Meet Moxxi!

This is Moxxi! She came to be part of our family about 2 weeks ago. One of the assistant principals at school found her outside the school and decided to bring her inside and clean her up. I heard a rumor that there was a puppy in the school and immediately went in search of her! When I saw her, I could not believe how cute she was! I sent a picture to Thomas asking if he wanted a new dog. His response: "duh." 

A student had expressed interest in taking the unnamed puppy home, saying that her parents said it was okay. I told the teacher who was housing her that I would take the puppy if that fell through. After school, I saw the student who was going to take the puppy home and she told me that her mom said "nope!" I found a ribbon, tied it around the dogs neck and took her outside before loading her in my car.

When we got home, Barli was completely unsure about this new dog! The new puppy was afraid and didn't want to be away from me. Libby, needless to say, stayed WAY far away! When Thomas got home from work, we started brainstorming names for "Puppy Number 2." We settled on Moxxi.

The next morning, I took Moxxi to the vet to have her checked out and get her first set of shots. They told me she was about 12 weeks old and she weighed 16 pounds. She's been a part of our family for almost 3 weeks now. I think Barli is loving having someone to play with while we are at work. They always come inside when we get home and crash on the couch! I'm so glad that I brought home that sweet puppy <3 

Long Time No See

Hey y'all! Sorry it has taken me so long to write again. I have been so incredibly busy! Thank You, Jesus, for these next 5 days off school!! I desperately needed them (and so did the students!). I have so many things on my mind right now. I feel like making a list. Lists calm me down and help me feel like I have slightly more control than I really do. 

• I love looking at stars and finding ones that I remember from taking astronomy in college. Tonight I found Venus and it comforted me. I guess it made me feel better because I know that I am not alone in this crazy universe. God created so much more than what we can see or even fathom. Here's the picture I took of Venus. 
  
• 3 years ago today I found my princess kitty. I can't believe that she is 4 years old! 
• We don't know Libby's or Barli's exact birth dates. I decided that the day I found Libby (November 26) would be her birthday. When we got Barli, we decided to make her birthday the same day as Libby's. We know Barli was born sometime in November, so November 26 sounded good! haha
• Teaching is the hardest thing I've ever done. Like ever. I don't know how people do it for 30+ years.
• I really, really, really love being married. It's like having a sleep over with my best friend every night. I am so glad that I found someone who I can share silence with.

Barli Bear: An Update

Our baby bear is back home! We picked her up yesterday morning. She was so excited to see us! I had a little bit of a hard time looking at her at first, but I got over myself and it wasn't so bad. She was a little scared on the ride home. Tom sat in the back seat and held her on the way home. Once we got home, she realized where she was and became her happy self. She has done so well. She hasn't really acknowledged that her leg is gone.She is running and jumping and even "boxing" again! I am in awe of how well she adapted in just 3 short days! God is so amazing and I know that He is why we have our precious Barli Bear! Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday.

Life Lately

Hi y'all! Sorry that I haven't written in what feels like 100 years! Did you know that having a full time job is not easy? I didn't know. I was definitely surprised. I honestly did not think it would be this hard. I hate feeling unprepared, but honestly, that's all I feel lately. I have such a great support system, though. I have really had to learn to rely on them and on God who is enough for me.  This morning while I was doing my Bible Study Fellowship lesson one question really stood out to me. It asked "What positive and/or negative thoughts does the word 'saved' bring to you? Why?" Here's my answer: "Rescue - I am completely helpless without God's gift of salvation. I NEED to be saved, rescued. It's not a matter of need versus want... It's not up for debate. I NEED a Savior." That's what I have realized over the past 4 weeks of school. I cannot do this without Him. I tried. Ask me how that went. The past 2 days where I've started my day with God, meeting Him in my kitchen before school, have been INCREDIBLY DIFFERENT than the other days I've been at school. I have had more patience, more empathy, the students have been better behaved. I know that it's God.  A little update on Barli: She had her leg amputated today. This was an extremely difficult decision to make. I posted my thoughts on it here. My super awesome, loving, caring, stud muffin husband dropped her off at the vet this morning. I am so thankful that he was able to do it so that I didn't have to. I am having a really hard time with this. I feel so silly for crying about it, but it literally makes me cry. We will pick her up either Friday evening or Saturday morning. What I keep thinking is that I'll never see my dog with all her limbs again. Please pray for me that I'll have peace with our decision and for Barli's recovery! 

Barli Bear

In case you don't know Barli's story, here you go: In February, my sister-in-law who volunteers at the humane society in Bryan texted Tom and told him about a brindle Boxer puppy at the shelter. She told us that the puppy had a broken leg. Tom told me about her and I was convinced that we had to save her. Tom was the first approved applicant, so the puppy was ours. 
We named her Barli (little bear) and she stole our hearts. Tom took her to a vet down here to have her leg looked at and the vet gave us two options: amputate or try to save the leg. We chose to try to save the leg, even though it was more expensive and not guaranteed to work. Barli had surgery to put pins in her leg. These pins were in there for about a month and a half. She couldn't be a normal puppy during this time. She couldn't run or jump. She cried a lot and was on constant medications. When her pins came out it was such a good day. We had a "normal" puppy. 
Fast forward to May. We had noticed that Barli isn't walking right. This has caused her to put pressure on her paw and the pads on the bottom of her paw were wearing away. We took her to the vet in Mansfield and he gave us some medicine to put on the pads. By June the problem hadn't gotten any better. We had an x-ray of her leg done and it seemed like the bone didn't heal correctly. This is what was (possibly) causing her to walk wrong. Dr. K told us we might have to amputate a toe. 
Fast forward to yesterday. The pads were STILL gone (think bloody paw prints everywhere) and an abscess had formed on the side of her foot, too. I took her to the vet in College Station today and he did an x-ray. He said that he thinks everything healed correctly, but that there has been nerve damage in her paw and that's why she walks wrong, twisting her foot with every step. He suggested we amputate the whole leg. He said that there's not going to be a way to save the foot. Of course, we are going to get a second opinion from Dr. K, but how do you look at your puppy that you've come to love so much and try to picture her with one less leg? 
How do you decide whether or not your dog gets to keep all her legs? How do you know if you're making the right decision? How do you make that decision knowing that you can't go back? I feel like this is so insignificant when compared to other people's problems, but she's my fur baby. She's the closest thing I have to a child and I want to protect her. I want to take the pain from her. I want to make it all go away. I want to have a "normal" 7 month old Boxer, who doesn't lay on the couch all day, not eating, not playing, because she's hurting. 
Please pray for us that we will have wisdom making this decision. My heart is hurting. 

Cutest Animals EVER!

I just want everyone to see how adorable our sweet fur babies are!

 Barli when she was about 4 months old.

 All of the above pictures were taken by our sister-in-law, Leah Abernathy.

 This was taken yesterday. Barli is now about 6 months old! 

 Sleeping with her momma 

 Libby being a sassy kitty

 Sleepy girl

 my favorite paws 

We love our sweet animals! 

Summertime Cleaning

It's hot, y'all... Like really, really hot. Barli (our sweet Boxer puppy) has decided that the best way to beat the heat is to burrow underneath the storage shed in the backyard. I have no clue how she even figured out how to dig her way under there, but it is not a good thing! She gets so dirty and with the crazy speed at which she is growing, she could easily get stuck. Right now, she's passed out in front of a fan while Tom and I take a break from doing lots of chores around the house. So far we have sold some old video games and an old Xbox at the pawn shop, got Tom's free suit from Men's Wearhouse, started to clean off the back porch, done the dishes, and cleaned one bedroom. Tom's family is coming into town this weekend for a wedding in Katy, so I want the house to look awesome! We still need to do lots more cleaning, but getting started is the hardest part! Tonight I am taking a break from cooking and we are going to Chuy's for happy hour with my old roommate, Amber. I am excited to have a night off from doing dishes! haha I also think we have enough leftovers for me to not have to cook all weekend. I am proud of how much cooking I have done since we got married. If you know me, you know that I do not enjoy being in the kitchen, but recently I've discovered that I love doing wifey things for my hubby! I guess it was just the motivation I needed.

 A couple of the recipes that I've made recently are this pizza casserole and pasta with spinach and tomatoes. The recipe for the pasta is a little confusing, so here's what I did! Instead of using 8 oz of penne, I used the entire box (16 oz). The recipe calls for half a jar of spaghetti sauce, but the instructions say canned, diced tomatoes. I opted to use the diced tomatoes and since I did twice the amount of pasta, I used twice the amount of everything else.  

2 cans diced tomatoes

6 oz cream cheese (We used reduced fat)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 tsp garlic powder (We used a lot more than that, but we like garlic!)

1 tsp dried basil (We used some Italian seasoning instead)

1 cup spinach leaves

We left out the Parmesan cheese (mostly because we didn't have any...) but followed the rest of the prep instructions. I hope that everyone enjoys it as much as Tom and I did! We had lots of leftovers and it tastes just as good reheated as it did the first night.