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We had kinda sorta started a habit of driving to town for supper on Friday nights. Nothing fancy. Just a quick drive-thru. McDonald's because it is cheap and easy to get to because I barely have to actually enter town and because of two words: Grande Mac.
Those days are officially over, though, because of the next photo and caption... |
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The Saturday morning of my staycation week was a little bit scary as hell for me. When I first woke up Saturday morning and let Libs out of her crate, I noticed that she had vomited in her crate at some point during the night/early morning. I wasn't really worried, though, because she occasionally vomits randomly. It's typically just a once and done thing. But then she threw up again while I was getting dressed to go to town. I cleaned it up and decided to wait before I went to town to make sure she was okay. She didn't throw up again for a little bit so I went on in to town.
When I got home, I found three more places where she'd vomited while I was gone. Not. Good. And she wasn't really acting right. She was lethargic and didn't even greet me at the door when I came in as she normally does. The last straw, though, was when she threw up AGAIN and it had red specks of blood in it. Picture me in full blown panic. My hands started to shake and my own stomach did a few flips. I immediately called her vet, who, THANK GOD, has Saturday hours. Otherwise it would have been an extremely expensive visit to the vet school on campus who are the only vets open during the night and on weekends.
Vet told me she'd squeeze me in at 11 and after I hung up with her, I started crying. I had all the bad, dark and ugly thoughts going through my head. In my panicked mind, I was sure I was about to lose my fluffy butted baby. I called Mama, who wasn't feeling well herself, and sobbed in her ear and asked her to drive us so I could hold Libby and comfort her. |
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$95 later, Libby and I came home with two anti-nausea pills, a bottle of antibiotics, a bottle of stomach coating meds, some digestive health dog food, and some pill pockets. The vet explained that the blood was probably caused by burst capillaries from having vomited so much but she also had blood in her stool which indicated some digestive distress which could be serious if left untreated. She said it could have been caused by eating something she shouldn't have or outside stressors (like nuisance dog.) The last thing Libby had eaten? a couple of nibbles of the hamburger patty Friday night. Fatty, salty, fast food hamburger. It may not have been the full culprit, but in my mind it played a big part.
So, no more Friday night runs to McDonald's. It was never all that satisfying anyway...
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| I was really glad, though, that all this happened the week I was planning to be at home anyway. That way I could make sure we got all her meds in her, we had plenty of snuggle and rest time, and I could really focus on feeding her things that were easy on her tummy. For instance, after the special dog food ran out, I baked sweet potatoes for her, she had scrambled eggs for breakfast and she got none of anything that I ate. I've also cooked carrots and green beans for her. We tried taking a quick stroll at the pond that Monday but she was still on the puny side so we went back home and took a nap. |
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| By Tuesday, though, her appetite was coming back and she finally noticed the lack of treats she was getting. She missed her denta-sticks the most. It's been our ritual for several years now that she always gets a denta-stick after supper. Never fail. And she loves the things. Begs for them if I forget them. And she begged every night last week for one after supper. And she probably would have done fine with them but I wasn't taking any chances. I wanted to make sure her tummy was healed all the way before giving her anything harder to digest than soft eggs and mushy veggies. |
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| She just didn't understand why Mama withheld her beloved denta-sticks. Poor thing. |
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| All the while she was getting all manner of other good things. Since she wouldn't let me squirt her stomach lining protecter meds in her mouth, I mixed it with a little sour cream twice a day and she loved it. She got to where she'd start dancing around when she saw me pull the syringe out to fix her med. And thankfully, she took her other pills like they were treats, thanks to the pill pockets the vet sent home with us. |
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| By my birthday, she was almost back to her old self, so she and I went to Sis2's house where Sis2 and Lyssa fixed backed chicken and hot spinach dip for me for my birthday. |
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| We played a dozen games of Connect Four, of which, I think I one two games. *sigh* (I'm lame) We also watched a movie and giggled and laughed and had fun. |
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| And we had this s'mores dessert that Sis2 made. It. Was. AMAZING. It had all the good stuff in it...two kinds of chocolate, buttery toastsed graham crackers, marshmallows...and the best ingredient of all...love. ;-) |
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| That evening, we made a quick run to Chick-fil-A for frosted coffees because Alyssa heard me mention them and became instantly obsessed with the idea. And of course, what Lyssa wants, Aunt Jana does her best to give her. |
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| That Friday we drove to the little town about 20 minutes west and did some antiquing and thrifting. I found a set of pretty faux pearls to wear to the big event I had coming up and the kids fell in love with the stray dog that lived at the thrift store. They nearly cried when we left it behind. |
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| Saturday, the folks prepared a FEAST for me and Goofus (sis2's hubs, if you recall). Daddy grilled chicken and Mama fixed the sides and the cake. |
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| Granny, Aunt G, Sis2 and the kids came...and Goofus, of course. His birthday is the week before mine so we get a combined cake and "party." |
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| Efan does not like the edge pieces so he always cuts in the middle of the cake. And yes, Mama left out the "a" in day. She was tired and distracted by two kids who wanted to help. We had a good laugh about it. |
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| And because I don't really care for cake too much, I made a Kahlua Cheesecake with a chocolate ganache and it. was. DIVINE. |
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| Sis2 and the kids ending up spending the night out there because Goofus had to leave suddenly to go take care of his mom who has been battling a painful case of kidney stones. They hadn't planned on spending the night, though, and the actual spur of the moment plan involved either me or Mama taking them home Saturday evening. But the kids seized the opportunity to spend the night with Nana and Bobo and emotionally manipulated their mama into staying. Sis2 actually ended up staying at my house and the kids stayed with Nana and Bobo and then we all went to Nana and Bobo's church Sunday and spend the day at the folks' house again. It felt completely decadent to get to spend that much time with them all since it's usually just a few hours one day out of the month. And I got to spend four days in a ROW with them. A fact that Libby was not unhappy about, either. ;-) |
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| As soon as I got back to work, I had to jump feet first into the event we had coming up this week. I was in charge of putting together displays from our archives and while I already had my captions being printed and knew what collections I was going to use, I still had to pull, unpack, sort and arrange all the materials. Yesterday was the big day and I managed to pull everything together, creating three displays. The above display features materials from an alumnus who had gone on to play in the NFL (and was on the Superbowl winning team back in the 1970's, I think) before going on to have a long coaching career here at our university and several other schools. |
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| I knew him personally, having gone to church with him for many years. He was the sweetest big guy. His wife donated his collection last year, shortly after he died. Alas, we didn't get his super bowl ring or any of the other memorabilia from that game but we got plenty of other trophies and neat things. All the best stuff got passed to his kids and grand-kids...as it should, I suppose. |
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| Then there was this collection of hand crafted metal farm machines. I saw this collection when it came in and knew I was going to use it somehow, someway for an exhibit. So we I was tasked with creating displays for this event, I grabbed the opportunity. |
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| And, of course, the standard cadet uniforms we display at nearly every event. Our land-grant institution has a military back ground so the students wore cadet uniforms. The skirt on the dress form to the left was sewn by a female cadet out of some cadet uniform pants because she was one of the first females admitted and couldn't/wouldn't wear pants. |
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| I had thirty minutes to sit and eat before the event last night. The caption on the above photo is all the explanation you need... |
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| And then I was too tired to eat all that delicious burger. :-( |
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| The event is a 1920's themed gala that we have at the library every year to kick off the annual ragtime music festival. I've never worked this gala before but it is popular to dress up in something either from that time period or inspired by it. I had a cute black dress that I'd worn to a cousin's wedding several years ago. Even when I bought it back in 2004, ($69 clearance) I felt that it had a 1920's vibe. Dressed it up with the flower to give it a V neck instead of the scooped neck it actually has and added my $10 faux pearls. the headband was made from some strands of lace and craft flower I pulled off a frame I'd made many, many moons ago. |
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| The main star of the event is a 1920's inspired fashion show put on by the campus fashion board. Students in the design and textile program design and make clothing specifically for this fashion show. I was up on third floor so you can't see the actual runway from this pic, but trust me, it was there! |
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| I made it exactly 30 minutes in the heels I'd started out with before changing into flats. I already had the heels and having seen a photo of them on a pinterest page dedicated to 1920's fashion, I had to wear them for a little while, just to say I'd completed the look. |
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| This was the most unique dress of the night. I'm not sure what designer was aiming for but I'm guessing he achieved it. |
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| The fan was on loan from a co-worker who saw how hot I'd become and got worried about me. That fan was a total lifesaver! Meanwhile, the lady working the photo booth needs to learn a little something about framing and position. I was really hoping more of the dress would be visible but she gave me all that space above my head and cut me off just above the knees. |
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| In keeping with the vintage vibe, the cokes came in classic glass bottles and it was the best part of my night. No seriously...was THIRSTY. haha |
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| And some little fluffy girl who is now feeling 100% herself was really happy to see me when I finally made it home around 9:00pm. I was happy to see her, too, and we snuggled till around 11pm when I finally dragged my aching body to bed. |
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| But y'all? I got in a TON of steps yesterday! :-D |
Today I am back at work, feeling slightly dead. It's been a rough week and I need another staycation!
In other life events, I've just finished a new Podcast...Anybody else listening to
S-Town? It was wonderfully unexpected and I fully intend to listen to the entire series again. If you haven't already, I urge you to give it a listen, too.
And that's me. Tomorrow marks the beginning of the fourth month of 2017 and I would just like for time to stop rushing by so fast. I'm not ready for 2018 and I feel it coming like a freight train!
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