Resting day...sort of..

Wednesday...was suppose to be a rest day, but for me if I don't keep going then I just want to stop as if I never started. I got home and changed right into my running clothes, did some laundry, then when Dan got home we went to eat at Tsing Tsao, which for those of you who have never heard of it, it's an amazing Chinese Restaurant here in Urbandale. However, I'm pretty sure their food is the first thing next to clogged arteries. I did have to try something new that I thought would be a little bit better then the usual Kung Pao Beef I get. So I got Broccoli Chicken, steamed Broccoli with chicken breast and rice, not the best I have ever had but it's healthy so I made due :) Dan of course had the Chicken Fried Rice, I don't think he ever gets anything different there, that's okay I know he loves it!

After dinner, we went for a walk, so first I tried to convince Dan to go on my run with me, he was not having any of that. So then I said, "okay well since it's my day that I am suppose to be resting will you at least go for a walk with me?" I got him to go, and as soon as we got out of the house we start hearing this horrible howl from the house, yes, it was Buddie. We had never heard him do this before when we left, he was fine when we left so we just chalked it up to him wanting us to be home with him, and as much as I wanted to stay and hold him we walked away. So we start walking, and I say, "alright I need to walk 2 miles," and I thought Dan was going to turn around right there, he didn't think I was serious. He made it all the way through the walk haha no worries or complaints, and he just says, "just imagine doing this 13 times." He cracks me up..I had to remind him that when I told him we were doing a 10 mile bike ride he thought that was going to take forever and it would be so hard, then when we were done, he had a great time, and it wasn't as bad as he thought. He still begs to differ that running is a whole other issue. Which I agree it's a little harder, but it will be something I can tell our kids I did.

Strictly Buddie business (for those who are following his journey). Buddie and I got into bed while Dan made some phone calls, and Buddie would not stop licking his paw. I finally went to the end of the bed to look at what he was doing, and he has licked part of it so much that the pad is now white, and it was bleeding. I don't deal very well with blood so of course I go and get Dan (like there was something we could do about it) he finally quit, mostly because he was sick of me yelling at him probably. It was fine this morning and he wasn't licking it. Other than that, he is the happiest dog in the world. Probably because he loves summer, and sun bathing ;)

Love,

The Buchholz 3

Day Two...Picked a Marathon!

Day 2 was a little easier, I think... The weather was perfect for a run a little wind to start and about half way through, RAIN!! I don't know what is more exhilarating running, and being able to free your mind and just run or running in the rain to feel as though you are being washed clean of all the bad in this world! Either way, I highly recommend it to everyone! I think I have finally got my sister convinced to do this marathon with me, anyone is more than welcome to join us as well. The one I want to do is 224 days away, The Disney World Marathon...yes, yes, I will be running my first marathon in one of my favorite places in the world, and my sister will be there with me! Really, what more motivation does one person need right?! Okay, well it is only my second day, so I may need someone to remind me of this in like a month haha. I found my training plan on http://www.marathonrookie.com/ a big thanks to that website. I actually started out a little different this week since it has been so long since I have really ran. The real challenge will probably be next week. I will have ran 10 miles by this Sunday, then next week with the goal of running 15 miles by week end.

I have also been working on eating better, I think I mentioned that before, getting back to my college days of eating to be able to workout a lot. Last night was another new recipe (Dan was gone, but I think he was going to try it for lunch) they are Banana Corn Fritters, they don't taste anything like they sound and they are so yummy, with a side of green beans and cottage cheese, and a big glass of milk (It does my body good :) ) The rest of the night was spent cuddling with Buddie, who I have to say is in wonderful spirits, even though he still prefers to sit and watch TV than go for a walk with me, which is a little say considering that used to be his favorite thing in the world, now if you say, "let's go for a walk," he rolls on his back so you can't put his leash on him :( but I will take all the cuddles in the world, so we watched Biggest Loser then cuddled in bed.

Love from the Buchholz 3

First Run!

Okay, so yesterday was VERY hot here in Iowa (for those out of state) Dan and I don't have air in our house (yet) so we just have fans, which I like to be warm so it doesn't bother me too much. To give you an idea of what it was like in our house, (on Dan's defense) when I got home at 5:00 it was 91 degrees, and that's with two fans in our living room, and our living room isn't big at all! We grilled out, Tilapia, which was sooo good, I must say, even for people that don't care for fish, aka Dan. He really did like it. Tay came over (Co-worker of Dan's) for a while to play video games which was nice, it gave me time to hydrate before my run, and Buddie LOVES Tay, like really loves him. Buddie hates to cuddle when he is hot, but last night he had no problems sitting on Tay haha. Needless to say Buddie was in a great mood..his friend was there, and he got ice cream when I got home because I felt bad for him. Usually, he has to wait until after dinner or when Dan and I eat dinner to get his ice cream so he wont beg for our food.







I stretched and got ready for my run about 8:00 and it was still 85 degrees out. Which normally I would be fine, but I knew being that this was going to be my first run and I haven't ran since maybe a month after our wedding, if not before our wedding (7 months ago already!) I thought it would get to me. So I mapped out my run on http://www.runningmap.com/ which if you are a runner or walker or biker, you would love this because you can see how far you have gone and then if you have an iPhone they can track all of it, time, distance, and so on if you get the app. Either way I had it set in my mind that my first run was going to be 1.5 miles and I did it. I actually did it rather quick too. It probably helps that I do use workout videos to do cardio and strength training in the house, so I never lost all of my muscle. It was hot and sticky but very enjoyable at the same time. I actually can't wait to do my strength training tonight and then get back out there for 2 miles!! Wish me luck!





This is how I looked when I got done, out of breath
sweating like crazy, and ready for a freezing cold shower (I did take one), but at the same time refreshed and energized. 26 miles here we come!! :) My husband still thinks I'm crazy for doing this, hopefully I can get him to join in.....
one of these days!!









Love from the Buchholz three :)

1 week and a few days later...

It's been just over a week since we got the news about Buddie, things I don't feel have changed a ton. (very happy about this) I felt like the first few days, it was like he knew something was wrong with him, he didn't want to do anything, he just slept for a good three days. We got him some bones, and tons of doggie ice cream. We are spoiling him like crazy and he has actually been really good. Mornings, seem to be when he is feeling his best after a long nights rest. He is always ready to get up at 5:45 and play and eat, then he likes his morning nap, and by the time we get home he seems to be pretty tired. A lot of people have been asking about him so I thought I should do a quick update on him. Check out the photos from the last week, he's starting to get a little annoyed with all the photos :)

On another note, I had a baby shower Saturday morning, it was so beautiful for such a wonderful event. It was for another family friend, it was a great girls day I must say, she looked beautiful, she has about 6 weeks left. Saturday night, we had a wedding reception for an old co-worker. They got married back in December because her mom was sick. It was a great night, the couple looked so happy, and the reception was beautiful! We had a great table at the reception with people we used to work with, it was really a lot of fun. Some of us went out after the reception. I talked to some people and they had asked me if I was training for a marathon and I kind of laughed, and said I'm way too lazy for that. Then I remembered I am suppose to be doing a half marathon for one of my resolutions, whoops, must have forgot. So it got me thinking, so what am I doing, today I am going to start running. So wish me luck! I really do need to workout more than I do, but running and I have a love hate relationship, I love how I feel when I am done, but I look so stupid doing it, and I go so slow I feel like I should just walk ha ha. I am going to put my mind to it and just do it, and hopefully by this time next year I can sign up for a marathon with my sister. So like I said day 1 of 365 days of running.

Dan on the other hand, hes working, I feel like he works all the time, mostly because he has to work every Saturday so I don't feel like we have weekends together by the time he gets off. He and my Dad went golfing on Sunday and he said he didn't play very well, but I'm guessing that's because we were out late on Saturday night. Other than that, he has a lot of football friends from Central getting married this summer, so starting in June we will be very busy with weddings on the weekends.






We are both looking forward to the three day weekend this week! 4 days left of work this week :)







Love from the Buchholz house!

From the Mouth of Me..Buddie the Dog :)

Hey everyone, just wanted to thank everyone for all the kind words, and prayers, we need them around here. Everything is going to be alright, I just have to convince my parents of that now :). Right now I'm feeling alright, I have my days though, it all started about the beginning of March when the lumps first started showing. They make it a little hard to play for long periods of time with my parents but we still get to play a lot. I can't swallow as well anymore but the benefit of that..great meals not that hard dog food, my mom actually cooks for me...haha some of you humans don't even get that :) We're going to take one day at a time, last night was really hard around here, my mom would finally stop crying (and soaking me in her tears) and then someone else would call or text or write her a message, which actually put a smile on her face, so thanks everyone! I just cuddled her and my dad last night, Dads really sad too as much as he is trying to be strong for mom. Not everything is bad about this situation, I get to sleep in their bed, be on the couch as much as I want, get awesome treats from Grandma and Grandpa (they bought me ice cream at DQ last night) so I mean as much as I am going to miss this life it's been an awesome one. I will try and write to you all, mom has been flashing that camera ever since we got the news, its okay I know she wants as many pictures as possible around the house, I mean really I am Gods happiest and let me say Greatest dog :) haha gotcha all laughing!

Today I'm going to help mom around the house, watch her workout (since I can't really go

on the walks that we used to), go pick out some treats at the pet store (bring on the bones) and maybe head out to the lake to take some family portraits :) How can you not love this life! Take a look at our pictures so far. Don't forget to smile and love your pets, even when we do things we're not supposed to!

Love,

Buddie

Sad day for the Buchholz Three

What a long week...

We got the call we didn't want today...Buddie has cancer. He has Lymphosarcoma, which isn't curable. There isn't anything we can do but give him pain medication, even if he could do chemo he would always have the cancer and we don't want to put him through all that pain. We are going to love him and spoil him (more than we do now) and let him enjoy his life. When the day comes the three of us will know. We will know that we gave his the best life we could in the time he was with us. He is the happiest dog and that's how we want to remember him.

It's hard to believe we have only had him for two years, we have always talked about how he would be around our kids (thinking he would be here that long). I will do my best to keep everyone posted, there will probably be a ton of pictures from here on out :) Thanks everyone for all the kind words, thoughts, and prayers.

Love from the Buchholz House

Prayers for Buddie!

Wow, so it's been over a month since I have posted but really not a ton has been going on. We have been working like crazy, and just trying to take in as much time as we can when we are at home together. This past week however, we took Buddie to the vet. He has had swollen glands for about a month now but we didn't think much of it, but then on Monday he started having and issue with his, which turned out to be nothing they just gave us eye drops for that. However, the "glands" turned out to be his lymph nodes which she said, "usually that happens if they have an infection in that part of the body," well all of his lymph nodes are swollen, so she was very concerned. She did a biopsy that night to send to ISU to have tests done. We hopefully will know by tomorrow what is going on. We pray that it isn't cancer, being that I looked up costs for treatment and for the chemo a lone it's about $2,000 for 6 weeks of treatment and that doesn't include any pain medications. Needless to say I've been spending tons of time with him, and cried some too. He is my baby, and it wont be pretty if something happens to him. So please pray for him, I know it's strange to some people that we can love a dog so much but he really is like our kid.