Seriously????

We have been home for a little over a week now and in that week's time, we have all been sick (still trying to quit coughing!), our lab, Lilly, got a UTI while being boarded and diarrhea AND my little Bichon, Baby, got really sick. Lilly got some meds and has healed up quite nicely but poor Baby has been struggling. She is 14 years old and not really into her routine changing. She was fine when we picked her up but the next day, she stopped eating and started having diarrhea. Then she started REALLY having diarrhea, like all over the place. We called the vet one night and he had us check her for some other problems and she was fine on those fronts so he said he was pretty sure she was stressed from being boarded. STRESSED! So he told us if she wasn't better in the morning to bring her in and he would check her out. Next morning, she perked up a little bit. She begged for a treat (she hasn't done that in a looooong time) so I figured she was  "relaxing" a little bit. I took her out to go potty and, dang it, she had blood in her diarrhea!!!! So, a trip to the vet later, we find that not only was she stressed out BUT she ALSO had a bleeding stress ulcer!!! Geez!!! The only thing that made it any better was the fact that the "hottie" vet took care of her :) At least I got a thrill for all my trouble. So apparently, my dog needs Xanax if I even think of going out of town again. Hottie Doc said I could always take her with me on vacation....then I would need the Xanax! So anyway, we get her home, give her meds and just let her basically do whatever she wanted (pretty much what she does on a regular basis anyway minus the meds). Now, Baby is not the easiest dog to give pills to. She only weighs 11 lbs. but she is mighty in spirit when she doesn't want something done to her. So we were on the floor and I was trying to POLITELY give her a pill. Each time, she spit it back out. Put it in food you say??? Still no money for groceries so lunch meat has been wiped out for awhile. We had to stick to the ole put it as far back in her mouth as possible and hold her snout shut till she swallows routine. Each and every time she spit that doggone pill out. So I put it in again and waited...and waited...still waiting...was that a swallow I felt???? I let her snout go, she spits out the pill AND A TOOTH! She has always been a little drama queen but this takes the cake! I finally did get that pill down and hid away a little hunk of cheese to hide the future pills in. As for the teeth, well not much I can do about that. She won't allow brushing and she's too old for cleaning them at the vet. Trust me, she still has quite a bit of "bite" left!

I have been reading a bunch of other blogs lately. I am very interested in the ones concerning getting back to the basics. We have been s l o w l y changing our diet to exclude processed foods, fast foods, white flour/rice/sugar foods and include only whole foods. It hasn't really been very hard (just a bit time consuming) and we have lost a couple of pounds without even trying...YAY!!!!! I have found some great recipes that are completely cooked from scratch. It has been going so well that, this morning, I received the biggest compliment I could get from an 11 year old boy. My son told me that he thinks it's cool that I make all my own stuff. How sweet is that ?:) It could also be the fact that I found recipes for homemade versions of pizza rolls, donuts, pop tarts, etc. and he is REALLY happy about that! But I will just happily believe that it is because he is proud of me! AND I am cool!

Well I think hubby has found a little money for some grocery shopping so I will trek to my favorite Kroger tomorrow morning and get some very much needed food. They have a Starbucks there. It's a good thing. I guess I need to make my menu and list, get my coupons ready and prepare my checkbook for the grocerypalooza. Hope I have enough gas to get there because I want to gas up at Kroger and use my Kroger points to lower my price/per/gallon on gas. I LOVE saving money!