Random Pictures

So, it's time for random pictures. This is the post where I give up trying to find a consolidating topic and just post pics of my life recently. The first set is our pretty table set up for Thanksgiving dinner. Not too bad for not knowing we were having dinner at our house until 2 days before (and having to run to Target to get decorations on Tuesday when the only thing available was Christmas stuff and a measly supply of clearanced fall stuff).



The next 2 photos show our recent sleeping arrangement. Thankfully, last night was the first night we all slept in our bedroom, but for a week, Jerrod and Bear (and sometimes Brenna) slept on the floor in the kitchen (on the mattress from my old day bed). And yes, that's lots of old carpet on the kitchen floor. We had to give the doggy traction somehow.



Last, but certainly not least, I promised pictures of my new living room floor. Here's what I've got so far. I ordered a rug today off ebay. I promise more pics once it comes. I fell in love with a rug that doesn't match my decor, though, so I will be redecorating in the near future. (What TORTURE!) Luckily, the room is mostly neutral. And we've lived here for 4 1/2 years, so it was bound to be time to change the decorating scheme sooner or later...

Happy Turkey Day

I decided that I needed videos of my Bear-Bear walking with is "sling" to post, since I am very thankful for my dogs (and that they are alive and well) and thankful for the support and understanding from all my family and friends.

My Dog

So, I realized after my last post that I didn't even post a picture of my sick puppy. So, here he is. Isn't he just the cutest thing? I'm trying to get some videos of him posted to YouTube, so my family can see him when they get together on Saturday. If I can get those together, I'll post them here. We want a shot of him walking with his "sling". It's impossible to describe it (and impossible to describe what is going on with his legs when he walks). This has completely consumed our lives the last few days. For a day and a half we were scared to death that we were going to lose him. Now we've just totally rearranged our lives. My husband dragged a twin mattress downstairs and is sleeping on it with the dogs. We had to drag out old bits of carpet to put all over the kitchen and dining room. We never leave those rooms these days. The computer is my friend. I haven't watched TV in days. I'm surprised I'm not having withdrawals! On a brighter note, our diet has dramatically improved. All three meals we ate today were cooked from scratch. We had granola for breakfast that I made, split pea soup for lunch made by Jerrod, and homemade calzones for dinner (with 1/2 whole wheat flour in the dough). This also has made me very thankful for the small things at a time of year where being thankful is at the front of everyone's minds. Which reminds me that on my last post I forgot to mention that this week I also plan to be thankful. My life is very full. I have lots of friends and family that love and care about me. And my dog is improving everyday. Little miracles are the best!

I'm planning...

It's been a L-O-N-G couple of days. For those of you that don't already know, my sweet dog, Bear, got really sick this weekend. Saturday Jerrod noticed that he fell down a few times while he was playing fetch with him, but he just wrote it off as clumsy/crazy dog. Then when we were leaving our friends' house Saturday night, he had trouble getting in and out of the car. And he had trouble getting up on the bed. Jerrod immediately told me that we needed to take him to the vet Monday. Well, as soon as we woke up Sunday we could tell things were worse. His back legs kept sliding out from under him, or he would just suddenly sit down (without meaning to, I'm sure). He could barley hold himself up to poo. We immediately called the vet and took him in, which meant a hefty extra weekend fee. Dogs and children never get sick when it's convenient!

The vet, however, couldn't tell us much. The blood work was normal. An x-ray of the back was normal. Yet his back legs just wouldn't work right. We took him home and kept him locked in the office with us, since it's the only room downstairs that still has carpet. (Remind me to post pics of our new living room floor later this week.) And we watch and waited.....and waited.....

Today I decided to go in for a scheduled eye doctor appointment and go to work briefly since sitting around wasn't helping any. I called home after I left the doctor, and Jerrod said that he wished I'd stayed home. I didn't think that was a very good sign. After 2 hours at work he texted and said he was taking him back to the vet. He was scared. I was scared. I had 2 more patients to see (quickly!) and got out of there.

The vet was encouraging today though. He seems to think he's going to be okay. He said that he's young, so that helps. Also, he is sniffing things and is still his perky, usual self. Oh, and he poked his butt-hole (poor dog!), and said his reflexes are good. Apparently if they are on their way out, their butt-holes don't react normally. Who ever came up with the idea to check that???

Anyway, needless to say, it's been stressful. We were both just sick and thought for awhile that we were gonna lose our sweet Bear-bear, our cuddle-bug. He's now back to being cheerful and interested in everything, even though those legs still aren't working. He's on prednisone and super-charged antibiotics just in case. They think it might be a bug or a bacteria from something or a toxin from a tic or other creepy-crawly thing. We are just keeping our fingers crossed that they legs start working soon. Otherwise that dog's gonna need either some expensive physical therapy or a set of wheels!

So, without further ado, this week, I am planning to:

• Spend time loving on my dog.
• Mail Christmas gifts to my family (already done!) since we are now not flying out there for Thanksgiving like we had planned.
• Eat Thanksgiving dinner.
• Make a few Christmas gifts

The end!

Update - Yes, I'm a TERRIBLE Blogger!

Let's see how many things I can cram into one post:

• Tuesday was my birthday. Woo hoo for being 32! Not sure when and how that happened. I'm pretty sure I still feel 24.
• I didn't post a list of things I'm planning this week over at Girls World, but here goes:

1. Having fun on my birthday (check, done!) which included Starbucks, and extra long massage, and dinner with the hubby
   
2. Getting everything made/tagged/ready-to-go for the craft fair at work tomorrow
3. Playing with the Wii I got for my birthday
4. Mailing a b-day gift to the-best-little-girl-who-shares-my-bday! (Sass from Girls World)
5. Cleaning my bathroom

• My weight this week for the challenge over at the Sisterhood (now weighing on the Wii Fit instead of the scale at work) is 136.2 pounds which is down 0.7 from 5 days ago when I got the Wii and down 1.5 pounds from the start of this challenge (but did I mention the different scale?). And I should know what I walked this week, but I keep forgetting to wear my pedometer. 2.36 miles Thursday last week for sure, walked the dog Friday and Monday for 1.1 miles each, yesterday I logged 3.43 miles for a total of 7.99 miles (that I kept track of).

• And, finally, it's Thursday, so it's time to be Thankful with LissaJoy. This week I am thankful for all the friends and family I have that love me. I forget sometimes, but I had so many gifts and happy day wishes on my birthday that I was overwhelmed. Thank you all for your wonderful place in my life!
  

Thank Goodness

So my friend Melissa started Thank Goodness! Thursdays. What a great idea. Today I am thankful for my home. I often forget how lucky I am. I often wish our house was nicer or cleaner or in a different neighborhood or sometimes smaller (crazy, I know, but you try cleaning 2750 square feet!). But truly I love how cozy it is. How much love there is in here. And how much it reflects me and my husband. It's a wonderful safe haven, and everyone needs one of those.

Weigh in Wednesday (a little late)

Um, I forgot to weigh in yesterday for Weigh in Wednesday over at the Sisterhood. But I did start logging my miles for the new challenge. I know I walked at least 1 mile Monday, 'cause we took the dogs for our usual mile-long morning walk. The batteries in my pedometer were dead, however, so I didn't start keeping track with that til yesterday. (Actually, if I wasn't half brain-dead I would have checked the batter drawer and noticed that there were plenty of batteries in there.) Anyway, I set the stride length (I hope it's accurate), and it says I did 3.11 miles yesterday. Woo hoo! On my way...

I'm Planning

This week I'm planning to:

1. Make more granola tonight.
2. Be on time for work all 3 days!
3. NOT get sick...
4. NOT lose my mind.
5. Practice my karate skills.
6. Go to a Scentsy party with my friends.
7. Have my b-day dinner Sunday night with the in-laws and grandmas.
8. Sew some more dog collars and make some more jewelry for upcoming craft fairs.
9. Read my book club book.
10. Do some yardwork.

What are you planning? To see more, check out Kirsten's list!

Feeling Philosphical

So, ever since my dear friend Kirsten was posting deep thoughts last week, I've been feeling very philosophical for some reason. I keep thinking of great deep thoughts to post, and then I get sidetracked.

The night before last, however, I couldn't sleep. I decided to give in to being awake and get out of bed. As I was sitting there with my thoughts, I was contemplating how very different my life is from what I imagined it would be. I always saw myself going straight to college after high school, finishing in 4 years, getting married right away, and having kids a couple of years later. I saw myself living in California or Colorado (depending on when this fantasy occurred) in a modest-but-nice house with several children, a decent car, a job I enjoyed, a loving husband, etc., etc.

Now, I'm not saying that my life isn't great. Parts of it have turned out better than I could have ever expected. For instance, I love, love, LOVE our house. I love my job. My husband is amazing (yet I often forget how wonderful he is!). But I certainly didn't do things in order. I took a year off from school after high school. I took 3 years off from college in the middle somewhere to get married and move across the country. I finished school after I got married. School took MUCH longer than expected. I now live in Idaho, which I never would have seen in my future. And kids? Well, don't even get me started again on all the fertility issues.

The problem is, also, that I get bogged down in the stuff I'm not happy with or the stuff that isn't ideal instead of remembering how great things are. Why do I do that? And what fun would it have been to know exactly how my life would turn out? Where is the excitement in that? Yet why do I still feel that I would have preferred to have a crystal ball? Does anyone else feel like this?

*FYI: If none of this makes sense I'm sorry. I'm feeling very dizzy today, and my brain is a little fuzzy. Good news, though. I'm NOT getting sick. I think I'm just having Effexor withdrawals. Lucky me!

Okay, I'm stealing this quote from Daphne, but how appropriate it is!

"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist." - George Carlin

Okay, so it's time for the next challenge over at the Sisterhood. Actually it started last week. I weighed in and everything. I'm just a lazy blogger these days. My starting weight was 137.7 which made me happy, because it was down almost a pound from the last time I weighed. Then this week it was 138.3. Stupid, STUPID Halloween candy! Be gone! I was doing so well with exercise and diet for a couple weeks. Then the holiday hit, and well, you know how it goes. Back on the wagon I go!!!

No, I'm not Dead

Yes, I'm still alive and well. No, I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks. No, there is nothing new and exciting to tell. Yes, my life is extremely boring.

My goal today (besides cleaning the house and doing a few dishes) is to actually post something and to catch up on the blog-iverse. Anything new out there???