*Don’t say it’s been a busy month, don’t say it’s been a busy month…*

It’s been a busy month.

*sigh*

I think saying you’re busy is similar to saying you’re tired. Like, bitch: we’re all busy and tired- you wanna cookie?!” What a boring way to start a blog post. I know. I know!

And yet here we are.

So here are some pics and glossing over a lot of cool details from the last month and half to catch up.

So at the end of December we visited my husband’s aunt and uncle’s ranch.

Pretty spectacular.

We had our youngest’s birthday party while down there too. Fun was had by all except for that one longhorn that had to be put down that my husband did. Long story. Or not- longhorn not able to get up for over 24 hours. Bam. Burial by excavator. Pretty cut and dry actually. (wasn’t any of the one’s in this pic, don’t worry.) Such is ranch life. Other than that it’s as idyllic as it looked.

At the end of December we took a bike-ride along the mission trails in San Antonio and saw a variety of the old Spanish missions for my husband’s birthday. Did you know the city of San Antonio is older than the United States? Well it is. You ain’t seeing anything like this in Denver. It was an awesome day and then the girls and I spent the next 3 days wondering who in the ABSOLUTE HELL designed bike seats to be the most uncomfortable things in the entire world.

And then my oldest and I took a tour of my alma matter of the University of Texas at Austin and there were WAY too many utterances of “This was one of my favorite flower beds!”

I have always been a huge nerd- turns out.

Then there was dealing with the bone shattering heartache a few days later of her not getting accepted into UT but instead accepted into their CAP program. I hate that parenting moment where you can do nothing for their pain but be there with them through it. A baby with colic is easier. And look- I KNOW every parent thinks their kid is special… but damn it this kid is and deserved to get in!

All public universities in Texas have this rule where the top 10% automatically get admitted. And even though the rules apply slightly differently to UT, those automatic admittance students took up 7,000 of the 9,000 incoming freshman slots. Which means the other 20,000 applicants vied for only 2,000 remaining slots. She didn’t get one of those. She’s been in plays and works part time and we’ve had many a discussion about work life balance and how she’s getting As so she doesn’t need to worry about wearing herself out too much to get perfect scores… and I think that’s the best lesson for life- but it bit her in the ass here because she’s in a giant school district and even with great scores and 12 hours of college credit under her belt she isn’t in the top 10%.. so didn’t get one of those automatic slots.

She got admitted to their CAP program, which requires students to spend a year at one of their other campuses and then walk in as sophomores to the austin campus. Only 12% of applicants get into that program. It’s basically students UT Austin wants but doesn’t have a place for until some of those automatic admittances flunk out (notbitter)… sigh.

You ever try to go to sleep listening to your child cry herself to sleep? But this is life? We don’t always get what we want? It’s normal and it all can just fuck right off and yet this is where grit is formed and is actually good for her. And as a parent my job isn’t to protect her from everything but to launch her into adulthood successfully. She worked the next night and came home to flowers in her room and notes from mom and dad for her. She slept again and then woke up with a decision to do the CAP program, as disappointing as it is for her to not spend her first year in Austin.

Unless she gets into Northwestern that is. We find out in a couple of weeks.

It’s been a whole thing. She’ll be okay.

Work has been busy. I am a manufacturing sales rep and we sell construction products. I sold over a half million more than my goal in January. In January. Onto construction sites. TheeconomyishealingthanksBiden!

And in the midst of all of this… Mac started limping. And then it REALLY quickly got worse. I took her to the vet expecting it to be a knee ligament… and it was not. And I should back up a step- but my oldest WAS going to take Mac to college. But now has to live on campus and also kinda decided she’s more of a cat person. I can understand. And yet Mac has started to HATE Birdie. Turns out corgis tend to not like other corgis. Okay fine. My brother absolutely adores both of our corgis and he was excited to adopt Mac, perfect solution!

And then the limping started.

So turns out she had Legg Perthe disease. Basically it means there is too little blood-flow to the top of her leg bone at her hip and it causes a deformity. The surgery is at least $7,000. That we don’t have. For a dog that isn’t a good fit for our household. Pet insurance wouldn’t pay for it. (total insurance carrier move, insurance carrier.)

I was literally feeling trapped. What to do? She’s so damn sweet! A good dog! Only 11 months old! We had 3 prescriptions to manage her pain that didn’t work entirely…agh.

And then we took a step back. What are our options. Pay for it and then give her away. Put her down. Relinquish her to a rescue.

We can’t pay for it. Or we COULD but it would be insanely hard and probably ruin our credit. Yes we’re that close to the bone right now. We’ll be okay. Just now… now things are tight.

She deserves to live. I was adamant about that. Especially as she had such a good shot at a long and pain free life after the surgery.

And so we had one option. I wrote her story and issues all out and sent it to a group called Top of Texas Corgi Rescue. We had an answer in a week. They would take her and cover all medical expenses. We would remain her fosters until she was placed with a home.

That happened yesterday.

She found the impossible really: a couple who was willing to see her through her surgery and the 6 months of rehab themselves.

I am so happy! And I am kinda sad. And I feel guilty and like I failed that little dog… but know I actually did right by her and our family too… it’s all kinda rolled together. She’s currently (on Sunday) in a vet’s office on a painkiller drip and her surgery is Monday. Between getting diagnosed on the 13th of January and today her hip got so much worse it actually broke… It moved scary fast and we were barely ahead of it the whole time, it feels like.

Sigh. It’s been a WHOLE thing, y’all.

And Chickpea the chicken got eaten but that’s the last one. and there have been no more chicken deaths. And Sugar is a rooster. And maybe Salem too.

But there is also this guy. Who is the hardest sleeper ever and a REALLY good cat.

And we’ve all been really sick on and off freaking again.

And there is this guy: with 20+ years of taking pics with heart shaped things for me. (that’s a piece of a palm frond that gets added to a long list of rocks and potatoes).

I remember being in a work training once, years ago where the HR rep said that spouses were not allowed to work together under their company policy… not like it was an issue as there were no married couples on staff. But also no husband and wife would want to be together every hour of the day anyway and looked at me (only female in the group) and asking me “Amiright?”. And I remember just blinking at her and saying: “No. I’d spend every second with my husband- I’d ride around on him like a backpack given a choice.” You ever want to shut someone like that up real quick… just buck that weird thing people do where they pretend to hate their spouse and talk shit about them. I want Noooo part of that. My husband is fucking awesome thank you very much. And has seen me and all of us through some of the hard stuff this last month. I look forward to Valentines Day and being able to celebrate this one right here- the cause and source of so much joy in my life, I tell you what!

It’s warm outside, and it’s rained a few times (thanks climate change!) and spring is almost here.

As always, that means good things to come… but if it throws another Snowmageddon at us first like it did 4 years ago… well we’ll weather that too.