CaseyAndKelly.Com

At long last I finally feel like I have something to say that’s post worthy…it’s a girl! For those that don’t know we’re expecting again and are due in March! I now have a working scanner again so will try and get the pics up soon. The tech said she was a little yoga baby because she kept putting her legs over her head.

Here I am at the vet again for the second time today. After the emergency vet visit on Saturday ear was still looking pretty angry and swollen so I made her an appointment this morning. They told me that she’d need another surgery and the worst case scenario was death. Ugh. I’m so not feeling good about Stoli going under twice in the last two weeks but it has to be done. They were supposed to have called me at 1:30 to give me an update and have me sit with her for an hour during recovery so she doesn’t have another blue/not breathing/tube down the throat incident. So I waited til 2 abd headed into Lakeway to mail a package, get gas, and grab some chips. Then I decided to stop into the vet to wait since they should’ve been calling me soon anyway. Well it’s been an hour and a half and I still don’t know what’s going on and haven’t seen her. This is the first time I’ve been frustrated with this vet. I probably should have just driven home since it’s only 5 minutes away so this is partially my fault. But still.

The dogs have been in fine form lately.  A fight from last month and that caused blood and fluid to build up in Stoli’s ear got even worse this month when her and Dude got into another fight.  I took her in thinking they would just aspirate the ear but both vets said how ineffective that would be when blood vessels were ruptured and how it would just keep filling back up with blood if it wasn’t operated on.  What we thought would be a simple in and out procedure ended up lasting all day, involved surgery, and an episode once in recovery that required Stoli to be put on a ventilator.  I took her back in for a follow up on Wednesday and everything seemed to look alright.  The vet added a staple to help seal up the flap and help create a scab but other than that, not a big deal.

The last two days Dude has been getting crazy in him and just starts posturing and growling at Stoli when she isn’t doing anything to provoke him.  Friday, Casey managed to break it up by separating them and putting Stoli’s cone (e-collar) back on her.  Yesterday, however, when I went to stand up and go grab the cone (we took it off so Stoli could get a drink and didn’t put it back on right away) Dude took that as his sign to attack and mangled up Stoli’s healing ear and face.  Casey ended up hurting his hands in the process of separating the dogs and getting them to submit to him.  I went to the store and grabbed some assorted things for him and Stoli and when I got back Stoli’s hood was filling up with blood and she looked like she was straight out of a slasher flick.  This is a little graphic but blood clots were even falling out inside the hood – ick!

We decided Stoli couldn’t wait until her scheduled appointment on Tuesday to be rechecked and needed to go get checked out by the emergency vet.  The vet ended up not doing a whole lot – sprayed the area with hydrogen peroxide and prescribed more antibiotics/painkillers but at least we have peace of mind knowing Stoli isn’t going to get sepsis or an infection.  So back to the vet we’ll go on Tuesday and find out how bad things are.  The fights need to stop.

Is anyone still checking for updates on here anymore?  I’m wondering if I need to start sending my RSS feed to Facebook so people know when I’ve updated.  Unless of course you use an RSS feed and then you know.

What’s going on with us?  Let’s see, I got a part-time telecommuting job as a search engine evaluator.  My mommy blog is gaining more momentum and providing a little extra income as well.  Other than that just staying busy with Brady and life.  Casey’s working like crazy and even when he’s home he’s still working.

Brady keeps asking for the beach.  I told her several days ago, “No beach today.”  The next day she said, “Beach today,” and has been saying it every day since.  We’re hoping to make it to Port Aransas some time this fall but are getting antsy for another trip even sooner than that.

A couple of weeks ago, we visited the Austin Zoo with some our friends Zack, Jenny, and Ethan.  Initially, Casey wasn’t crazy about the idea of visiting the zoo.  He hates animals being out of their natural habitats and locked in cages for people to see (he had similar feelings about the circus),  but was pleasantly surprised to learn the animals are all rescued.  Despite the heat, we all had a really great time and the kids got into all of the animals and the train ride.  While the zoo lacks the many of the exotic animals typically associated with zoos (elephants, hippos, giraffes, etc), I love and respect their mission to provide homes and rehabilitate animals.

Here are some of the 400+ pics that we took that day.

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Sunday night the entire family and some friends (15 of us in all) visited the circus in San Antonio! It was Casey, Brady, Grandma, and Grandpa’s first time too!  My parents took  me when I was a teenager but I didn’t remember much about the experience other than elephants and tight rope walkers but it ended up being a lot of fun.  Not something that I’d need to do every year, but still fun.

Brady didn’t get into it quite as much as I had hoped though.  My parents bought her a hat and that stayed on for quite a bit of the evening before passing it off to me and finally having to take it off because other people couldn’t see.  We offered her cotton candy and I don’t know if it was the texture or what but she didn’t want anything to do with it.  She was perfectly content to eat her nachos – that she called chips and queso.  Cheesy flavoring, yes.  Queso, no.  She also had fun pointing out the flashing signs that were above the performers heads.  One of them was of stars and another one she liked was during a period where there were tightrope walkers or something and the announcer said quiet in the audience and that’s when she piped up to point out the letters she saw on the sign.  I thought it was cute and kind of funny she chose that moment to pipe up.

Brady was relieved at intermission and ran around in the corridor the entire time.  When we got back to our seats, she was not longer interested in the show and asked (demanded) to watch Abby on my phone.  This is what she did for the remainder of the show, with Maebry peeking over her shoulder from time to time to check it out.  Our friend’s daughter, Maebry, did remarkably well and watched the entire show, paying attention, and not fussing.  Brady’s attention span is not quite there yet but she is getting better and adapted to the situation.  Thank God for my phone!

As you might have noticed from the new button in our sidebar, I have another blog – a mommy blog.  I started back in January but didn’t really start telling anyone until the last few weeks because I was embarrassed about it.  I can’t even keep up with this blog, how much of a joke would it be to know I had another blog?!  But somehow I have managed to keep up with it and have gotten some really great review opportunities out of  it (like 20 circus tickets) and made some friends one of whom got me a work-at-home job!  So if you want to check it out, the link is there.  And if you want to buy something from Amazon, there’s a link on the right side of the page too (it’s an affiliate link so I don’t get much but it’s something and all you have to do is go to Amazon from the link and I’ll get credit).

So there ya have it, I’ve been staying busy with Brady, my blog, and my job.

Sunday

-We spent more time on the beach and have finally learned our lesson once and for all (I think) to not apply spray sunscreen when it’s windy out.  It always leads to a burn.  The only one that didn’t get burned is Brady (except on the crown of her head where her cowlick is – we just couldn’t avoid it there).

-That night all of us went to dinner with John and Karen!  We tried out Uncle Ernie’s on the bay and had some really great seafood.  The only downside is we asked to sit outside (Brady-friendly) and it was cool and breezy.

Monday

-My grandma drove out and spent the afternoon with us.  After lunch Casey took Brady upstairs and they both took a nap while Grandma, Sally, and I all sat on the deck watching the waves come in and the weather change.

-After the nappers woke up and Grandma went home, we all took Brady for a walk on the beach.  This was her first time in the water and it was hard to get her to come out once she was in.  We ended up being late for dinner at John and Karen’s but eventually pulled Brady out of the water kicking and screaming.  We had a lot of fun at dinner chatting and catching up.  Unfortunately the battery on my camera was dead so it was up to everyone else to take pics (which I have yet to see).

Tuesday

-Spent more time on the beach (noticing a trend here?) hanging out and enjoy the temps slowly getting warmer.

-We all went to dinner with John and Karen at Margaritaville.  Casey and I always make a point to visit the one in Vegas but it’s been at least four years since we last visited.  Either they changed their menu or their quality has gone downhill because the food was just ok.  The perfect margarita was still perfect though so I guess that’s a plus.

Wednesday

-Sally went home early that morning and we spent pretty much all day on the beach playing in the water and walking on the sand.

-We met John and Karen for dinner at Hooters and enjoyed the consistency of the food.  “No, I would not like ranch dressing on my Casear salad.”

-Apparently we had too much fun on Wednesday because there are no pictures except iPhone ones from that day.

Thursday

-My cousin, Kerri, came out and had lunch with us.  Schooners was right next door and it was just too tempting to go there again so we could hang out without other distractions.  This is the first time Casey and Brady both met Kerri and the first time I’d seen her since 2005.

-That night for dinner we met John, Karen, and Grandma at Angelo’s for dinner.  Brady did pretty well considering and was a big fan of the crackers.  Grandma really wanted to buy something for Brady while she was out on the beach but I managed to talk her out of going to Carters even though they have my favorite clothes and instead going to Wal-Mart which isn’t my favorite store but was super close AND more importantly, has carts.  We looked all over the store and Brady ended up with two new sundresses (what happened to Wal-Mart carrying a line of Carters stuff?) and any other items she wanted – McQueen and Mater cars.  Ah, my little tomboy!   We said our goodbyes to Grandma and headed back to the townhouse.

-John and Karen met us back at our rental and we all watched John fly into the sunset!

Friday

-We spent all day on the beach.  All day.  We didn’t even get in the car on Friday.  We just hung out and enjoyed the considerably warmer weather (one might even say hot) and ate Schooners for dinner before getting everything packed and ready for leaving in the morning.  Unfortunately we didn’t see anyone else for the rest of the trip – John ended up in the hospital and that’s not so Brady-friendly. 🙁

Saturday

-We left Panama City Beach around 8 that morning and got home at 9 that evening.  Thirteen hours is not too bad and just goes to show we lost an hour on the way out there.  We had a great time and we’re hoping we can make it back to Florida again some time this year if everything works out!

So picking up where I left off – we arrive in Panama City Beach at 8:30 am on Saturday.  After eating breakfast we headed to my Grandma’s house in Panama City to spend the day with her.  Grandma didn’t know we were coming so when we knocked on the door she asked if we were friend or foe.  She was pretty excited to see we had come to visit!  This was the first time she had seen Brady since her first birthday and second Christmas!  Not long after we arrived, Uncle John and his girlfriend, Karen, came over to hang out with us too!  We had a fun day just hanging out together, eating pizza, and playing with Brady.  With everyone’s help watching Brady – Casey and I were each able to catch a nap!

We arrived at our rental house around 5:30 and worked on unpacking and getting settled.  We went for a quick walk on the beach to show Brady (even though it was windy and cooler and stayed that way for several days) and then headed to Wal-Mart for food and supplies.  Casey let Brady choose what color noodle she wanted and she chose pink – I think we have the start of a favorite color!  Below is her look of glee right after giving her noodle a kiss!

Once we got back, we fed Brady and were able to enjoy the sunset before heading back out to pick Sally up from the airport.  Because of a flight delay and the drive back to the house, we opted to just go next door to Schooner’s and bring dinner back to eat on the deck.  Since we were on vacation we allowed Brady to dictate her sleeping schedule and she did amazingly well sleeping in a queen bed by herself and sleeping through the night!

Except for the sunset pic which was taken with my dad’s camera were taken with my my iPhone.

To be continued…

Wow, I’m now thinking I should have made some time to post this earlier because I’m sure I’m going to end up forgetting things.  Or at least written down what we did each day so I could remember.  I’m going to try to piece things together from the pics and see how that works out.

Friday night we packed up the truck with the dogs and the B and made our way out of town.   We left around 6:30 and stopped for gas and dinner before leaving.  We left the night before they were talking about releasing the floodgates in Louisiana, so when Casey saw signs on the 10 warning us about closures, he woke me up (we were expecting the road to be closed and forced evacuations – how do you get from Texas to Florida without driving through Louisiana?!).   I tried pulling up information about what was going on my phone from the news websites but no one was making mention of what was going on.  It finally occurred to me (or maybe Casey suggested it) to check Google Maps and look at the traffic and it was one exit that was closed – traffic was merging into one lane and even at 1:30a, things were backed up and it took 30 minutes to get off one exit and take the on ramp back onto the 10 at the same exit.  From what we could see there was a semi that had caught on fire on the overpass.

Once we were past the freeway closure, I started driving.   Casey went to sleep but Brady woke up in the stop and go traffic around 1:30 and didn’t go back to sleep until 5.  Then around 6, Casey woke up as the sun was coming up.  I was cruising along at 75 and this guy went speeding past us going at least 90, if not more.  He got back in the right lane after passing me and went into the shoulder going through a small puddle from an early rain shower and started going off the road, he overcorrected and went off the road and into the heavily treed median.  Since the trees were so dense, we had to locate the car by the smoke pouring out of it.  We thought the car was on fire so Casey got out to help as he was calling 911.  We didn’t know where we were exactly (apparently only a few miles from the Florida border) but we waited with the other car until EMS arrived.  The driver said he was ok and neither he nor his passenger were hurt but that his passenger was handicapped and trapped in the car.  When EMS did arrive we filled out a form while they got out their chainsaws to start taking down trees because they couldn’t get to or see the car either.  That was our good samaritan deed for the trip.

The rest of the trip to Panama City Beach was relatively uneventful and we were pretty happy and relieved when we finally stopped for breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts at 8:30 (14 hours later).

More to come…