Halloween Costume

First Halloween costume...

ISU Homecoming

We all trekked over to Ames a couple of weeks ago for ISU's Homecoming....here we are before hitting the road...

Our friends Duce and Dave (Dave and Amy Glenn) came and spent the weekend with us since we were planning on having an AGD reunion. 

Erin, Erica, and Duce at the tailgate. 

All the AGD alums! 

The Alpha Gam Slam....

A few AGDs with other friends Katie and Jen....

Duce and I lived in the Kappa Sigma house one summer with these crazy guys...Gear, Mead and David....they are doing their best 'spirit fingers' and 'sorority squat'. It was great seeing them again! 

Duce and Viv had a lot of fun! 

Uncle Adam was there too! 

Visiting good ol' AGD! The house is huge with over 130 members. The girls told us that they are to the point that they can no longer hold chapter in the basement and will have to start doing it on campus next year. 

We played Toledo and won the game....after wards we headed to Great Plains Pizza...we waited over an hour and a half for our pizza and a table! But it was worth it! 

Nathan ran into two of the ISU basketball players in the parking lot while tailgating. Viv was clearly not so impressed.

Life

Life marches on....so I'm trying to keep up. Here's Viv ready to go watch the Iowa vs. Iowa State game (which we won by the way....yay!)

Ruby and Viv watching Wrigley on the deck. It's only been a little over a week since Ruby passed and we miss her a lot. Wrigley hasn't seemed to affected by her absence. He still rushes back inside to make sure there is no left over food. He doesn't seem to be getting up as early in the morning but I don't know if it's because the sunrise is later or if it's truly because she's gone. 

Napping...

She is obsessed with the door to the playroom. She loves to climb the two stairs and go into the bathroom. I tried to put up a 'barrier' to dissuade her from climbing the stairs....and you can see how well it worked for me. She's a little bulldozer. She rams her head into things and pushes until you or the object moves out of her way. She gets really mad when a piece of furniture or a door doesn't move. In regards to my 'barrier', she figured out how to climb under and through the bouncy seat. When the door is closed to the playroom I have to extract her from the stairs multiple times because she climbs the stairs and gets stuck at the top. She can't figure out how to back up and climb down off the stairs. 

Trying avocado. She still won't feed herself anything other than puffs and yogurt melts.

Viv has discovered the toilet paper roll in our bathroom. 

And discovered Nathan's credit card...

We tried two pony tails...they looked like little antennas. 

Her coveted chapstick. I took a hilarious video of her melting down after dropping the chapstick on the floor when she was sitting on my lap. 

We've been trying to take advantage of the beautiful weather we've had lately. We met Nathan and Gma Deb at the park for lunch one day. 

We tried swinging....she didn't really seem into it. 

We are in a full fall mindset these days....her Halloween outfit that Gma Julie got her. 

We visited a pumpkin patch in Monticello a couple of weeks ago. They had lots to do and we are looking forward to taking advantage of the activities in the next couple of years. 

The corn maze....

We visited Papa Mark in the combine as they were harvesting beans. Viv took a ride and promptly fell asleep. 

Back at home she was totally engrossed in her own home videos. 

More scottie clothes....I'm surprised how many children's clothes have scotties on them and I can't resist purchasing every outfit that I come across! (Although this one was a gift from Aunt Bridget and Uncle Nick). 

Nathan carved his pumpkin last night...I forgot to take a picture of the final product. He carved a pretty cool cat face into the front of the pumpkin. 

One

So it's officially been ONE day since we had to let Ruby go. It's been a very hard day. Ruby had surgery for suspected hemangiosarcoma in her spleen on Monday. She was doing ok and so we transferred her to our hospital on Wednesday. She wouldn't eat but her blood values were holding and she didn't seem to be developing any major complications. All day Thursday I had an anxious feeling. Then right when I was leaving to go teach dance Nathan called and said she looked really dumpy and she'd become very tachycardic. I recommended to give a fluid bolus and we decided that we would take her back to the EC for the night for more monitoring. He wanted me to leave dance but with no one to take over my classes I couldn't leave until 6 pm. He called again and she had blow out diarrhea and he thought was having a seizure and was agonal. We had to euthanize her. I feel horrible that I couldn't be there with her. I feel horrible that her last few days were spent in a hospital. I feel horrible that I wasn't there to tell her I loved her one more time. I wasn't ready to let her go. 

I always thought maybe I'd be 'better' at dealing with losing a pet since I have to deal with it on a day to day basis at work. But I've quickly found out I'm not. It's hard. It sucks. I've cried more in the last 3 days than I ever did dealing with my 5 miscarriages or losing any of my grandparents. 

I'm so aware that she's NOT here. I still don't really believe that she's not coming home. We already have her ashes. I'm painfully aware that she's not at the end of my bed as I type....licking her feet....which used to drive me crazy. I miss that she wasn't sitting on the rug in front of the oven...another annoying habit of hers....while I made dinner. No matter how many times I'd shoo her out of the kitchen...she'd always find her way back. I miss her moaning for her dinner. I miss helping her up the stairs. The stairs had become more of a problem for her in the last couple of years. I don't think she was ever a fan of this house since we had so many stairs. Even in her advanced years she still wanted to follow me everywhere....and she found the baby gates particularly bothersome. I've already picked up her water and food dish....but Wrigley still races back into the house after dinner to make sure she didn't miss any food. I wonder how long it will take him to realize we only have ONE dog now. 

As a vet, I've ran over her 'case' a million times in my head in the last 24 hours. And I don't know if there was anything that anyone could have done. We suspect she threw a clot or dislodged a clot and she bled out into her abdomen very quickly....or went into DIC. It all happened so fast. 

We've received many condolences from family and friends since her passing. She truly made the full circle with us. We bought her in vet school from a breeder in Kansas City (we had no business getting a dog....let alone an expensive purebred dog). We'd been married 6 months. We gave up cable TV in order to afford her. She was a beautiful puppy. Our vet school friends knew her. We took her to Arizona while we suffered through our internships. Our 'big nights out' in AZ consisted of loading her into the backseat of the Honda Civic and going to the drive-in movie....just so the three of us could be together. Then we moved to Houston....and she figured out how to crawl under the fence. I still have a 'missing dog' poster saved on my computer that Nathan made the one time we were sure we'd lost her forever. And then she made the final trip with us back to Iowa. She was here to greet us the day we brought Vivian home. She was so good with Viv too....never growled or really paid much attention to the baby at all. Reading through all of the 'sorry for your loss' comments is truly a walk down memory lane over the last 12 years of our life. 

She'd had a rough past six months. We fixed her second cruciate and she battled a nasty urinary tract infection for a month. She had some other chronic conditions too that we were medically managing. But she never complained. Even after her surgery...when I'm sure she was painful...she never tried to bite, never really let you know how bad it really was. 

I miss her so much. My chest aches. There will never be another Ruby. I look forward to the day where I can meet her soul again in Heaven...and I can tell her I'm sorry and that I love her. She was truly the best dog. 

11 months

11 months is sure a busy age!! Viv isn't walking yet but is cruising around furniture easily. She will stand by herself for 10-15 seconds but hasn't tried to take any steps yet. She loves to throw things and empty out containers. She says Mama, Dada (still not really associated with either of us) and will utter 'Uh-oh!' easily when prompted. Her top two teeth are coming in. She's still obsessed with anything we have such as the computer, phones, remotes and pens. She's developed a temper and will clearly utter her disapproval when she doesn't get what she wants. She is still a super picky eater and I haven't had much luck getting her to feed herself or use a sippy cup. She still will only feed herself Puffs and Yogurt Melts. She will eat chunks of fruit if I feed it to her....reluctantly....but she only pokes at them if I put them on her tray. She's obsessed with the dog's water dishes and so they spend most of the day on the kitchen table (the dishes, not the dogs, ha!). She's also discovered the toilet paper. She still sleeps well at night and takes 1-2 naps a day. She seems to enjoy sitting on laps more now and will actually hold still for a few moments. Last night she was thoroughly interested in reading...and is really into 'flap' books...or the kinds where they can lift flaps on the page to see a picture underneath. She will occasionally give 'kisses' which is usually either a head but or completely coming at you with an open mouth and wiping it all over your face. Either way....I'll take them!