Tiara Update

First of all...THANK YOU for all of your comments and e-mails about Tiara. I appreciated knowing you all were thinking of us!

After about 72 hours of Tiara not walking at all, I decided that I better face the music and call the vet. He was very nice, and asked me lots of questions about Tiara's progress or lack there of. When I told him that she would eat and drink if I would feed it to her by hand, and that she was having to wear Keric's diapers because she still couldn't walk and therefore couldn't go outside to go to the bathroom. He told me that if she didn't respond to the antibiotics by Friday, she probably would not respond at all....GREAT! JUST what I was hoping to hear!

I called my mother-in-law. She is a nurse, and also has lots of experience with dogs. I told her what the vet had said and she suggested we get a second opinion. She asked around and called another vet here in town. He had a few other ideas about what may be wrong with her, and suggested she take the antibiotic prescribed and another antibiotic that he would prescribe on top of that. He suggested we wait two WEEKS before doing anything rash.

Last night she was sitting on the couch with us watching T.V. She had thrown herself off the couch a couple of times trying to get down and follow one of us. Then we went upstairs to do the night-time routine, and she all of the sudden decided to walk! I think some of it was inspired by Chompie chasing her and also the fact that she thought Chris didn't see her and was going to step on her, but whatever the reason, she walked upright for a little while.

It's not a pretty walk by any means. It's kind of like watching a 1 year old learn to walk. She takes a few pretty good steps, and then falls down. She is walking a little more today, and is able to go to the bathroom outside much to ALL of our relief. I was getting a little tired of changing two babies diapers, and Chompie was getting lonely out there by himself. :)

So anyway...she isn't 100%, but we at least have much higher hopes for her now! I don't know that we will ever know exactly what is wrong with her, but hopefully we are on top of it now, and whatever it is will be gone soon.

Thank you again for all your good thoughts in our direction! We'll keep you posted!

Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst and Keep Smiling!

My two "babies"


Chompie and Tiara

I am a little bit of a pessimistic person, OK I'm a lot pessimistic. I don't try to be, but I am big enough to admit that I am.

One of my biggest fears in life is that something will happen to someone in my family. I am petrified that something will happen to either Chris or one of the kids, and heaven for bid they not recover from whatever it is.

If any of you have ever had a pet, you know that they quickly become a part of your family. When I worry about something happening to one of my kids, I include Tiara and Chompie in that fear. They are just like kids to me, and truth be known, Tiara is my first baby! I've had her longer then any of my others, and I love her like a baby. She just turned 4 years old last week, so we have been together for quite a while now!

The past couple of months Tiara has been kind of sick. She was kind of wobbly for awhile. She would have good days and bad days but when the bad started to outweigh the good, we took her into the vet to see what was the matter with her. The vet told us she had a middle ear infection and with some antibiotics, she should be fine. I guess the ear infection was what was causing her to be so dizzy and that's why she kept falling down. Her equilibrium was way off he said. We started the antibiotics that day and she seemed to almost immediately get better. After a few days, the antibiotics were gone, and she seemed to start "failing" again. Chris and I talked about taking her to the vet again this week to see if we needed to get another round of antibiotics.

On Saturday we let her and Chompie out to go potty and she seemed to be just fine. Chompie loves Tiara, and he thinks he can't do anything without her, including going to the bathroom. Sometimes Tiara isn't as fast as Chompie would like her to be, and so he always runs back to see where she is at. As customary, Tiara wasn't going as fast as Chompie expected and he ran back to find her. They got kind of tangled up and Chompie ended up kind of running over the top of Tiara. She fell down, but she got right back up and as she did, he plowed her over again.

This time she didn't get back up. Tiara laid on the floor, on her side, kicking her legs and kind of freaking out. Chris ran over to pick her up. She gets a little bit anxious when Chompie is too rough and we figured she was upset about Chompie plowing her down. Chris noticed one of her claws had gotten caught in the rug, so he took her claw out and stood her back up so she could go potty outside. She wouldn't stand up, she just kept falling to the ground.

Of course I was totally upset. I held her and tried to calm her down thinking that any minute she would jump up and run outside with Chompie. She seemed to calm down a little, but still wouldn't stand up, so I put her in her crate. That sounds mean, but she loves being in there especially when she is upset. We left her in there for a couple of hours and then I went to let her out. She still would not stand up! She was just sort of limp all over. From that point on and still even today, she can't walk.

Chris and I called the vet at home since it was a Saturday and they were closed. He was out of town, but told us he would see her that night as soon as he got back. We hadn't been able to get her to eat or drink all day long, and she was so out of it, and could barely hold her head up that Chris and I figured we would be telling her good bye that night. I truly felt like I was losing one of my kids and I was beside myself!!

At about 10:30 p.m. we headed over the the vet's office. The vet was very nice and was quick to kind of calm me down a little as he examined her.

He talked to us for quite awhile about possible reasons why she was acting the way she was. I kept waiting for the phrase, "She would be better off if we put her out of her misery", but much to my huge relief, he didn't say that.

He gave her some shots of antibiotics again, and told us to wait 24-48 hours and see if that helped her. He thinks she has a neurological infection of some kind and that it may be helped by the antibiotics. He thinks that is probably why she seemed to perk up when we gave them to her the first time. So we are going to try to give them to her for a longer period of time.

We were able to take her home that night, much to my great surprise. She still is not able to walk, but she is starting to eat and drink a little bit. We have to feed her by hand. She can't bend over to eat, and we give her water through a little hamster bottle.

She seems to be perking up a little bit, but I'm waiting for the 48 hour mark to pass before I start to panic again.

Right now we are just glad she is not in any pain, and is still with us. We will have to re-evaluate things in the next day or two, but hopefully things will work out and she will be back playing and chasing Chompie again in a day or two.

Until then, we are keeping our hopes high, and our fingers tightly crossed!

Last Day of Summer Vacation

Today is officially the last day of Summer Vacation for Cam and Reag. Cameron starts school tomorrow, and Reagie starts Kindergarten on Monday. Chris had to go into work today, so it was just me and the kids. Before Chris left we decided it might be kind of fun to make the last day of Summer a fun day for Cameron and Reagan. Seems like we haven't had a lot of time to do very many "fun" things this Summer. We had good intentions, but like everyone else, the Summer just kind of slipped away from us, like it does every year.

I decided to take them to lunch at Carl's Jr., ( I really hate McDonald's) and then we would go bowling afterwards. So we loaded up in the car and headed over to Carl's Jr. for some Chicken Stars and Cheeseburgers. After we were done eating, Cam and Reag played on the playground for awhile while Keric took a little nap in his car seat.

After Carl's Jr. we headed over to the bowling alley. It was pretty deserted, I think we were one of three cars in the parking lot. I had planned on bowling with them, but by the time we got there Keric was awake, needed his pants changed and was hungry and fussy, so Cameron and Reagan just bowled while I took care of Bubby.

They seemed to have a good time. Reagan was ahead of Cameron up until the last two frames, but in the end he beat her by one point. It's kind of sad to look up at the scores and know you wouldn't have done any better then that if you had bowled yourself, bumpers or not.

After we handed in our shoes and bowling balls, they went into the Arcade and played around for awhile. I forgot they had an Arcade, so I didn't bring any cash with me, but they had a fun time just pretending they were playing.

We came home and then they immediately went to their first love, Cartoons! I'm convinced that had I not INSISTED we go to lunch and bowling today, they would have been happy just lying on the couch watching TV all day AGAIN. Oh well...at least I can say they did something more then watch cartoons all Summer long, even if it was just for the last day of Summer.


Good Job Cam!


Reagie is soooo happy it's her turn!


Keric isn't as happy unfortunately



Bowling Stud


And the winner is.....

My "A-ha Moment" for the day

While I was in college doing my student teaching, we had to write down what was called an "A-ha" moment everyday in our journals. An "A-ha" moment was a moment that happened during the day that either taught us something, or reminded us of something we already knew. Kind of like a light bulb turning on moment.

Today I had an "A-ha" moment, and decided I should write it down in my "journal".

This past Friday, all of the teachers went back to school. Basically that just means they are in meetings all day long until Thursday when the kids start back. For whatever reason I had kind of a hard time on Friday. It wasn't that I wanted to be sitting in the hot un-air conditioned high school auditorium listening to another "motivational speaker" telling me how to make this year the best year of my career, or that I missed sitting in hard, old, squeaky wooden desks talking about my curriculum plans for the up coming year with a bunch of other third grade teachers, but I guess I was missing being a part of "something". I felt like something was going on without me.

Yesterday I got a text message from one of the teachers that I taught with. She was telling me how much everyone missed me on Friday and how weird it was not having me coming back this year. Anyway, after I talked to her I decided that I would go and visit all my friends this morning since I was feeling so "left out".

Bubby is usually up early anyway, so I just got us both ready and headed over around 9 a.m. so I could see everyone before their 10 a.m. meetings started. When we got there everyone was so excited to see us. Some of the teachers had never seen Keric, so they were excited to see him for the first time. Of course I didn't have Bubby for more then about the 2 mins. it took me to walk through the door, and then he was being passed around from teacher to teacher for the next hour. It was so fun to see everyone, and it was good to kind of get "caught up" on the Summer happenings and gossip. You know how I LOVE a good story. :)

Anyway, as I was sitting in the library in the midst of all their curriculum planning and teachers talking I was watching my little boy smiling and talking to my old friends and I suddenly had an "A-ha" moment. I didn't feel "left out" anymore. I didn't feel like I was missing out on something, or that I was being left out of something. All I felt was extreme gratitude for being able to stay at home with my little baby! I couldn't imagine having to sit there planning all day and knowing that my little happy boy was smiling and "talking" to someone else. It was too sad to even THINK about! Right then I realized that I could take my little baby at any moment and walk out the door with him and go home. I know that sounds like a weird thing to realize, but it felt like some kind of new found "freedom" or something. He is already growing up too fast, and I'm with him 24/7! I can't imagine having him growing up without me!

I was glad that I got up and went over to the school today so that I could see my friends, but also so that I could have a much needed "A-ha" moment! I had my time as a teacher, and I loved it. I may even go back to it one day, but now my time is at home, and I'm glad I'm here! Yes I get overwhelmed with the late nights and early mornings, the never ending piles of laundry, and the cleaning that never stops, but it's where I know I need to be and I realized today there is no where else I would RATHER be! I'm even more grateful that I have a husband who is willing to support me in being here.!

I guess I'm not as much of a working woman as I thought I was....at least not right now in my life. Right now I'm Keric's Mom, and I am very thankful to have that title!

"Man in Pants"

In just two days my little preemie boy will offically be 3 months old and he has FINALLY grown out of his preemie clothes! I cleaned out his closet the other day and packed up all his little clothes to put down in the basement. It was actually kind of sad to think about how much smaller he used to be! Now that all his little clothes are down in the basement, he has been wearing his "big boy" clothes. He's still got some room to grow in them, but they fit much better then the preemie clothes. :)

It's amazing to me how fast he has grown, and KEEPS growing! If our scales are right, he is weighing in at a whopping 12lbs already!

I had to take a picture of him in his cute little big boy outfit he wore today. Don't you love his little pants!? Chris was calling him "man in pants". Keric is very proud of them as you can see. :) He really does looks like a little man! He's so funny.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Chris' parents bought this little onesie for Keric awhile ago as kind of a joke, however he really earned the right to wear it today, but ONLY because I don't think they make a onesie that says "demanding"! I don't know what it is about sleeping in general, but he hates it! He thinks he can only go to sleep if I am holding him, or somewhere in the same room. If either of those conditions is not meet, he screams until they are!

I have been trying to get him on some sort of a sleeping and eating schedule, but it hasn't worked out too well so far. I even bought a book hoping it could help me out! I'm determined to get him to follow a routine that is realistic.

ONE of us will win the fight eventually, I'm just not sure which one!

Manic Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday....

I don't know if I will ever get this housekeeping/Mommy thing down or not! I've been so frustrated lately with my lack of accomplishments during each day. My goals for today were to get the laundry tackled, and the downstairs and kitchen cleaned up. The upstairs needs another whole day by itself! I accomplished half of my goal, I got the downstairs and kitchen cleaned, but the laundry is still sitting upstairs calling my name. I have a hundred excuses as to WHY the laundry is still not done, and at least a few of them are valid, but one of my biggest excuses was that I was having too much fun playing with Keric. He was being so funny this afternoon! I can't believe how much he changes and grows everyday! I get a little down on myself about not keeping up with the housework like I think I should. Probably more down on myself then I should. I think Chris gets tired of me beating myself up all the time. Any of you who know my Mom, will understand why I have such high expectations of myself and also know I have HUGE shoes to fill in that area. I may never get to that level of housekeeping. Every time I get down on myself I remember a little cross-stitch wall hanging that my Mom had when I was a little girl. It said:

Cleaning and scurbbing can wait till tomorrow, for
babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet
down cobwebs, dust go to sleep! I'm rocking my
baby,and babies don't keep!

So hopefully my cobwebs and dust will quite down for a little while, and my husband will continue to be patient with me as I figure out how to balance all my new responsibilities with some play-time with my sweet little monster once in awhile too.

Happy Birthday Chris!

You can't see it too well but Keric's shirt says "Cool just like Daddy" Ha ha. I thought it was an appropriate outfit to wear on his Daddy's birthday.

As luck would have it, we have all of our birthdays one right after the other. We start with Mae Mae's in April, Keric's in May, Cameron's in June, mine in July and Chris' in August. There are good points and bad points to this. The good points are that they are all so close together, you can't possibly forget one, and when the kids are little it's nice for them to not have to wait so long for their big day. Then there are the bad points which are obvious, they are all so close together!! Seems like you just get done with one, and you're planning another one. I guess we do get a rather long "break" after August.

The other bad point is that it seems like the farther down the line you get, the more your birthday seems to become a little less eventful, almost like we have all kind of run out of birthday enthusiasm. So that means that poor Chris kind of gets the short end of the stick every year.

I tried to do something "fun" for his birthday, but he kept insisting that he didn't have birthday's anymore, and that I must have my days confused because it was not his birthday. I did finally convince him to at least let me buy him a few little gifts, so that was pretty much all he got. I didn't even make the poor guy a cake. I would have if he wanted me to, but he asked me not to. I guess after being home last weekend, we realized that we are the FAT couple of the family, and we are going to do something to change that before we go back home for Christmas! Cake wouldn't have helped that.

After he opened his tiny little dumb gifts, we went to the X-files movie for his "fun" activity. I never watched any of the TV episodes, but it was actually a pretty good movie. I thought Keric would sleep through it, but no go. He actually sat on my lap the entire time and watched it! He was so cute! He didn't cry or anything, just sat there wide eyed and kicking his legs every once in awhile. Guess he really IS a Wexels. He loves movies! :)

I know it was kind of a crappy birthday, but I hope you know how much I love you anyway! Happy Birthday honey!

Baby Cousins

This past weekend, we loaded up our car, put the kids in their car seats, and headed out for Keric's first trip to WY for my Grandma Hopkin's 80th birthday bash. I was a little nervous about it, but all in all, he wasn't too bad. He slept from Tooele to Rock Springs, but then he had a hard time after that. I finally got in the back seat with him, and we put Cameron up front. I don't know if me being back there helped or hurt, but I felt better being back there with him.

We got a late start, so we didn't get in until 1:30 a.m. It made for a long day and to make things worse, Keric wouldn't sleep, so I was up and ready by about 7. Good thing my sweet husband let me take a nap around 10.

My entire family was able to come home for the birthday party so we got to see little baby Iree in person. She was so sweet, and I can't believe how much bigger Keric looked next to her! It is amazing to me how much my little man has grown!

It was fun to also see my own cousins. Some of them I haven't seen for years! My Grandma had everyone of her children there, all but 2 of her grandchildren and all of her great grandchildren. It was quite the party.

I don't know that I want to make the long WY trek again anytime soon, but it was a lot of fun and it was great to see my family!

I've been tagged

I've never been tagged before. So here goes...

How to play this game of tag: Post these rules on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.

3 Joys: 1. My Family 2. My Friends 3. My Home

3 Fears: 1. Not being able to live on one income this year. 2. Losing one of my family members. 3. Mice! Always have been, always will be scared to death of them!

3 Goals: 1. To get my Masters Degree. 2. To become a Principal one day. 3. To lose 40 lbs by Christmas.

3 current obsessions/collections: 1. Shoes, real and the "Just the Right Shoe" collection. 2. Keric, he's sort of become an obsession lately. haha 3. The Twilight Series. I can't wait to start the new book!!

3 random surprising facts about yourself: 1. Chris and I started talking about getting married after our 2nd date! 2. Until Keric was born, I was scared to death about having a boy! I was sure I would have no idea how to take care of him or relate to him! 3. I live in a state where Skiing is a huge deal, and I've never been skiing in my entire life.

I tag Bethany, Danna, Christel, Melissa, and Mom