Tuesday, February 9, 2010

blogging it up!

Here are some updates on the Arizona McGowan clan.

Lucy:
For a reminder of Lucy Fur's latest health debacle, glance through our previous post. Christmas and the two weeks that followed were a pretty tense time on the Lucy front, actually. But after almost two thousand dollars' worth of testing (and a stressful holiday), they concluded that she had tick fever. The valley fever results came back negative, thank GOODness. They put her on a special bland diet, liver booster pills, probiotics, and antibiotics (why the probiotics and antibiotics don't cancel each other out, is beyond me) and then, after follow up testing, decided to keep her on the bland diet along with doxycycline for the tick fever. We will be having her 6 week follow up this week, at which time we will see if the liver enzymes have reduced (meaning less treatment) or not (meaning long term treatment plan is needed). Will keep you posted.

Car:
In addition to paying for vet visits and beagle meds, we also needed to buy a new car. When I say "new car" I mean new for us....not brand new as in "never been owned before". Over the holidays, Joe's truck finally went kaput. For good this time. And after researching different options, he decided that it wasn't worth the money that it would take to fix it. Sad. I actually really liked that little truck! And also, it's a royal pain in the REAR to have to get a new vehicle. But we ended up looking around to see what was out there in the used department. My dad actually found an SUV that was for sale and parked in the parking lot of where my Granny (mom's mom) moved to. 2002 Mitsubishi Montero, ES Sport, low miles, one owner, maintained really well, minor blemishes, decent asking price. After we test drove it, it was a done deal! Here's a pic. We call him Monty.


And I really hope we don't have to get another car for a LONG time!!

Camping:
Our year has gotten off to a rotten start as far as camping is concerned. We didn't go AT ALL in the month of January!! To our defense, we had outrageous vet bills plus a new car to buy. BUT...we are FINALLY going camping in a couple weeks to celebrate our first anniversary. SO WEIRD!!! It literally feels like yesterday you were all here to help celebrate the start of our marriage. And as cliche as this sounds, time really does fly by when you're having fun. It's definitely been a stressful year at times, but the fact that we don't hate each other yet is good news, right? :-)

Et Cetera:
  • We went to the most AWESOME Polish Restaurant last weekend with the family. I don't think I've had authentic polish food since my grandma Bubba (dad's mom) was alive. She used to make the most yummy Golabki. And pierogies have ALWAYS been a favorite. This place was amazing. It's called A Touch of Europeon Cafe. Check it out!!!
  • I don't even want to tell you all how much weight I've gained over the past 4 years. It's quite disgusting, actually. But I started a diet in November and I've lost about 27 pounds since then. I've been off the diet for about a month now, but I'll be starting again in a few weeks. I'm not quite at my goal weight yet and I know it'll be a neverending struggle, but I'm happy that I've been able to stick with it. Can't wait to lose about a million more!!
  • Last, but certainly not least, I am finally Finally FINALLY starting my masters program in a couple weeks. Crazy, huh? It's been almost 10 years since I finished my bachelor's degree and I've struggled with finding the motivation to continue for quite some time, actually. But, since I'm an academic counselor and I speak with students every day, trying to remind them of the importance of continuing their education, I find it quite hypocritical that I don't "practice what I preach." You know what I mean. All in all, I'm scared that I might fail and I'm nervous about how much time I'll have to spend. But I'm also excited about learning more about what I'm interested in and I'm looking forward to having another degree to fall back on. It's going to be hard and I might tell you all (at some point) that I want to quit. But, please....don't let me!!

I hope you are doing well.....we love and miss you all.....and to those we haven't seen in a while, we hope to see you soon!!
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