Entropy

My absence means that the last year of graduate school has officially begun. I spent the last couple weeks of summer desperately and frantically reworking and writing my qualifying paper. A couple of weeks after turning it in I learned that it was accepted and I have now officially advanced to candidacy! Let the thesis writing begin.

I do have some posts I need to complete on the newest ride and other happenings.. I'll get around to them soon. Until then, I can feel a change in the air, the leaves are starting to change colors in The Cove and fall is creeping over me. As much as I dread the snow, I do love fall, the crisp air on my nose, pumpkins, cider sake, Nightmare Before Christmas and the search for Ebi's Halloween costume. The change of seasons reminds me that nothing is static, everything has life and moves, morphs and changes, what a wonderful thing to be reminded of.

Isn't she so cute!

from
Ebi 365

Ream Family Reunion

Two weekends ago John, Aunt El, Rebecca and I made the lovely drive up to Bear Lake to go to nearby Dingle, ID (John and Rebecca's dads' hometown) for the Ream Family Renunion. I didn't take alot of pictures as the trip was rather a whirlwind, but we did have fun eating raspberry shakes, going to the beach, listened to thousands of stories and giggling about some of the funny crazy relatives!

Ebi in Stitches

A week or so before John and I celebrated our anniversary, Ebi started acting funny. She couldn't jump up on anything, she walked around with a hunched back and as her mommie I could just tell she didn't feel well. After letting it go for a couple of days we decided that it was time to take her into the V.E.T. (we have to spell things out when we talk about such matters in our house. Another common phrase is "John, should we take E.B.I. on a W.A.L.K.?" she is so smart that if we don't spell out keys words she begins to get all excited. Even if we are in the other room talking about going on a ride.. I will turn around and Ebi will be right there ready to go). Anyway, side note over. So we took her in to the V.E.T. and sure enough stoic Ebi (as our cute vet addresses her) had hurt her back. This resulted in a cortisone shot, anti-inflammatory and pain killers. Ebi spent the rest of the week on the couch, drugged out watching Dr. Phil. Her pills quadrupled her appetite and her thirst. When she wasn't stoned, she was roaming the house in search for anything to eat. A crumb, a sprinkle, even a grape! Anything! Someone has a case of the Munchies!! She was so hungry! If you know pugs at all you know that they are always hungry! It doesn't take a pill people, pugs are ready 24/7 for any treat. Ebi can be fast asleep and John will open a wrapper in the kitchen and BAM! there she is ready for a tasting.

So everything was going well heading into the next week. Ebi walked around with watery eyes and a desperate look for water and food. Even though she got fresh water practically on the hour and her two cups of food divided up 6 times throughout the course of the day, her tummy was never satisfied. One day I was scratching her tummy when I decided to investigate a bump I felt. I had felt the bump starting a week earlier but assumed it was a inflamed nipple, but that day something told me to investigate further. So I gently pulled the hair away and to my surprise there was this nasty looking red lump. This got me worrying. I went and got John and we decided we better take E.B.I. back to the V.E.T. The next day, after finding two more very small bumps we sat in the office waiting to see what the result of the tests were when the vet came and told us that all three lumps came back as Mast Cell Tumors. My heart dropped. The vet's voice drifted in and out as I sat in my shock and tried to let it sink in. I heard the words "cancer" and "three stages" and "systemic." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.. my dog has three tumors? It can't be.

I went home and cried and cried as Ebi confused at my overwhelmed emotion cuddled up with me and licked my face to make me feel better.

The next day Ebi was rushed into surgery to remove the tumors and send them off to a lab to be tested to see what stage they were. When we picked Ebi up from her procedure she had a shaved belly full of stitches, a tongue that flopped around from the medication and a spaced out demeanor. I told Ebi in the car ride home that we needed to move to California if she was going to be SO L.A. - think of it, a bikini wax, on painkillers and drugged out all of the time. Could she be anymore like Lindsay Lohan?

The week ticked on so damn slowly as we waited back for the results. Stage 1 meant good. Stage 2 meant treatable. Stage 3 meant that we would have to make some tough decisions. I have never felt so nervous for such a long period of time. D day was approaching, but it was worse not knowing anything than knowing something even if it was the worst news! Finally, I got the phone call that all three tumors came back as Stage 2 Mast Cell Tumors. The next step was to do an ultrasound to see if the tumors were not just in the skin but had spread systemically. That happened a few days later and to our utter happiness not one thing came up on that monitor!! I was so relieved and happy! A huge worry was lifted off of my shoulders!

So after a minor setback with removing the stitches too early and having to resort to staples and stitches (again Ebi, really, now we have piercings, So LA!?) She is making quite a recovery and we are all looking forward to lots of years of love and fun!

If you have a dog, check them regularly for bumps and lumps. Mast cell tumors aren't a death sentence but they can be quite serious if they go untreated and are not removed right away. This includes painful chemo treatments, harsh medications and tough decisions, not to mention a huge expense. If you google "Mast Cell Tumors" there is a ton of information out there, some of it is really great, some is not true.. but it is a start. In the end, Ebi did not need any additional treatments just a weekly check by me to make sure there aren't any new tumors popping up anywhere. We came out $1000 less but a million times fuller knowing that we caught the tumors in their earlier stages and our sweet child with fur will be with us for many many years to come.

We love you Ebi!!

Reamer Day

John and I celebrated our second year of marriage on June 30, 2009. John suprised me by taking me up to Sundance for the weekend. Ebi went to grandma's and we took the beautiful drive up the mountains for a lovely weekend in a cabin, including a wonderful al fresco dinner sitting next to Robert "Bob" Redford (For Real!) and a hike and tour through Timpanogoes Cave. What a great weekend.

Thank you my love for always doing the laundry, helping me with dinners, catching spiders, having great ideas, going to yoga, listening to me talk about my feminist ideals, always asking 'why?,' caring about water consumption and bitching about people who waste it, trying to always understand and hear both sides before making a decision, hearing me vent about some of the people in my life, always being there for the people that need you, recycling whatever possible, going green, letting me watch the same episodes of Friends and ANTM over and over again (I'm really really sorry about that one), being my best friend, my laughing partner and simply a wonderful man. I love you.


Ebi thought she was going on our adventure but instead she went to grandma's. She seemed pretty please to spend the weekend snacking, walking, going on drives and napping. Thanks M&D for being such great babysitters

Arts Festival

I am trying to play catchup with the blog posts .. maybe one day


The pictures really will tell it all... blurry, swirly and fun. Say no more


I just love and adore this guy! He is so fun!

Lavender

I have just harvested my lavender for the year and its sweet fragrence is not only floating sweetly through the air outside but now inside as well. What a lovely summer treat!


More posts tomorrow.

Ebi 365

Ebi's old blog has turned into Ebi 365 a daily photo journal of my sweet pug. Check it out here:
http://ebithepug.blogspot.com/

Meet Phyllis

I want to introduce you to the newest member of our family. This is Phyllis (or on the chance the Phyllis might be a boy.. Phil).

When we first got the Cove House and were beginning to fix it up, each night when we left from working on our soon to be new abode there would be a cute wild cottontail rabbit sitting in the middle of the big front lawn eating some of our many weeds. I instantly loved her and each night would try to sneak closer and closer to take a better look. She would only let me get so close.. maybe ten feet, and then she would dash as quick as her feet would carry her into the Fitzer Bushes for safety and security. We decided that her nest and hole were probably buried in those horrendous evergreen bushes so you can imagine my concern when the day came that the Fitzers were to be eaten up by the backhoe.

In my mind I knew that the bushes had to go.. they were taking over the whole yard and they were so ugly and menacing looking, but I also worried about the rabbitt.. if we took her habitat away she would be homeless and forced to relocate like those poor Islanders whose islands are being covered with water due to global warming and forced to move to New Zealand. I was certain that my new bunny friend would dig her way to New Zealand and we would never see her again. Then I started having nightmares about what would happen if the rabbit was in the bushes when we demolished them and I started seeing grotesque images in my head of bunny blood, orphaned bunny babies and worse, my bunny getting knocked unconscious by the backhoe and waking up in the landfill having to fight off rats or worse.. the wood chipper....... holy shit. I have to save her.

So I talked sweet John into taking out all of the Fitzers except the one where I thought the bunny lived. I told John I could shape the bush and make it look nice. It was really in the best interest of our already sad looking yard (see how I work?). So John took out all of the bushes but the one. After a couple of week there was no sight of the rabbit and it was clear that the last remaining Fitzer had to go. It was so intertwined with the other bushes that as soon as the others were gone, the bush began to die. So I said goodbye to the bunny habitat and goodbye to my rabbit friend. She never came back.


Well... to my surprise and utter happiness the bunny returned a few weeks ago! (I realize it could be and probably is a totally different bunny but I like to think it is the same one.. let me have my fun) Only this time she showed up in the backyard. With all of the trauma of the front yard demolition I don't blame her! I quickly got to work earning her love and trust back. This has included an assortment of farm share greens, carrots and now rabbit pellets. John and I put a ground feeder out on the back lawn full of feed for the doves, quails, peanuts for the scrub jays and I have recently added the pellets for my furry friend who we decided to name Phyllis.

There is nothing cuter than to look out and see Phyllis up in the feeder with a dove and the quails wondering around below them. I need to get a picture of that!

Last night as John was working on the back patio and I was watering the plants, Phyllis layed out on the back lawn and watched us. I walked over to her and slowly walked by maybe two feet away from her cute self and she looked up at me and didn't move an inch. I see it being two ways:
1. Either she was daydreaming and didn't notice I was so close until it was too late to run and decided to do the whole "if I hold perfectly still no one will ever see me" act. Or..
2. she knows we won't hurt her and she is perfectly fine sharing the lawn with us.

I hope it is the latter.

So without further adue.. Meet Phyllis

Day 8: Monuments

Our last day in DC was spent having a delicious brunch and then off to the monuments before being dropped off at the airport for a early afternoon flight back to SL,UT.


Washington Monument (aka in Visual Culture terms.. the "Big White Phallus." I like to call it the "Big White Penis" that exerts its power over and over again... ok we know you're HUGE! Get over it!)


The Korean Memorial


Vietnam Memorial


I have spent alot of time and intellectual study on Maya Lin's Memorial and it was so incredibly powerful to walk down into the memorial, walk down into the silent tomb and be surrounded by all of those that were lost in the Vietnam War. I could have stayed there for hours taking it all in.

In 1981, at age 21 and while still an undergraduate at Yale, Lin won a public design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, beating out thousands of other competition submissions. The black cut-stone masonry wall, with the names of 58,253 fallen soldiers carved into its face,was completed in late October 1982. The wall is granite and V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument.

Lin's conception was to create an opening, a wound in the earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the many soldiers. Although initially controversial, the memorial has since become an important pilgrimage site for relatives and friends of the American casualties in Vietnam where personal tokens and mementos are left at the wall daily in their memory. We saw everything from beer cans to zippo lighters to flowers.

Looking at the many names carved into the smooth and polished granite one cannot get away from one's own projected image on the flat surface and it really hits you how powerful and haunting the memorial is. Your image is reflected back off of the names. You could be one of them... and in the background the symbol of American power and strength, the Washington Monument looms and is reflected back through the black cold stone. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. It moved me to tears.


Lincoln Monument




World War II Memorial








A fitting last picture for not two hours later we were on a plane flying over the Mall and beautiful DC heading home to Utah.


Thanks Bec for letting us sleep on your floor, dropping us off and picking us up at the metro every day and going with us to get delicious food! We are so happy for you getting your house and even more pleased that we were able to help you, from paint to boxes, with this new life changing step into becoming a home-owner!

DC Day 7 and recap of the week's work

You will have to forgive me for the dry unwitty post today. Work has left me absoutely fried in the brain. The following pictures sum up Day 7 in DC which was the big moving day from Bec's old apartment to the new house. I didn't document this very well because I was hauling boxes down three flights of stairs and into the Uhaul.. but I can assure you that it happened. The pictures also show a tiny bit of all of the hard work that John and Bec put into the new space, with sanding and painting and fixing up.. oh my! Go Team Ream!

Dove in backyard






Isn't her carpet so beautiful!


New paint!