Recap of the last week...it's been a wild ride!

So let's see where to begin...

Yes the rain came back to Southern California as Dan & the kids arrived; but moved out by Wednesday.

Starting with Wednesday we were awoken at 4am with a ringing phone (7am back east)...the kennel! To bring you up to date Dan had texted me on Sunday saying that the dog was acting really weird (mopey) his guess was that he really missed me. Monday morning Dan decided it may be something else so he took him to the vet. The vet checked him out and couldn't find any outward symptoms...his guess was maybe depression, but took some blood just to be sure. He said it was okay to drop him off at the kennel...so Dan went about his day getting things ready to leave for Philly that night. In the afternoon the blood work came back with signs of a kidney infection. Dan picked up meds & special food to drop off at the kennel. According to the kennel he took his meds on Tuesday and was up drinking and lounging in the office with the owners (not 100%, but seemed to be improving) When they went into check him Wed. morning his eyes were dialated and he was taking very shallow breaths and was totally out of it. Within 1 hour of frantic phone calls back & forth and finding a 24hr emergency service that would see him, he passed away as they were loading him into the car. Poor baby he was only 7 1/2 and there must have been something else going on that nobody detected. He had never been sick in his entire life. (okay I'm crying now...) We told the kids later that day and there were many tears especially from Becca. On the way home yesterday in the plane she told me she wished she had never gone on vacation...her logic, if she stayed home she would have taken care of him and he'd still be here. Poor baby I've tried to explain that nobody knew what was going on and he probably would have died anyway. Here's a picture of "Riley-Roo" from January 2009 out enjoying the snow...
He's usually much "hairier" than this; but we had had him stripped down in November...he was really "blowing" coat. Normally he looks like a solid black collie...ie "Lassie". He loved the snow, just last month when we had all that snow I would look out the window and just see this big blob of black lying in the snow surveying his surroundings. Happy as a pig in mud. I kept meaning to take a picture, but never had the camera handy when I would see him out enjoying the snow.

So that was our downer and will be for quite sometime. Today I'm busy vacuming the upstairs trying to get rid of as much visible dog hair as possible. He was to go to the groomers this week...so he was shedding like crazy...leaving clumps of "Belgian" everywhere. The March "Charmed" kit over at Coordinates Collections is based on the "Lucky" papers from LYB...look for a tribute to "Riley" as one of my projects next month...already got an idea floating around in my head. (EDITED:oops...have to rethink this...I'm not getting the "Charmed" kit! Offered it up, before realizing I had projects I wanted to do with it. I really need to think before I open my mouth sometimes.)

So the weather turned sunny although a bit cool (upper 60's) and we were able to enjoy the park. Becca was distracted from the bad news at home by visiting "Pixie Hollow" each day.

Here she is visiting with Tinker Bell & Terrence. She even managed to get a "Silvermist" costume from the store in Downtown Disney.

As you can see by my outstretched arms...a self-portrait of Becca & I on the Materhorn! Love that ride.


A snap shot of Dan & Fritz...I think this was a ride in "Toon Town".

So we arrived into Philadelphia about 8:00pm last night. Circled the airport for quite a while before we eventually landed. They had a few inches of snow on the ground and was lightly snowing. It took us over 2hrs to drive home last night (usually a 1hr drive) The closer we got to home the harder it was snowing and the worse the roads got. Finally just before 11pm we pulled into our driveway. Snow covered, but sitting in the driveway was Dan's new truck delivered from the dealer that day. Here's a picture looking out our driveway this morning...

So long sunny, balmy, California....hello 10" of cold New Jersey snow!

That's it our week...told you it was a wild ride.

Stay tuned for tomorrow I'll have my February projects to post with the "Heart" kit from Coordinates Collections.