Poor Samus...

The Vet...Those two words are ones that we have tossed around quite a bit the past year. I guess Samus's time had come to make a visit...maybe she was getting jealous of Max getting all the attention, I don't know. We have been fighting a hematoma in her ear for the past few months. The first two times, they drained it and it went away. When we got back from Boston, it was pretty swollen again so we knew we were going to have to do something major. We took her in last week and scheduled the surgery for yesterday. During that time, her ear had almost completely swollen shut. I could not even get my pinky finger in her ear! She went in yesterday for surgery. Basically, they cut it open, drain it, then somewhat "quilt" the ear back together so that the pocket will not form again. Anyways, when I went in to pick up my girl today, I was not prepared for the amount of bandaging she has!

It looks like she has had major brain surgery!!! Poor thing has to keep these bandages on for the next 2-3 weeks and on top of that, she has to wear the awful cone the whole time too! What a pitiful sight!

staying in Cambridge

We got lucky finding a place to stay when we went into downtown Boston for the conference. I found an apartment rental on Craigslist that was much cheaper than the hotels were. (see photo above...we were on the 3rd floor) Chris and I actually prefer to travel this way, it actually gives you a good feel of the city and what it would be like if we actually lived there. Our apartment was about a 3-4 minute walk from Harvard Square in Cambridge. Actually I didn't realize how lucky we were until Saturday night when we went int0 the square to walk around and get ice cream....Harvard's graduation was the same weekend we were there! It was so packed you could hardly walk but we enjoyed it anyways.

Boston has an energy that I have never felt in another city. Maybe it is because I know it fairly well, having visited there so much, but I don't know. The architecture is amazing...there are so many beautiful old buildings that just beg to be photographed...you can see a few at the end of this post. I also love all the dining patios...almost every place has them on Newbury street. It's demographic is pretty young, considering how many colleges and univ. are there, and it's public transportation is top notch. We took the bus to the conference center and rode the T (subway) all over town. We loved it. I could live right downtown and not even have a car...
Besides using public transportation, we did a lot of walking while we were there. I actually got blisters on our first day! We traveled down to South Boston for the SOWA Open Market. It was a very artsy area with lots of studios. The market was smaller than I expected but I did find some soap and a change purse to take home with me.Later on we went into downtown to Faneuil Hall and the Quincy Market. It's kind of a touristy spot but I love it nonetheless. We ate lunch at a irish pub upstairs and afterwards, Chris had to have a nap by the waterfront. Here are a few pictures from our journey...I especially love the boy scout one...they were on tour with a guy dressed up as a early Bostonian...cute.

birthdays & prom

Ahhhh, my 12 days in Boston were great. I really, seriously, could live there in a heartbeat.

The best part about the HOW conference being in Boston is that I got to go and see my sister for a while. She moved to MA when I was 9 so I haven't gotten to really spend much time with her over the years or experience much with her family. It couldn't have been a better week for me to go, I got to be there for my nephew's 7th birthday (even got to decorate the cake!!)
And I got to go to Ben's T-ball game. Let me tell you, if you have never gone to a 7 year old's t-ball game, you need to make it a priority! It was one of the funniest things I have seen in a while! Kids were running everywhere, half of them were just throwing their gloves in the air or picking flowers...some were even rolling in the dirt for the heck of it! Here is a photo of the future baseball star himself (he's the one running in the orange shirt)
Plus I was there for my oldest niece's junior prom...where I played hair stylist for her. I loved every minute of it. She looked so beautiful!!!!! But I did learn something by living with a 14 and 16 year old for a week...I sure DO NOT miss being a teenager!

Our time together flew by. Amanda is my only sister and I sure do miss her being around. Maybe, just maybe, someone in Boston will get ahold of Chris when he graduates. That would be just super.

updates

We spoke with Dale today...he is scheduled for surgery on the 15th. He is still fighting fever and thinks he either has a collapsed lung or pneumonia. That stinks. I am pretty worried about him, I guess I have never thought about him being in such bad shape and not being able to get better. Makes me want to take a little better care of myself. You only get one chance with the body God gave you.....

Some good news to report, Max had a checkup today and he is still ALL CLEAR!!!!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO! YayYAYyay!!!! makes me super happy! He is 6 weeks out from chemo and doing great!

scary situation

Please keep our friend Dale Oldham in your thoughts and prayers the next few weeks...
He had surgery about 5 weeks ago...it was a VERY major surgery. He is in a wheelchair and basically his spine had started to weaken. They went in and rebuilt a major portion of his spine using rods, screws, etc. It was 14 hours and very dangerous. He was doing great.

As of this past Sunday, something happened and the hardware came loose. He has some broken vertebrae and the rods and a steel cage that was in his back has gone haywire. They can't do surgery immediately because he has been on asprin to thin his blood to lessen the chance of blood clots. He is in a lot of pain. The doctors don't really even know what to do because this is something that never happens. He is scared. He needs your prayers...