Yukon is home!

And it was good to hear him snoring last night. He slept through the night too. As a matter of fact he slept from the minute he got home until it was time to go to bed. He got up to potty 4 times, taking some time to roll in the grass on one of those occations, and only got up long enough to eat his dinner and take his meds. Other than that he was lying down snoring. I guess he didn't sleep very well durring his vet hospital stay. Or maybe its just really tiring being a new diabetic. Hopefully he will be back to his normal self soon.

Busy Weekend

Saturday morning started out kind of rough at our house. Our dog Yukon had woken me up in the middle of the night every night starting on Wednesday to go potty. This was very unlike him but I did not really worry about it too much at first, after all he is nine, a senior citizen in the lab world. Friday night he did not eat his dinner. Hmm. Saturday morning he did not eat his dinner - this is cause for concern. Anyone who has ever known a lab knows that these dogs don't miss meals - especially our lab. Yukon tells us that it is dinner time by talking and dancing around. He lets you know what time it is - just in case you forget - by nudging your hand and pointing you in the right direction.

The other thing about Yukon is that before each meal he gets his hot dog full of his medications. He gets 4 pills for his seizures and 2 pills for his bad hips and blown knee. If he doesn't get his meds he won't be able to walk and will start having seizures. We also have to keep him pretty darn regulated for this and he has an internal clock that knows its time for his hot dog and dinner.

So after the 2nd missed meal and 3 nights of interrupted sleep we were off to the vet. As if to demonstrate how much he was not feeling well he decided to throw up in the office right in front of the vet. I was trying really hard not to cry, but by this time I knew something was seriously wrong and was getting scared. The vet decided to keep him and run tests and he would call me when he knew something. So I went home with out him.

In the meantime......

We had baseball games to go to. Today it was back to back games at the same field and only a few minutes away from the vet. T-mans game was fun to watch, and when I say fun I mean that in a "we laughed a lot" way.

So after T-man displayed his awesome fielding skills we headed to the next field to watch J-man play. J-man has been doing really well and hit the ball every time he was up and did good out in the field too. His team did significantly better too and even had a double play. That was pretty exciting.

While we were at baseball I checked in with the vet -

Vet: no blood results yet, can we get a urine sample?

Me: Of course.

Vet: Can we start and IV if we need too?

Me: Um - Yeah.

Vet: Okay we'll call you back.

More baseball.

Finally as we were done with baseball the vet calls again.

Vet- We figured out what is wrong with Yukon. Your dog is diabetic.

Me - What? (Laughing) You have got to be kidding me.

Vet - His sugar is very high and we are going to start him on some insulin and get him regulated. the good news is that it is treatable and will not interfere with his other medications. The insulin will need to be given every 12 hours and will be on the same schedule as his other medications.

Me - (still laughing) So how much is insulin - just give me a ballpark.

Vet - Let me check - a vile is $30 and will last a month

Me - (still laughing) Okay when can he come home?

So Yukon is still there at the vet. He stayed there Saturday and was still pretty sick. Today they said he was feeling better and was eating and drinking but they wanted to keep him one more night to make sure they could figure out the right dose of medicine. I can pick him up tomorrow along with his new meds, new food and big bill. This brings the medication bill up to $130/month. Pet insurance might have been a good idea for this dog.

While Yukon was at the vet spending my next paycheck we had to head down to Portland. We had a graduation to attend. My little sister has a BS and a BA, because apparently one degree is not good enough anymore. So we got there Saturday night just in time to have a family dinner to celebrate. Sunday morning we got to have brunch at The Commons and then we got to sit through a really long graduation. Well I got to sit through it, Mitch took the boys to the park to play cause lets face it, they never would have made it through. It was 4 hours.

We took some pictures after brunch. They might not have turned out all that great, but we were having fun.

There she is! Congratulations Melissa, we are so proud of you!

And Congratulations to the parents who get to stop paying her tuition! Don't they look happy?

A Much Better Day for Baseball

Today J-man had another game. This one was actually enjoyable. It was a little cold out, but there was no rain and the field was dry. What a concept. The game itself had it's ups and downs. J-man was the first batter and had 2 hits - technically one single and one sort of "Bad News Bears" play by the other team, but we are not picky and will take a base when we can! The down part came in when he sort of took a pitch (from a machine that the coach loads) in his thigh. The coach was trying to make a slight adjustment and well - whoops - that is going to be a good bruise tomorrow. We walked it off a little bit and then went right back up there to get our second hit. We're tough. Okay so both of us were crying, but he was in pain and I can't stand to see my baby in pain.
The only balls he fielded today were in warm ups, because nobody hit it out to left field today. J-man was a lonely fielder out there today, doing some arm spins and squats, I would assume that was to stay warm. Or awake. Anyway, it was very entertaining for me. T-man was with us, but luckily there was a playground nearby, so we pretty much didn't see him the whole time. I mean - um - I was watching him play on the playground the whole time.
Mitch helped behind the plate, and while he enjoyed helping the kids set up to bat, he maybe wasn't all that PREPARED for that job. Meaning - well he decided that maybe he should wear a cup to the next game. I suggested that he volunteer to be a base coach instead, it looked way safer to me.
We have an exciting Saturday coming up - Tee-ball!! What could be more fun than J-man playing baseball? T-man playing tee-ball. Oh Yeah. Your gonna wish you had season tickets like I do. Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures so that nobody misses anything! And just in case you were disappointed that J-man won't be playing on Saturday - He is! Yep, at 2 different fields 3 hours apart. Oh yeah and we gotta squeeze in team pictures at some point too, at yet a different field. Whole day - baseball. I did hear a rumor that it might not rain on Saturday, so it might not be so bad after all........

Snow. Here. April 20.

This is what we woke up to this morning. Nice wet, fluffy snow all over my SPRING plants. Is it just my imagination or was the beginning of Spring 1 month ago? I am pretty sure that it was way back in March on the 21st. That was 30 days ago. Mother Nature needs to check her calendar. This is baseball season. This is the last 60 days that we have to get ready for summer. Yes it is only 60 days away, so NO MORE SNOW. And if it could just warm up past 60, that would be great too.

What a fabulous day for baseball!

Yep that is hail that you see coming down on the baseball field and they were still playing in it. I stayed in the car for the first half of the game because T-man had fallen asleep on the way to J-mans game (Thank you T-man). When he woke up we ventured out to watch the game. I felt so bad for those boys. The field was a mud pit, it was about 40 degrees out and they were being pelted with hail. Nice. The coaches called the game after about 1 1/2 hours and because some of the parents had started just taking their kids and leaving and they couldn't fill the field any more. I got to tell you if Mitch had not been there I would have taken J-man and got out of there, I thought that playing baseball in the hail was a little extreme, but then maybe I am just a big wimp. I like indoor sports. Or watching outdoor sports from the comfort of my living room. I can't wait for summer. Spring sucks.

I think I like Smilebox

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

The Magic Kingdom

Well there it is, The Magic Kingdom. This is where we spent the last week and a lot of our money. It was too long of a week to write about all in one sitting and I have over 600 pictures to help tell the story. We had a great time and we are exausted. Now I need to go on vacation from my vacation!