"Misses Sickykins"

I realized the other day that Lottie, our chocolate lab, aka "the baby," has yet to make an appearance on the blog. I hate it that she is making an appearance under these circumstances but oh well....so be it.

About two weeks ago I noticed that Lottie's ears were, to spare you gross details, scabby. So I made a vet appointment and took her in to get checked for what I thought was just an ear infection. While at the vet I noticed that her back legs were swollen and that they were very pink, almost as if she had been chewing on them. To make a VERY long story short, the doctor diagnosed her with vaculitis, which is the inflammation of the blood vessels. So instead of leaving the vet with ear drops, I left with steroids, antibiotics and another prescription to be filled by a pharmacy. Later that week, after she had a HORRIBLE bout of uncontrollable diarrhea (yes, I said uncontrollable) we added a bland diet and Pepcid AC to the growing list of medicines followed by a blood test suggested by the doctor. After two weeks of being medicated and having someone cook her meals of chicken and rice for her EVERYDAY, we believe that Lottie is on the mend. The swelling is gone and her skin is healing. We are beginning to try to wean her off of the steroid at this point and hope that the swelling and scabs don't return but it is just trial and error at this point.

Here is what I have learned thus far about vasculitis: it is normally caused by vaccines or can appear in dogs that have been very sick. Lottie's case is somewhat of a conundrum because neither of these things apply to her. The doctor doesn't really know what is causing this because this isn't normally seen in young, healthy dogs. Also her blood test showed elevated levels in her liver and pancreas which could mean several things: 1) that the elevated levels were caused by the diarrhea 2) that the elevated levels are what has caused the vasculitis 3) the vasculitis has caused the elevated levels 4) she could have vasculitis in her pancreas and liver. The doctor is very pleased with her progress though and very happy that she has a good appetite, high energy and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of abdominal pain. So, like I said, our first hurdle is to see how she does with weaning her off of the steroid. If she does well with that we will move toward adding back in her normal food. If she does not do well we are looking at a possible biopsy of some tissue in her leg and maybe an abdominal scan to see what is going on in her liver and pancreas. As you can see...not just an ear infection. I took her to the doctor on Friday for a checkup and the doctor told me "we are going to be seeing a lot of each other in the next couple of weeks." Great....not exactly what you want to hear.

I can't close this post without trying to explain the title. When we first got Lottie for some reason adding "-kins" to the end of her name just seemed to fit. So her nickname became "Lottiekins" and eventually evolved into "Misses Lottiekins" or sometimes just "Misses Kins." Those later evolved into anything and everything that she did, for example, "Misses Pooterkins" when she poots, "Misses Pouterkins" when she pouts and I can't leave out "Misses Scumperkins" when she, well, scumps. I don't really know what "scumping" is but I believe the word originated with my high school girlfriends and somehow became a go-to word at our house. In this context I would say that Lottie being a "Scumperkins" is her just laying there, looking cute and being her sweet self. And I'll give a little shoutout to my brother-in-law, Pierce, because he thinks all of these names are hilarious and laughs any time I call Lottie anything ending in "-kins."

So if you think about it, say a little prayer for "Misses Sickykins." Pray that we get over this first hurdle and that she can return to our sweet "Scumperkins" sooner rather than later.

- Anna

Very Late Valentine's Day Tidbit

When I started this post it was orginally titled 'Late Valentine's Day Tidbit but seeing that Valentine's day was almost a month ago, I decided to go with the above title. In fact I almost decided to forego this post all together but I felt it was important to share.

As of Friday, Febuary 12th we had no plans for Valentine's day. Which honestly is not out of the ordinary for us. The months of December, January and February are packed with special occasions for us: Christmas, anniversary, my birthday, Preston's birthday and Valentine's day. We get all of our celebrations out of the way within less than a two month time span so, needless to say, by the time Valentine's day rolls around we are kind of over it. Well it just so happened that Preston was playing in a golf tournament Saturday morning. He and a friend from work, Zak, were playing together and they were teamed up to play against their bosses so of course there were stakes. Whoever won had to serve the other a steak dinner. So when I say stakes, I really mean steaks (I crack myself up sometimes). As it would turn out Preston and Zak won. So in an effort to help the bosses save face Preston suggested that they let he and Zak take their wives out for a nice dinner on the company. They totally agreed. Now I know my husband can be very thoughtful and that was a very noble suggestion on his part but don't think he didn't already have THIS in mind! This just happens to be one of his very favorite places in Tucson to get a steak. So off to Flemings we go with the company credit card in hand (I sure hope Uncle Ted isn't reading this!). It was a wonderful dinner, just the two of us, with incredible steaks and live jazz music! A perfect Valentine's day date.

And now for the tidbit. While we were at dinner we were talking about when we started dating WAAAAYYY back in high school. We realized that this past Valentine's day was the tenth anniversary of when Preston told me he loved me for the first time. Well technically he was kind of a chicken and wrote it in my Valentine's day card (which I still have) but I think it still counts. I told him I loved him too and that officially marked the day we started saying 'I love you' to one another. I had no clue as an 18 year old in high school, preparing to leave for college, only having dated this guy for four months and celebrating our first Valentine's day together, that I would get to say 'I love you' to that same guy for the rest of my life! Come to think of it, this is also our tenth year of dating!! Wow! Pretty awesome tidbit don't you think!? Yeah, I thought so too.

Busy, Busy

It is hard to believe it has already been over a month since I last posted. The end of January and thus far of February have proven to be a little busy in the Whittington household! So since I haven't posted in so long (and the server is down at work, allowing me spare time) here is a little update with...wait for it....wait for it....even pictures included! Gasp!

I will start with P90X. I knew this program was going to be hard but let me tell you...it is hard in every sense of the word. The workouts are hard, the nutrition plan is hard, it is hard to find time to do the workouts, it is hard to have a full time job and somehow still squeeze in a workout, it is hard to be so focused on working out and eating that you realize you didn't even kiss your spouse that day ( we are both guilty of that)....I think you get the point. Come to think of it, maybe our lives haven't been THAT busy, they have just been consumed with P90X. With that said, we are in the fifth week and I think we are starting to find our stride, get in a routine, maintain a balance, etc. I do have to admit though, the first week of P90X there were tears...mainly from the workouts and mainly from me....ok, fine...solely from me.

Next in line we have eye surgery. On February 4th I had a LASEK retreatment on my right eye. For those of you who don't know, I had LASEK done on both eyes on February 5th last year. Also for those of you who don't know, February 5th is Preston's birthday. So in case you can't put two and two together...Preston was nursing his blind wife on his birthday for two years in a row. In my defense, I did ask his permission both years before I scheduled the surgeries. He is just awesome like that. However, I am hoping that me having eye surgery doesn't become a birthday tradition for my sweet hubs! In regards to my vision and recovery, everything is going well. My nearsight isn't quite up to par yet but it has only been two weeks at this point. I mean, give me a break people, I had a laser shot in my eye!

Next up is my work trip to Santa Monica, CA. Can I just say it was interesting and just leave it at that? I work with some pretty interesting people but that is for another post and another day.

We did have some excitement on the plane ride there. Our plane was struck by lightning!! How crazy is that? Since moving to AZ almost four years ago, I have taken many a plane ride and in all those plane rides I have never experienced the plane getting struck by lightning. I can now add that to my growing list of flying experiences: running through airports, missed flights, delayed flights, cancelled flights, lost luggage, boarding four planes in one day but only flying on two (long story), plane getting struck by lightning, etc. If you have ever lost sleep on whether a plane will crash if it is struck by lightning, I am living proof that the plane will not crash. You don't believe me? Well here is proof!


If you look closely you can see the where the lightning actually struck between the cockpit window and the nose of the plane! And that is our pilot checking out the damage. He said in his 16 years of flying that he has only experienced that twice! So that was probably the most exciting thing that happened on my trip to CA.

So you're probably wondering what I was doing in CA in the first place. One of our furniture manufacturers hosted an awards presentation for their dealers...exciting...I know. I have to say, it was nice to get out of the office for a few days. Below is picture of me and Mike, one of my coworkers, and some random guy in the background (great phone photography skills by another coworker)! This was at the awards presentation in the furniture manufacturer's
showroom. We are both just so happy to be there! Can you tell?


Our hotel was just a couple of blocks from the Santa Monica pier, so after checking into our hotel, we walked down to the pier. It was overcast and had been raining all day but the sun was peeking through slightly. So we got to see a bit of the sunset.


The following day we had a sales training to go to and then hopped back on the plane to AZ. We were in CA for less than 24 hours but like I said, it was nice to get out of the office.

So I think that is about it for the catching up. I know most of this post was about me because my poor hubby has really just been working his little heart out....at P90X and at work! He will get a little adventure in March when he heads to Nashville for Reed and Jennifer's wedding! Sadly, I will not be joining him (don't even get me started on how disappointed I am that I can't go) but he definitely deserves a break and I know he is going to have a blast! I am definitely sending the camera with him!

Until next time...

I Don't Get It

When Preston and I got back from our Christmas trip we found THIS parked outside our neighbor's house.


We don't know these neighbors at all (which is such a shame because they live all of 5 yards from us) and I had noticed the new car (sans paint job) a couple of weeks before Christmas. Well upon our return from Mississippi we discovered the makeover. Now if the car read "Jerry's hotdogs" I could possibly comprehend the dachshund but could someone please explain to me what dachshunds have to do with cigars?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Anniversary/New Year's Eve

December 31st Preston and I not only celebrated New Year's Eve but we also celebrated 4 years of marriage! We had a wonderful time with Chris and Millie McAlilly, eating dinner at Park Heights and after dinner conversation at their house. We almost missed counting down to 12:00 from being so deep in conversation. We are so blessed

to have such wonderful friends that we can get so lost in conversation with that we don't realize how long we have been talking or even what time it is! Unfortunately we did not get a picture of all four of us but Chris did happen to take a couple of snaps of me and Preston.

And just for fun, here is a picture of us on our anniversary/New Year's Eve last year.

God has definitely blessed me with an amazing husband! I am so thankful for all of the things he is to me: a husband, best friend, provider, supporter, care giver, confidant...the list could go on. The past four years have definitely had their ups and downs but I can't think of a better person to share the peaks and valleys with. We have definitely carried each other through the lows and rejoiced with each other through the highs and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in the coming years!

New Background

I decided to spice things up a bit! When we started this blog, we were picking out layouts together and Preston didn't want anything girly. Well since I am the primary blogger (so far the solitary blogger) I decided to add a girly background. Shssssh....don't tell Preston! I want to see how long it takes for him figure out! :)

Shout Out!!

I just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS to the Ainsworths!! Kendall and Will welcomed their beautiful twin baby boys, Hunter and Hays, into the world January 5th! We are so excited for y'all and can't wait to meet the new additions. We are so glad y'all made it to Austrailia! :)