Lucy Needs Your Help

Okay. Let's just pretend that I didn't take a 4 month break from blogging, and that you know (within reason) what is going on in my life. Because otherwise, this is all going to sound completely awful and random.

I guess there's really no way around that.


Instead, lets just say that the last 4 months have been a whirlwind. I can't go into all the details, but the short(ish) version of the story is that 4 months ago we were going about our little Maui life, when we ran across a little family drama, a bunch of job drama, and then a fantastic new opportunity.

Fast forward to today, and I am hanging out in Reno, NV with my awesome in-laws, while Brant is in Maui working (his new job is the fantastic opportunity). I would love to be in Maui with him, but Lucy and I flew out mid-November, with the plan that he would follow shortly, and, well.......it looks like his job will be keeping him in Maui for at least a few more weeks. More than likely, several months.

Which brings me to my main reason for this post:

We have decided to find a new home for Lucy.


(This was a very, very rough decision to make).

Lucy can't come back to Maui with us. Besides the quarantine issues, she simply can't handle the intense Maui sun. She has a skin condition called DLE - it is really mild and now that she is off island, it is almost in remission completely. She has to take a couple pills with her breakfast and dinner to keep it that way, but it is obvious to us that she thrives when she lives in a place not so close to the equator.

So........we are hoping to find someone who is willing to give her a loving home. We have sent emails, put an ad on Craigslist, talked to people in my in-laws neigborhood, and now I'm blogging about it because neither Brant or I can stand the thought of taking her to a shelter. Please help us spread the word.

If you know anyone who might have space in their home and their hearts for our Lucy dog, pass the info on. I am willing to transport her almost anywhere (our expense), and will pay for the initial vet visit to get her established and her DLE pills refilled (they are super cheap ($6 a month) through Costco, you just need a Rx from the vet).

A little bit about Lucy:

She is nine years old, and is a black lab/vizsla mix. She has been a part of our family since she was 4 months old. She can run crazy fast (although she has slowed down a bit in her senior years), and absolutely loves chasing tennis balls. And chewing on them.

She LOVES chomping on ice cubes. She'll give herself a brain freeze. Seriously.

Lucy has had many adventures: she has flown on an airplane twice. Gone to Yellowstone and barked at buffalo. Road-tripped throughout Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon. She has eaten two sea urchins, and learned to swim in the ocean.

She is a seriously great dog.

She is easy going, naps a lot, and is friendly with everyone. Sometimes she barks at men in baseball caps, that is her only real hang-up. She walks great on a leash, knows 'sit', 'stay', 'out of the kitchen', and 'lay down'. She is completely housebroken and is non-destructive (you don't have to worry about her chewing shoes, furniture, etc).

If you give her love and attention (and ice cubes), she will be your best friend.

We took her to the vet for a check-up right before leaving Maui. The vet confirmed that she is in excellent health and should have many good years left. She is micro-chipped and current on all vaccines.

She is submissive and has never shown any aggression towards another dog or human. She has spent some time around small children and had zero problems.

No dog is perfect, and as great as Lucy is, you should also be aware of her less than favorable characteristics: sometimes she is picky about eating. She snores. She barks at men in baseball caps. She can't be out in the sun as long as other dogs. She has to take pills everyday, and if she does happen to have a DLE breakout, you have to give her another dose of pills to make it go away.

Believe me, the good in Lucy far outweighs the bad. She is not a dog we can take to the shelter. She is worth every penny, every effort to find a good home.

This is getting long winded, I know. So let's leave it at this: if you know of anyone who might be interested, please Facebook me or comment through this blog. I can provide more details of our situation privately.

And.....thank you.


(P.S...I also feel like I should say that we are also open to more 'temporary' solutions for Lucy. We will most likely be back on the mainland in a few months. And while we think it would be a better adjustment for her to have a permanent new family, it may also work out if you would be willing to provide her with a temporary foster family, until we can take her back. We are looking into all options).

Leis, Unicorns, Rainbows

Oh my gosh life is busy right now. Pretty sure it is for just about every body I know. Between work, family, friends, training, and laundry/housework, I am feeling stretched very thin. Gone are my leisurely days spent exploring Maui - they were lovely while they lasted, but now it is the season of work.  Good thing the beach is there on my days off. :)

Pretty sure that top left horse is actually a unicorn.

These pictures are from the King Kamehameha parade we went to with Brant's parents in Lahaina. Hands down the best parade I've ever been too. People take parades around here seriously. Each Hawaiian island was represented with riders and banners. Participants fund-raise and/or spend their own money on dress material and the flowers for leis. I loved that even the horses were wearing leis, and can't imagine how many hours it must have taken to make them.

 

Training is going good. I'm sticking with my workouts, and my body seems to be holding up great. In general, I'm running:

Monday: 3 miles easy

Tuesday: 6-7 miles, marathon pace

Wednesday: off

Thursday: 3 miles easy

Friday: off

Saturday: long run - we are up to 14 miles

Sunday: off

For the first month and a half I was totally in love with running. I wanted to marry it, have babies with it, buy it a fancy car. 

The last week or so, I seemed to have lost my running mojo. I've hit the point where thoughts like 'whose bright idea was this?' are entering my head. On Saturday I ran 10 miles and was totally ready to be done at mile 1. 

But............from experience, I know this is a phase and it will pass. I will be excited to run again. For now, I just run because I have to. Because somebody decided to sign up for a marathon.

In other news, I am completely stoked about our upcoming trip to the mainland. Can. Not. Wait. to see friends and family we've been missing so much. And go to Target.

Now, I have to get back to work. Or else I will never get to go to the beach again.

Guess What Time of Year It Is?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's practically summer, which means (in my book) that it's time to train for the Maui Marathon again.

I am excited.

I have several goals for this year - one of which is to keep a better record of training on this blog. Sad for you if you aren't into running, training, or reading about it. Happy for you since my iphone ate the pictures I took on my runs this week, so I can't upload them. Anyway, here are the preliminary deets:

What: 42nd Annual Maui Marathon 2012

When: September 16, 2012   5:30 am.

I am following Hal Higdon's 18 week training plan. Either the Novice 1 or Novice 2 plan. I still need to decide. This is the first week and so far so good, despite a rough start.

Workout Breakdown:

Monday - 3 miles (am) - not pretty. Had to walk the last mile. Couldn't breathe, couldn't find my stride, my knee hurt, whine, whine, whine. Finished anyway, just not how I was hoping to.

(*reminder to myself: when you treat your body like crap over the weekend - fast food, no sleep, etc - don't expect it to want to run well come Monday morning)

Tuesday - 3 miles (am) - much better. No knee pain. Slower pace, took it easy.
                 Strength & Tone class @ the Y (pm) - awesome as always. My silly noodle arms are actually gaining muscle.

Wednesday - REST. Glorious rest.
Thursday - 1.5 - 2 miles (am)
                     Strength training at home (pm)

Friday - REST

Saturday - Long run, either 6 or 8 miles, depending on if I do the Novice 1 or 2 program.
Sunday - REST

I'll figure out a better way to list weekly workouts on here, because let's face it - the above isn't pretty. But for today it will have to do.

Anybody else training for anything? Do share. 

A little over a year ago.....

I had finished up work, finished up preparing our house to rent, and finished packing our life into 4 suitcases. Said goodbye to friends (or as one likes to put it: It's NOT goodbye, it's see ya later! So true....)

The dogs and I spent 5 days in Portland with these people:

Love, love, love all of them.

So much anticipation. 
Surprisingly little stress.
So many really fun memories.
Convinced my favorite father in law to try kombucha. Watched him gag.
Lot's of P.F. Chang's action

Self portrait, Portland hotel, night before Maui

And then................................


there we were.

Is that Kmart?

He startled me at the airport, with his aviators and scraggly hair. I loved it. We picked Maddie and Lucy up and drove off into the afternoon rain. I remember the air felt thick and floral. Life was at once salty and green and so incredibly warm. I was pale and pasty and we needed an airbed to sleep on that night. Costco it was.

Dogs who fly.

I had all these big intentions for blogging regularly about life over here. I was all, I'm gonna blog every day and maybe write a book and blah, blah,.........yeah, and then we got here and the adjustment began and I didn't really have much to say.  Couldn't say.

I was busy learning what it was like to have family members in crisis and be 2500 miles away. Conclusion? It's a blessing and a curse. (Name that show?)

I was busy learning how to run upcountry roads.

I love hills.

Busy being bit by a centipede.

No picture. You are welcome.

Busy living in this ohana with no kitchen, plumbing, etc for a month.

We lived on tuna, pistachios, and rice krispy treats. And it was awesome.

A year ago I went through the roof, whining and carrrying on about cockroaches. Now....eh, not so much.

I learned how to live, and be happy, with very, very few material possessions. And then I bought some stuff.

In the past year I've learned that I can and will be happy, no matter where on this earth we live. The snowy Midwest would certainly be pushing things a little (and I have NO intentions of moving there) but I know now........I will be happy wherever we are.

I've learned how much I value family and friends. Intellectually, I knew I would miss them. Duh. But whoa, now I know how it feels to be homesick. To need my mom. To need a night out with a girlfriend. I can honestly say that my values have changed in this area. Moving to an island made me a hugger.

I now wear pink and hug people. Feel free to roll your eyes.

An introvert I am, but I love, love love my peeps. And I need you guys.

Sunset on the pali

A little over a year ago, our lives changed forever. It was an amazing first year.
The second year has been......rough so far. But still good. Always good.

No regrets. (Just hugs)

PSA and WTF?

To the person who found my blog by googling  "is it okay to have a centipede in my" :

Seriously?

I can't think of any situation in which it would be 'okay' to have one of these in, near, around, or close by anything remotely involving yourself.

The fact that you have to ask is worrisome. 

So to be clear: No. No it is not okay to have a centipede in your........anything.

Thanks for reading.

Just another post about running

I had to work for today's 3 miles.

My legs were tired from yesterday (I'm not used to running back to back days).
I started late - I work in the mornings now, so didn't run till after 10.
It was hot.
I was thirsty.

And the wind. The WIND!

When I undid my ponytail and took this picture, I could smell my hair, and not in a good way.

I ran in my new compression socks from here, and I love them. Going to be incorporating them into my running and recovery regularly. I aim to prove that pink makes you run faster. :)

You are welcome.

Some runs feel effortless and some feel like a slow death. Today's was somewhere in between. Nevertheless, the miles are done!  I've got socks on my feet, lunch on my mind, and a couple hours to wash my hair before I head to the gym for a fitness assessment and strength class.

Oh, that should be real fun.

New Dynamic

Today is a good day.

We are finding our way over here......all that crap about grief and taking it a day at a time......it's all true.

Today we are working, running, going to the bank, paying rent, making soup.

And probably taking Brant to the doc-in-a box after work tonight for some cough syrup/miracle cure for the crud he has been stricken with. All that crap about men getting sick and they way they act.....also true.

I am obsessed with cottage cheese and black grapes.

Leftover chicken curry for lunch. 

Lucy is adjusting to being the only dog.

Lucy and I have a complicated relationship.

But we are starting to become friends. I think.

Either way, we are in this together. 

So I vote 'friends'.

Maddie Grace Jackson

My dog died almost two weeks ago.

This is my third draft of a blog post about her. I keep putting it off because blogging about it makes it even more real - a recorded event - and at certain moments of the day it all still feels so unreal.

But she died. She's gone. And I've learned a lot the past two weeks, one of which being that despite my introverted tendencies, I am a talker when it comes to processing grief. I like to talk about my dog and the fact that she died. I need to talk about it. Blogging is like talking. I don't want to abandon this blog entirely, and I can't post about anything else until I post about her.

If you're not into dog eulogies, best to check out now.

Six months before Brant and I were married, I brought Maddie home. She was 8 weeks and I paid $25 for her to the farmer out in Kuna, Idaho, whose chocolate lab had hopped the fence and gotten knocked up. In the late evening darkness I peered into the litter of pups kept out in the barn and almost chose her brother, a serious looking cinnamon blonde. He was in my hands, when the farmer picked up Maddie, with her peanut butter eyebrows and bewildered expression.   I knew she was my dog.

Journal excerpt, 

Sunday evening, 3/18/2012

We buried our dog Maddie today.  Her body is nestled on a small hillside of the West Maui mountains under the overhang of eucalyptus, mango, and plumeria trees.  It is a spot we imagine she would have chosen herself to lay down for a snooze.

We buried her with the potato chips and yogurt she loved, a handful of plumeria blossoms, and my favorite grey and white flowered hoodie.

I can’t believe she is gone.

I found her in on the kitchen floor at 2:30 this morning. She was peaceful, not contorted. We woke a few minutes before to a unrecognizable,  mechanical sound – like a car engine sputtering out. It was rhythmic – fast, fast, fast, then slower, slower, and by the time our brains were fully present and we were asking each other ‘what is that?’ and I was slowly climbing out of bed – there was one last sputter (it sounded further away this time – out the door entirely) and then nothing.  Lucy (our other dog) was next to Brant’s side of the bed and Maddie was already gone.

And I don’t know what the rest of our life looks like, without her.

Brant and I don’t have kids, we have dogs. Three dogs, specifically. Out of the three, Maddie was the one we bonded the most with. There was a relationship, a loyalty between us.  Our other dogs were happy with attention from anyone, anytime. Maddie, while friendly to others, really only wanted us.  She was a dog, through and through – chasing cats and chickens, barking at the mailman, chewing bones- but she was also our furry dog kid, and very much a part of our family.

The day before she died, she hung out with me outside while I planted a patio herb garden. I remember glancing at her laying in the sun and being struck with how content she looked. Later that day, I was lying on the couch, icing a sore muscle in my back. Maddie came up to me and put her head on my stomach and just looked at me. Her brown eyes were so peaceful. Nothing was wrong, she didn't need to go potty, she didn't want to go outside. She stayed there a minute or so, then I told her to go lay down. She did, but got up 5 minutes later and did the same thing - her head resting on my stomach, just looking at me intently.  She did this 3 or 4 times.

At the time I wondered what was up with her, but brushed it off.

She was healthy, happy. She was going to live forever - because I loved her that much and I needed her to.

Sigh.

I think she was saying goodbye. 

 

She didn’t like it when I raised my voice.

She loved to go on walks – and she always looked for the cats that lived at the pink house on the corner.

She knew how to play a game we called 'Go get your mom/dad' which was basically just one of us telling her to go get the other one when we were in separate rooms. 'Where's your dad? Go get your dad." Her head would tilt at the word 'dad' and she would wander out of the room and go find her dad who would invariably pet her head and tell her to 'go get her mom.'

She was ferociously protective of us, almost to a fault.

She loved human food. Completely my fault (I also blame my mom, step-dad, and sister!) for feeding her human snacks when she was a puppy. Potato chips, bananas, hamburgers, fries, tomatoes off the vine.

She learned to sneak food. And we learned to never leave food on the counters if we didn't want her to eat it.

Once, she ate a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts all in one sitting.

Also, a full pan of cornbread.

                A stick of butter.

                Countless cups of coffee (if I forgot mine in the jeep, while we were out she would pop the lid off and slurp up the liquid).

                A chocolate muffin. A chocolate bar.

                Bags of rice cakes. Cereal.

                Most recently, a small bag of banana chips from the Whole Foods bulk bin.

Brant called her 'old iron-sides.'

She used to open the pantry door, remove the garbage can lid, dig through the trash and retrieve the yogurt containers. She would take them to the couch and lick them clean. We were constantly finding yogurt lids under the couch cushions.

That dog was always up for an adventure. She loved riding in the car. She went to Yellowstone and barked at buffalo. She flew 2500 miles across the sea and spent the last year of her life in palm trees and sand.

A couple weeks before she died, my mom and step-dad were visiting and we all went to the beach with Maddie and Lucy. Notorious for hating water, Maddie usually just got her feet wet in the waves and spent the rest of the time running in the sand. But that day, as I was trying to get Lucy to fetch the stick out in deeper water (and Lucy was having none of it), Maddie came to my side and followed me out into the ocean. I'll never forget how she was glued to my side and just kept looking out into the water, then up at me, and out into the water again - as if to say - "Are we really doing this? Okay, I'm game." In that moment I felt her trusting me. She made it further than she ever had - the water halfway covering her body - just to where she could no longer touch. Then she hightailed it back to shore.

Earlier today, I went out to water the herb garden I started the day before she died. Unloaded the recycling stacked on the garden table, watered arugula seedlings, pinched off dry, brown geranium leaves.

Gardening was something Maddie and I shared, and the process feels bittersweet now. She loved to lay in the garden while I pruned and planted. She would close her eyes and take naps in the sun, waking to follow me when I moved to a new section. When the cherry tomatoes came in she loved to eat them. She knew the garden was food and so many times I caught her sniffing out and eating the most perfect, ripe tomatoes and strawberries.  She spit the green ones out.

I gardened today because I don't want the last garden we planted together to die.

She was the best dog I've ever had. And with the obvious exception of Brant, she was my best friend.

I am so thankful I got to share her life, to experience the love that she brought. I am so thankful that the Lord took her quickly, and peacefully. I believe He let my back hurt the day before her passing, in order to slow me down enough so she could say goodbye. One of my greatest comforts the last two weeks has been the memory of the look on her face when she laid her head on my stomach. It was like she was all...'Hey....it's been real. I love you and I gotta go. But don't worry, because I'll see you again someday."

Simple. Genuine. So Maddie.

And Maddie girl? You bet I'm gonna see you again someday. Thanks for being the best brown dog ever.  Thanks for loving me through all of my dog-mom mistakes. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for always letting me sniff your frito toes.

I love you.

Honu Sunbather

Before Saturday, I'd never seen a turtle come on shore.

Of course, I'd heard of them coming on to sand to lay eggs, but this one was definitely not doing that.

This one likes to play in the waves in front of the condo. We were watching her from the lanai, when she caught a wave in and crawled up on shore.

I called the Marine Mammal Hotline to ask if this was a normal behavior, or if there were signs of distress we should look for. The guy I spoke with said it is pretty rare to witness, but normal for a turtle to come onto the sand to sun themselves or take a nap.

We of course stayed a respectful distance away. All species of sea turtles in Hawaii are protected under the Endangered Species Act.  Hello zoom lens.

 

She went back in the water after an hour or so.

Reason #82 I love living here:


Large portions of the afternoon may be unexpectedly devoted to witnessing something amazing.