My Poor, poor kitty!

So...this is not for the faint of heart. Tux came home yesterday after his surgery in the morning. So, it turns out that his injury was much worse than all of us has anticipated...the vet had to do an incision about 6-7 inches long! She was supposed to just clean the original wound and stitch it up so it would heal properly, but as she was doing the surgery, she found that the wound we were seeing was the "tip of the iceberg." She had to enlarge the incision and remove some debris and hair from under the skin, which is what is in the plastic baggy. He now has a drainage tube to help with swelling and infection. And he does NOT like the lampshade he is wearing for a hat right now. We brought him home from the vet at about 6:00 p.m. and almost had to take him back to the vet at 11:00 p.m. because Tux kept finding a way to get the "e-collar" off. After managing to get it off for about the 6th time, he bit through one of his stitches...the one holding the top of the drainage tube in place. NASTY! There was blood and fluid all over the floor...not a pretty sight. So we finally were able to get him to keep the collar on and I stayed up with him until 4:30 a.m. to make sure he didn't take it off again. The emergency vet clinic that I called said that I just HAD to make sure it stayed on...regardless of what it takes! I finally crawled into bed at 4:30 a.m. and the dogs woke up at about 5:45 a.m. Needless to say, I freakin' exhausted, but glad Tux is doing better this morning. I was semi-successful in getting his antibiotics down and he was finally able to eat some food this morning. He's been napping on Cole's bed for about 2 hours now, all calm and quiet. When Cole woke up this morning, Tux was resting on the couch and Cole said, "Mommy, mommy...look, there's Tux. And he has an owie! May I go kiss him?" Such a sweet boy! Please pray that I am able to keep it together over the next few days. We have an appt for the vet to take out the drainage tube on Saturday morning. However, I've been super emotional about the whole thing and that's just not the way to handle it. I need to have super-strength right now...to deal with Tux and his injuries, to continue to train and pay attention to Neo and Trinity, and, most importantly, tend to my little Cole-man!

Sad note...this is the first year I can remember that I did not get pumpkins from Lombardi's Ranch! We don't have any pumpkins to carve, no candy to give out, no costumes to wear. What a bummer Halloween this will be. Hopefully I'll figure out something so Cole can at least walk around our neighborhood and get the experience. We were going to go to Grace for the Fall Festival, but I don't think it's a good idea to leave Tux for very long! Anyway...Happy Halloween and have a fun and safe night!

Introducing...

So, we finally have names for our new family members! It took a while and we had a few friends with input, but Mike and I chose these names at about midnight on Sunday night! Our little boy's name is...














Neo...and our little girl's name is...














Trinity. Just like from the Matrix which just so happens to be one of our favorite movies! Let me know what you think! They are doing pretty well!

On the other hand, our (favorite) cat, Tux, was in a cat fight on Saturday morning and got a GIANT gash under his armpit. We took him to the vet and he is having surgery this morning to close the gaping hole in his side. I was definitely sad to leave him overnight and to hear that he has to have surgery, but the vet said it was the best thing to do as almost every wound from a cat fight gets infected, and that can turn ugly very fast. I did take a picture of the wound, so here it is...it's pretty gnarly in real life.


Tux was great at the vet and was purring on the vet table and at one point, even fell asleep. What a good boy! His surgery will be at about 9:30 this morning, so if you read this around that time, please pray that everything will go well! I know he's just a cat, but he's part of our family and has been since right after we got married. I'm sure he'll do well...he will have to have one of those lampshade things around his neck when he comes home...that's what I'm worried about. I'm sure he'll be trying his darndest to get that thing off. :) I'll try and do an update when we bring him home.

Our new addition...s!!!

Yes...you read correctly. We have TWO new additions to our family. On Thursday night we picked up our two ADORABLE puppies from Ryan & Tammy! They are 6 weeks old and are actually really good babies...we've had about a 60% success rate with going potty outside on command! I think that's pretty great considering they are only 6 weeks. :) Here a couple of pictures that we've taken over the last day or so. We do not have names for them yet...if you have any ideas, we are trying to think of cute brother/sister names...like Luke & Lea, Donny & Marie...you get the picture. We just haven't found the right fit yet!

Bringing homes the little ones!

Our boy plays peek-a-boo out front!

Our little girl

Our little boy

Their cute little furry dog bed with the new toys!

Ashlyn and the little man posing for a pic!

The boy showing off his goatee! And sleeping all over his sister! :)


Remember...send us your suggestions! :) Have a great weekend and GO BUCKS!

Our Trip to the East Coast!

Well, we've been back almost 2 weeks and we are just now recovering from the awesome vacation we had back East. We went to Pennsylvania for my cousin Dusty's wedding and ended up making a 10-day trip out of it. We were able to visit the Pocono Mountains, Allentown, PA, Bethlehem & Nazareth, PA, Allensville, PA, Manhattan, NY, New Jersey...and lots of little townships and cities in PA as we got lost almost everywhere we went! I've put a few of my favorite pictures from the trip below, but if you have access to Facebook, I'm going to try and post most of my "favs" on there. We had an awesome time!!!











To view the rest of the pictures from the album...click here

Poconos Favs

Our future family member...

So, our friend Tammy's dog had puppies and we are pretty sure we are going to get at least one of them...Here are a couple of pictures of the little babies at 2 weeks old...they are SO cute!!! They just started opening their eyes a couple of days ago...

Aren't they cute?! We haven't picked out a certain one yet, so we'll see how different they all look. I kinda like Ryan's favorite, but who knows if he will let him go! :) I'll give more updates when I can. We'll probably be able to pick them up around November 9th.

We are leaving on Saturday morning for our vacation back east. We are planning to visit Philadelphia, Allentown, Nazareth, Allensville, Hershey, Stroudburg and Bushkill PA and we are also planning a day trip to Manhattan NY. I promise to take lots of pics and return with many memories!! My cousin Dusty is getting married and that is our main reason for going on this trip...but we will have so many other things to do/see while we're there...it's gonna be a blast!!! Peace out! :)

Silly Stuff...

I saw this on someones blog and decided to do my own!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car): Tuffy Serve (CRV)
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): Double Choco-chip
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name): R-KOE
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Blue Egret
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born): Ruth Hollywood
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first): Koere
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink): The Red Kamikaze
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers): Leroy William
9. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names): Chris Trout
10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Moir Manhattan
11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower). Autumn Poppy
12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”): Peach Jammie
13. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Bagel Palm (lame)
14. YOUR ROCK STAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour” and the year): The Birding Thunderstorm Tour 2007!