2008 Year-End Wrap Up

Hello all my dear friends and family.  A friend of mine gave me the terrific idea of not sending a printed Christmas letter this year.  Instead I've decided to post one on my blog to save paper and ink and this way, you all can read in a lot more detail, if you choose, about what happened this year.  Our year started out pretty uneventful.  But in March, Max's mother, Connie, was diagnosed with the most aggressive, least responsive to treatment breast cancer there is.  She immediately had an operation to remove the tumors and started Chemo-Therapy in April.  She's done many different kinds of chemo and just finished up 6 weeks of radiation last Tuesday and is doing great!  She's a trooper.  This summer we traveled up to Cd'a, Idaho for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.  They had a vow-renewal ceremony that was very sweet.  Then it was off the to cabin for a week of just us and it was wonderful.  This fall we both went back to school for yet another semester.  I officially graduated with a General Education Associates of Science degree. (say that 10 times fast!)  So now, hopefully when I apply for nursing, yet again, in January, this Degree will give the leg-up I need to be accepted to WSU's fall program.  (And that's Weber for all you Washington Cougar fans) So keep your fingers crossed.  Max went back and began taking the classes he needs to become a high school History teacher.  He should be done sometime in 2011.  We both passed all our classes and are relived to have a small break before spring semester.  I also discovered my love for and skill of photography this year.  I accidentally got a job with Lifetouch Portrait Studios in April and I left them in August to pursue my own freelance photography.  I call myself Candids By Callie and there is a link to my website on my blog if you'd like to check out my work.  I have just fallen in love with it and it has kept my very busy even up until last weekend.  I've got some weddings booked for next year and I'm looking forward to them.  Just in October, Max and I moved back into our cute condo in Bountiful and it's wonderful to be home.  We also adopted two kitties.  Icabod and Binx and they are great.  We did have a recent misfortune of having to put to sleep our sweet puppy, Roxy, just this week.  She would have been two on Christmas Eve and we will miss her dearly.  We'll think of her often and know that she's in a better place now and we're so grateful for the time we did have with her.  

So there it is; our 2008 wrap-up.  Please let us know if you've got a blog we can follow to see what's happening with you.  We love you all and We wish you all Peace, Joy and Love this Holiday Season and in the New Year!

A Sad Goodbye...

Roxy snuggling with her dad after we came home from our week-long vacation to the lake cabin.  She didn't leave this spot for hours.  She was always so happy to see us when we came home.

Her First Vacation.  She was about 3 months old.

Her having a girls' night with me and some friends.

Me just being silly with her.  She was such a good girl.

Her with my sis.  She was a few months old and this is when she won over my sister and she said, "Oh ok, you can keep her and never have kids, I'll just be her aunt."

This was he night we brought her home.  I didn't put her down once that whole night.  I just snuggled with her.

Her sleeping with me.  Not just on top of the bed with me but literally WITH me, ON me, on my pillow or she'd sleep under the covers snuggled right next to me.

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I've been busy with finals and work these past few weeks and just this last week have been taking care of my broken puppy. Her name is Roxy and she would have been two years old next week. We took her to the vet on Monday and found out that they suspected she had a slipped disc in her spine. So they put her on an anti-inflammatories and pain killers hoping that if she took it easy for a few weeks that scar tissue would form and she'd be back to her normal self. That unfortunately wasn't the case. Yesterday she was stumbling around on her back legs like she didn't have control of them and when we took her in this morning she could barely stand on them. Also they discovered that she had lost her sight. So they figured this morning that there was something affecting her neurologically because of the blindness and numbness in her legs. The only way we could find out more of what was going on was to do a very expensive MRI and even then the Vet said that neurological disorders are very hard to reverse or fix so even if we did decide to do that and find out more certainly what was wrong that we might still not be able to fix her. So we had to make the devastating decision yet again, (we had to put our cat down just a year ago due to inoperable heart problems) to put her to sleep. I know that it was the right thing to do and the Vet assured us that we did everything right and that we were doing the right thing for her, but I'm struggling. I'm so glad that she's not suffering anymore but It's so sad to know that she won't be waiting at the door for me anymore. I won't have her leap into my arms and cover my face with kisses when I come home or bite and pull on my pants when I don't immediately scoop her up. She was like our first baby. We got her when she was just barely eight weeks old and got up with her at night when she cried. She slept with me all the time, day or night. And it wasn't enough to be on the bed with me, she had to be under the covers snuggled right up to me, always. I will miss that tremendously. I will miss her curly tail and floppy ears. She was the cutest chihuahua I've ever seen and she will be missed. Be at peace my sweet puppy, and know that I will love you and miss you always.