Being a Pet Parent

I'm not usually one to consider a pet as a full fledged member of the family. We had several dogs and cats growing up and while I loved most of them, they weren't really family members to me.
This last weekend Oscar, our 7 1/2 month old puppy started acting like something was wrong. He stopped eating and drinking and was very lethargic. Well, yesterday we took him to the vet. Thank heaven we did, he had a solid and sharp obstruction in his bowel that was blocking everything. So, yesterday evening Oscar went in for surgery and according to the vet he came through just fine. He did well last night and during the day so at 4:00 this afternoon we finally got to go pick him up and bring him home. It was so odd, leaving my little guy there. He was so happy and sweet, like he always is, and I felt like I was abandoning him. I hated the idea of leaving him. We went to dinner and I could not get my mind off him. I have been so worried. And at the time I was just worried about leaving him at the vet overnight, not the surgery. We had been told that the surgery wouldn't be until the morning. It was actually nice to get the vets call last night telling me that the surgery was already done and that he was waking up before I even had time to really worry about it. Still, our home felt so empty and we could not have been more excited to have him home.
Anyway, my point is, I don't know when this happened to me. When did this dog become a child to me rather than just another pet? I couldn't say when it happened or how. All that I know is that it did.

Funny Pets

Over the last 6 months we have loved having Oscar in our home. He is our first baby and it has be so much fun to watch him grow up and learn new things. We started private lessons with a dog trainer about a month ago and those have been going very well. We decided that we needed to get the training ingrained now so that we will have fewer problems when the baby comes in May. For some reason I let myself believe that having a baby woud not impact Oscar until May. I was wrong.Dogs, apparently, are able to sense things. I'm not sure that he knows that a baby is coming, but he knows that something has changed with me. First, he has always liked Tyson better. He behaves better for me, but he likes Tyson best. Anyway, now he seems to need to be near me all the time. Second, over the last month he has become very protective. Tyson's work schedule changed earlier this year so he doesn't get home until after dark now. Anyway, I am usually still up and reading when he gets home and Oscar is sitting with me. Anyway, when Oscar hears the door open, but doesn't see Tyson he runs out of the room that I am in growling and barking all the way until he finally sees that it is just Tyson. My friend Jen came by this evening to pick me up to go out for a little bit and when her car pulled in he went on alert. I guess that he is adjusting to his new role as protective big brother.

A New Project

It has literally been years since I lastbrought out my paints and brushes. However, a few weeks ago I thought up a painting that I wanted to do for Lily's room and today I finally worked up the courage to start it. I'm finished with phase one.Sorry about the glare, but without the flash the colors were all wrong. My plan was to do this for the background. The colors and design are taken from one of the fabrics that I used for her bedding. Once it is ready I plan to add the lyrics to a song that I love. We'll see how that turns out.

I'll post the song and it's translation in another post some other time.

I got tagged...

Here are the rules:

1. Go to your documents/pictures.

2. Go to your 6th file.

3. Go to your 6th picture.

4. Blog about it.

5. Tag 6 people to do the same.

6. So here we go...

Okay, so the story behind this picture. This is my twin sister Liz (as most of you know). We had be finishing preperations for Ali's (our little sister) wedding reception. Liz is fantastically talented and she was placing the flowers on the cake to finish it up. This is her final product and she was proud of it.

Okay, so I tag Liz, Sarita, Andrea, Brandie, Christa, and Ali.

Valences

This is one of the valences that I made to go with the crib bedding. I'm not usually a fan of them since they are purely decorative, but I needed some more color in our blue room. Okay, maybe not more color, but some variation from the blue that would help tie the bedding in.

Spring Please!

I haven't been updating this blog much. but that is mostly because I don't feel like much is going on in our lives. Tyson has changed shifts which is both good and bad. Good because we don't have to get up at 4:30am anymore and bad because I'm home by myself in teh evenings and I keep riunning out of things to do to keep me busy. Last week I made valences to match the bedding that I made a few weeks ago. I have a few more little projects in mind, but I am getting bored with them right now.
I am ready for winter to be over with. I have been working on projects indoors lately but I have been getting a little stir crazy. I want to be outside, but it is still too cold and there isn't much to do out there at this time of year anyway. I am getting excited though. I can't wait to put in our garden, finish repairing our lawn, and plant some flowers. Besides, I have missed the sun. April just can't come soon enough. Oh, and then of course there is the whole baby being born in May thing, that should be fun too.

A Finished Project...

I have always had a tendancy to take on large tasks and plan for them to be much simpler and less time consuming than they ever really should be. That being said, I started looking for bedding once I found out that we were having a girl, and finding nothing that fit well in our little blue room (I didn't have the heart to ask Tyson to repaint), I decided that I would go ahead and make it myself.

About a week ago I went to several fabric stores looking for the right prints, and then on Monday I dragged Tyson with me and I bought fabric. Knoewing myself, I knew that if I didn't get right on it and finish it it would never get done and then I would have a newborn and be trying to sew bedding while also trying to care for the baby.

So, I got on it and low and behold, I actally finished it. I'm thinking that I may make some valences and such, but those can wait another week or so, the bedding it finished and the quilt is even quilted, so I am satisfied. This is probably the most productive that I have been in the last five months or so...