Living, Loving, Learning

Sunshine Daydream March 18, 1996 - December 31, 2009 Go in Peace, my sweet Sunshine . You were a treasured and beloved member of our family and your absence is excruciatingly painful to us all. We send you to your next adventure with Love, Respect, Good Energy and much Light. You are a once in a lifetime pal and your memory will live on in our hearts.

Alexis left EARLY this morning. There is a void left behind. Feeling sad and missing the family today! Also, Sunshine is really sick again. We took her to the vet last night...she is full of infection, has lost another 5 lbs. and has a extremely low blood pressure. We have more antibiotics that we are giving her and medicine to help her heart. She is still refusing to eat and is having a hard time walking again. It is awful to watch this happening to her. We are hoping the medicine will work, the Dr. has given us hope that she still could make some sort of recovery. In the meantime, trying to love her up and help her rest comfortably. I'll be posting some Christmas pictures, as time allows, over the weekend.

It is starting to get crisp here, so in the mornings I have to bundle Lucy up for our walk. I am loving using all the Norwegian knits that Dikke's sister sent us for Griffin. She is soooooo cute, she even causes the powerwalkers to break stride to say hello. Lucy is often worried that Sunshine is cold too. I have found Sunshine this way so many times, which is so suprising since Lucy hardly ever lets that blankey out of her little clutches!! They have such a sweet little friendship!! Have a great weekend y'all . Peace.

Awww, that is so cute, Sushine and Lucy have really bonded. Because Lucy is her vending machine!!!

My two little goof balls are becoming fantastic playmates. Lucy is starting to LOVE playing dress-up with Griffin, even though her only choices are pirate, fireman, train conductor or a knight. Guess I should start expanding our dress up options! It is hard to tell but this is Miss LuLu standing all on her own. She is doing so well at this. And although I've said it before, I really do think her first step is right around the corner. I was trying to get a cute picture of the 3 of them, but this was the end of the photo shoot and Lucy had had enough. I love the knowing look shared by Griffin and Sunshine. Tomorrow afternoon we are headed up to MI for a QUICK weekend trip. I am going to take a much needed blogging vacation so there will *probably* not be anything new here until next Wednesday. Hope y'all have a great week. Keep cool (it's 90 here today!!) and I'll catch ya on the flip side. Peace and Love!

Sunshine is definitly doing better today! Yesterday, after 24 hours of refusing dog food we cooked up some chicken and rice and she did eat it - YEAH! She even wagged her tail a couple of times. The kids are really into helping care for her. Griffin has been keeping her company, laying with her to play leapster or watch a movie. Lucy mostly just empties out Bruce's sock drawer next to Sunshine, but I know she is concerned too. :) They both have been giving her lots of hugs and kisses. Griffin wanted to feed Sunshine her lunch today and called me in to show me that Sunshine was lifting herself up on her front legs some. This is a huge improvement from Tuesday morning when she could not lift her head up! She is HEALING.

Today is Sunshine's 13th birthday. In light of the past 24 hours, I am even more grateful for her shining light in my life. It is time for me to tell her story. Sunshine was born in Saranac, MI, March 18, 1996. I had just moved to E. Lansing and had the summer to enjoy before enrolling into MSU to complete my undergrad degree. It was a HUGE transition point in my life. I was 20 years old and I believe that getting Sunshine was the first major "grown up" decision I made in my life. Making the commitment to be responsible for another living thing at that age, come what may, was a big deal and I knew it. My Mom and Step-dad, Mark, actually drove me to pick her up and bought her for me as a present (I was going to be living with them for the next 3 years while I finished up college.) I knew I wanted a big brown dog - that was pretty much my only requirement. Mark had a passion for Labs, he already had a yellow one and really encouraged me in that direction. I found Sunshine...

We were awoken at 5 am by heavy panting. Bruce and I both jumped out of bed - Bruce jumped directly into a squishy something that turned out to be the entire contents of Sunshine's stomach. We turned on the light to see a distressing scene. Sunshine was trying to stand but could not, was holding her head at a wierd angle, panting heavily and generally freaking out. Bruce picked her up right away and moved her to a clean rug and I cuddled right up to her to try to soothe her. I stayed with her for the next two hours as Bruce called the vet and got the kids up and ready to take with us. She still could not walk or really even lift her head up so Bruce carried her to the car. We were at the vet's office by 7 and boy were we scared. I admit, I was terrified. I kept telling her over and over that she could pull through, that we weren't done yet, but I wasn't sure if it would work. Many tears were shed, many hugs and kisses and scratches were given - much energy exc...

Yeah...Griffin LOVES to camp! I was sure those genes ran deep, but it is good to witness it. We just went for 1 night at a state park only minutes from our house. We just wanted to see if Griff would be down with being filthy all day, manage not to throw himself in the fire pit and enjoy howling at the moon. He did!!! We started at the beach/picnic area, and in the heat afternoon we moved to the shade of our campsite. We had some friends stop by to enjoy some brewskis and a little bluegrass jam for a while. Sunshine loved every minute of our weekend and gave us many smiles that I know translates into "it's about time we get back to the basics!" in her smooth Jackie Brown voice. Griffin enjoyed his first s'more and first sparkler. His absolute favorite activity was eating ice out of the cooler...it was better than a t.v.!!! He never let a piece go to waste and probably injested a cup of dirt that covered the dropped pieces. It was really good family time!