I told you I was bad at this...

I know, I know. But let me explain...

I usually write my blogs in the morning, then upload the pictures at work. Well, work has blocked Picasa, so my editing has to take place at night, which is usually full of all kinds of excitement.

I will post soon with about a bazillion pictures. Sadie is rapidly turning into a big girl.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this picture. It's my favorite one so far of the two most important women in my life.

May 24th is coming

Sadie will turn one year old this Friday. We're having a cook out with the family to celebrate, but it's simply amazing how time has just absolutely flown by. I can't believe where we've gone in a year.

This time a year ago, Stephanie was on her third day of steady contractions of 5 minutes apart. We'd been to the doctor twice and the hospital once at this point. Sadie was extremely stubborn.

I'll have more soon, but I just wanted to post that Friday is a big day, for more reasons than one...

Photos

Here are some photos of the past couple of weeks. Not much to report on, just life keeping us hopping.

Sadie loves baths. As witnessed in the above picture. You can also make out her vampire teeth that are coming in. 

Her new scrunch face

Introducing...

Our goats. Finally!

Saturday morning we were up at the farm, and Steph's dad said it was a good day to buy goats. I started looking online for some goats for sale, and we found some in Kernersville. Alan and I had to put some last minute touches on the fence (putting railroad ties up where the ground dipped too low to put the fence; trying to keep goats in and coyotes out), so Steph, Sadie and Melody went to buy they goats. They came back with three kids and we put them out in the field. They're too skittish right now, but after a month or two of feeding them by hand, they should become true pets.

We got Myotonic goats, or fainting goats, to start off with. They're called fainting goats because they have a genetic trait that causes them to lock up and fall over when they get startled. They were originally bred to be the scapegoat for a herd when a coyote or other predator came in the field. The fainting goat would fall over, stopping the predator from hurting the rest of the herd (by becoming its dinner). The Myotonic goats are hardy goats that we felt would be a good first breed to learn how to care for goats. Plus they were a heck of a lot cheaper than the Kiko goats we were looking at. Alan bought these first three, and as we learn how to care for them, I'll hopefully add more to the herd.

Steph named them Rosemary, Sage and Clementine. Rosemary is the biggest and the bossiest. She head butts the others around. Sage is the one that faints the most at this point. Clementine is the smallest.

Sadie absolutely loves them. I think she's going to be great at the farm.

Anyways, here are some pics from Saturday.

Her back legs are paralyzed in this one, running with stiff legs...

The Goatel and the Goats

This is Sage

This is Rosemary, the boss of the three

All three

11 Months: has it been that long?

Sadie will turn 11 months old next week. Seriously, time flies when you've got a kid. We were cleaning out closets in order to put the house on the market (more on that later) and found stuff she wore when she first came home. It's surreal to look at those clothes and hats and realize how much Sadie has grown and developed over the past 11 months.

I know it's been a while since I've posted, so I'll try to get everything in this post. Pictures too.

Sadie is standing up on her own for seconds at a time. If she doesn't realize she's standing up, she can stay up a lot longer. It's almost like a cartoon character who runs off a cliff and doesn't fall until he realizes there's no ground beneath him. Sadie stands up until she realizes she's not holding on to anything, and then plops her butt down or reaches quickly for anything to steady her. She doesn't appear to be in a hurry to walk, so we'll see when she figures that out.

We thought she was getting sick last week. Her nose was running, she had a slight fever, and she was super cranky. Come to find out, she had her first two teeth coming in at the same time. She's got two more coming now that those have broken through, but she seems to be doing better with these.

She's continuing to figure more stuff out and interact with us in completely new ways almost each day. She and Peter (the cat) seem to have a special relationship. She lures him in by doing her version of meowing: really high "ahhs" and reaching out to him. He comes up to her (for the most part. Sometimes he just bolts out of the room) and lets her play with him while he purrs away. It's so great to watch them together.

She is also attempting to cluck like a chicken, thanks to Aunt Mandi's training. She is really interested in all animals that she comes in contact with.

Sadie is definitely showing that she knows what's going on. She's always been super observant, from her first day of life. Now we get to see her react to things we say, proof that she understands what the deal is. Kate taught her to kiss on command (open mouth, tongue out, usually saying "ahhhhhhh") and it's super cute. She knows the difference when we say, "Give mommy a kiss" and "Give daddy a kiss" by moving to each of us respectively.

Sadie loves music and figuring out the noises that two things make when they're hit together. It's not rare to see her playing the drums with anything she can hold and the coffee table, bowl, or whatever she can find. Her dancing skills are improving as well.

The other night we were watching a Queen concert and Sadie was mesmerized by it. She crawled to the TV, pulled up on the table, and sang along with Freddie. It was hilarious.

 One of the reasons for the long intervals between blog posts: Our house is for sale.  We've decided to see what we can get out of the house and use the profits to start building at the farm. Hopefully we'll sell soon and start the process of building our own house. I'm really excited. So, for the handful of people that look at this blog, if you're looking for a house in Stokesdale, I've got the house for you!

The first goat field is officially ready. We finished the goat shelter two weekends ago, so now they've got a place to stay. It's not the taj mahal of goats houses, but it is a pretty functional goatel. I'm pleased with it. We've started on the lower field now so we can utilize rotational grazing. Now that we're not learning or making it up as we go along, this second field should go much quicker.

I'll try to update again on a more regular basis. For now, here are some pics of the last month or so.

Sadie and the Chicken

Working at the farm. Spreading mulch

"Give me a kiss!"

Uncle Marcus and Sadie with their kiss faces

Easter weekend in Wilmington with the Vernon family. Shrimp burgers were consumed.

Reading her favorite book. The dog fur is especially wonderful to her.

Happy, happy Sadie

Working on the Goatel

Gabby

Seventeen years ago, a very young Stephanie was taken to a house by her parents to pick out a Schnauzer puppy for Christmas. In a box in the garage was a litter of puppies all clamoring for her attention. Back in the corner of the box though, shivering and not participating in all the excitement, was the runt of the litter.
Stephanie picked her out and named her Gabby.
Gabby became an integral part of the family quickly; Marcus was only 3 at the time, so she tried to show that she was more important than him by tearing up his stuff only. She grew very close to Steph and to Melody, getting so excited even at the end whenever she saw them.
Gabby moved from Oklahoma to North Carolina with the Cox family, and saw the addition of a big chocolate lab named Maggie.
Gabby was always a persnickety dog, and filled the role of grumpy old lady quite well. I met Gabby 10 years ago, and she was under the table taking turns growling at me and Maggie.
It took some time for Gabby to get used to me, but once she realized I wasn't all that bad, I became one of her favorites.
When Steph and I got married, Gabby came with us and served as our first pet together. She slept on the bed with us, snuggled on the couch, and loved when we dumped clothes fresh out of the dryer on her. She tried to protect us as much as a 17 pound dog could. When I had a motorcycle wreck and was laid up for about a week, Gabby laid on my chest and growled at anyone who came close to me.
She's taken our life changes in stride. We adopted Boscoe 5 years ago as a replacement Gabby, and she took to him quite nicely. A couple of years after that we added a cat to the mix, and while not a big fan of him, she still managed. Gretel came 2 years later and Gabby stayed ever loyal and fine. She even handled the addition of Sadie quite well, and even let Sadie pet her (until it hurt. Then she kept her distance for a while.).
Over the past 6 months or so, Gabby started having seizures on a more regular basis. She had seizures throughout her life, but they were spread out over years and were very minor. The ones that started recently were closer together and much more severe. After a number of blood tests and vet visits, she started a regimen of medicine daily to keep the seizures under control. We knew that eventually the medicine wouldn't be able to stop them, but it bought us more time with her.
Saturday night Gabby had two seizures that seemed to be pretty severe. We were at the farm, and Melody and I took turns sitting up with her while she walked off the effects of them. Once she got settled down, I laid on the couch with her. Then the seizures started happening quickly, without time for her to recover.
After the 6th seizure, Gabby's breathing became very shallow and eventually stopped early Sunday morning. While we knew it was going to happen, it was still a very difficult thing to deal with. We buried her at the farm, and are now getting used to not having Gabby around anymore.
It's a long story for a dog, I know. But Gabby was an important part of our lives, and she will be missed greatly.

9 months, quick update

It's been too long since I've updated. Things have been crazy though. I'll be posting pictures soon in a photo dump, but here are some of the things that we've been up to for the past month:

• Sadie is crawling all over the place and pulling up on anything that feels remotely stable. She is going to be a force to be reckoned with once she starts walking, which should be pretty soon.
• She's finally saying Dada, and it melts my heart. It's her favorite thing to say now. She has also taken up the habit of yelling along with the blender when I make our smoothies in the morning. Hilarious.
• We made it through her first cold. It was so sad to see her upset because she couldn't figure out how to breathe through her mouth when her nose was stopped up.
• Things at the farm are progressing nicely. We put the gates and barbed wire up on the fence this past weekend and will start the goat shelter soon.
• We bought our first chickens (2 bantams) and Alan and Melody have purchased 24 more chicks for egg laying.
• We also have started making our own wine. We bottled our first batch (30 bottles) last week and are starting Chardonnay this week.
• We've started eating cleaner, and it's been great. We're eating essentially primal or paleo, and feeling great. I mentioned smoothies in the morning, and they really help me feel tons better going through my day. It's frozen blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and bananas, 2 stalks of Kale, 2 big handfuls of spinach, coconut milk (unsweetened), chia seeds and fennel seeds. All organic, and it tastes great.
• We're meeting with a realtor this weekend to put our house up on the market. We're ready to move to the farm and get started on building up our own farm on a plot of land. We plan to have our own goats, chickens and garden. The plan is to get it all set up over the next few years, so that when it's time for Sadie to go to school Steph can homeschool her.
• We said goodbye to a wonderful friend and companion this weekend. I'll post that separately.

As I said, pictures will come soon. But that's what we've been up to.