It was a comedy of errors...

... until it stopped being funny.  Man, oh man, life is kind of a shit storm right now, but we are trying to weather it the best we can.  But most importantly:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COOPSIES!!!

My little, snot-faced bundle of joy is 7 today!    He picked out a pretty fantastic snake toy at PetSmart today.  He's a picky little bug too.  We walked the aisle and I showed him everything until he found the one he wanted to chomp.  Then he promptly decided he was finished walking, so I got to carry him, treats and said snake, and (be) drag(ged by) Guy on his leash out to the car.  Thanks for being my greatest form of exercise these last few months, you stubborn little pill.

In Coopsies' defense, he is in a lot of pain right now.  We had x-rays done on Thursday and his arthritis is pretty bad on his hind legs, coupled with sciatica.  We've got him on a pretty heavy drug regimen right now and we'll be adding acupuncture and physical therapy to our routine.   *headdesk* I am still selling a ton of beautiful clothes and I even added 12 new pieces.  I'm going to be trying out a site called Poshmark to do it, so I'll get you more info once I figure it all out.

Speaking of exercise, I haven't.  Not since the beginning of October when Guy got sick.  If you know me, you know I am addicted to staying fit and as active as possible, but sometimes life throws you a serious monkey wrench and you know the rest.  So, my husband and I are taking a yoga class tomorrow.  I am totally nervous, y'all.  I mean, I have good muscle memory and I've put on a little bulk, but mostly I've become SOFT.  Ewwww.  And I am totally embarrassed to be putting on yoga clothes.  OBVIOUSLY, I'll go totally baggy, but people are bound to see the softness.  And, oh God forbid!, if my shirt rides up in downward dog or something.  The horror!  The poor, witless fools who will be walking into that class unprepared for such softness.  It is their yuppy cross to bear and mine as well I suppose.  But I REALLY need this.  When I am not at all active, my pain sensors become excessively active and with the state of my CFIDD, that's a lot of pain and it's all the time.  I'll take sore muscles over deep, full-body pain any day.

I've also applied for a project manager position with my husband's work, which is part-time and very work-from-home friendly to help out with this storm we can't navigate out of (stupid cars, stupid, cancer, stupid sciatica).  Please send us all things positive.

xoxox

Bless this Mess

They couldn't keep us away.  They tried to make Guy's chemo an every other week deal.  Well, Coopsies was not having it.  Any of it.  He promptly got a terrible infection from the pollution and when we figured that out, he messed up his poor back leg.  So, now the little bug is taking 50mg of tramadol every 8 hours for the next 5 days.  That's the dose I take for my CFIDD when I get agonizing pain in my bones and tendons.  And it kicks my ass.  And, surprisingly, I do weigh more than my little fatty.  He's totally on a diet too. We're praying that by taking it easy and subduing the pain, he will heal on his own, but I definitely foresee physical therapy in his future, which is why you should buy my husband's ridiculously fancy BMW 5 series sports class in midnight blue.  It's your colour.  Seriously.  You look so damn good in midnight blue.  It totally goes with your eyes or whatever.

You should also rent my condo.

I love that little condo.  What it lacks in floor plan, it magically makes up for in closet space.  If you know me, you know that lack of closet space is a major deal breaker.  And that kitchen!  Oh, how I love that beautiful kitchen.  Bonus: SUPER dog friendly... like there is an onsite dog park and it's nice.  I could go on and list the amenities for days, or you could just go see it yourself and sign a lease.  Because, seriously, my condo goes with your eyes or whatever.   In all honesty, I lived there for 3 years and it is legit, as my 13-year-old niece would assure you.

And while you're at it, buy my clothes, why don't ya?

There are some pretty sweet Betsey Johnson stilettos in there as well.  Certainly ONE of my dapper duds really does go with your eyes.  Chemo ain't cheap, y'all, but the prices on my clothes are!

How can you say no to that face?  You can't.  You just can't.

xoxox

Liberty and Justice for All, Y'all

I hope you all had a great Christmas, etc. (seriously, I am WAY too lazy to write out all the many things you may have celebrated, so I give you an etc. with all my love).  Speaking of differences and awesomeness, gay marriage (read: marriage) is now legal in Utah.  Several appeals have been denied.  Of course, our Governor is appealing to the Supreme Court, but that will take time, which means that there is time to get married.  This is a HUGE breakthrough.  Y'all this is UTAH.  UTAH.  This is HUGE.  So, congratulations to all my friends and to every couple in love.  It was definitely a Marry Christmas (pun!) in this ol' red state.  I was especially thrilled to see that the reverend who married my husband and me out performing marriages like crazy.  You go, Rev. Curtis Price!  

So, let's get to the updates on sweet Guy.  He is doing really well.  I am going crazy right now.  We had vincristine yesterday, which we have not had a problem with in past rotations.  However, as a precaution advised by our oncologist, Guy is now getting half a can of pumpkin puree in his meals after this medication.  This is one giant hell of a mess.  Especially since I started letting Coops lick the bowl at the end (this is the ONLY way to keep him calm while I feed Guy).  Little pumpkin face.  

Speaking of Coopsies, he had a terrible infection from the pollution here.  Congrats, LA.  Your air is better than ours.  At any rate, he seems to be pretty much cleared up after a course of antibiotics.  Guy had the same thing last year.  Geeze... I thought I could never handle seeing him as sick as he was then.  Thanks, cancer.  My husband also got us a HEPA filter for the bedroom, which has been great for all of us since I am allergic to the puppies.

Chemo has now been changed to every other week rather than weekly.  While this is good news as far as Guy getting closer to remission, I have been struggling with it.  I mean, our critical care vet and his technician have become a big part of my support system and it will be hard not to have that as frequently.  But, you go, Guy!  You brave little soldier!  I still don't know how long we will be in chemo.  I think it will be at least a couple more months.  I really don't know how all this works, nor did I ever hope to. 

We are wishing you all a very happy new year!  Please send your prayers, positive thoughts, wishes on stars or eyelashes, what-have-you to our sweet boy.  I am also selling some gorgeous clothing to help pay for chemo, so leave me a reply if you're interested.  I'm a size xs/0/25 and I have a knock-out pair Betsey Johnson stilettos that I have never worn in size 6 (fits like 6.5).

All our love from my family to you and yours.

xoxox

Guy Update

So, I know I haven't been present on this blog for a long time and I am basically using this URL- for the time being- to update those concerned about Guy.  If you are not a Facebook "friend", or a personal friend then here's the short of it: Guy was given a death sentence called lymphoma.  We are trying to defy that sentence as long as we can (we are fighting 0-2% chance of actually being cancer-free), which means that currently we are immersed in chemo.  That is my life right now.  Cancer is my life.  Don't get me wrong... life is still wonderful, but it's shit as well.  A whole new brand of turd.  Cancer is cancerous.

Some of you may know that in late October Guy received his first dose of doxorubicin, which is one of the medications he was supposed to receive with his chemo.  He had a severe and life threatening reaction to the drug that left our babe in the ICU for ~30 hours and mama still hasn't fully recovered.  But he's a tough little bug and he bounced back like magic.  Within a few days of the reaction his white blood cell count was back to 100% and, a week after that, so were his platelets.

This past Wednesday we were scheduled for another dose of doxorubicin, but we consulted with our oncologist about giving a lower dose, or using an alternate drug.  After I posed the question whether we would be lowering his chance of actually kicking the cancer (as opposed to temporary remission) with the alternate drug, we decided on a third medicine and he has been handling it gorgeously.

We have had to keep him on a "bland" diet to avoid serious nausea.  My attempts at re-introducing his dry food in small doses was not going over well.  I alternate brown rice with boiled chicken and half a can of "bland" wet food (the latter is necessary to get his veggies, calcium, etc... the former two are mainly for fiber and weight gain) with plain oatmeal, boiled chicken and the other half of the wet food.  He has to be fed by hand to control the pace and thereby controlling his nausea.  I strongly recommend this diet to anyone who is, or who will go through this hell.  It has kept our babe stable and comfortable.  He is almost always happy as evidenced below.

Guy gave mama his dreamiest smile during a visit to the ICU

The kids in their Christmas sweaters in front of the tree.  Guy tolerates his and Cooper LOVES his.

Happy Holidays, y'all.

Spring Forward

So, a LOT has happened in the last two weeks:

For example, I took this photo of Guy.  Oh, and Cooper is officially my baby!!! NO BIG DEAL!  OMGZ!

My amazing brother and sister-in-law (I mean, I really just consider her my sister, but I don't want to get called on a technicality here) made the incredibly difficult decision to give Cooper to us permanently.  While they love and adore him, it's really hard to keep up with a special-needs dog when you've already got 5 kids to keep in line.  Also, Cooper and I are therapeutic for each other... the epitome of symbiosis;  he is my rhino and I am his bird.

Guy has been taking it rather hard, but doing a pretty stand-up job.  Attention sharing is hard, y'all.  Really, really hard.  

So, that happened AND we went to look at a rental house last Sunday.  We've been on the hunt now for over a year, but we were JUST starting to get serious.  After a grundle of disappointments, we landed here:

Right smack dab in the middle of the 'burbs!  I am so ready for suburbia.  So so ready.  So, we're in the middle of moving now too.  This darling little house is going to be better for us in so many ways I can hardly stand it, but most especially because the majority of my time will be spent on the main floor (it also sports a killer basement with lots of light), so Cooper will not have so many stairs to tackle.  Our current stairs now are treacherous for anyone, let alone a special-needs bulldog.  Look at my kids!  No offense, but they are way cuter than your kids *shesaidwithamothersbias*

I have been so horribly depressed and our current living situation was most assuredly adding to it.  Now I am finally motivated to put all the cool tips and tricks I've been hoarding on Pinterest to good use.  My husband won't know what hit him when he finds out I haven't just been wasting time online!  We are going to have one hell of an organized and clean house, y'all.  Mark my words.  And four bedrooms!  Which means that we still have the guest room plus individual offices.  Oh my heavenly days!

That's Coop on the stoop.  And I already have the swankiest soccer car (read: dog toting) car in the neighborhood!  I mean, as long as you don't get in and smell it, or whatever.  Stale dog.  The car is practically MADE of stale dog.  *hangsheadinshame*

So all that's been going on and recovering from depression and working and CFS and just... LIFE.  

I did manage to do some cooking, but I only remember these really nasty crock pot pork chops and these totally amazeballs (and incredibly simple) baked tacos that I made.  The tacos made a TON, so I froze a pan and they baked just swimmingly when I was ready to thaw them out and hit up round two.

This was originally a photo I took to show Dana how I miss her so and a shining example of aging gracefully as well:

Now it's my back-to-blogging head shot.  I'll be better.  I HAVE to be.  I have my own office now.

Spring clean your life, yo!

xoxox

Easter Greetings

"HAPPY EASTER!!!"

Roared one of the Easter Mice.  This year we were once again visited by our usual Easter Mouse (the bunny always skips us).  Easter Mouse 2010:

Easter Mouse 2011:

Easter Mouse 2012:

This year he was joined by a cohort and it was delightful:

So, this has been one hell of a week and I pray that someday soon that phrase will not be so common to me.  I'm not counting on it until my husband finishes his dissertation, however.  I am opting only to talk about the good, so let's hop to it (OMGZ! Pun... total pun).  

I needed some extra love (given and taken), so Cooper spent the week with us.  He may or may not be spending a LOT more time with us.  I'll let you know what I know when I know it.  He helped Guy and I celebrate our 3rd Anniversary!

We got a dog pizza to ring it in thanks to the fine folks at Ma and Paws Bakery.

I finally caved and bought the Karen Walker sunglasses I have been lusting over and I made this face to accentuate them:

I also bought this:

source

This stuff is pretty amazing.  I've used it twice this week in the schnoz zone and I feel like it has really made a difference in my pores.  It sure looks like it was making a difference:

Gross.  And awesome.  I need an eye lift.  I also need to do some major cleaning up on my brows.

Then I took this photo because I was bored and I was sitting in front of some blinds:

We also had an adorable, but failed experiment.  We wanted to take the kids on a long walk, but as Cooper is a special needs pup, he can't get too far.  We borrowed our neighbor's wagon:

It was adorable until he flew the coop (oh, I am on a roll, y'all) in a kamikaze-esque escape.  Wagons can be scary, y'all.  Then he still refused to walk.  Sometimes you just carry the damn dog even if he is over half your body weight.  That's called love.

So, that's what happened this week.

Let's wrap this schnitzel up.

THIS WEEK FOR DINNER:

I was bad this week.  There was a lot of take-out and delivery.  The one thing I did cook was utterly unhealthy and comfort to the food to the max.

Chicken n' dumplins, yo:

We made quick work of it.  Seriously, my husband and I ate the whole thing in two days.  Barf.

May your weeks be only photo montages of the good, dear reader.

xoxox

Guy and I

So, this coming Thursday is an insanely important day:

It's the 3 year anniversary of the day Guy and I fell in love!!!  It's also my mom's birthday, but, I mean, whatever to that.  Or whatever.  Guy and me 4eva!  Above is a photo I took the night he came home with me and never left.  What a total smoochface!

So, this has been an incredibly brutal week and I'm pretty drained.  

I did sneak in a little retail therapy:

I'm going to try and get some sleep and write you a better post next week.  Hey, maybe I'll even write 2 decent posts.  Even though I am no longer involved in the "traditional" work force, I get incredibly antsy on Sunday nights and have a lot of trouble shutting my brain off.  It used to be much worse when I was a nine-to-fiver and it has never managed to go away.  My husband also suffers from the Sunday night jitters.  Is this totally normal, or do I just need to up my Xanax?

That was a rhetorical question.  Of course I need to up my Xanax... so, let's wrap it up, y'all.

THIS WEEK FOR DINNER:

I can't remember what day I cooked what for the most part, so I'll just wing it.

Philly cheesesteak stuffed green peppers.  This recipe is all over Pinterest.  It is everything it claims to be and more.  Super easy and super delicious.

Southwest chicken salad in tortillas with avocado and spinach.  

We went to Plum Alley for lunch and barely had room for dinner:

We ordered pretty much everything: house noodles, shredded pork and pork belly ramen, coconut milk "chicken noodle" soup, duck confit buns, magical cauliflower, and we ended with Guiness stout ice cream.  This was a truly memorable meal.

On Saturday night we went to a dinner party with some of my husband's colleagues and that was really lovely.

Tonight we went to my mother's and I made italian wedding soup.  That soup may be my very favourite recipe in my arsenal.  Hit up my Pinterest, yo.

May you dance away the Sunday night ants in the pants.

xoxox