On the mend

Last Monday we took Baxter to OSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Stillwater to see if he qualified for Laser Disc Ablation surgery. They are one of the top veterinary clinics in the nation to take your pet and they were the ones that came up with this procedure. We were really worried that he wouldn't qualify for the surgery. For dogs to even be considered for this procedure they have to be completely pain free 2 weeks prior to the surgery and they can't have any pain medications during that time. Thankfully Baxter meant all of their requirements and they did the surgery Tuesday.

We got to pick him up Wednesday and he is now on crate rest for 2 weeks. The doctors at OSU were excellent and the resident that was assigned to Baxter's case was superb! She called us numerous times with updates on Baxter. She got there early and stayed extremely late taking care of him. Hopefully this surgery will help him with his back problems and he won't be in any pain. They have a 97% success rate with this surgery so we are optimistic that he'll be back to his normal self soon!

2 years away

This Saturday I turned 28, that means that I'm just 2 years away from 30! I just can't believe how old I'm getting!! Although for some reason I went most of last year already thinking that I was 28, so it wasn't that hard of a transition for me. I don't think that I'm going to be doing that this year! I decided that this year I was going to take some time off for my birthday and just relax. I had a manicure and a pedicure, got my hair cut, and the most unrelaxing thing I had to do was renew my driver's license. My parents took me out to lunch for my birthday and we went and watched the Razorback Basketball team lose their last home game. I made Chris do lots of shopping with me and it turned out to be a wonderful birthday celebration. Here's hoping that the rest of the year turns out great!

Out with the old

When we bought our house we didn't pay attention to all of the stuff outside. We just concentrated on what it looked like inside and the outside was just an added bonus. After we moved in we realized that we have a TON of flower beds. We have flower beds that go around the house completely and flower beds that line the back of the privacy fence. It's not easy to weed these flower beds and when they aren't maintained they turn into a HUGE mess!!


Since I'm allergic to grass we decided that I would weed the flower beds and Chris would do all of the mowing and yard work. Well I didn't do a very good job and they ended up looking bad! So this year we decided to hire a landscaping company to weed the front beds, put in new shrubs, and put down weed blocker. Since there are a lot more beds in the backyard they'll have to wait until the summer time to have them done! Hopefully the weed blocker will help cut down on the weeds. I'm excited to see what it all looks like once all of the flowers come up!

Opening Day

Are you ready for some....Baseball? A couple of weeks ago the Razorbacks finally started baseball season. I wait all year for baseball to start. It's the only game that I really enjoy and the only one that I will attend on a regular basis. Although I have been going to some basketball games this year but don't think I'm going to start going to football games. Thankfully opening day wasn't miserably cold or raining. It actually turned out to be a beautiful day and an almost beautiful weekend for baseball. Sunday's game was rain delayed but it stopped raining and we were able to play and win the series against Ball State. I'm hoping for a great baseball season this year with a return to the College World Series. I'm so praying for warmer weather and not as much rain this year!!

One of a Kind

I have one of the sweetest husbands on the face of this Earth. He may not be able to buy me expensive jewelry and take me to fancy restaurants but he always manages to surprise me. For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to guess what my Valentine's Day present was. He refused to tell me anything about it and he told me that if I asked anyone that he would call and cancel it! Since I hate surprises it was killing me to know what it was. I knew something was up when he kept asking me what days that I worked and who was working with me.

Saturday I was scheduled to work the front desk at work. It was completely crazy and I look up and see a big Sasquatch heading my way with flowers and chocolates! Chris sent Strike from the Northwest Arkansas Naturals to deliver flowers, chocolates, and tickets from him. To make matters worse I look up and co-worker was already ready to take pictures. Apparently some of my coworkers have known about this for weeks. Thanks Chris for being a wonderful husband, you are so thoughtful and I love you more everyday!

Patches

A few days ago our guinea pig Patches passed away. We noticed last Sunday that he was sneezing and wasn't feeling well. Tuesday morning Chris said that when he went to feed him he was all fluffed up and didn't want to be messed with. When I came home for lunch that day I went over to check on him. I noticed that he was very lethargic and decided to call the vet to make an appointment to get him in. When I went back over to him, he had moved over to his food dish and passed away shortly after that. He died in his favorite place.

We had him for 5 years and he lived 2 years without his friend Smokey. Patches loved Chris and loved sitting on Chris's shoulder and watching TV and eating carrots. It is always so hard to lose a pet. Patches will be greatly missed by us. May you rest in peace!

Let it snow

This week was the one year anniversary of the ice storm where we lost power for a couple of days. I was so not looking forward to a repeat of last year any time soon. But last night we started having freezing rain that turned over into sleet. Thankfully it stopped sleeting early this morning and has been snowing ever since. We probably have about an inch of ice and about 5 inches of snow. We've had more snow this year alone than in the past couple of years. It's not suppose to stop snowing until late tonight. Thankfully my place of employment decided to close all weekend so I don't have to get out in it. It's so nice to have a snow day!



Baxter loves to eat ANYTHING and he loves it when it snows. He has his head to the ground and acts like a vacuum cleaner sucking up as much snow as possible.