Update on Chloe

Well, we are back from the vet with mixed news. Chloe did have a relapse however the meds are doing their job in keeping her pain free. The plan is to keep her on pain meds for another ten days. When she comes off of them, if pain returns, the vet would like to do surgery. If the pain does not return, she will begin crate rest for 8 weeks this time. Please, please, please pray the pain does not return because surgery costs between 4000 and 5500 dollars and..... there is a 25 percent chance she could blow another disc again and we would have to start at square 1 all over again. She is resting comfortably in her crate and we have promised her if she is good and heals over the next few days, we will have a nice, big marrow bone waiting for her. Here she is on a much happier day beside the fireplace :(

Last Day of School!

Well, Ronnie has his last day of school at Claremont today. After teaching there for ten years, he will be moving to the highschool in the fall. I still can remember sitting in our first apartment listening to the principal offer Ron the job on our answering machine. We were so excited because we had been married for ten months and living off my salary while Ronnie finished up student teaching and looked for a job. Its pretty impressive to know now that over two hundred people applied this year for his job!
In other news, we head to the vet once again for poor Chloe. She's back on meds and full crate rest due to declining neurological symptoms. Please keep us in your prayers as today will give us answers as to what we will do next.

The Big 'M'

I'm pretty health conscious when it comes to choosing what Anna can and can't eat. In fact, we still have Valentine's candy in the cabinet that her friends at All for Twos gave us. I've never really liked McDonalds food and it certainly isn't good for you but after hearing our pastor talk about his kids always wanting to go to McDonalds for their 'happy meals', I realized that Anna is going to be 3 soon and has no idea even what a McDonalds is. I felt a little guilty like I'm a terrible mother for not allowing my child to experience a McDonalds cheeseburger and fries. It is almost like its a rite of passage or something. So anyway, Ron had to work late the other night and I packed her in the van and said, "We're heading to McDonalds for dinner this evening". She had no idea what it was asking "Mommy, Do you mean Old MacDonald's Farm?" Well, when we arrived, she didn't know what to do with herself. We threw caution to the wind and arrived without a bib or sippy cup our normal staples at any restaurant. Then I threw her for a loop when I said we could sit in the booth together -without a highchair! She looked at me like I had three heads or something. Well, we had the best time. She sat in the 'boot' as she called it, swinging her little legs, eating her greasy cheeseburger and dipping her fries in the ketchup. She thought it was so neat to drink milk with a straw and blow bubbles with it. The icing on the cake came when I told her all happy meals come with a surprise toy in them. She looked at me as if to say "It gets better than this???" After eating my cheeseburger, I was reminded why we hadn't been to McDonalds in years, but after seeing the smile on Anna's face as we walked out of there, I realized it was all worth it. I guess I'll have to introduce her soon to Burger King.

Back from the vet

Well, after a two hour visit, we are back with mixed news. While Chloe doesn't need eight more weeks for crate rest, she isn't repsonding as well as we'd like. The vet has the feeling that surgery is going to be necessary. He agreed to give crate rest more time but gave us information on surgery and its cost. Anna will be joining the workforce to pay for it :) Four thousand dollars to cover it all -Thank you God for creating pet insurance and for us having it! The next few weeks will tell. Please pray she is suddenly healed. Here are some pics I found of her the night we brought her home from the breeder.

Eight More Weeks of Crate Rest?

Well, we are headed back to the vet this morning. Chloe has been allowed out of her crate three times a day for ten minute walks but over the last few days, she has started to regress. She's in pain again and you can tell something is not right. We have a call in to the vet to see what the next step is. I'm pretty sure though we'll be back on crate rest 24/7 for the next several weeks. On a lighter note, we took Anna's crib rail down last night and turned her crib into a 'big girl bed'. She went straight to sleep like a champ -no issues at all! Hopefully that will continue. I didn't think we would have too many issues cuz she's never been one to give us a hard time about sleeping.

Not a Good Night

Last night we had a really bad thunderstorm. It wasn't so much the thunder, but lots of rain and HAIL! I couldn't believe how much noise it made hitting all the windows and the roof. It lasted for about 20 minutes but our path alongside our garden turned into a river. There is a deep hole where the water just eroded away all the dirt and grass. Unfortunately, we found a puddle of water in the basement -not bad at all but it means Ron will have to angle the ground away from the foundation near Anna's room. We've been keeping a very close eye on the basement when it rains since the foundation and crawl space are new and we don't know how they'll do in a storm. After things settled down, we headed to bed and Chloe decided to start in. She cried for an hour before finally going to sleep. We took her out several times to no avail. She seemed to be in some pain and I don't know if it was her back or if her ten minute walks three times a day -which the vet recommended were too much. We ended up giving her a sedative and now she's sleeping peacefully. I took her out this morning and its like nothing ever happened. No pain or anything. I'm wondering if maybe she was anxious from the storm?

Summertime Fun

Ron and I planted some beautiful ornamental grasses on our property line a few weeks ago. We've been watering them with the sprinkler each day in this hot weather we have been having. This weekend, we decided to take advantage of having the hose out and set up Anna's little sprinkler I found at Target for 1 dollar! She loved it and it kept her busy for quite a while. Ron got in on the act and streaked across the back lawn a couple of times until the neighbors came out and told him he was too old to be out without a bathing suit. Just kidding!

Pretty Smile

Here is a picture of Anna right before we left for church last Sunday morning. She wore this dress on her second birthday (last August) but I kept it in her closet over the winter just in case it still fit. I think she'll get one or two more uses out of it. Its looking a little short on her. I guess those string bean legs have been busy growing!

Butterfly Gardens!

Anna received a butterfly garden a few weeks ago. We sent our coupon in the mail for baby caterpillars and have been watching them grow over the last few weeks. We saw the whole process of making the chrysallis and then hatching into a beautiful butterfly. Yesterday afternoon we let them go. Good-bye butterflies! Have a nice life!

Summer Swelter...

Please don't hate me, but I have a child who has NEVER given me a problem about going to bed or staying in bed for that matter. Anna goes to bed every night at 8:00, by herself, and happily stays in there until the next morning at 8:00 when I go in to get her up. She's never once tried climbing out of the crib and although she'll call for me once in a while, she will happily stay in there until I come in to get her. The only problem, her bedtime/naptime routine are very strict. Everything has to be done in the correct order and everything (all her toys and clothes) must be in its correct place. This is usually not a problem until last week when I announced 98 degree whether did not require our usual undershirt, long sleeve pajamas, blanket sleeper and four blankets (we keep the heat down low at night here in the winter). My announcement met some serious opposition. To sweeten the change, we headed to Target to pick out some brand new, summer pjs. While I'm happy to report that she gave up the blanket sleeper argument, we still have to wear socks and four winter blankets. Last night when I went to check on her before I went to bed I could have sworn the girl snuck out of bed and poured an entire pitcher of water in the bed with her. She was sopping wet from so much sweating! She now has prickly heat rash all over her body and drinks an entire sippy cup of water the first five minutes of being awake. When I suggested this was not necessary, we had a major meltdown -no pun intended. Suggestions are welcome :)

Back to work...

I decided to go back to work part time since Anna will be in nursery school in the fall. I applied for a teaching assistant position at a nursery school fifteen minutes away from here. They accepted me and Anna will be in another class in the building too while I am teaching. I have mixed feelings about it. It will be nice to be with other adults and get dressed up (somewhat) but I'm going to miss Anna terribly. It is so silly because we'll drive together and be in the same program pretty much but still its making me realize she is growing up. I went in for this morning for the first time because they want me around for just a few days in June so I get an idea of what my responsibilities will be. Anna's program won't be ready till September so my dad watched her. The morning went well. There are ten children in our class however next year, we'll have sixteen. I had a nice morning out but was happy to come home to my sweet little girl again. I think I'll treat her to Dunkin Donuts when she wakes up from her nap :)

New Wheels

Well, we finally have retired the Neon, after ten years. Although it was a very, very good car to us, the last few months were pretty rough and I shudder to think all of the money we poured into it. After a few weeks of car shopping, we found this great deal for Ron. Although its a '98, it only has 33,000 miles and air conditioning -THAT WORKS!!!