Family Night

Well, Jason and I got home from a little date night and watched a movie. As the movie progressed, we had little family members join us. Soon, we heard little paws pawing at the door, and Buddy the cat joined us as well. Here are some of the pictures...




Esme watched the movie side by side with Jason. She actually watches the TV!









Buddy decided to join Jason's other side and watch the movie. Leelu is on the floor sleeping through it all. She stays in our room about 90% of the time we are home. She loves Esme, and treats her like one of her own pups.





So as you can see, Jason has grown immensely when it comes to having animals around a lot - especially cats! He loves Buddy. Just thought I'd share these fun pictures!

Surgery and Recovery

So I'm coherent enough now (and in much less pain) to give an update on the recent surgery.
Doctor Garrison was amazing, and his surgical staff made me feel very comfortable. I guess I was pretty out of it once the surgery was over. It took the anesthetics awhile to wear off enough for me to be coherent enough to do what they needed me to do before we could leave. Here is a lovely picture Jason took while I was out of it...





Pretty pale!








It took over a week for me to heal up enough to get up and move around, but I'm improving more each day. The surgery confirmed that I do have Interstitial Cystitis, and Endometriosis. I now have to take medicine three time a day for the IC, and all the Endometriosis that the doctor found was burned off. The doctor said that I should be able to have kids just fine, but that "time is of the essence." Basically the Endometriosis will continue to grow back and progress, so Dr.Garrison said that the sooner we have kids, and the amount we want, then the sooner I can get a hysterectomy or be put through early menopause. Doing one of those two things is the only way of stopping the Endometriosis. At least we can have kids!

My recovery is still in progress, but I'm in high spirits and getting better. We enjoyed the blue skies and sunny day today by soaking up the sun in the front yard. It's nice being able to get out of bed and out of the house for awhile! Here are some pictures...





Ahhh the beautiful sun. I had to use a cover for my eyes. Jason just warmed right up and fell asleep.










Hee hee hee... I'm glad he got some zzz's....








Esme enjoyed the beautiful day too!!!













Thank you so much everyone for you love and support to both Jason and me throughout all of this!!! More updates to come...

Changes, Additions, Updates...

Life seems to throw you lots of curve balls; but if you see them for what they are, you're able to reposition yourself and turn that curve ball into a home run. We're in the process of repositioning ourselves right now, and the home run may not come for a while; but in the meantime we are enjoying the game and having little successes along the way.
Update #1) Jason an I recently had to make a big decision: To stay in our apartment, or not to stay in our apartment? We are making enough money that enables us to stay, but in doing so, we are only able to put about $100-200 a month away into savings. We realized that this was not a sufficient amount of money to save a month in order to reach our goals in the future. So we bit the bullet, sucked up our pride, and are going to be moving in to my Mom's place. It will only be until Jason finishes his paramedic program and we make the move to the Sacramento area. This will hopefully be with a year or so. We're really excited to be staying at Mom's, and are happy she's so willing to have us there. We're doing lots of projects for her around the house and helping out in any way we can in return.
Update #2) Times have been kind of tough for me emotionally lately, and Jason has been feeling the sting of loss as well. With two miscarriages and no further success, we needed something to help fill the void. After lots of research, financial planning, and permission from Mom, we now have a new addition to the family: Esme. Here are some pictures!





Snuggling with Daddy on the couch... So sweet!









Look at that size difference!









The vet wasn't quite sure what mix she is. He said she had traits of over 7 dogs, so we'll have a better idea in about a year he thought. Did I mention she's from Taiwan? Yup - they shipped her over here to a rescue mission. We adopted!







With Mommy... She can sleep in almost any position! So cute!










So she is the new addition to our family, and we love her! The responsibility of raising a puppy is just what we needed. We (well, Jason has been doing it most the time because of me getting up for work) wake up at least 3 times a night to take her potty. She needs lots of attention and supervision. Having to care for and nurture something is just what we needed!
Update #3) Jason got an email from the Paramedic Program saying that he was fully qualified for it. Now we just have to wait for the lottery to know if he gets in. Please everyone say a prayer for us that he will get in!!!
In closing, I'd just like to thank all of you for your constant love and support to both Jason and me. We are truly blessed to have the families and friends that we have! We love all of you!

Amtrak

Even though we still have another 13 hour train ride back to California, we thought we'd post the pictures of the 13 hour train ride coming to Oregon! All in all, it was a fun experience. Sleeping was a bit difficult, but we survived. Vicodin helped me. :)





Here's just one of the beautiful sights as we rode through Oregon. Jason really loved the mountains.








These were the seats next to us (just to give you an idea of what coach looks like and how we traveled!)








This is the observation car. I'm walking down the isle headed back to our booth we sat at.








As we were sitting in the observation car, the voice over the loudspeaker came on and said, "If any passenger has a Leatherman, could you please come to the last car, #..." Jason's face lit up and off he went. He saved the lives of over 50 passengers by helping open a door that got stuck between cars. Needless to say, he was very proud to live the Scout motto of, "Be Prepared."







We're only about 3 hours away from Portland at this point! YAY! This is still in the observation car.









This is Sarah. We met her in the observation car, and spent 3 hours just talking, joking, and then played a game of 10,000 with her! She's holding a See's sucker that she won from answering a trivia question that the Diner Car lady was asking over the speakers.









Sarah took this picture for us. After traveling for 13 hours and not being able to shower, you start to feel kind of gross. But we're still happy to be together and riding the train!!!









We finally made it! Time for a shower...