I just grabbed a totally free hair bow lesson and wanted to share it with you: Make Boutique Bows

SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS!!!!

It really bothers me how many pets are homeless. I wish that I had a whole bunch of money and I'd use it to start my own rescue and save these precious animals from all the horrible things they encounter. A lot of times people get pets and after they realize what a huge responsibility they are, the owners decide to give them up. This is such a shame! Did you know that if you take a pet to the pound as an owner surrender, they have the right to euthanize them immediately? That is so sad.

Pets have so much to offer people. I can't count the times I've been sick or feeling bad or just sad and guaranteed one of my furballs will be there to comfort me. It's amazing! You should see my Resident's faces at the nursing home on the days we have pet therapy. To see somebody who can be so sad and depressed light up for even five minutes is a great feeling.

If you have a pet, PLEASE get them spayed or neutered! PLEASE! If you are thinking about getting a pet, check with your local shelter or rescue. Even if you're looking for a purebred pet, there are rescues for those too!

Beach, Fun and Ear Infections

Yeah so I know I suck at blogging. Truth be told, I do most of my "interneting" from my cell phone so I don't always have out my laptop. Crappy excuse but it's true. So, I am SERIOUSLY gonna try to start blogging at least once a week. Key word-TRY! :)

Brent's mother has a condo at Garden City, SC (Myrtle Beach) and we went down there the last full week in August and had a blast. This was Blake's second time at the ocean and he absolutely LOVED it. Last year he was just starting to walk so he basically crawled around in the water and ate sand. This year he was chasing waves and kicking sand. Woohoo!

I made Brent and Blake do some shopping with me which they both love. Brent sighs heavily and paces while Blake wants everything he sees. Yeah payback, I get it. Anyways, I had a great time as did everybody else. Mom and Dad watched Blake a few times so Brent and I could get out a bit. We took Blake to "Alligator Adventure" while we were there. He hollered at every alligator he saw and thoroughly enjoyed himself but would not pet the baby alligator when the man brought him around.

On our way home things were good until Blake woke up from his nap. We had stopped at Brent's Aunt's house on the lake for a get-together when we noticed he wasn't feeling well. My first clue was that he didn't want his strawberry milkshake that we got him. Second clue was he wanted to go inside when we were at the lake, which is highly unusual. Third clue-he started running a fever. I had Tylenol in the car so I went ahead and gave him that. We finally got home and tried to push fluids. About 9pm I took his temperature and it was 104.4!! I called the Peds nurse and she said that if it got to 105 he would need to go to the ER. I told her I wasn't waiting until 105 so off to the ER we went. Long story short, we got home at 2:30 a.m. with a really bad ear infection which was making his eardrum bulge. Poor guy. He is just finishing up his Amoxicillin which he hates, so we will be glad to have that over with.

Other than that, things are pretty good. We have the "diagnostic ultrasound" on September 27th to see how the baby is doing and find out the gender (yay!). Please keep us in our prayers as we keep you in ours!! Have a great day/night!!

SC Snow!!

Yeah that's right- eat it up NC cousins, hahaha! It's currently March 8th and we've had two "snow days" already this year. I in no way shape or form envy you people that get snow. It's pretty for the first 24 hours, then it becomes a pain! I got a few shots around the house and some really funny ones of Amos running around in the snow-crazy dog. Anyway, it was a nice beautiful day in the 70's today...hard to imagine just last week we had more snow, lol! Hope everybody is doing well. Will update again soon!

Rusty

After five and a half years with us, I am sad to report that we lost our dog Rusty on February 9th. Rusty was a rescue who had had an extremely rough life until he came to us. As a stray he had been beaten severely enough that he was deaf. During routine vet visits we discovered that he had been shot and still had several pieces of buckshot in his body. He lived the life of a king at our house.
In February of 2008 Rusty was diagnosed with Leukemia and had been on a chemo regimine since. Friday two weeks ago he started sneezing really bad. I gave him Benadryl assuming it was allergies but it didn't help. He continued sneezing Saturday and Sunday so my dad was able to take him to the vet for us on Monday, February 8th. The vet called and said that his platelets were low and they wanted to keep him overnight to give him fluids and for observation. The following day I talked with the vet and she thought it would be best for him to spend the night at the emergency clinic and see his specialist the next morning.
I went to pick Rusty up that Tuesday afternoon to transport him to the emergency vet and when I saw him my heart just broke. They had to carry him to the car because he was so weak and sick.
At the EV they ran another blood panel and things were even worse. They said we could try to treat him but there was no guarantee it would work and it would be very intense. I prayed about it and finaly decided that it would be very selfish of me to put Rusty through that and ultimately decided to give him the gift of euthanasia. It sucks and never gets easier.
We are missing him terribly but know that he is happy and whole again and will be waiting on us at the Rainbow Bridge.

Mobile blogging

So I just signed up for mobile blogging in the hopes that it will help me keep my blog updated! This is just a test post.

I'm Still here!

Sorry I haven't updated this since August and I don't even know if anybody still follows this blog, but I intend to try to get better at it. Blake is growing like a weed and is now 19 months. He is into everything and his vocabulary has just exploded in the last two months. These are a few examples of what he says: "ock" for clock, "Mer" is Meredith, "phone," "mote" for remote, "hold" when he wants you to hold him, "down" when he wants down, and of course "no!" He actually started saying "yeah" this past week which sounds really funny but is incredibly cute. Blake loves cars, clocks, phones and remotes. If you come to visit, please keep your electronics hidden because if you don't, you will be automatically surrendering them to Blake, hahaha!

I am doing well and my leg and back are gradually getting better. I have joined the "Great Weight Loss Challenge" at work and am hoping to lose a little weight. We are on teams consisting of 10-14 members each. There is a weigh-in each week and the team that loses the most weight at the end of 8 weeks receives a cash prize to split. It's not much but makes the challenge a little more fun :) Weight loss is something I've struggled with my entire life and is apparently something that will continue to plague me. I truly enjoy food and eating so it's never easy for me to lose weight. I am also a "volume eater" which means I have an extremely hard time with portion control. I almost feel selfish saying that since there are so many people in this world that don't have enough to eat. I am thankful that I have food to eat. A little too thankful it seems ;) Please pray for me and wish me luck that I am able to overcome the weight loss hurdles that I face. I will definitely keep you updated!