Life at the Winger house.....

........has been good. Nathan has been enjoying his new job, he is done with the "class room" style of training and on to the hands on training. He definitely likes his new hours (he doesn't have to be at work until 8:30, compared to 6:30 previously). BOOOOO, I on the other hand still have to be at work early, but my sweet husband gets up at the same time and gets my coffee ready and every other day makes me bacon! I am spoiled, Nathan can thank my dad for that.

I have been trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with my career. I had this 5 year plan all planned out, but now my 5 years is just about up. Basically if I want to move further up the research chain, I have to go back to school and that is just not something I want to do. And I am not exactly sure lab work is something I want to do for the rest of my life. I have about 2 more years left on the grant I am working on, so I kind of have a little more time to decide.

Then the issue of kids has to be raised when figuring out my (our) future. Do I want kids, ehhh, not really? But ever since Nathan turned 30 he decided kids may not be a bad idea, besides, somebody has to take care of us when we are old, right? I really don't have a desire to have children, but I know that Nathan wouldn't mind a few and I guess I could say that maybe within 3-5 years, there is a chance (I SAID CHANCE, DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH) I could come to the other side. :) I always thought once my friends started having kids that would make me want to too, but NOPE, it actually did the opposite. It really scared me away from it. And I will be the first to admit, I am extremely selfish, I don't want to share my things with a kid, I like being able to take vacations and doing things on my own time. I know all of that changes, once kids come along. But we will see and I know God may have other plans for my life, so I have to let HIM deal with me.

Toby is still being a brat and ruling our house. He has now decide the couch is where he likes to spend his time, even though he is not allowed on the couch. I guess you could say I am not much of a disciplinarian when it comes to the dog, it's too much trouble. Toby takes advantage of this and any time Nathan leaves or I am on the phone or not feeling well, up on the couch he goes! I have let it get out of hand and it's becoming a big problem. I can't stand for animals to be on furniture b/c then their hair is everywhere and the furniture begins to smell like them, so I try to vacuum the couch as much as possible and try to get on to Toby, but he just doesn't care. We haven't really had any answers with his medical stuff either. His thyroid tests (both of them) came back positive, but the vet said that she was concerned with treating him b/c he doesn't have all the signs of hypothyroidism and that can cause issues if you treat him when he doesn't have the actual problem. SO, we just paid all of that money for those tests and you aren't going to do anything????? Then Toby decided he wanted to go ahead and blow out the other ACL, What the heck, might as well go ahead and empty out our life savings? I was pretty much done with the dog by this point! I told the vet, that while we aren't opposed to surgery we are not going to be doing that any time soon. We need some alternatives. She called the surgeon and he recommended a joint supplement. Which is what we are doing and probably will continue to do. She also called the allergy specialist (the laboratory who did Toby's allergy tests) and discussed all of Toby's allergy issues with them b/c he's having so many problems. The specialist was not happy with what has been going on b/c the serum that we give him is specifically formulated for Toby and his specific allergies so therefore we should not be taking him into the vet every other month treating him for allergies! THANK YOU! The company is very interested in what is going on and has offered to retest Toby for FREE, they think that he has developed new allergies and that the serum is no longer working. I think I would be ok if they wanted to pay us to use Toby as a test dog, that way we could make up for some of this money we have been spending. :)