Busy with the pond

Seems like it's been a long time since I last wrote. Time sure flies. We've been busy with the end of school...Taylor will go on to 8th grade...Yeah! I've had to work some late hours as we are open 12 hours a day before the beginning of each semester. Summer classes start next week. Chance gets to be Mr. Mom when I work nights. I have to work late Monday and Tuesday and then it will be all over until August.

Tristan has been his normal self except his allergies got the best of him last week and he had a mild asthma episode. He actually had a fever on and off (he NEVER gets fevers) so I took him to the doctor. He's now having to learn how to use big boy inhalers instead of his nebulizer. He doesn't much like the taste of the albuterol so it has been a fight to get him to use it. I ended up having to stay home with him both Thursday and Friday of last week as he could not stop coughing. I had to have some medicine called in on Friday because we didn't have the right stuff for his cough from our Dr. visit. It was a rough few days but it did turn my 3 day weekend into a 5 day weekend. So that was kind of cool.

We didn't go anywhere for Memorial Day. I think this is the first year we've not had some sort of family food fest to attend. Taylor was visiting her mother and we were dealing with Tristan's cough. Chance finally got the water in the pond to clear and we bought some fish (koi). We got 4 - one for each of us. He even bought a bigger fountain that will put more oxygen in the water. They zoom around and are still a bit afraid of us. I wonder how big they will get - the sign at Petsmart said up to 24". Those will be some big fish. We have spent a lot of time studying our frogs. Dad says they are toads so I guess I should use that terminology. There are actually 4 and I think there's only 1 female. We have discovered that it is mating season...they sure are noisy creatures. I really feel sorry for the little lady. They have been keeping her busy. She has laid a lot of eggs. They are in a tape like substance. It's quite interesting. We had to take some of them out when we changed the fountain. I hope we don't end up with thousands of toads out there. I like them alot but I don't know if I want the noise level to increase. :o) I took some night pictures of the pond but they didn't come out too great. Below is our little lady and one of her men.

Here's a picture I took the next morning. I will take some of how it looks now this weekend. It looks much better with the new fountain and the clearer water.

Chance said he wants to put a waterfall up against the pool to make it look like the water is coming from the pool and to cover the ugly outside. That might be kind of cool but alot of work. I'm happy with my fish and toads.

We have a busy weekend. We have to do lots of shopping for 2 birthday parties and a baby shower. The party Taylor is going to is a sleep over so tomorrow nite will be quiet. Sunday we have the baby shower and Gabe's birthday party back to back.

Our vacation plans have changed dramatically. We have been planning our long-awaited trip to visit Tina in Virginia. We haven't seen each other since our wedding - 7 years. Tristan and Max have never met. I have been on cloud 9 as the days are coming nearer. We were planning to arrive on her doorstep on my birthday (July 7). Tina called me Monday nite to tell me she has to have surgery on June 29. It sounds so awful. Now I'm spending my days worrying about her and of course bummed that I can't see her. She says that we can still come and use her as a hotel, but we can't come there when she will be 2 days out of the hospital. And I want to be able to have some fun with her. I would be sad to see her hurting. Evidently her esophogas is not working and they are going to detach it from her stomach and open it up and do something to fix it. Right now when she eats a bulge is happening on the side of her esophogas and she says it looks like a second stomach on the xrays. They will be going in through her ribs and have told her that hopefully they won't have to break one. Ewww - I hope they don't. She will have trouble moving around for a while after this (of course!) and will be on a liquid diet for some time. Poor thing. I just can't get this out of my head. So we will have to plan our visit for next July. What's one more year after 7? We have decided to go to Colorado and do some things there. We won't stay in CO as long as we planned to stay in VA. I am still taking my extended vacation time I asked for for my special trip. So we'll have some time here at home and then a week in CO. That will be nice. Work will have to deal. I need to get away from that place so bad! Oh and we will now get to go to an outdoor concert with our friends that we were very bummed to miss. That will be lots of fun.

Tina said she would call me this weekend to give me an update. They did some more tests on her this week. I guess that's all that's been going on with us since I last wrote. Nothing too exciting has happened - just some news to keep us praying a little harder. Tristan is passed out in my bed with the dog and Chance is passed out on the couch. Taylor is IMing her friends ... I keep hearing the little blings coming out of her room. She will be going to bed soon as I want her fresh for our shopping tomorrow.

Well I'll catch you dudes later. Ciao.