First Beach Trip

I love it here in Florida.  For many reasons.

But a main one.

I live here:
PICTURE
Navarre Beach

How can you NOT love this?  I live on the freaking beach!
No, my house isn't on the beach.  But it's a short drive to the beach.
I can come here every single day if I want to.

This is where I spent my Monday afternoon and evening.
Just playing in the water with my Husband.
Collecting seashells and sand dollars for our vase.
Sitting on the towel, enjoying the ocean breeze, the ocean smell, and our marriage.
Soaking up the mid-80 degree weather, getting a tan.
Watching as the sun slowly set.

Eventually, we had to leave.  We have responsibilities (a fur baby to feed) so we headed home.

But not before we stopped for one of our favorite things to do together....Sno Cones!!!!
Of course, we got our usual: Cotton Candy.
And they had His and Hers!  Pink and Blue!  And they tasted differently!

I can honestly say that this day as been my favorite day in Florida thus far.
I can't wait to come back!

I seriously love being in Florida!

Dog Beach

Another positive to Florida is they have Dog Beaches!

In Annapolis, we took Yadi to Quiet Waters Dog Park but it was just a grassy fenced-in area.  No water.  (The dog beach had been closed due to erosion.)  So we had to take her swimming at The Academy on Hospital Point and that water was NASTY!  I wouldn't even get in it.

But here, it's a large area with grass and then a beach!  There are frisbees and tennis balls all over for the dogs to play with.

We weren't sure how Yadi would do since she doesn't love the water, but doesn't hate it.  She'll get in and swim, but only if we're in there with her.

Not this time!  We walked in the fence, set our stuff down, took her leash and harness off and she ran right down the beach and into the water!  She just lunged right in!  I was so proud of her!

Nick and I got in the water and played with her.  She still loses her energy quickly so after too much swimming, you can tell she's tired and we have to hold her up.

I love that Yadi is still so puppy.  She still runs like a puppy...ya know, more so galloping and bounding up and down like a deer.  This is how she "runs" into the water too.  Take a look:

Yadi also hasn't mastered doggie paddling.  She stands more upright, like a dolphin and paddles.  So it takes her longer to get places.  Nick is trying to lean her forward more on her belly and support her to teach her how to swim like a real dog and not a dolphin.  But in time, she'll get it.

It was a fun day and Yadi did well with the other dogs.  I guess we haven't been exposing her to other dogs lately because she's been a little skittish of them.  She doesn't growl or bite at them but she's scared.  (However, in PetSmart, she loves ALL the dogs.)  But at the beach, she would sometimes run up to another dog and say hello (by sniffing their butt).  And when other dogs came up to her, or raced her for a a frisbee or ball, she didn't mind!  Success!  We think it's having a LOT of dogs around her at once makes her weird because she's fine with one or two dogs.

It was a fun day and we can't wait to bring her back!

Summer Milestone ReCap

A lot of things happened this summer.  Huge things.  Most of them good.  A few small were bad.  And some were emotional, to say the least.

Overall, it's been a great summer.  Definitely going to be one of the most memorable!

So let's recap, shall we?  (Or not, nothing forcing you to stay here and read this)

1.  I quit my job.  A job, that although I complained about it a lot, I really did love.  I left my kids, some whom I adored, some who I....well, strongly disliked.  I left my co-workers....two of which were my co-teachers and I really loved those girls.

2.  I watched, with tear-filled eyes and ever so proudly, as my [then fiancé] graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering AND commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy.

3.  I watched, as a bridesmaid, as one of my best friends got married AND as Nick participated in his first Sword Arch (it was also the first one I had seen in person).

4.  I GOT MARRIED TO MY BEST FRIEND!!!!  ....definitely the highlight and most exciting part of my summer.  Not only to finally start our life together, but to see alllllll of our hard work and planning finally come together. 

5.  I said sad goodbyes to Nick's Academy friends (the hardest being Julius, Dave, and Rob)....it was hard because they are Nick's best friends and have come to be like brothers to me.  It was hard because, with Navy life, and each having their respective hometowns to spend holidays in, we aren't sure when, or if we'd see them again.

6.  I traveled outside of the country for the first time.  To amazingly beautiful Jamaica.  I spent a wonderful seven days there with my HUSBAND just enjoying being catered to with all the food and drinks we wanted and all beautiful views we wanted.  I also climbed a waterfall and went to my first Margaritaville

7.  I visited Fast Eddie's for the first time.  It's a popular St. Louis bar with cheap yet HUGE servings of food.

8.  My brother turned 30....yet he doesn't look a day over 24 ;)

9.  I said goodbye to my friends, my cousin, my aunts, my uncles, my grandparents, my brothers, my sister, my dog, and my parents.  My parents were the hardest, especially my mother.  No offense to my father, I love him very much.  But there's a special bond between a mother and daughter.  Especially my mother and I.  Especially after all we went through.  She's my best friend.  

10.  I moved away from St. Louis, traveled across the country, and moved to Annapolis, Maryland.

11.  Nick and I moved into our first apartment together.  It didn't feel like home, seeing as it was only a 9-week temporary place, but it was nice to finally be living with Nick...in our place.

12.  We adopted our first child....our fur baby, Yadi.   We trained her, loved her, watched her grow.

13.  I met a new group of girls and had weekly Girls Nights. 

14.  For the first time ever, I missed the big family trip to the lake.  Actually, for the time since 1992 (or 1993) I did not go to the lake with my family.  My most loved place, my absolute favorite thing to do, I did not get to do.  (And boy was this hard to accept.)

15.  We developed a 'Weekly Oberkrom Family Tradition' of spending Friday nights with our dog walking around downtown Annapolis and getting ice cream.

16.  I went to Medieval Times!  (have wanted to go for a long time!)

17.  We had our first out of town guest, my best friend, Jessie.

18.  My "child" graduated from "school"

19.  Experienced my first earthquake AND hurricane.

20.  Experienced our first emergency vet visit

21.  We said goodbye to Nick's sponsors.  They are literally Nick's third family.  They've taken care of Nick and provided for him in a way parents do.  Nick wouldn't have had such an enjoyable time in Annapolis had it not been for them.  They offered him an escape from Academy life.  They offered him home cooked meals that he actually liked.  They went above and beyond what sponsors should be like.  He finally gained two "little brothers" with his sponsors....someone to go bowling with, play video games until the early morning hours, someone to look out for, someone to offer advice for.  Nick said his goodbyes and sent one of them off to the Citadel and I know he was so proud of him.

22.  We moved from Maryland to Florida.  Had our first experience driving a 26 foot moving truck, pulling our car on a tow dolly.

23.  We moved into our first "home."  We have a house....a three bedroom, office, two bath, fenced in yard HOUSE.  

24.  I learned to cook.  Granted, we consume a lot of chicken in this house, but I'm always finding new recipes to try so at least they all taste differently.

25.  I have a new group of girls to have Girls Nights with.

26.  I live, for the first time, in a very country, southern town.

27.  I live, for the first time, on the ocean!

28.  I live in a place that experiences fall much later.  While "summer" is technically over, we're still having mid-80 degree weather and it's still so hot and humid here.  (which I am 100% okay with).

29.  We reunited with Julius.  

30.  I became a Florida resident....equipped with my Florida driver's license, became a Florida resident, and registered to vote!

I'm pretty sure that's a fairly accurate recap of my summer. 

Thankfully, because we're in the Sunshine State, I have a few more weeks of "summer" left.  I hope to spend a good majority of my weekends at the beach trying to get my tan on. Ya know, just in time for it to fade =/

I hope most of you are able to look at your summer with the same smile on your face as I have. Yes, moving away was hard and I miss my family more than I can bear sometimes.  But I'm finally with my best friend.  We have our own little family.  We're "traveling" (and doing it for free, essentially.)  We're living that blissful married life.  And I am happy.  Truly happy.

Happy Fall Everyone.  Friends and family back home, stay warm and dry ;)

And remember, we still have a few more weeks of beach weather...it's not too late to jump on a plane!

Florida: Our New Home

Well, today marks one week since we've been in our new home.

I love it.  The house is better than I expected it to be.  We're still trying to set things up and make it more homey.  There's a lot of wall space so we're trying to figure out what all we're going to do with it.  On one wall, (the hallway wall), we're going to do a wall gallery of various framed things.
We also have a giant plant ledge and I'm not sure if we'll put anything up there.  I'm not a huge plant person so although it's made for plants, I don't think we'll put those up there.
If you all have some suggestions for things that would take up a lot of wall space, send them my way!
The other issue is money.  We aren't the richest people so we don't want to go out and buy a lot of new things (especially because we've had to buy various new things we NEEDED for the house).

Here are my current thoughts on the house:

It's great having a separate room for an office.  And even better having two extra bedrooms.....just because of the two extra closets ;)  (Nick and I both have a lot of clothes and shoes)

Yadi loves her yard.  The first two days, she wouldn't go more than 10 feet away from the patio.  But now she roams all over the thing.  The only bad thing about the yard, which is apparently just a Florida thing, is we don't have dirt. There is sand with grass growing in it.  Which really sucks because it's tracked into the house SO easily.  And our entire house is hardwood and tile.  So it constantly feels like there's a light layer of dirt/dust on the floors.  I'm going to be sweeping almost every night it appears.  BUT I'd rather be sweeping every night than vacuuming.  We're more than likely going to buy a vac & steamer in one appliance.
The sand also stinks because Yadi has discovered her love for digging.  And sand makes it so much easier for her to dig =/  So word to the wise....or really just anyone who might walk around our yard, watch out for holes.  I'm warning you, so don't blame me for broken ankles.

We've met a few neighbors.  The couple across the street from us are really cool, but unfortunately are moving to Japan in 3 weeks =(  The guy is a Marine recruiter and he was nice enough to help Nick carry in the furniture that was just too heavy for me.  He also gave us great advice on things and places.
We also met the old man next door.  Our first evening in our home, he came over with a tupperware full of dinner, some dessert bread, and things to eat it all with. How incredibly nice!

The neighborhood is perfect.  It's very quiet and all families living here.  There are about 40 houses in the neighborhood, and easily 7 cops or Sheriffs living here.  Which is reassuring for the days/nights when Nick will be away from home.  One of the Sherifs actually lives DIRECTLY behind us...we share the back fence.  He is really nice and has a wife and two small children.  When standing on our front porch looking out, another Sheriff lives directly to our left AND diagonally across to our left =)  I like that!

I've only had three complaints with the house thus far (well 4 if you count the sand issue).

• One being, we were told this place had a washer and dryer.  And it does.  But they look as if they were the first washer and dryer ever made.  We haven't used them yet.  I'm scared.  The washing machine doesn't close properly and it has a lot of rust at the top on the inside.  I'm nervous to wash our clothes and have it ruin them!  We're thinking about purchasing our neighbors when they move in 3 weeks.  They're MUCH better and they're selling them for $150 (together, not each piece.)  This will also help when we move and don't have to search for places that have a washer/dryer.  Now we'd have our own.  But what do we do for these next 3 weeks??
• Two being,  we don't have a garbage disposal.  Not a HUGE deal but it's hard to break the habit of rinsing food down the sink, to then remember and have to fish it all out.  Gross!
• Three being the tile.  We only have tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.  But the look of it, it's like a beige with splotches of gray in it.  It looks dirty all the time!  Anyone who enters our house, I promise you that our kitchen floor isn't dirty, it's just the dumb coloring/pattern.

Now the review of our town:

We live in Milton, which is a little ways away from Pensacola.  We chose to live here because Nick will spend much more time at the base close to our house as opposed to the shorter amount of time at the base in Pensacola.  

Pensacola and all the surrounding areas, such as Milton, are very country.  It's definitely more of an Alabama feel than a "Florida" feel.  But I like it.  It reminds me of a home a little bit.  It's redneck but not white trash redneck.  It's a good down home southern country feel.  There's really not a lot to do in the area.  There aren't many bars or things of that nature, but at the same time, even if there were, I don't see Nick and I doing that a lot.  We're almost 27 and a little out of that party stage.  Yes, every one in a while would be fun, but we're totally over the going out every weekend and partying.  We're more of the go out with friends and have some drinks as opposed to partying.  And there's plenty of bars/restaurants to enjoy a great with friends =)

And obviously there's the beach....of which we've yet to visit and I am HIGHLY upset by this.

Milton actually doesn't have much.  There are a LOT of dollar stores, pawn shops, and coin shops.  There is also an insane amount of churches.  Seriously.  There is easily 3 churches on EVERY single corner.  And most of them are Baptists, Church of Christ, or Assembly of God.  I havet yet to see a single Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Protestant, or non denomination Christian churches.  However, there are two Catholic churches near me, and one was highly recommended by two friends so that's where I plan to go.
My county (Santa Rosa) does not sell alcohol on Sundays.  LAME!  Nick had to run to the store tonight and when he came back, he said he tried to get us some wine to drink tonight for our first week in our house (surprised he thought of that) but wasn't able to buy it.  (But the county over, just like 10 minutes away sells it.).

Overall, I love it here.  The people are ridiculously friendly!  In our 9 weeks in Annapolis, we met 3 people in our apartment complex...who we lived so close to.  We met two neighbors in a matter of 5 hours of being here.  And we've met more since.  The cashiers are so friendly and strike up a conversation with you.  Strangers smile and say hi.  THIS is what I'm used to and what I like.  

I think I will enjoy my time here, but I know after about 2 years, I will be ready to leave this small town and experience something new.  Like I said, I like it here, but couldn't do it for more than a few years.

Stay tuned as I will eventually take you on a tour of our home =)  

Day One in Florida

If you read this post, then you know we arrived at about 7:15am.  We pulled up, parked the truck and car in the street (since you can't reverse with the tow dolly).

Nick told me to leave Yadi in the car while we went and checked out the house.

We walked up to the door, opened the lock box, and Nick unlocked our first home <3

He then swooped me off my feet, carried me across the threshold and said, "Welcome Home, Wife" and planted a big ol' fat smooch on my lips.  <3  [Have I mentioned how much I Love him?!]

We then walked around the house and checked it out and fell in love!!!  It's better than the pictures we saw!  ...But I'll get into that when I have more time.

After checking out the house we let Yadi run around in it and her new huge backyard.  She LOVED it!  Although, she'll have to get used to the floors.  The living room, hallway, bedrooms, and office are all hardwood floors.  She slips and slides all over them...occasionally letting out a yelp when she "hurts" herself.

After letting her explore we were ready for some sleep so we then opened the truck, pulled out a mattress, two pillows, and the blanket from the cab of the truck.  We took them into our master bedroom, put them down, and the three of us crashed for about 2-3 hours.

When we woke up, we started unpacking.  This cute old man from next door came over to introduce himself (he's about my grandfather's age).  Then the guy and his wife (Matt & Mallory) across the street came over.  They seem really nice but they're leaving for Japan in a month =(  Matt offered to help Nick move some stuff as well (later that evening, Nick took him up on his offer and had him help move the 4 pieces of furniture that were just too heavy for me.)

Yadi did REALLY well with the unpacking.  At first we had her leash attached to the truck and she was up in the truck with us, supervising I suppose.

But every time we'd go in the house, she'd try to follow then howl and whine and bark until we came back out.
[Have I mentioned little princess NEEDS to be by us at all times?  In the house, she's on your heels....literally.  She's always stepping on the back of my flip flops!]  It's a little ridiculous BUT it does work in our favor sometimes.  Like unpacking.  We took her off her lease.  She would walk up into the truck with us, walk down with us, into the house, then back out.  Her velcro ways are great in a sense because she will never run away.  She can't be more then 20 feet from us.  So she made unpacking really easy for us.
But eventually she tired out...ya know, must have been tired from WATCHING us carry in all these boxes.

We finished unpacking and then headed out to see what all Milton had to offer (there are plenty of fast food places, a 24 Hour Supercenter Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, Publix (their large grocery store), etc just 10 minutes or less from our house.) While we were out, we grabbed some dinner since we didn't have much food and all our dishes, pots, pans, and utensils were still packed.

When we returned, the old man next door brought over some dinner, banana nut bread, and disposable plates and utensils for us.  How sweet!!!  (too bad we had JUST eaten =/  )  We spent the evening setting up a few things, mainly our bedroom and living room and then we crashed in our new home <3

First Day : Success!!!

Journey to Florida

We made it =)  We are finally in our Florida Home.
And I'm loving it.

But let me back track and recap our journey here:

We picked the truck and dolly up on Thursday the 8th and then weighed them empty.  Packed the stuff from the storage unit into the truck.

Friday, September 9th was our departure day.  It was the day our lease was up.  We had to be out.
We had some set backs that day (people not signing Nick's paperwork for absolutely no reason, lack of muscles to help move heavy items (I'm a tiny girl and it was just us two), a dog to watch in the process of moving things down 3 flights of stairs, Nick getting sick for a few hours, POURING rain the majority of the day, etc.)  We finally had the truck completely packed, apartment cleaned, said our goodbyes to our first home, and locked the doors.
But we couldn't start our trek yet.  We had to get the car onto the tow dolly. That was a scary experience and I do not want to do it again.  After some trial and error, it was up and held tight.  Hooray!!!

Nick & his sunflower chewing

We finally left Annapolis at 1:30am.  We didn't make it too far. Even though Nick has his sunflower seeds (his go-to when he needs to stay awake), we didn't last long.  After only two hours of driving, we stopped to sleep.  It sucks but we had been going all day....woke up at 7am and had been packing all day.  We stopped in the parking lot of a giant grocery store plaza.  Yadi slept in her bed on the floorboard, I slept on the bench seat and Nick slept in the Accord.
After two hours of sleep, we hit the road again.  We only made it another 2 hours before Nick needed to stop again and sleep.  We slept for another 2-3 hours at a truck stop and then we headed on the road again for quite a few more hours.

We drove through the rest of Virginia.
I noticed they don't have billboards.  Odd.  And frustrating when you're wanting a truck stop and something to eat.  I also noticed how green it is here and I LOVE it!!!!

At this point, I realized how frustrating this truck/tow dolly is!  We can't reverse.  So anywhere we go, it needs to have a large enough parking lot to make our HUGE wide turns, and it also needs two exits/entrances.  ANNOYING!  Hence why we pretty much only pull over for gas at Pilot and Flying J's (truck stops).

Also at this point, realized we were only getting 6 miles to the gallon in our 55 gallon truck.  OUCH!  That hurts the wallet =/

But no other choice but to keep going.

You might be asking, how was Yadi doing?  Well, the car has a spell over Yadi.  She can be bat shit crazy but they moment she gets into a car, she's zonked out!  She will sleep until you turn the car off.

sleeping on her mommy

We finally got into North Carolina.  I got to experience Zaxby's for the first time.  It's a fast food chicken joint so naturally, Nick loves it.  I wasn't all that impressed.  The chicken was good but no better than anything else I've had.  Their Zaxby's sauce was good, but again, nothing to be obsessed about.  (I was a little disappointed.)

And then we got into South Carolina.  They definitely love their peaches, rugs, and fireworks. That stuff was everywhere!  And they even have a peach water tower!

Then we made it into Georgia.  Atlanta was a nightmare!

There is construction everywhere.  And driving a giant 26 foot U-Haul truck, pulling a tow dolly through the narrow lanes of construction was NOT fun!  I was super proud of Nick for doing it.  I know it was nerve racking for him but he also found it "exciting"....weirdo.

After Atlanta, we stopped again (around 11pm) and took a short nap.

Someone didn't want to nap.  Can you blame
her?  She's been sleeping for almost 22 hours.

Then we kept on trucking (haha, get it?!) and crossed into Alabama.

We came to a creepy, creepy town....Brewton.  It was about 3am and I've never been more scared.  This place looked like an old abandoned town.  It was so run down.  It looked like something straight out of Chain Saw Massacre.  It also smelled awful!  The entire town smelled like that old, musty, dusty old people basement smell.

can't count on my furious guard dog to protect us =/

Of course, this would be the point were Nick gets tired and needs to pull over.  We came to a Wal-Mart and stopped in their parking lot....it wasn't a 24 hour one (go figure) but it was lit.  Thankfully, Nick said he was going to sleep in the truck with us.  If he had said he was going to sleep in the Accord again, I would have chained him to the steering wheel and forced him to sleep in the cab with us.  There was no way he was leaving me alone to be brutally murdered.  Sounds crazy but trust me, this place was legit murder scene from a movie/  (Just as other Pensacola girls who've had to drive through there).

After about 2 hours (in which I couldn't sleep and was fully aware of every little noise), we got back on the road and got the hell out of Brewton!  (My naive husband saw nothing wrong with this place.  What the crap, Nick?!)

We arrived in Florida just as the sun was rising.  Oddly enough, this was the first sunrise Nick and I had ever seen together <3  ...how perfect that it was as we were just 20 minutes from our first real HOME.
And then we made it.  We pulled into our driveway at about 7:15am =)

Thank goodness.  Safe and sound.

Click HERE to read about Day One in Florida
Click HERE to read about Our New Florida Home

Yadi Leg Updates

Today, Yadi acted as if nothing was wrong with her leg.  It was still visibly swollen but you couldn't tell by her actions.  She was running all over the house.  Trying to jump on the bed.  Jumping on the couch, then jumping off (of course only when we yelled at her to get down).  Chasing her toys.  Running laps in our apartment....(which aren't long laps considering we have a tiny apartment.) 

We had originally planned to go to various Navy tailgates today but last night had nixed them.  We didn't want to leave Yadi in her crate, alone, until her leg had healed more (for fear she's remember she can get out (forgetting she hurt herself) and attempting to escape again and in the process putting too much stress on her leg and injuring herself more.) And we didn't think we could take her with us, as was our original plan.

But after seeing how she was acting, we decided, 'why not?'  I mean, what's the difference between her running around the apartment acting like an idiot and casually walking around the stadium?  The tailgating plan actually seemed to be less stress on her leg.  At least she'd only be walking instead of running and jumping.

We got to the stadium and started walked around.  We stopped by 1st Company tailgate and said a quick hello.  Then we walked all the way around to the front of the stadium down to the street to watch the midshipman march over.  (They all "march" (casually walk) over, in their companies, from the Academy to the stadium.)

After watching that, we headed over to what was supposed to be a tailgate that a bunch of USNA significant others were hosting.  We walked around the church parking lot where it was said to be held but I didn't see a single tailgate!  So we just decided to head back to the car to go home, rest, and come back after the game for 1st Companies tailgate.

As we were walking, Nick noticed Yadi's foot was bleeding.  Not horribly but not just surface.  It was dripping a little.  We had noticed her hurt leg was dragging a little but nothing too major.  Well, apparently, she was dragging it enough that the front of her foot was scraping the ground.  The front of the pad of one of her toes had a chunk taken out of it.  Poor little girl.  She's usually a HUGE baby so we were surprised she wasn't whining.

We didn't want her to walk anymore so Nick went to get the car while Yadi and I sat in the shade by the side of the road (and she nawed on some sticks...shocker!)

[I feel awful!  We are horrible parents!  We should have just kept her at home =( ]

We got home and Yadi was so exhausted she passed out hard core for about an hour and a half.
We decided it wasn't worth it to go back to the stadium for just an hour or so of tailgating.

So we stayed in and had a movie party with just our little family =)  

Now it's bedtime and although Yadi was still acting all crazy tonight, running laps around the apartment and jumping all over, the swelling appears to be going down! 

ER Vet Trip for Yadi

Yesterday morning Nick and I left at 8am for a moving seminar at Fleet & Family services.

When we walked into the house, we went straight to the bedroom to get Yadi out of her crate and take her outside to potty.
When we walked in the room, Yadi wasn't in her crate.  I wasn't sure where she was because when we come home, she's OVERLY excited to see us.  Like, spastic.  My heart started pounding.

I think saw how destroyed the blinds were.  Then I noticed she was behind them.  I lifted the blinds and she was lying on the window sill.  She was barely moving.  She was almost lifeless.  And lying in a puddle of her own urine.
This is what scared me.  I was worried she was in some shock or something.

We were calling her name and moved her and we noticed how cut up and swollen her left hind leg was.

I immediately said we needed to get her to the vet.  Not because of her leg, but because of how she was acting and that she was just lying in her own urine.

So we hopped in the car and headed to the vet.

We didn't see our normal vet but I liked the woman we saw. She saw no signs of bleeding in the eyes and no signs of trauma.  Thank goodness.  We think her demeanor was from being so scared and in so much pain.
Her snout, legs, and belly were cut but her left hind leg was the worst of all.  The vet didn't think there was anything wrong anywhere else though and the cuts weren't deep enough to require stitches.

They took some x-rays and results were good.  There is nothing wrong with her bones.  She can't tell if there is any damage to tendons.  Only time will tell.  If she isn't using her leg much by Tuesday, we'll need to bring her back in to see a surgeon (We can NOT afford a surgery.)
She gave her a shot of pain meds and a narcotic.  She also gave us some prescription pain meds/anti-inflammatory to give her twice a day for the next 5 days.
She needs to rest for the next 3 days with limited leash walking and she suggested we use something as a  sling-like contraption to help her.  We have to carry her up and down the stairs to go potty...which isn't the easiest task since she's now up to 45 pounds!!!!!

We brought her home and gave her a bath since she smelled horribly of urine.  Then she passed right out for quite a few hours.

After she fell asleep, I examined the crate to see how she managed to get out.  The crate is in the corner of the room and the door opens towards the window, right next to it.

Somehow she managed to get the top latch open, but not the bottom.  It didn't open all that much but she somehow managed to get her large body out of it.

So when she was crawling out, the only direction she could go was into the window sill.  And then was too hurt to move.  I really hope she wasn't there long =(

Yadi LOVES her crate.  That's not the issue at all.  Her issue is that she's clingy.  When we get up and walk into another room, she has to follow.  If we walk into the bedroom, she comes running behind us and runs immediately to her crate and lays down.  She can't STAND to not be around us.
Yadi had been okay with being left in her crate.  But the past week or so, when we'd come home, she'd be howling and crying.  For some reason, she's come to not be okay in her crate when we leave.  I don't understand!  She needs to get used to it.  She is going to have to be in it for a few hours.  We just don't want her breaking out and hurting herself again.  So we're going to either zip-tie her in or buy tiny locks. 
This girl is a handful!!!

Yadi is resting now.  And around 9pm tonight she was up and was walking around.  It's still very swollen but she's putting some weight on it which is a good sign.  But it's also making it hard to keep her resting and off of it. I guess we'll see how the rest of the weekend goes.