Lexi squared

Both of our nieces are named Lexi. We've got one on each side. We got to spend lots of quality time with them over Christmas. Our poor little nephew, Tatum, had pneumonia over Christmas :-(

"Little Lexi" Checking out the ornaments on Grandpa and Grandma's tree.


"Big Lexi" fending off Uncle Corey, peppermint pig thief.

Great news!!

Chloe's tumor biopsy came back benign!! Yay! What a great big relief. We couldn't be happier for that. Its a Christmas miracle ;-) She's still doing great and hardly even complain about her stitches.

We had a great time this weekend, catching up with our families and spending lots of quality time with our nieces and nephews. I have some cute photos to share, but unfortunately my computer is not cooperating at the moment. I'll post them soon.

One strange thing happened when we got home. We noticed that our hot tub cover was off and propped up against the railing of our deck. Then, we noticed that the water in the hot tub had a layer of ice on top!! I immediately assume the worst... that some hoodlum neighbor kid was messing with our stuff. We did some checking and testing and realized that the breaker is bad on electric going to the hot tub. Not sure how the heck the cover ended up where it did. Corey thinks maybe the wind blew it off (it was really windy the last few days) but I don't see how it would have ever landed in such a position. Maybe it was in the yard and someone picked it up for us? I have no clue. Our only option tonight was to drain the water out of the hot tub to keep the pipes from freezing up. Hopefully that works until we get a new breaker tomorrow.

David Gregory gettin' down with Mary

It's hard for me to put into words how much I love this. Yesterday, Mary J Blige was on the today show, performing songs from her new album, Growing Pains. Leading up to her segment, David Gregory, the rather stiff and demure fill in host of the Today show, confessed his adoration for Mary. He said he was a long time fan. "Yeah right", I thought, they have to say that kind of stuff. I started to wonder when he kept going on and on about her. Then this happened.





LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS!!!!! It makes me so happy. And really, who doesn't love Mary?? She rocks!! Always has, too.

little trooper

Chloe is doing great!! She came home this morning, wagging her nub with joy. She's hardly even limping. Her first priority was the water bowl, where she drank a ton. Corey saw the tumor, which was sitting in a jar on the counter at the vet. Yuck, I know, right? He said it was the size of 3 golf balls in a row. It sure didn't look that large when it was on her leg.

The vet tech said she was really good while she was there. I think good girls deserve waffles.

Poor little pooch

Chloe had surgery today to remove a tumor on the back of her thigh. We are not sure if it is cancerous or not yet. We called the vet to see how the surgery went and they said she was doing okay. We had been worried that they make have to amputate her leg, but they didn't. She will come home tomorrow morning. I can't wait to get her back home where she belongs. It makes me so sad to think of her in a little cage alone, afraid and hurting. I'm taking off work the next 2 days to be a nurse for her. More updates to come.

Back again

I've been a very bad blogger as of late. I deserve a hunk of coal in my stocking, I know.

My new job continues to go well. I'm loving the area even more as I drive around working with customers in the hills and hollers of Monroe and Brown Counties. Its beautiful! Corey and I are thinking more seriously about buying some wooded land to build a cabin for hunting and generally getting away from it all. Ideally, it would have an old house on it that we could stay in while building the cabin and then tear it down when we don't need it anymore. I would LOVE our cabin to be strawbale built, but we're still just dreaming at this point.

We've gotten fully into the Holiday swing, as of the last week or so. I've pretty much finished making homemade Christmas cards and most of the gifts have been purchased. Corey made buckeyes and toffee and I made my Grandpa Rhoades famous fudge, but just like everyone else who's attemted to make it since he passed away, I couldn't get it to turn out right.



It has turned really cold over the last few days. Stinky has been hogging the heat registers. Today has been the first real snow (it snowed about an inch once before, but it fell and then melted while I was in a meeting for work, so I don't count that one since I didn't see it ;-) Ed and I are enjoying watching the snow flakes fall outside the window as I write this.





Happy Holidays Everyone!