Ben, the miracle dog!

Our dog, Ben, is a black cocker spaniel who is extremely mellow and very calm. He is the opposite of his sister Carmela, who is more outgoing and much braver. Both are sweet and great with our kids.

Back to Ben. A few week agos we went to take the dogs for a walk. When we went to get them out of the sunroom, aka, the dog room, Ben was laying there. When we tried to get him to move we realized that he was paralyzed from the waist on back.  He literally could not move his legs and had no control over his bowels.  

We took him to the Vet. She was as perplexed as us. We were given a few choses. Very expensive MRI and surgery, or a regiment of steriods or put him to sleep.  We could not afford surgery and we didn't want to put him to sleep so we decided to try the steriods, even the the Vet said she would shocked if it worked.

We took Ben home, started him on his steriods and some pain medication, which fortunately knocked him out for a few days. 

It took a week and a half, lots of prayers, sleep and medication but Ben is doing great. He can walk with a small limp and even jump up and run up stairs. We think it is a bit of a miracle and so does are Vet. She was so excited to see him this afternoon. She could not believe how well he responded to treatment. 

Our family is so excited to still have Ben the miracle dog.

Lean Cuisine?????

Today, when I stopped in the grocery store to pick up a few items I noticed that the Lean Cuisines were on sale. 

Being that it is January and my traditional New Years resolution is to lose weight I bought a lot of them.  

When I went through the check out the clerk asked "did you get your ice cream?" I looked at her puzzled and asked "Ice Cream?" She said" Yes, if you buy twelve or more lean cuisines you get two half gallon containers of Dreyer's ice cream for free."  I said " Doesn't that defeat the purpose of eating Lean Cuisine?"

 I think I know how Lean Cuisine stays in business and why I am losing the dieting war. 

 Of course, I got Vanilla Bean and Mint Chocolate Chip for my, after Lean Cuisine dinner, dessert.

Holiday Vacation

We took our five kids, yes, five kids to Disneyland the day after Christmas. Everything was decorated for Christmas and Santa and his reindeer were hanging out for a little post holiday R&R in Frontierland.

We were eating lunch in the picnic area when Santa came up and starting asking us how our holidays were. As we chatted I said "Santa, thanks for all of the great presents this year. The kids really liked what they got."

With that my 4 year old "Princess" in her meanest little voice says "You didn't bring me what I wanted. I wanted a barbie bike and a barbie"

News to us and Santa who gave us the "Good luck with her look." Fortunately, our six year old saved us with "Thanks Santa, I got what I wanted"

That's why he is our favorite at the moment!