Thursday, May 29, 2008

A Long and Loaded Mish-Mash!

AAAGGHH! I am so behind. Bad, Blogger! BAD!! I will try to recap as quickly as possible so you won't have to read too much!! Hmm, me tell a short story....good luck!

My Mom had a swallow test and she is improving!!! She is now eating some soft food, graduating slowly to some other foods and still on the feeding tube. We are reducing the amount of food that she gets in the tube. She had an appointment with the oncologist and he said he could NOT be HAPPIER with how well she is doing. She has gained 11 lbs. in a month!! YEAH!!

Also on the family front, my sister, Janie, flew in from San Diego last Thursday and we have been working our tails off to get my parents' house ready to sell. She estimates that we have done a month's worth of work in a week. (Likewise this is a week's worth of posts in ONE!) Purging and painting. The Goodwill will be able to fill a good portion of their store with the items we have donated! I head over when I get off of work every night and we have been staying until about 11:00. I was dreading this project whenever I thought about it, but it is TIME!! I never thought I would be ready for them to move out of this house. They have lived there since 1979!! A lot of history!
My nephew, Matt, has also been a tremendous help! He is fast AND skilled!! :)

On Memorial Day, my brother and his family were on their way back from visiting people in WI and on the way to his in-laws in IA, so we all met at my sister's house in Frederic. This way we could have 4 out of the 5 siblings together and we were able to celebrate my Mom's birthday! AND she got to EAT the ice cream!!





This may seem like a big family, but 16 people (including our 3 children) are not pictured!

Sadly our nearly 15 year old kitty, Nika, took her last breath today. It was really hard. We knew we needed to let her go, but she went on her own, thankfully. Poor thing. We got her as a little teeny kitten in July of 1993. She was a feisty, annoying little stinker, but she was ours! Our orange kitty keeps walking through the house, something he has done when one of our dogs has died (we have adopted 5 dogs over the past 13 years, one of which was 12 when we got him, another who was 8).

With this random collection of what's been goin' on, I had to include a picture of June, our coonhound, caught being naughty. She's just lucky she's cute! That is garbage from the kitchen can collected in her favorite napping spot (!?).

Recently, our program director for Haiti was there adopting her son! She was gracious enough to take some gifts to the children and some pictures for us. Here are Patricia and Philippe looking at the photos and letters we sent. I know I am biased, but aren't they beautiful? Please pray for Philippe as he is still recovering from malnutrition.



Well, that is my week in review! Possibly the most crammed post I have ever done!! Foody Friday has to wait until we get my folks' house on the market, sorry, T.O.!! :) As it is I am losing PRECIOUS beauty sleep to complete THIS post!!

7 comments:

Vivian M said...

I am so sorry about the loss of your beloved cat. Losing a pet is not easy.
And what a wicked pooch! Pookie steals from our recycle bins all the time too.
YAY! Your Mom sounds like she is doing fantastic! I am very happy to hear she is finally eating soft foods.
Glad you are busy and spending time with family, even if you are putting in long days. Remember, you are making memories!

Jinglebritches said...

Yea, Mom!!! Happy Birthday to you. I'm so glad you got to have your ice cream and eat it too!! :0} She looks so much better too! Give her hugs from us. Love you to pieces

Tracy said...

Lots to comment in - great news about your Mom's swallow test! But I so so very sorry bout the loss of Nika. I am sure that is hard - you have had her for so long. Great pics of yoru beautiful family - so nice that so many could be there for your Mom's b-day! And wow - yes, your kiddos are GORGEOUS. I can't wait to meet them one day (nor can you, I suspect) ;)

Jenny said...

Yay. Love this post, Dawn. So full of joy. :)

CG said...

I am happy Mom is doing better!

And thanks for that photo of June with her trash stash. That makes me smile!

I am SO SORRY you lost your Nika. Losing a pet is just awful. They really are our children- especially when we're waiting for the human kind! My heart goes out to you.

You may be biased, but it is quite obvious that your Haitian children are GORGEOUS! Of course, Haitian people in general tend to be quite beautiful.

Terry said...

I think the kids are so cute too! and its really nice to see your mom smile.

So sorry about your kitty...Terry

Jenna said...

Okay.
1. Your Mom couldn't look cuter. She looks so good. It's almost unbelievable.

2. I didn't recognize Matt at first. He's an amazing/ly fast painter.

3. Good to see Janie. Now, I've seen all of Kyle and Pauline's children. Sweet.

4. I can hardly wait to see a family picture of all of you. That's going to be amazing.

5. I'm sorry about your cat, but I'm glad you let her go naturally. I'm not an animal person, but strangely, I care about cat-end-of-life-issues. I'm just like that.

6. Your dog is a hoarder. seriously. very. funny. It's amazing how many psychological issues a dog can have. really.

7. Patricia and Phillipe are objectively beautiful. I love them and loved having a window into their lives. There they were in awe of these parents who are waiting for them. Amazing. Oh, I feel so convicted to fill this time of waiting for a million prayers for them. We'll start with malnutrition and move into future spouses later.

8. I think my comments are as long as your post.

9. I love ya,k too. Let's try to do that sewing thing sooner than later. Are you travelling? Is this a busy time for you?

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