I was so excited when one of our Rat Chatter Forum members posted about Starbuck's selling a stuffed mouse for Christmas! They also have a mouse mug! They are so cute and not too expensive either! I ordered both for $2.99 shipping!

Huxley Writer Mouse: ($7.95)












Writer Mouse Mug: ($6.95)













In other news, I got called back to work and started on Monday. That has to be the shortest furlough ever! (Only 6 weeks- usually we are furloughed for at least 3 months.) The good news is, our move to the new down town campus has been pushed back to December 13th! So no one hour commutes on the train for awhile! It's so eerily empty at our current campus because so many departments are already at the new building down town.

In bad news... I pulled my lower back cleaning the rat cages last Monday. I went to lift the boys cage to clean the pan underneath and forgot to bend my knees when I sat the cage down on the floor. I pulled it good too. It was extremely painful last week. This week it is slowly getting better but as the day progresses it starts to hurt more. I've been taking a memory foam travel pillow to work to put behind my back because our office chairs are awful. I also got a memory foam topper for $30 from Big Lot's which this morning when I woke up I wasn't in too much pain at all. I also slept more soundly, I noticed I wasn't tossing and turning like usual. I guess the memory foam relieves pressure.

F.B. & I have been married for 11 months today. ♥

Why yes... I am a speed reader! It only took me about a week to finish the last 5 books I took out from our library!

Here is what I currently have checked out:

1. The rose of Sebastopol- Katharine  McMahon (Had a hard time with this because it skipped years in almost every chapter.)

2. Primrose past : the 1848 journal of young Lady Primrose Hunt- Caroline Rose. (Kinda boring).

3. Your name is Renee : Ruth Kapp Hartz's story as a hidden child in Nazi-occupied France- Stacy Cretzmeyer (I enjoyed this. It's interesting reading about the Holocaust from France's perspective).

4. Alice I have been : a novel- Melanie Benjamin (This one was pretty interesting- fiction about the real "Alice" in wonderland and her friendship with Lewis Carroll.)

5. In Dublin's fair city- Rhys Bowen (Good read.)

6. Tell me, pretty maiden- Rhys Bowen (I like these Molly Murphy mysteries.)

7. Sarah Morgan : the Civil War diary of a southern woman- Sarah Morgan- Edited by Charles East (I think if I owned this I wouldn't have skipped around so much- but being an actual diary it's very long winded. I still might look for a copy online for myself.)

8. The wet nurse's tale- Erica Eisdorfer (I liked this one)

(I will edit this post with a description of how I liked each book as I finish them.)

I'm so excited! My cousin Jessica and I are going to see The Nutcracker at the Philadelphia Academy of Music on December 18th! (Funny that is the day I was legally married. Even though our wedding was on December 19th!) Our tickets were only $49 and we got pretty good seats in the balcony. Some of the prices were ridiculous!

Credit: PA Ballet

I saw The Nutcracker when I was younger on a school trip. I just love the music in it! I do not like musicals at all, so I'm glad this is ballet! I also HATE driving down town, so we are going to take the train and walk a few blocks past City Hall to the Academy of Music. We picked the 11am show so it will be light out when we take the train down and back home. Now I'll just cross my fingers that it doesn't snow by then!

I also got a call on Tuesday that I've been re-called to work. I have to report on Monday at 7am. Such a short furlough. I don't know why they are calling everyone back the week before they move to the new campus in Center City Philadelphia. I'll have to start commuting on the train an hour to work starting November 22nd. I'm sure going to miss my 10-15 minute car rides to work!

I still am waiting on unemployment for my approval letter. I filed a new claim on November 1st. If they deny me I'll have to appeal and send in all my pay stubs. I still have to claim for the weeks I didn't work; and I have to have the claim open and set up for when we are furloughed again.

I've got a lot of rat/mouse items! I thought it would be fun to share my collection with everyone. (You can click on the pictures to make them larger.)

Most of these came from F.B., F.B.'s aunts & 1 from my Rat Chatter friend.

Stuffed Ratties! 3 from the Philippines & the Xmas one is from my Mom.

2 top left from F.B., 2 I bought from Drusilla & others I got myself.

I got these myself, the coin purse is from Bath & Bodyworks!

These are hanging from the rear view mirror in my car. Got them in the Phil!

F.B. sent me this little guy!

My Dad got me this- he spins around in the cup, lol.

Tita Nel, F.B.'s aunt gave me this purse in the Philippines	!

These were made my by Rat Chatter friend Phyllis! They hang on my wall!

I bought this drawing from Rat Pirate a Rat Chatter friend who is an artist.

Gotta have some rattie books!

My gorgeous very expensive bracelet from Esquivel & Fees.

My cute little charm from Ebay.

My sister in law gave me this- the little Chinese rat spins around.

And let's not forget a very permanent part of my rattie collection!

As you can see I have quite a collection! Some I've bought myself, but a lot of the items were given to me as gifts. And... I'm still adding to it! Do you have any collections?

My husband keeps every email he's ever gotten in his inbox. He doesn't move them to different folders. I don't know how he finds anything- 6 years worth of emails from me in his inbox along with everything else! When he's in the USA, I just might have to organize his emails for him, haha! I'm super overly organized when it comes to my email and my husband laughs at me for it.

These are the folders I use in my email:

Does anyone else organize their emails? Do you have different folders or do you keep everything in your inbox? I noticed I need to start going through the older messages and delete the ones I don't need anymore, I have soooo many stored emails!

Purple is my favorite color! (Along with Pink, Aqua & Black.)

My glasses are purplish:

My customized Converse have purple in them:


I have a lot of purple clothing:


Purple Jewelry, almost all of it came from the Philippines.


I wore purple on my wedding day. (F.B.'s barong was light purple.)


I had a silky soft purple pashmina in case it got chilly in the evening on our wedding day:


My wonderful in-laws & sister in law who put our wedding together included purple in our wedding decor- even our wedding invitations had purple on them.

  
1. Suave: Rosemary & Mint Shampoo

I was using another mint shampoo that cost $6 before. This is more affordable and I love the scent. It also has lavender and lemongrass in it.












2. Dial: Cranberry Body Wash

This is something new I decided to try after seeing it at Walmart. Love it! The scent is sweet but there's also something citrusy about it. It also comes in bar form.










3. Baking Soda

Yep! Good old fashioned, baking soda! I've been using it on my toothbrush before I use regular toothpaste. And I've started using it to exfoliate my face 2x's a week. If you click the link it also gives you some other beauty tips for baking soda!














I've heard this powder has been around for many many years. I just started using it last year to set my foundation. It's nice & light and has a slight perfume scent to it. The container is huge so it lasts a long long time!










5. Yardley English Lavender Soap

I'm lucky enough our local Dollar Tree carries this. I love the strong scent of lavender. I also like L'Occitane's lavender soap, but this is more affordable!













6. Tom's of Maine Natural Lavender Deodorant 

I haven't really found a good deodorant that works like my Secret vanilla does. Unfortunately I've grown tired of that scent and I've gone through quite a few new ones lately that just didn't do it. I'm loving Tom's of Maine though. It actually lasts through the day and I absolutely love the scent of lavender!










7. Carmex Lip Balm

Can't go wrong with Carmex! I buy the one in the little jar, only because I've had 2 tubes destroyed by little rattie teeth! I definitely love using this in the winter for chapped lips.


(Nope, not getting paid to recommend these products! I just wanted to share them, because I love them!)

Other Articles:

Bath & Beauty Products 1

Bath & Beauty Products 2

L'Occitane Verbena Products

More L'Occitane Products