Our Minnie Bean

Sept 11, 2002 - Dec 13, 2010


I know this may seem strange to those of you that have never had a pet before. But I need to say something about our sweet sweet dog that was a very important part of our family. I can't seem to get over that she is gone.

About 2 weeks ago, she was acting very sick. I took her to the vet and discovered she had a virus and her lungs were inflamed. They also took blood samples and sent them off to a pathologist for testing because her lymph nodes were swollen. After bringing her home she was still not doing well. We couldn't get her to keep her food down. Later in the week I received a phone call from the same vet saying she tested positive for Lymphoma. I was shocked! I thought for sure her Lymph nodes were swollen due to her being sick. They can do chemo on dogs, however, the side affects are the same for a dog as they are for a human and they say about 50% of the dogs die from infection after chemo then they do from the cancer itself. The fact that Minnie hadn't kept food down for a whole week was really starting to worry us. We took her to the vet again and he gave us a paste to give to her 4 times a day hoping she would at least keep that down over the weekend and we could work from there. If she couldn't keep it down, he said we would need to have another kind of conversation. We knew what he meant. Minnie couldn't keep it down. By Sunday she wasn't even keeping water down. She had lost so much weight. She started hiding behind our big chair in our living room and would make wimper noises when we pet her. Tim and I made the decision to put an end to her pain. We had her put down on Monday. We both bawled in the vets office saying our last goodbyes to her, and for about a straight hour afterwards. It was the hardest, worst day of my life. It will take some real getting use to her not being here. She was our first baby, our shadow, our greeter, our protector, our companion, and most of all our best friend.

A few great memories we had with our Minnie Bean:


Minnie would claw her way up the slide to be with us. Tim helped her back down.


She's singing me a song. We could even get her to sound like she was saying I love you.


Probably one of my most favorite pictures of Minnie. She was so stressed about protecting Aubri from the splashes after Aubs would throw a rock in the water. I thought it was so sweet.


She's in her protective element here too. She had a thing about the water.

Birthday Girl!

Our Aubriana turned 3 on "movember 27!" Thats what she tells everyone when they ask how old she is with her 3 fingers out. She was so excited for her birthday this year!!! We asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she told us a pink cake! Lets just say I haven't been too great in the kitchen lately... so don't judge me on this cake. It was a disaster in my eyes, but Aubri LOVED it! It was pink and what kid doesn't like cupcakes?!





Tim bought her a ginormous Jesse doll, cause thats what she wanted and bullseye and woody too. I opted for the lip gloss. The first thing she did when she opened it was put it on her eyelashes. Tim and I screamed, "no! It goes on your lips!" Like she'll ever be in need of mascara, the lucky girl. Anyway, we think the lip gloss will last her another week and be gone. She loves to apply it that much.



For her birthday we invited her friend Adam, aka "Madam" as she calls him, to go with us to McDonalds for a happy meal and some fun on the play place. Its too flippin cold here to do anything else! They both had a blast and a bonus, they both got party favors out of the deal. :)



A little bit later in the afternoon we met our friends, the Mickelson family, to go sledding at a park. The picture above is about as much fun as Aubri had sledding. We just had knitted gloves for her, so her hands got cold real fast.


I don't know why the above picture cracks me up everytime I look at it. It's like my daughter weighs 200 lbs and the hill was super steep or something??! I look ridiculously weak! Thanks Hubs for taking that picture.


Here's me and Aubs "trying" to sled down the hill. Our sled was a piece of crap (pardon my french)! We ended up just going sideways, but I was determined to act like it was fun for Aubri's sake. :)



Here's a few tid bits about our sweet girl:

-Her favorite color is pink
-She loves watching Toy Story 1, 2, & 3 (no particular order)
-She loves to play with her baby brother
-She likes to sneak up on us first thing in the morning. If we wake her up, she's in a foul mood.
-Mickey mouse playhouse has to be on during breakfast
-Her favorite song is twinkle twinkle little star (she sings it to Timmy when he cries)
-She thinks story time at the Library is the bomb diggity
-She loves to play dress up and build castles out of anything she can find
-She can spot a slide a mile away and play on it for hours if I'd let her
-She has a strong personality but a really big heart
-She can make friends with any kid
-She's beautiful inside and out

Thank you to all our family who called and sang to her on her birthday. It made her day all the more special!