Jackson

As some of you know Jackson has quite the interesting life. He always manages to find himself in the worst predicaments. Well yesterday is no exception. At about 6:30 we noticed that he was dry heaving and then he started to yelp. At the same time his abdomen started to get really big. So we rushed him to the vet. They were not equipped to deal with him so they asked us to take him to the emergency vet hospital. SO we rushed him over there and they let us know that he has a condition called GDV or bloat. This condition is especially bad because if we had not caught it when we did he WOULD have died... As you can image we were very worried. Anyway, he was rushed into surgery. He had a 4 hour surgery. They found that his stomach was flipped 180 degrees and it was bruised. They also found that his spleen was detached. So they pined his stomach and spleen back in place and he made it through the surgery great. We have to say a big thank you to Dr. Murphy from WestVet. He has been an amazing vet for our Jackson. He literally saved Jacksons life this time. We are so greatful! Jackson came home today at 4:30 and is hurting but seems to be in moving toward the healing process. We are so thankful for all of the positive thoughts and prayers for him. We needed it! We feel very fortuate to have him still with us today!

Spring time makes me feel fine!

It has been a while sense I have had the time to post something. I wanted to give a recap about the last couple of weeks. Well I finished last semester and did pretty well. Not as well as I had hoped but I feel like I did my best and that is all anyone could ever ask. At least that is what my mom has always told me and she is a very intelligent lady. I had about three weeks "off" from school. One of those weeks I was able to drive up to Washington. It was so nice to be home and enjoy the nice weather. Every time I get a chance to go see my parents I try to make it down to the beach as much as possible. This time I had Jackson with me so I took him to see how he would do in the water. Well lets just say it was his favorite thing by the end of the trip. At one point this lady had it as her mission to get him to retrieve things from the water. She had success and he love to fetch now! He is not so much a fan of swimming but he does like to get things out of the water and then drop them a long way away from you. This will be an on going process I think. Other then spending time with Jackson I spent lots of time with my Dad which I love to do anytime I can. He was able to help me build a food stand for Jackson. Its pretty cool. I think it is amazing that someone can just build things like that. I wish I knew things like that...
Anyway, other than spending time with my pops I was able to see my Grandma. It makes me sad to think about her sometimes. She has really declined but is staying stable at this point. She did know who I was which is wonderful. I was so scared that she was not going to remember me. SHE DID! In fact another lady said that I was her granddaughter and my grandma was very quick to correct her. I was sad to only get to spend a short amount of time with her. Both of us cried when I left. She told me that she loved me and then I gave her a kiss on the cheek. I hope that is not the last time I will see her. I feel bad that I can't see her more often but I know my mom goes and sees her everyday so that makes me feel better. Enough of the sad stuff. I was able to see some of my friends from high school which is always nice. We all got together for dinner. Fun to spend time with those ladies. It's so crazy to me that four out of the six of us has or are having babies. I know this is a normal time in life for this to happen but wow. That's about it for my trip to Washington. It was beautiful and I can't wait to go up and see everyone again.
After I got home I started training for the Nike Woman's Marathon. This race is an annual race but I will not be running it until 2010. I have been training for about two weeks now and loving every minute of it. Its nice to have Ruby along for most of the runs. She loves to run so it makes it fun! I have not found a running buddy here yet. I miss Michelle and Brighid that used to run with me in California. But I will just have to keep at it. My hope is to train for over a year so that I can loose some weight and improve my over all marathon time. I am shooting for 5hr 30 min. I am well on my way as my average mile at this time is about 11:25. I can't wait to see what will happen over the next year. I guess we will see how it goes. Running in Idaho is much easier then in California. The air is clean here and I am at a higher elevation which helps the lungs develop. I am also going to be doing a ton of hill training. I will try my hardest to keep this more up to date as to my progress.
Lets see what else. Oh yes Jackson. We love this dog but goodness he drains our already low bank account. As many of you know he has had an ongoing injury in his shoulder. It is called an OCD lesion and he had to have surgery last Friday. They where able to get it taken care of but it was very expensive and he is not kenneled for 4 weeks... He is starting to feel better and these next couple weeks are going to be hard. Last night Brent parents came over and Jackson proceeded to whine the entire time. I think he was trying to tell them that he was lonely and he needed a hug...
I have some exciting news. I was offered a position at the hospice agency I interned with last semester. I was offered a position doing volunteer coordination/ hospice social work. This is a wonderful thing because I will be able to do my clinical placement there and get paid for it! What an answer to prayer. Also I will be able to keep my current job. So that is so exciting. I start next week and I can't wait!
Brent is doing really well. Still working away and hoping for a new job... We are both so thankful that he has a job so we try not to complain too much.
That is about all for now. Keep us in your prayer and thought as we do for all of you! We love you and we miss you!

Sundays are my favorite

After the last couple of weeks I really need a Sunday! I have had a very hard semester and it will be over in two weeks. I still have so much to so. However I would like to say that as of April I will have been in graduate school for a year! This is still hard to believe to me. Anyway, back to Sunday... Today I woke up and saw that it had rained. It was a welcome site because it started to warm up this week. I am happy for the break from school and I am hopeful to spend the day with Brent and the pups!

WHAT...

I have some news to share about my mom. This is such a cool thing I can't even believe it! So I got a call from my mom last week and she let me know that she was invited to ROME to sing at the Vatican. This is so crazy because when my mom came to visit me a few weeks ago and we talked about her traveling now that she is retired. She said that she would love to travel but was not sure if she would get the chance to... Well I guess she got her prayer answered!!! What an honor. How amazing. She will travel to Rome in April and have the opportunity to not only see that part of the world that she never thought she would be able to see but she gets to sing in the VATICAN!!! CRAZY. My mom is an amazing women and she has been through so much over the last several years. We all have no idea how special this is to her. I am so proud of her. I love you mom! I hope you have an amazing time! Take tons of pictures!

Friends come to town!

I had the pleasure of having a visit from some friends from college. These girls managed to survive NNU with me. Love these girls!



This is Missy. She and I lived together my junior year of college. That's right she put up with me for a whole year. Love this girl!


This is Amy. She and I have been friends have been friends a long time. It was so good to see her!

All the girls together! So fun!

Life is too short!

More and more I hear my friends saying they are not good enough. This is so not true. We are programed to never feel we are good enough. Are you kidding me???? As women we have so much to be proud of. Ladies lets be proud of ourselves and stop telling ourselves we are not good enough. Love who you are and let the other bad feelings go!

A weekend of good times

I have to start about by saying that I would not consider myself a very good singer. That being said I am equally not very rhythmic, so when I heard about a gospel workshop happening I thought that it would be a good cultural experience for me. Even though I am not gifted with a wonderful voice my mom is. I thought that this workshop would be right up her ally. I was right! When I was growing I sang with my mom at church, in the car, at home, and ever where but else but over the years our opportunities to sing together have really become obsolete. We live so far a part that it really makes it difficult to get together. She came to Idaho to see me and participate in the workshop. As it turns out I ended up participating as well. We spent Saturday morning and afternoon learning eight songs well maybe some more. What a neat way to sing. I was never a trained singer and I don't know how to read music. My mom on the other had has the most beautiful voice and is very very well trained. We both wondered what it would be like and had really no idea what to expect. I think that the workshop exceeded our expectations and was a real blessing for us. Not only did it bring us together but it also allowed us to sing a style of music that neither one of us sings very often or ever in my case. It truly was a wonderful time of reflection and peace. Over the last year or more both my mom and I have experienced some big loses, changes, and hard times. This weekend was a great opportunity to reflect on what we have been through and see how God has had his hand in it all. No matter how hard things get we will be taken care of.
Not only did we get to learn new songs and but we got a chance to share those songs in the form of a concert. I was sooooo nervous but managed to keep it together. We sang to a lot of people and it was so much fun. We had a few mistakes but at the director stated not many choirs can learn that many songs and sing them with out a little slip up or two. The concert really went quite well for the little time we had to practice. I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the African-American culture and to spend some time with my mom! What a neat experience. I hope to have more of these in the feature.
Mom I love you! It was so special to have you come see me this weekend and sing with you! I had so much fun! Come see me again soon!