I Need A 12-Step Program

I always knew I had a problem with watching too much television, but it wasn't until last night when I started setting my DVR to record some of the new fall shows, that I realized how bad my problem really is.

Here is the list of the shows I currently record during the fall:

• 2 Broke Girls
• The Big Bang Theory
• Cougar Town
• Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23
• Grey's Anatomy
• How I Met your Mother
• Jersey Shore
• The Middle
• Modern Family
• New Girl
• Private Practice
• Two and Half Men
• Up all Night
• The Voice
• Whitney
• Ghost Adventures
• All the "Real Housewives"

And here is the list of shows I have added:

• Ben and Kate
• Go On
• The Mindy Project
• The New Normal
• Revolution

How in the world am I going to have time to watch all of these?  I seriously need a 12-step program for my DVR addiction.

Any new shows you plan on watching this season? 

Update: Day 6

During my meeting with the Dr after Lainey's surgery, he mentioned that the first 3 days were going to be the most difficult.  HE WAS RIGHT!!!  She looked miserable, would whine in her sleep (from pain I'm assuming), she wouldn't drink any water, was unbalanced walking on 3 legs, put up a fight whenever it was time for physical therapy, and hated the cold compress. 

Doesn't she look pathetic.....

But then day 4 rolled around and I got a small glimpse of my "puppy" again.  She was perkier, her ears were standing up, and her energy level had increased.  I didn't have to fight her to do her therapy, she took her meds like a champ and her overall demeanor had improved greatly. 

Day 5 was her first day at daycare and they said she did fantastic.  I don't know what I would do without those wonderful ladies...they sent home a chart with me last night showing me when she ate, took her meds, did therapy, got a cold compress, went potty, drank water, etc.  Anything and everything that they thought I would like to know, they wrote down for me. 

Today is Day 6 and she was extremely tired looking this morning.  Although, we did have a good therapy session before I dropped her off at daycare.

I hope and pray that every day we start to see improvement.

For those of you with a weak stomach...Look away now!!

Here is a picture of Lainey's incision on Day 1

As of today, the swelling has gone down substantially, the bruising is almost gone and the incision site looks like it is healing nicely.  The staples come out next Monday and I will post another picture so you can see the improvement. 

Update: Day 1

Picked up Lainey and she is here with me in the office today. She looks like one pitiful little girl :( Surgeon said the injury was a lot worse than what he was expecting. The lower portion of her leg wasn't aligned up with the upper portion any longer and she had formed some bone spur type things (little bits of bone growing in odd places).  She also formed some arthritis in that leg, so now we will have to deal with that too.

 

Here she is with her "cold compress" and being the best little patient a doctor (aka mama) could ask for.

 

 

 

 

To you she is "Just a Dog", to me "She is Family"

Today is the day....Surgery for Lainey to repair her torn ACL.

So far I have cried in the shower…cried on the way to the vet….cried after I left the vet...and cried once at my desk!  It was so hard to leave her there.  She was so scared and shaking so badly.  As they took her from me and started heading down the long corridor, she turned around and looked at me and I lost it.  Animals are so hard because they don’t understand.
 
The surgeon came out to the lobby and talked with me for a little bit this morning to try and calm my nerves.  I thought it was very nice of him, but he said NOTHING that made me feel better. 

I don’t think I’m upset over the actual surgery.  I know the surgeon will do his best and is very qualified.  I think it is the recovery process that has my stomach in knots.  I don’t know how to keep her physically contained for that long and still make sure she is a “happy” dog.  Actually…I think that is exactly what is upsetting me.  I want to make sure that she is always happy and most of all feels loved.  I spend too much of my time researching and learning about pit bulls and 90% of the stories will shred your heart into a million pieces.  I don’t ever want her to experience anything negative like those “other dogs”.

I know this is going to turn into a positive thing once she is all healed and can run and play like a puppy again, but getting to that point is going to be a struggle.  I've been told “I love too hard” and I think that’s true (with both people and animals).

 

Please keep Lainey (and myself) in your prayers today!  Hope to come back with an update tomorrow or Friday.

 

 

We can do it

We are now on our 9th day of keeping Lainey on bed rest because of her torn ACL.  The first 6-7 days weren't that bad because she was in pain and would sleep most of the day due to her pain medication.  The last 48 hours however, have been torture.  Her pain is obviously improving because she wants so badly to play and simply get out and run!

Surgery is next Wednesday so we only have to deal with her being stressed for another few days...we can do it!  But, what really scares me is after the surgery.  I know the first couple weeks she won't feel the greatest, but what are we going to do after that?  It is impossible to keep her occupied and "resting" 24 hours a day.  My stress and anxiety are at an all-time high right now anticipating her recovery process.

My heart just breaks when I see her so sad...And I hate being the "bad guy" who makes her stay caged up all day long.  Hopefully, she won't hold any grudges after this is all said and done!

I mean...Look at how pathetic she looks

Stressed to the Max

I apologize for my absence....Life has taken over!

As I sit at my desk on this brisk Monday morning, with an ice pack on my back, a bottle of pain killers next to me and black bags under my eyes, I realized that maybe it's time for me to slow down.  I've been go, go, go for about 3 weeks now and my body is finally telling me it needs some rest.

It all started like this.....

There was a huge landscaping project that I knew I wanted finished before winter, so I decided to take the week before Labor Day off from work and get it accomplished.  And since I was already going to be off work, what a perfect time to have a garage sale (yes, that is how my twisted mind thinks)!

On Tuesday morning there were 15 yards of stone dumped on the side of my house.  It took 2 loads to bring it, as the truck could only hold 10 yards at a time.

Load #1

My little brother and I worked for 2 days spreading stone and laying edgers.  It was way harder than I had anticipated.

I was so excited that I forgot to take any "before" pictures.  I just happened to come across this old picture this morning though, so it will have to do.  Please disregard the numbers hanging from our dog run...I was spray painting our table numbers for our wedding.




"BEFORE"

 

"AFTER"



I know that our lawn is not the best looking.....that is next years project!

 

 

"Before" shot of the opposite side of the yard (we only added stone to the back corner and all the way up the side to the left.  You will also notice in the "after" picture our new fence)



"AFTER"

We worked on the rocks Tuesday and Wednesday, then Thursday we started pulling everything out for the garage sale the next day.  I had no idea how much stuff we had!!!  My original thought when I planned the garage sale, was to hopefully make enough money to pay for the rocks.  My new thought quickly became.... PRICE LOW AND GET RID OF EVERYTHING! And that's exactly what we did.  I can happily say that we started out Friday morning with ten 8' folding tables, a rolling closet with hanging clothes, a 15' long rack of hanging clothes, and tons of stuff just laying out in our yard.  By the time we shut down on Saturday I was able to pack all of the remaining items into 4 plastic storage totes!  AHHHH-MAZING!!  And the extra bonus is that we made enough money to pay for over 80% of the cost of the rocks.

 

By Saturday evening I was exhausted, but it was the opener for Michigan football so we decided to go over to my parents house to watch the game.  While we were there I noticed that Lainey wasn't acting herself.  Kind of low-key, not wanting to play with the other dogs and really keeping to herself.  As the evening went on I noticed that she had started limping (again) and she couldn't even get herself in standing position by herself if she was laying down.

 

Long story short....by Tuesday she could no longer walk on her own, so after talking to the vet for about 45 minutes on the phone, we decided to put her under anesthesia and do some testing.  She has been having problems with this same leg since May and we have tried bed rest, chiropractor, acupuncture, supplements...obviously, nothing has been successful.

 

The end result is that she has a torn ACL in her left knee and will undergo surgery next Wednesday.  In the meantime, we have to keep her "contained" as to not further damage the ligaments.

 

Here is her new "hospital room" as we call it

She has been confined to this space about 99% of the time since Wednesday and she is handling it very well.  I think it is harder on me to see her like this, than it is for her actually being stuck in there.

You can tell she doesn't feel well

Our jack russel, Stewie, sits on the outside peering in through the holes in the gate at her.  He can't understand why she can't come out and play.  So, every once in a while, we let him in there with her for "visiting hours".

Please keep us in your thoughts and pray that surgery goes okay next week.  I will try to keep everyone posted.

It's time to apply the ice pack to my back again so I must go....Until next time!









Now that takes the Cake!

Hubby's birthday is today, so last night I baked his favorite cake!

Looks like it is Lainey's favorite cake too!!

Doctor Doctor Give Me The News

For the past few months, my pit bull Lainey has been having some issues with one of her back legs.  She will limp for a couple days, then refuse to walk on it for a day, limp for a couple more days and then she is fine.  It seems to happen every couple of weeks...in that same order...limp for 2 days, refuse to put weight on it for 1 day, then limp for 2 more days.  We have had her to the vet a couple times to have it looked at, but they have been unable to diagnose the problem without putting her under and doing some x-rays. We are sent home with some pain killers/anti-inflammatory meds and bed rest.

Do you have any idea what it is like to have an active puppy put on bed rest?  It is miserable to say the least.  We are unable to take our nightly walks, our weekend hikes, no running/jumping of any kind, no doggy daycare and the worst...having to go out for potty breaks on a leash instead of having free roam of the backyard.

We have been doing a lot of mental exercises to tire her out, but it just isn't the same as doing physical activities.

The logical answer is to just have her put under with anesthesia and let them do the x-ray, but I just hate the idea of having to do that.  She was put under with anesthesia when she was spayed and she didn't react very well when she was "coming out" from her slumber.  I just hate to do that to her again without trying other non-conventional routes first.

Today we are going to see a specialist who will do some chiropractic work and acupuncture on her.  This doctor comes highly recommended and I'm looking forward to see what she has to say about our situation.

I know it won't be an immediate cure, but I'm hoping this is a great alternative to the idea of needing x-rays and possibly surgery.  Chiropractic/acupuncture therapy is supposed to have great benefits for dogs experiencing muscle and/or joint pain.  I will let you know my thoughts after our session today.

Have any of you tried alternative methods for your pets?

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

THE GOOD:

It is raining today! Did you hear me?  I said... IT'S RAINING!!!  I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me.  This means no having to water the lawn tonight.

And for those of you who think I am crazy for watering my lawn so much....just take a look at this luscious, green grass.  I'm very proud of how well it has done this year even though we have had such extreme heat with absolutely NO rainfall.

THE BAD:

It doesn't look like the rain is going to stick around....Ughhhh!

THE UGLY:

There are not enough hours in the day to water both the front and back yard, so we put all of our effort into the front of the house since that is the side most people see. 

As you can see in the photo below...our backyard is in desperate need of some aqua!

Does anyone else have a brown and crusty lawn this year?

It's getting HOT in here!

Between my commute to and from work, along with my workday, I am gone from home about 11 hours each day.  Pile on top of that, having to water the lawn every night and tend to the flowers, make dinner and spend approximately 5 seconds with my husband, and I'm pretty well exhausted when it comes time for bed.

My nightly routine is all out of whack and I blame it on the weather!  If it wasn't so hot I could walk the dogs, go to the park or take a bike ride.  But the last thing I want to do after a long, hot day, is be outside in the sweltering heat any longer than is absolute necessary.

Are any of you feeling worn down due to the hot temps?  I am totally blaming my laziness on it!

Anniversary #2

Tuesday, July 10 was my 2nd wedding anniversary.  I was more than happy to celebrate, seeing that our 2nd year of being married, was so much better than our first. We are truly falling into our husband/wife roles and life is so good!

I did a lot of reminiscing about our wedding day....and 2 years later I still smile ear to ear with the memories of the love I felt that day.  I can honestly say that my wedding day was one of the BEST days of my life so far.

I can remember being on cloud nine...all day....all night!  I've never smiled so hard in one day in all of my life.  I couldn't help it!  Love oozed out of every corner of that tent and I never expected to feel that.

I'm so glad everybody came...I'm so glad my DIY projects were a success...I'm so glad we composed our own ceremony...I'm so glad we didn't elope...But, most of all, I'm so glad ALL of my siblings were able to surround me with their love and support.

There are 2 sisters missing from this photo
(note:  I lost my brother Chris last year...he's the tall one on the left...so I will always cherish my wedding
as being the last "family" event for us all to celebrate together as ONE)

The night was spent laughing, catching up with old friends, screaming with joy, cheering and dancing.  I felt gorgeous and was making a life-altering promise to the man I love and nothing else mattered.

And....did I mention dancing?  Oh boy, did we ever dance!

I will always cherish these memories and I look forward to reminiscing about our wedding day for many, many more years to come!

Happy Birthday Lainey

July 5th was Lainey's First Birthday! Hard to believe my girl is already one.

It was 100+ degrees outside so we took her to the beach and let her do a little swimming.  While there, she made friends with the park ranger and decided that she wanted to drive the John Deere.

After an afternoon of swimming, we came home to rest.  Lainey kept herself busy chewing on her new deer antler.

And after dinner we had dessert.....COOKIES!!

Happy 1st Birthday Lainey Bug!!!  I can't wait to see how you change and grow in the upcoming year!  Love you....

Balloon Fest 2012

Every year in July, our town hosts the Field of Flight Air Show & Balloon Fest.  By far my favorite part of the festival is the United States Air Force Thunderbirds.

I am lucky enough to have them fly over my house, so there is no need to pay for entrance into the air show.  The sound of them alone gives me goosebumps!  Not to mention the jaw dropping precision of the flight team.

Another one of my favorite events is the Balloon Illume.  About 20+ hot air balloons light up the night in a magical way.  It sure does make you feel like a kid again as the crowd yells "Light 'em up!" and on cue, the dark night becomes filled with every color of the rainbow.

Many times throughout the week they launch the hot air balloons.  This is another event that I am lucky enough to watch from the comfort of my own front steps.  There is just something about hot air balloons that make me smile.

This year my husband and I did something new.  After the balloons launched, we decided to get in the car and follow the Post Sugar Bear balloon.  It was so much fun!  I felt like an excited little kid as we (and about 20+ other vehicles) did our best to keep the balloon in our sights at all times.  The anticipation of what road we should take next, in what direction was the wind blowing, should we stay behind or try to get ahead.....almost as much fun as the anticipation of Christmas morning.

Luckily....it was all worth it.  We managed to find the Sugar Bear truck and followed it into a field where we could watch the balloon land.  It was such a cool experience. 

What exciting things did you do over the weekend?

Mommy to the Rescue

This past weekend was so busy!  Saturday I attended the UKC Premier Dog Show in our area.  One of my trainers (and her dog) were competing in the Dock Diving event so I went to support them. 

After the show, we had a Father's Day celebration with my in-laws.  I just love family get-togethers.  Especially when the sun is shining and there is food a plenty :)

We had decided to keep the celebration going and move the party to the fire pit, so we could have smores and relax.  While my brother in law got the fire ready, my husband and I drove home to let our dogs out.

While the dogs were outside I decided to jump in the shower.  I had been in the sun ALL day and needed to refresh.  I was only in the shower for about 10 minutes and let the dogs back inside as soon as I was done.

Here is how Lainey looked when I let her in.....

 

Her left eye was swollen with a huge knot and was all bloody (the blood had been cleaned off prior to this picture being taken)  This picture was taken about 5 minutes after she had been in the house

I panicked!  I didn't know if something had gotten up into her eyelid or if somehow she was attacked.  I immediately tossed my bathrobe aside, yelled to my husband to come look at her and quickly got dressed and pulled my wet hair back.  

This was taken about 3 minutes after the first picture.  You can see that her left eye is getting bigger and it has now started swelling in her right eye.

Our regular vet wasn't open so I knew I would need to drive her to the emergency animal hospital.  With it being a 40 minute drive from my house, I called them first to make sure they were open and to also give them a heads up that we were on our way.

I took this picture about 10 minutes after the initial photo...Just after I had talked to the emergency vet.  Both eyes have now begun swelling shut

After describing the symptoms, the vet was pretty sure that Lainey was having an allergic reaction.  She may have been stung by a bee, bit by a spider or an ant, etc.  I was instructed to give her some Benadryl and wait 30 minutes to see if the swelling decreased.  I was instructed that if 30 minutes passed and we didn't see any improvement or if she breaks out in hives to call back and plan on bringing her in.

After about 50 minutes, there was great improvement, which was such a relief.  About 12 hours later and 2 doses of Benadryl, she was back to normal.

Have you experienced any pet emergencies before?

Pinned it....So I did it



I am absolutely horrible at hard-boiled eggs!  Any time I want them I have to have my mom make them for me.  Well, I had pinned this on Pinterest a while back, but had forgotten about it.  That is until the other night when I was craving an egg salad sandwich.

This was honestly SO EASY! 

1.  Preheat oven to 350 (some sites say 325, but I went with 350)

2. Place eggs in a muffin pan (mini muffin pan would have been better so the eggs didn't move around as much, but I don't have one so I made do with what I had)

3.  Bake for 25-30 minutes (I chose 30 min)

4.  Remove from oven and place in a bowl of ice water for 10-15 minutes to cool

5.  Peel and eat

You will notice some brown spots on the eggs when they came out of the oven, but they peeled right off and didn't make any difference.

Immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water

Perfection!!



The BEST part of all of this (besides the yummy eggs) was that they were SO EASY to peel.  I simply cracked the ends....rolled them around a little to further crack the shell....and then started to peel.  The shell basically just fell right off leaving behind a perfectly smooth outer layer.



New Adventures

After passing the AKC Canine Good Citizen test, I haven't done much in terms of "training" with Lainey. I think we both needed a break.

Instead, we have been hiking with a friend and her dog on Saturday mornings. It allows me to put all of Lainey's skills to use, and gives us both some much needed exercise at the same time.

Last weekend we went to the local military base.  It has a State Recreational Park and has trails for hiking or biking, camping, 3 lakes for fishing and/or swimming, etc.  It was my first time there and it was beautiful.

It's also beautiful to see the bonding that is taking place between these two dogs.  They have become the best of friends...I even joke that they are boyfriend/girlfriend!!

Lainey & Kappy....Best Friends Forever

I'm looking forward to this Saturday.  There have been a few people who have asked to join us with their dogs.  I've been wanting to join and/or create a local dog walking group and it looks like this could very well turn into that.

Salon Effects

I'm always amazed at all the fancy nail art pictures on Pinterest.  I can oooh and ahhhh over them all I want, but I don't have the patience or creativity to do it on my own.

And then I came across Sally Hansen Salon Effects while shopping in Target.

Each kit contains 16 nail polish strips, cuticle stick and mini file/buffer.

I am currently wearing 310 Wild Child

Application instructions are included with each package and are very easy to understand. You select the correct size strip for each nail, peel off the protective film, detach the polish strip from the backing, press on to the nail and file off the excess. What’s great about these strips is that each end has a different shape, one rounded the other squared, so you can find a good fit for your cuticle line.

Application tips:

• Warm the strips with your hands to make them more pliable.
• Bend the strip over your free edge and use the file to remove the excess rather than tearing it off. Tearing can result in an uneven edge.
• Between sizes? Size up and use the enclosed cuticle stick to remove the excess off your skin.

I definitely need some practice applying them, but I look forward to using them again in the future. I just can't decide what style to choose next

Blogger App

Just downloaded a free Blogger app on my iPhone so I'm hoping this will allow me to post more frequently.

Have any of you used this app? What are your thoughts?

We Passed!!!

Last night was Lainey's AKC Canine Good Citizen test and she passed!  I am one proud mama!

Congratulations to the new Canine Good Citizens! Kappy, Oliver and Lainey