Our Little Man

As most of our friends and family know, our little man Celtic passed away early Sunday morning. Although we are very thankful for the almost four weeks we had with him after his diagnosis early last month, we are still incredibly heartbroken. I thought it would be easier knowing ahead of time that we were going to lose him, but I guess no matter how much time we have with our pets, it never seems to be quite enough.

Maybe this loss was more difficult than I thought it would be because of all of Celtic's ups and downs during the last month. On the day that we canceled his surgery, we thought for sure he'd be gone within a couple of weeks. He was so weak and lethargic, and his tumor was still growing rapidly. A couple of days later we started him on a new anti-inflammatory called Piroxicam that was supposed to help with his joint pain. When Dr. Layton suggested it, she mentioned in passing that it also had some "cancer fighting properties." Since she didn't make a big deal of it we didn't think much of it either, but after just a couple of doses, it was obvious that Celtic's tumor had quit growing and was actually getting smaller. In less than two weeks, the tumor's decrease in size was almost as dramatic as the increase had been in the previous two weeks.

We were so thankful for the Piroxicam, since it clearly improved Celtic's mobility and his overall quality of life in his last month. He took a short walk almost every day, had a good appetite and generally seemed pretty much his happy little self. In fact, on the Friday before last, when I was upstairs taking some pictures of 3-Day equipment to send to my friend and 3-Day teammate Amber, the little stinker came right up the stairs behind me, which he was not supposed to do. The entire time I was trying to take pictures he was either trying to steal the socks and pillow or get inside the duffel bag. He was so cute and just as ornery as ever.





It's just so hard to believe that this was just 8 days before he died. I actually started to write an update about him after I took these pics, and now I'm really glad I never got around to finishing it. I probably would have blamed myself for jinxing things when he took a turn for the worse just a couple of days later. It was so strange, because on the Monday after I took these shots, I was at our regular vet with Fresco, and he was somewhat surprised to hear that Celtic was doing so well. Dr. Coles thought maybe we should give Dr. Layton a call to reconsider the surgery since the Piroxicam might have given us a window of opportunity. I called Dr. Layton's assistant later that day and left her a message about how well he was doing and how we wanted to talk to Dr. Layton and get her thoughts on rescheduling. It was almost like Celtic heard the conversation and decided to nix the idea, because within a couple hours his mood and health had totally changed. Out of nowhere, he was completely lethargic and could barely even get up. The next morning, he could only walk about 3 houses down the block and could barely make it back home--the previous day he had walked almost a half mile with no problems!

Although he was a little bit better the day after that, his health and mood were up and down all week. By Saturday he really seemed to have improved--so much so that Chad had actually decided to go to Salina to hunt turkeys on Sunday. Celtic had such a great day on Saturday. He walked farther than he had in several days (and wanted to keep going) and ate a hearty dinner. After dinner he was super spunky and followed Chad all over the house trying to get a bite of bagel. Then about 8 p.m. that night something changed--he became very weak and despondent. We initially thought he would feel better after a good night's sleep. It took us several hours to figure out that this was no ordinary lethargy, at which point we assumed his tumor had finally caused internal bleeding. We hoped he would just fall asleep and pass peacefully, but he barely rested all night long and was clearly very uncomfortable. We finally went to the emergency vet in Topeka at about 4:30 on Sunday morning, and the vet confirmed that there was nothing we could except put him to sleep. By this time, it was obvious that Celtic was in terrible pain. Dr. Carder, who was the vet who attended to Steeler when he died at Stone House back in 2006, thought that Celtic was suffering from the same condition that killed his brother--peritonitis. Dr. Carder guessed that his tumor had actually spread far beyond his armpit and had actually ruptured his gastrointestional tract somewhere. As difficult as it was to let him go, once we realized how much he was hurting, we wished we'd made the decision to go to Topeka hours earlier.

I know hindsight is always 20/20, but I could just kick myself that I didn't recognize Celtic's lethargy on Saturday night for what it was--pain. While he was groaning a little and breathing strangely, he wasn't panting at all, which is usually the tell-tale sign that a dog is hurting. While we knew he was uncomfortable, we thought maybe the internal bleeding was just causing him to be extremely weak and tired. It just didn't seem possible that he could go from being so spunky in the early evening to near death in such a short time, and it never occurred to us that his cancer could have spread so far so quickly. We were anticipating that when it spread, it would spread to the area of his heart/lungs first--not that it would attack farther down in his poor little body. It just breaks my heart that he had such a painful last few hours of his life and we weren't able to help him sooner.

Although Celtic's great day on Saturday fooled us somewhat, we're also very thankful that his last day on earth was a good one. We imagined that his decline would be more gradual and painful, but as it turned out, he got to enjoy life right down to the last day--just like his brother Steeler. We are comforted knowing that they are now running and playing together in heaven.

In Memory of Celtic Bird Luce
June 26, 1997-May 29, 2011

A Heavy Heart

I'm not even really sure where to start this post, because the news is very sad and my heart is very heavy. I don't want to be overdramatic at all, but our dogs are obviously a really big deal to us, and yesterday we made a really hard decision about our little man Celtic. We decided to cancel his surgery.

This decision might seem like a strange one to our friends who know we would do anything for our dogs, but Chad and I are thankfully very much in agreement on this. While we didn't come to the decision easily, I think we're at peace with it as much as we can be under the circumstances. Since his CT scan a week ago and the needle aspirates that preceded it, Celtic's overall health has declined significantly and his tumor has literally grown by the day.

We've certainly been worried about this rapid growth of late, but the noticeable size increase wasn't really so out of the ordinary. Often times when cancers are disturbed by a biopsy they tend to react by growing--Hope's first mast cell tumor did the same thing when it was aspirated back in 2007. Although the growth was concerning, we were still hopeful that yesterday morning's bloodwork would be better and today's surgery would be a go. While the anemia was a tiny bit improved, our regular vet Dr. Coles was alarmed by the tumor growth, Celtic's coloring and his overall malaise. He suggested we try and get back in to see Dr. Layton yesterday morning for another consult and possible early surgery, even though Dr. Layton usually only does emergency surgeries on Mondays.

We thankfully got in to see Dr. Layton right away, and as usual, she was her amazingly caring, compassionate and helpful self. She agreed that the tumor was significantly bigger than last week, and she expressed her concerns about his lethargy and immobility. The incredibly rapid growth confirmed her initial suspicion that the cancerous part of the tumor is a hemangiosarcoma, the extremely aggressive kind of cancer that killed Celtic's brother Steeler. Because the tumor had grown so much down his leg, she thought there was a very strong possibility that in order to remove it she would have to amputate his leg as well--or at least damage the nerves enough to make his leg useless. Chad and I both agreed that because of Celtic's age and significant problems with pain and weakness in his back legs, he wouldn't be able to walk on three legs. To us the amputation didn't seem like an acceptable outcome, and if Dr. Layton got started and realized that was her only option, they would just have to put Celtic to sleep by not letting him wake up from surgery. We couldn't bear the thought of his final memories being ones of fear and anxiety in a scary hospital.

There were other significant surgery risks that contributed to the decision, namely that Celtic might bleed to death due to the vascular involvement of the tumor, or that Dr. Layton would open him up only to find that surgical removal was just impossible because the tumor was so connected to muscles and other tissues. Even if the surgery went perfectly and Dr. Layton had been able to remove the bulk of the tumor and save the leg, we probably would have only been buying Celtic another 3-6 months before the remnants of the tumor took over and took his life. Since the odds of a perfect surgery were so slim, we didn't think it was a risk worth taking. We decided we would rather spend Celtic's last few weeks spoiling him rotten and showering him with all the love we can.

Obviously I regret that we didn't have Dr. Layton do the surgery last Wednesday, which she could have done. Since the surgery was risky even at that time, I really wanted to have a few more days to spend quality time with him in case something went wrong. Since my brother came home to Kansas on Sunday, I really wanted Eric to have a last visit with Celtic as well. Dr. Layton didn't think waiting six days would really matter, but of course she had no idea how aggressive his tumor would be. Knowing that we might have had him for a few more months instead of a few more weeks absolutely breaks my heart, but maybe not having to recover from surgery will mean less suffering for him in the long run. At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself.

Family Fiascos

Wow--what a week. I apologize for the delay in blogging, but the family drama in the past 7 days has just been off the charts. If you've been following my tweets or seen my Facebook statuses or talked to us at all lately then you probably know the details of what's going on, but let's just say that last Wednesday through Friday was downright crazy. One of our family members was involved in a sort of domestic conflict that was extremely stressful and emotionally draining. We're thankful that the end result is ultimately going to be an improvement, but things are going to be a little chaotic around here for a while as we work through lots of changes!

After a couple of calmer days over the weekend, our next emotional ordeal started on Monday. Actually, the story really started over four years ago when Celtic had an egg-sized lipoma removed from his armpit, and then it continued when we took him to Hope's surgeon Dr. Layton a year later to see if she could remove it again, since it had grown back even larger than before. She couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't grown back after a second surgery, and Hope's surgery was obviously more pressing, and Celtic's armpit tumor wasn't really bothering him, so we made the decision not to do surgery at all.

Over the next several years Celtic's tumor continued to grow, and although it had grown to the size of a baseball, it didn't seem to impede his mobility, so we didn't worry too much about it. We asked the vet if there was any worry that it could have changed into something other than a lipoma, and our vet didn't think that was a possibility. We just kind of ignored it until a few weeks ago, about the time that Hope had her lipoma removed and her teeth cleaned. It suddenly looked as though Celtic was limping a little on his tumor arm, and within another week we could see his front leg was actually bowed out a bit. We decided to make another appointment with Dr. Layton in KC to see if she would still be willing to "debulk" it, knowing that in another few years it would probably grow back.

So I took him to Dr. Layton on Monday, and while her staff was working on an estimate for his surgery, she decided to take a needle aspirate of the mass. Unfortunately, the samples she took were not fatty tissue like she expected. She only got blood, which told her that the tumor was something more than a lipoma, and was connected in a way that meant it was going to be a lot more difficult to remove. Celtic stayed at the hospital for x-rays, a CT scan and blood work, and unfortunately we didn't get very good news from all the tests. The surgeon and a consulting radiologist are pretty sure that Celtic's tumor is cancer. This was certainly not what we expected to hear. Somehow his benign fatty tumor grew a malignant tumor, but we couldn't tell because the fatty tumor was so big!

To add insult to injury, he is also anemic (which might be because of the tumor--Dr. Layton's not sure) and he has a urinary tract infection! The poor guy is falling apart at the seams and we didn't even know! He goes for a walk every day, has a good appetite and generally seems pretty happy, so we were just completely clueless that there was anything (besides old age and his recent back problem) bothering him!

So our first option is to do nothing until Celtic can no longer walk because of the size of the tumor, at which point we'd likely have to put him to sleep because his tumor will be even more difficult to remove and his overall health will be too bad for surgery. There's also a possibility that the tumor could eventually burst, which would also be a terrible end result. Unfortunately, because of the rapid rate that this tumor has been growing as of late, we're afraid that either of these things could happen within a month or so.

Option two is to do surgery fairly soon, which we've tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday. Unfortunately, this surgery doesn't come without some pretty major risks. Because the tumor is so connected to Celtic's vascular system and attached to so much other tissue, the surgery may be fairly lengthy and complicated, and Celtic might not survive being anesthetized for as long as it takes to complete. Because of the vascular involvement, too much bleeding during surgery might be a problem and he might need a transfusion. Finally, opening up his cancerous tumor could cause it's growth to accelerate, making his cancer and overall health worse after surgery and not better.

With all that said, we've decided that the surgery at least has a chance of giving him a few more quality months of life. Dr. Layton thinks it's his best bet, and since we think she's astounding and amazing, we trust that it's the best decision. At least we're praying that it is! We're praying that if surgery isn't the best thing for him, the door on that option will close after his blood work is done on Monday. If his anemia or infection is worse at that time, surgery might not be an option at all, so I guess that will be our sign that we should forgo the surgery and just let nature take its course. Of course we're hoping that the infection can be treated with a few days of antibiotics and that some supplements might help the anemia, so hopefully our little man will be as healthy as possible for his surgery next Tuesday! We would appreciate your prayers between now and then!

Uneventful Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! Chad and I had a nice day together, although we didn't really do anything special or out of the ordinary for the holiday. Church was great, but since we're regular churchgoers it wasn't necessarily that special, except for the fact that our new church broke their old attendance record by 159 people. Our lunch together at Ingredient was marginal, which was a bummer since I usually LOVE their food--it's one of my favorite places in town! After that we tried to spend a little time outside to enjoy the sunshine that we hadn't seen in so long, but within just an hour or so the clouds came out and it was too gloomy and chilly to stay out on the deck. We spent the rest of the afternoon laying in bed with our laptops, planning out our upcoming vacation to Texas. Not very exciting stuff for such an important holiday!

Although Chad and I obviously have no special traditions for Easter, I have fond memories of the holiday from my childhood. I don't remember doing a big Easter dinner like other families do--I think maybe because all of our extended family members were connected to their own churches so no one was willing to travel. I do remember decorating and dying Easter eggs though, and then having Mom hide them all over the house (or outside if it was nice) for Eric and I to find Easter morning. We each got a small basket with some Easter candy, but I don't think we got presents like kids get these days. As Eric and I were discussing recently, somehow our society has turned Easter into mini-Christmas. I'm all for a few fun traditions, but it kind of makes me sad that most kids probably think that Easter is only about presents with some eggs and chocolate thrown in.

Having no traditions now that we're adults can certainly be a blessing since it gives us lots of freedom and flexibility. It also makes me a little bit sad, since lots of our friends were going to be with their families over the holiday. I guess since we're always interested in going to our own church for the resurrection celebration, we've never wanted to go out of town for Easter weekend. While my mom has sometimes come to Lawrence to join us at our service, now that she's connected to her home church in Topeka, we no longer invite her to come with us! We invited several other people to join us on Sunday morning, but it seems that everyone except for us was with family members!

Even though I didn't get to see any of my family on the holiday, I did get to see my dad and his wife Mim a few times in the weeks leading up to it. Although I obviously failed to blog about it in a timely manner, they were driving through the area in early April and stayed with us one night on their way to work at my dad's childhood home near Salina. A few days later we got to hang out a little more with them and Dad's sibling's at my aunt and uncle's in KC, which was great since I hadn't seen two of my aunts/uncles for several years! After staying with us that night, they went on to Texas for a week and then came back through and stayed one more night at our house before leaving for Ohio early the next morning. That night Dad and I spent an hour or so together at my favorite new yogurt place, Orange Leaf, but I realized as they were leaving in the morning that I hadn't taken a single picture while they were here. This was the one shot I got from their visit! I guess seeing family for a brief and early Easter is better than not seeing them at all! :)

Sleepless Night

On Saturday night I was editing pictures from our weekend trip to St. Louis, with every intention of sharing them in a blog post on Sunday. Sunday, however, had other plans for us. Our little old man Celtic had seemed slightly more stiff than normal the previous evening, but Sunday morning he woke up at his normal early hour and ate breakfast and went outside. He came back in and went back to bed with us for another hour or so before we got up to go to church, which was also completely normal. When we got home from church, however, it was clear that something was wrong. He was still laying on the bed, but Chad noticed that the dog treat I'd given him before we left was still sitting next to him uneaten. For Celtic not to eat is super unusual and super worrisome.

Chad tried to get him to get up, but Celtic refused. Even when Chad picked him up off the bed and stood him on the floor, Celtic wouldn't go anywhere. He didn't cry or whimper, but he laid back down right where he was. A few minutes later though, he got up and moved himself a few feet to the dog bed, so we started thinking that Celtic might just be hamming it up for the attention, which he has definitely been known to do in his life.

Thinking he might be faking, we tried to coax him up again to no avail, so Chad carried him outside to potty. He took a few steps and lifted his leg, but then turned right around so Chad could carry him back in to his dog bed. He still refused water and even leftover hash browns from our brunch, so we started contemplating a trip to the emergency vet, because Celtic is certainly not that good of an actor. We decided to wait a few more hours to see if he would improve on his own first, so I went off to a baby shower and Chad took off for the driving range.

When Chad arrived home from golfing, he tried to get Celtic up to potty again, but this time Celtic couldn't even stand. Since he was clearly getting worse, Chad texted and called me to come home, but unfortunately my ringer was off during the shower. When he didn't hear back from me in 20 minutes, he hopped in the car and drove over to the shower to get me. I was obviously a little alarmed to see him, so needless to say I gave my friend Karen a quick hug, said thanks to the hostess and ran out the door! We zoomed home, got Celtic in the car and were on our way to Stone House Animal Hospital in Topeka.

Poor Celtic was alarmingly lethargic and unresponsive during the drive, and even after we arrived he didn't show any interest in any of the people and pets in the waiting room. Chad carried him into the exam room and laid him on the table and he didn't display the tiniest bit of resistance or curiosity about his surroundings. We were happy to have Dr. Carder, the vet who fought so hard to save Celtic's brother Steeler 4 1/2 years ago, come in to give Celtic an exam. He didn't seem to think there was actually any true paralysis, since Celtic seemed to react to touches of his feet and tail, but touches of Celtic's spine seemed to cause a lot of pain. His hope was that it was some sort of spinal injury that would heal with some steroids and lots of rest. He said it was also possible that Celtic had something more serious going on, such as a tumor on his spinal cord, but there's no way to tell without a CAT scan, which could only be done at K-State's Veterinary Hospital. His recommendation was to wait a day to see if the steroids started working, and then decide whether to take him to K-State if he doesn't improve.

So Dr. Carder gave Celtic a shot of steroids, a shot of painkillers, and a third shot of a muscle relaxer, just to sedate him enough to drain his bladder, so that he could rest his back the rest of the night without getting up again to potty. Once Celtic was pretty much out of it, they wheeled him back to the treatment room, which happened to be the same room where we watched Steeler die that fateful night in 2006. As if the day hadn't been emotional enough, I about lost it when I walked into that room. I turned right around and went back to the exam room, telling myself that Celtic wouldn't know I was missing since he wasn't awake anyway.

After his bladder was done draining, the vet tech supplied me with Celtic's oral steroids and I paid our bill while Chad pulled the car around back so our little man could be loaded into it. When I finally got out to the car after standing in line (it was super busy Sunday afternoon in the emergency clinic), Celtic was loaded in, but he wasn't doing well. He was only taking about one labored breath every ten seconds or so, and Chad and I weren't at all comfortable with driving him home that way. I went back in and got the vet tech, who then went and got the vet, who came out to check on Celtic in the car. Dr. Carder agreed that his labored breathing was very abnormal and thought that Celtic had just become so relaxed with the sedative he was forgetting to breath. His heartbeat was strong and his circulation was okay, but the doctor went and grabbed yet another shot to reverse the sedative. After about 5 minutes of us and the vet watching his breathing carefully, Celtic finally woke up and started breathing regularly again, so Chad and I started breathing regularly too!

After we got home and put Celtic to bed, our worries still weren't over. We still couldn't get him to eat, move, respond, drink water or even lift his head. He just laid there staring into space, refusing to sleep and also refusing to acknowledge us. We petted and rubbed and loved on him all evening, but by bedtime things had just gotten worse. He had started panting, which generally indicates a dog is in pain, and the shallow pants soon turned into labored breathing. He was so listless and lifeless, Chad and I tried to prepare ourselves for the worst, since we weren't even sure he was going to make it through the night. I made myself a bed on the floor next to him, where I slept fitfully, waking up every few minutes to check and see if he was still breathing. Needless to say, it was a bit of a sleepless night.

Crazily enough, at about 3 a.m. I opened my eyes to see Celtic staring at me, with his head raised a little and his eyes bright. He acted like he wanted to get up, so I offered him some water and was thrilled that he drank heartily! After a few drinks he calmed back down into his bed and relaxed, staring off into space again.

When I woke up at 6:30 Celtic was awake, alert, responsive and hungry. He ate his breakfast in bed and drank more water before Chad carried him out to potty, and although he still couldn't really stand on his own, he kind of moved his legs like he was walking when Chad lifted his tummy with a towel. He's spent most of his day in bed and still isn't walking on his own, but each time he's gone outside today he's moved those little legs more and more. He's eating well and totally interested in any food item anywhere in the house, and his stubborn and determined personality is definitely shining through again. Yesterday we were worried we'd lost our little man, but today we are definitely more hopeful. We know his troubles aren't over yet, but we're thankful that today was better than yesterday and praying that tomorrow will be better than today. We know we can't keep Celtic with us forever, but it just seems too soon to lose him considering he was sprinting around in the snow just barely over a month ago!

97's at The Bottleneck

All this talk by me about my important blog post may have misled my tens of readers into thinking it was something important to normal people as opposed to something important to just me! As you can see from the title, I was just very excited to share the story of what made last weekend awesome--our 10th live Old 97's show!

Seeing the 97's at The Bottleneck was a little nostalgic for me, because just over 10 years ago this was the first place we ever saw them, after our friend Jason sent us a few bootleg CDs of their concerts and then invited us to the show. The rest is history, a history which I don't really need to repeat since I already chronicled the whole thing here. In fact, as I was looking for that particular post I realized how many times I've actually blogged about them. It's kind of insane and I'm really slightly embarrassed. I can just see them Googling themselves and finding this blog and then recognizing me as the crazy-eyed person who rambled incoherently to Murry in Kansas City last summer. They're probably slightly frightened at my obsessiveness, which wouldn't be that weird since my husband is slightly frightened by it too.

So ANYWAY, clearly we had a fantastic time at the show, and I'd be repeating myself if I told you how great they were live. They played 9 of the 12 songs from their new album, which meant that we missed a lot of the old classics (Niteclub, guys...everyone in the audience was cheering for Niteclub!), but almost all of the new ones they played we really liked. Even those that we liked just a little on the new CD, we liked tons more live. While there were tons of old songs I missed, I at least got to hear my most favorite song ever--Four Leaf Clover--which they hadn't played in several of the last shows I'd been to.

What made the show even more fun was my location, since I left Chad and our other friends to push my way to the front immediately after the opening band was finished. I made it to the second row, which was fine since clearly the people in the first row were also hard core fans who'd waited there during the entire opening act as well. Since I was alone, I quickly made friends with a woman by herself who looked about my age (I realized she was just a little older when she talked about her daughter's recent wedding!) who is from New York but now lives in Olathe. She was at her sixth 97's show and was wearing a t-shirt signed by the whole band. She was just about as serious as I was about being there--it was great to meet a fellow superfan!

Besides the great performance, we also had a terrific time hanging out with our friend Jason and his mom, dad, sister, brother and future sister-in-law until the wee hours of the morning. Spending time with his family is always a plus! While we were sitting around at the Bottleneck out after the show, Murry came out into the bar and I went over to take his picture again--this time not for myself but for Jason's sister Brittany. I specifically kept my mouth shut and just ran the camera, knowing full well that I'd sound like a complete moron if I said anything to him. At least I learned from my mistake last time!

A little later as Murry was heading out to their tour bus parked out front, he walked right up to Jason's parents and started chatting with them. He was just so nice! We all thought he probably recognized them since they are at so many 97's shows in the area and they are almost always the oldest people there. We got a picture of Murry with them as well, and then in probably the most hilarious moment of the evening, Jason's future sister-in-law Morgan offered Murry and the band a place to stay for the night. Murry very graciously declined, but somehow the conversation still turned into a discussion of their accommodations and the fact that they had an extra shower and the band was welcome to use it. Uh--awkward but hilarious! It was so nice to see someone else babble incoherently in Murry's presence!

As usual, the pictures with my point-and-shoot camera were pretty terrible, so I picked just a few from the night that I doctored up with Photoshop to make them a tiny bit interesting. There are a few others from after the show too--although I didn't capture the exact moment that Morgan invited Murry into her shower. Classic!

Putting Away A Plethora

My big project of the day was taking down and putting away all the Christmas decorations. I know it's January 4th and I realize I'm probably the last person in the city who hasn't done this already, but when I was a kid our tradition was to always leave the tree and decorations up until after the New Year, so I'm kind of in that habit. Quite honestly, even if it hadn't been a childhood tradition, I would probably still leave them up this long. I just think the lights and the tree are so pretty. I'd probably leave them up a few weeks longer if next Monday wasn't the last day that the city will pick up trees for recycling.

This is going to sound really dorky, but I think part of why I like leaving the decorations out so long is that they're kind of like old friends that bring back lots of memories. Since you only get to see them once a year, you want to spend as much time with them as you can before they have to leave again. Cheesy, I know.

Today while I was getting ready to put things away, I first gathered the items from every room in the house and put them all onto the dining room table. I was thinking that having everything in one place would help me stay more organized as I put stuff back in their boxes, and I think the plan worked somewhat, but it also looked quite disastrous for a while first. I thought since I didn't take any pictures of the decorations while they were up this year, maybe I would bust out the camera and take a few pictures while they were coming down. This was the table loaded with all the decor, minus a few Christmas linens that were in the wash.


I like how Hope is standing there in a position that makes it look like she's wearing a Christmas bandana. Notice that the tree was still decorated at this point--the table didn't include any ornaments.

I realized at this point that 90% of the decorations around our house are not items that we actually purchased ourselves--they're almost all gifts. I think that's why they bring back so many memories and emotions, all relating to who gave them to us. Even if they're things we wouldn't have purchased for ourselves, they make us think of the family members or friends or former students (from my preschool teaching days) who gave them to us.

These two angels (you can barely see the back one) were presents from our friend Ted's parents the first two Christmases we were married.

I think those tall angels were gifts from one of my parents. The angel candle holders were from my dad. The brown angels behind the tall ones were from Chad's mom Joan. I think the stuffed Santa (whose beard you can see at the bottom) was from Chad's parents early in our marriage. His beard needs to be sewn back on because Hope chewed it off several years ago.

This nativity set is brand new. My dad just sent it to me for Christmas this year.

I'm thinking this nativity set came from my mom, and I think the Santa stacking dolls on the right were from her as well. Oh, and the plate with the snowmen was from her too--that was a present she got me one year after I'd admired it in the Hallmark store while we were out Christmas shopping together.

I think this is one of the few things on the table I actually purchased. I love these adorable little snowmen!!

These three little carolers made from clay were hand sculpted and painted by my brother's old girlfriend Cynthia. The little box of potpourri on the left was from one of my little preschoolers named Connor.

This cute little KU Christmas tree was either from my mom or Chad's parents--I can't remember.

The medium Santa behind that candle was a gift from one of my preschool students--a little girl named Maggie. The tall Santa is brand new too--I "won" that in the white elephant gift exchange at our small group Christmas party this year and I really like it!

I think maybe I bought the striped candles myself at some point, but the plates and bowls were a Christmas present from my dear husband, who surprised me with them one year when I was admiring them in Target. I love that print and wish I would have gone back and bought more!

This is definitely my most nostalgic of decorations. My mom made this when I was just a toddler, and it was displayed every Christmas in our house when I was a kid. I loved getting this rather hideous Santa out of the box every year and placing all of the little hand-wrapped packages around him and in his little burlap sack. I still do. I think I might need to replace that snow one of these days though!

There are so many others that have stories of their own, but I'll spare you any more pictures since this post is entirely too long already. Farewell to my little Christmas friends--see you all again in about 11 months!

Rockin' Roger

Last Friday we made our second trip to Salina in the last month, which was kind of strange since in the whole year before that I'd probably only been to Salina twice! I just don't get back to the old hometown very often, but this trip was for a very important purpose. Chad and I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to see a concert by the lead singer (Roger Daltrey) of Chad's very favorite band in the whole wide world (The Who). While we'd seen The Who in concert before, this show was a once in a lifetime deal because the venue--the Steifel Theatre--was SUPER tiny in comparison. It also happened to be the site of our first movie date together (Crocodile Dundee), back when it was the Fox Theatre and back when we were 14 years old.

Anyway, thanks to our friend Danny who works for a production company with the inside scoop before the show was publicly announced, and to our friend Jason who knows someone who works at the Steifel, we were able to get dead center third row seats as soon as (or maybe even before) tickets went on sale. I can't even explain to you how awesome it was to be standing 20 feet away from Roger Daltrey. It was seriously phenomenal, and he and his band put on a freakin' incredible show. I know Daltrey's an old pro and all, but I was still blown away at how incredibly hard he rocked it for a ridiculously small crowd of fewer than 1200 people. He's 66 years old and looks and sounds flipping terrific. I don't even know how he does it.

Lots of people have asked me why in the world Roger freakin' Daltrey was playing a venue like the Steifel in a town like Salina. We were a little confused too, but Roger explained during the show that it has to do with Pete Townshend, the only other living member of the original band. Apparently Pete has terrible tinnitus and can no longer tour with the full band using the traditional feedback amps that blare right in his face. So Roger and some of the musicians who now play with The Who (one being Pete's brother, Simon Townshend, interestingly enough) are out on the road practicing using those earpiece monitors to hear themselves sing and play so that Pete and Roger can go back on tour eventually without the old amps. Roger more or less said that they were playing places where it really didn't matter much so he could practice using his "American Idol" earpiece!

Anyway, we had a flipping fabulous time at the show, and the only thing that could have made it better would have been the omission of one unfortunate incident that could seriously only happen in a town like Salina. When the show started and Roger and the band started busting out Who Are You, we obviously stood up, like we would at any concert. About three songs in, the guy behind us taps us on the shoulder and tells us rather rudely to sit down, at which point we realize that most other people behind us aren't standing anymore (if they ever were). I basically just turned around and said no, I wasn't going to sit down, which probably seems super rude and inconsiderate. My thought at the time was "seriously people, this is ROGER FRICKING DALTREY and it's the one time in my life I'm going to be standing this close to him and I just paid $100 a ticket and drove over two hours to be here and I have absolutely no intention of sitting down." A few seconds later, the guy taps me again and says "You guys are blocking so many people's view!!" At this point I look at Chad and can tell that just like me, he's debating whether to punch this guy in the face or accommodate his request. Right at the same moment, however, some young guy pushes his way into our row and starts acting like he has a ticket, trying to tell other people in the row to get out of their seat so he can sit down. So while we're trying to convince Mr. Seat Stealer that he's in the wrong row and we can't actually sit down because of the commotion, several people (mostly women) behind us start screaming "SIT DOWN!" Seriously? I mean I know most of Roger's fans are a bit older than we are, but did they really come to a rock concert with the intention of sitting down the whole time? Really? Apparently so.

Anyway, we very reluctantly sat down for most of the rest of the show, until the end when they played a few more Who songs, at which point I happened to glance behind us to see that everyone was now standing up. Apparently they were capable all along--just lazy. I know I'm harping about the sitting down entirely too much, but my biggest issue with it is this: a performer like Roger Daltrey is doing Salina a HUGE favor by coming to play for them, and yet they're completely disrespecting him by not even showing him they're into his set! Roger even mentioned half way through the show that there was way too much sitting going on, so clearly he was just as disturbed about it as I was!!

Other than all of that, the show was fabulous and I was so thankful we were able to be there. My only regret is that I didn't take my good camera to get some good pics of Roger and the band. Chad insisted that they wouldn't allow "big" cameras into the show, but of course this was Salina, so there was absolutely no security to check bags as you came into the theater. While most people just had point and shoot cameras, there were a couple of SLRs too. I was so jealous because I knew they were getting better pictures than I was, but I did get a few decent ones in the batch. There are also a few really great video clips, which I'd definitely recommend checking out here, especially if you're one of those people who isn't familiar with The Who. Once you hear them, you'll realize you know lots of their songs!

Deluxe Doggy Door

This post had to be put in the long story category because it's taken me so long to finish! I only had time for about 15 minutes of blogging a couple of nights last week, and that just wasn't enough time for me to get this one cranked out. I have been so excited to share this though, so no matter how long it takes me, I'm going to finish it this evening!

Last Sunday morning, Chad skipped church to work on a much needed project at our house with our friend Grant. We'd been talking about this particular home improvement task since before we even moved in, actually. In all seriousness, one of the reasons we knew this house was perfect for us was because it was completely conducive to this particular project. You see, we knew that within a few years Celtic wouldn't be able to make it up and down stairs. We insisted (much to our real estate agent's chagrin) on buying a home that had the master bedroom on the main level specifically for this reason. Although we couldn't find one that also exited into the backyard at ground level, this house did at least have a garage that was on ground level, so we knew we could make it work for our four-legged munchkin.

Sadly, Celtic's been having more and more mobility problems lately and we were starting to worry that we were shortening his quality years by making him use the deck stairs into the backyard. We carried him up and down on occasion, but he hates being carried so much, his squirming makes it very difficult. We'd also been taking him out front several times a day instead, and while he liked the special attention, he also missed being in the backyard with his siblings. Plus, it wasn't super convenient to be out front with him while Hope was barking at the back door to come inside. We knew the time had come to take on Operation Deluxe Doggy Door.

Since Grant is an amazing designer/builder/engineer, we actually had him over a couple of weeks ago to help us think through the project. Thanks to his expertise, he and Chad were able to actually finish the platform and the "wheelchair ramp" into our garage while I was at church last week. A couple of hours later, they'd cut a hole in the back wall of the garage into the backyard and put in the door. Later in the evening, Chad insulated the door frame and then built a gate up at the top of the platform. The gate doesn't make much sense now, but we've ordered some netting that will actually block the dogs off from the rest of the garage once their doggy door (on the person door) is installed. That way, they won't be able to run through the doggy door out the front of the garage if they hear the garage door open when they're outside, or wander around the garage getting into things they shouldn't once the come inside.

So after the door was installed on Sunday, we recorded their first trip outside Monday night using their new ramp and door. I'm sure this will be interesting to no one except me, but I just thought their reactions were so funny and so typical of each of them.



First, how funny are they? Fresco's clearly afraid to go out a strange door into the dark, Celtic is super happy to be able to walk outside unassisted and knows exactly what to do, and then Hope has to be pushed and prodded to do anything outside of her normal routine. Their personalities are so evident in their behaviors. Second, how awesome are their new ramp and gate and door? Clearly there's still a lot to do for the project to be complete (the net, the light outside, the actual doggy door), but already we all love the new setup! Celtic isn't limping nearly as much as he was, and you just tell that he's so happy and feels so empowered by his new independence! The next morning when I let them out for just the second time, I just left the new door cracked and then left the laundry room door (into the garage) cracked as well. I went about my business getting dressed so I could take them for a quick walk, and a few minutes later Celtic happily let himself back into the house! Fresco figured it out really quickly too. Hope took several days to get the hang of it (her habit of running to the back door was a hard one for her to break), but by Thursday she was also going in and out of the back door exclusively. Once the doggy door goes in we won't even have to go back into the garage and shut the door!

We thought we'd have to put a gate on the deck to keep Celtic for going up that way, but he loves letting himself in and out so much I don't think we'll even have to do that. We can still let him out to bask in the sun on the deck when it's nice outside after he's gone out and in the back. The whole setup has worked even better than we ever though it would, and it turned out that it wasn't even that difficult or time consuming to do. A special thanks to our friend Grant for making the job go so smoothly!

Farewell to the Fat Man

This post has taken me so long to write it's completely untimely, but I feel like it would be downright neglectful of me to not comment on the major shakeup and shakedown of The Fatman that went on here in Lawrence during the last few weeks. In case you've been secluded from the sports world and have no idea what I'm talking about, our football coach resigned under intense scrutiny and pressure last Thursday. Apparently the internal investigation into some of the accusations of misconduct from players and former players didn't go so well for him, although even if it had, after having his name dragged through the mud, he probably would have chosen to leave anyway.

You know how people say there are two sides to that coin? Well this coin has so many sides it's like a polyhedron, which I guess means it's not really a coin at all. There are just so many twists to the story I don't even know where to begin.

If you're not up on the details of all that went down, you can check out the full LJ World article here, but in a nutshell, a player came forward to say that coach poked him in the chest a few weeks ago. This sounded ridiculously and absurdly whiny at first. As Chad pointed out, he's never had a football coach who didn't scream, yell, cuss and grab his players--he even had a coach who regularly kicked his players in the rear with cowboy boots. But after this one kid came forward, the allegations grew. Players current and past started accusing our coach of inappropriate coaching tactics--not just yelling and screaming, but taking very personal attacks on their families and other private issues. The wheels of the Fat Man's program came off after that--and quickly!

Here are my personal thoughts and feelings on the whole situation (because I know inquiring minds want to know), in no particular order and in no coherent fashion:

1. Coach has some major issues that need to be addressed. He has anger management issues and weight/eating issues (I know you're shocked by this revelation). In a very interesting article from a KC sports reporter, these two issues are totally related and perhaps one in the same--think a particular character from Austin Powers (and make sure you do not watch that entire clip if you're easily offended--start at the 50 second mark!). Regardless, the man needs some serious help.

2. The weight problem has definitely gotten worse over the years, as you can see from pictures of the fat man which span his time at KU. While there could certainly be some metabolic issues going on here, I'm pretty sure the guy has an overeating problem. I heard from a friend of a friend the other day that coach has been known to order two entrees at fundraising events. At restaurants. In public. That's disgusting.

3. KU fans have laughed at our coach's appearance for the last 8 years because deep down inside we were all horrified. Fans embraced his girth because there wasn't really anything else we could do. I mean half the KU football t-shirts at Joe College downtown were making fun of his size! We all played it off as funny even though we were actually completely disgusted. We fully expected that he would eventually drop dead of a heart attack on the sidelines while we were all watching!

4. Although I'm obviously not a fan of his appearance nor some of his behaviors, I (and many other KU fans) do give him credit where credit is due. He is the reason for the turnaround of our football program and we are very thankful for those great years and the Orange Bowl win. He must have done something right as a coach, although I'm totally unclear about how he could walk into a high schooler's home and talk to him and his parents about coming to the disciplined program at Kansas. Discipline? Really? I'm not sure he knows what that means.

5. While he clearly was doing some right during those winning seasons, part of me is wondering now if he just knew how to surround himself with good offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators. I'm thinking maybe his winning ways fell to pieces when he couldn't keep his coordinators around for more than a couple of seasons because of his horrible treatment of his staff and players (and everyone else within a 10 mile radius). This insightful article reported that one former staffer lasted for only two games before quitting. Coach chastised him in front of the whole team during halftime of his second game, and he resigned immediately after returning to Lawrence. It kind of makes me think he has a habit of blaming others for his failures. Clearly, he's not much into his own personal responsibility.

6. Despite my criticism, I really don't fault him for being a tough coach and screaming at his players. Had this whole investigation been just about the poking incident, I would have thought it was just a witch hunt. But there's just so much more to it. Some of the things he's been quoted as saying to his players (commenting on alcoholic fathers and brothers who've been shot in gang incidents) have totally crossed the line, in my opinion. One of the former players was quoted in the UDK as saying that Coach's way of motivating people was by "demotivating" them. How sad that he felt like he had to demoralize his players to be effective.

7. If the Fat Man had just been a really tough and borderline inappropriate coach who had one bad year after winning Coach of the Year two years ago, he probably wouldn't and shouldn't have been pressured out of his job. However, when you couple that behavior with so many incidents of bad behavior off the field, you don't leave yourself much room for error. I mean seriously, the man should have been watching his every step after this debacle with the parking attendant a couple of years ago. After reading that story (you'll have to download the PDF and then scroll down to the typed version), you'll never again feel sorry for our coach for being railroaded out of here. He can be almost as tough as he wants on the field, but it's absolutely unacceptable for him to treat people that way off the field. The administration should have taken major disciplinary action against him after that incident and forced him to seek psychiatric help. Instead, the athletics department hired a student for him whose sole job was to move his car when he parked illegally. Seriously.

8. Our athletics director (whom I've been known to refer to as the Orc) has obviously known about the Fat Man's anger problem since he arrived here (since the first public outburst happened the first year he was coach), and chose to do nothing serious about it because our team was successful and winning. It makes our A.D. and chancellor look like we don't really care about the means to an end, which is kind of disturbing. Disturbing, yes; surprising, no. The Orc is pretty much known for making money and building programs at the expense of anything and everything in his way.

9. On the other hand, had the A.D. actually taken any action against the Fat Man during the height of his football success (which is actually when the parking incident happened), the fans would have been calling for the Orc's head. Although I initially didn't like the way our A.D. was handling this situation--leaking it to the press instead of just handling it internally--after reading and pondering this article (also cited above), I think I better understand why he did it this way. Had he never aired all of Coach's dirty laundry, he never would have gotten the fans and friends of the football program to buy into a coaching change.

10. As you may have guessed, I'm thankful that the Fat Man is moving on. Obviously, after the entire world was made aware of his anger issues and coaching "style," he wasn't going to be able to recruit effectively at all, so his success here was pretty much finished. Even if this whole poking incident hadn't caused the anger issue to rear its ugly head though, I (along with many other KU fans) would have been calling for the Coach's job. He made so many questionable coaching moves and decisions this year that I think cost us wins on the field. From punting/kicking choices (kicking it out of the end zone against Texas Tech) to quarterback choices (playing an injured QB but refusing to admit he was injured) to running back choices (continually trying to run my boy Jake up the middle), there have been issues all year long. To put the icing on the cake, he came up with some atrocious play-calling during our last possession against Missouri. A win in that one game could have salvaged the season, made us bowl eligible, and given our incredible seniors something to be proud of at the end of their careers. I completely blame the Fat Man for not just running the clock out, since everyone in the entire world knew that's exactly what he needed to do. In my mind, that major mistake in the biggest game of the year was cause enough for his dismissal. Clearly, he'd lost whatever coaching edge/expertise he had back when he won the Orange Bowl.

So that's my two (or ten) cents. If anyone is actually still reading, thanks for listening to me rant! Clearly I'm passionate about my KU football, and I'm also hopeful for a new and better coach that will take us to the next level!

How Does This Happen??

Finally I have some time to share the story that horrified me two weeks ago. Several of my friends have already heard this tale by now, so if you're one of them, you might want to take the day off from reading! Hopefully the rest of you will find this somewhat entertaining.

Two Mondays ago I was driving home at the end of the day when I got a call from Chad. He started by saying "I'm not even sure if I should tell you this." In general, I'd say that's just not a good sign. He preceded to tell me this story.

Chad got home from work, fed the dogs and sent them outside, and then walked downstairs to take the mail to our computer desk. At the bottom of the stairs, beside the new loveseat that had been delivered a couple of weeks before, he saw a strange something sitting on the floor. At a glance he thought it was a piece of the packaging from the pub table and stools we'd unpackaged and put together the night before--maybe a piece of cardboard or something that had been chewed up by the dogs. He reached down to pick it up, but when he did, it began squirming and wiggling. Obviously he was a bit startled, and his knee jerk reaction was to fling the squirming thing into the air--the squirming thing that happened to be a snake!! IN OUR BASEMENT! Seriously!!!

At this point, as Chad is telling me this story, I'm on the other end of the phone screaming like a crazy person. I was so hysterical you would have thought I had been the one to find the snake instead of my husband. Of course, had I actually been the one to find the snake and accidentally pick it up, I would not be alive to tell you this story right now because I would have had a heart attack and died. For real.

Anyway, after Chad flung the snake (which was only a small garter snake, thankfully) into the air, he of course realized that he needed to actually capture it, so he grabbed a handful of paper towels off the wet bar and tried to use them to pick up the intruder. Unfortunately, Mr. Squirmy went slithering towards the crack under the door to the furnace room! Chad grabbed it before it could go under, but didn't get a firm enough hold on it, so the snake went squirming all over the place again. There was a bit of a wrestling match in the middle of the carpet between the snake and the paper towels (confirmed by Fresco, who could not stop rolling in that spot for the next three days) before Chad finally got a good enough hold to carry the serpent outside.

Now, I realize that garter snakes really aren't dangerous or harmful to humans, but seriously folks, that DOES NOT MEAN I want one in our house! IN OUR HOUSE!! I'm sure some people will think I'm totally overreacting, but this is so incredibly disturbing to me! How did this creepy thing get into our house!??? The fact that we have no logical answer for this question makes it even more disturbing!

We obviously searched all the corners and walls in the finished part of the basement for any cracks or crevices, but couldn't seem to find any snake holes. Chad thought maybe it came through a tear in one of the window screens, since I'd had the windows open the day before for an hour or so while I was cleaning the windows, but a thorough search turned up no tears in the screens either. Chad theorized that it could have climbed its way up one of the 4X4s of the deck and then slithered into the house at some point when we had the door wide open during the beautiful late summer weather. I find that theory completely implausible since a) I don't think a tiny snake could climb 12 feet up a wood post, and b) I don't think a snake could have come into our house and down the stairs without us or the dogs noticing. Our last theory was perhaps the most disturbing: that maybe Mr. Snake came into our house with our new furniture--like he was somehow living in the frame or cushions or packaging and finally came out two weeks later when it started getting hungry. Just to make sure this wasn't the case, I took a flashlight down and inspected the bottoms of both the couch and loveseat, just to make sure there were no holes or second snakes hanging out. The final theory, which is probably the most probable, is that he came in through some crack in the foundation in the unfinished storage room in our basement, which hasn't been inspected quite as thoroughly since there's so much crap in it right now you can hardly see the walls. There are seriously no other reasonable explanations that we could come up with! Anyone have an plausible theory? Anyone? Bueller?

As you can imagine, for the next several days (which happened to be the days my family was in town) I would get the willies every time I tiptoed down the stairs to our basement. Even now, two weeks later, I still peek around the corner and scan the entire basement before getting to the bottom of the stairs. I have to shake out any blankets or pillows laying around just to make sure there are no snakes hiding beneath. I've been totally obsessed with snakes ever since. Last night, when Chad was installing our new printer, he accidentally sat on the old power cord and jump slightly in surprise. In all seriousness, for a split second after he jumped I thought SNAKE!!

I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get over having snakes in our basement. This might be even worse than Snakes on a Plane.

Wine Country Wedding

Over the weekend we went to a terrific pre-Labor Day BBQ hosted by our friends Leigh Ann and Nate, which reminded me that I need to get my rear in gear and actually talk about their wedding that we went to a few months ago! Our trip to California at the end of June was centered around this fantastic event!

Nate and Leigh Ann's wedding was held at the beautiful vineyard home of Leigh Ann's uncle in an adorable little town in Sonoma county called Healdsburg. We arrived in Healdsburg late in the morning on the wedding day, and spent an hour or so walking around the lovely town square and shopping in the touristy little stores. By the time we checked into our hotel in nearby Geyserville early in the afternoon, it was SUPER hot out (I had no idea the climate was so different in wine country than in San Fran), so I took a dip in the hotel pool, which was really quite nice! My friend Emily and her husband Ashford arrived a couple of hours later, and in the early evening we all rode over to Leigh Ann's uncle's house together in the Hummer that Em and Ash had gotten as a rental car.

The wedding itself was absolutely perfect, which isn't surprising at all since Leigh Ann is a meticulous planner and an amazing host. The setting was gorgeous, with her uncle's vines directly behind the gazebo. The weather was wonderful, with perfect temperatures in the shade even though the sun was a little hot. The music was very unique and meaningful to the couple--completely non-traditional and very fun. Leigh Ann looked absolutely gorgeous (see my favorite photo to the right) and was flanked by her sister and her fabulously fun friends. The ceremony was one of a kind, especially because Nate's best friend from high school was the minister! Everything about the wedding was personalized and perfect!

The reception was also at the family vineyard, with incredible wine (obviously) and fabulous food. We ate at perfectly appointed tables out on the lawn, which were each named after a band instead of simply given a table number. Each band was a band that Nate and/or Leigh Ann had seen live, and since they came to the Old 97's show last year in Lawrence, we got to sit at the Old 97's table, of course! This fun and unique idea is just the kind of incredible detail that goes into every gathering Leigh Ann plans. I've often thought that she missed her calling as a party planner!

During dinner we enjoyed live music from a band, who went on to provide dancing music after dinner. We talked and laughed and socialized with our friends, mostly current and former friends from KU Endowment, late into the night. Everyone had such a great time, and thankfully, the celebration didn't end there! The next morning we all gathered together to jump onto a bus which took us on a wine tour that Leigh Ann had also planned! We stopped by four different wineries that day, all with beautiful views and terrific wines. After learning how incredibly complicated the wine making process is, I came to appreciate why good wine is so expensive!

Chad was such a good sport on the wine tour, because even though he isn't a wine fan at all he actually tasted almost all of them! There were only a couple that he might actually drink, one of which I remembered because the staff at Dry Creek Vineyard nicknamed it the "porch pounder" since it was such an easy-drinking white!

After a long day of wine-tasting, we all gathered together in a local park to eat massive amounts of food cooked up by Leigh Ann's dad. It was a fun and exhausting day, but after a few hours of down time by the pool we actually managed to go out and enjoy a little more food with Emily and Ashford late that night. Spending so much quality time with my friend Emily, who moved to Utah over a year ago, was such an added benefit of this California wedding. Emily and I had a great time hanging out, but it made me miss having her in Lawrence that much more!

We obviously had an amazing time at Leigh Ann and Nate's wedding celebration and were so very thankful to have been invited! They are such terrific friends. If you're interested, here are tons more pictures of the wedding and wine tour!

Never A Dull Dog Moment

So here's the funny, coincidental story of my day yesterday. As I was driving home over the lunch hour, I came up over the top of a hill on Bob Billings Parkway and this little white, very wet doggy almost stepped out into the street in front of me. Thankfully he saw the car before stepping off the curb and he headed back onto the sidewalk. I pulled over onto the next side street and jumped out of the car with Hope's leash (which was still in the car from dropping her off that morning), half afraid that I would scare the poor little puppy and he would run away into oncoming traffic. Thankfully, I crouched down low and gave a whistle, and the little munchkin came running right into my arms! I leashed him up and walked him to the car, where he jumped in like he'd known me forever!

I got him home with the intention of leaving him in the garage while I ate, so that I wouldn't have to do doggy introductions or monitor his activity in the house or yard. He wasn't having any of that though. He was determined to go in the house with me, so I left him in the laundry room while I let Fresco out, but Celtic was completely aware that there was a strange, wet dog in our house. I let them sniff each other through a crack just to make sure my little stray was friendly, and since they seemed to like each other just fine, I let him out into the kitchen and then shooed him out the back door. Thankfully Fresco is super friendly, because the little white dog had marked about 10 places before Fresco even realized he was in the back yard. Fresco was slightly alarmed about the strange dog peeing all over the place--he sprinted straight at the little guy with his hair on end, but then stopped and sniffed and made friends as soon as he reached him. It was probably not super smart on my part to trust Fresco so much since I didn't know the little stray at all, but thankfully Fresco was very welcoming to the stranger!

I monitored them all from the deck for a while, and since things seemed to be going well I went back in to scooped up a bowl of cottage cheese (my new favorite food) that I could eat while watching them through the window. Pretty soon Fresco had decided he wanted to start wrestling with the little guy, which didn't work so well since there was at least a 50 pound weight difference! I went out to settle everyone down and took a few pictures of our visitor. He was a pretty cute little guy!

Celtic gets to know our visitor a little better.

He was such a little cutie!

Fresco kept batting at him, trying to get him to wrestle and play. Fresco tries so hard to be gentle, but the little dog wasn't having any of it!

I put the little guy in the laundry room for a few minutes so he could dry off while I finished my lunch, and he barked just once or twice before he laid down and relaxed. As soon as I was finished eating I loaded him back in the car and headed to the shelter. He was pretty good about riding in the car and only got into my lap on one occasion. Unfortunately, when we got to the shelter, there wasn't a lost report on him and he didn't have a microchip. For the first time since I'd met him, he seemed shy and scared when I took him into the building. I felt so bad, but since he had no collar or tags it would have been difficult for me to go looking for his family! I know the shelter will be the best place for his family to come looking for him. Plus, I knew it wouldn't be good to keep him at home once Hope got home from the hospital. She usually thinks small dogs are toys and probably would have started swinging him around by his tail. He definitely picked the right Hope-free day to be a visitor at our house!

Our New Couch

I'm pleased to report that Chad and I finally purchased a couch for the basement this weekend, and we managed to do so without any further arguments or issues! We recently came to the conclusion that we should go with some combination of a couch/loveseat/chairs, so on Saturday I went to Topeka (since we had a wedding to go there that night anyway) and had brunch with an old friend before spending a few hours hitting all of the same furniture stores that we'd previously been to when we were looking specifically for a table/chairs and sectionals. Each time I would see a sofa with potential, I would take a picture and email it to Chad to get his opinion. By the end of the day we had narrowed it down to two sofa sets at two different stores.

On Sunday, Chad was all excited to drive back to Topeka to BUY one of these sets because he was so sick of looking, so we headed back over and went to look at the one I liked the most first, only to find out that it was a closeout and all they had was the floor model sofa, without any loveseats at all! ACK! Thankfully, there was another couch around the corner that I hadn't previous considered because I didn't like its feet. Once we realized the feet were easy to remove and replace, we tried it out and it moved rapidly to the top of the list! We did go back to the second store just to rule out the other set on our list, but it wasn't nearly as comfortable and the quality wasn't nearly as good. The only thing that set had going for it was the chair and 1/2, which I totally love. I think now our plan is to find a separate chair and 1/2 or two-person chaise to compliment our sofa and loveseat. That will be a search for a different day though!

So here's a picture of what might be our new sofa. It's the correct brand (Natuzzi) and it has the funky feet we want to change, and it's very similar, but I'm not 100% sure this is the exact model. You get the idea though.

We ended up buying the set from Slumberland Furniture in Topeka, and we really can't say enough good things about this store. We encountered SO MANY overbearing and downright frightening furniture salespeople during these last few weeks, and the people in this store were such a breath of fresh air. They were very helpful and knowledgeable, but they didn't hover over us or try to mislead us or follow us around the store asking questions or saying "it can get kind of crazy!!" like other salespeople at other stores. In the end, I was so glad we found what we wanted at that store, so that we could reward the sales staff we appreciated so much!

Unfortunately, our new furniture won't get here for 4-6 weeks, so for the time being we're going to hook up the TV and watch movies while laying on the floor! :)

My New Toy

Did anyone happen to notice the lovely picture of our girl Hope from my post on her birthday? Does that picture seem especially fabulous to anyone besides me? If you have a very keen eye and you did notice it was incredibly beautiful, I assure you it doesn't have anything to do with my talent as a photographer. It does, however, have to do with a new toy that I got late last week--a new 50 mm lens!! I'm totally in love with this thing!!

Although I haven't learned nearly enough about SLR photography in the 1+ year that I've had my camera, I did learn relatively quickly that I couldn't get the shots I really wanted without a faster lens that allows more light in with a wider aperture. I actually found the lens I wanted in March, but it wasn't available anywhere online, so I ordered it from Nebraska Furniture Mart, of all places. Unfortunately, it never came in because it was on back order. I pretty much forgot about it during the move, but after we got into the new house I followed up and found they had pushed the delivery date back yet again. Since an Amazon.com vendor claimed to have it in stock, I canceled the NFM order and ordered on Amazon last Monday, and by Thursday it had arrived!!!

I opened my new toy Friday evening after dinner and took a few shots inside, with absolutely no natural light and even very little artificial light, and the pictures were still amazing. My second photo session was the next morning outside, and the pictures were even more incredible. I love this lens so much!! It makes me feel like I could someday be a real photographer!

I know my blog has been a little heavy on the slideshows lately, but you have to see the terrific pictures from my new toy!!

House Drama

Many of my friends have already heard this story, but I still have to share this crazy and somewhat sad coincidence related to our house search because it's pretty flipping amazing.

The back story is that almost two weeks ago I had a conversation with my friend and coworker Dan about the sale of their house in Olathe and their house search in Lawrence. A few days later when our agent was taking us out to see a bunch of houses, she mentioned meeting a couple at her open house earlier that day who lived in KC but both worked in Lawrence, and I soon realized that she was talking about Dan and his wife. This was the same day we went to see the one house that we really liked again (which is on Westfield), which had been under contract for a few weeks but then put back on the market when the contract had recently been canceled. We were considering making an offer on the Westfield house but were waiting until the CMA of our house was finished last week so that we had a better idea of how easy or difficult it would be to sell.

So crazily enough, even though the Westfield house had been empty since it was finished over a year ago, just two days after we'd gone to see it with our agent, someone else made an offer on it--which is exactly what happened the first time we went to see it! We decided that we'd wait and see how the CMA went and then decide if we wanted to try and beat the existing offer.

So that was Monday, and on Tuesday I went up to talk to my friend Dan to tell him that he'd met our agent, see what he thought of the house she was showing, congratulate him on the sale of his house, and see how their house search was going in general. We chatted about all the houses we'd seen and he mentioned that they'd finally found one they liked and made an offer on. Now you can probably see where this story is headed, but at the time, I totally didn't. We continued chatting about houses and a little while later I mentioned that there had been only one house that we'd seen that we'd really liked. Dan asked which house it was, and when I answered "it's over on Westfield" his eyes just about popped out of his head. THAT WAS THE HOUSE THAT THEY PUT THE OFFER ON. I couldn't believe it. The one house out of a hundred that we really liked! What are the odds? The even crazier thing was that Dan and his wife had already upped their offer once because apparently another party had made an offer after them!

So to make a long story a little shorter (my stories could never be considered short), Chad and I talked about it, and while part of Chad wanted the house even more knowing that someone else wanted it too (always the competitor), we decided that a) I would feel terrible trying to beat my friend's offer on this house and b) maybe this was God closing a door for us. We were definitely disappointed and sad, but we could deal with it. The good news is that the bank accepted Dan's offer and not the other buyer's--if we can't live there, I'm glad a friend is going to!

The other good news is that yesterday our agent took us to a few more houses, and we actually did find another that we liked. It's not our dream home, but it's really nice and we could certainly see ourselves living there. If we can get our house listed in the next couple of days, and if this one doesn't get snatched up before then, we just might make an offer. Hopefully I didn't just jinx us. :)