Sometimes Life is Not Fair!

Over the past two weeks I have definitely figured out that sometimes life is not fair.

We had decided that we were going to plan our holidays a little different this year. Ammon's older kids were going to be coming up from Arizona on the 27th and spending the rest of the Christmas break up north with him. We figured we might as well go up on the 27th and stay with them.

So we left our place on the 27th and ended up bringing Lilly and two of the puppies went with us since their new homes were up there. For the most part the vacation was pretty good. I LOVED spending time with my family, however while we were up there sickness started going around. Thankfully it didn't hit us.

We were hit up with taking the kids home and figured why not. Our plan was to leave on the 2nd and drive to our place and then leave on the 3rd to take them the rest of the way home. We got home on the 2nd and everything was looking alright for the most part. We were having an issue with our hot water working but figured maybe it would take a little time. We woke up on the 3rd and discovered our yard to be covered in ice thanks to the water pipe bursting overnight. We called the maintenance man and he came over and shut our water off completely since he was going out of town for the weekend. We figured that it wasn't that big of a deal since we were leaving for the weekend anyway to take the kids home.

We loaded up our friend Jimmy's truck and noticed that one of his tires was having issues and ended up not being able to leave when we wanted to. I have never heard the kids tantrum like they did. They just wanted their mom and to go home. I started to get really frustrated as well because I was starting to feel sick and I really didn't need them screaming in the back of the truck. We finally got them to calm down and fall asleep for the night.

The next morning we started our journey and brought along our remaining puppies and Jimmy's puppy as well. It was the LONGEST day of my life. I sat inbetween the two kids and had Lilly yelling in my ear (which seemed to be going in and out of being clogged up) at Eric and Eric going back at her. We finally arrived in the Phoenix area later that night.

We got up the next morning and spent a majority of the day exploring the Wickenburg/Congress area, which is where Eric really wants us to move to. I will admit that it was a very nice area and I LOVED how warm it was. We finally got back home around 1:00 on Tuesday morning and found out that the maintenance man had yet to come over to fix our pipes.

Fast forward a few days and he finally gets the pipe fixed! Hallelujah! I can finally take a shower at home and hopefully get over this horrible flu/bronchitis crap I have gotten. The maintenance man leaves and I go to turn the water on in the shower to find out that the water is coming out of the shower head. What in the world is going on with this place???? Eric ended up having to fix things because we were tired of waiting for the maintenance man to come back... Now we also have a toilet that isn't working right, our sink in our bathroom now leaks and somehow the pipe for our kitchen sink is clogged.... The joys of living here!

On Wednesday (the 7th) we started to notice that our puppy Ate' wasn't feeling good. He started to throw up and was having issues with diarrhea. We called the vet and explained what was going on and were given some ideas to try. By Saturday things weren't getting any better and his diarrhea had started to turn bloody looking. We started to freak out about it all but our vet was gone for the weekend. On Sunday afternoon we were finally able to find a vet who was "on call" and he suggested we try giving him some Pepto to see if that helped his stomach. Unfortunately he was worse than we thought and at 6:30 pm on January 11th Ate' took his last breath and passed away. Eric and I were both devastated; not to mention Salem watching her baby pass away. However the other 2 puppies seemed to be doing fine so we were thankful for that.

We woke up Tuesday morning to Love Bug (the puppy we were trying to find a home for) throwing up like crazy. We hoped it was a fluke and had nothing to do with whatever had killed Ate'. She started to get a little better so we were hopeful that it was just something she ate. Wednesday night it started all over again and was getting worse and worse. We made an appointment with the local Animal Hospital on Thursday morning and took both Love Bug and Phalanx there. We got Love Bug tested and she tested positive to Parvo. We were heartbroken, however, it was nice to know what had happened to Ate'. We decided to leave both puppies at the hospital overnight so that they could get their iv's up and running. We went back on Friday afternoon at about 3 pm to pick them up. The vet pulled us aside and let us know that the female (Love Bug) didn't make it and had just passed away within the last 30 minutes. We were able to bring my baby boy Phalanx home with his iv and had to play the waiting game, hoping his body would be able to fight off the horrible Parvo. I figured he had a decent chance at beating this since he had just barely started to show any symptoms. Unfortunately at around 1:35 Saturday morning he went into a coma and passed away. It was so heart breaking to lose our puppies in such a short period of time (Sunday night thru Saturday morning) however the list goes on....

A neighbor of ours who had one of Salem's puppies ended up losing his girl on Saturday afternoon to Parvo. Our friend Jimmy also ended up losing his boy to Parvo this morning. We have ended up losing 5 of the 10 puppies that Salem had all within a weeks time.

I am so grateful for the love and support we have felt during this really hard week we have just had. These puppies have become just like our own children. I am so thankful that my dad was there to welcome our little boys to the other side. It gives me great comfort to know that he will be there to watch over them for us!  

Month of Thanks Day 3

Today I would like to express how grateful I am for the amazing family I grew up in...

My mom is the most amazing person in the world! I really admire all that she has been through and the strength that she has to endure all her trials. I talk with my mom on a daily basis and she always knows what advice to give when I am having a hard day.

Cori is one of my best friends in all the world! She is the sweetest girl in all the world. I know that I can always count on her to be there for me. We grew up doing almost everything together and I am so thankful that I had a friend like her in my life!

Ammon always keeps life interesting. He has some of the most adorable kids!

Whitney is another one of my best friends. While she lives clear across the world I know I can always count on her as well. I love being able to facetime with her and her son.

Month of Thanks Day 2

Today I want to express how thankful I am for my growing family.

Bostyn Tea joined our family in March of 2011. On the day that Eric proposed to me we decided we wanted to add a puppy to our family. She is definitely a "daddy's girl" and loves Eric more than anything. Her current hobbies include people watching out the kitchen window and sun bathing. She also loves being an aunt.

Salem Devlyn joined our family in November of 2011. We enjoyed having Bostyn so much that we decided we wanted another American Bulldog puppy. We found a breeder and fell in love with Salem. We adopted her when she was 3 months old. Salem is full of life and loves being around people. While she may look like a small horse and be a bit scary looking, she is the most loving dog in the world! On October 17th she became a momma of 10 puppies and is attempting to adjust to her new role...

 

Eric and I have decided that we are wanting to keep a couple of Salem's puppies... So now introducing the newest members of our family...

Ate' (pronounced Aw-Tay) Nemesis is Salem's second born puppy. When he was born he came out fighting. We fell in love with him from the moment we saw him and just knew we had to keep him. Out of all the puppies he looks the most like his mom. He loves to play with his siblings and wrestle around. When he wants something he goes for it, even if it means pushing the others out of his way.

Phalanx (Fay-links) Alcibiades is my little baby. He had an interesting birth. He is the fifth puppy born to Salem. After the first 4 were born there was a decent time that went by and Salem decided she needed to walk around. She came back into the bedroom and sat on the floor by the bed. I looked down and noticed a puppy was coming out breach. She realized something was going on and took off running down the hall with him attached and hanging out of her. He ended up being born in the hallway. He is the runt of the group. He loves to jump on his siblings and bite at their ears.

Month of Thanks Day 1

With it being the month of November I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I am thankful for... While I think about this topic a lot, this month always really brings it out. I figured I would write a post each day about something I am thankful for.

Today I am going to write about how thankful I am for my amazing husband Eric. Eric and I are complete opposites and he challenges me every day. While some days these challenges aren't always the best, I love him more than anything.

Eric has been extremely supportive of my decision to go back to school and he does his best to keep me from going crazy while getting my papers done. He is always there to discuss my work and give me pointers to help me do better.

Eric recently dropped out of this semester of school so that he could work full time to help us out financially. I am extremely grateful for this sacrifice.

One of his biggest passions is shooting. This is something that I do struggle with since I am terrified of guns, however he has been amazing with me. He takes me shooting with him all the time hoping to get me use to being around guns, and I am sure hoping that one day I will actually participate with him.

I love you Eric!

Dang! Where has the time gone? I can't believe how long it has been since I last wrote!  So much has happened in the last year. My goal is to now stay up to date on our family however here is a semi brief overview of what has gone on since last May....

At the end of May I was given the amazing opportunity of working as the Office Manager on the pipeline that was going through Maine. I ended up working from 6am to around 6 pm Monday through Saturday and a few hours on every other Sunday. The pipeline became my life and I loved the guys that I worked with! Growing up I had my reservations about construction guys because they seemed rough around the edges, however there was never a dull moment with the guys I got to know. While I was working in the office, Eric also got in on the pipeline as a laborer. Thankfully he had to be to work around the same time I did so we were able to work our schedules out to be about the same...

As the work started winding down (with the change of weather) Eric and I made a HUGE decision to make another cross country move. We purchased a small trailer, built a wooden box over it, packed all of our stuff inside it and traveled back to Utah. Bostyn and Salem did an amazing job traveling across the country and seemed to enjoy every moment of it...

It was so nice to see my family after not being home for 2 years! We ended up staying at my mom's house for a few months while trying to get everything figured out... We searched for places to live and for jobs and nothing really panned out. I was able to work a temp job for about a month and a half. While working this job I realized how unhappy I was with the line of work I was in and how I really wanted to make a change... Once realizing this and talking things over with Eric we decided to make another move (smaller this time) and both of us decided to go back to school. Once the decision was made everything fell into place. We were able to find a place to live, which for once had a yard for the girls to run around in. It is a fixer upper, however it is our fixer upper for now!

At the beginning of April we made our move and started school in May. Eric is going into Construction Management and plans on starting his own company doing all kinds of different types of construction. I started out in History Education, planning on teaching either junior high or high school until I got my master's degree then hoping to make the move up to teaching at a college. However, over the summer while taking my Western Civilization class I found my love for Ancient Greece. I have since decided I want to major in Classical Studies and emerge myself in all things Greece and Rome.

Over the summer we spent a lot of our spare time outside with the girls and also going and spending some time with my family in Provo.... At the end of May my little man Rykert was baptized. I was such a proud Aunt that day. He did such an amazing job! Here are a few pictures from our summer of fun...

My handsome Ry boy...

Ry, Lilly and Asher before Ry's baptism

Baby Ladd...

Ash chilling...

Ry loves snakes and was so excited when Uncle Eric found a snake and let him hold it!

Salem loved her pool... She was often found in it all throughout the summer...

Bostyn became our outdoors dog... She loved chilling out in the yard...

Lilly giving attitude...

Cori and baby Ladd at the carnival...

Going down the slide with a scared Asher...

Salem getting ready to send her balloon up to Pa... it has her paw print on it. She was very into the whole thing.

Bostyn up in the mountains...

Bostyn loves people watching from our kitchen window...

Salem...

At the end of August Eric decided to breed Salem. We are expecting to have puppies by the end of October and are super excited! That is our last year in a nutshell :)