So Much Gratitude, So Little Time to Blog...

Fortunately, the Lord does not measure my gratitude based on the number of times I blog about it or post it on Facebook.  Because let's face it.  I haven't done much of either lately.  And that's okay.  We've had a lot going on.  There's two family-related incidents worth mentioning here.

I am grateful for my very full life.

This past week Maddox had a croup-y attack around 12:00am Thursday morning.  I say "croup-y" because he wasn't showing many other signs of the croup.  He'd been snarffly for about a week, but I never expected him to wake up crying at midnight because he couldn't breathe.  He wasn't coughing much, but when he did it DID sound like a seal barking.  And when the steamy bathroom didn't work after a little while and his breath kept cutting off, I took him into the local ER.  One nice thing about going in for something like this?  When you utter those magic words, "My kid is having trouble breathing," they take you right back with no waiting. Fortunately, Maddox hasn't been worse for the wear.  He spent the next day or two kind of crazy, but all in all, he's doing well.  

I am grateful for modern medicine and nebulizers.

On Thursday night around 9pm, it became apparent that Gwen's dog, Annabelle, wasn't doing well.  I won't go into the nasty details, but let's just say she had passed some blood clots from nether regions I'd rather not think about.  Trying not to panic, we talked to Gwen and decided to just wait and see how she was doing in the morning before running off to the emergency vet.  Around 4am Friday morning Maddox woke up crying.  There wasn't anything wrong with him that I could tell, so I got him settled and put back to bed.  However, because he woke me up, I was able to see something important.  Annabelle was was still bleeding, and it was all over my bedroom.  I coaxed her out from under the bed and realized that she needed to go to the vet ASAP.  Fortunately, there's a 24-hour emergency vet hospital 10 minutes from my house.  I drove her in and they told me she had lost a lot of blood and needed IV fluids and treatment to get her back to where she needed to be.  It was caused by inflammation in her digestive tract, probably due to something she had eaten that she shouldn't have.  By Friday night she was able to come home.

I am grateful that Annabelle didn't die.  Especially since I'm just her foster mom.

Look closely at her right leg (the one on your left.) See where they had to shave the fur to put in the IV? 

All in all, it's been a rough week.  But there are many other things I am also grateful for.  Such as...

I am grateful for this man, right here. 

 I think it's so cute the way he plans his facial hair experience every winter.  Some men just go for one thing and leave it that way, but not him!  Last year it was a goatee without the mustache.  This year, it's the Fu Manchu.  And look!  He even let me take a picture of the gray in his beard... He probably blames each one on me or the kids.  Whatever helps you sleep at night, Babe.

I'm also grateful for this dog.

She's so cute the way she cocks that one ear up whenever she is listening to me.  She's super-smart, and has tolerated the little "fluffer-nutter" interloper, Annabelle, quite well.  She's only a little jealous that Annabelle gets to sleep with us at night.  

I do think it's funny that she is compelled to go out right after Annabelle has done her business in the backyard and mark over Annabelle's scent.  Just in case there was any question who the yard belongs to.

Now I guess I'll save the rest of my gratitude for another day.  Maybe these last few days before Thanksgiving will slow down a little and I can blog more.

Not.