Sandy Girl

Our Sandy Girl gave us quite the scare recently. She was having some difficulty breathing after coming back from a walk in the hot, humid, south. After some time, BeBe and PawPaw were able to get her calmed down and breathing okay. But the next day, she had a similar episode and so BeBe made an appointment for her to see the vet. Well, Sandy Girl doesn't like going to the vet. As soon as you get there, she starts panting and shaking. And she did just that when Mama took her in, which sent her into another episode and she was really struggling to get any breath. They took her from Mama and tended to her in the back and had to put her on oxygen and sedate her to calm her down.

The diagnosis: laryngeal paralysis (common in older, large breed dogs). Her vocal chords aren't moving as much as they should and they were getting swollen and inflamed when she would get hot or worked up/stressed out. It was causing her airway to close. The vet described it as trying to breathe through a collapsed straw. They had to transfer her to the emergency clinic because her condition required specialty care and perhaps some further tests that they could do there.

PawPaw joined them at the regular vet and helped carry BeBe and Sandy to the ER vet. My understanding is that Sandy was so excited to see PawPaw, that she got too excited and they had to get her calmed down again. They were finally able to transfer her. The ER vet recommended a tie-back surgery. They would tie back one of her vocal chords so that she would always have an airway. The complication with this procedure is that she wouldn't be able to close her airway when eating and drinking and could aspirate.  After some time though, the dogs seem to get used to it and don't have any difficulty. Hopefully.

Of course, B-man was in the field during all of this. I was a nervous wreck. BeBe was too. PawPaw, as usual, was our voice of reason. The surgery was big bucks too. I didn't know what to do. So, I decided to send her home on sedation meds until I could talk it over with B-man. So BeBe and PawPaw took her home and she did pretty good on the meds. B-man called and I talked it over with him. He made the choice so easy for me. Thank you, Honey.   We had to give our Sandy Girl a chance. She's old, yes (13). But, she's so healthy and spry otherwise. She could go on to live her happy laugh after the surgery. So, we scheduled the surgery and waited.

I thought of all of our times together. My Sandy Girl. She was born under BeBe and PawPaw's front porch. We've had her from the beginning. She moved with me to Colorado and was my first battle buddy. She is always happy to see you. Always. She is so loyal too. Before we moved here, she followed me everywhere I went and joined me to and from the baby's rooms on multiple nighttime nursing missions. I would try to tell her to stay, but she would come anyway. Following me anywhere. I think she's following BeBe around the same way now.
She has THE softest fur of any dog I've ever met. And it' still soft at 13 years old.

I'm happy to report that she's recovering well. PawPaw said they must've given her a bath and groomed her up real good b/c she looked so pretty when he picked her up after surgery. They are having to prepare her foot in meatball size portions for now and she's on a limited activity restriction for a couple of weeks. But seems to be doing well.

I miss my Sandy Girl and our Mur Mur!!! The brown one has reportedly been a little jealous of the attention Miss Sandy has been getting. :)
Siblings.

Also, BeBe and PawPaw, feel free to correct me on any mistakes I've made in the telling of her story. I was kind of a blubbering mess during the whole thing and might not have it all right.

I also can't thank you enough BeBe and PawPaw for taking care of our 4 legged babies. They love it at your house. In fact Sandy would sleep in the car all the way across country and barely even look out the window when we would drive home for visits. But the MOMENT we would turn down CCR, she knew it and would perk up and start wagging her tail. She always knew when we were close to home.  And was/is always glad to be there.

Thanks to technology, I was able to Face Time with her throughout the ordeal. She can't really see me, but she can hear me. :)

After her visit at the ER vet. She was pretty zonked out here.

I had to see her one more time before they took her in for surgery.

HOME!

After surgery.

We love you Sandy Girl and Mur Mur!!

Fishing

B-man encouraged Boo and I to take a fishing trip. He's so busy with work and studies, it's hard for him to get away for a full day of activity. B-man went fishing our first summer here (although it was really late in the season) and really wanted us to have a chance to go. So, while B-man was in the field, I got a sitter for Bit, and Boo and I set out on a fishing adventure.

It rained and rained the night before our fishing trip and on the drive up to the fishing spot. Rained. Rained. Rained. I kept thinking, what are we doing? Boo is going to be miserable and then I'm going to be miserable. We arrived at our destination and the guide was all get your rain gear and let's go. Ok, so we were really doing this. Boo started to cry when putting on his boots. I swore I would never take him anywhere ever, ever again if he didn't get it together (not my best parenting moment, but it's true). Turns out he wasn't crying about the rain, but b/c his sock was all bunched up in his boot and he couldn't get it on. Cry-worthy? Probably not. But it was easily fixed.

We hopped on the guide's boat and headed up the river.  It was wet and chilly. And Boo didn't complain at all. I couldn't believe it. We arrived at our first spot and got to fishing. A guy that was also fishing with us caught one first and when Boo saw it flapping around in the water, he was outta there! He kept saying, those fish are WILD! So, he would help me cast and reel, but when we got a fish on, he would head to the front of the boat. Lol.

It stopped raining and the sun came out! Yay! We continued to fish and we caught our limit. 2 per/person. We were fishing for silver salmon. The guide was slightly bossy. He was helping one gentleman whose license was going to expire in just a couple of hours and he was barking orders at him to the point where the guy just froze. No matter which way he moved, the guide was hollering something. I thought to myself, oh hell. This is not going to go well.  Just wait until he tries to help us.  I don't even understand the fishing terms he's using.  And from the looks of the guy the guide was "helping", he didn't either. Which actually made me feel a little bit better. We were all novices. Now, I know the guide just wanted us to CATCH FISH. That's his job and that's what he gets paid for, so I just had to let it go and listen and hope to God I could follow his instructions! We started catching fish right away, so I think that took some pressure off of all of us, guide included. In fact, we all caught our limit in 3 hours. Pretty awesome!

The rain came back in on our ride back to the landing. But we were happy as clams because we had our fish! Boo and I caught the biggest ones on the boat.  It was a big adventure and one that I was glad to share with our Boo. I hope it's one that he will always remember.

Anchorage Museum

Boo starts kindergarten on Tuesday. I'm not ready to talk about it. Just know there is a lump in my throat as I sit here and type and think about him going off to school.

So, rather than talk about that, I'll fill you in on our recent adventures. B-man had to go to the field for some training for a couple of weeks in August. The little ones and I tried to stay busy by checking out some things we haven't done yet. The Moms Club was hosting a play date at the Anchorage Museum, so we joined them. The kiddos had a blast. And they were quite well behaved. I rather enjoyed myself as well.

Giant bubble making was a big hit.

Keep it steady.

Starfish!

Anemones. All of the creatures were found along the shores in Homer.

Picnic lunch afterwards.

I'm trying to get caught up on posts again, so there will be several over the next couple of days as we near the start of school.

Jumping in the Rain!

The temps outside are getting cooler. Which means one thing...time to prepare for winter.
The little ones have outgrown their boots.

Let the search begin.
I found some for Bit from last season on sale at 6pm.com.
I had to do some more searching for Boo's boots. They're still being shipped.

They day after Bit's arrived, we set out to play in the rain.
If we wait for it to stop raining, we might run right into snow. That's how fall works around here. Rain.....snow. 

And I'm not ready to hibernate just yet.

Lil Bit was more than enthusiastic about playing in the rain in her "new flower boots".
Boo was not as excited, but in the end he couldn't resist.

Backyard Fun!

Ring around...

...the rosie.

A pocket...

...full of posies.

Ashes,

ashes.

We all...

...fall down!

Soccer and VBS (sort of)

Boo is playing soccer this summer. He's playing alongside other five and six year old children.  His team name? The Huskies.  He plays so hard out there. Just running and chasing the crowd. :)  There are a few on his team who really seem to 'get it' when it comes to strategy and where to stand on the field, etc. He isn't one of them. Bless his heart. He just runs around in a herd mentality kind of way. It's so hard not to compare! Even mentally compare. I don't want to tell him he's great at it when he's not yet but I want to encourage him as well. So when he gets off of the field, I don't lie. I say, "I love watching you play soccer." Which is true. "I love how you try to go after the ball." Which is true. And, "You need to stop playing in the white chalk lines on the field and pay attention to the game." Which is true. Lol!
He'll get there. Right?
Of course he will. He always does, just in his time. You'd think I know that by now. Duh.

He definitely looks the part.
Soooo cute!
I love the way he looks so big and so little at the same time.

This is how he came off the field for a water break the other day. Hehe.

My BFF on the sidelines.

And at the park.
Not soccer related, just a cute picture of our girl.

The second half of the title of this post is VBS (sort of). Let me explain.

Boo and Bit didn't go to VBS this year. Vacation Bible School.  We haven't really found our church here in AK and the VBS on post starts with kindergarteners. Which means Bit couldn't go. So, I decided to do a low key version of VBS at home. I thought it would be fun (I used to love playing school as a child) and I thought it would help get me out of the mom-otony of it all. Get it? Momotony? I can't take credit for coming up with the word, but it just works so well.

 I found a free curriculum online concerning the Armor of God. I thought it would be right up our alley being an Army family and all. It talks about the armor that we can "wear" to battle evil in the world. Like truth and righteousness, etc. Well, it turns out our concrete thinking five year Boo old has a time understanding metaphors. "Where is my belt of truth? I don't see it." And he was serious. Where? Is? It?  "How can God live in heaven and in my heart? I think I believe in Jesus. I hope I do." His innocence as he made these statements had me in tears because he's so sweet and well, innocent. I was also frustrated because I didn't know how to answer his questions and because what I thought would be a 20 minute lesson was turning into an all day undertaking.

Is it magic, Mama?
Is the devil in every snake (uh...yes!)?
And it went on from there.

And our two year old? Well, she didn't want her pants to look at her. Can't say I blame her. That's all she had to say during our Bible School time. Well that and that she was hungry, of course.  She also just rolled around on the floor for most of it. Nice. ;)

Now let's go back for a minute. To the devil. So it turns out that this was the first time he had ever heard of the devil/satan. If I had been a thinking Mama, I would have thought about this and picked a different curriculum! I mean, we've talked about bad guys before, but not THE Bad Guy.
Let's just say, he was most concerned. And as we talked, I just knew he was not going to be able to let it go. Because he thinks like I do. I could just see his wheels turning. So, I just quickly moved past the devil. But he kept bringing me back. "What does he look like?" How does my belt (that I don't see) help fight the devil (that I don't see)?" I was in over my head. So I whipped out a coloring page and tried to lighten the mood. He didn't let it go so easily.

After our lesson, he spent all day "reading his Bible" and pretending he was battling the devil with the Truth.  He was serious about it. As he usually is.

So, it should have come as no surprise to me that the other night at his soccer game, I overheard him talking to his teammate... "Did you know that the dove is God's anemone?" 
Oh brother!
I'm pretty sure he was going for, "Did you know that the devil is God's enemy?"

The thought that immediately came to mind was, nailed it!

And by nailed it, I mean like this...

 (source)
B-man and I got so tickled at this picture one night on pinterest.
We could not stop laughing, because it's just spot on.
So, we always say nailed it when our finished products don't turn out as planned.

And it doesn't end there folks.
It should also have come as no surprise to me that Boo was terribly afraid of the devil that night and couldn't sleep because he was so scared that the devil was actually going to come get him. He was just beside himself. And all I could think at this point was a.)  This is my fault and b.) He is TOTALLY me. Poor baby. He's got a lifetime of worrying and irrational yet logical fear ahead of him.
I did my best to quell his fears and get his mind thinking about happier things...like the Disney Planes movie coming out soon. Whew! That seemed to work.

The next day, we took a very lighthearted approach to the second lesson on the breastplate of righteousness. Thankfully, it went much better.

He's been sick the last couple of days, so we're taking a break. Maybe forever.