Travis and I went to see “Knight and Day” last night and we really enjoyed it. The title threw us off a bit, but the movie itself is a lot of fun. I don’t understand why people are still giving Tom Cruise a hard time. I like him personally. I’ve heard a lot of people still don’t like him because of the Oprah incident and the Today show incident, and that’s what stays in the media. Of course, the good things he’s done, such as rescuing a lady who was going to get trampled, apologizing to Brooke Shields for his statement about post partum depression, and the fact that he seems to be a doting father are really looked over in the media. Bad news sells, I guess, which is why we don’t watch the local news and we don’t purchase newspapers except for the Sunday one occasionally, but only for the sales ads. Travis and I never read a newspaper cover to cover. Its just something that does not interest us. We get the news off the Internet basically so that we do stay current with what’s going on, but we can pick and choose the things we read easily that way and we don’t have to pay for a daily paper. Back to Tom Cruise, he’s done some odd things I’ll admit, but I’m odd as well. I like things and people that are different. The truth is we only speculate as to what celebrities are really like. So someone like Kristen Stewart might be super popular right now and everyone may seem to like her, but who knows what she’s really like. I mean if she’s dating Robert Pattinson, why not just admit it? Is it some kind of publicity thing so that they will stay current in the media, by keeping people guessing? I personally don’t care who she dates, because aside from her portrayal of Bella in the Twilght movies, I’m not so much a fan of hers. As for who knows what celebrities are really like though, Tom Cruise is the same – who knows what he’s really like. I like him though and I like his movies, so he will always get my support as long as he’s making movies. Of course, I had a huge crush on Maverick when I was little, but that’s besides the point! “Knight and Day” was a very fun, action packed movie and I really enjoyed it. Don’t believe the reviews and go see it!

So, I know I have posted before about the use of a gas chamber to euthanize shelter animals…well, I’m ready to fight this in a big way. Essentially, enough is enough. I found out that out of 45 facilities in Alabama, only 9 still have a gas chamber that they may or may not utilize. The ASBVME even recommends to all shelters that they do injection only, so why do shelters still use the gas chamber? The reason I was given by one director of a shelter was that it would be “too hard” on the shelter employees to have to physically hold an animal why it dies…
Hmmm…
Shouldn’t it be hard? I mean, what did these animals do to deserve to even be in the shelter? Many of them are scared the entire time they are at the shelter and then they are placed inside a box and gassed to die. They don’t know what’s happening, they don’t know what they did wrong, they don’t know why no one has come to give them a home, they don’t know what’s going to happen to them, but they are scared and the very least we can do for these animals is to hold them while they leave this world. Injection euthanasia takes about 15 seconds for the animal to die vs. over 30 minutes at times inside the chamber and there have been numerous accounts where the dog or cat is still alive and sometimes they gas them again!
This is going to stop! And I’m going to fight to get the end of the gas chamber until the gassing of these animals does in fact STOP!

I’m not a fan of texting, but I’ve been trying to get more modern with it. I have a new cell phone now, but it still doesn’t have a keyboard so I have to punch numbers to get to the right letter, this is why my text messages are short, I don’t have time to sit and push numbers when it would just be faster for me to call you. I’m trying though.
Happy Father’s Day to my wonderful Daddy and to my wonderful husband.
We returned from Prattville today and had a nice trip. I got to see my brother on Saturday and he enjoyed spending some time with the girls as well. He doesn’t get to see them very often.
I found two really cool new learning tools for Anya to help with her writing. The first is a workbook of mazes. She loves to do mazes and this one came with with a computer disc. The other tool I found at the local school supply store and its a pencil grip but it has like a little top piece to it that keeps her fingers from rolling on top of the grip and pencil. I’m hoping these help her get more used to writing.
Cleaning out the house some this week in preparation for a yard sale of some kind soon. I’m hoping someone will want to have one with me as a joint venture, any takers?

The Almand household has been busy the past month. Travis and I decided that we were going to discontinue our television service with Dish and we are going on 2 and a half weeks now without TV and I have to say its going really well. We have started watching “The Office” which is great and we are using Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service which has been great both for Travis and I and the girls. Anya has watched shows such as “Kipper” and “The Velveteen Rabbit” on Netflix, both of which she really liked. Arwen is happy to just watch Elmo or “Ellbo” as she calls him. I’ve been trying to get more involved in doing rescue work. Focas, the local group I really loved, is on a hiatus right now for family reasons, so I’ve been trying to get involved with other groups and with people that really want me to help. I’m also working with my friend Sonya on helping to rid our state of the gas chamber method of euthanasia for the shelter animals. Out of 45 facilities in AL that use euthanasia, only 9 still use the chamber, per the ASBVME.
In other news, Arwen is still our tiny little peanut! She’s about 22lbs now I think, but she’s just a pint size little firecracker! She keeps us entertained that’s for sure and she loves to eat is the crazy thing! She’s not much for meat just yet, but she loves everything else – except for carrots. The child can not stand carrots. She loves blackberries though, as we discovered when we visited the farmers market last week. They had samples of blackberries and I gave Arwen one. She was reaching for them by the handfuls and she loves them, although I really try to only let her have 5-8 at a time.
Anya attended VBS last week and she loved it! She had a great time there and learned a lot. She really seemed to enjoy making new friends and doing the art projects and playing on the playground. She also loved the songs and stories she learned. She attended two VBS camps last week, one with First Baptist and her friend M, and the other only once at night with her best buddy A. I wanted her to go to more with A, but my longtime friend Sharon was in the hospital CICU last week not doing well, and I went to see her. She’s better now, but still in the hospital trying to figure out what’s wrong.
And then I went to Vegas this past Saturday to see my second family out there. I came back on Monday so it was a quick trip, but I had a good time and enjoyed seeing them. Although, other than them, I don’t miss a whole lot about Vegas. It was very strange though, because in many ways it felt so normal to be there again, but I’m guessing it will always feel a bit like home because of my friend there and because we had Anya there. We went to Town Square Saturday night which was a really nice new shopping area off the strip. We ate at Brio and I found some great deals on clothes for the little ones at a store called H&M. I found dresses for Anya for $4.95 each and an Elmo tee for Arwen for the same price! You just can’t beat that. Then, Saturday we went to The Children’s Place outlet and I found some adorable clothes for both girls. I got 3 outfits each and 1 additional tee for each girl and I stayed under $30!
We are doing great on the eliminating soda from our diets as well, although both Travis and I slipped a little this past weekend. Me because of the flying and time changes and Travis because he was taking care of the girls and got a good dose of what my day to day life is like so he needed a caffeine boost!
Anya also finished playing T-ball and got a great little medal. She played so well! Now we are gearing up for soccer in the fall!