Holy Moley

My junior and senior years of high school and my sophomore, junior and part of my senior years of college were spent with me being addicted to something. TANNING. I went all the time. I was addicted to the warm, relaxing feeling you get when you are laying there. And I loved being tan! I mean, lets be honest, who doesn't look better tan? In my first passport picture I had been going so much at the time I actually looked like I was Mexican (I'm not even exaggerating).

Finally after starting to have dreams about getting skin cancer I decided to quit. It was nice to have more money to spend on other things (tanning is expensive!!) but I still always was paranoid about having skin cancer. This past season on Grey's Anatomy (spoiler alert!) one of the main characters gets a mole removed and finds out she has skin cancer that turned into liver and brain cancer. A little extreme, yes. But I finally decided once and for all to go to the dermatologist.

I got there and didn't know what to expect. I'm glad that I have been going through all this fertility crap because let me tell you, this was just as violating. Except now I'm used to people looking at places that are covered by a bathing suit (well as used to it as you'll ever get). And I'm so glad I had a woman dermatologist. Yikes. That would have been awkward.

She found one mole that she thought looked scary and a few more that we have to watch during my yearly skin exams (yay, I get to do this every year). So they gave me a shot to numb me up (this was the worst part of the whole thing) and they cut the mole out. I got to see it after they were done cutting it out. It was pretty cool, and less gross than I thought it would be. I got three stitches and was sent on my way.

So the moral of the story is that being tan is NOT worth it. I was lucky enough that my mole they removed wasn't cancerous. But it could have been. And it's ridiculous that I spent all that money on something that could have killed me.

I was a little bummed that they only removed one mole. Mostly because if they had removed a lot, I wanted to be this guy for Halloween.

Macie Marie turned THREE!!!

On October 9th our cute girl celebrated her third birthday!! It was Chip's first birthday celebration with us so he was pretty curious as to why Macie was getting all the attention that he would normally try and get.

We got Macie her favorite treat that she only gets on her birthday (and now Chip's birthday, too). Vanilla ice cream! Chip ate his ice cream in a gulp and a half so Brent had to take him upstairs to Macie could eat hers in peace.

Little hoover. I didn't get any pictures of him actually eating the ice cream since he ate it so fast.

Last year she ate it too fast and gave herself an ice cream headache. So this year she slowly enjoyed it. And by slowly I mean I had to sit there for 15 minutes waiting for her to finish.

Even Emma made an appearance (once Chip was upstairs)! Getting ready to give her the presents.

A big fight over that toy happened right after I took this picture. Chip wanted it and Mace wasn't giving it up!

Toy Blow Pop!

Ultimately the little whiner got what he wanted and played with the new toys. Macie is a good big sister for sharing.

This past year with Macie has been full of ups and downs, but mostly ups. She had some stomach problems that the vets couldn't figure out, but she has been doing much better. She also recently decided that she no longer likes dry food and refused to eat for three days. Finally we started mixing wet food in with her dry food and she hoovers it down now. I guess I can't blame her. Some of that stuff smells exactly like the Chunky soup we eat for dinner.

She also surprised us with how she reacted to Chip. To say I was nervous to get another puppy was an understatement. Macie has never really gotten along with other dogs. But it only took her a couple days to warm up to him. Now they are best friends!! She is very patient with him and is a good example to Chip of how you are supposed to act (even though some of Chip's less desirable traits, like barking, are rubbing off on Macie). We love our little goober so much and we're so glad she's a part of our family!

Poor puppy :(

Poor Chip got the snip. And he wouldn't stop trying to lick it. So he got the cone, too. You would think that a giant cone on your head would prevent you from eating a bone.
But not my Chipper!