Surgery for Pepper

Last week I wrote about how Pepper had a sore on her elbow, like the one she had on her other elbow before. Well Thursday I took her to the vet, and it turns out it is not like the other elbow. Her sore is in a different spot, and has extra tissue around it. He is worried it is a tumor and wants to do surgery...after a week of antibiotics to make sure he isn't operating on any infected tissues. It might not be a tumor,it could be a cyst, but we don't know until he gets in there. So tomorrow I will call to set it up, and sometime right after Steven leaves, Pepper will have surgery. I suppose I will need to learn how to do the dog suspenders. As a side note, he said he could take off her other two growths while she was knocked out. Yay? Part of being an old dog, I guess. 

Our big scary dog is a scaredy cat at the vet.

She hides under me...

Under the bench...

And in the corn, all while shaking. Poor dog. 

Another side note...I just sat here reading while Emma came downstairs 'not tired,' while Steven snuggled with her, gave her a bedtime snack, and put her back to bed. I did nothing. I'm going to miss this, doing nothing stuff...which I definitely remember savoring after he came home last year. 

K is for Korea

One week from today, Steven will be going to Korea for a one year remote tour. (Emma and I are staying at Beale in California.) We are very sad that he has to leave again, but we have been enjoying our time with him while he is here. We have gone shopping, out to eat,  playing, working out, seeing friends, and taking care of lots of last minute things. This weekend he will have going away dinners and we are going to try to find snow for Emma. She can already find Korea on the map...girl has good geography for a 4 year old. We are planning lots of things to do...learning to cook more foods, plant a small garden, and maybe even sewing. We are also going to get Emma a deployment buddy, which is a teddy bear wear a shirt with a picture of them on it. So last night we took some pictures. 

Dolly 'Emma' wanted to be in the pictures, too.

But this is what it really looked like:

Hair cut

Emma's hair was getting long....getting in her food, in the way of buckling her car seat, etc. Monday Steven was tired/sick so I took her out for lunch and a haircut so he could take a nap. She did not want to get her hair cut, but she sat perfectly still. Afterwards she loved it. I don't think we will have too many problems with haircuts from now on, hopefully. 

My lunch buddy at Panera. 

She got probably 3-4 inches cut off. 

And layers...she did so good!

So cute!

Chef Emmawith her cute hair, and chef Grace on Skype.

Donuts with Dad...and a workout

Sunday morning, before I got up, Steven took Emma out for donuts. When they came back, she walked in with pajamas, rain boots, and a pink box of donuts, "Surprise!" She had a fabulous time.

Happy girl

Handstands

Running in the living room

Push-ups 

Trying a back flip

Dog suspenders

Pepper is11 1/2 years old. She keeps acquiring growths, sores, etc. We found her bleeding all over herself and the carpet today, worse than usual. So we cleaned everything up, soaked her elbow (a different one this time), and got her all bandaged up. She took her bandage off before I could even go upstairs to get a sock. So I got 2, and then she still got it off. So Steven got some 550 cord and made dog suspenders to keep it up so she couldn't take it off. After that she didn't even try. She was bleeding pretty bad, so we really needed to keep it on. Monday we will call the vet to get her all checked out. I have a feeling there's not much they can do but give us a prescription. She has had this problem before, just on the other elbow. It's just part of her getting old. It goes away for a little while and then comes back. But no running until she stops bleeding. 

She does not like getting her picture taken

Dog suspenders. 

He tied a loop around her opposite leg, and then around her bad leg, with a ballon the dock to hold it on. Then attached that cord to her collar. 

Princess Party, 2

Emma had another princess tea party today. It was to celebrate Clara and Elise's 5th birthday, which is in February, right after they leave. As always, it was fabous. They all had a good time. 

Princess dresses, crowns, real China, and pink cake pops. 

We ordered doll bunk beds for them since Emma loves hers so much. The nod they came in was huge. 

I can't get over all the princesses. 

Cinderella has a little cold. 

Playing with all the new toys.

Emma was a princess most of the day...she just changed wadrobes. 

Dancing with Moosie.

Who was also wearing a dress.

And her new shoes we got on clearance!

She had another princess tea party, in the sandbox, with Daddy, and all her daughters. 

Daddy's Last Shift

Well last night was Steven's last shift. We skipped Awana again and ate with Daddy and the guys. We had pulled pork, coleslaw, Waldorf salad, potato salad...and yummy blueberry dump cake.  Then we went to play on the fire truck. 

  Somebody hid in the locker

Emma!

Getting inside.

Driving the fire truck

Cheese!

Princesses

Yesterday we had some friends over to play. They are moving soon, so it was nice to have them over. It was lots of jewelry, bows, dresses, crowns, shoes, dolls, purses and dancing. :) 

And of course we made honey milk balls. 

Brushing Emma's hair.

It was hilarious how they all stood in the bathroom getting pretty. 

Elise gave her sister some 'medicine.'

Elise and Emma

Dancing princesses

Twirling 

Hugging and picking each other up.

Emma and ClaraBeth

Poor Cole. He did great. We played MagnaTiles, CandyLand and Connect Four, but unfortunately I do not know how to play, or even hook up video games. And he played with the girls some, too. 

We will miss them when they go.