Attempting to be a Super Mom

Yesterday was a sad day in the Tiemann household. We lost our dear friend, furry family member, and canine companion, Maya. Years and years ago, we were looking for a dog. We knew we wanted a young dog, but not a puppy. We were hoping for a housebroken dog that would be good with children, as we had a one year old baby, but scary to potential intruders. After some research we learned that labs or shepherds were our best bet for all that we were wanting. We talked about it with a couple of people, and one of Shawn's friends put us in touch with someone in her family that was wanting to re-home their two or three year old lab. They said they had been too busy to give her the time she deserved, as they had older kids that were quite active in sports and such. We set up a time for them to bring her over and visit, so we could get to know her, and the family could get to know us. Instantly I knew, she was meant to be a part of our family. She was very large, but oh so gentle. She ...

I don't want to jinx anything, but I think I'm starting to get in the swing of things already. I did forget to mention, in all the busy-ness we've been going through, that I took Maya to the vet last week.  She's had some problems with her back legs.  I should also mention that she's a big black lab, so arthritis is pretty common.  I guess I just didn't know what causes the arthritis. I guess a long time ago, back as a much younger dog, she tore her ACL in both knees.  I asked how that even happens, and she told me it's common from running or jumping and especially common in labs because they do more jumping that a lot of dog breeds. After those injuries, she got arthritis in the knees.  Because we didn't know at the time, we weren't able to get the problem fixed before arthritis and any surgeries now won't stop or fix the arthritis.  Sometime in the last week or so, she tore what was left of the ACL on her left hind leg and wasn't ...

About a month ago we bought our first family Betta fish, Obi Wan Kenobi.  We've loved him and the kids enjoyed feeding him twice a day as well as cleaning his tank once a week. Yesterday Sydney and I cleaned his tank.  Everything seemed fine.  This morning we turned on his light, and fed him.  He was swimming along working on his love nest that we removed yesterday by cleaning his tank. We left to run some errands and when we returned, poor Obi Wan was doing the dead fish float. He had some issues with eating since we got him.  I did some research and read that it's normal for a fish to not eat well for a week or so after you get them.  An adjustment period, I suppose.  Well, it never got better and I looked at different foods, soaking his food first to soften them, nothing...  Today, he sadly took a swim to the great wide ocean in heaven.  We'll miss him and are all sad.  Ben is heartbroken, but he feels everything so ...