Wild One

What y'all have been waiting for:

S-N-O-W!!! (finally)

THIS is a good day....

Mountain Zoo

We took the girls to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs last week. We had a great time. We couldn't decide if Finley was actually afraid of the giraffes or if she was simply bothered that we were feeding the giraffes crackers that looked very much like her beloved Grahams.

Happy Thanksgiving

First and foremost, I am thankful for my family. I am thankful (and amazed) at the love I share with my girls. I am thankful for the love they have for one another. It is uncomplicated and unconditional and I hope this will always be true. I am thankful for my husband - how hard he works for his family and all that he juggles so that I can spend my days playing Pretty Pretty Princess and singing silly songs about make believe things. Our daughters will one day be thankful for this as well.
I'm thankful for my mom, who dropped everything to be here to help us so much this year. For my sister, who did the same. I'm thankful for the rest of my family and Andy's - all who have been so supportive, encouraging and helpful with the challenges we've faced.
In addition to a great family, I'm so very thankful for all my friends. I have SO many dear, dear friends - more than my share, really. I'm thankful for each one of them and the respective role they play in my life.
I am thankful 2008 is almost at an end....what an 'eventful' year it's been.
I'm thankful that I have so much to be thankful for -my 'food and shelter' is a beautiful home and a fridge that is (nearly always) full.
I'm thankful for the seasons and crisp autumn days. I'm thankful to live in such a wonderful place. There's a saying that goes something like..."if you're lucky enough to live in the mountains, then you're lucky enough". We don't live 'in the mountains', but I think the saying holds true for all of Colorado.
I'm thankful for my health, my happiness and my attitude. I'm thankful for the challenges I have been given because without them, I don't think I would be the person I am today.
I'm thankful for my ipod, rap music and my equal parts hate/fear of Jillian Michaels - collectively, they kept me motivated during some really long runs this year......
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Count 'em!!

TEN!!!

Cast away???

Finley's casts have been on for 11 days....they are meant to be on for another 10. That is, of course, unless the wearer of said casts barfs all over them in the middle of the night. I will spare you all the details and summarize by saying 'they stink....they stink bad'. I'm pretty sure she caught a little bug or maybe the flu - she's doing better tonight and hopefully tomorrow will be easier for her. I phoned the surgeon's office today (to see what might be done about the smell). His advice - REMOVE THE CASTS. I'm going to wait until she feels slightly better and until I can pre-dose her with some pain meds as the removal is not a pleasant experience for her. SO....stay tuned for pictures of ten tiny fingers ten days early!!

10 little fingers

ALL DONE! Can't wait to count all 10 little fingers in about 3 weeks time. Surgery went well today. She's currently in ICU with some breathing difficulties (which will explain the short and directness of this post) so not sure if we'll be able to leave tomorrow or not.
Keep her in your prayers - I'll post more when I feel more comfortable leaving her.

Pumpkin Fun

1980?

I found this picture as I was looking for pictures of Toby last week.
I couldn't pass it up.

Google Tag Tag

I was tagged by my most internet-savvy, bloggin'est dear friend Sherrelyn. Here's how it works. Google (image) each of the following items, pick your favorite photo from the first three pages of results:

1. First Name

2. Last Name

(Please note this image could have also been chosen for#10)

3. Bad Habit

4. What are you doing right now

5. Grandma's Name

6. Past pet

7. First Job

8. Age

9. Where I grew up

10. Past love

11. Best friends nickname

12. Favorite place to be

13. If I went back to school, I'd become....

14. I'd love to visit...

15. Favorite color

16. Favorite food

Jelina - Consider yourself tagged - you're 'it'

Toby.....

Today, I said goodbye to an old friend. Most of the people who visit this blog knew Toby and just how much I loved my dog. 14 years and 8 months - that's how long we spent together. 8 homes, 3 states, 2 continents, a few relationships and 1 stint in quarantine. I'm sure most of you have a funny (or maybe disgusting) tale to tell about my little buddy. I have SO many memories that have surfaced today and want to share just a few:

Oh, how he loved Baba. He was FURIOUS that I brought Toby home, but the two of them turned out to be dear friends. I'll never forget how he would spend hours rubbing Toby's neck after Toby's car accident. Toby brought out the most special kind of tenderness in this man. There has never been a better fed dog. His favorite nickname for Toby - 'Chepechous'. I wouldn't be surprised if right now, in some better place, Toby's getting a great neck rub.

I used to come home from work to find Toby, asleep on the dining table (after eating anything left from breakfast or last night's dinner). This happened quite often for the better part of a year.

Toby loved corn on the cob....he nearly took my mom's arm off one summer afternoon when she tried to take one away from him.

Toby never really hung out with other dogs, until I moved in with Amber and Lin. I was so afraid that Zeke was going to eat Toby. One morning, just days after I moved in, I was in my bathroom getting ready for the day when I heard yelping and growling coming from the living room. Thinking my dog had been eaten, I panicky raced in to find Toby attacking Zeke, hanging from Zeke's neck, by his teeth. Once Toby proved his status in the house - they were great friends. Zeke usually spent the day in his crate and it wasn't uncommon to come home to Toby asleep in front of it.

He was so afraid of water. The first time I took him to the park, he chased a duck straight into the pond and had to swim out. It was enough to freak him out for life. He wouldn't even walk across a wet sidewalk. However, he loved to ride on our jetskis, loved to go fishing at Rockport and East Canyon and loved long rides in the car. The exception was when we moved to California with Andy. He barfed from Las Vegas to Menlo Park. Andy and I (not to mention the cab of the uHaul) were COVERED in dog barf.

When we moved to London, we found a dogsitter named Barry. Barry looked to be a stereotypical east Londoner. However, he had a heart of gold and adored Toby. His special name for Toby was "chupy" because he felt Toby resembled Chupacabra from the X-Files. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra

Come to find out, Barry couldn't stand for Toby to be home alone when we were out of town. Whenever we would hire him to come twice a day to let him out, he would pick him up and take him home for the duration of our trip. He teased that Toby needed to learn some manners when it came to food, but was otherwise a very lovable dog.

He was just that. A very lovable dog. Every milestone in my adult life- the good and the bad - he's been there for me, my ever constant companion. I have to laugh when I think about how much that little guy has been through, how many times he cheated death. He was a magnet for disaster. I'm saddened that he's no longer with us, yet blessed that he was such a great friend that hung on for so long.

I miss him so much already.

Riley's 4th birthday party

A few photos from Riley's birthday party on Saturday....

SOOOO much fun!

well, HELLO WORLD

A Day at the Park

Friends

Home!

We are home. Whew! Everything went so, so perfectly. We were released from the hospital on Sunday afternoon and were able to get a flight this morning. Finley is doing great - her eyes are still swollen shut, although her left eye has opened ever so slightly a few times today. Riley was pretty confused, but excited to have us home. Almost as excited as we are to be home. Home, and counting my blessing.

Finley's new noggin

This photo was taken yesterday, before she started to swell. It will be a few weeks until we see her new shape in it's entirety, but she already looks different. Today she resembles John C. Reilly - a very, very swollen John C. Reilly. Her eyes are swollen completely shut, which doesn't make for a very happy baby. No transfusion overnight - she's been cleared to move out of the ICU, we are waiting for a bed on the main peds floor.

Update

Finley is out of surgery - she did great. She lost about 1/3 of her blood, but they were able to give her about 1/2 of that back using a blood recycler. She looks SO different (we'll post photos soon - we need to go to the car to get the USB cable first). She's started to swell quite a bit, her left eyelid is swollen over her eye already.....the swelling should peak at about 48 hrs. and lessen for the weeks to come. She looks SO different. She looks AWESOME.
The surgeon was pleased with what he was able to accomplish (in terms of how much he was able to advance the forehead) and said that everything went as expected. We hope to move out of ICU tomorrow and with any luck, we'll be out on Sunday.

Everything going well in Texas

Everything is going perfectly....we just finished our last pre-op appointment and everything went well. She did great with the sedation for the MRI and was quite patient with the dr.s. We have to be at the hospital tomorrow at 6 and will keep everyone posted.

Tiny Dancer

My Baby

I love this picture of Finley. Hard to believe that in eight days she won't look like this anymore.....keep her in your thoughts and prayers!!

I

So much for keeping a blog....

I'll blame it on DIRT. We're on our way to having a LOVELY yard, but right now it's a muddy mess. The landscaping has kept us very busy this month. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I don't feel too bad - it's the pictures, not my commentary, that you all are after anyhow.

During the month of May:

We planted some trees and bushes; moved A LOT of rock, put in a fence and even had a swing set installed for the kids:




Finley had her first birthday:



Riley had her last day of preschool:
(singing "baby jaws" below)


Both sets of grandparents came to visit:



We ran the Bolder Boulder and celebrated Finley's birthday on Memorial Day:



At some point, I found the time to make a turtle cake:

And Toby slept through it all.......