Life Lately

To be honest life lately has been… well a little crazy. We are officially in wedding season which we love while simultaneously enjoying the beauty of fall which we also love.  But this fall has brought some unforeseen challenges to say the least. 

The Snake Bites

It was about 2 weeks ago, we had friends over for a cozy warm fall bonfire in our front yard. We host these often. The dogs were out running around as usual, the night sky was filled with stars and the moon was just a sliver. As the evening progressed I noticed the Tampa (our black and white pup) was not running over to us to play, instead Brandon spotted her on the front porch just standing there. I called her over and very slowly she walked to me.

Short Breath

Right away I knew something was not right. I could hear her struggling to breathe and she was moving very slowly. I quickly grabbed her and ran inside so I could see her in the light. Her entire face was swollen and she was having trouble breathing. I screamed out to Brandon and then proceeded to run upstairs for a Benadryl. Praise God she was able to swallow the Benadryl. I was in full panic mode. Our friends (who had this happen to one of their dogs last year) calmed me down and said to give the Benadryl time to work – about 20 min.

Our Vet is the Best

So at 9:30pm that evening Tampa and I laid down in bed and waited for it to kick in. By 10pm she was starting to breathe normal so Brandon and I set an alarm to wake up in 5 hrs to give her more. She slept right by my side all night long. By the 5 hr mark the swelling had gone down some. By morning she was still very swollen but doing much better. We ran to our Holistic Vet Dr. Kimberly Parker-Royer who took Tampa off the Benadryl and gave her a homeopathic remedy that worked so much better!! She showed us the line of venom in her lip just by the bite and taught us how to handle it if there is a next time. She is a life savor!

Our vet said Tampa got lucky because by the size of the bite marks the snake was small and so therefore did not inject all of its venom. It took about 3 days for all the swelling to subside but as soon as we left the vet Tampa’s spirts had already improved. It was a close call that I never want to go through again.

And then there is our new wood burning stove!

We were hoping to have our new stove in before the first freeze, but that came and went the night before last, mean while we have a hole in our roof. Oh yea, some good very cold nights with a hole in the roof as we install the new stove. But I have to give major credit to my hubby, he is doing this all himself and for the very first time. Neither of us have ever installed a wood burning stove and if we are honest we have never used one either.

But this is our life. We often take on things we have never done before, there is just something so thrilling, challenging and adventurous about it. Over the years we have learned that if we cheer each other on we can do just about anything we set our mind to. Over the years Brandon has become an incredible woodworker + craftsman, a fabulous handyman, a skilled electrician (he had past formal training) and now a stove installer. Gosh I love this man!

Wedding wise all has been epic. 

There are times when we check in with God to see if this is where He still wants us and right now he is answering that with a yes through our amazing and beyond sweet clients. They send us the sweetest little message!