End of 2010

Christmas is finally over. All the preparation, planning and shopping is done and in 35 minutes the kids unwrapped all their presents and it was done. We had a good Christmas, lot's of running from house to house to see family. Someday we'll have it at our house and the families can all come to us! The kids scored in the present division though, I think everyone got what they were wanting from Santa.

Recap of the last couple of months ~
The kids came back from their summer vacation to Alaska and we got them ready for school. Jessica off to 11th grade, Zach into 9th, Nate in 8th and Emily in 5th grade. Seems like we blinked and it's already Christmas. The time just flies by. We keep busy with the kids daily activities and the days just disappear. I can't even focus on one specific thing we do to keep the kids busy. Steve and I celebrated our birthdays at the Seahawks game. We had a good Halloween that seemed crazy. Zach joined DECA and went to a conference to learn about competing. We had our first snow around Thanksgiving, not much just a couple of inches but enough to shut down school for a couple of days. And it seems like we've had a few more windstorms this year than normal.

On the health side ~
I had some health scares at the start of summer. I went to the doctor for consults to have my gallbladder removed. While they were doing the testing (an ultrasound) it was noted there was a growth on my liver. I was sent for a MRI which showed there was not a growth on my liver but there was a growth on my small intestine. I was sent for an upper GI. Oh, and the MRI did confirm I do have gallstones. The upper GI cleared me of everything and the surgeon said it was probably food. Are you kidding me? All of that and I'm fine. Other than the fact I still have gallstones, and my gallbladder. At some point I'm going to have to have it removed but I just can't seem to find the time to take off work yet.

We also had a little scare the last few weeks with Steve and his heart. He thought he was having a heart attack and after multiple tests he has gotten the all clear and we believe it was stress, anxiety or inflammation of the chest wall. His cholesterol is good and the other tests show a strong healthy heart.

We attempted a family picture of the kids this year. And got brave and tried to include the dogs. Here's what we came out with :)

Day One

Never in a million years would I have thought to create a blog for our family but here I am attempting to do so.

Instead of thinking our summer is getting off to a rough start I'm going to take the approach our spring is coming to an end. All the little hurdles we've gotten over in the pasts few months are laying the ground work for a great summer. We still have a few hot issues on the table (I don't have my MRI/Ultrasound results yet), kids are still adjusting to being home all day and planning all of our summer activities. Little steps at a time though.

Today is Jessica's 16th birthday (the official day, we celebrated last weekend). She had a nice Alice in Wonderland party for her. Friends and family were plentiful and my little house became like a shrinking room in Alice in Wonderland as Alice grew into a giant. Roughly 30 people were here all at once. We had miniature food for dinner, Mozzerella sticks, mini tacos, chips, salsas, fruit, small spring rolls, basically snack food. For desert Jessica made carrot cake cupcakes at her Grandma Chris's house. Plus Grandma Chris threw in her to die for chocolate marshmallow brownies. There was no shortage of food! We did her presents and then most the kids, and some adults, went out and jumped in the bouncy house we rented for the evening. Most of the adults/family took off at that point and we had the kids playing rock band til after 11p. A mighty talented group of kids I might add.

Left to Right - Cassie, Nate, Jessica, Kelsey, Matt in back and Kelsey

Zach finished out middle school strong, was awarded the President's Education Award which was a surprise for all of us. Emily made some progress, I believe Sylvan is helping her focus in math and the extra help during the summer will hopefully get us up to grade level. Spring/summer training for high school football is going to have Zach busy busy during the break from school. There is only two weeks this summer where he'll actually get a break from doing something for the program. I'm excited to see him standing on the sidelines for those games though come fall time. Emily is all signed up for horse camp in August, in addition to Sylvan. She is excited but nervous about being away from home for one week straight. Thankfully it's just right down the road here in Auburn. I'm sure after a few hours she'll forget all about home! Other than that the kids just have their plans for vacation to Alaska. Zach and Emily will be gone for about 11 days and Jessica and Nate get to go for almost a month. I know they are all very excited. And Steve and I are very excited about having some alone time without any kids. We've talked about taking a mini trip ourselves but not sure where. Most likely somewhere within driving distance and only for a few days.

And on a sour note we are still all trying to get over the loss of our dogs. Price, was 12 and his health was deteriorating. For a big dog (Great Dane/German Shepherd mix) he lived a long life....way beyond his expected life span. Atticus was our three year old purebred German Shepherd that Steve and I got almost three years ago. He was our baby. He unexpectedly developed intestinal trouble and his intestines wrapped around his stomach causing serious bloat. It's a risk with big dogs and unfortunatley we had to put him to sleep. The worse thing I've gone thru. Each day is a new day and there are little reminders all around. We've done a lot of research now about dogs and diet and this condition. We will continue to learn as much as we can. As for a new dog, we still both have the emptyness but aren't being quick to fnd a replacement. Atticus will never be a dog that can be replaced and we don't want unreasonable expectations of a new dog.

Atticus the night before he passed away.