Merry Christmas!!!

It's Christmas Eve and I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.  I'll be travelling to visit family and friends over the next week, I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone and opening presents tomorrow.  Although, as I am getting older, the opening of presents isn't as exciting as it used to be for me.  I mean, I really want to see everyone's faces when they open my gifts that I bought for them.  But I don't even need any gifts.  I'm just happy to be with everyone.  Wow, I am maturing.  lol.


This Christmas is the first year that there will be kids with us.  My brother, Craig, and his wife, Jane, had twins in May 2010.  I'm really excited to see them with all the new toys and just the whole process of opening gifts.  I know that they are only 7 months, but I hope that they enjoy it (as much as they can).  And I am looking forward to having the magic of Christmas back; not that Christmas isn't special without kids (Jesus is the reason for the season)...but who doesn't also enjoy the magic of Santa Claus and his eight reindeer?


Next Christmas is going to be exciting as well (and all the others that follow) as the twins will be a year and 8 months; and my other brother, Kirk, and his wife, Amy, will have had a baby too.  Amy is due in March 2011, so the new addition will be around 9 months. 


Safe travels to everyone who will be travelling this year to visit family and friends.  And all the best in 2011!!!

Ugh...

So, I got my car bill...  $700!  Really?  I couldn't believe it.  The garage told my Dad that they have never had to order in a starter for a standard car before.  I don't know why it went on my car...but it did.  I'm really happy that my Christmas presents are all bought.  I have a couple of things to pick up quickly, I should do that this weekend and get them all wrapped and ready.


I was in Waterloo all week for work.  It was really nice to be in the office and meet all the new people and catch up with the ones I already knew.  I do miss the office, but I don't think that I'm ready to go back and work out of the office.  Maybe if I get a new job.  I don't know.  Something to think about; maybe a goal for 2011.  :)

Winter is here!

It's the middle of December and I am already sick of Winter.  It's only been a week of snow, but damn, we have a lot.  I like snow at Christmas and then I'm ready for it to leave, so I have a feeling that this Winter is going to be a long one!  Ugh.

I received this picture from my roomate while I was in KW.  Holy snow!

This last month has been crazy, with Louie's accident at the dog park and now my car needs to be fixed.  My car isn't starting, so I need to get a new starter which is going to cost me $300.  That doesn't include the labour that I will have to pay.  With the Winter storm that is hitting Ontario, the garage doesn't know when they will receive the part as the roads are currently closed.  I am out of town on business, and had to borrow my parents car to get here.  I just can't believe all of the money I have had to spend in the last month.  Ugh.  Thankfully I have basically bought all of my Christmas presents. 


I hope that this Winter storm doesn't last too long, I want to be able to get home and have my car.  :-)

Christmas Tree Is Up!

November is coming to an end, and we put up our Christmas Tree on the weekend.  So, it's supposed to feel a bit more like Christmas...but it's not.  I am almost done all of my Christmas shopping; only have a few things to pick up, and then I am done!  Woohoo!  It's been years since I have been this organised to be done before December!  :)


I have to get my butt in gear and start my Christmas cards.  They take forever to write, but I really like sending them out.  Usually they are the only piece of mail that I send out all year.  And plus, I love getting them back.  I know, I know; you shouldn't send out Christmas cards just to get one in return.  But I totally do!  Lol.  Pathetic, I know.


Louie is on the mend.  His incision is mostly scabbed over.  He got a hold of it over the weekend and took a chunk off, it bled, but it looks to be okay now.  The vet called to check up on him, and I hope that he will just heal and I can take his cone off.  He was supposed to be able to take it off today, but since he is going to lick the crap out of it, so I should be pro-active and just keep the cone on him for a while longer.


Anyway, I just wanted to share our Christmas Tree with you guys.  It's lovely.  We got the window lights from Ikea, they are battery powered but only lasted for about 2.5 hours.  We had bought the batteries from Ikea, so I hope that they were just crappy.  We're going to buy different batteries to see if that will make a difference, I hope so!


Update:  In looking on the Ikea website at the lights, the lights have 2 different settings, to have them on for 2 hours or 8 hours.  We thought that it was a different voltage.  Silly us.

Christmas tree with lights in the windows.

Another vet visit...

Just a quick update with regards to Louie, he is okay but has been trying to lick his incision over and over again.  He could be sleeping and all of a sudden he jumps up and aggressively tries to lick his side.  This makes it very difficult to sleep when he is sleeping in my bed at night. 

This afternoon when I was working, I looked over at Louie and it looked like he was bleeding other places than his incision.  I was worried that he had caught himself on something else.  I realised his incision was seeping blood and pus.  I wiped around his incision as best as I could to make sure that he blood I was find was just from the way he was lying and transferred to his fur. 


Louie's oozing incision

So, we went to the vet today, it was a different vet than the one that did the surgery on Monday.  She was very nice as well, and took the time to listen to my concerns and not just blow them off.  Louie kept trying to get to his incision, and she said that he shouldn't be that uncomfortable with it.  So, she gave me some medication for inflammation (as it has a bump at the top and the bottom of the incision) and this will also help with the pain.  He needs to eat when I give him this liquid; so she gave me some canned food for him too (since I was telling him that he wasn't eating regularly).

The best part of this visit was that it was FREE!  Yup, the medication, the dog food, the visit with the vet...all free.  The secretary said that it was free as it was a post-op visit.  So, if you are in the area and your animal needs to see a vet; I recommend going to the  River Road Animal Hospital!  :-)

Louie hanging out in Moxie's crate.  :-)

My Birthday and my dog, Louie

So, my 29th birthday was on Sunday...  Yup, 29...  God, I really am getting older...and I don't really feel like my life has folded out the way I had hoped.  But does anyone's?  When I was in elementary school; I had thought that I would find my soul-mate at college and get married when I was 23 and be starting a family at 25.  Well, obviously, that did not happen.  And my mother reminds me of this all the time...  When I was your age, I had 3 kids and was working night shifts...  blah blah blah. 

Well, the godsend in my life is my family and my dog Louie.  If I didn't rescue Louie from the Cambridge Humane Society 3 years ago, I would probably be married to a guy who wouldn't let me be myself.  I might have kids, but I would be living in fear of what he might do to them when I wasn't home.  I know that is something that people wouldn't usually say, but I saw what he did to a poor dog who didn't know how to be a dog.  The stories I could tell...  

I left my ex-boyfriend because I knew I wasn't happy but I wasn't strong enough to leave for myself; but I was strong enough to leave for Louie.  I know, sounds kinda lame...but it is totally true.  

Louie has helped me learn about myself, and he lets me know when I am not being true to myself and him.  When I lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, I usually worked a 10 hour day; when I would come home at night, I would find my couch and chair eaten.  I'm sure that he was having a great time doing it -- but he was telling me; this is not working.  When I moved home to Owen Sound, Louie did not eat anything -- and to this day, he has not eaten anything of mine.  So, I think that we are on the right track.  :-)

This year on my birthday, Louie was hurt at the dog park.  We were there with my roommate and her dog, Moxie; along with our neighbour with her 2 dogs, Sadie and Roxy.  We had been all playing for about an hour and a half; when my neighbour points out Louie's side.  There was a chunk of skin missing from his side, it was about the size of a loonie or twoonie.  The first thing I thought was dog bite!  I knew that Louie had been playing with all the dogs, but he didn't yelp or anything when this happened.  

We went home and cleaned out the wound; I was crying and couldn't really help -- thank goodness my roommate was there and took charge.  She cleaned it out, and we wrapped him up in a makeshift "bro".  At first, we though that he wouldn't need to see a vet; it was just a small cut; it will be fine.  He wasn't walking well in the "bro" but I'm sure that it was just uncomfortable, but he wouldn't stop licking it.  

Louie with his "bro"

I was able to get in to see a local vet (River Road Animal Hospital) the next morning at 9:30 am.  Once the vet was able to unwrap Louie, she took one look and told me that he needed surgery.  Yep, surgery!  I was heartbroken!  And to think that I was going to leave it, thank goodness I didn't.  After all was said and done; the vet told me that the muscle was torn as well.  So, he has stitched inside to mend the muscle, and then she glued the skin to heal.  The vet also confirmed that the wound wasn't from a dog bite, it probably was from running into a picnic table or getting snagged on the fence.



Little Louie is a licker, so he has a cone...for the next week.  :(  The antiboitics that he is on will work for 2 weeks, he was given an injection for this; much easier than trying to get him to eat the chewable tablets everyday for 2 weeks.  He has been drinking water, but getting him to eat has been a little bit of a challenge.  He has eaten a little every day, and I am sure that he will be back to normal in no time!




Louie with his cone on shortly after returning from the vet.



The incision close-up



 

Welcome to my blog!

Hi.  My name is Dana -- I am single, overweight and have a dog named Louie and I just moved into a house with my best friend, Teresa and her puppy Moxie.  There is nothing extraordinary about me or my life...which for some reason I thought that starting this blog will make me seem interesting.  LOL.  Pathetic.

As stated above, I am overweight.  I have struggled with my weight all my life; and have been slowly gaining more weight since college....and by more, I am sure it has been about 85 pounds.  I mean, that is almost another person.  I have been trying to lose weight and my magic number is 100 pounds.  I have been seriously trying to lose weight for the past 5 years; and I think that I have lost like 15 pounds at the most...gained it all back; and now I am basically at the same weight as when I started to lose weight. 

My mother has been on me about my weight since I was in grade 8.  So, probably since I was 13 years of age.  And for years I did nothing about it just out of spite -- thinking that I would be hurting her and not me.  When really, now it is me to is obese and she still on me about my weight.  She used to tell me that no one would love me because I am fat.  I haven't heard that since I had my last serious relationship (which ended 3 years ago).  So, I guess she has realised that some people can fall in love with someone who is fat.  Although, right now, I don't feel like that is possible. 

Wow.  What a nice warm welcome.  Lol.  Thanks for stopping by...  I will probably be back soon -- I'm really hoping that me talking about my weight and my struggle with it will make me deal with my issues and eventually the weight will fall off.  lol. 

So, I guess that has been my perspective...  :)