A life update

Seems like all the talk around here is about that one guy...what's his name again? Oh yea, my son, Eliot. I can't get enough of that guy.But! I do have other things that I do. Really! The world keeps turning even though I'm a mom and totally infatuated with my firstborn...and in denial about the fact that he's going to be one in approximately a month's time.
The cat. He came this close (imagine really close fingers here) to joining that big litter box in the sky. Traxx turned 10 on the first (HOLYSHIT - Chris and I bought that cat together, as a kitten - and he's 10! I am old.) and he went downhill fast. There was a lot of losing weight, peeing gratuitously on everything, and me thinking that I don't want a cat who pees on everything while mourning the fact of - my cat! My first fur-baby! But it turns out it was a UTI, amongst other things. He's....well....he's got a diagnosis that means he has a limited amount of time left with us. A few years at best, but he's back in action just in time to longingly stare out the windows at the birds nesting in our gutters. Stupid birds.
The dog. He's doing awesome. I was so proud of us for "fixing" his leg issues but it turns out that he's just been so well rested that they fixed themselves! That's right! We never take the poor guy anywhere! So when the vet came over and told us he's 103 pounds of beastly furriness, I about fell off my chair (he should be around 80-90). I really thought what the vet called his love handles were his ribs. I should probably stop telling myself that when I look in a mirror too. Daly is now on a diet and a strict exercise regimen (where strict = when we can get out of the house he comes with). He hates the diet, loves the exercise, and he's already looking svelter (is that even a word? Blogger is accepting it). If I could just keep him out from under the high chair.
We're actively pursuing selling our house. So this does have something to do with our progeny, because these little people take up about 10 times the room of a normal sized person, but we knew we wouldn't be there forever either. In talking to a realtor we're close to breaking even (SOB - after 6 years of payments and tens of thousands of dollars invested into the place), but that's a good thing. It could be worse. We're painting the outside and we bought the stuff to start projects and it is sitting in corners collecting dust are doing a few minor updates, but may even list this fall. If not, we'll list next spring. Although we do have to list without our awesome winery rain barrel. We forgot about the barrel while wiping a poopy butt didn't winterize it properly and the bottom basically exploded. I am so looking forward to house shopping because THE DEALS! Even though we have to come up with another down payment, we'll get into our forever house for a really great price.
Chris and I? We're hanging in there. I basically rely on Chris to be superhuman, and he nearly always lives up to my expectations. But seriously I am sometimes surprised when he goes to take a nap or something - I forget how much I ask of him. I'm sometimes overwhelmed - with work, babies, animals, houses, but I'm happy. Who wouldn't be waking up to this guy every morning?

My broken promise

So, no pictures from the party! I'm sorry - but I'll just leave you with it was so good there was no time to take pictures. Yup, that good. We had quite a few people show up and we had beautiful (but a little on the cool side) weather. I was so glad it didn't rain, but oddly enough we did run out of toilet paper. All my worst fears have been realized!

Otherwise Chris and I have been busy with work and planning for our vacation. Work has still been crazy, but should be a little better in the beginning of September. This is the first weekend I have been off in a while. For vacation planning, Chris bought a travel backpack and I'm looking into one. I was going to borrow one but I found one online for about $80 that got really good reviews. I should start thinking in euros soon!!! We also got a garmin that came preloaded with maps of the US and Europe. This way we can't get lost....because you see, my worry is that since we can't really understand the language, nobody could give us directions anyways. Even if I do know how to ask for them! We've been listening to "Italian for Dummies". I always find it strange that the For Dummies series are so popular. There must be a lot of people out there with low self esteem. I can't believe we're going in 6 weeks. It's going to be awesome.

As always, the only other thing we've been doing is dealing with our animals medical issues. Daly developed hot spots again this year. Hot spots are areas of irritated skin, Daly usually gets them on his face. They are itchy and on him develop into huge pussy scabs. Pleasant, right?! When Daly gets hot spots we don't have to bring him to the vet (anymore, apparently they consider us experts now), but we get to shave his face, apply an antibacterial rinse, and then try to prevent him from scratching. It always starts with us feeling really bad for putting the giant e-collar on him. This time, our sympathy resulted in us coming home to blood-splattered walls because Daly had been itching at his cheeks so badly. So now the e-collar has been a constant friend, and in the way of everyone. Daly takes up even more room with the thing on, and doesn't realize that he won't fit where he used to. It's endearing, if you find scratched walls and knocked over cups near to your heart. Poor dude.

Oh the drama

In FURther news, a race, and some balls.

Gah! I'm so domestic, all I want to write about is my animals.

Traxx is still gaining weight, way calmer, and seems to be doing well.

Daly got his stitches out the other day and is now allowed on two or three 5-10 minute walks a day. Somehow he still manages to poop when I've forgotten a bag. I mean, really, how do I pick the 5 minutes that he needs to poop to take him for a walk. Thanks dog, way to make me look like a bad neighbor.

Now that that's out of my system.....

I ran in the St Patrick's Day Human Race on Sunday, which coincidentally, is not on St Patrick's Day and I'm really not sure what it has to do with humans other than they run in it.....but it was fun! I got a t-shirt with a leprachaun on it, which is really what's important. Kelly and Andrew ran it with me and it was so nice to run with them. I enjoy running with someone, it's motivating, and I haven't really found anyone who can deal with my crazy schedule and location since Kathryn and I stopped running together. I can tell I haven't been running much, I ran it in 31 minutes and it actually felt hard. I've run 25 minute 5Ks before! Afterwards Kelly and I talked about running together more often, and Kathryn is going to start coming over on Fridays to run with me. I'm excited for this summer to start!

This past Saturday Chris and I went and played tennis. It was seriously awesome. We both hit some pretty crazy shots and there were a couple little puddles on the court for added interest, but Chris is a natural at serving - what a lucky guy! I really hope we play a lot more this summer. It will give us something fun to do!

And now a depressed puppy picture. He's just like a little ostrich!

"Please stop poking at me"

There must have been a full moon last week....

Chris called Tuesday morning and said there was something wrong with the cats butt, in that it looked like a monkey butt. So I ran my anxious, high strung cat to the vet to get checked out. Traxx just loooovvves the vet. They actually have a note on his account about how crazy he is. So, yum, anal gland issues (which the vet proceeds to tell me what it looked like when they squeezed it out). Vet says cat lost 3 pounds within a year. HOLY TWIGGY CAT! That herion-chic look was soo 1990's, so we decided to try and find out what was wrong. The cat has hyperthyroid (ism?). So we're fixing him by rubbing cream on his ears, which comes in syringes that make our house look like a drug den. He hates this too, but we are so excited to have a fat, lazy cat.

Then I pick up Daly from daycare. I'm informed he was limping and they gave him time-outs. I got a little snippy and told them to put that in his chart, cuz the boy has arthritis and he's going to limp a little, sheesh. So then she pulls me aside and tells me that in the time out he pooped on the floor. Really? My dog? The dog who never had an accident inside the house even when he was a puppy? So disappointed.

This is the closest they'll ever get to each other.

Not to mention I filled every minute of my time with something over the last week. Except for yesterday, I read a book. It was nice.