The blur that was January 2012

January 2012 passed in a blur of cardboard, roadtrips, vet bills, cleaning and goodbyes. January was the month we prepared for our move to Flagstaff, tried to keep Barry's tail from being amputated, made multiple trips to Phoenix and said goodbye to all of our wonderful friends in Prescott. It was a busy and exhausting month with fuzzy details.

Tyler started his DocBand January 4 so I had to take him to Phoenix the next week for his first adjustment and every two weeks thereafter for his adjustment. We took a trip to Flagstaff to look for a house. We took an additional trip to Phoenix for Andrew's baby blessing.

While Barry was being boarded over Christmas he opened up the end of his tail. We tried and tried to get the tip to heal on our own but were not having any luck. We did not want to pay a vet to deal with this dumb tail problem he has. However, when Barry also developed a large bloody spot on his face from unknown causes the time had come to bite the bullet and take him in. The bloody spot is known as a hot spot. Apparently, our intelligent dog started scratching at something on his face that was no longer there but he couldn't bring himself to stop scratching so he scratched it raw. Barry had to be sedated so that his face could be shaved and cleaned. They also bandaged up his tail in what the vet was sure would be sufficient protection to keep it from opening again. Wrong. He wags his tail so hard he pulverized a hard plastic syringe casing three times. Barry had to wear a cone of shame for a couple of weeks to let his face heal and take antibiotics for infection. The tail was turning into a lost cause. I took him probably three times for checks and rebandaging because he kept destroying his bandages and bleeding all over the house we were trying to clean to move out of. It was a nightmare in case you hadn't figured that out with this description. We finally stopped taking him and took over bandaging ourselves. It was almost healed but then we had to take him back to the boarding place so that we could move. (To be continued...)

I don't know why Barry is in the car but he hopped over the backseat into Tyler's seat to clean out crumbs for us. I can guess that I was probaby taking him to the vet for another bandage change.

 In Grant's second to last week of school at Skyview, I decided that he should have one last giant play date at our house and invite his entire class to our home. He didn't know I made this plan but I showed up at the end of school and put a flyer in each child's folder. Luckily, only about seven or eight kids showed up that Friday but it was a great time. Grant and Cole both had so much fun playing with Grant's friends. It was a great way for him to say goodbye. Grant's last day of school at Skyview was sad for all of us. I loved that school for him. He was so close to all of his classmates. His teachers were phenomonal and he was learning so much. Miss Sonja brought cookies for the class to commemorate his last day. At the end of the day, all of his friends stayed around to say goodbye to Grant and take some pictures. It was a wonderful farewell for him.

It was hard to say goodbye to our friends, schools, church and activities but Flagstaff awaited. We had so much help getting us out of Prescott. Many of my friends came to help me clean and pack. Many more came to help us load our truck. Friends watched kids while I packed and cleaned. We were truly blessed with a wonderful network of people to love, support and help us in Prescott. We made amazing memories and our little family even grew by one in our fast paced 2-1/2 years in Prescott.