Crispy Cat Chronicles

Long time no see

2009-08-22T09:00:00.002-04:00

You know, I don't know if anyone still reads this blog but I just felt like for old times sake coming back to say hi.
I am no longer working for Crispy Cat, in fact no one is.
the company changed hands and everyone got let go. It was really sad and I miss my job so much, but what can you do, bad economy and all that stuff so I guess you just have to say eff it and move on, right?

So I wanted to read some old posts and I went to the website b/c for a long time my blog was still up there, but I guess the new CC people were not feeling it and it was taken down. For a split second I panicked thinking that my blog had been erased and with it all the good memories of my time with CC along with it. Then I remembered that the blog was on Blogspot and that it could not be erased *Whew*.

Stu actually set me up with a new blog spot but i forgot the password and all that and honestly blogging for the company was a lot more fun than blogging for myself.

Who knows maybe I should contact the new CC people and see if they want me to do their blog.

Anyway nice chatting with you all again.

Fan of the Month Contest.

2008-12-01T12:23:00.002-05:00

I always think no one ever reads this blog, until we run a contest that is and then I see all the fans we have. So since you love to get free stuff and we like to give free stuff away we are now having a contest that happens every month. That's right every month you have the chance to win a free box of Crispy Cats! That is 12 bars people!
Of course you have to do something to win but its so easy. All you have to do is be your wonderful, fabulous, candy loving self and you can win. Just email us a short note about how much you love our candy bars and include a photo of yourself with the candy and you just might be the winner. Its just that easy! So go ahead and email all your love to info@crispycatcandybars.com please don't put it in the comments section . Of course feel free to put my fan mail in the comments section. So now you know and I can't wait to see all the things people send in.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, I sure did even though my food makes my mother"sad". She gets sad because I won't eat all the meat and the dairy and cakes and pies. She did make me vegan apple turnovers and they were so good everyone wanted them. I felt sad when I saw her turkey, its legs were tied together with string . I think that is what was truly *sad* about Thanksgiving. But I did not mention it because I didn't want to be that person...I just wanted to enjoy my food and let people enjoy their food. Even if I don't agree with their food, Thanksgiving day at the table is not the palace to try and convert people to being vegetarian. So for the day I gave it a rest.
Next up Christmas!!!!

LEAF Trade show and other stuff.

2008-10-23T16:44:00.004-04:00

I love what Stu has done to the blog. He is so artsy and cleaver. But he refuses to redo my hair in the short style that I have it in now. Just for the record I got a "Rosemary's baby" inspired do and ditched my high maintenance long hair. And Stu refuses to acknowledge it by re-drawing my hair. Whatever Stu.

Lets get down to business. LEAF. It was just here last weekend. In case you aren't a local, LEAF stands for the Lake Eden Arts Festive and it is one HUGE hippy gathering. We have a booth both in the fall and spring and I usually end up working some of it. This year I took my close personal friend Sadie with me. She was a hit with all the crunchy, stinky people walking around! Let me just say for the record that I have lived in a lot of places and I love living here with all the stinky, crunchy people the best. So no offense if you have dirty hair and bedraggled clothing, I love and enjoy you. Anyway LEAF was LEAF. Danny Dryer the author of Chi Running was there and that was totally exciting for me. That book totally changed the way I run, if your into running or you want to run but think you can't because it hurts your knees check it out. Danny Dryer now lives here in Asheville and is having a Chi Running workshop on November 1st.

Also the guys just came back from trade show. I went last year and it was so much fun. This year it was in Boston. I was jealous I couldn't go but I don't think I could have done much with the baby dangling off my hip. But according to Eric and Joel they had a lot of fun and even had an adventurous cab ride that I am not allowed to blog about because according to Eric its "inappropriate". Wow when did things become inappropriate around here? The times they are a changing. For reals.
According to Joel people from all over the world are interested in Crispy Cat. Well I'm not surprised we are awesome. Not to mention that if you can't eat gluten or dairy it is the only candy bar on the market. True there are flat chocolate bars but nothing like a real candy bar.
If you don't believe me just look for yourself the next time you are at your local health food store. Don't forget, if your local store doesn't carry us you can always request them too and if you post a store you want me to send samples too in the comments section I will do my best to get them to carry us! I am quite a convincing sales person if I do say so myself. In the past people have done that and I have been able to get Crispy Cats in their area!

Cheap shoes and a no effort pumpkin patch!

2008-10-13T13:58:00.003-04:00

I was just revisiting some of the old posts in the archive...wow .Its interesting to see how much life changes in the course of a year. Enough reminiscing, that was then and this is now time to move on.

So I went to Target and found that shopping for vegan shoes can be a lot cheaper than buying leather. I know on line you can find fancy expensive vegan shoes but you can also just go to Target or Payless and not feel like a cheep ass for doing it. Before I would be embarrassed if I got shoes at Payless, like I was admitting I am poor and don't have great taste. But now I feel self satisfied and smug, superior even saying I buy my shoes at Target and Payless because they're vegan. The truth is it is awesome to get a pair of shoes for $10 (they were on sale). I also like it because it saves me time by having less choices. Less to look at, less to think about and less to choose from. Much easier than having to mull over a ton of different shoes and then feel like a jerk for paying too much for a pair of shoes.

Halloween is coming and I want to give a little tip on how to grow a pumpkin patch with little to no effort.
Last year I got a white pumpkin and I put it on the stone wall in front of my house. It was so pretty and festive and I felt really good about it when I would come home and see it sitting there. After Halloween came and went and it survived Halloween night I just forgot about it. Then Ted noticed that it was rotting on the wall. I continued to ignore it. It rotted further and still I pretended not to see it. Eventually when it was half gone I slam dunked it by the garbage can on trash day. The garbage man refused to pick it up so it just rotted and composted by my mailbox. last year it looked like a very lazy person lived at my house, this year it looks like a PUMPKIN PATCH under my mailbox. That's right we have a real pumpkin patch growing by the mailbox complete with a white pumpkin. I love that pumpkin patch so much and I check on the pumpkin everyday! So this year just chuck your pumpkin where ever you want to have pumpkins and then ignore it and by next year you can brag to everyone you know about your awesome pumpkin patch!

Vegan party food for a non-vegan crew...

2008-09-29T11:26:00.002-04:00

On Friday night I hosted a small intimate gathering to celebrate my friend Murry's special day. Just a few people were coming, none of them are vegan. I struggled with the idea of making food for them that was non-vegan, I would never cook meat but I didn't know what to do about the pizza I was making. Should I do dairy on it for them and then a non-dairy pizza for me? As I stood in the grocery store mulling over my options I decided that I would serve the food I wanted and let people decided if it was something they wanted to eat.

I made a vegan pizza with a tons of veggies and nutritional yeast sprinkled on top along with hummus and carrots and my friend Sarah made a vegan split pea soup. For desert I tried my hand at vegan baking....not so great. The brownies tasted OK but looked like molten lava and smelled like carcinogens. They were definitely not the kind of yummy treat that you could cut a square of, it was more like you took a spoonful and tried not to burn off the first few layers of skin on your tongue. Over all the food was OK. I need to learn some new recipes and expand my horizons. I'm not really a "foodie" so it doesn't bother me to eat a baked potato with melted rice cheese every night.

If any of our fans have some great vegan party food recipes that they love please send em' in. We are going to start doing profiles on our "special" readers in upcoming issues of our newsletter, sort of like the "Reader Spotlight" in vegnews. So send in any tidbits you might have laying around in your head and you just might end up a winner!!

Is this the end of the world?

2008-09-25T11:39:00.003-04:00

Here in Asheville NC and the surrounding area it feels like Armageddon when trying to get gas. I don't know about other places but here if you want gas you have to wait in line for sometimes 2 hours. Cars will be backed up so bad they need the police there to direct traffic and break up fist fights. For reals people were fighting at the gas station. Cars are abandoned on the side of the highway, its pretty creepy.
This inspired me to be even more dedicated to my cause to drive as little as possible and challenge myself to find ways to get by without a car. Now I have to drive to work twice a week. I live too far to walk and I don't have a bike. I could try running to work but it would be a really long run, I think I could make it there but getting home might be another story. Luckily for me I live in a small town where I can walk to most everything. Here is an example of how I am saying FO to the oil companies......
When I got home on Tuesday my baby jogger had arrived and Teddydigital had already put it together for me (yay)! So yesterday after Sadie's nap I planned out what errands I needed to run. I put the baby in the running stroller and headed out. First we walked to the movie place and returned a movie and got a new movie. Then we walked over to the gas station to see if there was a long line for gas (just out of curiosity) and of course there was. By the way this is the universe's way of punishing all those people who don't care about our environment and drive SUVs. Now all the SUV people have to wait on the gas lines every few days because most places have a $40 limit on gas. Not to mention how much gas costs now. Anyway, so after that I picked up the pace and I did my run while pushing the baby. We ran for 45 minutes and then we walked over to the pharmacy so I could pick up something and then instead of just heading home we walked around town. It was a lot of fun. I did not drive the car once. Another thing I have been doing is reliving my days of living in NYC when it comes to getting groceries. Instead of doing a huge trip once a week I have been walking over to the store every day or so and just getting the things we need for that day. Its actually very nice and very enjoyable. Since the gas crisis I have been spending more time outside getting fresh air and exercise and I think its really improving the quality of my life.
Please, if you want to share your story about how you are adapting to the gas crisis or just how you are trying to change your habits to help the environment please post it in the comments and I will put it in the blog!

Crispy Cat Candy Bars go to Hollywood!

2008-09-23T15:06:00.005-04:00

Guess where the front man and fearless leader of Crispy Cat was this weekend?...at the Emmys! That's right Joel Schantz founder and CEO of Crispy Cat went to the Emmys and rubbed elbows with a ton of clebs including Ben from Lost. Joel is not a Lost fan but Eric and I are so we were super excited to hear about that. We are currently waiting for the disk with all the pictures but when it comes in Stu and I are going to put up the pics for everyone to see! Apparently all the beautiful people in Hollywood love Crispy Cats just as much as the rest of us. Don't worry Asheville we will always love our tried and true hippie fans here at home, after all you are the ones that made us the hot shots that we are today! So check back to see all the pictures of the beautiful models and actresses lovin' on Joel.

On another note we here at Crispy Cat are interested to know how you are finding creative ways to have fun while saving gas. I keep seeing things about people organizing stay at home weeks and other stuff like that and I am curious to know what the creative and eco-aware Crispy Cat fans do. I know you guys do something so what the heck is it?...I'm running out of ideas for stuff to do on the days I am not a work! Just post it in the comments section and I will put it into the blog!

A green tip for the bored stay at home Mom...

2008-09-18T12:22:00.004-04:00

At the moment I am only working 2 days a week. This gives me 5 full, glorious days to stay at home and do my other job...mothering Sadie! While being a Mom is the best thing I have ever done I will admit that sometimes I get stir crazy being at home all day. Here is where I get into a pickle....do I hang out around the house all day and avoid driving because gas is so expensive? or do I waste gas and go somewhere just to go somewhere? It is a very hard call because I hate nothing more than wastefulness, it is a serious pet peeve of mine. And now we are in a gas crisis because of hurricane Ike. We could not even get gas last week and it cost a fortune when I did get it. But what is a Mom to do? Well necessity is the mother of all invention as they say and so I decided that I was going to figure out fun things to do that did not involve driving and therefore help to free myself from my gas dependence. Here is what I did.......

While Sadie napped I got her stroller ready and then hung her cloth diapers out on the line. By the way nothing is worse than disposable diapers when it comes to waste. I use cloth 90% of the time, I will admit that I use one or two disposables at night. After she woke up and ate and got changed I popped her into her stroller and we set out. I needed to pay the water bill so instead of driving to the town hall or wasting the stamp we walked. It only took us 15 minuets to get to town and I noticed that Sadie did not make a peep the entire way, she just sat mesmerized by everything she was seeing. She is just now big enough to sit in the stroller without the car seat so instead of having to look just at me she can see the whole world. After we paid the water bill I decided that we were having too much fun to go home so we walked to the other side of town to take care of some errands we had to run. Along the way we stopped and chatted with a girl that wanted to say hi to Sadie and then we bumped into an old friend near the supermarket and we chatted with her for awhile. Then we ran some errands and set back to our house which was a good distance away, but we were totally enjoying being out and all the fresh air so we didn't mind. When we got to our street I noticed that my neighbor was out with her 6 month old and so I stopped at her house and chatted with her. Funny how she lives down the street and we have kids around the same age and we never stop and talk! But because I was walking we were able to connect. By the time I got home we had been out having fun and interacting with people and getting exercise and fresh air for over 2 hours! All without contributing to the thrashing of our environment or our bank account! Amazing!
That night I got to thinking about other ways that we can spend our day with out being cooped up and without hurting our environment. I decided to take the plunge and invest in a running stroller. I figure that instead of driving 20 minutes to the gym to have the daycare watch Sadie while I work out I could get a jogger and we can run together. Now, I didn't cancel my membership because there will be rainy days and freezing cold days too where we will need to get out. Even though the jogging stroller was sort of pricey I think in the long run it is a worthwhile investment. It cuts down on having to use my treadmill or drive to the gym or use workout DVDs that involve using the TV and best of all it is a way for us to have family time because now Teddydigital and I can run together instead of taking turns with watching the baby!
If you are a mom and you have tips for fun and earth friendly ways to spend the days please let me know we will put them in the next blog!!

Animal groups We Love!!!

2008-09-15T14:18:00.002-04:00

Farm Sanctuary is one of my personal favorites when it comes to animal organizations. Over the years we have donated a lot of product to various events that they have held to help farm animals in need.
One of the best things about them is that they do a lot of education. So in keeping with the theme that being vegan is a snap I want to share a resource that makes it that much easier. First off Farm Sanctuary has a guide to compassionate living and we are featured in it along with many other companies that make vegan food, clothing and other products. It is a great resource to find alternatives for all the stuff you can't live without.
They all so have a website www.vegforlife.org and that will take you step by step through all the ins and outs of making a transition to vegetarianism or veganism lifestyle. It is very gentle and helpful and has a ton of information all in one easy to access and organized place. If you're curious about Farm Sanctuary and what they do you can check out their website www.farmsanctuary.com and if you are in the Watkins Glen area you can even take a tour and see all the animals that they have rescued and given a second chance to live a peaceful life!

Being vegan is a snap!

2008-09-11T12:13:00.003-04:00

I'm back!! After a long and wonderful maternity leave I am back in the office a few days a week! So now I am back and ready to entertain and educate the masses on green living, animal issues and all that other good stuff that we here at Crispy Cat really care about!

One of the things that we here at Crispy Cat really want to express is that being vegan is so much eaiser than you might think...really, being vegan is a snap!! I had no problem giving up meat, I always thought it was disgusting and I always thought it tasted like it looks...nasty! But dairy was another issue all together, I was totally addicted to cheese. I really felt guilty though eating cheese and not being a vegan because I love animals so freaking much and I felt heartsick over the idea that I was contributing to the suffering of animals. Then the best thing ever happened to me...I found out that my daughter is allerigc to dairy. Since I breastfeed the doctor told me to cut out all dairy and because I would do anything for Sadie I immediately did. It was not even a question for me, I just did it and at first I did miss cheese and I craved it. But after a little while it just went away. I would say that by the time 2 weeks had passed I never even thought about it. Now it's been months and I don't miss it at all, in fact I feel better than ever. For the first time my digestion is great, perfect even and I almost never feel bloated. I heard somewhere that it takes 3 weeks for your taste buds to forget the way something tastes and I have found that to be true. Plus there are so many different and tasty things to eat instead. And that brings me to my next point...we here want to show anyone who might be struggling to make the leap just how easy and painless it can be. I am going to showcase vegans that we love and vegan recipes and all sorts of other good stuff, and to our Celiac people don't worry I have not forgotten you we will also bring you some gluten-free tidbits as well.
If you have a great story about going vegan let me know and we will put you in the blog and perhaps even in the newsletter!

B is for Bird Dog

2008-06-26T11:51:00.002-04:00

and that is what a golden retriever is...a bird dog. A dog that is bread to go out hunting and retrieve the poor ducks from the water after an evil, nasty hunter shoots them. A man like Dick Chaney who was hunting baby quail when he shot that Texas layer, would need such a dog to gingerly bring back the little quail that he murdered.
I have no such need for this type of service from my Golden. However, nature is in charge and so when I rescued this gentle giant I had to take the good with the bad. The good being is a loving, easy going, over sized lap dog. The bad being he has an infinity for bring dead birds in to the house. This is what happened last week when he dropped a dead bird on our arm chair. This also happened this morning when he raced into the house with something in his mouth and was whining and racing around. All I saw was the little stick-like bird legs poking out of one side of his mouth. I told him to get the hell out of the house and he mistook that for DROP BIRD. It was so vile. This poor mangled bird laying on my kitchen floor. I just put my hands over my eyes and started screaming as my brother-in-law who is vising had to get a paper towel and toss it back outside. Then of course Otto ran back outside and retrieved it and stood on the porch looking in with this little bird in his lips wondering what the big deal was. Gross, and he wants to lick the baby.

So I need to win the lottery so I can open an animal sanctuary for all the dogs and cats and other pets that are homeless due to the high amount of foreclosures. Either that or someone can donate the money to me. Well just let me know if anyone out there is interested. Thanks.

Mastitis is a pain in the breast.

2008-06-21T23:25:00.002-04:00

Well my clogged milk duct turned into full on mastitis, WOW mastitis is no joke. Despite taking the antibiotics my body still decided that it wanted to go there and so what was once just a relatively painful experience turned in to a nightmare that can only be compared to something not quite as horrible as labor pains but pretty freaking close. I was out of commission for a few days and now I am on the mend and feeling a little better. Resting and taking it easy has never been my strong suit but the fear of this thing coming back or getting worse is enough for me to get in bed and rest.

On another scary note I finally got on the scale. I waited till Sadie was one month old before doing this. All I can really say about that experience was that it was so traumatic and so devastating that I could not even get upset. It was like my mind could not even process that number so it just went into some sort of trance and I just looked at the number again to make sure and then like a person who just had their brains eaten by zombies I stepped off the scale and staggered away. I have never ever weighed this much, not EVER except being pregnant and that doesn't count. So instead of getting completely ill and just losing it I have resigned myself to the fact that I need to lose a good amount of weight and that it is going to take some time and that I am just going to have to do and not get crazy. Easier said than done. It doesn't help that this boob infection has me sidelined from running for a while until it heals.

That is the update on me. The baby is doing great. She was a month old on Friday and she may not be plumping up much but she is getting longer and longer. I think she is going to have Teddydigitals body, long and lean. She is smiling all the time and has laughed out loud 3 times. The first laugh was at Crispy Cat headquarters when Liliha was holding her, it was so precious. I am going to have to figure out how to get pictures on this blog so the world can view the beauty of Sadie, I know all Moms think that but seriously my kid is gorgeous and also a genius. Pray for my boob everyone!

Ouch

2008-06-18T17:13:00.002-04:00

I have a clogged milk duct. It hurts like freaking hell. It is 5 seconds from mastitis so I am on antibiotics and pain meds. The pain meds are because I am supposed to keep nursing on the bad boob and I am supposed to massage it and put compresses on it. Just looking at the bad boob makes me want to scream and jump off the roof it hurts so bad.

All I want to say today is this.....MEN DO NOT GET IT.
You may be asking what do they not get? Anything.
Yes that is right they just do not understand and I have given up trying to explain it anymore, it just pisses me off. So when my husband looks at me and tells me he is tired I just don't say anything anymore because I know that he might be tired but I also know he was not the one up all night either. And when I ask for a mere 45 mins to myself to go running and I ask him to look after the babe and he acts like he is doing me some colossal favor I just remind myself that in this state murder is a crime punishable by prison.

And THAT is all I have to say about THAT.
Come talk to me when your tit is about to fall off buddy!

Did I give birth to Fidel Castro?

2008-06-16T12:27:00.002-04:00

Who knew that a dictator could be so cute. I think this is the trick to trying to have a dictatorship....just be really freaking cute and the people won't care. I wondered this to myself this morning about the person running my house now. I wondered how dose such a small person have so much control over me? I can't take a shit unless she says OK, that is literal too. If Teddydigital is at work and she and I are alone and I have to go to the bathroom and she wants to be held....well then I have to hold her AND hold my bladder. Its that or put her down and listen to heartbreaking screams while I feel like the worst mother on the planet. I usually just hold it.

After a late night all I wanted was a shower this morning. But Sadie told me no. I begged and bargained and tried to bribe her but nothing. I finally put her into what I call a "boob coma" she drank a bunch of milk and passed out. I know better though than to put her down before she is really passed out, if she is slightly awake she will scream and I will have to start the whole process over again. So I waited until I saw her little tongue poke out of her mouth and her entire body go limp then I gently laid her down. I just stood there looking at her in her little yellow jumper with her little tiny body and wondered if Castro had been this cute he probably could have taken over the entire world. So now I am taking a break from gathering all the dirty clothes off the floor of our bedroom to wax poetic about the baby and how cute she is and how she is a master of mind control already at just 3 1/2 weeks old. I am so proud of her, perhaps one day she will take over a small country or maybe even this one. She will be a ruthless tyrant for sure, ruling with an iron fist and she will probably erect statues of her favorite thing, the boob. Big golden monuments of my boob.

OK enough of this...I have to do laundry and I am waiting for Fed Ex to deliver my diaper bag. I neglected to pick one up so the hospital gave me one filled with formula. I feel like a jerk carrying a bag around that says SIMILAC on it. At some point I want to cover the topic of baby snatchers, I have a plan if anyone ever tries to snatch my baby and I want to discuss it in an up coming post.

Sexy Mama? No, I think not.

2008-06-15T11:13:00.002-04:00

There is nothing sexy about the postpartum period if you ask me. I know that there are people who would disagree and say that a woman who just became a mother is at her most beautiful and in an abstract, spiritual sort of way they are correct. In a much more vain and physical way I believe they are wrong. I don't know if it is the fact that after many months I have finally seen my bush again and it is terrifying! It was hidden under my huge belly and I stopped being able to see it at around 6 months pregnant and since I could not see it I just pretended it did not exist. That was a mistake. Now it is so over grown and crazy I don't know how or where to begin, so once again I am pretending it dose not exist. Another thing that resurfaced after my belly went down a bit were some stretch marks that I did not know were there. I thought I had escaped them but they were just hiding on the underside of my enormous belly and were not visible until some of the swelling went down. But at this point it doesn't even matter, I mean really. I just consider them a badge of honor. By the way Sadie is wearing little pants today with duckies on the feet and they are so freaking cute! Hemorrhoids are another thing that are not so sexy. And the fact that I have had to wear a maxi pad non-stop and a very unattractive nursing bra only add to this feeling. A few of the other things include the jacked up body and the still wearing of maternity clothes because my tiny little pre -pregnancy jeans are a total joke.

HOWEVER.......I will gladly never wear size 0 jeans again if it means I can stare at a baby wearing little duckie pants. I don't mind nursing all freaking night long if I can see one little smile in the morning. I think I can settle for being a size 2 though. Not that I am any where near that right now but I think if I give myself a few months I can get there.

So those are my thoughts on the postpartum period. I wish I was more spiritual or more hippieish and could say that I look like a beautiful goddess and am loving my engorged boobs and sore ass. Sorry. That would be dishonest. Besides how much fun would that be?

Tired is the new well rested

2008-06-12T16:57:00.002-04:00

Thank God I have never been the type to need tons of sleep. Don't get me wrong I am better on more sleep rather than less but I am coming to find out about myself that I can do a lot more than I thought. Being a Mom has showed me that I am a much stronger person than I previously may have thought. Or it might be that being a Mom has just made me a stronger person...dare I say a "better" person. Maybe just a different person. Anyway I am into the new me regardless. I still have my moments of getting ill and cranky but something has shifted. Perhaps it is that little lady that hangs out with me all day and all night. She is showing me new things everyday about myself and about life.

Life as a Crispy Cat staffer at home is filled with the excitement and adventure. By adventure I mean going to the store with a baby and by excitement I mean learning to nurse on my side while I am still semi-asleep. We went for a little walk at the Botanical Gardens today with our pal Jess and little Lou and we had a great time talking about all the stuff that people who don't have a new baby don't want to talk about. Than we changed diapers and breastfed in some sort of gazebo. It was nice and afterwards Sadie and I were really pooped so we went to my Moms to mooch some lunch and then came back here.

Tomorrow I am going to the office to see all my work friends and I am so excited for them to meet Sadie. I am sure that she will love everyone! And I know they will all love her (they better).

5 4 3 2 1 lets run......

2008-06-09T13:54:00.002-04:00

I thought that after the baby was born I was going to be really ill over my post pregnancy body, but much to my surprise I have not been that distraught. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I have bigger fish to deal with and that for once it is not all about me.
Having a kid showed me how self-obsessed I really was...crazy! Now I can see that even though having a fit healthy body is important, it is not the only thing in life and I don't have to go insane trying to recapture my figure right away. At first I thought that if I did not look like I did before with in a month than the world was all wrong and I would not be able to go on. But here I am 2 1/2 weeks into it and I have a belly that is like a big gummy bear and no abs in sight, I won't even get into my legs and arms and I am sort of OK with it. I trust that my body knows how to get back to what nature intended. Besides when you don't sleep and you have a baby that is a fuss-a-dufflus there is little time for body fixations.
Now this is not to say that I am 100% at peace with my body, but its way less of a mind eff than I thought it would be.

On another note I have started running again...sort of. This was the longest I have been inactive in many years and trust me I needed the rest. But then a few days ago I got the itch to run and so I handed over the babe to Teddydigital and ran for 20 minuets on my treadmill. Now, in the past I would never have counted 20 mins as a "run" but considering the circumstance I felt like i just ran a marathon and I was just as proud. The next day I gave my self a rest and than today I ran for 25 mins. It felt really good. Slow and steady and soon enough I will be back to real running. Though running a few weeks after giving birth feels pretty real to me. I am certain that the reason that I have recovered so quickly is because I worked out up until the end. I ran until 34 weeks and then just went to the gym and did all the boring machines. I still got cellulite but at least I was not bound to my bed for weeks trying to get over the trauma of birth.

Anyway in case you have not heard, we are running a contest so you might want to get in on some of this action and win yourself some free candy.
All you need to do is whip up an original desert using a Crispy Cat, make sure its vegan and make double sure that its awesome. Take a picture and email it with a description of your creation to info@crispycat.com.

I miss the art department....

2008-06-06T22:10:00.002-04:00

Right now instead of blogging I should be trying to sleep because at any moment my precious baby could wake up and decided to have a party. At this party will only be two other people besides Sadie, one will be me and one will be Teddydigital. There is no getting out of this party and it could rage on and on until the break of dawn. Luckily the party's have not been to crazy with the exception of a few nights, one of them being last night. Anyway I miss the office a little.
Don't get me wrong I love being at home with Sadie and doing the Mom thing, it is the coolest job I have ever had. The pay sucks and the hours are sorta long but everything else is great. But I have to say I miss going to Crispy Cat headquarters. I liked coming into work and having a bunch of emails from people. I even liked getting annoyed by some of the emails I got from people. I liked making sales calls and talking to people from different animal organizations and giving them donations and getting to talk to all the other groups that needed candy for their events.
But I especial loved the people I worked with. That is what I think I miss the most. I loved seeing Joel at the gym before work and then when he gets to work I like asking how was your workout? I like seeing Eric come in and head to the coffee pot and then chatting his ear off and I especially loved the time of day when I would see Stu and his bike come rolling in. The art department and community relations share a space and Stu is the best work space buddy a person could hope for. I sure miss all our chats. I even miss busting Ari's chops.....
Well I am going to try to make it to the office on Monday with the babe.
Just so the people out there know...we have the best office to work in. If you have to be in an office, our office is it....
Don't forget our contest....most original use of a Crispy Cat in a Vegan dessert! Take a picture and send it in and win big!!!

Another cool contest.....

2008-06-04T12:00:00.002-04:00

Now that I have had my baby and we have had 6 winners for the contest I guess its time for another chance for all our fans to win some more free candy bars!!!
We are looking for the most creative use of a Crispy Cat in a vegan desert. All you have to do is send a photo of your creation and you stand to win mucho amounts of candy bars!!! I am sure with all the creative people out there someone has some great idea that they have been sitting on, so now is the chance to cash in on it. What other company loves giving away free candy bars as much as we do? So think of a good one and take a photo and send us a little description of your yummy vegan desert and you just might be the next big winner!

Well, now that we have the business stuff handled let me fill you in on life as a Crispy Cat staffer on maternity leave. There is a whole lot of nothing going on and at the same time a whole lot happening. I know that all the moms out there know what I am talking about. So far today I have changed diapers, washed diapers, nursed non-stop, fed some dogs and waited for the moment when I think it is safe to take Sadie out of the Maya wrap and put her down for a second so I can take a shower. I would always hear new moms talking about how it was hard to fit in showers and I never got it.....until now. After a long night of breast feeding and calming a fussy baby I got up and expected Sadie to sleep like she usually dose all day but this morning she decided that she was not in to going into her little moses basket, instead she wanted to be held.. .........or else. So hold her I did and I did it with joy because I love my baby and I love being a Mom and that is what Moms do, they hold fussy babies. But after a while it did start to get really hot. She is like a little furnace and I am now covered in sweat and breast milk and just hoping that I can put her down for 10 minuets with out her noticing. I am finally starting to understand all the things that people with kids are always talking about. I am starting to see why people who have a new baby have houses that looked trashed, because when she is finally just resting the last thing I feel like doing is dishes. Anyway enough of all that, on Monday I plan on bring her over to the office to meet all the people I work with. I think it will be fun for her to meet all the voices she listened to while sitting in my belly.

OK so just to sum it up........think of a yummy vegan desert that uses a Crispy Cat.
Take a picture of it....send it in......the most creative wins a load of Crispy Cat Candy Bars. Send your entries to info@crispycatcandybars.com
Good luck!!!

School is in session....

2008-05-31T12:59:00.003-04:00

Everyday I learn something new about being a mom. Today I learned that if you are hungry but your baby is fussy, you starve. That's OK it will help me shed my baby weight, but I could just see with new found X-ray vison that there was delicious food in the fridge so I put Sadie in a hand-me-down maya wrap someone gave me as was able to eat a little. Wraps and slings seem to be a life saver, luckily I have a bunch of them.
I also learned that baby's seem to do what ever they want and they don't care about being consistent. Just when I think I know what she will do next she dose something totally different.
Another interesting fact is that when you hear a squirt in the diaper, don't run to change it just yet...wait a second because usually another squirt is on the way. A friend of ours named Kelly gave us a bunch of really great all in one cloth diapers and I love them, but it sucks to have to wash them so now I have a rule of Thumb that we have to wait when we hear the squirt.
Something Else I am loving is the fact that everyday my gummy bear tummy gets a little smaller. Last week when I left the hospital I looked 6 months pregnant. Now I look about 4 months pregnant, and like I had a boob job too.
I am dying to go for a walk.....the Doctor said Sadie could not go out places till she was 2 weeks old and I am going a little stir crazy. We are allowed however to go walking and outside. Physically I feel fine, not quite ready to run yet but definitely ready to walk. I think in about 2 weeks or so I will be running again. I guess everyone was right about working out while pregnant, makes recover easier and faster. So today I will attempt perhaps to put her in her stroller and take her on a little walk around the neighborhood.
Anyway that is all I have for the moment......I really miss eating mint coconut bars. I forgot how good I had it being able to eat Crispy Cats whenever I wanted.

Make like a fetus and head out.....

2008-05-28T15:47:00.002-04:00

OK here is how it all went down......(my birth story)

So on Tuesday of last week my water sort of broke. I say sort of because it was not totally ruptured, just leaking. I called the Dr and went in and they were not sure if that was it but they told me to call back if I did not go into labor that night. Well, when I did not go into labor that night I went into work the next day. But when I called to tell my Dr that I did not go into labor they made me come into the office. They did some tests and sure enough it looked like my water was broken. It seems that the baby scratched a hole in the sack and the water was just leaking and that is why I was not going into labor. Now, to be fair we can't be sure that the baby caused the leak but that is what they think happened. Anyway much to my horror and shock they told me that I needed to get induced because I had been leaking for all most 2 days and the baby could get infected if I did not have her soon. I was devastated. My plan was to have a natural labor and delivery and I knew that when you get induced with pitiocine it is a different story as far as what the contractions and labor look like. So all teary eyed I called Teddy and we went to the hospital.

Well the long and short of it is that I labored for 12 hours. 7 of those hours were drug free. The evil medicine that they give you to induce your labor is so hideous and painful I can not begin to describe it. All I can say is that I went from no contractions to out of no where the worst pain I have ever experienced. Luckily I had my Douala and Ted there to help me. Poor Teddy, I puked in his face...more than once. The pain was so intense I was seeing double and thought I was going to pass out. Actually I was hoping to pass out because I thought then they might stop the piticone drip, I begged them to take that IV out but they were not into doing that, something about having to finish labor and all.
Eventually I gave in and asked for the drugs...I felt so defeated. I really wanted to do it naturally but like my Douala pointed out, having to be induced with drugs is not natural and the pain I was feeling is not how and normal labor feels. Normally the contractions build up gradually and there are breaks in between but with the piticone it just slams you all at once with out any real breaks to rest in between. So they came in and they gave me the drugs and I will be honest...I was so happy they did. The rest of the labor was much better and when it came time to push I pushed the baby out in 45 minutes.
When she came out and they put her on my chest, I forgot all about the labor pains, in fact I forgot about everything all I could do was cry as I held my little cone headed, blue skinned perfect little girl. It was the most life changing moment I have ever experienced. All those months spent miserable and pregnant were worth it. All those hormones that made me feel insane were gone and for the first time in 39 weeks, I felt really, really good. Just looking at this baby who looks just like Teddy was surreal and wonderful. Sadie lay skin to skin with me for the rest of the night and morning. She and Teddy bonded for a while while the nurse helped me deal with some other bloody, slimy business and then while Teddy slept I watched the sun come up over the mountains with my brand new baby.
Today Sadie is 5 days old. Its so weird but I can't really imagine life before her, it feels like she has always been here. Now that I am no longer pregnant I can say that I really did not like being pregnant. I did not want to say it before because I did not want Sadie to feel those vibes but the hormones and all that stuff was killing me. Being a mom is way better. I don't even mind being tired, it is all so worth it. I will take sore nipples and sleep deprivation over pregnancy woes any day of the week.
So that is the abbreviated story of how Sadie got here. I will continue to post while out on maternity leave. Stu is figuring out who won the contest and that person will get all there candy!! Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest!!!
Stay tuned for more exciting stories about Sadie, the baby who sleeps 23 hours a day and stories about my right breast that used to have the nipple pierced back in the early 90's when that was in Vogue and how now breast milk shoot out of the holes where the ring used to be!

The world seemed right all of a sudden. Teddy and I spent the next day in the hospital and then asked to be discharged early, they said OK and we left.

SADIE IS HERE!!!!

2008-05-24T19:54:00.003-04:00

On May 23 2008 at 3:06 am Sadie Sweeney came into this world! She weighed in at 7 lbs even and was 19 1/2 inches long. She is the most beautiful and precious baby I have ever seen and I am totally in love and bewitched by this little girl. I have never felt this way before and it is the best feeling I have ever experienced.

I am writing this while the little one naps and I was just sitting there staring at her on the couch obsessing about if she is getting enough to eat today because I nursed her awhile ago and she has been sleeping soundly ever since and I am having a hard time getting her to wake up. So I figured instead of just being a neuritic new mom I would let all the people know that she got here safe and sound. I will have someone from the office go into my computer to look at all the guess to see who the winner of our contest was. I will say that Jimmy Legs read my chart and told me that I would have this baby on May 23!!! He is a great astrologer so if you are in the market to get your chart read he is the man.

I will do a post on my birth story when it doesn't hurt so bad to sit on a chair, and I hear the baby stirring so I need to cut this short. All I will say for now is that even though I did not have the labor and birth I expected I have never been happier about things not going how I planned. I wanted and was hell bent on a natural labor and birth but had to get induced when my water started to leak and then broke and I never went into labor. But its Ok because the universe knows what its doing and I don't know how I ever lived before this baby and she is not even 48 hours old yet. We opted to leave the hospital a little early because we were all doing great and I was sick of nurses "Checking my pad" gross.

More later, thanks to everyone that endured this blog turning in to a pregnancy blog, it was one of the most fun parts about being pregnant. I loved bitching and complaining, it was a lot of fun. By the way my post baby body is really messed up! Teddydigital is calling my belly the "gummy bear". If not for the fact that he helped make this beautiful girl I would have killed him, but for some reason the baby has put me into a feel good trance where I don't feel like killing anyone anymore. It might be the lack of sleep. Stayed tuned for when I tell my birth story!!!

Please get a life.

2008-05-20T10:57:00.002-04:00

OK if you are a woman in your 40's and you are obsessed with your myspace page, please get a life. If you have the time and the intrest to change your background and your picture and your quotes almost daily than I think its time for you to perhaps look into getting a life. AND if Crispy Cat requests your friendship and puts nice comments on your relatively boring blog and you decided that you are too cool for us than I think you need to get some serious help. Obviously anyone that can't see how great of a company we are has a lot of problems and deserves our compassion and prayers, not our hate. So I will refrain from getting my hate on because I know how it feels to be a cuckoo cat lady. Can you tell I am a cranky pregnant lady whos due date is 5 days away.

Speaking of that this is my last week in the office and I am a little sad about it. But the time has come for me to go because I am so huge and I have lost the feeling in my right hand from pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome and my right eye is really dry and it is messing with my contacts, oh and my Doctor and my Douala told me to stop working. So I guess that is that.

A lot of people entered our contest and so far a lot of people have been disqualified because the date they picked has come and gone and I am still pregnant. But we sure do appreciate everyone participating and there are still a lot of people who have picked dates that are later in the month so we just have to wait and see!

I will obviously keep everyone updated and I will be doing my blog on maternity leave as well so I can fill you in on my new life as a Mom!

Getting closer.....

2008-05-15T11:26:00.002-04:00

I am 10 days away from one of my due dates now. However I have been going by my later due date which is May 30th so according to that due date I am 38 weeks today. According to my other one I am 38 1/2 weeks. Dumb I know. My Dr. told me I am the only person in the office with two due dates. Last night I had some cramps that were strong enough to wake me up, I got up out of bed to discover that Inky had peed all over our bedroom. I was so tired that I decided that I could only deal with one thing at a time and so I decided to deal with the pee and let Inky out into the yard to pee again. Every since he has been on that heart medication, which is a diuretic he has been a drinking and peeing machine. After I let him back in and tucked him back in to his bed I fell back asleep and since I woke up and was still pregnant I guess they were gas pains or something. Needless to say that today I am so tired I feel like the walking dead. After work I am going home putting on my pajamas and letting the dogs wait on me for a change.
We have so much drama at meal time in our house. Inkys anorexia is so unpredictable and annoying and Petuinas compulsive over eating and obsession with food combined with Otto's inability to fend of Petunia from eating his food is a little much. I have to watch Inky eat and coax him and beg him and make sure that Petunia, who is always hoovering near by dose not steal his food and his medication. She scarfs her food so fast and then watches the other dogs eat. The other day she pushed Otto aside and was eating his food and I had to pull her away and put her in the yard. He just stood there like a big dope letting her eat his food. Otto is 85 lbs and Petunia is 15 lbs. So this morning when I was not in the mood for dog hijinks's there I was begging Inky to eat and scolding Petunia and protecting Otto. These spoiled pups are in for a rude awakening when the baby comes. Teddydigital will be taking over the pup duty's for a while and who ever else comes to help. That is what I really will need help with, the care of my precious dogs and cat. Though Bigs I will say is very easy and requires little, he just wants his food left our for him and to be able to come and go as he pleases. He has much more of a life than the dogs. Bigs actually has friends outside of our little tribe, this also could be because he is allowed to go out on his own and the dogs are not allowed to run the neighborhood loose and care free.
Anyway that is all that is going on here. I am just waiting until I pop and passing the time. My life as I know it is about to change forever. I am looking forward to this new life, I just wish it would hurry up already and get here already.

Mary Kate Olsen and my brother's ass

2008-05-14T13:17:00.002-04:00

I saw some pictures of the hideous little gal going by the name Mary Kate Olsen today. Can she stop already with the FUR. I don't get how people can still wear fur. Even if you hate animals aren't you embarrassed to walk around wearing something that most people associate with evil? Not to mention that it looks horrible, gross and tacky but then again MK is all of those very things by nature. I just feel so baffled by humans, how can a person not be bothered by the atrocious nature of the fur industry. How can they wear the skins of animals that suffered so horribly and not feel in any way bothered or concerned? I just don't understand, if I see her walking around I am going to yank the fur right off her puny little body and pummel her with it. Lucky for her that she lives in LA and I live in Asheville. I don't actually think a pummeling from fur would really hurt though. Perhaps a pack of wild minks will see her and descend on her and eat what little meat she has on her bones....one can only hope.

Update on Tom's bleeding ass:

At approximately 11 am I received a call from my brother Tom about the status of his ass.
Apparently he had just finished working out and called to tell me that he had found a solution to his dilemma. He started his first set of 100 crunches and after 3 or 4 was in agony so he thought perhaps what his ass needed was some sort of lubrication. He said he used some body butter that he had, lubed up his cheeks and was good to go. Tom was able to finish all the crunches sans blood. Good for you Tom for living in the solution instead of the problem.

In other news I am 38 weeks pregnant and ready to have this baby.
My back doesn't hurt that badly today and my mood is not homicidal so that is good. But I need to talk to Joel about putting into place a mouth noise policy in the work place. I can't handle mouth noises right now they send me over the edge. I know......I know......