Farewell to my sweet Eli : (

I am broken hearted because we finally had to come to terms that it was time to put Eli down. We have had him for 13 years so he was really like our first child. For the most part, he remained pretty spry for a 91 year old man with cancer.

Here are some pictures of him soaking up the sun in his last days:


Here is Eli's story (this is long b/c it's mostly for my own benefit/therapy):

Eli Nickolai Holladay
July 26, 1996-April 27, 2009

When I was in the Miss CASC pagent, back in my Carl Albert days, I was over at my dance teacher's house and while I was waiting for her this adorable little fluff ball broke free from his room and came bouncing into the living room where I was sitting. I saw him running toward me so I got down on the floor and he jumped right into my hand and gave me a million kisses on my cheek! He was so small that he could literally sit down in the palm of my hand and I could cup my hand around him. I fell in love with him at that moment! I went home and begged and begged my Mom and Dad to buy him for me. I finally convinced my Mom to come with me to meet him and right away she could see how I fell in love with him. They got him for me right around Christmas time in 1996. Jason was so mad at me because he told me he didn't want a dog. Then not too long after that Jason and I got married and moved to Washington. Jason fell in love with Eli right away and he soon became the center of our attention at all times...he was our child. He was so good for me to have around when Jason was in the Navy and out to sea all of the time. He was a good protector and a good movie watching pal. He would always snuggle up with me and share a bag of popcorn with me as we watched a good chick flick. However, he was very orninery back then. If the door was open, he would dart out at full speed. One morning he got out and I looked all over our neighborhood for him. I had a huge chemistry test and an evil professor that would never let me make it up so I had to leave without knowing where he was. I was so worried that he would be gone forever. After my test, I had to head to work at the bank and on my way to work my boss called to tell me she thought she had Eli at the bank. I got to work and sure enough somehow he found his way there! They said he was just sitting outside of the doors like he was waiting on me. They took him inside, gave him some treats, and he hung out in the break room until it was time to go home. There were other times when he ate all of my Thank You cards from when we got married, dumped out plants and spred them around the room, and shredded papertowels/toilet paper throughout our apartment. He loved to chase ducks. One time he caught one and was so surprised that he had no idea what to do with it. He hated giant poodles with a passion. He thought he was the size of a Rottweiler and would pick a fight with one in a heartbeat. Eventually, he got all (most) of that out of this system and turned into a total sweetheart. We really feel like he learned every word in the English language. We really didn't have to speak to him in dog-like commands...we just talked to him and he would understand. He has been all across the nation with us...even into Canada. He finally got his first back yard to freely run around in when we built our first house a few years ago. I am so glad he got to experience that freedom of being able to choose where he wanted to mark some territory without being on a leash! Oh yah! I can't forget to mention that he could do a perfect handstand and land his poop on top of bushes or fences or trees...whatever he felt was challenging at the time! I swear it is true...we've had witnesses!! Then came Hudson...that was a very big change for him. It was a love/hate relationship. He was sad that he was no longer the center of attention but he would sleep outside of Hudson's room and attack anyone other than Jason and I that tried to go near him. I am very happy that he got to experience that part of our lives with us though. I feel like he got to be with us for so many of the very important parts of our lives.

Now the sad part...about 1 1/2 yrs ago we started noticing a knot growing on Eli's jaw. It was right where he liked to have the side of his jaw scratched so we noticed right away. At first we thought maybe he got bit by something but it grew pretty rapidly in just a couple of weeks. I took him to the vet, she tested it and found it to be Melanoma. She told us there was no treatment for Melanoma so she sent us up to Texas A&M to the Vet Oncology specialists. They did a full body scan and did further testing on the tumor to find if the cancer had spread and to figure out some treatment options. They sent me away for most of the day while they did the testing and then called me back to give me the verdict. When I arrived they were very blunt with me and they told me that Eli could only be expected to live another 3-6 months. They told me my only option was to remove half of his bottom jaw and to give him a new treatment that consisted of a vaccine shot every month. All of this was going to cost me 10K + (depending on how long he would live and how many shots he would receive.) I had to be a rational human and realize as much as I love him, he is a dog. They told me that even after all of this, it would only prolong his life by about 3 months or so. I asked them why I would choose to remove his bottom jaw and have him spend half of the life he has left trying to recover from such a traumatic surgery. Their response was that I should look at it as 3 months is a long time in dog years. I felt like it would be a selfish thing to do. My heart took over and I really wanted to keep Eli as long as I could so I went home and pondered for a while. Then I went to my local vet again and I asked her if she could surgically remove the mass for him with me knowing that there would be no way to remove every single cell. I just wanted him to be more comfortable. She told me that she would not be able to remove the swollen lymph node in his neck but she agreed to remove the melanoma mass. She removed it and a couple of days later Eli was feeling spry and healthy again. He lived another year and a half! It has really only been the past couple of months that you could even tell he had cancer but it has been growing rapidly lately. I haven't been able to get him groomed because of it so he looks pretty scrubby. This is gross but the tumor began to ooze and smell really, really bad. I bathed him often but I couldn't make the smell go away. It was hard to even been on the same floor of our house with him. This made me feel sad because I didn't want his last memories to be of us shooing him away b/c he was so stinky. He was just still so spry that I felt like I would just be taking his life and I just couldn't make that decision. The past 2 weeks he has actually slowed down a lot and has not been eating much. I have been able to see a big decline and we talked to him and realized it was time. We took him to the vet on Monday which was a super rainy, sad day. I held him in my arms the whole time and we thanked him for all of the love he gave us and said our goodbyes. We will miss you dearly sweet Eli. Thank you for all of the good memories and love you gave us over the past 13 years!

Baseball Game

Saturday night US Oncology had Family Night at the Astros so Hudson got to go to his first baseball game (that he could remember anyway). He went to a game before when he was about 6 months old but of course he doesn't remember...or maybe he did because he was the biggest fan there! We had been telling him that he was going to go to a baseball game since we all got home Friday so his excitement had been building up all that time. When we got to the game, there were about 1000 people sitting in the US Oncology section and you could hear him yelling, "Baseballlllll!!!!" over everyone! He had his glove ready and he kept telling me he wanted to catch a ball...unfortunately one never came up our way so Jason went and bought one for him. It was really cool because USON had a big room right above our seats that was full of hamburgers, hotdogs, mounds of popcorn, peanuts, crackerjacks, and ice cream! We felt obligated to try it all! Although, Hudson was too excited to eat...even when tempted with ice cream.

Here he is with Jason out side of Minutemaid Stadium holding on very tightly to his tickets.

Hudson's excitement kinda fell apart mid-way through the game. He started to get really upset, first, because he couldn't go down and play baseball with the players on the field and, second, because he couldn't ride the train at the top of the stadium.

Here is his pouty lip. Someone made the remark that this was a picture perfect face for the way the Astro's season is going so far. You can see that he wore his glove almost the entire time!

First Bike

I went and got my hair cut today so Hudson and Daddy had most of the day together today. Jason has really been looking forward to buying Hudson his first bike. They were at the store and decided to test some out. Hudson found a Spiderman bike that he really liked so it came home with him! He was so excited...so was Jason! It was a perfect day to ride too! At first, Hudson would peddle forward and then his feet would go back and put the brakes on by accident. Once he figured that part out, he was on his way and cruising down the road! He just looks so grown up riding his bike. : (

Here he is getting a feel for it and checking it out...

Saying, "CHEESE!" for the camera!
Getting a little help making it up the hill...

Here is his first voyage down the drive way:

Baby #2

Now that I am back up and running with my camera/computer, I can officially announce on the blog that we are expecting Baby #2! Hudson is going to be a Big Brother!! Here is my ultrasound picture from 10 wks and 4 days. I am actually getting another ultrasound today because the measurements they need to take have to be done between 12 and 13 weeks and I wasn't quite far enough along last time. I think my due date will be Oct. 24th but I'll find out for sure today. We showed the picture to Hudson and right away he knew it was a baby. He said, "Baby sleeping, mama". Then we tried to tell him the baby was in my belly and his eyebrows went together and he got really confused. He had a look on his face like he was questioning if I ate the baby or something! Since then, we've talked to him more about there being a baby in my belly and now he is super sweet and he'll raise up my shirt to give the baby kisses on my belly. Then he'll just kind of stand there and rub my belly or pat it gently and sometimes he'll lay his head there to give the baby a hug! It melts my heart!!

We've had a lot of rain lately and we finally got a perfect sunny day to spend at the park!

Here is Jason pretending he is a kid again! That's why I love him!

Racing to the playground!

Since we have gotten so much rain, the pond at the park was really flooded so it made a big marshy area surrounding the water. There were all kinds of water snakes swiming around there! Hudson thought they were so cool so we walked all around the piers hunting for more snakes.

Easter part III: The Egg Hunt

Jason was traveling for work and saw this man carry a cross:

Hudson woke up early Easter morning to find that the Easter bunny had arrived!! It was a raining day so he started off by finding his basket that the Easter bunny hid inside. We had to wait for the rain to slow down before we went to hunt for eggs. Fortunately it only rained hard for a short time before he collected his eggs so they survived the rain storm. They were a little less bright as the rain had washed off some of the dye but oh well! He did a great job finding all of his eggs and couldn't wait to come back inside to play with them.

Here is Hudson tasting the chocolate bunny the Easter bunny brought him: The big Egg Hunt!!

Here is Hudson finding his basket and checking out the goodies the Easter Bunny brought for him:

Back in Business!

I finally found my camera cord so now I'm back in business and have a LOT of catching up to do! Jason got a new desk in his home office so he had to break down all of the computer stuff during the move. He had a pile of cords stashed away that he forgot to mention to me until this weekend. Of course that is exactly where my camera cord was! Oh well...at least I have it now!

I noticed that I have been taking a lot of video lately so hopefully I'll have some good ones to post. Hudson has turned into quite the little performer. He loves to sing songs and play his guitar so I have a lot of videos of him singing. I'm pretty sure he is going to follow the family tradition (on both sides) and play the guitar. He gets really, really excited when he sees a guitar or even sees someone on tv playing one. Jason doesn't use a pick when he plays but we signed Hudson up for a music class at school and his teacher must use one. I realized this when he started finding random things in his toy box (like a plastic Easter egg) that he tells me he is using as a pick when he plays his guitar. He actually has a pretty good singing voice for a 2 year old. He has learned that when I am recording him on my camera he will be able to watch himself as soon as he is done. Now he will rush through the end of his songs so he can hurry and watch himself.

He LOVES to sing his ABC's!!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star:

Old McDonald Had A Farm:

Here is Hudson & Jason's circus act:

First Swim of The Season

Hudson got to go for his first swim of the season! The water was still really cold so he just cruised around in the not-so-hot hot tub. Jeff found his car from last summer but after Jason spent forever trying to blow it up, it seemed to have a leak somewhere. I guess we'll have to find something new for this year! That's part of the fun, right?

Easter part II

I had to hide Hudson's Easter basket and eggs from school so he would get excited about his new Easter basket that the Easter bunny was bringing for him. We spent some time Saturday coloring eggs. We were all still feeling a little rough and recovering from being sick but we made the best of it and still had fun.

Easter!

**Happy Birthday to Aunt Jean!! Welcome baby Sunny Michelle Barnett! (proud parents: Brian & Sam Barnett)**

Unfortunately we all had strep the week of Easter. The weekend before Easter, Hudson woke up feeling really sick. It got worse throughout the weekend and eventually he was completely red and burning up. He was so sick he could barely move. I took him to the doctor first thing on Monday and found out he had strep with scarlet fever. Luckily he got better just in time to make it back to school for his egg hunt.

I'm pretty sure that Easter is Hudson's favorite holiday now! The Thurs. before Easter, he had an egg hunt at school. I had to take in some pre-filled plastic eggs and I found some that were filled with little bottles of bubbles. As soon as Hudson saw the packages of eggs he latched onto them and carried them around with him everywhere he went. When it was time to take the eggs to school I was a little worried that he was going to have a terrible time handing them over for the egg hunt. However, as he walked into his class with his eggs cliched tight, his teacher asked him if she could see his eggs. He held on tightly to one package and held out the other one for her to see. She saw that the eggs were filled with bubbles and excitedly announced it to the class. All of the kids started chanting "bubbles, bubbles!". Hudson looked back at me with the proudest look on his face that he was the kid that brought the eggs with bubbles and he quickly handed over the 2nd bag of eggs to his teacher to share with everyone! (I guess because I was so sick I never took any pictures of Hudson and his Easter basket from school. That seems impossible because it had to go everywhere with us...even if we left the house. He is still playing with it even 2 weeks later so I'll just get some delayed pics!)

Again, since I had been out sick with Hudson and for myself, I didn't get to leave work to go watch Hudson's egg hunt. I ran into Travis' mom the other day though and she told me she has lots of pictures of Hudson hunting eggs that she will give me. She said he was one of the best egg hunters because he was so serious about it! (That is so him!) She said he was just in the zone cruising along and putting as many eggs in his basket as he could. Whereas, Travis (her son), stopped to check out and examine what was inside of each of his eggs before even thinking about looking for another one. It's so cute how you can see their little personalities at 2 years old!

It seems I have misplaced my camera cord so I cannot upload my pictures! I will update the blog as soon as I find it!