Last night...

Buzz lost his bowels again in the house...tough decision. Just not sure I think that is enough to have him put to sleep over (I guess that I just need to remind myself that he does have spinal cord damage and will not get better).

Buzz revisited

 Buzz has not had an accident since a day or two before I took him to the vet so we are going to postpone his demise for awhile longer. We don't want him to suffer but for the time being he is well enough to keep alive. If he progresses to the point that he can't get up anymore or if he acts like he is in pain then we will know it is time...that point has just not arrived yet. I am really relieved actually because I was having a hard time coming to terms with it since he doesn't act too bad yet. He is not playful anymore and has to basically use his front legs strength to stand up but that doesn't seem to bother him. I am going to call the vet probably on Thursday to cancel because I want to make sure that he is still OK.

Buzz

Buzz is our dog. We have had  him for 13 wonderful years.

Here is is at our home in Texas but I am amazed how black around his eyes still are.

 This is a good profile picture of him. It was taken Sept. 07. I wish that I had dated more of the photos that I took. I took several pictures of him that day and one of them is on my purse.

This is his favorite place to be...taking up the entire bed so there is no room for Wayne or I.

Here he is more recently. You can see how much grayer he is than he was in the first picture but this was still taken about a year ago or so.

So recently he has started having bowel accidents in the house. This is very unusual for him. He was difficult to house train but once he was trained he didn't have accidents at all. He also has a hard time getting up and when he lays down he flops. It is also easy to knock him down if you accidentally run into him or try to get him to go somewhere where he doesn't want to go. He has always had allergies so he is on a medicine called Temeril P which has a low dose steroid as well as an antihistamine in it. He ran out of his pills today and they wouldn't give me a refill without seeing him so off to the vet we went. I told her about his problems so she did an exam and we found out that he has spinal cord damage. So we are going to have him put to sleep on Friday. That will be a sad day in the Burke home as well as our children away from home. He has been such an integral part of our lives for so long it is kind of hard to know what we will do without him. Just curious if anyone else has had to put a pet down, how did you decide it was time, and do you guys think we are doing the right thing. Opinions are appreciated.

Movies

We are not ones to go to movies very often but Michael really wanted to see the new How To Train Your Dinosaur movie so we went and saw it in 3D at the CineMark Tinseltown theater. We both really enjoyed it. It is a good kids movie.

While we were in Iowa we went to see Avatar in 3D as well. I liked it a lot. I want to go see it again with Wayne.

Also while in Iowa Michael went to see Alice In Wonderland in 3D but I stayed home with Ritzzie. This is what I heard: 3D is best in Alice In Wonderland so I want to go see it too. Maybe I can talk Wayne into it too. Plus isn't Johnny Depp just to die for???

Funny missionary story (as told by Michael)

To set he mood here is a photo that Michael came home with from his mission (he is fourth from left).

So, Michael goes out with the missionaries a lot. They called last night and asked him to drive them around. He hates to do that last minute but they talked him into it. They were on splits and he was dropping them off at their apartment after getting the companionship back together. There are a set of sister missionaries that live in the same apartment complex and they always drop off the extra food they get with the Elders. So they left the food on the missionaries step but didn't see that the Elders were there. For fun the Elders (unseen by the sisters) took the food, raced the long way around the apartment, and left it on the sisters doorstep. Then they ran back to hide but they could still see the sisters reaction. Well, the sisters just looked around and said something like that is strange, picked up the food, and took it into their apartment. As soon as they shut the door the missionaries ran up to the door and yelled and pounded on it. The sister missionaries were so scared that they screamed bloody murder and the Elders just laughed at them. So the sisters gave the food back to them and the Elders left to go to their own apartment. CRAZY ELDERS!!!

PS...no baby yet :(  Her last due date is tomorrow and I'm sure she is past ready but she wants to do a V-back so they are waiting for her to go into labor on her own.

Briefly home

I am home again!! I left early Friday morning and drove straight through (with a 3 hour stop in Wichita) to avoid the winter storms. I was going to spend the weekend in Wichita but plans change when bad weather is looming. Now I am awaiting news of the birth of grandbaby #7 after which I will return to Wichita for as long as I am needed!!

I am...

Heading north for Spring Break!! Going to help my brother-in-law mud his basement. FUN TIMES!! Michael is going with me...that way if Diane has her baby while we are gone he can just drop me off at her house on the way back home. I am looking forward to getting away.

Funny story...or embarrassing...take your pick

So...I haven't posted in awhile. I am working on Caleb's quilt BUT today I am sticking close to the computer because my niece is birthing today. It is fun to read her  husband's updates on Facebook. Anyway...I had what I would call an embarrassing experience at Wal-Mart the other day. I had been shopping in the fabric department (YEAH...mine still has one!!) and saw a sister from my ward there. Then in the bread aisle I ran into my next door neighbor (and got to tickle her 11 month old baby boy). So after that I was walking to the produce and came up behind a lady who looked just like another neighbor...from behind. So without even checking to make sure it was really her, I walked up and said something like Boy, I keep running into everyone I know at Wal-Mart today. Then I walked past her and started looking at the bananas. Pretty soon she says Do I know you? to which I say I don't think so after which I took my bananas and left. I should have probably said something like O I thought you were someone else instead of NOTHING!!! Anyway that is my embarrassing / funny story for the week.