Update

I've been such a blogger slacker! Lots has been going on with us that I should fill you in on.
First, and most important, is about my Dad. He was having heart troubles since June of this year, and between June and September he and my Mom visited the emergency room 11 times. What would happen was his heart would begin racing and it wouldn't slow down. Imagine your heart beating three times faster than normal, for an extended period of time....it will eventually wear itself out and quit. So when he went to emergency they had to even use the paddles on him a couple of times to get it to slow down. You know, like you see on TV where the put the paddles on the guy's chest and yell "CLEAR!". He had an appointment with a cardiologist who said to him not to worry about it....leave it alone, stay home, and it will correct itself. I did NOT feel comfortable with that diagnosis, but you have to trust the specialists know what they are saying, right? On the September long weekend Kassidy and I went to Calgary to visit the parents. We had colds and passed them on to Mom and Dad. Dad starting taking cold medication, which actually reveresed the effects of the heart pills he was taking. So that week he had another emergency room visit. Luckily this time the head cardiologost just happened to be in the building so the emergency crew called him down to see Dad and he told my Dad that there was no way a guy should be at home in the shape he's in...and they fast tracked him to get surgery. They kept him in the hospital. They were going to send him home one day (after about a week of him being there) to wait the last few days before getting the pacemaker installed, and that night, while hooked up to the machines at the hospital, while he slept, his heart stopped for 12 seconds. It reset itself, but thank goodness they decided to keep him there after that. So he had the pacemaker installed, then a few days later had a second surgery called Ablation where they kill off the bad electrical ending in his heart. (That's a bad explanation, but I don't know how else to explain it.) He said the Ablation was painful. He had to be awake for it and they couldn't freeze his heart....so they snaked a wire up from his groin to his heart, found the bad spot, and burned it for 80 seconds. 80 seconds with no freezing. Just pain medication. I don't want to know what that was like. So now, with the surgeries done, we are stuck with him for another long while. YAY! :) Here is a picture of where his pacemaker was installed:


The night of Dad's Albation surgery, Kassidy and I travelled down to Calgary to visit him. He was being released the next monring. He called the house at 8am saying he was ready to be picked up and wanted to go to the zoo with us! We thought, even though he was only one day after surgery, if he wanted to go we should let him. The fresh air would do him good. So we took it slow and left when he was ready. Here are some pictures from the zoo:







And a few pictures from the park accross from my parents house:




And a little about us. I'm loving being at home with my girl. I don't regret my decision to quit insurance at all. I do have some hard days where the monkeys are in bad moods or feeling sick or want their mommies, but doing this is teaching me patience and love. And Dan started a new job. The place he was at was making him miserable because his boss would barely ever be at work. So now he is working for an old friend, at the shop he started out his carreer at: Flint. I was worried about him going back to Flint because he was so unhappy there, but I think because this time he is not working FOR Flint, only at their shop, things are much better. And he likes who he is working for. He has a lot more responsibility now too. He was originally hired on as a worker-bee, running a table, but his boss wanted him to become a supervisor (I think he's a forman? i'm not sure) so now he is responsible for finding guys to work there, making sure they show up, do their job, follow the rules, deliver bad news (ie: we have to work Saturday guys!) and all those fun supervisor things. I think he was looking forward to being a worker-bee and not having so much responsibility for a change, but he must be good at what he does for his boss to put him in that position. And he is really good at talking to people and getting them on his side, so I know he will do well. Right now, in his type of work, we have to make money while the sun shines. And I don't think it will be shining much longer. I'm so proud of my husband. I probably don't tell him that often enough, but I really am. He is a wonderful husband, father, and provider.

This weekend we had our pond dug! We had a little dugout in the back but it wasn't much of anything. A friend of ours works for a construction outfit and was able to borrow a backhoe for the weekend. I can't remember how deep he said they got it... 15 feet? (Yes, it will be fenced in the summer when it fills with water! It's out back where the donkeys live.) Dan's hoping to stock it with some trout so we can fish. How fun is that???!!!

I can't stop staring out my front window today. In the night, while we were asleep, our neighbour accross the street went to the hospital to have her baby! I noticed that the husband's work truck was at home when I woke up this morning so I texted Dan and he said that Robby called in to work, he couldn't come in because his wife is having their baby. (Dan is Robby's boss.) I'm so excited! He has to come home some time today to let the dogs out to go pee. :)

I should sign off. I'm sure this blog is long enough now. :)