A Long Two Weeks

We have been busy and life is going a lot of different directions so bear with me. Two weeks ago we purchased all new leather furniture for our living room since it was damaged in the move. It arrived last weekend and we are really happy with it- it took quite awhile to find something good. In addition we had some work done on the house - we were so relived to get it done since it took about 3 weeks to find a contractor willing to do the work. We had the built-in from the living room cut down from a large bookcase type thing to a shelf - which we topped with granite that matches the kitchen (and now the TV sits on it). We also painted the wall behind the shelf a deep brown. We painted the strange tomatoey-orange dining room a warm grey. We also needed our ceiling painted since someone accidentally put their foot through the drywall installing some new speakers in the living room. And for kicks we freshened all the paint in the main living area of the house while we were at it. The work took about 3 days and we are really happy with how it all turned out. Maybe I can do some pictures next week?

The chair in our new set (at the store)

It was good to have it all done since I started a new full time job on Tuesday of this past week! I am working for Plus One Health Management (which was the company that ran our gym when I worked at Marathon Oil) as a Wellness Specialist for Tulane University. The job works with the faculty/staff population wellness programs so I won't have much student interaction but so far it is going really well. The one downside is that the commute is about an hour each way...24 miles of which are over the longest bridge in the world. I may change my tune but the commute hasn't been as bad as I expected so far.

And now on to the not so good news- Dopler is sick again. He started acting strange two weeks ago when he wouldn't go upstairs or get on the couch. He cried out a few time while running and then last Monday he started limping a bit. I took him to the vet, the exam didn't showing anything so he was prescribed some pain meds and rest. By Tuesday afternoon Dopler was screaming in pain every time he stood up and wouldn't put his foot down. I called the vet and increased pain meds. By 6pm it was too much (for him and for us) so we took him to the emergency vet. He got the good drugs there, got an x-ray which was not really telling and stayed the night at the hospital. Next morning the surgeon suggested a CT scan and spinal tap (he thought it might be meningitis) which are both done under anesthesia. Thankfully the vet said he was in a lot less pain but he still needed another night at the hospital. Spinal tap came back normal, the vet thought the CT showed a ruptured disk but the radiologist said no so we had to wait for the second opinion. Meanwhile the vet said we could take Dopler home since he pain was under control. I was really nervous about bringing him home but when we arrived we found that Dopler seemed normal again, was in great spirits and showed no signs of pain. Friday the CT 2nd opinion came back as a severely ruptured disk at the base of the spine (first opinion was also amended- I think a radiologist had a "teachable moment"). So we have decided to do back surgery on Dopler. The surgeon feels he is a great candidate and we are crossing our fingers that he will recover really well. He will have surgery on Wednesday and spend 1-3 nights at the hospital. Jason's mom is coming to help us with Dopler during the first bit of recovery at home since we are not too sure what to expect. He will have 4 weeks of restricted space rest (thankfully it is not cage rest). It was a rough week with a lot of hard decisions but we are glad a diagnosis was made we just hope the course of action is the best for Dopler. Dopler is currently resting peacefully next to me after a hand fed breakfast of dry food and turkey baby food (since he is being picky again) and some pain killers. He has showed no really signs of pain and only a slight limp so we are hopeful surgery and recovery will be smooth.

Christmas

Robert and Judy arrived on Friday the week before Christmas to bring us Dopler and help with setting up the house. It was nice to have their help and spend some time with them. Dopler was excited to see the new house (and eventually us). He checked it all out and then found his pillow and was content. He has adjusted remarkably well to the new house and has continued to eat like a champ. We have our fingers crossed that he is all better.

The week before Christmas was filled with unpacking, cleaning, trips to Lowe's, grocery shopping and a lot of hard work by the men. Jason and his dad finished the media room the day before Christmas and it looks great. I will get some pictures up soon. The room has a huge screen and projector and it truly rivals going to a movie theater. They worked really hard to get it just right.

We decorated for Christmas but it was hard to get into the Christmas mood since it felt more important to get settled but we managed to finally get in the spirit.

The stockings by the fireplace- I got a super cool Advent calendar - I have been wanting one for two years!

Dopler's stocking had treats...

We discovered that Dopler had found this present sometime before Christmas (lucky he can read and it was for him already)

Dopler after opening his present

Jason in man heaven with his new drill

Of course some baking had to be done

From the beginning

Okay so I owe a couple of posts- lets see if I can get caught up. We closed on the house on December 8. We thought it was a bit weird that the previous owners were at the closing, but I guess that is how they do it here. Closing went well and we spent the next two days cleaning and painting. I was surprised how dirty the house was and was not too pleased with the amount of cleaning necessary. It makes me want to never clean a house when I move out again!(though I was raised better). We painted the largest guest room a nice blue color. The weekend after we closed we headed to New Orleans to spend the weekend with our friends celebrating Bekah's birthday- it was a good time (maybe a bit too much of a good time).

On Monday December 13 our furniture arrived. What an interesting day! When we left Norway one of our movers wore a "utility kilt" and our Louisiana movers all had gold teeth...see all the fun cultural differences? They were nice men and moved us in quickly. It was pretty hilarious to be asked where to put boxes from storage since I had no idea what was in most of them. We did have some troubles though. Our king size mattress that was stored in Houston for 2+ years was not wrapped and boxed properly so it was exposed to the elements for who knows how long and damaged. The bolts and support legs for our bed were nowhere to be found so it was a bit of a pain to not have a bed for a few days until the moving company sorted it out. In addition to that it turns out that our Norwegian movers used a plastic based product to wrap and protect our leather sofa and chairs. Well evidently leather and plastic coupled with temperature and humidity changes in a sea container don't mix. Thankful our moving company has been pretty good and has given us cash to replace our mattress and leather furniture. So we have a new mattress which is uber comfortable and new leather chairs and sofa on the way.

This is the worst of it but the whole sofa and both chairs had this pattern imprinted on them

I spent the next week unpacking. I knew it would be weird to unpack the boxes from storage since I hadn't seen that stuff in so long. It wasn't quite as bad as I expected but I did have a few surprises of things I didn't remember. I was pretty happy to see my KitchenAid mixer, rice cooker and a few other kitchen items. I have also found that the kitchen is a bit smaller then I am used to. I am using both my pantry and one guest bath linen closet for kitchen storage- lucky we have room there. The goal was to get as much unpacked and cleaned as possible before Dopler arrived with Robert and Judy on Friday!