Spring has sprung?????

Well hello!!!  I know it's been a few weeks and I sit and wonder where on earth the time is going and what exactly I've been accomplishing.  It sure feels like not much that's for sure lol.  I hope that all of you have been enjoying some beautiful weather and crafting away!!  I know change is good but sometimes change is hard to get used to or is it just me??? 

We have been adjusting to the change without our beloved Bandit.  It is always so hard to lose our furry family members and we miss him so. 

On the 16th, Cody (he's now our oldest at 9 yrs old) got sick and stopped eating so I had gotten home from work early and went to see how he was doing and only to find a lump on this throat area and it was very swollen so back down to the vet we went.  Mind you it had only been 3 weeks since I was down dropping Bandit off and that was the last time I saw him so the emotions were running high.  To make a long story shorter, the vet knew something wasn't right so he wanted to check him into the hospital to observe and start an aggressive IV medications immediately.  Now mind you, we got put in the same room as with Bandit and when they took him out of the room to take him back, he had the same look and it broke my heart.  I just prayed that he would be OK and we'd be able to bring him back home.  Well the good news it..... we got to bring him back home.  You can see where they had to shave his neck and also his booboo from the IV but a small price to pay to have him still with us :)

Did it end there?  Oh no...he was doing better and then on Friday morning (the 23rd) his swelling started coming back so you guessed it, back down we went.  The vet sedated him and looked down his throat but still couldn't see what is causing this as it isn't anything obvious.  Another fluid biopsy was taken and new medications.  Well this is our sweet Cody after 24 hours of being on the new stuff.  Definitely perking up again :)

His swelling has gone down but it still isn't 100% down and the hard part is, it is a mystery as all the tests are coming back normal so now we're on a wait and see game and hoping the steriods and antibiotics totally kick whatever infection is in his body.  Now is that enough change to have to deal with???  Oh no lol.  For those of you that have been following me for awhile, my life never seems to be boring hahahaha.  On Monday I started a new job and so going a mile a minute trying to figure everything out and get things running smooth.  Yes, I'm back in management again and there are some changes coming.......

I have been waiting for Spring to come around but it appears that the weather here in the PNW hasn't figured out exactly what it wants to do.  On Thursday I woke up to more snow!!  Our poor flowers don't know which way to go I tell ya!!  So I figured since it is officially Spring, I'll start bringing some cheer inside and start decorating a little for Easter :)

My little wreath at the inside of the front door.  It's missing something so definitely going to have to re-do this one.... maybe a cute bow????

 My cute $2 Spring arrangement.  Foam sparklies from the Dollar store and a $1 bucket from Target and extra flowers and TaDa!! :)  Now this makes me smile!!

Then of course the easter bunnies have to come out right?  So they are currently watching over our Mr. B :)

I am really starting to get the Spring cleaning bug and got a lot done around the house today and think it will be an ongoing thing around here for the next few weeks lol.

My DIL is wanting me to do up a few vinyl sayings as they just repainted their house so that is on my project list for this week and I'm trying to start looking around on things to start building now that the weather is "supposed" to start getting nice again :)

So that's really all I've been up to and just wanted to let you know I'm still alive and have missed all of you and your wonderful and creative ideas :)

Have a fabulous week and happy crafting!!

xo ~ Laura

Life is funny......

Howdy!!  I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend and enjoying yourself.  Prayers are going out to friends and family that are having to deal with those terrible storms in the states...stay safe.

Each day I am feeling a little better and the emotions are starting to settle down some.  I will never forget our sweet little Bandit and he will forever be in our hearts.  We have him home now and are slowly readjusting to how life is now.  It doesn't seem the same, not will it ever but funny how things happen in life and we do learn to change things around, settle in to what is all around us.

Wednesday our sweet little boy was able to come home.  My hubby went down and picked him up, put him so sweetly in my craft room not disturbing a thing and left it exactly the way that Carrie (the owner of the crematory location) gave it to him.  Larry put a few extra touches on it which when I saw it, I totally broke down and just bawled.  I brought it all out of the boxes and envelops and put it neatly on the table.

Larry added this sweet balloon, red rose and adoreable card.

 Our precious boy lays in this beautiful dark cherry box and Carrie does these wonderful memorial paw prints and she so sweetly gave us a tuff of his fur.

 The card was very specially chosen to have this be directly from Bandit and Larry said this is exactly how he loved his Momma.  Can you see why I was crying???

In doing so and going through the mourning process, I wanted to work on more projects to honor our oldest sweet boy.  I love the paw print and started thinking, what if it accidently gets broken?  Then what?  So I started to think how I could preserve his precious paw imprint.  Being crafty I thought I have to be able to come up with somethings....so after doing a lot of thinking, I decided to get some of my baking clay, gently press it into the imprint after putting some plastic wrap gently over it and I came up with a reverse paw prints.  I ended up doing 8 of them actually, 4 in white and 4 in brown so now I have plenty "just in case".  Yes this is his little paw paws...cute huh :D

Then I also wanted to do something to be able to hang some of his pictures up and to be able to change things around so this is what I came up with also.  See, I am feeling better as I didn't even cry when doing these :)

So we continue to move forward with life, missing him daily but know he's in a better place, not in any pain and watching over us.  We now focus and love our other two even more making sure they are well loved and taken care of.

Yes we all go through changes in life and even though at times it is difficult, we always make it through and learn to move onward.  Never forgetting, loving more and always cherishing things closely in our hearts.

Hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend and happy crafting!!

Hugs,

Laura