Summer is Coming!

With Summer just around the bend, it's about time I stop eating like a cow and try a little harder. Shed my "winter coat" if you will. Now, I have a tendency of making goals in personal fitness and diet... and failing miserably. SO! I figured that if I put it in my blog, I'd have something in writing to refer to. And, for those 3 of you who might stumble upon this, you can hold me to it, eh? ;)

Starting full swing as of March 1st, I am cutting out the following completely:

-Ice Cream

-Cake

-Cookies

-Candy

-Brownies

-Soda

-Fast Food 

-And any other unnecessary fatty food

However, I'm doing this with one exception. As to not go stir crazy the next few weeks, I'm allowing myself ONE guilty pleasure a week. And my guilty pleasure of choice is a nice, cold Throwback Mountain Dew.... mmmm :) Just one a week. At most, even. Only if I'm having a hard one and really need it.

In addition to my food cut, I'm going to hold myself to going to the Gym at LEAST 3 times a week, and to take Tip on a nice long walk on the other days.

How long am I doing this, do you ask? Well forever would be the ideal answer. However, I can't make a promise I can't keep so we're going to start out small. I will be doing this challenge until, drum roll please......

APRIL 19, 2013

Aka, my birthday :) So watch out on that day. I will definitely be needing a big, chocolaty birthday cake. I can't believe I'm so close to not being a teenager anymore... Hallelujah to turning 20!

So, readers, hold me to this! I'm ending my winter binge! Hopefully, though, this time of "fasting" will create some good summer habits for me to hold onto. My goal is to go shopping and go a little crazy for some hot summer clothes. Can I do it?! Sure. Why not.

Now, if we could please take a moment of silence in tribute to the following:

Thank you. 

Here goes nothing!

The Bump

WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*WARNING

PART OF THIS STORY IS JUST PLAIN DISGUSTING

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Meet Tip.

As most of you probably know, Tip is my 1 year old Australian Shepherd/Blue Heeler pup. He's pretty much my best friend, child, and love all mixed into one. Call me crazy, but it's true.

Well! When I got Tip, he had the tiniest little bump on his head. I didn't think much of it, and decided it was probably just a mole of sorts and wasn't worried. However, being the concerned mother I am, I had mentioned it to the Vet who told me it was probably just a cyst that he was born with and wouldn't help nor hurt him. No harm done.

Many months went by and the bump was still there. Still not a problem. The fur around it would get a little crusty every now and again, and the dog groom would just snip it off. No big deal. Although, I noticed that it was getting bigger. Not by much, but bigger nonetheless. 

The Presidents Day weekend came. We went to Sunny St. George with the Walkenhorst clan, and had a great time. Near the beginning of the trip I noticed the fur around the bump getting crusty again. I decided to clip it like the groomer does, but made a weird cut which revealed the bump greatly. This was no small, mole-like bump anymore. This was a small boulder. The bump had gotten huge! It didn't seem to bother him, but man was it nasty to look at and even worse to touch.

Besides, the dogs at the dog park were making fun of him...

This was a shot I took on the way home from St. George.
See the bump on the left of his head there?
The picture doesn't even do it justice.

I was concerned about this bump. Naturally i thought the worse and wanted to get him checked out ASAP! With the Holiday and everything, I had to quite a few days before getting him into the vet. 

Tip loves the car. But for some reason, It was like he KNEW we were going to see the doctor. Tip was agitated to a point between barking and whining. He was chattering. I couldn't explain it, so I took a short video to show what was happening. 

WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*

THIS NEXT PART IS GRAPHIC AND DISGUSTING.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

So we picked up my friend, Reid, because I knew I would need reinforcements. And away we went. We arrived to the Vet in a pretty routine manner, checked in, went back to the exam room and waited for the vet to come in. Tip was a nervous wreck. So was I. Lucky we had Reid to keep everyone calm.

The vet came in, and Tip hid in between Reid's legs, under the bench while the vet fought to examine him. We finally decided to lift all 60 lbs of him up on the metal table so she could get a better look. It started off ok with the vet and her assistant holding him down while she looked him over. 

Then Tip started to realize what was happening and, like the fidgety child he is, he tried to bolt. I jumped to motion and held his rump on the table, the assistant held his body and mouth, the vet poked and prodded the questionable lump. 

When all of the sudden the vet said, "you have GOT to be kidding me." 

She grabbed a pair of tweezers, ordered Reid to grab a paper towel, and proceeded to pull out what was causing the ugly, large lump.

An ingrown hair.

Honestly? That giant bump for an ingrown hair?! The vet continued to poke at it, opening a hole large enough to SQUEEZE out the nastiest, brownish, yellowish, gooey puss i'd ever seen. 

Disgusting right? Then she pulled out ANOTHER ingrown hair. And another. And another. The poor dog had a clump of about 50 strands of hair growing inside this lump! Now we know why it got so incredibly large, eh? 

Tip did well at the beginning. Then he started to realize that this lady was tearing up his skin, and he didn't like it. He began to squirm and cry like i'd never seen. We opted to have Reid take my place holding down his rump, so that I could go to his face to comfort and relax him. This gave me front row seat to the pussy, hairy, bloody crater on top of my puppy's head. 

For the next HALF HOUR we sat there trying to console the poor mutt while she pulled out hair after hair, followed by a nice big SQUEEZE of yummy puss, milkshake like substance. At one point Tip had had enough and hurled his body into Reid's arms. Finally we decided to try the floor again. 

So the four of us lifted this anxious dog and laid him down on the ground where he was an agitated mess. So agitated that he bit me, he bit her, and was just trying to get away. I could see the pain in my dogs eyes, and he was just desperate for something to bite, so I took his leash and put it in his mouth. 

It was like a binky for him. He relaxed as he sucked and chewed on his leash. Well he must of really been in pain, and must of really been nervous because THIS is what happened to the leash:

So there we were. The Vet, her assistant, Reid, myself, and of course, the bloody, puss covered dog. All on the floor trying to keep down our breakfast. It was right about then that the vet told me that in her years of working, this was only the SECOND case of an ingrown hair problem she'd ever seen!! 

They are rare. Tip is just one of those lucky dogs with genes that love to attack him. And my pocket book. And, she said it was more than likely that it'd come back again and if that's the case, that we should do surgery to remove the area. Donations are appreciated.

No hair appointment for me this month...

So this is the new and improved Tipper. Complete with a bald spot. I call him baldy now which may or may not be bad for his self confidence. Good thing he only knows a few words such as ride, toy, and walk. I think, I THINK he knows the word vet now.... although I'm sure it's not his favorite one in the world. I'm supposed to keep him on antibiotics, and pain pills for the next few days, as well as continue to squeeze out that OH so delicious substance coming from his head. Any of those who love poppin zits... you're more than welcome to join me!

I asked the vet if his fur would grow back right there. Her answer? Hopefully it should.

Comforting.

Do they make hats for dogs?

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't of gotten arbys sauce with my lunch today. It reminded me far too much of my journey at the vet. :)

Part 6...Ashley

Part 6

My Sister

I bet you all thought The Story was over. Well, you thought wrong! This next part has been on the down low the past couple months, but I am bursting at the seams to tell everyone.

Let's do a quick recap. Almost 2 years ago, I found my biological Dad and his family. 13 months after that, I found my birth mom. 2 months after that, I journeyed to Canada to meet said Father. 2 months after that, said Mother came to Utah to visit me. Whilst here, the good ol' Birth Mom gave me the phone number of my half sister, Ashley.

So, as you can see, I had had incredible success thus far. So I figured I had nothing to lose... I called Ashley. No answer. I texted Ashley. No response. Welp, there goes my success. I felt a bit defeated, but had to put myself in Ashley's shoes. She hadn't even known that I existed, and here I was, out of no where, contacting her. Where I had a year and half to take everything in, this was all happening in the moment for her. She was at the start of the journey, in shoes that I had once been in myself. So, I gave my dear sister the benefit of the doubt and told myself that she'll text me when she was good and ready.

So that was early October. Days went by. Weeks went by. When suddenly it was Thanksgiving. As I posted on here all that I was thankful for, I couldn't help but think of my sister. Sure, I'd never met her. Sure, I'd only ever seen a picture of her when she was 5. But, again, there was something deep inside of me that had so much love and care for her.

I decided to text her again.

I told her simply that I was thankful for her, and that I understood if she didn't want anything to do with me, but that she was still my sister and I was there for her.

Again, I got nothing. Until the next week.
I was sitting in a work meeting at the elementary school when my phone vibrated. I thought nothing of it and left it alone in my pocket. But then it vibrated again, and again, and AGAIN! I realized that someone was probably dead or dying so I looked. My heart leaped out of my chest. It was Ashley. It was my sister.

I hurried out of my meeting and quickly wrote her back with tears in my eyes. Again, I felt the blessings of my life pouring out directly in front of my eyes.

I have spent the last couple of months getting to know my older sister :) And let me tell you... She is amazing. She is beautiful, she is nice, she is smart, but most importantly... she has been golden at taking care of me, her little sister. This girl has 'big shoulders' and knows what's important in her life. I admire her in so many ways, and I haven't even met her yet.

However, I saw this card today at the grocery store..

And it kind of broke my heart. Here I had a sister. A sister i had always dreamed of having. But here I am almost 20 years old and I didn't get all the great stores that sisters have together while they grow up. I didn't get the fun in sharing clothes. The boy advice. The teasing and fights. The girl's nights. Everything that I always pictured having a sister was like. Now, with her being 25, we are adults. Things aren't the same now as when I was a little girl. I missed out. 

Then I opened the card and saw this:

                                                

And it hit me. No, I did not get the typical sisterly stories as I grew. Instead, Ashley's and mine story is unique in its own amazing way. She has always been my sister, even when I didn't know she existed. And now, I get the blessing of KNOWING her. We just had... a late start. But we are still young, healthy adults and I look forward to spending the rest of my life creating the memories that only sisters can have. It's been amazing so far, and I know it'll only become more amazing as I hope and pray for the day I get to meet her and give her the biggest hug ever. 

Our story is a great one. A story that has made us stronger, both as individuals and as family. In fact, this has been a story making ALL my new family stronger. I didn't get them in the past, but you'd better believe i'm not letting them go anywhere for the future. 

Pictures of my sister to come in the future... hopefully when I meet her... soon. :) 

Peace out, kids!