The Weekend Hudson Broke Our Heart

What did you do this weekend? Anything fun? We spent it in the local animal hospital. Not so fun. I wanted to make sure I documented this weekend in my blog because it was such a blur to me, but I never want to forget how it made me feel. Here's the story:

On Saturday morning I got up like normal, Hudson's furry face right next to mine letting me know it was time to take him to the restroom. So out we went, and there I noticed there was a little blood in his stool. Nothing major, but enough for me to mentally note to stay on watch for the day. When we got back inside I put some food and fresh water in his bowl and he gave it a sniff and walked away. Again, nothing major, but since he hadn't eaten since around 8 the night before, I made another note. He went to lay on the cool bathroom floor and I went to brush my teeth. When I walked in I heard his stomach growl so loud I was shocked. I hadn't ever heard that before so I thought for sure he would be at his food bowl in no time, but he wasn't. I didn't think too much about it and just told myself he would eat when he felt like it.

I got ready to leave for a few hours. Justin has been working a ton of overtime so Saturdays are usually just Hudson and I for the time being. I was planning to do a little shopping and then come back to get him and take him to his favorite trail. He didn't run to the door like he usually does to beg to go for a car ride. I just told myself he was being a little lazy and it was nothing. I shopped, grabbed something to eat and headed home. I came through the door and Hudson greeted me with a wagging tail and lots of sloppy kisses. This made me feel better about the morning worries, so I leashed him up and out the door we went. I decided to take him to PetSmart first to get him enrolled in some training classes. He has had a hard time adjusting to apartment life and some behavioral walking issues have come up because of it. Nothing a little structure and help couldn't fix. The entire time we were at Petsmart he made me out to be a liar though, because he was so good. TOO good. He walked right next to me, didn't pee on anything, didn't jerk away from me and never ran from any people. I looked at him and thought, who IS this dog?!

I took him home instead of going to the trail because we ran out of time before Justin got home and I didn't want to wait too late to have dinner. So we got home and Hudson walked right passed his food again. During dinner I filled Justin in on how he had been acting all day. I remember exactly what I said too. "I have no clue what's going on with Hudson. He won't eat anything, but I know he's hungry. He's been sleeping all day and walking around here acting like his best friend died." Justin got on the floor with him and called him over to sit in his lap. When he touched him, Hudson cried out. I immediately gasped  because that's just one of the most horrible sounds ever. Justin picked up a toy and tried to throw it to see if he would fetch. He did, he walked to it and brought it back. (another weird thing he never does. The dog is a psycho path, constantly running around our apartment) When he brought it back I thought I saw something under his belly so I pulled him over to me. Justin helped me lay him down and I started looking over his body. All in about three seconds I saw a lump the size of a softball close to the middle of his belly (no exaggeration whatsoever)threw my hands to my mouth and started sobbing. Justin saw it at the same time I did and lunged for me. He grabbed me and told me whatever it was it was going to be OK and then he started to cry too. (Was that supposed to make me feel better honey???) I was screaming out things like Oh god it's Cancer. How could I not have seen this? We have to take him in. He's going to need chemotherapy. He's going to die. How could this happen to us? WE NEED HIM! It was the most awful five minutes of our life. (spoiler alert. It was not cancer, he did not die, and everything is OK) Obviously tumors don't blow up overnight and we know that, but when something like that happens to you, you are not in your right mind.

We rushed him to the animal hospital, trying to catch our breath along the way. We were praying and trying to stay positive. Justin called his mom who said a prayer for him, too. The twenty minute drive felt like an hour. It was torture. When we got there everyone was so calm I was started to get a little nervous. Why are you taking your sweet little time? My dog could be DYING here! Don't you know he could have cancer?! COME TALK TO US! What? A lot can go through a pet mommy's mind in times of trouble. I think it's normal to just automatically think the worst. The doctor finally did come get us and we heard what we had been waiting for- "Hudson is a young healthy guy who seems to have gotten some sort of infection by a bite or puncture wound. We're going to remove the infection and he is going to be just fine" What happened next? You guessed it. More sobs. Happy sobs, this time of course. Hudson had a fever which they were a little worried about, but thought it should go away pretty quickly after his surgery. I begged to go back with him, but they said no so off to the waiting room we went. 40 looonnggg minutes later out came our very groggy, glazed eyes, fluids on his back making him look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, limping, crying puppy. My heart shattered into a million pieces. Wasn't I supposed to feel better at this point?

The doctor explained that this was normal, his medication would be wearing off soon so he would become more alert. He was on pain medication that would help him sleep for the rest of the night and we were given a whole list of medicine to give him until further notice. Basically they sedated him, shaved him, cut him open to try to remove the infection (we still don't know what it was from because the lump literally blew up overnight.) and stitched him up. They didn't get to remove as much of the infection as they wanted to because the skin surrounding the incision was so aggravated it was causing blockages. They had to insert a drain which he has to wear for the week. We got to take him home that same night! This week we are just following him around, watching him like a hawk and making sure he doesn't lay on the carpet. We have blankets all over the apartment for him to lay on because his drainage is pretty gross we can't really stop it from happening and we aren't going to lock him in the bathroom. We take him back on Wednesday to have his drain removed so he can start his healing process. $500 later I'm starting to wonder if Pet Insurance is a good idea.

It has been a really long, emotional weekend and we are ready for Wednesday to be here already. Hudson keeps trying to lick at his drain and that is really grossing me out so I might have to bust out the cone again. I just feel awful when he wears that. Like the worst pet owner of the year.

Maybe it sounds silly, but this dog is so much more than a dog to us. He's our third amigo, furry son, best bud. We love him! We adopted this guy just two short months after we were married. I felt like Justin was my only friend at the time. I was done wedding planning, I was stuck in Florida while all my friends and family were in Indiana and I was SAD. Of course I had Justin and he is always enough, but he had a big job at the time and was out of town for weeks on end. It was HARD. We finally agreed it would be time to get a dog now that the wedding stress was over. We found Hudson and seriously, he was a perfect fit for us. We found him online and I told Justin, this is the one! He's going to be our dog! We went to the rescue farm that weekend and walked up to a kennel with at least 10 puppies in it. I knelt down and all the puppies were fighting over who could get their faces closest to me through the cage, barking and jumping up and down. And there was Hudson. (Actually Herby at the time. The rescue chick thought that was a great name. LOL) He was standing there so politely, just waiting for his turn to be noticed. I picked him up right away and he started licking my face. It was love at first sight. We took him home twenty minutes later. He followed me all over the house, I took him on every errand I ever went on, I snuck him in bed with me when Justin was out of town, I took him to training classes, and I just loved him more than I love myself. That silly little dog became my best friend. When Justin was away on business he kept me sane. He's so much more than a dog to us. He's that missing puzzle piece out of our life we never really knew we were missing.

So yes. This weekend Hudson broke our heart. We thought we were going to lose him and we didn't know how we were supposed to get through a loss so huge. We are so glad he's back at home with us and everything is okay. We are taking everything day to day now, slowly watching Hudson become more like his old self. I have never been more excited to see my dog turn back into his naughty, crazy self! :P

Dad's Surprise 60th Birthday Party

Do you know what I like? I like planning parties. I like it even more when it's a surprise party. I think it is so much fun. If there weren't so many creative DIY people in the world, I may try to be an event planner, but I honestly don't think I would make much of  a living doing that in the Pinterest world we live in now. Bummer.

My dad turned 60 last October and so I planned for almost a year to throw a surprise party for him. (I don't have any excuse at all as to why I'm just now blogging about this.) My siblings pitched in and helped me throw the thing together. Planning a party from 1,100 miles away is harder than you think! I love how it turned out. We had it at my childhood best friends house and it was the perfect day for an outdoor party!

My dad showed up in his hamburger shirt ready to go out to dinner with my brother, but instead was met by 20 of his closest friends and family. It was priceless! We ate, played games, opened presents and enjoyed the 50 degree weather. It was an amazing day. Here are a few shots of my favorite details from the evening.

My dad works extremely hard every day for everything he has. As a teenager you think money grows on trees and that asking dad for money is no big deal. Years later I found out that every twenty dollar bill my dad ever gave me came right out of his teeny bit of security money. When I was old enough to realize how this all worked, I cried. My dad is such a giving, kind hearted man, we just really wanted to give back a little after all the giving he's done for us. I hope his 60th birthday party is a day he will always remember.

Rawhide Puppy Popsicle Recipe

So, the other night I was sitting on the couch eating a fudge pop when my foot was slimed with Hudson's drool. I looked down at he was sitting very still and staring intently at my fudge pop. I usually have the very bad habit of sharing my food with him, (have you SEEN his puppy dog eyes?! Don't judge.) but dogs can't have chocolate. So I just tried to ignore the puddle of Saint Bernard drool that was piling up on my foot and not make eye contact with him.

When I got down to the stick part of my fudge pop I started thinking my normal fudge pop thought, why can't they make an edible stick darn it? I'm too lazy to get up and throw this nasty thing away. And then it hit me. I could make Hudson his own popsicles with an edible stick! And so I added a few things to my grocery list and vowed that the next day I would make a Target trip to get my chocolate deprived dog the supplies for his very own popsicles.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup Fat free plain yogurt

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tablespoon honey

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl mix together yogurt, peanut butter and honey. Mixture should be smooth and 'custard like'

2. Soon yogurt mixture into ice cube trays

3. Let dog lick the spoon

4. Stick rawhide stick in middle of yogurt mixture

5. Freeze until hardened

6. Remove from freezer, pop out of ice cube trays, give to dog and accept your Puppy Mother of the year award.

Seriously. These are so easy to make. And now anytime I head to the kitchen Hudson runs after me hoping I'm going to get him another one. The best part about these? When your dog is done licking the crap out of the popsicle, he can eat the stick! That's Hudson's favorite part, anyway. ;) Enjoy!

P.s. Obviously it's not ideal for your dog to eat this in a carpeted area. We, unfortunately don't have much of a choice. In our new apartment the only rooms with tile are the tiny kitchen, entry way, and bathrooms. So that's something to think about before you give this to your pup.

Boston Love.

I created this blog to share the projects we did to make our house a home never realizing that one day we may move to a totally different state! So this announcement is a total shake up to our life and routine. Justin, Hudson and I are moving to Boston, Massachusetts! Wow. Typing that out and reading it back was a little frightening, it's really happening!!! Justin got a promotion and a nice raise in January and that was such a blessing to us, but also a shocker! His boss asked him if he would think about transferring to Boston for awhile because he felt like he could really grow in the company. It didn't really take us long to make that decision. Um YES! Boston, Massachusetts? How stinking cool is that? It's definitely an opportunity that doesn't show up on your doorstep everyday. We didn't really make the decision that fast. We had to pray, get advice, and look into a few things first. We aren't total live in the moment people. :p

Another cool thing that doesn't happen too often was the 'trial' that Justin got. His boss told him to head up to Boston for a month and see how he liked it. That way if he hated it, he wouldn't be stuck there. So we both went for the month, and honestly it was kind of a bipolar experience. ha! We hated it, we liked it, we thought it was okay, we LOVED it. It took two weeks, but dang it, Boston stole our hearts! The city itself is so overwhelming. And OLD. I hate old. Unless it's "fake" old like the rustic furniture makeovers I do, but that hardly counts. And the sun didn't come out. But after a week and a half we changed hotels and instead of being right smack dab in Boston we were about 20 minutes out in this tiny little suburb. And that is where the love of the city began! Everything was cute. Still old, but a cute old. We found shopping centers that reminded us of places in Florida. We found new restaurants that quickly became our 'place'. We could see the Boston skyline from the hill just down the street from our hotel reminding us that we were still going to be a 'Bostonian' just not the 'overwhelming, thrown in the middle of a huge downtown you can't find your car in' mix. We got to see SNOW. Lots and lots of snow. Things just started clicking and we just knew, this was all working out in our favor! So, we are taking the plunge. On March 22nd we will be packing up and moving to Boston! We could be there a year, we could be there for five years. We don't know yet, but we are so excited for this experience and so grateful for all the extra 'goodies' that Justin's work threw in to make sure we would love our new home. 

The reason why this is such a change for us is because we will go from living in a 2,200 square foot 3/2 home to a 1,200 square foot 2/2 apartment. YIKES. I will say I was sooo nervous at first. Like holy freaking cow. "I don't WANT to live in an apartment. You can't MAKE me" might have come out of my mouth a time or two. But after we took a tour of a complex we found, again, we fell in love. It's a brand new complex with every amenity you can THINK of and it's about 1,000 dollars cheaper a month than renting a house. (Boston's housing market is out of CONTROOOLLL fyi) Besides that we are SO excited to get to experience four seasons again. This will be a first for Justin and we're definitely going to take advantage of it. For me, it feels like home! And I'm not ready for winter to be over. I didn't get to enjoy it enough!! So here we are! Downsizing. Going on this super fun adventure while we're still young and kid-less. We couldn't be more thrilled! We are so thankful for all the love and support we feel.

We will be renting our house out until we decide we are ready to sell. Our goal is to come back whenever we decide we are ready and sell our home now. Then we will start building our new one! Which is another huge deal, because we hadn't planned on being able to do that for four years or so. Here we go! The packing, the labeling, the dog trying to talk me into taking him on walks in between, the stress of finding the perfect renter, it's all here! And we are more ready now than we'll ever be. Wish us luck in our new adventure!!! :)

If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen most of the photos I'm going to post from our Boston trip. If not, follow me on Instagram! I have my profile to private right now because there's some people I just don't want accessing my photos! But I will accept you pretty quickly if you aren't a creep. :p @BrittaneyKate is how you'll find me. Be warned, I mostly post photos of my dog. I don't love him more than my husband, I just think he's a little cuter/more photogenic. :p

Our apartment complex via

via

New York City Highlights

Justin and I are in Boston for the month for his work (more on that later!) and since we are so close to so many cool places, we decided to take advantage of that! We thought being three and a half hours away from New York City was just TOO close not to go. I have never been, but have always dreamed of it! I've had this crazy visual of what it would be like since I was in the second grade and did my first report about the Empire State Building. I wondered if it would be anything like what I saw on movies, or if it would be as cool as everyone says it was. Well, Justin told me not to get too excited just in case I was let down. Let me just tell you, I was NOT let down. It was actually so much better than anyone had ever told me, and so much cooler than what I saw in the movies. I walked around that city with this big silly grin I could not take off for the life of me. I fell madly in love with New York City.

Our hotel was right in Times Square so I got to look out my window and watch all the action happen when we decided to go in for the night. It's true what they say, NYC really is the city that never sleeps. And I think that is pretty cool.

We spent the weekend seeing everything we could shove into two days. Times Square, Central Park, China Town, the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island. If we had more time we would have done more, but we only spend two days there. :(

Justin wanted to see Ground Zero, but I wasn't on board 100%. I just hate sad things. But he talked me into it and I'm really glad he did. We walked to the site where it all happened and there was a huge waterfall taking over the old space of one of the Towers. aEvery name of every person that was lost that day wrapped around the wall of the waterfall. When we got there, there was at least a hundred people around us, but all you could hear was the sound of falling water. It was like the whole city of New York had just stopped. Nobody was saying anything, just standing in front of the huge monument soaking in every name that lined the walls. It was such a sad, beautiful moment.

We walked into one of the other memorial areas you go to before the exit where they had set up a room full of memories. People were talking about the people they lost that day. The clothes they were wearing the last time they saw them, the last things they said before heading to work, the lives they left behind, and how after all these years, it still hurts just as much as it did on September 11th. And I sobbed. I felt so embarrassed to be crying in front of so many people, but I couldn't stop! I had NO idea how big this moment in American History actually was until I stood in that room and listened to all of that. My heart just wouldn't stop aching. I tried to make my way to the exit so people wouldn't think I was the crazy chick, but all the while thinking, is this what so many people have been feeling for the last 12 years? I had no idea because it didn't personally affect me. I was young and naive and everyone in my family was OK. But so many Americans were and are still grieving over such a huge loss. Justin hugged me tight and told me that it was good to feel those emotions because that's what made me a true American. I only wish I would have felt them sooner.

I am so glad we went and really just wanted to encourage anyone who makes a trip to New York to visit Ground Zero. It will change you.
Back to a happy topic- my absolute favorite part of the trip was our ferry boat ride. I can't begin to describe how amazing it was. Just being out there on the water and seeing the entire New York City skyline, there's nothing like it. I told Justin I wanted to move there just so I could ride the ferry every day.

One thing I can't figure out is how a place so dirty, can be so beautiful all at the same time. I don't think ill ever understand it! There's trash all over the streets, and weird smells, and Justin got asked to buy drugs a couple times (scary!!!) but at the same time, it was breathtakingly beautiful. We got to the top of the Empire State Building, and I literally gasped. I couldn't even say anything,  it was so BEAUTIFUL. I didn't want to spend the money to go to the top because we had just been on top of the Sears Tower in Chicago and I thought it would be basically the same thing, but I was so wrong and I'm glad we decided to do it. The view from the top didn't even compare to what we saw in Chicago.

Next time we go we want to spend a little more time so we can do a few more things. Justin and I had so much fun and if we end up moving to Boston, we will definitely be going back to New York City a lot more.