Good Bye Vinny

So my blog title is wrong, as of the 15th last week.  What started out as a normal Wednesday ended in the loss of my buddy, my first dog.  Now in typical Vinny style he did go out with some "romance" and humor.  You see Vinny the horn dog king came out of his kennel with his penis fully out.  We thought it'd go back down, it had done this before. But time went on and the penis still hung low...haha.  My friend, who I must say is a true friend and conveniently a veterinarian came by and spent the next hour soaking his penis in a sugar water solution and trying to get it to go back. Who else would do that?  Any way after over an hour and no success we gave the kiddo an anti-inflammatory pill and let him lay down.  After watching him for a while, it was decided this problem was not going away.  It was "an erection lasting longer than 4 hours"  So I packed him in the car and drove off to the emergency vet clinic, I was not looking forward to the expense but gosh could only imagine what would happen if he penis lost blood circulation.  We got checked in, and the vet tried again to get the offending member back in place.  Well it would not go, so the decision was to sedate him and cut the skin so that the now swollen penis would go back in place..two stitches and he'd be as good as new....yowsa!! But it was only supposed to take 5 mins, plus some wake up time and then we could crawl back in bed.  I sat playing on my phone and just as I thought things were taking a little long, the vet rushed in the room to tell me he was having problems with anesthesia.  I came back to the treatment area to find the vet team performing cpr on my dog and was told his heart had stopped.  Well they tried for 15 mins to revive my little buddy to no avail.  Reality crept in as I watched him slip away. My little Vinny...the dog who had survived through so much, so many problems from seizures, hydrocephalus, and eye removal just the month before...to now die all because he was a horny lil bugger! 
He was the first pet I've had die. I mean my childhood kitties ran away, were given away by my parents, or died after I moved away. This was the first tragic loss of my own.  It's been weird. I've been in the vet field a long time, Ive seen many a pet leave their family, I've watched their owners cry.  So surreal to have the tables turn, to know what is happening, to hear those words of grief come out of my own mouth.  To have the words of sympathy be told to me... I have no experience on what to say from this end...yes it sucks, thank you for your sympathy.
Anyway I haven't wanted to talk about it a whole lot, but felt the need to tell my story and say good bye. Maybe its because I got his ashes back today.  So I say good bye Vinny, I really hope you are some where running as fast as you did when you were young, that you can see, that your body is whole again.  Thanks for being such an inspiration of how to have a good attitude no matter what. Thanks for the laughs, and kisses.  Farewell my friend!!

January

Well ok so I'm obviously not a good blogger, seeing as I missed the whole new years thing.  I just have not found the best time to blog.  I do hope to have a great 2012 and have kind of decided to go along with the "one word" new years resolution...the have all your goals go to meeting this umbrella goal... My word is peace...not world peace or anything like that, I do not have that lofty of goals, but peace of mind, peace at home, peace at heart to be happy with what I have and who I am.  I want to achieve this peace by finding a new job this year, hoping to work less hours and in a field that I actually enjoy instead of loathe!  I want to be able to find peace at home even if the dishes haven't bee done yet, I let simple things like messes get in the way of the time I have to be happy with Alexander, Kris, and the critters.  I will continue to strive to be organized enough to keep simple peace that order can bring.  I typed up shopping list of the normal stuff we buy and left room for add ons, its on the fridge with a pen and has helped so far.  I also wrote up a menu for the month, I left a few blanks for days of inspiration or laziness. It's really helped me plan dinners and it helps Kris help me if he knows what we are having.  I'd like to find the peace that exercising can bring, when you feel relaxed and a little healthier. I'd like to find the peace of mind knowing I've eaten healthy and fed my son healthy foods.
Any way I could go on and on, but I won't bore you... so peace is my word...

2011 in review was a wonderful and difficult year. I can't complain because it was the year that brought Alexander into our lives and nothing is better than that. We got to see lots of family this year, with a trip to Michigan in July and home to California for Thanksgiving, and my parents visiting a few times. However with Kris loosing his job and me going back to work full time at the very place I hate working there was some serious challenges too. Luckily as the year ended Kris found a job, of course I never realized how stressful it is to have a child, pets and two parents working full time....there is just never enough time!

So on to a new year! I can't wait to watch Alexander grow and learn to walk and feed himself.  Can't wait to see what new job opportunity may be out there, there is the possibility of working less hours...oooh!

So there it is folks my already procrastinated new years post!

A Few Holiday Photo's

ready to chop down a tree, he's serious!

dog slobber yum!

Nothing cuter than my kiddo in an over sized Christmas hat =)  These are kind of out of order but we went to the X-Mas tree farm last week and cut down our tree. This weekend we decorated it and took a trip to story book land.  Kid of cool, lots of children's stories displayed out in little mock ups. 

With December comes change

I’ve seen a few other blogs where people put goals for the month and I thought it was a good idea. So yes here I am being a follower…sheesh Liz…you should be original right?  Well I find the more I say I will do things and the more people I tell the better chance I have of doing them, and I could use some accountability for December because this will be a tough month unless I keep it together.  Why a tough month you say, it’s the holidays it should be fun and happy right?  Well I’ve barely thought about Christmas because of the changes ahead. You see my hubby got laid off just about the time I came back to work after maternity leave. I think our munchkin only spent 20 hours total in day care.  Well now Kris has a new job…yey! But since I’m back full time too, this means our son will be in daycare full time after spending the first 6 ½ months happily at home with either mom or dad, so a big adjustment for all.  I’m grateful that we are so blessed as to have our wonderful friends be providing his care while we work, that takes an enormous load off my shoulders because I know he will be loved and cared for and treated as their own.  I can’t help but worry though of how he’ll handle the transition and I even worry how nuts he’ll drive them with his nap skipping and fussyness that is usually a result of a new routine.  The other factor that will make things hard is that neither of us will be home to keep up the chores. I guess you could say we won’t be there to make a mess…but trust me I make bigger messes the less time I have because I’m rushing around like a ninny.  Then there are the poor pets…poor furry kids who already took a back seat to Alexander and now they are going to get even less attention. It doesn’t help its winter so taking walks in the cold dark rarely happens… so any way I see recipe for disaster.

So any way here are my goals for the month to see if I can make this new busy life possible:

Get up earlier.  It’s the only way I’ll get myself together in the morning and have time for munchkin and dogs. I’m thinking 5:30-6:00 at the very latest.  This means I need to go to bed earlier…ug.  So probably 9:30 would be ideal, in by 10:00 at the latest.

I need need need to meal plan.  Plan at least a week in advance what dinners we’ll have.  To make things easier I should make up things for lunches and dinners. Such as washing lettuce for the week so we can have side salads.  I could start packing up baggies for the week with crackers, fruit, etc for lunches although I usually use the same bags over and over or tupperwear so I’m not wasteful, but I guess if I just used the same batch over and over again it might be ok. 

Then I should at least get the dishwasher loaded and unloaded daily so we don’t get a massive pile up. I will have to recruit Kris to help with this.

I could say I should sweep during the week and clean the bathroom, but I hate to load myself down so much that I’m miserable because all I do is work and chores…ah finding balance…always a challenge. 

I need to switch bill paying night too, probably to the weekend; it’s too much of a pain during the week. Sunday might be a good day for this. Then I can enter the receipts that we spend during the weekend.  I should get in the habit of opening our mail daily too so it doesn’t make a huge stack to go through. 

I need to work in exercise.  On sunny or at least dry days I should walk on my lunch break.  I’m sure I can squeeze in 20-30 mins of a pilates video or time on the stair master in the works 3 days a week on the rainy days, just something so I’m not totally sedentary.

Ok my goals are already feeling daunting and a lot like work. So I will set aside a little time to surf the web or make my scrapbook recipe book that I’ve said I’d do forever now!!! 

Some how we will make this work, I just need to keep my butt of the couch and stop watching so much TV.  It’s going to busy and crazy, but we’ll make it work

Other goals include

Writing up a resume….would be helpful since I don’t want to work full where I’m at forever.

Try to go shampooless… I’ve never found the perfect shampoo and I hate having to shower all the time in the winter when I don’t do anything to get dirty, so if I could get my hair balanced out and save $$ it’d be great.

I’m growing my hair out, so no visits to the salon. I like a little pampering and I like my stylist so it’s hard to stay away but I want long hair again.

Find a night time cloth diaper solution for Xander. I’m tired of using disposables at night, feel like I’m cheating.

Phew! I’m exhausted just writing this out… I may be a grumpy monster by the end of the month. But hey maybe I can learn to be more efficient while I’m at it!

Thanks!

So ya total fail on the thankful posts. I will just have to do my best to write a few things here.  Working full time with a 6 month old makes it hard to get the extra time I need to write.  However at work I have nothing to do all day…yes quite infuriating when I have so much to do at home, but it pays the bills for now, its amazing what we can put up with when we need the money.  Any way we aren’t supposed to use blogs at work, but I figure I can write my blog in a blank work email, then copy and paste into gmail and save it as a draft that I can put into a blog later.  We are only supposed to use personal email on breaks so that is why I don’t just write it there first because I don’t want to leave it open that long…well there, now my secrets are out if my bosses ever want to find my blog…I guess I’m busted..haha.

Ok back to things I’m thankful for.  I’m thankful that I have food in my freezer and more than enough to eat every day, so many people go with out.  I’m thankful that I only have 2 more days of work left this week. I’m thankful that last week was vacation and that I went to California to see my family and friends.  I’m thankful to have a family that loves me enough to fly us out there to visit. I’m thankful for my wonderful neighbors/ friends that watched the dogs and kitties so that we could go.  I’m thankful for our wonderful friends (Sue & Sharon) that are going to be Alexander’s day care when Kris goes back to work. It’ll be so nice to know he’ll be loved and get all the attention he needs, instead of sharing on provider with 10 kids.  I’m thankful that I can at least work on my blog while I’m bored at work. I’m thankful that while I don’t like my job, it’s not super stressful with bosses yelling at me or anything like that.  I’m thankful that I discovered the coffee place next to work makes a super yummy vanilla chai latte. I could mention that I’m thankful for things like fresh air, pretty scenery, good music, tasty food because I am! 

Ok so I wrote this a while back and never posted it, so I tried to edit it and add a few things, if this reads funny sorry!

Cheers to all, I’m thankful for you!

more thanks

Ok it's the 4th, so now I owe 2 more thanks... I did realize this would be really hard to do daily. Maybe I should do a weekly one...haha.

I'm super thankful it is Friday. I look forward to the weekends so much more now that I have a baby to come home to.

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband that puts up with my craziness, mood swings, impulsiveness, tendencies to panic...he is my balance, the calm to my insanity.   He is a wonderful father and great friend!

Thankful

So a lot of people do Facebook posts for the month of November with a daily note of what they are thankful for.  I'm not really into that much info on FB, not sure why just not.  I do think its a good idea to be grateful though, so let me attempt to be thankful on my blog...so much better than Facebook right? Ok maybe I'm just sleep deprived...
Here it goes, its' the 2nd already so I owe you two.

1. I am super thankful for my friends that put up with me emailing/texting all day from work because I'm bored beyond belief.  You always manage to write back and cheer me up, you rock!!
2. Ok the obvious...I'm thankful for my wonderful little boy who has brought a whole new level of happiness and love to me.