oh puppy dogs

Today is Stuart's 4th birthday! I took this picture just seconds ago to capture his excitement about his birthday. He looks thrilled, right? When you look at him, do you say, "Wow, he's so ugly he's cute"? Yeah - well - we often say the same thing.


Boulevard Update: He's doing excellent and is back to his crazy, high-energy labrador self. This picture was taken about 10 minutes after we got home from the vet after his surgery. You can't see his incision but it is the length of where the shave starts all the way down to the red wrap. The red wrap on his arm was covering his IV. They didn't take it out immediately just in case he'd have to go back. He's doing great though...eating like he's never had a bite of food in his life and gaining weight back. His energy is great and he appears to be on the road to full recovery.

The surgery proved there was an object stuck in his intestine so they removed the object and about 6 inches of his intestine. The obstruction was half of a rubbery ball-type object. I say ball-type object because it didn't appear to be a dog toy or tennis ball but the shape was round. But it appeared to be purposely half of a ball so it wasn't chewed or anything. Neither Mike or I recognized the object at all so we're assuming he picked it up on a hike or walk without Mike or I noticing.
Doesn't this picture make you laugh a little bit? Yeah, me too. Next Post: Our quick trip to Milwaukee for my friend Mara's wedding.

Happy Easter

Easter is my very most favorite holiday! If you truly take time to think about the events that transpired from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday...Wow...just incredible! And it was all for US! I mean, really? You did all this for me Jesus?? Unbelievable, isn't it??

A friend on facebook posted this and it brought me to tears...I'm always a bit emotional over the Easter weekend anyway but this one sent me over the edge. Enjoy! :)

another post dedicated to our big baby

Well - last Wednesday, I couldn't take it anymore with Boulevard being sick. He has lost so much weight and he wasn't eating so I thought he wouldn't last much longer going down this road. We tried everything the vet advised and I also emailed my cousin(who is also a vet) for his advice. The next diagnostic step was an abdominal ultrasound so I took him Thursday afternoon. I'm pretty sure the whole ultrasound experience was more tragic for me than Boulevard because I had to hold his front down while the ultrasonagrapher and her helper bee did the rest. The whole thing took about an hr and 15 minutes and both Blvd and I were exhausted afterward.

The ultrasound showed a slightly enlarged pancreas and fluid in his GI tracts, but not all of his GI tracts. All this led to the assumption that there is some sort of blockage/obstruction in his GI tract and the enlarged pancreas is a result of the blockage.

So ~ results got to the vet Friday and she called us Friday evening.(we were in Milwaukee for a wedding Fri-Sun so we were out of town and having someone watch Bouley at our house) We were able to coordinate with unbelievabley fantastic friends to get him to the vet on Saturday for a couple IV's, which made me feel so much better since he hasn't been eating.

Boulevard will be having exploratory abdominal surgery tomorrow to hopefully remove the blockage. If they end up not finding blockage, they will be biopsying all his organs to determine if there is cancer. I don't want to think about that because that will lead to some tough decisions to be made by Mike and I.

That's the update. I've been in tears about 4 times today I think. Who knew I would do all this for "just a pet?" But truly, Bouley is a part of our family!!

good grief

OH MY GOLLY ~ Someone please tell me what's wrong with my dog??

The pepcid/baby food/dog food combo back-fired this morning with a vomitting spell. I cannot take it any longer. We'll see how the pepcid/cottage cheese/dog food combo goes tonight...it may be back to the vet tomorrow.

I'm an emotional disaster. Not only am I upset that Boulevard has been ill for 2 weeks and 2 days but I'm so frustrated with the whole thing, which is adding to my emotional craziness. Not to mention we have travels coming up so trying to arrange for someone to dog-sit is an additional stress I didn't anticipate. UGH!

Ok - back to work I go. Late evening/night of working today. Too much to do...but don't take this as a complaint. I would much rather have a little too much to do than not enough. :) And...I can do it all from the comfort of my house and pajamas.

pepcid & baby food

Pepcid & baby food ~ a new fad diet I'm trying? No way-but it's working for Boulevard so far...knock on wood.

Boulevard has been sick for 2 weeks & 1 day. The last few days have seemed better but he won't eat. So the vet said to give him a pepcid 30 minutes before feeding then try mixing his food with scrambled eggs, or meat-based baby food, or cottage cheese.

I tried scrambled eggs and he wasn't too interested. Today, I got some pepcid and mixed his dog food with baby food. Well - the pepcid/baby food combo seems to be working. His food has stayed down for 1.5 hrs, which I think is a record since he first got sick two weeks ago.

Hopefully we've found the trick and Boulevard will gain some weight back. He started at 90 lbs and I would guess he's down to 70-75'ish right now...and I'm pretty sure he wasn't looking to lose unwanted winter pounds.

a film screening

Last night, I had plans with friends to go to dinner and then to see the movie Arthur. Well - Morgan invited us to go to a film screening with her instead of going to Arthur. At first, I was opposed to it but then thought, I can see Arthur any day and this screening thing would be a new experience...so I gave in. I mean - I didn't really understand what screening meant and am not sure I really do now but I'm so thankful I got this opportunity.

There were about 25 of us that watched the 70-minute documentary film called Afterglow at the Center for Contemporary Arts and then we provided feedback on what we liked, what didn't make sense, where the film lost our attention, etc. Then they will take some of the feedback and implement it as they work to finish the film. I certainly felt a little out of my comfort zone because I'm not an artsy/creative-type person and I didn't have a whole lot of feedback but I was so glad for the experience.

Ali Silverstein, who is the director/producer/main character(is it really a "character" when it's a non-fiction?) was also there, which was super cool as well. She lives in New Mexico currently and she is a water-color artist. I'm sure I'm not doing her justice but that's what I know.

Click here for more info about the film - Overall, I really liked it. I'll have to follow-up when the finished product is released.

'Dirty' Little Secrets

I stole this blog theme from my sister's blog and thought it would be fun to post. Here it goes:

• There is so much dog hair in our house that it doesn't even bother me anymore if I find a stray dog hair on my dinner plate.


• I just recently started consistently washing my face at night before I go to bed. My sister's "secrets" blog actually jump started me to do it.


• I believed(for a very long time) that my father was a baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals.


• I don't think I could live without a DVR now that I've had one the last 6 months.


• I pile clothes on my dresser(it's one of those short & long dresser's with a mirror) to the point that I can barely see the mirror sometimes. I know it's drives Mike crazy and I still do it. Ooopsies!


• I pick and chew on my cuticles until they bleed. It's a constant battle...a few steps forward, a few steps back. Maybe someday I will have pretty fingernails.


• I watch all the 'Real Housewives' shows on Bravo TV.


• Except for the fact of missing my family and friends, I'm so incredibly happy we made a decision to move to MD and then move to NM.


• People still mis-pronounce my name after 29 years and it drives me nuts but I normally don't say anything. It REALLY drives me crazy when people at work mis-spell it in an email response to me when they can see it plain as day in the body of the email.


• I LOVE sugar. Nerds, Starbursts, Spree, Sour Patch Kids, etc, etc. Yummy!

Well - I think that's enough for now. The list could probably go on and on.

How about you? Any 'dirty' little secrets you'd like to share??

a birthday surprise

The weekend was quite a whirlwind. Flew out of Albuquerque at 10am on Saturday, landed in Omaha at 4:30pm. Got to my sisters house around 6pm to help set up for my Mom's surprise birthday party that started at 7pm. The surprise was great...it was so fun to see my Mom's face. Can't wait until we get the pictures. Hung out with my sister, Mom, Aunt Kathy, & Aunt Nancy(they also came in for the surprise) on Sunday and then was able to hang with my Dad Sunday evening.

And I left my sister's house at 4:45am Monday morning to get my 6:45am flight out of Omaha. Unfortunately, I got to Denver and my 8:20am flight was cancelled so I had to hang out at the Denver airport until the next flight at 3pm. I did find myself a nice little quiet corner at the Denver airport to take a 1 1/2 hr nap. Like I said - the weekend was a whirlwind but well worth it.

Of course, a plane ride wouldn't be complete without me catching a little something. I started taking Airborne on Monday evening and I'm hoping this scratchy throat won't get any worse.

And I came home to my pups but not the hubs. Mike left to go work at the AZ/Mexico border again...sounds like he's having fun. Missing my hubs like crazy!

Blvd Update: He's still sick. He did great yesterday but then vomited a few times during the night. And of course he won't eat the wonderful new food I got him, that he gobbled down yesterday. But I think he's slowly on the mend.

Hope you all are having a great week.