When is it time?

When I put my dog Maisy to sleep this past March, my other dog Molly was in good health and good spirits. But by about the 3rd day after Maisy was gone, Molly knew... I saw Molly slip into a state of depression. I took her to the vet, who indeed confirmed that Molly was depressed. She suggested I look into getting another dog to keep Molly company, but I just wasn't ready to do that. Over the past 5 months, Molly's health has deteriorated rapidly. She's developed a skin rash, an eye infection, arthritis in her hind legs and hips, and she's had muscle mass loss in her hind legs. She's on arthritis medicine, which is really no big deal. But the last time I took her to the vet (2 weeks ago), she discovered a stage 4 heart murmur (stage 4 out of 6, with 6 being potentially fatal). The vet wants to do an EKG and run some other tests. The tests will supposedly determine the best course of treatment for Molly. The tests are expensive, but I honestly don't care about the cost. The heart murmur makes her easily tired and she has shortness of breath. So she sleeps a lot and coughs/wheezes a lot.

And now, Molly's started having accidents all over the house... everywhere... I'll close off one part of the house and she just goes and does her business in another part. I've tried wee wee pads. She sleeps on them. But she doesn't seem compelled to "go" on them, which is probably because she can't smell anymore. The wee wee pads supposedly give off a scent that's supposed to attract dogs to do their business on them, but my dog can't smell. And I've tried dog diapers, which, I wasn't even the one wearing the diaper but somehow I felt SOOOOOOO humiliated for my dog. Poor thing. Oh, she HATED the diapers. Ripped 2 of them off, then proceeded to walk straight into Isaac's room and do her business.

She's 14 years old and the carpet in Isaac's room needs to be ripped out at this point. It's bad. And the carpet in some of the other bedrooms are on their way to being ripped out too. I tried cleaning the carpets in Isaac's room with a cleaner "guaranteed" to get the urine smell out of carpet. It did NOT get the smell out. Instead, it left white, crunchy spots all over the carpet where I applied the cleaner. And now I have orange scent mixed in with the urine scent, and it's disgusting.

On top of everything else, Molly is deaf and going blind. I didn't go through any of this with Maisy. She was only 11 years old when we had to put her to sleep because the cancerous mass was causing her to be in so much pain that we could no longer manage the pain. She was not an elderly dog.

So, when is it time to say goodbye to an elderly pet? I don't know. I knew with Maisy because she was in tremendous pain, not eating, not happy. But Molly's eating and drinking fine. I don't care about the carpet and the cost to tear it out. I don't care about her medical expenses either. When people tell me not to spend all that money on a pet, I just don't even factor that in. That's not a"deal breaker" or deciding factor for me. But is this a "good" life for Molly? I don't know. Hector and I decided to confine her to the kitchen last night, and of course she did her business in there on the tile. So before I could even get a cup of coffee in me, I had to take care of Molly's mess. Man, I really wanted that coffee first thing this morning. :-) Oh, Molly doesn't bark anymore to go outside because, here again, she's deaf.

I guess maybe I'm just looking for someone who's gone through this before with a pet. Someone who can maybe tell me to hang in there... it's worth it.

By the way, since welcoming Maggie into our home, Molly has seemed FAR less depressed and lonely. She plays with Maggie and seems to really enjoy her company. But I think the loss of Maisy took a huge toll on her... a toll that I'm just not confident she will recover from. So, here I am just 5 months after saying goodbye to Maisy, trying to decide, when is it time to say goodbye to Molly?

Something just happened...

When Samuel was 2 1/2, his social skills therapist suggested that I enroll him in some type of Mother's Day Out program to give him time to socialize with other children his age. So, very reluctantly, I enrolled him one day a week at the Mother's Day Out program at our church. I remember calling my good friend (the Assistant Director) 3 times in a 5 hour stretch on Samuel's first day, just to check in on him. I know, I know... I didn't want him to grow up and "leave" me so soon, but I knew it was for the best for Samuel.

When Avery was 2, I decided out of pure necessity to enroll her in Mother's Day Out. You see, my social butterfly child needed some serious social time that she just wasn't getting at home from me. She was driving me nuts, quite frankly. So, Samuel and Avery both started going to Mother's Day Out twice a week. It was good for her, and she really enjoyed it.

Now then, here I am with Isaac. He's 3 1/2 years old and he's never gone to any type of daycare, preschool or Mother's Day Out program. He does go to Sunday School at church. And during the school year he goes to choir and missions on Wednesday nights, plus he goes every other Friday to the childcare at my Mothers of Preschoolers group meetings. So, he's getting some social time each week with friends his own age. I've never seen the need to put him in Mother's Day Out. But people keep asking me why I haven't enrolled him in Mother's Day Out or preschool for this coming school year.

I don't know, I think something just happened to me when I realized that Isaac was my last baby... my last feeding, last bottle, last diaper, my last time to see my child learn how to crawl, walk, talk... And so I've never really pushed Isaac to "grow up." Hmmm, and we wonder where that "baby of the family" business comes from...

No, I think I just learned the hard way that children grow up way too fast on their own. I mean, I simply can't believe I have a 3rd grader who looks me straight in the eyes now when he talks to me because he's that tall now! And my 2nd grader, well she's just way too mature for her own good. So, maybe the best approach for Isaac is to not push him to grow up even faster than he needs to. I like being at home with him. And trust me, I know all too well that Kindergarten will be knocking on our door long before I am ready to let him go. So for now, I am keeping Isaac at home with me for one last year. And I will cherish every single minute of our time at home together.

Sweet 16

Today, I'm celebrating my 16th wedding anniversary. When I recently mentioned this to a friend, she asked me what I thought the secret to a successful marriage is. My immediate, knee-jerk response was, "Please don't ask me that." :-) But after I thought about it for a minute, I told her that I thought it really depended upon what her definition of a successful marriage is. My definition would almost assuredly be different from hers. I'm not sure what the best answer is to her question. But as of right now, this is how I would define a successful marriage:

A successful marriage is one in which God is first, and the spouse and the marriage are second. Family, children, work and everything else comes after those two things. And a successful marriage is one in which the couple has made the commitment to stay together through all the bad times, so that they can enjoy the good times together. Because when you decide to stick together through everything that challenges your marriage, pushes your marriage to the limits, and everything that takes you outside your comfort zone, it makes all of the good times so much better.

I am so happy that today I get to say, "Happy Anniversary, Hector."

I asked...

... and you delivered. I have an over-abundance of cucumbers growing in my garden this year (last week alone I picked 8 cucumbers, and they aren't small). I think that brings my total up to 36 cucumbers in the past month. And I mean, would you look at that 1 lonely, pitiful jalapeno pepper - pretty pathetic if you ask me...

Anyway, as I was saying, I may not have a whole lot of anything else growing, but I do have a lot of cucumbers. And when I ran out of ways to prepare and eat them, I asked you all for recipes. And well, you sent them to me. Thanks! So now, I'd like to share with you some of the cucumber recipes I've made over the past week.

Lemon Cucumber Water - This idea was sent to me by my friend, Sarah T. I tried it, and I liked it! Very easy and extremely refreshing on a hot summer day.

Greek Salad - This recipe was sent to me by my friend Paula W. I made this for my in-laws over the July 4th weekend, and they gobbled it up. And after they left, I made it again, all for myself to enjoy! :-) But the second time I made it, I used green olives because I was out of black, and I forgot to add the feta cheese (2nd picture below). But it was still yummy and I loved every bite of it!

Greek Salad

5 medium tomatoes

2 cucumbers

1 small red onion

18 Calamata olives

1 - 8oz. package feta cheese

Dressing:

3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

4 Tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cut the tomatoes into wedges. Peel and seed the cucumbers and cut into chunks. Cut the red onion into slices and separate into rings. Crumble up the feta cheese. Then add everything together, including the olives. Mix the dressing and add to the salad right before serving.

Rachael Ray's Crunchy Tuna Burgers - Now then, you might be asking yourself what Tuna Burgers have to do with cucumbers. Well, the Tuna Burgers themselves don't have anything to do with cucumbers. But the Asian Hot Sweet Pickle Salad that accompanies the Tuna Burgers have a lot to do with cucumbers. These recipes were sent to me by my sister, Nina C. I will start off by telling you all that the onion rolls I bought to put the tuna burgers on had molded while sitting on my counter top - bought them on a Thursday, molded by Saturday - so I didn't use them for obvious reasons. I was not happy about that, but I pressed on and decided to serve the tuna burgers on plain wheat bread (see the picture above). The burgers and pickle salad were both delicious. And the flavors were outstanding!

Tips I'd like to offer: The tuna burger patties were very moist and crumbly. I added about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs to make them stick together better before frying them. I would also suggest putting a lid on the frying pan when you're cooking the tuna burgers. They popped and sizzled a lot in the pan (the pan I was frying the patties in did not have a lid - bad move on my part).

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You might also notice in the picture above that I made some Cucumber-Dill Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes. This idea was sent to me by my friend Stephenie R. They tasted great as a side dish with the Tuna Burgers. I really enjoyed them!

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Shrimp Ceviche - This idea was also sent to me by my sister, Nina C. I liked this recipe in particular because it recommended boiling the shrimp to kill possible bacteria before marinating the shrimp in the juices. This recipe was quite easy to make, and is also very refreshing on a hot summer day. But a word of warning to anyone with sensitive taste-buds, the Serrano pepper was pretty spicy... Good, but spicy...

Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki - One of my cousins, Shelby S., suggested that I look on the http://www.epicurious.com/ website for cucumber recipes. Great tip, Shelby! Thanks!!! Because they have 596 cucumber recipes on there. Who knew there are so many recipes with cucumbers in them? Not I... Anyway, from all of those recipes I decided to make Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki. You might be asking yourself, "What in the world is tzatziki?" Well, it's that dip that they put on Greek Gyros. I used this recipe to make the Chicken Gyros for dinner last night, and they turned out really good. I liked this recipe because it called for ingredients that I tend to always have in my kitchen (chicken, onions, olive oil...). But I didn't like the tzatziki recipe that was included with the chicken gyro recipe because it turned out frothy and watery. Not good... So I used this other recipe for the tzatziki called Cucumber Yogurt Dip. Same basic ingredients in both recipes. But the Cucumber Yogurt Dip recipe tells you how to drain all the extra liquid out of the yogurt first. That's why I prefer that recipe over the one included with the gyro recipe. Very easy and tasty, and Avery helped me prepare everything too, which made this recipe even better!

Tomato Cucumber Gazpacho - I also got this recipe from the http://www.epicurious.com/ website. It was a lot of work, and it made a ton of soup. So maybe next time I might cut the recipe in half. But Hector and I gobbled it up. I love soup, but come on, who wants to eat hot soup on a hot summer day? That's the beauty of this soup, which is served cold. I think this is quite possibly the next best thing to iced coffee. Just my opinion...

And believe it or not, I still have 5 cucumbers left and more growing in the garden. So please send me some more of your tried-and-true recipes with cucumbers in them. Next week, I'm going to try my hand at making deconstructed sushi with a recipe called California Roll Salad. I got this idea from my friend, Gina O. Can't wait to try it!

Things I've learned...

... about Maggie.

She loves going on car rides. But she seems to hate the cat...

She eats, drinks, huffs, and prances, all like a horse. Funny enough, when the gate to the back yard gets opened up, she sees that as her open invitation to plow right out of said gate, showing us that she also runs as fast as a horse.

She does not know the meanings of the words stop (as in, "STOP RUNNING, MAGGIE!") and move.

She does not like to go into her crate and she is determined to let us, and all of our neighbors, know this fact.

She knows how to sit and shake.

She also knows how to lay down.

And she seems to be really fond of flashlights.

I've also learned that she's an extremely smart, sweet and playful dog. She walks great on a leash and she even knows to slow down and look back to let me catch up (here again, she runs like a horse, I tell ya'). In the past few days we've had a few trying moments, like when she ran out the back gate and got about 5 blocks away before Hector and I caught her in the car. But she follows me around the house like Maisy used to do, so it's just been really nice having her here. I am really enjoying her company.