Sunday 26 January 2014

Kelly's Story

Kelly Kroll
9 June 2000 - 17 August 2013


Miss Kelly was our family's beloved Miniature Poodle, Mum bought her home when she was just 10 weeks old. I (age 13) was walking home from school when mum pulled up and said she would give me a ride, which was really odd as she always just let me walk & I was only about 10 minutes away from home. When we got home she told my brother Mitchell & I to go over and see Helen, who lived across the road & owned "Dog Workz" a mobile dog washing company. We went across the road & Helen was bathing this tiny adorable little black ball of fluff, "Who's is it?" my brother asked, "yours" Helen replied and since that day we had our first ever pet Miss Kelly (aka Chunky).

Kelly was full of life and always happy, she had a huge smile and her tail was always up and wagging. She just LOVED walkies, playing with balls, especially her red ball and any squeaky toy, except those didn't last long as she would not give up on them until she got the squeaker out. Kelly caused two insurance claims because of tennis balls, she would push them under the couch and end up chewing on the bottom of the couches trying to get the ball back out!

In down time Kelly would sneak into a bedroom to sleep amongst the cushions on the bed, or on top of the cushions on the couch. She would quite often have her paws crossed when she was laying down.  

She had a very sensitive stomach, which caused lots of trouble as she always seemed to find chocolate, which of course caused a few trips to the visit! 

At the age of 6, Kelly started going blind and by the age of 8 she was completely blind. Retinal detachment is what originally caused her to go blind and then further on she developed cataracts. Being blind did not stop or slow down Kelly at all, she was still as happy as could be and as full of life :)

I lived at home with my parents, brother and Kelly until I was 23, and even after I had moved out I would go around to my parents house frequently and quite often just to see Miss Kelly. Even if I knew my parents were out, I would go around and watch TV with Kelly snuggled up with me, or bring her home to my house, where she would spend the afternoon with me.

As the years went on Kelly developed other health issues, kidney failure was one of them. She had lost a lot of weight, but on medication that was helping and there were tests planned for September.

In August 2013 my parents went overseas on a trip to Europe for three weeks. My parents took Grant and I out for dinner the night before they left and Mum told me that if anything happened and Kelly went down hill, that I know her best and that I was to make the decision. 

The plan was that I would have Kelly every weekend, and my grandparents (Nan & Pop) would have her during the week. The first weekend I had both Kelly and my Nan & Pop's miniature poodle staying with us, and although Kelly was quite thin she was her happy usual self. 


Week One, Kelly was staying at Nan & Pop's and I called Wednesday and Friday to see how Kelly was and to arrange having Kelly that weekend. Kelly had been good, except for one visit to the vet because she got into my Nan's handbag and ate chocolate. Kelly ended up staying at Nan & Pop's over the weekend.

Week Two, Kelly stopped eating, she would have small nibbles but not finish any meal. This was normal for her morning biscuits, as she hardly ever finished them, but this was very unusual for Kelly not to eat her meat for dinner. Kelly had a trip to the vet with Nana where she was given special critical care food to try and get her to eat, which she hardly ate.

On Friday the 16th, I arrange to met Nan & Pop at the vet, to then take Kelly home to spend the weekend with me. When I walked into the vet, I was very surprised, even though I hadn't seen Kelly in almost two weeks, she didn't even resonde to my voice and she usually got overly excited when she heard me. She looked very lost and sad. The vet gave me more critical care food to try at home, and suggested trying plain chicken, rice & cottage cheese. The vet said she was very sick and may not last the weekend.I left the vet with Kelly in my arms and in tears. I drove straight to Grant's work, usually Kelly would stand on the passengers seat and look out the window and whine the entire car trip, but this time she just sat there looking very vacant.

Once home, I cooked up some rice & chicken breast and managed to get Kelly to eat a little bit of the rice & chicken, but ended up hand feeding her, as she would take one or two bites out of her bowl and then leave. She was very weak and tired, I hardly slept that night, I kept waking up to check on her but she was fast asleep. That morning when she did wake up, she made it two steps before peeing on the floor, which was so not like her. I carried her to the kitchen and tried seeing if she would eat anything for me, she just stood there and when she tried to walk it was like one of her feet was stuck to the ground. I burst into tears, picked her up and put her into bed with me and Grant, where we slept for a few more hours. 

When we woke up Kelly was able to walk properly again but was still very weak. She ate half a chicken breast for me that morning, but I had to hand feed it to her while she was laying down. Grant and I decided to take her home to Mum & Dad's so she was in a more familiar surrounding.

Once home at Mum & Dad's I got one of my Mum's old sweatshirts out of her wardrobe, it was a sweatshirt that my Mum had had forever! Kelly was laying in her basket and I put this sweatshirt under her head, said "Goodnight Kelly, Love you" and let her sleep. Every now & then I would check on Kelly, she was still sleeping and would open her eyes when I said her name. 

At about 2pm I looked over and she was awake, I picked her up and she cuddled in and feel asleep again. At about 2.30pm she woke up, so I thought that while she was awake I would see if she would eat anything. I went to put her on the floor and she just flopped, she couldn't stand at all. I screamed at Grant to get him to sit with her, while I called Nan & Pop, I told them very quickly that she couldn't move & that I was going to the vet, they said they would leave now, but as they live in Rangiotu there were a little while away. 

I picked up Kelly, put Mum's sweatshirt around her and got in the car. Grant drove to the vets. I walked into the vets crying my eyes out and they automatically knew I had Kelly, they took us straight into a consultation room and got a vet. The vet, who was the same one we saw the day before, walked in, patted and looked at Kelly and slowly said "She's dying but needs a little help", "Okay" was all I could say, as they got ready the vet & vet nurse talked to me but that's all a blur. All I remember is just crying my eyes out holding our Miss Kelly, as they injected her. I could feel her little heart beating so fast, and then suddenly stop, 2.55pm and she was gone.

The vet let us sit in their staff room as we waited for my Nan & Pop to arrive, while waiting I tried skyping my brother, who lives in Australia, but Skype wouldn't work so I called him. Nan & Pop arrived soon after I got off the phone.
We discussed with the vet nurse what was to happen, Mum had already decided she wanted Kelly cremated and I chose the dark wood for her box.

We all decided not to tell Mum & Dad until they got home, as we didn't want to ruin their holiday. The next day Mum skyped me, this was the hardest conversation I had ever had with my parents, having to sit there and lie straight to their faces about Kelly. The rest week was hard, Mum kept wanting to Skype and ask how Kelly was, I kept avoiding the Skype calls. 

Monday the day my parents got back came, we had arranged for Nan & Pop to be at the airport with us, as Grant & I were meant to be picking Mum & Dad up from the airport with Kelly in the car. I didn't even need to tell Mum, Mum said that as soon as she saw me as she walked inside she knew something was wrong, she gave me the biggest hug and whispered "What's wrong", I burst into tears and whispered "Kelly's gone", Mum asked questions and we stood there in the middle of the airport hugging and crying, while Nan & Pop told Dad. We all then went back to Mum & Dad's house and sat around talking for the next few hours about Kelly and their trip.

The next day I had arranged to have off work, I spent this day at Mum & Dad's house, on their couch watching TV with Mum. Mum slept a lot and that afternoon we went and picked up Kelly from the vet.


Rest In Peace Our Darling Kelly
Forever In Our Hearts, Miss You So Much ..
Have Fun With Jake, Mud, Axel & All The Other Doggies Up There,
See All The Sights & Eat As Much Chocolate As You Like ...
See You Again Someday .. Love You Girl xxx








Saturday 25 January 2014

Losing Weight ... Volume Three

Now I know I said my next post would be "Kelly's Story" but I weighed in this morning and suddenly thought I hadn't done an intro post on my weight loss yet .. so will post this one today, on my Weight Watchers Meeting Day, and will post Kelly's Story tomorrow :)

Now I call this Volume Three because I am starting yet again!!! Before I begin Vol3, I must tell you quickly about Vol1 & Vol2 ...

Volume One 
In June 2009 I weighed myself at home & was so close to 100 that it scared me ... So on the 25th of June 2009 I joined Weight Watchers .. With a massive starting weight of 99.4kg!!! I followed the Weight Watchers Satisfaction Plan, stuck to points, did quite little exercise and with a lot of gains as well as my losses .. I had my last weigh in at Weight Watchers on the 6th of May 2010 - weighing in at 72.5kgs ... meaning I had lost a grand total of ... 27.2kgs!!!
Around this time Weight Watchers changed their points to ProPoints and these didn't seem to work for me, so I decided to leave Weight Watchers and continue with the old point system at home .. During this time I started getting the Injection & with a combination of that, stress & not eating properly I started putting the weight back on.


Volume Two
At the beginning of last year (Jan 2013) I decided that enough was enough and that I wasn't getting anywhere on my own, so I was going to join Weight Watchers again! It worked once it can work again right? Well I joined WW on the 26th of January 2013 weighing a huge 107.1kgs!!! and well I started again this year weighing 101.5kgs!! So what in 2013 I lost a measly little 5.6kgs!! In 12 months, how shocking is that!!! I was very disappointed in myself, there was too much "one day won't hurt" and "I'll start again next week" .. 

Now Volume Three
I tell you now, this year 2014 is going to be different!! So far I have given up V, started walking most days (thanks to Atlas) and am now trying my hardest with better eating AND counting points! To make myself accountable I will not only attend every weigh in at Weight Watcher but I will also make every Saturday a Losing Weight post and will post on here my WEIGH IN!!! 

04 Jan 2014 - 101.5 kgs  (Starting Weight)
11 Jan 2014 - 101.3 kgs  (Lost 200g)
18 Jan 2014 - 101.2 kgs  (Lost 100g)

Today's Weigh In - 25 Jan 2014 ... 101.7 kgs :( but today is a new day and the beginning of a new WW week ... I can do this, I know I can!!!




Friday 24 January 2014

My Tattoos

Tattoos .. I personally love them! 
Well most of them ... there are some very interesting ones out there, 
but each to their own aye!

I have 3 tattoos .. 

I got my first tattoo on the 17th of March 2006 at the age of 19 at Power House Tattoos. I had the Tribal Star picture on my wall for over a year before I committed and booked the tattoo. This is the only tattoo I partly regret now, I still like the design, but it's not something I would choose for a tattoo now, and would not have chosen the lower back for a tattoo (or "Tramp Stamp" as they get called). 

It has majorly faded throughout the years of weight loss & gain :(  I would one day like to get this tattoo redone, if not covered up with something that will compliment my shoulder tattoo more & be more of a larger lower back piece.


I originally got my second tattoo on the 17th of February 2010 by a friend of a friend who did tattooing at home .. BIGGEST MISTAKE .. DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT get tattoos done by anyone but a professional!!! 
Now I LOVE this tattoo and if it wasn't for this guy (lets call him M for the sake of this post) doing this tattoo, I would never had gotten this design, nor would I have the original sketch here at home. This tattoo was not planned! My partner, Grant was getting his tattoo drawn and done by M and it took about 6 hours total. Throughout all the meetings and dicussions with M, he kept saying "Do not choose a tattoo. Let the tattoo choose you!" which to be completely honest I had no idea what he was going on about until ... I was flicking through M's portfolio of tattoo sketches, and I looked through these portfolios many a times while Grant was getting his tattoo done, and every time I flicked through I kept stopping at this sketch. M noticed that I kept going back to look at this sketch and simply said "You need to get that tattoo" and I suddenly knew what he meant about the tattoo choosing you!! So sure enough a few weeks later I was sitting in M's house getting the tattoo done!!!

Now I absolutely LOVED this tattoo, except once it healed I noticed two tiny patches in the butterfly wings where there was no ink & it bugged me for so long as it meant it wasn't perfect. Hence why I say go to a professional!!
Finally on the 17th of December 2011, I went into Power House Tattoo's and got the butterflies redone, and they looked awesome! The man who did my tattoo at Power House (can't remember his name) made other suggestions to how I could improve my tattoo more. I went away thinking about his suggestions and ended up booking another session back at Power House on the 5th of April 2012 to get the rest of my tattoo improved. The man who redid my butterflies was booked up, so Richard did my tattoo which I was very happy about, as he is a friend's brother.
Richard went over the rest of the tattoo again, making the dots and stars sharper, extended the dots out a bit more so they didn't just stop and added some shading. I now LOVE this tattoo even more!! 
 
Left - Original Tattoo (Crappy Phone Photo)
Right - Completed Tattoo!

I got my third and most meaningful tattoo on the 4th of December 2013 by Richard at Power House Tattoos. Now I always said after my first tattoo that when Kelly (our beloved family Miniature Poodle) passed away I would get a paw print tattoo. At the time I was just meaning some generic paw print design, but with all the circumstances of how and when Kelly passed away I decided to get her actual paw print (done from a print I made of Kelly's paw back in high school) on my inner left wrist! Isn't it just AMAZING! Richard did the entire tattoo by hand, just using a basic outline stencils for the size! It's perfect, I LOVE it so much and it means so much to me!

Left - Beautiful Kelly
Top Right - Tattoo
Bottom Right - Kelly's Paw Print



I'll let you all go now, this blog post is long enough hehehe ..
Kelly's Story will be next blog post!


Monday 20 January 2014

Earthquake ..

I wasn't planning on writing a post about Earthquakes but if your from New Zealand then you would have heard about the big(ish) earthquake today .. then again if your from aboard you may have heard about it too ... 

We were visiting at Grant's Aunty, Uncle & Cousin's house, where his (talented singing) twin sisters were visiting from Australia ... We were all sitting around talking in the lounge when the whole place just started shaking! 

Boy was it a big one! Looking the quake up on Geo Net and no wonder it was the biggest earthquake I had ever felt .. the location of the quake was "15km east of Eketahuna" and we were approx 10km South West of Eketahuna!! 

We were all pretty shaken up, but all okay :) All the books fell off the bookshelf in the lounge, tools fell off the shelves in the garage & the kitchen was quite a mess, with heaps of fallen items and broken glasses & plates :(
 
When we got back home to Palmerston North, the fridge had moved a good 10cm, the outdoor table had moved a good few feet across the deck .. and just a few things around the house had fallen over or fallen off the shelf .. except for in the office where heaps of stuff had fallen off the bookcase .. and in the toilet where my gorgeous glass koru lived on the window sill, it had fallen onto the tiled floor & broke :( a little guttered as it was a Graduation Gift from my Grandparents .. but very thankful it wasn't worse xxx







 

Friday 17 January 2014

My Small Business - Jane's Jewels NZ

Hey everyone, this blog post I will admit is a bit of advertising
for my small business! Jane's Jewels NZ!

I started making jewellery in my spare time (when I find any) about 7 years ago as yet another hobby. Unlike cross stitch & card making, jewellery making became a very passionate (& expensive) hobby of mine.

After a year or two of making jewellery, my father and many others kept suggesting I sell some of the Jewellery I make, as I cannot possibly wear them all .. so in 2011 I took their advice and my small business "Jane’s Jewels NZ" was created, so now I continue to enjoy my hobby of making Jewellery with love and selling it at a reasonable price is a great bonus :)


After Jane's Jewels NZ turned 1 year old, business really starting kicking off
and I started importing some different jewellery
and other "Jewels" in to purchase at a reasonable price :)


The name Jane’s Jewels NZ comes from our darling little cat Jane,
who always used to look after (& play) with my beads and jewellery making supplies, while I was trying to make jewellery.


Check out my Facebook page!!




Monday 13 January 2014

Introducing Atlas!

Atlas is 17 weeks old and is a Bernese Mountain Dog cross Rottweiler.

His mum was a purebred Bernese Mountain Dog and her owners found
out she was pregnant just one week before she gave birth to her
puppies (3 gorgeous little boys).
Dad is the neighbours purebred Rottweiler, who jumped the fence.

We drove to Hawkes Bay (about 2 hours away) on Saturday
the 9th of November to pick him up when he was just under 8 weeks old.
 
Atlas weighed 7kgs at the age of 8 weeks, now at 17 weeks he now
weighs a massive 18kgs, and still has a lot of growing to go!
He is going to be one BIG boy!

He is just gorgeous and we love him to pieces!




First Night At Home

Age 14 Weeks


Sunday 12 January 2014

Introducing Jane!

Since my blog is about everything in life and one of the main things in my life are my pets I thought I would introduce my pets! 

Starting with Miss Jane!

Jane is almost 3 years old and a little cutie! 

She loves cheese, chicken & treats.
Loves playing with pompoms & hair ties.

Jane can even play fetch with her pompoms,
even better than Atlas the puppy can!  

Last year in February Jane went missing for a week & arrived home with very sore hind legs. After a trip to the vet we discovered she had fractured her pelvic bone. The vet thinks she had been hit by a car, and then hid to recover & then slowly made her way home. What a brave little girl! She healed very well, but still struggles a bit with climbing through windows, so we put in a cat door, which has made it easier on her :)

Next post - Introducing Atlas! 






Exploring Outside - 2013
Just A Tiny Kitten - June 2011



 

Saturday 11 January 2014

About Me

Hi There :)
My first blog post is just a basic one about me :)
I'm Andrea & I am 26 years old.
(Birthday 1st March)
I enjoy talking, shopping & jewellery making.
I love animals, purple, chocolate, lollies & movies.
I live in Palmerston North, New Zealand with my partner Grant,
our cat Jane & our puppy Atlas

This blog will be about so many things ..
weight loss, depression, owning a house, pets
and most of all LIFE!

I hope you enjoy my blog :)






Our Beautiful Girl Jane

Our Gorgeous Boy Atlas