Bunny Recovery

Bunny is recovering nicely. She got some outdoor time in today, and really loved it. She ate and drank, peed while standing up, visited with the neighbor kids, and joined us for a picnic on the lawn (though she passed on the chips and bbq pork sandwiches and went with wet dog food). She's not using her repaired leg as much as she should. In fact, she has regressed a bit and started hopping around on 3 feet instead. I'm not sure if that is due to the nerve damage, or possibly the fact that she went off her pain medication today. We'll see if she feels more comfortable on it later in the week. She looks happy, though!

La Center Days!

Saturday was the La Center "Our Days" Festival. It is a totally geeky small town event that I typically mock and ignore. However, this hopefully being my last year in La Center, I went out with my neighbor. We started at the Pancake Feed put on by the La Center Fire Department. Our neighbor, Fireman Steve, was in charge. Then we went garage sale-ing because La Center Days is the big garage sale day in town, and the city puts out a map of all the sales. Following the garage sales we went to the parade and saw the classic car show. Later on we went to some vendors, got brats and cotton candy, and took in a band. Then we topped off the day with the best thing ever... LAWN MOWER RACES!!!







The band in the park.









Lawn mower races! Look at them go!









Firement serving pancakes.









My favorite... a horse in a pink cape and top hat (it belongs to my neighbors and was in their front yard later!).







Larry, the local ice cream man, was in the parade. Note his name on his truck.








Classic Car Show.

A Terrible Accident

It's been a while since I blogged because it has been an insane week. Last Wednesday night I was sleeping contently in my chair, in a doped up post surgery haze. With a sore belly (stitches) and a lot of pain meds in my system, I decided that it would be a nice idea to leave the patio door open so that my exceptionally trustworthy clan of dogs could come and go as they pleased instead of making me get up and hobble to the door every few minutes.

When taking vicodin, Tavia tends to incorporate all sounds around her into dreamy dream land. Suddenly my dreams turned to screaming dogs. When the screaming did not stop, however, my conscious mind began to wake me up. It sounded as though another dog might have gotten into our yard and my kids had gotten territorial, because I definitely did not recognize the sounds going on. When I got outside, however, I saw the most horrible sight. All of the dogs scattered, and there was Bunny, bloody and screaming, laid out next to the fence. Our neighbor had been weed whacking, and the weed whacker chasing they always do had obviously taken a turn for the worse. One dog in particular, who will remain nameless, had Bunny's blood all over her. The others were not involved.

My neighbor rushed over, as I could not pick Bunny up due to my belly stitches. She and Q got Bunny to the car, and we raced off to the vet as fast as we could. She went into shock on the way there. Bunny was a good, strong girl and stuck it out all the way, though. Once we arrived, the vet techs came out with a muzzle (she started snarling at everyone) and a stretcher and got her inside. They stabilized her, got her started on pain meds, and evaluated the situation. I really did not think she would live through the night.

The initial evaluation was that Bunny needed some stitches, but that the wounds were not as bad as they looked. The plan was to take her into surgery the next day. Of course I was too drugged out to ask why stitches entailed surgery, or to mention that I thought I saw her front leg hanging out of it's socket when we picked her up out of the yard. Long story short, things kept getting found. After her first surgery was complete, it was discovered that her elbow was unstable and needed additional surgery in a few days. Then the injury to her side was so severe that the sutured skin began to rot. That wound had to reopened, cleaned, and the healthy tissue stitched back together. After 7 days at the vet, Bunny came home with lots of stitches, a drainage tube hanging out of her side, and orders not to walk on her newly repaired leg which contained a prosthetic and a bone something or other.

More on my million dollar baby's recovery later in the blog.

Upside Down Corgi

My favorite pose. Best when done by Bunny. For some reason it is just cuter when she does it!

A Tisket, A Tasket... A Corgi in a Basket!

I have only purchased one dog basket in my life, and the dog I got it for never laid in it, so I never bought another one. However, after Cosmo went on his mini-break last summer when my mom was in a wheel chair and we had too many dogs under foot, he came home spoiled rotten with organic dog food, a camo collar, and the very nice basket pictured here!



The Corgis LOVE the basket! I really need to get a second one, because Bunny actually kicked Cosmo out and took over. She said "Hey, I am an old girl who can't get on the bed anymore, so hand it over, whipper snapper!" Cosmo sleeps in bed with Quinn, mostly, so he is willing to share. Every once in a while he digs some nappy nap time in the basket, though.

My 3 Great Guys :)

I had to have a small surgery the other day, and the above arrived at my doorstep a few hours after I got home! Pretty flowers to look at and smell, and a snuggly teddy bear to curl up with while sleeping lots of long hours. Yay! Since Jeff can't be here to cater to my every need like he did when I had my wisdom teeth out, I thought this was a really sweet gesture, and it made my doped up day!

In addition to my boyfriend being a nice guy, my brother is also a really nice guy! He has been running around doing all sorts of favors for me. He even baked me muffins (and burnt his elbow on the stove), and cleaned house! I can tell he gets a little sick of me at times, but he has been a great sport and it's nice to see how much he really does care when it matters!

As if having 2 nice men in my life isn't enough, Bud (aka: the best dog ever) has been running around with me the past few days. Whenever I get up to do anything, Bud gets up with me and walks next to me slowly. And if I have to bend down or get back up, he comes over and lets me put my hand on him for support. Bud is smart! I think he missed his calling as a service dog.

It always happens to me...

My brother just came in the house and yelled "Tavia!!!" in his weird little voice that he makes, and without hesitating I yelled back "I'm on the toilet, hold on!!" Suddenly I hear laughter from multiple sources. Yeah... his friends had come in the house with him.

Picture Theif!

This is my fave pic of the bf (green hat), that I found while snooping on his photobucket page. He kind of looks like a little pothead sitting on the grassy knoll at his outdoor concert (sorry, I am from Oregon, grassy knoll=weed). Love, love, love the hat. Also the nice toned arms :) Very glad he doesn't have a beer belly like the guy with no shirt on in the background.

Morning Romps

No... get your mind out of the gutter. I mean morning romps with my dogs! Every day I have a new favorite dog, and I think that is how it goes when you have so many of them. Today my favorite is Cosmo. Yesterday he was my least favorite as he kept being a total goofball, coming to the door 2 minutes after everyone else got let in and I had already sat back down on the couch, and sleeping on my feet in 90 degree weather. Just annoying crap, all throughout the day. Today, though, he is my favorite. Since Q is gone Cosmo crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night, and he is the best little romper to wake up to. He jumps on my chest, rolls around, plays, gets hair up my nose, and is so much fun. I wish I had a web cam installed over my bed so everyone could see, but since a webcam over my bed would be very creepy, I don't. Pics above are of lots of dogs peeing (such a privacy invasion, I know) and my view of Cosmo while he lays on me. Look at those eyes!

Update on Life

Ah... little brother is spending the night at the neighbor's house, and that means blog time!

You know summer has finally hit in Washington when you check the 10 day forecast and there is not a day of rain to be seen. Yay! I've been taking advantage of the weather by painting the house. It's looking really good, and I even got the house numbers back up so people can find us again. I got sick of giving directions by saying "We are the 4th house in on the right... the one that is tan with brown trim on the bottom and blue on top, and we have no house numbers." The rainy season made my paint project come to a halt, but hopefully it will be done before the end of the month now.

Today my cousin came over and installed a new garbage disposal! My little 1/2 horsepower Badger 5 looks great under the sink! Little cousin went through plumbing school a couple years ago and is working his way up at a local plumbing company. What a handy relative, right?! He scared me a bit today when he sat down next to the sink and said "Well, this is my first garbage disposal." Everything worked out fine, though. Afterwards we bbq'd and ate fruit pizza, the new favorite dessert of everyone who tries it!

On a crappier note, I am having horrible allergies. I hear that it is a really bad year for them out here, which it must be, because I've never had seasonal allergies before in my life.

On an interesting note, I read an article on msn.com that says if I buy an average house today in Sugarland, TX I will have $80k in equity by 2012. Then it said if I buy a house in Portland OR/Vancouver, WA today I will have -$130k equity. Yes, for those of us that have not been in math for a few years, that was a NEGATIVE sign in front of the very big number. I'm not sure how that factors out since I already own a house, but since my equity is nowhere near the $130k mark now, I am assuming it means I should get my butt moved to Sugarland, TX.

And on the moving note. I don't wanna (insert whiny voice). I do wanna... I don't wanna. I can't make up my mind. My -$130k house out here is so cute and starting to look nice, and I really love my neighborhood. I would get a much nicer positive $80k house in Sugarland for quite a bit less. The whole moving thing is so daunting, though. If I had someone to fix my house, sell my house, find me a new house, time it all, and pack/move my crap we might be in business. Blah, blah, blah. This is the same crap I always say (Seriously, I was reading this over and I am literally sick of listening to myself). Basically I am just a wishy washy person. Throw in the fact that it really is nice visiting with family as often as I do, and that a lot of my old friends are here, it is pretty nice. Not a forever place, for sure, but kind of hard to leave. Just wait, though. If I make it to the next rainy season (which I doubt, I want to put the house up in August) my bags will be PACKED.

I picked a wicked fight with the bf yesterday. Yep, it was a doozy. Really not funny subject matter, but sometimes if you know your faults you just have to laugh at them. I'm only giving it small mention here, but it is really bothering me because I can be a particularly vile sort of bitch when I am in an emotional state. And I'm getting kind of sad about the mom thing. I really didn't give half a shit this time last month, and I think the people who get all sad around the time people die are really stupid and I make fun of them. I have to say the year mark really blows, though. Like 4th of July because last year was her last 4th of July and she actually mentioned that it would be her last 4th of July. And it was kind of a crappy one. I am also updating a lot of stuff in the house, which she always wanted to do, but we could never afford to do before. So I feel kind of bad that she didn't get to enjoy that. Plus today... what broke the old garbage disposal was the constant cancer puking and not being able make it past the kitchen sink. I SO hope nobody reads my blogs, but there was barf all clogged up in the disposal today when we took it out. Yuck.

On a FUNNY note... we all know that most Asians for whom English is a second language have difficulty pronouncing the letter R... right? So why did the Chinese girl who sits behind me at work have parents who thought it was a fabulous idea to name her cLara? Clara!!!!! She makes at least 3 calls a minute, and I have to listen to her all day saying "This is Cla-wha" and "I would like to talk to you about cwedit cawd pro-cess-ing?" Aaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right now I basically want a couple BFFs, a mom, a movie, some comfort food, and then the world could potentially be right again. Since my BFFs are scattered across the country, my mom is in a box (and the only other 2 moms who would work are in Texas), and sitting on my ass watching movies while eating sweet stuff, followed by salty stuff, followed by sweet stuff will make me fat, I am pretty much screwed. Lol. The whole cruddy emotional thing will definitely pass, but I kinda need a hug.

Sleeping Beauty

Thank goodness for camera phones, because when I woke up next to this I didn't want to disturb it. Lucy-pher looks like a little angel sleeping so soundly! I am pretty sure that a few seconds later puppy tried to rest her head on Lucy's butt, and Lucy jumped up, growled like a psycho, and vacated the premesis highly offended. We won't worry about that part, though.

"Stoopid" pics

I enjoy "stoopid" dog pictures almost asmuch as I enjoy the "stoopid" dogs. Here is what I woke up to the other morning! That's one crashed out puppy!

Lawn Statues Do Not Make Me Old (but if I start collecting them, stop me)

This is my new lawn statue. He was on sale for $12.99 at Hi School Pharmacy in Woodland. Whenever I am in Woodland I go to Hi School Pharmacy for the gummy sharks they sell. He caught my eye last week, but I decided that a lawn statue would be really lame, and one more thing to pack up and move. Then I went in this morning and he was still there. He's so cute with his little saxophone. His belly almost looks like a cockroach belly. He had to come home with me. His name will either be Clem or Spork (Miss C is obsessed with sporks this week and tossed in that suggestion). Any votes?

4th of July

Last night we did our annual 4th of July festivities with the cul-de-sac. We bbq'd over at the neighbors house and had great burgers and hot dogs... and a new dessert that we'd never had called fruit pizza. It basically has sugar cookie on the bottom as the crust, vanilla pudding on top of the crust, and then fresh fruit tops the whole thing off. I wasn't sure about trying it, but it ended up being really good! For the fresh fruit our neighbor used strawberries, kiwi and mandarin oranges. I would probably replace the oranges with something else, but the strawberries and kiwi were the perfect flavor to go with the cookie and yogurt. The pictures I got aren't that great because it was so dark, but I tried:

Q and his friend A staring up into the sky to see the show.



Q with a sparkler








Q and A with bottle rockets









Q running around with a sparkler.


Fireworks! (Yes we can do the big stuff in Washington).

And There Goes the Sprayer...

After walking outside to water my plants and discovering that Lily had eaten the sprayer off the end of the hose (in the midst of last night's bikini/brownie incident), I have come to the conclusion that my puppy must be bored. I've known it for a few months now, because this chewing thing has been going on a while. I'm so torn. She is the cutest, sweetest little puppy... and incredibly smart. She's one of those Phoebe type dogs who has a great personality and is beautiful to boot, and you love them so much, but then they turn around and do nasty little things because they are protesting something that you are not providing for them (fortunately Phoebe found everything she needed and more down in Medford with Carolyn, and they are wonderful friends).

I should have known better than to keep this puppy that I found (she was mangy and skinny and had been hanging around my aunt's house in the country) because we're just not an active household. We're a lazy dog household. My dogs are really happy sitting next to the computer, behind the chair, next to the couch, or wherever I may be at the moment. Lily does the same, but any time we do not provide human interaction of some sort she becomes destructive. What to do? Do I start giving her way more attention than the other 4 dogs (my little cranky Texas chihuaua mix gets so angry)? Do take her on walks and train her while leaving the other dogs at home, even though they like to go, too? Am I even able to train a dog since I never really have? Once Q is back at school in the fall am I supposed to crate her all day? Or do I find her a new home while she is still young because 5 dogs is too many? Who would take her, though? What kind of home is even right for a dog that requires constant companionship? And do I really want to give her up? There's nothing better than when she curls up next to me in bed and gives puppy kisses! Hmmm... just some frustrated thoughts on my day off. I am going to go take a shower now. Lily will most likely come with me and sleep outside the bathroom door like she always does... because she can't stand to be alone. Blogs are so great. Now that I have all my thoughts typed out I wonder if she is lonely, not bored.

Revenge of the Bikini

I am always one for graphics, but I will spare y'all the giant pile of puke sitting in my living room right now (I need a sec before I go deal with that). Yes, you guessed it. The bikini came back up. That's what you get for eating my fabulous black and white striped, makes the girls look incredible bikini, Lily! I hope it hurt a little on the way back out.

I must say, this sort of reminds me of the legendary thong at the dog show story.

Slumber Party!

My neighbor text messeged me this pic of the boys alsleep on the trampoline this morning. She took over summer slumber party duty for last night. Q would kill me for putting this pic on my blog (lol, so far I have been able to keep the blog a secret to avoid ridicule) but if he finds it on my desktop it will surely get deleted, so here it is for safe keeping.

4th of July Corgi Benadryl Dosage?

Well I just emailed Carolyn, but for the sake of covering all bases (since it IS a holiday weekend and not everyone will be on their computer) do any of my Corgi people out there know the proper dosage of Benadryl to give poor freaky Cosmo for tonight? I don't recall fireworks bothering him in the past, but they all started late last night and he flipped his lid, poor guy. I wish I could have gotten a picture of him sleeping up on my pillow, REALLY close, attached to my head for you all. Of course this is also the year I tried to be the cool sister and got a ton of boy friendly (aka: extra loud and obnoxious) fireworks to go along with the giant neighborhood display that the adults will do tonight.

7/3/08

It's been a day...

First, check out this picture of bloated puppy. Compare to picture of skinny puppy (a couple posts down). Bloated puppy got angry today when I went to work. Bloated puppy broke out of Q's room about halfway through the morning (teenagers sleep til 3pm). I came home to find that bloated puppy had eaten the following: One pan of chocolate brownies (foil covering, serving knife and pan were on the kitchen floor). One 10 pack of tortillas for soft tacos (and a little bit of the plastic wrapping they were in). One brand new wonderful shirt from Old Navy. One bikini top (make that one fabulous, black and white striped, makes the girls look amazing bikini top). One t-shirt.

Then...

Anyone done that thing where they aren't paying attention and take something out of the oven without the oven mitt on? Yeah. That hurts.

Rude Little Puppy

Do we suppose Bunny appreciates this naptime position? Puppies can be so rude, but this particular puppy really has no concept of personal space.

Belly Up, Cosmo!

Not the best quality picture in the world because I snapped it at 3am, with my cell phone, in the dark, as I was waking up from being way too hot because the boys took the fan out of my room to keep their slumber party cooler. Let's take a poll... who else's Cardigan sleeps like this? And does it still crack you up even though they have been doing it every day for as long as they've been alive? So ridiculous!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T... oh, what it would mean to me!

Ok, so this is a little embarassing to admit, but I just got kicked out of my neighbor's house by her 8 year old. See, I am on kid watching duty today. I stay home on Wednesdays to be with Q, take him to summer school, and basically have that mid-week break that says "Even though I have to work for a living, I really want to be home with you at least one day a week." Since summer school is on break this week I also offered to watch the neighbor kids on my Wednesday off. Her kids are usually gone while she works, but the boys like spending time together so I offer this once in a while when I can.

The teenagers absolutely do not respect me. My brother and his friend always go to the other house. They want their independence, and I have to watch really closely or they will leave the cul-de-sac without telling me and ride off on their bikes to the park or wherever. The 8 year old likes to tag along with them, and I really have to keep an eye out because obviously I am the one responsible for the day.

Today I was trying to explain this to the teenagers. It went something like "Ok, what are your plans for the day? Please come ask before you leave the cul-de-sac. If you are going to be over at the house I am not in, please keep the 8 year old with you." I even tried to use logic such as "If we had an emergency I would need to be able to find you quickly." They of course mocked me, and it all went downhill from there. I asked why they had to be little punks... they laughed at me and said I sounded 50 for using the word punk. Finally I got frustrated and told Q to go home for a minute... and the 8 year old said something along the lines of "You can't tell him what to do. This is our house and when our mom is not home we are in charge." Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Q and I never have problems of this magnitude when he is not with the neighbors. He tries to sound cool in front of his friends, but I always get a text or a head popping in the door asking "Can I go do such and such?" Even the neighbor kids, on their own, are good kids. The combo of all of them together is awful, though! Right now I think I will go over and just hang out with them (which means I get absolutely nothing done for the day except being harassed and pushed around on the trampoline). How on earth do you get a teenager to respect you?

Little Kids and the Funny Things They Do

I asked Miss C this question and she said I should blog about it. Isn't it funny when little kids go "Look at me, look at me!" because they want you to watch them do something... and then when they do whatever it is, you find yourself wondering "Wtf did they just do?" and "Wtf am I supposed to say about it?" This happened to me the other day over at my neighbor's house. She has an 8 year old. Really cute little boy, and he was hanging out in the kiddy pool while we were all on the trampoline. Then it came... "Tavia! Look at me!" Then I watch the 8 year old lay down on his belly in the pool, and roll from one end to the other. And I found myself asking "Why did he do that?" and "What am I supposed to say?" Was he excited that he held his breath? Was he happy that he can roll? Um.... ?? Just wondering if anyone else has had that experience...

Stay at Home Moms Amaze Me

I am about to admit to being a horrible daughter. Whenever my mom and I had a fight I would ask her two questions. 1) "What the hell do you do AT HOME all day?" and 2) "Why do you spend so much on groceries?" Moms, you are all laughing at me right now, I can hear it!

Answer to Question #1: PPpppfffffffffsplat!!!!!! Ok, sorry, this is gross... but Bunny has an ulcer and I often wake up to this sound and a giant pile of runny poo. Thank goodness we have Pergo. Before we had carpet, and now I know why my mom wanted to strangle Bunny sometimes. I also know why she wished we weren't absolutely in love with all 5 of our dogs. Because they have to eat, twice a day! Now there's an ordeal. Bunny barks at my heels all the way through the house, Cosmo trips me, Bud is scared of the chaos and has to be comforted before he will eat, Lucy growls at everyone, and puppy cuts circles around the rest of the crew until finally skidding to a halt at her feeding spot in the kitchen. Sigh.

Then we have dishes. Lots of dishes. I had forgotten that until my adult years I (like Quinn) would leave my water glass next to my bed and go get a new one when I went to the couch. Laundry. Loads and loads of laundry. All over the house. In places you wouldn't expect. You have to collect it AND remember to wash it! Seriously, up until last year I would wear my jeans up to 5 times and sniff the armpits of my shirts to make sure I was in the clear (I marvel at the fact that I have a boyfriend). Next, cleaning. Makeup crusted on the bathroom counter, hair in the sink, grease build up in the kitchen, please... don't get me started on the toilets... and the floors! Does anybody know how much my beloved Corgis shed? Cosmo "puppies" are all over the house. I swept today and got a pile the same size as him. He should be bald by now. Oh yes, and cooking. My favorite is cooking, because I do it often and completely suck at it. Seriously, when my mom was around the house was clean, we always had a healthy meal, and we always had clean underwear... and I always took that for granted. Now our house is a total sty. I come home from work, clean and cook until bed time, and we live in a sty. It amazes me. If I stayed at home all day, I could do nothing but chores and it would still never all be done.

Answer to question #2: Kids eat. A LOT. Dog food costs at least $60 a month. The dirty house (see above) requires cleaning supplies. People... buy stock in paper towels and lysol because I buy a lot of it. My mom would take out $150 a week at the grocery store, and every once in a while she would take an extra $20 to get clothes or whatever. And with her weekly budget she would always manage to save out enough each week to start a nice savings towards Cristmas gifts and extras. I've come to the conclusion that the woman was a budgeting goddess. Last week alone I spent $80 on clothes. Teenagers grow out of clothes at light speed! $40 at Target on dog food, cleaning supplies, plastic food baggies. $50 at to grocery store (and will have to go back because I don't think I got enough to last the week). Total= $170.

No, this is not complaining. It's just giving credit where credit is due, because staying at home is not all about taking jogs so you have a toned ass and watching the Tyra show (though I do try to sneak that in when I am around!) while someone else is out earning a living. I appreciate my easy days at the office now! She told me one day I would understand. I knew she always felt underappreciated. And now I get it!