In Loving Memory

When my uncle passed away, my aunt asked if people would make donations to Operation Kindness in lieu of sending her flowers.  When I went to their website to donate, I realized that they give you the option of creating a personalized pave stone to be placed in their garden. I thought this would be an awesome tribute to my uncle and something that my aunt could see any time she visited Operation Kindness.  My sisters and parents and I got together and ordered the pave stone, and were so thrilled when we got word that it was ready.

  
We brought my aunt out there last week so she could see the stone in person.  It was an emotional event, but she loved it, and we were so glad to be a part of it.

Poor Riley

As mentioned in prior posts, we've been on a weight loss mission with Riley for a couple of years now.  At his heaviest, he hit 60 pounds.  As of a couple of weeks ago, he weighed in at 36 pounds.  It's hard to believe he's lost this much, and it hasn't been an easy road, but we know we're adding years to his life by getting him back to a healthy weight.  Last month, I took him to the vet for his annual exam.  The vet noticed a growth on his back/side, which has probably been there for a while, but we wouldn't have noticed before when he was heavier.  She tested it and found out it wasn't cancerous, but recommended that we have it removed because she believed it would continue to grow, and possibly start to inhibit his movement.  He had his surgery this past Wednesday, and poor guy has been having a rough recovery ever since. 

When I first picked him up from the vet, he was moving super slowly, and would stop to take lots of breaks just on the initial trip out to the car.  His incision site looked pretty horrible, but they told me it was normal.  He had a drain installed, and they warned me that a decent amount of fluid would be coming out of it over the next few days.  Brace yourselves, the following picture isn't pretty:

 Day 1

The white thing hanging out is the drain and everything below that is fluid, not an open wound.  He was very lethargic the first night home.  I picked him up to take him outside for a couple of bathroom breaks, and I was so worried to touch anything or hurt him in any way.  I tried to clean the area, but I could tell it hurt him, so I just let him be.  When we woke up the next morning, the area below the drain was completely cleaned, so I guess he couldn't stand the fluid on him.  

  Day 2

He got a lot of his energy back on Day 2 and was moving around well.  The problem, however, was that he wouldn't leave the drain alone!  He kept messing with it and even got one of the staples out that was holding it to his body.  We yelled at him as much as we could to get him to stop each time he disturbed it, but we couldn't watch him every minute of the day.  Eventually we had to buy him the cone of shame.

  Not happy, guys

Now we can finally stop worrying that he's going to pull the whole darn drain out of his body, but we have to look at this sad panda instead.  I'm sorry, Bubba.  Just a few more days. 

Vegas Vacation

My sisters and I went to Vegas for a few days recently.  Since we each have very young kids, it was quite a feat for all of us to be able to get away!  But, it was nice to take a break from motherhood and just have some girls time in a carefree location.

 Silly guy dressed as a gondolier during the Carnevale celebration at Palazzo

Me and my sisters

 
Luckily our husbands are superstars, so there were no worries about the care our kiddos would receive while we were gone, just worry about missing them so much!  It was definitely weird to be away from my little man for an extended time, since I'm used to spending so much time with him.  I missed him like crazy, but Meezy did an awesome job of texting me pics to keep me happy:

I also got a really cute pic from his daycare, showing off his sitting skills!

It's crazy to think about how much he progresses in his development in just a few short days.  I feel like he has had so many advancements recently- sitting up, holding his own bottle, babbling more, sprouting two teeth, and trying various solid foods.  He's turning into such a big kid!  

A Slight Improvement

Slowly and surely I'm upgrading things in our house.  In the three years that we've lived here, we've added hand-scraped hardwood to three additional rooms, installed a stainless steel cooktop, replaced light fixtures, replaced our fence, added landscape lighting, closed in the office with french doors, replaced all the doorknobs, replaced a faucet, replaced toilet paper and towel bars, and now replaced the dishwasher.  Yay!  This last item has been on my list for a while, so I'm glad we finally pulled the trigger.  As you can see, the new one is just a slight improvement over the old one...

 
And by slight improvement, I mean MAJOR improvement!  The new one looks so svelte.  We opted for a stainless steel Bosch with the controls hidden in the top for a more streamlined and sleek look on the front.  Next on my list for the kitchen is adding hardware to all the cabinets and drawers (already picked out the style we want, so need to purchase them and install), and then replacing the built-in microwave and oven we have now.  I want stainless steel and I want newer models.  That's a little harder to find because we have to buy them together (it looks like a double oven but really one is a microwave) and are limited to what will currently fit in that space since we don't have room to expand in the cabinets surrounding them.  I think we'll make that happen before the end of the year, but I've just been too busy lately to devote time to researching what we should get.  Somewhere down the road we're going to be laying down travertine in place of the existing ceramic tile, but that's also a large undertaking that seems too overwhelming to me right now.  Oh well, little by little!

 

An Awesome Tribute

Today was the memorial service for my beloved Oma. My sister put together an awesome tribute that really touched our hearts. I could listen to the last part of this video over and over again. If you've got three minutes to spare, please watch this with your sound turned on.

As part of the ceremony, I read the following poem. It wasn't easy to get through, but I think the message was conveyed.

She is gone

You can shed tears that she is gone
Or you can smile because she has lived.
 
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
Or you can be full of the love that you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she is gone
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

David Harkins

No Time!

I've been too busy lately to write any blogs, so this will just be some picture updates!

Learning how to be a big boy and sitting up in the cart

Finding the part that wasn't covered

Love, love, loving his baths!

Starting to dress more like his daddy (just needs flip flops!)

Fell asleep, but still clutching his favorite teether

Being a smarty pants and turning on his toy

Supporting his daddy's favorite team

 Having fun at daycare while mommy shows houses

Small Victories

My sister and I completed the Summer Bath Run 5K at White Rock Lake on Sunday, and we achieved our goal!  We weren't hoping to finish in any particular time; we were just hoping to finish without having to walk any part of it!  It was mother-flippin' hot, and we definitely got the urge to take a break towards the end, but we held steady and ran all the way through.  Our time was a little less than 33 minutes, which is nowhere near impressive, but it's a great step for us.  Now we know we can run 3.1 miles without stopping, and we know what time to beat in our next 5K.  I don't remember what my best time has ever been in the past, but I remember running about a 31 minute 5K two years ago.  I need to at least get back to that point!  The funny thing about this race was that there were so few participants so we actually placed pretty high up for our age and weight range.  I missed out on getting an award in my age range by 2 seconds.  My sister actually placed second in the "Athena" weight range and got a trophy!  Haha.  We were stunned, but I think we've stumbled onto something - enter the really small races and you might get a prize!  We're looking to enter another 5K next month, and then we're already signed up for the Jailbreak Run too.  Gotta keep moving!