Meet Micki

(I was requested to do a blog post on each of our animals. I will space them out with one animal per week)

I got Micki when she was 9 months old. She is now 10. She is an AKC registered black lab. She has had a rough life and let me tell you about it..

At a year old, she was in my fence at home. She decided to climb the fence(we had one piece that was about 3ft tall and I'd seen her climb the fence once before) and she got out. The day before, her ID tags had come off of her collar and since there were no places to get a replacement in the small town I lived it, she didn't have her ID on her. Freaking out, I called the pound to see if they'd picked her up and sure enough, they picked up 'a dog that had been hit' and took her to the one vet in the small town. A vet that wasn't her vet and doesn't have a good reputation for treating animals. I called the vet and they had her and I went to visit her the next morning since it was too late to go that day.

I was so sad to see her sedated on the table. The vet said that she'd broken her front right shoulder and he needed to wrap it up for 3 months to heal. She needed to stay inside and keep it clean, so I did. At the end of 3 months, I took the wrapping off and her leg dangled there. No life whatsoever. I knew it wasn't good and took her to her vet for a closer look. After a quick x-ray, the vet said it was not her shoulder, but her elbow that was broken and that the leg needed to come off. The vet kept her and amputated her leg. She even said that once the leg was off, she tried to realign it and it wouldn't realign. She said since the vet improperly diagnosed it and wrapped it wrong, it healed wrong. I feel terrible that she's dealt with this and I know she has slowed down so much. Sometimes I just cry when I look at her and I'm crying as I type this out.

Her journey doesn't end there! A few years ago, she went for her annual and her heart worm test came back positive. I've had her on preventative since I got her but obviously something happened. She had to go through the treatment which can be deadly. They want you to keep the dog as calm as possible and well Micki doesn't know what calm means. She's as hyper and hyper gets. She made it through that with no issues!

Fast forward to the next summer. We took Micki and Toby for a walk down the road. While walking, Micki yelped and started limping. I noticed her foot was flopping around and we lay her down and her foot is sliced! Alan carries her to the car and goes back to find what she stepped on-a broken coffee mug thrown out on the side of the road. She has surgery to repair and she gets put in a cast. The cast actually rubbed a hole in the pad of her foot so she was put on a metal splint. Her foot healed up but is still not back to normal. Sigh.

Micki loves to be petted and will just lean against your leg all day for you to pet her. She's very sweet and loving. She loves to go on walks and swim(yes she can swim!)

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving-Part 2

This is a continuation of my Thirty Days of Thanksgiving post.
These are in random order as well as the first part

Day 15-Heat and a/c
Something we take for granted and complain about the bill but lots of people aren't as fortunate to have power, much less heat and a/c to stay comfortable.

Day 16-Food
Other than the obvious, I also enjoy it :) (and so does M)

Day 17

Thankful for our home. If we hadn't moved here, we wouldn't have Madison, Wilma, Toby or Sierra. Our house is big enough for our family and we've made good friends and feel safe here.

Day 18

Thankful that Micki has been alive for 10 years today! I got her when she was 9 months and she's been through more than a dog should. She's been there through my happy and sad times and I can't imagine her not being around. Happy Birthday Micki!!

 Day 19

Thankful for our other 4 crazy animals, Wilma, Toby, Sierra and Cameron. Given the chance Toby would eat Madison but he is Micki's best friend and I'm so glad they loved each other from the second they saw each other. He's so loving and sweet, except to Madison :) . Sierra runs when M gets within 10 feet but she is Cameron's girlfriend. Wilma and Cameron have also been through a lot more than any animal should, right along with Micki. Madison still loves all of these animals regardless and laughs at them constantly!

 

Day 20

 Thankful my Dad isn't in pain on his 62nd birthday today. Also that we had a relationship for a few years after not speaking for 10 years. His death last year was the hardest thing I've ever went through. 

Day 21

 Thankful for medicine, Allergy eye drops, a Pedi that worked us in and an understanding photographer who rescheduled our pictures for the second time :/ Hopefully Madison feels better very soon! 

Day 22

 Thankful I stood in line over an hour to get most of Madison's Christmas! I saved as much as I spent so it was well worth it! It also gave me a chance to talk to my BFF on the phone for a bit while standing in line

 

Day 23

 Thankful for a best friend like no other. We've been best friends for years and every year it seems like we get closer and closer. She's trusted me with her son if anything ever happened. We don't see each other or talk often enough but when we do, we talk until Amanda's phone gives her the "battery too hot" warning. Ha! I know more about her than I probably should and no conversation is complete with a "tmi" or "What did Dr Google say?" Involved. I wouldn't know what to do without her!

 

Day 24 

 Thankful we found a cabin to go to the mountains. Thankful we are able to go.

Day 25

 thankful that M loves music as much as I do! 

Day 26

 Thankful for gorgeous mountains and that we live close enough to go see them

 Day 27

My phone and the internet

Day 28

 Thankful the cashier gave me a $4 off coupon today. I needed it :/ 

Day 29

 Thankful for Mommy time which means I can finally get decorated!

Day 30

Thankful for good smelling stuff

Grown up things

I'm going to try to write more about what Alan and I are doing. Madison is so darn cute, plus she's involved in just about everything we do, so it's hard for her to not take over this blog. Random order but here we go:

I'm so ready for our annual Christmas tree trip to the mountains. Madison was only 2 months old last year. Seriously, look how tiny she was, and how tired I looked, and how long my hair was.. Geez :(

It was freezing and the wind was blowing crazy on that mountain! This was the first year we didn't go to the same tree farm in 7 years! Our usual farm was pretty bare the day we went last year and we lucked up on this one. I think it will be our normal farm from now on. We have booked a nice cabin and we are ready to go!

oh yeah.. Supposed to be a post not about Madison... This will be hard.

Movies/tv watched recently

Alan's movies:

Moneyball

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

 Machine Gun Preacher

Hunger Games(also enjoyed by Crystal) -really strange and pretty controversial as kids are killing kids but we both liked it.

Dolphin Tale(also enjoyed by Crystal) - very good. Sad but sweet!

The Eagle

War Horse

The Manchurian Candidate

Contagion
The Grey -pretty graphic and sort of strange but decent.

Crystal's movies:

Mirror Mirror - so bad I turned off

Wanderlust  - turned off also

What to Expect When You're Expecting -so funny! Especially if you are a mom/pregnant or trying to get pregnant.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - very good and very emotional! Not a girlie movie at all.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall- Very funny. Could be quite offensive. Very R rated.

Friends with Kids - hilarious! Great cast! A must see if you have young kids or if you have friends with kids and you don't have kids.

One for the Money- Pretty good!

A Thousand Words - Horrible. Turned off and rated 1 star.

New Years Eve - Really good

The Vow - So sweet. Seems like a Nicholas Sparks movie.

What's Your Number? May have questionable subject but I thought it was cute.

As far as tv goes, Alan doesn't watch much tv. He has gotten interested in the series Last Resort. He also watches Dallas, The Office and football.

Crystal records too much. Young and the Restless, Rachael Ray(depending on the recipes/guest), The Talk (only watch the discussion part unless a good guest is on), Ellen (depending on the guests), Cupcake Wars, Shark Tank, Breaking Amish(so sad it's over :( ), Long Island Medium, Auction Kings, The Real World, Pioneer Woman, Trisha's Southern Kitchen, Duck Dynasty (love!), Great Food Truck Race, Up All Night, Giuliana and Bill, Undercover Boss and SNL(depending on the host/musical guest). Some of these are on season break right now and yes, some weeks I have about 4 episodes of each show and I have to weed through them cause I don't have the time to watch them! Some of them are background noise while I do things around the house, while she's napping or if she's playing in the floor, and a lot of them I just fast forward through.

We both watch Modern Family.

We have Christmas pictures coming up next week. We are doing them at a local park. Trying to figure out what all of us will wear.. 

My sweet Micki's 10th birthday is tomorrow. I got her when she was 9 months old. This dog has been through the worst. Tragically losing a leg when she was a year old, having heartworms(and getting rid of them through the  and her back right foot's tendons got sliced a couple years ago after stepping on a broken mug in the grass, while on a walk one day. She is still super happy and still loves to swim. Her bark is crazy annoying but I can't imagine not having her around. She's been through some of my happiest and saddest times. Happy Birthday Micki!

infatuation? Methinks YES.

(written by Crystal) For Christmas this past year my present from Alan was a new Canon Rebel XSi. I have since grown a slight infatuation with this camera. I'm always looking for something to take a picture of. I bought a book teaching me how to use it but I got about 50 pages in and got overwhelmed. I am going to start reading up on it next week to try to get familiar with all the settings. I've done 2 'photo shoots' with our Godson, Malachi. One was just a fun day at the park and the other was Easter at a local garden. He's such a cute subject, but has quite a short attention span :) Our local photo center offers classes and I make take one of those depending on when they do it. I went to Walmart yesterday and had almost 800 pictures on my memory card! So I have a lot of favorites but here are a few:Our cat, Cameron. I don't think I need to explain why I love this picture. Doesn't he just look so sweet?

This is my BFF Amanda and Malachi(our Godson). They were having so much fun laughing. I love that he was looking at the camera. Something about this picture makes you stress free for a brief moment. I think it's the innocence of a 3 year old.

This is Amanda's favorite picture of the day, and it wasn't even staged! He had picked a flower(shhh!) and just laid down on the bench and I started shooting away. It helps to have such a cute subject :)

One of Malachi's Easter pics. Definately everyone's favorite that has seen this round of pics. Isn't his suit the cutest thing you've ever seen?

This picture is not in focus at all but I love it. This is my sweet Micki and it just looks like she's laughing! I love this picture and it makes me giggle when I see it. She's the happiest dog in the world and she's pretty darn sweet too!