Biopsy Update on our Furry Girl

Praise the Lord, the biopsy on Cassidy's tumor was...not cancerous. She is recovering well but has been sportin' the cone once again due to some scratching. It's been quite sad (albeit humorous) watching her scrape her cone on the walls, catch it on everything, get stuck in small spaces, etc. but it will help her heal faster so it's for the best. We figure she MUST be feeling better because she's starting to "counter surf" again looking for food. Ahhhh, labs, they live and die by their stomachs! Gotta love 'em! :) Thanks for your prayers and concern.

Update on Cassidy

Well Cassidy is home and recovering nicely from her "tumor" removal surgery. We won't have the biopsy results for several more days to know whether it is malignant or not but she is feeling much better. She really hasn't been bothering with her sutures so we're not making her wear her elizabethan collar but we did put it on her for a few hours after she got home to be sure she wouldn't tear the stitches out. She cried and whined so much that we took it off and have just kept an eye on her. Steve did manage to snap a couple of pictures of her though...for the ol' scrapbook. :)

A Little Excitement With Our Furry "Child"

Friday evening, as we put Judah down for the night, we noticed that our yellow lab, Cassidy, was panting a lot and her stomach looked really bloated. Over the next couple of hours I kept a close eye on her and began to worry that it was something a bit more serious than a little "gas problem." I got online to read about bloating in dogs and quickly found out that bloat in dogs is pretty much lethal unless caught early enough. Basically, the stomach twists and blocks the entry and exit of food, water, gas, etc. So, after making a call to the emergency animal hospital, we loaded Cassidy into the Jeep and headed across the Mississippi to the vet. After a quick exam and some x-rays the vet came out to tell us that Cassidy had what they call "food bloat." Thankfully, food bloat is not lethal, just really uncomfortable. The x-rays showed us that Cassidy's stomach was 4-5 times its normal size due to an enormous amount of food! I guess she must have been feeling like most of us feel after Thanksgiving dinner! :) The vet gave Cassidy some medication that caused her to "expel" the contents of her stomach so that she would at least be more comfortable. We left the vet scratching our heads and wondering how in the world she could have ingested so much food since we give her controlled portions. After returning home to my parents house, Steve remembered that Cassidy had accidentally gotten left in the garage for a few minutes...where her tub of food is located. Suddenly, we had our answer. She had somehow managed to pop the lid of her food tub open and ate and ate and ate...
She probably would have kept eating if the tub had not been nearly empty when she began. Thank God for small miracles! Cassidy is doing fine but is scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning to remove a rapidly-growing growth on her face. I know she's "just a dog" but please pray that the growth would be benign and/or not have spread if it is malignant. Thanks for your prayers!

Giving God the Glory

As most of you know, we've been trying to get our Bloomington, IN house on the market for a couple of months now. However, as in most things in life, God's timing and plan was different than my own. Once our realtor got our house on the market (it is rented to IU students and we listed it as a residential investment property), it sold in less than a week! In this housing market, I truly believe that God's hand was involved in the quick sale of our house. The investor wanted a quick sale too so I'm sure we'll be closing on it in the next couple of weeks. God is so faithful!

Videos...As Promised

Okay, here are a couple of videos for you. The first was actually shot before we left Reno (notice the scraped up nose from his wipeout at Emerald Bay that I mentioned in a previous post). Judah has begun to take up singing a bit so I captured a little ditty on film for your viewing pleasure. The second video is of Steve, Judah and Judah's cousins riding big wheels around my parents' deck.

Judah and His Cousins

Here are a few pictures of Judah with some of his cousins during his first couple of weeks here in Illinois. He is having so much fun playing with them a couple of times each week. I've also included a photo of Judah and I on the train at the local zoo. Fun!

We're Baaaaaack!

Okay, so we're back to blogging after a month-long "bloggus interruptus". We hope that you'll forgive our time off. It's been a crazy month of packing, moving from Reno to Illinois and trying to get a bit settled at our temporary home in Rock Island...Teri's wonderful and gracious parents' house.

Anyway, to get you up to speed...

For the last month before we actually left Reno, we tried to do as much fun stuff as we could before we left the mountains. One awesome day was spent driving around Lake Tahoe and spending some time at Emerald Bay. We'd never hiked down to the bay before so we were glad we had the opportunity to do so before we left. It is absolutely gorgeous! I've attached a couple of pictures for you. Steve was even able to don his wetsuit and swim out to the island in the bay (shhhh, the sign says no swimming!). Judah did get a bit zealous in running down one particularly steep section of the paved trail down to the bay and managed to do a face plant that scraped his nose and face up pretty good. Other than that, we had a great time and we thank God for creating a place as beautiful and majestic as Lake Tahoe for us to enjoy.

After a month of packing, saying many sad goodbyes and wrapping things up in Reno, we loaded up our Jeep with Judah and our dog Cassidy and hit the road for our looooong trip home to Illinois (via Oregon--a place we've both always wanted to see). The California and Oregon coastline is truly a sight to behold. We were in awe of our amazing Creator as we looked at the vastness of it all.

Our friend, Laura McCoid (a fellow midwesterner!), was our gracious host during our stay in Eugene, Oregon. We had so much fun hanging out with her again after not having seen her for more than 3 years. Steve was so excited to be able to get out on the U of O Track and Field running track. I've included a picture of Steve and Judah on the track and them in front of a picture of the legendary track star Steve Prefontaine. We wandered the U of O campus and ate at Tracktown Pizza, a local fave. On our drive home from pizza, Laura and I got to laughing and carrying on so Judah piped up from the backseat and told us to "Calm down!" Of course that made us laugh even harder so Judah then had to tell us, "That's 'nough!" He had us laughing so hard that I could hardly see the road through the tears in my eyes and I think I heard a snort or two from Laura. Good times! Cassidy also got to wrestle and chase squirrels with her old friend, Horton, so she had a great time in Eugene too. Thanks Laura and Horton!

Our trip home was long, fun (for the most part) and, thankfully, uneventful. We camped a couple of times along the way, stopped for ice cream occasionally and tried to take in every detail of our beautiful country. Judah and Cassidy were real troopers and are two of the best travelers we could ask for. Below are a few miscellaneous photos from our trip. Note: Don't be alarmed, Judah's arms didn't get stretched out. :) He was wearing daddy's shirt since all of his warm clothes got wet on the beach and he needed to stay warm while we camped. The shirt sleeves kept coming unrolled and he just looked adorable with those super long sleeves dragging the ground.

I'll post more soon, including some video but wanted to (FINALLY) get an update on our trip and some pictures up for everyone to check out. Sorry for the long hiatus!