My Best Four Legged Buddy . . .

  A few months ago I began to notice Koda (our dog) getting slower and stiffer to get up and down, especially if she had been doing something extra that day. I just thought that she was getting older. Then I started noticing Koda getting thinner and her coat looking raggy and she just didn't have her usual energy. So we decided to take her to the vet and get things checked out. We had just had her in for her annual exam in April. We went and she had already lost 3 pounds. The vet wanted to take blood and do a chest X-ray to check her heart. She has always had a heart mermur, so she wanted to make sure the heart wasn't enlarged. Everything came back normal to the vets dismay. She said with a dog of her age (8) and her health record (not good) she doesn't like to see these tests come back normal. She said cancer is usually the culprit in these situations:( She asked to do further testing to see where the cancer is, but we declined. And that was that. As we all know cancer is ....... (I can't even describe it)   The vet said to give it time and when she starts having more symptoms we can bring her back in and decide on some sort of comfort measures. Since the vet doesn't know where the cancer is, she couldn't elaborate on what to expect. 

  I got Koda when I was leaving for Kalamath Falls for college. I took her everywhere with me and she has always been an amazing dog. Yes, she has had quite the stent of health issues in her wonderful dog life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. She kept me company while I was way from home by myself and I will forever be thankful for that. We spent many nights sleeping (or not) together because we were home sick and our neighbors were loud and scary. I know that she loves me. I will never have another dog that will live up to her. She was my best buddy when I needed it, and I was hers:) She is the most loyal dog I've ever seen. Sadly as we've added to our family she has been rooted out a bit. She now sleeps in the garage in her heated dog house (sometimes with her own special heater on extra cold nights) instead of right by my side in the house. I now feel more guilty than ever for this. 

  So for now we are just holding our breath hopeing and praying that the vet is wrong. But I knew what was going on before I made the appointment. That's why I made it. Mothers intuition I suppose. I'm unprepared and uncertain of the future with her. I'm not sure what to expect 1 year, 4 months, the unknown is very scary for me. And to think we are talking about a dog here. We will just deal with what's thrown at us and hope for the best. Koda has three people in this world that she lives and breaths for, my Dad, Jordan, and myself. She literally could care less about anyone else. And I can tell you that all three of us are heart broken already. I'm not sure I've ever seen Jordan get so emotional when I told him what the vet said. We were both very sad campers:( I can't even imagine what it will be like when "the DAY" comes. 

  I hate writing sad blogs, but for some reason it makes me feel better. Please keep Koda in your thoughts and prayers to help keep her happy and peaceful. 

Memorable Memorial . . .

  I know I probably say this about every coast trip, but this one was by far the best yet. We left for Coos Bay on Thursday and stayed until Sunday about 4ish. Which is different from how we usually do it. We usually get there Friday and leave early Monday morning. I liked this time better, it gave us the whole day Sunday to play and then Monday to be home and unpack. We camped with the regular gang and had such a blast. All of our families mesh so well and the kids are all the same ages, it's just perfect. The three big kids rode their quads so good. It was the cutes thing ever to watch them ride around and try to follow single file on trail rides. It was more like bumper quads. The first one would stop and the next two would both bump into the one in front. Austyn was the only one that crashed. I wasn't there to see it, but I'm told that she was tough and got right back on. I'm sure it helped that I wasn't there. The weather worked out perfectly. Sunny, sunny, sunny the whole time! We usually aren't that lucky on Memorial Day to get such great weather. We went to the beach everyday and it was gorgeous. And of course Austyn couldn't help herself but to run around in her undies all weekend. She was called "underwear girl". She even rode to the beach in her undies and rubber boots. Only my kids! I'm so glad we are able to give our kids such amazing memories ans experiences to take with them forever. I know they are pretty little (especially Quade) to remember this stuff, but we will keep it up so they will remember. 

  Jordan is pumped that this is the first summer we have ever been "free" to do whatever we want. We have never had an open summer before. We were always doing summer term of college, working summer jobs, going through his academy for his job, planning our wedding, me pregnant with a bum back, engineer development program, and then building our house. So he has like 5 or 6 camping trips planned. It feels good that we don't have anything going on. But I know one of those camping trips will be taken up by hay season. But we don't mind, we both really enjoy hay season. Our next adventure is the second weekend in June, we haven't figured out where we are going yet. And then the next weekend we are going to Fall Creek. We have one camping trip in July for sure, possibly two. But the one that is scheduled is going to be new for me. Horse camping! We are going to Thompson Reservior with Jordan's family and taking all the horses to ride around. I'm excited. I hope Chocolate Chip like it. Then in augurs we have our annual Crab trip with Jordan's work. It's going to be a fun summer. 

  I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend like we did. 

Quade with Cha Chas chew can

Our camp

The three amigos ( Hayden, Austyn, and Ty)

Undies and rubber boots. Can't get much better than that. 

The first of many trail rides. 

A Pain in my Backside . . .

  For the last week I have had the worst back attack. I usually know what I've done to cause my back to go out. But I can't figure it out this time. I think it went out because of my level of excitement for getting Austyns pony;) I'm so thankful that I have Jordan and my parents that live so close to help me out with the kids. My poor family! I had to take pain pills for my back and they make me kinda loopy (complete understatement). I went to get flowers for the front of our house and I normally get colors that match or just one color. Oh no, not this time. I was in my happy pain pill place and let Austyn get whatever colors she wanted. She enjoyed the hell out of it. But now we have a rainbow flower mix. And the kids have liked it lately they get whatever snacks and dinner they want. "Oh, you don't want a well balanced meal for dinner? Ok you can have PBJ and fruit snacks!" Good thing my back is better!  My kids were getting away with murder. 

  It so easy to take your health for granted. I'm thankful that my family and myself are very healthy people with no major medical problems. I hate relying on people to help me for a few days here and there when my back acts up, I couldn't imagine needing someone constantly for other issues.  

  On a lighter note, we are going camping at the coast for the weekend. I'm so excited. This is going to be the best camping trip yet. The kids are prefect ages. And the weather is suppose to be great. I hope everyone has a safe Memorial weekend. 

Just Horsin' Around ...

 Ok so we've been doing all things horse lately. I'm loving every second of it and Austyn is actually getting more comfortable with it. We started off entering Austyn in the Junction City pet parade. Austyn dressed up as a fairy and rode a Unicorn! It was so much fun putting the costume together. I was so excited I couldn't sleep the night before. She loves the parade thing. She really gets a kick out of waving at everyone. We got second place! Then we just so happened to stumbled across the perfect pony for Austyn. We went and looked at her several times. We were able to take her for a day and go for a little trail ride with the whole family. She did amazing. We brought her home to our house on Monday!! I'm in love with the pony. Her name is Chocolate Chip she is a registered POA. She is 16 years old, so she has many many years left on her. We were able to fix Grandmas horse barn up for her and keep her there. I can't thank my Grandma enough for giving us the opportunity to keep her at our house. We have been going out in our jammies in the mornings to feed her and play with her. I'm on cloud nine. I didn't realize how much I missed the horse thing. I've never seen Austyn so comfortable around a horse like this one. She's going to like this horse thing one way or another Dang it :) 

 Kids are absolutely amazingly perfect. Austyn is almost done with school. Thank God. I hate her going to school. It didn't bother me too much in the winter, but now that it is nice out I can't stand it. We are "sun sick" quite a bit. There is just not enough hours in the day to play outside. Especially when we have to stop for nap times ( sometimes it's hard being the adult and stop playing to go give naps) :( My heart is so happy with her right now. She decided all of a sudden that she wanted to ride her quad all by herself. So just about every night we ride little quads for hours. She is so good. So between her completely into the quads and getting so so so much more comfortable with the horses. I can't hardly stand myself. I know, I know, I'm a weird mom. 

  Quade is developing into quite the independent little man. He is the most determined young man I've been around. He just does his own thing and is completely happy with that. He is still 100% a mans man. He would much rather be with Jordan, my dad, or my brother over me. He is also getting pretty rough with everyone. He loves to rough house and climb on everything. A good way to describe him is a BOY. He loves getting dirty (and he is very good at it) and anything with water or a motor. He loves working in the garage with Jordan. I was in there the other day and he went over, picked up a screw driver and started "working" on his quad. It was just adorable and he was so proud of himself. He is now 15 months old. He is saying so many words. And mimicking everything. He watches Austyn and then goes and does whatever she just did. It's amazing how much faster the second kid learns to do things. He is just an all around good boy. 

 Jordan has been busy with his normal stuff lately. Working on rigs, quads, doing random projects I throw at him (like getting the barn ready for a horse), normal work aound the house (mowing, spraying, etc.), and his usual overtime at work. He tore our camper completely apart and put new supports throughout and re-sealed everything. So we should be good to go for our camping season coming up. He is incredibley smart at stuff like that. We have a camping trip planned every month this summer. I can't wait. I love camping. And the kids will be so much fun. 

 And as for me, I'm still working out and eating better. I'm pretty impressed with myself that I've kept with it this long. I started in January I think, and I've continued and made so much progress since then. I'm excited to see the results I've gotten. I'm going to keep it up and keep hitting my goals. 

 I'm thinking we are going to have one amazing summer ahead of us. The kids are so fun and we live in the best spot with the river and quads and now a horse. If only we didn't have nap time and we had more hours in the day:) I hope everyone is getting amped up for summer like we are. My one goal for this summer is to get some sort of tan on my pasty white legs. I think they are immune to the sun, but we will see what happens.