Sick Pup and Kickin It Poolside: Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Our family had been planning to head to St. Augustine, FL for a weekend at the beach to celebrate my dad's birthday. I had been soooo excited to head to the beach with the family especially since work has been pretty busy lately. We were ready for some R&R!

Then last Wednesday happened....

I was working at home when I heard rummaging sounds from the other room. BONES....blissfully attacking this vicious box! Note tongue sticking out...sure sign of bliss. haha! I then headed to our bedroom where I found an empty chewed up doggie pain pill bottle. Problem: No pain pills to be found!!! 

Chloe had ingested at least 10-13 quartered pain pills. Our Vet considered this an emergency and asked me to immediately bring her in. I was SOBBING. Had I near killed her? Had I caused her kidneys or liver to shut down? I had been the one to leave the pill bottle on the counter. 

Chloe stayed in the hospital until Friday afternoon when two sets of lab work came back normal. I couldn't have thanked God enough. I'm very attached to my Chloe bear. All was going to be OK.

Friday evening Tim and I made cupcakes for the holiday weekend and my dad's birthday.

We make our own buttercream icing and since I ran out of butter and used soft tub butter our stars ended up being blue dots. DETAILS, eh?!?! 

Sabbath morning (Saturday morning), we woke to a sick bear (um, that's Chloe). I called the vet and they asked me to come back in for more medicines and to discuss a game plan.

Poor little thing. I felt sooo incredibly awful. All of this had been my fault. I had the pills out in the first place because she had hurt her paw the weekend before on the patio. We knew we couldn't take her to the beach because the mess it would make, no vets close enough there should we need one, and just needed her to stay home to rest. All of our friends and family were out of town celebrating the holiday so we knew we had to cancel our trip to the beach. 

INSERT PARENTAL LESSON: There are going to be plenty of times our kids in the future will get sick and we're going to have to stay home. We have not had to cancel a trip or anything yet due to pets being ill or anything so this was our first time without a way to keep the vacation in motion.

Tim went to church (we had made a commit to do a reading up front) and I stayed home to make sure Chloe was alright while watching church online. That afternoon we hung out at the pool listening to Sabbath music and reading. 

I went to my brother's house to check in on their pets...HELLO BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS!!! They are sooo cute! Their flowers were so bright and GORGEOUS!!!

Saturday evening we sat outside and felt the air cool, the breeze pick up and watched the wildlife in our backyard. Get this....hawks, bluejays, cardinals, hummingbirds, graceful butterflies, squirrels and even the various spiders were pretty!!! We just watched the sunset and the clouds form. Wonderful Saturday evening given the circumstances.

Sunday we did our yard work and laundry...pretty typical and INSANELY exciting Sunday eh???

Chloe seemed to be doing a little better. 

Then I remembered I had been wanting to clean our patio windows...Ok, I have to be honest....last year we had a our pool deck, pool and pool tile re-done and the work left this film on our windows. Did you catch that??? LAST YEAR!!!! Um...I am a little behind on the cleaning windows deal! haha!

Our friends (Suz and Isaac) told us about this MAGICAL solution! This made our work sooooo easy! Just plug your hose into it and VOILA, instant windex pressure washer!!! Seriously, this stuff is magic!!!

SHINY!!! 

I got sooo obsessed with the cleaning that I decided to go ahead and pressure wash the pool deck! Ok, so it took me a year to get it done, but hey....the patio looks nice now! 

I knew my family was LOVING the beach and I was sad we couldn't be there. So I figured I would bring the beach feeling home!!! No, I didn't bring sand onto our newly cleaned patio!!! LOL

We made virgin Pina Coladas....DELISH!!! To make them super fancy, we threw an umbrella straw! Really drives the "Vacay" feel home!!! HA! HA!

We, once again, soaked up more Florida sun!

P.S. The hubs....yea, he's TOTALLY DREAMY!!!

Sunday evening we used our homemade citronella candles (yep...and they're sooo easy to make!! Swing over via the page up top, Threads of Fler, to see how we made them.)

Citronella is ESSENTIAL here in Florida. The mosquitos are HUGE and can take pints of blood out of you in a moment! I'm not kidding, they leave the biggest welts. 

For dinner we made one of our favorite meals....HAYSTACKS!!!

SO REFRESHING!!!

What's a Haystack you ask???

Well, you layer the following:

1. fritos

2. Black Beans (or veggie meat, real meat, refried beans...whatev!)

3. Cheddar Cheese

4. Lettuce

5. Tomatoes

6. Olives

7. Onions

8. Sour Cream

9. Salsa

10. If you have it: Guacamole, Jalapenos 

You'll die! Perfect meal to wrap up a sunny day!

Monday hubs let me sleep in and he took care of our animal herd. Chloe was feeling better with one particular symptom, but then started with another. UGH...poor little girl. When I got up he had coffee made and breakfast in the works!

Today is my dad's birthday and I'm feeling bummed I am not with them. Just not right. Sad. 

(Ok, those are veggie bacon strips....aka, Morning Star Stripples)

Don't giggle...I promise they are good!!!

Guess what else we did Monday...yep, hung out at the pool!!!

Then we ate at 4 Rivers BBQ 

HELLO HEAVENLY BBQ!!! 

Ya, I know, I talk about veggie food a bit and then I throw in this curveball!!! haha!

We ate so much we are thinking we'll be taking a pass on dinner! WHOA...SO FULL!!!

I had the pulled chicken over an amazing biscuit, fried okra, and mac n' cheese. I rarely eat meat these days, but once in a blue moon...

Tim had the burnt ends, fried okra, and mac n' cheese. BTW, have you guys ever had Cheerwine pop??? Tim snagged this old school pop up with his meal. I stuck to diet coke. :)

As I type, hubs is napping on the couch, I'm still lazy in our pool gear. 

I really don't want this weekend to end. 

Tomorrow means back to work. Back to the grind. 

As much as I missed being with the family at the beach, Tim and I rarely get a weekend where we're 100% lazy. It was awful to see bear to sick, but I'm so glad she seems to be doing better this evening. 

Isn't she beautiful!?!?!

Anyway, hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Most Importantly, we're soooo thankful that this weekend was completely possible because of our freedom! Thank you to all of our friends and family who have served, those serving now and those who paid the ultimate price for people they don't even know. 

Proud to be an American!

xoxo

the reiner casa