Chrissy takes on the Honkers!

WE PACKED THE PARK!

Not an empty seat in the house!

One of my duties at the fortune 500 financial company is to be the event planner for Honkers event. We bought out the park and invited members and non members and asked them to donate a non perishable food item in exchange for their free ticket. We collected over 800 pounds of food and over $2,ooo was also donated to the food shelf that night.

My niece Chrissy was visiting and she got the opportunity to participate in one of the between inning games:

The objective of the game was for Chrissy to use the sling shot to shoot water balloons from 2nd base to the base board at the back of center field. You can see in the back ground the companies that paid for advertising on that base board. Chrissy had to hit the Perkin's advertisement (which is not in the photo). Chrissy came extremely close a couple of times. I couldn't see everything that was going on but by the reaction of the crowd I could tell she came extremely close.

Even Slammer, the Honkers mascot, thinks she's a winner!

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Petit tried grooming himself!

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While my neice was visiting us, Petit decided that he wanted to groom himself instead of waiting for us to do it....

At first I didn't see it but I heard an odd thumping noise as Petit was running down the steps..... apparently he got into Chrissy's room and found her hair brush!

Here's a side view that will offer a better perspective of what Petit got himself into :)

It was actually not as bad as it looks. It came out pretty easily. However, I was concerned that we would have to buzz cut Petit's tail!

Petit, we know you are a dog of many talents but how about you leave the grooming to Frenchie and me!

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Petit and Blanche's Perfect 10!

Here she goes. Looks great. The position of the paws are perfect, the ears at the proper flight position, and she is ready to leap over the hurdle...will she make it?????

Look at that body posistioning! As long as she can stick the landing....

Her front paws have touched the ground and it is all over folks! Blanche wins the women's event!

Now over to Petit for the men's event....

Now he takes on a much different approach. Instead of using the angles approach to go over the hurdle Petit jumps staight up and over. Will this technique pay off for him? We will find out!

UNBELIEVABLE! The technique works! Petit wins his perfect 10!

Thats the end folks! Petit and Blanche have trained hard (a whole 5 minutes before we took the photos) and have many people to thank for their support (ok really just mom and dad for teasing them with the treats). We asked if Petit and Blanche will be around for the 2012 olympics and they both said they will continue to train and see what the next 4 years will bring. Petit expressed some interesting in getting back into the "stud" business and Blanche wants to continue searching for the squeeker in her toys and is not sure if she will have time to do both. :)

Petit and Blanche Go for the Gold!

All summer I have wanted to set up some sort of agility course for Petit and Blanche and last week we finally started :) We found that the hurdles we made took less than 5 minutes to make and cost less than $3.00 compared to the $30 hurdles from eBay and other websites we checked out. We are now planning for the next part of the agility course...more to come :)

Blanche Just Wanted to Say "Hi!"

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The Beautiful Aftermath!

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While we were out surveying the lightening damage to the tree, I took pictures of some of the flowers around the yard. I love it that you can see that actaul rain drops still on the flowers!

This photo is Kaza's favorite just because of the vibrant colors!

This is Fenchie's Favorite because of the ant and the water drops!

Very, Very, Lucky this Morning!

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We woke up this morning to a thunderstorm (I know... surprise, surprise these days). I had just gotten done feeding Petit and Blanche and was just walking into the living room when a stike of lightening hit the tree outside our living room window! Frenchie and I just happen to be looking at that window when it happened at it looked like a big ball of flashing light that was so blinding I cannot even give a proper description of what it looked like! After the storm subsidded and Frenchie and I ventured outside to survey any damage. This is the big maple tree that is right outside our living room window. You can can a part of where the lighting had struck the tree!

We got very lucky that the lightening did not split the tree, or we would have had one heck of a jungle gym IN the house for Petit and Blanche to play on (aka we are glad the lightening did not split the tree and cause part of the tree to fall on the house). But from the looks ofr the tree the lightening just skimmed the tree!

Now I get to spend the rest of the morning picking up the sticks and bark from the ground...

...but I know Petit and Blanche will help :) Petit was racing around evaluating how many new sticks he has to play with now.

Kaza did most of the work - can you believe that!?

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Here's the Before...

Back in February Frenchie went to a professional hockey game with Dan. As soon as Frenchie left I started to redo the downstairs bathroom. There is no more wall paper left in the house!

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...And here's the after!

Once Dave got home he put the crown modeling up. Thank you Honey! The shower current was a purcahse while down in Pheonix. While we were shopping in AZ I had the idea to redo that bathroom while Frenchie was to be at this hockey game. It was a little challenging since Fenchie wanted a different shower curtain but I had this one picked out knowing that it would be perfect for what I wanted to do :) I'm all for compromising in a relationship but it's hard to do when you want to surprise the other half.

While we were on our trip to Arizona we took pictures of some of the georgous flowers. The decorative shelving came from my aunt and uncle. The mirror was yet ANOTHER bargin purchase, origianally $160.00 and we paid $20! Seriously if you are looking for good deals - Check out Lowe's every now and then.

While we were at the store in AZ we decided that if we got the shower curtain we might as well get a soap dispenser and tooth brush holder to coordinate. These pictures are photos of wild flowers we discovered while hiking in the foot hills in Phoenix, AZ!

Day 5 at the Hospital!

Frenchie having his morning Smoothie!

Frenchie getting ready to go for a walk around the hospital.

Frenchie ready to take a nap after another long walk around the hospital in teh hopes of getting the "plumbing" to work.

Frenchie smiling at the thought of being able to go home.

One of the best breakfasts while at the hospital

The cafeteria in the hospital is actually pretty cool! They had a buffet style set up and breakfasts were fantatic. One morning I decided to have a belgian waffle. The last time I had one of those was my freshman year of college. At college we could only get the waffles on Saturday mornings. That was the only motivation we had on saturday morning to get up. Hangover and all we would drag ourselves over to the cafeteria for the waffles! AAHHH the memories!

The newly redone room!

So with Frenchie's mom coming to visit this summer we decided that we wanted to get one of the upstairs rooms painted and looking really nice! Up to this point most of the rooms have been storage with some beds in them!

So 2 days before surgery, Frenchie got out the paint and went to work. By the time I came home from work all the paint was on the walls and I helped Frenchie mark the walls for the chair rail and then Frenchie painted the chair rails and the next day he put them up.

So I went on the hunt for a bed spread that would coordinate well with the room. Originally, I wanted to have onr of the walls a dark brown but thank goodness Frenchie talked me out of that one. So instead of a brown wall we compromised on using the brown as an accent color.

The photo on the wall is an example of some photography that my uncle has taken over the years. The photo was in my aunt and uncle's house until they moved out of the city for a more relaxing country life. Thank you for the photo! It looks fantastic in the room!

Thank you D for the flowers!

Here are pictures of the georgous flowers that Diane brought up for Frenchie the day after hsi surgery!

They were so bright and so much fun to take pictures of!

Click on the Hope Your Feeling Better balloon and you can see me in the reflection taking the picture!

Beware! Do not proceed if you have a weak stomach!

Frenchie is home and is adjusting quite nicely. We go for a walk everyday and today we went for 2 walks since Frenchie needed to have more steps than yesterday (based from his pedometer). Frenchie has been asking and asking ever since we got home for me to take pictures of his staples and to post them on the blog! So here they are!










Frenchie had 24 staples.....





He thought it was quite humorous that the doctors use an actual staple gun (a staple gun designed for surgery but ...a staple gun is still a staple gun)!

We went back last Friday to get the staples removed so now Frenchie has white strips over the incision that will go away within 2 weeks.

While we were at the hospital getting the staples removed the nurse brought in a model of the actual screws and rods that Frenchie has in his back now and that was so cool to see. The nurse also showed us his Xray that shows the actual rods and screws in Frenchie's back. The last Xray that the nurse showed us was one that was taken during surgery. It was so weird because the screws were screwed into his actual vertebrae and they are long!

The nurse and doctors all agree that Frenchie is having a speedy recovery. His current mobility is compared to those that have been out of surgery for weeks! We ran into one of the surgeons in the cafeteria and the doctor was so impressed to see how well Frenchie was walking. The doctor was even contemplating pulling Frenchie into a corner of the caferteria to take a peak at the insicion!

We're Home!

Frenchie came home yesterday! Tuesday we had a conversation with one of the docs and he said that Frenchie could go home that day after Frenchie had the "#2 plumbing" working. We waited, waited, waited, and waited some more. Finally at 8 that evening the plumbing finally started flowing properly so we agreed with the doc to wait till morning to leave. However the nurses disagreed with how much fluid Frenchie should be retaining in his bladder so Frenchie got his 9th catheter put in. So Wednesday morning we were graced with the presence of BOTH docs. They both proceeded to tell us and the nurses that we were to go home no matter what! So after breakfast we headed home! Frenchie is doing fantastic! He wears a pedometer to make sure he is walking more and more each day. I got Frenchie one of those extend able reachers so if he drops something he doesn't have to bend over and pick it up. He has had a lot of fun playing with the reacher and even putting laundry into the washer! Frenchie is already in better spirits now that he is at home!

Frenchie says "I need to go!"

Happy Memorial day to everyone! Today has gone well...not fantastic but well. Fenchie's walking gets stronger and stronger. He walked longer today and has gone up and down two flights of stairs. Physical therapy and occupational therapy was in yesterday and gave Fenchie a seal of approval. However we are starting to believe that they put the seal over Frenchie's plumbing! Frenchie's bodily functions are starting to slowly work again but they are still taking their sweet time!
Patience is definitely the name of the game and we have been trying to do what ever we can to keep ourselves from stressing over the issue. Right now we are watching a mini Marathon of Family Guy. We were also reviewing the book, the Dog Whisperer. While we were reviewing the book and the criteria for determining if your pet is trying to be the "Pack Leader" in the household they all pointed to Blanche (our female) and not Petit (our male) as we first thought that Petit was trying to claim the Top Dog position. Blanche has been sneaking under the radar and letting us think that our Petit was trying to be the "Pack Leader" in our house! We're on to you Blanche! Just wait until we get home! :) So we are trying to stay positive and not add any extra stress to the issue.
Just as am finishing up the blog, Frenchie went to the "plumbing house" and perhaps the seal has been removed!
Wow, I never thought I would be posting this sort of information on our blog...I'm reminiscing about the days when I thought remodeling a chair and posting the pics on the blog would be interesting!

The stairs are mastered!

Frenchie just got back from physical therapy and he walked down and climbed a flight of stairs! Wooohooo! We all told him that today we are going to push him more and more today since that is the key to getting everything functioning again! I also threatened to call DW and DH (a friend of ours that has been through a surgery like this) if Frenchie did not want to get up and walk! Frenchie had the nervous smile on his face after that! :)

Beware - bodily functions discussed below!

Saturday started out great. Frenchie got up and walked with the physical therapist down the hall with no walker or help from anyone! The catheter came out at 11 am Saturday so the rest of the day was trying to get everything moving and operating again. However Frenchie's body had a different idea of how the day was going to go. At about 2:30 in the afternoon Frenchie thought that a trip to the bathroom would be a highly good idea :) After sitting there for about 20 -30 minutes with no results he went back to bed. This routine of going to the bathroom occurred over and over again until about 7 at night when Frenchie's stomach couldn't handle it any more. The nurses had to put a catheter in mid afternoon to help Frenchie's body move things along and that came out right away (a temporary catheter). At 11 that night the nurses said that Frenchie needed to #1 or the catheter would have to go back in on a more "permanent" basis. They nurses did tell him however that the more he walked the better the chances of something happening. Needless to say he was practically sprinting down the hallways :) unfortunately that did not work so we said we would walk more on Sunday and get things going!To help further things along in the "other department", the nurses kept coming in with these concoctions that they "swear" will get him to do his thing with in 30 minutes - this was 10 at night... Again Frenchie started his bathroom routine with no luck and finally at 2:30 in the morning that part of Frenchie's body decided to start working! Now we just need to continue to keep it working. The good news out of the whole thing was that he was getting plenty of exercises!

Now its Sunday morning and Frenchie is doing well. The doctor came in to see how Frenchie was doing and told Frenchie that he need to have a good day today and then a good recovery day tomorrow and he could go home on Tuesday. Frenchie was pretty perky this morning and telling all the new nurses of his trials and tribulations of the night before. The physical therapist just came in so I will write more later!

Last night went much better than the night before. We actaully had a nurse who could help, was prompt and excellent at helping Frenchie shift positions during the night! Fenchie was actually able to get some sleep - something he has not been able to do since Wednesday! He did have some substantial pain yesterday but he took deep breathes and what ever medication they could give him and he relaxed and no has little to no pain this morning. Breakfast was brought in but Frenchie was so exausted thta he managed a few bites and went back to sleep. It is comforting to see him sleep so soundly! The doctor also came in this morning to check on Fenchie and said everything looked great and that as long as Frenchie keeps on this healing track he will be out either Monday or Tuesday. Today Frenchie needs to get up a couple more times during the day and then again in the evening. The even better news....the cathider comes out sometime this morning -Dan's (a friend of ours) most favorita part of surgery...note the sarcasim! :)

Not only does he stand but he WALKS!

We just got back from Frenchie taking his first walk and he walks like the champ he truly is! He walked out of his room It is so much fun to see him progressing so much in such a little time!

He's Up!

Frenchie walks! Frenchie got up for the first time after surgery! YEA!! Congrats Honey!!!!! It took a lot of deep breathing and slow moving but he did it! I am so proud of Frenchie! It brought tears to my eyes to see him get up but they were tears of joy! As much hard work as it was it was a huge accomplishment for Frenchie!

Frenchie's back surgery went fantastic!

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to keep you up to date on how Frenchie is doing. The surgery went fantastic and the doctors are very pleased.

We stayed over at a friends house wednesday night since we had to be at the hosptial at 5:50 in the morning to prep Frenchie for his 7:30 surgery. Frenchie went through prep and very little nervousness. He came out of his surgery at 1:43 and as you will read below did not get to his room until 5:30. The doctor came and explained that everything went fantastic.

everything went very smooth with the exception that his room was not ready after surgery so he had to stay in the recovery room for 4 hours and listen to about 20 different heart monitors going from all the other patients! Frenchie's dad stayed with him last night and helped to keep the nurses on track. Needless to say the overnight nurses were very weak on their performance in regards to helping Frenchie. They did not have him switch positions every few hours like he was supposed to so he was on his back since he had gotten out of surgery at 1:30 Thursday. We have let the staff know the issue and we will make sure those issues do not happen again for the rest of his stay.

Today however is going better. One of the doctors from the surgery came in and checked Frenchie out and said everything looked great! Frenchie is also managing the pain and getting ready to get up and walk so I will let you know how that goes! As for me, I am glad that yesterday is over. It was very emotional to sit in the waiting room and not be able to physically be next to the person you love to comfort him but spititually We were next to each other the entire time!

I am so proud of him! I could have never gone through what he did as calmly and patient as he has! He is one tough cookie! He is going to put his brace on for the first time so I will write later!

BEWARE of rattlesnakes in AZ

There was a place in Arizona that actaully had baby rattlers in a box for people to see! CRAZY!.....

HAHAHAHAHAHA....just kidding it's just baby rattles! :)

Hot Air Balloons floating across the Arizona sunset

In the Evening, there are hot air balloons that float over DW and DH's home. Some nights the sky is peppered with hot air balloons.

However, this night there were only 2 balloons out. There was one morning that Frenchie and I saw 6 balloons floating over the foothills that we were hiking on.

The company that owns these hot air balloons has 4 different designs that are on the balloons.

However, all of the balloons that we saw had the cactus design on the balloon. We did not see any of the other 3 designs.

And if you wanted to you could take a ride on the hot air balloons for the bargain price of $175.00 per person!

It was very cool to see how amazingly beautiful these hot air balloons looked amidst the Arizona sunset!

Mimi's Cafe

Wednesday night in Arizona we went out to eat and decided to try a restaurant that of course we had not been to but a place that DW and DH had not been to also. They had driven by this placed Mimi's Cafe, and every time it was packed. We went there at about 7pm so the main dinner rush was over and we did not have wait to get seated. Our food was fantastic!

DW and DH's burgers were terrific and very HUGE!

My regular size Cobb Salad. It was a very cool presentation because instead of putting all the ingredients on top of each other they were arranged vertically on top of the lettuce!

Frenchie with his gigantic sandwich. Frenchie was impressed the the mushrooms in his sandwich were so big that the mushroom covered the entire length of the bread.

The decor at Mimi's was as delightful as the food. When we looked above our table this is what we saw:

Outside there were absolutely gorgeous flowers!

It was a fantastic and relaxing evening!