Home for the Holidays

It's good to be back home. Madison is not acclimating to the time change well at all. She is going to bed around 6pm and then wakes up at 3am. I am not adjusting to the this routine well either. I need more rest! I know she is on the verge of cooperation but we have picked up many-many bad habits already. That is what family is for and since she has only been around her family once since she was born; they, and her are making up for lost time. She played with her Gammy and Papaw and on the 2nd day her Great Granny Gravitt came to see her and brought her a huge present to open. It was full of good things for her to play with. I am so excited for Madison to know her Great Grandmother and Grandparents. It has been a long time since she saw them. The next day we went to see Grammy and Grand Daddy in the mountains at Big Canoe. After that it was back to the city, for Cousins, Aunts and Uncles. Great Granny Gravitt made dinner for us (at age 86) and it was delicious! Madison had a wonderful time being the center of attention. My parents had a dinner date with a group of their old school mates and Madison was passed around like the bread basket! She never meets a stranger. All those Grand parents enjoyed talking with her and playing with her; a true social butterfly. She was saying thank you and hey to them all. We have just had a blast bouncing from one social thing to the next. Tony and I finally got to do some Christmas Shopping and took Madison to get her pictures made for Christmas. She didn't cry when sitting on Santa's knee but she didn't want to smile. I got a little smirk out of her. Our Mall has a Carosuel inside and a Train so we had to ride both. We got a pick in front of the huge Christmas tree at the Mall of GA and as usual it was raining, but only a drizzle. It has done nothing but rain since we showed up. The state of GA has had terrible droughts for two years; so we must be good luck for them. It's just terrible to drive around in it and shop. I am happy to report that I am done with Christmas Shopping, and Christmas Cards got mailed today. They may be late for you but you all know my motto! BLTN. I stayed up til 11pm getting them all addressed and stamped. I have had them ready to mail since before the move but just had to wait on pictures. I still have to wrap a buttload of presents but I may cheat and just open all Madi's toys for her to see on Christmas morning. For the next 4 days we will be with Tony's side of the family. We are going to open presents with the cousins tomorrow and then on Christmas Eve we are going to My side of the family for our "traditional" free-for-all. The adults draw names but every child gets a present from each family~over 10 gifts a piece. You can imagine the chaos that is envoked. This year it will be at my Mom and Dad's house. We are going to stay in Buford, with my parents until the 28th or so. We will stay with the Davis's until Tony leaves for KY. He has orders to report on Jan 1, 09; Madison and I are going to stay behind until he gets a date for delivery of our house stuff. So if I don't get to see you by the end of the year, maybe I will see you in 2009. . . .

well I better go it's late already and my daughter is a really early riser these days!

Rosie's visit to the Vet

So I woke the next morning and took my kitty to see a vet in Marble Hill, GA . My In-Laws have taken their dogs to her. I dropped her off to be sedated so she could see inside her mouth to see if my prognosis was right. . . Routine right~not so much! She called me back and told me the kitty had a broken mandible (ripped in half), an exposed jaw bone (inside her mouth) and the really bad odor was from two scabs under eyes that were filled with gunk~ she was sure she had cancer and needed to be put down. She said she could refer me to an oral veternarian surgeon (ca-ching ca-ching ca-ching). But if money was an issue I could call her back within 15 mins to have the cat put down. DEVASTATION doesn't even describe how I felt! I couldn't even comprehend all that was wrong with her to relay it to Tony. He assured me that we would be getting the Expensive 2nd Opinion. I just was beside myself thinking I drug this sick kitty across the country over 5 days in all that pain and even took her out at the Grand Canyon. I felt so guilty and defeated. I called her vet the next day in 29 Palms and asked them about her again. I was not reassured that she was okay. The Vet Tech said Cancer can show up at age 5 in cats and if it was in the mouth or that area that it was not going to be a good outcome. I cried for two days about my kitty. I picked her up from the Vet in Marble Hill and drove another hour away to the specialist. I got there and they didn't have my appointment in the books. I just about had a nervous breakdown, my kitty needed to be seen. So the receptionists got it all straight with the oral surgeon and it was just a misunderstanding. She had been expecting me and the information was misinterrepted by the MH Vet's office. To wrap up this unpleasant post~she called me after sedating Rosie and confirmed the broken mandible, the exposed jaw bone and discovered a chipped tooth! The best news of all ~the cat did not have cancer and she even cleaned her teeth while she was out. I could come and pick her up in a few hours. It gets even better she called me back 15 minutes later having discovered the gunk the other vet thought could be cancer was from two puncture wounds under each of Rosie's eyes. The mystery of what happened to her was solved~ she had been in a cat fight the night before we left. So this poor kitty is now on the mend. She has stitches in her mouth, under both eyes, a pulled tooth, and a wire to hold her jaw together while it heals. It will stay on for 6 weeks and the stitches will just dissolve on their own. What a night mare and now she is doing well. I was so relieved and even Tony is being nice to her. He is not a cat fan but now that we have such an expensive one he is making more of an effort! He is calling her his "Little Bruiser". I got my Christmas Wish early and now that my entire family (including 4 legged beasties) are all safe and healthy my list is satisfied~Thanks Santa and Glory Be to God!




****WARNING The Slide Show is a little SCARY for young kids and squeamish People!********

TN, MS, AL to GA~Finally the Roadtrip Ends!

I know many of you do not like the slide show but it is easier for me. I can only upload 5 pics at a time with the photo feature on this site and takes forever. Another peeve of mine is the pictures always add to the very beginning of my post and it's not easy to move them around within my text. So, please bare with me until I can learn another way. If you have trouble viewing my slide show please let me know.. ..

On to this installment:

We left TN in the pouring down rain. I had to put the cat under my jacket to bring her out side. She still had not eaten anything but I was not that concerned at this point. I was actually feeling better because she was drinking water. I felt like she could have a little motion sickness and just didn't want to eat. After we all loaded up we headed out to the Land of Loved Ones! We filled up the tank ~check out that gas price~. Our Navigation system took us on a cool little detour, again, through a small town in AL we fondly refer to as "BINGO! Every quarter mile the entire town was having a "charity bingo". Tony and I laughed and pointed at the parlors and shouted Bingo! We tried to see who could spot the most Bingo Halls but we lost track of who won. I just can not understand how the entire town could afford to have so many games going at once. . . .must have been some very wealthy people that over see the town LOL! Madi took an early nap and then it was water works just before we stopped for lunch. We ate at our first Wendy's in Birmingham, AL, since leaving CA. A lady, with a heavy Russian accent, in the restaurant talked to us and she was quite taken with Madi. She asked what her name was and I told her. All of a sudden she (the lady) got excited and remarked, "that it was just like the girl, who lived in ocean and the boy loved her and she became human." ~If you are thinking Ariel, so did I. We were nice but brought the conversation to a close. We were close to Atlanta and we had to get back on the road. My spirits soared when we saw those beautiful red and black trucks; I knew I was really close! QWQ ~Baby! We got to the GA State Visitor's Center just before rush hour and that would put us going through Downtown on the tail end. Timed just right, we left the baby out to stretch her legs and called our parents to let them know we were close. . .We stopped at our favorite Mexican Restaurant, Monterrey's! After a delicious meal to end our 5 day road trip saga we made it to my Mom and Dad's to finally relax. . . .

The Pictures of us at Monterrey's were taken by Tony's phone so they came out a little fuzzy! But the food was so good. Definitely worth waiting for.

OK, AR, to TN

On our 4th day in the car we left from Shawnee, OK. The weather was cold, windy and the rain was a light drizzle. We stayed at another La Quinta Inn and this one had a duck pond in the back. Madison is enamoured with "Cack Cacks". We had to get a picture in front of the pond and laugh at them swimming in the cold, windy and rainy morning. After that we were in for another 6 hour day in the car. So far so good with Little Munch, but we knew our time was running out for good behavior!

We hit Arkansas pretty early and Miss Madi had to have a snack. Tony thought chocolate cookies would be good to give her. As you can see she enjoyed them emensely. . . .Gas Prices continued to fall now that we were getting closer to the East Coast. The Weather did clear up finally~until we hit Mississippi/Tennessee it began to rain. We dropped off the poor kitty at the La Quinta Inn in Memphis and then went to dinner. Where else are we going to eat? A PF Chang's! I love it!