A Weekend with Family

Jared and I received the very sad and unfortunate news that his grandfather passed away last week. As a result, we headed up to South Carolina to spend time with family. In a lucky event of circumstance, his brother was in the southeast working on an album with his newly formed bluegrass band (formed with his girlfriend, Ashley). They recorded and were heading to the World of Bluegrass Festival in Nashville to promote it. We spent the weekend with his dad and mom as well. They have recently done a lot of work on their basement hoping to convert it to a bar and winery. While visiting I was able to sample two of their wines, a blueberry and a blackberry. The blackberry was my favorite. As it ages, I feel like it will have a lot of the characteristics of most of the red wines we drink (Syrahs & Shiraz's). Jared's dad also had a few home brews, and his pale ale was VERY tasty. We also spent time visiting with Jared's aunts and uncles and cousins. It's wild how quickly kids grow. Anna, of course, exclaimed on quite a few occasions that she was "gonna marry Jared when" she grows up....so precious.

Jared's grandfather did a very neat thing for his family. He requested that all of his children and grandchildren take a vacation together on the beach where they vacationed as children. He had some money set aside to cover the cost. What a special opportunity for all of these families, who primarily live in the southeast but some have spread across the country, to plan to get together and spend time with each other doing fun things. I was just so touched by this request and thought it was a great idea.

While it was a sad event that brought everyone together, it was great to be together and great to visit.

Our Girl is Feeling Better

I am happy to say that everyone in the family (including Jasmine) got a restful night of sleep last night. This comes after being woken up every night since last Thursday when Jasmine became sick. Yesterday, Jared took her to the vet, and she was diagnosed with kennel cough. After her first day of medication, we can already see improvement...and she didn't snore nearly so loud at night. It is such a relief to both me and Jared, and it is great to see Jasmine's tail wagging a little harder.

Clemson - Here We Come!

After drawing up our Christmas budget (and Jared accusing me of trying to be "Sandi Claus"), Jared advised me that we shouldn't go to a Clemson game this year. I was pretty bummed. I know how much he loves his team and enjoys being at the games, and I enjoy them too. Plus, it's nice because we get to visit his family.

Monday night, Jared decided that he wanted Clemson tickets as his Christmas gift. He found some, and now we'll be going to watch Clemson v. GT at Clemson. Hooray!

Jasmine & Quite the Scare

Jasmine woke both me and Jared up Thursday night (or shall I say Friday morning) at 4:00 a.m. making the hacking/dry heaving noise. Whatever it was seemed to really upset her as she was shaking in fear following the incident. Finally, she fell back asleep after successfully cunning her way into bed with us.

That morning, after I showered and got ready for work, Jasmine just didn't seem herself. Typically in the mornings when I put on my shoes, she begins running in circles because she knows she's going outside. Friday morning, she did nothing. She moped to the back door and moped back in.

When I mentioned Jasmine's episode to a coworker, she told me about her Golden Retriever, who had similar symptoms as Jasmine and whose stomach flipped. Had she not immediately rushed her dog to the vet, her dog would have died. I, immediately, began to panic. I called Jared, hysterical. He was working and his firehouse had minimum staffing so he couldn't leave. I couldn't leave right away. I called my vet, and they told me to bring Jasmine in immediately. Part of our concern was that we'd been exercising Jasmine pretty hard lately playing fetch in an effort to shed some unwanted pounds. After researching flipping stomachs, I found that over exertion can be a big factor in the occurence.

Finally, I arrived home from work, and Jasmine was feeling much better. This was great news. In my most recent conversation with one of the vet receptionists, she'd flatly told me that my dog would be dead when I got home if her stomach had flipped. The vet told me that we probably overdid it with Jasmine and that we should tone down her exercise, feed her more ice (rather than treats), cut her food back to facilitate weight loss, and feed her twice a day (rather than one big feeding). Now Jasmine has breakfast and dinner. :)

However, Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning she was still doing the crazy hacking and just not being her usual wild self. I am hoping that it is only allergies and the benadryl I am giving her will ease her discomfort. If not, off to the vet we will go.

A Tiger Fan for Life

We received the following picture from Jared's parents. No wonder my husband loves the Clemson Tigers so much. He has since childhood.

ER Visit

Thursday night I had a tumble on the softball field and ended up going to the emergency room. I had hit into what seemed to be a double play ball and was trying to beat it out when I tripped over first base (or so I'm told). I smacked me head and my right shoulder pretty hard. When I came to, I didn't know what happened to me and had some memory loss. My shoulder was in intense pain. Jared ended up taking me to the ER. I was diagnosed with a concussion and a sprained shoulder. He prescribed some pain medication and gave us some disharge instructions. I don't remember much of that b/c they'd give me a shot of pain killer at some point while I was there.

Yesterday I wasn't able to move my shoulder without excrutiating pain. Today, I can move my arm from my elbow down; however, if I move my shoulder it still hurts really badly. My head, where I hit it, still hurts badly. I'm hoping I'll feel better soon.

Kids say the darndest things

A friend of mine sent me an email about her daughter, Ally, yesterday. What a funny story! See below.

Ally asked "who gave me this book?" I said, "Eli's Aunt Sandi. We have a picture of her on our fridge. She used to babysit you." She said, "Oh! She has blonde hair!" I said,"Yes!" She said, "And she's dead!" I said, "No! It's been awhile since we have seen her but she is not dead." She looked so puzzled, and we had this same conversation the next day, and she kept saying "You told me she was dead." Finally, I said, "Do you think that Eli's Aunt Sandi has short blonde hair, is in a pink dress, and is on a magnet on our fridge?" She said, "Yes!" I said, "That's Marilyn Monroe." So there you have it. You have been mistaken for Marilyn Monroe!

The Weekend

Saturday, we once again took Jasmine to the park. She has such a great time there. While we were there, we realized how fat our darling dog is. She chased and chased after balls her fat belly jiggling all the while.

Later that evening, we took steaks to Tom and Shannon's and had dinner with them. Their daughter, Megan, dressed up in a lovely white dress to greet us. She was cute as pie and seems to have a crush on my husband. Their other daughter is growing like a weed. She was sitting up and smiling.

Sunday, my mom was in town. We went to visit Nikki, Jamie, Eli and Atticus. Eli and I did lots of pretend fishing. Eli was GREAT at casting. It was such a fun time. He pretended to catch bass, whales, sharks and swordfish.

Date Night

Jared and I are so lucky to have so many wonderful friends. Often, it seems that we just don't have a lot of time for "just us." We were really fortunate to have a lovely date night last night. We began our night at our/my favorite pizza place, Blue Moon, then we headed to McCray's Tavern for drinks. It was nice just to have time and conversation with my husband. What a lovely evening.