THEN I GOT A NEW LENSE THIS WEEK! Look how great this photo is:
Anna very generously shares her rubber bracelets with Bluesy.
Archive for the ‘Pets’ Category
Did you hear I got a new camera for Christmas!?
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011Recovering from the holidays
Monday, January 17th, 2011Most everyone who reads this blog knows what insanity exists in our lives in December since Paul and the kids all have their birthdays in a 2 week stretch, then Christmas and New Years. The last couple years we have started the year by bringing our lives to a screeching halt in January. We plan nothing, do less and love it. Until I get antsy and start making lists. This year was no different.
Fido the Fit before his much needed---and deserved-- trip to the spa after keeping us safe through 14 hours of snow and ice on our trip back from Indiana at Christmas after only 12 hours of visiting (really 6 b/c we slept some too).
The house and pets took a beating too. Check out this picture of Bluesy amongst the chaos of leftover Christmas crap-o-la. No matter how ruthless we are at cleaning out before the holidays (and the kids were REALLY thorough this year), there is never enough room for all of our treasures. We are very good, after all!
Waiting for Santa was exhausting!
Paul takes a much deserved nap. So tired--this is even DURING a Carolina game with the kids playing all around him.
The pets have to handle so many schedule changes: Paul staying home from work, then the kids are there all day of some days, then all of us leaving for days at a time to travel, coming home late from parties (ok, late for us). Their whole world gets turned upside down. Barton and Katie even forgot they were not supposed to like each other!
Sign the Apocolypse is upon us.
I started feeling the old twinges of needing to make a list today though. This year we are not going to take on any major new projects. More like just finishing up that last 2% of the projects that never get done. We will keep you posted of course! Stay tuned.
Did you hear I got a new camera for Christmas!
Thursday, January 13th, 2011Its amazing how great the photos are! Maggie is cute and all, but check this out:
Paul's other girl.
House Dilemma #2
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
Barton lurks in the yard while Tyler guts the punkin.
Barton can be a verrrrry bad kitty at times. The current problem is that when he gets pissed off, our bed gets pissed on. The most recent time was when I was at Camp Crop a Lot (yes, that is the real name) and Paul took the kids to the Carolina game. They got home about 11:30pm and after getting 2 zonked kids into bed, he dragged his exhausted butt to bed to find it peed on. I can’t believe Barton lived.
It’s in the genes
Thursday, October 28th, 2010One of the fun things about my new job is that we can wear jeans on Fridays. I have never worked for a company that allowed that before! So as my first jeans-capable Friday approached nerdily I began planning my first outfit.
But then I got nervous: What if no one else wore jeans, and I looked like a slacker? What if my jeans were too tight, and I looked like a huss bag? What if I dressed too nicely and everyone thought I was a prissy-pants? What is a girl to do?? CALL ELLI! I ran my plan by The Tower: wear my white jeans w the blue denim shirt/jacket things from Coldwater Creek. Kind of embracing jeans, but safely. Or so I thought. My clothes coach was horrified! NO WHITE AFTER LABOR DAY IN THE SOUTH!? I thought that was no longer a rule, but apparently, that memo did not make it past the Mason Dixon Line either (along w the fact that the War is over).
I started getting dressed that morning in my compromise outfit: khakis and my CC shirt. Now it was Paul’s turn to be horrified. YOU CAN WEAR JEANS ON A FRIDAY AND YOU AREN’T!? I told him what Elli had said. He declared that Elli was getting her information from Steel Magnolias and I needed to put jeans on. Then it occurred to me that I probably should not take fashion advice from a man who has a 5-polo shirt rotation for his work clothing and wore shorts to his own wedding. I stuck to my guns–or khaki’s rather.
But this is another issue where the North and South diverge: Is it appropriate to wear white after Labor Day?
Loading ...
Next up: “Are my jeans too tight?” Learn what the three questions you need to ask before heading out the door and vote for whether I should wear them to work or not!
“Where is Jake?”
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010We were just hanging around Sunday afternoon–Tyler and I were in the living room playing the Wii and reading the paper, respectively; Anna and Paul were building something in the playroom. All of a sudden Tyler asked, “Where is Jake?!” He said it like he realized we had seen the other dogs, but not Jake.
I was stunned and grateful I had the newspaper to hide behind. He asked again. I had to respond. I defaulted to Paul’s evasive, “What, Buddy?” while I frantically tried to think of an answer. Was he thinking religiously like where is his soul? Was it an existential question–where are any of us really? Did he forget we buried him? The poor boy repeated himself a third time. I had to say SOMETHING!
“Jake died, baby, remember?”
“”Oh, yeah.” So sad.
Jake’s aftermath
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
Paul cuddling w Maggie. Tyler saw Maggie in our bed and got scared. Apparently he associated Jake being sick with being allowed to be in our bed (which was true), but assumed that if Maggie was in there she was going to die too.
Things are pretty quiet around here without Jake. Paul and I took Maggie and Katie on a hike Sunday morning before we got the kids. We both agreed it was good for us to do “the first one without Jake” on our own before having the kids do their first Jake-less walk.
Anna and Tyler both handled Jake’s death better than Sam’s. They cried when they first saw him laid out by his grave, but once we went through the photos and toys that we wanted to bury with Jake, they were ok. Tyler did a good job helping Paul bury Jake. Anna chose a photo of her as a baby, Paul and Jake that she wanted to put in the frame with the photo she has of Sam.
I did add an entry to “Kids Say the Darndest Things” page about Jake. Check it out!
Jake (1999-2010)
Saturday, September 18th, 2010
Enjoying a favorite past time--riding in the car--on the 4th of July this year. He was diagnosed w lymphoma the next day.
Yesterday we buried my man’s best friend. It was so quiet when I fed Maggie and Katie this morning–no Jake to bark his hungry head off. Paul wondered when he was going to stop looking for him in every room. Never. My mom said it best: it will leave a hole in your heart the shape of your pet. And Jake was a big big dog, with an even bigger personality.
The boys after another of Jake's past times--swimming. This was also July of this year, at a local lake one morning before work. Probably after a 3rd past time--Jake tricking us into thinking he was coming out of the water when it was time to go. It always took a few tries to get him back on the leash.
More on Jake
Sunday, September 12th, 2010
Jake at the vet on Friday. Dr Thomas was very surprised at how well he was doing--that he was still alive at all really. We just want him to be able to enjoy the things he loves as long as he can.
I guess I should have kept my trap shut. Jake took a turn for the worse this weekend. We took the dogs to the Dog Splash (more on that in another post), which we knew would be hard for him physically b/c of the gigantic lymph nodes making it hard to breathe. But we strongly feel that quality of life is what we are shooting for here and Jake CLEARLY had a ball swimming.
Last night he was having a really hard time breathing and we considered taking him to the emergency vet to have him euthanized. Paul laid on the floor with him for awhile and Jake’s breathing finally calmed down and Jake was able to fall asleep. This morning he was just lying around and we had a plan set for Paul to take him. Paul told the kids about it and Tyler got Jake some ice (one of Jake’s favorite treats that he gets… legally at least!). After eating about 10 ice cubes, Tyler gave him cheese, which he snarfed in 1 swallow. [[time out: spell check knows the word "snarfed," but not the word "euthanized." What's up with THAT?!]] Then Jake turned around and snatched Anna’s bagel out of her hand while she wasn’t paying attention. Paul and I just looked at each other stunned.
So we decided to hold off and watch him for now. I have plans to travel to Cincinnati to see Sydney and the rest of my family for a few days. Worried about leaving Paul to handle all that by himself: he will have the kids T, W, Th (read: homework those nights, plus getting on the bus on W, Th, F). If he needs to put Jake down in the middle of all that, wow. But knowing Jake, he will probably be “helping” Paul make lunches every morning for many more weeks to come.
Jake update
Saturday, September 4th, 2010
Jake is hanging in there like the stubborn dog he is. We still give him the max dose of prednisone that the vet originally prescribed. That makes him eat lots and pee more. When we let him out in the morning and after work, its about a 2 minute steady stream. No wonder he is panting when we get up.
He has good days and bad. Yesterday he was running after the ball and the Frisbee some when we were in the back yard. But then when it was time for bed, he had a hard time climbing up. There is a small section of my brain that thinks that he is playing us. Because we are not sure how much longer he will be with us, he pretty much gets what he wants. He gets a can of soft food each morning (also b/c he can’t swallow the hard food so he wasn’t eating much), he doesn’t get yelled at as much when he tramples the garden and eats the tomatoes off the vine the day before Paul was going to pick them, and he sleeps on the bed with us at night. Most nights Jake and I are sacked out before Paul even starts practicing guitar so a couple hours later he has to wiggle in between us. That is always funny b/c he either does it in the dark or leaves the light on , then has to figure out how to get the lamp clicked off.
Often times there is a milestone that dying people hang on for. We are wondering if that might be the Dog Splash for Jake. Each year the city pool in Burlington closes for a week for cleaning and draining the pool. Before they do they let dogs come swim for $5. We took Jake, Maggie and Katie last year and had a BLAST. The only reason we left was b/c the dogs’ paws were bleeding from running on the concrete and climbing out of the pool (they were not interested in the zero gravity entrance). The 2010 Dog Splash is next weekend (September 11) and we have our reservations set. Here is a picture of Jake at the 2009 Dog Splash:
COWABUNGAAAAAAA