My Ol' Boy

**WARNING! Contains some mildly graphic discussion and pictures related to dog surgery.  Don't want anyone to throw up on their phone or keyboard.

My first born child is a black lab named Fisher.  (Actually, my first born was a chocolate lab named Gibby but he was stollen from us on Feb 12, 2000 and my heart still aches when I think of that lovable bundle of brown boy...but I'll not go there.  If I'm being truthful, Maggie, our cat was our first born but she was always so hateful that she was just our cat, not our child.  Even though we all cried like babies and were terribly broken when we had to make the gut wrenching decision to put her to sleep...I'll stay away from there too.) He turned 11 years old last month.  He is 120+ lbs of sweet silliness.  He is lumpy and bumpy with many fatty tumors all over his body.  He even has an enormous skin tag on his chest that we've named Hunter, Fisher's partially absorbed twin.  He would never take home the blue ribbon from the dog show unless it was, according to my brother Jim, in the category of personality and congeniality.
One of the tumors on Fisher's belly was as big as a football.  It was on his left side and had grown so that it was really affecting his everyday life.  He couldn't sit without bending his leg at a very unnatural angle and he would make a noise each time he would lie down that sounded like he was being deflated.  No, not that noise, ha! It swung when he walked and he would get very embarrassed when I would pet him and rub it or talk about it.  Now, if you don't have pets that you love as your child then you may think I'm crazy.  But it's true.  He really does get embarrassed, by more than just his big tumors.  And if you watch him it is as obvious as when you or I are embarrassed.
A few weeks ago we talked to our vet (Dr.  Tom Isaac, Jr at Valley West whom I can not say enough good things about) and decided that it would be best to have it and another on his leg removed.  Years ago we had noticed the tumors coming on and he told us then that unless they were causing a problem they would not remove a fatty tumor.  Well, these had started to cause a problem.
He also had one on his neck that had grown so that it was about to pop the skin.  I know, eeeewww. But it gets worse.  It did pop.  We were eating dinner one evening and Fisher was in his usual position lying on the floor between Maya and myself.  He doesn't beg.  He just lays there waiting for a crumb to fall.  Mike hates it and will make him leave but I don't care one bit.  I looked down and noticed a puddle of "water" on the floor behind Fisher's head.  I thought Maya had spilled her drink but she was drinking strawberry milk. Upon closer inspection, I could see said "water" dripping from the mound on fishers neck.  Oh My Goodness the thing had popped!  Not like an explosion but just weeping and weeping.  More like a popped zit.  I know, eeewww.  I warned you.  Well, I left my dinner to attend to my furry child's dripping neck.  Two soaked dish towels and a wash cloth later the mound was gone as if it was never there.  And let me say it was just like water coming from that tumor.  No color, no odor and no slick or stickiness, weird.  That was on Thursday and his surgery was scheduled for Monday.  So Friday I called Doc and told him what had happened.  I suggested he needle the other tumors before cutting him just incase they were fluid filled too.  He agreed but no such luck.  The other two were fatty.

Fisher did great with the surgery, poor guy.  The recovery was nasty as he had drains in the incision on his belly.  Bllluuugggghhh!!! What a mess!  I slept downstairs on the couch with Fisher on his bed beside of me all week to keep and ear and eye on him through the night.  His Elizabethan collar was useless. It rubbed right in the center of the abdominal incision and snagged a staple on his leg the first night.  From that night on, I had to wrap him to keep things together and keep him from licking.  Mike took the couch for the weekend and then the next monday the drain came out.  That made things better but the holes where the drains had been continued to drain for a couple of days.

I removed the stitches and the staples and he's all healed up now.  What a trooper.  I was more concerned about the recovery than the surgery because we've had a bad recovery experience in the past but he did great, even at 11 years old.  We took a hike yesterday and he seems to be back to his old self and feeling even better.  I certainly think it was the right decision.

Spring Photo Shoot..Oh Shoot!

Every spring (and sometimes summer) we journey on over to our neighbors beautiful flowers and take some pictures.  By some I mean lots and lots.  And we usually end up with a hand full that are worth a hoot.  Between my meager photography skills and the almost always unwilling subject, getting any good ones is an arduous task.  Let me clarify.. by a "good one" I mean one that is not blurry (me), not over or under exposed (me) and the subject is smiling or at least doesn't look like she is in miserable despair (Maya).  Now, I like a candid unforced, natural looking picture but my subject turns on some serious melancholy when faced with a lens.  She will look everywhere but at the camera.
I have had Maya's picture taken professionally 1 time.  She was just over a year old and I didn't expect anything that would rock my world.  We had only been home with her for 2 or 3 months and our relationship was still pretty rocky.  She did OK.
I tried one other time.  She was almost 3.  The photographer got about 4 pics before we gave up and I said to her, through gritted teeth that I was sorry we had wasted her time.  We tried with me in the room, out of the room, helping to direct her, sitting quietly, anything to get Maya to cooperate.  She suggested that we look at the few she was able to get and I reluctantly agreed.  They were pitiful.  The photographers only remark was, "She looks soooo saaaaddd".  Yea, I know, gggrrrrr!!
Her school pictures, on the other hand, have been wonderful, hmmm?
I don't have editing software except for the little I can do in iPhoto so most of my pics are strait from the camera, a Canon EOS Rebel XSi with a standard lens, usually on the auto setting.  Like I said, meager skills.
So, here is a sampling of some of my favorites from this weekends shoot.  I have also posted some others and some of the same on FB.

Oh I love my beautiful, contrary girl!

The Day I've Been Waiting For

The redbuds have finally bloomed!!  I watch for these, my favorite blooming spring tree, as my sure sign that spring is here and the trees will soon be green.
Sunday, when we left here and went to church, I searched for any sign of life among my favorite little trees.  Nothing. Just as in all the days leading up to this one.  Then Monday came after a weekend of warmth and sunshine.  It was cold and gray.  I loaded Maya up to go to school feeling the cold and gray and praying for some glimmer of spring.  We summited a small rise up here on this ridge into a tunnel of trees.  Lo and behold my prayers where answered!!  My sweet, beautiful harbingers of all things warm and sunny!  My beloved redbuds in all their glory sat glistening in the morning dew as if they had been bloomed for days or weeks!  But no, it had happened that very morning just for me.  Thank you God for answered prayers..thank you!

The View From Here

As you can tell by the piles of stuff behind me, we're not completely there but I can get to my computer! And it makes me happy, yay!! The smell of sawdust and the sound of power tools also suggests that there is still work going on.  However, today will probably finish the work on the floor.  That leaves me the clean up and reorganization.  I use the term reorganization loosely because we never really had much organization to begin with.
We need new furniture.  My couch and chair are these big overstuffed pieces that have always taken up way to much space in the little space that we have.  The cabinet that the satellite receiver, DVD player, surround sound and games (Wii and 360) were on is not allowed back into the house.  I think we've had it since college. Then there are a couple of other pieces of furniture that need to find a new spot in our house and some that need to find a whole new home.  Now I'm waiting on the money tree to bloom.  Suppose I'll be waiting a while, huh?
I will go ahead and show you the before and during pics.  Notice the little circular thing on the floor in the before pic.  It is a drain.  This used to be a garage back in the day apparently.  When the idiots people who lived here before us laid the tile they left the drain and the dip in the floor that would cause any water to run to the drain.  There's never been water in this part of the basement since we've been here.  That meant nothing could sit flat in this room.  All of the furniture had to have things under some of it's legs so they would sit flat.  Still most things rocked or made you feel like you were leaning forward in your seat.  The tiles were starting to break and the grout was nasty.

First my sweet, sweet brothers leveled the floor around the drain which was a major improvement!  Then they started in on the new laminate floor.  We put hardwoods upstairs a couple of years ago but because this is a basement we thought laminate would be better suited for a below grade concrete slab floor.  It looks fabulous, like a whole new room. It won't be long before I can show you the finished project.  Can't wait.

Coming Soon

Pardon the interruption. My iMac is currently burried in a room packed full of another room's stuff while that other room gets new floor. I attempted to post a pic (as humiliating as it was) by texting it to blogger but it didn't work. Guess I'm still a little rusty.
My brothers (love them!!) are working their hearts out to get the floor done. So, until I can get to my beloved iMac the posts will be pretty skimpy. I'm doing this post from my phone...not fun. I should have quite a lot to talk about when I can get back to my full size keyboard.

Keeping with the "New" Theme

Maya moved out of her crib right after her 2nd birthday.  We bought her a little twin bed, disassembled the crib and all was well in her itty bitty nursery.  For the first year and a half or so she would not even get out of that bed in the morning.  As was the normal routine for us, she would wake me talking to her critters or quietly calling to me. (Oh, how I longed to hear the pitter patter of little feet in our hall and for some tiny sweetness calling "Mamma" to me! And Oh, how thankful I am that that longing has been fulfilled...ever so thankful!!)
This girl has been a great sleeper since our very first night together.  I can count on one hand the times we've been up in the night with Maya.  Thank God for a sleeping child because the awake times were not always so sunny.  She does wake more often now but will usually just come crawling into our bed, snug right up against one of us and go back to sleep.  And she doesn't hesitate to get up on her own but only to come wake us if it's morning.  She has never gotten out of bed at night before she goes to sleep but may lie there for and hour (or two) before falling off to sleep.  Very few mornings am I up before her except on school days.  I love me some sleep!
All the while, Fisher has been sleeping in the spare bedroom on a full size bed.  Granted, he is a full size dog but does that really justify having his own room and a bed that is bigger than Maya's?  Just recently I decided no, there is something not quite right about that situation.  Since that full size mattress was nearly as old as me, (that would be 29 if anyone is wondering, heh) we put it out in the trash and then got to work making the spare room Maya's and the nursery a playroom.
Big is not a word that we use around here to describe our bedrooms.  Or any other room for that matter. In fact, the rooms in this house are far, far from big.  But the new room is bigger and finally, after more than a month, Maya's new room is complete.  The playroom, not so much, but that's fine because the only thing I'm doing in there is getting rid of the twin bed and moving her dresser into our room which we have already done.  Let me just say, I Love Maya's New Room! It's pretty and bright and girly.  It's neat and tidy which we never saw in the cluttered nursery even freshly straightened.  So far, Fisher has not tried to make it his own.  I think the bed is too tall for him to get on anyway with his old hips and shoulders. He did get a comfy big new dog bed but it doesn't fit in our bedroom and he would rather sleep in the floor.
Without further ado, The new room.  Homemade curtains and all...

Maya thinks the canopy is the best thing ever! So does Woody so it already has a few snags...oh well.

This sticker is kinda what started the whole renovation.  It came up in a search for something totally not a wall sticker on Ama2on.  I couldn't stop thinking about it so I ordered it without a thought of where it would go.  I had looked at the measurements and knew it was gonna be big.  Like I said, big is not a part of our home description so I didn't know where I would put it.  I must say, I think it looks great wrapped around the corner and onto the closet door.  It was easy to put up and it is easy to peel off if I decide to put it somewhere else.  But I don't think I'll move it.

New blog, new room and a brand new day!

Today is a Brand New Day...

And a brand new blog! So very exciting for those of you just waiting for a new post over on What a Journey. (And, by the way, you have sure been waiting a long time!) Ultimately, our adoption journey has become our day to day life.  Maya is still the center of just about everything that goes on with us; what only child is not?  But the focus is on our daughter now not our adoption.  That is what had become of What a Journey anyway.  It's awfully daunting to look on there and see that my last post was in November 09.  Do I really try to play catch-up or pretend that it hasn't been that long and post as if I had been all along? I say NOPE!  Start from scratch.  New, new, new!  After all it is spring.  Isn't that what spring symbolizes, new beginnings?
I uploaded some pictures to have printed today and realized just how bad I have become at taking pictures as well as getting them printed.  It's been two years since I've printed any but just a few pics.  I used to print about monthly with any number of pics at a time (usually lots and lots).  Well, today I uploaded 60 pictures...over the course of 2 years...really?  So, so sad.
So I'm hoping this Brand New Day will lead to a brand new interest in taking some pictures, among other things.  My friend Julie over at From Inmates to Playdates always has some fun things (and even funnier stories) going on that I've sworn to her that I would participate in once I decided to get on with the new blog.  So here it is a brand new day and a brand new blog.  Time to get started!
It may get a little messy around here as I try out some new things.  But don't let that discourage you from stopping by.  I love to have company! And I'd love to know you've been here so please leave a comment.