Kipper

I miss my dog.

I miss him terribly. We had to let him go last Sunday, August 4. He was 11 years old and for the last year and a half, maybe more, his hind legs had been bothering him to the point where it was visible that he was having a hard time going up and down the steps. He liked to sleep at the end of our bed where he has his own pillow so when it was time to come upstairs, he'd take his time and as time progressed he was slower and slower.

He brought everyone in our family lots of love. As most animals do. When he was much younger, he certainly was not a friendly pup. 3 members of our family met with his sharp teeth. When he snapped at one of the triplets, we thought he was going to go away, since we had to take the toddler  to the ER and of course explain what had happened. Fortunately the baby was fine, nothing but a small scratch on her scalp. 

You would think he, like a cat, had many lives. 

His name was Kipper. A friend form work back in 2008 was fostering a family of baby chows along with their mom. Julie, who passed died a few years ago was a very friendly animal lover and she did not want the puppies to return to the shelter so she arranged for all to be adopted, except for Mr. burns whom she kept and raised to be a very friendly therapy, service dog. Totally opposite of what Kipper would grow up to be.

When I went to her home to see the pups, the color of kipper was what caught my attention. Golden soft hair all over, climbing over his brothers and sisters and would not stay still. 

I had not mentioned anything about this to Melissa. I wanted it to be a surprise for her. At the time, we already had a dog, Lulu. 

Lulu was a cute small dog who fit Melissa's personality. Perhaps because she had this dog, I felt that I needed not only a dog that was kind of "my dog" but also one to keep Lulu company.

So, one summer day I went to get him and drove to the office where Melissa worked and surprised her with Kipper.

So many stories, so many pictures, so many moments that will forever be etched in our memories.

Today he came home. His ashes anyways but his presence has not left the house and probably never will.

Welcome to 2019

It's been about a year and just by reading my last post, exactly about a year ago, not much has changed.

Government is a mess with another shutdown. Only silver lining is that the democrats took back the house of representatives, while the senate remained in Republican hands. Our government has been divided before but never like this where everyone, including the electorate are constantly attacking each other. It's hard to remain silent and most everyone has something to say, mostly through social media. 

What has happened in the last year?

My wife's dad passed away after a short period of being in bed he had been battling with diabetes and much like my mom and my dad, the disease won out against them. We will for sure miss him. 

The triplets are now in second grade. Charlie and Catherine are enrolled in Gymnastics three times during the week while Cecilia is involved in Ballet twice a week. Our life as parents is really busy with school, extra curricular activities, school activities and birthdays in addition to full schedule at work.

Olivia and Anthony are busy with their own lives as mini adults. Olivia decided to return home after being in Reno for two school calendar years. She is now enrolled at UNLV full time. Anthony is also going to school part time while working a full time job in construction. He is learning a lot about the business. This is good.

Last year in February was the anniversary of my mom's death. I ended up going to Oaxaca during those days. Got to see some of my sisters during my time in San Miguel.

I also got to go in the last part of the year after Christmas. This was definitely a time to relax and unwind, without any worries. Only bad part of trip was me getting sick. 3 days of Montezuma's revenge was not fun.

No trips to Disneyland this past year. We decided to have the girls' birthday at home this time with their school friends and family, the usual crowd.

There was a Lopez family reunion (My mom's side of the family) in LA. That turned out to be a good weekend getaway with all the family.

In between the busyness of our lives we also managed to go camping. Cedar Breaks in Utah was a great location, though we found out that Catherine gets altitude sickness. 

Overall it was a good year for all of us.

I sure hope I can keep up with this Blog a lot more often than I have in the last few years. 

Gotta come back and upload pictures to this post.