Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas Eve 2010
Well, the end of the year is upon us and my family has been blessed with the ability to provide our children with a very plentiful Christmas. I've never seen so many gifts under a single tree and I am so excited in anticipation of seeing their faces while they tear through my hours of wrapping work. Aralynn only has a few gifts since she is only 2 months old, but the other two have no less than 10 each. Ian has 5 or 6 under the tree and then there are the (about) 20 gifts that I've made for extended family as well as 15 dvds. Stockings (which I have conveniently pre-stuffed with goodies) are hung and cheer fills the air in the Casey house this week. Now I just have to carry out and survive our Christmas dinner! Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Blogging Competitors
Thanks to my really cool Android phone and the many apps within its depths, I've come across several blogging options. I sure love my blogspot account and it works well enough for me, but are any of these competitors better than what I currently have? Is there any way to compare without spending the time to fully create a new blog? Have any of my followers or any passers by tried any of the following blogging websites?
-Tumblr
-Ameba
-Wordpress
-Any other sites?
Monday, November 29, 2010
Dog Fight!
It has been several weeks since I have published a post for my loyal followers. My clan has been keeping me fairly busy. Coupled with a lack of sleep and a large homework load, I simply haven't had enough spare time to put effort into a post. Even as I type this post, I am multi-tasking. I am currently in class "listening" to a presentation.
On November 10th I decided to take my A Team (my babies) to the park so they could kill some excess energy. While I was dressing them, I heard my dogs (Maya and Llama) fighting. The noise escalated to a level I had never heard from them before and I could hear the back gate rattling. I assumed a stray was barking at them through the fence. I went out the front door and around the side of the house to chase the dog away. What I saw next horrified me. A very large pitbull had Maya's throat clamped between his jaws and he was trying to pull her out under the gate. She was emitting a blood curdling raspy yelp and all of my neighbors were collecting to investigate the sound. I yelled for help and screamed "he's eating my dogs!!" but no one moved. I think they were all as shocked as I was. Finally a large biker man from a few houses down came jogging up and attempted to pull the pitbull off my beloved pet. He couldn't budge him. He started kicking the dog in the hea
d and punching him but the pitbull would not release my dog. He just shook his head wildly trying to kill Maya. Two hispanic men ran up and stood at the end of my driveway and I asked if this was their dog. They informed me that the dog belonged to their neighbor and he wasn't home. I told them I was going inside to get my gun and by the time I got back out, the dog better be gone. After I got inside I realized there were about 20 of my neighbors standing outside including several children and I decided a gun was not a good idea, so I opted for a metal pole from my garage. When I returned to the side of my house with the metal pole, the biker had gotten the dog away from my gate and was holding him up off the ground by his neck. The pitbull thrashed and bit the man which caused him to drop the dog and he ran back to the fence and unfortunately locked his jaws on Llama. 
While the biker was kicking the pitbull I was beating it with the metal pole as hard as I could and the blows didn't even seem to phase him. The biker then yelled at me to get the dogs into the house so we'd have a better chance at getting the pitbull away. I ran through the house and took the dogs out of the dog run but they were bleeding too badly to let them into the house so I moved them to the larger part of the backyard. The men who live nextdoor to the pitbull's owner tied some twine around the dog's neck and were leading him home when I returned to the front yard. My kids were crying in fear, my dogs were bleeding profusely, and I was a furious wreck. I followed the men and watched them return the dog to it's yard. They informed me his owner knew he was vicious and knew he kept getting out of the yard. His attempt to rectify this was to push a basketball hoop up against the gate to try and keep the animal in his yard. What a fool. One of my neighbors had called the police and animal control who shortly thereafter showed up at my house and were collecting eye witness reports from myself and my neighbors. I called my mom and asked for her help to get my dogs to an emergency vet clinic since Ian was at work with the car. Bill was on his way with the truck, Grandma and my mother were on their way to offer loving support and to watch the kids while I went to the ER with the dogs. I picked up Llama's ear from the yard and put it on ice in the hopes that it might have a chance at being reattached.
After 20 minutes, the ER was able to stop Llama's bleeding and they gave me an estimate to fix both dogs:
$2,300... plus tax!
My heart sank. There was no way I could afford to have them fixed up. I opted to just take them home. The next day I took them to their normal vet and got them into surgery. About $1000 and tons of meds and stitches later, the dogs are doing great! A little disfigured, but still great.
On November 10th I decided to take my A Team (my babies) to the park so they could kill some excess energy. While I was dressing them, I heard my dogs (Maya and Llama) fighting. The noise escalated to a level I had never heard from them before and I could hear the back gate rattling. I assumed a stray was barking at them through the fence. I went out the front door and around the side of the house to chase the dog away. What I saw next horrified me. A very large pitbull had Maya's throat clamped between his jaws and he was trying to pull her out under the gate. She was emitting a blood curdling raspy yelp and all of my neighbors were collecting to investigate the sound. I yelled for help and screamed "he's eating my dogs!!" but no one moved. I think they were all as shocked as I was. Finally a large biker man from a few houses down came jogging up and attempted to pull the pitbull off my beloved pet. He couldn't budge him. He started kicking the dog in the hea
d and punching him but the pitbull would not release my dog. He just shook his head wildly trying to kill Maya. Two hispanic men ran up and stood at the end of my driveway and I asked if this was their dog. They informed me that the dog belonged to their neighbor and he wasn't home. I told them I was going inside to get my gun and by the time I got back out, the dog better be gone. After I got inside I realized there were about 20 of my neighbors standing outside including several children and I decided a gun was not a good idea, so I opted for a metal pole from my garage. When I returned to the side of my house with the metal pole, the biker had gotten the dog away from my gate and was holding him up off the ground by his neck. The pitbull thrashed and bit the man which caused him to drop the dog and he ran back to the fence and unfortunately locked his jaws on Llama. While the biker was kicking the pitbull I was beating it with the metal pole as hard as I could and the blows didn't even seem to phase him. The biker then yelled at me to get the dogs into the house so we'd have a better chance at getting the pitbull away. I ran through the house and took the dogs out of the dog run but they were bleeding too badly to let them into the house so I moved them to the larger part of the backyard. The men who live nextdoor to the pitbull's owner tied some twine around the dog's neck and were leading him home when I returned to the front yard. My kids were crying in fear, my dogs were bleeding profusely, and I was a furious wreck. I followed the men and watched them return the dog to it's yard. They informed me his owner knew he was vicious and knew he kept getting out of the yard. His attempt to rectify this was to push a basketball hoop up against the gate to try and keep the animal in his yard. What a fool. One of my neighbors had called the police and animal control who shortly thereafter showed up at my house and were collecting eye witness reports from myself and my neighbors. I called my mom and asked for her help to get my dogs to an emergency vet clinic since Ian was at work with the car. Bill was on his way with the truck, Grandma and my mother were on their way to offer loving support and to watch the kids while I went to the ER with the dogs. I picked up Llama's ear from the yard and put it on ice in the hopes that it might have a chance at being reattached.After 20 minutes, the ER was able to stop Llama's bleeding and they gave me an estimate to fix both dogs:
$2,300... plus tax!
My heart sank. There was no way I could afford to have them fixed up. I opted to just take them home. The next day I took them to their normal vet and got them into surgery. About $1000 and tons of meds and stitches later, the dogs are doing great! A little disfigured, but still great.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Meal Plan Monday
Here's the meal plan for the week:
Oct 11: Black bean & Rice Wraps
Oct 12: Curried Chicken
Oct 13: Beef Stew
Oct 14: Orzo Hotdish
Oct 15: ?
Oct 16: Restaurant for Tyler's Bday
Oct 11: Black bean & Rice Wraps
Oct 12: Curried Chicken
Oct 13: Beef Stew
Oct 14: Orzo Hotdish
Oct 15: ?
Oct 16: Restaurant for Tyler's Bday
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Welcome Aralynn Elizabeth!
It's been a little over a week since my last post and not without good reason! I was admitted to Banner Thunderbird Hospital on Friday, October 1, 2010 and after no progression in my cervix, the doctors decided to break my water and start me on Pitocin. Five minutes after breaking my water, I was experiencing extremely painful contractions and asked for an epidural. The nurse (Jerri) called the anesthesiologist and woke up him from the doctor's sleep lounge to come right away. Unfortunately when he finally made it to my room and asked me to sit up, I could feel a head already being delivered. Regardless, he put in my epidural and as soon as I laid back down while he was setting up a drip pump to administer the medicine, I was already pushing. Three contractions later, Aralynn was laying on my chest being rubbed down. Beautiful and screaming. He finished setting up the drip anyway and twenty minutes later the epidural started to kick in. (pointless, but at least he gets paid) Aralynn Elizabeth Casey was officially born on October 2, 2010 at 4:07am and weighed in at exactly 7lbs. I spent 1 day in the hospital and requested to be released the next day so I could prepare for class on Monday (the next day.) Luckily, other than contractions to put everything back in its original place, my after-labor experience has been virtually pain free. Bleeding is also very minimal. This has by far been the easiest labor of all three. I truly enjoyed my experience. Lucky for us, Ian had a very light work week. He has been able to spend all day every day with me and the kids. He doesn't return to work until Thursday. He seems to really be enjoying Aralynn as well.Today is my last day with Ian's help with the kids. Tomorrow I'll be going full force at my duties again. Today I am hoping to get some of the big tasks out of the way. I have three loads of laundry to fold and one more load to wash. I'd also like to finish at least two more Christmas gifts, clean off the office desk, clean off the chaise, vacuum, mop, and do one more load of dishes. Tonight I also need to start working on some big papers for class as well.
Last night for dinner I made apple bourbon pork chops with a side of mashed potatoes. It was devine! Dinner plans for tonight are spaghetti. We haven't eaten a simple spaghetti dish in a long time and I think tonight is a perfect night to go back to the basics.
Ambria has finally mastered using a spoon by herself! Aiden has his alphabet halfway mastered and can correctly identify the letters 100% of the time. Aralynn is only 4 days old and can already lift her head up to look around. I love watching my babies grow! Now that lunch is nestled into their bellies, we are going to go play at the park and then come home to play in the pool great aunt Nancy gave to them!
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