Taking Care of Lucy

Well, as someone who officially works from home 100% of the time nowadays, and does not have to travel, and writes for the livelihood of their family, I have been complete rubbish at actually writing on the blog! Since my last update, things have been hectic and a little bit crazy in the old Ligon household.

You might remember me mentioning the Lucy-pup having a corneal ulcer in my last post. Well, the morning after writing that post, we had a recheck with our regular vet. Dr. C took one look at Lucy's eye and said that she was going to go give an animal ophthalmologist a call. The ophthalmologist wanted us to bring her in right away, so off we went to the eye doctor. Upon examining Lucy's eye with special opthalmology equipment, it was determined that the original ulcer had gotten infected and had eaten away 99% of Lucy's cornea (where the ulcer was located). The doc said that while this condition can be treated medically, given Lucy's aversion to eye drops (which he couldn't blame her for because he said she was in a lot of pain..very sad face), and the fact that there was such a microscopic level of cornea remaining, surgery would be the best option. The surgery would create a corneal graft (taking tissue from her conjunctiva and placing it over the ulcer), which would, obviously close help heal the ulcer, as well as bring blood supply to the area, meaning we could give her both oral medication and eye drops. Long story short, we had surgery the next day and have spent the past two weeks in and out of the ER, vet's office, and opthalmology office - hence my absence. Fortunately, though, our little pup is healing very well! We had a 2-week recheck earlier today, and we are definitely up on the upward trend of things! Needless to say, it was a very stressful and scary time for us with her, and we hated seeing her in pain. Luckily, we pulled through well, are no longer functioning in a sleep-deprived stupor, and Lucy's spirits are wonderful!

Other than the Lucy saga, everything else has been going relatively smoothly! The new career-situation has been more wonderful than I could have imagined! It is so nice to have complete control over my schedule, time, so on and so forth! As I told Lynda (my old boss/friend, who is now just a dear friend!), if I needed one more reason to be grateful for this opportunity, I got it in Lucy's surgery - with my old job, I was supposed to be in San Diego the week everything went down, and would, of course, be facing the pressures of customers and travel and all of that. This move has been more of a blessing than I ever could have realized, and I am so thankful for that. In addition to getting to write loads of fun things, I am also taking on some editorial management of certain pieces, which has been great for that organizational piece of my brain / personality!

Harris is still working incredibly hard, but, thankfully, things seem to have calmed down to a dull roar, for the moment, at least! We have really worked as such a team the past couple weeks, and I am so thankful for all of his support and effort on top of everything he has to do at work. Totally gushing, but I am okay with that :)

I can't believe our one-year anniversary is in 11 days! It is crazy to think that a year has already flown by, but it has been a really, really great year, and I am so lucky to have that man by  my side every day. We are going to postpone any potential big anniversary plans until we have Lu at 100%, but I am just excited to celebrate our first year as husband and wife!

Now, it is time for me to go finish up dinner (we're having Thai Red Curry Lentils!) before the hubs gets home!

Recently

I almost titled this post "Lately", but I immediately  started singing this 90s ballad in my head, and had to nix that from the start. You're welcome for getting it stuck in your head too.

Now that we have that out of the way, I am not going to waste my time or yours apologizing for taking 3 weeks to craft a blog post. It happens. I am sure you three religious readers will forgive me. Maybe. Hopefully.

At any rate, since my last post many exciting things have happened! Allow me to enumerate them for you (with as many accompanying pictures as you and I can both stand). Ready, set, go!

Lucy turned 4 years old! I cannot believe this little puppy is now 4!

Lucy at 6 weeks old - her first weekend at home with me & Harris

For her birthday we spent the afternoon at the park, and then took a ride. It was a glorious day for a little pup!

Little Goose - we love you so so much! You make our lives so happy every single day, and you are the cutest little dog in the world!

The weekend after Lucy's birthday, my best friend, Erica, her hubby, Michael, and their puppy, Loki (aka Lucy's boyfriend) came into town for the weekend! It was so wonderful to spend time with them, and get to share our home and town with them. We tried to cover as much of downtown as we could, and just enjoy our time together. I can't wait for them to come back for another visit!

That next week, I went to New Jersey for a few days for work. Additionally, after almost three years of traveling to Jersey on the regular, I have decided that Princeton is the only part of the state I would deem pretty. 

This logo always makes me think of the circus, anyone else?

That next weekend my little sister and her beau came into town to celebrate her 20th birthday! Holy wow I cannot believe my little Kayla is 20! We had the most fun weekend celebrating and just spending time together! She requested a strawberry birthday cake with hot pink frosting, which resulted in the pinkest cake in the world!

Lucy and the boys were tired! Who am I kidding? Kayla and I were probably passed out right beside them.

Kayla's Birthday Video from Courtney Ligon on Vimeo.

It was also Halloween while they were here!

The week after that, I went to Texas for the week. It was long, and I didn't take any pictures. I know you are disappointed. Oh wait, I forgot. I took pictures of my super bourgeois hotel room the last night. I stayed at the Grand Hyatt at the airport. When I opened the door to my room, I thought for a moment someone was in the room because as soon as the door opened, the tv turned on, started playing music, and showed this message:

The shades also started opening, electronically. And then I took this picture:

And then I ordered sushi and a martini from room service. The sushi was delicious. The martini too strong. Such is life.

I got home from Texas last Friday afternoon, and then left for California for my monthly mentoring circle meeting first thing Monday morning. Harris also started a ridiculously long work stretch this past weekend, and is still going strong. Le boo.

This month's mentoring meeting was hosted by yours truly. So naturally, I made everyone go to California. I mean, why not.

Sunrise from my hotel room. Mountains in the background.

Sunrise from the other side. Ocean in the background.

Pink starfish! First time I have ever seen one in nature!

View from our boat tour.

Sea lions and seagulls going for some fish being thrown from the docks

Sea lion!

A Maersk ship being unloaded. Not the Alabama, FYI.

My mentoring group after our boat tour.

At the top of the Port Authority building in Long Beach.

After our session, we decided to do a little sight-seeing, and hit up Beverly Hills and Hollywood!

Tory Burch

Cartier. They started rolling out the red carpet as we walked by - I wonder who was coming in!

Chanel

Loving the palm trees. Guess they aren't palmettos in Cali?

Bugatti parked on Rodeo

Couple stars from Walk of Fame

Something was going on at Grauman's Theatre (now known as TCL theatre, FYI). We didn't spot any celebs, but we saw the paparazzi and the red carpet, so SOMEONE was there!

Dolby Theatre (aka the Kodak)

Phew. Okay, if you actually made it through all of that, congrats to you! As a treat to you for being so resilient, I have saved the very best for last! Drumroll please....

Harris got a promotion!!!!!!!!!

As of next month, he will start training for his new position, which he will assume January 1st. He will be leading a team, and, most excitingly, will be working normal office hours: Monday through Friday, 8am - 5pm. We could not be more thrilled, and I could not be more proud of him!!! This has been an absolute blessing, and the answer to many, many prayers! He is so excited about the opportunity, and we are both excited to have some normalcy in our lives! I can hardly imagine having my hubby home every night, and weekends together! Ahh...so wonderful!

With that, I will bid you all goodnight. I hope to be better, and to write before 3 weeks pass us by again...