DC Trip

We just visited Washington, DC (first time ever for K; first time since the late 90's for me). The trip was primarily to see K's great uncle laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, and we decided to add on a few extra days to get to see more of the area. We had a good visit with his parents, brother, grandmother and her husband; and we also got to see (and I got to meet) some of the extended family (great uncle's kids and grandkids) for the service. 

I hope my father-in-law didn't get tired of driving us all around -- they had gotten a rental car for the ceremony and we also made sure we saw things that took advantage of having a rental car (and let them see things that were new to them since they'd made trips to DC before).  We did well -- saw a Civil War sight and the Air & Space museum that is out in VA -- including seeing a space shuttle!   and they even had the type of plane that K's great uncle flew in WWII.

The ceremony was powerful and a bit amazing to realize that many Marines were there to honor one man.  I was lucky to get to know his great uncle a little bit - he was the BEST.  We knew him as J.R. but I didn't know much about his younger life -- nor did i know that he was in TWO wars (WWII and Korean).

The day after the ceremony the rest of the family flew home, and we stayed on to see the area.  We met up with a friend of mine from college to tour Mt Vernon, and another college friend met us for dinner (I am still bummed I forgot to take even ONE photo of us together)...still fun to catch up, and we tried crabs (crabs make crawfish seem easy to eat).

Our last full day was just K and me and we used the Metro (and scooters) to tour all around the National Mall.  While there are tons of museums we did not see we were able to see the original Constitution and Declaration of Independence (National Archives) and see the outdoor memorials that were 'must see' on the list.   We even took a detour off the mall so we could see the front of the White House. All in all it was a great trip.

I will admit on that last day I was distracted as I knew my sister had gone to the hospital to have her baby (our niece!).   That is another post entirely.

This is one of my favorite pics from our day in DC.  K really wanted to try these scooters, and they were a great way to get around! I had a good time on them too! We were safe, but sorry moms we didn't have helmets... We definitely had some issues with them - not 2 minutes after that photo was taken my app wouldn't cooperate to reload $ and his scooter's battery died.....we still had fun, and its part of the adventure. Kevin is my voice of calm after my freakout about the app telling me we were in a no parking zone.....didn't give much of a choice since neither scooter would move. and yes, we found other ones to try again

Smokey's surgery

Smokey's surgery went well - a large mass was removed from his neck/cheek area, and he's already starting to get his voice back, no barks yet but he can do his whine again.    Its funny to realize we pay a lot of $$ for him to get his whine back, we did and we are glad to hear it!  Recovery is going as well as can be expected.

The poor boy hates the cone, but has to wear it so he can heal properly - I thought 10 days, but found out yesterday probably 14 days before he gets his sutures out.  He did get a drain taken out yesterday, so that should help him be a little more comfortable.

We do love the vet we take him to, they kept him overnight after surgery even though he could've gone home -- with our AC being out, and also with a little, curious dog too it was the best decision to have him in the cooler, vet kennel for the night following surgery.

I was telling Kevin last night that a dog recovery may be worse than a person's, at least the person can know WHY the surgery happened.

Life as a Country song

Have you ever felt like your life is a country song (and by country song I mean the ones where everything goes wrong)? That is how I am feeling right now - believe me I know I have MANY things going right in my life, its just hard to not get stuck on the things going wrong.

the big ones:

Smokey needs to have surgery to get his bark back.   He has lumps that we've had looked at before and they are benign fatty tissue; but one looks to be growing on his neck and it may be pushing on his larynx -- it sounds more like he's wheezing (and he was mistaken for a PARROT) when he tries to bark, which is so odd since he usually has a ferocious bark.   He's our old guy (we've had him almost 12 years and he was about full grown when we got him) so there is some worry with having him sedated, but it should help him feel better, and if they can they'll remove some other lumps that may help him move better.

our AC broke on Friday night.....it runs, but doesn't cool.....this is the third house we've had AC issues, so we always knew it was likely to happen....I looked it up and it was late April last year we had the issues (and June...)    I guess we are lucky it didn't happen on a holiday weekend, especially since we'll have guests that same weekend!

In good news we do have water pressure in our kitchen sink again...that was fixed on Friday.

My dad passed away on December 1. I am still very sad about it, and also find...relief is not the right word, but something along that line.. that he is no longer battling dementia. The rest of December was a blur with trying to tell family and friends, make funeral arrangements, and get my mom ready for an already scheduled move. While we'd hoped to have her settled before my dad passed in a way it worked out for us to have something to work on while we were together and needed something to do. I know he is gone, and yet find myself forgetting from time to time. I am not ready to write much more about it, but am struggling with trying to deal with it and find my new 'normal'.

October birthdays

October was a big month in our house.

This little stinker turned 1!  We had Kevin's brother and his puppy over for a little party- we watched baseball and the dogs played and had doggy ice cream.   Sadie ate hers up this time! (last time she wasn't so sure about it, and left it unattended so Smokey got it)   Her puppy cousin Macy was the unsure one about ice cream this time - I think the metal bowl we put it into scared her - so Sadie got part of her serving too!    Another puppy is the best way to wear out a puppy, and they were both beat after a day of play.  Smokey pretty well leaves them alone, he's having a harder time getting around but he still loves the ice cream!

October was also when I turned the big 4-0!   I debated trying to do a party like we did for Kevin's 40th, but decided I'd prefer to take a trip.   I made it a 4 day weekend for myself since my birthday was on a Thursday and spent my actual birthday with my mom -- we had lunch and went to get our nails done, it was fun and a good way to spend the day with the person who really did the work 40 years ago.    We also had a short visit with my dad. 

Our trip was a road trip to the casinos in Lake Charles, we had never been!   We went to the ones in Vegas before going to the ones only 3 hours away.  It was a great get-away.  We stayed at L'Auberge and also took a shuttle over to check out the newer Golden Nugget.   We came out ahead on the craps table, and being right before Halloween both casinos had big costume parties, so we saw some great costumes - we rode the shuttle back with a very creepy Pennywise, and an impressive Jack Sparrow.  I am glad we stayed at L'Auberge - the staff and casino floor folks seemed friendlier, but Nugget definitely has more of the Vegas feel and added more dining options (we even took advantage of my Landry's membership to use my birthday $25 credit for dinner Saturday night).  It was a good short trip, and on the way back we had time to have lunch with my in-laws.