Lazy Dog Days

My time for blogging has really taken a back seat. This is the reason why:

Work keeps me super busy. So busy, I usually end up taking it home with me in the evenings. Hence, not a lot of time for blogging. But I need to rectify that! I still haven't even blogged about Christmas yet. (Sorry mom!) Anywho....

I thought I would blog about our little trip to the marsh this weekend because I want to remember it. David and I have become very geriatric and hermit-like it seems. We are perfectly content to stay at home and relax on the weekends and I am perfectly a-ok with that one! We did take the boys out for an adventure to the marsh. David lives right on a tidal marsh and when the tide was low, we took the two dogs out and let them run around and explore.

I am a true Florida girl through and through and thinks that my part of the world is the prettiest, but I do appreciate the beauty of coastal Georgia and its marshlands. Moxley and Oscar really appreciated running through the mud, rolling around in it and chasing the fiddler crabs!

I think Oscar has missed being at his grandparent's house and getting to be a "country" dog and getting dirty. He had an absolute blast. I have never seen so many crabs running around in my life. I wished I had brought my good camera to capture all of them and the pictures I took with my phone didn't really capture them that well.

Thankfully, neither he nor Mox ended up with a crab clamped down on their noses! After our romp in the marsh, they of course were filthy! Luckily, a quick swim in the pond out front rectified that and they both came out clean enough. Oscar did have to get in the tub due to his short status and the grass he picked up on the way back from the pond, which he was mad about, but I think his trip was worth the dreaded bath! I too got a little muddy, but it was worth it to walk around such beautiful scenery with some of my favorite boys. Plus, I got a good mud exfoliation on my feet. Added bonus. That's a spa treatment for free, my friends!

Lazy Weekends

This weekend will have to go down in the record books as Laze-Fest 2012. And you know what? It was amazing!

What's wrong with being lazy? It's my full time job!

David and I will be coming up on a year of being together at the end of the month. So that's been one full year of going back and forth between Thomasville and Savannah every weekend. It's totally worth all the travel to see David every week, but let's face it, it's exhausting traveling 4+ hours one way each weekend. Since David had to be in Orlando today for work, we took advantage of having two full days together. And guess what we did? Not a dang thing and it was glorious. After all the go, go, go, go,go of the summer and the fall, it was nice to have nothing more on the agenda than football and food. We did venture out downtown to run in Kevin's and ate lunch at Stacey's favorite restaurant downtown- The Billiards Academy. Which specializes in hot dogs. I figured David needed the full Thomasville experience. So we went in to eat and to watch a little football. We got our hot dogs just in time to watch Marcus Lattimore get his leg ripped off. So yeah, I lost my appetite and my desire to even watch football. After watching some of the UF/UGA game, I really had lost interest and decided that my day would be better spent outside reading  my Southern Living magazine than watch that goat ropin' go down.

David got me a little present for the patio, although he admitted it was more for him than for me! Ha!

The Pyromaniac

He got me a Chiminea fire pit to keep warm on these cool evenings. I was really impressed with my new fire pit. It did a fabulous job keeping us toasty warm and it was zero mess- even better! Guess I now have even more reason to pick up all the sticks and pine cones in the yard. This little Chiminea is the perfect size to burn all that stuff up. So thanks, David for my present. I love it!

We spent the rest of Saturday burning anything we could get our hands on and listening to some music. It was the perfect evening. I will have to get some stuff to make smores for the next time we use it.

So, that's about all the highlights I have from our weekend. Unless you count some old school movie watching in our sweatpants and a trip to Wal-Mart.Well, there was some more peanut boiling- which was better this go round, since it was cool and we could open up the windows to let the heat (and smell) escape from boiling those things for hours on end! And of course, the copious amounts of food that was consumed.

Oh- and Oscar has found him a new BFF. I'm kinda jealous. He is totally David's boy now.

After our lazy weekend, it's back to the daily grind and to a pretty jammed pack schedule on the weekends from here until Christmas. Sigh.... I'm tired just thinking about it. But it will all be fun and well worth the effort. First up- Charleston next weekend! Woot. Woot! I'm even going to take a vacation day to head up a day early to enjoy the Citadel Homecoming festivities. I think I'm looking forward to the much needed day off than anything!

Hope ya'll had a fabulous weekend doing just what you pleased!

Happy Birthday!

One of my dapper dachshunds celebrated a birthday this weekend. Saturday, December 10th marked Oscar's 10th birthday. After all of his back problems this year, I am so thankful that Oscar is able to celebrate this milestone birthday. He is a trooper and doesn't let much get him down. Happy Birthday Oscar!

(And I guess I should mention that he shares his special day with my brother, so Happy Birthday, Brad!)

High Cotton

While I was home Mom, Oscar, and I took some time to go look at daddy's cotton field. This is the first year he has grown cotton in probably a decade, so I think he is happy to be "farming" again. I love cotton when it is in full bloom. It is so very pretty.

Oscar and I ended up having an impromptu photo shoot to capture a few pictures together. He really didn't want to cooperate and I should mention that it was 199.99 degrees outside. It was so hot!!

On the walk back to the house (and to the glorious a/c I might add) we stopped and let Oscar check out the cows.

There are several calves right now and they are so cute running around. These cows spotted us from a mile away and came running. I think they thought we were going to feed them. Oscar could sit and stare at them all day. Not to mention roll around in a few cow patties, if mommy would let him.... I can't wait until the end of next month or so, when the cotton bolls open up and me and the boys can have our Christmas photos taken in the South's version of "snow." I am so thankful that Oscar is feeling better and that we got to get a few photos in together. He is something else!

Can't Keep a Good Man Down

This post is about my very precious Oscar. Just when I think that he is down for the count, he perks up and surprises me. I have had Oscar since I was 20 years old. He has been by my side for a decade. I drove through the pouring rain a cold night in February down to Crawfordville, FL to go pick up this special dog. It seems like ages ago that I welcomed Oscar into my life and it is hard to imagine my life without him in it. He has been in bad shape this past week due to his issues with his degenerative disc disorder. Whenever this flares up, his slipped disc swells and presses on his nerves, therefore rendering his left side of his body basically paralyzed . He is pitiful when he is having an episode. It got so bad that I was at the point of putting him down.




Oscar at the vet's office

So on Saturday, I took him to the vet to see what they recommended. It is either spend $2,500 (which I don't have) to have back surgery, crate and sedate him and pump him with lots of steroids, or put him down. So I talked it over with my vet and asked her if she could make him comfortable for at least a week so that I could spend some time with him and say goodbye. So she prescribed him some Predinsone and some more pain medication and sent us home. And would you believe it? The Predinsone is working like a charm. He is back to being Oscar. It is truly a miracle. I think Oscar and the good Lord knew that I couldn't say goodbye to him just yet.

So this week, Oscar has come with me to work every day. He makes a wonderful office mascot. He pretty much just sleeps in his bed all day beside my desk in my office. The only time he gets up is if someone comes in with lunch. Then he sneaks off while I'm busy and harasses the people eating to give him some of their food. He is such a mess!

I love this picture. The whole drive home yesterday, he just looked at me with his big brown eyes. I could tell he was just happy to have me all to himself without having to compete with attention from Brutus and JR. So for now, I will just keep his medication going if he starts getting down. I can't keep him on the steroids forever, due to the damage it will do to his liver. But as long as I give it to him whenever he has a flare up, I think that we may just be able to keep him around a little bit longer. Like I said, you can't keep a good man {dog} down! I am just thankful to the Lord for blessing me with this time with him. Every time I look at Oscar, I am just reminded of God's love for us. A dog loves you unconditionally. They don't care what you look like, how much money you make, what kind of car you drive, what clothes you wear, what house you live in. They don't care. All they care about is loving you. The same with the good Lord. And its just a good reminder of that love.

I had to come back and add something to this post that just happened. For the past two hours Oscar has been passed out in his bed behind me. A few minutes ago, I was sitting here eating my lunch, not really paying attention to him. I didn't notice he had gotten up until I heard his talons hit the tile right outside my office door. He was standing in my doorway, sniffing the air and then started to walk off. I of course called to him and politely told him to get his butt back in my office. He reluctantly obliged my request. But my curiosity was peaked. I went down to the back of the building to Randy's office. Sure enough, there Randy was grubbing on some Popeye's. Oscar did not hesitate to take advantage of me getting up and walking to the back. He came trotting out of my office, down the hall, and the next thing I know he has zipped past me and procedes to get in his begging position and waits for Randy to feed him. So needless to say, he has a new office nickname. He is now known as Mooch Pooch. That's because he only likes other people here when they feed him. Then he goes back to his anti-social antics. I swear this dog is such a mess!!

Birthdays, Turtles, and Snakes

I have to say that I had a great Memorial Day weekend. I went home to Blountstown on Friday because it was my mother's birthday. Here she is with her birthday candle blower-outer helper, Barrett. Barrett helped me decorate mom's cake. Can you tell? 

Barrett was in love with those cheap little cake decorating letters. He thought they were the coolest thing in the world. Guess Sissy got some cool points for that!

Saturday I went to a bridal luncheon for one of my best friends. She is getting married next weekend. I can't believe that the wedding is almost here! She found a wonderful man to marry and I am so happy for the two of them. I can't wait to see what a beautiful bride she makes. While I was at the luncheon, my mother, aunt, and cousin went to St. George Island to go to the beach. Since it was too late in the day for me to drive down and join them, I decided to go to Panama City and go shopping. (what else? haha) That turned out to be trip number one to Panama that day. Later that night, a group of friends went back to Panama to go to dinner and watch a movie. We had a wonderful evening of laughing and fun. On the way home, we got to listen to the musical stylings of my cousin Stacey. I tried to tune it out and sleep, but for some reason that wasn't happening!

Sunday I worked my little butt off with my daddy. We have a swimming hole behind our house and daddy had it drained so he could clean up the grass that was growing in it and remove some of the mud that has accumulated over the years. Even Oscar joined in on the cleaning up fun. I shouldn't have let him out there due to his back problems, but he had so much fun, I couldn't resist letting him swim and play in the mud.

Above is what the creek looked like on Saturday. And with two water pumps going, this is what it looked like on Sunday:

And after walking around in that mud all day, I looked like I had just gotten some tribal tattoos done on my legs!

It was a messy job, but the creek will be so pretty and sandy after all of our hard work. Later that night, we went to our friend, Brett's house to a half-and-half party. His wife came home out of the blue three weeks ago and demanded a divorce. He is letting her keep the house, but he wasn't going to let her keep half of the meat they had recently gotten from having a cow slaughtered. So we feasted on steaks! I like the way he thinks. He has a fish pond on his property, so later that night we went out to get half the fish out of the pond. (ha ha) We threw out a large cast net and came up with tons of catfish, bream, and what else? An alligator snapping turtle. This thing was huge! Of course, the kids wanted to get close to the action, but this guy was super mad. I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't. Sadly, this is not where my story with scary reptiles ends.

Sunday, a bunch of us went down the Chipola river to go sit on the sandbar and relax. It was a gorgeous day!

Let me set the scene: We were all sitting in the water kind of like the above picture. There was me, Brett, and Keith sitting with our backs to the current. In front of us was Brad, Stacey, and Barrett. Barrett was splashing around in his little blow up ring. We were all talking and laughing. I looked behind me and about two feet behind me was a snake coming right up in between me and Brett. I about died! I stood up and looked at Brett and yelled SNAKE!! I have never witnessed a bunch of grown men get up so fast. Stacey snatched Barrett's ring and drug him to safety all the while his poor little head was hanging down into the water. She didn't even look back to see if she was drowning him in the process of trying to get him away from the snake! Needless to say, we had a critter filled weekend, made some good memories, and had lots of fun. Hopefully we will get to do it again next weekend!

Again, sorry for the randomness of this post. It was a random weekend!

Poor Pookie

Oscar will be seeing a lot of his bed in the next few weeks. He gave his mother quite the scare over the weekend. He became very lethargic (even more so than he normally is! ha ha), didn't want you to touch him, yelped whenever he would try to move from a laying down position. He just looked like he was in a lot of pain. It totally scared me to death. At one point, he crawled under the bed. When I went to check on him, he would not lift his head, make any kind of movement or anything. I even rattled a bag of Chex Mix Muddy Buddies to entice him to look at me for a treat. Nothing. I reached under and grabbed his leg. Still nothing. My heart just sank. I just knew that he had crawled under there to die, because he had me that worried. So picture me, half way under the bed, frantically trying to reach him to pull him out. When I got him out, he was of course still alive. He just didn't want to move. So I put him up in the bed and wrapped him in his blanket where he stayed until the next morning. He woke me up several times during the night whimpering and yelping whenever he would try and change positions. It was so pathetic and pitiful. My poor heart was broken. Oscar is my baby. I have had him for over a decade and I couldn't bear the thought of him not being around for several more years. I took him to the vet yesterday morning. As it turns out, he has Degenerative Disc Disease, which is very common with dachshunds. What he was experiencing was the onset of this disease. But with steroid and joint treatments, he should do just fine. He is already feeling so much better on his medication, so it will be hard to keep him quiet and still for several weeks so he can heal. I took him to work with me yesterday. He was pitiful when he first got to work. He just laid in his bed. An hour or so after taking his medicine (and yes, I stopped at McDonalds to get him a sausage and egg biscuit to hide the medicine in) he was a new dog. He wanted to get up. It was like he realized he could move without being in pain. So, when I had a lovely family come in for a tour, Oscar went with us outside to tour the five historic buildings out back. I think the museum needs a mascot because Oscar was the center of attention and everyone just loved him.

I just have to thank God for helping him and that it wasn't a serious enough problem to warrant back surgery or even worse, to put him down. I was so worried about either of those options. God has been so merciful to me and to Oscar with this. I felt dumb praying to God about my dog, but at the same time, I knew God knows how much Oscar means to me and Oscar is His creation as well. Plus, God's eye is on the sparrow, right? Right now, Oscar is happy to not be in pain. I was thinking that he must be on some good medication and that maybe I could use some. Ha Ha! So that has been the dachshund drama around my house lately. At least this time, the drama didn't include a x-ray looking for my diamond earrings like it did with the younger two dogs!

Fall-ing into Autumn

I am so glad that the temperature has been dropping. Not by much, but with the humidity down and it slightly cooler, it is oh-so-lovely here in south Georgia!! Here's a little hodgepodge of what's been going down here at Casa-de-Bryan.

I pulled out a few fall decorations for the house.

First, I got out my leaf plates and added a few new plates that I picked up at good ol' Wally World.

Here is a close up of the stuff on the buffet. Nothing fancy. Just a few pumpkins I got at Dollar General last year sitting on two salad bowls for some height. I had to get creative!

 Then I moved on to the living room. Nothing too exciting.  Just added some fall foliage to the mirror that usually just has those globe things and a candle.

And then I just added a few more pumpkins to the table by the chair.

I didn't do much in the kitchen. Just placed some leaf plates and some ornamental gourds in a basket on top of the island, which I moved by the window for my herbs to get sun. (which are now outside, so I guess I need to move it back!)

That's about it for decorating for fall. Nothing too spectacular. But it does make me want to run to Starbucks every time I walk in the door and go grab a pumpkin spice latte. Yum. And speaking earlier about my herbs, I had this waiting on me yesterday:

See that green stuff peaking out of the top? Yay! My seeds have begun sprouting!! The basil is the only seeds that have done so to date, but I am anxiously awaiting the sproutage of the other two!!

And just because they are cute and I haven't posted any puppy pictures in a while. Here are a few pictures I took of my sleeping beasts beauties today.

They just got a new bed, because the babies demolished their so-called "indestructible" bed they had. But they really love this new one. I think because it is so super soft. Even Oscar likes it enough to cuddle with the other two to sleep.