Almost Over

    I can't believe that this semester is almost over. At times I thought the end would never come, but we've almost made it! At the beginning of the semester I was very stressed and not sure if I would be able to handle my course load. (I took 19 hours this semester) But as the semester went on I learned to balance my time and was able to complete all 19 hours, with all A's I might add. I only have two more finals left to take; one tonight and one Friday afternoon. Then I'll be home free; well until summer school starts anyway.

    My first couple years of college I goofed around, skipped a lot, and in return failed a bunch of classes. Since I wasn't too concerned with showing up to class I didn't know about a lot of the assignments and quite frankly I really didn't care. My only motivation to even enroll in college was the fact that as long as I was in school my parents paid for my car and insurance. But for some reason or another I decided to take a break. In the first couple of years I actually took two semesters off. The first semester I took off my parents continued paying for my car and insurance, but the next time around I had to start paying my own insurance. Let me tell you when you've had what seems like a million speeding tickets and you're insured under your own policy it can be quite costly. It only took one semester of that before I decided to go back to school and stay in school.

So now I am trying to make up for lost time by taking big course loads and classes every semester. After this summer I will have taken and passed 43 hours this academic year. And I still have two more years of school to go. L I wish I would have had this motivation when I first started, if I had I could have graduated this year, if not before. Oh well, you live and learn. I definitely learned my lesson and after I get my bachelor's degree I'm going to go right back to school and get my master's degree. Taking breaks only makes it that much harder.

Now more than ever pets are an integral part of the family. They can be found in the family portraits hanging on the wall; they are often times the ring bearer at weddings; and almost always accompany their "parents" on family vacations. It's amazing that people include their pets in so many activities, yet forget about or neglect their safety while traveling by not restraining them with a pet harness or pet safety belt. By not restraining pets while traveling not only are the pets at risk; but also the driver and passengers in the vehicle as unrestrained pets often become a flying projectile in the case of the wreck. According to Bark Buckle Up in a 30 mph car accident a 60 pound dog can cause an impact of 2,700 pounds! Unrestrained dogs can also distract the driver causing an accident; impede rescue efforts after an accident; escape after an accident and get hit or cause another accident.

Bark Buckle Up through research has concluded that 98% of pets do not travel properly restrained. Bark Buckle Up is a national pet safety awareness program that, in conjunction with the police and fire chiefs, tries to raise awareness of the importance of buckling your pets up; not only for their safety, but also you safety, your passengers' safety, and the safety of first responders. A similar movement is the Paws to Click movement. The Paws to Click movement is a joint effort by the ASPCA and Bergan LLC to promote safe pet travel. According to Paws to Click a car accident occurs every 18 minutes due to an unrestrained pet in the vehicle, resulting in more than 30,000 car accidents per year.

There are currently no laws or restrictions concerning restraining your pets while in transit. To solve this problem Bergan LLC, along with independent laboratories, has taken the first steps in establishing the Pet Safety Durability Test Standard V9DT B2009.1. The purpose of the V9DT is to set the industry standards for pet harnesses for the use in automobiles. As there were no industry standards prior to the V9DT standard it is important to make sure and check for the "complies with the V9DT" logo on the packaging of any harness you're considering in order to ensure the safety of your furry little family member, as well as your safety, you passengers' safety, and the safety of other drivers on the road.

You would never dream of taking your child somewhere without buckling them up, right? Why should your pet be any different?

Change of Plans

    This weekend, out of sheer boredom, I began toying around with the idea of beginning the wedding planning process. The only thing I didn't change about our wedding was who we're marrying. When we got engaged we both decided that we would like to enjoy a long engagement, which would allow us plenty of time to focus on school and save up some money. Originally we planned to have the wedding in mid-October of 2011. We both liked the idea of an outside wedding in the fall and were considering getting married at Springhouse Gardens just outside of Joplin. So we decided that this year we would watch the temperature and the scenery and then set a date. We also decided that we were going to go with more earthy colors, ivory, brown, and a touch of burnt orange.

    After this weekend our wedding plans are not even comparable to what we were originally thinking. We're now going for a more modern wedding. We would like to have the wedding in a loft like setting; open floor plan; high ceilings. (We have yet to find anything big enoughL) I love the idea of black and ivory weddings, but wanted to throw a little accent color in there to break it up, so we have decided to go with chartreuse. In addition to changing the location, as well as the colors, we have also decided to move the wedding up a couple of months. Instead of mid-October we have now decided on early September (not a big change).

    I haven't gotten much into the planning other than that. I did find some invitations I liked. I got the samples in the mail today; it's a good thing I ordered a sample because they are not at all what I thought they were going to be. I also decided that our reception is just going to be hors d'ouevres, cocktails, and cake. I am glad I allowed myself plenty of time to think things through and plan everything out, I just hope I didn't allow myself too much time..