In April...

• We celebrated our dog's first birthday.  He was treated to a peanut butter bone and lots of belly rubs.
• I quit my former job after they kept reducing and reducing and reducing my hours.
• I started my new job.  For the first time in almost five years I'm going to have a legitimate full-time job.  The pay is great too.  If I try hard enough and earn bonuses, I'll be able to double my yearly salary from the last couple years.  
• We adopted a second dog.  And then a day later returned the dog back to the rescue.  The dog was sweet, but not a good match for Marco.
• I planted our vegetable garden.  It's 2.5x larger than last year and I'm excited to share all our veggies with friends and co-workers.

April is the best month.  I've loved the change in weather and am just so excited about all the positive changes that have happened this month.

The Best Person in Williamson County, TN. Period.

Who aborts puppies?  Apparently the Animal Control of Williamson County.  Williamson County is also one of the top twenty richest counties in the USA.  If a pregnant animal is turned into Animal Control, all puppies will be aborted during the spaying process.  Todd Rumsey, a volunteer at the shelther and President of No Kill Williamson County, is raising awareness and has even fostered a pregnant dog until after her pups were born.  You can visit their website to find out how to help.  

Here is the interview Rumsey did with WSMV.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee county animal shelter and one of its volunteers are at odds over saving the litters of pregnant animals. 

The Williamson County Animal Control and Adoption Center won't let a fertile dog or cat be adopted. Todd Rumsey, who volunteers at the center, calls the practice barbaric and said it needlessly destroys adoptable animals. 

Center director Doug Brightwell told The Tennessean when pets are neutered, if a female is pregnant, the litter is not saved. Brightwell also said the shelter is overcrowded with dogs now. 

But the shelter recognized Rumsey for taking home a female dog in February and fostering her until her pups were born. Rumsey is also the president of No Kill Williamson County, which is pushing for a policy change at the center.

What If We Used Social Media For Good?

Social Media has become commonplace with cyber bullying, company downfalls, and now thanks to products like Influenster amateur customer reviews.  But what if it was used for good?  What if we could make positive changes in our society?

I recently signed the Change.org petition asking Kraft Foods to remove artificial dyes from their oh-so-popular and my guilty pleasure Mac N Cheese.  The FDA continues to ignore the evidence that these artificial ingredients are harmful.  Many popular ingredients found in American foods are banned in other countries.   It's not like if companies removed these ingredients than we would no longer have some of our favorite foods.  They've already been reformulated and sold in other countries for years.  If American companies know these ingredients aren't safe, why do they continue to use them in American foods?

Petitions like these make me excited.  I think gone are the days of us writing our congressman asking for change.  The deep pockets of lobbyists silence our voices anyways.  With social media we might actually be able to make some positive changes in our country.

Bye Bye Google Reader, Hello Disclosures.

There was so much big news on the internet this week.  Like many of you, I was super shocked when Google announced they would be retiring Google Reader in July.  It seemed like immediately following that announcement almost every blogger I know tweeted that they use Google Reader.  How could use be declining?  I still have no idea what I'm going to use.

Also this week, the FTC announced more guidelines for bloggers who participate in online advertising.  You can read more about the breakdown here.  You know how when you go to a blog site and read a product review sometimes at the every bottom of the post they'll put that it was a sponsored post or they received the product for free?  The blogger will now have to post a disclosure in the beginning, middle, and bottom of the post if they received the item for free.  If they are tweeting about a product they like received, in the tweet it must mention it's was given to them for free. 

I've heard a lot of bloggers sound off about this.  Many of them think that it will make their website look tacky when they do their product reviews.  I think it's a great idea.  Other than Nouveau Cheap, when I read blogs that receive free products I don't really trust their opinion.  It seems like they word things in a way as to not offend the company sponsoring them so they still receive free stuff.  

I also think when you spend your money on something you might not like it as much as something you got for free.  Free is always better!

Hopefully this will do away with some of the paid advertising that's been going on.  Things like Influencer on Twitter have been really annoying lately.

Awesome CSA Opportunity in Murfreesboro

Ever wonder how you can get fresh produce from your local farmer without having to go to the farmer's market?  Check out a CSA, short for Community Supported Agriculture.  While every CSA is different, most work like this: starting in the early summer months, farmers take their produce to a central location (like a church or a vegetable stand) where people who signed up can come and pick up a box of fruits and veggies.  Usually there are two sizes of boxes available: one for families of 1-2 people and another for a family of 3-4.  You'll received a box of mixed produce that should last your family all week.

Some CSAs only run for the early summer-fall, while others can run all year.  Depending on the CSA you can either pay weekly, monthly, or yearly (which tends to be the cheapest option) and you'll get farm produce without having to go to a grocery store  & using a middle man.

You can find out about CSAs in your community by going to Local Harvest.  

If you aren't ready to make a yearly commitment, Living Social has a great deal going on right now.   You can get one CSA box from Southland Farms for only $50!  You can pick up the boxes in Murfreesboro or Chatanooga.  That's 34 pounds of local farm fresh foods.  Can you imagine how much 34 pounds of produce would cost at the grocery store?

Links Of The Week

I'm not sure how I ended up on her blog, but last night I found myself visiting Danielle of Blissful and Domestic for the first time. Danielle is a military wife and after leaving the military her husband decided to go back to school.  While the military does pay for schooling, they are only given $14,000/year to live on. Danielle shares her budgeting tips with how she, her husband, and there two kids are able to live on $14,000/year.   It's such an amazing blog and I'm excited to try out some of her tips!

Last week, Krystal wrote a blog asking How Do Travel Bloggers Support Themselves?  Although some of the comments were heated, other bloggers openly shared how they are able to live off traveling.

One of my favorite finds was Nerdy Nomad, who not only talks about travel but also how to live off writing a travel blog.

Enjoy!

Things Keeping Me Up At Night

Marco McMillian, a gay and black mayoral candidate in Mississippi, was murdered this week.  Oh and his car was stolen too and crashed.  His resume was very impressive, especially considering he was only 34.  So far the cause of death and the motive have not been released.  He seemed very ambitious and innovative.  Such a loss.

Someone that could use some of that ambition is the House and Senate.  I think every American can agree that business isn't being handled like it should be.  I'm not a finance expert but when you have a lot of debt you have to cut down on spending and really focus on paying back that debt.  And this whole notion of not having a budget for years or exceeding the budget is bananas.  

Speaking of bananas, I logged on to Publix's website on Wednesday to check their weekly ad and see that there is a voluntary recall for King Arthur's flour.  Why you ask?  Because during their sifting process they use small, blue polyurethane balls and some of those have landed there way into the bags of flour.  Why? Why? Why must they be using polyurethane balls?  I just can't stop myself from wondering what else could be in our food we don't know about. 

Not to be outdone, apparently the milk industry wants to put aspartame in milk to create diet chocolate milk.  One of their main goals is to get diet chocolate milk into school lunches to help the battle with obesity.  Heads up to milk people:  it's not milk that is making kids fat.  Milk is probably one of the only healthy things those kids are being fed.  And in case you haven't noticed, the addition of artificial sugars into our food supply hasn't really helped the obesity problem.

Oh and I've been catching up on Season 3 of Downton Abbey.  That's another thing keeping me up.