Oh Jimmy...

While I'm not a regular watcher of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, he so often does the funniest sketches.  I just had to share one I thought particularly amusing.

Epic.

Progress and Miracles...

So first off I'd like to share the progress that was made this weekend with our yard... very exciting things.  We worked quite a bit in our yard this weekend.  To preface this, let me tell you where we/I've been.  It all started this last winter when I took a soils class...


I found that our tiny yard is so polluted with animal waste that its phosphorous levels were astronomically high.  I happened to do my final project on this issue so that I could help to deduce what could be done to improve the health of our yard.  The dogs not only helped to eradicate grass in areas with their paw traffic but our naturally acidic soils combined with way-out-of-balance other chemical levels made a difficult condition for grass to grow to not only make the yard more attractive but to also help mitigate the phosphorous problem.

I must interject here, this whole issue produced a great book/research idea... it would make a lot of money if someone did the research and wrote a book to help the average lawn-caring dog owner better manage the pollution problems that come with animals.  That would have been handy for my report!

Anyway, aside from the yard-wide full-summer re-seeding plan, we also had some other beautification projects that were goals for the summer.  Let me just share some "lovely" photos of how our yard looked this winter.  Please be ever-abundant with grace... ;)

The "trashy" distant view would be the neighbor's yard, an unfortunate sight we have yet to overcome.

The view as you enter our yard.

So my lovely girl Fynn likes to look in our main window seen in the first picture to monitor where we are and if we're going to rescue her from being outside.  So pitiful.  That has caused a depressed area in the yard to become even more so with compaction.  This has turned into a semi-hydrophobic situation in the summer when the soil completely dries which is not ideal to say the least.  A long time ago I dreamed of putting down pavers to create a small patio.  So we got to work making the magic happen and here's the result...

Of course, it helps to have things growing in... I'm just sure Fynn loves her new platform.  And the hope is that this will reduce the mud tracked inside during the fall/winter rainy season.  The plan is to put mosses in between the pavers to help with erosion and beauty.  Next step after finalizing the mini-patio... re-seeding this sadness.

And can you believe my classmates suggested to just cover the whole back yard in mulch? Preposterous!

In other news...

When I first moved to Seattle seven years ago, I got an orchid that was used to brighten up my windowless office.  I've done such a wonderful job keeping the leaves growing this whole time but alas no buds graced my presence.  I had many people give me advice over the years.  I finally started a fairly regular 4x/year regimen of fertilization and low and behold it paid off!  Here she is in bud...

And voila, here she is in all her glory!

So proud.  Look what can happen with a little patience.

Growing Pains

My baby's getting old.

No longer this cute gangly puppy, my sweet girl is now considered a senior citizen in the extra large dog range at the ripe old age of eight years old.

One of the hardest things about being a young animal owner is taking care of your pets financially.  I'll admit it's not easy to stomach vet bills while you're trying to work and go to school at the same time.  And you take your dog in to be seen and know they need the care being offered but it's a hard pill to swallow when you hear the bottom line.

As Fynn gets older, that is the other hard thing to watch.  I realize I never had it so good as when she was three - fit and happy, agile and no real issues to speak of.  I think this hits closer to home having just experienced her mama Vida's death.  For a while now I have been looking at Fynn and getting really sad about where she is at with her health and age. She is not as stable anymore on her legs. She will sometimes fall when the floor is slippery.  It's sometimes hard for her to get up into the car on her own and her knee that she injured when she was younger bothers her more.  And like all filas that long to please their owners, even though she knows you're telling her to get up, it is difficult for her to do so and she gets so worried.  It is so hard to watch.

So I took her in today to get some care and come to realize she needs more care which will in turn cost more.  Of course I will give her that care and thanks to student loans I can.  Regardless of that, the blow financially followed by the blow of watching her age was really tough.  And then I heard this song come onto my ipod...

Aside from the lyrics referring to father and the cheesy video, Paul Simon puts it perfectly.  "As long as one and one is two, there could never be a mother who loves her daughter more than I love you."  And snap, it's all in perspective.  As the doctor said, she could live quite a few more years and I want to have her feeling as best she can so she can enjoy those years as much as she can.  And true enough, nothing matters when it comes to her.  I would do anything to care for her... she is just that important to me.  Thanks Paul, for not only making me cry but for the reminder.