Oops

Last night we had friends over for dinner. Lisa cooked an awesome meal (brisket, her special green beans and potatoes). BC and I are meat and potatoes kind of guys. Anyways, our guests brought an Ice cream cake for dessert. We threw it in the fridge and had it after dinner. It was extremely good and everyone felt a little guilty after eating it( but it was well worth it). Well we only put a dent in it. Lisa and I were debating on what to do with the left overs, because she knows that if it is in the house I will eat the whole thing. I thought about bringing it to work, but I didn't think it would make it without melting. So I put it away and decided that it would just be slowly consumed over the next few days. I would just run a little more.

Well . . .

I wasn't thinking and I had just put it back where I got it. In other words, I put it in the fridge, not the freezer.

This is what Lisa found this morning. . . Oops



I feel bad that I destroyed the cake since it was very good and it was a gift, but in the big picture I subconsciously saved Lisa and I a few pounds.

How to waste $20

Well the other night Lisa, BC and I went to the grocery store to pick up some supplies. On our way home, we stopped at Spec's to pick up some more supplies. Lisa being a fan of the store wanted to go in while I waited in the car with the boy.(Edited by Lisa...What who says I like Spec's I've never been there before I just didn't want Colin to take even longer than I did. And by the way we were looking for some hard to find wine, that's why it took 20 mins. not 30 like Colin states below.) Well being the cash conscious consumer and earth friendly, I turned the engine off while we waited. I left the radio on and AC fan on so that we weren't bored and didn't suffocate.

I started surfing the web on my phone and started reading WSJ articles. A long time passed before Lisa got back. I was distracted so I didn't notice how long she had been. So I went to start the car and it wouldn't turn. I guess I had wasted all the juice in the battery (which now I need to get the battery and alternator checked).

A guy quickly came over to help jump the vehicle. He got another patron to bring his car over and assisted me with the process of getting the car jumped. After the car started and we closed the hood, I thanked the guy. He then informed me that he had been laid off and wanted to know if I could help him out. I felt I should give him some money for one, he was very polite and two he helped me out. So I went to look in my wallet and all I had was a $20. I didn't really want to give him a $20, but it was all I had, so I did.

After the fact I thought this whole thing was kind of a bad idea since the guy was hanging out in front of Spec's so giving him money probably didn't help him out in the long run. On the other hand, he did come help and provided a service.(I said it was a bad idea especially since the guy went over to a nearby trash can where he was keeping his bags did something and then went back into the liquor store.)

So in summary, I saved maybe 50 cents on gas by turning the car off for 30 minutes (20 mins.) and all it cost me was $20 and much deserved ridicule from the wife.

Tyson and Colin

Baby Colin wanted to be near Tyson while Tyson is healing on crate rest.

T Rex video

Here is the video of BC in his halloween costume. Enjoy!!

Costume Shopping

Here is BC is a Winnie the Pooh Costume at the Disney store. He is a big fan of Pooh Bear and he was pretty cute in the costume, but I made a comment to Lisa that the neighborhood kids would beat him up, so Lisa did not get it.

So this past weekend we went costume shopping.

First we tried the turning the boy into an elephant.




But he didn't really like it.

So keeping with his Winnie the Pooh theme, I thought how about Eeyore . . .





But the material was pretty thick and since we live in Houston and we don't want a cooked child we decided he wasn't an Eeyore type kid.

BC is T-REX




I have a video with him as T-Rex, but I need to convert it before it can be posted. I will add it soon . . .

Tyson Update

Tyson enjoying the sun on Friday

Well Tyson has continued to improve. We are cautiously optimistic that he is getting better. The vet has warned us not to get excited because he can relapse and some people (of course not us) incorrectly perceive actions as improvements when they are just unconscious responses of his body (i.e. not transmitted from the brain via the spinal cord.) For example, a dog can be paralyzed, but if you pet their hind area, they can wag their tail. This can happen without communication from the brain. So we are hopeful but still guarded.

Here is the latest:

Tyson has started to pee on his own. We are supposed to continue to try to help him pee, but when we take him to the grass he pees on command.

Tyson does wag his tail. Or at least he has once when we came home without touching him. I am not sure if this is a sign of improvement, but Lisa and I enjoyed seeing him happy.

Tyson's legs seem to have more resistance when standing. They don't seem to be 100% limp anymore, but this is a very minor difference.



We have scheduled Tyson's first acupuncture appointment. We have heard good things about acupuncture with this type of injury, so we are going to give it a try. I don't think I would ever get acupuncture myself, but they say it can't hurt . . .

This is how I picture it will go . . .

Crummy last couple of weeks

The last few weeks at the Caughran household have been less than stellar. Two weeks ago Lisa and I were both sick with some sort of stomach virus. I got to practice being a single dad all weekend taking care of BC by myself. We thought is was a bad weekend, but I would gladly go back to being sick compared to this past weekend.

This past weekend, Tyson jumped off the bed and hurt his leg and back. He was dragging his leg and wasn't putting any weight on it. We took him to the vet and they said he partially tore his ACL and he had IVDD (disk disorder). At the vet he seemed to be using his leg, but he was still favoring it. They gave us some meds and said he needed to be on crate rest. We took him with us to East Texas for Kiley's 6th birthday party. Tyson got lots of love from Hank, Jackie and the kids. He seemed to be doing well...

On Sunday morning, Tyson tried to get the chihuahuas behind our house and must have aggravated his back again. This time he didn't appear to be using either of his back legs. We went to the vet again and they said that he was paralyzed but still had deep pain sensation. They said we could either go with surgery or continue with the medical treatment. This was one of the more difficult days and decisions for Lisa and I. We finally decided to go with rest/medical treatment. We still don't know if we made the right decision, but we are hoping and praying that he regains feeling in his legs.

The last couple of days have been very difficult for me and especially Lisa. Lisa has had to single-handedly take care of Tyson and help empty his bladder every 2-3 hours. It is frighteningly similar to the period after BC's surgery when she had to cath BC. Lisa has been very strong and I am very grateful to have her as my wife.

We are still waiting to see if Tyson's back heels. There is a support website for dogs with this problem that is filled with hopeful stories of dogs getting better (www.dodgerslist.com), so there is hope. I will try to post updates when we see any changes in Tyson's status.

The greatest Rug in the World

For those of you that don't know, Lisa has been slowly furnishing our house and is on the verge of completing the living room. More than a year after buying couches, we bought a coffee table and two end tables. I thought going to every furniture store in Houston multiple times to look at coffee tables was bad, but little did I know . . .

After we got the tables, Lisa decided we really needed a rug. So we returned to all the same furniture stores to look at their rugs. If you have ever shopped for rugs, you know that it is quite a hassle to look at them when stacked or hanging. Lisa eventually picked one from Lowes. We bought it, brought it home and decided it was too small. They didn't have a larger one in the same style, so we bought the size we wanted in a different pattern to see if we liked the size. We liked the size, but wanted the first pattern. After some research on lowes.com we found that the Lowes in Austin had the one Lisa wanted (Note: lowes.com is very difficult to use as you have to go to each lowes location to search for items, and there is no way to search all locations for an item.) We try to order it online, but it wont let us since we live too far from Austin. Lisa calls and they inform her that they will not ship it to Houston or transfer it to a Houston Lowes location. They say our only option is to go to Austin to pick it up.

I immediately say no. There is no way we are driving to Austin to get a rug. This was a mistake. I suggest we find a similar rug in Houston, so we visit the same stores again to find a rug, but Lisa is set on the Lowes Rug in Austin. Did I mention it is the only store in Texas that has the rug and they happen to have three of them?

I eventually give in after wasting time at other furniture stores and we decide to go to Austin. (Note: I also tried to get a co-worker to get it on one of his trips to Austin, but his car is too small). We rationalize the trip with the idea that we will stop to see the sites, have a picnic and visit the blue bell factory.

Saturday morning we head out for Austin on 290. Along the way we call the Blue bell factory to see when the tours are etc. They inform us that they don't have tours on weekends and the store closes early. It also starts to rain or I mean pour. Halfway there BC finally falls asleep. I had been drinking a diet DP and needed to go to the restroom, but since BC was sleeping, Lisa didn't want to stop and wake him and was going to force me to pee in a bottle. Well as I am driving I decide to attempt to use the bottle, but Lisa says no and lets me exit to use the restroom. BC does wake up and doesn't go back to sleep. We uneventfully get the rug from lowes and try to use the Garmin to find a local Austin restaurant to take advantage of being out of town. After a few u-turns and Restaurants that only exist in the Garmin universe, we give up and go to a Waffle house we saw on the way into town.

As we are eating in the waffle house, a curmudgeon looking man comes into the restaurant with a trach. I go to point him out to Lisa as he walks up and "pets" the boy's head and says how cute he is. This is kind of freaky since he is a stranger and that he has to plug his trach with his finger to talk. He finally goes to his seat. He says something to me and I nod politely. Then all of a sudden he is next to me again to show me pictures of his kids and grand kids. I politely look at the pictures and comment about how lucky he is etc. As he is standing there, BC is not happy and is in fact quite terrified of the creepy old dude that is spitting through a tube in his neck. I mean BC is screaming and trying as hard as he can to get out of his high chair into Lisa's lap. Lisa is doing all that she can to consul him, but the creepy guy doesn't even notice or take the hint to go away when Lisa and I mention that he is scaring the child. He eventually left and BC calmed down.

We drive back to Houston in the rain and it only clears up as we get on beltway 8.

After all this we finally put the rug in the living room and That rug really ties the room together ***Warning: Clip contains foul language***

Finally we are done . . . What we need lamps now???

Trees are out to get us

Lisa must have really PO'd mother nature recently (or I did) because she (mother nature) has been taking out her anger on the Caughran family this past week.

Some background: A few weeks back Mother nature tried to electrocute us, but she missed and hit our neighbors' trees across the street with lightning. We thought we dodged a bullet, but little did we know that she had backup plans. Well needless to say the lightning killed the trees and our responsible neighbor had their tree cut down so that it would not do damage to their property. Well in the course of them protecting themselves, mother nature decided it was her chance to get us, and when the tree fell it hit our live oak taking out a big chunk of the limbs. That was mother natures first successful attack on us this week.

Then this past weekend the clan took a day trip to Austin (story to follow later this week). Upon our return to the house Lisa slammed on the breaks in the driveway and put the car in reverse so that we could get a better look at something on the side of the house. Low and behold, a tree had fallen on our house while we were gone. This was mother natures second successful strike of revenge.

From our responsible neighbors that sacrificed our safety for their own: "Seriously, what'd you do to tick off all the trees around the neighborhood? Better hope my next door neighbor's pine doesn't come down, b/c I'm pretty sure it'll find a way to end up in your front yard."

Here is a pic of the carnage.



Does anyone know how to appease Trees/mother nature? We need to do something soon before one of our pines takes out half the house.

Reality TV . . . Dangerous?

Is Reality TV dangerous to the Caughran family? It depends on who you ask and what show you are referring to. Recently I have noticed an unsettling trend with Lisa, BC, and me. We are emulating what we see on reality TV. All three of us are victims to it.

A couple of days ago, Lisa and I watched "The Biggest Loser" (one of our favorite shows). And after watching the show, I had to work out. There is something about sitting for 2 hours watching people work out and lose weight that makes you feel bad if you don't work out as well.

Now I usually try to work out daily, so I wasn't concerned with this. But last night another show influenced our behavior. Lisa and I watched "Hoaders". It is a show about people that hoard things and shows them trying to clean up after the state gets involved or a threat of eviction. Immediately after watching the show, Lisa and I looked around the TV room with BC's toys everywhere and we had to clean up.

So for the two past days we have been influenced by TV. I'll admit we took the good parts from the show, but I am worried if this trend continues we might run into trouble emulating Survivor, the bachelor, or any VH1 show.

***Update*** Last night I was surfing through the channels and saw "18 and Counting" on the Duggars and their 18+ kids. Needless to say I did not stay on that channel. . .