I hope everyone has a great New Year’s Eve and I hope 2009 brings you lots of love and happiness. I plan to write my big “review” sometime in the next couple of weeks. I knew setting a deadline for January 1st would be a little ambitious so I’m gonna give myself a couple of weeks to settle down and write it up. A LOT happened for us in 2008, mostly good but some sad. It was definitely a busy year! And I see 2009 being just as busy with a new one arriving, though not quite in the same sense.

Tonight we are going to hang out at my house with my mom and just chit chat. I think Gene and I will get some quality Wii playing time in before the ball drops and eat lots of fattening, bad foods. I don’t like to set resolutions but one goal I do have for next year is to start taking my blood sugars more regularly and start eating a little more health consciously. If not for me, at least for the baby :) Oh and I guess another goal would be to decide on a name for the little one and maybe even get my nursery done BEFORE the baby arrives.

The last couple of days have been very emotional for me (and Gene, I’m sure). Astro has had this weird itching thing he does. He scratches the underside of his chin until its raw and scabby and he chews on one side of his rear end until it is raw and scabby as well. We got an e-collar (those dreaded cone shaped collars) for him from PetSmart last night and finally was able to get it on him, though it was a HUGE struggle. He is a big dog but he is scared of everything! He looked so pitiful and sad and miserable all evening and then for about 2 hours last night he whined non-stop in our bedroom. We tried to give him some water but he was so scared of the cone bumping into things he refused to drink. It was awful and I can’t even tell you how much I cried from the time we put it on him around 9 PM to 4 AM when I finally decided enough was enough. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night but I’m really hoping the adrenaline kicks in this evening so I don’t fall asleep before midnight.

Needless to say, as soon as we took the collar off he was back to his old self and didn’t seem to hate us too much. He really knows how to grab a hold of my heart and SQUEEZE it. I swear I thought my heart was breaking last night. I went through a WIDE range of emotions from being really pissed off that he wasn’t cooperating to feeling really guilty about what we had done. It was to the point where at one point I was questioning what kind of mother I am and how I could have done this.

Oh boy, is that the hormones talking or the real me? I can’t even tell. At one point I’m convincing Gene that the ecollar is the right thing and not to worry and the next I am sobbing about how we need to take it off of him because he is so miserable and sad.

All of this. Over a DOG. But man, if you could only SEE his sad face. I’m pretty sure it would make you cry, too.