Week 27

I get emails everyday from a website called "Being Babyfit". They range from telling me about my pregnancy, to nutrition, to exercise, to taking care of an infant, etc. Today I am officially 27 weeks pregnant. I'm measuring ahead usually so I don't know how far I am according the doctor yet, but we'll go with 27 weeks right now.

This is what my email said today:

"..in Week 27

Baby Can Suck His Thumb!



Your baby can suck his thumb now, which is actually a good thing! It helps calm him, while also helping to strengthen jaw muscles and encourage the suckling reflex. Your baby can even cry now, but you won't be able to hear him."

I'm so excited that Dominick can suck his thumb now! I don't know why, but I think those are the cutest ultrasound pictures. He probably needed to suck his thumb last night! I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep and it felt like he was having a dance party in my stomach! I don't know if he was just really active, or if he was freaking out about something, but he sure was moving!

27 weeks down...13 more to go!!

Mural Pt. 1

I started the mural last night! I couldn't hardly wait to get home to get started on it. As soon as I got home I fed the cat and let the dog out and went straight up to start working. I got this mural off of www.elephantsonthewall.com and it is amazing. It's a lot of work, but it's so easy. You get carbon paper and a sheet of your design that you trace onto the wall. When you are done tracing (which is the hard part) you just have to paint by number. You still have to trace it nicely and paint within the lines, so you are doing the work, but the set-up is so easy.

We are doing two murals in our house (or I am, since Nick told me he wants nothing to do with them!). One in the baby's room and one in the basement spare room, which we are turning into a play room. The one in the baby's room is 2' x 5'and looks great so far. The one in the basement is much larger at 6' x 8' so that one will probably be a lot more work, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Mike was supposed to come over and help me, but he fell asleep when he got home and didn't make it over. So everything you see in the upcoming pictures, I did! I'm so proud of myself! (Can you tell??) Nick was a good sport and took some pictures of me to document it. And here they are!




This is the big sheet on the wall that I had to trace. That was the hardest part I think! It took forever to trace it all!!

Edited to Add: I just realized if you look at the top picture and then at some of the later pictures, you can see how long I worked on this last night! It was very much light out when I started and pitch black when I stopped!



Our big un-veiling! You probably can't see the lines on the wall, but they are there. When I started this project, I had the whole thing up on the wall and I traced the baseball...then I decided to check and make sure that it was coming through...Good thing I did! The carbon paper was on backwards!! So I had to take the whole thing down, flip the paper and re-hang it all (All by myself still! ;) )



A close up of one of the bears traced on the wall.



Here is the dark brown of the bears. This, unfortunately, will need a second coat before I do much else. I was able to do one more color before calling it a night.



This is me doing the light brown of the bears. I had to do 2 coats of this too, but since the area of this color was a lot smaller, I did both coats last night.



Last picture! This is a close up of the top bear and what I have done so far.

I don't know when I'll get to work on it again. Tonight is Halloween, tomorrow Nick is putting up the wall and I have a baby shower...Maybe I'll work on it Sunday?? I don't know, but you know I'll post pictures when I get more done!!!

The Progress Continues...

Well the second coat of paint is on! Yay! The room is looking great. Tonight Mike and I are starting the murals. I am so excited about this. I'll make sure to post pictures when we get started. I want to document it all! I hope it turns out as cute as I think it will.

Nick has enlisted some help and will be putting up the fourth wall and door on Saturday while I'm at my first Baby Shower. I can't wait to come home and finally see a room and not just a space! And finally have a space to put all the baby stuff we'll be getting (or that we've gotten already!).

We picked up the armoire from Kate's house last night and have that in our garage, ready for me and my mom to get started on. It's going to take a lot of work, but I think we can do it! Hopefully we can start that soon.

And the crib is in! We just need to go and pick it up. I'm hoping I can talk Nick into doing that tonight, but he's been doing a lot for me lately, so I'm not sure he'll do it. But I'm sure going to try!

Here we go! Progress!!

Ok, I don't know what changed, but now I can upload pictures! Here's a few pics from last night.



This is a picture of our GREAT friend Mike helping us paint! He is also helping me do the murals when we can finally start them! Thanks for helping Mike!!



Here is Nick painting part of the wall. I tried to get him to look at me while taking it and he wouldn't...Meanie!



Here is me painting. I had to get a picture so Nick couldn't later claim that he did all the painting and I didn't help! ;)





And here's just a few pics of the walls all blue. Yay!

We are getting there. I'll let you know how the mural goes once we start that tomorrow night!

VENT

So I've been sitting here for awhile now trying to post some pictures on how great the nursery is coming. But the site won't let me upload a picture for some reason!!! GRR!!

So I'll just tell you about it and hopefully I'll get to upload pictures tomorrow or later today.

We painted the three existing walls last night. We did the first coat and are doing the second coat tonight. We were originally going to do the walls a tan/light brown color but I changed my mind when I changed the color palette of the mural. So now the walls are a beautiful blue!

We are doing the second coat tonight so it will be dry and I can start the mural tomorrow night. I can't wait to do it! I'm hoping it turns out as nice as it is in my head. :-)

I'm hoping that Nick can get the last wall/door up on Sunday morning and then by next week, we'll actually have a room! That's my goal at least. I'll check tonight and see what Nick's goal is!

Once we get the nursery done, we can move to the basement and start working on the playroom. I have a MUCH larger mural for the play room so we need to get that going.

I'll try to post pictures soon. Wish me luck!

SCARY!! Time Flies...

I am hoping to do a lot of work on the nursery this week and Sunday, so hopefully I'll have some pictures for you to see our progress.

But on a whole new subject, I was sitting at work yesterday and in the office we were figuring out who was taking off which days in November. We can't all be gone at the same time as there are only 4 people in the office. There are a lot of mini-vacations being taken in November as it's Deer Season. And as I was looking at the calendar, it hit me...Christmas is less than two months away!! That is so scary to me! Where has this year gone??

It doesn't seem that long ago that I celebrated my 24th birthday in January. Or that Nick and I went out for Valentine's Day. And it feels like we just got back from Vegas, which was all the way back in March. April was Ashley and Luke's wedding. It feels to me like they've only been married for a few weeks, maybe a few months, and they've been married for almost 7 months! And also in April, Cecilia was born...my goodness she's getting big! In May we had our first (and luckily, only, IUI) and found out it worked!! And that I would be expecting a baby in January!! In June, Jillian was born and she too is getting big. July was Nick's birthday, he's 28 now! Creeping up on 30! :) September was me and Nick's wedding anniversary. I can't believe we've been married for 2 years!! And now it's October. Time for Halloween. It's almost November, which brings on many birthday's in our combined families and Thanksgiving. And then Christmas...and it's time to start over and do it all again.

I just can't believe that it's about to be November. The summer flew by. The fall is flying by. Pretty soon the winter will be flying by...

I wanted to put a cute Christmas cartoon or picture up with this post and I came across this cartoon. It made me laugh, since I'm new to this whole blog thing. Hope you find it a little funny too.

Belly Pics

Ok, I haven't done any belly pics this whole pregnancy...I decided to take a few tonight...don't ask me why.

So Nick took a few pics of my 26 week pregnant belly. And looking at them it's funny. I don't think I've looked that pregnant yet. I definitely looked like I had a gut and was probably pregnant but could have just been a little chunky.

Well looking at these pics, my belly is really starting to stick out!! So no judging, but here's my belly shots...

OK, now that I'm looking at this the next day...definitely don't judge!!

Nursery Furniture

We went to Babies R Us and bought baby furniture tonight!! Yay!!!

We don't physically have any of it yet, but it's all picked out and two out of three things are paid for! So we are getting there.

Nick's sister, Kate, went and ordered the crib for us yesterday and it will be here in 7-14 days. So we will pick it up as soon as it arrives. We picked out the dresser tonight and bought one of the clearance dressers. It's got a few scratches on it but all in all it's in great shape and the best part, it's already put together! Nick is picking that up tomorrow after work. Finally, the changing table is "temporarily out of stock" and they should be getting it in soon. So we will go back and get that one in a few weeks.

Here are the pics of the furniture we are getting:



This is the crib. The blanket hanging over the edge is the bedding we are registered for.



This is the changing table we are going to get, once it comes in.

And finally:



This is the dresser we just bought. It was a little expensive but so much nicer than the cheaper dressers and it matched really well.

All and all I am so happy about our nursery furniture and I can't wait for the whole room to finally come together!!

Brady's Haircut

I know most of you know this, but for those who don't, Nick and I have a few pets. Brady is our Golden Retriever and Peyton is our cat. Anytime anyone comes over, they make a comment on how "fat" Brady is. We always say that it's mostly his hair but no one believes us. Well, on Tuesday we brought Brady into the groomer's for a haircut. We decided to give him a shave, one last one before the winter months. So his hair is all cut and he is so adorable! I tried getting a good picture of him to show you how "skinny" he is, but he wouldn't cooperate. As soon as he would stand, I would say "Stay", so he would sit down. And I'd have to get him to stand up again. Then he would stand and try to follow me and I would say "Stay" and he would sit...So all I could get was a picture of him laying on the kitchen floor. I'll admit he's a BIG dog...but I don't think he's fat. :-)



Isn't he so cute??

The Nursery

So construction hasn't started yet on the nursery, but I wanted to show you some before pictures so you have something to compare it to. Sorry the space is messy. I didn't clean for the pictures, I just took them this morning before coming into work.

The space is an open area outside of our bedroom. It is a decent space, but not huge. We figure a baby doesn't need a huge room anyway. I have the room taped to be painted, but we want to have that last wall up before we paint. Hopefully that wall will be put up this weekend.

Here are the pics:



This picture is from the back of the room, facing the steps, where the new wall will be.



This is another one from the back of the room. You can see two doors ahead. The one on the right is the master bedroom and the one on the left is the master bathroom. It's nice that you can enter the master bath without going through our room, so if we have lots of kids and one uses the nursery as their bedroom, they can use our bathroom without waking us up.



This is a pic from where the door will be so you can see the long wall with the slant. We will put the baby's dresser along that wall.



This is the last picture. This is from where the door will be. You can see that we have an old desk and some junk against one wall. That is where the crib and changing table will be. In the back of the room there is a window. To the left of that window is where I'm doing the mural (which is due to arrive on October 27!!).

So that is the "future nursery". Hopefully I can do some pictures again soon and the room will be done!! Or at least close to it!

False Alarm

Let me begin this post by writing if you are a boy or don't like hearing girly things about pregnancy, you might not want to read this post...

With that being said, I had a false alarm yesterday. I was having some contractions on and off all weekend but wasn't too worried about them. Then yesterday I stood up to put a note on my boss's desk and I felt like I was leaking fluid. It was very scary. I ran to the bathroom and sure enough, my underwear was extremely wet. So I freaked out and called my doc, who told me to go straight to Labor and Delivery/Women's Evaluation Unit.

What an experience that was. I got to the Women's Evaluation Unit, they immediately put me in a room and hooked me up to a fetal monitor. That way we could keep track of Dominick's heart rate. Then they asked me a million questions and took a blood sample. After about an hour, they brought in a nurse/midwife to do some tests. She took a few samples and told me she'd be back in an hour. She told me that she saw fluid but it didn't look like amniotic fluid. So that was good news. She tested what the fluid was and also performed a fetal fibronectin test (which is a test that gives a positive and negative result. If it's negative, there is a very slim chance that you will deliver in the next 2 weeks. If it's positive then there's a 20% chance you will deliver in the next 2 weeks). They monitored my contractions and all kinds of other things.

My mom and Nick both came up to keep me company and the hospital brought me dinner. After about an hour and a half the nurse/midwife came back. She told me that the fetal fibronectin test came back negative (woohoo!) and the fluid was not amniotic fluid. (It wasn't urine either, because I was also slightly concerned that I did actually pee on myself!) She told me that going into my third trimester will have an increase in hormones and it was normal in pregnancy, even though it was a lot of fluid. I felt like such a fool to have gone in there for all that and everything be completely normal. But the nurse/midwife assured me that I did the right thing. She said there are two things you can't mess around with. 1) your water breaking and 2) lessening of fetal movement. She told me that they never judge anyway, but especially not with those two things. So that made me feel a little better.

Anyway, long story short...false alarm, thank goodness.

Busy Weekend

This was by far, the busiest weekend we've had since I've been pregnant. First, Friday night Nick and I hosted a game night with some friends. Angela, Andrew, Chris, Carrie, Mary and Kristen all came over to play games. We talked politics for about the first hour and then played Taboo (my team won!). All afternoon/early evening Nick and I were hustling, trying to get appetizers ready and the house "company worthy". It was busy, but a fun night.

Saturday we drove to Hermann to my Aunt Jane and Uncle Don's house to celebrate my Grammie's birthday. The drive was long (especially since Dominick is getting more and more active and his new kicks are starting to get painful!) but the country was beautiful! We had a nice afternoon there, but it wore me out! I slept the whole drive home and made Nick drive.

Sunday morning I was still exhausted but Nick and I were hosting "3rd Sundays". That is a tradition my sister started with our family about a year ago. To make sure that we are all seeing each other enough, we take turns hosting the family dinner the 3rd Sunday of every month. That way, if we are super busy, we still see each other at least once a month (It's almost always more than that, but just in case!). Well, it was our turn, so Nick got up to go work on his mom's basement and I got up to start lunch/dinner. We decided to do a late lunch instead so we could watch football. (GO RAMS!) so I had the great idea to make chili. A nice, hot bowl of chili when the weather is cold and you are watching football. Well, I've never made chili before, so it was quite the run around Sunday morning to make this chili for the family. I decided to do a crock pot recipe (by the way, crock pots are the best invention, ever). And it turned out really well I think. However, with Nick working all morning at his mom's, I was left to do everything at our house by myself. Thank goodness we had company over Friday and our house was pretty much clean from that! Luckily, Nick got home before company arrived and it was a good Sunday. Unfortunately, Cecilia wasn't having a good day, so Angela and Andrew didn't stay long, but it was still a fun afternoon.

Needless to say, I'm beyond exhausted today. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the week!

Baby Tips

Right now, I am in contact with a lot of pregnant people (or people trying to get pregnant) and it's great that so many of these great women have blogs. I have recently become a part of the blogging community and I absolutely love it. It's part of my morning ritual now, to check everyone's blogs. Well this morning I was looking at Sarah's blog and I came across her "baby tips" page. I found it hilarious. So I had to copy it and paste it in my own blog. It's an illustrated chart showing the right and wrong techniques for baby care. I hope you find it as amusing as I did!



Sorry it's so small. Just click on it to make it bigger. You have to read them all, they are pretty funny!

Good News, bad news...

Well today was my 25 week OB appointment. It was a quick one, but we talked about a lot today. Remember how I told you that after doing laundry the other day, I had to lay down? Well lately, I've been having cramps and a tight feeling in my belly whenever I get stressed or I do a lot of work on my feet. The doctor thinks that this is completely normal Braxton Hicks contractions but he's slightly concerned about pre-term labor. So my next appointment is in three weeks instead of four. And if I have any more cramping, I need to go in for an ultrasound so they can see if I'm dilated at all. So that is kind of scary, but I'm not going to dwell on that. Instead, I'm going to focus on the good news.

Dominick is growing perfectly!! The doctor was very impressed with how everything is going so far. His heart rate today was 147, which the doctor said is great. He is moving a lot, which is awesome. And everything is just going well. So I'm going to focus on that.

My next appointment, which is right before I'm 28 weeks, I'll have to do the Glucose test, to test for Gestational Diabetes. I'm NOT looking forward to that. You go in, have to drink a very sugary, orange drink, then wait an hour and have your blood drawn to test your blood sugar. Sounds like no fun, and I'll be at the doctor for forever that day. Oh well. I know it's for a good reason.

I also have "homework" before my next appointment. I need to choose a pediatrician. I haven't done that yet, so hopefully it won't be too hard. I have two names, so I just need to call and get appointments.

So that's it from the appointment today. Stay away contractions and keep growing my sweet baby boy!!

The Kicking is even cooler

Yesterday was a rough day for me. At the last dr. appointment I had, my dr. made a strange (at the time) comment to me. He told me that he perceives me as a person who likes to do a lot and take on a lot of responsibilities. (That wasn't the strange part, so if you are laughing at that part, stop. :) ) Then he told me that I am in for a rude awakening when my body can't do as much as it used to. I thought that was strange. At the beginning of this pregnancy, I was exhausted all the time. But lately it had been better. Well, I'm starting to see his point. After a normal work day for me yesterday, I got home and started to do a load of laundry. I took the stuff out of the dryer and put it in a basket....I put a load of colors in the wash....I separated the rest of the clothes into two piles, darks and whites....and that was it for the evening! That completely wore me out!! I don't know if it was the bending over constantly, or just standing for a long time (since I'm used to sitting at a desk all day) or what, but I was completely beat.

I had to lay down. I laid on the couch until Nick got home and then we went up to bed (at like 7:30) because I had to rest. He watched TV and I pulled my shirt up from my belly and put my hands on my belly. Dominick likes to kick at night so this is the best time to feel him moving. He wasn't moving a whole lot so I took my hands off of my belly and just started at it. And then I saw it! A big kick, right by my belly button! I saw his little foot (or hand...maybe he was punching me?) bulge up. It was the coolest thing! I mean, it's neat to feel a kick, but to see him kicking! That's pretty cool too. I tried to get him to do it for Nick, but of course when Nick watched, nothing. If Nick would start watching TV again, he would kick. It was really neat to see though!

And now, yes, Nick is back to thinking that Dominick doesn't like his Daddy...

Nursery

Our nursery is no where near completed...in fact, it hasn't even been started. Our upstairs has a big open space outside of our bedroom (about 9' x 14' I think) that has three walls. We are going to put up that fourth wall to enclose that room and make it a nursery. That way it is right by our bedroom and upstairs so we don't need to go up and down the stairs all night. However, we haven't started this project.

Nick's plan is to start it this weekend, but he has soo much going on right now. He is helping his mom finish her basement, he is running 5 different projects at work (he's an electrician) and working 5 ten hour days (6-4:30 Monday through Friday) and he has all the stuff around our house to do. He's a busy man. He told me we'd start this weekend, but we are booked through the whole weekend. We have game night on Friday night with my sister and her close friends, on Saturday it is my Grandma's birthday (Happy birthday Grammie!) so we are going to my Aunt Jane's house in Hermann to celebrate that, and then on Sunday we are having my parents and Angela, Andrew and Cecilia over for football and dinner....so when is the nursery going to get built?? Probably not this weekend. Hopefully soon though!

I do, however, have pictures of the bedding we registered for and some decorations for the nursery. We are going to buy our baby furniture on Thursday night (unless something else comes up!!) and we registered for our bedding. I am going to paint a mural on the wall in the nursery, too. So I have a picture of the bedding and of the mural.





I am going to change the colors in the mural to better match the bedding, but that's it! Hopefully it will all come together nicely (and soon!)

Nick felt a kick!

So far, it has been really hard to feel Dominick move, even for me. I learned at a previous ultrasound that I have an anterior placenta. That isn't a bad thing, it just means that the placenta is located on my belly button side of the uterus and acts as a pillow between me and the baby. So when he's been kicking, I can't really feel it.

Well, a few weeks ago, I started feeling him move! Yay! It almost feels like a muscle twitch to me in my belly. For the longest time I could only feel him on the inside (although it felt like I was feeling him with my hands, but I wasn't). So Nick couldn't feel him. He tried very hard though and every time I felt him kicking, Nick would come over (against his will) to put his hand on my belly and wait for a kick. While we were on vacation Nick thought he was feeling him move, but couldn't really tell.

Last night I was laying on the couch after a long day at work and had my arm on my belly and Dominick was going crazy! He was kicking and moving and all kinds of things. So, of course, I make Nick come over to put his hand on my belly. As soon as I would feel something, I would ask, "Did you feel that??" and Nick would say, "No". And I'd feel it again, and ask again, and Nick's answer wouldn't change. Finally, Dominick kicked me HARD right by my belly button. Nick's head jerked up to look at me and he said, "Wow! I felt that!". Yay!! Finally!

And good timing too. Nick was beginning to think that Dominick didn't like his Daddy!!

My Sweet Niece!

Since I've posted about enough sad things to last awhile, I thought I'd show a picture of my adorable niece, Cecilia!

Angela, Andrew and Cecilia came over the other day, like I previously mentioned, and she was in such a great mood! She was smiling and laughing and having such a great time. I just had to show you how cute she is!

How cute are they?!?

Last Sad Post for awhile...I hope!

So I continue to be amazed at how generous and supportive everyone is after losing one our "fur-babies" Yosha. We received more cards in the mail from friends and even got a card from our veterinary clinic. It had the most beautiful story on the front, and I had to add it.

**Warning** It might make you cry. It made me sob...

The Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven lies the Rainbow Bridge.

When a beloved pet dies, it goes to the Rainbow Bridge. It makes friends with other animals and frolics over rolling hills and peaceful lush meadows of green.

Our pets do not thirst or hunger. The old and sick are made young once more; the maimed and the ill become healed and strong. They are as healthy and playful as we remember them in days gone by.

Though happy and content, they still miss someone very special, someone they had to leave behind.

Together, the animals chase and play, but the day comes when a pet will suddenly stop and look in the distance...bright eyes intent, eager body quivering. Suddenly recognizing you, your pet bounds quickly across the green fields and into your embrace. You celebrate in joyous reunion. You will never again separate. Happy tears and kisses are warm and plenty; your hands caress the face you missed. You look once more into the loving eyes of your pet and know you never really parted. You realize that though out of sight, your love had been remembered.

And now, you cross the Rainbow Bridge together...

-M. A. Preston

I thought that was so beautiful. Thank you Watson Road Veterinary Clinic for the beautiful card and help in such a hard time.

Pictures of Dominick!

Here are his legs. For some reason he likes to cross his legs at his ankles. He's done that in every ultrasound so far!!

And here is his cute little profile!

Isn't my little boy so cute?!?!

Some Happiness

I think everyone who would read this already knows this, but just in case: I am 24 weeks pregnant with my and Nick's first child, a baby boy. We have already decided on a name and he is Dominick Robert Westerheide. Today was my 24 week ultrasound.

A little background: I get ultrasounds and check-ups done all the time. I am a high risk patient because of a few different reasons. One: Nick and I have had two miscarriages. The first one was when I was 7 1/2 weeks pregnant and the second on I was 5 weeks pregnant. Two: I have a blood clotting disorder called MTHFR (I am homozgous for the C mutation). And finally, three: I have had a few surgeries on my cervix, so they are afraid of pre-term labor. So going to the doctor is nothing new for me.

Usually Nick gets to come with me. However, his work schedule has changed and he can't come anymore. :( But this week I got Ashley Wilson to come with me, so that was fun! Here's what they had to say.

Dominick looks great! I am now measuring a week and a half ahead. This doesn't really mean much, but he is growing nice and strong! My clinical due date is January 30, 2009 and this ultrasound showed me at a due date of January 20, 2009. So who knows when he'll really come! He is now 1 lb. 14 oz. So he is getting to be a big boy already!

The doctor who I saw today was very very nice and told me that since everything looks so great, I don't need to come in again for 6 weeks instead of in 4 weeks. He told me I get time off for good behavior. :) I was very very excited to hear that.

I will add some pics in another post since I can't figure out how to do it here!!

Well we did it....

So last night was the big night, and we did it. It was honestly one of the hardest things I've ever had to do and I hope no one else ever has to go through it. (Although I know realistically, many of you will). One thing that made me feel better about it was the vet agreed with us that is was time for Yosha to take his nice long nap. That made me feel better as I have been going back and forth for weeks and second guessing myself since I made the appointment.

It was very quick and very painless for him. We decided to stay in the room with him. The vet gave him a shot to make him sleepy and woozy. It was supposed to take affect in 5 minutes time. Well it didn't! After 5 minutes, Yosh was wide awake. So he gave him another shot. When he came back in 5 more minutes, he was still awake but starting to drift. The vet said it was a good thing that Yosh wasn't a drug addict because he just had enough meds to knock out a 300 lbs. dog and he was still awake! The next shot was the shot to actually put him down. I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay in the room with him, but I'm so glad I did. While the vet was administering the shot, Nick and I just petted him and talked to him and he just layed there. Before the whole shot was injected, Yosha was gone. It was so quick and peaceful for him. I'm glad he is finally out of pain. I cried a lot. But I felt calm after it was over.

The vet suggested that Yosha was in heaven playing ball. Well for those of you who know Yosha, he's not the "ball playing" type. He liked to be lazy and do his own thing. Yosha has only really known a few people who I believe are in heaven and Nick's Dad is one of them. So we decided that what is probably going on, instead of Yosha playing ball, Yosha just found Nick's Dad. Nick's Dad is probably at a table eating a big pork steak and Yosha is sitting right in front of him, begging for scraps! Either that or Nick's Dad is sitting in a comfy arm chair and Yosha is laying on the floor next to him. Both of those images make me feel better about everything already.

I am happy that Yosha is no longer in pain and am comforted by the fact that I truly believe we made the right decision.

Along with all of this, thank you so much to our family and friends who have been so sweet and supportive through this!! Right before we left, my sister, Angela and her husband, Andrew and their beautiful daughter, Cecilia came over to see Yosha one more time. It really helped me to hear Angela say that she agreed that we were making the right decision. Then while we were at the vet, one of my best friends, Ashley, called and left me a sweet message. When we got home we had a card in the mailbox from my good friend, Abbie, and a card with some chocolate chip cookies from our amazing neighbors, the Bettlachs. After all of this, we ran out to Nick's mom's house to say hello, and she too was so sweet and considerate during this hard time. In addition to all of these things, I can't even list all the family and friends who have sent me really sweet emails about how sorry they are. It's really great to know that we have such amazing friends and family. Thank you to everyone.

So wherever you are Yosh, I hope you are getting a nice big steak and some much deserved rest. I love you.

Yosha...he will be missed

As long as I'm posting, I'll take a minute to write about my doggie....

We got Yosha (who is a german shepherd/chow mix) when he was a few months old. I was in between grade school and high school. He has always been such a good dog. Very mellow. Other dogs run around and get into everything. He just lays around, and cuddles when you want him to. He's like a big teddy bear.

Last summer he tore his ACL in his back left leg. When we took him to the vet, they told us that his arthritis was so bad and his hips were so weak that they didn't recommend a surgery for his knee. They told us to pray that his left leg got strong again. So we did...and it did. His knee hardened around the ACL and he was completely fine. For almost a year.

This past summer, he tore his ACL in his right knee. When we took him to the vet, they told us that his left knee had only healed about 50% and his right knee was completely blown out. No ligaments were left intact. They told us to give him a few weeks and see how he did.

Well, he struggled at first, but then started doing great! He was happy and playing in the yard. Running around and doing things he had never done. He was never an active dog, and now for the first time he was. Unfortunately, this was short lived.

The last few weeks have been really hard. He can't do any steps anymore. Poor Nick has to carry him up and down all steps. And he cries if he has to walk too far. He'll usually walk a few steps and then sit down. Then wait for some energy and get up and walk a few more, before stopping to rest again. So we made the ultimate decision. We will have him be put to sleep.

We are doing this tonight at 5:45. I let him stay outside all day today since that is his favorite place to be. My sister is coming over to say good-bye one last time. I have tears in my eyes just thinking about this but I know it's ultimately for the best. He will be missed. He was such a good dog, and so very loyal. But I know him and who he really is. He will continue to be loyal and I believe that some day we will meet again.

I love you, Yosha, and you will be missed.

I don't know what I'm doing here...

So since I used to always send emails to everyone updating them about random things in my life, Ashley pointed out that I should just blog about it and then people can come and read if they'd like. So, I'm reluctantly climbing on to the bandwagon (not jumping! just climbing). We'll see how I do and if I'm even remotely interesting enough to be here. :)

I'm very new at this, so if I mess it up, I apologize in advance!!