Princess Mimi

It's been well over a month since the last post, and this past month has been hectic to say the least. Jason and I have been readjusting to living together as a married couple, we've had a wonderful vacation, I had an insane corporate retreat, Jason started grad school, I went to the Jimmy Buffett concert, we had our sewer line replaced, and unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our little puggy Mimi yesterday.



Right before we left for our one week vacation in Antigua, we noticed that Mimi was becoming more and more picky about eating her food. As any good pug owner knows, a pug that won't eat is a sick pug.




But we didn't think too much of it. Then we returned to realize that now she would barely eat anything. Maybe she's just being really picky?


I traipsed off to my corporate retreat not worrying too terrible much. Sometimes her belly got upset and we just needed to find the right food to settle her stomach.



But when I returned from my retreat I noticed instantly that she was acting differently...like she didn't feel well. Over the past several months Mimi had become almost spunky. She had energy, she would run up the stairs, jump up on the couch all on her own, her little tail would twitch with joy when she heard her name called, she would follow me all over the house in the hopes that I would reach down and give her a little ear scratch. She had no fear and never let her complete blindness slow her down. I said many times that I could take life lessons from the blind, old pug.



But now she just stood there, she wouldn't come to her name, and she wouldn't accept any food.

We took her to the vet and they told us she had some liver disease. They were realistic but gave us some options. We could try antibiotics and steroids and it might help.

We were hopeful, and I tried not to think about the alternative. But after two weeks of treatment we didn't see any improvement. She was refusing food, and refusing her medicine. She started having trouble breathing and her little body was just giving up.

We put her to sleep yesterday evening. The vet reassured us it was the right thing to do. We didn't want her to suffer. She was such a blessing to me, even for the short time that I had her. I knew that she was very old and that she had had a very rough life before she came to me. I'm glad I got to spoil and love her for the time I was given. It was very hard for Jason and I to say goodbye to such a special member of our family. Goodbye Princess Mimi, I love you.

AHHH - My Own Bed!!!

Well all, there was plenty of drama yesterday to say the least. We were all finished on Thursday evening and they needed the night to type up our discharge orders as the last step. Then at about 10am Friday morning we were told that for some reason they had made all of our flights for SATURDAY!!! They said that they were "working to fix it and to try and get SOME of us out on Friday". But WTF!!!???!!! I have my own suspicions as to how it happened but we'll keep the story short. Basically, at about 1pm they came in with all of our flights fixed and I finally landed in Cincinnati (or, technically, Kentucky) at about a quarter till midnight last night.

I was so happy to see my wifey, and so happy to see my dogs, and so so so happy to finally spend a night in my own bed knowing that I could wake up whenever I wanted (or whenever the dogs wanted as it turns out) and that I didn't have to shave in the morning.

I do want to send a quick "shot out". When I was waiting for about 5 hours at the airport for my flight I swung over to the airport hotel bar for a quality burger and a couple drinks to pass the time. There a nice lady there stuck waiting for her family to fly in and we talked about everything under the sun, but mainly sports, for about 3 plus hours helping us both pass the time. So a shot out to Beverly for keeping me company and helping the time pass. And the next shot out is to the two anonymous bar patrons that paid for my burger and fries, as well as my three drinks. The only money I put down was a generous tip for the bartender in the end. Certainly a lot less than a burger meal and three drinks at a airport hotel would have cost. So thanks a million to those folks who showed your appreciation for my service by keeping me fed and "un-thirsty".

So all, I AM BACK!! Now I have a little over a month of built up leave to burn so I can still get paid so-to-speak for all the "honey-do" list items around here now. First order of business, putting up some lattice type sides on the back porch stairs. Mimi is learning how to climb the stairs but in her visually impaired state has already managed to fall off the edge once. So time to fix that up. Then on to the weeds :)

Take care all. And we'll keep you all posted on possible Memorial Day Weekend festivities.

God Bless America!

Today's the day

After some serious drama, Jason finally has a flight home!



I'll be picking him up at the airport close to midnight tonight.



But he'll be home tonight.




And the doggies will rejoice.




And so will the Natti

So...

The countdown is complete which means I should be rejoicing that Jason and I are together again. The only problem is, Jason and I are not together again. He's still at Fort Dix. He still doesn't know when he's coming home. Is it ok that I'm a little frustrated? Not with Jason of course, but I'm shaking my fist at the army right now. I just keep reminding myself that it could be much, much worse...his deployment could have been extended by months as opposed to delayed for days. That would be worse, and I would be in the loony bin.

Hopefully at some point tomorrow Jason should find out his flight time, and there's a very good possibility that he will still fly out tomorrow...so I'll hold on to that possibility.

This whole week I've been running on pure adrenaline because my husband is coming home! The house has been cleaned top to bottom and I couldn't have been happier. I completely crashed today. I feel exhausted.

So everyone keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow will be our lucky day. LOL otherwise Jason will be renting a car and driving in from New Jersey.

Yay!

Jason's safe in the United States. Anyone else feel like doing a happy dance?

Phase 3

A quick stop in Qatar and then on to the United States. Mr. J should be state side by midday Tuesday. Keep praying for safe flights and for Jason to be home by Friday. I think I'll go insane if I have to go another weekend without my hubby. I think there will be a very angry sergeant Hoyt if he has to wait another weekend too.

On a completely different topic, the Apollo 13 story always makes me cry. It's the fortieth anniversary of the event and I'm watching a Dateline special of the actual crew members and what they remember. To be brave and courageous enough to even fathom going into space and to the moon boggles my mind, but then to have the strength and fortitude to overcome the hundreds of obstacles they had to overcome to make it back to Earth...unbelievable. Can you imagine going four days with no heat, your food and water has frozen, and you can no longer expel your pee out of the space craft for fear that it will push you off course? Can you imagine the only thing between you and the endless vacuum of space is a craft that contains less computer technology than we now find in our cell phones? It's just so fantastic and heart-warming that human ingenuity can manage to get us into space at a time when it seemed impossible. So yes I'm a little bit of a nerd, I kind of believe that Star Trek could totally happen at some point in the future, and I'm totally proud to admit that I went to space camp twice.

I love Jason!

Phase 2

Jason had a several day layover in Baghdad before heading out of Iraq. By the time we all go to bed tonight he should be safe in Kuwait and finally out of Iraq. I'll feel much better knowing that he's finally out of a war zone. Originally April 15 was the absolute last day that he would possibly be back in Cincinnati...now we're praying that he'll be here on the 16th. Welcome to the US Army. If the date gets pushed back again there will be a very angry wife making her way to where ever her husband may be and bringing him home! But I heard from him just about an hour ago and he's safe albeit slightly bored and preparing to head to Kuwait very soon. Phase two of his homeward bound trip has begun...I'll keep everyone up to date for Phase three!