Thursday...it has been a long week

Yesterday was such a crazy day I had to take 4 hours of vacation time to get it all taken care of!

Started work early (I read my emails on my phone before even getting out of bed...it helps me to feel like I am beating the alarm when really I already hit snooze once). All was well. So I got up, got dressed, did all the normal morning routine things, checked email again and headed out to take the kids to school. It was a normal day.

When I got back home Scott said, "we have to do something about this dog." I said, I can make an appointment to take him to the vet for tomorrow, but I just can't do it today. I went on to my 'office' and started working again. I looked up the number for the vet and made an appointment for Thursday afternoon at 4:30. I then started listening...I kept hearing a whine. After listening for a minute, I went into the living room to see if it was Spooky. It was. Scott said that he had been whining all night. So, I called the vet's office again and asked if we they had any openings for today. She said, "Can you be here at 9?" I said, "yes." It was 8:40 at this point. So, I sent a message to my manager and my backup that I needed to take a few hours off. You see, in addition to the vet visit, I already had scheduled a visit at Eli's school, Scott had spoken with Heather and she needed her car 'fixed' before she had to leave for work at 3:00 and my Praying Wives Club was scheduled to meet during lunch. All this and work. Thankfully my work load was looking to be light for the day, so it was nice to just take 4 hours off and do what I needed to do.

So...we headed to see Dr. Tim Jones. He is really great. He remembered all of us and that I was friends with John Muir...and informed me that he had passed away. I didn't know this and was a bit shocked by the news. John and I worked together when he started at Sprint many many years ago. Scott and I used to house sit for him before we had children. John was a very nice man. I will follow up with some Sprint folks and the KC Star for additional details and will send a note to his wife.

Back to the vet...
He had me walk Spooky away from him then back and could see that he was dragging his paws. He agreed that my theory could be accurate...a stroke. He also agreed that it could be that he has diabetes. We discuss that we didn't want to spend thousands, but that if there were some things that we could do to determine the issue and help him feel better, we would like to take that path. Spooky's heart sounded good and all of his blood work came back good, so Dr. Jones narrowed it to a pinched or cracked something in his neck. He gave him a steroid shot, a B12 shot and sent us home with 3 weeks of steroid pills. As of today, Spooky is doing much better. He still hesitates before going up or down the steps, but he ran to the end of the driveway to get the paper with me this morning. So, hopefully the steroids will work...even if he has to take them the rest of his life.

We finished at the vet, I took Scott and Spooky home, then headed to Eli's school. I visited with both the speech therapist and the OT about Eli and watched as he completed some painting, stamping and following specific directions. They both agreed (and had discussed prior) that his focus and 'good looking' have increased a lot in the last week or so. This could be from the Enhansa. It was a good visit and Eli rode home with me rather than riding the bus.

I made Eli's lunch and some cholesterol lowering gluten free oatmeal for Scott and I (not that he has high cholesterol...just me...as far as I know). My plan is to eat all the cholesterol lowering foods, exercise and lose 10-15 lb in the next 90 days then have my blood tested again. I am beginning to think the test may have been wrong...but eating a high fiber diet, exercising and losing some lbs isn't gonna hurt me...this might just be the kick in the pants I needed!

Then I was off to my PWC (Praying Wives Club) meeting! I just love those gals...it is so refreshing to meet with them. We count our blessings, encourage one another and pray for the victory. The plans for the new church are coming along nicely and we are praying that the meetings scheduled in the weeks to come will result in approvals for all the plans.

Back to work...it was really great to have that mid-day vacation time! An issue here, and issue there, but all wrapped up by 5. Dinner...grass fed ground beef burgers with Bragg's Amino Acid...YUM and julienned potatoes. All prepared, burgers pattied and in the freezer, potatoes prepared and in the oven on parchment covered cookie sheets. Now, outside to plant those red bud trees (which Blake has decided to call rosebud trees...he said he likes that name better). We planted 2 along the creek and 1 further back in the yard. I checked them today and they look good...so far.

BTW...in the middle of all this Scott bought Heather a new car battery...we hope that does the trick...should know in a couple hours when it is time for her to go to work.

Back inside...turned up the potatoes to 425 and put the burgers on the grill. Everything tasted good, but we all laughed about the potatoes...they were a bit crunchy. We sounded like the Griswold's eating overcooked turkey in Christmas Vacation. It was hilarious. However, there were no leftover potatoes. Next time we will just keep them at 350.

Next up...pajamas and downstairs to stream a movie from Netflix via the Wii. Amazingly, it worked and it worked really well...even on 3G! Love it! Now I can watch all those old romantic comedies without having to own them. And Scott can watch every John Wayne movie! We are so excited...didn't even need any new equipment, just the disc from Netflix. Fabulous!!!

Told you it was a long day! Still made it to be before 10:30...HURRAY!!!