These Are the Days

So Annie and I returned a few days ago from our jaunt across to Atlanta to see our family ... my cousin, Kelly, her husband, Michael, their 2-year-old, Spencer and that precious new baby girl, Madeline ... it was great fun peppered with the antics of two toddlers and a newborn ...

Spencer and Annie (and Hailey the mighty dog in the background) spent most of their time right about here playing with Spencer's beloved cars or watching TV (if we were particularly lucky!)
And of course we spent a LOT of time loving on this little beauty:

And we watched this a lot:

And we spent a really cool morning with Spencer and Annie at a place called the Yellow River Game Ranch, which is sort of like an animal sanctuary where the majority of the animals just roam free:










But mostly we just hung out and had family time:

And at the end of the day (or anywhere during it) Hailey would just decide she was a teensy bit worn out from the stress of it all:


All in all, we had a wonderful visit, even if I did look around at the kids at one point and marvel at the fact that we're actually adults now with our own families! Have mercy!

That's All

Greetings, dear readers, I have returned to my beloved blog from a far-flung land I like to call (on a good day) motherhood.

As a general update on the recent happenings in my (as I like to refer to it on a good day) life (actually more like a circus) I bring you this:

1. Our precious border collie, Hopie, has been found to have crystals in her urine. This was discovered after a lovely urine sample was collected and brought to our vet. (the collection of aforementioned urine involved yours truly trailing behind Hopie in the yard wearing one latex glove, carrying a plastic container and trying to jab it under her whenever she would squat. She, being incredibly smart, would squeeze out a single drop, stop, stare at me and then sprint across the yard to finish her business.) The crystals (they almost sound pretty, don't they?) in her urine have not become kidney stones, and Hopie is currently being treated with oral medication.

2. Sweet Mary recently had a tiny bit of surgery to remove a growth on her (how to say?) hind quarters and is doing just fine. However, during the pre-surgery bloodwork, it was discovered that one of her liver enzymes is abnormally elevated, so she is currently taking a liver-protecting supplement.

3. I bet you're wondering why I would leave our human child until the end of the update. Well that would be because she has sprouted horns and on some days is virtually unrecognizable to the naked eye. Lucky for you, today is not one of those days ... we've actually had a fairly lovely day today. I believe that is because the last two have been fairly *&^%^&*&% (you may fill in any word you like.)

I have contemplated purchasing some book on how to survive this phase or whatever is happening here, but such a book does not seem to exist. I believe it is because all writers who encountered this phase with their own children were rendered incapable of stringing even a few words together to form an intelligible sentence when all was said and done. Just a hunch, mind you ...

And so it goes ...