Goodbye Roxie…

Tomorrow Roxie is going to her new home in Michigan. For those of you that know what’s going on, I wanted to let you know that tomorrow is the day. If you don’t know what’s going on, I’m sorry, but I don’t want to go too much into it.

I will only say that you can bring a pet into your life and your heart and give them all the love you can, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out like you thought it would. We have loved her for 5 years and she has been a huge part of our family, but it’s time to let her go to a better family that can give her what we cannot provide. I know she will be better off, but we will miss her terribly.

We will miss you.

Trick or Treat!

Since we don't live in town, we obviously do not get trick or treaters. And this year there  was a special one that we really wanted to see, but the only way to do that was to go to CF (her mom said it was TOO far to go to bring her to us!) This actually didn't work out too bad, though because Lauren loves to hand out candy and Joe ditched her to spend the weekend with Matt and Matt in DSM, so we kept her company.

She had the walk and porch ready...

and the dogs in costumes. This is Violet, I missed a picture of Clover in his Broncos shirt.

There were over 75 kids that came. (she said this was a record for the last 3 years that they have lived in the house.....I'm not telling how she knew that, and I'm not going to post the photo I took to prove it, either!)  Love ya Lauren!

But the cutest one by far was the giraffe that visited at the end.

 

To be fair about the dogs in costumes, I did do that with Roxie last year (she's a bit too grumpy now to mess with that). I know, pretty silly, but oh well. 

 

Tai doesn' t really need a costume, he pretty much always looks like a freak. Although he's a very loveable freak.

Grilling

We had all the kids over last night to grill. It was beautiful weather and we hadn't done it for a while and it was Lauren's birthday on Friday. We had shrimp that we brought back from Texas that we needed to use, so we made shrimp and fish tacos with all the cool toppings. They were actually very very good. Will have to do it again sometime soon. Craig said it was the best meal he had ever eaten at our house! I guess that's not bad, seeing he has only been eating at our house for 3 years! It was very good, though.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Matt brought a present from Des Moines......two foam dart guns and a kid's bow & arrow. Goofy kids! (although I did get a shot or two in myself!)

It was a beautiful night to just sit out by the fire.

and Roxie REALLY liked the fire.

Tai just liked his new chair!

Matt's moving :(

Matt starts his new job in Des Moines on Monday. He's excited and nervous all at once, but looking forward to it I think. He doesn't have an apartment there yet, so he's staying with Matt & Erica in Ankeny for a couple (few?) weeks until he can find one.

IN THE MEANTIME......he is homeless. Well, not really, but he officially moved out of his old apartment Sunday and has been shacking with different people this last week. It's kind of weird having someone live (even for a couple days) with you again. The last time he really lived here was probably 3 or 4 years ago. It's a little strange. But it's been nice to see him, I think it's going to be more challenging to see him once he moves to Des Moines. He can't just call up 30 minutes before to go have lunch with him. I guess it's just one more reason to go visit Des Moines!  This dogs do like having someone else to sit on and cuddle, though.

I do hope he finds an apartment soon (and I'm sure Matt & Erica will agree in a few weeks) because he moved all of the stuff from his apartment to our house. It's amazing how much you can accumulate in just a few years.

And this in only part of it, the back bedroom is full, too, as well as part of the garage, and he STILL has stuff in his old garage to move! 

He had to give away his cat, because most places do not accept pets, but evidentially his things still smell like her because Roxie keeps going downstairs to sniff everything. Tai, even after 1 1/2 years, will not go down the inside stairs, so he just waits at the top.

Have a great 4th of July! We are going to Joe & Lauren's to grill out and watch the fireworks.

TTFN

An update....

We went to a nerve Dr. today to "map" the nerve in Al's back and leg to see if it's working right or how "pinched" it is. We really didn't learn anything new, we know it's pinched, but the surgeon that we are seeing tomorrow requests these tests before they decide what to do next and how soon to do it. So....we don't know much more than we did before. He is pretty drugged up today. He pretty much just sleeps in the bedroom except when I bring him medicine or something to eat. He has been eating better this week....last week he was down 15 pounds from the week before. It's really strange to see this big, burly, macho guy taken out so bad. I mean, this is a guy who stitched up a cut in his hand not too long ago! (not that that was real smart, but you get the idea: he is in pain like he hasn't ever had before) The Dr. today said there is a fairly new procedure called a "micro-surgery" where they just go in arthroscopicly and take out the piece of the disc that is broken off and it's not real invasive and usually there is a quick recovery. Hopefully he will be a candidate for something like that.

When we were at the Dr. today they announced on the loud speakers a Thunderstorm Warning, then a few minutes later they announced a "code white". Then the nurse came in and said that we were under a tornado warning (that would be what a "code white" is I assume) and that we would have to move. Then they came in and said that since we didn't have any windows in the room, we were fine to just stay there. It was kind of weird just sitting there under a tornado warning! At least we were in the middle of a big brick hospital and probably pretty safe, but it was weird. There wasn't a tornado, just very high winds, but it was still pretty strange.

After we got home there were a few branches broken off here and there but nothing too bad. It did make for great sunsets, though. It was the kind of sky that is a weird shade of green (if you have seen it you know what I mean). I tried to get pictures, but you just can't get that weird color on camera, but I tried.

Throughout this whole thing Roxie doesn't quite know what's going on. She realizes something isn't right, but isn't sure what's wrong or what to do. She always has her worried look and keeps going in and sitting by the bedroom door where Al is. Tonight they were both pretty calm, which was nice for a change. 

Of course, Tai doesn't have a clue that anything is wrong anyway!

I will let you know what the Dr.'s say tomorrow.

Photo Time

Yesterday I tried to get photos of the guys for Christmas. It didn't work real great, but I did get a couple that were cute. Merry Christmas Everyone!