Vacation Day 1

Way back in June (hello, behind much on blogging?), part of the family went on vacation.  My sister K, nephew J, my mom, Mr. GV and myself set off on a new adventure. 

First stop was Louisville.



Cool sign hanging on the fence outside the restaurant

 Mr. GV and I had lunch at Zen Garden.  We have been here a few times before, and have always enjoyed our meals.  This time we tried something new:  vegan sushi!  Or as it's known at the restaurant, the Zen Garden Roll.  Rolled up inside the sticky rice were avocado, cucumber, white radish, carrot, and seaweed, and then there were toasted sesame seeds on the outside.  It was so good. 

 Our entrees:  orange tofu

 and a sweet and sour dish.

 Meanwhile, the rest of the family went next door and ate at Pie Kitchen.  Upstairs there's a game room with ping pong.  We went over after we were finished and enjoyed playing for a few minutes.  We also were able to procure some vegan coconut milk ice cream!  J and the rest enjoyed some desserts after their meal as well. 

 There was music playing, and J and his mommy took the time to have a little dance.

 Mr. GV did a few exercises while we were waiting for everyone to gather, and J decided to join him.

 You know this sign below thrilled me.  On our previous trips to Louisville, we've always remarked how dog-friendly the city seems to be. 

Pearl takes the tube

I have been keeping busy with the cute little beagle you see below.  She came home from the hospital after a week, seemed better for a day or two, then just went downhill.  I thought it was due to renal problems and was so afraid there would be nothing we could do.  Mr. GV took her for a vet visit and she had a 103 fever!  No wonder the poor thing felt so bad.  She wasn't interested in taking anything by mouth, so she received twice daily IM antibiotic shots. 

She still didn't want to eat a few days later, and was getting weaker.  She would show interest in food---taking it in her mouth or sniffing it, but wouldn't eat it.  There was no vomiting whenever I could get her to eat a tiny bit of food, so it wasn't a matter of keeping it down (common with renal failure.)  We were not going to watch her starve to death, and we questioned whether it was the time to consider euthanization.  We talked to our vet, and she suggested a feeding tube. 

Now let me just say this:  I always thought of a feeding tube as an "heroic measure" for all kinds of animals--including humans.  And of course it is if you are at the end of your life anyway due to terminal cancer or something else from which you cannot recover.  But the more I read up on it, the more I found that it is used as a temporary means to overcome the problem of not wanting to eat/can't eat.

Now obviously I can't read Pearl's mind, but her reaction to food leads me to some deduction using personal experience and scientific reasoning.  My father had chronic renal failure and he said food did not taste good to him.  I believe he said everything tasted bitter.  A bitter taste in nature is a warning that an item is toxic.  And so this leaves me to believe that food perhaps is tasting bitter to Pearl, and her brain is saying "Danger!  Do not eat!" or possibly just "Yuck.  No thanks." 

 And so, we had the feeding tube put in Monday.  It's a simple procedure, and not expensive either.  The placement of the tube cost $50, and already it has made a BIG difference in how she seems to feel, and I no longer feel I'm letting my dog waste away. 

See those cute little freckles on her legs?  Love them!

 She is getting a renal diet through her tube feeds, which is the same food she would be on if she was eating by mouth, just with water added to make it thin enough to go though the tube.  I've only been doing the feeds for two days now, but I am gaining confidence in my abilities. 

Today Pearl has more energy and strength.  She went outside and rolled on her back in the freshly mown grass, something that she has not done in weeks. 

My main thought is this:  If she passes away in the near future from renal failure, I know that I did everything I possibly could while still preserving her quality of life.  What more could I ask for?

Fairly productive day

Today I took 3 more boxes of STUFF to Goodwill.  There were two big boxes of clothing, mostly from Mr. GV, and one box of assorted items from around the house.  And I did not go into the Goodwill and look around afterward, because that seemed to defeat the whole purpose, you know?  I also gave one of my sisters some items yesterday, which thrilled me even more. 

After the drop off I went to Big Lots, armed with my 20% off coupon.  Boy was it crowded at that store!  People were loading up their carts.  From there I usually just purchase consumables, and today was no exception.  I came out with just two boxes of dog cookies from Three Dog Bakery.  I like their products because they don't add artificial preservatives or colors to them, and my dogs seem to enjoy them. 

Next it was a trip to the grocery store, then home.  I cleaned out the fridge, which consisted of a couple pieces of bad produce (zucchini and cucumber) and some expired soy products.  Mr. GV seems to be having a problem with soy, so our consumption of those products has fallen by the wayside. 

Next I'm straightening the guest room again, as that is where the Goodwill items were hanging out.  There's a few more items in there that will go in my mom's yard sale in September, mostly electronics and a few things that have some value left in them.  I need to box those up and shred a bunch more papers, and that room will be ready for use. 

But right now, it's time to make some spicy lentil chili for Mr. GV. 

Did anyone else have a productive Sunday or weekend and want to share? 

A sick little dog

This little girl is pretty sick right now.  It seemed to come over her pretty quickly, and as of yesterday she is in our local veterinary hospital on IV fluids, with renal failure according to her lab work. 

Whether it is chronic or acute we don't know.  Chronic would most likely have a worse outcome, however, it seems less likely because of the sudden onset.  If it is acute it could be from an illness/infection or a medication, although she only had one dose of each new medicine before the problem started.  She was sick by the next morning after each of those meds were given, and rapidly got worse. 

We have a wonderful, caring veterinarian.  The only additional thing I could wish for is that it was a 24-hour clinic, because I really hate the thought of little Pearl not having someone watching over her at night when she is sick.  However, if she couldn't be cared for here, I know our vet would recommend we move on to the emergency clinic in the big city. 

Tomorrow we will see if her renal numbers are better, and then go from there.  Hopefully the fluids will do their job of helping her kidneys push out any toxins and the antibiotic will do its job of killing off any possible bad bacteria. 

Pearlie has only been with us for 4 months, but I am so attached to that sweet little thing!  I visited her this afternoon.  The vet said she might be just a little bit more perky today than yesterday, but it is obvious she still feels bad.  She did, however, lift her head for me, which is more than I got yesterday, and her beagle nose sniffed the air a couple of times.  At this point, I'll take any little glimmer of normal behavior from her that I can get! 

Berries

The berries have been coming in like crazy this year.  I don't know if it's the lack of a cold winter, the early summer, lack of rain, or what but WOW. 

We have a couple big bags full in our freezer, Mr. GV has eaten plenty fresh, I took the first ones of the season over to the family reunion, and we have given several away at Mr. GV's job and to his mom.  Hmm....maybe I should think about making a berry cobbler?

How's the berry season in your neck of the woods?  Do you have your own bushes or buy them? 

Family Reunion Part 3 (final)

After showers, the boys decided they needed to dance!

 Earlier there had been some watermelon eating outside.  Pre-bath, thank goodness. 

 When it was time to go, J was not ready for his cousins to leave.  There was a bit of wrestling.

 And some rolling around on the ground.

It was a good day, filled with lots of reminiscing, photos, stories, "I didn't know that!", and playtime.

Family Reunion Part 2

After the first round of reminiscing and water play, we headed out to a local restaurant for lunch. 

 These two young'uns were pretty tired already at this point. 

 J's room looked something like this, which is pretty good considering there were three boys in there, playing hard!

 After lunch the moms relented and the boys had another round of Slip 'n' Slide. 

And of wallowing around in the resulting mud. 

 Some (OK----one) of the grownups even got involved with the fun. 

 There were a few pileups. 

 And lots of big splashes. 

 The way that J approaches the Slip 'n' Slide is this:  He runs toward the end, then throws his feet out from under him, landing hard. 

Family Reunion Part 1

At the beginning of June, we had a small family gathering at my mom's house.  This brought a few cousins for J to play with, which thrilled him of course. 

Surprised at the basketball hoop that Mr. GV's parents gave him.  It is a leftover from many years ago when their grandchildren were young.

Looking through old pictures and memorabilia.

The water fun began not long after everyone arrived.  First up were squirt guns. 

Amping Up the Decuttering, Plus *Not* a Pantry Challenge

My small pantry is just plain ol' stuffed full.  We buy some things in bulk (case of organic diced tomatoes from Amazon, for example) and that doesn't help with the space issue.  I've taken to storing some of the overflow in a closet, and that's starting to make me feel like a hoarder, even though it's really not that bad. 

Very soon we are going to be doing some much-needed improvements around here, starting with replacing all the carpet with hardwood flooring.  We've been saying we were going to do this for years, and now finally are getting ourselves psyched up for it.  I'm also dreading it, because I know that J's room (formally the office), the spare room, the master bedroom, the living room, the hall, and 5 closets have to be emptied.  Let me just say:  !!! 

And so I am trying to do more decluttering.  Why shift it to one side of the house just to have to shift it back again.  My mom is having another yard sale in September, so I'll be pricing items and taking them over before the flooring is installed. 

I really want that bulk food overflow that is currently in a closet to be moved into the pantry proper.  Therefore I've got to be making room in the regular pantry by eating or giving some away.  We eat lots of fresh foods, and I'm not going to stop buying those, and we're not going to live on random side dishes, so I'll still be buying a few other things, but I hope to empty that pantry up quite a bit. 

I'll be reporting back periodically, so you'll get to see how I do!

Listening, Talking, Learning

J enjoys audio books, so when he spent a couple days with me at the end of May, we went to the library and picked out one to go along with the other books we got for bedtime. 

Here is is listening and quasi-reading along.  He can read some words and recognize parts of others.  This particular book was about rescuing injured animals. 

 Mr. GV came back from his bicycle ride and the three of us hung out in the backyard, sitting in the shade of a tree. 

 There was some gentle inquisitive checking of bugs,

 and apparently a very important hanging-of-the-dog-frisbee-in-the-tree.  I think he wanted to do the birds a favor, and perhaps they are using it as a perch.  You never know!

 And there was some drawing of blueprints on a piece of packing paper.  I don't remember exacty what it was, but I'm sure it has the name -inator and 3000 tacked on to it!