Hiccup's Diagnosis

As I suspected, my poor Hiccup has some health problems. She has been panting excessively for a while now and our regular vet wasn’t finding anything wrong with her. As her panting got worse, I got more concerned and decided to see another vet for a second opinion. I made an appointment with Dr. Lashley, who my mom claims is a miracle worker. She used to take our pets there when I was a kid. Anyway, I called our regular vet to get a copy of her records and they agreed to fax them to Dr. Lashley. About an hour later, Dr. Jessen (our regular vet) called me to see what was going on. I explained that I had a gut feeling something was wrong with her and they just weren’t finding anything. He looked at all of her records again during our conversation and asked if she was still on enalapril for her heart. Excuse me? Did you just say for her heart? Nothing has been mentioned to me about her heart, what’s wrong with her heart? He proceeds to tell me that the x-ray taken last August, yes almost a year ago, showed the right side of her heart was enlarged and that is why she was on the medicine. When he gave that to her, she only got a limited supply and it was never mentioned again. The only thing he told me about those x-rays is that her lungs had pockets in them and that is what I thought the medicine was for. So each time we have been in since then, they ask what she is taking. I give the same answer all the time, Heartguard and Frontline. Ok, here’s the deal. If she was supposed to be on that medicine this entire time, why was that never caught? So, without even seeing her, he says he will get a prescription ready for her and I can stop by and pick it up. Um, no thank you. I’ll wait to see what Dr. Lashley thinks first.

In the meantime, I get online and read all about heart problems and excessive panting. Everything points to congestive heart failure so that is my concern now that I know she has an enlarged heart. It about killed me to wait 24 hours to get her in but it had already been a year so what’s one more day, right? We finally got to his office and he asked a million questions and looked at her history before he examined her. All he did was listen to her chest with his stethoscope and determined she has a heart valve leaking. Tears immediately come to my eyes because I’m thinking the worst with heart failure. He said that on the scale of 0-6, she is at a 1 and really doesn’t think it is life threatening, yet. We have to monitor her on a regular basis and she will be on medication forever as treatment.

As he examines her further, he pushed on her back and she almost jumped off the table. At first he thought it was arthritis but looked at the x-ray I brought from the other vet and realized she has 2 different spots in her spine where the vertebrae are fusing themselves together. In humans, surgery is the only way to fix disc problems but in animals, nature takes care of itself. He said it can take several years to complete the process and she is about half way though. He said she is in severe pain with it and thinks that is the source of her panting, not her heart. Again, tears come to my eyes because she has been in such pain for so long and I had no idea. He gave her some pain meds and said it should help with her pain and panting within a few days.

Overall, Dr. Lashley has a positive outlook for her and thinks she has quite a few good years left in her. After all, she is only 10. Granted, she’s considered a senior dog but she still acts like a puppy so I don’t consider her old. I feel a sense of relief knowing it could have been much worse but at the same time, I feel like the worst dog-mom ever for not taking her sooner. I feel absolutely horrible that she has been in such pain; however, I can’t focus on that now. I have to focus on Hiccup and getting her better. We sure could use some puppy-prayers so please send positive thoughts our way!

Engagement Pics – Take 2

The pictures from our second engagement photo session are posted on the photographer’s website, click here to see them. She left some of the old ones on the site so you have to scroll to the bottom to see the new ones. I think they turned out much better and we have a few favorites. She didn’t post all of them and I’m a little disappointed because there were some on her camera that we really liked. Oh well, I’ll post those on our wedding website when I get the CD.

Speaking of our wedding website, if you haven’t seen it yet go to honeymoonwishes.com and search by either of our last names, or peek here. I set up the website with our honeymoon registry and it was so easy to do. The vendor I used has our resort on their destination list so the registry was basically done for me. I just had to pick some of the things we wanted and decide on the amounts to ask for. I’ll be adding pictures and other tidbits of information to the wedding website so make sure you check it often for the latest updates.

Tonight, we meet with Pastor Earl for our first pre-marriage counseling session. This will be my 4th day in a row in the lovely town of Freeburg. Soon my car will be able to drive itself there :-)

Florist . . .check

My meeting with Walter Knoll Florist was a success! They were able to do exactly what I was looking for at a price I could handle. Finally, after 5 months of planning, I have booked everything - oh what a feeling! Now I can have fun with the detail stuff like centerpieces, etc. Here is a pic of the flowers that will be used in the bouquets:



And this is how they will be wrapped, with the silver accent:


The only problem I ran into is that they don't provide delivery service to Freeburg, where the ceremony will be, so I have to sweet-talk someone into picking up the flowers. Shouldn't be a big deal though.

Golf For Dummies

Last night was my first night of golf lessons and I have to admit, I didn't do too bad. My instructor is Dan Polites - a PGA Teaching Professional, and a super nice guy. He owns DP Golf at Clinton Hills Golf Course and obviously knows what he is doing as he was able to help me actually hit the ball :-) He wrote the book "Golf for Rookies" and has created multiple training videos for the Average Jane like me.

So, I got there last night and he told me to grab the 7 iron for this lesson, um ok, which one is that, Dan? As he chuckled, he told me his book would explain what each club is and when to use it, not to worry. He wants our lessons to focus on actually practicing instead of teaching something we can learn from the book. Right on, I get that. Now I have my 7 iron in hand and we are ready to get started. He demonstrates how to grip the club, proper stance, how far out to hold the club and the technique for swinging. Now it's my turn, oh geeze, here we go! First I practice the swinging motion without actually trying to hit a ball. He gets me all lined up and puts a ball on the tee. First swing, I miss. Second swing, I miss. Third and fourth swings, I miss. He assured me that everyone starting out does the same thing and advises I not throw my club as he could sense my frustration. Finally, I made contact with the ball and let me tell you, I was so proud of myself. After a few more hits, I loosened up and got used to the swing. I even had a few beautiful hits that he complimented me on. The rest of the lesson was spent practicing the same swing and by the end of the lesson, I was exhausted.

Today, my forearms are sore and I have a blister on my left hand but I'm super excited to practice on my own before my lesson next week. Of course I do not have proper golf attire so a shopping trip is in order for acceptable clothing such as a collared shirt, khaki shorts or something similar, and definitely a glove to keep my hand from blistering again. Stay tuned for my next progress report!

Sweet Things

Wedding cake . . .check! Tonight was a success with the cake tasting we did with Sweet Things Gourmet Treats out of Belleville. We requested a pumpkin cake and tasted two versions, one with a caramel filling and one with a cream cheese filling. Both were delicious but the caramel was our favorite! It was the first time they had a request for pumpkin cake so they experimented with the fillings and nailed it! Now they will remember us as a first for them so that's kind of cool. We also tried red velvet with cream cheese filling and it was ok but didn't blow us away. Then we had chocolate with mocah filling, french vanilla with homemade raspberry filling and french vanilla with strawberry filling. I knew we wanted a variety of flavors so here is what we ended up with:

Pumpkin with caramel
Pumpkin with cream cheese
French vanilla with raspberry
Chocolate with raspberry
Marble with fudge

Then we had to decide if we wanted a traditional tiered cake or individual cakes of different sizes. Why decide, go with both, right? So, we are doing a small square, 3-tier cake with a smooth finish, blue and silver ribbon trim around each tier, and our monogram on the middle layer. For the individual cakes, we will have 8" and 10" round and square with what I call a scroll design on them. I'm super excited about our choice of flavors and the design of all of them.

Next, and last on the list of bookings, the florist. I am meeting with Walter Knoll for the second time on Thursday and will probably sign the contract with them. Wish me luck!

Hello Weekend!

I love having short work weeks. It’s hard to believe Friday is here already but you won’t hear me complaining about that! The weekend ahead is not as busy as normal, thank goodness. Tonight will be low-key as I prepare for the summer session of boot camp to start tomorrow morning. I’m expecting several new people to join so that’s exciting for me. After boot camp, I’ll be working at Circa then chilaxin’ the rest of the day. On Sunday, I’m meeting with a friend-of-a-friend kind of deal about wedding flowers. She used to be a wedding consultant for a local florist so she knows what she is doing and hopefully can offer a lower rate. As a backup, I have another appointment with Walter Knoll Florist on Thursday of next week to compare prices given that I changed my scheme since the first time I met with them. I hope to make my decision next week and check that off the list.

I hope to check the cake off the list next week too. We have a cake tasting scheduled with Sweet Treats from Belleville on Monday evening. They offer a variety of cake flavors and fillings, including pumpkin which is a must for us. I came across this company at the bridal show I went to a few weekends ago and their cake was yummy so I have a good feeling about this.

What’s going on with the photographer, you ask? We have our second photo session scheduled for June 13th at 6:30pm. Fingers crossed that this one turns out better than the first one. If not, I have a backup in mind and I was referred to this photographer by two different people so I now have a Plan B, if necessary. Hopefully I won’t need it though.

I hope everyone has a fun, safe weekend! Happy Friday to ya!

Wedding Disappointment & Scare

As most of you know, Larry and I had our engagement photo session with our wedding photographer last Sunday. I was super excited about it and went all out having my hair and makeup done for the day (and it looked really good too and I can say that because I didn’t do it :-). So we had our 3 hour photo session but it did not go well at all. For one, it was 90+ degrees that day so as soon as we started I was sweating like nobody’s business. It was miserable and we were not comfortable with the poses she was having us do. It was uncomfortable for both of us and I had a feeling the pictures were not going to turn out that great – and I was right. The poses were awkward and you could tell in many of the pics that we weren’t comfortable. If you want to see what I mean, here is a link to the album on her website:

The more I looked at the pictures, the more upset I got and decided to let the photographer know we were disappointed. She thought they turned out great and obviously we have different tastes. She said she wanted us to be completely satisfied and offered to have another session with us to get more of what we want. That’s super nice of her and all but now I have to get my hair and makeup done again and hopefully it looks as good as it did the first time. This all went down between Sunday and Tuesday and I feel ok with the outcome, at least until we do the next session. If we still don’t like the pics, we are going to forfeit our deposit and look for someone else.

Now, here is the “scare” story to the blog title. Everyone knows I have been stressed out about finding the right DJ for our wedding because to me, that can make or break our party. I was so worried that I would pick the wrong one and the reception would be a flop. After months of researching different companies, I finally decided on Complete Music and sent my deposit in last week and felt good about my decision. Then, Larry and I were watching the news last night and I happen to catch the preview to a story that said “Attention All Brides” and it proceeded to talk about a local DJ scam. As I looked up, I saw the logo for Complete Music and I about flipped out! Of course they went to commercial so I had to wait a very long 3 minutes for the complete story. Turns out, the scam was from some other company and Complete Music stepped in to help this bride, whose wedding is this Saturday! Whew, what a relief but I have to admit, I had a brief bridezilla moment thanks to channel 4 news. If you care to check out the story, here it is.