It’s pretty sad, but most likely our little beagle has a cancerous tumor on her belly.  While we won’t know for sure unless we send off a biopsy to a pathology lab, the vet said it is most likely a squamous cell carcinoma or a hemangiosarcoma.  In both cases, the best treatment is surgical removal of the tumor.  Since she also has pretty severe tooth decay, the vet recommends that we put Lucy completely under anesthesia, give her IV fluids and do both her teeth cleaning and tumor removal.  Another option would be to just locally anesthetize the area and remove the tumor.

I hate having to make the call on a pet.  After all, she’s a member of the family but she is just an animal.  I’ve always said that owners that spends thousands of dollars on treatments like chemotherapy or radiation are a little bit loony, but it’s harder to say that when your own pet is nearing the end.  We know that Lucy has lived a long life and she’s right at the average lifespan for her breed.  And yet, she’s still eating, drinking, playing and being … well, … being Lucy.

So, what do you say?  How far do you go for the family pet?  Can you put a price tag on the companionship from your puppies? $75, $350, or thousands of $$$?

We planned on heading out to Granbury this morning but due to a new “growth” on our beagle’s belly, we’re postponing for one extra day.  However, when we leave still kind of depends on what we learn at the vet.  Lucy Lou, our 12-year-old AKC registered beagle, has developed a handful of small lumps on her body.  We’ve counted 4 now, but one of them we noticed had turned red and proceeded to double in size over a couple of days.  It seems to have slowed its growth but we still need to check it out.  We first noticed this one while in Canadian for Christmas a few days ago.

We’re hoping for the best.  At this point, we all realize that she’s a pretty old dog but until now, we’ve always thought of her as the more healthy and more spry of our two dogs.  Cramer, who is also 12, has steadily lost more and more of his vision over the last year.  It was discovered in 2009 that his tear-ducts were no longer working as they should.  Dry eye is not uncommon among old Dachshunds, but his case was deteriorated to where he’s lost almost all sight.  He navigates our house quite well, but you really notice his difficulty when we visit other places, like last week in Canadian.

Lucy Lou:

Cramer:

This year we tried something new.  We bought a separate 3’ tree for each kid.  They’ve now accumulated enough ornaments of their own plus a few oldies-but-goodies from Christmas-past and they can decorate their own trees.  Plus, with the dormers on our second floor, where the boys have their room, we can put them in windows and add to our external illumination.

(See them up on the second floor)

The final benefit and probably the main goal was that we were able to decorate our tree with a more uniform style.

Here are the kiddos trees:

Zach’s Tree	Tim’s Tree	Emily’s Tree (with a photo bomb by Zach)

I’d prefer not to complain too much, especially in a forum where many folks could come and read. However, I’ve got to say it out loud to remind myself that there is such a thing as “too many irons in the fire”. 

Being raised in a small town, going to school in a small district, I was able to get away with doing just about every activity available in the school plus a few things in the community and church.  I remember being told by numerous people that I could choose to be mediocre at a lot of things or great at a few things.  I didn’t accept that and I made every attempt to do everything, from band to golf to academics to UIL competitions in math, speech, debate, science, journalism, etc.  You name it, I’m pretty sure I tried it.  (Ok, there was no ag or 4-H, but I didn’t own any boots or country music, so I get a pass on that one).

That philosophy set a precedent that has finally started to plague me as an adult.  The mindset that developed tells me that if I see a project that either I’m interested in or someone asks me to participate in or lead, I only ask one question, “Am I able to do it?”  If I can envision the work and mentally develop a strategy to accomplish the goals, I tend to say yes.

People tell me I need to learn to say no.  Truth is, I say no plenty of times, but I say no when I believe I’m not the right person for the job.  That is to say, I’m not capable to doing the job as it should be done.

In addition to weighing my capabilities as a function of only my strengths, I need to weigh them as also a function of my time and priorities.  I’m notoriously bad at estimating the amount of time needed to accomplish my tasks, but I am also notoriously consistent.  I always estimate a much shorter time than is actually needed.

Fortunately for me, one of the committees is nearing the completion of its duties. And while, all of this may sound like I’m really down on myself, things are actually looking up.  Three days ago, I didn’t know what was causing the severe funk I was in.  Being able to identify it and focus in on my real priorities, I’m able to relax into the loving arms of an all-knowing, all-loving God whose plans for me never fail.

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.   I Corinthians 10:30 (THE MESSAGE)

The rest of the FBC Plainview team performed very well with a couple from our church finishing 2nd and 3rd in the Lad’s division and another one finishing second in the Crusader’s.  I also learned that there is an adult division, so I may have to let Joel build his own and I’ll race it for him.

Here’s a few pics from Saturday.  Way to go, Timo!

2010 Pinewood Derby VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So this new blog is a return to those days. I know I could make an effort to retrieve all my old Dad-Posts from the late “Zone Defense” blog, but I think I’ll just start fresh here and see where that takes me.

I will most definitely be tying this blog to some of my most common online haunts, such as Facebook and Twitter, so if you found me there or are reading me through one of those sites, just realize you can visit the blog directly at “What Color is Tuesday?”.

As for the name of the blog, many of you will probably have heard me tell the story but if you haven’t, I’ll explain in the next post.

Until then…

We weren’t all in the best of health.  Some of that could be attributed to the over-indulgence in snacks, but we think Emily might have had a mild case of strep.  By the time we got home on Saturday, she was feeling much better and her fever was gone.  We expected to take her into the weekend clinic but she wanted to wait to see if she stayed better and we agreed.  By Sunday, there was little evidence that she had been sick at all.

On Sunday, while playing hookie from church for no good reason (shame on us!), we cleaned the entire house, room by room, starting in the back and working our way forward.  We did try something new this time, attacking each room as a whole, all five of us.  Usually we split up and each take a room.  This seemed to go faster in my opinion and you see progress a lot faster (snowball effect?).  

Once the house was clean, we started decorating for Christmas.  The tree is up, the knick-knacks are carefully placed (thanks to Lori).  I was in charge of grocery shopping during the knick-knack phase and it’s a good thing.  Everything is much more appropriately placed than I would have been able to accomplish.

I’m officially ready for Christmas Season!

– Scott

Here are a few pictures from the last day as well:

One could only hope.

By the way, I am posting this from my iPod touch. I’m still trying to get the hang of it. I mean I know how to do just about anything I want with it. The real question is whether any of the functionalities it provides can replace the way I used to do it. I spend so much time at a computer I wonder if I really need to be able to post blogs, check email, review calendars, fiddle with facebook, and chat all from the iPod. If there was anything besides music I might prefer to use this thing for, it would be the games, but I’m just not a huge gamer. I am trying…