Summer fun and some catching up!

Long time no blog!

I hope we find everyone doing well. I have sort of neglected the blog for the past month. We spent a few weeks in STL in August and it was alot of fun! We were busy with garage sales, visiting family and I worked some Mary Kay :) It was really great getting to spend time with the family. I miss them so much!

We have been back for a few weeks and back into the swing of school. Cory is working hard on getting his papers completed and he is always researching, researching, researching. I am doing my clinicals at Covenant Plainvew Hospital right here in Plainview and its AWESOME. I am loving it. Small rural hospitals are a great place to work! I have already been offered a job at this hospital which is exciting! Clinicals are for 12-13 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday although I do some extra hours here and there throughout the month. I have to get 228 hours completed for my internship which means I will be done by the beginning of November! I also have class Thursday mornings and I am on the Nursing Pinning ceremony committe which also meets Thursdays. Busy busy! Tuesdays look like 12 hour clinical then Mary Kay meeting, Wednesdays- 12 hour clinical then choir practice, Thursday- class, Pinning meeting. But after the middle of the week is over, its smooth sailing. Cory and I joined our church choir and we are very excited about it :) Today was our first Sunday to sing with the choir and it was a BLAST. We have rehearsals every Wednesday night. We are also preparing for a Christmas special that will be happening December 12/13. The songs are AMAZING! In November, we are making Christmas cds to sell to raise money for a mission trip and will be performing these songs at the Christmas special! Its gonna be amazing. I missed choir so much and it is great to once again be a part of it :) Cory has also decided to join "are you smarter than a 2nd grader?" which is a tutoring group through our church that tutors elementary school students and he will be doing that on Monday nights. We are really happy to be getting more involved in our church and community!

Of course I have some pics to share with yall. :) They have been piling up!

Here are summer pics - backyard fun!

Cory just finished his Fantasy Football draft so we are off to play some racquetball at the Y! Peace!

Crazy water dog!

Hey folks!!!

Its been a busy summer! I hope everyone is doing well! Cali has been keeping us incredibly busy as she has the energy for about 10 puppies! My goodness, she is crazy! But we love her ;) She is getting smarter everyday and it is fun to teach her new things. These are the following commands she knows: Come, Sit, Up (stand up from a laying or sitting position), Leave it, Stop (for when she is doing something she's not suppose to, like chewing on something or ...swimming), Bring it here (toys), Drop it, and we are currently working on Stay and Follow. She is doing good with stay about 1/2 the time so that is definately a work in progress. She is also doing good with Follow...I never taught this one to Luna so I thought I would give it a try with Cali. First, she was on a leash and i would tell her to follow and as long as she was staying beside me I would continue in one direction and as soon she quit following me, I would turn and go the other way saying "follow." We have graduated to OFF LEASH! So now she will follow me all over the backyard or the house without a leash, as long as I say that command. I want to teach her this because we like our dogs to not have to require a leash. So we are teaching her to follow us so that she will be able to go in the front yard or other places without a leash...building trust here! Luna didnt require a leash once she got older so that is our goal with this one as well. I like being able to take them out in the front yard with me while I work in the flowerbed without having to tie them up. So we did a test run, Follow to the mailbox. She did great!! She is a smart girl :)

She has officially learned the use of the bells on the back door finally. While it was a great accomplishment, it was super annoying lol. Last Thursday, I decided to completely redo our kitchen and reorganize the pantry/fridge/cabinets. It should have only been a few hour project but it definately turned into an all day event becuase every 3-5 mins Cali was ringing the bells to go outside. First it was to potty, then it was to dig holes. I started using a treat at the door to get her to come to me faster and actually listen (you know puppies and thier selective hearing), so then she started to ring the bells, go outside and turn right back around, like "mom Im coming back in, where's my treat?" Oh my goodness. I couldn't say No to outside cuz it was the first day she rang the bells purposefully, so I had no choice but to let her outside everytime...PHEW! So potty training is definately been progressing. We do take her out ALOT to prevent accidents, but now that she is actually telling us when she has to go out, its exciting lol :) The joys of puppies, eh?

So thought I would throw some pictures up here from the past month. Jimmy came down to visit and hang out with us for about a month. And of course, I have lots of pictures of the summer so...here ya go :)

Click Here for pics of Quitique fun with the bro :)

We are convinced that Cali is confused and thinks she is a lab or some other water dog...cuz she LOVES water...here are a few videos to prove this fact...



And here she is yesterday in the backyard lol




When you hear Cory say "crap" and us laughing, its cuz we were about to get wet and while we were backing up Cory lost his flip flop ;)

More vids and pics and updates to come later this week!

Vids and pics of this past week

Got a couple of goofy videos for yall as well as a handful of pics of this past week. Cali is picking up on the bells for outside! Potty training is definately in progress! She spends most of her time being a goofball. She is a very happy, outgoing puppy and we adore her :) Here are some videos and pics! Hope everyone is having a great week.

Pics of the past week

Here is a video of a nightly ritual...as it turns out, its an anytime ritual and occurs multiple times a day....zoom mode!


Puppies always want what is not thiers....Here is proof!



Playing in the hose :)



and lastly, hide and seek ! This is a great way to teach "come" and its really funny too!

Another day with the crazy one!

Another day with the crazy one! This morning Cali let us sleep in til 830 ish. The first few nights she slept in the bed with us but once she discovered how to jump off (which just so happened to be a "death from above" attack on June's head), she has been sleeping in the kennel. She started jumping off the bed and not being completely potty trained yet, that posed a problem. She doesnt mind the kennel to much (as long as she can you). She even puts herself in there when she is tired. So for the past few nights we have taken a t-shirt that has our smell on it and put it in the kennel as well as a chewie (cow hoof) and she has done really well. She sleeps very well thru the night and whimpers if she needs to potty in the middle of the night. She wakes us up about 3 times so I say we are doing pretty good.

Yesterday we went to the park to play and I have some pictures of that...as well as just some random pics of Cali (i know i know...i take ALOT of pictures !)

Click here for the pics

I also have another video of June and Cali playing. This time Cali decided it was safe and was really playing!! Have a great day everyone!

Meet Calypso, aka Cali :)

Hi from the Farleys :)

Well, its been a lil over a month since we lost our baby girl. I am still very saddened over it and I miss her soooo much. She was such a great dog and such a blessing in our life.

Currently, I am back in Plainview and my lil brother, Jimmy, roadtripped back with me. He is hanging out for most of the month and we are having a ton of fun. :) Cory is back to the grind of grad school so he spends the daytime hours at school running his experiments. I am trying to catch up on projects around the house that were neglected because of school (such as cleaning out the garage, closets, cabinets) and I am trying to reorganize different parts of our house. I will also be doing some work in the house as we are going to be moving next year some time so I need to paint our bedroom and change the wallpaper in the kitchen. Those are just a few of the many projects. However, it is quite difficult to get anything done as of late because our new addition came into the home last week. Luna's cousin has made a permenant home with us :) Here she is. Her name is Calypso but we call her Cali (this is whats on her tag as well). My dad came up with this name because she has a black eyepatch on one eye (pirates of the caribbean), she acts like a pirate and Calypso means the "greek titan of the moon" so we can get Luna's name in there too. She looks like a panda bear to me so I like to call her Cali Bear, like Luna was Luna Moon.



She is a riot. Luna was 75% snuggle and 25% crazy and when she was crazy she was CRAZY...now Cal is 25% snuggle and 75% INSANE. When she is awake she is AWAKE and like a blazing tornado thru the house. She is not really food motivated yet so the first few days were spent trying to find something that would motivate her so we can start her training. We are using some liver treats that she seems to like because now she knows "come" and "sit". We are clicker training her and she is picking up on it as well. She is taking a great amount of patience because she is incredibly puppy A.D.D. Luna learned very quickly but she was highly food motivated. Cali wants to play, play play play so she is not learning quite as quickly, but thats ok. Persistance will pay off and everyday I see some improvement as we continue to work with her. I think she is going to be a great dog. She is SOO funny and a complete wild woman. We have also discovered that taking her for a walk around the block with JUne = a couple hours of nap! So we are walking them everyday to help burn some of Cali's energy. This has also helped improve her eating. FOr the first few days, I left her food in the kennel and she could go in and get it when she wanted. Starting Saturday, I started putting her food down at 4 different times during the day and this is helping her know to eat when its put in front of her so she is pickin up on that as well. She also doesnt mind the kennel to much. She isnt a huge fan of being left alone in the kennel but she will learn that its ok. For now, she goes in there to eat, stays in there for a lil bit cuz she usually passed out after eating, then goes outside. At least once a day, I put her in the kennel and leave the room so she cant see me but come back in like 15 minutes. This is helping her know that we will come back. Since its been a while since we have raised a puppy, we are combining what worked with Luna, advice from others, and a mix of Cesear Milan and Victoria (off of Its me or the dog) and I think this is greatly helping us with her. Things that worked with Luna may or may not work with this one who is way more hyper. But I am confident we can turn her into a good dog :) She is a raging tornado when she is awake but she is a lover too and you can tell she is just a happy happy girl. June and Cali are doing great as well. Today they played for the first time. June was snarly at first because she didnt want the puppy near her. But now I think she is accepting her into the pack because when Cali flops and pounces on June's face, shes cool with it. Here is a video of them playing today (more like Cali trying to figure out if its safe or not lol) Its kind of long ...but you never know if you are going to miss something.



Here are some photos of her when she was 3 weeks old. Click here

To see some pics of Cali's first few days home, Click here

We also went on a trip to Port O Connor, Texas for Kristen and Clayton's wedding. It was a blast! Here are some pics of the Trip

Well I better run! I need to work out, do laundry, pick up the house and train a puppy! Thats not even the beginning of the list! I will be trying to blog more this week. Tomarrow is our 2 year wedding anniversary so we will be going out on a date and leaving my brother to babysit the puppy! ha!

Have a great week everyone :)

I want to leave you with a very funny video... Cali is a water lover...enjoy!

Luna Moon July 20,2007-May 2, 2009.

I really do not know what all I can say except that my heart breaks today. Miss Luna Moon has crossed over the Rainbow Bridge today.

Last night, she continued to worsen and couldnt breath well at all. She had to sit up to breath because of the fluid and she would fall asleep sitting up but wake her self up as she tipped over, so she really didnt sleep much the past 2 days. Last night she wouldnt eat nor would she eat this morning. Her breathing got increasingly difficult and last nite when we went to bed, I did begin to feel like she was suffering. I also noticed last night that her back legs were edematous, meaning fluid was building up else where in her body as well. This morning when I listened to her heart, there was a nonstop Gallop, I knew this meant things were really getting worse. Her paracentesis continued to leak and we got gauze and an ace bandage and kept it wrapped to prevent infection. For the past few days we were hopeful and how quickly the tables turn. We called the vet first thing this morning and our vet was out of town but reachable so Jennifer (the main tech that has assisted us)called her and Dr. Carol suggested we get a 2nd opinion before we make a drastic decision so they gave us info for a pet hospital in Lubbock that they recommend. So we took her there, expecting that it was our last ride with our pup. Everytime you ask her "you wanna go?" those ears perked up and she was out the door and flying to the car. Not this time :( I sat in the back of the car with her and loved on her. When we got to the vet we just continued to love on her because we were pretty sure we didn't have much time left with her. When we went into the exam room and the vet listened to her, he said her heart was even muffled with the gallop, meaning that the fluid was filling around her heart and you could feel, just touching her sides, crackles in her lungs. What a horrible way to live. So we decided we had no other choice but to put her to sleep :( They took her back and put a catheter in her leg and then brought her back to us. We spent about 5 minutes with her and then they came with the medicine. They connected it to her catheter and I held her head in my arms, wrapped my arms around her neck, kissed her and loved on her while cory rubbed her back. She didn't struggle really, tried to pull away slightly but not to much. It was so fast and she was at peace. We stayed with her for about 5 more minutes and then we left. Cory is taking a final right now, poor guy. Not a good way to start your day before a final. We are having her cremated at the same place Demi was cremated and she will be picked up from the vet today so hopefully we will have her back early this week. We plan to go pick out a pretty something to put her in at Hobby Lobby after Cory's final. We are staying in Lubbock this evening to go see the play Cats which will help take our minds off it for a lil bit. But it sure is gonna be sad when we get home. I have been talking to the breeder through this whole battle and today i called to give him the news. He was so sorry for us and his heart was breaking for us. He has 4 puppies, with 1 left that is unclaimed. They are three weeks old. He told us that shes ours if we want her. So we may go see her tomarrow morning. He said she has a moon mask like Lunas and is black and white like Luna. This may sound silly, but if we decide to take her, it will be in honor of Luna. I by no means want to replace her, and there is no dog that could replace her. But we can still give the great amount of love we have for Luna to another special puppy.

This is one of those things that you don't think you can handle it, you hate anticipating it, but you make it through it. I praise God for the time He gave us with our special Luna Moon. It may have been short but it was very very special. We will miss her dearly. Thank you all for your prayers.

The sad news...

Hopefully you have gotten to read about Luna and are up to date. If you arent, its the previous blog for April 30th. As far as today, she is still leaking from the paracentesis spots (3 holes total) and this is abnormal. This should not be happening but as my vet says "she defies all things" evidently. It did help her. She isnt panting quite as much but she is still uncomfortable from the fluids. But we have to give it til next week to see if her own body is going to reabsorb it. For now, my instinct was to put a wrap around her belly with gauze and basically make a dressing for her (can you tell I'm a nurse?) When I talked to dr. Carol today, she said thats pretty much the best thing we can do. So we are putting neosporin on it and keeping it covered in hopes of preventing infection. I just pray that it stops soon so we dont have to worry about infection, because she is immunocompromised right now from all the meds shes on. So we can only do our best and we are. She is moving about a lil better and seems a tad more comfortable. She ate really good this morning so we are still hopeful. It just sucks living in uncertainty :(. So thats where we are right now with her.

In other news...spring break was alot of fun being at home with the family. I really miss them so it was really nice to see everyone. Here are some pics from the visit :)

Spring break 2009

And now for sad news. In January and February, my lil ferret, Demi, started to play with me less. She used to get out and play for hours. She started playing less and less and searching for a cozy more and more. This is normal for old age ferrets. She was going to be 7 this year and 6 is old for a ferret. Well she had cancer, as you may know. She has had it for 2 years but we were giving her treatments that suppressed the symptoms to improve quality of life and she was a happy girl. Over spring break, Cory stayed home with the cat and the weasel so he could do research. Demi began to be uninterested in food and was wobbly, unsteady and just not acting right. We made an appointment with the vet on March 20th. Cory took her to the vet with me on speakerphone in STL. The vet did an assessment and said that she had had a stroke. :( If we didn't put her to sleep, she would only live for 1-2 more days so...I was in STL on the phone with Cory when they put her to sleep. unable to be with my weasel I have had since I was 16/17. :( That was heartbreaking, very heartbreaking. I wish I could have been there for her. When I came back home, it was strange to not see her cage, not be scheduling time to get her out to play with her, and to not hear "weasel itches" or noises such as her balls she would play with. So on March 20th, my weasel lay to rest. Here she is, loving her Momma...



Here is a rose that our vet sent us in memory of Demi Brooke.



And here is a lil memorial place we set up for her. We had her cremated because I would like to bury her in my parents backyard with the rest of my ferrets. Until then, she is in this lil memorial Cory made for her. She LOVED her igloos and in fact, would get in them and push it with her nose across the floor...we called this "weasel tank" She had her own personal army tank ;) One of her blankies with her favorite ball toys are in the igloo. The colored paper is a Rainbow Bridge poem that the cremation place gave us and she is inside a velvet pouch that is embroidered with the words "Until we meet again my friend, on Rainbow Bridge". I miss her greatly.




Now I get home from Spring break, having just lost my ferret. And Luna's illness saga begins, June ends up getting sick and my stupid betta starts laying on the bottom of the tank. That week I got back everyone was trying to croak! Well, June got medicine and she was well within a few days. My fish acted like he was dying for about a week and now he is revived and well again. Strange. And we are still battling whatever is wrong with Luna. Even though we are hopeful I am wrought with grief because I know there is a possibility that we may lose Luna now. I am trying to be stay hopeful, but its hard to get that out of my head. I look over at her and see her panting because of the fluid in her tummy and while she is still that happy/tail wagging/cuddle me/give me a treat pup, I just see her not being "healthy" and it breaks my heart. Its one of those things that you really dont want to deal with but have no choice to. I am just grateful that I am not dealing with this uncertainty with a person. It sucks, but I would much rather deal with this with a pet rather than my husband, parents, grandparents, brother... but that doesnt make it easy at all. Luna is my baby and I have a special connection with her so ...it just is hard, especially after just losing one of my other pets Anyway, I know that I am "miss happy sunshine", arent i? ;) I guess I better go study for my final I have on Tuesday...if there is even such a thing as being able to focus... Have a great afternoon everyone and I will be blogging more tomarrow. Until then...caio