The New Puppy Sadie

The first night at home!!!










The baby stroller is not going to last long!
She will be huge in no time!




I have to hide James' bottle from her





Let me tell you how this happened - about 3 weeks ago I get an email from Jason with 6 pictures attached with the subject as "Check these out". As I scanned through the pictures, they were pictures of a chocolate lab puppy. Being uninterested because I was NOT interested in having a puppy with a 16 month old child, I scanned quickly and stopped on the last one considering divorce. The last picture was of Jason holding that chocolate lab puppy.

Of course Jason and Rachel were in cahoots on this whole thing and I hadn't noticed was the pink bow behind the dog's ear. Rachel had gone through her hair bows and given it to Jason to put on "our" puppy when he put the deposit down.

If you can not hear the bitterness and resentment in my voice...it is there! Unfortunately Sadie is darling and when she is tired will cuddle up with you! Yes, we are dealing with puppy issues - biting ankles, attacking James when he falls over, occasional potty problems in the house but I am glad we will be able to start her in obedience classes in 5 weeks! Right now life is just a free for all around here!

She is cute isn't she!!!???

Our/My Almost Fatal/Bad Scene Snowmobile Trip

Ryan and Christie



Me and Rachel on our way


All of us


Where I fell through the ice


The snowmobile hanging!


The three of us


Me and Christie


Me and Jason


We went up to Ryan and Christie's in Wyoming for my first snowmobile adventure. We almost didn't go because I had things I needed to get done with work...but we went anyway. Saturday morning we headed out for an all day ride - Ryan, Christie, Christie's Mom and Dad, Christie's Sister & friend, and then Jason, Rachel and me.

About 45 minutes into the ride (just as I was starting to feel confident) we were heading down a hill that had small bumps and a bridge at the bottom so we could cross the river. I gassed it a bit too much over the bumps and got off the trail into the powder and stopped so I wouldn't go down the hill into the river. I was about 7 feet away from the bridge. I waved Ryan over to help me get out of the powder and then the brilliant thought came to mind of Ryan's directions of how to get unstuck. Lean, keep giving it gas and you'll get out. Because I had already waved Ryan over to help me, I guess he was walking toward me from behind. At that moment, I cranked the handlebars to the left to get back on the trail while giving it spurts of gas. Once I was headed in the correct direction, I cranked it hard to the right and by mistake grabbed the gas. I got on the bridge but couldn't make the turn and both the snowmobile and I went off the opposite side of the bridge.

The only thing I remember was shutting my eyes, feeling the back of the helmet hit something hard (which was the ice on the top of the river) and then my body getting wet. I opened my eyes and saw that I was chest deep in the river water and wasn't sure if I was standing on the bottom of the river or a rock that was about to give way. Just like the movies I was grabbing at the ice with my gloves and had nothing to grab onto fearing if I slipped, I was going to go under the ice. The only thing I could reach was the 4 foot wall of snow that was originally the bank of the river so that didn't help. The next thing I see is Ryan running through thigh high snow yelling to me if I was ok. I just kept saying, "I can't get out." Ryan laid in the snow to extend his hand to me and we could barely reach each other. With one pull, he pulled me 4 feet up the snow bank. Ryan would tell you he is buff but it think pure adrenaline pulled 130 lbs of dead weight out of the water with one arm!

I then realized that the snowmobile hadn't crushed me like it should have and then pinned me under 3 feet of water. I turned around and saw the snowmobile hanging by one ski off the bridge which saved my life or saved me from doing time in the hospital. Also....this shows to always wear your helmet because if not, I would probably be in a coma or have brain damage because the back of my head is what hit the ice first and it was about an 8 foot fall. Overall, I pulled some muscles/bruised my ankle because it was caught in the foot spot on the snowmobile and when the snowmobile stopped and I kept going, my foot twisted and it hurt to walk on for quite a few days. I have a bruise the size of a grapefruit on my hip which is the second part of my body that hit the ice after my head hit first.

I am lucky to have walked away and yes...I rode the rest of the day (after having to take off every article of clothing because I was completely wet.) Luckily it was a nice sunny day and everyone had worn extra clothing so I borrowed pieces of clothing from everyone and just rode commando all day!

If you are wondering how they got the snowmobile back up for me to ride (and no, there was not damage to the snowmoblie either) I remember Ryan saying,"I'm waiting for any creative ideas to get this thing back up on the bridge without it crashing in the water." While I was peeling off wet clothes, Ryan and Cody (Christie's sister) went down on the ice and pushed up on the bottom ski while everyone else stood on the bridge with ropes or their hands pulling on what ever they could grab and they got it up! I wish I had gotten pictures of that but I was too woried about hypothermia at that point!

Our Sammi Dog 10/01 - 2/4/08

Our last picture with Sammi right before we left to put her down. The red bandage on her leg is where the IV had been all weekend.

We have had a huge loss in our family. Our beloved dog - who felt like a family member to us - has passed on. She started throwing up last Tuesday and we realized she hadn't eaten since Monday.

On Wednesday we called our Vet - Dr Pam Nichols in Bountiful @ The Animal Care Center - http://www.utahanimalcare.com/ saying she was shaking and throwing up and they said to bring her in Thursday AM.

We brought her in on Thursday and they did an xray of her hips and her back because she was exhibiting pain. They found a slipped disk in her back and sent us home with pain medication.

On Friday she was still throwing up and I called the vet. She said to keep giving her the pain medication. Sammi wouldn't eat so I had to crush up the pills and put them in a water bottle and squirt it in her mouth. She couldn't even keep the water down.

Saturday afternoon she was still throwing up and becoming lathargic so we took her to an emergency care Vet close by - Dr. White in Farmington (since our Vet is closed on the weekend) and he said her liver was shutting down and how he could see that was that the whites of her eyes were bright yellow and so were her gums which is jaundice. He put her on an IV to rehydrate her and pumped her full of antibiotics. He kept her overnight and told us he would follow up in the morning.

We got a call Sunday that he had done bloodwork and it didn't look good. He hoped that another day on the antibiotics and IV would help fix what ever was going on. He thought maybe she had eaten something and gotten Hepatitis.

On Monday morning he called us and said her bloodwork was worse and that now her kidneys were failing as well. She still wasn't keeping anything down and was in a lot of pain. I drove down to Dr Pam to get her opinion and she sat and cried with me. She said that if you look at this same scenario with a human, if they had been on an iv for over 48 hours and pumped full of antibiotics and bloodwork showed that organs were shutting down, then you are looking at something major and she figured cancer. She sat with me and cried and asked if we would bring Sammi down to her office to let her be the one to put her down. She also asked if she could keep her and open her up to see what really was happening to her body. We brought her home around noon and it was awful. She kept going outside and eating snow so she could throw up. She was shaking horribly. I finally got her to come inside and lay on the floor with me. When I was petting her, trying to ease her pain, her hair was falling out in handfulls because of the dehydration. Her breathing was so shallow I knew she was close to death.

Austin Eborn came over and Jason, Austin and I took her to Dr. Pam's office. By the time we got there, she was moaning with every breath because she was in so much pain. First they gave her a sedative and then laid her in Jason's lap. We were all sitting on the floor and Dr Pam sat there crying with us. Dr. Pam told us to say our goodbyes and it was so hard because she was still wagging her tail at us. Then she gave her the medication to put her to sleep and it didn't even take 1/10 of the medication for her to stop breathing. Once Jason and I said our goodbyes, Austin knelt on the floor with Sammi's face in his hands and had his face buried in hers sobbing. It was so awful. We finally left and came home. We set Sammi's collar and leash on the counter and Jason went back to work and Rachel kept playing with Abby Kennedy. A while later I heard Sammi's tags on her collar jingling and I jumped out of reflex/fear/question. Rachel had taken Sammi's collar into her room and had been sitting on her floor crying. She kept asking why the doctor couldn't save Sammi.

Later that night, Rachel struggled to go to bed because Sammi would lay on the foot of her bed every night and Rachel would tuck her feet under Sammi. Rachel asked us to lay pillows at the foot of her bed so it would feel like Sammi was still there. I thought after our tramatic day was over, Tuesday would be easier. In the morning, it almost felt worse because we didn't hear Sammi's collar jingle from Rachel's room as she was waking up ready to be let outside. Then as the day went on, I realized how much of my daily routine included taking Sammi out, letting her out the door when I knew Rachel would be walking down the street ater getting off the bus, etc. THIS IS THE DOG THAT I DIDN'T EVEN WANT THAT JASON BROUGHT HOME ANYWAY!!! Jason was supposed to be having a harder time than me!!!

I got a call from Dr. Pam in the afternoon that when she had opened Sammi up Monday night, that there was cancer all over. It had not only taken her liver and kidneys but her spleen as well. Again relating to a human, they would have said that the person had 3 months to live but with a dog you have to divide that by 7 because they age so much quicker than us. That is why it only took 1 week to go from sickness to death. We are grateful to have such a caring Vet and appreciated her concern for us during our sadness.

As I am washing the cover to her bed, the blanket on the end of Rachel's bed and putting away her leash and dog toys, I am so sad but glad that she is out of pain. At this point, I am too sad to even think about another dog where Jason is ready to get a puppy tomorrow! We will start thinking about another dog in the summer but for now, we are happy with our wonderful memories of our great Sammi dog!

We love you Sammi!

Nebulizer Treatments - Yes RSV AGAIN!

On Sunday night I noticed James' breathing was doing the retracting that happened when he was 8 weeks old and hospitalized. He cried all night and kept pulling on his right ear. I knew where this was headed. I took him in to the DR and they said probably the beginning stages of RSV with an ear infection. He responds very well to the nebulizer so we have not seen the retracting or fast breathing since that first night. As you can see in the pictures, he is playing with a Hannah Montana barbie that has a button on her stomach where you can push it and it plays her songs and a few sayings. Rachel got it for Christmas, but he LOVES it and is the only way he doesn't cry when we do the treatments!

James' 1 Year Old Pictures

These are some of the pictures that were taken in December for James' 1 year old pictures. When ever he gets tired, his eyes get red so we chose quite a few of the pictures in sepia or black & white so you

couldn't see the red! James LOVES Rachel! He wanders through the house saying, "Chae Chull" and is always wanting to be with her. When ever she walks in the room he gets so happy! It just melts my heart to see their love for one another. She can't get enough of him either! I hope that when he is 12 and she is 17, they will still be "feeling the love"!

James' Birthday December 5

James took his first step on Thanksgiving and by the end of the evening had taken 10 steps! He runs, not walks now! He also has 6 teeth and more to quickly come. Rachel has been VERY upset that she hasn't lost any teeth yet!

Michelle's Wedding Nov 2007

Michelle's Wedding November 2007! What a beautiful weddding! Wait...was there a groom and why isn't he in the pictures? He is too cute and we never caught him with our camera!