We'll miss you, Charlie

Dan and Bessie's sweet Charlie girl passed away early this morning. Charlie and Nanci were roommates for about a year when Dan and Adam lived together. Nanci and Charlie loved playing with each other and were best buddies. Now they can meet up in doggie heaven and play for eternity. Charlie had been ill but was on her way to feeling better. We went to their house Saturday night for a cookout. We brought Callie with us and she and Charlie played and got along really well. Her condition worsened a good bit on Sunday and they took her to the e-vet Sunday night. They had to make the most difficult decision. Charlie's condition was almost identical to Nanci's. Charlie had a tumor on her spleen and Nanci's was on her liver. Both dogs were bleeding severely internally and the outlook for both was very grim. Bessie and Dan have been on my heart and mind today, I know they are devastated. They were saying on Saturday that they don't know what they'd do if anything ever happened to her. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

New 'Do!

Miss Callie spent the day at the vets today getting groomed and checked out. Her health is great. Ear canals look really good for a cocker. Her eyes are the only problem, the vet has referred us to an opthomologist. One of the ladies that works in the office said she took her Schnauzer to the same doctor and he is doing the cataract surgery for her dog - she really likes him a lot. Callie look SO SKINNY with her new hair cut! She's as tall as Calhoun, but just MUCH more petite. I think now that the hair is out of her eyes she can actually see better too. She seems to be really happy with her new look. We're taking her to a t-ball game with us in the morning that Adam's friend's son is playing in. I think she'll enjoy herself. Calhoun isn't quite ready for a situation like that, lots of people make him nervous. He'll get there though, we'll be able to take both one day!!

Sillyness

Hello! Whew, this has been a whirlwind week! Things are going good here. Dogs are fine with each other. Callie REALLY wants to play with Calhoun but he's not too sure still. He's coming around, every day he gets more tolerant and lets her do more than the day before. Our dog trainer came by last night to develop a program for us. She'll be coming to the house once a week for 8 weeks to go over obediance training with both dogs. We're really excited! We also get two years of monthly "Recap" group sessions at a local dog park!


Callie is really coming out of her shell. She's quite the puppy still! I caught her chewing the leather chair the other day, oops! She's also quite interested in the cuffs of my pants and our shoes. Nothing has been destroyed yet, but she's quite the little stinker, we have to keep a close eye on her. She's such a joy to have around. She's just the happiest little doggie ever! She LOVED chasing my 5 year old cousin Hampton at Easter - they chased and chased and chased all over the yard! He also loved on her and got some kisses, he really liked her and she loved him too. We got her a new collar tonight at PetCo and a new ID tag. Her old tag really didn't jingle but the new one does. She got into a little playing fit tonight trying to attack the jingles on her collar. It is HILARIOUS beyond words. Please take a look at the video. The creepy TV sounds in the background are Adam's new PlayStation game he was playing.

Callie is here!

I can't type much because I have Callie in my lap! Things have gone great. Callie is really following him around and she realllly wants to play with him! He is responding well to her. She can't see to well so she'll bump into him every now and then, and he's fine with it! It was raining so hard when Ann dropped her off, but it stopped once Adam got home. We all went on a walk and that did a lot of good. Once we got in Callie settled down with Adam and Calhoun sat with me on the sofa. We ordered pizza for dinner so we put them in their crates while we ate. Then after that we fed them - supervised of course - and that went VERY well. I took their food bowls up as soon as they were done to avoid any issues :o)

A new addition!

As you know our Nanci dog passed away on Dec. 1. At the beginning of February Adam and I decided to start looking for another dog. We really are a two dog family - and Calhoun is used to having a play mate. He just seemed lonely and we definitely felt a void with only having one dog around. We decided to look for a cocker spaniel that was with a rescue organization. My good friend Meg volunteers for a wonderful organization called Animal Compassion Network in Asheville, NC. I went to their website and found the most precious liver and white cocker spaniel named Callie. She turned a year old in January. She was dumped at a high kill shelter in Tennessee some time in January by her former owners. She has some eye problems so we are guessing they decided they couldn't afford her medical needs. Thankfully ACN found her and scooped her up! She was flea infested and had a severe eye infection. The vet cleared her up really fast and she lived with a foster mom from then on.

We had started the adoption process in February. This organization has a very through adoption process - and for a very good reason. They want to make sure they place their animals in the best possible homes. We had planned to go up to Asheville on March 1, but that was the weekend I had the miscarriage and ended up in the ER. Adam and I decided on Friday night (in our usual spur of the moment fashion) that we wanted to go to Asheville Saturday! We called ACN and they were so excited - they had the grand opening of their new store Pet Harmony this weekend so it worked out perfectly.

We went up to Asheville Saturday morning and instantly fell in love with Callie. She's the sweetest most gentle dog. She is absolutely perfect. We went ahead and filled out all of her adoption paperwork so she is ours!! Ann, the adoption coordinator, is going to bring her to our house on Wednesday. The final step in the adoption process is a home visit, so unfortunately Ann has to drive here from Asheville!

We are so excited that we finally got our little Callie. She is the perfect addition to our family. I have no doubt that she and Calhoun will get along wonderfully. He's never met another cocker, so it should be cute to see how he reacts to a dog that sorts looks like him, hehe!

Cute Overload

A little something from one of my favorite websites. If you ever need a good laugh, go to www.icanhascheezburger.com. They take really cute animals (mostly cats) and put the funniest quotes with their pictures, it's hilarious!

New Favorite Recipe! Seviche-Style Shrimp and Avocado Tacos

I made this for dinner last night. Let me just say that it is easy, involves NO cooking, and is delish!!! I love this type of food any time of year, but it would be perfect for a hot summer day or evening served with a yummy margarita or some sangria!

Look for cooked, peeled shrimp at the seafood counter; or quickly thaw frozen cooked, peeled shrimp in a colander under cold running water. Marinate shrimp in a nonreactive bowl, such as one that is glass or ceramic; an aluminum or copper bowl will react with the citrus juice to give the shrimp a metallic taste.

I used a can of drained Rotel because I hate chopping tomato and it's an easy short cut. I also used a pound of frozen cocktail shrimp - just thawed them under warm water and removed the tails. I served it with Uncle Ben's Spanish Rice.

Ingredients
3 limes
1 cup chopped seeded tomato
1 cup diced peeled avocado (about 1 avocado)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound cooked peeled medium shrimp
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas


Preparation
Finely grate rind from limes to measure 1 tablespoon; juice limes to measure 1/4 cup. Place rind and juice in a large bowl. Add tomato and remaining ingredients except tortillas; toss well to combine. Cover and chill for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Heat tortillas according to package directions. Spoon about 1/2 cup shrimp mixture down center of each tortilla; fold in half. Serve immediately.

Yield
6 servings (serving size: 2 tacos)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 261(27% from fat); FAT 7.8g (sat 1.3g,mono 3.8g,poly 1.8g); PROTEIN 19.5g; CHOLESTEROL 115mg; CALCIUM 114mg; SODIUM 498mg; FIBER 5g; IRON 3.1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 30.3g

In honor of daylight savings time...

I'm struggling to find something to blog about. Today is my mom's birthday, so happy b-day mom! My parents came to hang out with us for a while today and it was great to see them. In honor of daylight savings time, I'll post a fun spring picture of Azaleas in Georgia. Spring is a time for new beginnings, new life and new growth. What a great time of year!! I must remember to keep my Claritin close by, my allergies go crazy this time of year - I'm already feeling the effects of all the beautiful blooms we are seeing around here.

When it rains, the roof leaks

Weeellll, it has been a VERY rainy day around here. This morning I was watching the news and the keypad for our alarm system started beeping. Immediately after that, Brinks called. My heart was RACING, I wasn't sure what was going on - but of course my mind goes to the worst possible scenario and I had convinced myself in 30 seconds that we had a burglar who had cut the wires to our alarm system. Well that was not the case, it was just a low battery signal. But strangely after that, the whole system just went blank. That is NOT normal - the customer service people said something about a screwdriver and a transformer. That's when I said, "let me have my husband call you". Kent + screwdriver + electrical things = crispy fried Kent. When Adam got home he checked the coat closet that holds the Brinks control panel (i.e. expensive piece of equipment). He noticed that the closet was damp, so he kind of pushed on the ceiling and the whole damn thing fell in! So now we've got three companies coming out tomorrow to do estimates on the repair. Oh the joys of home ownership!

Here's the ceiling of the closet with a bowl set on the wire rack to catch any water


Here is the floor of the closet with the lovely mess

Fun with photography!

I got a new camera for Christmas. It's a Canon PowerShot SD850 IS. It's a great little camera with all sorts of cool features. One feature I recently discovered was the Digital Macro setting. It allows you to take really up close detail shots. Flowers are a great subject for this setting. Since I got so many flowers over the past few days, I figured I'd give it a shot! OH and my parents also gave me a tripod, so that makes it really easy to take the shots - you have to hold the camera VERY still! Here are some extreme close ups that I took this evening.

Retail Therapy

Today Adam took me to finally pick out my birthday present! He's heard me talk for months about wanting a new Coach purse. We went up the the Coach Outlet and I got the most beautiful leather Coach bag! I also got a wallet because they were having a great sale! He also hooked me up with a new pink bluetooth headset AND a thing that will allow me to play my iPod in the car. We had a great day enjoying the beautiful weather. Adam has done an incredible job taking care of me. He has done EVERYTHING around the house and not complained one time about it. He has taken time off work to be with me, and has been my rock during this time. I love my hubby!!

The end of our journey...

My doctor scheduled me for a D&C procedure on Monday. Basically it's a procedure they do for women who miscarry babies at a certain stage of pregnancy. Despite the horrible news, I had a nice birthday. I took it easy all day then Adam and I went out to dinner at a great restaurant called The Watershed. Then around 2 AM on Saturday all hell broke lose. I woke up with excruciating cramping and pain in my abdomen. I called the on-call doctor and she told me to take one of my 800 mg Ibuprofen pills. Well that never really helped, I waited for it to kick in but it never did. Around 4 we called her again. I was barely able to talk at that point due to the pain, I was shaking uncontrollably, and I was starting to get really nauseated. She said come on to the ER, she'd let them know we were on the way.

Adam packed up all my pills (thank goodness we had them filled already) and the paperwork for the procedure. The hospital, DeKalb Medical Center, is only about 20 minutes away but it felt like hours. Adam did really well though, I told him to drive as safely and fast as possible! As soon as we got there I got in a wheelchair and things got a lot worse. I will spare you all of the details. They immediately got us into a room and the nurse started taking care of me. I got an IV with some Nubain and Phenagryn in it, which helped me to relax and sleep. They also took my blood for the pre-op blood work. Finally around 11:30 they wheeled me into the OR for the D&C procedure. I remember getting on the operating table and them putting the mask on my face, then I woke up and was in recovery.

We were on our way home around 2:30 that day. Now I can say I know what labor is like, and it's not fun. It hurts and drugs are definitely a good thing! It was a physically and emotionally painful end to this story, but we're glad it's all over. We are looking forward to a speedy recovery so we can hopefully get pregnant again late spring/early summer.

Thanks to ALL of you for the emails, phone calls, flowers, and cards. The outpouring of support from our friends and family has helped us so much. We love you all!!