For (a) Wedding and a funeral

Firstly so that no one worries about the funeral part of the title, lets just get that out of the way shall we and then move on.

The funeral was for our wee Max, on November 6th we lost him on the operating table, he was having a lump taken out of his neck, he flatlined and died, we were and still are devastated.
We are now a home without dogs. Some of you may be wondering what happened to Ava, well, I'm afraid that we ended up having her put to sleep, she and Max got to the point that they were fighting every day. It seemed no matter what I tried with her it failed. So when they had a huge fight that left Max needing an emergency visit to the vets, we made the call and had her put down the same day. We spoke to the pound where we got her from and they were unwilling to take her back knowing that she had attacked another dog. So even though it broke my heart doing it, and even though I felt a total failure, it was the right decision. I wasn't about to pass her on to someone else to deal with.
Because of this fight Max had ongoing problems which meant frequent trips to the vets. It was highly likely that the injuries he sustained caused an infection within his body that we just couldn't clear up. His lymph nodes were swollen and as a last resort we decided to go with removal and another biopsy to try and determine exactly what the problem was. We already knew that it was some form of cancer growing. It was during this operation that he died, it was unexpected, although I very nearly brought him home, I had a feeling in my gut. I should have trusted it. The staff at the vets were distraught too, especially the vet, he looked so sad when I went to pick Max up that I just hugged him. I even got a phone call a few days later from one of the veterinary nurses to see how I was doing, which I thought was lovely, they had all been in a fit of gloom too.

The last photos I ever took, the day before he died

 Run free Maxy Moo, we miss you xx

Maybe we'll get another dog at some point but not until after the wedding.
And it's because of the wedding that I've not been blogging, I've just been too busy. Well that and I was just feeling exhausted all the time.
The cause of the exhaustion turned out to be diabetes, so now I have to live with that, gotta watch my sugar intake, such fun, especially at this time of year. Ah well, moving on.
After our visitors left in June, (the last time I made a post) we pretty much hibernated through the winter, it was a wet one.
That last time I blogged about any home improvements was way back in February, here. I can tell you now that a lot has happened since then.
Basically, and the short version is, we put in a new kitchen!! And it's bloody lovely, after we had decorated the family room end and got the new furniture, to be honest the kitchen just looked like shit!
Wanna see some piccy's? Course ya do.....Hold on to your butts, there are shitloads of photos

Joe starts to take out the old kitchen, started 2nd September 2017

 

 A  new double glazed door goes in

 All the Gib board came off

 And Michael had to level the walls by adding new stud work (pink)

 As is the norm with old house, no walls are straight, our was 30mm wider at one end than the other.

 Then we decided to put in a wider, new double glazed window

  New Gib board goes up and gets painted

 New window in

 The pantry door

 New kitchen gets installed on the 22nd November

 Ready for the new flooring to go down

 These Le Mans pull outs are in both corners and are the bees knees!

 As are the pull outs either side of where the new cooker will be

 BIG sink

 Home for the new fridge

 The day after the kitchen went in, the flooring went down

 New fridge and dishwasher are installed

 Using the old cooker while we wait for the new

 BIG fridge

 Cool dishwasher, the top shelf takes all of the cutlery

 Time to start filling the cupboards

 And what goes in all the drawers?

 I now have another cutlery tray in here

 And because the pantry was feeling left out

 My view from the kitchen window

 Flash tap

 You could bathe in this sink

 Then it was time to put all the furniture back

And I think that might do for today. Since I took these photos the new curtains have been put up. I've pics of the garden to show you too as I've been planting like a madwoman, I want the garden looking nice for the wedding next year.

I will leave you there and come back very soon, with yet more photos!

We had our Christmas on Wednesday, Michael & Tash are heading to Hawkes Bay to spent it with her family. And I didn't take a single photo, bugger, ah well it was a lovely dinner.

How ever you choose to spend this holiday season, have a great one and be safe.

See you soon