Anya Video

Rest in Peace Gimli

Our dear, sweet puppy passed away this morning around six am. He was six and a half years old and very much loved by our family.

October 16th, 2003 - March 19th, 2010

We adopted Gimli in December 2003 - he was seven weeks old and could fit in our hands at the time. Of all his litter, he was the calmest when we picked him and the runt of the litter. Boy did he deceive us on both accounts. It soon became apparent that he had quite a bit of energy bundled in that tiny little package and of course he didn't stay tiny for long.

Even though he was a mini-dachshund, when he was full grown he was larger than mini-doxies were supposed to be but not fat at the time.

We found out in February 2004 that we were expecting Jadzia and eventually Gimli transferred the majority of his affection to Robby. Robby was his chosen human and they were very close.

When Robby left for Basic Training - Gimli was darn near depressed and moody but we mustered through it. While in Texas, we had three cats who Gimli loved - mostly chasing them around the apartment and playing with them. Of course the cats didn't always like his particular means of "play". But Rajah and Gimli made friends with each other.

There was never any doubt that we would bring him with us to Hawaii, even with the three month quarantine they have in place here in Hawaii. We visited him at the quarantine station as often as we could and he was well taken care of there and grew chunkier.

When the three months were up, we were thrilled to bring him home. We'd adopted Bluto a couple weeks before then and were expecting Anya a few weeks later so it was a busy start to the summer.

Gimli managed Robby's deployment better than he handled the original training but a couple months after Robby left, Gimli had severe neck pains. We went to the vet and they explained that this was an issue common in dachshunds. I don't remember what it's called, I may have blogged about it about a year ago. But they gave him anti-inflammatory medication and told us to try to keep him from jumping on furniture, rough housing with Bluto, etc. A few weeks on the meds and he was back to his old self and disgruntled that I wouldn't let him jump as much.

In August, Bluto passed away and very shortly after we got Jasper - a beagle puppy. Robby was home on leave at the time thankfully. Jasper and Gimli got along well - better than he did with Bluto I think because Jasper was never very much larger than Gimli.

A week ago, Gimli began to limp and by the following morning he was not using his back legs at all. We rushed him to the vet, who rushed us to another vet. They strongly recommended surgery to recover use of his legs. Sadly the surgery was far more than we could begin to afford so they recommended getting him a doggie wheelchair. Chances were he'd never regain back mobility but he would be able to continue leading a happy doggie life. We brought him home and started the process of getting one.

Over the course of the week, Gimli was doing fairly well considering the circumstances but he took a turn for the worse on Wednesday night. He wasn't wanting to eat or drink on his own and simply wasn't himself - even the "himself" he'd been since losing mobility. Yesterday he seemed to improve in some areas and ate and drank so we all hoped he would bounce back but as the night continued, it became clear that it was almost time. I stayed up with him snuggled with me on the couch until he quietly passed away this morning.

He was a great dog and will be sorely missed. Rest in peace puppy and say hi to Bluto for us.

The blog post is brought to you by the word "Wow"

Oh what a day. My dad is getting married again! I'm happy and thrilled for him but I'm still kind of in the "wow-factor".

Inara, my 3 year old, has ringworm apparently - and sensitive skin.

And my card number was stolen along with a lot of money that we now have to contest.

Good times....

Did I saw wow?

Inara's Green Party

So about a month ago I asked Inara what she wanted to do for her birthday party. She said she wanted a "Green" party. I attempted to suggest things like Tinkerbell, Shrek, etc - that are green - but she was hooked on "Green". So we had a Green Party today. And can I just say, there isn't enough solid green stuff lol

The Spread
Green juice, green grapes, green apples, green celery, green goldfish (I picked out all the green goldfish from one of the big rainbow boxes lol):


The Green Gifts


Eating time


The birthday Girl




The birthday girl's sister ;)


Gifts!








Doctor Inara ;)


Cake time! This had to be one of the easiest cakes I've made decorating wise lol






The other sister, icing faced ;)




The cake before the candles and cutting. Green icing with green sprinkle shavings. :)


Thanks for looking and thanks for all of Inara's (and Robby's) birthday wishes :)

The Tooth Fairy

Jadzia lost her first tooth! :)

Eleven Months, Two Weeks and Two Days

That's how long the deployment lasted, give or take a few hours. But Robby is home now!

Thank you all for reading, commenting, thinking of us during this long deployment. Peace and love to you all this holiday season!

Cami, Robby and the Girls!

Happy Halloween!!

From the spawn o' Cami ;)



Dorothy


The Tin Man


The cutest cowardly lion EVER




I even got in on it as the Scarecrow




And my dad made these animal masks for their rooms

Totally Random Sim Picture

I've been creating ghosts (which means I have to kill the sim first). I ALMOST freed this man (known as Mr. Muscles) from the fire but didn't. He's a nice ghost though. Okay that's your randomness for this Labor Day

Two Weeks Gone

Two weeks of R&R have passed and Robby has left the island on his way back to Iraq now. we had a good time of course but it was all over too quickly. We took him to the airport this afternoon and were able to get security passes to take him to the gate and wait with him until boarding. Anya was very cranky by then and Inara didn't understand why she couldn't go with Daddy but she recovered so far. Tomorrow will really tell - I still think she will take it worst than the other two. Jadzia cried some but I think that was because of my crying mostly.

Anyway, 3.5 months is much shorter than the first 7.5 months and if we have any luck at all he will be home by Christmas. Here's hoping. Between now and then we have Jadzia's actual birthday, Halloween, T-Day, Grandma's visit and then he'll be home hopefully. Lots to keep us busy yes?

Now for some pictures to wrap up this post :)

Random Pictures

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Yesterday was a bittersweet day. For months, I'd been planning to have Jadzia's birthday party while Robby was home on R&R and I wanted it as close the September 1st as I could since that was only a month early. For months she wanted a Wizard of Oz party so I bought all the stuff for it and when we knew Robby's leave dates we planned it for this past weekend. Since it was really only us and our neighbor's family some things got left down to the last minute. But regardless, there was going to be a party. After taking Bluto to the vet Saturday and still feeling confident that he would recover and be a happy, bounding puppy soon, I started making Jadzia's cake. I had a great mental image of a cake in my head and I so hoped I could pull it off.

Following the directions from here, I set about producing a rainbow cake. I got the "bones" (i.e. the cake itself sans frosting) done Saturday night and put it in the fridge over night (if I learned anything from Belle and Cinderella, I learned that the harder a cake gets from being cool, the easier it is to ice properly.

Sunday morning, Bluto still wasn't well but I went ahead with the decorating of the cake as the party was set for that afternoon at 4PM. It didn't all go exactly according to plan but it came out great in my opinion. The lollipops I'd ordered mostly as party favors/decor turned out the go well with the cake.



I finished the cake and was thrilled with the outcome. Jadzia had seen me decorating it and kept telling me how beautiful it was as she danced around in her Ruby Slippers (yes she put them on as soon as she realized it was party day).

It wasn't long after that that I discovered Bluto had passed. We'd been keeping him in the laundry room where it was quiet and dark per the vet's recommendations and checking on him every hour or so to sit with him, pet him, give him some water, etc. I came out sobbing and Inara immediately came to hug me and Jadzia asked me what was wrong. We had to explain a few times to her that Bluto wasn't coming back as she kept saying "it's okay, he'll be back soon" trying to comfort me. I'm still not completely sure she understands but I've gotten off track a bit. We decided to proceed with the party since Jadzia was excited and it was planned. Robby called the vet (who'd given us his cell phone for the weekend and agreed to meet Robby at the office even though it was a Sunday) and took Bluto up there. I got the kids watching something or other and then cried a lot.

I stalled decorating for awhile but finally starting putting up some balloons and streamers and generally preparing for a 5 year old birthday party. It was small but it was fun. Jadzia opened presents (and made out like a bandit due to mommy's amazon addiction) and then it was time for cake.


Singing happy birthday, see Miss Dorothy.


You saw the outside of the finished product - time for the INSIDE.

The party did a great job of distracting the kids (and Robby and I a little) from Bluto's passing and Jadzia had a good time. After it was over she spent the rest of the night making sushi, stir fry and cookies with her array of Melissa and Doug wooden food I ordered for her.

Rest In Peace Bluto

Born March 18th, 2008
Died August 30th, 2009

I know it's been a few weeks since my last post and now I come back with such somber news but such is life.

Our sweet dog Bluto passed away yesterday. He had a liver disorder and seizures. While the seizures seemed to have been under control, sometime in the early Saturday morning hours he had a seizure (or more than one) while we were sleeping. He had at least 3 more from 7AM until noon that day. The vet put him on various drugs to stop the seizures but he never seemed to recover from the cluster. He was breathing heavily and unable to function Saturday and into Sunday. Then on Sunday he passed away. We don't know if the seizures were the direct cause of his death, if the liver was the cause or if there was some other underlying cause of the seizures which also caused his death.

He will be dearly missed in this family. He was a good, sweet dog and always so great with the kids.

The Spawn

Wish you a very belated Fourth or July or say "We're ready for Daddy" - whichever you prefer. :)

And showing off their pretty towels :)












Wow! All three looking at the camera at the same time!