The _______ Life of Brent and Erika

First, though it doesn't describe anything in detail, this post contains mention of poop. If you don't like reading the word "poop" (sorry, mom!), this update's not for you. For the first two years that we had her, one of my favorite things about Chloe was that she showed no in pooping on walks. We always prepared just in case, but she'd ever-so-politely wait until we got home to do her business. At some point this preference changed, and all of a sudden pooping in new places was fun and exciting! She'd flit from grass patch to grass patch, sniffing for who knows what in order to find the perfect place to poop. I dreaded this part of the walk, especially if my goal had actually been to run, because nothing kills my desire to run like a bag of smelly poop flopping around in my hand. So, if you'd told me a few weeks ago that I'd spend a day waiting anxiously for Chloe to poop, though I might have believed you, I'd be very sad for what that wo...

Because it's hard to know how things will play out, I've decided I want to document this process more thoroughly than I usually document my life. Chloe is in bad shape. Though she seems relieved to be home instead of at the vet's, she's still showing little to no interest in food or companionship. To get her to eat, we have to mix water with wet food until it's thin enough to suck up a syringe, and then we have to force feed her. She doesn't try to spit it out, but it's a battle that we don't want to fight too hard because we're worried that her attempts to avoid us will further injure her back. Tried getting her to swallow a dry pill this morning; bad idea. She started shaking her head violently and working up a foamy lather just to try to get any pill residue out. Since she's not showing interest in any normal food, my typical trick of wrapping a pill in a bit of bread, cheese, or lunch meat isn't working at all. We've resorted to g...

Social science says that there are five stages of grief; the stages of my own grief go something like this: 1.  Crying 2. Research 3. Dark humor 4. Writing 5. Acceptance The timeline differs, but the patterns remain the same. When confronted with something terrible, I cry, then research, then joke, then write, and then move on. Here's step four: "On such small hinges turn the gates of our lives" (Gordon B Hinckley) Small things matter. Last July, something small snapped inside the engine of our car, and that snap combined with a lifetime of a slow but steady oil leak to turn our reliable family car into a fiery deathtrap . Last August, there was an abnormality with a cell that caused an embryo to abandon its cause, leaving my body to grow an empty sac for 10 weeks before my body shed that shell and my hope for a child with it. Eight years ago, Brent made a choice to wear a ninja turtles shirt and green pants to do laundry, and that small detail stuck in my m...

Things around here have been busy, and have recently taken a turn for the scarier. Though it's probably completely benign and not worth worrying about, there are some unexplained things going on with my thyroid that make me a little afraid for the future. So, amid the stress and the worry, it's nice that someone can find things to be happy about. Happy enough to high five, and even look at the camera while doing it.

Dear Jojo- Yoga is typically very relaxing for me. It is less relaxing when you climb all over my head every time I'm in down dog. If you really want to participate, just do the poses. Thanks, Erika

It's hard to get back into blogging--I keep thinking of good ideas for posts, but then I think, "Wait! I haven't posted the pictures from my surgery! Or my brother's wedding! It's unacceptable to talk about something else!" So I was about to write way more, but then my crazy dog jumped on my hand because she was scared, and then it hurt, so mostly I'm sticking to things that require one hand. We use maracas because we're that authentic. Or insensitive. Or annoying. I don't remember if I posted these, but here's my brother coming home from his mission. In May. I feel like a lame-wad for not posting these sooner, but in all actuality, no one cares I'm late, right? On August 19 I had a cyst removed from my hand. We only have one picture of me in the bandages they put me in, taken by my cousin Kurt at Alex's Wedding: We called it my Mega Buster. Two weeks later, they took off the bandages. Please notice two things about this photo: 1. Not o...

I wish I could get a picture of this, but I know that as soon as I move to get the camera, Chloe will move, and it will have been pointless. Last week, I washed a comforter, and I laid it over the tops of our two living room chairs in order to let it finish drying. I haven't gotten to taking it back to the guest room yet, and Chloe seems to be taking full advantage of it. She's laying on the comforter, suspended in the air hammock style. I keep waiting for the comforter to sink to the floor under her 17-pounds, but it seems to be holding up. It just sank. Chloe looks distressed. I need some children or something.

I figure that if people can post movies of their kids, I can post one of my dogs. Enjoy (or don't. Whatever. It's kind of boring.).

I'm sort of avoiding homework right now. I spend most of my days now reading and writing papers. This is how Chloe and Jojo spend most of their days: I wanted to get a picture of them sleeping, but as soon as I get the camera out, they always wake up. In any case, I'm slightly jealous of their lazy ways, though I'm not jealous of the fact that they have now both had more surgery than me, and are both medically incapable of conceiving (and the jury's still out on that one for me...).

Chloe has a new hobby: hunting flies. Brent noticed this the other day. Chloe and Jojo were furiously sniffing/running around the living room, and he couldn't figure out why. Since Jojo's not completely potty trained (getting there...), whenever she starts smelling we start saying, "Out! Go Out! Do you need to go out?" (it's practically Pavlovian at this point...speaking of Pavlovian responses, there was about a two month period at my old job where I felt a sudden and urgent need to go to the bathroom every time I approached my locker. Odd.), but neither dog was interested in going out, and they just kept chasing this invisible something all over the house. Then Brent realized: it was a fly. They were chasing a fly. Chloe is now obsessed with chasing flies, and she has no regard for personal space as she does it. Brent has had many an "oof!" moment when Chloe uses his stomach as a springboard for getting the fly. Jojo will snap at flies, but she doesn...

Dear Alien Jojo, I think that at some point you came and kidnapped my Jojo who always sleeps through the night and replaced her with one that doesn't. Could you please bring the old Jojo back? It's cold now, and I hate getting out of bed multiple times in one night. Or, alternatively, if Alien Jojo is actually still just regular Jojo, I'm sorry that you maybe had a bad dream last night that made you whine until I held you for 20 minutes. And whoever you are, thanks for not having any accidents in the house yesterday. Love, Erika

After some deliberation, insanity, and searching, we've added a new member to our family! Say hello to Jojo Freckles Hill! We decided to get another puppy because ever since we went back to work, Chloe has gone into a period that can only be described as mourning. She'd basically stopped eating, and would get all shaky as soon as she saw us putting on our shoes. On the days when I'd stay home and only Brent would leave, Chloe would lay on my lap and shake for over an hour. Chloe has also been regressing in her potty training, and all of these things pointed to the fact that we think we've got a stressed out doggie on our hands. We are now in the process of puppy proofing the house again, and having learned a lot from Chloe, we're going more hard core. We have constructed an elaborate gating system that we can configure to allow full, limited, or severely restricted access to all the rooms of the house (particularly the ones with carpet!). We're also treating Chl...

Yesterday, the gerbils came home for the summer. Until we find a permanent home for them (one of the unused bedrooms), they're living in the living room. Chloe is fascinated by them. As I said before, we can't tell if she wants them to be friends or food. You decide. And yes, her bark really is that high pitched when she's desperate.

Chloe just got her rabies shot! I feel like it's some sort of milestone, although all it really means is that if she has a rough encounter with a bat, she's covered. Plus, she gets a little blue tag that jingles to tell me exactly where she is. She hates it.

They grow up fast. Chloe spends most of her day staring out of our living room window (she's started bringing friends too--right now she is accompanied by Bunny and Gray Rope) or sleeping in my lap (right now she's trying to push my laptop away. It's working). She's also learning lots of tricks quickly. I've got a video I've been trying to post forever, and I'm still going to post it although you should know that she can now sit, lay down, shake, play dead (without us pushing her side to remind her), roll over, pick a hand, stay, and come. She'll do anything for a small piece of a cheap dog biscuit.

We've been trying to train Chloe to sit. This is mostly going well, although (through our own error or her own aversion to the tile) she seems to think she must sit on the rug and no where else. You might think I'm joking, or that this was a one time thing. It's not. It happens every time.

Well, as you may or may not have heard, we have a new member of our family! She is the one that's looking at the camera. She is a silver dappled dachshund, and she's great! Right now she's living with her parents still, but once we move into our house, she'll come to live with us! Her name is Chloe, and she's so cute and spunky! Just like her owners, she gravitated right to the electronics... We think her belly is really cute. She liked to give me kisses. Somehow I like it way more with a puppy than with a big dog. She's just learning stairs. Here you can really see her wicked awesome coloring.

Our puppy was adopted. :( I hope she's in a good home. So we're searching for a new puppy, but we'll probably just have to wait until after we get settled, because I don't want to get attached to something I can't have again. Sorry for the slow down of the posts--sometimes it's hard to find motivation because I want to be a good blogger, and for me the definition of a good blogger is someone who contributes meaningful details about their life, thoughts, opinions, experiences, etc. that do something other than constitute just a list of things they've done recently. That, and I've been reading all these things lately that talk about blogs primarily as a way of telling the story of me, and I'm trying to decide if I want to be that self-focused. Am I that important that I need to sit and muse about my life? Isn't there some other way that I could spend my time?