Monday, May 12, 2008

Shake the $ tree for me

The $ of gas means I will be enjoying my backyard as the only alternative to being in my house this summer. We have a trip to TX planned sometime in June/July and I am fretting about how much it will cost us round trip. Should I add a second mortgage to cover the charges? Okay so it isn't that dire....yet. The price of everything is up. I am shopping at the commissary on base now even though it is a longer drive than Walmart just to save a few bucks. If someone had told me in high school that I would become a coupon clipper I would have laughed. Not laughing now.
Not to mention the pandemonium at your local Walmart on payday is nothing compared to the commissary any day. If your lucky you might even run into a wife that thinks she can pull her hubby's rank on you over the last box of cereal. Oh yeah, it has happened.

Starting to look like J is going to be out of the military sooner rather than later. He has been diagnosed with exercised induced asthma. His brother has asthma but J never had a problem until about a year or so ago. All of a sudden the man can't breathe after he works. J is not the type to sit still either. He has to have a million projects and run 90 to 0 just to feel like he is functioning. He is the polar opposite of me in that respect. I hate stress and he thrives on it. The Doc told him that it is easy to manage his asthma. He just has to take his new handy dandy inhaler before he does anything extraneous. That dos not work out so well with deployments. Can't really tell the people shooting at you to give you a 20 minutes head start per Dr's orders. If the military cannot deploy you what good are you to them?
So everyone pray that J gets a great job quick so our little family stays financially sound!

Friday, May 2, 2008

RIP Lily


The introduction of our newest family member has been bittersweet. More sweet than bitter. Another child brings more stress to a household. I think we have handled it very well but it caused a very hard decision to be made. My Siberian husky Lily had to be put to sleep. She was aggressive towards Rory and we had always kept them apart but one night last week she finally made a move. The ticking time bomb went boom. She did not even touch him but you could tell she really wanted to. I felt like a monster but I have to protect my babies. We thought about giving her to a new family but with her aggression problems it really was not a good idea. What if she bit someone? Besides the legal liability I would feel awful. We had tried animal behaviorists and they told us she was pretty much set like she was. The thing that makes me so mad is she was not always like this.



When J joined the USAF and we moved to our base we could not find an apartment that we could afford and have pets. We left her in my father's care. Bad idea. He allowed his Dalmatian and Lily to fight. Knock down drag outs that required stitches for his dog every time. You would think the price of vet bills would make him try to keep them from fighting but no. He didn't even tell me what was going on so I could try to make different arrangements. My nice sweet baby girl was turned mean.



At least she will no longer be bothered by her seizures. I stayed with her until her heart stopped. One of the hardest things I have ever done as a pet owner.