Ok, yesterday I was totally wrapping up my freak summer cold, (which thankfully only lasted a few day) so I was thinking things were going well. I had a relatively nice day at work and got to go shopping (retail therapy, yeah!) with Adam and Simeon after work. Then we stopped by our house to feed the dogs and consolidate to one car. So we took off and ran a few errands, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed back to our house to crash for the night. I was up in my bathroom getting ready for bed when Ellie wandered in for a drink of water.

Now Ellie is very set in her ways about drinking water. She always comes over and drips all over the nearest person as soon as she has consumed an entire bowl of water. So I instinctually go over to her and kind of clean her up a bit (this also cuts down on accidents due to slipping on wet linoleum). As I reached down to lift up her head I was shocked. I had to do a double take. Ellie’s head had practically doubled in size. I instantly recoiled. For a minute I wasn’t even sure it was my dog. My beautiful black lab had swollen up so badly she looked like a Shar-Pei! Her eyes were reduced to slits and her jowls were so huge it looked like she had two tennis balls in her mouth!

I called down the stairs to Simeon and Adam to come up stairs. Realizing they couldn’t hear me, I ran downstairs with Ellie in tow. I showed them her face and said we needed to call the vets office. I frantically ran upstairs to find the number, knowing that after hours they give you the number of the emergency 24-hour office. I wanted to find the office that was closest to our house, but for some reason they kept telling us we needed to drive to Tualatin! So Adam started calling the vet offices to get more information. After several attempts, he got a technician on the phone who walked Simeon through the necessary questions to help us find out why our dog was so swollen. The best thing they could determine was an allergic reaction. They instructed us to give her Benadryl and if that didn’t work we would have to bring her in.

Not being allergy sufferers, we didn’t have anything on hand, so Simeon and Adam ran to the nearest store to buy some Benadryl. We disguised the medicine in a jellybean and Ellie quickly slipped into a Benadryl induced stupor, and laid down to sleep. Not knowing if she would have a reaction to the Benadryl, we were constantly checking her to make sure she was still breathing and the swelling was going down. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep last night!

We awoke this morning to more of a Rottweiler than a Shar-Pei, which was quite a relief. She was still kind of swollen, so we gave her some more Benadryl. The only changes in her attitude are as a result of the Benadryl, so I know the swelling isn’t hurting her. But I am still the concerned “mother” and I am going home to check on her at lunch today. If she is still swollen, I am going to take her to the vet and make sure everything is ok.

From what I have been able to deduct on my own researching dogs with swollen faces and no other noticeable side affects, it that she was most likely stung by a bee and had an allergic reaction. Dogs tend to swell around their eyes and mouth because they chew on whatever bites them. But I will keep you posted on what happens next!

But I really want to thank Simeon and Adam for helping me keep calm last night and taking care of my lil’ furbaby when I wasn’t able to function. I guess I’m not always so cool, calm, and collected in an emergency as I thought. Its good to know I have people around to help me when I need it. Thanks guys. I love you both!

So as you all know I am relatively new to the whole blogging thing, but today I got to do my first guest blog. It was pretty neat. I got to play around with EE over at Joelle’s site. If you want, you can go read my post there too! Its appropriately titled “My First Time Guest Blogging.” How exciting!

Here it is!

So I’m not sure how I did it, but I am sick. I’ve got a damn cold and its a balmy 80 degrees outside. Go figure.

Yesterday I was miserable. I couldn’t go five minutes with out sneezing, which led to blowing my nose, which led to constant use of hand sanitizer. Then the cycle would start all over again. (It was really amazing that I got anything accomplished!) I kept IMing Simeon to keep him updated on my status. (Misery loves company.) He told me he had some Sudafed in his desk he would give me at lunch time. Alas, there was a ray of light!

It had never taken so long for lunch to come. I was daydreaming about Sudafed. I was really miserable. So I drove over to Sim’s office to pick him up for lunch. I called his cell to let him know I was almost in the parking lot and jokingly asked, “You got the stuff?” He said he did and would be right down. Finally I was united with my Sudafed, which when he saw the look in my eyes understood my pain and Sim announced he had my “Suda-friend.”

Once the medicine started to work my symptoms lessened, but were still there. Needless to say, I went to bed quite early, with my other friend NyQuil.

Today as soon as I got up I popped a couple Tylenol Severe Congestion and have been wandering around with medicine head. Sometimes I don’t know what is worse, the cold symptoms or the medication symptoms. Whatever the case, I need this cold gone by the weekend, cause it my birthday! Wahoo!

Oh, I have been so busy lately, but it’s been really fun. My friend Adam just moved back to Oregon after an almost five-year stint in California. (Don’t worry we got him back before he started acting all Californian…but it was a close one!) So he has been over the last few nights. He came over Sunday night and we made some yummy Margarita Chicken on the BBQ and caught up on old times. It has been ages since we have talked, so there was much to catch up on.

Then last night Adam called my cell phone and was chatting with Sim about his house hunting when his phone suddenly cut out. You can imagine our surprise when a few minutes later he showed up on our doorstep! So he came in and told us about his first day at his new job and his frustrations with finding a house up here. But Sim and I both know he really came for the high speed internet access and Wi-Fi!

So seeing Adam again got me thinking about how long we have been friends, and he reminds me that it has been since fourth grade! Can you imagine that? There are people I went to college with a few short years ago that I haven’t spoken to in ages, yet Adam and I have managed to stay friends, and more importantly stay in contact, for over 15 years! That is really quite impressive!

However it makes me wonder where all the other friendships went wrong. Were we just never meant to be lasting friends? Did our differences just change so drastically? And where are they all now? I’m still a few years away from a high school reunion, but I wonder what has happened to all of my friends over the years. Was “BFF” really just a big sham?

Ok, so I swear we have pictures and I swear some of them will be fabulous, but we are working on it. Ok, ok, I am harrassing him while he tries to work on it (Apparently “Is it done yet? Is it done yet?” isn’t really helping. Go figure.). So in the mean time, I have some fun stuff to share.

I saw this quiz over at Joelle’s.

Wackiness: 44/100
Rationality: 62/100
Constructiveness: 68/100
Leadership: 56/100

You are an SRCL–Sober Rational Constructive Leader. This makes you an Ayn Rand ideal. Taggart? Roark? Galt? You are all of these. You were born to lead. You may not be particularly exciting, but you have a strange charisma–born of intellect and personal drive–that people begin to notice when they have been around you a while. You don’t like to compromise, but you recognize when you have to.

You care absolutely nothing what other people think, and this somehow attracts people to you. Treat them well, use them wisely, and ascend to your rightful rank.

Go take it yourself.

So do you want to know a way not to spend the 4th of July?

In bed. With a migraine. Like I did. What fun.

Hope everyone else had a great holiday! 🙂