merry christmas!

Merry Christmas 

from Tyler, me, and SARGE!

Hope Santa brings you everything you wished for.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel!

eight things

Y'all where has this month gone!!!!! Next week is Thanksgiving. Life is flying by way too quickly.

I'm just going to post a little quick update on life....

First, thanks for all of the love about Sarge. He is 100% better and we will not be running 4.5 miles ever again. It was such a scare, but such a lesson- YALL DONT RUN  WITH YOUR DOGS!

Second, my cousin is getting married this weekend and I am so excited! I've been counting down since our wedding which was exactly 8 months from theirs on Saturday. I'll also be in my college town and I haven't been there in two years!

Third, this Beachbody challenge is the greatest thing I've ever done. I've already seen pretty awesome changes and I am trying to recruit as many friends as possible. I have about a week left and I can't wait to see how many inches I've lost. I will tell you I cheated on Saturday and measured myself and WHOA- its impressive. I also feel amazing- thats what it's all about!

Fourth, this past Friday was my 25th birthday. Tyler and I had a delicious dinner at a tapas restaurant and my work friends spoiled me! My parents came to visit and we had lunch at another place downtown we'd never been. And Saturday night friends of ours hosted an oyster roast in our HOA clubhouse and it was so much fun!! Courtney was so sweet and turned it into a birthday party for me!

Fifth, some exciting things are happen to this Law family and NO it has nothing to do with babies! Hopefully I can share it soon with you!

Sixth, speaking of BABIES, I am surrounded by pregnant people. Two coworkers are pregnant- I have a baby shower for one tonight who is due on Dec 12 and another coworker is due in April. ALL of my friends in my Bible Study from home either had babies this fall or are expecting and one of my old coworkers had a baby last week! College friends are starting to announce it and family friends, too! I'm surrounded. But here is the thing: I am not interested in babies. There is no such thing as baby fever in my mind and the thought of a child right now gives me a stomach ache! Just not ready. End of story.

Seventh, I am just really loving my fall TV shows: Revenge, Blacklist, Biggest Loser (new favorite show), Chicago Fire, SVU, and Greys. Thank goodness for DVR!

Eighth, I think thats it for now. I need to be more regular about posting but I honestly don't have time and its easier when Tyler is out of town for work like he has been this week!

last night strangers saved my dog's life.

On Friday Sarge decided he likes yoga.

I've typed this out a few times, but it is easiest to copy and paste the email that I wrote to the editor of the Beaufort paper. If it ever gets published is a mystery, but at least I have tried!

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen that Sarge collapsed while we were running last night. It was the scariest afternoon of my life.

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My 6.5 year old black lab and I were running on the Spanish Moss Trail this afternoon. We ran about 4.25 miles when my dog, Sarge, basically collapsed on the trail by Allison Road. His front legs gave out and he became very disoriented and fell over, almost like he was drunk. I started yelling for help when two ladies and a man in front of me heard me screaming and ran over to me as I was yelling for water. They did not have any, but the man ran to Allison Road and stopped a truck to ask for water. Miraculously, the man came running back with an unopened gallon of water. I was in too much of a panic to really comprehend what was happening. I immediately poured the water on the dog and got him to drink some of it until we could slow his heart rate and cool him down.

Side note: Who has a gallon of water in their car? He looked like a contractor (because of his truck) so maybe that is why, but if this wasn't a God-thing, I DO NOT know what is. This man was my angel- the water saved Sarge!

I thanked the group over and over and told them I thought he was OK and we started walking slowly back to my car parked on Depot Road (about a mile away). After about ten yards, Sarge collapsed again. This time, his jaw was locked shut and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. It was like watching him seize but having no idea what to do and no one to call! I screamed for help again and another group of three came running over to me. At this point I was in a panic, but the two men were able to calm me down while the lady ran to her car so we could drive Sarge back to my parked car. In the meantime, we laid Sarge down, cooled him down, and continued to try to give him water.

One of the men, a local photographer in Beaufort called a friend of mine who lives in Mossy Oaks, so she could bring a bowl of water and help calm me down since she knows me well. By the time my friend and her husband arrived, the men had taken care of Sarge and gotten to him to his feet and walking again. We let him walk around a little to make sure that he wasn't going to fall again. They had helped me breathe and stop panicking, something I could have never done on my own.

I only got three of the six stranger's names (Paul, Liv, and Doug I believe) and I never spoke to the man who generously gave another stranger a gallon of water. I kept saying thank you over and over and over, hoping that these people truly understood my gratitude, as this was one of the scariest things that I have ever had happen to me in my 25 years of life! I did find Paul on Facebook and sent him a thank you message, hoping he will send me his friends' emails to I can thank them, too.

So as we hear terrible events and bad news everyday, I can't help but be thankful for our wonderful community in Beaufort and for those people who took time out of their Sunday stroll to help me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and would love to be able to hung your necks, especially the man with the water who almost appeared like an angel. If you aren't a believer in God, I don't know how because coincidences like this just don't happen.

----

(Tyler was out fishing with a buddy so I couldn't even get him when I was in panic-mode. He doesn't quite seem to grasp how serious the situation really was and how truly scarred I am from it). 

I pray that this was an isolated incident and not the beginning of epilepsy. After posting on Facebook, a friend told me the same thing happened to her dog and now he is on medication for seizures. This poor pup has been through a lot this year!

Love you poochie!

taking a break

It just seems right to take a little blog break right now... There is a lot going on and sitting down at night writing just isn't in the card this week....

Until then, here's life:

• Friday night a high school friend was involved in a car accident where one girl was killed. That girl happened to be celebrating my brother's birthday with him on Thursday. It has been very hard on everyone. My friend Barry is still in the hospital and has a long way to go mentally and physically, so if you'd say a prayer for healing, I would really appreciate it. The Quattlebaums and Comers especially need the prayers.

• Work has really stepped up as I have gained responsibility this week. It's a good thing..... A great thing actually!! I like a challenge, but it just makes me more drained at the end of the day.

• I'm currently on mile 32 of 50 for my #50milesseptember. I hit halfway on Sunday. I can do this!

• My heart is also so heavy for the tragedy in DC and the flooding in Colorado. Why do bad things keep happening? Our world is just surrounded by terrible things lately! Luckily we are not in control!

• Tyler's dad is driving down from PA to our farm to hunt this weekend and I'm really looking forward to seeing him again! I also have a wedding shower and baby shower on Sunday.

• This commercial for Chipotle really upset me this week. I take farming/agriculture articles very seriously and I can honestly say Chipotle has lost my business. Here is a response to the video. Y'all farmers aren't out to "get" anyone and I promise you they care about the land and about their livestock.  This video makes it seem like they are only out to make money. Of course they want to make money but this is just a really unfair depiction of agriculture. If you ever have questions about farming or agriculture or organic or "natural" and my thoughts, please don't hesitate to ask. I love talking about it and learning more!

• Sarge had his yearly checkup and passed with flying colors except for fleas! Those pesky suckers are driving us crazy! Our neighborhood is covered with them and he attracts him on his walks. Thank goodness for Advantix and Capstar!

• Speaking of my neighborhood, we made the front page of the paper when we had 38 cars broken into on Monday... Joy! Luckily I park in the garage and Tyler is anal about locking his truck so we didn't lose anything but people are so disgusting and disappointing!

• My mom has been in Paris for a week and is headed to Belgium next week. Who is jealous!?! This girl.... But super happy this is her time to travel with her girlfriends!

• Next week begins season premiere week for my favorite shows!! Chicago Fire, SVU, Grey's Anatomy, Revenge... BRING.IT.ON!

• And I have another prayer request if you are the praying kind. It's unspoken, but I promise you God knows what is on my heart about this. It's pretty big in our lives right now and a hump in our almost 6 months of marriage... But that's what marriage is for! Love and support!

That's all for now.... I'll be back soon! We just need to get through the next couple of busy days and weeks, but you know where to find me on social media! Thanks for your love, friends!!

xoxo

why must the weekend end?

This weekend was so much fun. We packed a to into a little bit of time and I am honestly whooped as I type this. The weekend was one of those that you didn't want to end because we both hung out with friends and got to do a lot of (new) things.

Friday night I went to spin class (a first) at my YMCA. It wasn't as hard as I anticipated, but it was also a great workout and I was drenched with sweat when I left! I headed to the grocery store to pick up some beer -- Abita Purple Haze and Sweetwater Blue it was -- so good! Tyler was getting his hunting stuff together to go dove hunting at the farm on Saturday, so I sipped on the beer while he got ready.

Saturday I met my friend (she's also my coworker) Caroline at her gym to try a barre class. I've been DYING to try one and finally got a chance since she had a "bring a friend to class" pass. I had no idea what to expect but kept an open mind. While it was a really challenging workout, I also felt great afterwards and am feeling it now!! It was nice to go with a friend who was used to going, and I'm glad I don't have to "commit" to it right now; I am just going to visit when I'm over in Bluffton.

After the class, we met up with another friend, had lunch at the Frosty Frog on Hilton Head (hello amazing Jungle Juice daiquiri) and hit the beach with mojitos. The weather was absolutely perfect at the beach at Sea Pines was almost empty! After a few hours and a little sun, we went back to shower and have girls night!

I feel like I haven't had girls night in a really long time and it was SO GOOD to meet new girls to start hanging out with! We had some drinks before dinner then headed to Wise Guys back on Hilton Head. We decided on the tapas and had the calamari, sliders, lobster risotto, goat cheese, and stuffed mushrooms. So so good, and a great amount of food for 5 girls to split! I drove back home to Beaufort (about an hour away), so I dropped the girls off at a bar and headed home for the night. Good thing, since they told me they stayed out until 3:30!

Seriously counting down to another weekend to hang out again!

Sunday Tyler and I visited a church (we are trying to decide between two), and I did a lot of cleaning in the house before going to dinner at a friends' house. Tyler has become really good buds with my coworker and we had dinner with them for the first time. So much fun!

Did I mention Tyler went hunting all day Saturday with a friend? I'd say they did pretty well:

165 doves killed by 11 guys. Pretty impressive. And I think Sarge had a blast. Poor thing has been moping around all Sunday from running around and getting the birds. 

So there's my weekend in a nutshell. Why did it have to end!!??

How was yours?

happy monday from the dog.

I was really excited about cranking out some blog posts tonight since I've been so MIA until......

I found out my dog ate my underwear.

Yes, you read that correctly. He ate it, digested it, and then it came out. Is this a nightmare?

Sorry if this is TMI, you can leave now and I promise it won't hurt my feelings.

It's been a little rough lately in this little life here (hence my absence), so I went to get a  mani/pedi after work because my doctor told me I needed to relax and have some "me time." Pedicure? Manicure? Doctor's orders?! Certainly, I will take full advantage of that!

Once I got home and got into the bedroom to change, I saw a "no no" on the office carpet which I JUST vacuumed yesterday. I walk up to clean it up and voila!  a pair of my lace undies.... 

What a pleasant surprise!

Sarge currently hates us because he is being starved after a trip to the vet last week for drinking too much salt water (yes, again). I guess the 1.5 cans of food per day just isn't doing it for him and he thought the laundry sounded appetizing. I could kill him.

I am so thankful it came out all in one piece (yes I know gross), because we could easily go through pancreatitis round two.

So friends, in addition to keeping your dog from drinking salt water, you should probably also keep your hanky pankys hidden.

And this week is off to a fabulousssss start.

playing catch-up

I took a little break last week in blogging unexpectedly. With the Sarge drama, I couldn't sit down and play on the computer when my pup was hurting. Luckily, he is almost 100% again thanks to lots of medicine and love. We had some great veterinarians working on him and I am so thankful!

Here are a few pictures that I took over Memorial Day weekend before our poor pup got sick!

Such a beauty king ;-)

Beautiful sunset over Lake Marion

This place is my happy place

Love this place

I cannot believe this was Saturday before Sarge really got sick. He was acting so very normal, playing and having a ball at the lake! We felt horrible that this all happened to him!

Tyler and I were thrilled to see our second family who was our family in Illinois. They were in Myrtle Beach for vacation and we took a trip to see them last Sunday. Scott was too funny and we've decided he has try to become Alan from the Hangover with the glasses, beard, and purse!

Waiting for a few pictures from their family and will share later!

pancreatic poochie

If you have been following me the past few days on social media, you have probably seen that we have a very sick pooch on our hands. The past couple of days, especially hours have been very trying and hard, but we have gotten through.

Rewind back to Friday night.... Tyler and I went out on the boat and took Sarge like we always do. He is a hunting retriever and absolutely loves retrieving his bumper in the water. He swam and swam like nothing was wrong for an hour or two. When we got home, he had an upset stomach, but we just looked at it like he drank too much salt water. When we woke up Saturday morning I stepped in a puddle of tinkle at the foot of our bed. Sarge is very housebroken and has never ever tinkled during the middle of the night before. Again, I just thought he drank too much water and needed to go!

We packed up and headed to my family's lakehouse for Saturday. Again, Sarge swam, jumping off the dock and having the time his life like nothing was wrong. He acted perfectly fine! Sunday morning at about 3 am, I heard a loud cough and knew he was throwing up. I jumped up and flipped on the light, knowing he was vomiting on the carpet in the bedroom! Yuck! Tyler got up and we cleaned it up, AGAIN, thinking he drank too much water and it finally hit him.

Sunday morning we packed up to go to Myrtle Beach to visit our friends from Illinois and Tyler's college friends that were in town for the week. We were so excited to see them and were going to leave Sarge with my parents. As we were getting ready to leave the lake, Sarge threw up two more times, this time it didn't look "normal" (I mean, does any puke really look normal?). We cleaned it up and hoped he would feel better by Monday when he got home. My parents took him and he hung out in the den with them and acted fairly normal, except my mom realized that he didn't scarf down his food like he normally does.

Around noon on Monday, my mom texted me to tell me Sarge had gotten sick. Two more times. We immediately left the beach, even though we hated saying goodbye to our friends who live so very far away now. They totally understood because they love Sarge too!

We met my mom off of the interstate to head back to Beaufort, and we noticed he wasn't hanging his head out of the window as normal. He was sitting inbetween her seats and we really started getting nervous. This was the first time we realized how lethargic and dehydrated he was. During all of this, I had texted my boss who's wife is a vet, texted our vet from Illinois, and called a high school friend who was in vet school. Everyone was saying beware of dehydration and to give him some benadryl to make him sleepy and more comfortable.

Once we got off of the interstate, we decided to call a local vet in Beaufort to see if they were open by chance. We explained the situation and they said the ER vet may be a good idea. We made a couple more calls and decided to get back on I-95 to Savannah to go to the emergency vet. Sarge was very lethargic and sad and we knew he felt horrible!

We finally got to the vet at about 7pm. They ran some tests and while we waited for them to come back, Sarge got sick again. We knew something had to be wrong if he was still vomiting but hadn't eaten in a day. The vet came back with the results and said his pancreatic enzymes were extremely high; higher than she had ever seen them. I immediately started crying because my grandmother passed away from pancreatic cancer and that P word just really upset me. As they were describing pancreatitis, I was crying and Tyler was extremely confused because the vet wasn't making very much sense.

Pancreatitis can be caused by random things in dogs. He could have eaten something like scraps out of the trash or a piece of plastic or something toxic. We really had no idea. We made more phone calls to every vet we knew to get other opinions, but everyone agreed it would be best to leave him overnight. As horrible as it was to leave him, we knew he felt awful and needed medicine. They gave him antibiotics for a UTI that he also had, pain medicine since his pancreas was so inflamed, and anti-nausea medicine. After we paid our bill (O.M.G. that place wasn't cheap), we got a hotel nearby because we had to pick him up the next morning at 7.

Thank goodness we got some sleep at the sketchy La Quinta down the road from the vet because the rest of the morning was exhausting too. The vet on duty wasn't very positive and said his enzymes hadn't gone down in that 12 hours that they tested them. WTF we were thinking and kept asking how fatal this could be. Thank goodness they said it isn't fatal in dogs if they can get the enzymes under control.

We picked him up at 7:30 and he was so lethargic. I kept checking his pulse in the car because his breathing was really weak and were really scared. Sarge is our baby! We had paperwork faxed to what I thought was my boss's wife's vet back in Beaufort. We got there, checked in and thought everything was fine until I mentioned that I worked with the vet's husband and the vet who saw us was very confused. I knew she didn't work on Tuesdays, but when she had no idea who I was talking about, we realized I had called the wrong vet!!!! The vet and assistant laughed at us and said it would be fine to leave, they just wanted Sarge to get medical care asap because he was in a lot of pain and was growling and whining.

Once we finally got to the correct vet (am I an idiot or what!?!?!!), we were immediately taken back to see the other vet in the practice. He reassured us this wasn't fatal, but wanted to put him back on pain meds, antibiotic, and fluids. Poor thing had been poked and prodded for hours. He also had a catheter inserted into his leg. We left Sarge at the vet for the day and picked him back up after work. I worried all afternoon about our poor boy because I know he felt so awful and we didn't know all weekend he was sick!

We brought him home and have him hooked up to his IV now and he is happily sleeping in his kennel. We'll keep him on fluids until 11 pm and will take him back to the vet in the morning and they'll retest his blood again. I pray his enzymes and white blood cells have gone down and hope he will be in less pain overnight. We really hate seeing him like this.  His x-rays showed only air bubbles from gas and thank goodness he hadn't swallowed anything which could cause all of this. We're assuming it is some funky bacteria since he is a hunting dog- no clue what he could have picked up from ducks or the nasty water from the creek or lake.

If you are still reading, thank you. We really appreciate the love and prayers we have gotten, especially from my blog friends and readers. We've had some really supportive people!

I also want all of you dog moms to know that you need to stop giving your dog table scraps!!! Sarge never gets people food which could have caused this, but this is one of the reasons why people food is bad for dogs. They cannot break down things that we can! There is a reason they make dog food. It is horrible watching a pup you love be in so much pain, especially when he has never had any health problems. He is five and very active, we would have never expected anything. Just a word of caution, because I don't want y'all to ever go through this- or your pup!!!!

Also, if you are weary of the emergency vet, don't be! Thank heavens it was a reasonable price just to walk in the door because money was a reason we didn't want to take him. Tyler's parents vet near Philly is super expensive and we just could not afford a hefty bill. By no means had we budgeted for anything like this, BUT Sarge is so worth it and we will totally rearrange spending to accommodate our boy. I can easily give up extra froyo or treats for his treatment. I will do whatever I can for my boy. Tyler too!

We are praying we all have a good night sleep and he feels better in the morning. I am so thankful for veterinarians and the assistants at the vet that helped us. I used to make fun of people who do things like this, but until you go through something with a sick animal, you don't understand it. We love our Sarge so much and want him to get better. Hopefully he will bounce back tomorrow and we can slowly reintroduce food and water to him.

In the mean time, we'd appreciate your prayers!

Last Single Lady Weekend!

I must say that I totally lived up my last weekend as a single lady.

We've had everything planned, so I took off for 5 Points in Columbia with some of my friends. I didn't want to sit at home twiddling my thumbs, so this was the perfect weekend!

Friday night I got to Columbia late so I got to Anna's house and we met Megan and Dan at a bar and had a few drinks. Dan and I had a blast looking at freshman year pictures of the two of us. He has been my buddy for a long time!

I left Tyler at my parents to turkey hunt since the season just opened. He isn't too fond of Columbia and would rather hang out with my dad in the woods than a bunch of crazy drunk people celebrating St. Pattys.

Dan is used to being my stand-in bf.

Hannah and me

Pete is such a ladies man.

Girlfriends- Hannah, Anna, Carly, me, and Megan

Love them!!!

After a fun day, I headed back home to hang out with Tyler. He had been to the river with our friends and was about as tired as I was!

Sunday we did some wedding things and I spent the afternoon by our new pond with Sarge. He is such a big swimmer and loves being at the farm. I pretended like I was already in Jamaica!

Such a happy dog.

Can you see him? He was going after the duck decoys in the pond!

Afternoon joy ride.

All in all, it was a perfect last weekend as Charlotte PERROW! 

Cannot believe I become Tyler's wife in just a few short days!!!!!!!

Exploring Beaufort

Tyler and I told ourselves we were going to explore our new home this weekend since almost every weekend until the wedding is booked with parties, etc.

This morning we hopped in the truck with Sarge and headed to Port Royal to let Sarge get used to the salt water, and dang it.. he had a ball! I had so much fun taking pictures with my new Nikon Rebel t3i that I got for Christmas and hadn't used much!

 Sarge had so much fun watching the porpoises! 

  Pretty sure this is the most amazing picture I've ever taken!

I am just so in love with where we live!