The Reason For My Time Away

I had to take a bit of time away...

Duchess, our oldest furry family member had to be put down.  I kept hoping she would eventually go on her own.  That her tired body would just put its foot down and say that the time was up, and that it would like to be able to run on the other side.  She just wouldn't hear of it.  She was sticking around to see how this whole life thing turned out for everyone!  Unfortunately, she had a wonderful strong heart that just wanted to keep on ticking.

Last week, after two rough days with her, I realized that our time had come to a close.  I couldn't let her be uncomfortable after 18 years of comforting our family.  We are lucky to have a wonderful Vet, who laid on the floor with Jeff, myself and Duchess as we helped her move on to her next destination.

It was the hardest decision to make. It was even harder coming home without her.  We of course were greeted at the door by the other 3 dogs, who acted confused over the next few days.  Coming home the following day after work, was my full on breaking point.  Duchess was like a small child, and I spent extra time with her every day, whether it was for walks, medicine, or just time.  To come home, take the other 3 out, and realize I didn't have my little slow poke behind me was hard.

The other dogs moped around for a few days, but have mostly come back to their old selves.  Since Bella is our youngest adoptee, her dish was in the most undesired spot in our kitchen.  But it was the last spot available when she came into our home.  After a week, I decided to move her dish to where Duchess' had been.  Bella stares at me every morning like I have lost my mind in trying to get her to eat in the spot that is reserved for Duchess.  Even though her food is in the bowl, she walks over and stands at her old spot and waits.  Guess she realizes no one can replace Duchess or take her spot in our kitchen!

She will be missed more than I can express.  

 Kyle and Duchess 1996

 

 Kyle and Duchess 2010

 

Duchess 09/09/2013

 



Raising Children VS Raising Dogs

As the owner of 3 Senior Dogs, 18, 13 and 11 (and one other that is only 6 because we had a momentary lapse of common sense) I've come to the realization that raising elderly dogs is like raising children and a little bit more added in.

The only ones who listened to me for years, were the dogs.  I could talk until I turned blue, my son would ignore me.  Now, I can talk and the dogs don't listen.  Duchess is completely deaf now, Gracie we have realized hears if she is looking at you or if you yell at her.  Nico still listens, but he has joined the world of subjective hearing.  He will hear you if you want to give him food or let him out.

You spend the first two years of your childs life picking them up when they fall down.  I'm currently picking Duchess up off of our wood floors more often than not.  Wood floors and an elderly dog don't mix well.  She may as well be walking on ice. 

When your child starts to eat, you spend time mashing everything up so its easy to swallow.  Cutting everything into tiny pieces so they don't choke.  Yep, every morning I'm adding water and canned food to bowls to help with the chewing and swallowing process. 

Remember the days of trying to get your young ones to take medicine?  Well, all I can say is the inventor of  pill pockets could be my best friend!  If you have a dog that needs medicine, these are a must have!  Just don't go with the Duck flavor!  The smell is just awful. 

We enter into the world of having children with the understanding it is a life long process.  Once a parent, always a parent.  They will make you feel love, anger, joy, and other things that you can't even put into words.  Entering into the world of owning dogs comes with the same responsibility, just a little different.

Your dog will do things that make you angry and upset.  Duchess killed a rabbit (well played with it like a toy is more accurate) the first year I was divorced and living alone.  May not sound like much unless you have heard a rabbit in distress.  Not a sound you want to hear, and who is going to get the now dead rabbit off of your porch?  Nico ate a dining room table and chairs, and a hole in our kitchen wall the first year.

But, your dog won't talk back to you.  Your dog won't say No to you.  Nor will it slam the door on you, get mad at you, or never not need you.    All a dog will do is love you and show you gratitude. 

We certainly know our time is limited.  I spend each morning paying close attention to Duchess.  Is she in pain?  Is she comfortable?  Trying to be sure we aren't being selfish and keeping her around.  She still goes out and walks the property every day.  Every now and then, she breaks into a run.  Even if after she looks perplexed as to "why the hell did I just do that?". 

I've enjoyed being a Mother, now a Grandmother.  (Ok, I will admit, writing I'm a Grandmother is a tad jolting!)  And I've enjoyed being a "Mom" to our furry family also.  We have been lucky to have the whole brood, even if I have to buy lint rollers a case at time!

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school in the county that I live.

Today is the first day of school that I didn't have a child attending in 13 years.

This was Kyle on his first day of kindergarten...

It seems like an eternity ago. 

This was two weeks ago...

 

 

It has been a long road for all of us.  School was not always an easy road for Kyle.  Or me for that matter.  Or anyone else in our family that stood behind Kyle constantly telling him that he could do it.  I wish someone had pulled me aside 13 years ago and said "You will have to fight for your child.  You will have to push your child.  You will have to push those around him to help him.  But in the end, you will have pushed him to the finish line."  If someone had said that to me, maybe I wouldn't have spent the last two years hyperventilating!

 

The person who gave the keynote speech spoke of running a marathon.  And how important it is to realize that the graduates finished.  Maybe not first, or on time, but that they held on and finished.  I felt like they were speaking directly to Kyle.  It was nice to hear validation for Kyle to have finished.  Maybe not on time, but that didn't matter.  No one will ever ask him did he graduate in June or August! 

 

 



 Congratulations to the class of 2013.  No matter when you graduated!

Hard to Believe

Hard to believe it has been 16 months since my last post.  We had a lot of personal things going on over the last year.  I found it hard to write.  So, I didn't.  But things change, time moves forward and you realize that you need to start again.  I've attempted many times to blog again, only to think where do I start now after being off for a year? I'm going to just post daily a few things that have occurred the past year, guess I will start with the most important:

We became Grandparents this year. 

Riley Elizabeth was born on March 13, 2013.  Here are a few pictures of the last few months.

If you look at the last picture you will notice my living room has become a playground.  You forget how much stuff a little person actually uses!

I'm Really Behind!

We have had quite a few busy weeks here in the Gambler household.  Birthdays, relatives visiting, craft shows just to name a few.  I will be posting about all of these over the next few days as I organize pictures to post. 

These posts will NOT be in chronological order.  I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl!  Actually, I will be posting depending on which photos are available as I'm sitting at the computer at 4 a.m. and  only willing to post photos that are currently in the computer since I don't want to turn on a light.

My Dad was down visiting for a week, so we grabbed my cousins daughter from college close by, and along with Kyle spent a day at Busch Gardens. 

Busch Gardens



A great time was had by all.  Kyle and Tory rode every roller coaster at least once, and ALWAYS in the front row.  First up was Cheetah Hunt:

I was thankful for Tory's bright blue shirt.  It made them easy to pick out when the went by.

And away they go.  The Cheetah Hunt actually is so long that the entire ride is over 3 minutes long.  In roller coaster time, that is a long one!

This was Sheikra.  Lets pause for a moment.  What you can't tell with this photo is that the ride takes you up 200ft, then as it comes over to plunge you at a 90 degree angle, it stops.  Yes, stops and hangs you there.  So I actually had no problem taking this picture, as they posed for it!

At this point, my Dad and I bid them goodbye and went off on our own.  We caught up with them 4 hours later, to hear all about the rides and the fact that they had never stopped to eat.  If you eat, you cannot ride, so they waited until they knew we would be leaving before settling down to grab a bite.



Lather Lovely is here! Finally!

It is finally up and running.  Lather Lovely has a website that is actually working.  It isn't complete yet, but it is there.  It only took me 3 years!  Please check it out at www.latherlovely.com! 

We are headed to Clermont, Fl this weekend to participate Lakeridge Winery's Winefest.  Of course, the weather has been fantastic, now this weekend it is supposed to rain.  Go figure.  At least we did buy a new tent last month, which should keep us dry.  Our old tent had started to show some wear, and for certain shows, they require you to have a white tent.  Mine was beige. 

I will update the blog through the weekend with pictures of the Winefest!

He Is Back, For Now....

Nico was returned to us yesterday morning.  He had traveled quite the distance and by the looks of him had been up all night running.  Our posters were up about 5 minutes when we received the first call that someone had him.

We brought him home where we bathed him (that ought to teach him to run away again, he hates getting a bath!), fed him and let him lay on the big dog cushion to sleep.  We had to keep all the other animals away from him as he came home really cranky.

As in, bare your teeth at everyone, kind of cranky.

Today he is up and back to his old self.  The dog pen has been repaired, again, and hopefully we will not be posting another lost dog post.

In other animal news, our darling Duchess just turned 17.  She is like the energizer bunny!

New Year, Same Old Issues

It is a brand new year and I am faced with an issue we have had multiple times in the past.

Nico has escaped, yet again.  Back in 2010, Nico ran away.  Which led to us to finding someone else's dog and also rescuing Bella.  You can click on all of the links and read those stories.  But today, I find myself once again printing Lost Dog posters with this face on them

I've lost track how many times Nico has gotten out.  He is a runner, that is all I can say.  But this time, I have to admit it was my fault.  We left for dinner, and I completely forgot the dogs were in the dog pen.  Not sure where my head was.  Certainly not with the dogs.  When we came home, Nico had dug out.  Don't know when, other than somewhere between 7:15 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. 

Keep us and him in your thoughts and lets keep our fingers crossed that we find him, again.

3 Months

In honor of it being 3 months since my last post...yes, I'm making fun of myself.  I should be ashamed that it has been 3 months since my last post!  It has been a busy 3 months though, so let me explain.

This was every weekend in October:

Yes, it has been that time of year again.  And this year, we did really well at the Pumpkin Festival.  REALLY well.  The second photo of the chocolate scrub, that sold out, and if you took a whiff you would know why.  It is like taking a shower in brownie batter.  It just smells yummy!

This has boosted my confidence to try more shows, which the first one is this weekend.  Followed in 2 weeks by another.  It has also led to invitations to do different shows in February and March, as well as Christmas gift orders rolling in. 

On top of all this, I finally got back into the work force full time.  I know, wrong time of year to do that, but I'm enjoying what I'm doing, so all is well.

Back To School

Today is Kyle's first day of his Junior year of High School.  Summer went by extremely fast this year!

Now we are back to working with the tutor a few nights a week, staying on top of homework, and now he has a job to work into that equation.  My blood pressure rose a few notches this morning when the alarm went off!

Kyle was up and speaking in complete sentences when I went in to his room this morning.  He almost seemed excited to get back.  I know by Thursday that feeling will have faded, but it was nice to have today!

Get A Job!

I took this photo a few weeks ago, of my son Kyle on his first day of work.  Well, his first day of work for someone other than us.  Kyle has worked his summers with us since he was 14, but alas, we have had to hire full time help and Kyle was left only filling in as needed.

It was time to get a job.  A job that he could work while he is in school.  So, I talked with Michael who owns MJ's restaurant and got Kyle an interview.  The rest was up to him. 

I waited a few weeks to make sure that all is okay before posting this.  He seems to really enjoy working there. Which as adults we know is half the battle, just enjoying what it is you do!

This past week we ventured in for dinner on a night that Kyle was working.  He was in the front of the house, not the kitchen where he had been the past few nights.  Which meant, he cleared our plates, refilled our water glasses and had to clean the crumbs off our table.  MJ's may have just gotten more business from me, if that is what I have to do to be waited on!

And last, a friend of mine is hosting a Blog Hop.  Please check out the link below!

This Past Weekend

This past weekend we headed out of town with some friends.  There were 6 of us all together (all adults!), and we stayed at Kidani Village at Disney.  We used our timeshare points and splurged on a 3 bedroom Villa.  It was sooo worth it!!!  It was our last hoorah before our kids had to go back to school!

Here are some photos of our villa.

Main Living Room. 

Main Living Room looking towards the kitchen

Upstairs loft

Master Bedroom Bathroom (there was a TV on the wall!)

Guest Bedroom #1

Balcony



The balcony was massive.  It ran the entire length of our villa, and both guestrooms had their own balcony upstairs.  The best part was the view from the balcony!

The animals were constantly walking by.  It was a great location for us to be. 

We spent the day at the pool, which since it was so hot, was the perfect place to be.  A few brave persons even battled all of the little kids to go down the pool slide!

Here comes Kelly

Followed by Michon

I wish I had taken a photograph of the kitchen once we all got there.  We brought the blendtec with us of course and lots of liquor.  Seeing that there were only 6 of us, the amount of alcohol we had was shameful!  

A good time was had by all and as always, the weekend came to an end too quickly!  I think it needs to be an annual get together!



Updates

We took a couple of days this weekend and headed out of town to just relax.  We traveled for free, so what the heck!  A few other couples went as well, so it was nice to just hang by the pool for a couple of days and not have to get up every morning at the crack of dawn to let the dogs out! 

Jeff had his endoscope a week ago.  There were a few things that showed during the scope, but nothing that would cause the pain he has been experiencing.  This means, we are back to the drawing board.

This past Thursday we met with his regular physician who has been in contact with his GI doctor.  Since his pain is moving a little more towards the left side now, and his blood work shows that his liver enzymes and kidney enzymes are elevated, he has to under go more tests.

He will go back to the doctor on the 18th for a Hydrascan and a CT scan of the gallbladder, liver and kidneys.  I was still kind of living in the "oh, it isn't anything too important.  We will find the answer soon" until the doctor mentioned that his enzymes aren't elevated enough to warrant dialysis.  That comment stopped me cold. 

What is she talking about, dialysis?  No one has seemed overly concerned about any of this until that comment slipped out.  We are trying to solve a puzzle and the pieces just aren't fitting into one simple diagnosis. 

And then today, the hospital bill arrived.  The same hospital that treated him for acid reflux and when that didn't work, treated him for dehydration, and when that didn't work, sent him home to see a doctor the following day.  Two pain medications, some liquid to drink and fluids intravenously and blood work.  That is what they did.  After the insurance adjustments, our portion is still $750.  Unbelievable. 

I want to work where I can do nothing to actually solve a problem, and still get paid in full for it!  If anyone comes up with an idea, let me know!

On a lighter note, I just finished reading The Help.  I loved every minute of this book.  Please read it before you see the movie.  The movies are never the same.

Overwhelmed

I'm overwhelmed by a whole lot of stuff right now. 

As I've mentioned in the past, my husband has been having some medical problems.  They haven't gone away and he is scheduled for an endoscopy on Friday.  I really am hoping this finally gives us some answers.  On top of all of this, his liver enzymes are showing higher than normal.  Jeff has been on blood pressure medicine for quite a few years now and since we just changed his medication about 4 months ago, that could explain the liver enzymes.

On top of this, we had to make repairs to one of the work trucks that ran us a couple thousand dollars and today I received the phone call from the doctors office that our deductible hasn't been met, so we need to come to surgery with another $500. 

For the past 20 years I have had exceptional insurance.  We have never needed it.  We are currently privately insured since I'm out of work and now all of this! 

I have decided that I need to look further into a Raw Food diet for us.  From what I can tell, this would hopefully allow Jeff to be completely off any and all medications.  But, have you seen the information out there?!  Wow.  Where to begin?

I'm going to have to learn to prepare food in a completely different manner, while keeping a 16 year old happy and eating as well.  Small steps, I know, but still.  I look at my cupboards and realize all of the food that I am going to have to get rid of.  I will be calling some friends to go shopping in my kitchen!

Smoothie Sunday

My life became much smoother a week ago.  My new blender arrived!  Get it?  My life is smoother?  Okay, never mind!

Please say hello to my new best friend!  My new Blendtec blender.  In red of course!  When making smoothies, my old blender worked, but this new blender is fabulous!  When I press the smoothie button, it goes through its cycles to make a smoothie. 

This mornings breakfast recipe was as follows:

One Mango
One Banana
4 slices of Pineapple
Juice of one Orange
2 cups of Spinach
Ice and a little bit of water

Hit the smoothie button, and 40 seconds later, I have my wonderful breakfast.  And yes, it makes about 32 ounces and I drink all of it!

Tonight I was in the mood for something sweet and chilly, so I made a Banana, Peanut Butter & Chocolate Milkshake. 

3 frozen bananas
1 1/2 cups of light soy milk
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp chocolate syrup
One cup of Ice, (although next time I think I will add a little more)

I then pressed the milkshake button, YES, there is a milkshake button!  This served enough for myself and Jeff to enjoy as dessert!  YUMMY!

Today I found a recipe for Fresh Strawberry Margaritas, maybe I will try that one next!  Stay tuned for more recipes!

Gotta Love Florida

I went out to get the mail today and as I turned towards the mailbox I glanced up the street and took a look at the sky.  Since my phone was in my hand, I snapped this photo.

The sky is looking pretty ominous and the thunder is coming through loud and clear.  I grabbed the mail and turned around, looking the opposite direction and saw this.

This is how storms in Florida sneak up on you.  You can be looking in one direction and believe everything is hunky dory.  Then you glance in your rear view mirror and think, Oh Heck!