Not ready yet

  Our cat, Keaton, had been struggling.  It happened fast, too fast for me and now he is gone forever.
He was old I knew it would be coming, but not yet, I wasn't ready...I guess I would never be ready. He was my baby, he had a long life, most of it with our family.
 
 It started out as him loosing a little weight.  I figured that would happen as he get older.  He in fact he had just turned 18, according to my records.  I made his birthday January 1,  since I adopted him with an unknown birthdate at about age 2, I just thought it would be easy to remember. 
Within the last year I could tell he was slowing down, and loosing weight, but before then he didn't look a day older than when I first got him at age 2.

 At the beginning of the year, he started peeing next to the litter box not in it, sometimes he would go in and make it, sometimes not.  It was a hit or miss type of deal.  So I cleaned up messes off and on for awhile, until it seemed to be more misses than hits.  At least it was in the kitchen and he wasn't trying to go other places in the house., he really was trying to make it.    So I did some rearranging of litter boxes, and taking covers off, etc and adding another small litter box next to the bigger one in case he missed he might hit another one :)  Who knows what my thinking was.  It kinda worked for awhile.
 During the month of March he was also getting increasingly more weak....started out by still being able to jump on the counter where his food was, to bearly making it on the counter, to missing the counter and falling to the floor, to jumping on a bin to get halfway up and then jumping the rest of the way, to just not being able to make any sort of jump anymore and him realizing it, and waiting for me to lift him up to his food.  ( we couldn't keep cat food down on the floor because the dog would have it gone in a second).  For about a month or so, I was solely feeding him canned food, just to get him nutrition, as at one point, I finally realized how thin he was and he wasn't really eating his dry food good anymore. He still seemed REALLY hungry at all times, almost starving, he would want people food more often, and eat almost anything ( except his dry cat food).  I now know that was his body needing that extra protein,  he was no longer making red blood cells and his body was using up all his muscle protein to live...  kidney failure to be exact.  His eyes were sunken in from dehydration, even though he drank all the time or tried to anyway.  Towards the end he was just too weak to move more than once or twice a day.  The things that where always pink, like his nose, the inside of his eyes, his gums, etc were all white-- lack of making red blood cells.  

I finally made the decision and it was so hard.  That was the hardest part, making the decision to have him put down, and then waiting the 2 days to actually do it, thinking about it 24/7 and watching him struggle, hoping this wasn't real.


                                                             Keaton's last days---- "sick"

He wasn't doing well the last few days, I was bringing the food and water to him.  He ate and drank well that last day and the morning of.  The day before he did get up maybe once or twice and he seemed so disoritented and weak.  I knew it was time, but the next morning he ate and drank good when I brought it to him and was purring. It was so hard.

He was my baby, the best cat ever.

Came when I called him, every time.  He liked to sit on laps and just be petted. He loved it outside, even though he was an inside cat, during the spring and summer months, he loved to sneek out and explore for like an hour or so.  He never went far, just around the yard and maybe into the neighbors yard a little, but he always came back after a short time, and waited by our patio door. 

Keaton came into my life as a stray.  He was at the Ramsey Cty Humane Society  in St Paul.  Several animals from there came to my school for learning purposes.  I was attending the Medical Insitute of MN, in Bloomington to become a Veterinary Technician. I was in my last semester and we had actual animals to care for during the entire semester.  I was assigned a cat.  I was so hoping for a dog.  When I saw the cat I was assigned I instantly fell in love, this one was my responsibility.  I named him,  assisted with his neuter/declaw surgery, got him up to date on vaccinations, was able to practice drawing blood for tests, made sure his ears were clean, and gave him a complete physical.  I fed him and cleaned his litter box daily.  When it was time for him to go back to the humane society, I knew I had to go adopt him, I was way too attached, in fact many of the students ended up adopting their animal ....but I lived in an apartment that didn't allow pets.  That is kinda funny, cuz I had already inherited a large lop eared rabbit from a school friend, named Reggie, and I had him living in the apartment with me.   I knew I was going to move after school was done which was after a few months internship.  So I had my boyfriend at the time ( yes Steve) adopt "Keaton" for me.  Steve lived on a hobby farm in Waverly at the time, and so it worked perfect, it was a lie though, and Keaton came to live with me in the apartment.  It worked out fine until I had to move, and the silly rabbit did all the damage to the wall paper-- he liked to chew it off.  There was some white textured wall paper on one wall, and I let my rabbit out and about alot, so he would sit behind the couch and knaw on wall paper.  So I did have a hefty damage deposit to pay at the end.  Lesson learned rabbits are not good apartment pets and sneaking them in there when not allowed wasn't the best idea.

  Keaton was 2 years old back then, and he moved with me as I moved and we added a few pets along the way that he had to adjust to.  I then went to New Hope, MN to an apartment that ALLOWED cats/ and a rabbit, and we gained 2 kittens (Dusty and Wylie).  Keaton hated them at first, but grew close to them after awhile.  It sure was a full apartment.  Then we moved into Steve's parents basement in Howard Lake after we got married, brought the 3 cats, but decided to bring Reggie the rabbit to the humane society.  Then we moved to the duplex in Delano, and finally out to Dassel where he stayed the rest of his days.   He had to lastly adjust to the 2 new kittens we got 2 summers ago, that were strays that ended up in our garage.....and we of kept them.   Keaton wanted nothing to do with those things either, but it wasn't long and everyone was getting along,

Keaton spent his last weeks on a rocking chair in our family room, it was usually dark in that room, and more quiet.  It wasn't like him to be in there, he loved it in the sun on the top of the couch by the window.  We held him, and took pictures, and finally the time came to take him in.
Hannah came with me, it was during spring break. Bailey had his cousin over that day so he decided to stay home. We said our goodbyes and off we went. Hannah held Keaton on her lap in a blanket, we decided to stay for it all, and it was kinda unexpected for Hannah as I told her we probably wouldn't stay. We were both balling our eyes out, it was quick and painless for Keaton, and he was calm by having us there, I think. I will never forget that moment.....when he was gone. I wasn't ready yet, but he was gone forever. I wll never forget my blue eyed handsome fella. Best cat ever!!

                                                                       "Keaton"---  healthy

a part of our family

Pictures of Lou, taken Novemeber 11, 2011-- he is 9 1/2 yrs old.

my new passion- a lifestyle I can live with

I have a new passion..... my determination be healthy, like really healthy. It's not just about weight loss either, although that is one of my goals, but with the weight loss I want to achieve whole body health.  I don't just wanna loose weight only to gain it back at some point.  I've thought alot about this my entire adult life and haven't come up with the solution for me....yet.

My life has taken a huge turn in this respect.  Mostly by the fact I understand what it takes to loose weight and prevent sickness and disease to live well naturally. It's overwhelming, there is alot to learn.   It's actually science, and that helps because I love science, I like to know the whys.  In science there is alot of whys.  I have learned that alot of my questions and the why's are being answered through relearning nutrition and how our body digests food and elminates waste. The body is so complex.
It all starts out with my car accident...... Sept 11, 2010.  --
I was in a car accident last fall, and ended up with limited mobility for 3-4 months.  The day after the accident, I literally could not move, everything hurt.  I had soft tissue knee damage, back and neck pain besides that every single muscle hurt.  Within a week, I was into a chiropractor for the first time in my life, because my lower back hurt so bad. 
I decided to go to Litchfield, a chiropractic center, right next door to where I work at the hotel.
I met the most wonderful chiropractor ever, and from that first day on, he really made an impression on me. This chiropractic stuff was all new to me.  He basicly improved my back that very first day. I went home in half the pain, and a few days later extremely improved after a few more adjustments.  He adjusted  my back, hips, knees, and neck every few days and then it went to every week, then every 2 weeks, then every month...for about 3-4 months. Starting in January I was feeling better as far as the accident goes, and was released from accident treatments...... but had gained even more weight, and knew from being in his office so often, that he also specialized in nutrition and weight loss. I was nervous to reach out to him, we had been so focused on my injuries,  but finally brought it up around the New Year.
He was excited to help, and I set up the first nutrition appt.  Insurance dosn't cover any nutrition work, so I was bummed to hear that, but I had my mind and my heart in this, I wasn't gonna back out.  I knew this was my chance to get healthy, and that somehow I believed that this terrible accident happened for a reason, to bring about something good. 

My starting weight was the highest it has ever been, in January 2011. I was disgusted with myself and ready to learn.  I had a plan and the additional support I thought I needed.  I just couldn't do it on my own.

The diet:
The diet is called the "Cellular Healing Diet".  It's called a diet because that's what it focuses on, it's all aspects of nutrition.  It's a lifestyle change, not just something I will follow for now to get the weight off and fix my body, it's something I will follow forever.  It's very strict at first, and it was a whole body detox from the way I was used to eating.  The detox involved elminating all sugar, and everything that turns into sugar in the body ( ie: grains and fruits). It involves including the "good fats" in my diet which includes things like butter, oils, nuts, fish, lean grass fed meats, etc. I was mainly eating vegatables and protein in the beginning along with learning how to add in the good fats.  It was so hard, and I really didn't have any family support, nobody to confide in , nobody that understood how I understood it....my support to get me through the beginning stages was my monthly visits to see Dr Chris. He was a huge support.  In fact I got alot of negative thinking, questions as how this is possible to continue on in, questions about the chiropractic-natural thinking, the expense was high and was wondering how I would continue to afford everything and a frustrated husband because of the money issues involved.   It was the hardest thing both mentally and physically but I pushed though it trying to remain positive despite all the negativity surrounding me. I always felt I had something to prove.  That this was really the way, the way that would lead me to weight loss like never before.

The change in eating on this plan,  is geared towards all natural, organic, raw foods.  It's what the body craves and uses to heal the cells. No more processed, quick fixes, and sugar.   I have learned that when you remove the interference, the body can heal itself.  I was on my way to being on medication for high blood pressure very soon, low energy levels, sore knees and back from the extra weight and digestive and intestinal issues that had developed over the last 2-3 years.  Not to mention the possiblility of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and disease in my future solely because of my weight and poor eating habits.  We really are what we eat.

The Cellular Healing Diet was created by Dr Dan Pompa, and my chiropractor, Dr Chris Patten, has been to his seminars to learn from him in person. He has an interest in teaching and helping others achieve health. To me it's all facinating, it may just be my love of science again, but as I follow what I'm being told,  I know how this can and does work for my benefit. 
I know now I am not gonna be given medication to treat my high blood pressure,  when diet and exercise has brought it down into nearly normal levels., my energy has sky rocketed, my knees and back are not near as sore, my digestive/intestinal issues are being resloved with enzymes, and supplements for the time being with the hope that soon I will be off all digestive enzymes.  It's been taking a long time for my body to adjust, and still am experiencing intestinal problems that we are still trying to figure out. 
I feel fine, healthy, and never felt better since loosing almost 60 lbs in 9 months,  but there is just the occassional stomach upset, and almost constant diarrhea/soft stools that still linger on.   I have already cut out most white grains, caffine, soda,  milk, and most dairy, although I do eat some of them on occassion, there may be products with gluten in them or dairy that may be affecting me. Also just recently I can't eat a salad without getting a stomach ache afterwards.  Lettuce is hard to digest.  I have never had a problem with eating salads in the past so this is a recent change to figure out as well.  He is also taking another route and treating me for parasites, just in case.
  I have also had some kidney detox "issues", as I call them, as my body is adjusting.  For the most part I have seen positive changes.  However, I did have 2 occassions where I felt the frequency and painful urge to urinate. In April,  my medical doctor told me since I had protein and blood in my urine it must be a bladder infecion, and gave me antibiotics.  I ironiclly had a chiropractor appt the next day and never did take the antibiotics and after my discussion with him we decided it probably wasnt a bladder infection, but more of a kidney issue in relation to my diet change.  My symptoms dissapeared within a week, only to resurface 3 months later, more severe. There were about 3-4 days that I was peeing or felt like I had to pee all the time with very little volume. At one point I was in tears and thinking I needed to go to the ER, but it only lasted about 30 minutes and it got better.  I made it through the next few days and it started to resolve again. This time my chiropractor was sure it wasn't a bladder infection, and was leaning more towards kidney's adjusting to diet changes.   I haven't had any of these symptoms since that first week in July. I have never had a bladder infection, so why start now.  Antibiotics just screw up the gut by killing the bad bacteria, but also the good bacteria needed for proper digestion and gut health so I am glad I never took any antibiotics for a problem I never had.

All in all this diet is there to regulate and heal the cells of my body, regulate hormones, and decrease inflammation.  I have seen positve effects in the ability to loose the weight I haven't ever before been able to do, decrease my blood pressure , and increase my energy and mood.
 ''How cool is that?''(a phrase my chiropractor always says)

I know by some initial urine tests that inside my body has made improvements as well.  Not everyone I talk to is sold on chiropractic and this diet I am on, but it's too frustrating to explain in detail, I will leave that to the professionals.  All I know is from what I have been taught over the last year that it has worked, if applied.  Its a lifestyle, a change I was willing to make.  It has brought me to a place I love, and thrive on. I have never felt better. 

I have recently ran my first few 5K's ( 3.1 miles) and I enjoy running short distances now.  Exercise is a passion for me now,  an important part of my week.  It clears my mind, releases stress, prevents sickness, and keeps me fit.  I still struggle with stress and my blood pressure still needs to come down about 20 points on the top number to be more in the optimal range==another goal.
 Ideally I am still about 12 lbs overweight, according to an online assesment of ideal weights.  I would love to reach my weight loss goal and loose about 10- 15 more pounds....it really is more about health and prevention to me though, and if I stay at the weight I am at now, I know I will have prevented alot already.  So please dont call me skinny or thin...hopefully people will look at me and see healthy....that's my goal anyway, I am not skinny or thin nor will I ever see myself that way, I have always been the fat girl.  But to be fit and healthy, well that I can live with.

Hannah's 10th Birthday and A Hamster Tale

Wanted to get some pictures up to remember Hannah's 10th birthday by.  A little late, but better late than never. Hannah's 10th birthday fell on the first day of school this year ( Sept 6)...Hannah's first day of 4th grade.  Time has flown by and it's hard to grasp she is in her last year at the elementary school.  I will miss that school. Although she will adjust to the middle school, there is a little less connection, a little less family like atmosphere that Dassel Elementary has. That school and it's faculty and staff will always be treasured. Hannah had ALL different teachers than Bailey had, so we had the oppourtunity to meet , many of the terrific teachers at Dassel Elem. 

We celebrated Hannah's birthday on Sunday, the day before school started with a small party. She enjoyed having the family over to celebrate her day and open her presents.
At her request she got a "Phineas and Ferb" birthday cake, which is one of her favorite shows.

We also celebrated her birthday on her real birthday date, on Monday night after school we headed to St Cloud for Bailey's hockey game.   We left early to eat supper at Space Aliens before the game. 

On Tuesday the next day as she went to school, my parents and I headed to the Mall of America to pick up her birthday present from us. The American Girl Doll--Kanani. She is the Girl of the Year doll, so she will be unavailable after Dec 31. Hannah really wanted her before she was gone, it's a doll that is Hawaiian, and it reminds her of her Hawaiian friend, Mileka who is now in heaven.

Hannah also made another purchase over the Labor Day weekend sales in Dassel.  She found 3 complete hamster cages with all accessories, and she has been determined all summer that she wanted hamsters.  Finding all this at a sale was her dream come true. I kept telling her NO all weekend, that we were not getting hamsters.  HA HA I finally gave into the thought, on the exception that she used her birthday money to pay for the cages and hamsters when we got them.  She had saved her money from last birthday as well, so she figured she would have enough for the cages and hamsters.  She did all her research online and came up with names before we even had them. The end of September, on a Sat morning, we went to the pet store in Hutchinson, where we were told all their hamsters are raised there, and handled alot-- therefore more friendly. Hannah fell in love with 2 little siberian white dwarf hamsters.  We went to the pet store to get 2 hamsters, but in this particular cage there were 3, thought about getting all 3, but when I saw how much little teeny tiny hamsters cost we only had enough money for 2.  Here are Hannah and her hamsters after we brought them home.

"Bella and Zendaya"

Here is the cage set up that she got at a garage sale for $40

For the first week, we had the cages set up in Hannah's bedroom. It worked out ok, but there was one of the spinning wheels that was kinda noisey, and at certain times the 2 hamsters would "fight" and one would be squeeking. It was just a little territorial play, I think, and they both got along well with access to all the cages together, since they were brought up in the same cage at the pet store. We did end up bringing all the cages downstairs-- besides the noisy wheel and squeeking that would occassionly keep us up at night, we discovered one week after we got them-- Sat. morning that one hamster was missing.  Hannah freaked out, as did I...we all got up and started searching for the missing hamster. I didn't have the cage together totally right, and there was a hole at the top and learned a lesson that hamsters can climb cages and get out. It was Zendaya that got out.  We searched all morning, and continued to search off and on the rest of the day and night.  NOTHING. We didn't have  a clue how to find something so small....we were worried the cats got her, but there were no signs of anything. We needed a clue. Made another last search before bedtime without any luck.  We thought since they are night animals that maybe she would be spotted or on the move.

I work up about 3:30am to Lou barking downstairs...just one bark-- he did that twice.  I thought he had to go out-- it is rare for him to have to go out in the middle of the night, but it has happened, so came down to let him out, he bolted out the door, so thought he really had to go.  Searched the floor for signs of a hamster, but never thought Lou may had just seen her.  Brought him in after  few minutes, looked over the floor and went back to bed.

I woke up at 7:30am to get up for church, came down to take a shower.  There,  laying on the floor in the laundry room, where Lou sleeps was a blob of what I thought was Lou had thrown up (didn't have my glasses on) .  When I got closer , I saw it was Zendaya our missing hamster....lifeless.  She made it all the way from up in Hannah's room to downstairs in the laundry room, where Lou musta got her in the night. dont think he tried , but he saw something and probably just pawed at it, killing it. It musta happened within the 3-4 hours since I was down letting him out and figured his barks and energy level must have been from seeing the hamster. I wish I woulda figured that out sooner.  I was glad we finally had answer as to where she was, it was so frustrating not knowing where or what happened to her. I cried my eyes out while wrapping her up in a washcloth and then proceeding to take my shower.   I went to show Hannah after, and it was time to get her up.  When I went upstairs she was already up and holding her other hamster, Bella.  I told her I found Zendaya this morning, but it was not good news.

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Hannah wanted to go back to the pet store and get the little hamster sister we left there. I said we should just stick to one for now. We fixed the cage and got it put together without having a "escape hole", cuz now we know they can escape when given a hole, even it's at the top.  After church we went out and buried little Zendaya and Hannah painted a stone with her name on it and placed  it in my flower garden where she is buried.  The whole thing was so sad...hard to believe, but it was.

Steve said she should go get another hamster, and when daddy gave her the money to purchase another one, we went back to the pet store.  I was nervous to head back in there, and didn't want to tell the store owner one of the ones we got last week had escaped and was killed by our dog.  So I kinda sorta lied, and said we wanted to get the 3rd one that was in the cage with the ones we bought last week.  She hesitated a bit trying to figure out who we were and which one we wanted, and then stated that even after 7-10 days of seperation hamsters will fight-- they are territorial and fight to kill. I said just after that short of time??  they are sisters, won't they remember each other?? She said we can try it and if worse came to worse we would have to put this one in a seperate cage. I figured that would never have to happen, and happily agreed to buy another hamster.  Hannah was happy.

So we get home and put "Zendya" ( newly named 3rd hamster Zen- die-a vs. Zen-day-a) in with Bella.  Immediately Bella attacked her. Hannah was freaking out.  I got her out of there as quickly as I could. Whoa!!  That was some nasty hamster fighting.  Bella didn't want her anywhere near her.  The pet store lady was right, the 10 seconds that Zendya was in the cage with Bella she had her ear almost bit off.  She had a sore spot next to her ear. We seprated the cages and have kept them seperate ever since.  We have had them sniff noses from behind closed cage doors, and each time they get all rilled up. We will never be able to keep them together.  Hannah was very upset at this situation, that she wanted to bring her back to the pet store.  We almost did that, but Hannah changed her mind and we have learned how to enjoy them seperately. 

 No hamster mishaps for awhile now!! :) 

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Hannah will be having a birthday party with her friends for Halloween this Saturday. (Oct 29).  We got around to planning a birthday party kinda late and thought it would be fun to incoorporate Halloween.  Alot of planning goes into something like this when Hannah invited 12 friends and 5 cousins. So far haven't heard that someone isn't coming-- so we will be having a FULL house.

"Leka Lanterns"

This is a video from Aug, 9. 2011, Hannah's late friend, Mileka's 10th birthday. Well over 100 people were in attendence for a get together to remember Mileka on her birthday in Silver Lake. Later that night, lanterns were released, and it was a magical, amazing thing to watch Hannah and Mileka's friends release their lantern for Mileka into the night sky.

and she says she doesn't like it

Hannah signed up to play softball this summer. She was excited about it at first and I was glad she wanted to try something she hasn't tried yet. She has tried hockey, basketball, gymnastics, swimming, and dance. So far dance is all she has liked. So now we can add softball to the list of things she doesn't care for. She is good at hitting, is a fast runner, doesn't have a clue in the field or how the game is actually played, and can catch about 50% of balls hit to her. She had about 50% fun-- ha ha.

Here are some pictures that Uncle Jose took with his phone the night he came to watch her. She enjoys it more when people are watching her, I think.

Hannah hitting

Playing 3rd base

Hannah has the ball, but don't think she knows what to do with it

Hannah's team ( minus 2-3 that were missing that day)

So now she has a new love-- it's something she has tried before, and it has resurfaced as something she enjoys. Hint-- it goes along really well with dance.

another summer almost past

I can't believe summer is in it's last month only a month until school begins again. I love summer and don't really want it to end.

However August brings all those yucky bugs, bees & wasps which I could do without.  School shopping begins, State Fair to attend, garage sale to set up, and Hannah's birthday to prepare for among every day life that keeps going on.

May was a sad month and tough to get through the last weeks of school after Hannah's friends death. It was, and still is constant thoughts of her and her family. Hannah had a tough time adjusting, and tried to focus her thoughts with her current friendships and make the most of the time she has with them. Her friends mean the world to her.
Hannah had a rough patch with her diabetes at this time, where she had consistantly low blood sugars.  Occassional lows are expected, but every test was her staying very low and it was a bit scary.  Lows are not too common with her, as we are always combatting the highs that come with being diabetic, but somehow her body was telling us no matter what dose of insulin we gave, it wasn't what she needed.  The low blood sugars are always more concerning that the high ones,  more risk of her loosing consciousness, and ending up in a coma. Not something I ever want to deal with.   We lowered her doses to about half of what she normally got and by the time we got that to work, things were starting to go back up, and we had to readjust again. The life of diabetes. Things since then have been pretty good regarding the lows. So glad we don't see them too often, because lows really kick her butt and she hates how that feels compared to the highs.

Mid May is when we headed to WI for the JDRF's Walk to Cure Diabetes, Northeast WI chapter in Neenah's Riverside Park area. It was a 5K walk through the streets of Neenah. There were over 2000 people in attendance. Another moving experience in the life of type 1 kids and their families. Team Hannah's Hopeful Hearts met our goal for this walk and raised over $500. We had a good time and plan to do it again next year. Some day there will be a cure, until then we will continue to raise money and walk for that cure.

Later that night we attended church, which included Landon's baptism. Steve and I were sponsers, along with Wil's bro, Joe. Steve unfortunately wasn't able to make it literally at the very last moment for this entire weekend, before leaving we found out we really didn't have the money to travel and he needed to work to make ends meet. I barrowed money from my parents so I could at least be there, for the baptism and the Walk because the thought of not going just about killed me.

Memorial weekend marked 10 years since we signed the papers to purchase our house in Dassel. When we purchased this house 10 years ago, we never thought in a million years we would still be here. Now it looks as though we will never leave, not by choice. HA!!

June was a fun month....kids completed grades 7 and 3 with flying colors. Bailey pulled it all together in the end and had a great report card all A's and B's and one C+. He struggles with focus during the school year and puts other things priority over school work and excelling in school, but he tries hard and I am amazed at how little work he puts into it and still does well. As a parent, however, I want him to do his best, so he needs to work on that aspect. Hannah excells in everything she does. Her math and reading skills are top notch and she still loves school. The teachers and staff at Dassel Elem. are the best and make it a fun place to learn and grow.

Summer always starts out with baseball for Bailey, which keeps him and us busy. This summer was the first summer he travelled to play other teams and he was part of an all 7th grade DC team. He played teams from Maple Lake, Annandale, Delano, Howard Lake, and Buffalo. He even got to play againest his cousin, Bryer, vs. Delano for the first time. Fun games. They had a very good season ending 10-4, and got to play in a tournament in Hutchinson. They won only one of their games there and their season ended pretty quickly. Bailey got to do alot of pitching this summer, and he practiced alot in the backyard and seems to like it.
Besides Bailey playing on a team, he spends alot of his summer days with friends at the field just playing for fun. We live about 2-3 blocks from the "Dassel Saints" field, or they go to Spring Lake field, which there is now a nice bike path to get there, and it only takes about 10 min to get there. If he is not playing baseball, he is watching it, and spent his nights out at the Saints games in town hanging out, or heading to Spring Lake to watch the 5-6th grade teams play their games. On some days he spent time at the DEC ( Dassel Entertainment Center) and does the batting cages, which crabby Frank needs to fix, Bailey says. They would order pizza and fries and waste a few hours hanging out there.
Bailey even won 4 passes at one of the Saints games to each of these Mall of America attractions, Nickelodeon Universe, Moose Mtn mini golf, Sky deck bowling, and House of Comedy...he wants to take 3 friends and go use them before summer is over.

We had a family reunion weekend in Wisc. in mid June, which our family packed up and headed out for. It was held at Bay Beach in Green Bay, hosted by my cousin Amy and her boyfriend Anthony. Bay Beach is a childhood memory, an small amusement park with 25 cent ride tickets. Back in the day I believe it was only 10 cents a ticket. They have improved rides, added rides and still have the same ole classics, along with a wooden rollercoaster, new this year. My kids are not much into rides so that didn't go over so well, but we had a good time visiting with family, some we only get to see once a year.

Here is us with Bay Beach behind us.

at the Wildlife Sanctuary across from Bay Beach
.

My family ( minus my cousin Jessica and her husband Bryan-- they had a wedding to attend that day, and my cousin Brad and his gf Megan, who couldn't be found in time for the pic, they were in Bay Beach)

The kids and I, then went back to WI a week later for 10 whole days. I do not believe that I have spent that many days in a row there since I lived in WI. It was a long time, but so fun. Why did I spend so many days in WI?? Well, first off Bailey had the Green Bay Gamblers hockey camp to attend. He had fun, it was a lot of work and I hope he learned a thing or two.

My parents, Lisa, Landon, Hannah and I went to watch Bailey the first morning of camp for a few hours, then took Hannah to the mall to waste the rest of the afternoon until Bailey was done at 3pm. We all went to the zoo the 2nd day.

We watched Bailey longer on the 3rd day, and made another trip to the mall and other stores, and finally the last and 4th day, mom, Hannah and I went to the Wildlife Sanctuary and Hannah loved that.

After hockey camp was over, it was the weekend and I got to go out to dinner with my friend of over 30 yrs, Renee, whom I haven't been able to sit down and talk to in quite some time. I also got to babysit Landon on Sat. night while Lisa and Wil went to a wedding.

Babysitting Landon (2 months old)

One of the reasons I stayed longer and didn't head home right after hockey camp was that my sister was still off of work for maternity leave, and I got to spend LOTS of time with her and Landon. Landon had grown just that little bit more since I saw him for that short weekend for the family reunion he was more alert and lots of smiles. He was a very good boy for me while I babysat and I was so glad I was able to do that and spend that time with him. Hannah came with for awhile right away and helped feed him and play with him. Mom and dad came over with Papa Murphy's pizza for supper and then Hannah went back with them so she could get to bed.

The 4th of July was just a few days away so we stayed until after the holiday. We spent Sunday in Oshkosh, had a wonderful lunch at Fratellos by the river. It was a warm day, but nice to be outside. We then headed to Sawdust Days in Oshkosh, where other years they alway had tigers on display, and always a baby tiger to get a picture with. Lisa and Wil had done this several times in past years, and the kids and I saw them the summer of 2007, I believe. Well we knew that they weren't there last year, I guess there was a issue with the tigers or getting them to the festival....so we weren't sure about this year. We decided to go and see and we were dissapointed to find out....no tigers this year either. We headed back :( We went to see grandma and grandpa in their new apartment later and had a nice visit with them and enjoyed seeing them.

Monday was the 4th, and we planned a picnic lunch in the park, there were blow up kids play sets that Hannah got to go on for free, until they started taking tickets for them, that we weren't sure were needed at first, since no one was taking them. oops :0

We watched the Wisconsin Singers from UW Madison for a bit and then headed over to the river for the water ski show. That was fun to watch, one boat had three 200 hp motors on it. FAST!!

It was another hot day, so staying in the shade was required. We had to save our spot for the waterski show and for the fireworks later that night, already at 8am!! My parents went down to the park early that morning to get our spots saved. Everyone lays out blankets and tarps, so if you don't save a spot you have a hard time seeing things. We went home for the rest of the afternoon after the water ski show and came back for the fireworks later. They were set to music this year so that was neat. It was a nice night.

We spent Tuesday packing up and went to see the movie Cars 2.

It was a long, busy 10 days, and the kids were really getting on each others nerves, more than usual, since they were stuck together most of the time.
It was good to get home, even though I spent 6 hours of driving to get home and 6 hours of cleaning the house after I got home, since Steve is not a very good at keeping up on the household duties. We had a big storm while I was gone, on July 1st, that brought down a big limb onto the south side of our garage. Steve had his hands full cutting up all that wood and cleaning up the yard. The storm also put a big hole in our pool from hail and it brought it to the end of it's exsistence.  We have an insurance claim put in, but are still waiting on the adjuster to come out and look at the damage. There was a mix up on the day he was supposed to come, and now we have to just reschedule.

July continued on to bring us more baseball for Bailey, Hannah was in softball, and lots of HOT days well into the 100's for a heat index. It was pretty miserable with only 2 AC window units trying to keep this old house cool. At least we had that though, without any air, we would have surely withered. Since Bailey has the upstairs unit in his room he was good to go, but there were several nights the rest of us slept downstairs, since our rooms were so hot.

We are in August already and the summer has flown by. My weight loss regamin has kept me busy, It's been tough 7 months, but my struggles have paid off and I have lost 50 lbs.  I have a very strict plan and some added support, both of which I really needed,  so I am really doing it this time.   Stay tuned and I will write more on all of that soon.