Damn you Oak Trees

Allergies are killing me over here in the Florida Panhandle. That crazy storm that has taken over the US has shaken the early pollen out of the trees around these parts. I am hurting! The past week I was nursing a mean allergy attack in the form of a congested/ head cold feeling. I still hurt a little, but I am just so grateful I can't give this sickness to the babe. It really doesn't help that I have a huge backyard filled with mature Live Oaks that l-o-o-o-ve this roller coaster ride called weather.

This is the view from my kitchen window. In the summer it is green and gorgeous but right now it is sad and brown. Almost every square inch of ground is covered in leaves from those trees. No way do we rake them! You run over those little devils with your lawn mower and make mulch. And nope those are not all of the trees. There are five more to the left of the hammock! I cannot wait until it heats up a little and my allergies recede long enough for me to sit outside and enjoy a little sun. I need some Vitamin D. It is supposed to get up to 70 today so I am thinking me and the munchkin might put down a blanket in the yard and have a little pick nick.  

 

Luna had the right idea last summer. lol. Crazy girl. I can't wait until every day is that beautiful again. Oh summer hurry up already! And I'm no where near the worst of winter!

What are you looking forward to this summer? What is the first thing you are going to do when the sun is out everyday? 

A Real Snow Day

We had a little winter storm last night and it left us a good 4 inches of snow today. It is gorgeous. Snow is still a huge novelty to me. Growing up in South Texas doesn't lend itself to much snow appreciation days. The closest thing to a snow day in Corpus was the occasional Hurricane Day growing up. Yeah, those are real. So what did I do today to celebrate the falling of winter wonder from the sky? I woke up early and took Luna for a nice long walk before it turned into slush. I know I am crazy. This is most likely the last snow we will see for three years so I wanted to enjoy it; no matter how cold I was!

 My little cutie. Did yall get any of the storm? What did you do with your snow day? 

 

5 on Friday {9}

The Christmas week is almost upon us. I can smell the tamales now. Yum. To commemorate this being my first holiday season blogging, this post is about one thing only: our Virginia Christmas. As you may remember from my last entry, this is the second Christmas Hubby and I are spending together in the States. I wanted this one to be really special, so I completely decked out the house, got him some pretty decent gifts and now it's vacation time.

Our tree is covered in ornaments from our childhoods

These are our Kindergarten ornaments 

My favorite Target wrapping paper. I wish I had bought it in bulk

The mantle is still my favorite piece

My chalkboard frame redo. I think it turned out pretty nice.

Blue ornaments are my decorating theme this year

All of the handrails are covered in garland! 

And of course we cannot forget the most festive person that lives in this house. 

Luna Mae!

Yes, that is a puppy Christmas dress

Why? Why not!

And an ugly sweater for the road! 

Happy Early Christmas everyone!

Luna Mae's weekend

 To say she had a good weekend might be her biggest understatement to date. She had a fabulous weekend full of shenanigans!

PETAs national offices are here in Norfolk and they have a fantastic dog park that is open all year round. Rain or Snow, blue skies or winds, they always leave the gate unlocked. She loves it there. Luna is a champion runner and tries her hardest to round everyone up, children included, and play together. What a ham! She was definitely enjoying her afternoon.

The Saturday park trip was our one outing as a family this weekend. Yep, we were shut ins. It was the humans' turn to sit around and sleep all day. So worth it for Lu. While the humans were sleeping, guess who helped herself to the forgotten pancakes that were on the table? Oh you guessed it...Luna Mae did. Thank goodness they were gluten free. Too much wheat is not good for her little belly. We didn't even realize they were gone until that night when I was picking up our weekend rats nest we made in the living room. lol. We are so gross when we veg out.

Now it is onto the new week ahead. More Thanksgiving prep, bills to be paid and a house that desperately needs a good scrubbing. Hmmm...what should I do first? I know, I'll take Lu to the park. It is her happy place after all :)

Grr, why, why, why?

I just read an article on the Military Spouse website that got me thinking. The post was entitled the 35 Crazy Deployment Curse Stories. Some of the stories are funny and could happen to any of us, while some are just down right Grr inducing moments. Why is it that whenever your spouse leaves on their "business trips" (i.e. deployments, work ups, training), Murphy's Law suddenly rears its ugly head? Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong; Or in a lot of cases, is guaranteed to go wrong. My Murphy's Law moments always seem to include our puppy Luna.
These past few days our little Luna has been sick. She woke me up in the middle of the night a couple of days ago, crying to go outside. The only time she does that is when she really, really does not feel well. So I was ready for a not so pretty potty break. What I was not ready for was blood. A Lot of blood. So I immediately ran upstairs put on some clothes, gathered up her stuff and rushed off to the 24 hr emergency vet. We arrived a little after 12:30am at the vet where they swept my poor baby away to the back for blood work and treatment. I was one nervous mama waiting for news in the waiting room let me tell you. And no amount of Duck Dynasty on the TV was distracting me. Pacing, pacing , pacing. I only do that when I am crazy with worry.
Thankfully it was a nice and efficient hospital so I didn't have to wait long at all. The sweetest Vet came out and let me know that she didn't need intensive work or an overnight stay. I was so relieved. Our poor baby girl was sick though. The best they could decipher was that she got into something and her body was rejecting it. She has always had a sensitive tummy, she even has to have special food so she doesn't get sick. So after a shot to stop her nausea and a little hydration we were on our way back home with 3 medications and pro-biotic supplements for her bland diet; Which will consist of boiled chicken and rice for the next week or two. I know she is loving the human food but I can tell she still doesn't feel back to normal. Poor thing will not leave my side except for food and bed time when she heads up to my bed before I do. My poor sweetheart.
It seems like every time Hubby has to take off, it's either me or the dog that gets sick. Me with a cold or the flu but mostly poor Lu with belly troubles. Guaranteed.
Murphy's Law: the deployment special. Every time!

   

Blast from the past

Luna woke up this morning with a welt on her nose that almost looked like a burn. Needless to say I googled it faster then a jack rabbit on a hot date, and Dr. Google promptly gave me some reasons for the bump. Of course what is the first thing to come up but sinus cancer. Don't you just love webmd's optimism? Even for animals they still like to scare the pants off of you first thing out of the gate with the cancer option. Boo. So what does any worried fur baby mommy do but run to the vet as fast as your feet can carry you!

While we were waiting at Banfield for Luna to get called back she was trying to make friends with other dogs in the store. I guess I'm just not entertaining enough for her sometimes. lol. One yellow lab puppy took a special shine to Luna. He was a cute thing no more then 6 months old but already bigger then Lu. While I was talking to his owners, the girl told me I looked so familiar to her. My little red flag was flying in the back of my mind too but for the life of me I could not place her. It turns out she remembered me from Middle School in Texas and could even remember my name. I wish I had a memory like hers. It took me a hot minute to remember her but when I did it hit me like a bag of bricks! Her name is Audrey and we had gone to the same elementary school too. She moved away in the seventh grade to Florida where she grew up and married a nice helicopter pilot and they are now in Norfolk for training before moving to Guam. What are the odds of seeing another person I knew when I was younger in Texas here in Norfolk? This would be the third time someone has recognized me from growing up in Corpus. It is wild to think that there are others who's lives are so linear to yours: growing up in the same city, same schools, married men with the same careers, moved to the same city far from home. I love serendipitous moments like those. It really is a small, small world. 

Just call me Gidget

Today was the third day of "spri-mmer" in Norfolk. You know that sweet spot of mid 80 degree weather that allows you sit in your car for about 15 minutes without AC and not feel like you are going to melt into your upholstery. It is a wonderful time of year that only lasts a max of 5 weeks here. After mid May it's so damn hot you could spontaneously combust if out in direct sunlight for too long. So what do I do to celebrate, I take my furry little love bug baby Luna to the beach for some sand and sun of course!

  
Yes that's my baby girl in all her panting glory. She has a love for the beach that I never thought I would find in a puppy. Coming from South Texas I grew up on a beach and my hubby is about as white as white can get; So him + sun = lobster. Now I finally have my guaranteed beach buddy! If I take her off the leash, she will bolt into the water and try to chase it back out to the ocean. (Not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed, but a sweet one) She is also totally enamored by the jets that fly over the beach. NAS Oceana is just a few miles from the beach and they fly right overhead. I think that was what she was so heavily focused on in the picture. Gotta love her.

Beautiful day to beach it. Maybe this will be the beginning of a weekly outing. I feel an excursion to Colonial Williamsburg coming on! Oh I love new adventures! After our duel beach bunny day it was time to go home....Luna was wiped out. Gotta adore a sleepy puppy, even when she sleeps on your new pillows.