Shadows and dust

Chloe celebrated 1 year at the beginning of this month.

Shadow boo

I get to hold the IV bag while Chad rubs her tummy. It takes about

10 minutes for the procedure, so we have to make sure she stays put.

Shadow celebrates her 14th (98 in dog years) bday next month. She's lived a good long life, free of disease and ailments. We should all be so lucky. On Tuesday I took her in for her shots and yearly exam and when the doctor called me back himself I knew that I was in for it. Her kidneys are starting to fail. It explains her foul mood lately and her drinking. Normally she only drinks from the toilet, as it seems to be the freshest, or at least most recycled, water in the house. She's never liked drinking from her bowl. She has this bad habit of running me down in the hallway each morning to beat me to the bedroom to get to Chad, who's still sleeping, first. She's been doing this for years. She also blocks Chloe from entering the room which, in turn, makes Chloe scared and alone in the living room leaving her to chew on anything her mouth desires. Last week Shadow was a bit too vocal on this ongoing panic and I decided to confront her in the bedroom. I walked up to her and told Chloe to walk in behind me. Shadow lunged at her and when I went to stop her she nipped at me and caught my hand with her teeth. That's not like her at all. They sent her home with 2 IV bags that Chad has been injecting her with every other day. They ran some tests and luckily her condition came back as not terribly serious and we can hold off on further treatment for now. I'm glad I took her in when I did. I kept putting it off for months but my new years resolution of less procrastination has probably saved her from an agonzinz and slow death. Her mood has improved but I'll be keeping a close eye on her.
Other than that it's been very quiet around here. Today it's raining non-stop. I was supposed to help Kristian move but that had to be rescheduled to last night so we could beat the rain. I didn't get home until 3:30 this morning and we still didn't finish. I've just been hanging out today blogging and printing pictures etc. Don't really feel like doing anything else.

the ashes issue

Happy New Year!

Kristian took me out to his friend Ali's house and we went on a

scavenger hunt for boos and money. It was a lot of fun.

Ali, Kris and I

I love champagne!

Happy New Year! Haven't had a lot to say lately. Xmas was very low key. Chad got me a huge shelving unit from Ikea and we spent the whole day putting them together and rearranging our house. Since the old lady will no longer be coming out for visits we turned her room in to our new office. We turned out old office in to a temporary storage room and after we have a yard sale we'll turn that in to a guest room. New Years was fun. Chad had to work so I went to a party with my friend Kristian. He dressed me up in all his diamond jewelry and said if he couldn't look glamorous that I should. I went back to work on Wednesday and it's a total ghost town on campus. It's scary cause school starts in 9 days and if students haven't come in yet then when the hell do they plan on coming in? I came home tonight and am pretty tired. Even though there isn't a ton of stuff going on in store with customers, I hired 10 new temps and they all come to me when they don't know the answer to something so I am constantly running to put our fires or just find tasks to get them busy so I can justify having them there. I know it will pick up next week, it'd better otherwise rush week is truly going to suck ass, more so than normal.
So tonight I was watching a Grey's Anatomy re-run and the main character Meredith had to get rid of her mothers ashes. It occured to me that I have yet to deal with my mother's ashes. In April of this year she will be gone for 10 years. I'm torn. I keep her ashes in the box they gave me right after she was cremated. I never bought an urn because I knew I would spread them soon but soon turned in to months and then in to years. I keep her on my night stand. I know I have to release her from that tiny box but I just have no idea where or how or anything. The whole reason she wanted to be cremated was because she thought it was morbid to be buried for eternity under a stone marker. How morbid is it that I've held her hostage in that box for 10 years. I've even made stupid tasteless jokes like "my mother would roll over in her box." I don't know what to do. Not at all. The only thing I can remember her ever telling me on the matter was that she wanted to come along on all my vacations and get spread a bit every at cool place I went. Well I've already dropped that ball several times. The old lady thinks I should spread her up at the White Tank Mountains cause she loved the out doors so much and she loved the mountains but I just know if I agree with that. She didn't have a favorite place, that I know of anyway, and yes she loved the outdoors but the White Tank Mountains are so....blah. Then I heard that I could have her ashes made in to a diamond. That sounds kinda cool but they only 8ounces so that still leaves quite a bit of ashes I have to spread. I can't even afford to make one diamond but I figure this is a good reason to spend a ton of money if it means I get to keep a small part of her with me. Then I get sad cause I need advice and she would be the only person to give such advice. I need help. I need inspiration.