2 sad, sad stories

*******Disclaimer to Lori--don't read unless you want to be sad, and you have a big box of tissues handy--consider this your warning!!********
I will start off with the story that isn't as sad. As surmised by my title, I'm sure you already know there are two! Last night off we went to t-ball. Great game, by the way, even though it was literally 106 degrees out there. So, a couple of hours later we got home. I went into the playroom to feed the kid's fish, and there is a fish lying on the floor. By itself. All alone. No water, no bowl, nothing. Just a dead fish in the middle of the floor. I yelled at the kids to come in, Janae started immediately howling and crying, because it was her fish, and it was quite dead at this point. Hunter knew nothing about it at all either. So, I figured it must have jumped out. There is no other explanation. So, off we go to PetSmart, have to replace a $2 fish to console my daughter. (And by the way, they confirmed that Bettas get "bored" and start jumping "to entertain themselves") Sometimes it's worth it. The hard part is that she's having to learn about death, and that isn't any fun. I will continue on with that in part 2 here in a minute. So, Janae was crying that she needs her fish, she can't live without her fish, she has to have her fish. A bit dramatic I know, but I do know that if she needs to grieve over a fish, so be it. Now, onto part 2. My 11 year old doggie Aztec hasn't been doing well for a couple of days. On Wednesday night, I went out to get her and actually thought that she had died out in the yard. I was calling and calling for her, she was laying with her back toward me, and not moving. She finally seemed to hear, then she headed for the door, but she's really been acting funny the past couple of days. Not normal at all. So I took her to the vet this afternoon. We spent 3 hours there, they did x-rays and bloodwork. She had a fever, so they thought that there was probably an infection somewhere, but didn't know where. Still don't. Onto the x-rays, this is where I had to grab a tissue. Her heart is enlarged, it's just gotten that way due to her age, and there isn't anything we can do about it. Basically, we are at the point to keep her comfortable. I didn't have to make the hard decision today, they gave her a shot of antibiotics for the infection and Lasix for the fluid around her heart and lungs. She's been having labored breathing, and that is why. So, we came home, she hadn't eaten in 2 days, and hadn't been drinking much, so the vet told us to keep an eye on her and if she didn't eat or drink tonight, she would need to come back and be hospitalized tomorrow for IV fluids. Well, she has something that isn't going to get well, it's not going to get any better, and even though I love her, she's not going to make it much longer. I already decided that I'm not going to start her on IV's because it's not ultimately going to do anything. She'll have to stay at the vet for that, and for how long? Until I decide that I can let her go? She did eat some canned dog food after we got home (yeck!), and has been drinking some, so I think that at least I can postpone that horrible decision past this weekend. I really left the vet thinking that I was going to have to have her put to sleep tomorrow. The last thing in the world I want is for her to be miserable because I can't get past my selfishness to let her go. It's going to kill me,but it's coming, and it's coming quickly. It sounds silly, she's just a dog, but I've had her longer than I've had my husband and children. I do love her, with all of my heart, but I'm going to have to let her go and say good-bye before long at all. So, please pray for me, so that I'll know when "it's time", and that I can do it. I can't even imagine how horribly hard that's going to be. She really does seem to be feeling better, it's been about 3 hours since that huge antibiotic shot, and I think that it has helped, but the end is still inevitable. As it is with every living creature. Sin is horrible, isn't it?? That's why we all have to die, her included. I'll end there, have a good weekend!

Correction

All right, I have to humbly make a correction to a previous blog posting. I called LP &L today, wanting to ask if the peak rates apply to the weekends. I have laundry day planned for Saturday. I was wrong in my previous "rant" that peak means between 10am-6pm. According to the nice customer service lady on the phone, peak means "over your average usage". And they take the average between the months of Nov-Feb. So, anything over the average use of those months bumps you waaaaaay up into peak. So, if anyone waters your lawn at all, you are most likely going to go over your peak. John said that we'll just water all winter long, and up that usage, so that the summer won't be so bad. Hmmm, I see the reasoning in that, but wouldn't that be "cutting your nose to spite your face"? So, feel free to wash all day long, it won't affect anything. It still really stinks though!

Africa

Tuesday my parents left for a mission trip in Zambia, Africa. Why I didn't take any pictures, I'll never know. They were going from Dallas to London, London to Switzerland for a couple of days, then onto Zambia. I know that they are having fun, and will be blessed by this trip. They went 2 summers ago as well. So, please pray for safety for them while they are over there, we have a couple of phone numbers for emergencies, but other than that probably won't hear from them. Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know about that!

It's a dog's life...

Okay, this post is mostly about the water bill, I need to gripe a little bit, but today as I looked out the window, I happened to see this poor, poor, mistreated dog laying out in the backyard. I thought it was quite humorous that she was laying half on and half off of the clubhouse. Doesn't everyone feel sorry for her?
She leads such a rough life. Now....on for my griping. Last month our water bill was $123. What??? Now, I have to say that this does NOT include electric, we have another company for electricity, and that in itself is another story. So, this bill is for water, sewer, storm drainage, (whatever that is!) and garbage. Well, I paid last month, our bill is generally about $75 in the summer, so this was way high already. I vaguely remembered hearing that the water rates were going to go up, and the citizens of our fair city were in somewhat of an uproar, but I didn't ever really investigate it.

Well, yesterday I got this month's water bill. Ready??? $150!!!!! What the heck?? I looked at it and they are charging us over $4 per thousand gallons used in peak hours. And we had ALOT of peak usage. We've been letting the kids do the water/trampoline thing in the afternoons some while it's so hot, but only for 10 minutes tops. So, we decided no more of that. Then today, in the middle of the morning, as I was loading up the washing machine with load number 3 of about 6, for our mid-week washing, I realized how much water I was using in the middle of the day doing laundry. And the dishwasher was ready for me to run it as well. I got to thinking that it's GOT to be that causing our bill to skyrocket. Isn't that the stupidest thing??? It's the same amount of water that I'd be using in the evenings or middle of the night, but I'm getting screwed by washing during the day. All I can say is: this stinks! I'm going to start doing dishes and laundry around (not during) the hours of 10am-6pm and see what next month's bill is. Just a warning to everyone, be careful how much you wash......

Sleepover

Hunter had his first sleepover last night. It was at our house. We had tried one other time, but his friend didn't make it....we had to call mom. Hunter had cried and cried that night, he was so disappointed. Janae is frequently getting to spend the night/have someone spend the night with her, and although there is a 3 grade difference between them, he feels that it is very unfair. So, last night after t-ball, he and Miles started "begging" (and they weren't afraid to admit they were begging), and we gave in. Hunter came up to me and said "I have a puppy dog face, please, please, please!!". Now, how can I say no to that! Although, I strongly told him it wasn't because of the begging that he was allowed to have a friend over. Can't encourage it, I certainly don't want that to become a habit, even though I thought it was humorous last night. Whew, this was at 11:45 last night, when they finally were both asleep. We started trying to wind down at 10:30. Kinda hope we don't do this again for awhile...I'm beat! They were both very good, but I don't stay up late...and I was soooo ready for them to go to sleep. I went in there and sat on the bed for 1/2 hour, otherwise, they might still be up this morning!!!

Leak!!!!

Ah, where to begin telling this story?? Last week, Thursday night, it started raining, so I went out to the garage to turn off the sprinklers so they wouldn't come on Friday morning. No need to waste water! Well, when I went in there, I saw a puddle of water on the cement beside the A/C and water heater cabinet doors. Open them up, and there is water standing inside. I could also hear a dripping sound, that was loud, at least loud for a dripping. I checked the filter to the A/C and the filter is wet, and water is "plopping" through there. It was more than dripping, so I'm going to say "plopping". That's exactly what it sounded like. I'd never seen that before. So, of course, Hubs is at work, and I called him. (It's only about 11pm at this point. What better time of day for this to happen???) He couldn't see what I was talking about, of course, so I just told him about it and then went off to bed. There wasn't any water by the time he got home on Friday morning, so we figured maybe somehow the rain had blown in???!! (Not very intelligent, I know, but sometimes you just try to convice yourself there won't be anything major wrong with the A/C.) So, since it was dry, we didn't think too much more about it. Freak thing. Wrong! Our bedroom closet shares a wall with that garage closet. Saturday morning, I went in there, and saw that a box that's sitting in the floor is wet. Like 2" up the sides, no mistaking it is wet. Walked toward it, and the floor is squishing. AUUUGGGGHHHH!!! Back to the garage. Still dry out there, and the wall inside the house closet is dry, so obviously something is leaking through the floor. Off goes all the air, and on go the fans into the closet, because of course there is no vent in there, and it already smells musty. I think that the water had started leaking back through there on Thursday, and I didn't know it until Saturday. Shoo-wee!! By the way, we have a huge closet, and this is the side that I just stash everything in that I don't know what else to do with. We had a guy from church come over that works on houses for a living, and he thought it was a pipe plugged up, causing condensation to back up into the blower. Left the A/C off all day on Sat, got the floor mostly dry, but had to turn it back on to sleep. Sunday, the floor is wet again!!! So off goes the A/C, and we call first thing Monday morning. I have to interject here, that we have a Betenbough house, and I know they are not the "ritz-est" houses, but they came right over on Monday morning and fixed it. For free. Zero. Not one penny. Hallelujah!! No problems since, I'm happy to say. I put baking soda down on the carpet to try to help absorb some of the musty odor last night, and it worked well. I moved all the stuff back into the closet, and I think that we can close the book on this ordeal. I'm sure that there will something else before long, stay tuned!! And yes, it was a plugged up pipe--it was causing condensation to back up into the blower, then come under the floor into the house. Who would have thought?? (Besides our friend from church, of course!!)

Ouch!

John has been having shoulder pain the last few days and headed to the doctor yesterday morning. He has a grade 1 tear in his rotator cuff. An Rx of sterioids and physical therapy is in order. Here is the good part, he works at a rehab hospital, which is full of physical therapists, and they are going to help him out with that! Our insurance does cover physical therapy, but not until after the deductible, of which he has so far met zero of! So, they are going to get with him and see what they can do. I'm so glad that he went yesterday, because he was planning to play in a golf tournament on Saturday, and knowing him, he probably would have, even through the pain. The doctor told him that if the tear was any worse, it would require surgery. And I have no doubt that after a golf tournament, it would have been worse! So, hopefully, after the steriods kick in, he'll start feeling better. Right now, he doing alot of moaning and groaning! :) tee, hee