{partners in crime}

January Photo Dump 2017

Our best photos from the month of January! It was a good start to the year!

Hey All! I know I kind of stopped posting my running mileage weekly... mostly because I wasn't running much anymore. But at the beginning of the year I made a goal to get back into shape and lose this baby weight I STILL have been carrying around... all 15-20 lbs of it! Seems crazy that after almost 2 years I haven't lost it all but it is what it is I suppose. I've been trying to run 2-3 times a week and do some strength training in between. I also put myself on a strict 1200 calorie diet plan and have started seeing results from it at well. It is a bit depressing not being able to eat what I want to, but very satisfying to see the pounds drop off. The amazing weather we have had this winter has also help me tremendously to stay on track!

Below are my runs from the last few months. I have really taken it easy (notice the slow times) just because I still have knee pain from time to time and I don't want to deal with that all over again. But I'm beyond happy to be up to over 4 miles by the end of February! My goal right now is to run the Geist Half Marathon in May if I don't experience any set backs!

As for my weight loss! I'm so excited that after 3 weeks of sticking with this strict calorie intake I'm down 7 pounds! I was hoping that I could lose weight by just working out more, but that had little to no affect and I knew that I was going to have to change my diet to see some results. The first week of it was brutal... but now I have a good idea what I can and cannot eat and I don't crave all the "fun" stuff I use to. I am SUPER proud of myself. My goal weight is 115 lbs by R-man's second birthday! That gives me a little over 3 months. My perfect weight would be 110 lbs... but that might be pushing it a tad ;)

I can't believe February is almost over and we are heading into March soon! The winter has flown by!

December Photo Dump 2016

Our best photos from the month of December!

FUR-anken-REMI

Before we even left for Thanksgiving in Arizona, we were quite concerned with Remington. He had two VERY large lumps on his body... one to the point I was nervous about it rupturing while we were gone. Once we returned I took him to the vet to see what was going on with them. The vet was shocked with how big they were (fist size) and told me they needed to come off immediately. So we scheduled a surgery day and off they came!

We were so thankful that the surgery went well and the lumps showed no signs at all of being cancerous! Recovery went well. Remington never even touched the incisions and after 2 weeks of having stitches in we were ready when it was time for them to come out. I scheduled that appointment the morning of the day we were to head out of town for Christmas with Dan's side of the family in Ohio. Once they were out everything looked pretty good. I noticed that the back incision looked a little red and had some blood leaking from it, but I didn't think much of it not knowing what was about to happen.

We headed to Ohio and my parents headed to our house to be with Remi for the weekend. Probably 30 minutes after we arrived in Ohio (after a 3 hour drive) my Mom calls freaking out. Remington's supposedly healed incision had split back open! Being 3 hours away it was now up to them to help Remington.

Bless my parents hearts... I am beyond thankful for them!!!! They rushed him back to the vet (a good 45-55 minute drive since we hadn't found a vet we trusted close to us after moving yet) in freezing rain conditions minutes before they closed for the weekend. Unfortunately, there was dead tissue around the opening which is probably why it opened back up in the first place. They decided to keep Remington overnight and did surgery on him before they left that evening. They removed the dead tissue and stitched plus this time stapled it back up. The next day my parents drove back to get Remi in HORRIBLE weather (this was the night we had ice and 465 was shut down). Have I said how grateful I am! SERIOUSLY!

Dan and I cut our visit in Ohio short and came home the next day after the Christmas festivities to be with Remi. Would he have been just fine without us? Yeah probably... but I was so worked up nothing really could have made me feel better except being home with him.

Even though our vet had talked briefly with Dan over the phone he called me EARLY Monday morning to see what had happened. He asked if Remington had chewed the area etc etc. No... surprisingly Remington's recovery had been super easy! He told me that he wanted to leave the staples in for 3 weeks this time instead of the 2 we did last time and when I scheduled the appointment to have them removed he wanted to personally check everything out and remove them himself.

Recovery for Remington this time around was a little harder. It took him several days to get back to his old self. The incision looked awful and healed up more slowly, but for the most part I can't complain. As the two week mark approached of having the staples in I couldn't help but dread getting them taken out. What if the skin broke apart again? What would we do this time around? I had heard stories from others that they had to just leave it broken open and let it scab over and heal on it own... but it was tedious work to keep it clean and stop it from oozing everywhere.

The day I drove the hour to the vet to have the staples removed I was a nervous wreck. I kept picturing the incision splitting open knowing it would be huge this time around. When I got there I met with our vet and told him my concerns. I asked if ALL the staples had to come out today and he responded no! So we agreed to take out every other staple to see if everything would hold and then a week later I would take out the rest. Yes, you read that right. Our vet took me back in the back and taught me how to remove the remaining staples at home on my own! This was such a huge relief to me knowing that Remington still had a little time to make sure everything was healed properly!

Half the staples out...

... and a week later ALL the staples out!

I just feel so thankful that this ordeal is finally behind us after 2 months of dealing with it. And especially thankful to have my healthy pooch back!

Gosh I love this boy!

November Photo Dump 2016

Our best photos from the month of November!

October Photo Dump 2016

Our best photos from the month of October!

Our Arizona Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year all the Rhoton's traveled to Arizona to celebrate! It has probably been over 6 years since Dan and I were last there, so it was definitely time. I was so stressed out just thinking about flying with a toddler, but he did just fine and the experience exceeded my expectations. We had a wonderful time visiting together! The only downfall of the entire trip was I came down with the stomach bug... and everyone else seemed to get it after we left! Oops!