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!