Saying Good-Bye

This past Friday we had to say good-bye to our beloved dog, Gravy!  Gravy was a part of our family for 9.5 years. He would have been 10 in April and would have celebrated 10 years with us in June.

He was an awesome dog and the kids' best friend. He loved the kids, loved walks, and in his younger years playing chase.  Over all he was a good dog and loyal to his family.  Sure, I hated the fact he would get into the trash (if we didn't lock it up) or food from the counter/table when we were gone! He never did this while we were home.  Sure, I hated the fact that he would break the window and bust out if we walked down to our neighbor's house WITHOUT him!  He never did this if we drove! Just if we walked anywhere. So if we went walking and didn't want him to come with we would have to put on a lead in the backyard. Of course he would then bark the whole time.

Despite these flaws over all he was a good dog and actually stayed in our yard as long as WE didn't leave the property ON foot! Our backyard is completely fenced, but we always leave the gate to the front yard open. So he could have left the property, but didn't. He stayed in the backyard unless someone pulled in our drive or we were out front.  He had to be with us or go greet the person that pulled in.

Seeing he was lab/collie mix his size would scare delivery people when they would come by, especially if he greeted them at the driveway before we could get outside. We would tell people all the time he's just a noise maker. That's the truth really, he was just a noise maker and would keep on being a noise maker until you acknowledge him. Once you acknowledge him he would lick you to death!

Gravy's passing was sudden and unexpected. Friday I took him to the vet because for a week he wasn't eating properly and that day I noticed he was bloated. I called the vet Friday morning and at first agreed to bring him in Monday, but after I hung up the phone I realized he was bloated so I called back and asked them to please squeeze him in Friday. They agreed to see him Friday.

The vet looked him over: gums looked good, temp normal, heart rate a little high, but sometimes when they come in they are are little high so that didn't worry her. She feeling on the tummy area could tell it was fluid. She then did a rectal exam and from what she could feel on that end things like the prostate and anal glads were normal.  It was at that point we discussed how to find out what the possible fluid was in the abdomen area.  We decided that she would shave his belly and would stick a sterile needle in to see if she could draw out any of the fluid. She did this and drew out blood. It was very easy for her to do this. His belly was full of blood!

She did some blood work and from the blood work it was clear that there was some kind of liver and spleen issues.  WITHOUT doing more testing she figured he had a tumor on his spleen or liver that rupture. She came to this conclusion because of how fast his symptoms developed and the fact we found tumors on his body at his annual exam in September.  The tumors on his body, age, arthritis, and the fact he had not fully recovered from a broken leg that took at the beginning of summer did NOT make him a candidate for surgery.  So that left us with the option to let him die on his own or end it for him. We opted to end it for him.
Friday night when my hubby got home for work we took him to the animal clinic and said our good-byes.

This has been very hard on the family, especially the kids. This is their first time dealing with the death of a love one that was so close to them. We have had close love ones die, but the kid were real little at the time so they don't really remember my dad and their cousin deaths.

Gravy 2003-2012

Glasses ARE making a difference.

It's amazing what some glasses can do for your child!  She still struggles with some reading, because she's lacking some basics skills, but she grasping and getting the information so much faster now. I really think it's helping her that she can see! She was just on the boarder line of needing glasses and we went with it, because we could also get them to be prism to correct for convergence insufficiency.

I so wished we went with this passive route several years ago when we learned she had convergence insufficiency. She's even doing math work with no fuss.  For the last several years I've had to deal with I don't understand it and had to work through her whining over the work. Looking back I think she was this way, because she couldn't see properly.

When she got her glasses on she said without my glasses things are 'normal'; with my glasses things are super clear and just pop-out at you!  I had to explain to her that super clear and pop-out at you IS normal!

She even this last week has been, are you ready for it, doing WORD problems WITHOUT my help!! For the last several years I've have had to sit next to her while she reads the word problems and correct the mistakes she was making.  This week she just did it without having to have me sit next to her while she read them to me! Can I just as that's awesome! She said for the some: I didn't know the person's name so I just skipped that part, but I understood and read the rest of the word problem just fine. That is a HUGE improvement for us. I really can't share how that's an improvement.


We've always have done spelling, math, reading, writing, and all the other subject required by my state, but this year I'm going to make spelling, writing, and reading more of a priority and  focus. We still will be doing all of subjects we just will be doing more language arts then in years prior.  I was given the first level of All About Spelling so I'm looking forward to giving that ago. I also have a list of books I'm going have the kid read this year in addition to reading to mommy and other free reading materials.

In years passed I've done history with a text book. This year I'm going to approach it with literature. I'm looking forward to that as well.  How have things been going with you? Are you doing anything new this school year?

Convergence Insufficiency

Convergence Insufficiency is a topic I haven't talked about in a LONG time! It's never really gone away for my daughter and here we are 3 years later and we still have reading issues. Reading issues that I'm sure are associated with this vision issue.

We tried various methods over the years and various phonics, hands on programs to help improve her reading. We have seen IMPROVEMENT but nothing that we really have been totally please with.
Today, I took the kids in for the annual vision exams and it turns out both kids are farsighted and need reading glasses. We decided NOT to get glasses for our son, only because the prescription is for a very small correction. He's not having issues with reading at this time so we decided to hold off. The script is good for an year, so if we notice issues within this year we can get it filled then.

Our daughter's prescription is for a slight correction as well, but she also getting  prism lenses to help correct the convergence insufficiency.  We'll have her new glasses next week so I'm hoping that she'll noticed a difference while reading and we'll notice a difference as well.

When we got home we told my husband about everything and answered Web-princesses questions about her classes. She took about a book she's been reading and said "So the glasses are going to help me see, read, better. I can see, read, the words on the page just fine." We told her she will notice the difference when she gets her glasses. It's going to be interesting to see how she reacts to them once they are here.

Wall book and running

I think my children have Facebook envy. Well at least my daughter does. She has decided to make wall book. She's hoping family will post messages on her wall book.

I posted a message on there this morning telling her to clean her room. You know what? She actually cleaned it! It looks very nice.

She wrote on her wall her excitement about giving cross country running a go. We found a local club to join. Well we actually found two. One is just for homeschoolers the other is for anyone.

We decided to go with the one that is open to anyone because my daughter is not sure if she want to compete at meets. If she just wants to run and be apart of the group then it is free for us. If she decides she wants to compete then it will cost us a little bit of money for an uniform and entry fees for the meets.

Testing New Mobile App.

A little over an year ago, well really 1.5 years ago I entered the smartphone world with an android based phone. Seeing android is Google owned one of the first things I looked for was a Blogger app. I had a few options but none of them were made by Google so I passed. I didn't want to use a 3rd party app and give them my password.

Today I on a whim decided to search the app store for a Blogger app and to my surprise I found one made by Google so I thought I would give it a try.

This blog post was made on my phone.