Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Snow! And Pee, Poop, and Puke

Last week was eventful – but not for good reasons.  We had our first chance of winter weather on Monday.  The kids went to school but were getting out two hours early.  They actually called it pretty accurately because it started snowing around 3pm.  It snowed for a good while and then turned to sleet and finished the night that way. 

School was cancelled Tuesday – and Wednesday, Thursday, AND Friday.   That kind of sucked.  We went out to play in it Tuesday morning and we got some decent sledding in on our driveway.  The sleet helped put a glaze of ice on top of it so it was good for sledding.  Will had fun once he got out there but he wasn’t fond of the whole getting dressed part.  Lindy and Drew went out again in the afternoon to play and they scraped the driveway.  By that time a lot had melted so you couldn’t play or sled anymore. 

It was a perfect time to get a dog.  NOT.  Not only did we have our first snow, we set record low temps during the week.  Thursday and Friday we woke up to 0F and feels like temps of below zero.  This just doesn’t happen in NC!  So anything that melted during the day, froze right up at night.  Hence school being cancelled all week.  The dog was pretty funny when it was actually snowing.  He was bouncing all around in it.  And he actually did okay in the snow when it was done.  He did not like the cold temps.  Me neither.  Not when we had to take him out in it.  Not when we are trying to potty train him.  It was really no fun.  Over the weekend it finally started to warm up and melt and our backyard became a big mud pit.  So that was fun to take the dog out in and have to wipe him off every time we come inside with him.   My kitchen floor was so nasty with pee, poop and mud all over it all week.  It was so dirty during the day and then I mopped it every night.  I told Drew I wasn’t sure how my floors could be so clean and so dirty all at the same time.  ha!

I went to work Wednesday afternoon for a few hours but then ended up working from home the rest of the week.  Thursday morning Drew came down with the stomach bug.  Will had had a quick bout of diarrhea on Monday afternoon and now I think the two were probably related.  I’m totally blaming Will for this one.  ha!  I think maybe he was the carrier but just wasn’t affected much by it.  But it hit Drew full blown and he was sick until Saturday with it.  So now we had a new dog, snow and mud outside and a sick daddy. 

And on Friday night at 3am we added a sick Lindy to the equation.  She woke up throwing up and continued to do so for 36 hours.  It obviously slowed down over Saturday afternoon and into Sunday, but she could not keep anything down.  We tried every thing we knew to do and it kept coming back up.  I called the on-call nurse Sunday morning hoping they could call in a prescription for Zofran but they wouldn’t.  They needed to see her first so we got an appointment for 2:30pm.  I was hoping she’d have stopped throwing up again and I could cancel.  We went and she threw up in the parking lot.  They gave her Zofran and Sunday evening she started keeping fluids down.

We knew we were keeping her home from school Monday but we didn’t expect to wake up to her having diarrhea.  Poor girl just couldn’t get over this bug.  She had 5-6 bouts during the day.  She did start eating a tiny bit and drinking a little more but her stomach hurt all day.  The introduction of food for the first time since Friday gave her a lot of tummy aches all day.  She finally napped in the evening and woke up to eat some chicken noodle soup.   We put her to bed and thankfully didn’t hear from her all night.  I hope one more day of rest will heal her so we can get our spunky girl back! 

I’ll share some fun pics with you – not the gross ones.  ha!

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Wearing appropriate clothing on Monday!DSC_2918
Checking out the first flakes and playing with Aiden. DSC_2922DSC_2924DSC_2925DSC_2928IMG_6539
She enjoyed the snow
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Will decided to stay inside and read the newspaper.  ha!DSC_2932
Snow fun on Tuesday!DSC_2935DSC_2937DSC_2940DSC_2944DSC_2946DSC_2947DSC_2950DSC_2955DSC_2956DSC_2959
Sweet puppy in the snowDSC_2961
Daddy and Lindy built a mini snowman in the afternoonDSC_2964
We made a batch of snow cream.  It was a little icy because of the sleet.
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The kids are slowly becoming more comfortable around the dog.  He likes to jump on them and sniff them.  They have worked and gotten much better at just standing and then he will get down.  When they back up and try to run he thinks they are playing and keeps jumping.DSC_2975
The dog has sharp teeth so we told Will to keep his hands up.  He now walks like this in the kitchen.
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He can be a good snuggler when he wants!DSC_2977DSC_2979DSC_2981
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Poor Girl
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Cuddling with her puppy dog!
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Monday, February 16, 2015

Big Valentine’s Day Surprise

The beginning of the week was just another week in our lives.  Thursday night the kids had choir practice at church.  A new director stepped up and they are practicing and performing again.

Lindy started in with a cold Thursday night and didn’t feel 100% Friday morning.   It’s hard to tell how sick she is because she is also a drama queen.  She said she wanted to go to school and we told her to tell her teacher if she really started feeling bad.  About 1:45pm I got a call from the school to say Lindy hadn’t been feeling well.  During her Valentine’s party they said she was sitting at the back table crying.  It was almost the end of the day but I knew that wasn’t normal Lindy behavior so I told them I’d be over in about 15 mins.  I told them I would want Will too.  I felt bad because Will got called out during his Valentine party.  Apparently they were finishing up their snacks.  He handled it much better than I could have ever imagined he would.  Of course when they came  in the office, Lindy was acting completely fine.  uggggg.  Oh well.  We got home a little earlier than normal.

The kids had their Valentine’s parties on Friday afternoon.   We made Minecraft valentines for Will and we bought dog and cat vet valentines for Will.  They enjoyed looking through them when we got home. 

And now for the Valentine surprise.  I’m not joking about this surprise.  Drew and I pulled the ultimate, real deal surprise on the kids.  We got up and we gave them a little present – Will a Minecraft t-shirt and Lindy a dog t-shirt.  We got ready and told them we were heading to my parents’ house.  We had one last surprise for them.  We walked in the house and there was a box in the front room – with a puppy inside!!!!  We got Lindy and Will their first dog!!  Lindy has been begging for months and I think she was in disbelief.  Will heard a noise from the box and was suspicious.  Lindy opened and said, “What is it?”  ha!  She couldn’t believe it was hers!  The fun part is that my parents got one too.  We have a brother and sister from a litter. 

This all started because my parents have been looking for a dog and found a litter at a rescue shelter about 5 mins from their house.  They applied and I kept looking at them.  I kept talking to Drew and showed him pictures.   My parents went at 2:30pm on Thursday and mom called at 2:50pm.  She asked me if we were serious about a dog.  They would give them two and we could have one.  I called Drew and we quickly and hastily and nervously said yes.  They took two dogs home!  agagaga!  My parents went and bought two of all the basic necessities for us since we have nothing.  Then they puppy sat for us for two days until we could get there Sat. morning.

We ate lunch and then headed home.  Our dog – Aiden or Scout – final name to be determined -- had a hard time settling down until I let him ride in the center console and then he slept the rest of the way home.   We got him settled and played and took him outside for a couple hours.   Then we had a babysitter come because for the first time in forever we had plans for Valentine’s Day.  Thankfully the babysitter was our niece Molly who loves dogs and was up for the challenge.  Thankfully the kids are fairly easy these days so they weren’t too hard.  We headed out to eat with Ed and Jamie and then to a play.  We thought the play started at 7pm but it actually started at 8pm.  Ed, Drew and I all fell asleep during the first half and we decided to leave at intermission.  So bad – but I was worried about the pup anyway and I’d slept through most of the first half so I was okay with it. 

Then we had our first night with the puppy – and it was rough.  And so was my parents’ night with their puppy.  It was the first time the puppies had been alone and they were not happy.  They both cried for a couple hours.  Drew ended up laying in the kitchen with him and he finally stopped crying.  Drew and I switched places around 2:30am but I had him sleeping in the crate and I slept on the couch.  He woke up around 5:15am and we’ve been going strong all day.

We picked probably the worse possible week to get a puppy – the week it’s lows in the teens and single digits and we are expecting our snow storm this week.  This sweet puppy doesn’t like the cold.  If he could have laughed at me this morning, he would have.  I took him out three times early and nothing.  He sits at your feet and gives you the puppy dog eyes to take him back in.  We  went to church this morning, left him in the kitchen and expected messes, which we had.  We’ve tried catching him all day and running him outside.  No clue if we’ve made any progress.  I feel like his accidents  have been fewer as the day went on.  Drew and I have no clue what we’re doing. 

Jack is not sure about this situation.  He hissed at him when Drew showed him the dog and ever since he is just checking out the situation.  We have the dog gated in the kitchen and Jack is doing a lot of sitting and watching through the gate.   Tonight we had the pup in the den and Jack was totally checking him out.  The pup saw him and was ready to tackle him but we stopped that!  We can just hope over time they can live peacefully in the same house.  I predict the dog will pounce the cat and the cat will swipe him good and that will be it.  We shall see.

Lindy has definitely been more into the dog.  Will played with him for a bit this afternoon but she has sat and watched and taken an active interest in him.  Will would rather play Minecraft.  They are getting used to him jumping on them.  They tend to back up and away and he thinks they are playing.  They have to get used to him and more comfortable with him.  But it was a good first few days.  He’s a puppy and a playful one at that.   

Meet our puppy – probably Aiden – unless we change it to Scout.  ha!!

Church outfits last week
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A week full of Valentine’s shirts!
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A spiffy looking boy
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Who was being silly

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Who built a cool Keva plank ramp
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Valentine’s Day at homeDSC_2878DSC_2884DSC_2885
Opening the big present!DSC_2886DSC_2889
She ask if it was hers to keep!DSC_2893DSC_2894DSC_2898DSC_2900DSC_2901DSC_2902
Lindy with our pup – Nana with her pup, Sadie
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These two were cute playmates.  They loved to wrestle!DSC_2907IMG_6488
First family photo!
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These two were snuggle buddies.  It was sad to separate them!IMG_6496IMG_6512IMG_6515
Sleeping in the center console!
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Jack – watching from the hall. 
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We got him something to snuggle and he loves it!
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He’s becoming quite comfy around us!IMG_6527