What a week...

Wow... What a week. I was hoping for things to calm down and get back to normal in my last post... well... lets just say I am still hoping...

Important info for this post... I have 4 pets... Emmitt (dog- 13 years), Hannah (cat-12 years), Lenny (cat- 4 years), & Snoopy (cat - 2 years).

Dec 23 - Emmitt was rebounding from surgery nicely. Lovely anniversary dinner with Mr. D. We had a great dinner at Carraba's and then went last minute Christmas shopping... came home and watched our wedding video... nice day. (the calm before the storm.)

Dec. 24 - Spent all day cleaning and cooking. My family came over and we had a nice Christmas eve together... very casual. We made homemade pizza (our family tradition) and ate Italian sausage and pizza along with a ton of desserts. My Dad and his wife were spending the night... At 12:30 we went to bed leaving Dad and wife watching TV... At 5:30 AM we realized that 1 of our cats was outside... someone had "accidentally" (ie - carelessly) let him out. It didn't take long for us to realize that Snoopy... our youngest kitty was missing and no where to be found. So somehow... someone.. "accidentally / carelessly" let out TWO of our cats in the middle of the night and didn't realize it.

Dec. 25 - Spent all morning from 5:30 on searching for Snoopy... He was no where to be found. Once Dad and his wife work up around 8:30... I made breakfast. It turned into a very sour morning because everyone was upset about the missing pet. Mr. D. and I didn't open gifts because we were to frazzled... When my family finally cleared out at about noon we opened gifts... Mr. D. went overboard. I got all sort of girly stuff like perfume and bubble bath and the Elizabeth Arden make-up set. I also got tons of cloths and pj's. I took a nap and then we planned for Mr.D's family to come over that night. We had 21 people over on Christmas night and it was really fun... well stressful-fun... His family can just be overwhelming... but a couple (well 4 or 5) glasses of wine helped me though! They were all very generous in their gifts and even stayed to help me clean up. All in all a very nice time... except for the missing Snoopy.

Dec. 26 - I made an appointment to take Emmitt back to the doctor to check his stitches and his eyes... I also decided to take my other cat Hannah (who is 12) because she has been walking funny... I thought probably arthritis or something. We spent a good part of the afternoon putting up "missing Snoopy" posters around our neighborhood and in the park across the street.

Dec. 27 - Snoopy returns!!!! After 57 hours he just shows up at the back door! YAY!!! We celebrated and are so relieved that he is safe... (in fact ... he is on my lap as I am typing this.) I take Emmitt and Hannah to the vet. Emmitt's incision looks good and is healing well.. YAY... His ears are clear... YAY... His eye is healing but no at fast as they would like so more meds and another eye staining test... =$97. Hannah - has a full blood panel and is found to have diabetes. She is now insulin dependent for the rest of her life and I have to give her injections 2X a day. =$203.

For those of you playing along at home that is $1500 in vet bills that I have incurred since Thanksgiving. The $$$$ is coming from my mastercard... And I am freaking out.

Dec 28 - Today we found out that Emmitt did have testicular cancer... but it was very small and the vet is sure that she got it all... so that is good news. I have to take him back next week for yet another eye stain test (probably another $100). And I have to take Hannah back to the vet in 2 weeks for her all day glucose test (probably at least another $100-$200). I know it sounds funny but please pray for my little furry family... we can't take much more of these bills coming in. And I just do not know what to do.

Other than all that I am fine and Mr. D. is fine. We did have a nice Christmas (except for the "2005 Great Kitty Escape" and all the $$$ lost. But our family is still in tact.

I am supposed to see my doctor on cd 13 next week to check my liver function (a bloodtest I need every few months because of the Metformin)... that is another $35. At some point I think I will need to cut up this credit card....

We do have some good possibilities with Mr. D's acting coming up in the future... Please say a quick prayer about that too. It would be a huge help financially... but I can't talk about it yet.. I don't want to jinx it.

2005 was a much better year than 2004 for us... But we are really ready and in need of a GREAT 2006!!!!