Silly Sammy Gets Stung by a Bee

Last Thursday I found out Sammy is allergic to bees. We were out for a walk, like we do every afternoon when I bent down to tie my shoe. We were next to a big patch of ice plant which was full of bees. Sammy has jumped through this ice plant several times before without problem so I did not think too much of it. We were crossing the street, about two blocks from home, when he stopped in the middle of the street to chew on his paw. I had to drag him out of the street to the corner. I tried to figure out what was wrong. He was crying and I figured something was in his paw because he was chewing on it. I tried to get him to walk home but he would not put any weight on his front right paw and was trying to walk on only 3 legs. I picked him up and finished the walk home. When we got home I tried to look at his paw, but he was not having it. I figured I would let him rest and see how he was doing. He hobbled over to the living room on 3 paws and started throwing up. I grabbed my phone to call the vet and she told me to come over right away. Poor Sammy couldn’t move so I carried him to the car. He started panting really hard and his eyes were turning glassy. I was so scared, and got us to the vet as quickly as possible.

When we got to the vet she examined him and gave him a shot of something to reduce the swelling. His face was puffy and his paws were swollen. Sammy received an IV drip and a few other medications and the swelling started to go down. The vet is pretty sure he swallowed the stinger by accident which is what caused such a big reaction. After about 20 minutes of fluids, he was finally starting to feel better. He was able to walk around on all 4 legs again. The vet gave us meds that he needs to take for the next 2 weeks and she gave us a prescription for a dog epi pen, which I found out is the same as a human epi pen, only smaller. He was so mopey the rest of the evening and I was still worried about him. He was defiantly better, but he was not his old Sammy self.

We brought Sammy down to Mike’s parents the next day so he could see his friend Peaches and we could keep an eye on him. You would never have guessed anything was wrong with him at this point! He was running around, jumping, and saying hi to all the people in the house. I was very happy to see him so upbeat after such a traumatic day. Honestly I think I was more freaked out than he was. This was my first dog emergency and I am so grateful I have a vet I was able to call who was able to see him right away. Sammy is doing much better. Just a few more days of meds and of course no more walks by bees!

KonMari Step 2: Books

This past weekend Mike and I continued our tidying journey and completed step 2 of the KonMari method. Step 2 is all about books. For me, books were pretty easy. I have been through them recently and I really do not have that many. I still followed the method and took everything off the shelf, held it and decided if it brought me joy or not. If you are brought joy by just looking at the book on the shelf, then you should keep it, even if you do not think you will read it again. I love that about this method, I get to keep things that make me happy even if they are not super useful. I ended up getting rid of a decent size stack of books and cleaning and organizing my shelves better. Mike ended up getting rid of almost 3 shelves worth of books. He has way more books than I do because he used to go to the library book sales and get a giant bag for $1. It was pretty easy for him to part with titles he read once and felt done with and helped him decide which books and authors he wants to continue to keep and read more of. Step 2, books, only took us a few hours and now we can move on to step 3, papers.

Mike had some work to do in his lab over the weekend, so I decided to continue KonMari without him. Rather than go to step 3, papers, I decided to skip ahead a little bit. Step 4 is miscellany, and has several sub categories. It is easily the longest section. I decided to do one part of step 4, skin care products and make up. I chose to get to this step sooner because every time I walked out of my beautifully organized closet, I walked into my cluttered, disorganized bathroom. It was driving me crazy and was defiantly not bringing me any joy. So I took everything out from under the sink, the drawers, and the cabinet and organized it. Since switching to Melaleuca products, there were just so many things I never saw myself going back to use. I had a huge bag of trash and a box of things that are still useful to someone. We were able to completely clear off the counter (aside from soap and electric tooth brushes) and have everything organized in a much better way. I also ended up going through all of my nail polish, the laundry room, and under the kitchen sink. It is amazing how many things we accumulated that we did not need, would not use, and no longer brought joy. I now feel so much better about my closet/bathroom area.

Crystal, Morgan, Levi, and Parker arrive in one week and I am super excited to see them! We have some fun activities planned, like Levi’s first Padres game (we are teaching him who his favorite team is), beach day with the entire family, visiting with Ariel and her family, and pre-wedding activities. Because they are coming to town soon, and the wedding is so close, we are putting a pause to KonMari and will pick it back up after they leave. So far, we have gotten rid of 4 trash bags of clothes, 5 boxes of books, 2 boxes of random things for Good Will, 2 full recycle bins, and 2 full trash cans. I also have several boxes of things for Ariel. I randomly found my “unsharpened pencil collection” from my childhood. Yes I know it is a weird thing to collect, and no, it no longer brings me joy, so I am ready to part with it. I figured Thomas would get some good use out of it since he teaches 4^th grade. Ariel’s pile consists of many things like that. I am really glad I am able to give joy to someone else with some of the random things that have followed me around over the years.

Fourth of July Weekend

Mike and I had a great 4^th of July weekend. The city of Oceanside has fireworks on July 3^rd and for the past two years we have been out of town. We had no idea if they were visible from our house or not, but the park they were lighting them from was only 5 miles away. When 9pm rolled around, we went to the backyard. We could see the really high ones, but the lower ones were blocked by trees so we decided to walk up the street. There is a small park that is slightly higher up than our backyard. There were 2 other groups in the park and from there we could see the fireworks pretty well. And now we know that we can see the fireworks from our house.

On July 4^th we went to Steve and Jamie’s house for a BBQ. It is always fun to hang out with them and we had lots of delicious food. I made two types of cookies (chocolate chip and chocolate peanut butter chip) to share. We went home before the fireworks started because I wanted to be off the road before the drunk people got on the road. I read in the newspaper that more car accidents that result in death happen on the 4^th of July than any other holiday in America and that when the 4^th falls on a Saturday, the accident rate goes up by 20%. We were not really able to see any of the fireworks from the surrounding cities from our house, but we could hear them!

homemade cookies

On July 5^th we finished step 1 of the KonMari method of tidying. Step 1 involves clothes (including shoes and accessories). I am now obsessed with KonMari and cannot wait to KonMari the rest of the house! My closet has never brought me so much joy. I can see all of my clothes easily, everything is super organized, and we were able to get rid of 4 trash bags full of clothes! Basically the idea is you take out every single piece of clothing from your drawers and ask yourself “does this bring me joy”. If the answer is no, you let it go. This part sounds weird, but I swear it works, if you feel like you cannot get rid of the piece of clothing for some reason (you never wore it, someone gave it to you and you don’t want to hurt their feelings, etc), you thank the item before letting it go. For example, I gave up a few things I used to really like but do not really fit me well anymore and said “thank you for bringing me joy during college” or “thank you for bringing me joy when so and so gave you to me”. At first I felt weird talking to my clothes, but it really did help me let go of things I really do not need anymore. She also says you should store everything vertically. You do not want your shirts to get squished and forgotten on the bottom. I felt weird storing my socks vertically, but after I did it, I was absolutely amazed. I can literally see every pair of socks I own at one time (which is far too many socks) and it is so cool! Next up is books. If any of you need help tidying up or have trouble organizing or letting go of useless things, you have to read this book. I read it in a few hours over 3 days, and it is a huge perspective shift. One thing I love about it is you are not forced to get rid of everything. You just get rid of things that do not bring you joy. The idea is that everything in your house should bring you joy or serve a specific purpose.

my shirts

must read book!

my socks

We also finished the final season of Sons of Anarchy this weekend. I won’t go into too much detail, but I am fairly happy with the way it wrapped up. It is a very intense show, and the final season was far more gruesome than anything else on cable, but it is also extremely thought provoking. If I was still in grad school I would love to write an analysis of Sons of Anarchy.

Today Mike and I went to get our marriage license from the County Recorder. The place is less than half a mile from CSUSM so it was super easy for us to take a break during the day and go over. The paperwork is pretty easy, but they do like to charge you for each step of the way. You have to pay for the license, if you mess it up (by folding, wrinkling, or writing outside your box) you have to pay for a new one, you have to pay for the marriage certificate too once all the paperwork is turned in after the wedding. And I need the marriage certificate to change my name. All I can say is everyone better stay in their box when they sign the thing!