Oops...she did it again....

Sunday afternoon Joe and I took Lulu over to my sister's house for a visit and some play time. She has an actual back yard. Lulu was having a blast running to catch the tennis ball. And then she just started limping. Favoring her right hind leg. Really?! She was just 12 weeks out from her last surgey on her left leg!

She didn't get any better as the night wore on. She was hardly putting any weight on her right leg and basically just sacked out on her bed. We went to the vet yesterday and the preliminary diagnose is she has in fact torn her right cranial cruciate ligament (CCL). The vet and surgeon warned me in April that there would be 60% to 70% chance Lulu would tear her right CCL since she has torn her left CCL. But 12 weeks!?

She goes to the surgeon tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Funny job description

I saw this hanging outside a colleague's cube and asked her to send it to me. I am still perfecting how to describe my job as to not lose peoples attention and explain how important it is for federal agencies to consider the effects of their projects on historic properties. It is hard. I have a very small slice of the federal regulatory pie, and there are issues that could be more important than historic properties, but I will always fight for my slice being represented and complied with.

If you have any further questions....just ask!

Emergency Furiture Purchase

Where have I been for the past two months?! Forgetting to post updates about the family of course! I'll do better, I swear! It has been a crazy couple of months. James was away for six weeks for training and then we picked up the boys for the summer on July 1st. A lot has happened, and I will provide information on what we have been up to...which is quite a lot!

Well, Saturday was laundry day and I asked the boys to strip their beds and bring the sheets down for washing. Joe and Jaime come sheepishly down the stairs and Joe looks particularly concerned. He declares that he has broken Jaime's bed. Really? We go up stairs and sure enough a side rail is completely broken in half, a clean break. Joe says that he only sat down on the bed.....

We bought a set of bunk beds in 2007 which we were smart enough to buy knowing that they could turn into single beds, which is what we did when we moved into the new house and gave each boy a room. Well, there was no way around having to purchase a new bed. I was planning on bringing back a bed frame from my parents for Jaime anyway. But we needed a bed now and not in a month. It was to late in the day to make it to Ikea with traffic so we faced the wrath that is Ikea on a Sunday afternoon. We found a bed, made the purchase and hauled it home. As with any Ikea purchase it took about two hours to assemble.

The boys did great with helping putting it together, but about an hour into the project they were both bored. But they stuck through it. The bed has two drawers under the mattress which is great and Jaime is completely thrilled with the new bed.

I'd post a photo, but I broke the camera during a hike in North Carolina two weeks ago when it fell out of my pocket, hit a rock, and fell about ten feet. That is another story.....

Bundles of organization

Last year before we moved, or maybe even in 2010, I probably did the most Martha Stewart-est thing of my life. I organized the boys clothes. But not just any sort of organizational way. I believe I was inspired by a Martha Stewart organizational segment I saw On Demand two years ago. But I can't be sure. But it was working for me.

We don't have that much room for the boys clothing, which we don't have that much of since we only see them two weekends a month during the fall, winter, and spring. It is during the summer that we need a lot more clothes. Joe is growing every month it seems while Jaime is starting to grow, but at 11 he is still wearing size 8. I had been organizing their clothes by each boy and then by season. I have found this to be troublesome when trying to understand what we had for each boy in terms of clothes. We would buy clothing that we didn't need. And the clothes that were to small for Joe but to big for Jaime were mixed in with all the clothes. Well, I believe I have found a system that will hopefully save time and money! At first, I just took my left over Christmas wrapping supplies, a pen, scissors, and a couple of bins.

Instead of dividing the clothing by boy, I divided it by size. All "large" long sleeve shirts went to a pile. All "10" shorts went into another pile. Then using curly ribbon I wrapped them up like a bundle of clothes of yore. I tied the ribbon and left a little room so the bundle could be picked up from the top. I labeled each bundle by using a gift tag writing the size in the "To" space and then type of clothing in the "From" space. I punched a hole through the tag (I always like the self adhesive kind which would just fall off the clothing eventually) and slipped a end of the ribbon through the hole taking the tag all the way to the knot and then tying the ribbon in a bow. Viola! A organized bundle of clothing! Then I divided the clothing into bins labeled either "summer" or "winter." Now when I need larger clothing for Jaime I can easily find them by sorting through the bundles! A couple of snips with scissors and the bundle will be released. And when Joe outgrow his 16's (yes, the soon to be 13 year old is wearing small men's clothing) I can bundle them up and store them until Jaime is wearing 16's (if that every happens!).

Several of months ago I purchased twine and pre-strung shipping tags to make the effort even more organized. With the warm weather here a couple of weeks ago I was able to reorganize and update the bins. I was much more impressed with what I came up with:

Sometimes I scare James with my organizational fits. But it always pays off in the end.....

Update on Lulu

At the last posting we had found out that Lulu had torn her CCL (dog equivalent to a human's ACL) and had an appointment on Friday to see a surgeon at the Regional Veterinary Referral Center. Lulu and I met with Dr. Anderson and based on her assessment and options I left Lulu in her very capable hands Friday morning for surgery. I guess we were lucky they had availability that day. Lulu had already been denied breakfast that morning so we wouldn't have to fast her later on in the week. While we would have paid any price to repair Lulu's knee, because of her size and her weight (which we maintain at around 60 pounds) Dr. Anderson said that the extracapsular repair was a viable option. Wasn't cheap but was cheaper than the other options. Lulu had to spend the night and I was able to pick her up on Saturday morning.

This is Lulu's third scar. And she is only 2 1/2 years old!

She was so drugged up that it took her about three minutes to realize that I was even at the RVRC to bring her home. Poor puppy! Above is what she looked like for the first couple of days post-operation: high as a kite and napping. The nurse said this would be the best her leg would look during her recovery. We must have a wonder dog because her leg hasn't bruised or swelled in the least. And starting yesterday she is putting more weight on leg. She can take stairs again and surprised me last night when I turned around and she was on the first floor. She shouldn't use stairs until after her first physical therapy appointment next week.

She is ready to rumble and is becoming quite the hand full in her limited capacity. She wants to run and play and frolic. And I cringe and hope that she doesn't hurt herself again while telling her no. Only a week to go before the sutures come out!