Zach and Nathana

Once Zach got home, we let Nellie dig into her cake!  It was adorable and she loved it! Now our birthday girl is out for the count.  I think she had a pretty good day! ; )

My sweet, dearest, Nellie Girl, Today is your fourth birthday, and I couldn't be happier to say that we're celebrating it together.  I hate to think back, but in May I couldn't have told anyone if you'd be here to celebrate it or not.  That thought terrified me at the time, because after all, how could my world keep spinning if you weren't in it?  I am not ashamed to admit I begged and pleaded God to heal you, no matter what we had to do.  The fear of  knowing we may not be able to afford "fixing" you nearly drove me insane.  The night before taking you to Louisville I barely slept an hour due to imagining every possible scenario that might unfold the next day and again begging God to let whatever treatment you needed to be within our reach.  I thanked him and continue to thank him for making it possible to heal your little body.  I know you are a dog, but God even cares for you, and somehow in this life, I have done something right to have your...

We went last Tuesday expecting Nellie to have surgery, but the vet wanted to get the prednisone out of her system, so we begrudgingly brought her back home. It's not that I didn't want her with us, but I wanted to leave her there so they could "fix" her sooner. These past seven days have partially been hell on earth. Saturday night she shook and panted for 12 hours. I haven't slept a continuous night of sleep in 3 weeks. My heart just broke for her and I felt so completely helpless. I think I called Blue Pearl every single day except yesterday and Sunday. I would ask if they thought I ended to bring her in so they could manage her pain until today. This last week broke me. The only way we've gotten through it is through God's sweet, sweet grace. I have petitioned to him for Nellie to stop shaking, to lay down, to sleep, and to stop her pain.  Through all the gut-wrenching pain she's been through, God has also given us little slices of heaven.  A ...

Over Winter  Spring Break, the temps were not awesome, but it was still a great week. On Mon & Tues, I babysat my same three kiddos that I always do!  We watched Frozen both days, sang all the songs from it, Mary Poppins, and The Sound of Music, made sugar cookies, perler beads, played, acted, colored, and made "projects" as Ben called them.  Let me tell ya, I have not seen a kid more obsessed with perler beads since my siblings and me!  He made 6 shapes on Tuesday.  I wish I had a pic, but he made 5 turtles that were each a member of their family and then a Kitty that he said was me!! : )  I love that child.  We had tons of fun, but I was definitely ready for bed those nights! Ha! I actually cooked on Monday night, but Tuesday night we went to Qdoba! On Wednesday, Nellie had her well check-up with the vet.  I had given her a bath the night before, which she naturally hated, and then took her to the vet, which makes her little self sweat ...

So it seems my school corporation did everyone a big favor by letting us out early today. I left me school at 1:00 and was back by my house at 1:30. It ha barely started spitting snow, so I passed by the house for a quick Target run. I was inside for exactly 15 minutes and it was like a snow globe outside. My car was completely covered. I suck at driving in the snow, so I took it slow and got home just fine. Below is what my road looked like after 15 minutes! So Nellie and I have enjoyed an afternoon if dishes, laundry, and playing with my Cricut! Oh, and eating the brownies that I made! Yum! Bonus: USI canceled all night classes and campus, so Zach got to come straight home from his internship! That makes his girls incredibly happy! Now for us to spend quality time together and wait it out to see if either one of us has school tomorrow! Stay warm friends!

Monday we went to our usual, Qdoba, for supper and then went to Lowe's, Aldi, and Jo-Ann's.  I got to use my super saver card at Jo-Ann's and got this $20 basket for $4.20!  Hence the happy face!  Tuesday was Strengthening Families, so that was my entire day.  I did manage to squeeze in a workout when I got home!  That was a big thing after working 13 hours! Wednesday, Nellie and I went to Mama and Daddy's to help her finish my outfit and to have supper.  See how my Mama slaved over my dress? Beautiful! I really felt like the fairest of them all! : ) On Halloween, Nellie was standing on the sock drawer and staring in the mirror.  I just found it funny! Friday night I babysat some kiddos that I've babysat a lot before.  They've gotten so big and we had lots of fun!  We also got to enjoy passing out candy at their house since it was postponed to Friday.  Saturday, Zach got up at 3:00 a.m. to go duck hun...

Blogtember- a love letter Dear Nellie girl,  My oh my how my life has changed since you came into it! I never knew how much your sweet smile and personality could be become such a large piece of my heart.  I love that you are so ecstatic when I walk into the room, not happy until you have given me the "smell down" and I have petted you from nose to tail. You bring such joy to my life and I am so, so happy that The Lord blessed us with you. You make every day more fun and full and I can't imagine life without you!  I love you, Boog-a-Noog!  Love,  Mama P.s.- I bet ya'll all thought my love letter would be to Zach, didn't ya?!

Here is Nellie Girl opening her present!

 It is hard to believe it, but our girl is already two years old! She is such a joy and we can't imagine life without her!  At 2 years old Nellie: -Weighs 26.8 lbs (Our vet told us she is "overweight" so she's been dieting!  She is so pitiful about food though it breaks your heart!) -Loves to cuddle with us.  It is so funny because if it is bed time, she will lay in bed so still and not move.  We think she is thinking, "Okay, if I don't move, they'll forget I'm here and will let me sleep with them!"  It works about 10% of the time!  She still sleeps in her kennel otherwise.  She also stays in her kennel during the day.  I know she wouldn't potty in the house if she were free in it during the day, but there is seriously no telling what all she would get herself into.  She'd probably be like Marley from Marley and Me !  -Loves ice.  You can ask her if she wants ice and she runs to the refrigerator and looks up toward the fre...

Today is our Nellie Girl's 8 month birthday. As I type she is lounging around, going from chair to chair, and laying on Zach. She seems to know that she is the little queen bee around here, especially since her surgery. She even thinks she is entitled to laying on our laps at all hours of the day! Her 8 month stats: 20 lbs on the dot when I took her to the vet last week. So incredibly long from head to tail! She has figured out how to jump into the chairs in the kitchen. Her first victorious consumption was the crust of an apple pie! She was very impressed with herself! Especially more so that her Mama. We are still working on the command "Roll over." We haven't been working on it due to her sore belly after surgery, so I'm going to start back with her on it soon. For those keeping track (haha, okay it's just me) she now knows sit, stay, lay down, get it, drop it, shake, and (almost) roll over. I think she is building a pretty good repetoire! Nellie is incredi...

Our Nellie girl is doing soooo much better! This afternoon when I got home she was much more peppy and moving a little faster. She still can't jump up or down from the couch, but other than that she seems to be feeling so much better than she was yesterday. Her appetite has picked back up too, so hopefully she won't look so shockingly skinny for much longer! On a funny note, I guess we may have been catering to her too much. One of us has basically been laying on the couch with her on top of us since Friday. Now if we are walking around she follows us frantically until we pick her up, put her on the couch, and sit down with her! So very, very rotten! It is okay though, because after all, she has been through quite a lot! : )

I was already on my way to pick up Nellie when the ladies called me and said she was doing just fine and ready to come home! I walked in and she immediately went back to get Nellie. She came out and gingerly handed her to me. Her two incisions were scaring me because I didn't want to hold her in a way that would make me hurt her. Poor Nellie Girl's eyes looked so blood shot and worn out. They said she had been sleeping the day away. I walked out the door with her and a combo of the anesthesia and the cold were making her poor little body shiver like crazy. I praised the Lord that I thought to bring a fuzzy blanket with us! When I got to the car though I remembered I now had to open the door. I cursed myself for locking it (habit) and reached for the handle, which by a miracle, I hadn't locked! I somehow shifted Nellie's weight just enough to wiggle out two fingers to pull the door open and then proceed to pull it out with my foot. Then there was the lovely wind t...

I dropped Nellie off at 8:00 for her surgery. When they tried to take her away from me, I just couldn't let go! I gave her a quick kiss and they carried her to the back. That was when I started boo-hooing! The sweet ladies assured me she will be okay and not to worry. Yeah, right! I then assured them I wasn't leaving Henderson today and that I would be there in minutes after they call me to come pick up my Nellie Girl! I will post later letting ya'll know how she does!

1. At long last, this is my Spring Break, and it is almost over!! It has not been the most relaxing one either. 2. I took Nellie to the Dr. for the first times yesterday. They said she looked great except for a small hernia!! Come again? I did not even know dogs could get hernias. They gave me a lovely quote for her to get spayed and the hernia taken out for as little as $236.13 and at the most $363.68 . Yikes, Zach is not going to like that. Turns out I was right, too! When I told him, he said, "She looks fine to me!" Haha. 3. On a similar note, we are having Nellie spayed tomorrow. Just not at this vet's office. I think we will have them be her primary veterinarian, but we are doing the surgery in Henderson. I called them today and they said they would take care of the hernia too! That is great news, as I know they will take good care of her and the cost is much better there! If you think tomorrow, stop and pray that her surgery goes well! (And tha...

Yesterday was our sweet, sweet Nellie Girl's 6 month birthday! Aunt Kayleigh and Uncle Ryan went out to eat with us and then came back to see the half-birthday girl! Nellie at 6 months: Well, she still loves to watch the toilet flush! Don't worry, this flush was a clean one for the picture's sake! She also loves to jump into the bath tub when it's NOT time for her bath! She still loves to snuggle. She on Zach's legs in this picture. Haha, she also gives great dirty looks! I think she was just squinting because of the flash! She still loves to steal your seat when you get up out of it! I had literally turned around to get my bottle of water, turned back around, and there she was just looking up at me. Silly girl! She also got a new toy the other day. You can see it by her head here. It is one of those long dog squeaky toys and has two different sounding squeakers! Anytime I call Zach on my lunch break at school I can hear her squeaking it! She is so in lov...

Our little Nellie girl is 5 months old today! The most recent pictures I have of her were from Christmas, so I will have to upload some new ones soon. At 5 months Nellie has Lost all of her baby teeth. (We think.) Her new chompers are huge ! They are so funny to look at because her first set of teeth were sooo tiny! She can easily jump places like the chair, couch, and now our bed. We will let her snuggle with us at night while we watch movies, but she still sleeps in her kennel at night. We don't want her to break this good habit! She weighs 16 lbs. Still our little tub-a-lub! She still has lots of loose skin, so I'm assuming that she's gonna get at least a little bigger. She lays down all the time we tell her to now! She is so very good at it and is highly motivated by treats. We are working on "Stay" next. It's not as easy as it sounds! For her first Christmas she was quite spoiled! Suzanne made her a personalized food bowl, Mama got her a pink ...