Dog Park

Joe and I love taking the dogs to the Cherry Creek dog park.
It's a long, scenic walking trail, and the dogs love roaming free!They have a cliff that drops down into a big pond.
Kisses LOVES it!!
The first time we went, she just jumped right off the cliff, and into the water!
My heart dropped for a second :)

Random Pictures from Summer 2010

Baby Sitting Little Miss Kismet:(Kismet playing with eatable play doe)

New car:
2010 Mazda 3

Summer night car rides (Usually to get ice cream;):
Mini Golf:
Lots of lovin' from Kisses:
Thumbalina was her normal nerdy self, all summer long:

This Past week...

A lot of little things have been going on, but I haven't gotten around to blogging about it. I thought I would just wrap it all up into one big post :0)

Thursday:
Last Thursday I was at the end of my rope with boredom! I had been recovering from my knee surgery, and my days consisted of laying on the couch all day and watching T.V. I tried to do other things like reading a book, a magazine, or doing something crafty, but I was so dizzy from the medicine, that watching T.V. was my only option.
Joe called me a little before he was on his way home from work, and told me to get ready. I was so happy, because I knew that meant I was finally getting out of the house! When he got home he told me that he heard on the radio that a furniture store in Denver was having a sale, and that he went onto their web-site, and found a chair that he thought I would love (I'm currently searching for the perfect chair for my formal living room). I got in the car (with a big smile on my face:), and we drove into the city. He pulled into a parking lot in the middle of Denver and parked the car. He told me to open the glove box and pointed to a card for me to pull out, explaining that it was a picture of the chair. I pulled it out, and saw it was hockey tickets!! It actually took me a second to realize what they were, because I was just trying to find a picture of the chair :)It could not have come any sooner! I was so excited to just be out of the house, and I was totally thrilled that Joe had surprised me by taking me to a hockey game! I say It all the time...But
I LOVE HIM!!!
The tickets were for the 10th row, which was pretty up close and personal. Although the actual seats were horrible! I have no idea where they expect you to put your legs! It was hard for me to sit in them, because I couldn't really bend my knees that well. I would have just dealt with it the whole time, but that wasn't OK for Joe. He wanted me to be comfortable, and to have a good time (have I mentioned that I love him?), so he found someone who worked at the stadium, explained my situation, and they allowed us to move to the handicap row.
The seats were still very good, but the best part was I could put my legs up on the rail, keeping them straight and elevated.We had lots of fun eating hot dogs, cotton candy, watching the game, and spending time together. With every minute that went by, I felt like I was getting more and more of my sanity back! It was a very fun night!

Saturday:
We did a little shopping, and most importantly, we got our house back in order! Joe had done pretty well staying on top of things while I was in bed, but still, the house was in need of some cleaning. The house was slowly making me go crazy as well, so it was very nice to get everything back in it's place. This weekend is our official Spring Cleaning, and I'm so excited!

Monday:
That was the day of my follow up doctors appointment with Dr. Louks. He took my stitches out, and showed my the pictures he took of my knees. I saw my torn meniscus, which was pretty interesting. On one of my knees, the meniscus was actually folded over itself! As for the arthritis, it looked pretty bad. on various parts of my knee, the cartilage creators out, and you can see the bone. On those spots it is bone on bone when I walk...no wonder why I don't like walking :)
I didn't really ask a lot of questions, which I'm kicking my self over now. I just didn't really want to hear the answers. As he was leaving he said that he wanted to see me in 5 weeks, and we will go over my options then. I guess there's not really a lot for me to ask. I need knee replacements now, but I'm too young, so I need to stick it out as long as I possibly can. My doctor thinks that will be in 2 years, but I'm shooting for 5. They last 10 to 20 years, and the second ones don't last as long as the first. That's about it. It's pretty much just a wait and see kinda situation.

Here is what a knee replacement looks like:(photo courtesy of flickr)

Wednesday:
I had my Remicade infusion, which meant that I had to sit in my Doctor's office for 2 hours hooked up to an IV, being pumped full of medicine (I do this every 8 weeks). They upped my dosage from 300 to 500, to see if that would help at all. So far I haven't seen a difference, but I'm still waiting.
After my infusion I went to Ben and Idealia's to drop off the package Darin and Jessica had sent (thank you again!)After that I left to go pick Joe up from work, and we headed home to pick kisses up for her Doctor appointment. They removed her stitches, and the best part was, they removed her satellite!! It was a beautiful moment!We hated that thing...probably not as much as kisses hated it, but we were a close second. She was soooo happy when it came off!

Thursday:
Today we have a winter storm coming through. We are expected to get 8 to 15 inches of snow. Joe is working from home and we are having a nice and quiet snow day together :)That was a long post...and a long week. A fun, busy week!

Kisses Surgery Update

A cyst?...Nope!

Kisses' Surgery didn't go quite as we had planned..
(Kisses at her Vet appointment)

(Saying bye to Kisses as we dropped her off for surgery)

At her vet appointment, Her vet informed us that it was a cyst that needed to be removed. Although while he was taking her X-RAYS he discovered there was something else going on. Once he was in surgery with her, he confirmed it was something completely unexpected. He discovered that there is a hole going all the way through the bone of her snout. I hole big enough you can fit a pencil through it. Her body has been trying to get rid of this hole, and in so doing, formed a drainage tract, that constantly leaks out puss....that would be the thing we thought was a simple old cyst.
He said that the hole could be the cause of 2 things, bone cancer, or a pretty severe former injury. One big enough to knock a hole out of her snout. He thinks it is most likely an injury, because if it was cancer, it would be extremely painful, and she would most likely already be gone.
She was abused in her last home, and I'm praying this injury was an accident, and not a sign of the extent of her abuse (she has scars all over her body)
He removed the drainage tract, but basically said there is a good chance her body will form it again, in an effort to try and get rid of the hole. If that happens, we will simply have to keep it cleaned so it does not get infected. I'm of course hoping it does not come back, because that will mean that we spent a pretty penny, kinda for nothing.

Poor Kisses has to wear a satellite around her head for 2 weeks. It breaks my heart to see her constantly run into things (and people), and getting scared.
On a happy note...Kisses' breath is fresh, her teeth are beautiful, and her nails are a lot shorter!
Thumbalina misses her playing buddy (kisses isn't in the mood)...but she at least still has her cuddle buddy! (Kisses is always in the mood to cuddle!)

Kisses is such a trooper and we lover her!

Playing Catch Up

I wanted to catch you up on our little family to help fill you in on what has been going on in our lives these past 3 years. Since that would be a really long post, I will break it up into 3 post over a 3 day period. Each day will focus on one member in our family.

Day one: Kisses

We got Kisses a few months after moving to Colorado. I had been asking Joe for a couple months if we could get a dog, but he was a little hesitant, since we lived in an apartment. One boring Saturday he came out of the bedroom and said "You want to go to the Dumb Friends League?" I hopped on my shoes and jumped in the car before he could change his mind. When we got there we looked and looked, and could not find a dog we liked. By this time we had been there for an hour and a half, and we were both done. Joe told me he was going to go see if they had any dogs down stairs, and when he got back we would leave. I kept looking at the door to the room that all the dogs were in, and I had an urge to look one more time. I resisted, because I had walked through those doors at least 5 times by now, and I knew there was nothing I hadn't seen. Although the urge would not go away, so I thought "Well it beats standing here waiting." In the room were about 6 little rooms all lined up on after the other. In each room there would be about 5 to 6 dogs. I peaked in her room, and said to myself, "Nope nothing there." I started to walk past her room to go on to the next, and it was as if someone had a rope tied to my waist, stopping me from going any further. So I turned around, looked in her room again, and said the same thing to myself. I tried walking away, and I felt the same feeling as before. So I went into her room for the third time, and again I thought "Nope nothing there." As I walked away this time I got a horrible feeling in my stomach. So I said out loud, "This is the last time, and then I am leaving!!" I walked in her room one last time, and that was when I saw her. I still don't know if she was in there the whole time, or if she had just been brought in as I was yelling out loud to myself. When I saw her, the feeling in my stomach went away, although I wasn't instantly in love. I simply knew we had to at least look at this dog. I walked out, and just then Joe came up the stairs. I told him we had to look at a dog, and he said "Could we please go home." I told him, "Trust me, if we don't look at this dog, we won't be able to leave." Joe was sitting on the floor when they brought her in, and she immediately sat in his lap, and started licking his face. That sealed the deal...she was ours, and her name was Kisses.

I simply love this dog. I can't explain the joy she has brought to my life. Unfortunately she was abused in her last home, so she was very timid when we got her. She eventually came out of her shell and her personality started to shine through. The way she is now, you would never tell she's had a difficult past. She is very loving, loyal, affectionate, joyful, and eager to please. She absolutely adores kids, and she instantly loves everyone she meets. She is a daddy's girl, both of our dogs are ( I swear he has meat in his pocket.) Although she has a special place in my heart.

We love you Kisses.