Not exactly the tag line I wanted to read when I started my Google search this morning. But there it was *SMACK* in my face. Although I already knew the situation was bad...very bad...reading that made it much worse. It gave me the kick I needed to forgo the 20 minute shower I had planned and instead head to the emergency clinic immediately.

My precious Bandit Boy was sick, my mind knew what was going on but my heart refused to accept it.

When we got to the office my worst thoughts were confirmed. He had bloat, a life threatening condition where the stomach twists upon itself and and human guardians are left with two options only:

Surgery or Euthanization

The mother of all emergencies in the canine world. Time was of the essence, he could die in a matter of hours or even minutes.

We opted for surgery and tonight we are praying for his recovery. Would you join us please? He made it through the surgery but the next 24 hours are crucial for him. Our house seems empty. Our family is missing one of its members. Bailey is looking for her best friend, Ilya is looking for his protector, and I am just plain missing my Buddy Boy....

Before he left for surgery I told him he wasn't allowed to not come home. I pray he listened to me...

Thanks O & Susan for the tips YA'LL gave me about proper etiquette here in the south. I haven't used the "shut yur trap" on Cubby yet. I'll let you know how that goes!

Now, I did grow up in FL which some consider the "south" and others consider a hodgepodge of well, whatever. That said, I do have a bit of history & knowledge on southern living. For instance, I L.O.V.E. sweet tea and in the 15 years since I left FL to join the Air Foce, I continued saying ya'll (much to Norm's dismay). However, I did forget that all things soda are Coke until you're asked to specify which brand of Coke you really want.

But you know what I REALLY miss?? You know what I've been craving for the past 15 years? Road side boiled peanuts! And yes, they MUST come from a roadside stand. I suckered Norm into having some on one of our trips to FL a few years back. He about gagged to death and thinks they're the most wretched things ever. They don't surpass chocolate for me, but they're pretty darn close to the top of my favorites list. Every day, on my way to/from the office, I pass a hand scrawled sign that reads "Boiled Peanuts Ahead" and I'm just itchin' to stop.

So there you have it - - a secret craving that I can now fulfill no matter how weird Norm thinks it is. A question for my fellow Southern Women - - what else have I been missing out on all these years up north?

Is WONDERFUL!! Not to say that we haven't faced some challenges in the 2 weeks that we've been here.

1 - Closing should have taken place on Tuesday, November 10. The moving company was scheduled to deliver our stuff to the new house the next day. So when did we end up actually closing? Monday the 16th!! Thankfully the previous owners allowed us to move in on Friday the 13th (yikes!!) because the moving folks were threatening to dump our stuff on the sidewalk (or take it all back to VA). There was waaaaaaay too much drama involved with the closing, and at times I was ready to just say forget it but all is well now and we all LOVE our new house.

2- How in the world do you fit everything that was in a 7500 sq. ft house into a much more reasonable 2500 sq ft place? Yeah...we have a lot to get rid of!

3 - WHYYYYYYYYYYYY do birds keep committing suicide by dive bombing my car while I'm driving? Okay, so maybe their wings are tired from the whole migration thing but come on already! I'm SICK of plucking feathers out of my grill already. I've had 4 birds kill themselves this way.

4 - Moving folks gave us the inventory list when they delivered everything. They had over 500 things ticketed. By my best guess, we have about 300 more boxes to unpack. Oh joy! Hey Becky - - got any plans this weekend?! ;-)

5 - Our internet connection has FINALLY been set up. Talk about going thru withdrawals?!

As we settle in, I am so grateful for this opportunity. My new job is challenging but so satisfying. Ilya LOVES his new house, his new yard and our neighborhood. Our dogs are in heaven in their new back yard. Norm & I are surviving working together and have I mentioned how much I love eating lunch with my husband every day?

Anyway, I'll post pictures of the new place soon and I have the adoption presentation ready to upload. So, now that we're here the blog will be updated more often. I hope there are still people out there checking in on us!!

Take care,
Kar

But this weekend you have an opportunity to REALLY make a difference with photos of your adopted child. I have been given an opportunity to reach out to a lot of folks regarding adoption and am seeking photos of adopted children to include in a slide show which will run either before or during my talk.

To protect your privacy, your child's name WILL NOT be included. If you'd like to include other info, such as where your child was adopted from, the name of the orphanage/baby home, whether it was domestic or international, the date you met him/her, your "gotcha" date, etc., please feel free to pass it on to me as well.

As I've mentioned once or twice, we're moving to GA this Monday so things are a bit crazy right now. I'll post the presentation on this blog either Sunday afternoon or sometime mid next week.

If you want to participate, please email your photos to me at ip0995@msn.com or karyn0995@yahoo.com. My deadline to have this ready is 4pm tomorrow afternoon, Saturday, Nov. 7. To meet my deadline, I'll need your pictures by noon tomorrow.

THANK YOU for supporting this presentation!!

We all have them, don't we? Normally, though, we don't chose to highlight them in an arena as public as the internet. I don't want to be judged, so I thought long and hard about posting this. After all, once I hit "publish post" this is going to be in cyberspace forever and there's no taking it back.

Well, I decided to go ahead and just keep it real. I do have a skeleton in my closet, my guess is you do too. But seriously, is yours this cute??!!





On a side note, in ONE WEEK I'll be driving Cubby, Bailey, Bandit & my friend Kim to our new house in GA! OHMYGOSH there's still so much to do! YIKERS!

Oh, and no, we're not leaving Norm behind. He'll be following a few hours after we hit the road. Wish us luck!