Five on Friday

Today I am going to link up with Five on Friday. I thought a link up may encourage me to blog more regularly. And Mama M from Five Crooked Halos retired five question friday while I was on my blogging hiatus! Oh my goodness. I thought I would die when I saw that. But fortunately Elise, my blogging BFF, has been linking up with this one. So here it goes :) 

1. This post has made me so happy. It's 40 thoughts for a guy turning 40. But these thoughts.. they are for everyone. Well, naturally, some of them don't apply to me but I could certainly take something from all of them. It is an amazing post. I love the Ragamuffin Soul blog, by the way. You should follow Carlos Whittaker. He has some great thoughts. 


2. I'm obsessed with my new decor! I FINALLY put something on my walls, only after being here for eight months and I couldn't be happier. I will have a post about these, too, so I'm sorry in advance for that. But, woohoo!! And yes.. that is a frame around my thermostat! There's glitter cardstock behind it too. My friend Jessica did this a while ago and I've been thinking about doing it forever. So here it is! Also, the 'W' wall is NOT complete, at the biggest W is not painted. I haven't decided what I want it to look like just yet.

3. My sister in law is coming to visit next Tuesday and I'm pretty excited! We won't be doing a lot of running around but she needs the peace and quiet so I'm pretty glad to have her. She is SO sweet and I can't wait for girl time :)  


4. Gracie and I had an adventure on Thursday. To make a long story short, our property management company is ridiculous and didn't fix a bunch of stuff we mentioned on our move in checklist. One of these items was open vents on the back of our house. Well, squirrels moved in (big DUH) about 2 days ago and I have been Chevy Chase-ing them a la Funny Farm ever since. Well, one was hanging out on the screen door by where Gracie loves to law and look out the window. I let her outside twice, once to chase it down from the door and a second time to get him and his friend off our back porch. She enjoyed but... I enjoyed it a lot less. I mean.. we have squirrels living in our roof. Ugh. 

5. My husband rocks. This week, he had to buy himself some new headphones at a bazaar they have every week. He's been talking about them for a while, so I'm glad he got them. But he's just so cute... He was telling me all about them in the way that husbands do, and he mentioned that there were some pink ones that he wanted me to have. It just cracked me up. I am so blessed, having a guy who thinks about me even when he's shopping for man toys. So precious. Check out this hottie. Gah! 

Have a happy weekend my friends!

my puppy story, part 3.

gracie made it through the night surprisingly easily. there was a very good chance that she would strain too much and hurt or kill herself, but she didn't. every now and then she would get up and walk around trying to push out the stuck puppy, and she didn't eat, but she nursed and cleaned the other puppies through the night.

i managed to cook, but neither of us was very hungry. we were worried sick that the next push would be her last. my boss came by to bring us an industrial strength carpet steamer from the church and we cleaned up a bit while we tried to stay awake with gracie. i encouraged the Sarge to sleep for a few hours to rest up for the drive ahead. i stayed awake with her until 4 am, when we loaded up the car and began the drive to san bernadino, over an hour away.

we got the loma linda pet hospital around 6 am, and they open at 6:30, so the Sarge waited in the car while i waited by the door. the doctor was in at 8, and saw gracie right away. he took an xray (which revealed that she had been shot with a pellet gun... what?!) and the worst was true -- she had not one, but TWO puppies stuck. one had its head turned around the wrong way and could not enter the birth canal and was blocking the other... she would not be able to get it out herself. he told us neither could have survived the night.

at this point, we had two options.

c-section. frame of reference for cost: anywhere from $500 to $2000. or to put our dog down.

we asked to see the cost of the surgery. he left the room and we joked nervously with each other about how much our "free" dog was costing us. when he came back, i about burst into tears when he said the cost of the surgery was $275, not including the IV, antibotics, pain killers, etc. by ALL estimates, the cheapest of the options -- it was going to cost us about $600. we pooled our money into one account (keep in mind, this is the END of a pay period AND i just put a SECOND new starter in our car) and agreed to let her have the surgery. she went in about 9 am, and we had to kill another 3 or 4 hours while she was operated on and woke up.

so, there i was with 6 puppies in a lunch box.

keep in mind, i don't really know much about puppies. we went to panera bread to get some breakfast and they puppies were NOT happy. i was trying to calm one down by petting her, and was reminded of one very important fact -- Puppies cannot relieve themselves unless they are stimulated. and i had stimulated her. so i picked up each one and gently rubbed them and they all calmed right down and went to sleep. so cute and disgusting at the same time.

when gracie came out of surgery about four and a half hours later, she was totally alert and went right to nursing. dogs are so resilient haha.. we got her meds and went home.

you'd think the story was over, but it's not. as if the most expensive free dog wasn't already eating us out of house and home, she and the puppies developed a kennel cough after we got back from san francisco. which was another round of antibiotics for her, and liquid antibiotics for the puppies. not only have i had puppies, i've had to use a syringe to inject something into their mouths -- it was cute, even though they hated me for it.

EVERYONE is happy and healthy now, except for a small irritation of fleas. gracie just got treated, and the pups will get treated with their first vaccination and deworming next week. (i get to give them shots too -- i should got to veterinary school!)

AND here are some picture of our development as a little family :)))

my puppy story, part 2

haha.. i didn't think that splitting this up would be so interesting. well.. i'm glad that it wasn't too long and boring. so here's part two. and for the record, i'm not exactly sure how many parts this story will have. probably a lot. :))

read part one.

the Sarge doesn't deal well with me being frantic, so he agreed to get a ride to come home right away (we share a car). i took a few deep breaths and decided i had to do something; i couldn't risk her having another puppy upstairs (where is was neither dark nor warm and certainly not without draft. a few days earlier, i crafted a little box with high sides into a drop place under the door of the doghouse, in case the puppies fell out. i went inside, put on my gloves and picked up the box, and headed upstairs to face the scene again.

i walked more carefully this time, observing that there was no stain on the landing of our steps and the poop must have been a result of pushing. the small mess in front of our bathroom door was also mostly on the surface. when i entered our room, i noticed a few things.

first, the mess wasn't actually that bad; the pillow had absorbed most of the liquid (disgusting, right?). second, the puppy had rolled nearer to gracie.

i mentally prepared myself to get rid of a stillborn puppy as i slowly and carefully picked it up.

IT MOVED!

i audibly breathed a sigh of relief at my first grandchild who had survived labor, and reveled in that relief for a while before i came back to reality. there was still a dog in labor on my floor, and a puppy with a partially chewed umbilical cord in my hand. it was an amazing feeling, finally holding a puppy that just that morning had been kicking at my hand through my dog's belly.

gracie was totally cooperative and calm as i picked her up and put her in my little box with her puppy. she watched me as i carefully marched her down the stairs. i felt mostly prepared for the rest of this process (especially considering that dogs mostly have it covered), so i was growing more confident with each step. at least i was there. at least i knew it was coming. at least she trusted me enough to let me help her. at least. at least. at least. it was my mental pep talk.

i put her in the doghouse and set the puppy down next to her. she continued to clean it and gnaw on the umbilical cord while i organized myself. i had a food scale (which previously aided in my weight loss... let me just say... no more!), a box of gloves, a nasal bulb syringe (snot sucker haha), puppy pads, and a stack of old towels and face towels. i went out to the garage to get a few folding chairs and sat and waited.

gracie was a total champ. i could physically see her having her contractions, but she never even offered up a whine. the second puppy came shortly after i took her downstairs and i realized quickly that we would have very colorful litter! the first was white, but the second was dark brown! the actual delivery is pretty amazing. they come out in a little sack, which the mom chews through. she also eats the placenta and chews off and eats the umbilical cord.

the Sarge got home before number three, and witnessed the birth of a light tan-ish colored pup. at this point, i think i ought to start recording their weights and sexes. i ask my husband (still not totally calm at the point, by the way, so i guess i actually asked in a mix between ordering him around and begging him) to call kelly so she could come over and help me. i have the Sarge grab a notepad and take some notes. i pick up the first, the white one, and look between the lower legs and declare it a boy. the second, dark brown, had the same business going on down there, as did the third, the tan baby. i begin to get into the swing of things but am essentially a nervous wreck.

mind you, we have no idea how many puppies there will be! who knows how long this will last!

so now, i realize this will not be the calm, video taped and photo documented life altering youtube experience that i envisioned. i'm watching this alternate reality unfold in front of me, in which i go from being mother of one dog to two, two to three, and on and on, with no end in sight.

kelly arrives and suggests that we label them, which is why in some of the pictures you see those tags around their necks. we thought perhaps there would be one or two that looked similar and wanted to be able to tell them apart. she inspects those already born, to which one has been added, a second white puppy that i labeled a boy along with the others. well, apparently i'm an idiot because they are all girls. their little areas looked like two tiny little balls... i didn't know what i was looking for! i felt ridiculous, but the good news is that my inability to determine sex really lightened the mood.

we took gracie out before she delivered two more pups, a brown boy with a white mark on his head and a beautiful vibrant reddish-brown girl. the last presented a little problem -- gracie had some trouble pushing her out, and we had to really rub her to get her breathing on two separate occasions. it was so hard to watch. i asked what kelly did if a puppy was born dead .. she essentially just throws them away.  :((

well, gracie was still pushing and i had six puppies already attached to her bosoms. it has been all of about an hour and a half, which is extremely fast it seems, so we figured we had to run into at least one bump in the road. we took her outside a few times to try to encourage the labor, but without any success. everyone stayed around until about 3 pm (two hours since the last push). kelly had to go and the sarge had to return to work. all i could do was wait.

kelly advises me that if she continues to push, a vet visit would be in order. and i agree. i asked her when she would make that move and she gives me the heart breaking answer that she would have already gone, but that i shouldn't worry because she is extremely cautious (as the puppies are a source of income). she encourages me to wait and pray, and if by 6 there was no puppy and gracie continued to push, i should find a vet.

so, i start calling around. i ask the vet offices around here what the worst case scenario would be and how much that would cost. kelly warned me that it would be more expensive here, so she gave me information for a vet about an hour and a half away from us in LA county. i called the closer vets first and sure enough, the c-section procedure started at $1500 -- JUST for the procedure. no office visit, no meds, no nothing. that was simply not an option. even her vet in riverside started at $800.

in panic again, i spent several hours emailing her and calling her about the likelihood of gracie's survival, how many more puppies could be in there, and how i could afford what seemed to be inevitable. her final suggestion came around 7pm - a place in san bernadino where the vet was reasonably priced, even for a surgical procedure. she estimated $350 or so. let's just say even that was pushing it in our financial situation.

and they didn't open til 6:30 in the morning. almost 11 hours away.

all we could do was wait.

part three coming soon...
as well as an update on my real life. maybe lol.

my puppy story, part 1

i've been thinking about this post for a long time. as most of you know, i am the grandmother of six precious puppies. the story is kind of long... which is why i've been slacking on writing this post. so i'm splitting it into a few sections. that will be much easier to write (and for you to read).

SO!

the first part.

gracie's last pregnant days were interesting. i'd been watching her carefully and corresponding heavily with a member of our church family who breeds dogs. we'll call her kelly. i was emailing back and forth with kelly constantly, trying to see warning signs that labor was on the way. i kept thinking, 'gracie's acting weird, today is the day..' and it never was.


first of all, we had been keeping gracie in the kitchen with her doghouse in case she went into labor during the wee hours and we didn't wake up in time (we didn't want it to be on our couch, for example). we bought a sturdier fence that she couldn't knock down and made is as comfortable as possible with towels and one of my shirts. she seemed to take really well to it. previously, she had been sleeping on a small stack of pillows next to my bed, which she loved and obediently laid until invited on to the bed. in the mornings, i let her outside and then bring her upstairs to hang with the pack and visit her little bed. it was getting to be a nice little routine.

until tuesday, july 26.

i take gracie out 3-4 times a day to pee/poop. once in the morning, once for a long walk in the afternoon, and once or twice in the evening. she had only peed in the house once, in a corner of the living room (right in front of me) and was promptly corrected. on the morning of the 26th, i took gracie out before work. she promptly peed and pooped -- something she hardly ever does without persuasion. she came upstairs, but then jumped off the bed and went to the top step. when i looked back out of our room, she's gone downstairs.

gracie never goes down to her exile that quickly after release.

i followed her down, and sure enough, she was trying to pee in the corner!

i took her back outside, where she peed twice and then i saw the funky little plug hanging down. i had seen some stuff before so, while my red flag went up, i just noted it and filed it away as a sign to mention to kelly. we finished getting ready and went to work.

at work, my boss, who knew the whole story (he's the one who found gracie) suggested i go home after hearing the story. he was as excited about the puppies as i was! i'd only been at work for a few hours, but i decided i should get home early. i headed home about 11 am.

i walked in the door expecting to see gracie in the doghouse with a puppy (which i expected to see every day for the past week).

but i didn't see gracie.

it was quiet and the gate was up... but no gracie. i began to panic. i stood at the door and called her, afraid to turn the corner and see a bloody mess on my couch. i peeked around the corner and breathed a sigh of relief when i saw a clean couch. but panic quickly returned when i realized gracie wasn't there either. i let the fence down and creeped around the corner calling gracie's name. i got more panicked and darted toward the stairs and stopped dead in my tracks on the landing -- two tiny poops were laying on the floor, which threw me into full panic mode. at the top of the stairs, there was a small blood spot and a turned and saw what had been my greatest fear.

gracie.

on her bed of pillows -- the pillows for our bed -- with a wet stain and a white puppy on its back next to her.

the puppy didn't seem to be moving, so i inched over and shook the edge of the pillow. when it didn't respond, i ran downstairs to get my cell phone and called the Sarge in a frantic, blubbering, semi-psychotic state and told him that gracie had clearly jumped the fence, had a puppy in our room, and i wasn't sure it was alive.


read part two!  :)))
(i didn't mean to make it a cliff hanger but this is getting LONG!)

gracie update

gracie update no. 2

since i've been promising it for like a week, here's a small update on gracie.

no puppies.. yet. but we can SEE them moving. it's amazing. if you have never had a pregnant dog, it is really interesting and kind of fascinating. we take her for daily walks around the block, and she's panting awfully hard when we get back home. i think she's over the pregnancy awe, if dogs have that. she is getting pretty big.

we have started gating her into the kitchen at night so she won't be tempted to "start" on her bed by our bed. i don't think i could handle that! she seems to like her little spot though, and she goes in there to lay down whenever she gets bored or wants to be alone (she is a girl, after all). we've been taking her temperature (and by we i mean "i"... and it's a rectal thermometer) daily and it's consistently 99-100 (which is normal for dogs). one day it was a bit low, 97, but obviously, no puppies.

it's been a roller coaster!

these are the things we have noticed most prominently:

affection. she was already a cuddler, but it's out of control. she wants to lay with as much body contact as possible. whoever is on the computer, that's usually who she feels like cuddling with -- by getting between your hand and the keyboard. (she's demanding.) one of the websites said she may stare at her "human"... and i laughed because it sounded creepy. but she does.

sloth. haha, ok maybe that's not the right word. but in the last few days she has gotten too uncomfortable to move. she walks SLOWLY on the leash, like i'm dragging her. it takes forever to get around our small block. she won't even sit upright for long before she lays on her side, or like this:

she's so stinkin' cute.

even in the middle of our walk.

and when we're laying out...

restlessness. i'm not sure how this goes with sloth, but when she's not asleep, she's moving from couch to floor to kitchen (linoleum) back to couch to doghouse... it's a lot of movement for someone who doesn't want to play or walk.

so. there's the update. i'll keep you posted as things change, but for now, we wait!

long lost friend: what i'm loving wednesday

well, what better way to get back into blogging than join a sweet meme? my favorite day of the week is wednesday and my favorite memes are today, too! leigh ashley is taking a break from wee bit (sigh) so none of that this week. but i'm really excited to see what everyone is loving today!

one. i'm loving JULY! the weather has been so perfect and our calendar is open for more fun in the sun. this is just a great month.. our friend from college is coming to visit next month, we have a fun trip panned for the end of the month (well.. it's military ordered but it will be fun haha), and the farmer's markets are in full swing.

calendar filling up slowly but surely! yay for leisurely life!!

daisies from the market

two. i'm loving my sweet new furbaby. she's making our days very funny and interesting!!

have you ever seen a dog blink in a picture haha!

three. i'm loving housewifery. i'm like, obsessed with being a homemaker. i long to be as devoted to making my home (and keeping track of my home) as the 1920s housewife. i've even downloaded a couple a half dozen early century household management books on my nook. and i've taken to buying dresses. and touching up my make up before i see my hubby. and ditching the tee shirts.. though i still donn one every now and then. i love being a wife! i'll have a post on this later.

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four. as always, i'm loving my sweet husband and his concern for our little furbaby and her pending motherhood!

a quick update on gracie. we know NOTHING about pregnant dogs. there are a few places that will allow us to bring her in for the birthing and early weeks (or so i've heard), but she JUST got a new "forever home" and i can't bear the thought of my sweet girl being stressed out in some clinic environment. so... we borrowed our neighbors doghouse and set up the whelping area. we are SO nervous.

anyone who knows anything about labor/weaning/puppy toddlers is welcome to email me! i will be chronicling this adventure here. first of all, i've been googling the heck out of signs that the dog is in labor. i've found pacing, panting, vomiting, lower body temperature, affection, refusing food and nesting (of course) among others.

she has been kind of acting restless, i think she's uncomfortable. she's acted like she was going to vomit a few times, and has definitely been panting for no reason here and there. she's also becoming very preoccupied with the vag (haha.. sorry.. i know that's crude). AND she is having a lot of dreams that are making her growl and show her teeth haha... i have no idea if that means anything but it sure cracks me up. and getting big.. when i tell her to sit, she walks over to a wall so she can lean on it! haha.. cute dog. who wouldn't love this face?

why i should never be allowed to pick our dogs, and happy birthday america!

i guess i'll start with the obvious.. i suck at blogging! someone needs to point me toward a summer blogging challenge or something, so i feel like my life is interesting!

so first off.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!

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 i love my country. with all her mistakes and occasional (OK... frequent) ridiculousness, i would not live any other place in the world without orders from God! i am thankful that what man meant for evil, God made good and i am able to enjoy the freedoms this country has to offer. i'm grateful that i can worship freely, without fear or shame, and that my rights are protected because many men have laid down their lives for us. even though it gets on my LAST nerve that there are people who continue to tear down this country (but still live here, amazingly), i'm thankful for a place where people aren't gagged by religion or the government; a place where ideas and ideologies can flourish. yes, there are some less-than-desirable people and messages out there, but i have faith that God's kingdom, above all, will be glorified and his people edified in the end.

and most of all, i thank God that we are even able to fight for these freedoms because we are already free in Christ. so as we celebrate our independence (the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly), let us remember our dependence on the One who has truly set us free. and let us not forget that freedom is in fact not free. what have you been taking for granted that someone else has paid the price for?

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so. i have been pretty busy with our precious little girl. i am so so so in love with my little furbaby. gracie finally has a cute collar and name tag and a HAIR CUT! so.. she was kind of a scraggly mess when we got her.

but she went from nappy to (somewhat) happy with her first visit to the groomer. she may look a little afraid in this picture.. but they put bows in her hair. how do you send a dog from the streets to lapdog? tails a waggin', that's how.

so, as you know, my life can't happen without some ridiculousness. gracie is the cutest dog ever, right? well she also happens to be the best behaved dog, too. she doesn't bark (at least not usually), she is submissive (a little too much so, but we're building up her confidence), she is house trained, obedient, and cuddly. i took her to the vet and she didn't give me a hard time.. i asked the vet if she was pregnant and she even let him poke and prod at her belly without wincing (he said she wasn't, by the way). we have to get her spayed, but i'll bet she even breezes through that.

we have the perfect dog.

except... she keeps getting wider and wider.. and wider...

i think our sweet gracie:

 is soon going to become gr-gr-gracie and the jets.

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UGH! why does this happen to me! i just wanted a cute lapdog that had small legs and tired easily with short walks. and i get a street walkin' hussy! (i'm just kidding gracie, i love you) but sheesh. i don't know the first thing about puppies. and i have to go to out of town at the end of this month (i mean.. the military ordered it!) what the heck am i going to do with her likely-multi-fathered litter?

i am hopeless haha...

p.s. i have to something quick for my scentsy lovers out there.

i have recently started doing a POWER HOUR for my customers. SO. if you would like text alerts about said special or just want to know when one's coming or what it's about, visit my facebook page. it's a private group so you'll have to request to join, but if you love you some scentsy, i think you'll find it worth it.