Rough Day

Friday ended up being a rough day for us. When I arrived at daycare to pick up the kids, Lynette surprised me with the news that she has now decided she will NOT take care of our new baby this fall. Like I said, this was a bit of a shocker to me. When we initially told her I was pregnant in the fall, she said she had room for the baby. Then later this turned into only 3 days at the most. And now, not at all??? What?? I'm very puzzled and irritated by this. She explained that she prefers to focus on the kids preschool activities and playing outside (both things we love about her) and that she can't keep up with a little baby in tow. I do understand that, but couldn't she just do us a favor? She currently has a baby that comes once a week and she said she dreads that day. She doesn't want to dread taking care of our baby each week. I don't want that either. Our baby is welcome at Lynette's when he/she is 9-12 months old.
On our drive home, Greg called me. "You won't believe what the dog ate today," he said. Apparently Casey decided to chow down on an entire large tube of Aquaphor that I left on the kitchen table. I proceeded to tell Greg that we had bigger problems than that, and told him about Lynette. When I arrived home, I checked the ingredients label of Aquaphor - petroleum and mineral oil. That can only equal one thing...diarrhea. So the dog spent all of his time outside or penned in the kitchen this weekend when we were not supervising.
Greg headed off to poker night with his coworkers after the dog incident on Friday, so I had the evening to myself with the kiddos. It was easy-going and relaxing, which was nice. However, when I climbed onto Garrett's top bunk bed to read him some books, I managed to catch my big toenail on his ladder. This particular toenail was black and blue last fall and had released from my toe about 2/3 of the way. One side was still growing and attached so following my doctor's advice, I had been taping it on until it falls off on it's own. Well that won't be necessary now because I ripped it completely off. So now I only have about 1/4 of a toenail and a very irritated spot where it was ripped off. Pretty painful for several days, but thankfully much better starting yesterday. To make matters worse, I wasn't wearing socks on Sunday, trying to let it breathe and heal a bit when I dragged a big cardboard box across my foot and got a big paper cut where I should have a toenail. Ouch.
Luckily, Grandpa called on Friday night with the news that he wanted to come visit us for the weekend so that helped to cheer me up. We celebrated Avery's 3rd birthday a little early with him and she loved opening her dollhouse from Grandpa and us! Garrett also insisted that she open the Tangled doll that he picked out for her! Don't worry, we still have a smaller gift for her to open on her actual birthday.
There's more to tell about the weekend, including a dog pee incident, which involved both myself and Grandpa sitting in dog pee, but I'll spare you the details. Thanks to the advice of my friend Ashley, it turns out that vinegar and water is really the best carpet cleaning solution.

Happy New Year and a Dog Emergency

I had no intention of staying up to ring in the new year this year. I always stay up until midnight but given our recent bout with the flu and my pregnancy-induced sleepy state, I thought I'd turn in at a decent time that night. Greg and I were lucky to have a babysitting offer from my friend Alyx, so we actually went out on a date on New Year's to celebrate our anniversary a few days early! After arriving at a local favorite restaurant with an hour and 45-minute wait, we quickly hurried to Shogun's where we got in within 20 minutes and had a delicious supper. Then we hit the movies with no time to spare. We had a great time!
When we arrived home, we chatted with Alyx for awhile and watched the ball drop on TV at 11:00. We lot the dogs (Casey and Alyx's dog, Bryda) outside one last time and when they came in Casey's foot was bleeding badly. We laid him down and realized one of his big back claws was bent over completely sideways. After stopping the bleeding and making a quick call to the emergency vet office we decided we couldn't attempt to clip his claw because it was anchored too tightly sideways, so off I went with Casey to the vet's office. After they checked him out I received the $73 bill with news that they couldn't do anything so they wrapped it up, gave him a nice lampshade to wear and told me he needs surgery in a few days! The clock struck midnight on my way home. I arrived home to tell Greg, "Happy New Year and your dog needs surgery!"

Casey update:
Casey's beloved kids have been taking the BEST care of him. They snuggle with him and tell him what a good dog he is. Avery lays down with him and puts her head inside his lampshade to snuggle her head next to his. The second night Casey was in a lot of pain and couldn't fall asleep. At about 2:00 am, I found him fast asleep stretched out on his little girl's floor. I guess he just felt better being near his kids.
Casey went in for his surgery to remove his toenail today. Luckily they sedated him and were able to do some major clipping instead of surgically removing the toe. He has exposed bone and his foot is really sore so we are spoiling him. He gets a check-up on Wednesday to see how his toe is healing.

Need a Dog?

Greg seems to think that Casey needs a new home this week. Problems arose early on Monday morning when Greg stepped in a fresh pile of dog poop in the middle of the living room floor at 3 am. This is very unlike our dog and very unpleasant in the wee hours of the morning. I shouldn't even complain. Poor Greg!

We discovered later that day that diarrhea seemed to be the issue but he made it through the day in the house. Tuesday on the other hand - not so good. I had to clean 7 small piles of #$% off the floor when I got home from work and another one the next day too! I should note that since Wednesday, Casey has been confined to the kitchen on the vinyl floor. Apparently a child's toy is the culprit. (It's slowly passing). But we're not sure exactly what it is that he ate. Maybe something made out of plastic from China?

This is probably too much information but I've done too much carpet cleaning this week and needed to complain to someone. And the thought of Greg stepping in a huge pile of dog poop barefoot still makes me laugh a little. Sorry Greg! Good thing he puts up with me and all of my animals!

Big Snow

I thought I should share pictures of our big snow in December. We actually got a little more after these pictures were taken, so the pile in the front yard got even bigger. We still have some large drifts hanging around but the ground is slowly starting to appear again! Garrett LOVES snow. He can easily spend 2-3 hours playing outside. As you can see, Casey is a fan as well.