Country Vets vs. City Vets

Our dog Moe has been sick for a while now. I've been taking him to a veterinarian for the past year and a half. This vet is from my home town, a small country tourist-trap type of town. This vet is like no other. He charges very little for his services and people wait hours, yes hours, just to see him. Even though he is great, he doesn't have all of the stuff other vets have, like an x-ray machine. I had to take Moe to a vet here in the "city" to get an x-ray, and I thought I might as well get a second opinion from him as well. He confirmed that he does have a bladder-urinary stone and a constant infection from the stone that is causing Moe so much trouble. He sent us home with 2 weeks worth of antibiotics and a huge bill.
So now it is 2 1/2 weeks later and Moe has been in so much pain. I called this "city" vet back to see if there is another type of medicine we can try. No there isn't and the only other advice to us would be surgery or to have him put down. They won't do the surgery but would refer us to a specialist. This specialist charges around $2000 or more for a surgery. $2000! As much as we love Moe there is no way in this world we could afford to pay that much. So I scheduled an appointment to have him put to sleep on Monday. My heart was broken. Yes he's old, 13 yrs old, but he still has a lot of life left in him. How could this be it?
So in a moment of panic, I called the country vet. They told me to bring down his x-ray and they would see what they could do. I grab Moe and we race down there and wait for 3 1/2 hours before we were seen. I'm shaking, Moe is shaking, we are both so nervous either of us could barely stand. The vet takes a look at the x-ray, looks at me and says he could do the surgery, there is no guarantee that this will work but it's worth the try. Oh, and it would be $50.00 for the surgery. $50 vs. $2000. Why is there such a big difference? This difference almost cost Moe his life.
Moe spent the night in my home town with a vet that calls him sweetheart and baby. I called to check on him this morning and he made it through surgery and is resting comfortably. My dad is going to pick him up for me and bring our fuzzy four legged baby back home.
My country vet may not have all the fancy equipment that these city vets do, but he has more heart and compassion. And in the end that's what saved my Moe's life.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's 11:37 pm.
The kids are snoring.
The dogs are still sniffing around the kitchen for a stray piece of turkey.
The bed is calling my name ever so faintly...Ellie...Ellie...rest your weary head.
I hope you all had as wonderful a day as I have had.
Goodnight.
Sleep tight.
Don't let the bed bugs bite.

Thanks mom

Let me tell you a story about a woman who is totally awesome.
She has many names but I call her mom, sometimes mommy. She has been my mom for, well, ever since I can remember and I love her with every ounce of my soul.
We have sang out of key to James Brown's "I feel good" after a day of scrubbing toilets, drooled over beef jerky, laughed so hard at each other we could barely stand, cried at Hallmark commercials and talked on the phone for hours like teenage girls.
After I had Brandon and quit working to stay home with the boys, she "hired" me to clean her house just so I could have a few extra bucks. She has laid me off since then, but that's ok, whatever.
I have taken advantage of her, treated her like crap when I was a teenager (sorry about that!) and asked her to sleep on my couch with me after I had Nathan because I was scared out of my mind. And tonight she shared something with me she worked 10 years for. She was given a gift certificate by her previous boss to a jewelry store and told me that I could have half of it.
Who does that?
Because she was so generous I was able to get Brian a Christmas gift I wouldn't otherwise been able to get him since I don't have a job outside of the home right now.
That's how awesome she is.

Beginnings and Endings

Mornings belong to Brandon. Brandon is my little early bird, which means I am too (reluctantly). Most mornings he will pull up two chairs to our back door and we watch what is going on in our backyard. We watch the clouds form, leaves dance around, and if we are lucky, the squirrels will be out playing. Our squirrels are about the size of a medium sized cat. So, Brandon calls them "kitty" and meows at them. I love sitting there with him, his eyes wide in wonder. It's a perfect start to any morning.

Nathan, on the other hand, is my night owl. The night belongs to him. After we put baby brother to bed we get to have our special time. Sometimes we'll work on his homework or play board games. We'll pop popcorn and watch a movie with all the lights turned off. My favorite though is when he brings me five or twenty books to read. We curl up on the couch and read until daddy comes home. It's the perfect ending to any day.

One Day

One of these days my living room is going to mine again. I won't step on any blocks in the wee hours of the morning. I'll have a library that doesn't consist of books with just pictures, there will be books with words too. My bed will not have superhero blankets on it for when the kids decide to sleep with us. My kitchen won't have a Little Tykes picnic table or little letter magnets all over the fridge. The walls in the guest bathroom will not be canary yellow or decorated in surfboards, I may keep the seashells though. My carpet will be clean and spot free, no smudges on the windows and there will be no toy cars in my shoes.

One day my home will be quiet. Then I will miss little letter magnets, brightly colored bathroom walls and superhero blankets. But for right now it would be really nice not to step on a block when I'm barely awake. It hurts!

What did you say?

Some funny things the kids say.
Every morning Brandon likes to greet me with "Hi Boobies!"
Nathan likes to make up his own words to songs. His version of Jingle Bells goes something like this... "jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride a one more frufrin sleigh."
When Nathan was 3yrs old instead of saying Good Job, he would say "Good Boj." And now Brandon is starting to say it the same way.
Last weekend we were watching "The Mummy 2" with Nathan. When he saw the mummy for the first time he said "he looks like a skeleton with a little mummy in him!"
And when Brandon sees anything scary he will wiggle his fingers at it and say "oooooooo!"
Every time Brandon sees Mickey Mouse he starts singing "Hot dog, Hot dog." (For those of you who don't watch The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that's part of their theme song.)
Nathan calls Brian's cigars "smokers" and Brandon calls them "hot dogs."
After two months of me working with Brandon, he will now call Brian "Daddy Po-Po" when Brian puts on his police uniform.
Nathan gets some letters in words mixed up too. Hospital is hostipal, medicine is mecidine and magazine is mazagine.
The only bad thing about the kids saying things funny is Brian and I starting saying them too.

It was a fun day

Yesterday I got to volunteer in Nathan's kindergarten class. Some of the kids remembered me from the Halloween party so they thought they were having another party and got pretty excited. That was until I popped their balloon and told them I was there just to help out...sorry kiddo's no party today. We had fun anyway though. I got to help out with some of the important everyday tasks that teachers do. For instance, I sharped 24 pencils AND I got to hang hand painted turkeys out in the hallway. I felt pretty important. Then to top it all off, I got to roll dice for the kids to count and color in the number boxes (like bingo). After my duties were done, I was able to tie shoes, zip coats and watch the kids sing and dance to the "To-Ti-Ta" song. In all, it was awesome! Kids are so funny. Ms. George asked all the kids what they wanted to eat for Thanksgiving. Some replied that they wanted pizza and brownies, but one little girl just thought that it was more important that everyone know that her daddy's name is Steve. Ok then.

After school, Brian and I took the kids to the mall. I don't enjoy going to the mall, especially around the holidays. Nathan and Brandon love it though. Eating at the food court is like a 5 star dining experience for them and then a trip to the Disney store just tops off the whole evening. Plus Nathan spotted Santa in one of the stores. Seriously, Thanksgiving hasn't even passed and Santa is out? Nathan almost blew a gasket he was so excited and Brandon wouldn't even look at him. I don't think Brandon will be in the Santa photo this year. Last years was pretty funny. Nathan was smiling like a cat that just ate the canary and Brandon had a huge frown on his face and a leg up like he was going to take off running any second. After a talk with Santa we bundled the kids up and headed for home.
It was a fun day.