February 2015

Wow, what a month. February has come and gone and we've headed into March already. I know it's a short month, but it really did fly by. The biggest thing was the loss of my sweet, smart, silly Baylee Girl. It seems that most everything this month centered around her health, her passing and our grief. But there were a couple other things that happened this month, joyful things, like Valentine's Day, and Mom's Birthday.  So here is our Auchmoody February 2015 (Days 32 through 59), in a nutshell:

1.  Super Bowl Sunday...Seahawks vs Patriots in Super Bowl 49. Unfortunately the Seahawks lost the game 28-24. But we had a good time over at mom's watching the game and stuffing our faces!
2. Leftovers from Super Bowl. Back over to Mom's for dinner tonight...Rob's beautifully stacked plate of nachos.
3.  Tonight's full moon captured on my way to Mom's to pick up the girls.
4.  A Baylee 'selfie' on our ride home, with her 'feets up' on the console in the car.
5.  Picked up each of the girls a Valentine's cookie tonight at the vet.
6.  Tom's badging ceremony was held today. He had Emily and Alyssa remove his BC's badge, while Trina pinned his new chief badge on him.
7.  Rob hogging the bed and the covers...and sleeping on his face...when I got home tonight.
8.  Finally decorated the house for Valentine's Day yesterday. Put out these three girls (all with heart themes or accessories) on a shelf...still love my Precious Moments.
9.  Baylee started throwing up today, she won't eat and can't keep water down.  She finally settled in and got comfy on her little bed for the night.
10. Our last night together, me and my girl. We slept together in the living room, me on the couch and her in her bed from Grammy's house.
11. One of the saddest days I've know...putting my sweet girl to rest today. Just like that, she's gone. After work I pulled up in Mom's driveway to find her flying her 'Baylee' flag...it's so heartbreaking.
12. Waking up this morning to an empty bed...poor Lucy...poor us.
13. With Rob working tomorrow we were going to celebrate Valentine's Day tonight. With the week we had, we 'agreed' (or so I thought) we would just order a pizza and have a cuddle and call it good. But when I got home, there were flowers, chocolates and a beautiful card waiting for me. He's a good Valentine!
14. Even though we celebrated last night, after church Rob said we needed to at least go out for a Valentine dinner. Thinking there wouldn't be a restaurant in town we could actually get into, he suggested our favorite Thai place.  It was great, we did get right in and had a lovely date night.
15. Today was Lu and my first day home together, just the two of us...and we were both pretty sad without our Baylee. She snuggled up next to me on the couch, chin on my knee.  Thank goodness for little Lu.
16. President's Day...a day off for me. I headed out pretty late to the grocery store to do our weekly shopping, and came home with a rare treat...Henry Weinhard's soda...Orange Cream...Yum!
17. We received a mug bouquet of little roses today from Dr. Chuck and his staff in sympathy for our loss of Baylee. We also got a card from Craig and Wendy...people are so thoughtful.
18. Ash Wednesday today. On Busted Halo they have a 'picture a day' prompt for Lent, and today's was #showusyourash. So I took a pick of my ashy smudge...although I did not post mine anywhere!!
19. I picked up dinner for us tonight at Graze - a Latronka for Rob and a Bahn Mi for, well...Me! This is really one of my favorite places, and I miss our office being close to it.
20. I was having a little cuddle with Lu tonight and she fell asleep on my shoulder. Sweet snoring girl.
21. Today was Mom's birthday, and also Ladies Who Lunch. We all gathered at Frost Me Sweet and Billie gave each of us one of these little jars of honey. She had purchased a bunch, and ended up making it into a craft project to give to each of us.
22. We finished celebrating Mom's birthday today. I made up some cherry chip cupcakes with cherry almond cream cheese frosting.  Then I headed over to her house and made a big pot of potato soup and some cheesy bread for dinner. She opened a couple more presents...and Lucy helped!
23. It's that delicious Auchmoody dinner again. Steak, baked potatoes and spinach. It was so yummy, the only thing that could have made it better was if the steaks had been grilled on a BBQ.
24. Silly Lu, back in her clothes pile again...where she starts almost every night.
25.  We were notified last night that we had a fraudulent charge on our checking account, so they immediately canceled my debit card. Here I am on my second trip into Gesa today, trying to straighten things out.
26. Rob picked up Baylee's ashes today. I was surprised to also see her blankie. I thought we would never see it again...now I just want to wrap myself in it. They also did a little clay imprint of her paw.
27. Another meatless Friday. This time I picked up Casa Mia. I've been craving their Pizza Sole for awhile now. I added a shrimp salad for each of us, and boy, did it really hit the spot!
28. I baked off the clay imprint of Baylee's paw today. I was surprised when I took it out of the packaging that they had stamped her name in it already.  More tears...really missing my girl.

January 2015

I'm doing things a little different this year. I was quite neglectful in keeping up on blogging and scrapbooking in 2014 (But I plan to keep plugging away at it...keep an eye out for 2014 backlog updates as we move through 2015!!).  But just like always, a new year brings a new start.  With the purchase of my new iPhone last fall, I am now able to take (tons of) pictures with it, edit right from my phone, and use apps like this Project 365 to help track them.

I decided I don't really need to do both, blog everyday, and then scrapbook the photos, and also post scrapbook layouts...that's doubling my work.  So instead, I will just track each pic during the month in an app with a brief description.  Then at the beginning of the following month I will print the photos for scrapbooking, and use the features of one of the apps to do something like this one...a recap calendar.

I know the pictures are rather small, but I think you can get the gist of what they represent, and along with the quick, down and dirty recap below, here is our Auchmoody January 2015 (Day 1 through 31) in a nutshell:

1 - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
2 - Date night with the hubby to see Interstellar with Matthew McConaughey.
3 - The pups having cuddle time on the bed.
4 - Woke up to a little dusting of snow! Didn't last long though...warmed up and the wind blew it away.
5 - Jody brought in a beautiful rosary straight from the Vatican, that she picked up for me on her travels with Morgan to Italy and France.
6 - Home sick all day with the flu. Captured this sunset...beautiful end to a yucky day.
7 - A picture snapped from a video the girls sent to Grammy. Home sick with Mom again today, they were missing their Grammy and wanted to tell her so.
8 - The Origami Owl Valentine flyers arrived today.
9 - The girls were laying just outside the bathroom door as I was getting ready this morning...as if to say, 'We are not staying home one more day, take us to Grammy's house!'
10 - Christmas finally came down today, all that remains are a few gifts to find space for.
11 - The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord...and the last day of the Christmas Season. All will be put away until next year.
12 - Uh oh...our dishwasher is on the fritz. Up early this morning to hand wash dishes...yuck!
13 - Our new batch of coffee pods arrived for our Nespresso machine at work...a Christmas-slash-parting gift from Grant to the office staff. My new favorite is the caramel.
14 - Organizing and prep work on Project Life 2014 to take on my scrapbooking weekend.
15 - A silly text between Mom and I that makes little sense.
16 - The Jeep packed up and bulging at the seems for Trina and I's scrapbooking adventure...do the two of us girls know how to pack a car!
17 - The scenery outside our windows as we scrap...with huge, fluffy snowflakes coming down.
18 - The six of us ladies who scrapped this weekend. It was a small group this time, just two sets of sisters and Trina and I.
19 - Our first Papa Murphy's pizza experience, and I'd say we liked it! This is all that remains of two pizzas and a dessert pizza!
20 - Dinner at Bangkok with the hubby...such pretty appetizer plates of butterflies and salad rolls.
21 - Valentine's Day is coming. Bought this dish the other day at Hobby Lobby, and filled it today with conversation hearts for my office.
22 - Going old school...a quick winter meal of grilled cheese, tomato soup and milk!
23 - Baylee has started feeling under the weather again. She loves having a cuddle on the bed though, especially in the backs of daddy's knees, as close as she can get.
24 - Because she's not feeling well, it seems kind of difficult for Baylee to curl up in her bed, so I made her this makeshift bed out of an old comforter with a sheet over it. Now she looks so comfortable all stretched out.
25 - Hung our Christmas gift from Craig and Wendy today in our prayer area. It's a cross made from repurposed wine barrels.
26 - Yay! My first Studio Calico Project Life kit arrived. They had a $10 intro offer I couldn't pass up, so I'll be getting one of these at the start of each month.
27 - Oooops...Rob was being silly and mooned me while putting on his pj's. Unfortunately it was the only picture I took this day, so with a little editing of a heart of his moon...we're good.
28 - We have had grey skies for weeks! Today I was wishing for some freshly squeezed sunshine! This is one of the new decorations purchased at Hobby Lobby last week for my newly updated grey and yellow guest room.
29 - Ah, today. A bad day. Baylee had more blood work and x-rays, and we have been told she has a tumor on her liver. It's hard to believe this sweet girl is so sick.
30 - My girl so cute, giving me one of her looks. We're having as many cuddles as we can now.
31 - Another cuddling night with the girls, this time with a look from Lu...or is that the stink eye??

Day 179

We've been trying to get Lucy to warm up to her food, sprinkled with the new DinoVite, and she could just kind of give or take it. She's not much of an eater anyway. But we found the secret...wet the food and stir in the DinoVite, and tonight she's going to town like a little piggy!! I'm not sure how, since the smell and look of it is pretty nasty...but then again, I'm not a pooch.

Day 177

Just a couple of cutie patooties, begging for their new treats that came with their DinoVite! They love those beefy nuggets!

Day 174

Stopped to see the girls after work, but left them to spend the night with Mom while we head to McMenamin's in the morning. Lucy looked so sad as I went out the door...it's like she couldn't believe she didn't get to go home with me!

Day 164

Happy Birthday to our Sweet Lucy! She is seven years old today. And again this year, she got a bone cookie from Blylee's to celebrate her special day.

Unfortunately, she looks a little more scared than happy, but maybe that's just because, like the rest of us, we don't like having birthdays as much as we did when we were kids?!? Even this old girl has been touched by grey hair!  Or maybe it's because she thought she was in trouble, having to just sit still so I could snap her picture, when all she really wanted to do was tear into her birthday cookie!

Happy Birthday sweet girl. I hope we get to celebrate many, many more with you.

Day 161

Oh Baylee Girl. You are so silly. I wanted to take a picture of her before bed, but she was being camera shy! Hard as I tried, it was like she just knew I wanted to take her picture and she insisted on looking away.  Well, her head was turned away, but she was giving a bit of a beady eye in my general direction - as if to say...I see you over there Mom, and I want no part of it.

Looks like she was photo bombed my Lucy's two front paws!

Day 132

It's only been 2 1/2 years, and they are finally growing on each other enough to share a blanket! This afternoon I just wanted to snap a photo of my girls...not quite snuggled together, but at least sharing the same space. I think Lucy would cuddle up to Baylee all of the time...if only Baylee would let her! This is about as cuddly as Baylee wants to get I'm afraid.

Day 119

She's such an exhausted little pup. It's hard work to finish off a whole bowl of food you know!

I swear, Lucy is the silliest dog I've ever seen. She just makes me giggle. As usual tonight, I put her bowl of food down next to my nightstand, because that's her favorite time and place to eat. There must be something that makes her feel safe, when all of her 'people' are finally in one place in bed for the night.

When I looked down later, I found this...her all sprawled out by her dish, in front of the fan, as if eating had been utterly exhausting.  Silly girl...I just love her goofy personality!

Day 111

Lucy says...Help, I'm wedged between the door and a big ol' Baylee butt! Somehow this happened tonight on the way home. Usually Lucy goes in first, and then Baylee behind her...and usually Baylee doesn't lay down, taking up a big chunk of the back seat (she must have been tired tonight). And somehow Lu went in second and got wedged up against the door. But she really didn't seem to mind, cause that's how she rolls...low maintenance girl.

Day 104

Oh these girls, they are so funny.  They are either two peas in a pod, or fighting like cats...and well, dogs I guess. This was them tonight over at Mom's, while Mom and I were eating dinner. The door to the little pantry wasn't shut, and Baylee got it open with her snout, then proceeded to lay in front of it - hoping someone would notice and give her a treat from inside. She wasn't there long before Lucy joined her...she too knows exactly what good things are inside this little closet!

Day 89

This was supposed to be a bit sillier picture, but I snapped the photo just a second too late. Just before this, Lucy had been sitting on Mom's leg, eating her food - like she was just too tired to stand up and eat. And what dog eats on the couch anyway? Well, in an effort to keep Baylee out of Lucy's food, and to avoid the most recent battles over food between what they have come to be called...Rocky and Apollo, Mom just picked up Lucy's dish and invited her up to eat next to her.

I think she really is Princess Lucy.

Day 81

Today has been a sad day. My mom called me first thing this morning to tell me that my Uncle Mark had called her, and that my little Granny passed away.

It seems she hadn't come down for breakfast at her assisted living center, so they went to check on her in her apartment, and it appears she had a heart attack. She was transported to the hospital, but passed away in the ER. I feel really bad that she may have had a heart attack all alone, that she may have been alone and scared in her last moments, and I feel bad that she passed away and is gone. But I have to admit that in some ways it is a relief. She had not been herself in quite sometime, slowly loosing herself to dementia. Thankfully she had not yet forgotten people - her friends and family, or herself or her whereabouts, and for that I'm grateful, but other parts of the disease were robbing her of what had once been a very active and vibrant life. She lived 88 long years, most of them as a lively, spitfire of a lady. Rest in peace Granny...

I was going to just share a photo of Granny for today, but as I was wandering around the house aimlessly, busy doing nothing, not really sure what exactly to do with myself - I spotted a little Lucy lying in the sunshine...so cute flopped on her side, and her little triangle ear flipped forward...it made me smile.

Day 70

Lookin' good girls! Today Rob was home with the girls and decided it was definitely bath day! Truth be told, it is waaaay past bath day. I don't think these girls have had a bath all winter...yikes! They were pretty dirty and pretty smelly...but not any more. Rob bathed them up, even dried and fluffed them with the blow dryer...a regular spa day. Then when I got home from work I washed up their little blankets so we can start fresh and clean. But I'm sure it won't be long before the dirty dog smell returns...they wouldn't have it any other way.

By the way, edited this pic with a free online tool I just learned about called PicMonkey...it's pretty awesome, check it out!

Day 65

It's that silly Lucy again. A couple nights ago she was cute front of the fire place...tonight she's a cutie burrowed into the laundry pile. I do not know what is with her, it's almost a nightly occurrence. Anything that is on the floor is fair game, clothes, a pillow, a blanket...you name it. Not sure if it's the smell, the comfort or what, but she certainly doesn't pass up an opportunity to nestle in!

Day 62

Oh, Lucy...she lives the life. It was warmer today, but still a bit chilly tonight, so while we were over at Mom's, she started the fireplace. And in true Lucy fashion, it wasn't long before she was lying in front of it. She just loves the fireplace. Pretty soon she was lying on her side, sleeping like a little toasty baby. You can just tell how happy and content she is!

Day 57

This morning before everyone was out of bed except Rob, the spoke alarm chirped. This is unsettling for both our girls. When I looked into Baylee's bed, I found Lucy curled up, and had to go looking for Baylee...who was hiding out in the living room between the couch and the coffee table. I got her fed and pottied and then I hopped in the shower. When I got out this is what I found...Baylee in her bed without her little blanket, and Lucy curled up on the blanket as close to Baylee as she could be. Comfort in being together...Sister Love ♥♥♥

Maybe they need one big bed to curl up together on? I think Lucy would go for it, but I doubt ol' set-in-her-ways Baylee would!

Day 49

Isn't she just the picture of cool? It's how she rolls at the vet. Today while we were in the exam room waiting for Dr. Chuck, Lu just hopped up on the little couch next to me and chilled...like it was no big thing. Now when they took her temperature...well, that WAS a big thing, cause her little buggy eyes went even buggier! She wasn't too thrilled with the shot she got either. But through it all she was a {silly} little trooper.

Day 40

The girls finally ventured into the back yard, and out into the snow today. For the last couple days I have been taking them out the side door to the garage for potty breaks, mainly because there are no slippery steps, and because actually the way the snow drifted, there was nearly bare grass on that side of the house.

But today, I decided to just let them have a roam. Lucy was so funny, she would only walk where Baylee had already blazed a trail. I guess she likes walking in her sister's footsteps!  And even though there's snow on the ground, Baylee still has that nose down...sniffing for I don't know what!

Day 11

I have spent nearly all day tearing down Christmas, and trying to get our house put back together again.  (I have never had my Christmas tree up until January 11th!!)  And this right here - this is my 'helper'.  She's like a mole stuck to my side - but since I haven't sat down much today, she doesn't have anyone to snuggle with.  Baylee could care less - she's off lying in her little doggie bed Santa brought her for Christmas.  But not Princess Lucy...she has to be in the thick of things.  And who wants to catch a few zzzz's in their new doggie bed anyway? Not her...not when you can make a perfectly fine bed out of a sofa pillow that has fallen to the floor!  All she needs is the crown.