Stephanie Life of Determination

As most people are celebrated the holidays I get the news my cat has squamous cell carcinoma. He has been having a runny eye for the past month. Our vet gave him some steroids thinking he might have a cold. He is 15 going on 16 years old and she didn't want the cold to go to his lungs. He was doing not too bad when he was on the steroids. A week later, after the medications ran out.  his eye was running even more. I took him back to the vet. I noticed that his right side by his nose looked a little swollen. My vet saw it too. She thought it could be a tooth root abscess and wanted him to get his teeth cleaned. My mind thought the sooner the better, so we got him in the next day. 7:00am in the morning I dropped him off. I hate leaving him at the vet. They told me they would call around 12:00pm. 12:15pm came and I still didn't hear anything so I called. Come to find out they still haven't gotten to him. I was pissed. You are having him dropped off early in the morning to

The Holiday season has always been the best and worst day for me.  Let us start with the positive first. Ever since the age of two, I have had lots of health problems.  When I was 9 years old I was in and out of my pediatrician office at least every other week with tummy troubles. He ended up diagnosing me with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and told me to eat everything with whole wheat, drink Metamucil at least 2xs day, lots of fruits and veggies.  When I was 13 God was watching out for me. I had to see a different pediatrician because my normal pediatrician was on vacation. I got to see a woman. Sorry guys but I feel women make a better doctor especially for girls because they don't assume it is just depression and anxiety.  She looked at my chart and noticed I haven't gained any weight instead I was losing weight. Another thing she noticed was my bones weren't growing correctly.  She sent me in for a bunch of tests, as well as, sent me to a Ped Gastrologist. Three days before

Here is a funny family tradition that has been past down from one generation to another.  When my mom and my Aunt were little kids my grandma would make sugar cookies and have them decorate it. They would put those really hard silver ball sprinkles that would break your teeth. Once the cookies were decorated with not just one silver sprinkle hard balls but dozens of them on one cookie my grandpa would eat them. Guess what!!! Grandma taught me this tradition as well. A couple of weeks before Christmas I would go over to their house. Grandma would make her special homemade sugar cookies. I would always help her make it dough as well as eat it too.  Then we would mix up the frosting. While the frosting was in the refrigerator getting cold and the cookies in the oven, we would set up the newspapers on the floor, put up the card table in the kitchen and set up all the decorating sprinkles. I loved decorating the cookies because every cookie I made was very special especially to my grandpa

  With Love, Wherever You Are by is an incredible love story. Does war romances last? Based on a true story. After a whirlwind romance and wedding, Helen Eberhart Daley, an army nurse, and Lieutenant Frank Daley, M.D. are sent to the front lines of Europe, during World War II, with only letters to connect them for months at a time. They are both surrounded by dangers and desperately wounded patients, they soon find that only the war seems real-- and their marriage more and like a distant dream. If they make it through the war, will their marriage survive? Dandi Daley Mackall This story tells the real-life story of the romance between Dandi Daley Mackall's parents. Dandi does an amazing job navigating the reader through the hardships, loss, and dangers of the war.  I could not put this book down I had to read the entire book in one sitting. The book is a mix of letters and normal narration.  The story is very easy to follow. I found myself having so many genuine emotions while

Can history be told through a graphic novel? I wanted to find this out, so I got Jonathan Hennessey's Graphic Novel  Alexander Hamilton Biography.  Alexander Hamilton is one of the most influential figures in United States history. He fought in the war, helped develop the Constitution and was the first Secretary of the Treasury.  Today, kids know him because of  Hamilton  the Musical on Broadway. Justin Greenwood's illustrations are really good. I did, at times, have a hard time figuring out who was who throughout the book, especially because Hennessey seems to skip around in Hamilton's life. The book starts out with the Monarchy and slavery. It doesn't even start with Hamilton being born. The first ten pages were about growing sugar which created more slavery. Alexander Hamilton is against slavery, but if you only read the first few pages you would think he was for slavery.  I thought this book wouldn't take me very long to read, but it took me an hour to read beca

The Only Negotiating Guide You’ll Ever Need, Revised and Updated by Peter B. Stark and Jane Flaherty is different tactics in negotiations.   I haven’t read enough negotiating books to say this is the only negotiating book you’ll ever need, but I will say this book is to the point in explaining different tactics in a very simplistic and easy manner.   This is an awesome book for high school students who are just graduating.   My favorite chapter is how to negotiate a pay raise.   The first half of the book deals more with the concepts and psychology behind the art of negotiating. It even has a couple of self-assessment tests to take to deter what your skill level is in negotiating.   The strongest part of the book is the second half.   They go into detail on 101 tactics for successful negotiating. For example, one tactic called The Trial Balloon is finding out how firm your counterpart is on the key issues is often helpful in negotiation. You can get some information by sen

I love this crazy family. It is always nice to be able to laugh especially so many bad things that are happening in this world. I hope you laugh. I can't wait for the Pickett family's show to be on Youtube. It is coming soon, but in the meantime, we have been doing some facebook lives.