Goofy is sick

 IVDD is a four letter word in my house. Intervertebral Disk Disease

Two weeks ago Goofy was his happy active perfect self. On Tuesday, October 13th he started acting a little weird. He went from jumping all around to hardly moving and depressed.
Thursday, October 15th I took him in to the pet hospital. After a few tests, lab work and x-rays he was diagnosed with IVDD. A common disk disease caused from past trauma or just day to day trauma to the spine.
Goofy is only 7.5 years old. I always imagined he would live through most of my children’s childhood. He came home from the hospital lethargic, drugged up and quite literally a different dog. He lost full function of his back legs. and when he did get up to try to move around with great difficulty he would drag his back legs behind him. He remained in this condition for almost a solid week.
Prognosis is poor we have been told most likely he will not ever be the same dog. The following week was filled with a lot of tears, doggie carrying, frequent potty breaks, and some force feeding/watering, and lots of laundry.
Ron and I had multiple conversations about his quality of life and our options. Our family vet explained all our options in detail.
Option 1- see a dog neurologist (yes there is such a thing ) and schedule exploratory surgery (no guarantee it will work and costs around $10K)
Option 2- physical therapy- costly and time consuming
Option 3- we accept and live with a special needs dog.
Option 4- we say goodbye 
I have learned a lot about myself. I learned that I don’t like being an adult and making decisions like this. I learned that I love this dog so much more than I thought. Don’t get me wrong I have said at least a million times “Goofy is the best dog ever”. But I have never considered myself much of a dog person. I guess Goofy has converted me. Per the chiropractor recommendations (yes I found a dog chiropractor) we started exercising and massaging Goofy’s back legs. This past week has been a miracle. He still has a long ways to go but I’m so happy his personality has returned and he is doing better everyday.

Deer Hunting

The boys had a successful hunting trip this fall. Ron said the boys enjoyed the hunt that they hiked their butts off haha, and everyone had fun. When they walked in the door Mason had the most mischievous smile on his face. I should have seen his prank coming. I was giving all the boys hugs as they walked in, Mason was the last to enter the house. He grinned really big and stuck his hand out for me to shake. The lighting was poor in our front room so I took his hand and was a little surprised to feel fur and a hoof. I jumped back and saw the deer hoof in Mason's hand. ...sigh That kid. :)

Huber's Homeschool

I never in a million years thought I would be in the position I am in right now. We are 6 months into this "two week" pandemic and still a lot of the world is uncertain. Mesa Public Schools have decided that it's not safe to return to school and are fully operational online. This means I'm homeschooling 4 children including a kindergartner and with the size of my home it has been a little tricky. The first week of school I thought "Ok. We can do this I'll just set everyone up in the kitchen. They all have headphones so this will work." I quickly discovered that did NOT work. 

I have learned a lot of life lessons the past few weeks:

Not all headphones come with microphones, 

• My house is REALLY small,
• I like having my kitchen table as an actual kitchen table not a messy learning center,
• I suck on the computer
• Thank goodness Ron is on "speed-dial" and super helpful
• Online school is HARD and EMOTIONAL but we are trying to make the best of it

Monday night before the first day of school we got some much needed back to school blessings administered by Ron. This is NOT how I imagined my 5 year old starting school it just breaks my heart. But that said I have noticed some pretty amazing moments around the home. They are brief but it's a little bit of heaven when I see my girls pampering each other with pedicures, snuggles and dress up time. Mason and Noah helping April with her phonograms. Monday evening I asked all the kids to get their school stuff out and ready. Noah, with out being asked, logged on to each laptop, created a short cut and save passwords for all the girls. He has really been so helpful during all of this with computer issues. Tuesday morning came and despite technical difficulties and schedule fiasco's we survived. I'm so grateful for our back to school blessings from Ron and yes I got a "Back to School blessing" and it I know it helped. 

For multiple reasons we figured out the kids needed to be spaced out a little more. April has to be on speakerphone the whole time because I have to help her with all her computer time and webex sessions. It really is cute how she has picked up on some technical skills, she can "x" out of her live meetings, and knows how to click on the "join meeting" button. During PE for all of my children they need some open space and no headphones. So that complicates having 4 kids in school at the same time in different classes at different times. 

I have purchased a few desks to help with our complicated school situation. I feel very strongly about not having technology in the bedrooms and finding space has been a little tricky but we have made it work. Mason has been my little construction assistant with the desks and I have to brag about how I'm proud of myself (and Mason) that we put together a desk from IKEA and it's actually standing and functional (No one needs to know it took us almost 3 hours to do it...) Haha That's an absolute first for me. 

We have certainly had our fair share of drama and emotions from ALL of us. On one particular day Callie was a little upset when her request for ice cream had been declined. I found this gem in my bedroom. It still makes me chuckle even now, days later I have it hanging in my room.

The very first day of school was emotionally and physically exhausting for me. We survived but I crashed on the couch in the afternoon. April brought me a blanket, a pillow, and an ice pack. I woke up after 20 mins of glorious shut eye to a sweet note from April. She just melts my heart sometimes.

Grandma's Pool

The past few months have been especially tough. I feel like I'm constantly making mental PRO's and CON's lists. Pros and CONs of this weird year. One of the major PROs has been my parents pool. It has saved us mentally, emotionally and physically. It's been a safe haven of entertainment and fun. And a really good way to see my parents while social distancing. "Dolphin feeding time" is always a highlight.

No Masks please!

For the past couple weeks AZ has mandated wearing face masks out in public. I understand the recommendation and can see a need but it's not something I enjoy at all. It's so hot outside and breathing my own hot air and feeling it constantly on my face is not very fun. At work I wear 2 masks and feel very suffocated sometimes. This weekend it was really nice to find an activity we could social distance safely and get some sunshine therapy. We went tubing with the Talley family. We tied a few tubes together in each "group" and had a "snack tube" loaded up with yummies along the way. April started off in the boat with Chance but wanted to ride with me about 10mins into the ride. I of course was happy to oblige. It took us about 2 hours to float down our selected route, many times during our float the river was so slow Noah got out of his tube and pulled us girls. He is such a good sport and was so happy to help. I think all the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Not even 2 days after our river adventure Governor Duecy closed floating the river, bars, water parks and mandated no gatherings over 50 people. Also it was announced that school isn't opening until 8/17/20... originally school was supposed to start August 5th. I'm ok with school being pushed back (as long as it eventually starts up). I'm worried about businesses effected by all this and what it means for owners/workers. I'm really happy we got to float the river and I look forward to it opening up in the future so I can take my kids back.