Is it the weekend yet

Yes it is for me at least. This week feels like it is just dragging on and on and on. Stan is finally starting to act like he feels better! The vet had said it would take him a few days to be back to normal and the support group I joined said it could take him up to a month to feel normal so I'm glad he is feeling good. I'm hoping at some point he will be stable enough to go to daycare. I know they miss going because yesterday I took Silas in to get groomed and he refused to go in the grooming room, he was determined to go through the hallway that leads to the daycare rooms. He eventually got a bath and is all squeaky clean now. Yesterday I also sent out the first wave of save the dates! Kevin is still working on getting some of his addresses, can you believe he still doesn't have them yet? If I know your address you can expect it in the mail sometime soon.

An oily conversation

I belong to a holistic living group on facebook and a few months ago I posted a question about an oil there later that day I message from a girl saying she was hosting an oils class that weekend and I was free to join in. Unfortunately I couldn't make it that weekend but told her to keep me in mind if she ever had another. I figured she would forget all about me but last week she sent me another message and said she was hosting a class at her home in Bluffton and would love for me to join if I still wanted to. I said of course I wanted to and asked if anyone else from Fort Wayne was going and if they might want to carpool. There was another girl who lived in Fort Wayne and was willing to carpool with me. (Side note: I thought Bluffton was like 2 hours away and this is why I wanted to carpool.) Friday night I told Kevin about it and he informed me that I am a moron for thinking it would take linger than 30 minutes to get to Bluffton and that I was probably going to get murdered since I only knew her through facebook. Yeah being murdered never occurred to me, anyone who wants to share oils and such with me can't be a murderer so I risked it and went. And I am so glad I did. The girl hosting the party was so nice and I had a good time getting to know her and the other people at the class. It is so nice to be able to sit down and everyone in the room share the same lifestyle you do. I was able to talk about using oils instead of medicine and no one thought I was crazy in fact they all agreed with me and are more into than I am yet. They were telling me how they don't have any chemical cleaners only oils and some of them even use all natural deodorants and such. We agreed to meet up and get together in the next 2 weeks so hopefully my new acquaintances will become new friends.

Update

Stan has been home since late Thursday evening. He got his appetite back on Saturday and I have heard that is really good that he wants to eat so soon after a crash. He tries to play for a little bit but still seems tired more than usual. I joined a support group type page on facebook for people with dogs that have Addison's. Everyone there has been very encouraging and supportive of Stan. Its so nice to be able to ask questions and get like 20 responses from people who have been dealing with this disease for a long time. After Stan came home he has developed this shiver that would be like you or I getting a chill and doing a quick all over body shiver except his is more frequent and last longer. I was really worried because he did it for like 45 minutes this morning so since our vet is closed (I'll still call them in the morning) I asked the facebook group about it and while some said their dogs have never had this happen others have said that their dogs will do it for a few days up to weeks after a crash, so that eased my mind a little bit. I did also have to write such a depressing email to the women who fostered Stan and his mother and siblings so she could let the other puppies' adopters know since they are now also at risk of developing it. I hated having to be the one to send them the bad news and I pray they will never develop it but just in case I hope that since they now know they are at risk they can catch it before their pup crashes as hard as Stan did.

In other news I addressed all of my save the dates this afternoon and will be working on the rest Kevin's half if he ever gets addresses from people) this week so hopefully they will be in the mail by the weekend and in your hands sometime in the next week or two depending on how long it takes to make it to your house!

Stan

In case anyone is curious Stan is finally home. He is starting to feel a bit better and is currently in bed resting and snuggling with Kevin.

There has to be a resaon

This is what I have been thinking for the past few hours. There has to be a reason God brought us to Silas and then to Stan. There has to be a reason because if all this turns out to just be some cruel coincidence I will start punching anyone and everyone. The past few days have been rough with today being the roughest, I'm talking broke down crying in the vets office couldn't stop the tears from coming type of rough. Friday night was the last time Stan had anything to eat. Saturday morning I got up like normal and fed the dogs but instead of staying in the kitchen and watching them eat (which for some weird reason is something I normally do) I went out to the living room and talked with Kevin. Silas came in a few minutes later after he had finished eating and then Stan came in and after a bit we heard Silas eating food in the kitchen we just assumed he had gotten distracted left some in the bowl and went back to it, non of that was normal and should have stuck out more in my mind. Saturday night since Kevin had to work (and we don't do anything big for Valentine's Day anyway) I went to Nana's house for dinner and since it was a special day I took Stan with me. I brought his dinner with us and gave it to him there but he wouldn't eat it and I assumed it was because he was too nervous since he wasn't used to being there or around that many people. When we got home I tried again and he still wouldn't eat and I figured he just needed to calm down and sleep it off. Sunday morning Kevin came home from work and woke me up to ask why Stan wasn't eating his breakfast. Sunday night still wouldn't eat. Monday morning still wouldn't eat and was no longer acting like himself. I called the vet as soon as they opened to tell them what was going on and they squeezed us into a last minute appointment that evening. We ended up seeing the vet that I am not a big fan of. I talked to him and told him everything that was going on and he examined Stan and said he couldn't find anything wrong with Stan. I told him he was wrong and that something was seriously wrong with Stan if he refused to eat and didn't even want treats. So he agreed to reexamine him and I was right there watching him and again he couldn't find anything wrong, his best guess was a possible stomach ulcer so he wrote a prescription for antacids and sent us home to wait it out and keep offering food. I did get Stan to eat a very tiny amount maybe 1/4 cup of food soaked in about 2 cups of water which he later vomited out all over the bedroom floor while we were asleep. Kevin had called me during nap time to talk about his day and while he was on the phone I questioned him about Stan who turns out was not doing well. He was very cold and lethargic so I told Kevin to watch him outside and if he pooped to bag it so I could take it to the vet and to warm Stan up. Kevin snuggled Stan until I was on my way home when he let them out of the bedroom. I had called the vet after I hung up with Kevin and they said to bring Stan back in after I got off work (I didn't need an appointment). When I got home there was a big pile of something in the living room I bagged it cleaned up the rest and took Stan to the vet who was unsure of what exactly was in the bag and neither of us knew what end it came out of. This time we had the vet I like and she said she wanted to do more tests. They x-rayed him and gave him some fluids since he hadn't had anything to eat in four days. His heart beat was slow and his temperature was low and his x-ray showed that there was nothing in him except massive amounts of air/gas and extreme inflammation and bloating in his intestines. He ended up getting a handful of injections and a fluid injection under the skin so that he could come home. The injections were supposed to work within 24 hours. I got him to eat around 9 pm and we went to bed at 10 and poor Stan was so weak he couldn't even walk up the stairs without falling over so I had to half carry him. Now we are at today. At 2 am Kevin got up to get ready for work (he took the first half of his day off since he wasn't able to sleep since he was up all day with Stan) and found another mystery pile on the bedroom floor. When I got up at 7:30 I thought Stan was dead, he didn't move when I talked to him and his body was freezing. I did wake him up and try to feed him since everything he got last night should have kicked in by then but he wouldn't eat rice or food or even wet food. I made Kevin take his temp and it was 99 which is very low for a dog. I called the vet and she said to bring him in 20 minutes. I jumped in the shower and Kevin tried to warm Stan. When we got there there was no check in or waiting it was just a quick briefing of the mornings activities and then on the scale and straight to a room. The vet we liked was in surgery and gave us the option of seeing the vet who owns the practice (who have only seen once) or we could wait until he was finished with a phone call and then he could take over the surgery and she would come work with us. We opted to wait and have her switch places to work with us. She was very concerned that he still was refusing to eat and that he could have possibly vomited even after the injections so she wanted to run blood tests and redo the x-rays. 30 minutes later the results came back and the x-rays were the same as yesterday and his blood work showed that more than half of the results were in the dangerous zones. She said his body was on its way to completely crashing and that the results looked like Addison's disease and he would need lifelong treatment but she would need to do a very expensive test to confirm and that it was in his best interest to stay over night for observation and iv fluids. She went to get us estimates for all the costs and let us think. Que breakdown. I asked Kevin if maybe we should put him down, what if we couldn't afford the care to keep him healthy. That really upset Kevin because he thought I was only worried about the money and really I was just worried about what would happen to Stan if we couldn't keep him healthy and I did instantly regret ever thinking about that option. One of the techs took us back to a room and gave us the price for everything and it is very expensive she said she would leave us alone for a few minutes to talk and think of questions and left. I started sobbing and couldn't stop. I cried the rest of the time we were there. We obviously wouldn't put Stan down (and I am so very sorry I ever even thought that would be an option and I feel guilty that I ever half suggested it this early on) so we chose to do the testing and to keep him over night at the vet office so he could stay hooked to the iv for as long as possible. She did say we could bring him home tonight but with the way he was there was no way to tell if he would or wouldn't crash over night and that it was in his best interest to stay over night so thats what we did. I would appreciate all the prayers and happy thoughts you want to give to us and Stan.

Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Slap

How can a show with so many very well known actors fail so hard so fast?! Its been about a year and a half since I read the book but I didn't remember it being that bad. I was bored so during the show I got on twitter to read all the tweets about the show and found out that this was a remake and the original was better. I just looked and guess what, Netflix has the original so I added it to my watch list and I'll see if I get around to it, maybe the American remake will pick up but I am doubtful. If you decide to suffer through it let me offer you some advice: while watching read the twitter feed about it. I seriously laughed so hard at some of the comments I read last night.

One Photo. No Caption and No Explanation.

getting excited

There are only three more days until the Fifty Shades of Grey movie comes out!! The amount of drama and hate this movie has stirred up completely dumbfounds me. I could go on and on and on about how wrong people are about these books and movies but I will spare you all that time and some it up: if you don't like premarital sex don't have it, if you don't like the type of sex described in the books don't do it, it really is as simple as that. There are so many people saying how horrible the books are because they promote abusive relationships and rape. There is absolutely zero rape in these books. In fact there is only one short paragraph in which Christian Grey takes things to a point where that could be considered too far but it is immediately addressed by the characters and corrected. While sex is a prominent part of the books it is not what they are centered around. The main part of the books is their connection and relationship and how it changes the way they think and act: the impact two people/a relationship can have on each other. I am praying that the movie doesn't stray too much from the books (and i'm not talking about the sex scenes) its one of my big pet peeves. I loved the hunger games movies but in the first movie they changed one of the most important details and it ruined the whole movie for me. While we are on the subject of movies that used to be books lets talk about The Slap. The Slap is a tv mini series based upon a book that I read. The book is about a backyard barbeque gone wrong. It starts out as your typical get together friends and family gather to eat and have fun and celebrate nice weather. The kids and a few of the adults start a game of baseball but one of the kids gets out of hand and a danger to others. The kid is swinging the baseball bat at other kids so an adult (not one of the kid's parents) grabs the bat away from the child and is then attacked by the child so the adult slaps the child. The book tells the story of the slap from everyone's point of view and how it has impacted their lives. I am very excited for the show and will most definitely be watching tomorrow night. Did I mention the book is based on a true story? I highly recommend it.
In other news...........
Yesterday Aaron and I took a morning break to hangout at Beet Street. It is my absolute new favorite place. Everything is certified organic, raw, unpasteurized, and delicious! Aaron and Natalie both loved it as well. If you have never been there it is a must try, seriously it is so good!!

The best thing I have ever drank!

Every year on Christmas break the kids and I make ornaments. This year we made these yarn things we found on Pinterest.

Some of them turned out alright.

We also made 'snow'

Stan loves pillows

They love their snuggle time

I need new freinds

There is nothing wrong with the friends I have and I love them and will continue to hangout with them and remain friends with them. Then why do I need new ones? The problem is I want friends who share in the same lifestyle I do/am working towards. With the recent measles outbreak and vaccine debate starting up it has made me realize how alone I am in the current circle of people around me and I know that if/when Kevin and I decide to start a family I will be even more alone. In case you need me to say, yes I am against vaccinations. I'm not saying I think everyone should stop using them but I do think people should be given the choice. If you choose to use them great. If you choose not to use them that's great too. In my opinion there are too many risks for something that might work. My parents had me vaccinated as a child so I had the MMR vaccine and a few years ago I was tested for immunity and showed zero immunity even though I was vaccinated. Everytime I get on facebook or online there is a new post on how horrible people who choose not to vaccinate are and how they are trying to hurt the kids in school and so on and so on. It infuriates me everytime! If you vaccinated and your vaccines are so great why are you so worried about the very few kids who aren't? There are doctors who are now saying if you don't vaccinate according to their schedule they will report you to cps and kick you out of their practice. It upsets me that all of a sudden there are so many people who are pushing for vaccines to be mandatory because I wouldn't tell you how to run your family so why do you want to tell me how to run mine. This is the reason I need friends who share the same ideas as me. I am sure there will be times when people disagree with our lifestyle and I will be upset and frustrated and need to sit on someone's couch and vent and it would be really helpful if the owner of the couch wasn't judging and agreed with me. I think I'm going to have to start hanging out more at the yoga studio and the farmers markets or something because I don't know where else to meet people who think like I do.