2011- Year in Review

People talk about time moving quickly.  This past year has been the fastest year of my life.  Much of it a blur.  I took every effort to slow down and soak it in-and still there are months I can't recall.  I thought I would do a high level recap.

January 2011

• I put my first home on the market.  A little bittersweet but I had to make way for new beginnings.

My first house.



• Scott PROPOSED.  He caught me by surprise.  Read more about it here:   The story of my proposal.

February 2011

• Scott and I took a short vacation to Southern Florida for the Miami Boat Show and some needed R&R.  You can read all about our vacation here: Our trip to South Florida

March 2011

• We continued to look for a new home and we found one at the very end of the month.
• Thankfully less than a week later we went into a contract on Pandora's Box.
• We set a wedding date for early August and a reception date for late August-the planning begins.

April 2011

• We closed on the new house and began the demo that same week.  

The new house

May 2011

• My brother Shaun got married in Hilton Head.
• Scott and I had our first couples shower.
• I closed on my house
• I moved all my things from my house to the basement of the new house
• The renovations continued



Scott and I at Shaun and Allisons wedding.




 



Scott and I at our couples shower.




 






The group in Charleston for the bachelor/bachelorette party

July 2011




• We continued with the house.
• We took a brief, and very rare break to celebrate Fourth of July at the marina. 



The sheet between the top and bottom floor of the new house.  It helped with dust and chaos control

August 2011

• I celebrated with the ladies for a girls only wedding shower.
• We traveled to the Bahamas to get married and honeymoon.
• We came back and had all our family and friends in for a wedding reception




 



Our honeymoon




 

September 2011

• The upstairs neared move in ready.  Scott finished the kitchen with appliances.
• We attended a Univ of TN tailgate-the first of many games which would have better pre-game festivities than the games themselves.



Scott and the supervisor




October 2011

• We MOVED UPSTAIRS.  It took us 6 months. 

November 2011

•  Scott went hunting in Arkansas
•  We moved all Scott's furniture from his garage into the new house.  Finally we were mostly furnished.
• While he was gone I figured out how to use all my existing holiday decor in the new house
• We received our wedding license in the mail-so at last we can proof it happened;)
• We hosted our first Thanksgiving celebration.  In our brand new kitchen.  It went very well.




December 2011

• We attended holiday parties galore.  We hosted our third annual garage party which was a success.
• Bailey took a turn for the worse health wise and we had a very hard 10 days at the end of the month before his small heart couldn't take anymore. He dies on December 19th which was impossibly hard.
• Scott and I celebrated our first married Christmas-which despite the sadness was nice and good.




This past year was one of the most hectic I can recall.  I feel we did so much in such a short time.  We had some fantastic highs from getting engaged to getting married after almost 4 years together.  We got to celebrate our life and future with our loved ones.  Those highs made the horrible low of losing Bailey bittersweet.  But-its how it happens.  It can't be all good-bad things happen.  I have high hopes for 2012.  Can't wait to see what's in store!!

Bailey Christopher- In Memory December 1998-December 2011

Bailey Christoper

    
      I adopted Bailey in January 1999, when he was one year old.  I was going through a very rough patch personally and I really wanted some company.  He was my first dog and I had NO IDEA what I was doing.  He was a terror.  He didn't listen.  He bit.  He had so many accidents in the house.  It took me a few years to get things under control, but just barely;) 
      Bailey loved being around people and in the past few years he has been a constant shadow for Scott and I.  He would follow me up and down the stairs as I did chores-even when I would tell him I would be right back.  He would sit on the bathmat as I took a shower in the morning.  He "supervised" all of Scott's projects-making sure everything was under control.  He slept in our bed-oftentimes between us like the middle line in a "H."  We often commented on how it was odd that such a small dog could take up so much room in a king sized bed.  He would sit on the couch with us.  He would yodel when he wanted fed-and we would respond like the well trained pet parents we are.  He didn't play fetch-he did wear argyle sweaters.  He was much more like a cat.
      I loved him so very much and in the last 4 years he came to fill a huge roll in Scott's life too.  We joke that if I hadn't learned patience and tolerance from grumpy Bailey that I might never have fallen in love with cranky Scott. Scott even used Bailey to propose to me, in a small dog tuxedo-one of my favorite memories.    Scott and he were so much alike.    They would cuddle on the couch-and Bailey quickly trained Scott to do his bidding.  It took Scott a couple of years to realize that he was catering to the shih tzu.
      Bailey and Molly were part of our engagement photos.  We obviously love our dogs and consider them part of the family.  When Bailey passed away Sunday morning it was like losing a family member-a child almost.  It's a huge hole and the house seems very lonely and sad.  I know it will get easier...and this pain pails in comparison to the YEARS of joy that Bailey gave me and Scott too.  It was worth it.
     

Sometimes a bigger heart ISN'T better

Bailey just turned 13.  For a dog his size this is senior status but not the end of the road.  He has plenty of life in him but some of his internal systems are starting to need support.  He has kidney problems and has to eat special-CRAY EXPENSIVE- food.  He goes to the vet every 6 months, sometimes more.  One issue is his heart.  He has a murmur now and we did an exray a year and a half ago to get a baseline.    I have a list of issues to "watch" for that could show a progression.  One is coughing.  Last night we had ALLOT of coughing.  It was scary and upsetting and landed us both at the vet early this morning.  Another xray showed his heart had grown and was possible pressing on his trachea-causing the coughing.  The dr said this was considered slow progression and put him on some new meds.  Basically he now gets blood pressure medicine.  That's how he rolls.  The vet gave me a short list of side effects to watch for with the new meds and one made me laugh out loud-DEPRESSION.  A 13 yr old shih tzu comes across as "depressed" on his best days.  I brainstormed with a friend on signs to watch for.  Feel free to comment and share more:
1.  If Bailey starts wearing black (granted I control his wardrobe)
2.  If he stops contacting his canine cohorts
3.  Unusual piercings
4.  He stops talking
5.  Starts pawing morose poems...a shih tzu manifesto if you will
6.  If I come home and he is watching that awful ASPCA commercial over and over

In all seriousness-he will be fine.   I knew he would likely need these meds eventually.  He is too grumpy to be done yet;)

Shih Tzu Art-Bailey in Oil

OK-if you already think I am a crazy dog lady I would encourage you to stop reading this now.  It's about to get worse, much worse. 

I stumbled upon this blog- http://www.yellowbrickhome.com/.  I have been enjoying it very much.  Then I realized they did custom pet portraits-http://www.yellowbrickhome.com/shop/  I have always wanted one of my dogs...and put the idea on the back burner.  The stars aligned in September and they ran a special.  SIGN ME UP.  They do small portraits so I decided to get Bailey's done first.  Molly will have her time in the sun later, as to not show any favoritism.

I picked a few photos I really liked and consulted with the artists.  The day it arrived was like Christmas!!  So exciting.

Bailey in oil. 

The portrait with the muse (who does not look amused.)

Bailey is over the photo shoot and the portrait. 

The Supervisor, Senor Bailey

Bailey has a new task in the house-one that he really excels at.  He has deemed himself the supervisor of our home remodel.  He mostly focuses on Scott's work.

Scott installing the dishwasher.  Bailey giving me the "don't distract the man from his work" look.

Mom-seriously.  Men at work here.

And sometimes Molly comes up as well.  But she really doesn't like the noise of the drills, or the crackling of packing materials or really any noise-including Scott's text message noise(this one we don't get).

Engagement shots

August FLEW BY!!!  We have had allot going on..so it was to be expected.  I am going to try to go back in time and recreate the crazy.

Scott and I had out engagment photos taken and we were so pleased with the results.  We decided to do half of them at the Bearden Antique Mall, which his grandparents used to own and now his Aunt Ann owns.  Not only did it have sentimental value to him it had a million cool backdrops for me.  Win, win.  We then decided to take some pics with the dogs on our boat.  It was hot-HOT-but so worth it.  I loved what our photographer, Ben Finch, was able to capture.

Nobody puts Bailey in a Box

We have allot of boxes around the house.  As children are want to do-we have found small ways to entertain ourselves with the toys we have on hand.  The other day I wanted to see what Bailey would do if we put him in the microwave box.

At first he was just sitting there-looking at me.  Wondering exactly this turn of events meant for him.

Then he realized I had landed him in the land of milk and honey.  The box was full of packing supplies like paper.  No dog likes paper like Bailey likes paper.  He will steal it whenver he can and hide under the bed to eat it.  If we try to retrieve it he growls and has been note to nip. 

We realized we had to distract him so encouraged him to jump up on the side of the box-like this.  Note-he would have been content in the box all day with the endless supply of paper and self inflicted safety zone from Molly.  He was happy as a clam.

Bailey Praire Dog Style.  I think he is saying-get me out of the damn box.

Moral of the story- Bailey likes paper & Bailey likes being in boxes but Bailey does not care for his owners silly human games.  Point taken little man, point taken.