Happy Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone is out enjoying the extended holiday weekend. Us Walkers have had a fairly relaxing weekend.  I did however, have a wedding on Saturday, so most of Sunday was spent on the couch.  In fact, I am typing this while on that same couch!  Today we are planning on meeting some friends down at the river for one last adventure before it starts semi-cooling down.  We get to take Bella down and see how much she likes playing in the water.  Here are a few pictures from our last trip down there that I meant to post sooner. 

  She is really starting to like riding in the car.  This was her first long trip down to New Braunfels.

 Here she is wishing she could get in the water.

Our poor baby girl has been experiences continuous UTIs since late July.  When we first found out, we immediately took her to the doctor and got her on an antibiotic.  We first just tried a normal antibiotic, but after it came back the second time, we had her urine checked.  We wanted to find out the exact bacteria that was in her bladder and then get a specific antibiotic to kill it off.  Even after all of that, it came back again.  We were (and are still) stumped to what exactly is causing these stupid UTIs.  They are not pleasant for her or us.  She has to go ALL the time and with the first round, we had to get these lovely things to put on her!  

She hated them and tried to tear them off almost immediately.  Her expression is like, "Mom seriously, I look like an idiot"  Poor girl. 

Well, the more we thought about it and have had some people tell us that maybe it had to do with her food, we came to a conclusion.  We had gotten her these chicken training treats that are kept in the refrigerator, and it has to be them.  I went back and looked at the receipt and we got those treats on July 23-24th approximately. The first UTI prescription was for July 27th.  It made perfect sense and would go with the whole e coli in her bladder. IF this really is what is the problem, it will be such a relief to get B back to 100%!  We love taking her out and the UTIs have made that kind of difficult.  

Yesterday, after I threw out out all those treats, we ventured out with B to the store.  We had a busy morning with her.  We went to get coffee at Coffee Bean (my favorite!) and then hit up two pet stores.  She was SO good.  She impresses me every time we take her out with how well behaved she is. We went into Pet Smart and got a few new treats and a new ball and frisbee.  In the past, she has been pretty timid going new places, but we have been trying to get her to have more confidence.   We then went to my favorite pet store in Austin called Bark and Purr.  They have the best selection of quality dog and cat food. We are trying out a new food  called Oreijen.  I have heard from numerous people that it is the best food out there, so we got a small bag.  We are also going to try rotating bags between 4-5 different quality brands.  I'll keep you updated with how it goes and how B reacts.  

Darrell and I have been trying to really get a move on with the bathroom, but we are so busy that it just hasn't gotten too far.  We were so lucky to have Darrell's dad come down and visit a few weeks ago.  We kindly put him to work while he was here.  He helped D realign the pipes for the new bathroom vanity.  We also had a demo day last Sunday and we ripped out all the sheet rock and unneeded studs from the room.  Here are some pictures of our process.

Check out Big D's handiwork! 

They had fun tearing down some of the walls. 

We finally got to take down the ugly 'box' that was above the toilet. 

This is a good one!  When we were taking down the box, D pulled down a board and it slipped out of his hand.  It hit the toilet just right that broke off the back of the tank.  Needless to say water started going EVERYWHERE!!  He immediately shut off the water, but it still got all over the sheet rock and the insulation that was on the floor.  Nothing like picking up soggy insulation.  Gross.  D was on a roll.  He also managed to cut himself like three times that day.  

This is what I got to do. I basically took down the sheet rock that I could get off and then it gets really exciting...

I then had to take off all the nails in the wall.  Hours of fun! 

This is my impressive work all on the floor.

We also piled all the sheet rock in one spot and it was kind of ridiculous.  We used the wheel barrow to get it out of the bathroom.  Luckily, we have a neighbor that will hall our trash to the dump, for a fee of course, but it is much cheaper than the bagster thing we were planning on doing. 

Now I get to show you the most exciting part about the bathroom that we have done so far.  I picked out a tub!  I have always liked cast iron tubs, but I knew that they could get a little expensive.  Let me just say that ALL bathroom items are expensive.  Anyways, Scotty did some research and found out that there are places in town that actually will resurface an old tub for a descent price.  After doing some research on Craigslist, we found one that was a reasonable price!  Mom and I went to check them out (he actually had 2) and we ended up getting it!  I can't wait to see what the end result looks like. 

Our tub was made in the early 1900's.  LOVE IT! 

It has the legs and all.  We'll probably get them replaced, but I was impressed by its current condition! 

As for the rest of the house, there really hasn't been much progress.  I really need to start decorating, but I feel like I need other things done first.  Our walls are so big and tall it's a little intimidating.  I did however, put a few frames up by our fireplace.  I went and found these frames/mirror/shelf at a few different stores in town and then spray painted them all black.  I might add a few more items, or at least put some eclectic items on the fireplace mantel.  

Sorry, it's not the best picture because I took it with my iPhone.  

So I know these last two posts have been super long, but I really am going to make more of an effort to post more often.  I don't have another wedding until October, so I'll have a little more free time.  Well, kind of.  I'll leave you with Kjr's latest hiding place from the Bella Bear.

 Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the holiday!  

Love B