My lovely sister!

Well, I got a sneak peak at a photo that Lauren Larsen took over Thanksgiving weekend. It was my parents 50th wedding anniversary this year so we planned a big party for them. Part of the celebration was my sister and her kids coming for the week and a fun photoshoot of all of us with Lauren! I can't wait to get all the photos but just had to show off my beautiful sister and her lovely family. We had such a great time and everyone had so much fun together!

Thank you Lauren - you're still the best!

No more shots? Really?

Well, Daphne spent a stressful day at the vet's this week to have her glucose levels checked throughout the day so we could see what was happening to her. I've had her on the new food (no more treats!) and she's had a week of shots twice a day and her antibiotic each night.

I was so thrilled when I picked her up to hear that we will not be giving her any insuline shots for a while and we might be able to regulate this through only the food! That would be so awesome for her and me!!

The vet said when we first came in to be diagnosed her glucose level was at 450 and normal for a cat is 100! Throughout the day on Tuesday she never even reached 100 so he never gave her the insulin shot and said that we would not be giving any shots. Instead, we will continue the food and watch her water intake/urine to see if it stays low. He said we really caught this early because she had not lost any weight at all and he thinks maybe she has turned around!

We will go back in 3 weeks for one blood test to check and be sure she's still doing good.

Way to go Daphne!!

It's just one more thing...

Well, we found out on Friday that Daphne has diabetes! Can you believe that! I now have to give my crazy cat shots twice a day. It’s a lot of information to process and I also have to track her water intake and peeing to see what progress we are making. Then in about 10 day she will have to spend a day at the vet’s so we can chart her blood levels. Boy she’s gonna love that!

I’m counting on the possibility that she will eventually come out of this and level off to a place where I might not have to give her shots. But in the mean time, I’ve given her 4 shots so far and she’s taking it pretty well. If that’s not enough, her white blood count was high,so the vet is guessing a bladder infection so I also have to give her a pretty large, for a cat, pill once a day.

On the positive side, she seems to be feeling better and although I didn’t so much notice that she felt bad, she just seems happier and not so meowy as she had been. I am hoping all this will help her. Hard to know exactly what to do. Especially when I spent so far $400 between the vet on Friday and insulin!

A great night for trick-or-treating!

Well, this Halloween proved to be another fun night for all. We took advantage of it falling on Saturday by James cooking out ribs and steaks - yummy! Mom & Dad joined us for dinner and had fun helping us chase down the kids. Nathan's already a pro at trick-or-treating but Evan needed a lot of guidance ...

Nathan dressed as a lemur!



Evan was James from the Thomas the tank engine show. He has always preferred James so we thought it would fit is independent personality to go with the lesser known train!

Evan cared a lot more about rocks and leaves in neighbors yards than about the candy! He left behind candy at almost every house and took off with more than a few rocks!




They had lots of fun and although most of the neighbors weren't home, they loved the houses they stopped at and ended up with more candy than any of us will eat!

A few people were giving out Halloween toys which was a nice change and Nathan loved the purple vampire teeth!

Of course, the best part of any Halloween is eating as much chocolate as possible before bedtime!


The highlight of his evening was coming upon another family who's son was dressed as Thomas! Both boys had a great time discovering each other! It was just too cute.

Surprised by how much fun we had!

The Fire Department had their annual open house this weekend and we decided to take the boys. We’ve missed it the last two years because we didn’t know about it in advance so this was our first time to go. Wow, what an event! I had no idea it would be so big and so cool!

Evan was a handful because he wanted to run around but won’t hold my hand. So that doesn’t work well in a crowd! He did have a good time and loved the rescue dogs. Next year will be a lot more fun for him.




Nathan had a blast! He got to see a helicopter land, look all around vehicles and a boat, shoot water from a fire hose and try on a real fireman’s helmet. He had so much fun and loved the goodie bags with coloring books, pencils and other goodies.
















Careflight flew over and landed in the parking lot for us to see!











I was thoroughly impressed with the firemen, volunteers, clowns and band all very friendly and so nice. It was a great day! And the boys enjoyed it even more when we got home...

Rainy Days

Wow, I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but well time just got away from me. Little project here, nothing to say there, sick, tired, overwhelm under motiviated...

So, I wonder if anyone is out there, if anyone is still checking on me. Well, if so here's a surprise. I'm back!

Here's a look at my mornings lately on the way to work. How I love the rain and our nice cool weather lately!






Finally almost at my office!

What a Great Grandma!

Nathan got a special surprise in the mail today! A birthday present from his great grandmother on James’s Dad’s side.

We had gone to see Caroline in Florida with Jim and Donna (James’s Dad and Stepmom) in 2007 when Nathan was about a year and a half old.



She decided she wanted to be called Grandma Great - and I love that! She is such a fun lady and so young at heart and healthy. She swims and has always eaten healthy. James says all the Schaklee products have well preserved her! :-) But she’s just really fun, has a great Milwakee accent and lots of spunk! I wish she and Jim lived closer because they are just fun people to be around.



We were surprised on Saturday to receive a call from Grandma Great to wish Nathan Happy Birthday during his party! That she remembered and called impressed me a lot but she also told Nathan that a package was in the mail for him! Wow.

Well we got home yesterday to find a large box and as soon as Nathan saw it, he was all about opening it.





At a very early age he realized that boxes in the mail bring fun things so they should be opened immediately!

The first thing we found was a really great card with a recorded message from Grandma Great to Nathan and then it played the “Itsy Bitsy Spider”! Very cool. Nathan loved the card and laughed when he heard Grandma Great’s voice. Then he got really excited when the song started and he said “that’s my favorite song” (I’m sure because it is about a spider).





Then he dug into the box to find Dinosaur Eggs that he can open and find dino bones. Each egg comes with a tool to break it apart and a little brush to clear away the dust - just like a real paleontologist!



It was all we could do to get him to wait until after dinner to dig into one of the eggs!



He was so excited and she sent all 6! So he will get to have one of each of the dinos and best of all, one was his very favorite dinosaur - the Parasaurolophus. That’s the one he decided to do first!

What a cool gift! And Nathan was really into it too.





He was a very serious digger and although James held the egg to keep it steady, Nathan really did most of the work.



I didn’t expect the egg to be so hard, but it was pretty solid. I was so proud of Nathan because he worked hard and got all the bones out.













Daddy had to assemble them and we will need to glue them together so we don’t lose any small parts but it was a really fun experience and Nathan loved it!





Unfortunately we only had time to do one last night, but he will have lots of fun working at finding more bones.

Way to go Grandma Great!