Pictures

Ok, so I've been slacking on the blog.  Highlights:  Calgary flooded, Airdrie got wicked hail storms, Rob and I got a puppy.   Here's my story in pictures:

The green pepper I was growing!  Happy pepper!

My green pepper after getting pelted with hail.  Sad pepper!

A couple seconds before the hail set in...

Some pictures from the hail storm

Stampede!

Sam Roberts played a free concert at the Stampede!  I convinced Rob we had to be there 2 hours early, so we managed to get right up front!

Golden Eagle brought into the CARE Centre with a broken wing.  Huge bird! 

Our new addition to the family, Smokey!  10 month old pit bull / lab mix.  Sweetest puppy ever, and very smart!

Closest we got to a family picture at the Humane Society before we took him home.

Settling in nicely, very good in his crate!

Smokey's very happy in his new home!  Loves people and couldn't care less about the cat!

His favourite position...he LOVES belly rubs!

A tired puppy is a happy puppy!

Some of his battle wounds!  For those who don't know he was attacked by 2 dogs, then brought to the CARE Centre where he was abandoned.  He had some minor surgery to repair the wounds and had a drain placed in this leg.  He had multiple stitches all over his body.  All wounds are healed, now the hair just needs to grow back!

Update

I don't have too much to update on, but I thought I'd throw a post up here because it's been awhile.  Rob and I have been working our butts off, and in our spare time are trying to have lives.  The CARE Centre has been exceptionally busy for this time of year, so work has been exhausting but extremely interesting and cool!  I'm getting to practice advanced procedures and techniques, while saving lives and meeting a lot of sweet animals.  Over the next month or so I'm going to be taking a new CPR certification course that just came out (the only one out there that's specific to animals).  Also, I've become involved in planning an observational study we're performing together with the University of Calgary to study EZIO (intra-osseous - into the bone) catheterization in animals in an emergency setting when IV access is unavailable due to cardiovascular instability (ie. cardiac arrest).  We're hoping by being able to re-hydrate and administer medications into the bone marrow, until we can successfully gain IV access, we'll save more animals.  As it is, when we have to perform CPR we have approximately a 0 - 1% chance of getting the animal back (when they walk in through emergency, this is not including animals that arrest in surgery).  We'd like to change this percentage.  Personally I have only successfully resuscitated an animal, that went on to live and go home, once.  We're in the beginning stages of the study now, setting up the technicalities and such, and are hoping to start up the actual practical component in March.  I've done one training session, drilling into the marrow on cadavers at the U of C.  It's pretty cool....I can't wait to use it in an emergency setting!

Rob has been promoted to Assistant Builder, effective this coming Monday (Feb. 4).  I am extremely proud of him.  He is climbing the ladder quickly at work, and is in high demand between the building teams.

Our house is looking like a real house now!  I don't have the most recent pictures, but I'll post some below of it in an earlier stage.  We now have a complete roof and they're starting the electrical wiring and putting in insulation!  Rob took me around yesterday when I stopped by to visit him at work.  I am so excited! 2 months to go!

I have also started going to, and become quit addicted to, hot yoga.  Working 12 hour shifts doesn't give me a lot of time to go on days I work, so I've just been trying to go on as many days off as I can.

That's about all that's new with us!

Pictures

I've been told that I don't blog enough (Sue).  Since I've basically just been working a lot lately, I'm just going to throw a bunch of random pictures at you.  Enjoy :)

The beginnings of a floor!

Rob and I with our Christmas Tree

Our favourite part of our crappy, ghetto apartment....a wood-burning fireplace!

A Griswold house in our soon-to-be neighbourhood

There was a photo booth at Rob's company Christmas party...we enjoyed it

Just because he's cute

Not Just A Hole Anymore

There has been some progress on the home building front:

Our Hole

The beginning of the excavation of our new home!

Apparently I Needed a Blog

A while ago I was told I should start a blog so the family can keep tabs on me.  So here it is.  Be prepared, I'm probably not the blogging type, and I may not have oodles of time to update it. 

The big "new" news with me is that Rob and I are buying a new townhouse!  It is currently a hole in the ground, but will hopefully be a beautiful home by mid-to-late April.  If interested click here to see the floor plan.  We are opting for 2 bedrooms with a larger loft, gas fireplace, and upstairs laundry.  I should soon be getting a catalogue to choose interior options.  Exciting stuff!

Work is busy and always exciting.  We've had a patient in hospital for the past month, who had spinal disc disease and underwent spinal surgery.  He was completely paralyzed so his owners decided it was an opportune time to go to Australia for a month.  It took us a lot of hard work and patience, but after 3 weeks of intense physiotherapy he was able to start to use all 4 legs, and when picked up by his owners  this past weekend (4 weeks post-op) he was able to walk to them!  He's kind of our pride and joy.  I do not, however, recommend leaving your dog in a high-end animal hospital for a month if you can avoid it...their bill was over $11,000!

Although I hear you Ontario-ites are expecting +20 degree weather this week, us Albertans have gotten this:

That's all for now!