Good Bye Good Dog

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Good Bye Good Dog

Not feeling good.

We had to let Morgan go today. She has been such a loving, wonderful force in our family but we knew around the holidays that she wasn't well. She was so, so skinny, sleeping a ton and developed a wheezing when she breathed and an epic cough when she'd move around. The vet confirmed our worse fears...the big C. She had a tumor in her lung that was inoperable. So we started figuring out how to make her life amazing, while at the same time absorbing the fact that she was going to be leaving us.

Twelve and a half years ago, we were blessed with a little 4-legged angel. It was 2001 and I had finally talked Scott into getting a dog. He just had a short list of requirements: no barking, short hair, not hyper, loves water, mellow (did I mention, not hyper?) and under 60 pounds. That's a pretty tough list. But I figured it out...the Rhodesian Ridgeback! Ridgebacks are African lion hunting dogs who have a mohawk down their back, and they fit all of those qualifications.

She had a great month of love and all she could eat and I hope that was the cherry on a really great life. We knew it was time: she was sleeping constantly, would not eat anything,  and even a good butt scratch didn't get her to lift her head. So we let her go to dog heaven today. It was peaceful and right and loving. But I can't remember the last time I cried so much or was so emotional. It's so hard to let this sweet love that gave so much to us go away. I know we will miss her miss forever.  I guess that's not unusual but it is so, so hard.

Baby Morgan with her namesake. I picked the dog, Scott picked the name.

For those who don't know, at the time I had just been diagnosed with colon cancer and we were newly married. Like new-new. But Scott and my parents figured a dog would help with the healing process and so they found this cute little puppy in southern Missouri. She was supposed to fly to SLC on September 11th at the ripe old age of 8 weeks. I ended up in the hospital on the morning of 9/11 with what turned out to an abscess. And because of all the crazy flight restrictions after the 9/11 tragedy, our new puppy could not make her journey to Utah.

Little puppy traveling to the Wasatch Marine service center where she hung out during the days.

Luckily, Becky was a Delta flight attendant at the time and she pulled some strings and flew to Arkansas to pick Morgan up. Her puppy parents got up at 2am and drove her for hours to make the flight and then Becky brought her to her new home, not quite first class but pretty close. I was completely surprised and Morgan was just a love from day one. She would snuggle on my chest and sleep with me, and lick my face with her little puppy breath. Unfortunately over the next couple of months I was in the hospital more than I was home and Scott was always with me there, or at work, so Morgan had a life on the road, staying with grandparents, friends, our roomie, hanging with Scott at work, or sneaking into the hospital in a duffel bag to visit.

Me and Aunt Tiff with our girls. Never under-rate couch snuggling with your dog.

All of that traveling made her a little nervous about being mobile. She HATED car rides and every time we took her to Lake Powell we had to give her "sleepy cheese" - sedatives tucked into string cheese -  to calm her nerves. Sometimes 2, 3 or 4 times the dosage because she was just so nervous, shaking and panting. Once we got to the lake, she loved to play in the water and the waves. She would swim after ducks until we thought she'd drown, so we got her a life jacket. She would chase kids playing in the lake, barking like crazy. She almost always slept on the bed or the couch and she loved to bake in the sun. She loved to have her butt scratched, in kind of a weird, creepy way where she'd back right up on your knee with this look of ecstasy on her face, almost like a cat.

Dad loves!

Morgan was about 3 when she met her new best friend, Alice - Tiff's dog. They were such great friends and loved to romp around, race around and wrestle. I almost can't bear to think about the next time Alice comes over looking for her and she's not here.

Morgan and Alice playing the chase game. They were tied at last count.

And then they slept. On the bed. The white bed.

Sun bathing.

Morgan and Alice in their last joint photo.

Morgan was always independent. If we didn't have time to take her for a walk, she'd take herself. She would sneak right out the door and head out for a little jaunt around the neighborhood, pretending like she couldn't hear us hollering her name. I remember one of the first times we took her for walk and some ladies said very loudly, "I can't believe someone would do that to a dog." I think she thought we shaved the mohawk in on purpose or something.

Morgan loves her dad. Kisses, kisses.

Me and Morgan at Lake Powell, one of our favorite places to hang out and just be "dogs."

Morgan was a trooper when the kids invaded her life. She was so patient with them picking at her face, taking her food, sitting on her, crawling on her, and generally bugging the crap out of her. She didn't get quite as much love and attention once the 2-legged children joined the family but as always she was patient and loving and fabulous. And she would always get them back by sleeping on their beds, or sneaking their treats. We told them she's now in dog heaven and read them a great book about it. I'm not sure they totally get what happened and that's probably okay.

Hanging on the bow with the new baby.

Tagg loved to hug Morgan. He also like to sit on her. And Sloane loved to give her treats.

Morgan snuggling up on Sloane's new princess bed. She does love these kids.

She wasn't always sure what to thing about these new additions but she loved and protected them, and never snapped once.

I miss Morgan so much it hurts. I know she had a great life, and she was more than ready to go. But that doesn't make it any easier. We loved her and hugged her and kissed her head as she pulled her last breath...and now she can rest and enjoy the dog heaven we read about where she can run and chase ducks and eat treats and play with the kids and nap in the sun. I know she'll be watching over us. And I know we'll always have her with us.

Her favorite to way to ride on the big boat. Better if Scott was sitting in the driver's seat.

We had to dress her up at least once. Tagg's first birthday and she got the crown. For surviving.

Yeah, we made her tube with us. She was not a fan.

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Medical Mysteries...Solved

As a parent, I'm finding that you also have to be a bit of a doctor, sleuth, problem solver. Every so often I *know* something is not quite right with my kids' health. It takes me awhile to figure it out but thanks to my mom-friends, the inter-webs, and the teachers at our school I FINALLY put all the pieces together and figure out what's wrong. Today was a great case in point. 

Sloane has had a runny nose since November. We thought it was a cold, although she didn't have a fever or any other symptoms. It was cold season, after all. We took her to the doctor and they prescribed antibiotics. Around this time, she also developed a weird bad-breath thing. No matter how much we brushed her teeth, she had this sweet yet stanky quality to her breath. I did a bunch of online research so when we took her to the pediatrician the first time, we mentioned the symptoms and asked them to test her for early onset diabetes. Test, negative. Antibiotics, prescribed. And things seemed to get better. 

A few weeks later, the runny nose was back with the congestion. The bad breath, back. Maybe worse. Back to the doctor. More antibiotics. Symptoms went away again, and as soon as the antibiotics were done, the symptoms came right back. Off we went to the pediatrician...again. He suggests nasal steroids since we don't want to overdose on the antibiotics, so we squirt stuff up Sloane's nose twice a day and brush her teeth like 5 times a day to get rid of the epic bad breath. And things got better, for awhile. But a few days after her treatment was over, the toddler bad breath was back along with the stuffy nose and congestion. And we were stumped...At this point we were thinking allergies and halitosis, or diabetes, or worse

On Friday, Sloane's teacher mentioned the 800lb stinky gorilla in the room. Sloane's breath is now the brunt of mockery in the class. Sloane is the "stinky girl." Luckily, our teacher had a relative whose daughter had similar symptoms. The diagnosis? She had shoved something up her nose. Foreign object in the nose = infected = sweet stinky breath = DUH!!! After a little online research and a 2-hour visit to Instacare today, yep...little miss Sloane had a "foreign object" lodged WAY up her nose. It was the size of an olive. A really stinky, bloody, gross and disgusting olive. The doctor thought it was some kind of styrofoam thing. After some conversation, Tagg said it was Playdoh. Really?! 

So, note to all you parents out there. If your kid has a runny nose, bloody nose, stuffy nose, congestion with no cold symptoms plus bad breath, stinky breath, take them to doctor and ask them to look for a foreign object shoved up their nose! There is probably corn or a cotton ball or a Lego stuck up in there. Or Playdoh.

The least gross, painful, sad, awful photo from our Doctor extraction extravaganza.
Tagg was very supportive and great when he wasn't noting how much blood they were sucking out of her nose. Sloane loved having my "power" scarf on under her straitjacket. 
She was such a brave, courageous trooper. But, yeah, this sucked (pun intended). Big time!

On another medical mystery story, when Sloane was potty training she had a HUGE set-back. She was having accidents all the time and all of my online research said it was probably her setting boundaries or rebelling. She had been saying her bum was sore but every time I checked, it was fine. But she was pee-ing like a puppy. On the carpet, at school, pretty much anywhere. We were so baffled by the set back. So we were digging our parental heels in thinking it was a power play, right up until I figured out that her "bum" was actually her "ladybits." And she had a bladder infection/UTI that was making it impossible for her to follow her potty training regimen. This was like three weeks of putting two and two together. Lots of mom-versations, internet research and head scratching, and FINALLY I figured it out. We got her into the doctor and bam! a few days later our world was back to normal.

So what I'm saying is...this parenting thing is confusing! And hard. And kind of technical. And sometimes you don't figure it out right away and then you feel like an ass for not figuring it out sooner. But I think as long as you're trying and caring and doing your best, you're alright. And I hope nobody else has to see that nasty, gross nasal olive. Ever. So good luck, mamas and dadas everywhere! We'll figure this out.

Princess Room

Miss Sloane finally got her "real" bedroom at the new house today. No more mattress and box springs on the floor. No more battered paint job on the wall. No more baby changing table. Little princess now has a mermaid room fit for a...well, princess. I hope she doesn't fall out of the bed and I hope she loves it.

Sadly, she did fall out of the bed but she got a cut on her lip from dropping a book on her lip while reading in the dark. But, upside...she's been really great about cleaning her room, which is awesome!

Morgan luuuuvvvvs Sloane's new bed. She likes to hop up and snuggle with her Boo any chance she gets. Sometimes it's tough because Sloane likes to pile her bed full of every doll, shoe, book, Barbie, whatever...till there's barely room for her!

Guessing Game

Tagg: That word is "the." It has my nickles in it.
Me: Your nickles? (thinking he want some monetary reward for reading)
Tagg: Yeah...my nickles. T and H.
Me: [processing]
Me: Your initials?
Tagg: Yep.

Mommy Interpretation Game. I win. This time. Teaching kids to read is harder than I thought it would be. Much like most parenting!

Color-Fall

Our new house has an amazing yard, with lots of trees. And I mean lots. They are absolutely gorgeous as they change from green to yellow or orange and red, 

This is the big tree in the back corner of our yard. It is absolutely lovely.
The leaves you see are round three of the raking extravaganza. Look at the beautiful tree.
Do the raking math. = Lots More Raking!!!

The yard makes for great fall photos and lots and lots and lots of leaf raking. We (and by "we" I mean Scott) have probably raked more leaves at this house in 2 weeks than we did at the old house in 12 years. The yard is totally worth it but now we're working off the beauty. 

This might have to be an annual fall photo. The big tree with the kids.
That should be hilarious when THEY have to rake it all up!

Little Boo, under the tree she'll be climbing for the next few years.

Tagg wanted to fly his paper airplane (one of his all-time favorite
activities is making paper airplanes) into the leaf blower.
Fun for hours. Morgan didn't even mind it.

Cute kids. Fall leaves. Paper airplane. #love

You are so about to get leaf-ed, Sloane!

Throw leaves!!!

Cutest kids in a leaf pile...EVER!

Throw more leaves!

Do you see any super cute kids hidden in this picture? I do!

Impromptu family photo in front of the house.
Hair not brushed, filthy from raking and not a lick of makeup.
We might try to remedy that situation another time. Or not.

Me and Sloane. We had leaves in our hair for days.

Even Papa got in on the action.

Family photo.

Leaf throwing is fun for mommies too.

Sloane trying to rake more leaves onto the trampoline.

Sad but true. This cute. local pumpkin patch had great pumpkins but no wheelbarrows or wagons. Not good when you have 2 small kids and no helpers. So we took some cute pumpkin-pickin' photos...and then went to Harmon's where the carts were plentiful, the other groceries on the list in walking distance, and the pumpkins were 25% cheaper.

Cute pumpkin-picker-posers. Please note that the mountains in the background already have snow.

They worked so hard to get a few pumpkins to the car, even without a wagon!

Sometimes, those pumpkins got heavy!

Happy holidays, everyone! Hope your pumpkin-pickin', leaf rakin', fall adventures were all wonderful!!!

BOO! Halloween 2013

You all know that Halloween is not my favorite holiday. But the older the kids get, the more I'm learning to love it. It's borderline impossible not to when they get SOOOO excited about their costumes, the pumpkins, the cookies and, of course, the candy!!!

The pirates are on the move! So much for front porch,
pre-trick-or-treating photos.

We got lucky this year in that both kids decided early what they wanted to be, and they stuck with it right up until the trick or treating started. For Tagg, it was Captain Jack Sparrow. Sloane - Izzy from her favorite show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I think really they both just wanted to carry swords. 

The sword fight (note: I did not say "first"). Sloane's sword  makes noise.
Tagg's lights up, and we found it under a pile of leaves in the backyard.
No children were injured in the taking of this photo.

Or maybe the pirate adventures from Lake Powell this year really stuck with them. The gold dubloons, treasure maps and, again, the CANDY may have just turned my kids into wannabe pirates. Either way, this Halloween was particularly awesome.

 Some funny stories from trick or treating:

• Tagg would walk right on into peoples' houses. No waiting on the front porch for him. I actually told one woman to put him to work washing her dishes if was going to be so "in" her house!

Captain Jack Sparrow. How cute is he?!
Even if he wouldn't let me do the eyeliner.

• Tagg kept saying he was going to trick-or-treat "on that house." And the first one he wanted to hit was his friend Liam's. And then our own house. He saw our candy...maybe he thought that was the best he'd get. We also walked by one house that we had already been to and he said, "I already hunted at that house." Yikes.

My little pirates. Also known as my treasures.

• There were a couple of houses with scary porches...big spiders hanging from the portico, automated skeletons and witches that would make jumping, scary noises. At the first one of those homes, the nice lady opened the door and Tagg said, "No, No. Too scary. We don't need your candy!"

My little Izzy. I love that as much as she adores the "princesses"
she wanted to be a pirate girl for Halloween.

• Sloane saw her first of many little-girl princesses and said, "ooooh. You're so pretty!" I think we might be in trouble next year.
 

Surrounded by her loot. She only lasted about half-way through the loop around
our block before she got bored but she still cleaned up on the candy.

• Sloane was quite the porch treat manipulator. She's work every single candy-giver-outer with those baby blues and her cute little voice to get exactly the piece of candy she wanted, and then two or three more of them.

Tagg is literally devouring his candy as fast as he can!
This is just part of his loot. They'll be on a sugar high for weeks.

• After their trick or treat bags were loaded with candy, Sloane and Tagg set up shop by the front door with a bowl of candy and served the kids that came to the door. Tagg would let them grab "hand-fulls" but Sloane would put her hands on her hips, pop that bottom lip out and say sternly, "My mom said ONLY THREE PIECES. You ONLY TAKE THREE PIECES OF CANDY." To tweens. She has no fear, and I'm sure all the older kids in the neighborhood think her mom is kind of a jerk.

Wizard of Oz work costumes. These people are amazingly creative and fun and crafty. Shamed me into doing a costume when I didn't want to. So I threw together a "tornado" costume last minute, thanks to my dear mother who ran to the store to get me tulle at the last minute. Never knew it would be so hard to find plastic farm animals, but really glad I buy random wigs at Halloween because this one really came in handy!

My tornado eye makeup selfie. It's not quite as epic as I'd planned by I have to give my sis props for doing a FaceTime makeup demo/tutorial. She's the bomb. If you don't have an ex-makeup artist in your family, you should get one.

Scott's First (and Last?) Half Marathon

I was just digging through some old photos, realizing how much stuff I have neglected to blog about. This one happens to be a pretty great story. Last year, in October was Scott's 40th birthday. We somehow managed to talk him into doing a half-marathon in Moab with a bunch of our friends. People said the course was lovely and "all downhill." And there was a promise of beer at the end. Seemed like a pretty good way to break him in and get him on-board with our running program. We rented a couple of condos in Moab and headed down for the weekend. You'll notice I did not mention "trained for a few months" or "did long runs every Sunday." That's right. I've gotten pretty good at off-the-couching a 13-mile run. Scott, on the other hand, probably should have run more than five miles. Once. In the dark and the snow at 6:30 in the morning. But we figured, hey! it's all downhill, right? How hard can this be?

Pre-race...so happy. There are Ty and Kellie in the background.

Race day started off a little chilly but once we got going it was the perfect temperature. I was fully prepared to hang out and run with Scott but he shooed me ahead and I figured he wanted to suffer solo. Sometimes it is easier that way, so off I went. As I trotted down the canyon, the sun was coming up. A beautiful red Snoopy plane buzzed up the canyon, dramatically close to the red rock walls.

And then after about 6 miles we burst out of the canyon, into blazing heat. It was unseasonably warm - maybe mid-70s which feels like 90 degrees when you are running. And it was WINDY. So windy that the gusts would literally push me sideways at the crest of the hills. Oh yes, that's the other thing...the run got hilly. Like really hilly. Up, down, up, down. Of all the things that can get in my head when I'm running there are a few doozies: heat, hills, wind. And here we were running in all three. Ugh. I was miserable. I couldn't imagine how Scott was faring. All I kept thinking, especially as I saw the second ambulance pass by was: well, if he's not in the ambulance, he's probably planning divorce proceedings by now. I mean, really? What kind of a birthday present was this?!

I continued to struggle along, walking a few of the steeper hills until we finally got to the last mile. If you've ever run a half-marathon, you know that the last mile feels like it's about as long as the first 12 put together. Miserable. Every time. This last mile started at the top of a hill. Now as much as I was grateful that it would be downhill most of the way to the finish line, I could not fathom how bloody FAR away it was. The runners looked like little ants they were so far away. It looked like 10 miles, maybe 100, and mentally I had no idea where I'd find the strength to run that far. I finished but it was by far and away the worst, hardest half-marathon I have done yet.

Again, I figured Scott's first words after he made it across the finish line would be to curse me.

As we crossed the finish line and reconnected with the rest of the runners in our group - Natalie, Alek, Ty, Kellie, Marie, Andy, Tiff - we kept our eyes peeled for Scott. He surprised us by crossing the finish line about 10 minutes earlier than any of expected which was really cool. And he did not instantly ask for a divorce. Also good.

So we got our medals. We got our commemorative beer glasses. And we got one beer before they ran out. I guess all the fast people also drink pretty quickly.

The rest of the weekend was lovely. Good food, good company. And Scott and I had a day alone to check out Arches National Park. Hopefully it wasn't the worst birthday ever. I'm pretty sure he's forgiven me by now, but I'm equally sure we won't be running any more races together. It's just a week and a half before his next birthday. Maybe I should sign him up for a triathlon or just to get punched in the face for an hour?

The medal makes it all worthwhile. Kinda.

Sitting under the big arch...

From arches to slot canyons in less than a mile. Good thing
because we were both a little stiff and sore.

#selfie in the wind and the sun.

Balanced Rock. Naturally amazing.
The big rock is the size of three school buses!