Drama, drama, drama... TRAUMA!

Yes... yesterday was traumatic for me. I was looking forward to a nice relaxing morning after 3 weeks of working myself ragged. When I got out of the shower I noticed that my cat Oscar's ear was bent a little weird.

I went up to look at it and he immediately walked away. Then I touched it and it was hard and then I got a good look at it and it was swollen shut with what looked like a tumor or something. I was pretty freaked out and he kept shaking his head so obviously it was not pleasant to him. I called the vet and they were closed but I got the emergency vet to come and they said that it was a hematoma and that they would have to do surgery. I guess what happened was he had gotten ear mites and they were really itchy. He was scratching so hard that he broke the cartilage in his ear and his ear cavity filled with a pocket of blood. I had no idea that something like this could even happen. I feel sooo bad. Anyway they made an incision in his ear and drained the hematoma and then sutured the skin to the ear while leaving open the wound so that it can continue draining for the next week or so. It is super sick.



The surgery took about an hour and he is going to be okay. He has to be quarantined in the laundry room so that Tibbs doesn’t try to play with him, plus he has that open wound still so he is draining blood now and then and it is way gross. I have to give him amoxicillin twice a day. I thought giving medicine to babies is hard. Try giving it to a cat!

So for anyone that has a cat—This is for you! I didn’t know this but ear mites are pretty common and contagious. The vet said that it is one of the most painful things that can happen to a cat. I HAD NO IDEA!!! All of our cats have been adopted so our vet said that they had probably picked it up from the shelter or spread it to each other. (Great… now my other cats have ear mites too?) So I had to give ear drops to my other cats and that was super hard. As soon as I got it in their ears they did the shaking thing and got it all over me like they had just had a bath. Moral of the story—if your cats have dirty ears and scratch them, get them checked out! It might end up saving you $250, not to mention the life of your cat.

Well after I got all three of the cats settled with treatments and meds and quarantined, I look out of my window and what to my wondering eyes should appear but my favorite apple tree divided in two. It was fine before I went to the vet, but in the 2 hours that I was gone it had split right down the trunk and tipped over right next to the house. I am really bummed out because it was a really pretty tree. I need to count my blessings though because it easily could have taken out our back porch or squished Chooch. (It landed right next to his dog house.)

Yesterday was a little crazy; but besides the big pile of future fire wood that needs to be dealt with, everything is actually okay. Oscar is going to be fine, half of the apple tree is still good, I am feeling better about my new reading curriculum and school, and my husband is coming home this week. Count your blessings, name them one by one...

Summer Travel Log 2008

I am back in Idaho now and have been for a couple of weeks. I came back early to get ready for the new school year which started this past Thursday. It is really good to be home, have the internet again, pick my raspberries, and have my pets around. But Daren is still working in Albuquerque and although the comforts of home are really nice, he is the biggest part and I don't think I will feel completely back to normal until he is back here takings something apart or building something.

Hopefully he will be back in a week or two. School starts September 8th for him so he has to be back by then for sure! He has done really well this summer, his goal was 250 installs and he made that a couple weeks ago. He was in the top 10 for company technicians for awhile and he was even offered a lead tech position for next year, but I think we will probably stay put next summer.

It is hard for me to let go of our oh-so-precious summer, but here are a few of our favorite pics from our adventures this summer:

This is our apartment on 5800 Eubank. It was in a nice neighborhood and just down the road from the temple.
Albuquerque is known for its artsy-ness and this is a super cool house that I had to have my picture taken in front of in a neighborhood known as “Nob Hill” (Note: The metal dinosaurs were really cool.)

This is the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple.

We spent the Fourth of July with my old roommate Chelsea Kunz and her family. Her husband Tyson works for Pulte Homes in Rio Rancho, right next to Albuquerque. It was fun seeing her again but crazy to see how much changes in just four years. Four years ago we were sitting up late into the night talking about boys, and homework, and what we should do on the weekend, and now it’s talking about how much we like having our own homes, her two kids and one on the way, what our hubbies are up to, and how I am excited to get back to my job. When did this whole grown up thing start happening? Really?

More Fourth of July. (My Honey holding Chelsea’s girls)

Weirdo pyro husbands making a gigantic smoke bomb. And getting their faces burnt off by sparklers.

We like taking Sunday drives and one day we decided to go and check out the Sandia Mountains just to the east of where we lived. It was amazing because the mountains held back a huge wall of clouds. It was really fun to walk along the edge of that mist knowing how high we were.



There was an old cabin ruin made of rocks up there and we climbed it. I look so cool. Notice the super buff arms. (not.)

Another super awesome thing we did was ride the (supposedly) world's longest aerial tramway. Again these are the Sandia mountains. I think the highest point was about 1000 feet vertical but the mountain was about 11000 feet. (I think.)




One of the best parts of the summer was going to the Black reunion. It is always trips me up a little bit when I see my nieces and nephews and how big they get in the short time that we are away from them. They grow so fast! Daren and I always do a double take trying to make sure we have their names right. When you have 40 nieces and nephews this is quite a task.

The camping resort we stayed at was really fun because it was right next door to the Manti temple and they did really fun things for the kids. They let the kids all have a pony ride. This one made me laugh because KB said to the pony guy, "Can you take this slow? I really want to enjoy this."

Another perk to having a family reunion next to the temple... All the grown-ups got to go! The Manti temple is a piece of Mormon history as it is over 100 years old. The craftsmanship is incredible and it is amazing to know that it was built as a labor of love with just hands and faith. We were so blessed to be able to experience that.

After the reunion Daren and I decided that we weren't done with our vacation yet; so we talked Daren's sister Rachel and her husband Jeremy into going to Arches with us. We had a blast camping and hiking but it was really hot!

This is my favorite picture! Rachel and I are looking at balanced rock off in the distance and Daren or Jeremy took this picture from way up high on the other side of the bowl. I think it was called Triple arch.
Me super exhausted at triple arch.

Rach, Jeremy, and me looking at the oh-so-famous Delicate arch.

This was a really fun trip for us and again were so inspired by God's creations. One cannot help but feel very small standing beneath this impresive rock garden. It was great to spend some time getting hang out with Rachel and getting to know Jeremy (The newest of the in-laws). We will go camping with them again anytime!

Well that is is the end of the travel log photos. I got to visit Prescott on my way home and see my grand parents, aunt, and cousins. I was only there for about 24 hours but it was really nice to see them too. This was a great summer. I hope next year's comes sooner than later.