Gunna scream.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARYA!!

did you think I was screaming over something eles? :)

~hyuu!





Christmas

How was everyone's Christmas?  Ours was good.  I'm not going to lie, I was kind of in a little bit of a "bum-humbug" mood, but I still had fun.  Hailey seemed to really enjoy it.  She ate so much and it was so funny to watch her and the dogs beg for food. 
Hailey got some clothes, and of course quite a few toys.  We totally need a toybox now.  We have no where to put her stuff.  There is a huge pile of junk sitting in front of the tv haha. 
I got a couple shirts, A Dolphin Tale, and a couple gift cards.  Matt got concert tickets (that I got him), some shirts, and some movies.  We also got a popcorn maker that I'm excited to try out!
Hailey got to see Santa on a firetruck.  I don't have any pictures, but other people do, so I'll have to track them down.  I do have some video of her opening presents, but it's on Matt's phone. 
It was a simple, but fun Christmas.  I can't wait till next year when Hailey understands even more what's going on.  It'll be fun to see her get excited :)
Well, I'm going to go practice making my paper lucky stars.


~hyuu!

Hailey's Check-Up

A couple days ago, Hailey had her one year check up.  She had to get four shots...it was so sad :(
She was not happy.  She probably cried the most on the third shot. I think that it was because they switched arms and she had thought she was done. 
She weighs pretty much the same as her 9 month check up.  She eats more but she moves a lot more so she just burns it all off.  I can't remember her exact length but the doctor said she was long and I know it was in the 30's (inches).  But everything was normal and gotta go back in three months for three more shots. 
Can you believe there are only 3 more days until Christmas?  Hard to imagine. Good thing we're pretty much ready.  I still need some stocking stuffers for Matt and he needs to get his dad's gift but than we're done! 
Well gotta go turn on the heater....this wind is cooold!


~hyuu!

Dreams

Do you ever had dreams that were so real and so awesome!  And when you wake up you try your hardest to make it continue, but it's not the same.  Or just have really weird or interesing dreams?  I know I do! 
People say dreams can mean something, and if they do I wish I knew what they were saying.  I don't know why, but I find dreams so interesting and I wish I remembered them all.  I'm thinking of getting a notebook and keeping it by my bed so when I wake up from a cool or weird dream I can write down everything I remember at the time (since they seem to fade as the day goes on).  I heard once that you shouldn't try to write complete sentences, just key words so you don't forget or try to hard to make something that makes sense.  I always tell Matt my dreams in hopes that will trigger my memory...doesn't really work.  This is when I wish I could draw even half well so I could draw the faces I see.  Matt also told me the other day that he heard that all the faces in your dreams are people you have seen somewhere because the brain can't make up people.  But I don't know....The person in my dream last night was like a mix, but hey maybe I saw them at Target haha :)
On another note....Hailey has her one year checkup tomorrow.  I think she has to get shots.  So sad.  She is not going to be happy now that she's more vocal about her dislikes.  Sigh my poor baby.
Well time to go fold laundry!

~hyuu!

9 Days Till Christmas!

It's coming up quickly, but slowly at the same time....the story of life right?
How are you coming along in your Christmas plans?  Matt just needs to go get his dad's gift, and than I need to send my parent's.  Once that's on it's way I can say we're done!  I mean I guess we're done (all but his dad's) but I don't count my duty done till what's in the mail is in it!  So I know they'll get it on time. 
As for holiday spirit....well I guess we're kind of lacking in that department.  I mean, we don't really have the money or space right now, but still.  I have a "Merry Christmas" on the front door but that's it.  We have one string of lights that we can't find, and the tree we were going to get from Target is all sold out because we waited too long.  Sigh.  Oh!  We do have mistletoe in the doorway haha.  It's more than last year. About this time last year I was struggling pretty hard with baby blues so I didn't really care haha.
I'm so excited though!  I love Christmas.  And all though I can't do as much as I'd like for people, I still try to make the best of it.  I can't wait for Matt to open his gift, I want to see how he reacts.  When I found it I was all excited.  When I asked him for the money (so he wouldn't look at it on the statement and be like what is that) he said yes so after that I realized I could of probably gotten something he liked better, but oh well...too late now.  So I want to see if he likes it or not.  Even though I doubt he'd tell me otherwise.
I also want to know what he got me...but at the same time I LOVE being surprised.  It's quite the dilema haha.  I always want to know my gifts but I love opening them and being surprised on Christmas morning.  The gifts you weren't expecting usually are the best! 
Well I'm going to go write a letter to my parents to send with their stuff.  Happy Holidays!
P.S. It's way windy and scary!!



~hyuu!

Gotta Say.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LACEY!!

~hyuu



13 more days...

...Til Christmas!  It's coming slow and fast at the same time - but isn't that the story of life?
I'm trying to put into perspective how many days I have so I can get all the gifts I need together to ship to Utah.  It'll be close this year so we probably won't do Christmas cards this year.
Having to send gifts to Utah at all bums me out.  This is the year we were supposed to go there, but because Matt can't afford to miss that much work, we can't go.  He offered for just me and the baby to go, but that feels just as wrong. 
Hailey has graduated to a big girl carseat.  I think she'll be much happier in it than her old one.  This way she can face forward.  It'll be sad though when she falls asleep and her head falls forward haha.  It's actually a Christmas present from Matt's mom, but we opened it early so she could use it.  We were going to clean out the car and put it in today, but it's been raining all day.  That and we park kind of on a hill so we'd be sliding in the mud.  One day I'll have to take a bunch of pictures so you can see I'm not making it up haha.  I do like the wildlife and the view is great, but that's pretty much it.  Well that and I can be as loud as I want and I have no neighbors close enough to care. 
Hailey is such a girl!  She loves shoes.  And any shoes at that.  She will carry around her shoes and try to put them on.  Than she grabs my shoes (most of the time my black wedges) and tries to put them on.  When she can't she brings them to me to put them on her.  It would work if she'd slide her feet like most do when they wear shoes too big, but she tries to lift her feet.  She also will step into Matt's shoes.  Silly girl.
Well I'm going to go wake up Matt so we can figure out dinner, I'm getting hungry :)

(as you'll notice Lacey, she still crosses her ankles haha)

~hyuu!

Mission Birthday Party - Success!

Well, today was the big day...Hailey's birthday party!  I was nervous all day, not sure why.
The day didn't start out too well.  I didn't finish my workout, my shower went cold, the cake I made last night went really weird...something I've never seen before, the laundry wasn't done.  Anyway I was frustrated.  But we did get her cake for free from Albertsons since it was her first birthday!
Once we got to Pizza Chalet things went smoother.  We had a surprising turn out.  More people came than I thought would.  Only people who didn't come that were invited really was Odette and her family and they were out of town. 
It was funny to watch all the awkwardness though.  Everyone looked out of place.  I guess that's what you get when you mixed a divorced family together haha.
Hailey was hesitant to get into her cake but she eventually enjoyed it and laughed the whole time she picked at it.  She got some cool gifts, mainly clothes, which she needed since her wardrobe was being grown out of quickly.  And some fun toys that I opened when we got home and she's been playing with all night.  Thanks to everyone who came! <3
After her party we ran to the mall since we were already close and did some Christmas shopping.  We got almost half done, so I'm happy.  Now I just need to get some wrapping paper.
This is the only picture I have right now.  I'll have to upload my video and track down other pictures tomorrow.  Night!

~hyuu!

My Pregnancy Story

Today I'm making Hailey's birthday cake for her party tomorrow.  It got me thinking of my pregnancy.  And with people I know either just having babies or being pregnant, I realized I love hearing different peoples pregnancy/birth stories.  It's interesting how different they are.  So I thought I'd share mine for fun.  If I happen to say something gross....sorry haha.  Beware - may be long.
I remember almost the exact day I started getting sick.  We had gone to Disneyland for my 21st birthday (since we couldn't get to Vegas haha).  A couple days after that I felt sick.  I figured maybe it was just from eating badly and running around.  But it didn't go away.  I remember being sick on our anniversary...I felt so bad, like I had ruined it.  I had been sick for a weeks time before, so I didn't think anything of it.
As time went on and I was still sick, that's when the first person - Matt's aunt Odette, asked if I was pregnant.  The idea of being pregnant was so weird to me that I said no way.  I'm one of those people who never thought I'd even get married, let alone have a baby (even though I wanted to, just never thought it would happen to me, that and I still feel the same as when I was in school).  She told me she'd buy me a pregnancy test, but I told her she didn't have to because there was no way.  As I was almost into three weeks of being sick Matt bought me a pregnancy test.  I took it and it was positive!  I didn't know what to think.  To be honest I was still in denial.  The next morning I took the second test in the box....another positive.  We had to call Odette to tell her she was right.
Because we don't have health insurance we had to get back on Medi-cal.  I had been kicked off after turning 21.  To get a proof of pregnancy they would accept, we went to Planned Parenthood.  Another positive test.  It kind of threw me when the lady asked me what option I would choose (keep it, adoption, abortion).  Forgot there were people who came for that reason. 
As soon as we got accepted for Medi-cal we went to the doctor.  She told us that we were about 14 weeks and due the day after Thanksgiving - November 26th.  As weird as it sounds I still didn't feel pregnant.  Almost like people were pulling a prank on me.  Than she sent us over for ultrasounds.  That's when it hit me.  It was the weirdest feeling to see something on the screen moving.  We asked if we could see the sex yet.  She said it wasn't for sure, but it looked like a girl. 
After I finally got over my three months of laying on the couch and throwing up, I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy.  From all the throwing up I had lost a ton of weight.  But after that I gained just what I needed. I had no cravings and for those that know me...I had no McDonalds and no soda my whole pregnancy. The one thing that I knew made me sick was fruit for a long time.  Sucked.  I didn't work while pregnant so no swollen feet.  I never had heartburn or really any back pain.  I had to take an Iron pill everyday with my prenatal and I had to have a shot for the rh factor since I have a negative blood type (don't remember what it is haha).  I also was told that I was bigger than I seemed to myself.  I never felt like my stomach got that big, but I guess it did.  She was also a very active baby, mostly at night.
Since I couldn't travel for Thanksgiving because it was so close to my due date, my family came to me for Thanksgiving.  And since I couldn't get to Utah for a baby shower with my side of the family, my mom and Sonnie took me to Babies-R-Us and Target and got me pretty much everything on my registry.  Which I am so thankful for.  Matt also made her changing table/dresser with his dad. 
We all hoped Hailey would come early or right on time so my family could be here for her birth.  No such luck.  As a matter of fact, she would make us wait for another almost two weeks!  I was feeling contractions for almost three days before she was born.  They would keep me up all night.  The first night we went to the hospital they were going to break my water, but without telling me why, he changed his mind and sent me home.  We had a doctors appointment that day and than we walked around the mall (a lot).  Two night laters we decided to go in again even though I was afraid they'd send us home again.
They offically hooked me up to everything and we spent the night there.  I was progressing kind of slowly so they gave me very little pitocin.  Than I was finally able to get my epidural.  After I got that my body relaxed and I progressed fairly quickly.  I didn't even feel my water break. 
All of a sudden they told me I could get ready to push.  I pushed for about an hour and she was out.  Her heart rate never dropped inbetween pushes, she was kicking me on the way out, and she also had no redness anywhere like I saw a lot of babies with (on tv of course haha).  The doctor even said she had great skin.  7lbs 8oz...exactly what I had guessed. 21 inches long.  Born at 5:21PM on December 5th.  I had to get an episiotomy.  One thing I really did NOT like about our birthing was that the doctor there wasn't the one I had picked and not only was he weird and hard to understand, but he didn't let Matt cut the cord.  I was so mad. 
Well, there ya have it.  My uneventful pregnancy.  During the whole thing I ended up losing almost 30lbs after she was born.  Sadly, being in a depression for a while and slacking off, when I stopped breastfeeding I gained a lot of it back. 
I was going to put pictures in here, but it would make it so long, so I put this slideshow instead. :)

~Hyuu!

Do You Trust Your Vet?

I know it may seem that I'm bitter against vets, but trust me when I say I'm not.  I've always wanted to work with animals, and so has Matt(who actually did work at a vets office).  I'm also not mad at vets because of the recent rise in dog deaths in my family....3 in less than one year to be exact.  May was just very old - 17 years.  Wicket had something obvioulsy wrong that could not be fixed.  Now Ruby however...I do blame vets for.  I also apologize now if some people get mad at me for posting this, but when something is on my mind, it usually stays there until it's written down somewhere.
The vet I have the most problem with right now is Alta Vet in Utah.  That's the vet we've always taken our animals to.  But after learning some things about animals and vet teching from Matt, the internet, and the books from a vet school under my bed.  --I'm also not claiming to 'know it all' I'm just sharing my opinion--
One.  Their prices are ridiculous.  I live in California, one of the most overpriced states, and if their prices range above ours you know they're crazy. 
Two. They charged for things even when they were told not to do them. 
Three. They are full of crap!  My mom took Frodo in there to weigh him on their scale.  He yawned and they started saying "oh it looks like he may have this...maybe we should check him for that...." from a yawn on a very tiny dog.   Or telling Sonnie she should just put Wicket down if she wasn't going to get his teeth looked at...because his teeth were somehow effecting his brain?  There has been quite a few times like these.
And then there is the vet office my parents changed to because of Alta.  I honestly don't know the name anymore.  They said they were good and seemed to know what they were doing.  Than came the day they took Ruby in to get spayed.  As far as I remember - they gave them no verbal instructions just gave them a paper.  As they took her home, she acted sleepy and slow.  But because the paper said that was normal and not everyone knows what to look for things got worse.  They wondered if they should take her in, but it was around midnight now.  Not only was it better to go at home in the arms of her best friend, but it would of been a lot for an emergency stop.  She died that night.
From what we were told, we concluded that she either had internal bleeding from the vet not stitching correctly or her stomach flipped (best known from Marley and Me).  Out of my dad's request I didn't contact the vet office in anyway though I wanted to badly, expecially after they told me that they called him to tell them what happened - even if to just stop it from happening to another family (which I doubt since no legal acion was taken...and I'm not even one of those people who likes to take legal action over everything), and instead of saying "Oh we're so sorry for your loss" or taking away the fees for the procedure they said "What are you going to do to us?"  I about died! From my memory, my family has never talked about a dog as much as they did Ruby (and still do sometimes).  My brother's best friend taken away by a careless vet and not even as much as an apology even just out of symathy? 
OR! (Last one I swear) the vet who came to look at a horse we had here and told us that we were lieing about what we SAW happened to the horse because "I know, I'm a vet." .....
Long story short....know who you're taking your animals to.  Do as much research as you can.  Ask friends.  There are even websites where you can look up reviews on pretty much anything.  I know you can't know everything about a vet office.  I'm just saying don't be one of those people that listens to the vet mearly because they have the title vet. 

The Outcast Puppy

This post is coming late and will probably be quickly pushed down by another one, but I wanted to get it off my chest anyway.
A while ago now, my old dog, Wicket, got put to sleep.  I didn't get a chance to see is odd behavior, but I heard from multiple sorces that he basically lost his mind.  We're thinking brain tumor.  Of course we won't know for sure because their local vet is crazy...but we'll save that for later.
I originally got Wicket thinking he was going to be a small(er) dog.  When we got there the lady explained that he was a Yorkiepoo (mix of Yorkie and Poodle).  He was adorable, but already twice the size of the other puppies there.  He was the last one from her last batch and needed to get rid of him since they were moving or something.   She said he would stay the size he was.  I'm assuming it was a tactic to get us to buy him since I had said I wanted a small dog.
He didn't stay small.  He, of course, wasn't a big dog, but he was no Yorkie...quickly passing May in size.
He was one of those dogs that was dumb, yet smart.  Learning to sit and go potty outside were quickly learned and he slept in his kennel at night almost silently.  When he would cry I'd stick my fingers in the door and he'd lick them and fall asleep.  He soon became my alarm clock.  If I put my alarm on snooze he would whine till I got up.  Annoying, but very helpful in getting ready for school.
Knowing that I had really wanted a tiny Yorkie, Sonnie found some.  Frodo, who was/is indeed very tiny.  She got Frodo for me for Christmas and offered to take Wicket.  After holding Frodo I agreed.  I think part of me was still mad that people pointed out to me that I had been duped by the other lady.
So Wicket moved in with Sonnie.  He was one of those dogs where he was adorable - had a teddy bear face, would lick you, I don't think he ever bit anyone. But was a pain!  He was fat...always taking everyones food if he had the chance....something he learned from his new brother Rascal.  He loved to bark!  Another thing people don't like.  In my mind I always kind of saw him as the outcast.  Passed onto another owner for a newer dog (which happens a lot sadly).  He wasn't even old, he was just too big to be a pocket dog.
I remember doing a science project with him, using doggie vitamins to see if they helped him at all.  When my teacher saw his picture she asked where I got him because I guess he looked just like an old dog of hers that was taken.  It took a lot of convincing to tell her it was my dog.  We used to make fun of him because he was so fat, his butt was square.  I called him my table.  One day when he was out for a walk with Sonnie, he got attacked by a dog that wasn't on a leash.  I, again, wasn't there, but I heard it really traumatized him.  The next day, he saw a dog walking and attacked him out of fear of being attacked.  But as far as I know that was the only time.
Than I got a phone call one day telling me he was acting weird.  He would walk and walk and walk and never stop.  And not just walk, but walk behind things.  Behind the couch, the tv, through plants.  He also would open the cabinets, knock everything out, and sit in them. He stopped barking at people also.  I guess on his last night he was acting like he was trying to walk through the wall.  Pushing so hard against the wall he flipped over. 
They all came to the conclusion that he was suffering, and to not let it get to the point of our old dog, Tippy, who also had a brain tumor.  Taking him to the vet, and asking just to check, if they thought they knew.  They didn't give an answer and just said they'd need to run tests at about $600.  Not having the money (and that's overpriced anyway) Sonnie just put him down.  I don't blame her.  That's not Wicket.  And it's better to help him before it gets too bad.  Save him his dignity and remember him as a spunky little fat dog that he was.  Love you Wicket!  <3

~hyuu!