Photo Challenge

A couple people I know are doing a 365 day photo challenge and I find myself waiting to see the pictures that they post each day. I think this is the coolest idea and thought that I too would try this... Well, it is day 8 and I only have 1 photo to share. So my next goal? Well, that is to do a 52 week photo challenge. So here is to hoping I have another one to post by the 15th.

Photo #1 How did I get so lucky in life to become this girls mommy? I'm in total awe of her and amazed everyday by who she is and what she can do. This week we celebrated her 1/2 birthday. I can't believe that my "baby" is 6 months old already.

3am

Charley woke up at 3:00 this morning, so I got up and we went in the living room to nurse her. She usually will eat from one side, then I will change her diaper and feed her the next and she is out like a light. Well, not this morning. As I was changing her diaper Brad woke up for work and came into the living room and said, "man am I tired" I replied with "ya, me too." and then Charley let out a giggle and was all smiles and all Brad and I could do was laugh. It's nearly impossible to get mad at her, she is just too cute. I would have never in a million years thought that I would ever be a morning person or thrive on 5 or less hours of sleep, but I do...and she is totally worth it. Love this baby girl of mine!

The newest member of our family!

Millie!
Her name was originally Molly, but we changed it because Brad's little brother is engaged to a Molly and we thought it might be weird. So we named her Millie! She is adjusting to her new name very well. We got her from some great people in the Hutch area, that already had her potty trained, and knowing how to sit. She is a great puppy.




Millie is getting to know her big sister Crowley.




This is Millie wrestling with Crowley. haha I love her face.

Date Night

Tonight Brad and I are going on a date to Olive Garden. We got a gift card for Christmas, so tonight we are going to use it! We started Date Night back in November. We agreed that we would go out every other Friday, just the two of us. I'm really looking forward to this tradition because a lot of the times I work weird hours and we don't always get to see each other. Yay, for DATE NIGHT!

Day 2...it made me miss her!

I went to work last night hoping that It would get my mind off of her. When I went to work I had co-workers hug me and express their sympathy. We talked about our dogs and it was nice to know that there were other people that loved their pups just as much as we loved Lucy. I hosted a Pizza Night at my work and had a great evening laughing with everyone.

On my way home, the song "Life ain't always beautiful" came on the radio and I looked down at my passenger side car seat and all I could see and think about was Lucy. I cried the entire way home.

That night after he came in we both sat on the couch and cried. We talked about Luc for hours. Brad said that Crowley came int he garage tonight and was chewing on a piece of wood, the same piece of wood Lucy was chewing on the night before. It made him his her.

Crowley is so sad. We don't know what to do to make her feel better. She just keeps sniffing and looking for her. I wear sweatpants around the house at night, usually the same pair all week. Crowley keeps following me around sniffing and licking my pants. She must smell Lucy and it breaks my heart. It makes me miss her.

This morning brought more tears as I felt myself moving my legs at the end of the bed to try to find her. She slept at the bottom of our bed most nights. Mostly in between my legs. It made me miss her.

Crowley came in our room this morning and I sat there waiting for Lucy to start barking. The nights that she didn't sleep in our room she slept in the living room with Crowley. Crowley would then show off by jumping the gate and then come into our room. Then little Luc would stand up on the gate until one of use would come pick her up and bring her in our room. It made me miss her.

Everything reminds us of her...

Lucy 10-28-11 to 1-11-12

Sad day today because today is the day that we lost our little puppy Lucy.

I got home from work around 10pm last night and Lucy met me at the door to say hello. We played for about a half hour and then she went to lay down and just couldn't seem to get comfortable. She would lay down for a little bit, groan and then get up and move to another spot. It seemed as though her back legs were stiff and she was limping. I woke up Brad to see if he had noticed anything different and he said that she was her normal self, spent most of the day outside being rowdy with Crowley(Our yr old Husky/St. Bernard mix. From there the night just got worse and worse. Around 11pm she began to scream frantically in spurts like she was in pain. She did this prolly 4 times every half hour. I then was scared so I called the Vet and described the symptoms. He wanted me to look at her stool to see if stool and urine to see if there was blood that would suggest poisoning. Lucy had just been out to go to the bathroom and went both 1 and 2, and there was nothing wrong or unusual about either of them. The vet suggested giving her water and keeping her calm and to call if anything changes.

Again things began to get worse. Lucy began to breathe really heavy but then was able to lay down and rest. I had her sleep with us in our bed and seemed to be more relaxed as I petted her the whole night. At 4am she got up and began whining and stood still. Her body felt like a statue. She wouldn't move and she wouldn't open her mouth. I called the vet and started the car and headed to the clinic.

Lucy laid in my front car seat and appeared to have a hard time breathing. About half way there Lucy opened her mouth and began gasping for air.

I saw her take her last breath and then she was gone. I got to the vet a few minutes later and he came and got her out of the car. I could barely stand I was crying so hard.

It was now 4:30am and the Vet had pronounced her dead. I wrapped my arms around her and cried. The vet said that he would do a post mortum exam to see what the cause of death was in the morning when the office opened up.

I drove home. It was the longest drive of my life. I got home and we both lost it. We were devastated. We both tried to lay down again to get some rest, because it had been a long night.

We both woke up to Brad's phone ring at 9:30 or so, it was the vet. He explained to Brad that Lucy's heart was too small. Her heart was the size of a cat's heart and that one of the blood vessels had detached from the heart and she bled internally.

It was a birth defect that this vet has only ever seen one other time.

Lucy would be 11 wks old on Friday, we had he for 4 weeks. It's seems like she has been a part of our family forever. I never thought that losing a dog would be so painful. I never considered myself a dog lover until we got Crowley and then Lucy. Lucy was a wonderful puppy, that had a lot of energy. the last couple weeks Lucy and Crowley became really close. They wouldn't do anything without the other. Lucy just learned how to sit this last week. She made us both so happy and now we are both so sad.

We went and picked her up from the vet a couple hours ago. We got home and then buried her next to our pond.

Crowley is moping around the house whining looking for Lucy. It is so sad to watch.

Good-bye Lucy. We loved you so much.

Teaching 6th Grade

Tomorrow is my final day of teaching 6th Grade. As scared and intimidated as I was to teach them at first I have really grown to love these kids. I looked forward to getting up every morning to go to school just because I wanted to see them, and I knew that they wanted to see me too. Over the past (almost) 2 months I have seen these students laugh, cry, get upset, tell jokes, open up to me and most importantly learn. It is amazing how these students have grown even in the short time that I have known them. I'm going to have a hard time leaving these kids. I don't know how teachers do it. Come the end of the school year I'm not gonna want to let my students go. This experience has made me realize that I love teaching and I am so blessed to have had these students in my life.



At conferences last week one of my students moms was telling me how her son talks so highly of me. That comment is something that I will never forget. I realized that day that I may not make a difference in everyone's life but I just made the difference in one persons life and that is all that matters. That student then brought a cupcake cake to class to celebrate my last full day of teaching.

Here are some pictures I took of my students reading. These photos make me SMILE:)

update

Once again I haven't wrote on my blog in a very long time so I thought that I would fill everyone in about what I have been up to since my last post.

Brad and I are getting cows. Yup, you heard me COWS!!! We plan to get 3 Jersey cows no later than this coming spring. We have been getting the barn reading and have been Baling Hay. Here is Brad Baling away on the tractor.


My sister Jessica came to visit and to see the new house. The kiddos had such a great time. :)


We spent our time trying to catch kittens


Drawing with chalk


and playing with Play-Dough


Brad and I went to the Ren. Fest this past fall. We go every other year, switching between the Ren.Fest and the State Fair. Here is a picture me and a pirate. Arrrrrr...


Here was a great shot of the both of us!


and here is Brad by the Dungeon.


On the way home from the Ren.Fest we stopped at MN Largest Candy Store! It was a great time. They have lots of goodies there...


and I'm proud to say we didn't leave there with too many things!

Well to start off Brad won the Derby on Friday Night of the Nicollet Co. Fair



We Went to Halfway Jam again this year and had a great time with our friends!



Brad turned 28 in July!



We have been working on the house here and there. Here is what it looks like so far...

Student Teaching

I received my first student teacher placement for this coming fall. I will be teaching 6th grade in Cleveland, MN. I excited that I will be so close to home, and a little scared of working with 6th graders. They are intimidating to me, so I hope all goes well.