The G-Lovers: May

The past couple months have been such a whirlwind I barely even remember May. Once we got back from house hunting in Houston, we had just a few short weeks to get our place in Birmingham packed up, Jason had finals and graduation, we said our goodbyes and were off to Texas! Unfortunately, my Dad developed a blood clot in his lung which required immediate attention. He has a dog and a Spicy Pickle that needed tending to though while he was in the hospital. So, literally 2 hours after arriving in Houston, the kids and I boarded a plane to Denver to help my Dad out with his restaurant, dog, etc. But, while in the hospital, he went into kidney failure! He was in the hospital for an entire week while his kidney function continued to deteriorate each day. Meanwhile, his lungs were failing as well and it became apparent that he didn't just have a blood clot. When your kidney's fail, it's a sign that all other body systems are failing, too, which could only be linked to heart failure. In order to figure out what was wrong with his heart, they needed his kidneys to improve enough to perform the tests, otherwise the dye injected for an angiogram would cause severe distress on his kidneys, possibly killing him. Finally, upon complete kidney failure, he underwent intense treatment to get his kidneys back functioning. Once they had improved enough to perform the angiogram on his heart, it was discovered that he had a heart aneurism. In other words, a tear in his aorta all caused by a bacterial infection he got last winter. Apparently in rare cases the bacteria that causes a simple cold can infect the heart and slowly lead to heart failure... that is when you hear about cases of the common cold killing people. It was really scary, once they figured out the source of the problem, they were able to treat my dad with an antibiotic, plus dissolve the blood clot in his lung. After 2 weeks in the ICU, he finally got to go home... he's still on oxygen and will eventually need open heart surgery to repair the anneurism. But he's OK for now. His body needs some time to recuperate before undergoing such massive surgery in the next couple of months.

Anyway, Here's May:

Our last trip to the McWane Science center. Kyah's looking silly in the "Tornado."

Kyah picked out each article of clothing that you see here and insisted I put them on her. Then she threw a tantrum because she couldn't take them off.

'The Mugshot Challenge." Here is the description (taken directly from the website): The Mugshot challenge consists of 3 seasoned patties piled high with 6 strips of bacon, cheddar and swiss cheese, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato and raw red onions. It is served with brew city’s beer battered Fries, an onion ring and a beer battered pickle. The whole meal needs to be eaten in 12 minutes or less.

My good friend Bridget's husband, Brad, always talks about how much food he eats. If you know me, I too, eat an unprecedented amount of food. Thus the trash talking began, and somehow we ended up attempting this ridiculous challenge. We completed all of the burger and most of the fries before they called time. We both agreed we could have finished in 13 minutes. Ugh, so sad. I'm the first girl to ever complete almost the whole thing AND not throw up. Apparently all previous girl competitors gave up half way through and threw up. So in that case, go me! Also, most of our audience agreed that I ate slightly more than Brad. Heh heh. He claimed I didn't get as many fries on my plate but what he didn't realize is that I was eating a few fries here and there throughout the whole competition and he saved his all for the end. The most regrettable thing about this challenge, however, is given how insanely delicious the burger was, we couldn't enjoy it at all. I don't EVER, I mean EVER eat red meat. So to have a giant plate of beef and bacon... well, it was amazing! I wish I could have savored it. I wanted to go back and order one to share with Jasonn, but then we moved... maybe one day.

After the challenge, I went home to rest off my stomach ache while Jason and Eli went to a Barons game. Eli loved it! Or so I heard.

Jason declared "Mother's Weeks" the week of Mother's Day. He had this edible arrangement sent to me one day. I hate flowers, but I LOVE Edible Arrangements!

My cousin Parker is kind of obsessed with guns. One day he felt the need to teach Eli and Kyah how to shoot a bebe gun : /

Eli and his "crew"- Finley, Lyla and James. One last picture of them all before we moved :( Eli would see at least one of these kiddos (usually Finley because she lived the closest) about 6 days out of the week. We miss them and he asks for them quite often. It's sad.

During Mother's Week, Jason and I went on a date! It's very, very rare. Bridget and Brad babysat and took these pictures which I think are too funny. The 2 on the right are Eli and Finley in time out. They are the BIGGEST trouble makers!

When people park their motorcycles literally right outside the door of a grocery store (which happens more often than you may think), I wish they could know how much they inconvenience me. Eli has to stop and check out every one he sees and when they're right outside the door they're kind of hard to avoid. I have to beg him not to touch it, he will walk around it and talk about how awesome it is for 10 minutes, it's impossible to get him away from it, once I finally do, a tantrum usually ensues, etc.

Jason's graduation present. A silk chocolate pie from Full Moon Barbecue. It's like the most amazing pie ever. And he got his own ipad since the one his parents gave us for Christmas has pretty much become mine/mostly the kids' : /

Graduation ceremony

Jason was voted most outstanding student by his classmates. He recieved an award last fall for it. he was so flattered that his peers felt he deserved such a title. I felt so proud! And, his case competition made it to nationals. They didn't win, but they should have! I think there may have been some politics involved since UAB hosts the tournament... it's a sensitive subject. (I don't know why this picture is sideways, I tried to rotate it in iphoto, but it keeps uploading like this)

A pretty view from the graduation reception hall.

Mother's Day/our last day in Alabama. These are some of the best moms I know, and some of the best friends I've had! I miss them dearly.

And on to Texas...

Oh, just kidding, on to Denver! The gate right next to mine was going to Birmingham. It made me teary. And, Eli went on a lot of planes during his first year of like, but not once since, so he was really excited about this. It was pretty cute.

Kyah loved Tonka. Tonka was not so fond of Kyah. She'd follow him all around and bring her "bees" and froggy to snuggle up to him only for him to get up and move away from her. Rejection :(

My 2 hours in Houston resulted in this. Red ants are evil. People in the south seem to be trained in avoiding them but I grew up in a place where grass was nice, not swarming with evil. Ants didn't bite. Well, now they do. Since living in the south I have been bitten by red ants so many times that clearly, I've developed an allergy. Now I avoid grass like the plague and watch the ground like a hawk when I'm walking on the sidewalk anywhere near grass. It stinks.

Colorado:

I didn't take a lot of pictures because most of the trip we were going to and from the hospital or helping out with things my Dad needed done. But here's the few pictures I did take.

I stayed with my best and oldest friend Kim and her family. Here Kyah took a book and sat all by herself really far away on the patio to read. She's much more independent that Eli...

Sleeping in the same bed... plus me. Not something I would suggest. We were all very sleep deprived and short tempered.

Lily and Alivia were not too fond of my rowdy little Eli. He terrorized the poor girls! But Marc was a good makeshift Dad during the trip, Eli loved him!

Dear old Daddio :(

Headed home. This is how the kids slept on the flight... looks comfortable : / And Eli just ran into the cockpit and made himself comfortable like he owned the place. So the pilot was nice enough to humor him and let me take a picture.