Two Sad Good-Byes and Two New Family Members

Noelle has had horrible eczema and allergies since she was baby. She can go weeks with no signs of the eczema and then all of the sudden she will have it all over her body.  Kelly has taken her the Pediatrician several times and she has been given medication for when she does have a breakout however it doesn’t always work right away.  We’ve tried different lotions, soaps, shampoos just about everything you can think of. Then about six months ago she had a horrible breakout so Kelly took her to the Pediatrician again to see if there was anything else they could prescribe or suggestions that Kelly could do for her. There was a suggestion that the family dog, Pismo, could be part of the problem. If that really was the case that was a huge problem because every household in our family has a dog. At this point Kelly was desperate so she and Dave really needed to consider finding a new home for Pismo. They had tried everything else she could think of and nothing was working.  Noelle was scratching herself up to the point that she was bleeding so something had to give.  After a lot thought and prayer Kelly and Dave decided that they needed to find a new home for Pismo in hopes that Noelle would start feeling better.  They found a great home for Pismo with a family that loves her.  The day after Pismo went to her new home Kelly had the housekeepers come in a do a deep cleaning and overnight Noelle started getting better.  Every night for months Noelle would start out in her own bed and then end up in Kelly’s room because she would wake up in the night scratching until she was so miserable that she couldn’t sleep.  However, after Pismo was gone and all of her hair and dander was gone Noelle slept through the night in her own bed.  That was a HUGE accomplishment. Kelly and Dave knew at that time that they had made the right decision for their family. 

I wasn’t as ready to make the same decision.  Living alone is hard and can be lonely. Buttons had become part of my family and I couldn’t imagine having to get rid of her.  About 3 weeks ago it became clear that since Noelle spends so much time here that I needed to do the same thing.  It wasn’t an easy decision to make but it was the right one. I used a rescue agency to help find her a good home and last Sunday I received a message that they had found the perfect home for her.  I took her on Wednesday to meet her new family.  It was really difficult for me to do but I also know that it was the right thing to do.  I have received an email everyday since then with a picture and a story of her day.  The family that she is with lost their Boston Terrier in January and have been waiting to find what they said was the perfect dog and they have fell in love with Buttons.  I feel really good about how things have turned out and that Buttons is with a loving family that will take good care of her!

With all that being said Thomas and Noelle have really wanted a dog and have asked over and over about getting a new one.  My Mom and Chris had recently got a new Shih Tzu, Poochy, and Noelle had been around him several times and too all of our surprise she was fine.  She never broke out after being around the the dog.  Kelly did some research and found that Shih Tzu’s are good with kids and whatever it was that Noelle had a problem with with Pismo and Buttons was obviously less likely with a Shih Tzu.  They also have one at her day care and she hasn’t had any problems with that dog.

One day while she and Dave were out shopping at Lowes there was a lady with two Shih Tzu puppies in her cart.  After sometime thinking about it they took the kids to the lady’s house and see how she would do.  Noelle didn’t have any problems so Kelly decided it was the right thing to do.  So, now we have two members of the family.

Noelle with Ollie (he will stay at Kelly’s house and come to mine on the weeks that she works.)

Karly with Salem (He will stay at my house. And yes he was named after my favorite show Days of Our Lives…. I know ridiculous but it fits him perfectly. )

 

They are good dogs and the kids love them.  Noelle can’t seem to get enough of them and carries them around just like this all the time.  The best part….. no allergy or eczema problems.

Another example of how things happen for a reason.  Pismo is doing great at her new home and the family really needed a good family dog for their son.  Buttons is with a great family that had lost their dog and is in love with her already.  Lastly, Thomas, Noelle and Karly have two perfect dogs that make the family complete without making anyone sick!!!!   

Oh Snap!

A few weeks ago I was outside playing with Buttons and then I went inside to get a drink.  When I opened the door to go back outside Buttons ran into my leg with her head.  After a little more than two weeks the bruise still looks like this.

You can’t really tell there but it’s about the size of a softball.  I don’t think I have ever had a bruise like this before.  Buttons is one crazy dog!!

Buttons vs. hearing aids who won?

Earlier this year my Dad ventured out and got himself hearing aids.  Kelly and I were very impressed and proud of him for doing this on his own. So, during the summer when we noticed him not wearing them anymore we were disappointed.  Every time we saw him we asked him why he wasn’t wearing them and he would say he didn’t like wearing them on the weekends, he forgot to put them in, he already taken them out for the day excuse after excuse. 

Then one Sunday when we were at his house watching football he went in to take a shower and came back down with a little baggie and said this is why he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids. 

Buttons was staying with him while I was living with Kelly.  Well one day (months earlier) when he went into to take a shower he took them out and put them on a towel on the bathroom counter. Buttons had gotten the towel off the counter and got a hold of the hearing aids and chewed them up!!! 

My Dad knowing that I would be devastated to know that she destroyed them decided not to tell me or Kelly.  He thought he would save up some money and get new ones and then tell us.  So the day prior to him telling us he decided to call the audiologists office to order new ones and found out the his warranty covered them 100%.  Now that’s a good warranty.  He had new ones within a couple of weeks.

Bad Dog Buttons, Bad Dog!!

 

HOME SWEET HOME

Back in January I decided that I was going to purchase a house this year.  I didn’t really have any expectations and I had no idea how to do it but I knew if I was ever going to get to be a homeowner that now was the time.  Kelly was planning on putting the house that I was living in up for sale and had hoped to have it sold by the time Karly came.  Although I knew I wanted to buy a house the whole idea of it made me nervous and gave me anxiety.  So I put it off and put it off until it was too late.  Kelly put her house up for sale in April and it sold the first week that it was on the market.  I had to be out by the end of May.  I ended up moving in with Kelly and Dave the second week of May and Karly came just a couple weeks later.  After Karly came buying a house got put on the back burner.  Everyone's focus was on Karly and getting her well enough to come home from the hospital and then once she was home other things took priority. 

For some reason things in my life have always been just a little bit harder to achieve than normal.   I honestly never thought that I would be a homeowner.  I have always dreamed of having a house of my own but in the back of my mind I never thought that it was possible for a single person that makes just a decent living would be able to afford to buy a house alone. I tried to prepare by saving as much money as possible, staying out of debt and keeping my credit score high.  That way if the time ever came that it would be possible I was prepared.  I had learned to appreciate the things I had and be grateful for the opportunities that I had to experience new things. I was content with my life.  I have a great job that I love going to each day,  a job that allowed me to support myself and have a little extra at the end of the month to put into savings,  a great family that is loving and supportive,  a few really good friends that genuinely love me  would do anything for me,  2 nephews and 2 nieces that I adore and make me happier than they will ever know and a dog that I love. 

Then one day my Mom called and said that a house came up for sale down the street from her and she thought I should take a look at it. At first I was really resistive and didn’t want to go see it because I thought I would get disappointed and in my mind there was no way that I would ever be able to get a house on my own. She didn’t give up though and called me everyday for a week asking if I had called to set up an appointment to go see it. I decided to call, Sheri Midgley she had just got done selling Kelly’s house and she has been a family friend for several years.   Sheri got right on it and scheduled an appointment for later in the week .  I ended up  really really liking the house and thought it was perfect for me and Buttons.  I went ahead and put an offer on it.  After several days of not hearing from the bank that owned it the call finally came in.  I was out bid. I was really really disappointed.  After that one I kept looking at houses in the same neighborhood. I ended up putting offers on 3 other houses.  One of which I actually got and had a contract and then someone stole the air conditioning unit from it and the owner didn’t want to replace it so I ended that deal. At that point I was done.  I was tired of getting disappointed and I didn’t really see anything in my price range that I liked.

Then out of the blue one day I decided to look at a house that had been listed for awhile that I really liked but it was out of my price range.  It was my lucky day though. They had lowered price  that day and it was in my price range.  I had Sheri take me by to see it again and then had my parents look at and decided that this was the one!  I put an offer on it on August 16th.  Then a week later found out that there were other offers and the seller wanted time to think about the offers.  He finally decided to take my offer! I was so stoked and so grateful.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  I can honestly say that I have never been so stressed and filled with anxiety as I was during this process.  I was physically ill for weeks and was on the chicken broth, 7- up, yogurt and graham cracker diet for several weeks.  I vomited in more parking lots and public bathrooms than I can count.

On October 28th I was sitting at the table carving pumpkins with the kids and just started to cry out of nowhere.  I was supposed to hear from the mortgage company earlier in the day  if the loan was going to be approved. A few days earlier I found out that the bank had made a mistake on my credit report regarding an old student loan that had been paid off years ago but showed up as disputed.  It had to be removed from my credit report immediately in order for the loan to be approved. I thought it was going to take a miracle for the bank to notify the credit reporting agency and for the credit reporting agency to get it removed within the time frame that the seller gave us. All of the sudden that evening  it just hit me that I hadn’t heard anything from the mortgage company.  I took that as bad news.  But 5 minutes later I received the call saying that the house was MINE! I just needed to go to the title company to sign the papers the following week.  I couldn’t believe it.

 

Finally after almost 2 1/2 months I got the keys to MY HOUSE on November 1st!!!  I have never been so excited, proud, or grateful in all my life.  I had finally done it.  I finally had something of my very own that I worked really hard for and earned on my own.  For a few moments (in private) I shed a few tears.  I was getting ready to start a new chapter of my life and I am excited to see what will happen next.

 

The day had finally come!!!  The following day I went and ordered the carpet and had it installed a couple of days later.  Called the moving company and scheduled them for the day after.  My Dad and Dave worked really really hard for several days before I moved in to get an indoor/garage kennel made for Buttons. They mowed the lawns (I have a corner lot so there is a HUGE front and backyard) and installed locks in the house. And Dave spent an entire day hanging up blinds throughout the house.

 

Horrible picture but the only one I have.  Sorry guys!!!!

My Mom came in and lined cabinets.

Chris fixed the leaky bathroom sink, caulked the shower, and hung the blinds in my bedroom.

I choose the absolutely worst day to move.  The first big storm of the year. Moving in the rain stinks!!!  Hiring a moving company was the best decision and use of money that I have ever made.

After the movers left, Kelly came with the kids to help unpack.

     

Then Kelly came and spent the following week with me.  She helped me unpack and organize everything. She bought me shelves for the garage, a new shower head, a doorbell, more things than I can even list.  I truly have the most supportive and loving family and I couldn’t have done any of this without them.   They stood by me through the entire process.  Putting up with my tears, my disappointments, excitement, my vomiting, and never once was there a complaint by any of them. I will never be able to repay them for what they have done.

I also have to say that I had the best real estate agent around.   She walked me through everything and kept me calm when I thought I was going to loose my patients with the whole deal. Every single time I emailed her I got a response within 30 minutes.  If I left her a message she called me back within the hour. It didn’t matter what day it was or what time it was. She went out of her way to explain things to me that I didn’t understand.  She went above and beyond in every aspect of buying this house. So if you live in the area you should contact her.  Her website is http://sherimidgley.com

Here are some before and after pictures of the house. I haven’t gotten everything decorated the way it should be because I’m going to decorate for Christmas this coming week so I didn’t want to put everything up and then take it all down again the next week. I’m hoping this coming weekend to get the rooms organized a little better and all of the holiday decorations up.  I’ll put better pictures up then.

 

Family room  

Kelly and I put the cabinet together and hung it all by ourselves!

my room

Thomas’ room

Noelle and Karly’s room

So there it is My HOME SWEET HOME!!!  I have just spent my first week here alone and it is going to take sometime to get used to but I’m loving every minute of it. 

 

My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week!

This week was just one of those weeks.  Nothing went the way I wanted it to and and nothing went as planned. 

It all started at  beginning of the week when I started to think about packing up the house for the move. Monday and Tuesday night I came home after work and packed boxes until 10:00pm.  Tuesday I was yelled at by the CFO at work for something that I did that my boss specifically asked me to do.  There was never an apology by any of them.

Wednesday afternoon I got a call  from a lady at church that I team teach with (we teach the six year olds).  She had a family emergency and needed me to teach this coming Sunday.  I really wanted to tell her I couldn’t because I was so tired and felt so overwhelmed with work and the move but I knew that I should.  So, I said yes and asked her to drop the class materials off at my house.  When I got home from work they were there.  I sat and reviewed the lesson and thought it would be OK.  I hate public speaking and get really nervous when I have to.  I’m not really sure why teaching six year olds would make me nervous but they do.  To take my mind off of that, I decided to pack more boxes until Kelly and Dave would be there to drop Noelle off to spend the night.  Noelle and I played for awhile before Thomas was dropped off.  I got them both in the bath and into bed by 8:30.  At 9:30 I decided that I couldn’t do anymore and decided to go to bed.  I put Buttons in her crate in my room and went to sleep.  Sometime later I was woken up by some guys laughing.  When I first woke up I thought I was dreaming.  I laid in bed for a few minutes and then heard someone walking in the rocks in my backyard.  Still thinking I was hearing things, I looked to the window, from my bed. I saw two people at my window.  Now I knew I wasn’t dreaming. 

For those that know me, know that I have always been scared to stay home alone for fear that someone would break in.  I can’t tell you how many times I have thought about what I would do if I was ever in this situation. Once I was in it, I did nothing that I thought I would. 

I laid still in my bed until I could hear them walk away from the window.  I grabbed the phone next to my bed and literally rolled out of my bed to the floor and called 911.  I was lucky that I got a dispatcher right away.  She kept me pretty calm on the phone while I was waiting for the police to arrive.  All I could think about was how I was going to get to Thomas and Noelle if these people  got into the house.  The dispatcher asked me if I was armed and for someone that is scared to be alone, I felt really stupid to say “No” and that I didn’t even have a baseball bat.  It felt like an eternity but was really probably only 4 to 5 minutes the police came to the door.  They looked around the the backyard and around the house but the guys had already got away.  During all of my my talking and the police coming into the house and making noise the kids and Buttons managed to stay sound asleep.  Some guard dog Buttons is!!! 

After the Police left I called Kelly and told her what had happened.  I was still shaking like a leaf and was scared that the people would come back after the police left so she had Dave come and pick the kids and I up and take us to her house to sleep.  I honestly don’t think I have ever been so scared.  I’m thinking that they were young guys thinking the house was empty because it’s for sale and when they saw that someone was still living there they took off.  Regardless I have decided not to spend another night there.  I was planning on moving to Kelly’s in a couple of weeks anyways so I have decided to move in now.  I spent most of yesterday packing up the house and will spend all day tomorrow packing and hopefully by the end of the week the majority of the work will be done so the movers can pick it all up and take it to storage. 

As and added bonus to the bad week, Noelle woke up with fever this morning and terrible cough so I had to call for a substitute teach my Sunday school class.  I’m crossing my fingers that this coming week will be a much better one!!!!

On the positive side I love spending time with Kelly and the kids and I’m looking forward to being able to be here when baby Karly arrives.   

Oh for the love of………. STICKS

The last few months have been crazy at my house.  The loss of Indy, bringing Zipper and Buttons home, Zipper leaving, several family birthdays, vacation, a TON of drama at work and putting the house up for sale.  During all of the craziness I’ve been trying to train Buttons and just spending time getting to know her and her personality.  She is a much different dog than Indy.  I forgot how much work a puppy is.  I think we have made a lot of progress.  She is sitting on command, is crate trained and house trained.  We’re getting to be a happy little family and I grow to love her more each day!!

  

This past week I took her to get spayed, have her dewclaws removed and to get microchipped. It was very difficult for me to leave her at the Vets office. The staff at the office knew that I was nervous and said that they would call me as soon as she was done. I dropped her off on my way to work and by the time I had gotten into my car I already had tears in my eyes.  All the emotions of having Indy at the Emergency Hospital came back.  I quickly reminded myself that this was a completely different situation and these procedures are done everyday. They called at 2:30 to say they had just finished with her and she was doing OK.  I picked her up at 5:30 and I could tell that she was not happy with me and did not feel well.  I got her home and put her in my bed to rest.

    She had four difficult days following and I was pretty worried about her.  The last couple of days have been much much better.  She is starting to get her personality back and is started to eat and drink like normal.  The Vet instructed me to keep a close eye on her (since she had a couple of difficult days following the procedures)  and keep her inside with limited activity for two weeks.  That is not any easy task with a puppy.

Ever since Zipper moved Buttons has had a fascination with sticks.  Everyday when I get home from work she has brought another stick into the garage.  It’s amazing to me how she is getting these sticks threw the “doggie door”.  It isn’t that big.  I would love to have a video camera on her while she is doing this. 

 

I’ve been letting her go outside to go to the bathroom and then making sure she comes right back in.  Sunday, I put her out and then ran to the bathroom myself. When I got back somehow she had gotten a stick stuck in her “helmet”.

How in the world did she do this????  Then yesterday I let her out again and went quickly to change the laundry.  I couldn’t have been gone that long but when I got back… she had brought these two sticks back to the door with her and then went to stand in the sun. 

These were today's finds….    

 

and lastly….

 

Oh for the love of….. Sticks.  I guess I’m not keeping a good enough eye on her.