We're Home!

Here's the last picture we took in the hospital! Dean got to come home last night! We are all so happy. I was worried he wouldn't be able to climb the stairs because he is still a little wobbly, but he ran right up! Seems like getting out of the hospital was the best medicine:) And consider this your Christmas card because I think it is the best I can do right now! Merry Christmas!

Thumbs up!

What a difference a day makes! Saturday was a tough day with only bad news and set backs. But on Sunday we turned a corner and Dean is feeling so much better today! Here's a big, as-excited-as-he-gets thumbs up! Looks like we'll be home in a few days! Thanks for all your meals, help, prayers, and good vibes! We're trying to come up with some good brain tumor ryhmes to go along with his new rapper look.

Dean update

As most of you know, Dean had emergency surgery last night to drain backed-up fluid around his brain and secondly to remove a tumorous cyst that was blocking the fluid from draining. Everything went very well as they were able to completely remove it.

He has been having headaches the past few months and regularly the past couple weeks. We thought he needed glasses. He has been having trouble seeing the board in school. Yesterday at school he got a severe headache and told the teacher he felt like he was falling over (while he was sitting in his chair). Then he could not walk, talk or focus on people. They took him to the ER in an ambulance. Now we know why.

He will be in intensive care probably the next couple days, hopefully only a week or so until he comes home. We appreciate everyone's well-wishes and are so grateful for your prayers and support.

T-Day Traditions

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I'm looking forward to our Thanksgiving Day traditions...well, one in particular:

• Jimbo and the manly men play tackle football. They act all studly and spit a lot. Then they go home and ice everything while they watch football for the rest of the day.
  
• I do my run for the hungry...which is just me running more than usual so I can eat more than usual later.
  
• We usually go to my sister's for dinner and I always make the homemade rolls.
• But when we don't go to my sister's, each of my kids is in charge of making one thing for dinner. Nelson is rolls. Jamie is mashed potatoes. Burke is jello. Dean is stuffing and turkey. I'm everything else.
• During dinner we go around the table and say what we are thankful for.
  
• And while Jim is doing the dishes after dinner I am the official judge of People Magazine's sexiest men. I take my job seriously. Sometimes they get them in the wrong order.

Can you guess which tradition I'm really looking forward to? I think it's gonna be a good year! Have a happy, safe Thanksgiving everyone!

Sticky, muddy, crazy cousins

No school today, so we headed to Apple Hill with the cousins. They're always crazy when they're together, but in a good my-cousins-are-freaking-awesome way. And what can be better than eating apple donuts and caramel apples, and running around getting covered in mud and fish guts? Oh, I know...being the moms sitting at the picnic table chittin' the chat and knowing everyone is gonna sleep well that night!

This week in sports

This is not what parents are hoping to find on the end of the year highlights cd, but these are the shots I love. One year I swear I'm only gonna include stuff like this.

Tagged for 6 quirks

Let's see...6 quirks...nothing too exciting...

1. I hate mustard. I never touch the stuff EXCEPT on corndogs...and I can't eat a microwaved corndog. It has to come out of the oven, or from Hot Dog on a Stick, or even better from a creepy carnie stand. Similarly, I hate avocados, but I love guacamole.

2. If I don't touch all the "bases" (mostly manhole covers, and crosswalk lines) during my morning run, then the run doesn't count.

3. I like wearing an apron when I cook cuz I think it makes me look more legit.

4. My feet are always cold, but I wear flip flops anyway because I'm a toe freak. Which drives the Loveking crazy because I always squeeze my ice cube feet under his legs in bed. But one of Jimbo's quirks is that he is a human heater, so I think that one works out.

5. Eating french fries and a diet coke gets rid of my headaches.

6. Since I was a kid I have checked my bedroom walls every night for spiders before I go to sleep. I'm not really afraid of them, but I just like to make sure there are no creepy crawlies around while I'm sleeping. But there is a spider, that we named Charlotte, in one of the corners of our loft that I don't let anyone kill because she is our fly/mosquito killer.

I'm a big quirk watcher! Trying to think of my own was hard, but I can name other people's easily. I love my friend's and family's quirks!

Voter kick-backs

Man, I'm bummed our Krispy Kreme closed down. Krispy Kreme is giving away free donuts today to voters...you don't even technically have to vote...you just have to mention the promotion and viola...free star-shaped donut with red, white, and blue sprinkles! I even thought it was worth driving a ways for that mouthful of sugary bliss, so I got online in search of the closest KK but it is 60 miles away! Not worth it! So if there is a KK by you stop in and have one for me!! Oh, and don't forget to vote...duh.

Haunted gingerbread houses

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making gingerbread houses with the kids, but I've always wanted to do Halloween houses. So this year we finally did it! Jamie made the gingerbread, Burke & Dean picked the candy, and I made the frosting! Tons of fun and I think they look pretty good! And my house finally doesn't smell like burnt garlic bread:)

For Nicole!

4th folder...4th picture...would be Dean at California Adventures waiting to get on the bumper cars. Nothing too exciting!

FYI

You can't cook 10 loaves of garlic bread at the same time. Well, you can...but 5 of them will turn out like this......and your house will fill with noxious black smoke...and your family will complain about the smell for days...and your daughter will bake cookies and brownies in an effort to make the house smell better...but it won't work.

*why was I cooking 10 loaves?...to feed the football team, of course!*

Spelunking!

Have you ever seen the billboard on the 99 for Moaning Caverns? Well, I've always wanted to check it out. So Jim's parents were here for a few days and that gave me the perfect reason for an adventure. It's kinda far to drive for the day, but it was pretty amazing. The cavern is like 150 deep, big enough to hold the statue of liberty! You walk down 4 or 5 claustophobic staircases until you get to the rickety rusty spiral stairs that take you to the bottom.

Dean was totally freaking out which helped me to not freak out cuz I'm a little afraid of falling to my death. But once we got down it was pretty cool to look around at all the stalactites. I thought one wall looked like globs of marshmallows.

It wasn't quite as good as the illegal cave/mine explorations we would do in Utah with Mike, but we have kids now! Moaning Caverns is close to Big Trees, so next time I'd combine the two for a perfect day!

Not a fan

There are a lot of things that are bugging me right now. The presidential race, the economy, our Taco Bell got demolished, etc. Nothing to freak out about, but the spot in my brain designated for annoyances has been filling up. But the thing that really ticks me off, the thing that I just can't tolerate is 8-packs of Pepsi products replacing 12-packs. Did they think we just wouldn't notice? Boo Pepsi. Shame on you.

You are cordially invited

Today the kids made a bride for Dean out of Legos. Her name is Sabrina. They came and got me when it was time for the wedding. They both said, "I do"...

...and then he shot her!

Do you think they need professional help?

The last of the cruise

After Boston we went to Portland, Maine where there are a lot of cool lighthouses.
Our next stop was the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. They have the highest tides in the world there. The two pix below were taken somewhere in the middle of the tides, but you can still see the difference.

This time lapse video is pretty cool. It shows the tides come in and go out in 30 seconds.


The tides create these rock formations along the coast. These are the Hopewell Rocks. The water goes out about a mile at low tide and then almost fills the whole under the arch at high tide. Pretty crazy.
Our final stop was Halifax, Nova Scotia. Something I never knew was that 330 bodies were recovered from the sea after the Titanic sank. 150 of those bodies are buried in Hailfax. It was amazing to see the same death date on so many tombstones. Here is the one that inspired the Jack Dawson character for the movie. The number 227 on the tombstone signifies that he was the 227th body recovered.Needless to say, we counted the lifeboats on the first day!So that's it! It was a fun vacation and I had a great time. But I'm not sure cruises are the way I like to travel. I like exploring places and experiencing the people, subways, culture, etc., more than making pit stops. Plus, now I gotta lose the 5 pounds I gained cuz all you do on the ship is eat, eat, eat! But it was worth it:)

Boston Highlights

A friend of mine planned this cruise with her sisters because none of their husbands wanted to go with them! So she just kinda opened the cruise up to a bunch of us girls and so we ditched our husbands, too! After leaving New York, our first stop was Boston. Here are my Top 5.

#1 on the list is definitely Officer Bob! I don't think I have to explain why!

#2 is Fenway Park. I couldn't go to Boston without going to Fenway. Plus, the Red Sox are Burke's favorite team so I had to get this pic for him. And a new hat. And a bat. And a penant.
This is the recurring theme of my trip.
#3 is Harvard. This is John Harvard's lucky shoe. They say that if you rub his shoe you will have good luck! So I had to do it!

And I had to have a pic with some real Harvard boys.#4 is the ivy everywhere. We were told that the term Ivy League is actually a sports reference, as in division iv (the Roman numeral). So a sportswritter nicknamed the schools the i-v league. I thought it was because they all have ivy growing on them. Guess there's a reason I couldn't get into Harvard. #5 is the Old North Church. This is the place where the famous "One if by land, and two if by sea" signal was given. What I liked about it, though, was the podium design. If the speaker is boring or talking too much, BAM, you could flatten them.

Speaking of Lemon Jello Cake

You guys had to bring up Lemon Jello Cake so I had to make one! Normally I would say this is not blog-worthy, but look at it, family! It didn't sink in the middle. That like never happens to me, so I just had to share the miracle with you. I cut myself a piece that night and told the kids they could have some when they felt like it. I took mine up to my room to eat while I was watching tv. When I came downstairs almost the whole thing was gone! Everyone blamed Dean, but he pinkie-promised it wasn't him. Well guess who was throwing up Lemon Jello Cake the next morning?! It just might have pushed him over to your side, Stephanie!

I'm Back!

I am back from a great week of relaxing, eating, and lots of laughing. After two way too short days in the Big Apple I now understand why everybody hearts NY. It is absolutely amazing! I could have stayed there for the whole week instead of going on the cruise, but since I already payed for it, I figured I better get on the boat! Here are some of the NY highlights and I'll blab more about the cruise later.

Most of you know how much I hate Coach purses, so I had to laugh when I saw these shoes! Please, please, please don't let this trend start up in my town!
Being in Rockefeller Center was too cool! I was looking for Matt Lauer or Al Roker, but apparently they don't meander around in public after the Today Show taping ends.
But I found the best panini ever!

We went to the Top of the Rock observation deck for an amazing 360 view above the city. We met Officer Penetti up there and talked with him about 9/11 and he pointed out where the WTC buildings were. Such a nice guy and so much fun to talk to a real New Yoka (good accent, huh?!).
Being at Ground Zero felt surreal. All the images and emotions from 9/11 filled my mind and it took my breath away seeing the hole and imagining what it must have been like. It was surprising that all signs of the disaster were gone (besides the gaping hole). But it was also surprising that there isn't really any progress on the Freedom Tower. I guess it is a political mess.
Since we we're short on time we took a rickshaw ride through Central Park so we could see as much as possible. It was like a movie trivia game. Our driver would point out an area and we would try to figure out what movie was filmed there. It was awesome.
We walked down Broadway and we were so bummed that we couldn't catch a show or at least see Letterman. Next time, for sure!

This is probably a dumb question, but why is it called Times Square? (Ok, I looked it up...it was named after the New York Times which used to have it's offices here a hundred years ago. Who knew?!)

A view of the Empire State Bldg as we cruised down the Hudson out to sea.


That's me with the Brooklyn Bridge behind me. It was a little bit windy on the deck of the ship!
And let's not forget Lady Liberty. Ok, I'm pretty sure this one is a guy, but it cracked me up to see the Statue of Liberty walking around.

Here's the real one! And it was absolutely breath-taking sailing past her. More to come about the cruise and other places we went. New York was my favorite though!