The Good, The Bad, and The Pretty...

First the good...last Saturday was Ava's 4th Birthday!  I can not believe my little baby turned 4!  She is doing fabulous in pre-school.  We celebrated with family last Friday night, then Saturday was the big day, we went to the American Girl store in Manhattan.  It was so much fun!  The girls love going there, and I do to.  If only it had been around when I was little.  Here are some pictures from our day.

Then last Monday night, we decided we would go adopt a dog from the animal shelter.  We promised the girls we would get a dog when Tigger died, and honestly, I needed it too.  So we went to Northshore Animal League, where we got our other cat, which is a wonderful no kill animal shelter.  We were looking for a labrador retriever.  We really wanted a girl dog, I don't need to be explaining to my girls about boy parts just yet. ;)  We found the sweetest puppy, a lab and we believe a doberman mix.  She is adorable, and so sweet...although a week later she has settled in, and is getting fiesty.  

Little Miss Coco, who isn't going to be so little.

We are working on training her.  She was potty trained the day after we got her.  She already knows sit, and fetch.  Now to work on the biting, although, I know that is just her teething.  She is a love.  She follows me around, and is my baby.  She even puts herself to sleep in her kennel.  Now I am thinking though, that we should have named her digger, as she loves to dig up my back yard...

Now for the bad...it seems as if we can't catch a break these days.  I got a call Tuesday, and we had a major family crisis.  My mom lives out of state, and she had to fly up on Tuesday.  Unfortunately I can't share specifics, but I spent 4 days last week driving all over Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens.  Probably close to 10 hours driving.  It has been very emotionally draining.

Saturday things finally seemed to settle.  It was the first day in 4 days I didn't have to run around.  I put Emma to bed, and puppy was crying.  I thought she was just crying for me.  She has had some stomach issues, and it looked like she had to go to the bathroom.  Chris grabbed her quick, and we ran her outside.  He puts her down on the deck , and she falls over.  She tries to walk and keeps losing her balance and falls.  Then she goes into convulsions, and is having what appears to be a seizure.  Her whole body is shaking, and she is drooling excessively, so I tell Chris to run and call the ER vet.  I was sitting there on the floor trying to keep her calm, waiting for the seizure to pass.  Well, it never passed.  The vet tells us to come in immediately.  The girls are asleep, so I have to drive her myself.  I am doing 8o miles an hour, trying to keep her calm, all the while, she is still seizing, and her legs are crunching up.  I rush her into the vet, and they immediately take her from me, then I lose it.  It must be a mom thing to maintain composure when one of your kids is hurt or sick until they aren't near you.  I am now in hysterics, and panicking, fearing the worst.  This can't be happening, and I am not going to lose another pet.  We are already super attached.  Not to mention, we just spent over $1300 0n Tigger, and I am stretched very thin right now, having done the Fall line.  They have to keep Coco overnight and she is not trembling anymore, but she is still drooling and not herself.  They aren't sure if she has a problem in her brain, distemper, or, she was given medication for her stomach that day, and it could be a reaction to that.

She makes it through the night, and I stop in to see her the next day after yet another trip to Brooklyn.  She is much better, but she is very lethargic, and she did have another episode in the night.  By 4pm she was back to normal, playing eating, walking fine.  We are pretty sure, it was an atoxic reaction to one of the medications prescribed for her stomach.  She only had her first dose that day at 5pm, and then 4 hours later had the reaction.  Poor thing only had been home for a few days, and she was back in a cage with an IV and a catheter.  Long story short, she was home by 9pm Sunday night.  What an emotional roller coaster.  I said to the vet, who remembered us from Tigger, that leaving without an animal was not an option.  My heart couldn't have taken it, nor the girls.  We have discontinued all meds, and she is fine now.  Now we just have to wait and see if happens again, and that would mean something more serious.

Sometimes, I can't believe this is my life, but that was 3 bad things, so we are good now, right?

NOW...for the pretty!  Our Holiday Collection, Home For the Holidays is done, and sales begin tomorrow.  This is a very limited collection, and I am really excited with how it turned out.  Gina did a great job photographing it.  Please contact a Fashion Consultant, or myself to place an order.  I suggest doing it quickly if there is something you like.  And here it is...

We are offering the clippies shown, as well as a beautiful bracelet.  Again, contact an FC or myself for more info.

Have a great day ladies...