Where's Piper?

Where's Piper?

Oh there you are little girl! Behind the gate. Cats LOVE to hide. Earlier today she was hiding out on a shelf in the closet. She is the most likely to frighten one of us. Sometimes you go into an area of the house that you just are not expecting her to be. All of a sudden you sense her movement or worse yet she jumps out at you. One of her fave games she invented is hiding under our large overstuffed chair and grabbing at a foot as it walks by. If you aren't aware you can be surprised. I'm sure when she realizes she has made a person shriek out of fear she likely considers it a small victory. Got ya!

This past weekend meant we got ourselves a stitches free Piper again. I took her late Friday afternoon to get her stitches out. Super happy about that!

Upon returning home I got the gate back out. We use a baby gate to keep the boys out of her "room"(which is technically the large spare walk-in closet). The boys are incapable of respecting Piper's area. They are a mess when the gate is not up blocking them out. It's not at all that they are trying to be in the way and/or overbearing in her area. They simply have a knack for it. Cody prefers drinking all of her water, apparently her water bowl is much tastier than the community water bowl. Simon is on the prowl looking for any treat she may have missed, plus he's trying to make himself at home in her bed. Oh he's a major mess. He's like a bull knocking into things too. So yes, I'm so happy the gate is back up. I'm sure when the gate is down she likely feels less separation from her brothers since throughout the night all can walk around and enter her closet area as they please. I don't think she minds them being in her area but mommie does!!!! I only do because they make a mess of things. Little mess-makers!

Quick Snap Sunday(on Monday): Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day from this patriotic pug! Oh yes, the early bird gets dressed up! Yep, Cody was the first one up this morning so he got this special honor of wearing a tiny patriotic hat and appearing on the blog today. You are welcome Cody-man! Lol!

The best thing about dressing Cody up? He does it willingly, same as Simon. However, I believe Simon lives his life hoping that anything and everything leads to a treat. Cody doesn't have such expectations. Thanks Cody, you look cute in your tiny hat!

 

Hello long Memorial day weekend! Dare you all to do a little hula dance to welcome in the weekend! Some dancing always takes place in our household! Nothing serious, simply goofball dancing! You know the best kind!

1-2-3

1-2-3

Count them...3 fur babies! At this time last week I was cautiously optimistic yet not completely certain I would ever see our trio of fur-babies curled up in their beds sleeping comfortably near one another. This pic was taken immediately following my workout. This is typical...while I sweat all over the place the "kids" snooze!

Piper is continuing to improve. All week long we have noticed her doing her usual antics, like bird watching and swatting at the birds through the window. She's also back to biting at her brother's knees. She gets her stitches out this weekend. I'm almost excited to take her to get her stitches out for the simple reason to show her off.  The kitty no one in the hospital thought would make it has been recovering nicely! Against all odds! Way to go Pipey!!!

There are two things I have noticed is different about her since her health crisis. The first one is the fact that she now turns her little nose up at eggs. She used to love eggs, nearly mauling a person eating an egg. The second thing that's different, she puts herself to bed promptly at 10:15 pm. Coincidentally the same time Simon puts himself to bed. Before her health crisis she would put herself to bed occasionally when we stayed up super late. But it was not the norm. I'm curious to see if that changes soon. Maybe once she's fully recovered and has her full energy back she'll stay up until we go to bed. She's almost all the way back to typical Pipe but I can tell she gets a little tuckered out sooner than usual. She's doing well though! We are so happy to see her doing well again.

Quick Snap Sunday: Piper-Pie!

Raise your hand if you had an inkling Piper would be featured in the Quick Snap Sunday post?  Well of course! Simply how it must be this week!

 

Did we really do this? Did we really nurse our cat-daughter back to health? She was so close to being a goner. Vet gave her little to no survival rate. She was not actually released on Tuesday by vet, we simply decided that if vet was correct in what was being told to us that we didn't want her leaving us for good while in a tiny incubator type of thing, we wanted her home with us and her brothers. As we made the decision we briefly dreamed about the possibilities that she could get home and begin to thrive. However, in reality on Tuesday night neither of us was sure she'd make it through the night. Now look at her! Aww, she's my cutie Pi-Pie! After some days of TLC from her parents and bros, Cody snorted on her a bunch, and Simon stole her food...you know things that truly make a cat feel at home, she did begin to turn the corner. Brad and I refused to give up on her!...simply stated!

 

To everyone that reads this...thanks for the prayers for our little Piper. As well as all the love and support sent our way! The little fur-baby appears to be bound to make a complete recovery!

Bonus Pic:

Look her feet nearly match again! Just a tiny bit of swelling still there.

A New Yet Good Problem!

Things in the world of Piper continue to improve. She has blended right back into our typical routine in this household. She has anticipated for things to happen for her as they usually do. She's back to lining up with her brothers. She has stayed out in the living room hanging out with her fam, instead of retreating to "her room" all day today. As for her puffy paw, I was super excited to see it is nearly the same size as her other paws again. She still hobbles. But it's very close to normal size. I'm thinking by the end of the weekend her paw shouldn't be an issue.

Our new problem with her is....jumping! She wants to jump. Not too crazy of jumping, she's only attempting the most necessary jumps. She is usually fed on the end table in our living room, that was her first jump this morning to check to see if her food bowl was there. I nearly had a panic attack when she did her first jump since her hospital stay. I called the vet super quick. I was told she has no limitations but to watch her close since she still has stitches. If she's jumping then she's practically back to normal folks. I'd say she's around 85% back to normal Piper! We are so thankful, she gave us a serious scare! Brad told her, "cats only get 9 lives and you've used up at least 3 during the last week".

Update on Piper (Friday)

I continue to be cautiously optimistic! I'm pleased with the strides little Pipey-Pipe has made. This morning at dawn's early rise, once I walked into the pet sleeping quarters she got up out of her bed on her own and took a tiny drink of kitty milk then sat down.

Upon feeding her breakfast this morning, she seemed to be showing me signs that she was nearly ready to start back to eating on her own. By the time lunchtime rolled around she was enjoying a small lunch of canned food without any water mixed in along with a side of kitty milk. I've been watering down the canned food so it would go into a syringe. I'll be very relieved to not have to take that extra step. Plus she'll be getting the bulk of the substance now too, not something watered down.

Hopefully, she continues along this path! Fingers-crossed!!!  She has all our love and support! I can certainly tell she has more determination now too. That was the scariest thing last week at this time, she gave all indications that she was ready to throw in the towel. Appears her sheer will is back. Look out boys, your little sis might be biting at your knees very soon or attempting to ride you! The boys can use a little extra excitement! I'm sure they've missed the usual Piper the last 10 days or so.

Update on Piper(Thursday)

Morning time was a little crazy. Coordinating everything that happens around here on a normal morning can get a little interesting, add in extra issues regarding a sick cat-daughter and things become controlled chaos. Brad went back to work today so I had to put finishing touches on his breakfast bowl he takes to work. I needed to feed 2 pugs and a cat. Pouring food in a bowl doesn't work right now for the cat. I have to feed her with a syringe. First I fed her then I gave her all her meds. Once the boys finish eating they stand around waiting for me to do other pet chores with them, then of course I have to walk them. This morning the focus was getting everything accomplished and not walking out before stuff was done for Piper. I successfully accomplished it all!

As for the condition of Piper today...I'm cautiously optimistic! This morning she started curling up her lip for me when I was feeding her. Maybe that's a small sign but it seems like a good sign. She has meowed some today. This has been the most vocal she's been since early last week. She bit her daddy at lunch time. Good sign! It was just a love bite but she got annoyed with him. He can be annoying(just kidding honey).

I will feel much better about her progress if we can get her to start eating on her own. Her paw is less swollen, but still significantly puffy. I can hardly wait to get that issue solved for her. All in all she's done quite well today. Still not out of the woods! But we are just hoping and praying she can continue moving forward. No taking a step backwards little one!(I hope she read that line!)

Evening Update on Piper (Wednesday)

I believe with humans that their mental state when recovering from sickness or injuries is half the battle. If someone is negative their battle back to where they were is going to take longer or possibly be permanently derailed. I think the same goes for fur-babies. If we can get some of the little things in check for Piper then she will start having the strength and determination to fight harder. Right now she looks down at her paw and sees how swollen it is. She can't use it, which means she hobbles badly to walk anywhere. Plus she's weak from being on an IV and not feeling like eating. So if we can get her paw back down to it's normal size she'll be able to walk again and have more confidence in that manner. If we can continue to feed her by way of a syringe which I've been doing off and on today then maybe she'll get more strength which will make her feel better which will then hopefully lead to more determination from her.

We are pleased that she is more alert today. I wouldn't say she's improved drastically but she hasn't gotten any worse and she is definitely more alert. We will continue to love her and give her all the support she needs.

The pic below is her enormous paw that has blown up from the reaction to the IV in her leg. The vet told us to run it under warm water for 10 minutes a couple times a day. Come on, that's not happening! 10 minutes? A cat! Cat's hate water. No cat in her condition is going to allow that. So instead I'm using a warm compress. I could also use a heating pad. If anyone that is reading this and knows us has any other ideas to help with her swollen paw please let us know!

Morning Update on Piper (Wednesday)

Piper made it through the night. She's stayed rather stationary. She did get up to tour the place soon after we arrived home. Her right front paw is majorly swollen. I mean it's huge! Bigger than Simon's paw and he has big feet considering his size. Because her paw is so swollen she walks with it bent under. If you hold up a dog or cat's front leg and notice there's a bend much like the wrist bend in a human. Well that's how Piper is walking. With her paw(hand) bent underneath and using her "wrist" to stand and walk on. It's strange. I called vet to question why paw is swollen. I was told it was normal and that she will need heat packs to help with swelling. They also apologized for not informing us of the paw issue before we left. Cats go inside carriers unlike dog's that are usually on a leash. So sometimes you don't truly get to see your cat until you get home and take her out of her carrier. That's why it was a surprise to us to see her paw so enormous after arriving home.

We had a family slumber party in the living room last night. There were no bed rules. Generally in our household the "kids" have their daytime beds which never leave the living room. They also have nighttime beds which are kept in the closet during the day and only brought out at bedtime. That gives the trio a little change up and a definite "bedtime" ritual. Plus it makes beds last a little longer in this house. Anyway, last night no bed rules. The nighttime beds were set up in the usual "pet sleeping quarters" just in case they wanted to sleep in their normal areas. Simon chose to sleep in his usual bedtime area. He is the most schedule oriented and rigid one of the trio, he can't handle venturing off coarse. Cody chose to sleep next to Piper. They slept exactly as the pic from last night demonstrates. At least that's how it was until about 4:30 in the morning. That's when Piper decided to go to her nighttime bed in the pet sleeping quarters. Cody then moved to a bed that happened to be closer to me, so he stayed in the living room with Brad and I. We were encouraged that she made her way all the way to the closet area where she usually sleeps. She's still asleep so far this morning. Well I briefly woke her to check on her. Brad has stayed home from work for the day. He's still asleep too. I am so tired! I think some of it is likely the stress of this situation. I'm not sleeping soundly and last night I basically "napped", I wasn't able to fall asleep for more than 60-90 minutes at a time.

Before we all bedded down in the living room for the night, Brad tried to convince me to go to bed in our room. In his opinion, no reason for both of us to get a bad night's sleep. I get his point but....Um, has he met me? That is not my style AT ALL! No way buddy! We are in this together and I'm going to be right out here with you, Piper, Cody, and maybe Simon. Simon was the only one that didn't participate in the slumber party! Party pooper! Besides I wouldn't have slept any better in our room. The worry and restlessness would be the same!

Slightly amusing side story:  Here's the difference between a Texan and a born & raised Zonie...I got blankets out of our trunk for us to use for the night in the living room. I set the "blue" blanket on the couch where Brad was sleeping. I then unfolded the "pink" blanket and quickly got under it as I laid down in our huge overstuffed practically a loveseat chair. Brad arrived in the living room and instantly looks at the blue blanket then checks it over and over and over. I glance up to see what he's doing. He's continuing to check it over. He then looks at me all curled up in my pink blanket and asks if I checked it for spiders. He could instantly tell by my facial expression I didn't check my blanket. He then reminds me, this is Texas and adds, "do you know how many spiders live in Texas?" The Zonie doesn't think about spiders. He then asks, "why I didn't check my blanket first before crawling under it?" My response, "In AZ we have coyotes and diamondbacks, I had no fear one of those was lurking inside this blanket." 

Taken at 11:25 tonight! Cody is still up and hanging out next to his little sis. Piper has his blanket over her and her Fozzy Bear, her fave toy.

Evening Update on Piper (Tuesday)

We made the heart-wrenching decision tonight to go get Piper out of the hospital and bring her home to be with us. She will live her remaining hours and/or days here at home with her family surrounding her. As I type this I fight back tears! I can't believe this is it for her!

Both boys were happy to see her but quickly realized just how bad off she is. She is in seriously bad shape. I covered her up with a blanket partly to keep her warm and partly because it was too terrifying to me to see how much her body shutters with each breath. I keep praying that I can keep it together. Be strong, be strong!

Her brothers are so respectful it's amazing. They did check her over while she was in her carrier but once she came out both patiently waited a safe distance away for mommie and daddy to get her situated. Soon we motioned for them to come near, which they did. Cody was so sweet as he greeted her in her pink bed, that moment was captured in a pic below.

 

Morning Update on Piper(Tuesday)

Well I received the morning update for Piper, not a good conversation with vet at all!!! Things are bleak! Upon Piper's morning examination it was discovered the pneumonia she is struggling with has spread to her left lung. It was previously only in the right lung. Despite all the meds, oxygen, and overall effort on the vet hospital the pneumonia has spread.

I'm dejected! Bummed out! And overall devastated. Upon hanging up the phone with vet I put the boys out on the balcony so I could cry without them seeing me.  Cody however, is starting to sense something. Simon seems clueless though.  The worst is definitely feared on our end! The plan at this moment is for vet to once again change up meds adding a med that helps inflamed lung tissue. We'll see how she fairs with that change as the day progresses. Brad and I will once again visit her tonight and at that time we'll be able to have a face to face consultation with vet to discuss how to proceed.

Last night when we visited her we took a blanket that we made each pug lay on prior. When we arrived it seemed to take her 30 seconds to a minute to fully recognize us, she's quite loopy thanks to the meds. As soon as I placed the blanket over her she began sniffing it. She clearly smelled her brothers. She didn't move much during our visit. Just moved her head slightly and her little nose was doing it's job trying to recognize scents. She has her front right leg in a full cast to keep the IV in. She didn't have her oxygen while we were there. We kept things brief knowing she needed to get back on oxygen.

Here's a quick pic I took as Brad reached through tubes and wires to get to his little cat-daughter. So sad! Poor baby girl!

Update on Piper

Unfortunately Piper took a step backwards early this morning. She has been placed back on oxygen. Poor thing! I was starting to wonder this morning when our usual morning update hadn't happened yet. It was nearly noon before vet hospital called to update me on her condition, they were delayed calling me because they were working on her. Her lungs are the main concern, the second major concern is her ability to keep food down. So far she has been completely unsuccessful in that area. The vet did say the ability to keep food down could have a lot to do with the meds so they planned on changing up the meds some today. She is still not out of the woods, so to speak. Her survival rate is still in question.

I just can't believe this! I'm in total shock/disbelief that we are going through this right now with our cat-daughter. This came out of nowhere! Going back and forth from a vet hospital is not how I saw our weekend or the early part of this week going for us. Then again, these things do tend to creep up out of nowhere. I have cried about a million tears. I'm kind of a closet crier. I generally wait until Brad goes to work or tennis before I break down. I have few moments where I break down in front of people. Although it did happen on Saturday night when we first took her in. The amount of guilt I feel is overwhelming! I should have done more!!!!

I'm not thinking clearly either. Immediately following my workout this morning I had my IPOD in my hand as I began a load of laundry(Boy, was that much needed!). Once the load was done I transferred it to the dryer. Once done drying I took it out to fold and hang clothes, upon scooping the clothes out of our dryer my hand got caught up in a wire. I soon realized I had just washed then dried the clothes plus my IPOD! Oh geez! What a dork I am!

We will be going to see her tonight at the hospital. I'm going to take one of her blankets. Anything to make her more comfortable. Hopefully the scent of her familiar surroundings being on her blanket will make her fight a little harder to stay with us!

Update on Piper

The vet just called to give us the evening update on Piper. She is doing much better, 1000% better than she was when she arrived yesterday. She is off oxygen, woo-hoo! They will begin weaning her off some of her pain meds tonight. She hasn't shown much interest in eating yet. Vet definitely wants her to eat and keep her food down before she has any chance of being released. At this moment the chance of her being released tomorrow evening is at 50%. Not as high as I hoped. I was hoping to hear that we'd definitely be able to come get her anytime tomorrow. Now I'm setting myself up for the more likely scenario of her being discharged from vet hospital on Tuesday. Best news is that her vet is encouraged by progress she has made since last night's surgery. And so are we!!!!

Quick Snap Sunday: Say Those Prayers!

 Say Those Prayers!

I love it when I catch Cody sleeping like this. He's always been the type to cross his little paws. Perhaps last night he fell asleep with his little paws crossed after saying a few prayers for his little sister. I think your prayers were heard and answered Code-man!

On Friday we felt confident we knew what we were dealing with concerning Piper's condition. But boy were we wrong! She seemed to perk up slightly Saturday morning, however, as the day progressed she became worse and worse. By the time Brad arrived home after his tennis match late in the afternoon he was instantly as concerned as I was. We looked at each other and in unison said, "she needs a vet". I've never rushed a pet to a vet hospital in that bad of shape. Her condition deteriorated so quickly during the course of the day. I drove while Brad attempted to keep our little patient calm. Once arriving at the vet, Piper was taken to the back for them to work on her. She was put into a "bear hugger" which is a warming device that stabilizes a pets body temperature, plus she was put on oxygen. While we were waiting the vet came out to see us a couple times to give us updates. One of us may have started crying during the whole ordeal, especially when life threatening diseases were being mentioned. Once they did x-rays all was perfectly clear as to what was wrong. She ate a portion of one of her toys. Whether she ate it on purpose or somewhat on accident while playing with the toy, who knows! I did recently notice her fave toy, her Fozzy Bear was missing his nose. She was taken into emergency surgery late last night. Thankfully she came through the surgery well. 

She will hopefully make a complete recovery. We haven't seen her today. We received an update early this morning and will be updated this evening by the vet hospital. She will most likely come home tomorrow. It was determined she also has pneumonia. She likely got pneumonia from taking in liquid that was not able to go anywhere due to the blockage in her intestines from the toy. Water she drank likely sat in her system too long and caused congestion since it couldn't circulate through her.

Oh man, what relief we felt when we found out she came through the surgery. It's been a long and stressful weekend. Our poor little cat-daughter. And yes, without a doubt I feel like the worst fur-baby mommie on the planet!!! We thought we knew what was going on. We thought we could get her better. I learned a long time ago to not rush pets to a vet for every little thing. Yes, I was confident we were treating her right to get her better but when it became obvious she wasn't improving at all and instead she was getting worse there was no hesitation on my part...let's get her to a vet!  Our original plan was to wait until Monday, try to get her better through the weekend and re-assess things on Monday. But she crashed too much on Saturday neither of us was waiting any longer. Good thing because I don't believe she would've made it until Monday! Sadly!

Definitely, looking forward to her coming home. I'm sure it will be a challenge caring for her this week, but we'll get her through it! We've already been discussing the plan. Although we are a little unsure what exactly it will be like having her home until she is actually home.

Short side story: Upon us arriving home last night without Piper in tow, both boys stood at the beginning of the hallway that leads to our front door for awhile staring at the door. They were clearing questioning where she was. Likely wondering if we forgot to bring her inside. All day today they have been a little edgy. They are showing their concern in their own way!

Demolition!

Is it Friday? Is it the weekend? Oh man, I hope so! It's been quite the ride the last few days.  Little Piper has been sick. Steadily getting worse and worse as the week progressed.

Yesterday morning she didn't want to have breakfast and decided to run into a tiny crawl space under our cabinet. Why on earth when our complex was built the builders made the decision to not close up certain areas under our cabinets is beyond me. No one would ever think to look in this area of the kitchen under the cabinet except for a mischievous kitten. When Piper was a little kitten she discovered the tiny space that was left open, an area where she can hide out underneath our kitchen cabinets. One day I had quite the fright as she crawled in there and then I stood in front of a cabinet preparing food on the countertop when all of a sudden I felt a tiny furry foot brush over my barefoot. Yikes, one point for the cat that morning!

Back to my story, so this past Thursday morning Piper is rather sick and lethargic. As I begin feeding the boys she disappeared under the cabinet, to her hiding place she scurried. There was no evidence she ever came out of her hiding place all day long. By the time evening rolled around I was getting panicked. Brad has tennis practice on Thursday nights so it was just me and the fur babies. There I was with faithful Simon by my side as I used a flashlight to try to find our cat under the kitchen cabinet. I did my best to try to lure her out. It was no use. I felt like she was throwing in the towel on life. I was so worried she was going to dehydrate and die under our cabinets.  Once Brad got home it was his turn to try to lure her out. No luck! We ended up going to bed with her still under the cabinet in a crawl space only big enough to accommodate her. Brad was so worried he had a terrible night of sleep. She was checked on numerous times by both of us during the night.

By lunchtime today Brad was done waiting on her. I was done too. Demolition of our kitchen went down! Yes, I must admit a part of me screamed inside my head, "No not my kitchen". But I love my fur-baby more than the kitchen. I feared leaving her in that tiny space much longer, so the kitchen had to go! All the appliances came out, the front of the cabinets came off, and a few large drawers had to be taken out too. All in an effort to save the cat! Piper was retrieved!

She was lethargic, dehydrated, and just not herself. Upon further examination by her "parents" we quickly clued in to the symptoms she was demonstrating. We've been down this road before. Every indication is that she has a urinary tract infection. Very common for cats. Especially very common when food has been changed up which it has been. Storm had her share of these types of infections. So I will do my best to take care of her this weekend. I'll use the same method I used with Storm a few times. If Piper isn't significantly better by Monday, then a vet appointment will be made. As for my kitchen, it's mostly been put back together. Some of the panels at the bottom of the cabinets we are leaving off for the time being until we can figure out how to permanently close up the tiny crawl space Piper keeps getting into. Honestly the Piper-sized crawl space hasn't been a problem until this week. But that space is a done deal now after this entire ordeal!

Quick Snap Sunday: Fur Baby Trio

Fur Baby Trio

 

 

I hope all the mom's had a good Mother's Day!!  We had a medium-sized gathering at granny's. Cool breezy day that was perfect for outside time. Granny's porch was filled with people chatting most of the afternoon long. Good time for sure!

 

Yes, I'm well aware...I mean WELL AWARE I am not a mom technically. I'm only the mom of a trio of fur babies. But trust me these fur-babies in the pic above are treated as our kids for now. Even when human kids come along they'll still be our kids. We'll then have both types of "kids": with fur and without! LOL! Therefore it is fitting that for today Quick Snap Sunday features our version of "kids". I strive everyday to take care of their needs and be a good mommie to them!

The Enough Syndrome

The enough syndrome, have you ever heard of it? Are you a sufferer of it? It's a term I've phrased to describe a certain part of my personality.

There I was eyes popping open bright and super early this morning with a panicked feeling concerning today's get-together at Granny's to celebrate Mother's day. I woke up instantly reviewing in my head the things we are bringing for the meal. I made a spinach dip and 2 pies yesterday. Yet I have this feeling that's not enough! I should have done more is what my brain was saying to me.

I've had this syndrome for quite some time. I think I had the "barely get by" syndrome when I was in high school but soon after officially becoming an adult and heading to college the "enough syndrome" has controlled a huge part of me. At some point on most days these are the likely thoughts running through my head:

Was I a good enough wife to Brad today?
Was I a good enough fur baby mommie today?
Did I do enough good quality research today?
Is dinner going to be pleasing enough tonight?
Did I do enough laundry?
Did I workout hard enough and long enough for the day?
Did I get a good enough gift for my mom/mother-in-law?...


You get the point the list goes on and on! Not sure what exactly that is within me that causes the "enough syndrome", perhaps I'm borderline crazy(hopefully, the good kind of crazy) or I have a serious type-A personality...not sure. 

I guess at the end of the day it's not such a bad thing. It drives me to reach high. Although I wish I had just a tiny bit more drive to just RELAX and not sweat the small stuff...tell my brain, I've done enough! That being stated, I don't ever want to relax about the top two on my list above. :)

The Sound Off!

No more then get home for the day with the boys in tow. It's a Friday the boys are always in tow on Fridays, I'm like a pug taxi! Anyway, we get home and after being home for about 10 minutes an annoying alarm sounds. It continued for about 10 seconds then took a break and continued about a minute later. I had just started a load of laundry so my first instinct was to check the washer. Nope, the washer was A-Okay. As the alarm sounds again I quickly made my way to the microwave. Now this is apparently how high-tech microwaves have become, where the clock is typically displayed it now featured a running message that told me it was a done-deal. Yes, it's a goner! But it was polite enough to sound off first! Man, with a microwave so high-tech as to tell me it's done for good, I almost think it deserves a proper burial.

I quickly look to see what time it is as I walk towards the phone. Wouldn't you know the microwave had to make it's exit 5 minutes until the office at our complex closes. The office did answer, but I of course received the line, "that will have to wait until Monday, we're closing right now."

So no microwave for an entire weekend!! Is this the dark ages? Yes I'm being dramatic. I can handle living without a microwave for a weekend but believe me things I can't do are currently rolling through my head. If only Mr. Microwave could have croaked on Thursday at closing time, I'm sure we would be enjoying a brand new one right now. Oh well, something to look forward to come Monday!

May 4th

Does he look humiliated? I promised him this would make people laugh. However, I'm not sure that was comforting to him. Today is May 4th. It's May The Fourth Be With You day. A Star Wars thing! Such a cute little puggie-Yoda!

May 4th is also noteworthy because 7 years ago today it was official...the boys and I became Dallas residents. Little did I know that a quick glance at a super cute guy whom was starting his first day at a new job(the apartment complex I was moving into) was my future husband. Totally meant to be!

And can we also agree the Yoda look is totally working for this little dude above!!!!

At Home Movie Night Flop

Oh my! Brad has been so excited to see The Revenant. He wanted to see it when it was in theaters but we never made it. All I can say is thank goodness we didn't go to it in theaters. After it was recently released to DVD, Brad came home with it in his grasp anxious to have an at-home movie night featuring The Revenant. I was up for it! I didn't know a ton about the movie, but that's okay with me. Sometimes not knowing too much is actually better, in my opinion. He was so anxious to see this movie that talk of having people over for an organized movie night went out the window pretty quick. He was set on watching it this past Sunday, too late to organize a movie night with others.

So there we are on Sunday night, getting our popcorn ready with the movie trailers running in the background. Do they really need to include movie trailers on a DVD? Remember the good 'ol days when DVD's didn't feature movie trailers? I miss those days! Anyway, there we are munching on our popcorn as The Revenant begins. Well it wasn't long before I was done with the popcorn because I needed to use both hands to shield myself. I grabbed a throw pillow and had it hoisted in front of my face. Soon I needed to balance the throw pillow in front of me while I held my hands over my ears. There were brief moments...VERY brief moments...when I could handle looking at the TV screen without hiding behind a pillow. But I basically was watching this movie from behind a pillow.  I soon noticed the clock below our TV said it was time to walk the boys.  Sign me up! I politely said I would walk the boys letting my husband be free to continue watching. He then admitted it's not that good of a movie. He was done with it too. He doesn't like slow movies, and it is very slow moving. The film is supposedly 2 hours and 38 minutes. I estimate we watched it for about 50 minutes before turning it off. Wait, let my rephrase that...Brad watched it for 50 minutes, I hid behind a pillow and watched likely a total of 10 minutes off and on.

At the end of the night Brad said, "well maybe my dad might like it?" My response, "As long as your mom is well aware she needs to find her own thing to do that night he's watching it." I can appreciate the story being told. A story of survival back in the days of the Native Americans battling other cultural groups trying to take their land but that much gruesomeness I can not stomach. At one point Brad even looked away and spoke of how gross it was. The lead role is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, whom won an Oscar for his performance. In one way I can see how he won an Oscar since he had to portray such suffering, then on the other hand in the 50 minutes we saw he didn't have many lines.  I'm sure its a well told story of suffering and revenge but it just wasn't the type of movie to end our weekend with. Brad and I both desire more upbeat/positive movies. I don't like watching a movie that is going to leave me feeling bummed out. And Brad is the same way.

So on to something else, we are eager to get the "bad movie taste" out of our mouths, so to speak. Tonight we plan on going to see The Jungle Book. Should be good! I'm sure the special effects will be remarkable. I'm fond of movie studios taking an animated movie and turning it into something real versus storybook animation. Although I know some type of animation must still exist for the animals in the movie but it will be different than the version we both watched as kids.

The Sack Lunches!

Recently I noticed a pattern had developed. When my husband would come home on Friday's he'd kiss me hello, greet the trio, and then head straight to the pantry. I would quickly offer to get dinner going if he's that hungry. I would then ask why he was so hungry? Because I'm nosey like that! He would tell me he decided to forego lunch, instead opting to browse around at Best Buy or Petsmart or Macy's. Each Friday it was typically a different store he told me he went to during his lunch break and therefore didn't have time to go eat lunch.

Well, I'm not a fan of skipping meals. Oh yeah, I've done it many times in the past, when I should not have. But I'm not in support of it. I think it's bad on your metabolism. But worst of all I think 95% of the time when a person skips a meal they make up for it later by munching out before dinner or some other time during the evening. And typically by the time your body hits that starvation mode all that will satisfy it is chips, cookies, candy...all the unhealthy stuff. Why is it when we are famished we so rarely choose an apple?

Anyway, now since I clued into this pattern of Brad's, I make him a sack lunch every Friday to take to work. Every morning I send him out the door with his breakfast neatly organized in a container. But on Friday's he gets sent to work with his breakfast container and a sack lunch. LOL! His sack lunch is very tasty and completely balanced too. I asked him if I was making him feel like a kid again, and he said, "Yes". But I just want to make sure he eats and eats reasonably healthy. Which he understands and appreciates but it is kind of funny handing him a sack lunch every Friday morning when he heads out the door. As a joke one of these Fridays I should put it in a Care Bears lunch box complete with a matching thermos. Just kidding!

Quick Snap Sunday: Who's The Real Simmie?

 

Who's The Real Simon!

 

Simon says, "Hey, this toy stole my look! Well picture me in disbelief peeps! I couldn't believe it when I was sitting at home relaxing when all of a sudden I received a text from my mommie, she was out shopping and came across this dumb toy trying to be me!...Boy, I'll tell you, life is tough when toys start stealing your signature look. This look has been working for me for many years now. Okay yeah, I'll admit I stole the idea to let my tongue flop out of my mouth from my brother. But lets not go there. I do this look so much better than him. Because I have control over this look, I've perfected it...I own it! Perhaps I should be flattered this toy wants to imitate me but I'd rather focus on the fact this toy is stealing from me. If anyone is wondering I'll be busy this week preparing my cease and desist order, since I'm not totally sure what that is I'll need mommie's help. She prepares those orders all the time. To my peeps out there, stay calm I'll get my look back, don't worry!...Simmie out, I got to eat or walk or do something....I'm a busy little dude!"