tape and taped areas and then removed the tape. She then cut the fur pieces to the size and shape of the masking tape and then hot glued the fur to the foam. I know she had Woolzey finished by the talent show at school which was in April or May. (He was her second head, as her first she has now decided to call her prototype and learned that it was way too big and heavy). The secretary at school told me her performance blew them all away and everyone was clapping and got into it. Of course the secretary almost fell out of her chair when I told her she made it herself. So a few months ago Allyson mentioned the furfest con (convention for all of you like me that has no clue about the lingo) and wanted to go. I kind of forgot about it until three weeks ago when Emily mentioned taking her. So a last-minute trip was in order and all I have to say is next year I am asking off work because working Thursday and Friday and then leaving straight for Chicago and getting home late Sunday night and working Monday and Tuesday was no fun. I am a spoiled part-time girl!

Emily and I had no idea what to expect. While driving up there I told her I needed to have my picture taken with a creepy old man for Liz. Liz is one of our newer nurses on Women’s Health and I just love her. She cracks me up and lets me tease the crap out of her without getting mad. She is a year older than Emily and can dish it right back. It’s always a good time when I work with her. So Allyson pipes up from the back seat and says that there are a small portion of people who have sex in their costumes and they are called Yiffers. The fursuit people do not like them because they give the fursuit people a bad rap. No kidding because I can’t tell you how many of Emily’s friends asked if she was going to an orgy. She said sure with my mom, it will be great fun. It kind of reminded me of the small subset of Mormon’s that have multiple wives. Yes, only I could relate these two set of people. After I got back and relayed the message to Liz she knew they were called Yiffers. She told me that her brother told her about them which I bought at the time but now I’m just wondering if Liz is a Yiffer! HAHAHAHAHA. And now I can give her crap about that for the next month!

The next morning we weren’t there twenty minutes when I was completely blown away by the artistry of the costumes. I would say most people do not make their own costumes but pay fursuit makers to make them. This is not cheap as the head alone can go for five hundred dollars and up. It all depends on who it is that makes them. And yes Allyson knew some of them and could tell the costumes they had made. They also had an art show but no picture-taking was allowed. It was mind-blowing. Then they also had booths were people were drawing and doing commission work. Emily has a gal etching a shot glass with midwest furfest on it. It should come in about two weeks. So we wandered around until the parade started. Emily and I got our spot thirty minutes early and it was the perfect spot. The parade route was roped off just like they do at Disney. I am guessing there was at least 1000 people in the parade. It last an hour and a half. Towards the end some chinese tourist started trying to crowd me out of my spot. I really thought I was going to have to throw elbows. Look dude Emily and I were the first one’s here and you aren’t getting my spot! He was getting mad at me for not moving out of his way. I ignored him. I was a little nervous to leave Allyson in the line up for the parade and not see her for two hours but she had Emily’s phone, the selfie stick and ended up making a bunch of friends.

Allyson spotted a booth where they take your photos and then send it off to a 3D printer and your picture ends up a statue. Allyson really wanted it done but I had already spent a fortune on her for Christmas. Emily the devil said who cares let her do it. So I threw caution to the wind and said why not. So they took her pictures and scanned her while she was standing on a platform that rotated 360 IMG_0460IMG_0457degrees. When they were finished they had a sample on the screen which was really cool and they will clean it up and send us the proof in 2 weeks.IMG_0466

 

As long as we are happy with it, they will send it to the printer and we will receive a 4 inch statue of Woolzey in four weeks. I cannot wait to see the finished project.

That night they had a dance off which was amazing. I cannot imagine dancing full-out in a fur costume. Those people had to be sweating to death. Allyson really enjoyed it. The next day they had a dance competition which was amazing. I am posting links to the winners of the group competition which they were called furternity. Click on the name if you want to watch the video from the competition. The second runner-up in the veteran category was Fenrir/Strobes I thought he should have won but I am no dance expert. His suit was super cool.

So until next year or Allyson’s next costume I’ll try to stop the crazy about this. I have already determined I’m going to learn how to sew the fur together for patterns without it looking like its sewn together. Thank goodness for endless information on the internet!!

 

Mole Moral~ People often make fun of or question stuff they do not understand or have no experience with. I have never met so many understanding and accepting people than I did this past weekend. It reminded me of how Jesus said we should act. Love God first and then each other. These people exhibited just that even in crazy costumes!