Not Dead!

Man oh man! It's been a bit of a whirl wind since we got back to the States, but now that I finally had a chance to relax, I can bust out a lovely blog for you folks. Don't you feel special?

Ok, so we managed to finish up cleaning the house in Belgium and did our final walk through. 

Luckily, we got our 1,900 euro deposit back (thank gawd!) and proceeded to migrate over to our temporary apartment till it was time to catch our flight out of Amsterdam. The final few days were bitter sweet..not going to lie. We absolutely love Belgium, the travel opportunities and everything else that's awesome about Europe, but, we're ready to move on with our lives and get settled into our new home. 

If you're a frequent reader of my blog, or actually know me, you know that we have a small horde of dogs. By small, I mean five...and it's definitely interesting when it comes to transporting them, that's for sure. I had to do a "system check" on all the crates to make sure they were all up to snuff when it came to airline requirements. Luckily, all of my prepping paid off because the check-in crew for KLM were stoked that I had everything re-enforced, paperwork in hand, and anything & everything else you can think of that's required to ship a pet internationally. 

Of course, the dogs needed to get their beauty sleep before the big journey, so they made it a point to pretty much push us out of our own bed...

On our last day, Eric and I went on one last Belgian date day and went over to my favorite cafe to grab some awesome tomato soup with a side of cappachino. It was a little depressing, to be honest. I went there so often that the staff knew me, it's always mellow so you can sit & people watch...and their coffee was ALWAYS awesome. Hopefully we'll find a place like that in New Mexico..so that seems to be something to add to our "treasure hunt" in terms of things to find. 

The day had finally arrived for us to leave...it was pretty sad, although, we didn't really have much time to dwell on it en-route to the airport. Once we rolled our six pieces of luggage and five carriers full of dogs, we were immediately directed over to a special ticketing area that takes care of...uhhh...individuals like ourselves, lol. After an hour of checking in, getting the dogs all situated and grabbing a quick lunch, it was time to board the plane and head off to beautiful California! The flight actually went pretty fast, at least to me...it didn't feel like an eleven hour flight, lol. I suppose taking naps and watching all the various "The Real Housewives of blah blah blah" killed time for me. I'm just relieved that we were able to get a straight shot flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco without having to deal with a ton of layovers. Oh, and KLM, if you happen to see this..I love you and your airline ROCKS!

We got to unwind for a few days before Eric had to head out and take care of business in terms of the home we're in the midst of buying. Yes, I stayed here in California while he and John jetted off to brave New Mexico. As of today, we're officially the owners of a home! I'm so excited! Eric went through all the paperwork earlier this week and signed off on everything, including my part of the paperwork with a handy dandy POA...he was displeased with the amount of writing he was required to do in order to officially get the  house. Oh well..he got the keys today and that's all that matters! lol

All the while, we're enjoying our time at Casa de Vandegrift. Izzy and the other furballs have taken quite a liking to my suite and it's awesome bed. You'd think they had been roughing it their whole life or something by the way they burrow into the bed ...

I've been plugging around, meeting up with friends and hanging out with family since my time here is limited. I have about a month left till I need to head on out to New Mexico...well, I'm guessing a month, but it all depends on when my vehicle shows up. Once Big Blue arrives, it's time for me to mosey on out of here so I can start decorating my new house :) I'm sure Eric will be relieved once I'm outta here so I'll stop haunting the Le Creuset place in addition to the various antique places around here...lol. 

I ended up getting a killer deal on a cast iron skillet, oval skillet, 2.5 qt container and a pie bird (all from Le Creuset) for 30% off in addition to another 40%...can you blame me for jumping on that sort of deal??

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to start posting some more blogs as I run around California and throughout the trip to New Mexico for you guys. It's interesting trying to work on my iPad, then my Eee PC since my old faithful laptop isn't functioning at the moment...le sigh. 

Toodles!

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Dumbing Down

The time has come. 

Grimms...uhh..."brains" have completely matured now that he's on the verge of being eight months old.  Not that he's any smarter or anything since he is still rather derpy..anyway...he's not allowed to keep the "brains". For the sake of his health and my sanity, those suckers gotta go. Sorry, Bub! 

I took him to our awesome Vet this morning ...I think he new the jig was up. I mean, I told him we were going to the market and I was gonna get him some bacon & chicken meatballs (he loves those things), so of course he had some pep in his step. The second I pressed the buzzer for us to go into the waiting room of Dr. Hildes office, he started pawing my leg. He knew. 

Sigh. I picked him up and made our way in. Instantly, Dr. Hilde opened the door straight into the exam room and exclaimed "Oh wow! Grimm has gotten big!". Indeed! He's now tipping the scales at a sturdy 17lbs and he's longer than Cole (thankfully, not as heavy). Looks like he's gonna turn out to be a standard size rather than a mini (fine by me!). She was lovin' on his coat color, the fact that he was a very very happy dog, his weight was perfect (yessss!!) and that everything looked wonderful in terms of his health. 

While she let him run around the exam room for a little bit to burn some energy off, she helped me out with all the Puppy Passport stuff I needed to get done for the remaining hooligans. Then came the part where I felt like a bad Mommy. She had me hold him while she shot something into his hind leg that'd make him very..very relaxed. Poor booger screamed like a banshee. I put him back on the ground so he could run around a little more. I swear, within two minutes of the shot, he was PASSED OUT. He was sprawled out under her desk and sawing logs. Man, if only it were that easy to knock him out when we try to sleep at 10pm! Once all the passport stuff was done, she took him to her operation table and had me keep him company while she injected the rest of the anesthesia into him. By doing it this way, he wasn't stressed out with the sight of me leaving him behind or anything like that.  Ohhhh that little booger knew how to pull at my heart strings! He thumped his tail till he couldn't thump it any more and he was in La La Land. I really didn't want to leave him, but alas, I had to...

The time came for me to pick up my little Grimmling from his procedure and he was VERY happy to see me. Dr Hilde told me that the moment I buzzed the main door to come in, he started whimpering and pacing his kennel since he knew I was there for him. Such a smart booger! He was all wiggly (and piddly) and was oh so ready to head on home. Sure thing, buddy!

He's actually fairing pretty well, ya know, considering all the facts. For the next four days, he has spiffy pain meds and antibiotics to take. Then over the next ten days, he can't take a bath and we need to be very proactive about picking him up & setting him down when he wants to get on/off the couches & beds. THAT is gonna be a challenge since he likes to bounce all over the place. Oh well, I suppose it'll be payback for doing *this* to him in the first place. 

On that note, time for me to hug my tender wiener. 

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Animal Party!

As you all know, we're dog people. Hell, we better be considering we have five oh so rambunctious ankle biters! From time to time, co workers of Eric, or friends of friends, like to come by with their fur baby either to have us puppy sit for them, or just help with socializing...even though some of our dogs are rather bratty (Macie, to be specific)..so it makes life interesting in the house. Either way, it leads to entertainment..

On that note, let me introduce you to Doc:

He's a super sweet American Stafford who is like a XL version of Grimm..and he's about as stubborn as a brick wall. We're watching after him for the next week since his Daddy is back in the States to get married to his beautiful fiancee'. 

Doc is about eleven months old while Grimm is just hitting around seven months..so those two have been playing NON STOP. I'll hear random things crashing throughout the house, skidder skattering around corners, yipping and growling..all sorts of mayhem. LOTS of mayhem. Their favorite thing to do is play around my kitchen table. Ehhhh wellllll...play isn't the word. Grimm uses it for hiding purposes from Doc in order to get some sort of relief from the constant stompings and smushings:

For the most part, they play together rather well even though Doc is still learning that he's a lot larger than Grimm.  In the midst of playing, he can get a little carried away and pins Grimm to the floor then proceeds to lay all over him. Who helps to keep him in check when he gets a little too skitzo? Macie, of course! I think she takes over with baby sitting Doc when I'm either worn out from chasing him, or when I actually need to attend to my house and work on things. Eric refers to her as "The Protector of the House"...and she's definitely a force to be reckoned with!

I'll tell you what, I'm seriously shocked as to how "sturdy" this dog is! I realize Staffords are a beefy breed, but this guy is SOLID muscle, and his head is like a ....I dunno how to describe it. I can totally see why they're used as guard dogs, intimidation and all that other manly crap. When he yawns or gets a treat, the noise his mouth makes when he snaps it shut reminds me of an alligator..that large hollow "snap" sound. Then whenever he rests his head on me, you can just feel the weight and how solid his skull is...MUCH different than what I'm used to with my little Dachshunds. But...aside from all of that, he's a complete love bug (as the breed is in general) and it's rather disheartening that the mass has such a bad reputation. When in doubt, cookies get them to behave...

So, there you have it. I'll definitely be kept busy for the next week whilst I wrangle a super wiggly Doc, attempt to make progress on prepping for the movers next month, trolling for a home in New Mexico and trying to squeeze in a nap at some point. 

Whhheeeeeeeeee!!

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It Fits...It sits.

So, this is a follow up for the post about my newly acquired hutch. After posting pictures of it on my Facebook page, several folks inquired about where it was gonna end up in my house. Ya seeeeee.... my Belgian house isn't exactly spacious. In fact, it's pretty cluttered, especially since I've taken up the hobby of hoarding antiques & all things deemed "cool". 

I ran back over to Slegers yesterday to officially pick up my new wooden jewel. 

Of all the times I've been to that place, I've NEVER been asked to back it into the warehouse in order for them to load it. All the while, I thought I was going to have to pay them to deliver it to the house...but no, they assured me that it'd fit in the Xterra. Remember when I got that awesome old trunk? Well, THAT fit, so surely this thing would. 

After a little finagling, they got the hutch all loaded in and wrapped it up with some moving blankets, then proceeded to do intense boy scout style knots on the back door & bumper to insure that it wouldn't fall out on the way home. I could only imagine hitting a speed bump and that thing slide out and bust into a thousand pieces..oiy! Luckily, I made it home with it in one piece! Yay!

My original plan was to put it in my office since I *thought* I had room in there, but, I don't. I wasn't willing to take all my Venetian masks off the wall because, well, I like them there. I strolled around the house for a bit debating on where it could possibly go..and it ended up making it to the foyer...blocking our french doors, lol. We don't even use those doors, so it's no major loss to me, but it made me realize there's literally no room in the house for any more furniture (to Erics delight). 

Once we made sure all the shelves were stable, we went ahead and moved all my bakers, roasting pans and other various little pottery pieces into it. Ohhhh my gosh! I'm SO happy! I'm totally digging the little hooks that are on the top of the hutch so I can hang our soup cups to free up some space for my other polish mugs in the kitchen. 

As much as Eric likes to give me grief about my purchases, he actually ADMITTED that I did a good job with this find and really, really liked it. 

MAJOR VICTORY FOR ME! 

I'm elated that it's pretty similar to our dining table, so I'm so excited to see how it'll all look together whenever we end up moving into our new home . So for the time being, it'll stay in the foyer since we only have another month and a half till the movers come to take away all my precious treasures and relocate all of them to New Mexico. 

Le Sigh. 

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Happy Glutton Day!

'Tis that time of year again!

It's Thanksgiving! 

Or as well like to call it, "Gluttony Day". 

This years Thanksgiving is definitely low key since it's just Eric, John and myself. Last year, I actually decorated and set the dinner table since we had some close friends over in which I made a lot of grub. I think the only thing in "bulk" that was made this time around was bacon, lol

Every year, I make a different sort of "rub" for the bird since it's nice to always try something new. This time around, I made a thyme concoction in garlic infused olive oil, pureed it and did injections throughout the bird in addition to slathering it all over the skin. Of course, I let it sit over night so it'd soak in a little more. The bird itself weighs 25lbs. Yes..25lbs of turkey for three people. Just take a guess as to who picked it out... At least it'll give me a lot to work with when I make my awesome turkey chili. 

Bacon. 

Everything is better with bacon. Therefor, Thomas the turkey got wrapped up with all sorts of delicious bacon strips. I actually did a "basket weave" with all the piggy pieces ad secured them with toothpicks so they wouldn't fall off during the 6+ hours of baking. 

Eric did his part and packed the turkey silly with garlic infused stuffing:

Here's how it turned out:

We ended up removing the bacon and cooked the turkey for an additional hour and a half (for a total of 7 and a half hours) since the grease from the bacon basically basted the turkey AND the stuffing. By leaving the grease, it allowed the turkey to get nicely browned and kept it extremely moist. 

It came out SO nice! The meat was basically falling off the bird. When Eric grabbed one of the drum sticks, it fell right off without any resistance. Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself, lol.

In addition to the turkey, I made bacon & scallion mashed potatoes and a tray of some biscuits. Oh, and some cans of jellied cranberries. LOL. I wasn't motivated to make an entire spread of food like I normally do because we just don't have the room in the fridge for tons & tons of leftovers. Plus, between my back and knee, I wasn't feeling up to cookin' my ass off all day. All Eric & John care about is the turkey, stuffing and cranberry jelly, so why over exert myself?

For dessert?
Hot chocolate! Yes, I'm sure that just warped your minds because the norm is to have pumpkin or pecan pie. Again, No room for it and it's not a high priority for us, lol. They're happy campers with toffee hot chocolate smothered in whipped cream.

So, I hope everyone has a fabulous Gluttony Day with their loved ones and cheers to the next!

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"Back-ectomy"

This is a little journal I kept over the last several days for when my husband, Eric, ended up going into the hospital to have a procedure done on his back. Who knows, maybe there's other people out there who will go through something like this and it'll give them some insight as to what they should expect. 

Over the years, Erics back has always been a little achy. Some days he's pain free, others he feels as if he's been smacked by a Mac truck. Given, he's on his feet a lot and doing his thing at work, but still, he's only thirty four years old and feels like he's got a lame back. In January, he woke up one morning and he was in a SEVERE amount of pain..so much so that he was on the verge of tears. After a lovely visit to the ER, it turns out that his L4 and L5 were herniated, which totally explained his pain. 

This is an image I found online to show how his discs look. His definitely stick out further than they should!

The doctor at the time recommended that he did physiotherapy for a bit to see how that'd help him out...it worked for a little bit, but after a while, his back would seize up again and caused a lot of discomfort. SO, he opted to try another option which involved getting a cortisone shot in the discs to relieve some of the pain. It was a pretty simple procedure..they gave him an epidural then injected the discs with the cortisone, had him chill in his hospital room for about two hours and sent him on his merry way. I gotta say, it seemed to work almost instantly for him since he was able to walk better (rather than favoring one leg) and within a week, he was allowed to start running again. The thing is, the doctor said there was a good chance that it will wear off within a year or so, but it really depended on how active Eric was in terms of physical activity. Being that he's in the Air Force, he's always gotta work out, run, do push-ups, etc etc. About a month after his procedure, he was sent off to NCO Academy (Non Commissioned Officers) for six weeks, which involves not only learning more Air Force stuff, but he also had to do a lot of physical training. Wellllll.... that seemed to speed up the cortisone breaking down because by the time he got back, he was already starting to have a lot of aches again despite going back into physiotherapy. Once the pain started to become pretty intense, we went back to the doctor and he recommended that Eric have a microdisectomy since doing a cortisone shot over and over again is really bad for you. So, that was scheduled about a month & a half ago and to Eric's relief, the day finally came for his surgery! 

August 8th -Day 1

Eric and I made it to Mariaziekenhuis nice and early over in Overpelt since that's where he was scheduled to have his surgery done. 

Once we got him all checked in, we managed to score him a private room since he was really wanting his privacy during his stay. Belgian hospitals are..err...different when it comes to patients...they tend to shoehorn as many as they can in one room. I'm really glad he had one to himself cause when we were being taken to his room, I happened to see the larger rooms on our way and they had more than one patient in them (some were 3+!) and looked overly crammed. Luckily, his room was a decent size and had everything in there a guy could ask for: tv, radio, mini fridge, wi-fi so he can play on his laptop, private bathroom and shower. He was definitely a happy camper! 

I think he was most excited about the fact that his bed had the ability to expand in length, LOL. When he first hopped on it, his feet were right up against the foot railing and his head came up past the top so he looked a little uncomfortable. When the nurse came back in from getting some of his paperwork, she was able to push a button and it popped out another six inches, added an extension pad in and BAM! You would've never known that it was an expanded bed. How cool, right? Eric was definitely a happy camper:

The nurse that was getting him all set up spoke English and was able to give me a run down as to when his surgery was going to take place and when I should roll back over to the hospital. Poor poor Eric! He couldn't eat or drink after 7pm last night, had to get checked into the hospital by 7am this morning and his surgery wasn't till 11:30a! By the time I left him, he was getting a hunger headache and getting a little cranky (can't say I blame the guy).

When it was time to go back over to see him, I brought a variety of goodies for him that he could munch on since the hospital basically gives the patients toast to eat. We jokingly call them "butter sandwiches". Overall, he was feelin' pretty good and just a little sore like you get after you've had a massive workout..oh, he was feeling just a lil bit nauseated from the anesthesia. But, he was in great spirits and was happy to have some company aside from harassing the poor nurses, lol. 

August 9th -Day 2

Once visiting hours were available, John and I popped over to harass Eric to see how he was fairing. Never mind the fact that I'm missing him like crazy! I ended up making a butternut squash & feta pasta mixture for his dinner since the hospital food ..ehhhh...sucks. AND, I made it look extra legit by packing it in a "to go" container, lol. I brought some for John and myself since we were wanting to have our family dinner together, which cheered Eric up because I know how he likes to have that time with all of us together.

To my surprise, he was back in his house clothes and no longer in a hospital gown since the doctor and the physiotherapist said it'd be a good idea for him to start putzing around the room a little bit in order for them to see how his back is fairing. So, after they checked him out, they gave him the go ahead to change out his clothes (he was MORE than happy to do that) and suggested that he get up throughout the day to stretch his muscles, plus it won't allow his back to get too stiff from laying all day.

While we had our dinner and caught up on everything, he was telling me about how his evening went the night before because, apparently, things got a little interesting for him.After a little while, Eric wanted to get up and walk around a bit (without help) so of course I needed to make a gif of his effort getting out of the bed. When he injured his back earlier this year, he had a pretty rough time trying to find a seat in the house that'd be a little helpful for him to get some sort of leverage in order for him to get vertical without straining anything else. Sorry the gif is so choppy, but he did manage to get out of bed really well (sort of how he had to get out of our bed with his first injury) and was rather proud of himself, lol

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

Oh, he lovingly refers to his IV as his "disgruntled girlfriend" since he has to always tote it around with him. He's very happy to break up with her pretty soon because she's becoming a rather annoying pain in his side...errr...arm.

Since he was up, I was able to see how the incision was on his back..and it really wasn't that bad! It's a little over an inch long and he has about eleven staples that he'll have removed in another week or so. He says his back basically feels like he has a massive sunburn rather than feeling like a train wreck, so that's a plus...right?

The funny part is that his antiseptic stains looked like he was assaulted by the fake tan monster.  When he had his cortisone shot done, the antiseptic color was hot pink..like SUPER pink, so I think he's trying to go for a variety of different colors to see what looks best with his skin tone ;)

After visiting him for a good three hours, we parted ways since he was getting a little sleepy and I still needed to clean up the kitchen from making dinner. The "to go" dinner worked fabulously and he asked to have it again tomorrow..so yay for good planning!

August 10th -Day 3

Here's a wonderful example at the type of food Eric was getting in the hospital. Bread wrapped in plastic and two individual pieces of bologna, lol. He was sort of at a loss when it showed up, especially since there wasn't any mayo or anything to kinda add some flavor to the food. Luckily, I brought him his dinner so he didn't have to suffer with the sandwich.

BUT, he was a big fan of the tea :)

At this point, they took him off his IV line and he was allowed to walk around every hour to loosen up his back. Understandably, he was a little stiff the first couple of walks, but once he got moving, he was shufflin' with the best of 'em.

August 11th - Day 4

Eric's officially home now! YAY!!! In the midst of getting all his paperwork together, the nurse handed us a STACK of prescriptions we needed to get filled the following Monday since they were already closed (Eric was discharged on a Saturday). In addition to that, we were told to get him set up for a home nurse to visit the next two weeks since he needed to have his bandages changed daily, have the incision looked at and also have a shot in his belly for Thrombosis. He definitely wasn't a fan of the shots since he'd already experienced them while in the hospital. 

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Over the course of this last week, he's gotten more and more mobile by walking around the house, even going on short walks with me up and down the street while walking Cole. He even ventured up to the Commissary with me since he was wanting to pick up some new movies. I think there was only one day where he was really exhausted and took it's toll on him, but other than that, he's got tons of energy and doesn't really have any pain in his back (thank gawd!). The first night he was home..well..wait....the first morning he got up, it was kinda rough on his back since he was so stiff from sleeping flat verses being at an angle like he was in the hospital. Getting out of the bed was an issue, but now he's practically pole vaulting out of it without any problems. The nurses come every day and check on his healing to make sure there aren't any sort of infections. In fact, he actually went back to work today for a little bit since his convalescent leave is up. Then in the afternoon, his staples were removed since the skin had healed up pretty well. 

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November 11th - 3 months post op

Since Eric's surgery back in August, his back pain has improved MASSIVELY. His back really doesn't like cold weather (it'll tighten up and get rather stiff), and if he sleeps wrong, he definitely knows he made a mistake. Other than that, having the procedure done was one of the best decisions he's made in a while regarding his health!

Here's a picture of his back scar. I refer to it as his "piggy bank slot" 

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