Things Addison LOVES this Week
1.) Coffee. Jess and I have started making our own iced coffee the Pioneer Woman way, and it’s amazing. Learn more about it here. We’ve been sweetening with simple syrup, and adding some half and half. It’s to die for!
2.) My new tennis shoes. Just owning those super cute, super comfy shoes makes me want to become a runner. Maybe I will! : )
3.) The weather. It’s FINALLY starting to cool down, at least at night and in the early morning. Izzie and I walked Jess to work this morning, and it was quite lovely, if I say so myself!
Actually, this morning was a combination of all of the things on the list. I walked the dog in my new tennis shoes in the cool early morning air and we stopped to get iced coffee. I clearly have a problem…
Izzie has had some issues as of late. Most notably, she’s been in an Elizabethan collar since last Tuesday. Why, you might ask? Because Frontline sucks. It sucks bad. Our poor baby had fleas, and lot of them. The drama (and trauma) started a little over a month ago when we were still in Columbia. We noticed that she had been chewing at the base of her tail a lot, and that she was missing hair. So, we took her to the vet, and the vet in Columbia theorized that it was a food allergy, and we had to switch her food. So we did. She’s now on Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet Duck and Potato. (And yes, it’s just as fancy and expensive as it sounds.) So we saw some improvement. Or so we thought. But then we flew out to Denver to find a place to live, and Izzie stayed with Caroline for a few days. I’m not sure what happened, I guess a whole bunch of flea eggs hatched or something, but when we got back, the small spot on her tail had turned into the entire lower half of it. At first we thought she was just stressed about being away from us, and all of the chaos that had been going on, but as we drove across the country, and Izzie kept chewing, despite regular doses of Benadryl, we realized that something was really wrong. So we took her to the vet here. Turns out our baby had fleas the whole time. She was just eaten up with them. What really surprised us is that she was on Frontline the entire time. And in fact, when we took her to the vet in Columbia, one of the vet techs said not to use Frontline anymore because it wasn’t working for a lot of animals. Concerned, we asked our vet about it. She said it was fine to continue with Frontline, and so we bought another 3 pack. Obviously, it wasn’t working. Now we’re on a new treatment plan. She’s gotten a flea bath, she’s on Advantage, and we’re giving her medicine so that her tail will heal. She has to wear the funny collar so she won’t chew at her tail. Jess calls her “Shakespeare” because of the Elizabethan collar. We take it off of her when we can watch her, and she’s not nearly as itchy as she was, so I take comfort in the fact that she seems to finally be better. Thank goodness! I hate seeing my baby girl all sickly. -Addison
I am in love. While you may think that I am referring to my wonderful wife, Jessica, I am not. I am referring to my sweet puppy, Isobel. Izzie has completely captured my heart. I think she is the cutest, funniest dog in the world, not to mention the best pet Jessica and I have ever had. Lord knows we’re had a lot of pets, so you know that I must be pretty serious about this one! We took Izzie to my dad’s house last weekend. She LOVES it there. We love it too, of course, so it’s a good time for all three of us. Dad and Mary Alice have a komodor named Lilly, and she is a giant compared to our little girl. Aunt Lilly is just a love, and Izzie has a blast with her. While I love my Izzie girl to pieces, Lilly is probably the sweetest dog you will ever meet. And she’s quirky, too. Plus she has dreadlocks, so she looks really cool. The girls played ball in the field on Sunday afternoon. It was hilarious! They also chase each other around the yard; I’ve never seen Izzie be so playful with another dog, so I’m very grateful she has Lilly on the weekends! -Addison
So, in case you haven’t noticed/seen the “evidence” on Facebook yet, Jess and I got a dog. We had been on the fence about getting another dog since the Cash fiasco, but we decided to give it one more try. Hell, we already had all of the stuff, and this one came with a 1 week money back guarantee, so we went for it! Izzie is super cute, weighs 17 lbs and is some sort of Lhasa Apso/Shih Tzu mix. She’s black and white, potty trained, and knows how to fetch a ball. Her obedience training needs some work, but she’s very smart (and very focused on food) so with some patience and treats I’m sure we’ll get that under control in no time. She’s 2 1/2 years old, crate trained, and good on a leash. She’s also really sweet and likes to snuggle. She already loves me and Jess. All in all she is the perfect dog for us, and we are so thrilled to have her in our lives. We adopted Izzie from Project Pet. We’ve actually had her since the first weekend since December, but we decided to keep it quiet in case things didn’t, you know, work out. Jess and I are all too aware of our “record” with pets, and there are certain people who are bound to/already have given us a hard time about getting (in their opinion) yet another dog. I really don’t think it’s fair for others to judge our decisions because no one truly knows how we came to make them. So, step off. Seriously. Sorry I had to get so grumpy; let’s finish on a high note! Here are some totally cute pictures of our new little girl, Isobel Rae. (For the record, we call her Izzie, and Jess hates it that I gave her 2 names!) -Addison
Why I Oughta
I should have done my homework. I should have paid more attention before I selected my dog breeder. I really want to drive my happy ass up to Gafney and kick her ass. Why, you might ask? I’ll tell you why: bitch sold me a busted dog. Cash and I just got back from the canine opthalmologist in Charlotte. That’s right. I left work early, spent 3 hours in the car and a little over $100 to learn he has 3 birth defects affecting his left eye. For starters his left eye didn’t develop fully before he was born. That means it’s smaller than the right eye as well as smaller than it should be. In general, it’s just under-developed. Secondly he has a persistent hyaloid artery. That means he has an artery going from the back of his eye to his retna; that artery develops as the fetus grows and is supposed to dissolve before the puppy is born. Needless to say, his didn’t dissolve. Last but not least, he has juvenile cataracts; my baby is going blind in his left eye. He’s too young for surgery (like we could afford it.) Plus because of his extra artery thing the chances of cataract surgery failing are significantly increased, so it probably wouldn’t work even if we could pony up the cash. Best case scenario: Cash goes blind within a month. Worst case scenario: Cash has to have his eye removed because the extra artery busts. Jess and I are distraught to say the least. It could be worse, though. His poop and allergy issues seem to finally be clearing up, and at least he doesn’t have glaucoma that needs to be operated on immediately. My poor boy… -Addison
It has been so incredibly long since I’ve been on the blog. Seriously. Needless to say, an update is in order, so here we go! Jessica and I got married and returned from California in one piece. We totally fell in love with the west coast! We would love to move there, but it would be really expensive, really far away from family, and really risky considering the state of California’s economy. (sigh.) Speaking of moving, we are currently back in the middle of a “what should we do” crisis. Neither of us feel that Columbia will be or should be our forever home. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the only thing we can agree on. We can’t decide what region of the country we want to be in, muchless an actual city or state. Also, timing is an issue. We can’t decide if we’d like to go for it sooner rather than later, or vice-versa. Not only is the world-wide economy in shambles right now, but our personal finances are a bit precarious and we’re having to be very careful and not make a rash decision, as we are prone to do. Speaking of decisions that could be viewed as rash, we’re getting a dog. Again. This time we’re getting a puppy. I won’t go into details as to why we think this time it will be different and why this dog will be THE dog, (but trust me, this time will be different and he will be THE dog!) The specifics are as follows: he’s a Great Dane, he’s solid black except for a few white markings, he will probably end up being close to 3 ft tall (at the shoulders) and 200 lbs, and we are picking him up this Friday, as in 3 days. I’m also in the middle of a career crisis. I can’t allow myself to get stuck in medical administrative work. I know this sounds yuppie, but the money is downright terrible, and in order to live the lifestyle I desire, I need to be making much more than I do now. So, now I’m on a hunt for a new career. I’m sure it will require me to go back to school, but I’m set on technical school because keeping student loan debt to a minimum is a priority for me. I do not want another 4 year degree, or even my masters for that matter. I’m thinking about careers in health care that can be earned at a tech school. Right now the front-runner is a PTA program, which is a Physical Therapy Assistant. I work at a Physical Therapy clinic, so Lord knows I know what the job will be like. However, as I’m sure you’ve noticed indecision is big theme in my life right now, so we’ll see what ends up happening. All in all, Jess and I are great. We’re happy, we’re in love, we’re healthy, we just don’t have any clue where we will end up or what we will end up doing. I guess most 20-somethings don’t know the answers to the majority of those questions, though. I just have to keep reminding myself (and Jess) that this is totally normal, and we’ll get through it. : ) -Addison
