Another month into the new year and the craziness continues! Don’t worry, it wasn’t nearly as chaotic as last month, thank goodness.

Audie is doing awesome, by the way. He has so much more energy and is acting way better. He’s even put on some weight.

On the first, we celebrated miss Hina’s 8th birthday. She has been back out on the screened in deck as the weather allows and seems very content. Her new food for her thyroid seems to be helping.

On the fourth, we had Easter.

The bunny spoiled Little Man with a basket full of goodies.

We dyed eggs and did a little front yard hunt. Basically it was just killing time while the ham finished cooking. He just wanted to chew on them, not look for them.

Since it was a long weekend (yeah DONSA!), we trekked to Hopkinsville, KY for a quick change of scenery–and to buy Diet Dr. Pepper Cream Soda. We decided to stop by the Trail of Tears Commemorative Park since it was a nice day and we had been cooped up for awhile.

We’ve been a few times for the pow wow, but never actually looked around beyond the pow wow grounds.

Being part-Cherokee, it was a rather somber experience for me. It wasn’t a huge area and didn’t appear to have the upkeep I’d like to have seen. Most of the park was dedicated to a disc golf course. We also unfortunately went on a day the heritage center was closed. Perhaps that would have changed my mind. It’s not far from us, so maybe we’ll try again another day.

The following weekend we celebrated my 33rd birthday by going to the Nashville Zoo.

It wasn’t the Omaha zoo by any stretch, but it was so fun to get out of the house and do something semi-normal for the first time in ages.

The next couple of weeks were a bit more quiet as it rained quite a bit and got cold again. The Mister took someone’s staff duty shift, so our routine was thrown off even more.

The last week of the month saw a little more random adventuring.

The Mister volunteered to help some of the Wounded Warriors clean up an old cemetery. Turns out it’s on the national register for historic places. They finished up a bit early one afternoon and the weather was beautiful, so I brought Little Man and the pups for some time outside. I had no idea what to expect.

Mount Olive Cemetery is an all African American cemetery established around 1817. It’s Clarksville’s largest, private African American cemetery. It allowed burials from 1817 to 1958. The signage says an estimated 1350 people are interred there, but based on ground penetrating radar, there are many more in unmarked graves.

The whole area is very overgrown, but you can still see where the ground has settled in unmarked plots. It was quite sad to see, but it was a peaceful place that is finally getting the respect it needs. The Mister says the group he was working with is going to learn how to clean and preserve the headstones properly so they can keep working towards bettering the upkeep. I would love to see it fully restored.

Other than that, we put new tires on the Charger. Yay adulting. But hey! It meant I got to go shopping while we waited and I bought jeans/shorts that actually fit (I’m down 20lbs more than I was pre-baby! Still about 20 more I’d like to lose to be where I want, but losing all the baby weight +20 more is fantastic). Little things ya know.

The last bit of news is something not officially set in stone yet. The Mister got orders to go to Fort Hood in December. That is not what we were hoping for. It’s literally one of two places we do not want to go. We are still waiting to hear if his position now will be extended another year — the paperwork is moving up the chain. Hurry up and wait, ya know. He also has a referral for back surgery, so it is unlikely we’ll end up going, but we’re not counting on that either.

We don’t really want to have to sell our house yet (we have so many plans for it), but the market is ridiculously hot right now, so that’s a little comfort. We really just don’t want to move to Killeen, Texas. Like I said, there were only two places we absolutely didn’t want to go and Hood was at the top of the list.

We’ll just have to see how things work out. There’s always a chance something can/will change, so until we have dates to move, we’re not going to sweat it. In the meantime, this definitely gives us the incentive to get going on some of our more pressing projects for the house.

We still intend to have more adventures while we’re here and May is another month.

Until then,

Cheers!

–A. xoxo

It’s been a heck of a month. Full stop.

March started off calm like most months. Then it really let loose about a week in and just went to hell.

We had a very scary close call with our Audie boy. We had a vet appointment scheduled for the an exam to check out a couple new bumps. A few days before, however, I woke up from a nap with Little Man and Audie wasn’t on the couch like he normally is. I called him and he didn’t come. I found him in the bedroom on the floor ignoring me (this pup is my shadow so this was super out of character). I got him to follow me into the living room and he acted like it was hard to walk or something hurt. Starting to worry, I messaged the Mister that he was acting weird.

He laid on the living room floor, half whining, half breathing hard. The Mister suggested I try to give him a treat as that always perks him up. He literally let Indie take it from between his feet without as much as batting an eye.

By this point, I’m freaking out. This was not my dog. I checked his gums and they were pale. So pale they’re almost white. Down the Google rabbit hole I went. Bad idea, by the way. I’d already decided he was going to the vet, but was going to wait until the Mister got home (he reasoned that if he didn’t bark at him when he got home like he normally does, we’d know something was wrong). I sat beside him, loving on him, begging him not to leave me yet, asking him what I could do. Something just felt that wrong.

Then Audie vomited on the floor. It was full of fresh blood and foam. Messaged the Mister in a panic and packed Little Man in his car seat. Told Audie to come on and hustled to the car. I didn’t even grab a leash. Called the vet on my way and told the Mister to meet me there, as he’d said he was coming home after the vomit message.

It was the longest 20 minute drive of my life. Audie hates car rides and will pant and whine any time he has to go. He just sat there. I swear we hit every light and ran into all the traffic. Luckily the wait wasn’t long by the time we got to the clinic. They did bloodwork and x rays. He had a large mass in his abdomen. Doc wasn’t sure if it was attached to anything but it wasn’t a good prognosis. He said we could try exploratory surgery but there was no way to tell if it would do him any good or if they’d be able to do anything once they found out what it was.

The Mister and I both got teary eyed and decided that we wanted to try. I wasn’t ready to lose our Audie yet. He stayed the night at the clinic on fluids and medication to keep him comfortable until they could do surgery the next morning.

It was a very rough night. I went back and forth, agonizing about if we’d done the right thing and worrying that he wouldn’t make it through the night. The next morning was also nerve wracking; I was terrified he wouldn’t survive surgery or it wouldn’t do any good and he’d have to be put down.

I bawled for so long and so hard. This is my little nugget. The little zoomie-having pup who knows just when I need him most. The sweetest bub ever. I couldn’t imagine him going like that.

Thankfully he went through surgery beautifully. He had a grapefruit sized mass removed. It was attached to his spleen, so it had to be removed as well.

The lab report said it was a slow growing malignant tumor (I don’t recall the type, but it was not a nice one), but because the spleen was removed too, it was completely gone. His x rays didn’t show anything on his other major organs, which is a blessing.

His results were much better than the doc anticipated. She was very pleased with the outcome and gave him at least another year before we might have to make a quality of life decision.

For two weeks he wasn’t allowed to exercise or eat more than  1/4 can of food every 6 hours (his spleen had already begun to bleed into his stomach and removing it required vessels from his stomach to be tied off so we didn’t want to stretch it out). Recovery was tough (especially because he wasn’t allowed to jump on the couch or bed) but he has been given the all clear to eat/do whatever he wants now.

Now that his stitches are out, he has been acting like his normal, spry self. Even more energetic than normal. We’re so thankful he is still with us and will give him all the love we can with the time we have left.

He’ll be having a professional photoshoot with Little Man’s photographer (The Lovely Rose Photography) as soon as his hair comes back in. Silly, maybe, but we love him and think he deserves some nice photos.

During all that craziness, my mom came to visit for her spring break. Her timing couldn’t have been better. It was so great having her here. She helped juggle the pup and the boy and gave my sanity a much needed break. I was even able to get my hair cut and my eyebrows waxed for the first time since February of last year!

The weather got nice just in time for the mask mandate to be lifted in our county. Most of the businesses still require them to be worn inside though, so we were a little more comfortable taking Little Man into some stores and restaurants for the first time.

We planted some flowers and took a nice walk by the river. We even got to try some bubbles.

We were so sad to see Mom head home. It’s really rough being so far away now that Little Man is here. Hopefully this summer she’ll be back for a longer stay with Dad.

After Mom left, Little Man had his 9 month check up. He is now nearly 28″ tall and a little over 22lbs. He’s ahead on milestones as well. Such a smart boy! He had to get his 2nd flu shot and didn’t feel very good for a couple days.

He started feeling better just in time for his Easter photos.

We’ve been going nonstop it seems, I’ve nearly forgotten that it’s officially been a full year since I was furloughed from work. What started as two weeks to flatten the curve turned into a full year of social distancing, face masks, and staying home. It’s a bit surreal.

Thankfully, it worked in my favor as I’ve been able to stay home with Little Man and be present for his many firsts.

Spending time with the family is absolutely what is important. I never would have been able to do some of the things I’ve done this last year if I had returned to work. I really wouldn’t trade it for the world!

We’re so excited for the weather to continue to be nice so we can get out for more adventures as a trio.

We managed to squeeze in a quick day trip to Fort Donelson National Battlefield in Dover, Tennessee.

We took the dogs and the stroller. Originally, we went to see the bald eagles that nest along the river, but none were out. So we had plenty of time to take a look around. It’s a small area so we were able to see it all in few hours. It was a nice outing that gave us time in the sun and didn’t have a lot of people to distance from.

April is hopefully going to give us consistently nice weather and some more chances to enjoy it as COVID calms down. We’ll see!

Until then,

Cheers!

–A. xoxo